Professional Framed Photography and Canvas Art on the Walls!

Posted by Liana at 6:22 PM

Another one of my 101 in 1001 to report that's been finished for a while: #67 Finish filling the Frames in a House and have them on the Walls! Tada!!

Check out the YouTube video for the grand tour! Most of these are custom canvas gallery wraps and frames with museum mats that we offer our clients for their own pictures. Some of these I printed myself years ago in the dark room (NYC ones mostly), others are from the past few years, and even ones from 2008.

Want to purchase a framed print or canvas?? Help me achieve #71 (Selling 21 of my prints) and get a great deal on custom art at the same time! :) I also have made available some cool verse pics that I started making for our mission trip to Spain earlier this year. (I've added more since)

Many of the images are from Greece (Athens and the Greek Islands), Spain, Jamaica, Brazil, Aruba, Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Honduras, Belize, New York City, Florida, and many other super-cool destinations around the world.

Click here to view what we offer:

Custom Framed Photography and Canvas Gallery Wraps
Bookmarks and Verse Photos

101 in 1001: #20 - Be In Two States at the Same Time

Posted by Liana at 7:17 PM

Who: Mikey drove, Scott Navigated, while I slept in the back seat...
What: Accomplished #20 of my 101 in 1001
When: Memorial Day Weekend 2008
Where: The boarder of Alabama, Florida
Why: Why not!?? Nothing better to do after 4+ hours in the car and you're still in the middle of nowhere.
Notice: The gun shots on the Alabama sign! Haha.

Will Planning a Wedding Put Me In the Looney-Bin??

Posted by Liana at 1:41 PM

One would think I'm bound for the looney-bin or going through some serious trauma lately. Last night I went from happy-go-lucky getting quotes from caterers to down-in-the-dumps reconsidering eloping again. Seriously.

Wedding planning sucks. Well, it's lots of fun too. But the whole trying-to-figure-out-budgets and chasing-down-potential-vendors-that-hardly-ever-respond part is a real downer. Next week I fly out to see the location we've already locked down for our wedding... which means lining up as many vendors this week to meet with while we're there.



I'm excited about:
- Seeing our location for the first time and taking LOTS of pics and video of it
- Meeting our potential DJ. He called right away and was SUCH a pleasure to talk too I really wish all vendors were this way!
- Cake tastings!! Mmmm
- Scouting cool hotel for wedding night and getting-ready suite
- That my little bro has agreed to help us out with a certain aspect of the wedding
- Finding a vacation rental for the week
- Possibly meeting with hair/makeup person
- Lots of fun DIY projects to make our wedding completely personal
- Practicing DIY projects with Kimberly and others during a "DIY night"
- Scouting cool locations for a rehearsal dinner/luncheon/brunch depending on when we do it
- Making a special secret-family-recipe cake for my soon-to-be hubby for his groom-cake and seeing his face when he sees the cake-toppers :)


I NOT too thrilled with:
- Trying to figure out the whole catering/rentals thing
- Figuring out who our photographer(s) and videographers are going to be
- The long flight there (sure, I love travel... just not airplanes too much!! LOL)
- Chasing down more vendors that don't respond
- Finishing the registry (I know, it's supposed to be fun but finding pans that don't have teflon because they're outlawing it soon is NOT an easy task! LOL)
- Coming up with an invitation design... maybe Mikey will be good at that ;)
- Probably having to wait until the last minute to know where we're going on our honeymoon (depends on my work during the same month)

The save-the-dates are finished and going out very, very soon. In fact, a few have already received theirs. The website will be populated while I'm out doing planning next week. So soon, very soon, I'll be able to share the Save-the-Dates ;) That is if we decide for sure not to elope....

More of my Sister and Jim's Wedding

Posted by Liana at 9:07 AM

Sara posted up some pics yesterday too!! Here are a few of my favorites that she took and you can check out more on her blog :)



This is the historic firehouse on the quaint square in the home town where I grew up in Ohio



Awwww...


