- If you do not already read Joy’s blog, you should do it now. She is marvelously witty and Hunter S-esque, only picture a small Canadian girl in Japan with much liquor and shenanagins. If you are my Mom you will not enjoy Joy’s blog. For everyone else, today’s post is particularly entertaining me: http://www.negativespace.net/shots/

- When my leg is finished being broken I am going to take Kimli up on her offer to come with and go visit Joy in Japan. It would be a fantastic trip.

- We have OPERA TICKETS! I am very excited to go to the closing night showing of Carmen next Thursday night. 5th row. I will wear my corset.

- I had my first session with my personal trainer today, and we meet again tomorrow. She is awesome.

That is all!

25 things, as tagged by basically everyone. Tagging no one specifically in return, but if you haven’t done this already go forth and complete – post it on your blog or as a note on your facebook profile.

Many things, some of which you might not know about me:

1. I believe there isn’t anything that I can’t do if I decide I’m going to do it

2. I remember the first moment that I saw Reilly. It was February 1992 in Smith, Alberta (think 400 person small town in Northern AB), at a Junior Forest Warden curling bonspiel. I Was 12, he was 15, and I had heard about him and demanded to have him pointed out to me when we arrived. He was a legend. We became friends 3 years later, and married in August 2000.

3. I’m a much happier and more cheerful person that I used to be

4. I would do well if left alone in the bush for long periods of time, but not as good as if Reilly or Josh were there. It would take me all day to produce fire; I’d put them to a race but I’m guessing under an hour walking in with nothing but their hands and the clothes they are wearing.

5. I, also, envision falling down the stairs every time I go down them. This has only increased x1000 since breaking my leg + knee, and now is a much more realistic outcome.

6. I sit in the other room during Reilly/Shan/Darren band practice and sing along to their songs. I love the music they write. It gets stuck in my head. They are practicing now.

7. I am a serial entrepreneur and always have multiple projects on the go, many just waiting for their time to be launched.

8. I adore our clients and while I’m not a girly girl at all, I love hearing about and helping where I can with all the wedding and photo plans.

9. I’m jealous of the photographers who shoot with Reilly when I’m unable because they all have a unique perspective and capture images I never would have thought of. I <3 all of you and think you completely kick ass.

10. I was very, very blonde as a kid

11. And skinny

12. If I had a more negative self image, I would probably not weight as much as I do. Sometimes being hard on yourself can be a good thing

13. I like and will eat almost all foods

14. Except watermelon

15. Have I even told you about my leg recently? I don’t think so I finally received the full diagnosis within the last couple of weeks. I will have 2 more surgeries this year and won’t be able to walk for a large portion of it. They are going to break my tibia and change the alignment of my leg with lots of metal along with some ligament repair, then when that heals they’re going to repair the rest of the ligaments. I will have pain, problems, and wear a brace for the rest of my life. I consider myself very fortunate and blessed, and while I have on and off days you will never hear me complain about it. I might ask you to bring me chocolate, though, for the cripple.

16. I like to make things, and have snagged a table at May’s Got Craft event so I have something to make things for.

17. I have a really, really hard time with coming up with truly new ideas. Given a starting point I am extremely creative in running with something or expanding it, but I spend a large amount of time scouring everything from fashion magazines for posing ideas to 50′s housewares catalogues for craft inspiration so I can do my own thing. People think I’m creative, but I’m just good at repurposing and recycling other concepts I’ve seen.

18. I like to cook and want to take some cooking classes to learn new things

19. I own a small letterpress and hundreds of pounds of lead type, many fonts worth. It is fun to use the word font as a noun and mean it.

20. According to a full day psych profile I did for my old corporate job, my “warmth and compassion for others” is significantly below average. Which, if you’ve ever been my employee or know me well, you’d know is completely hilarious – I don’t coddle and I definitely don’t have time for bullshit, but I will fight passionately to ensure people are treated fairly even if it means putting my own ass on the line.

21. I was an honour student at the top of my class until grade 12 when I moved on my own from my small town to Edmonton so I could go to a “real” school for my last year. There, I was decidedly average, and I am glad I had this experience to knock me back into my place. Back in the real world, I find the average population is somewhat closer to my small town student population, but I know the truly intelligent ones are out there and it keeps me on my toes. I gravitate to these people and have incredibly enriching friends and colleagues as a result.

22. I have an IQ of apx. 140 and I almost applied to Mensa when I was stuck inside after breaking my leg last year. I paid and ordered the initial package, but I didn’t take the test because I decided it was kind of vain. That, and I was secretly terrified I wouldn’t qualify. I prefer to live in a world where I am just too good for them, so I never have to face that possibility.

23. I really, really, really like candy of all kinds. Especially ones from when I was a kid, like 5 cent bins, lik-m-aid fun dip, and lotsa fizz strips.

