Happy Belated Birthday to my Maddie and a belated bday to Maddycake, a client of mine who celebrated her first birthday on Sunday as well. Life moves on too quickly. I bet Maddycakes’ p’s are feeling much the same way about their past year with their little cutie as I am about the past EIGHT years with my little cutie.

Well…like the big dork that I am I took my daughter’s brand new Daisy Pocket Scooter (bday gift) out for a spin this morning. It was for research, you know… 🙂

(anyone who knows me or has had a session with me knows the real secret that I’m just a kid at heart so this revelation about riding the 8 year old’s newest & bestest shouldn’t be surprising)

Razor Scooter

Pocket Mod

Well the entire point of getting her this scooter was for her 8th birthday (which we celebrated on Friday night with a slumber party. Yeah. Um…remind me that it took 2 days to recover from the slumber party hangover next time I get the bright idea to host one, k?). We bought the scooter at Toys R Us around Christmas time and it sat in the basement of the studio waiting for its’ unveil. Maddie had an inkling that we were getting it for her but we threw her off track, pretty successfully if I do say so myself, and thought she was getting something else entirely.

 

So back to train of thought rambles…

Riding around on the 16 mph (yes I am a bit worried about my crazy chick cracking her head open on the pavement so before she even sets her little tush on the seat she will be donning a helmet), the wind blowing through my hair I had this awesome visual about driving along on a little Vespa on the streets of Rome. Ahhh, the beauty of daydreaming. Nevermind the 30 degree chill exacerbated further by the wind rushing as I drove on the sidewalks of my newish subdivision in the exurbs of Chicago….I was momentarily transformed into a younger version of me. A younger version, more exuberant and liberated of all adult commitments. Daydreaming…

It was then (with the wind chilling me to the bone) I realized then that the gift we are giving my daughter is not just transport down the street or to the park but the gift of freedom. Thinking about the small gift of freedom that this little pink machine allows her brings tears to my eye. My baby, whom I brought home 8 years and 1 day ago (and had a loss on what to do NOW…LOL) is growing up. Despite my inner longing to hold onto the little girl who loved princesses and My Little Pony® 😉 it is all changing. Life is dynamic, ever changing. Just as soon as you get used to the NOW the now changes and becomes something else.

To my little 8 year old…please, don’t forget to hold onto your childhood a bit as your rush onward through life. Remember the days you were able to ride your scooter to your friends’ homes and remember the freedom and fun of being eight.

xoxo, Mare

 

p.s. BLD peeps: your orders have come in and are going out today. Be on the look out!

p.s.p. ALMOST forgot to mention that I am forgoing the March planned Limited Edition Mini Sessions plan because I have recently partnered up with a boutique in downtown Naperville (Unique Bowtique) for a Marmalade Limited Edition Sessions event on Saturday April 12th (definitely the 12th, not the 5th as I had originally highlighted, typo…bad bad Mare). Details to follow. In the meantime feel free to stop in at Unique Bowtique starting later this week. I will have a few images up on display for anyone interested in going and checking out my work in person!

For kicks since you finally made it to the end of my rambles….

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  • marla carter - March 12, 2008 - 6:36 pm

    okay, you made me tear up at the whole taste of freedom thing. oh, i m so not ready for that….

I am overrun (in a good way) with one year old clients. I very much love it! One year olds are such fun, they *get* that someone is paying attention to them and sometimes they even ham it up for the camera, their little personalities are so obvious, their world is such a great place of discovery, what is not to love? Yesterday I had a session with a favorite of mine, Little Max, who just turned one! It was nice to see him again and it feels just like yesterday when he was this small:

Little M

…somehow he has grown in the past year, can you believe it? 🙂 Yesterday he was almost walking and on the cusp of mobility. It’s been very awesome to have the privilege of watching little Max grow. I honestly believe that it’s a an honor to be asked to come back time and time again to watch the progression of little teeny little to walker stage and so on. I really do feel like the luckiest gal ever. Enough rhetoric tho, where’s the pics of the one year old?

Almost Wide Awake (love the rug, don’t you?)