Can't believe it... my parents DANCING!!! Hehe

My Little Sister Got Married This Weekend!!

Posted by Liana at 7:43 PM

This weekend my little sister got married!! Jim and Laurel have been planning their wedding for over a year now and in my sister's own words "the crazy thing about all this is that it's ALL GOING TO GO BY SO QUICKLY"

She sure was right!! We're now home here in Atlanta and I'm completely exhausted from dancing all night long till my feet turned black and my toes were a-aching but in true form I plopped down on my couch, pulled out the laptop, and couldn't help but get some pics ready to share before they leave for their honeymoon to Hawaii tomorrow AM.

It was so awesome seeing my little sis walk down the aisle (for real... not like we used to pretend when we were little girls!!) and see so many of my family and family friends all in the same place at the same time. Since I was IN the wedding, my duties were more along the lines of a) sister and bridesmaid, b) part-coordinator to help out mom and real coordinators with logistics and details, and c) being an "uncle bob" for the first time ever and taking lots of pics even though I wasn't the official photographer. LOL.

Sara and Shyla were the OFFICIAL photographers and we also flew in a video crew from Georgia and from what I've seen so far they did an AWESOME job. I can't wait to see more! Of the ones I remember from last night...they got shots of everyone tearing up at the ceremony, hilarious photos of the kids at the ceremony too, and some of my parents dancing... which they have NEVER done in the 27+ years they've been married! Priceless!!

Well... without further ado... I'll let some of my "uncle bob" pictures tell the story and report back soon when I can link up the REAL pics that Sara and Shyla got ;)

One of my favorite shots of the day... we had a ball shooting her in her hot-pink shoes (her signature color) and hoop-skirt.



The Dress!


Check out our super-hot-pink bridesmaids bouquets!


In true fashion, my sis did BOTH mine and Ashley's hair (pictured here) for the wedding and also put a single Orchid in all our up-dos including the flower girls'.


Here's Laurel all dressed and her beautiful bridal bouquet:


The Shoes


My niece Sophia was one of the flower girls -- as Laurel pointed out "she's gonna make all the boys cry she's so gorgeous!" Hehe


Had to capture a few pics of Sara and Shyla!




Isn't she a gorgeous bride? I think all of us started to cry when she came down the aisle. My mom was balling in the front aisle right close to me and I didn't have a camera to hide behind like usual during the ceremony.



Laurel was presented with flowers from Jim's grandma's garden (she passed just shortly before they met years ago) and it was quite an emotional exchange. They put the petals in the flower baskets for the flower girls to toss during the processional.



All married!! Mr. and Mrs. Jim and Laurel Pleva!


My brother and dad strutting their stuff down the aisle after portraits in the church


After some quick family portraits, we all jumped into the limo and went around town to take pictures. The only problem was that the limo blew a fuse and there was no air conditioning. I think a quote book of some of the hilarious comments made during this unbearably sweltering few hour trip is in the works as we speak.

Some behind-the-scenes of us shooting in a park...


More of the newlyweds!




Back at the hotel, we cooled down in the hospitality suite and while Jim and the guys kicked back...



....the bridesmaids came to the rescue, fixing a broken bustle:


The reception was held in Akron, Ohio and they did such a great job with the details and light that we couldn't believe it was the same hotel ballroom we'd seen a month earlier when we were up to visit...




The gift table, napkins.


The cake was a mix of tiramasu layers and this orange-pop inspired flavor. VERY different.


The first dance




The toast


My dad and sister for the Father-Daughter dance


My adorable second-cousins watching the festivities. Little Andy there is my cousin Brian's son who was named after my cousin Andy - he was such a ham on the dance floor and throwing up his own toast. Here here!!



The cake-cutting


There were plenty of other "Uncle Bobs" with their cameras too so I had to get them all in on this pic too! Haha.




Then it was time to get a little crazy...


