Chocolate the Moose: the story behind my new mascot
Part 1:
As I plugged several times on here, my family and I had a garage sale about a month ago. And at that garage sale I tried to pawn off a lot of my childhood toys that just no longer fit my style of fun. Included in this group are the large amounts of Beanie Babies that I acquired during the major craze back in the early/mid 90s. To think now how much money was spent on those stinkin things is a bit terrifying. But the point of this post is not to reflect on $$ but instead it is to bring light to a wonderful rediscovery! Amongst the ones for sale (at 50cents a head, mind you) was this little guy…
As you know, I love moose. And I was feeling some sort of sentimental connection to him, so I tucked him away in my box of stuff to take home and I promptly forgot he was in there. Fast forward a few weeks…
Part 2:
I am in the need for a fresh batch of business cards and so I am re-evaluating my current design to decide if they are good enough to make another round. The answer is No. Because of that I have been doing equal parts redesigning and research on line for ideas towards what I might be looking for. My thoughts are vague right now, but that tends to be the way the design process begins. In doing my research, which included a Google search of ‘Chocolate Moose,’ I came across a photo of my garage sale save.
And the blurb under the photo said he was ‘Chocolate.’ So I says to myself, ‘Does that mean he is just Chocolate colored? Or could someone else have possibly put this witty name connection together before myself?’ Well, as it turns out, this moose’s official Ty name is ‘Chocolate.’ And my further searching on Google confirmed that in no way was I the first brainiac to come up with the clever name of Chocolate Moose. But as far as I can tell, I am the first to attach it to photography. Hah! Anyways, I plan on toting this little guy around with me on photo shoots because I have a feeling he will be good luck and provide some entertainment, if nothing else. Possibly, I may start to work him into some photos. I spose it is possible I may loose the inspiration to play with a stuffed moose in short order so this might be a passing fad, but we’ll have to see what the future holds for this Chocolate Moose.
One other awesome thing I found on Google was this…
Um, have you seen anything more Moose-tastic? Didn’t think so. Unfortunately, it is out of print! So if you are interested in possibly owning one of these marvelous shirts, which I suspect any one reading this would be, I urge you to go to this link and say “I want this reprinted” {which is done by selecting your desired size and entering your email}. If these do get reprinted, I think anyone who gets one should be involved in a Chocolate Moose Party. I’ll provide the chocolate, the moose, the photography and some fun. You provide yourselves. Deal? Sweet.
it’s late and i’m still up
Since graduating college… well, actually, since about my 3rd year of college, I’ve changed my internal schedule. I used to thrive on the idea of going to bed at 3 or 4 am to then sleep in until 11 or so. I used to feel that if I got up before double digits it was too early. No longer. Now i go to bed with all the old people and wake up early{ish}. I spose ‘early’ is a little subjective. If you were to ask my uncle what early is, you would probably agree with the answer. If you asked me, well, it might still be up for debate. But I digress. One nice thing about my shift at work {and really, the only one I can come up with right now} is that I can chose to sleep in if I’ve had an exceptionally late night. Like tonight. It’s 12:45 and I’m not yet in my PJs or brushing my teeth. No. I am editing photos at my computer. I’ve become addicted lately in editing photos and creating things in PS into the wee hours of the night. The only bummer tonight is that I had great plans of going for a run and garage saleing early tomorrow morning. And now, I will be lucky to do one or the other. Ahh well. At least I got things accomplished this evening!
After doing engagement photos of Nicole and Andy, I decided I loved taking them! The weather was gorgeous, the subjects were gorgeous and the light was gorgeous. Because of that, I am adding it as a service I will offer. I am not ready to commit to a wedding since there in lies far too much responsibility for my head and heart to handle, but the before engagement photos {complete with guest book and prints, should you chose} is at your disposal!
I feel like that came off a little infomercially… and yes, i’m going to stand strong that infomercially is a word.
