Today is my 6th Anniversary to my wonderful husband Adrian! It’s been a great anniversary week for us – we celebrate all the little anniversaries too:

June 29 – the day we met
July 1 – our first date
July 4 – our wedding anniversary!

Last night we went out to dinner at a new restaurant, Bru’s Room, and then went to see Eclipse, finally, which was amazing! My parents had Zachary sleep over for the evening so that Adrian and I could enjoy our time together, and it was a great night. To top it off, I was able to catch up on sleep and ended up sleeping about fourteen hours! Yes!!!! :)

We had a wonderful wedding! Everything about our wedding day was magical and we had such a great time on our wedding and honeymoon. I can’t believe it’s been 6 years already. Who knew six years ago that we would have done so many awesome things — started our own businesses, had such an adorable little boy, and there is still so much more that we have planned and I know we’re going to have such a blast doing it. We’ve had a lot of great times together over the past 6 years!

I wrote a post last month for a blog hop about our wedding day, so if you’d like, you can check out out here.

This is one of my favorite photos from our wedding day – the photo of our recessional, after we’d been announced as husband and wife. It was obvious how happy we were by the smiles on our faces!

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Guess what? It’s July 1st, which means… IT’S MY BIRTHDAY MONTH!!!!!

I’ve got a lot in store this month and I’m kicking off the month of July with some Thursday Treats for you: some of my favorite albums which mean a LOT to me! I’ve been listening to a lot of music lately, and keep going back to albums and artists that have a lot of meaning in my life, musically… from high school, to college, to some crazy days of being a teacher. Here they are.. pretty much in reverse order. ;)

Hem – Funnel Cloud

I got this one when I was a middle school teacher and was totally miserable. I hated teaching 8th grade, but I loved listening to this album. After I found it, I’d listen to it in the car almost every day on the way home. Sally Ellyson, the lead singer of Hem, has one of the most stunning voices I’ve ever heard.

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A Fine Frenzy – Bomb in a Birdcage

I also discovered the beauty of A Fine Frenzy when I was teaching (that was a good year for music… I hated my job SO MUCH I needed something to pour myself into, so I chose music and photography). Alison, the lead singer of this group, has an amazing voice, and listening to her makes me introspective, giggly, and heart-heavy all in the same 50 minutes or so. I can listen to this album (which actually came out fairly recently) at almost any time. It’s so much fun keeps up a good pace for editing photos. Back when I was teaching school, I listened to her first album, One Cell in the Sea, over…. and over… and over.. and over. It helped to keep me sane on some of my craziest days dealing with very difficult situations as a first year teacher.

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Portishead – Dummy

Here’s a record I didn’t listen to while teaching. No, this one is a gem from college. Even after almost 10 years, the opening notes from the first song on this album, Roads, remind me of some interesting and specific times in those first few months of college and sends a shiver right down my spine from remembering.

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Stevie Nicks – The Wild Heart

You didn’t think I’d actually do a big music post without Stevie, did you?

No, of course not. I just saved the best for last. :)

“Dare my wild… heart….” (Wild Heart)

I love this album for so many reasons, too many to list here. I am a huge Stevie Nicks fan, and this was one of my favorite albums in high school. I used to love laying on my bed with headphones listening to all the layers of music – trying to dissect them, picking out the instruments.

“When I remember someone, I remember their dreams….” (Enchanted)

Stevie got me through the latter part of my teenage years and I love her. :)

“Oh, who… is the beauty, who the beast?

Would you die of grieving… when I leave?” (Beauty & The Beast)

If anything, just buy this album and listen to that song, Beauty & The Beast – the final song on the album. It is a stunning piece of work, was recorded with a live orchestra, and it will draw you in until the very last note is played.

<3

Time for a vintage photo of me, thanks to my awesome husband Adrian and his super mad photo sKilLz! ;)

Since today’s the day The Twilight Saga: Eclipse comes out…. enjoy this awesome photo (taken on June 1, 2007)… and then go dream about Edward Cullen! ;). *sigh* I know that’s what I’ll be doing tonight, since we’re not going to be seeing the movie until Saturday when we’re having our anniversary date night!! :)

So… would I make a better vampire than Bella or what?! hehehe.

