Camera Linz

my fave time of year...

2011-10-28T09:54:00.001-07:00

Lindsey & Corbin

2011-09-05T08:41:00.000-07:00

I recently did a mini photoshoot for a friend of mine who is due with her 2nd baby boy within the next few weeks. Her first baby boy is 8 days older than mine.

Yeah.

THAT'S CLOSE. :)

Anyway, she and her husband are super-excited about Carson's arrival but Lindsey wanted to get some photos of her and Corbin together before he gets here. I got some pretty good shots down at Soundside Park in Surf City, including these:

3/4 of a year gone already!

2011-09-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

Just poppin' in to brag a little bit...

[sweetest 9.5 month old EVA.]

Happy 3rd birthday, Cora Beth!

2011-08-06T14:28:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe, but my sweet little niece (who I swear was just born yesterday) turned 3 years old a couple weeks ago! Poor sweetheart has a hottest-month-of-the-year birthday so my brother & sister-in-law are always trying to think "cool" for her birthday parties. :)

This year, they had a POOL PARTY!

I promise you it was close to 120 degrees that day but everyone was happy to get together and celebrate this precious girl's presence in our lives for 3 whole years. We all gathered to sing "happy birthday" to Cora Beth before the cute-as-a-button cake melted into a blob from the heat...

[baby girl is sometimes shy so she's "hiding" behind her hands while we sing -- *whispers* that's so we don't see her :) ]

And then we hit the POOL!

Cora Beth's "Nonna" (my SIL's mom) has a pool and it was quite big enough to accomodate as many adults as wanted to come in and the kiddos, too. Honestly, I don't know how everyone wasn't jumping into the pool, as hot as it was. With their clothes on, if need be.

Or off. That's how my nephew, Bear, rolls...

[pweshus wittle bebe -- ::muah::]

But that's just me. To be sure, I was in that pool just as much as I could be. :)

And of course, Deacon enjoyed himself -- and everyone enjoyed him, too. Eddie & Donna had a couple of floaties that we put him in and he just had a ball floating around to everyone, mingling, socializing.

Then it was time for presents!

At every party, Cora Beth gets more & more into all the different aspects of the parties, including the presents. It's fun to watch her interact and show how much she's grown from last year's party.

[Bear was catching some zzz's while sister opened her presents]

I wish we were closer so we could see my brother and his family more often but we take what we can get and cram as much time as we can into the weekends that we do get to visit. Cora Beth is such a joy and we're so blessed to have her in our lives. Happy birthday, Cora Beth!

a few more from the Harvin family...

2011-06-21T17:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have just a few more I want to post from the photoshoot I did of the Harvin family last weekend. Some with some special effects...

Harvin Family...

2011-06-18T11:39:00.000-07:00

I did a photoshoot last weekend for some good friends who used to live in Wilmington. They were in our Sunday School class at church before they moved to Greenville a few years ago. It was great to see them and meet their youngest little girl. Their oldest little girl had grown so much since the last time I saw her -- both are just beautiful. :) Love this family!

Here are some of my favorites from our shoot...you'll notice that I don't have any special effects in any of these. That's because I love, love, love how the colors of what they wore look with the colors of the beach -- perfect!

3 mos old!

2011-02-03T17:25:00.000-08:00

Look at my big 3 month old!

favorite subject...

2011-01-14T11:51:00.000-08:00

If you read one of my other blogs, Our World = Rocked, then you know that I've had our baby. Deacon Josiah was born October 26, 2010, so we've had him for almost 12 weeks now! Hard to believe. Since he's been here, he's become my favorite photography subject.

No surprise there. :)

We take photos of him almost every single day. It's ridiculous, really, but I can't help myself. He's so.dang.cute. And he's changing so fast daily, we don't want to miss anything!

Since I do have the other blog, devoted solely to him, I just wanted to post ~~a couple~~ a bunch of photos that I've taken of him that I consider "artistic":

Okay, I can't take credit for this awesome photo (obviously since I'm in it :) but I wanted to post it anyway because it's just...it totally depicts... well, it makes me cry. Every time. This was probably one of the very first moments that I got to spend with my son and it was captured by our doula and good friend, Kelley.

Love me some baby feet! 1 month old

This is probably one of my all-time fave photos, so far.

4 weeks old

Love how our Christmas tree looks in the background.

And his precious profile. :)

7 weeks old

Aw. 8 weeks old

My little guy in jeans. Love it. And I love how his...um, crotch

makes a heart. Well, it does! Just look...

9 weeks old

You gotta love little baby body parts. :) 9.5 weeks old

He's not a huge fan of tummy time,

but he did good on this day...

9.5 weeks old

What did I tell you about baby feet? *muah* 10 weeks old

Oh, hi. 10 weeks old

special friends...

2010-10-21T17:50:00.000-07:00

I recently did a photoshoot on the beach for some special, long-time friends and it was a lot of fun. Everyone was a good sport for the most part and then we headed to Max's Pizza for some yummy dinner.

Here are some of my faves from the day:

Nimmo Family...

2010-10-06T16:11:00.001-07:00

I had an opportunity to photograph a sweet family this past weekend, Caleb & Laura Nimmo and their two cute kiddos, Caden & Lilly. It's always a challenge to catch young, active kids in action but I'm pleased with what I ended up with from this shoot. It was a lot of fun to hang out with this family on the beach.

Here are a few of my faves:

open for business...

2010-08-05T14:04:00.000-07:00

If you've been following this blog long enough, you know that I've done a few photoshoots (paying gigs) for various individuals: high school seniors, families, etc. A couple of those came about just because they knew I like to take photos and they trusted me enough to ask me to take some photos for them.

The other photoshoots have resulted from word-of-mouth and I'm grateful for that. I've decided, however, that I'm ready to start promoting that side of my creativity a little bit more aggressively. I'm not sure where it will go but it would be fantastic if God would use this passion of mine to allow me to provide a little income for our family.