Up Against the Wall

A big thank you to K & J for allowing me to be a part of your lives in the course of the past year. I so very much enjoyed seeing you guys yesterday, there could not have been a more beautiful day in Lakeview for picture day. It was a lucky day all way round.

xoxo, Mare

 

p.s. Thank you to Anna for forwarding me this info, taken from the Chicagoist

We’ve read (and cried through) her diary and now we get a glimpse into her family photo album. “Anne Frank: A Photo Album” is on display at Ela Area Public Library in Lake Zurich. Funded from a state grant and brought in from the Anne Frank Center in New York, the exhibit features over 70 black and white photos taken by Anne’s father, Otto Frank, who was a talented amateur photographer. The exhibit chronicles Frank family life from when Anne was a baby all the way up until the family’s last summer together at home.

Forced into hiding in 1942 to escape Nazi bad guys, the Franks hid in an attic for two years before they were sent to concentration camps. Otto Frank was the only surviving member of the Frank family and reportedly gave his camera away and never took another picture again. The opening reception is this Sunday from 1-3pm, featuring guided tours, Jewish food, and performances by the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band. Yes, we know Lake Zurich is a bazillion miles away and there’s, like, basketball and stuff on TV but we think the trip out there is worth it for this exhibit. (And the latkes.) Ela Area Public Library is located at 275 Mohawk Trail in Lake Zurich [TRIB]

 

 

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  • caitlin domanico photography - March 3, 2008 - 6:54 pm

    That third picture! He’s so tiny!!!!!!

  • Elizabeth - March 5, 2008 - 8:00 am

    Little Max is a cutie.. and Oh that Anne Frank Photo album exhibit sounds incredible. .I would love to see that.

  • Wyndee - March 5, 2008 - 7:57 pm

    OH, what a cutie!! Love the cheeks!

  • Marianne - March 12, 2008 - 9:05 am

    He is a handsome little dude.

    E, I totally wish I could crash the Anne Frank exhibit and check it out. Life is throwing me busy curve balls this next month or so. 🙁 No time for fun. 🙂

  • Kelli - April 6, 2008 - 11:21 am

    Marm…
    I adore your work. These are beautiful as always.

…of the blogging kind!

🙂 Thanks to all of you who have sent me congratulatory wishes on the inclusion in the book mentioned in the blog post prior to this one. I guarantee you my images only comprise a fraction of what is within that text and yet I’m rather okay with that. I am still floating on cloud 9 about it.

(warning GEEK talk ahead):

Over the course of the past several weeks I have undertaken a rather large project, I’m giving my Mac Book Pro a split personality. I upgraded the OS to Leopard and installed Parallels on it in the hopes of getting Windows to work on it (it does). The point of all this is to install a program to work on it that is devoted to the studio owner. I kid you not when I quote the following amount of time: it has taken approximately 20 hours for me to get to this point of playing around with it, getting everything installed appropriately and now…and NOW…my (bleeping) printer won’t communicate with the computer via the wireless network. This is how I spent a number of days recently in my sick bed (did I mention I was down with bronchitis/laryngitis for several days). I have to say it feels like a challenge at this point, there HAS to be a way to make this work.

I find that with stuff like this (and coding blogs like I have done recently) is a muddling through process for me. It’s so obvious I really don’t KNOW what I’m doing but that I have just enough knowledge to make me dangerous. My nephew, Andrew who happens to be my computer go to guy, will 125% attest to this laugh at me when/if he reads this. It’s true. I muddle through. Sort of the blind leading the blind, except well, I see. 😀

That’s my newest and greatest news. Now that I’m feeling a bit better I am sitting upright and editing (couple sessions will have galleries released this week) and doing some picture ordering for clients and sending out orders. My apologies to anyone who I may have infected in my daily life (aka my family).

So what good is a post about sickness and computers without a picture? The following image was created several months ago for a photographers website site…the project required a photo of my workspace. Not much has changed (well I did clean it up but once again it’s a mess, and the Treo altho is still with me, I have added an iPhone to the fold as well).

The cluttered mind of Marmalade

 

Thanks for stopping in

xoxo, Mare

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(wow that sounds dirty and I don’t mean it to! LOL)

My copy is here! I ripped open the bag from Wiley Publishing almost the minute that I got it. It’s my first OFFICIAL published work (with hopes sent out to the universe for many more in the future)! I’m so giddy with excitement. A big thank you to the Bay Area’s Ginny Felch, who recruited me to be a part of this awesome work and to her co-author and pal of mine, Allison Tyler Jones, who has had her life changed by contributors Jeff & Julia Woods as much as my life has been changed by their brand of inspiration and art. I am honored to be present in this amazing group of photographers, some of whom I have met and known Stacey Wasmuth and Lisa Russo as well as other photographers whose work appears in this amazing text: Kim Heffington, Melanie Sikma, Laura Cottrill. I should mention that the Photo Workshop concept is a brainchild by the famous and wonderful Robert Farber.

