2009 January — Minneapolis Wedding, Event and Portrait Photography by Austin Images

So Friggin' Cold!

January 16, 2009 By Susan Leave a Comment

Okay, today is just as nasty as yesterday. 20+below ZERO~
The highs are not even getting above zero. I’m tellin’ ya,
these temps keep the ‘riff~raff’ out of Minnesota!

The warm up, the keep eluding, to is going to occur later today.
The 30′s? Now you’re talking! That’s what we call ‘sweata weatha’!
(taken from the ‘Brox Beat’ on Saturday night live)
Might even see some t-shirts out and about!

This morning, and I had better get a move on soon, I’m going
to head up to MEI in Golden Valley to take some shots for an
upcoming magazine article about their 25th year! Cool!
Thanks Jane!

Nicki finished up the Venetian Plaster in the bar yesterday.
It looks so awesome. Once I get the area all cleaned up and
everything back in place, I’ll shoot it and post some images.

Gotta run!

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How Cold Is It?

January 14, 2009 By Susan 1 Comment

Seriously, if I hadn’t have run out of creamer
yesterday, I would have been on hour 50 or so
without leaving the house! Yesterday we had a
high of 12 BELOW! And if that weren’t enough,
our furnace was STILL not firing! And let me
tell you, after 2 nights with no furnace I wasn’t
about to let Kleeve off the hook! I called them
and they came right over and fixed something
completely unrelated to what they did on Monday.
Hmmmmmmm….yea, not sure I believe that, but
the good news is that they didn’t charge us for
the 2nd visit!

Gary is still at it in the basement, painting,
priming, ripping off doors and tearing up carpet.
Boo is acting as the “sidewalk superintendent”.
I will take some pictures today.

Nicki is going to come over today and assist me
with Venetian Plaster. A nummy deep red for behind
the bar area. She is the expert at faux finishes
and technique so if you ever have a project that
is a little above you or you are simply looking
to select a new paint color…she’s your girl!
Call me for her contact information…Nicki is
also an amazing muralist!

Word of the day….”Layers”!

Filed Under: Personal

The Heat is On!

January 12, 2009 By Susan Leave a Comment

Well, soon anyway…Kleeve will be here
between 10 and noon today to fix our furnace.
It’s been out for nearly 3 days! The last two
nights we have slept with the gas fireplace on,
an electric heater in the bedroom AND electric
mattress pad! CRAZY! We didn’t want to pay the
“emergency” fee for Sunday so we just called and
scheduled for them to come by today.

In the mean time, we continue to work on the
lower level remodel. Very exciting! I’ll try to
remember (cold on the brain!) to post some before
and afters as we work from side to side.
New wood floors by the bar, new carpet by the
theater, and then the wood floors will pick up
again on my office side, go into the salon, down
the hall and into the bath. I KNOW! Fun, right?!
For now I am working in a mess…a real mess.
I had to meet with Jen and Andy at a remote location
to discuss my photographing their wedding in October!
That one is a “go”! I’m very excited! It was actually
GARY that recommended her to me! Thanks Gary! The
wedding will take place at Mount Olivet in Minneapolis
and the reception will be at Windows on the top of
the IDS tower! This is a combination that I have
photographed before but this time there will be time
for a photo walk around town….I’m so pumpep about
that! Here’s Rick and Amanda Gorra from July ’06.

That was a fun one…my brother in law was
in the wedding party so my sister was there as well!

Well, it’s snowing again, and I just said to
Nicki that it’s nearly the middle of January
and I still think the snow is pretty so I guess
that makes me a hearty Minnesotan! Or maybe it’s
that we booked our flights to Mexico this morning!

Stay warm, a deep freeze is approaching…AGAIN!

Filed Under: Weddings Tagged With: unique wedding locations, Wedding resources

Back to Life, Back to Reality…

January 6, 2009 By Susan Leave a Comment

For me, 2009 starts today.
A new calendar with endless opportunity and
possibilities!
I love a new calendar! Transferring Birthday’s,
Anniversary’s, adding Vacations, Shoots, Weddings,
Celebrations, Parties.

However, I also must get to my taxes! :\
We are remodeling our lower level
And that means working in a mess
But it’ll be beautiful when it’s complete

Make the most of today…tomorrow is no guarantee.