Since this post must have a root, I will give evidence to the fun I feel I captured between Nicole and Andy a few weekends ago. I know I already posted some, but I spent the good majority of my day editing and uploading and editing and uploading these images so they are a bit like my babies right now. Regardless of how weird that sounds, I hope you enjoy the images. If you+other {or someone you know+their other} could use a portrait session, contact me either through my blog or through my site.
And now, just a little more before I crawl straight over my computer onto my bed. Mmm pillows!
it’s hot and sticky
I love warm weather. I love sunshine. I love leaving work and not having to turn my headlights on. I love wearing t-shirts. I love going barefoot. But I can’t say I love Minnesota humidity. Nope. Not at all. But at the same time, I do seem to complain when the weather is too cold, and I spose too hot is better than too cold. So because of that argument, I’ll take it. With this latest heat wave, I have cooped myself up in the basement to edit photos, create a guest book, fix portions of my website and order some lovely LOVELY photo frames for a display {big smile} and possibly even a fancy leather album that feels like BUTTA! Not kidding, it feels exactly like it. Super excited!
Speaking of big smile, I have big news! An apartment is in my near future. Very near future! I signed a lease for an apartment last week and am very thrilled about it! Short of lower rent {which let’s be honest, we all would love} I can’t complain about any of the features. Yes, I have yet to move in, but at first {and second} glance, everything is lovely. Can’t wait! I’ll post photos once I’m all settled.
Eventhough I’m not feeling very ‘bloggy’ but because a post isn’t complete without a photo, I have a little collage Mrs. Roux. We spent last weekend together which included a long walk, a good play at the park and a lot of time in the sun on the porch.
Have a lovely Monday. Even though it’s pretty much bedtime, I hope you don’t have the same Monday fog that I did all day. It was a challenge to focus and function but because I am expecting more time towards the end of my week to really get creative, I’m feeling good about the week!
july+august=weddings!
Last spring I graduated from college. This spring I received lots of wedding invitations. Ok – not LOTS but 3 for some of my most favoritest people from Iowa City. And these 3 seem to fall within 4 weeks of each other (+1 Fourth of July vacation). Between July 3rd and August 8th I will have driven about 2300 miles (not including my work mileage…oy vay!). All of which will be graced with the Southern Minnesota and Iowa country side.
ick.
But what is not ick are the fun and exciting events I’m going to! I can’t say what my favorite will be but I can say that I’m excited to have an excuse to get dressed for 3 weddings and attend parties with my lovely and awesomely fun friends from Iowa.
Speaking of which, I had the pleasure of taking photos of one of those lovely couples last night at the Walker Sculpture Garden. Meet Nicole and Andy. Soon to be nicoleandy.
It was fabulous. They were willing to do lots of posing and walking and standing and smiling and hugging and had good ideas of their own {ie: jumping in the air and taking gobs of photos… seen it before but never so graceful}. I snapped tons and TONS of photos and have a marvelous {if I do say so} selection to play with and even to perhaps do some sort of collage/book/thingy with them. News on that to follow. I liked it so much that while pets are still my big thing that I love lots, I would like to dapple in couples photos too. But we can chat about that later.
I’ve spent a good amount of time over the last few years getting to know these 2 and it was real fun to see their relationship shine. Most of what I’ve known has been the sitting around, playing games, going to dinner and general relaxing type of Nicole&Andy unit. I’ve never really seen the romantic and cute relationship side. After a little warming up, I think I found it. And surprise surprise, it was cute.
Well – hope you’se guys like the sneak-peak of photos! There are oodles more, so I can’t wait to show you them all … but how about one more for the road
gotta love it! And you know there is more where that came from. {side note: I appreciate you kids putting up with my antics and general awkwardness… you are the bestest! Congrats again on the engagement!!}
I will do my darndest to keep you posted on all my wedding/pet/people/moving/photography ventures this summer, but as you can tell, it is jam packed! Which I hope means ooooooodles of pictures. Because we all know how much I love pictures. See ya soon!