Out with the old and in with the new!

Sale, handmade cards - buy 2 get 1 free! Thats 3 for $10.00, what a steal! Choose any three cards in my etsy shop, mix and match to make a set.

I keep on making more and more cards, its time for a sale to clear out existing items and make room for more. Also, jewelry has been photographed - look for new items in my shop!

www.pair.etsy.com

Currently in a paper obsession...

Being very headachy lately, I cannot bring myself to photograph items, I cannot post items on Etsy or sell them to the flower shop. All I want to do is keep on making more and more new cards. All I can focus on is making the stuff, not doing anything with it after I've made it. Oooohhh, the cards are so delightful! As soon as I can bring myself to stop cutting, glueing and glittering for a few minutes I'll take a few sneek peek photos. I just purchased some earthy new cardstock and envelopes. They have the 'market-day freshness' and all natural goodness of brown paper bags. I'm offering a new size (#10 square flap envelope) and my standard A2 size in the brown paper.

Etsy shop launched!

Attention world, please visit http://pair.etsy.com/ to peruse the selection of handmade art by Jen and Jeff Long. Currently featured are a variety of cards, but look out for photographs and jewelry to be made available in the shop sometime in the next few days.

Gift wrapping!

I've been making these lovely paper giftboxes. They will be used for packaging the jewelry and other small trinkets available for sale in our Etsy shop when you purchase the "gift wrap" option. So cute! Each one is different, so you'll be surprised when you recieve your package from us. You can be sure your handmade little box will arrive all dressed up (with buttons, ribbon, or a handmade tag).

If you choose not to purchase the additional gift wrap option, never fear. When I send something in the mail, I love to make it pretty. Each item I send out from the studio recieves special attention. I'll post photos of some standard packaging items soon.

What are we going to sell in our Etsy shop?

Here is a sneak peek: a few of the jewelry pieces I've been working on. I'm striving to complete a selection of things for Mother's Day. There will be lovely cards, jewelry sets and flower brooches which will be available with lovely gift wrapping.

Preparing to launch our very own ETSY shop!

( Jewelry items hanging from our dining room chandelier.)

For those of you who have never checked out Etsy.com you should do it today. Its your place to buy and sell all things handmade. Besides collecting/organizing photographs for sale, I've been making jewelry, fabric flower pins (out of recycled fabric scraps), and cards. There are some more things in the works for the near future (Jeff has been working on a group of sculptures - more on that later). I'll be posting photos of items here as we're working on them. I'll also post updates here when I put new items in the shop.

While the shop isn't active quite yet, we hope to oficially open for business within the next week or two. Keep checking in to see what's new!

Look who's sitting on my front porch!

When Jeff & I were in Washington this last Christmas, I became interested in creating plush toys or stuffed creatures. I requested old socks and Jeff's Dad offered several pairs. Then I asked for buttons and Jeff's Mom supplied me with a lovely little pile of vintage buttons, YAY! I have just completed my first experimental version of a sock creature and he's made out of recycled materials! Thank you to Mom & Dad for the supplies, I hope the little dude makes you laugh. Every time I look at him, I just crack up! It's not his fault that his teeth are out of proportion. Don't tease him, he's very sensitive. He had a little run in his belly so I made him some pants. His waist isn't very defined so I had to add some suspenders. I turned the sock inside out to give him a stubble effect (rather than the tiny dots on the right side of the material).




I just had some lunch followed by a lovely short walk. It's 45 degrees outside! Yay!


Charlie is napping on my ironing board, how cute.

Patrick & Cori's Engagement Session

What have I been up to for the past week? Editing! A week ago Sunday, I photographed Patrick & Cori's Engagement Session, oh boy did I take a ton of photos! I took too many, really. I was just having fun, and Pat & Cori were so cute and in love. In the middle of the shoot it started snowing big, fluffy, lazy snowflakes. You can really see them in some of the photos, I was just loving that. Hare are a few of my personal favorites.