They did the garter toss and my nephew Sal and second-cousin Andy got in right up front and got their spot with the rest of the big boys:


My parents got down on the dance floor and everyone started grovin':




The Pleva's started a push-up contest towards the end of the evening..to the beat of some song I can't even remember now. What was REALLY crazy is when Jim's sister Lauren jumped down there and started doing push ups and kept UP with her brothers, father, and uncle!! (In a bridesmaids dress nonetheless!) You go girl!


And to end the evening, while Laurel pretented to take a swig straight from the champaign bottle, I caught Shyla minutes later getting persuaded to dance with the best man (her first time dancing at a wedding she's shot! Yeah!), the father's geared up for a congratulatory romp around the dance floor together, and Jim partied it up with the guys :)



The happy-to-be married couple :)



Again, there are soooo many other (I'm sure better, more comprehensive) pics from the OFFICIAL photographers... so I'll post some up soon and/or links :) Thanks gals for coming out and doing such a great job. Also, a special thank you to my darling fiance , Mikey, who was our "pack mule" and "errand guy" about right up to the reception time. He even helped get me home today while I was experiencing a nasty migraine in the airport before our flight.

I really thought my parents would want to take a break before starting to plan my wedding now... but I think they had such a great time (as did everyone else) that they're still excited for the next (and possibly another if my little bro ever finds a gal!! hehe)

Thanks Laurel for being the "ginney pig" of the family and trying out this whole gettin-hitched thing first!! It was such an honor to be part of your big day and Jim I'm proud to call you my brother officially now :) I know we'll all have lot more fun celebrating during the holidays and such and hope you have an amazing time in Hawaii. Love ya all and CONGRATS!!!

Happy Birthday Mom and Ma

Posted by Liana at 9:49 AM

We are up in Ohio this weekend for my sister's wedding and took my
grandma and mom out to dinner for their bdays.

Make-shift monitor

Posted by Liana at 4:52 PM

Today I had Apple look at both my iPhone and my desktop monitor so now
it's getting fixed and we had to plug in an HD tv in order to sync my
new iPhone they gave me... It's crazy having a screen this big!!

Regal

Posted by Liana at 8:30 AM

We're in the process of pulling together some images for new galleries online and I came across this one that jumped out at me from Ashley and Brant's wedding last month.

101 in 1001: Beach Trip with 15

Posted by Liana at 2:35 PM

Last year we fine-tuned our image processing workflow using Adobe Lightroom and today I just purchased the new upgrade to 2.0 and they must have been listening to our ideas because now they make it SOOO easy to prep a picture for the web with the "print to file" function. I'm going to be on a roll now with the blogging ... things just got so much easier!!

Another of the 101 in 1001 : the Beach Trip!!



Item #80: Go on a beach weekend trip and stay in a house with 15 or more people - COMPLETED 5/24/08 in Seagrove, FL for Memorial Day Weekend

It was SUCH a relaxing and fun weekend. Not only did I get to stay in a house with my friends Tracy and Tony but got to meet a whole TON of new people and also hang out with other groups of friends that had different beach houses all around the Sandestin and Seaside areas. Some of the highlights of the trip: eating at "stinkys," lounging by the infinity pool, long talks on the beach, church in our living room on Sunday AM, phase 10 contests, Mikey on a mission to dance, lots and LOTS of good food and even better company.

101 in 1001: 80's Night With the Gals

Posted by Liana at 2:20 PM

In good faith with item #101 of my 101 in 1001 challenge... I must get caught up in blogging about completed items!

When a few of the gals in my small group decided to head over to East Andrews to see an 80s cover band play, I jumped on that bandwagon right away. What's better than re-enacting all those cheesy 80s dance moves I learned growing up??

The lead guitarist even came over before the show to take pics and beg Irene for her snake-skin belt to match his snake-skin pants. LOL.