Filed Under: Personal

TCPPA

January 5, 2009 By Susan Leave a Comment

Today I will be attending my first TCPPA event
as an actual Board Member. I’ve been a member
for 3 years and thought I’d step it up.

Today’s speaker is Mitche Graf. He’ll be sharing
with us The Power of Marketing 101.

This will pretty much shoot a hole in my Monday
but I’m excited to meet Mitche and be enlightened
about marketing! A pretty great way to start a
new year and with wedding season around the corner
I’m sure his tips will be FABulous!

Well, I can’t go any farther without mentioning
how disappointed I was in the Viking loss to the
Philadelphia Eagles yesterday. However, I must say
that this was by far the most fun I’ve ever had at
a Vikings football game! Not really sure when I’ll
regain my hearing!
For those of you not on facebook, I posted several
shots throughout the day and I even brought Gary’s
camera along and shot some video (I’ll post that
later on).
I sat with my sister in row 15 behind the Eagles’
bench on the 45 yardline…it was PERfect!
Except for the fact that “Donald Downer” was behind
us and kept asking Anne to sit down…whatever dude!
We paid OUR $320! We actually considered going out
and buying some big ass hats to wear just to piss
him off more! Riding to and from the game in a big
‘ol Expedition Limo was quite the ticket too, thanks
John! What a day!

Pete, Anne, Paul & I came back to Redstone, where we
had lunch before the game, to get my car and by 8
we were all starving again so we went in, sat in
Travis’ section and ordered up a delicious dinner
as well!

Hey, I gotta run.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: TCPPA

Playoff Sunday.

January 4, 2009 By Susan Leave a Comment

My sister managed to get her hands on a couple
of good seats for today’s playoff game.
Embarrassingly enough that the Vikings “backed”
into the playoffs, the game was nearly blacked
out due to low ticket sales….niiiiiiice!
I think it speaks volumes that the general
public, here, doesn’t give a rip about their own
pro football team. Me thinks that Childress is,
perhaps, on his way out..my opinion.
Well, regardless, I’m more looking forward to
spending a day with my sister that doesn’t
involve baking!

Anne’s husband, Pete, and his boss are taking a
limo down to the game and while we won’t be
sitting with them at the game we’ll ride down
to the dome with them. That should be fun!

Pete came by yesterday to have some new head
shots taken for an upcoming article in a trade
magazine. Pete works with RTI and will be
attending the Consumer Electronics Show in
Las Vegas next week.

I talked to Gary this morning…he and Dave
are going to come home today. I’m so excited!
They will stop along the way and watch some of
the game and get home sometime after dinner. For
some reason, I missed him most this time around!

Have a great day, stay warm.
Go Vikes!

Filed Under: Personal, Portraits Tagged With: Portraits

On The Road Again…

January 3, 2009 By Susan 2 Comments

I will go to Excelsior today to partake in some
cooking, wine tasting and video watching.
Nicki received the DVD set and accompanying book
to a favorite series “Spain, On the Road Again”
for Christmas so we thought it would be a gas to hang
out and grab a favorite recipe from the book and watch
some of the episodes! We just fell in love with the
series when it aired late this fall. We’ve even talked
about going to Spain…How cool would THAT be!

Nicki and I used to get together pretty regularly
and as of late that has gone by the way side.
New year, new plans!

That leaves me with this morning to put the rest
of Christmas away because tomorrow will be a long
day, no doubt, with a limo ride to Manny’s for
lunch and then to the Viking’s play off game.
Anne & I are going to have a sister day and see
if she can get on TV again
50 yard line seats….not bad!

I just talked to Gary and they are experiencing a
blizzard out in Winner, South Dakota so no hunting
today but they plan to stay through tomorrow and
come home Monday.

I got the opportunity to go next door to Jacquie’s
last night and catch up. I’ve missed her and it
was so great to just sit and chat. In order for us
to sit there, I brought along some of my “Boo” M&Ms
that I got from Mike & Kindra for Christmas to bribe
her husband with….Scott and I are self proclaimed
chocoholics! These M&Ms have teeny tiny Boo faces on
them and are absolutely aDORable. I kind of find it
hard to actually eat them, cuz, well after all, it’s
Boo’s face, ya know?
But what’s not to love? Boo? GOOD!…Chocolate? GOOD!
(for all you “Friend’s fans out there!)

Well, back to the task at hand. I hate to move Boo
from the tree skirt…he’s so happy there.

Filed Under: Personal