Presto Cuisine

Since we have that deal with Presto Cuisine because we did a virtual tour and took pictures for them, we will hopefully be taking pictures of a couple entrees from their upcoming menu on a regular basis. We still have lots to learn about food photography but it's fun! It's harder styling the food than I thought. There are actually several food stylists that style the food VERY specifically in all the shots you see in magazines. We plan on researching it some more and getting more props for each shot. Here are 5 that we took and edited for their October brochure:

Chicken Parmesan Wrap


Jamaican Jerk Pork Roast


Fish (unsure what kind it was)


Salmon Patties


Pork Roast again


We tried the pork and the chicken parmesan and both were EXCELLENT!!

Another Orchard

Guess it's that season! This past weekend was a pretty eventful one once again. Friday I had a Weight Watchers staff meeting and Saturday we spent almost the entire day cleaning out the office at work. We're not done yet because it's a big project but I'm excited about the progress we've made so far. I think it will make our days flow better being in an office that's clean and organized. Saturday night we went to Eric and Leah's and played some games (although not many this time) and had dinner and apple pie...yummy, I love fall!

Sunday afternoon after church (a very good sermon too) I went to another orchard. This orchard (Northwoods Orchard) is where Eric actually works and both Eric and Leah know the owners from their hometown. All the women from our small group from church went and it was so great getting to know Lori and Lisa better. They and their husbands are new to our group this year and I really think we all mesh well together and our discussion last night at bible study never had a dull moment. At the orchard we (well actually everyone but me because I was taking pictures) picked apples, ate apples, fed animals and went on a "hay"ride. I'm looking forward to more get togethers with these ladies :) Here are some pics I played around in Photoshop with. Will I ever post pictures that haven't been Photoshopped...probably not :) By the way, if you ever want to see a picture bigger, you can always click on it...just FYI.

Lori and Mikayla feeding goats










The "hay" ride




A little overexposed but she was posing so nicely :)

Apple Orchard

I'm obviously trying to catch up with everything that's why my blog has been updated so much. That and I just have lots going on lately. Last weekend was spent in the cities. I went up with my parents (Scott was sick) and we stayed at The Depot with my sister and her family. The Depot (a hotel) has an awesome water park...the kids really enjoyed themselves.

The following day we went to see the bridge collapse site. Wow it really makes it more real when you actually see it. It's so surreal to see just a few guys working on it and you realize how long this will take them to fix. Tragic.

After that we went to Afton Apple Orchard in Hastings, MN. I've never been to Hastings...it's such a cute little river town. The orchard was great too. There was a hayride, petting zoo, cafe and lots of apples to pick. Scott came up because he was feeling better. We went on a corn maze too which was really fun.

The Bridge

Hastings

Daniel and Zach

At the Orchard

Abby and Laura

Scott's wheel shot

The corn maze

Happy Birthday Darren!

It's my brother-in-law's birthday today. Darren is Laura's husband, and father to 4 amazing kids. Scott and I both have really enjoyed getting to know Darren over the last few years and he is just like the other guys in the family...into technology and computers and all that stuff that they like to go on and on about. He hit a milestone b-day last year and boy did his office have fun with that one. Hope it was a little less intense this year!

Here's the most recent picture I have of him. He's one of many in our family who's usually behind the camera so I don't have many pics of him. This is one of Ryan's first tries at ice skating.

Happy Birthday!

Thursday Evenings

Thursday evening is the night that I work at my other very very part time job but a job that I absolutely love. I work as a receptionist for Weight Watchers. There is a local meeting here in Stewartville that takes place at a church and Sandy (the leader) and I work there every Thursday. She has other meetings too but I like to think that this is her favorite one :)

For those of you that don't know, I lost 45 pounds following the Weight Watchers program. After reaching my goal and then attaining Lifetime membership, I considered working for WW as long as it could be part time. Well it eventually worked out and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect situation. A meeting in my own home town just one night a week. Working for WW is not only very rewarding because of all the people you get to inspire and motivate but we also have to weigh-in once a month so it's a great way to maintain my loss. I love working with Sandy too! She's a GREAT leader whom I'm learning so much from and we just work so well together (our cycles are even the same...sorry guys...we were joking about that tonight!)

Sandy is going to be leaving this meeting to spend more time with her family. We've been talking about this for about a week now trying to figure out a way to keep this meeting going. It's not easy finding leaders or receptionists especially for a meeting not in Rochester. After much thought I am considering leading this group. It's a great opportunity because I know them already and they're comfortable with me. I'm meeting with the Territory Manager tomorrow before our employee meeting and we're going to discuss options. The members were very concerned tonight about this meeting. They don't want to see it close and we definitely don't either! I'm very sad that Sandy is leaving but am so grateful she's given me her blessing and encouragement to move forward with this and try leadership. I know Sandy will always be with WW and I don't imagine I will ever leave either so we'll always be friends (hopefully she'll stop by the meeting every now and then too).