With that being said, I want to officially promote LW Designs.

I have posted about this in a past post and probably mentioned that this "endeavor" would encompass print designs, too. That is true; I'm still willing to design anything from shower/party invitations, baby/graduation announcements, Christmas cards, etc. Add to that blog/web design and photography and that's basically what I have skills/talents and passion for. For this particular post, though, I'll focus on the promotion of my photography:

I specialize in outdoor photography in the Wilmington and Jacksonville, NC area. I also do parties, showers and marketing photos (do you have something to sell on a website or in a shop? Let me take your merchandise photos!).

If you're curious about what that translates into, here's the deal(s):

[all categories include a copyright release]

PHOTOGRAPHY SESSIONS: $200 flat fee

[includes 1.5 hour session + CD w/edited photos]

*couples/family

*senior photos

*baby

SPECIAL OCCASIONS: $25/hour + $50 for CD

*birthdays

*baby showers

*bridal/wedding showers

MARKETING PHOTOS: $15/hour + $3/image or $25 for CD

*merchandise in/on your:

- shop

- Etsy

- website/blog

- Facebook

You can find examples of my work here, here (& here), here and here, as well as on Facebook, where I've set up a group called LW Designs. Find it here and join!

I would love to hear from any of you who have need of my services for whatever your special moments in life include; contact me at lindsay.wenzel@gmail.com or leave me a comment with your info so I can get in touch with you. And do feel free to throw my name out to anyone who might be interested! Thanks!

happy 2nd birthday, cora beth!

2010-08-01T15:33:00.000-07:00

My niece turned two last weekend -- another year FLOWN by -- and we had a blast celebrating this special milestone with her.

The party was an ice cream theme (gotta love those summer birthdays! :) and again, my sister-in-law had the cutest ice cream decorations. The tablecloths had ice cream cones & sundaes on them and we ate yummy ice cream out of cute little bowls. Even Cora Beth's shirt had an triple-decker ice cream cone on it!

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE ice cream?

The party was at the home of my brother & sister-in-law's in Thomasville and family & friends gathered to celebrate Cora Beth. She did so well, entertaining us all with new tricks and such. And she racked up on gifts, of course. :)

Here are some of the sweet moments from that day in photos:

[candles in the ice cream -- love it!]

[look at this big girl -- she got the hang of it real fast!]

[Cora Beth and her -- ahem -- boyfriend, Dylan]

[fun times with Uncle Jeff]

[Priceless. She didn't actually pose for this but how cute is she??]

For more photos from her party, click here.

weekend activities...

2010-07-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

Look what's happening this weekend!

Not sure how 2 years has gone by already...we just celebrated her 1st birthday, it seems...

The Hammells & Family...

2010-06-02T04:48:00.000-07:00

Over the Memorial Day holiday, I had the pleasure of photographing Todd & Susan Hammell & family, along with Susan's parents and her brother & sister-in-law and their family. They are vacationing on North Topsail Island this week -- in from the Greenville, NC area -- and wanted some family photos made to celebrate their parents' 40th wedding anniversary.

This entire family was a lot of fun to photograph -- the kids were adorable and all the adults were fun-loving and open to whatever kind of poses I wanted to put them in. By the end of the shoot, I felt like we'd been friends with them forever. :)

Here are a few of my faves from the evening on North Topsail Island:

class of 2010: revisited

2010-05-24T19:16:00.000-07:00

I recently had the privilege to photograph the lovely Miss Caitlin Mason for her senior photos and had a really great time. The Mason family attends Scotts Hill Baptist Church where I do, and Caitlin happens to be best friends with Jessica Warren, whose senior photos I had the privilege of taking last year, if you'll recall this post.

Caitlin and her mom did a lot of research before her photoshoot last week so they were prepared! Caitlin is a fan of 'the gates' in downtown Wilmington so a lot of our shoot was spent walking/riding around downtown and stopping for photos here and there. It was a beautiful day; perfect for strolling.

Of course, we hit the beach, too, because it IS just so close! :)

I'm not quite finished editing the photos but here is a sneak peek at some of my faves from the day:

tis the season...

2010-05-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

I'm posting this for my brother. God love him, he keeps me on my toes about keeping up-to-date on my blogs. At least I know he's checking them. :) Thanks, bro!

I know it's been a long while since I posted anything here and to be honest I really haven't had anything TO post that would be appropriate for this particular blog.

But I did go to a wedding last weekend and got a couple of cool (read: artistic) shots, and then we threw a bridal shower at our house last night where I got another couple of neat shots.

From the Greco wedding:

And from the shower last night:

To show some of my mad decorating skills...

And a closer look at the flower arrangement (that I made). I'm pretty proud of that one. It was my first time working with the little "curlycue" deals and I have to say, I like'em. Helen really liked it, too -- I let her take it home with her as part of her gift.

I made these thank you cards for the couple as part of their gift. Thought they turned out cute, too. :)

Jefferys wedding

2010-03-25T17:48:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we attended a wedding for one of the couples within our Connect Group. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for a wedding -- sunny skies and temps in the mid-70s. Just beautiful.

This was the first wedding we've gone to since I've had my new camera so I was looking forward to seeing what it could do in this kind of setting. Of course, I didn't take any photos during the ceremony, which was just lovely, by the way. But I shot to my heart's content during the reception which was held in downtown Wilmington at St. Thomas Preservation Hall -- what a great place to have a reception!

The following photos are without edit, meaning I haven't done a thing to the photos. This is just how they came out with my Nikon. I'm so pleased with them!

[photo credit: Jeff Wenzel]

[photo credit: Emily Ondish]

continuous: 3 frames per second

2010-03-05T19:07:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted, I know. Sorry about that. I have had this post in mind to do for a few weeks now and just haven't had a chance until now to sit down and type it up.

