Making Use...

The Sweetest Wait

A year ago today:

... We were in the homestretch!  

My due date was approaching, but I didn't know yet that my baby would arrive thirteen days later.  Or that she would be a girl.  Because she came one week early, I never quite got to the point of impatience.  Instead, I remember feeling like every day in those last weeks was really special.  And so nearly every detail of what I did, what I ate, who I saw, etc... is emblazoned in my memory.  

I'm so glad to have these portraits, too, because I really loved being pregnant, and I feel like Jen captured that beautifully.  

Meredith, 37 Weeks, Charlottesville, VA, January 22, 2011.

Photos by Jen Fariello Photography

 

Lainie & Mark - A Late Summer Wedding at UVA's Colonnade Club

Lainie and Mark threw a late summer wedding celebration at the Colonnade Club at UVA.  

The first time Lainie came over to the studio to discuss the wedding she stayed for hours.  We talked very openly and personally about our families and experiences.  She told me about her career as a neuropsychologist for the Air Force.  About how she and Mark would move, with her children, to Alaska shortly after the wedding.  About how she was up for deployment soon after that.  Nearly everything she said was an unexpected twist, but I appreciated her openness and honesty about who she was, what she wanted, and why it mattered.

Lainie only hired me to cover about four hours of the wedding day and in that short time I was able to witness so much.  I could see the strong romantic connection between Lainie and Mark, their unwavering committment to the children, and the fun they like to have with their family and friends.  The intimate setting of the Club, tucked discretely into one of the many Pavilions on the Lawn, perfectly matched the feel of the evening, which was about them and their story and union.

The wedding day itself was marked by late August warmth and glow and I absolutely loved that the dinner seating was outside under the trees.  Summer weather can be so unpredictable in this area so most couples opt to have a tent just in case.  I've always wanted to photograph more celebrations under the sky.  

Just before Lainie stepped out of the Colonnade Club for the ceremony, she realized she had no idea where her bouquet was.  She just laughed and continued on without it.

This baby is smeared with red velvet cupcake, not gore!

Congratulations to Lainie and Mark!  I hope your homecoming and reunion are blissful!

Vendors: Bride's dress: Nordstrom; Cupcakes: Cappellino's Crazy Cakes; Catering: Eric Stamer; Officiant: Capt. Baird of the Charlottesville Sheriff Dept.; Ceremony Musicians: Steve & Laurena Valahovic; Flowers: Nancy Tapager; Groom's attire: Nordstrom; Hair: Andrea at Face Value Salon; Make-Up: Face Value Salon; Rings: Leon Mege (bride's) and Fink's (groom's), Second Shooter: Maggie Stein.

The Week Begins

Just in the nick of time!  My Monday post for late Monday night.  

We had another wonderful, unscheduled weekend.  Long walks in the sunny cold for cups of coffee.  Mushroom barley soup simmering in my green soup pot.  A late night movie with my man.  And, unexpectedly, a long conversation about our future that involved a 9-year plan and a online search of dreamy properties!  It made me kind of excited in ways I did not anticipate.  

"Dinosaur Bones," Charlottesville, VA, January 15, 2011.

Instagram.

Here are a few other points of interest:

-- Last Monday night my sister came over to watch the Bachelor with me.  We don't watch much tv around here (except Downton Abbey, 60 Minutes, Jeopardy, and random episodes of whatever might be on HGTV or the Cooking Channel---but still, not a lot of regular programming, sitcoms, dramas, etc).  But I do have a habit of watching the Bachelor/Bachelorette series.  I find this television show to be so mindless and entertaining.  My husband is no fan, however, so when I say things like, "Oh my gosh, these woman need to stop saying, 'I'm actually more like  a guy than a girl...'" he doesn't even look up from his laptop to see what I'm fussing about.  Which is why it's really wonderful to have a sister in town who will come over and get sucked into mindless television with you.  Because watching these ridiculous shows (seriously, who would agree to share 1 man with 24 other woman???  It's sick.) is far more fun with a couchmate who cares.  Or kind of cares.  Anyway, all of this is to say that last week I made chicken and dumplings for our tv dinner, following this recipe, and I thought you might like it for cold nights in front of the tube.  Ellie and I agreed that next time we would add some veggies to the final pot in order to up the nutritional ante, but overall it was quite tasty and comforting.  