Being a wedding photographer, how could I resist today’s Twitter Blog Hop – the theme is WEDDINGS!!!! First off, I have to apologize for the quality of my scans. Yes, my wedding was shot on film. Come on, I got married in 2004. Digital was still new…. and I have a TON of medium format film that still really needs to be scanned professionally. There’s a LOT lost, quality-wise, when you scan an actual print (these are old scans from my album), so they are not the best. Sorry!

Adrian and I got married on July 4, 2004 at the gorgeous Heron Bay Marriott in Coral Springs, FL. Much like every other summer day in Florida, it rained. :) That’s supposed to be good luck, though! :)

I had four girls in my wedding party, and Adrian had three guys. Our main colors were shades of purple and silver. My flowers were incredible!!! People still talk about my flowers, and I’ve been married for nearly six years. I absolutely love how my Florist matched the colors of my draping and lighting perfectly with the flowers. There were soooo many flowers! Everything really flowed together and looked so beautiful and elegant. They did a great job and I would not change a thing about how my decor looked. My bouquet was absolutely gorgeous, put together perfectly and the size was exactly what I asked for – not too big or too small. It was just right for my hands.

I loved my wedding dress. I felt like a princess and looked like one too! My dress was not one I would have normally tried on, but the sales girl insisted and it was actually the first dress I tried. I ended up loving it, and after trying out a couple more dresses, I went back to my dress and decided that was the one! Adrian looked amazing in his tuxedo! He picked a longer, more formal jacket which was a fantastic style on him and looked great. The subtle pattern on his vest was a great accent. I had my makeup done professionally by a MAC Makeup artist and it stayed on for two days straight. :) It was flawless and did not smudge a bit even.

My ceremony went by so quickly! It was about half an hour but I felt like it only took five minutes. I don’t remember too much! I do remember thinking about how much I was concentrating on not getting any of the ceremonial wine on my beautiful white dress! Haha! By the time we were done, my feet were hurting pretty badly. My wonderful new husband gave me a little foot massage after everyone left the room, before we took our photos. We were very happy to finally be married!

We had a great reception. Our band, Manhattan Music, sounded INCREDIBLE and played all of my very favorite songs! We had so much fun dancing with our friends. The rum cake with buttercream frosting that we chose as our wedding cake was delicious and the wait staff at the venue made sure I had my favorite drink (at the time, I loved White Russians) available at all times. Since we were married on July 4th, the band even sang the Star Spangled Banner in commemoration of our country’s independence, which will always be a great memory.

The next day we got together with our friends and family at my parents’ house for a brunch, and Adrian and I headed off on our honeymoon — a cruise on the Enchantment of the Seas visiting the Western Caribbean! My dad took this photo of us getting into the limo that drove us to the cruise terminal! We were so excited – it was our first (of many) cruises together. :)

Wedding Photos by John V. Caspanello, Jr.
Floral Design by Flowers by Tony
Music by Manhattan Music
Cake by Ferraro’s (no longer in business)
Venue Location: Heron Bay Marriott

I am happy to announce that I actually had a pretty amazing time at my 10th high school reunion. I know these things are usually pretty crazy (from what I’ve heard) but everyone I’ve spoken to from my class has said what a blast they had, and I feel the same way. It was so good to see all of my friends and everyone really looked amazing, just a little more mature, and mostly the same. I reconnected with a few people who I’m really looking forward to seeing again very soon, too. And I’m hoping that I can keep in better touch with some of the people that I saw… especially since I was told by a whooooole bunch of people that I would be getting called about shooting their wedding just as soon as they became engaged! ;)

I really had a great time in high school, considering I transfered to the school I graduated from in the middle of 10th grade, and everyone else already knew each other already… It wasn’t always easy in the very beginning, but I liked my classes and I was welcomed by a sweet group of students who really made me feel like I was a part of the school. After a few months, JP Taravella High School was definitely “my” school, and I even decided to serve on my prom committee senior year!