A few weeks ago we had an opportunity to reconnect with good friends that we haven't seen in 6+ years. They were our best friends when we lived in Fayetteville and the last time we saw them was at Jeff's UNCW graduation in December 2003. Their boys were 2 & 4. They left soon after that for Germany due to military orders. We did our best to stay in touch over the years with email and, more recently, Facebook.

Fast forward 6 years. They have recently moved back to NC and it worked out for us to make a flying overnight trip to Sanford to see them. It was a blast! The boys are now 8 & 10 but you'd never know we missed those 6 years of their lives -- they warmed right up to us! And as far as the adult conversation went, it was like we just picked up where we left off. Good times.

So of course I had my camera with me and was just snapping away the whole time we were together. The big boys decided to throw around the pigskin before dinner Saturday night so I decided I'd try out the "continuous" feature on my camera.

Here's what I got:

Nice follow-thru, babe!

UPGRADE!

2010-01-23T15:05:00.000-08:00

You are looking at the proud owner of a brand new Nikon D3000 SLR camera! That's right, peeps. This chic FINALLY upgraded from her Kodak point-&-shoot to her first SLR and she could NOT be happier!

I have been really considering and saving for a new camera for about a year now. I really thought I would end up with a Canon -- for some reason I just was leaning toward a Canon. But I've heard really good things about Nikons, too, so I wasn't opposed to having one of those either. This Nikon deal just kind of fell in my lap when Jeff got an email from TigerDirect with an online 48-hour sale on this camera/kit. After reading the reviews (all of which were really positive), I decided that this would be the perfect first SLR camera for me.

I've only had this camera for 5 days, folks. So I still feel like I know NOTHING about it -- there are so many "bells & whistles"...I'm sure it will take me until Jesus comes back to even figure out all those but hopefully, in the near future, I will have enough knowledge and be comfortable enough with it to really take advantage of it and come out with some really nice photos.

Since getting it on Tuesday, I've had very limited time to "play" but I will show you a few photos that I've taken with it. I'm amazed everytime I discover something new about it so the photos I take to "practice" with that new knowledge are really kind of ordinary but hey -- you gotta start somewhere, right? :)

Everyone knows that I am NOTORIOUS for "self-portraits" as seen here. :) I've gotten pretty good at them and while it does appear that I cut off my chin in this one (give me a break, peeps, it's a brand new camera!), I think it has a certain artistic style...yeah, we'll go with that. :) Anyway, the camera has a "retouch" feature built right in to it that will let you do some basic editing to your photos before you even upload them to your computer. The following photo is this same one but I used the "color balance" option under the retouch menu:

Pretty neat!

The next image is 2 photos I took using the manual focus -- I.love.this.feature! I haven't worked with it enough to really be good at it yet (I forget about it since I didn't have that option before, only autofocus, and some of my photos end up blurry before I remember to focus them with the manual) but it does wonders when I'm trying to make something in the foreground or background sharp (in focus) while everything else around is blurred. That's something I had to work REALLY HARD to accomplish with my Kodak and I love how simple it is now with this Nikon. The photo on the left has the flowers in the foreground in focus while the photoframe in the background is blurred. The photo on the right is the opposite -- the flowers are now out of focus or blurred and the photoframe is in focus. I did take these photos without flash so they're not even as crisp as they should be but you get the idea I was going for.

That's so cool... :)

The next photo was strictly just me taking a photo, on "auto", with flash, just a normal photo. Nothing fancy. But I think it came out really cool. Like I had a spotlight on the flowers or something. But I didn't. It's really amazing to me how dramatic everything is with this camera vs. my other one...

Okay, one more photo. This is the very first photo I took with my camera after I got it put together. Before I knew anything at all about it. While I was waiting for the camera to come, I wondered what my very first photo would be with it. It shouldn't surprise me that I would take a photo of my most favorite person in all the world...

Aw. :)

16 mos

2009-12-28T17:03:00.000-08:00

I bet you thought my next post was going to be on Christmas, right? Wrong! That's how behind I am. <sigh> No, I DO have Christmas photos to post, but I wanted to just post a couple I took of little miss Cora Beth at Thanksgiving this year.

I'm noticing a pattern.

Unless I say what holiday it is, you'd never know because the majority of photos I take now are of Cora Beth. Just her. Doing whatever she's doing. But I just can't help it. She's so darn cute. And especially NOW...

Do you not LOVE her little glasses?? She got those 3 days before Thanksgiving so they were REALLY new when we got there. But she never bothers them. Never. It's like they're not even there. She has them in an effor to try to correct a bit of a lazy eye. Hopefully that will do the trick. Either way, she's just as CUTE as she can be!

little E

2009-11-29T13:20:00.001-08:00

Wow. It's been a.while. since I posted. Sorry about that. I may not have had much blog-worthy news to post about or maybe I've just not gotten around to posting. Whatever the case, I do NOW have something very blog-worthy to post...little miss Emily!

You remember me mentioning my friend, Elizabeth, in past posts, I'm sure. She and her husband, Matthew, had a sweet little baby girl about 4 or so months ago. I had met Emily briefly just a few days after she was born but Jeff had not had the privilege of meeting her until they got to come and visit for a little while recently. Of course, the camera flash was popping just as fast as I could get it to go. :) I got some cute ones, I think:

Emily is such a cutie and already has quite a little personality! She loves to talk and make noise, and she's always looking around to take everything in. She has very expressive eyes/eyebrows and we enjoyed just watching her. Of course, it was wonderful to see Matthew & Elizabeth, too. They are such dear friends to us and our time with them is always limited so we take what we can get when we can get it. :) Thanks for visiting, guys! We'll come to see you next! :)

cora beth's first time at the beach: day 2

2009-09-16T18:47:00.000-07:00

Here are photos from our 2nd day at the beach during my brother & his family's visit here last week. This time we got out to the beach about 3:30pm so we had a little more sunlight. Again, Cora Beth did great and was such a cutie! Her little bathing suit was just *too much* with her little hat! Daniel & Brandi brought her little swimming pool out and we blew it up and filled it with water for her so she play in it. She loved just getting in and getting out, getting in and getting out, getting all kinds of sand in it. It was so funny to watch her...