Photographing Children: Photo Workshop

Needless to say I am without words (a first) and now I must go be excited and look through this amazing text.

Thanks for stopping in!

xoxo, Mare

 

 

p.s. On a much more solemn and serious note. I cannot turn my head without making a plea for these majestic and much needed animals. Today I rec’d notice from the Defenders of Wildlife that the Bush/Cheney Administration is stripping the vital federal protection for wolves in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Rockies area. This area and these animals hold a truly special place in my heart and under the existing management plans all but 300 wolves could be eliminated which would be a huge tragedy. Please, if you are lucky enough to be able to make a donation for whatever you can afford, please consider donating to help save our wolves. This often misunderstood creature has become a vital part to re-establishing the food chain balance in the area of its’ reintroduction.

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  • Connie Groah - February 21, 2008 - 3:12 pm

    Congratulations Mare! That is truly wonderful and hopefully the first of many publications! Can you tell us a bit more about what this book is about? I’d love to hear!

  • Lisa - February 21, 2008 - 6:53 pm

    Dang! I want a copy!!! Booo Hiss! LOL 😉

  • Elizabeth - February 22, 2008 - 11:11 am

    Oh my gosh.. congratulations on the mag..how awwwsommmeee for you.. wheeee

  • caitlin domanico photography - February 22, 2008 - 3:43 pm

    Congratulations!!!!

  • Marianne - February 23, 2008 - 12:00 pm

    thanks, it’s actually a book due out soon, like it might even be out already! LOL

  • Sinead - February 23, 2008 - 10:59 pm

    Congratulations! I’m so impressed with how far you’ve come since the old days on DWF. Your work is gorgeous. I’m going over to amazon.com right now to see if the book is available.

  • waynette - February 26, 2008 - 2:19 pm

    awesome Mare! You do have a great style. I can’t wait to see one.

  • Paige - February 26, 2008 - 8:30 pm

    I can’t pick one up at my local bookstore, Mare. Your work is so inspiring.

  • Julia - February 26, 2008 - 8:36 pm

    This is AMAZING!!! What an honor (so well-deserved, too) — HUGE congrats!!

  • Jen Lane - February 26, 2008 - 10:28 pm

    Oh how wonderful! Congratulations Mare!! I can’t wait to see the book irl!

  • Pam Biasotti - February 26, 2008 - 10:34 pm

    THAT IS SO AWESOME. Well deserved kudos for your talent and artistic vision.

    Congrats

  • Steph - March 5, 2008 - 7:06 am

    Congrats Mare! What a great accomplishment on top of what you have achieved already! I’ll be searching for that book today 🙂

  • Paula - March 6, 2008 - 3:19 pm

    I can’t believe I didn’t comment on this the first time I read this – but this is so freakin’ awesome, Mare! I am soooo proud of you!!!!!

  • Marianne - March 11, 2008 - 3:52 pm

    Oh thank you all so much. I’ve gotten a ton of emails and kind words sent my way re: this. Thanks for all the happy/well wishes.

  • Jessica - March 13, 2008 - 7:28 am

    I just ordered my copy! Congrats of the publish and can’t wait to see what’s inside! YAY!

This afternoon I had the pleasure of photographing the all too adorable (~swoon~ those eyes~) S. She is a beauty (and her parents aren’t too bad themselves!). And she kept me on my toes the.whole.time. It was a real pleasure to photograph her at 15 months of age. I love that her mom brought tons of clothes for us to play ‘dress-S-up’ in. Whoever said that doing sessions inside involves LESS running around then outside, well, they definitely did not have a 15 month old runner walker on their hands. 😀 So here it is, the sneak peek that is so anticipated that you can hardly help yourself. 🙂 Isn’t she a beauty?

Back Up Against the Wall

 

Blue Eyes

Thanks to S’s mom & dad for coming out from the Mokena area to play at the studio.

Check back for details on Ltd Sessions coming up! And oh…don’t forget, client Q&As are coming up (as soon as said Q&As are done by this blogger that has been chillaxing a bit too much on the Q&A front)

xoxo, Mare

 

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  • caitlin domanico photography - February 21, 2008 - 11:42 am

    what a sweetie!!!

  • Teya - April 4, 2008 - 5:24 pm

    Fabulous! You have a way of making every subject shine with soul – their own and yours together!

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