Here’s me with my husband (first pic – top left) and a whole bunch of people who made my time at JPT great:

I have to say that I’m really looking forward to our next get together, hopefully it’ll be more like a 15 year meetup rather than 20 years! waiting another 10 years is too long!

Continuing on with this travel theme (though probably not for long, since I don’t have that many amazing old photos from my travels), I finally got around to editing the pictures from our trip to San Francisco…. TWO YEARS AGO.

It is really weird to think that this trip was two years ago, since so much in our lives has changed since then. We had just started our photography business a couple of months back in the fall of 2006, and I was really starting to hone my photography skills.

Since Adrian was spending the week attending the WWDC Apple Developers’ Conference so he could learn all about the latest technology he’d need to produce Táve Studio Manager, which was but a glint in our eyes back then (and originally a Mac program – though now is web-based), I had a lot of time on my own. I was very excited because I’d have a whole week, practically, with just me and my camera, and lots of time to spend shooting and visiting with friends in the area.

Now, I’ll digress for a few moments:

Editing images that are two years old is a really interesting experience as a photographer because SO MUCH changes and evolves inside you as an artist in that period of time. Back then, I was a little more fascinated with photography because there was simply so much that I had to learn. Now, I’m nowhere near an expert, but I certainly know a lot more now and things are definitely more “rote” as far as taking pictures professionally goes. Back then, I saw a lot through very different eyes, and looking at these images makes that really apparent to me. Sometimes I get a little jealous of Adrian because he seems to be able to see things in a very fresh way each and every time, and I attribute that to the fact that his role in our company is solely as a photographer. He doesn’t do any editing or post processing, so he doesn’t get burned out staring at images day in and day out. Instead, every experience is fresh and creative for him, since his job is to take the pictures and enjoy it, while I know that after the shoot is over, there are weeks worth of work to be done and that soon, people will be down my throat wanting to know when it is going to be finished! ;)

This just proves to me that I need to spend more time getting myself INSPIRED and EXPLORING the world that I live in. I can still feel the same about photography that I did back then – I know it because just a few months ago, while I was pregnant and not working very much, I did a lot of personal exploration through my photography, and it really felt great. I tried to do this again a couple weeks ago when I took some photos in the rain from my back porch, and I felt a glimmer of that. I just need to do it more often, so that I can ensure that I keep myself focused and on a creative pathway.

So, here are a couple of my favorite images from our trip. Two years ago. Since Adrian took the 5D (our pro camera, for all of you not up with the lingo) for the first part of the trip, and I had it once the WWDC conference started, I’ve just noted which images are his and which are mine, since I didn’t want to just post half a trip’s worth of images.

Birds on a wire - Image by Adrian

Slanty Street - Image by Adrian

Sea Lions at Pier 39 - Image by Adrian

Alcatraz & Boat - Image by Adrian

Karen - Image by Adrian

Adrian at WWDC - Image by Karen

Mount Diablo - Image by Karen

The Mountain Goats of Mount Diablo - Image by Karen

Charlie (of A Minor Thread) - Image by Karen

Liz & Cute Mug in Chinatown - Image by Karen

Sacramento Street - Image by Karen

Chinatown Back Alley - Image by Karen

Fortune Cookie Factory - Image by Karen

Hope you enjoyed the image selection! If you liked the photos, I would love to read your comments and find out which ones were your favorites. :)

You can see quite  a few more images if you visit the Flickr Set where they’re uploaded!

I still remember the song – “My name is Zoom and I live on the Moon! I came down to Earth just to sing you this tune! Hey Karen – it’s your birthday – today!!!”

Every year, my dad played my Captain Zoom record on my birthday. I remember coming out of my room on my birthday morning, walking into the kitchen, and my dad turning on the record player and hearing Captain Zoom as he blasted his special birthday song just for me! Of course back then when I was a kid, I thought that the song was really just for me, not some commercially produced product, lol.