24. I hate memes, but I haven’t been blogging lately so I feel like I owe it to everyone

25. I believe that you can also do anything you want to do if you decide you’re going to do it, and I’ll support you in any way that I can in getting you there

(all photos by the super talented Tracey Heppner, our dear friend and second shooter when Erin doesn’t snag her first

I’m still in some form of awe over Indie I Do this past weekend. Together with our friends Andrea and Rob over at Lotus Events we put on what I can honestly say is – to me – the best damn wedding event that this city has ever seen. Billed as Vancouver’s first alternative wedding show we brought together over 30 of the area’s local, independent, edgy vendors for an event like no other. We wanted to show that there are alternatives to frilly and white, and whether you’re a totally off beat couple, a same sex pair, or even a tradtional bride looking to add a touch of something different to a more conventional affair that there are options.

All told, we had over 700 people through the doors including a lineup down the block before we opened. The raves and reviews have been tremendous both from vendors and from attendees. There is no question that this has been a long time coming in this city.

And, today, we’re already finalizing the date for 2010 to get the booking organized before olympic fever takes over every venue around.

We received a tonne of press including most notably an article in the Globe and Mail, a great piece on CBC Radio (listen to that here), and a piece on Shaw TV (which I’ll post when I get it from the producers). It was a lot of work but it was a lot of fun.

The roles were roughly divided between making the show actually happen (get vendors to apply, get space, find cute burlesque girls, organize the details of actually making the show occur) – this was Lotus Events – and making sure people knew about and could find out about the event (website design, advertising and marketing campaigns, PR and media, tickets, press packs, interviews) – and this was what we did. And, seeing as I’m a self described marketing junkie, I had a tonne of fun doing it, too.

This is probably the worst review ever, but I think all of you have seen the pictures (facebook) and have checked out the site so already know all about it. I’m still recovering and getting back to regular life, but I just wanted to share how thrilled and happy I am. It is really really awesome when you pour yourself into doing something and it works, nevermind when it works so damn well.

*We DID that!* Nothing is quite so gratifying as to make things happen, no matter how big or small.

xoxo!

Dear Photographer,

Nice work but it’s awfully unfortunate that you can’t write your own content. Please do not steal our words – changing a few things and calling it your own hurts, and is dishonest. It feels like you spit on my shoe.

Go be your own person. It’s sad that you have to copy from us.

Love,

Miranda & Reilly

** update: This photographer has emailed us and updated her sites, and has apologized for her actions. Other than the screenshot, I’ve update my post to dissuade Google from continuing to show this post rather than her site as the first site returned on a search for her company name.

Best of 604, originally uploaded by Raul P.

Blue Olive took third place for Vancouver Photography site!

Not quite the first or second that I’d hoped for, but as many of our friends also placed third in their respective categories we’ve decided that third is clearly the best place to be

Thanks for everyone who voted for us!

PlanetClaireOpening_118, originally uploaded by sassycontessa.

We went down on Thursday night to the Lamplighter and I shot the fashion and burleque shows as part of the Planet Claire opening party – a new shop near us on Abbott st. featuring independent designers and realistic sizes.

Setup was really tricky for shooting between the light setup and where they had them walking but as it wasn’t a real runway and was instead a bar, I think these turned out OK!

BadSweaterXmas_22, originally uploaded by sassycontessa.

It’s true – bad sweaters! Many of them!

The set is now on flickr, and so am I! It’s true! It is almost 2009 and despite being a full time photographer, I am just getting around to joining now.

Woo! Come be my friend!

It is the end of November, and the end of NaBloPoMo!

I have successfully written something each day this month, although I’ll be the first to admit that I had planned for much more actual content rather than the must-write-something-so-this-will-do that seemed to take hold.

This month has been extremely busy and hectic for us with many projects on the go and timelines and deadlines and so on, all of which made carving out actual blogging time difficult.

It’s also crazy how quickly time goes and I’m in basically overall disbelief that its actually *December*. Wow.

Today we headed out before 8 to pick up Josh for a day of Whistler adventures. Reilly and Josh have declared the first run of the season a positive one, and I hung out in the village and enjoyed a walk and some valuable coffee shop time working on some stuff for Indie on my laptop.

Josh is off picking up Shan and then I think there was talk of some sort of nourishment, then tomorrow it is back to work for a hectic week of clearing old things off our plate, another full day shoot on Wednesday, new project work, and then a wedding on Saturday.

Happy December, everyone! May you all have an amazing month… I’ll be back as soon as I’ve got something real to say

Spending an entire day lounging around on the couch with cute cats, a cute boy, and cheezy TV is entirely awesome. Yay for an actual day off!

Whistler tomorrow!