Photoshop World 2007 - Vegas

Finally getting the Vegas pics up. The beginning of fall is always a busy time for me and probably everyone else on the planet. I've been busy with all the events that happen during the "school year" and work is picking up too so it's a little crazy...and it's not slowing down anytime soon either. Either way I don't really feel rushed. Last year I remember feeling much more stressed about things but this year I'm not. Maybe it's because I'm more used to things now, or maybe my prayers to appreciate every day and take it slowly are being answered. Life is good :)
We are so blessed to be a part of a job that flies us out to Vegas each year for Photoshop World. It's a huge conference where lots of Photoshop geeks gather and learn little tricks and tips in Photoshop to become even geekier :) We're not ashamed to admit we are definitely geeks too, especially in this field. We have been working in Photoshop for a few years now and each year we learn more and more.

Photoshop (photo editing software) is a program that will never satisfy if you don't let it. You need to be ok with not knowing everything about it and you also need to be reminded that there are about 20,000 different ways to get the same effect. They could teach a whole class on just keyboard shortcuts in the program! I guess in the long run our goal is to find the fastest way to get that effect. People who aren't familiar with Photoshop have no idea how complex it is and how much it can do. I think you find people are either completely blown away by what you can do or really aren't that impressed (because let's face it, our expectations are much higher nowadays...too high I think). Scott and I were just talking today and agreed that as long as you think it's a good photo and it's worth framing...mission accomplished. We usually take out trash cans and things that are distracting so if you can't tell, that's a good thing. Maybe I'm setting the bar a little low for myself. I still have a lot to learn and believe me when I tell you that that bar is much higher than it was this time last year. I don't want to produce low quality images that just look cool. I want to produce the whole process professionally and know what I'm doing and talking about. That doesn't just happen overnight. Luckily, I have a husband who's just as enthusiastic about this as I am (if not more).

The conference is a few days long and it's basically going from one workshop to the next. The great thing is, they give you a HUGE book with all the notes from each class in it so you don't have to go crazy writing notes plus if you miss a class it's all in there. We learned a lot...we even took a class led by a photographer for Kraft Foods who taught us about shooting food. The conference was wonderful and we're excited for the years to come.

In between classes we pretty much just walked around and enjoyed good food and all the hotels. Vegas is such a different place. It's not a place I would go on vacation for sure. It's fun to see the hotels because they are AMAZING! And the shows would be awesome too but they're wicked expensive. There's just a little too much drinking, gambling and sex for my taste. Call me a prude but I don't know...when the side bars open at 10am and there are drinks that are about 4ft tall...I think that's a little excessive. But we don't need to partake and still can enjoy ourselves. It definitely was HOT though...wow. It was about 100 degrees every day. I appreciate Minnesota so much :) Saturday night we tried walking to The Palms hotel because the MTV VMA's were the following night so we thought maybe we would see some stars. Well The Palms is pretty far away from the strip so that didn't happen. The only celebrity we saw was Louis Anderson.

So that's my long description of our trip. Enjoy!

We took lots of pics...


The Excalibur...this is where we stayed!


The Luxor


The Luxor inside


Criss Angel's motorcycle


Ballys


Bellagio


Caesar's Palace


Paris


The Venetian...probably my favorite inside


Star Trek Experience in The Hilton


A "cling-on"? came to our table


The food even looked futuristic


Yup, 10 shots! Probably the biggest drink I've ever seen...I don't know how these people don't pass out.


The Flamingo...there's an outdoor habitat with real flamingos...worth seeing!

Swing swing...I like to swing

That is a song that my parents sing to Abby and Ryan whenever they're, well, swinging (only of course they sing their name instead of "I"). It's pretty cheesy but hey, they LOVE it! They instantly smile when they hear it. As corny as it is I will probably sing it or something close to it to my kids too. Ok I guess I've sung it to Abby and Ryan already.

Anyway, the community that we live in just recently put in a swingset and playground about 2 houses down from us. Today I went on a walk and decided I would swing at the end. Well when I got towards the end of my walk I was getting more and more excited to swing (it doesn't take much). It actually made me walk faster! I realized that swinging after a workout is so perfect. It's relaxing and it cools you down. I put on "She's Like the Wind" from Dirty Dancing on my MP3 player and swang. It felt so good. I don't think there is a person out there (adults and children) who doesn't like to swing. Of course I like to listen to slow music when I'm winding down. I picture myself in a movie and someone is watching the monumental point in the movie or watching me deep in thought while listening to the music. This is what I get being married to a movie freak. Those are my thoughts for tonight.

Still working on Vegas pics...although now I need to clean the house (if you know me at all, I'm 100% stalling right now).

Illinois

I was going to update the blog with Illinois stuff and Vegas stuff but I think I'm in a little over my head here. I need to stop editing pictures :)

We went to Illinois a little over a week ago and had a great time. Scott's old friend's sister got married and we went to that wedding. Unfortunately I didn't have the greatest camera with me so none of the pictures turned out. Saturday morning we went to the cheese festival with Spence.

Sunday we went to church where Spencer and Tuck supposedly started a tradition of going down to the river and watching the dogs play and throwing rocks. It was so cute seeing them do their little tradition together.

The rest of Sunday was spent getting ready for a huge cookout at Scott's parent's house. There were about 60 people there. Tuck purchased a bounce house for the kids and he also gave loader rides. It's a kids dream come true at their house! I can't wait until our kids can play there.

That pretty much sums up the trip...it was a great time as always.

Allison on the bounce house




Proud Grandparents


Shelby


Sunday traditions








Spence


The loader

Spence and I went on a huge slide together at the Cheese Festival

Stay tuned for Vegas pics...