Anyway, I’ve always had great memories of Captain Zoom and long before I had a baby or even thought about getting pregnant, I knew I would be buying a Captain Zoom song for my future child. Of course, times have changed, and now instead of a record, the birthday song comes as an MP3 which is emailed to you upon purchase. They also now offer songs for pretty much every milestone in your life – anniversary, wedding, and even Christmas. It’s a little crazy. I think I’ll just stick with the birthday favorite.

Zachary’s first birthday is eight months away, so I still have some time, but I’ll be picking up that MP3 soon to add to his collection.

I was just checking the whois records for siren.org and realized that my website just celebrated 11 years – it was registered on March 2, 1998, when I was only 15 years old! wow- by the time I’m 31, I’ll have had my website for longer than I haven’t!!

for kicks, I checked the wayback machine archive site and found that it recorded a LOT of one of the first versions of my website from back in December 2008. I am amazed at what is still there!

Here is the main page – as you can see, I tried to sell stuff online via Amazon’s Affiliate’s program, which I assume must have just been getting started back then, and I also tried selling my old CDs, books, and random stuff through the “store” link.

If you click on “speak” you’ll see my “speak board” that I created aka “forums”. In reality, a real ubb forum was too advanced for me to program, so I modified a guestbook perl script and built up a pretty active message board on my site, which lasted for a long time. I still miss those days…. long before Facebook, people came to MY website to chat with each other! wow, what an ego trip for a 15-year-old girl!! LOL! it only has the last archive up – clicking on the other ones doesn’t do anything – but I actually do have them all archived on my computer, still…. I found them a while back buried in my hard drive archives. :)

you can also see such hilarities as my “web design company” (lolz) and my web page en español, which features a tribute to Gloria Estefan. how embarrassing!! haha!!

if you have a website that has also lived a long life, you should check out the wayback machine, too!

Sort of tagged by Jillian! :)

The Rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

The Facts:
1. My first “blog” was an online journal hosted on Geocities. I used a fake name and started writing online in 1996. After bouncing around a number of different sites, I settled on LiveJournal in 2000, and maintained a semi-private “journal” there until now. I’ve had a few public blogs on this particular website over the past few years, but have never kept any of them up, except for this latest incarnation!
2. I have an overwhelming bath & body product collection. The amount of perfume I own is beyond ridiculous, and I have various body splashes, dry oil sprays, and body lotions coming out of every nook and cranny of my home, as well as my car!<
3. I didn’t date in high school, and I thought I would get old and have no children or husband. I once wrote a poem about it, even! Not even two years later, I met my wonderful husband, Adrian… and you know the rest of that story! Life has taken me on a completely different path than I ever imagined, and I love it!
4. Pizza is one of my favorite foods. Ever.
5. I really love plants and pretty flowers, but I do not have a green thumb at ALL. Someday I wish I could have a trellis with orchids and other hanging plants and lots of windchimes (I LOVE WINDCHIMES), but I think I probably would end up killing them all.
6. I have become absolutely OBSESSED with HGTV! I love watching all the lunchtime shows – House Hunters, Curb Appeal, Design on a Dime… it has become a daily ritual. I can’t stop myself. It’s so true how “nesting” sets in when you’re pregnant!
7. I love vintage travel items from the early 1900’s til about the 1950’s. Suitcases, transportation memorabilia, travel posters, maps, paintings, models, just about anything, and more specifically, items related to the cruising industry. I inherited this love from my dad, who is a travel expert and has had his own travel business for over 20 years. He has a large collection of vintage travel items and has been nice enough to give me a few posters. I dream of one day having a home that has enough room for me to make my own special vintage travel themed room, much like my dad’s office in his home, where he spends a lot of his time.

I don’t know who to tag, so if you feel like doing this fun little activity, then you can do it and say I tagged you!

I meant to post this a couple of days ago, but have been super busy with work and forgot.

My good friend, Adam Cohen, asked me to write a guest post on his blog while he and his lovely wife, Sarah, were away in the mountains of northern Georgia for their wedding anniversary. I went back and forth over and over about what to write, and finally, when I sat down to my computer to write my post for my assigned day with 30 minutes to spare, I decided to tell the story about how I met Adam and how we became friends.

You can read it here.