-- For Thanksgiving 2010 Todd and I drove to Austin, TX and back, which was perhaps one of my most memorable vacations ever (because I was blissfully pregnant and we ate good food and went somewhere new every day, not because of the food poisoning, which was also memorable).  We just happened to arrive in Dallas on the evening of the anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination, and that prompted a great study (mostly via the passenger's seat and a hand-held Blackberry) of historical evidence, conspiracy theories, and various Wikipedia entries.  On November 21st of this year we watched this short video on the New York Times website.  It made my heart pound at first.  Watch it to the end.

-- This past week I have seen quite a bit of Twitter discussion about proper crediting for photographers (and anyone who deserves credit for the creation of an image/scene).  Between blogs and Pinterest, there is an awful lot of un-credited imagery floating around out there on the web, and it certainly is a pet peeve of mine.  This handy diagram is a useful tool for anyone who thinks about posting images online that they did not actually create themselves.  You can do it, of course, but do it well!

-- Nothing But Bonfires published a comprehensive list of the books she read in 2011, complete with short reviews of each title, and her list has inspired me to get to the library and pick up some new books (or books on tape)!  I only read Bossypants of her picks from the last year (actually, I listened to it in my car at the end of the summer), though I've read and loved other books by several of the authors she lists, so I'm pretty sure I will enjoy most of her selection.  How about you?  What are you reading and recommending?

Okay, that's only four points of interest... but it's my bedtime.  

Tomorrow--a wedding on the blog!  Late summer loveliness.

Bo & Flora

My daughter's first name, Flora, is inspired by my grandmother's name.  We call my grandmother Bo, which is a variation of 'Flo', which is short for Flora.  To her grandchildren, Bo has always been Bo, and our Flora is never Flo (though sometimes Dora).  Do you follow?

This fall, while I was working really hard at my desk, my mom would come over, pick up my baby, and take her to visit my grandmother.  They would return home with stories about how Flora had charmed every person at the Martha Jefferson House, making appearances in the dining room at lunch, smiling at the doorman on her way in and out of the building.  How she liked to climb around Bo's walker, how she like to play with the assortment of tennis bracelets on her wrist.  Flora was seeing far more of Bo than I was and they were building a little relationship.  

Then, the week before Christmas, Bo entered the hospital with pneumonia.  At first the hospital stay seemed to be a precaution, then it was a necessity as her health took a turn for the worse.  And then one night nearly all the family (daughters, husbands, grandchildren, husband of grandchild, great-grandbaby) crowded into her hospital room and filled every seat and corner.  Bo slept under our eyes.  She looked to me like a woman who was dying.  After the room emptied out, Flora and I went back to give her kisses and say goodbye.

But Bo lived through the night.  And the next day she was much improved.  And so a few days later she left the hospital and returned to her home.  And then it was nearly Christmas.

My 92-year old grandmother declared that all she wanted for Christmas was for all of her family to be around her, and to eat some candy.  Done and done!

I like looking at these pictures and knowing that the arms holding my baby once held me as a child, and my mother before me.  I feel so fortunate to see Flora and Flora together.  

Flora and Flora, Charlottesville, VA, December 22, 2011.

Bo gave Flora an Olivia doll for Christmas and we were shocked and amused to see that the two little critters matched!  Flora and Todd read about Olivia nearly every night before bed. 

(Flora got her own walker for Christmas.)  

The Week Begins

Happy Monday to you!  How was your weekend?  Mine was great.  The weather was balmy.  I know it makes me pretty unpopular to say this, because my Facebook friends seem to love the warmer temps, but I say: Charlottesville?  This winter is L-A-M-E!  I would like a snow storm, please.  Otherwise, we watched Midnight in Paris, installed a baby gate at the bottom of our staircase, took a couple of long walks, went out to breakfast, and yesterday I met with a bride and groom.  A nice, relaxed weekend.

Hot Chocolate and Cookies, Para Coffee, Charlottesville, VA.

Instagram.

Here's some Monday links for your lunch hour: 

- Remember when I said DVDs are a tried-and-true Christmas gift?  Well, this year I gave my sister season 1 of Downton Abbey, that Masterpiece Classic Drama about English aristocracy and their servants before World War 1.  I thought it would be a good series to watch together, and I happen to be something of a (self-described) scholar of the "English Country Estate" genre, as I like to call it.  Turns out half the family had already seen seaon 1 on PBS, but that didn't stop us from watching all seven episodes again!  Anyway, season 2 debuted last night.  This New York Times review of the coming season describes season 2 as I would expect.  It's just television; I enjoyed it!

