Ladies Night

Last night, First Baptist Cumming had a great Ladies Night movie party, and all of the women of Key Photography were there. We had so much fun, I just had to blog about it.

The evening was planned out by the Women's Council. Holly Stewart went all out with the decorations. There was even a red carpet at the front door. Jennifer Lamb set up the best concession stand ever. Not only did she have popcorn and nachos, but also just about every candy known to man. I forget which of the ladies came up with the idea of the coffee bar, but it was a good one.

These were the only two men allowed in the building, and the only reason they got in is because they could make a mocha that looked like this:

They were from Mocha My Day. There was every favor of coffee known to man and hot chocolate and vanilla chi and mocha and cappuccinos. They were awesome.

After we all had our snack the movie began. What can I say? I laughed, I cried, and I learned things about friends that I never knew. The next time you see Kelli Chitty you have to ask her where her engagement ring has been.

My part in planning the evening was small but fun. I made bookmarks for everyone to take home. I designed them to look like a film strip and inside the cells I included special bible verses that were mentioned during the movie. There was Joshua 1:9, Jeremiah 29:11.Philippians 4:6-7 and Psalms 30. I'm going to be a bible tease and make you look them up for yourself. ( here is a link to Bible Gateway for you).

Too Good

This shot was just too good not to share.

Party Night #2

In order to have plenty of time with each family, we stretched Jennifer's party into two nights. The second night was made more interesting by a couple of special guests to the party.

I have to say that I was very impressed with how still Chip could sit, and how Mia seemed to smile right along with the rest of the family. Both of them did great. The flexibility of bringing along the furry members of your family turned out to be another great perk of the portrait party. Also, there were plenty of people around to take care of the dogs while the rest of their family took turns being featured.

*On a side note, I wanted to mention that if you don't have a place in your yard that you think would work as a good backdrop, you can still host a party. We can set up at Poole's Mill Park, your neighborhood clubhouse, or another one of the many scenic areas in the area.

P-A-R-T-Y

It is fun to try new things. Sometimes you'll hit on an idea that turns out to be even more fabulous than you could have imagined. For example, Keith mentioned one day that we should have a portrait party. Then, our good friend Jennifer heard those words and ran with it. Tonight was the very first Key Portrait Party. We had so much fun that we are planning for many more.

Here is how it worked. Jennifer called up friends and invited them to her house for a backyard cookout/portrait session. No one had to pay a session fee, everyone received a discount, and a fun time was had by all. Each family took a turn changing into their dressy clothes and having their portraits done.

We had everything set up so that people could view the results right at Jennifer's kitchen table. Everything flowed so well and all of our guests were really excited with the results.

We even had one dad admit that he is usually anti-family portrait. With having four children (that's right 4!) it was hard to get everyone together, clean, and happy, but he loved the whole party concept. It was easy to keep the kids happy through the whole experience because they were there with friends. He was relaxed, they were relaxed, and the photographs turned out great. I can't wait to get the images to the studio so that I can show you the final product.

Thank you Jennifer for being such a gracious host and taking such a great idea and making it such a fun night! You are great!

If you are interested in hosting a Portrait Party call our studio and we will be glad to schedule your party and help you in planning your evening of fun with your friends.

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Painting the Town

Okay, so we are just painting the studio, not the whole town, but you wouldn't know it by the number of paint buckets that entered the studio this morning. Kemptner Painting arrived bright and early today to get started. They have been great. It's not fair to keep such talent to ourselves, so if you need any painting done, inside or out, we'd recommend Mark Kemptner. His number is 404-304-8976.

The hard part for us was in choosing the colors we wanted.We knew we wanted a little brown and needed some gray for the production areas, but what we didn't know was which of the 6,000 browns was the right one. Obviously I'm exaggerating a tad, but when you are standing in front of all those paint chips, it might as well be in the thousands.

We finally settled on a cup of "Java", a nice "Trusty Tan", and a very "Proper Gray". Don't you just love paint names. I often wonder whose job it is to sit around and name different colors.
were are using the fabulous Duron paint for the walls and you can see the swatches like we have above using this really cool paint color visualizer.

Fire House Fun

It's September 11th, or as it is lesser known as, Patriot's Day. To commemorate the day, the kids and I took brownies to the firehouse in downtown Cumming. We were treated to the full tour. The kids climbed on the truck, turned on the lights, and even saw where the firefighters sleep. It was awesome.

As we were headed out I noticed that there was an old flag collection box. I had no idea it was that easy. I thought you had to hunt down a responsible Boy Scout or something, but no, you just have to stop by the firehouse.

By the way, while we are talking about firefighters, a friend recently gave me a great safety tip. Make sure you have a smoke detector in your garage. There have been a couple of house fires lately that started in the garage. By the time the house alarms went off the house was in a full blaze.

Here is a great link to a slide show made of images from 9/11 2001. Remember 9-11

*Warning* It will make you cry - A LOT, so you might want to wait until you are alone to watch it.

Key Radio

Normally I like to think I am a productive influence around the studio, but today I slipped. I suggested that Sandy use one of my favorite sites to provide music for while she is working. As it turns out Sandy had never heard of Pandora, and now she has a new web obsession.

Pandora is a web based radio station. The great part is that you get to build your own stations using the type of music you most enjoy, and it's all free. You can share your stations and find out what your friends are listening to. On my personal page I have a station just for Christmas music, another for Oldies, and about 4 others built to suit my moods. Sandy wanted music to work by. So, I built stations for each of us. Sandy selected several artists and songs to get started. I quickly set one up for myself with about a dozen favorite artists, some with conflicting styles. Then I asked Keith what type of music he wanted. He shrugged and in typical Keith fashion said, "I like Jimmy Buffet." Not much to go on, but the station seems to have a really good mix.

I noticed that since I left the studio, someone has added profile information and added in several new stations, and it wasn't me. Is this going to be worse than the Facebook addiction?

We would love to share our stations with you. Just visit the site and search for user "sandy 951" or click on this Pandora link.

Two White

We actually have two new additions to the studio this week. The first was an anniversary present to Sandy from Keith that we all get to enjoy.
Her name is Sophie and she is a Maltese. She loves having her tummy rubbed and is already learning how to pose for the camera. Again, this picture was made my me instead of the professionals, but I know it won't be long before her portrait is made and gracing the walls of the new studio.
Speaking of the new studio, that brings me to the second of the two whites (now is when the title makes sense)
To the untrained eye this may look like a plain white square, bit it is actually a plain white square of dry wall that now hangs in the studio. This means the hard part of the studio build is over and the dry wall has been hung. We'd like to thank Eric, Dawn, Noell, Holly, Charlie, Mindy, Eric, Mitchell, Farise, Julie, Bruce, Lauren, Dee, Kevin, Jerry, Sandy, Kelli, Stacy, Mickey, Lynn (the other one), Doug, and I am sure there are others that I have missed that Sandy will no doubt be adding in later. Without the help of all of you this massive undertaking would never have gotten done. We feel so blessed to have each of you as part of the Key Photography family.