I had a hard time narrowing down which photos to post of her here -- some of these just came out so good...

cora beth's first time at the beach: day 1

2009-09-14T15:19:00.000-07:00

As promised, I have photos to share with you of Cora Beth's first *real* time on the beach. Back at the beginning of May, my brother and his family came for a visit and they took Cora Beth out to the beach but they couldn't stay long at all -- it was just too cold. And windy. Very windy.

So this time, we had a little bit warmer weather (after we got the sun to come out) and had better success on the beach. And Cora Beth loved it! She liked the water -- as long as it wasn't rushing at her full force. :) And she didn't seem to mind the sand at all, getting it in just about every *crevice* she had, ahem. :)

We were able to go down to the beach a couple of times during their visit so these photos are from the first day. We got to the beach just after 4:30pm on Tuesday and it was virtually deserted. I think I got some pretty cute shots of Cora Beth and the fam...

It's a little hard to see but these are her sweet little footprints, making a trail to the water...

Already a true beach beauty...

As you can see, I had a hard time just choosing *a few* to share with you. She's just so darn cute! :) Check back soon for more beaach photos of the little munchkin...her 2nd visit to the beach!

cora beth on the riverWALK

2009-09-13T12:58:00.001-07:00

We had my brother and his family here to visit for a few days this past week and had a great time with them. Cora Beth is 13 1/2 months now and she is walking, peeps! And she is so cute doing it. :) We went walking around in downtown Wilmington one day (while we waited for the sun to appear so we could go to the beach) and I got some pretty cute photos of Cora Beth on the riverwalk (for those who don't know, this is a really nice walkway that was recently built along the Cape Fear River).

Look at her! She looks like such a big girl walking...

She had the best time just sitting there on that slight curb, getting up and sitting down, getting back up and sitting back down, looking over the side at the grass and back over on the deck. She's so entertaining to watch. :)

I'm still editing photos of their visit, specifically Cora Beth's first real time on the beach so those are soon to be posted here. Check back soon!

a few more beach photos...

2009-09-11T15:03:00.001-07:00

I just had to share a few more photos from my photoshoot on the beach a couple weeks ago. I've finished editing all of them and some of them came out really cool. Of course, I tried using some textures and color techniques....

I love how this came out! I probably shouldn't tell my secrets...this started out as a family photo of Catherine, Grace AND Rick, but I decided to see what I could do with just mom & daughter...

Sweet Gracers...

This is probably my favorite of the ones I edited. It happened quite by accident but I did take note of how I came to this result so that I can experiment with this technique in the future. It's pretty cool, huh?

life's a beach!

2009-09-03T08:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I've got photos to share with you from my 2nd *professional* photoshoot -- this time we were on the beach! I took photos for the Fitzgeralds and their extended family this past Sunday at Topsail Beach. The shoot was at 2pm and I had 9 people to photograph, including an energetic little 2 year old! I don't have to tell you what a challenge that was, but for the most part everyone cooperated and I got some pretty good shots. Despite all the other challenges that go along with any photoshoot on the beach (sun, wind, CROWDS), some of them turned out nicely. Thought I would share a few of my faves with you:

class of 2010...

2009-08-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

Alright, so most of you know how much I like taking photos, right? Well, this past Wednesday I had the awesome opportunity to make some money with it and take some photos of one lovely Jessica Warren. She's a senior in high school this year and her family asked me if I would take her senior pictures for them. Of course I said yes but I've been a little nervous about it. I mean, senior pictures is a BIG DEAL...

Well, we had lots of fun during the photoshoot and I seem to have gotten pretty lucky with some of my shots. :) Of course, Jess is a beautiful girl so I didn't have to work too hard to get some great shots of her. Take a look for yourself:

happy 1st birthday, cora beth!

2009-07-29T16:57:00.001-07:00

Lord, help me, but my niece has turned a year old already! How has this happened? I don't understand where that whole year went...but sure enough, it did. And the sweet baby girl that turned our family's world upside down & inside out with love a year ago has reached her first birthday. And we partied in style to celebrate!

It was a ladybug theme -- perfect! -- and my sister-in-law had really cute decorations and an awesome ladybug cake to match! They held the party ON Cora Beth's birthday, July 25, this past Saturday, at their home in Thomasville. We had a great turnout of family & friends to help celebrate her special birthday. She did wonderfully, but then...I knew she would. She's such a good girl. :)

Enjoy some of the photos I took during the celebration:

CAKE FIRST!

THEN GIFTS!

[this kid loves her some books!]

[this cracked me up because this is OUR gift to her!]

[you know I had to throw some artistic reflection in here...]

[...and me and the sweet birthday girl!]

For more photos from her party, click here.

cora beth's birthday invitation

2009-07-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the length of time between now and the last post. Haven't had much to post on this blog lately. Until now. :)

I have been working on a very special project -- it's actually been done for a couple weeks now, but I'm just now getting a chance to post it here.

My niece, Cora Beth, is turning a year old a week from today. Can you BELIEVE that?? She has been a joy to all of us since the day she made her appearance almost a year ago. I personally haven't seen her in about 2 1/2 months (I'm not even going to speak of the withdrawals I'm having...) but I know she has changed so much just in that brief time. I can't WAIT to see her next weekend at her 1st birthday party!

