Meanderings// Bliss + Alvis + Kids + Photographers We Like + Music We Dig

I find myself using the word *meander* frequently and recently stopped to double-check my thesaurus for confirmation on its meaning… hey; you get enough funny looks from people, you start to wonder if you’re speaking gibberish!

Ahem.  ”To Meander”:  to be all over the map, to change, drift, ramble, gallivant, traipse, roam, vagabond.  Whohoo!  I have been using it correctly.  And now I shall make full use of its literal meaning and move forward with this post as it roves and recoils throughout various subject matters near and dear to our hearts.

Alvis Update// The New Ticker Rocks!!!

So it would seem that after a passage of nearly 3.5 weeks, our 41-year old Valvinator <the new name he’s affectionately taken on> is on the mend.  Hurray for modern-day science and prosthetic aortic valves!  I know that many of you were concerned and believe me, we were too. But so much good has come from this experience we are actually grateful to have gone through it.  For one, he’s gonna live and live a long, long time.  Heck, his new valve comes with a lifelong warranty that will outlast any actuarial prediction of life expectancy!  For two, the whole thing has brought us closer together as a family.  A brush with your own mortality tends to have that kind of lasting effect!  For three, he no longer snores.  Wohoo!!!  We are chalking this up to a proper intake of oxygen throughout his body, thanks to the new valve and also in part due to dropping 25 lbs from the surgery.  Thank you all for your prayers, emails, notes, comments and the terrific amount of food that was brought over while we got through these past few weeks.  

Music// An Insomniac’s Greatest Adventure…Searching for Cool New Tunes

Hey — a music degree has to count for something, right?!  What it means is a continual thirst for searching out great new music to implement in our wedding movies and just to groove to around the house.  I’ve come across some real beauties in my last couple of quests and will be sharing one of my faves with you below.  We are HUGE Joshua Radin fans and this piece rocks; for sure it would make an excellent addition to your reception music score.  <Fair warning: it’s a cheesy YouTube posting but at least it gets you the lyrics; and no we did not compile it>. When we produce  wedding movies for clients, we do seek input in terms of meaningful song selections/genres; but we do like to have some degree of creative control so that we can find just the absolute perfect piece that fits to the captured footage and storyboard.  If you’ve hired us to do your wedding movie, you’ll soon see what we mean.

Hannah Cakes + Graduation Takes// Piper’s Milestone Moments!

Where has the time gone?  My baby girl is officially turning 6 this June 20th… This past Saturday we had the opportunity to host a special *family party* for Piper to honour this momentous occasion.  One of the highlights was definitely her reaction to the Hannah Montana cake that was lovingly made the night before thanks to the expertise of good friend Lisa and a bottle of Australian chardonnay.  You see, we had surfed the net together to come up with the *perfect* cake and after about an hour of scrolling through umpteen images, she finally settled upon this little number involving feathers and a real Hannah barbie.  And although it didn’t quite resemble the masterpiece we unearthed online; she was tickled pink.  And now its onto other monumental rites of passage; tomorrow Piper graduates from S.K. into Grade 1.  Pass me the Kleenex, sniffle, sniffle.

Supporting Our Own// An Amazing New Photographer on the Scene

The word is already on the street about Jennifer Fabiano and her amazing photographs of children and newborns.  There is something tender, touching and so innocent about the images she captures <does have a lot to do with her subject material!>.  We have been following her work for quite some time now and are officially huge fans.  Working with little ones requires an infinite amount of patience and the special skill of being able to bring out a child’s natural personality.  There is nothing contrived in Jennifer’s work.  We congratulate her and hope that one of these days we can get around to having her capture our own little family unit <lest we never ever see Daddy in the pictures!>.  Check her out at Fabianophotography.