• Joan and John – thank you for the amazing catering.  The food was fabulous and could have never been pulled off without the two of you and all of your hard work.
• Mom and Dad – thank you for all of your help.  From the window skirts that you sewed Mom to both of you serving at the opening and EVERYTHING in between, I can’t thank you enough.
• Dan and Ali – I appreciate everything you did.  Thanks for all the work on Thursday night preparing food and serving on Friday. 
• Cheryl – with a recent hip replacement and all…thanks for all the cleaning you did.  The gallery shined and it was largely due to your hard work!  Thank you!
• Brennan – thanks so much for being so willing to help with anything we asked…from painting, to sign hanging, to paiting some more..thank you!
• Jason & Melissa and Aaron & Rachel - thank you all for your help Friday night.  I so appreciate you being willing to serve!
• Gabby – Oh my goodness!  You did so much to help us.  We can’t thank you enough!  We appreciate all your hard work all week to help us get ready.
• Melissa Muir – Thanks so much for sticking around Friday morning helping us with displays.  You are a display extraordinaire! 
• To all of you that attended – thank you for believing we were worth checking out…I hope you found it worthwhile.

I wish I had more pictures from the opening itself, but we were so busy enjoying everyone’s company that we couldn’t take many.  But here are a couple…

This is Dave and I just before the reception began…do you see those cookies?  They were terrific!  Thanks to Dave’s family and Mary Anne for making them.

This is apparently a picture of me telling Melissa (Dave’s daughter-in-law) how to push someone over?  Okay, I have no idea what I am doing…but Melissa was a great help at the register. 

This is after the event…with many of those who helped us so much.  We are so lucky to have such loving family and friends.  Thank you all!

These are shots that Dave took so that we could share the gallery with those of you who missed it.  (No worries…you can stop in anytime Tue-Sat 10-6 and still check it out!)  Let us know what you think.

Dave and I spent hours on this one, but it turned out so cool that neither of us minded (too much anyway.)  We printed on wallpaper and created this awesome collage for our counter.  What do you think?

Our new presentation room. 

Faithful blog readers, do you remember Spoonflower?  Check out that awesome fabric they custom printed for us.  My amazingly talented Mom sewed it for us…isn’t it great!

The pictures really don’t do it justice…we’d love to see you in person.  Stop by soon.

• A traditional Sikh wedding
• Our Gallery Opening pictures (of course you could see this in person tonight…)
• A wedding at Chenoweth…rain and all!
• A fun family session at the Riverfront
• An awesome wedding idea…brides…you are going to love this.  It makes me want to get married again!

Check back soon!  I wish I could share them all with you right now but it’s after midnight and my pillow misses me.

Goodnight all.  I’ll leave you with this adorable note that my four year old wrote on the back of his picture for his little friend…I just love it.

It’s pretty smeared, but if you can’t tell it says, “Toooooo Macy, From Zeke”.

And, since a post without a pictures is like a cupcake without sprinkles, check out a shot from last Saturday’s wedding.  This is a small sneak peek of what’s to come.

I love these colors…teal and yellow.  I would have never put them together, but they really work well, don’t you think?

As we are working to get the gallery ready for our big reception, I’ve been looking desperately for fabric that would match the gallery’s colors and style.  I’ve been to the normal places multiple times, but I couldn’t find anything I was happy with.  Until…Spoonflower. 

These wonderfully creative people allow anyone to design their own fabric in Photoshop (or other program) and upload it to them for printing.  And…it’s a lot cheaper than you’d think.  The ideas are endless.  Fabrics with the perfect design.  Gifts with personlized names.    Chair covers with initials…Does anyone else have goosebumps right now?

The best part…it took me longer to design it than it will to receive it.  The fabric ships in as few as four days.  Stay tuned.  I am sure pictures will follow.

Here’s a small swatch to give you a peek.  It’s a bit pixelated here, but you get the idea.

• Friday, July 31
• 6:00pm-9:00pm
• Heritage Studio and Gallery 2381 Locust Street #3, Canal Fulton, Ohio 44614

Please join us…it’s going to be a good time.  

The event is open to the public and does not require an RSVP, but if you want to be really nice and let us know you will be attending (for our planning purposes) we’d love you forever.    The evite link is: http://www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/LYEQTOTCAZLNDVIEBBTC/HeritageReception.    

Thanks!

Our new presentation room:

There had been a lot of dust flying so much of the art work is hidden away…but if you stop by you can take a look at the items in person.  

Alright…I’m off to sleep.  Good night all.

Since I was pretty young I have been fascinated with pottery–especially throwing.  (It might have been heavily influenced by Ghost…I’m not sure. J) When I was pretty young I received a small potter’s wheel (very cheap and plastic) for Christmas one year.  It hardly worked at all but I still loved playing with it.  I pretended that I was a “real” potter and I made vases and bowls and mugs. 