Daniel & Brandi asked me to design her birthday invitation and, of course, I was so very proud and honored to do that for them, for Cora Beth. Brandi decided on a ladybug theme and actually found the cute wording that I put on the invitation. I had a really great time designing it and I'm very pleased with how it turned out:

best 11 years of my life...

2009-06-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

I was a little busy over the weekend so I'm just now getting a chance to type this special post -- Jeff and I celebrated 11 years of marriage on Saturday, June 20, and it has been THE BEST 11 years of my life!

Jeff is so good for me and to me...God truly created him just for me. I love him with all that I can hold in my heart; he is my very best friend.

Happy Anniversary, babe! I look forward to sooo many more wonderful years with you!

[photo taken by Julie S. Mixon, July 2008, Surf City, NC]

rivenbark wedding

2009-06-09T17:03:00.000-07:00

Jeff and I went to a wedding last Saturday...the last one we'll go to for awhile, I guess. All the rest of our peeps are married. A couple in our Sunday School class at church, Adam & Whitney, got married and it was just lovely. We haven't known them that long but we've come to love them just the same. We're so glad we were able to be a part of their special day.

It was during their reception at the fabulous Hilton Riverside in downtown Wilmington that I learned something very important about my camera. Jeff actually mentioned it , and while it was something I'd read about in the manual when I first got my camera, I had forgotten about it. I have a button on the top of my camera that looks like a little flower and you want to use that feature when taking close-up shots of anything. Here's what happens when you take advantage of your camera's features:

Isn't that a really cool shot? It was really dim inside the reception hall so most of the photos I took didn't turn out that great because of that. But this one turned out pretty cool because I could use flash and that cool "flower feature". I love how the tag on the top of the box is really clear & crisp and everything from there out just sort of blurs out. Thanks, babe, for that.

Thought I'd throw this photo in, too, of me and Whitney. I did a little bit of color editing to this one. I played around with filters and blending options, too, but just didn't get any kind of effect that I really liked. We don't really need any editing, do we? :)

a walk down memory lane...

2009-06-04T15:23:00.000-07:00

A year ago this week, we were having the time of our lives somewhere in the Western Caribbean on our very first cruise...let's take a walk down memory lane, shall we?

[video done in Sony Vegas Movie Studio]

shower project x 2

2009-05-10T15:31:00.000-07:00

Alright, as promised, I'm posting the invitation I designed for Elizabeth's shower this coming Saturday. The top of the invitation has an image that belongs to Elizabeth -- it's a paper project that one of her fellow bloggers created for her after Elizabeth sent her some homeade papers. Elizabeth is planning to use it in the baby's nursery somehow so I thought it would be special to use it on the invitation in some way, too.

Here's how it came out:

Save the date!

2009-05-06T12:43:00.000-07:00

It is absolutely ridiculous how long I've been meaning to post this project. Way back at the beginning of March, I decided I wanted to throw my friend, Elizabeth, a baby shower and we set the date for a week from Saturday (May 16). So yes, as you can see the shower is nearly upon us...I should've written this post long ago.

Since we set the date out that far, I wanted to send a "save-the-date" postcard to increase our chances of having a good turnout for the shower. Elizabeth will be coming from Wake Forest, a good 2 to 2.5 hour trip, for the shower and I really want it to be worth her while to come. Also, I know how MY calendar fills up as we get into spring & summer and I wanted folks to have a heads up about the shower.

Elizabeth's fave color is red (and she does wonders with it!) and so she's incorporating that into the baby's nursery as well. From what I've seen on her blog, it is going to be a fantastic space, full of energy and fun. I can't wait to see the nursery finished!

I decided to go with that for the shower as well, and try to incorporate some of the elements she's going to use in the nursery. Here's what I came up with:

I have since mailed out the invitations so I'll be posting that in the next day or two (hold me to that, would ya? :) and you'll be able to see how I coordinated that. Had such fun designing both! I've been picking up items here and there this week for the shower -- I'm getting really excited!

shower project

2009-04-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

Well, this is pretty long overdue only because I've been wanting to post this for awhile and only just now found the time to do so. My dear friend, Amy, recently had her first baby, a precious little boy -- Kyle. And he looks like a Kyle, too. :) He also looks JUST LIKE his daddy. We took a meal to Joey & Amy last night and I got to hold the little booger...oh.my. He was just the sweetest thing, and even woke long enough for Jeff and I to see his cute little eyes. :)

So I say all this to say that we threw Amy a shower back at the end of March. We tried to do it mid-March, but little Kyle decided he would be a little difficult and cause some trouble for Momma...we had to reschedule to a later date; I'm just glad we got it in! He was born 9 days later! Anyway, I designed the invitation for her shower along with some other things for some games we played, the gift log and her thank you notes. Had a GREAT time designing & coordinating everything! Thought I'd share a few of those projects here:

You didn't think I'd end this post without a photo of "the little booger", did you? Cute as can be.

wanna get away?

2009-04-12T14:16:00.000-07:00

Back in November, our sweet Sunday School class threw us a "surprise!-you've-been-teaching-for-5+years!" party. It was completely unexpected and so very, very thoughtful of them. They had a photo slideshow going the entire time with past class events and kind words of encouragement that some of them had written. Everyone brought all kinds of good food and we just had a sweet time of fellowship & good fun. AND THEN, as if the party wasn't enough, they presented us with a night's stay in a bed & breakfast downtown and 2 movie tickets! We were speechless.

We still have the movie tickets to use, but we used the bed & breakfast gift certificate this past Thursday night and had a great time. We arrived at the Front Street Inn around 7pm and got settled into our room, the Pearl Buck suite. We then walked the block down to The Little Dipper for dinner reservations at 7:45pm. I have been to the Little Dipper once for a "ladies night out" type thing but Jeff had never been. What I experienced at the "ladies night out" was nothing like what we had that night! So it was kind of a new experience for both us. It was fantastic!