- When I was a kid I was fairly obsessed with the Jill Krementz books A Very Young Gymnast and A Very Young Dancer.  The stories profile two ten-year old girl committed to gymnastics and ballet (respectively) and show, through black and white photographs and fairly short written descriptions, the hard work the girls invested and the opportunities that resulted over the course of a year in their lives.  I was a super disciplined young thing, and took ballet classes for over 10 years, so these stories really spoke to my childhood self.   Although a perfectly fine dancer, I was neither especially talented nor did I grow up in NYC, with the opprotunities for instruction and performance like these girls.  But that's probably why the books were so appealing to me.  It was like a 10-year old's wholesome fantasy about being a professional ballerina, or a marine biologist (Wouldn't that be a good book?!  A Very Young Whale Scientist?  Someone please do that story...).   Sometime around Thanksgiving I found myself thinking about those stories, wondering if my books were packed up somewhere in my parents' basement, wondering what those girls did today.  So I looked on Google and lo and behold, I was not alone in my wondering.  The New York Times had just published a follow-up story on Stephanie, the very young dancer.  Her story, to my surprise, is more about the fallout of childhood stardom (an apparent pitfall even for literary and art-world "stars"), and the search for identity and happiness.  Bravo to Stephanie for telling the full story now, and not hiding under the weight of her own shame and disappointment.  Honestly, how many of us actually live out our childhood dreams?  I mean, there can only be so many marine biologists in the world...  Torrance York, by the way, the young gymnast, is now a professional photographer.  Who knew?!

- Flora and I like to listen Acoustic Sunrise on 91.9 WNRN in the mornings while eating breakfast.  Sometimes we hear things that make her baby heart really mellow, and I know a morning nap is soon to follow her full belly.  Loney Dear, for example, is quite effective.  Also, this song, written and performed by Matraca Berg.  You may know the Kenny Chesney/Grace Potter version from mainstream radio.   We like this version better.

- I want to do a little recap of some of the things I've mentioned here on Monday blogs previous.  Remember these shoes?  Well, I decided against them.  I liked them, but they did wear a bit clunky, as one commenter pointed out, and I thought they felt like cowboys boots--which I already have.  So I returned them and bought these, instead, which I've been wearing all winter.  These little booties are more comfortable on the foot, a bit more streamlined in profile, and look! they're on sale now.  And remember when I wrote about pickles from Brooklyn?  I long-ago finished both my jars and I must say I preferred the McClure's over Brooklyn Brine.  McClure's Garlic Dill variety is super pickley flavorful and really crunchy and pretty much a perfect pickle to my tastebuds.  So if anyone wants to split a case with me (25 jars!) just let me know.  And finally, remember when I talked about listening to books on tape while editing at my desk?  I've been doing it.  Not all the time, but I've listened to three or four books since October, which is certainly more than I've read!  Some of them were fine but not particularly worth mentioning, but one book that I really, really enjoyed was Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson.  It's a true story about wreck divers off the coast of New Jersey in the early '90s who discover, and then spend years identifiying, a WWII German U-Boat, when no records in the world seem to indicate that a boat should be in that location.  A truly fascinating story, and one that really moved me.  Highly recommended.    

- Finally, my friend and regular second shooter, Maggie Stein, was interviewed in December by Andrea of Easily Amused and I found her whole concept of how to find friends, make friends, and be a friend really interesting and useful.  There is heavy mention of the phrase "socially aggressive," a quality which Maggie recommends adopting as an effective way to express your intentions to others and see immediate results.  When I told Maggie that I wanted to link to the interview in one of these posts, she seemed surprised and a little hesitant at first.  Apparently some people had a negative impression of  the idea of being socially aggressive.  On the contrary, I think the whole interview is insightful and eye-opening.  I would rarely describe myself as "aggressive" when it comes to social interraction (especially when new people are involved), but I can see how pushing oneself to be more assertive, intentional, or direct about wanting to spend more time with someone, or wanting a particular outcome, would be useful and productive when pursuing personal and professional relationships and goals.  And, frankly, isn't almost irresistble to be pursued in this way?  I know for a fact that both Todd and Maggie came after me with very clear-sighted and open communication about their intentions and belief in the strength and future or our relationships, and now one is my husband and the other works for me in the studio!  Success!  Check out the interview as there will probably be some nugget of inspirational gold to carry into your new year.

Have a great week!