Then as a PK (pre-kids) adult, I took some pottery classes at the Quirk Cultural Center in Cuyahoga Falls.  I started out with hand-building (where you don’t use the wheel—just molding and forming).  Then, it was my turn to learn the art of throwing.  If Demi Moore can do it, then so can I, right?  Wrong.  It is unbelievably difficult.  Your hands must be so practiced and precise.  Every wrong movement sends the piece spinning and flopping into a useless gob of clay.  My visions of cupboards filled with cool serving dishes and unique centerpieces died.  I finished my class with a new appreciation for potters.  It takes special skill and years of refining before one can create quality pieces. 

It is because of my love of ceramics that I am so pleased to have Gina DeSantis’s work in the gallery.  She is a potter out of Lakewood, Ohio.  Here are some photographs that I have taken with permission from her blog. 

Someday I may return to my pottery career, but for now I will stick with photography and let Gina and other talented potters handle the vase and mug making for me. 

Thanks Gina…beautiful work…

I’ve loved art and creating art for as long as I can remember.  It’s so intriguing to look at something and see so much more than what seems to be.  That’s why a couple weeks back when another new box arrived, I was thrilled to open it and see Barb Lyras’s prints.  She is an acrylic painter from Youngstown, Ohio.  She has sent a number of prints to show and sell at the gallery.  These are photographs that Barb took of her own pieces.  They are best seen in person, but this will give you an idea.

Centerpiece

Escape

Deep

Sunrise

Sunset

7.  It is official.  I have the best people in my life.  On May 2nd an army of workers joined Dave and me in the gallery for a giant work day.  All around me there was painting, wallpaper steaming and peeling, constructing…and, at the end of the day…huge PROGRESS!  We are probably going to make our goal of June 1 in a large part because of these people’s hard work!  A huge thank you to: my mom & dad, Curtis, Kristin, Alayna, Matt, Mandy, Dan, Ali, Kelly (she’s so sweet–she couldn’t make it on the second, so she came and helped me the next weekend!), and my hubby Josh…my number one supporter and friend.  I couldn’t have done this without you all! 

I did take pictures, but I thought since I am trying to show my appreciation, I won’t humiliate them with photos of messy work clothes and paint smeared faces.  I did take a couple shots of some super cute kids who came along to “help”. 

6.  Our artists’ work has started appearing one by one.  Every couple days, another painting, pottery piece, or print is either shipped or dropped off for the gallery.  Subscribe to the blog to get information about many of the artists and their work.

5.  Dave and I have had a blast shooting our 11 senior ambassadors that represent our work among the local high schools.  We are spending hours editing each photo to perfection.  I can’t wait for our seniors to see them.  This week, each one will be presented with a folio full of prints and a few surprises we have up our sleeves.  Here’s a senior shot I am editing right now (I have a short attention span and like to cut back and forth between two projects at the same time.  Efficient?  No, but more fun.)

O.K. Stop begging.  You talked me into it.  Here’s one more from the same series. 

4.    Our new logo and brand is coming along.  As we set out on a new adventure–a gallery, frame shop, and studio–all operating under one roof, we are so excited to have a new logo being designed for us as we speak.  We have seen the first draft and are waiting on the revisions.   Very exciting…does this mean a new sign is in the near future…?

3.  Along the same lines, our website in underway.  Kim Larson, a fellow photographerand web designer, is creating a site for Heritage that I am very excited about.  Here a is small taste of what’s to come:

2.  Wedding Season is beginning.  Dave and I have started shooting engagement sessions these past couple weeks.  Keep watching the blog to see some great couples and their sessions.

1.  We are planning for the gallery opening reception in July.  The tentative date right now is Friday. July 31, but that may change.  In the next few days, we will be finalizing our plans and starting on invites.  The entire event is going to be fabulous! 

Stay tuned…many great senior sessions and artists to be featured soon…

Then she sealed my admiration with the promise of a great custom bag for my lenses and odds and ends I carry to weddings and on-location sessions.  I mentioned my desire for this type of bag, and Jen went to work.  Within a few hours she sent me a message with tons of fabric choices…I could hardly contain myself.  Dave has ordered one too…an all black more manly style.  (Try as I may, I couldn’t talk him into a nice damask.)   

I finally decided on black for most of my bag with this fabric for the outer wrap part.  It’s going to be a messenger style with lots of pockets and padded areas for the lenses.   I can hardly wait!  As soon as it’s complete, I will post pictures.  Not only will it make my job easier, imagine how great it’ll look slung over my shoulder… 

Take a look at the bags she’s already custom made for the gallery.  (These photos are taken from her blog with permission.) 

Did you notice the small loops hanging from the bags?  Those are Seat of My Pants Key Fobs.  Jen describes them as making “your keys easy to find, easy to wear, and super cute.”  I would agree with that, wouldn’t you?  Here’s one close up:

In honor of spring time fabrics, accepting myself as directionally challenged, and being able to find my keys…thanks to Jen at Seat of My Pants. 

Stop in anytime to see Jen’s bags and other artists’ work.  We are adding new pieces almost daily.  Now, if I could just find the time to blog about them…