Around 9:30pm we headed back up to the FSI to use the nice jacuzzi hot tub in our room! It was so relaxing; we had bubble bath and just really enjoyed spending time together, talking over things going on in our lives.

The next morning they served a complimentary breakfast that included everything from bagels, to cereal, fruit, muffins, banana bread, 2 kinds of quiche/casserole...oh, it was all soo good! The coffee was the FSI's own special blend, too. Very tasty. We checked out around 10:30am and emerged to a beautiful, sunshine-y Good Friday.

I've included some of the photos from the "getaway" below -- a thousand thank yous to our fantastic Sunday School class, our "family"...we are so blessed to have each one of you in our lives!

[first course was cheese fondue -- we chose Baja Cheddar and got misc veggies & tortilla chips to dip in...next course was a salad but I didn't include a photo of those (a salad's a salad, right? but their ranch is fantastic!)]

[next course after the salads was our entree -- we chose Surf & Turf which included filet mignon, shrimp, lobster & cheese-filled ravioli and misc veggies with 4 dipping sauces (we chose marinara, creamy dill (my fave!), drawn butter & honey dijon)]

[this is the pot our entree cooked in -- steaming vegetable broth with rosemary; we got a "cheat sheet" of sorts that told us how long to leave our food in for]

[and then of course, there was DESSERT -- we chose milk chocolate & peanut butter fondue and got the following to dip in it...]

[H-E-A-V-E-N]

new tricks...

2009-04-07T08:49:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago, I took a trip to Lexington with my friend, Elizabeth, our end result being to go to Charlotte and walk through the new IKEA store there. We did that and had a great time, as I knew we would.

But you didn't think I'd come all that way and not see my niece, did you? No, I didn't think so. She was just over 8 months old then and learning new tricks! Wanna see?

The last time I saw her was at 6 1/2 months (you saw those photos in my last post) and she has changed so much just in that short time! Much more hair, standing/leaning against the couch by herself, and this! I don't know how but she's gotten cuter! I could just eat her up...

I'll leave you with this photo -- my fave at the moment. I love it when I capture exactly what I was going for! Her eyes actually came out red in the photo but I learned a really cool, really easy trick to take out redeye in Photoshop. Observe...

phancy photoshop...

2009-03-21T11:54:00.000-07:00

I decided I wanted to experiment today with some of the photos I took on my trip to Lexington back in mid-February. I found some different images and incorporated some of my photos with them to produce some pretty cool-looking things (if I do say so myself!). These are some of my favorite photos of Cora Beth at 6 1/2 months old...

grad announcement, a.k.a. "recent opportunity"

2009-03-06T10:16:00.000-08:00

Okay, so in my last post I talked about a "recent opportunity" that got me thinking about starting a side business to utilize some of the skills & talents I have in Adobe Photoshop. I decided to take the plunge and see where it goes, and I used this project as a "springboard" of sorts to launch it.

One of our pastors has a son that's graduating from high school this summer and his wife came to me toward the end of last year (coincidentally around the same time that a certain well-known company that sells senior class/graduation stuff visited the school) and asked if I thought I could design a graduation announcement for them. I told her I'd be glad to see what I could come up with. When she told me what this certain well-known company was charging, I told her I definitely could save her a little bit of money. :)

She had a couple of brochures/pamphlets from this well-known company so I took those as a guideline -- hey, it's been awhile since I graduated, okay? I was able to find a picture of the mascot of the high school online and this is what I came up with:

This, of course, doesn't look exactly like it -- it was a top-fold card, 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, with the design on the front cover, and the wording on the inside as you lifted the flap up. But you get the idea. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. So that was my first project operating under the name of Lindsay Wenzel Designs and I hope there will be many more projects to come!

new endeavor...

2009-03-03T15:10:00.000-08:00

So I've been told I have some skills in Adobe Photoshop...and the fact is, I like to play around in it. I like to see what sorts of new things I can design & create. I get excited when I learn something new or figure out a way to get the desired result all on my own (frankly, when I try to use the "help" feature in any program, it usually frustrates me more than helps me).

I've been kicking around an idea for awhile and decided to use a recent opportunity as a springboard for it...I've decided to embark on a new endeavor -- not new as in "I've never done this before", but new as in "this is different than the last time".

I'm starting a little side business in print & digital designs.

It's called Lindsay Wenzel Designs and it will include anything from print products/projects such as shower invitations, birthday invitations, baby announcements, graduation announcements, Christmas cards, etc. to digital projects such as blog/website design.

The "recent opportunity" I mentioned before is something I did for a pastor & his wife and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. My next post will be about that project.

I'm not sure where this business will go, if it will go anywhere, but as much as I enjoy working on these kinds of projects, I think I would enjoy sharing my skills & talents to help others "celebrate life's most important moments"!

rare date night...

2009-02-19T18:21:00.000-08:00

Jeff and I celebrated Valentine's Day a little later this year since we were apart on the actual day (I mentioned that in my last post). We normally don't really do much of anything to celebrate it however this year, Jeff sent this beautiful pot of tulips to me! Aren't they lovely?

I told Jeff that all I wanted was for us to go to the movies to celebrate Valentine's this year so we decided that Wednesday (yesterday) would be a good night to celebrate. I checked the movie schedule and the movie we wanted to see, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, was showing at 7:20pm. Jeff told me Tuesday night that dinner was part of my gift and that he was going to take me to the Bento Box! Oh.my.word. We've only been one other time but it was fantastic! Now, before that visit, I was not a big fan of sushi. Jeff was, but I wasn't real wild about it. The owner of the restaurant, Chef Lee Grossman, completely changed that! He took such good care of us that night and I thoroughly enjoyed myself (and the sushi!). We sat at the bar and watched Lee and the other guys create these beautiful, edible works of art.