Patrick and Cori were game for any requests in the name of cool photos. We had great lighting in some brick alleys and then they had a snowball fight. I just know their Wedding is going to be so fun, I can't wait! It was all great until I sat down to edit and then I realized that it was going to take FOREVER. I had such a difficult time choosing my favorites for the slideshow! I couldn't cut it down beyond 100, it goes pretty fast, though. The entire show is less than 5 minutes long. Without further ado, please enjoy the slideshow!

Boxes, boxes and more boxes.

It doesn't matter how many you unpack, there seems to be a never-ending supply of boxes around here. They just keep appearing and then sitting around waiting to be unpacked. I am so ready to get settled in and be completely finished moving.

Yesterday morning I was admiring the beautiful sunlight streaming through the windows. This is what I saw.



Jeff loves to put odd things in odd places, I love the owl perched in the window. We put a dining chair by the window so the cats can look outside and watch the birds. The sunlight was shining through a houseplant creating the leaf pattern in shadow on the wall and on the chair. I've noticed an interesting shadow pattern from another window in the evening (around sunset). That one has more of a twiggy pattern, rather than the leaves. I'll be sure to photograph that one next.

Where have we been?

We've moved! (Rather, we are in the process of moving, we're not finished yet.) Please accept our apologies if you've been trying to reach us, we're still in the process of having our land line transferred to the new house. I'll be getting in touch with current clients as soon as possible, thanks so much for your patience.

I've finally discovered which boxes contain my office materials, so we're getting close! Jeff has been working hard every night after work to build desks in the office so I can get back to work. Last night he put the legs on my desk. Can you guess where I'm sitting as I write this post?


I'm sitting at my new desk! I have a lovely and inspiring view of Lake Macatawa through the marina across the street. Check out these sweet shots Jeff shot at the marina on Sunday afternoon.

Bird tracks on the snow-covered ice. I love this shot, Jeff and I both have a thing about birds.


Standing on the dock, looking down at the ice.


I love the old wood pilings next to the rusty metal of the modern pilings. (Jeff and I also have a thing for old wood and rusty metal. Check out the colors and reflections in this shot, tasty.


In the winter all of the boats are lifted out of the water because the lake freezes. Some of the boats go into storage, but many of them are shrink-wrapped in some sort of plastic and they are being stored right in the lot here at the marina. This is a photograph of the patina we spotted on the underside of a boat's hull as we were walking home through the parking lot. See, we do have a thing for rusty metal. I just love how this shot looks like a painting.


I almost forgot to mention that Jeff started a new job the VERY SAME week we began the moving process. Yeah. Its been pretty crazy around here. He likes the job, it really is perfect for him. We just have to make some adjustments with scheduling because he is now commuting 70 miles a day. We have only one (working) vehicle to drive right now, so I'm looking forward to spring when we hope to get our '77 VW van running. That's right, friends, we're hippies. I'm thinking it would be perfect for a traveling studio. I'm sure everyone in town would call us for Senior photos if they could be photographed with our green van! It makes a great prop. What do you think? (I'm joking, a little.)

New job. New house. New resolve.
I'm going to post here a lot more frequently. So be sure to subscribe to this blog if you want to keep up with our crazy adventures.

Sarah and Danny's Album Design

I've just finished designing Sarah & Danny's wedding album. I think it is really cool, Sarah loves butterflies so I added some to the album pages. The couple's dog Buddy was one of the ringbearers, Sarah's Dad performed the marriage ceremony in his beautifully landscaped back yard, this wedding was truely personal. You'll notice the awesome song playing during the slideshow, Sarah is singing!!!!! She is so great, it gives me goosebumps. This is the song she played and sang for Danny at the wedding reception. The first three frames of the slideshow are cover options, (I just can't decide which one I like best). Hit play and see for yourself, enjoy.