So there it is... Item #77: 80’s night dancing with the girls!! - COMPLETED 5/16/08

30-day Wedding Retreat

Posted by Liana at 4:23 PM

The next 30 days or so are going to be an interesting retreat into COMPLETE and utter wedding immersion.

August in Atlanta is generally too-hot to be high wedding season so as we're all caught up on all things for wedding clients, now is our chance to take a step back and re-work some of our online resources and tools for clients and future clients.

All-things-wedding just STARTS there though. Here's a little glimpse into what the next 30-days holds for me and loved ones:

- My little sister is getting married THIS weekend!! Sara and Shyla are traveling with us to Ohio to shoot it, we have videographers coming from Atlanta too, and my MOH Kimberly is flying in to act as day-of-coordinator.

- Speaking of Kimberly, I'll be the MOH for her wedding in November and the count-down has officially begun. Soon I'll be helping plan a bridal shower, trousseau shower, and bachelorette party.

- My darling and infinitely patient fiance whipped up some amazing Save the Dates for us which arrived on Friday and will be sent out very shortly for our own wedding next Spring. Between custom-designing graphics for us, building a wedding blog, helping me paint the guest room for a new room mate moving in soon, and being dragged to 101 department stores this weekend to go bridesmaid dress shopping (don't ask) ... I can't believe he's still insisting on having a REAL wedding vs eloping. LOL.

- This past weekend I was a GUEST at a wedding for the 2nd time this year! We have another one to attend in September and I'll BE in two, too.

- After labor day, I'll be flying off to distant lands to plan our own destination wedding with my mom in tow. Thanks Dad for those Frequent Hotel points to put us up there free for a week! I'll have exactly ONE WEEK to meet with as many vendors as possible and figure out how to make our wedding happen.

- My poor mother is in crunch-mode hand-sewing 22-foot linens for my sister's big day this weekend and getting calls from me to discuss the latest and greatest of my OWN wedding planning finds. She gets to celebrate her birthday in the week between my sisters wedding and us flying to go plan mine. Talk about craziness!

I'm sure there are 101 more wedding-related details to relay but I have to keep some for another day so stay tuned...

Speedybanana: Not So Speedy

Posted by Liana at 1:11 PM

Today as I plugged in my iPod to clock my walk around the block, I was rewarded with this awesome Nike+ milestone: 100 miles!! Yippeee!!!

They even give you an emblem to reward your progress and you can print it out and hang it on your fridge or give it your mom! Except my momma started just a few months ago (vs over 1/2 year that it took me) and she's kicking my bootie walking like 5 miles every day!! Oh, how I wished I enjoyed running/walking more... "speedybanana" ain't so speedy! Hahaha

New Bed

Posted by Liana at 7:14 PM

Gracie has a new favorite bed... she lays in this alllll day long if
we let her. Hahaha. What a weirdo.

8.8.8. Olympics Party

Posted by Liana at 4:38 PM

Guess what we had for dinner ?

That's Not Fair!

Posted by Liana at 2:46 AM

"That's not fair!!" Mike brought it to my attention, "You can't JUST post pictures of Grace... what about Charlie!??"

True. True. I tried to reason with him "well, Gracie likes to pose and Charlie just rolls around and won't stand still." It was true at three months and now at almost-twelve.

So in my deliriousness of making it home at 2:23AM I slipped the CF card back into the camera and caught Charlie in his usual position hanging over the edge of the bed watching over the room.

So ladies and gentlemen, in all fairness, I give you Charlie at 3 months and Charlie at almost-one-year too :) :) Awww...my has he grown!!

All Grown Up

Posted by Liana at 11:42 PM

Gracie aka "Pretty Girl" was all posing for me again when I pulled out my camera to shoot some furniture today and I realized all of a sudden "SHE's ALL GROWN UP!!" Uggg!! Not a baby-kitty-girl anymore :(

Gosh, I'm REALLY going to be silly when I have REAL kids (vs my kitty-kids) to document ;) Here she is at 3 months and then today at almost 1 year!!