So when Jeff said he wanted to take me there, I was stoked! I made a reservation for us at their new place (our first visit was on the last night they were to be operating out of their former location), at the bar again and we had just as good a time this time as we did the first time. Lee took care of us again and we tried some new things. But we loved everything! We had a Rainbow KC Roll, a bowl of calamari, a Sesame Shrimp Roll (something we had the first time) and a special they had going for Valentine's, a Lobster Roll. And for dessert? Oh, yes. We HAD to have dessert! :) We had belgian chocolate fondue with fresh fruit, homeade pound cake and macadamia nut cookies! Yum.ie. :)

I took a few photos of some of our dishes last night --

After dinner, we hopped across the street and went to the movie. It was so, so funny! Us and one other couple shared the whole theater -- it was really cool!

The night was so great. It was wonderful to hang out with my best friend -- eat good food, watch a good show. I love you, babe! Happy (belated) Valentine's Day!

happy (early) valentime's day...

2009-02-12T14:51:00.000-08:00

Bless my husband's sweet heart, this is what he calls Valentine's -- Valentime's. And I just think it's the cutest thing...

We are apart this year on Valentine's (which is Saturday for those who've let it "slip up" on them!) but it's really not a big deal. We don't typically make a big fuss over that day in particular except to maybe give a card. However, this year we have some movie tickets that have slowly been burning a hole in my wallet for a while now. I've asked Jeff to take me to the movies some night to "celebrate Valentine's". If he takes me out to eat, bonus points for him! But I'd be fine if we just got into the movie free (which we will because of the tickets) and he bought me "movie food"! :) Do you not LOVE movie food? I didn't ask if you loved the price...only the food, the nature of it all. Junk. Love it. :)

I think he's attached strings somehow to this "date" by saying we have to see Mall Cop with Kevin James. That's fine with me. If he'll take me, we can watch whatever (within reason :). Besides, Kevin James reminds me an awful lot of my own husband so we're good.

I thought I would share this rather romantic video I put together last summer in honor of Valentine's day. We had these photos made in celebration of our 10 year wedding anniversary with Julie Mixon, photographer extraordinaire! She took them at our very own beach, Topsail Island/Surf City, and they turned out fantastically! This video showcases quite a few of them -- I used a program called Sony Vegas Movie Studio to put it together and had a lot of fun with it.

Enjoy!

special "birth"day...

2009-01-25T04:23:00.000-08:00

My niece, Cora Beth, is 6 mos old today. I can't believe it. Time has flown by since she was born last summer. She's growing up so fast -- cutting teeth, eating sweet potatoes (which I hear she LOVES), making noises & "singing", pulling herself up on pieces of furniture. She's got so much personality now and I can only imagine how it's going to change as she grows into a precious little girl and then into a sweet young lady and then into...

I was fortunate enough to be at the hospital when she was born and it was something I'll never forget. I was so proud of Daniel & Brandi and in awe that they were beginning this journey of being parents to a sweet child.

Soon after she was born, I put together this video of photos/video taken right after she was born and in the few days following her birth. I thought this special day would be a good time to share this project with you...

[video done in Sony Vegas Movie Studio]

rotating off...

2009-01-14T10:15:00.000-08:00

Happy new year! I've been trying to get back into the swing of things -- work, reconnecting with friends, etc. We've been pretty busy.

I wanted to share a small project I did for my husband a couple months ago. He's been a deacon at our church for the last 2 years -- this is his last year before he rotates off. Each year, he's taken the time to send a personal note to each of his families along with a magnet for them to put on their refrigerator. He asks each one to let the magnet serve as a reminder to pray for him and the church staff. This year, he asked me to design the magnet and this is what I came up with (of course, I've blurred out his personal contact information per his request, but you get the idea):

another year gone by...

2008-12-31T14:55:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe we're here again -- the last day of the year. This year seemed to fly by for me...in fact, each year gets faster & faster somehow.

Most of you know that I scrapbook, but I don't typically do a chronological scrapbook for the year because sometimes there's not a lot going on in certain months. Other months may be chock-full of stuff. I may not have a scrapbook for the year, but I do have my calendar. I thought I'd just give a run-down of how this year went for us:

Jan 18-20: my Mom & Dad came to visit for the weekend
Feb 14: found out my brother & his wife were going to have a little GIRL
Feb 15-17: in IL to celebrate Jeff's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary
Mar 31-Apr 3: my good friend, Elizabeth, stayed with us for a Wilmington conference
Apr 15: I celebrated my LAST tax deadline in the accounting industry :)
May 2-4: in Lexington for my sister-in-law's baby shower
Jun 1-7: we went on our FIRST CRUISE to the Western Caribbean!
Jun 20: we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary
Jul 25: MY NIECE, CORA BETH MCAFEE, WAS BORN!
Aug 4: I started my new job as the Worship Assistant at Scotts Hill Baptist Church
Aug 19: we celebrated 1 year in our new house
Aug 29-31: in Lexington for a "family" reunion with old friends
Sep 19-20: we took a trip to Wake Forest to visit with friends
Sep 27: Jeff and our friends threw me a surprise party for my 30th birthday!
Sep 28: I turned 30
Oct 16-18: in Ocean Isle Beach for my 2nd annual Scrapbook Retreat
Oct 24-26: in Lexington with my friend, Cheryl, to visit my parents
Oct 31: Jeff turned 33
Nov 7-9: my Mom & Dad came to visit for the weekend
Nov 27-30: in Lexington to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family
Nov 30: Cora Beth's dedication
Dec 5-7: my Mom & Dad and brother & his wife with Cora Beth came to visit
Dec 24-26: in Lexington to celebrate Christmas with my family
Dec 27-30: Jeff's brother, his wife and 2 kids came to visit

Yeah, so it was kind of a big one for us...celebrating 10 years of wedded bliss (with a cruise), the milestone of reaching 30 years old, the first grandchild in our family born...