Slideshow Frenzy, Adam & Susan's Wedding

Wow, I just got a new program for creating slideshows and I went crazy and made one for everybody! I'll begin posting them now and continue over the next few days, so if you had a wedding or portrait session over the last year or so, keep your eyes peeled for an e-mail from me. I'll let you know when YOUR show is posted so you can e-mail it to all your friends, HOW FUN!

First, Adam and Susan's Wedding. You may have seen some of these images here on my blog, but you'll see a lot more in the slideshow.

Lisa and Micah's Guestbook

I photographed Lisa and Micah's engagement session at Tunnel Park (where they went for their first date, aawwwwww!). Click on the link for the slideshow to see their engagement album which doubles as the guestbook at the wedding!

Poor Sam sprained her ankle a few days before prom. (Above) Joe picked her up and carried her like a true gentleman. They managed to have fun and dance the night away in spite of Sam's injury.

Jenna's Senior Photos

It is so much fun to shoot senior photos of girls! Most love to change outfits a bunch, and they love to pose. After the shoot I can work my magic on the images by adding really dreamy soft focus effects and spot coloring black & whites. Anyway, I had tons of fun working with Jenna, and her Mom was fun too!

Nick's Senior Photos

I have to say that I just love it when people bring stuff they love to a photo shoot. Nick plays football, so he brought a ball, his jersey and his letter jacket. I also love it when people wear cool accessories like hats, sunglasses, lots of jewelry, cool boots or jackets. It really brings out the personality of the subject when the viewer can see objects related to the subject in the photo. I really liked Nick's hat. The color shot at the beach with the hat on is my favorite photo from the shoot.

Adam & Susan's Wedding

Wow, we've been so busy shooting weddings and senior photos, I hardly have time to post updates! Here are a few photos that I love from Adam & Susan's wedding. First, we see how beautiful the bouquets were (go Dana @ Indigo Floral!) and check out those gorgeous silk bridesmaid dresses. Susan's Mom made those, I LOVE them. In fact, let me just list a few things I loved about this wedding. Susan's dress, hair & shoes were fabulous. She planned such a classic romantic wedding, from the green and ivory color scheme, to the rockin' party at the Felt Mansion, the whole day was filled with meaningful, beautiful touches and we all had so much fun! Oh, and I have to mention that Susan made her wedding jewelry and it was just stunning.

Back to the photos, there were so many great shots of the girls getting ready, I posted a lot because I couldn't choose just 1 or 2. Then you see the gorgeous photo of Susan on the stairs, I love this one, it looks like a painting. The aisle decorations were so sweet, (tin buckets of flowers look like they were just gathered from the garden). The wedding ceremony was held at Dimnent Chapel, which is just so impressive and beautiful to photograph.

After the ceremony, I photographed Adam & Susan as the left the church for a limo ride. The guests were waiting outside with cheers, shouts, smiles and tons of bubbles. After the limo ride, I photographed the couple alone followed by the wedding party. This shot of Bride & Groom pausing on the stairs for a kiss is such a sweet moment. (I know I say this all the time, but it really is one of my favorite shots.) Then I captured this photo of Susan showing off her wedding ring to her girlfriends. Notice Carrie peeping over someone's shoulder in the right corner, she is so funny and cute.

This is the wedding party, don't you love how they look like party animals in this photo? Jumping shots just crack me up. The next one is the Bride with the flowergirls and ringbearer. They were so cute! The flowergirl's dresses were so sweet and the ringbearer was adorable with his little tie and tux.

This is the couple's first dance, it took place in the ballrom on the 3rd floor of the mansion. The live band played as everyone watched and we all sighed ... it was so romantic. The cool thing about having a reception at the Felt Mansion is that people can wander all through the building and outside. So as you move through the property, you discover little pockets of people around every corner. Its like a party in every room! Jeff shot this last photo at the end of the night. The mansion looked so beautiful under the night sky. You can see people sitting on the porch outside and all the windows are winking with lights.