God blessed us with so much this past year and we're looking forward to the great things He will do in the new year. 2009. Wow. May you all be blessed this coming year.

Just wanted to leave you with a couple of shots I got of Cora Beth celebrating her first Christmas. I used a texture overlay on each one...kinda cool, I thought.

Merry Christmas to all...

2008-12-23T11:38:00.000-08:00

I pray you all have a very blessed Christmas with your friends and families -- from our home to yours...

the "eyes" have it...

2008-12-14T16:40:00.000-08:00

As I stated on my other blog, I have been remiss in blogging lately, being that I've been a bit busy with things of the Christmas persuasion...

But I thought I better get this posted before Christmas gets here because I know I'll have TONS of photos from that weekend. My mom & dad, my brother & sister-in-law and the baby all came to visit last weekend. It was so nice to have them all here -- they came to see one of the 6 Christmas program performances that our church held. And it was Cora Beth's first trip to the coast! Of course, it was too chilly to take her out to the beach but that will come soon enough. I did get lots of photos of her inside, of course. She's changing so fast and getting such a personality now. She smiles lots and lots now. We had so much fun with her here and I was lucky enough to catch this shot of her -- my fave of all time (so far :). Perfection, if I do say so myself!

growing so fast...

2008-12-03T18:26:00.001-08:00

I've not had much time to myself this week since our church's Christmas program is opening tomorrow night and will run through the weekend (6 performances). I've been working some long hours, but it's easing up some now since we're almost there. If it ain't done now, it ain't gettin' done! :)

Jeff and I drove to Lexington last weekend to be with my family for Thanksgiving. We had a great time with everyone but I was pretty disappointed with the fall foliage both at my parents' house and in Seagrove. Thanksgiving came so late this year that all the leaves had pretty much fallen from the trees. I don't know...I had hoped for some good photography time, at least in terms of God's creation, but that didn't really happen.

I did get some really good ones of my sweet niece, Cora Beth, though...here are a few of my faves:

a whole new world...

2008-11-22T09:38:00.001-08:00

I have discovered a whole new world of things I had no idea about...digital scrapbooking. Now, I've known for awhile about digital scrapbooking -- that it existed. But I had no idea that there were so many websites out there that offer "freebies" -- elements you can download, free of charge, that allow you to create a scrapbook page/layout using Photoshop or some other comparable software program just like if you sat down at your craft table with a blank album. You would take your items/elements that you bought at AC Moore or Michael's and lay them out on your blank page in your album and create your scrapbook page/layout. It's the same thing with these "freebies". The possibilities are ENDLESS!

It is, in fact, how I created this particular blog -- the header at the top, the circular pattern background with the torn edges...it was all created with freebies that I found online. And since my friend, Holly, had a birthday this past Wednesday and she already has her gift, I can (finally) show you this little project I've had in the works for a while:

This is Holly's brand new baby girl, Caitlin Grayce Byrd, and I thought it would be special to try my hand at digital scrapbooking, to a certain extent, with this project. The actual photo itself was one I took at the hospital right after Caitlin was born and I edited it in Photoshop using a technique I recently learned (the black & white photo with just a bit of color -- love that effect!). I was going to just give Holly the photo framed, but then when I discovered this whole new world of digital elements, I thought I'd do something a little more for her. Happy birthday, Holly!

keeping with the theme...

2008-11-18T17:24:00.001-08:00

In keeping with the fall theme from my last post, these are some photos I took at my mom's parent's house (my Gram & Buppa :) when we last visited. They live in a secluded area in a quaint little home that's perfect for them. They live on a fair amount of property that includes some old barns and structures. I thought they would make for some pretty cool photos...

In the first two, you can see that I did some editing with some textures I found online -- that's something I've been experimenting with recently. I love how it will change the look and even the era of a photo instantly. See for yourself...

This last photo turned out so cool, I didn't think I needed to do anything to it:

a tribute to fall...

2008-11-14T13:35:00.000-08:00

Since fall is my all-time favorite season (and we're less than 2 weeks from Thanksgiving!), I thought I'd share a few photos I took last Thanksgiving (2007) at my parents' home in Lexington, NC.

These photos were not edited in any way -- I find that God's creation usually doesn't need to be...

My poor parents...they have a tree in their backyard that is g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s in the fall until it drops its leaves. And guess who gets to rake them all up??

I was actually really trying for a new skill with my camera here. I was trying to focus on one particular leaf while blurring everything else in the background. Got it! I was so excited, considering the wind that day... :)

The photo on the left was taken in my parents backyard; the photo on the right was taken on our yearly "day-after-Thanksgiving" trip to Seagrove, NC.

a place for projects...

2008-11-11T18:08:00.000-08:00

I've been blogging for over a year now with the blog I created about the building and purchase of our first home. It has been a lot of fun! Addicting, really, and for awhile now, I've been looking for other things to blog about. Well, I'm not boring, people! :) I do have LOTS of things I could blog about, but I've finally decided that I need a place for my "projects" -- photography projects, to be more specific.

I have always been intrigued with photography and all the cool things you can do with it (I think if I went back to start my college career/adult life over again, I might seriously consider photography as an option). My dad was/is really into photography and his dad was, as well. That must be where I got my love of all things photography.

As I get older and keep taking photos, I learn more and more about photography and what you can do with those photos AFTER you've taken them, in software programs like Adobe Photoshop or Sony Vegas Movie Studio. Recently, I've been working with both of these programs, learning so much and really developing some cool skills. But what do you do with that cool stuff? Well, up to now, I haven't done anything with most of what I'm learning.

But that changes today. That's why I started this blog -- to showcase some of my "stuff". I don't know who will be interested, if anyone, but I thought it would be a good place to "store" some of projects anyway. And when I say projects, I mean stuff like this:

Cora Beth McAfee, Aug 2008