A friend of mine owned a small candle making business and had a scent called Monkey Farts. (Actually she was my also my very first paid photography session over 6 years ago anyways…)It is one of my all time favorite candle scents and once and awhile when I need someone to smile I just say “Monkey Farts” and they can’t help but put a smile on their face (plus I like saying Monkey Farts.

Well, I have alittle problem, someone else (also a friend) owns the company now and is making the Monkey Fart scent but she calls it Monkey Butt.  Well, Monkey Butt is funny but not as funny as Monkey Farts.  So I am gonna plea to her to change the name back to Monkey Farts.

So go to my facebook page (business one) and leave a comment saying to change the name.

CLICK HERE TO GET TO MY FACEBOOK PAGE (it’s my photography page)

And here is what the candle looks like right now as it is burning sitting on top of my desk smelling my home with the scent of Monkey Butt Farts.

PS  If you want some awesome soy candles call LeAnn at 574-225-2373.  (make sure you ask for the monkey farts scent  because it is the best.  Oh and the grandma’s kitchen one is good too especially for people like me that don’t bake. LOL)

If I get her to change the scent name I will buy someone that commented a Monkey FART candle.  I will pick the winner out of the list of people that help me.  So get on facebook and comment under the post to CHANGE IT BACK TO MONKEY FARTS!

My neighbor called me up the other day said he wanted a photo of him and his wife similar to the American Gothic painting.  I am always up for fun photo shoots.  We changed it up alittle.  Here is one of the images from the shoot.

THANK YOU to all those that came out to the book signing.  The library staff told me we had over 80 in attendance.  It was awesome to see people that didn’t have kid’s in the book there.  Also really cool to have Ted Hayes from WKVI there.  Listen for his report on the event at 99.3FM.  He interviewed Samantha, Brandon, Jared and Maggie.  The kids did an awesome job during the interview.  Okay let me just show you some pictures….

Cover of the Book

Maggie signing books.

She just recently turned 4 and look how good she can print her name.  Her and Jared are super smart kids.  (they take after their cousin Jayme huh LOL)

Ted Hayes asking Maggie what her dad’s hobby is.  She said “cuddling with me”.

Mr. Hayes met his match with my son. Let’s hope his interview doesn’t make the cut for the radio.  LOL

My nephew Mason was there with his best friend Kylee.

One last picture.  My kiddos with Maggie and Jared.  They are such hams.  Look at them posing for the camera.

I will be posting an online version of the book in the next week or so.   I will post a link to it here on the blog.  Also don’t forget the two books that were signed by the kids will be up for auction.  The first will be in the silent auction at the Starke County Relay for Life on June 11th at the Hamlet Fair Grounds.  The second will be in December on WKVI’s radio auction for Starke United.  Let’s spread the word and try to get some big money raised for these two events.

Some thank yous….  Thanks Starke County Library Staff for letting us hold our book signing there.  Thanks WKVI and Ted Hays for coming out and supporting us.  Thanks to my mom (Debbie Jernas) for helping, Thanks Samantha for passing out little packs of coloring books and crayons, Thanks Bob for being in charge of the snacks and well for putting up with me in general because that is a big job.  Thanks Rachel for speaking to everyone at the event and for being such a great inspiration.  And BIG thanks to all the kids that are in the book and to their parents for allowing them to be a part of this special project!

Kid’s Quote Book Release Party at Starke Co. Library in Knox April 22nd 5pm

The books will be in my hands very soon!!!  I ordered one book, had Rachel look it over and make some changes and then put the order in.  So I should be getting them soon.

First off, incase you have no clue what I am talking about… I have created a kid’s book that is called…  ”No Fear”  The Silly, Sweet and Inspirational Things Kids Say.  It bring awareness to Neuroblastoma (the cancer my little cousin Maggie has) and it also has pictures of local kids and some questions we asked them along with what they had to say.  I am very proud of the book.  It turned out better then I expected.  I can’t wait to get it everyone’s hands.   So that is why I am making this blog post….

Thursday April 22, 2010 at 5pm central time at the Knox Library I will have a book signing for the kids that are featured in the book and of course the public is welcome and encouraged to support all these kiddos.  I want the kids to sign 2 books for me.  One will be auctioned off at the Starke County Relay for Life and the other will be auction off for the Starke United during their radio auction.  I know some kids are too young to write their name but we can just trace their hand or something fun like that.

Oh and if you can’t be there at 5:00 don’t worry I will be there until at least 6pm and if you need to meet up with me a different day then that is fine.   I would like to take a group picture of all the kids that are there, I would like to do that around 5:15ish, but that is alot of kids and not sure how that will go.  We can try though, and if it doesn’t happen no biggie.

I know you guys can’t wait to see the book, here is a picture.

LOL  Sorry that is all you are going to see until the release party.  Well, I might be nice and post some more pictures when I get the rest in, depends on what kind of sharing mood I am in.  I will tell you this though, every kid featured in the book is on the cover.

Oh one more thing… I got to see Maggie and her family at Easter.  It was so nice to have their entire family at one of our family functions.  Rachel and Maggie haven’t been able to attend anything since last Easter.

Starke Memorial Hospital’s operating room.

The staff was wonderful to work with.  Can’t wait to do more projects in the future.

Last night my friend Nichole and I went to the Professional Photographers of America Tour in Chicago, IL.  We seen Allison and Jeff Rodgers and the awesome Gary Fong.  We had a blast.   Here are some pictures from last night…

We went to the wrong hotel… We had no clue there was two Hyatt’s within 1 mile of each other.  (crazy)  At the wrong hotel there was a Coleman Expo going on, so we crashed it….  Here is me trying to look cool….

Here is poor Nichole, this guy was giving her stuff to put on…

Yeah she is wearing waist high wadders and still looks hot…

And here are some shots of the speakers.  (sorry not the best, we sat towards the back)  I shouldn’t even post the one of Jeff and Allison because they look so sad, actually they were just listening to questions from the crowd.

Huge thanks to Nichole for asking me to go with her.  I am so lucky to have awesome photography friends.  I also seen  my friend Cathy Dietz and her hubby there. (they went to wrong hotel too, he he)

And for the record yes we learned stuff while we were there.  I have lots of new ideas and can’t wait to implement them.  Stay tuned folks!

I really enjoyed this shoot.  Theses girls crack me up.   I took a video clip of them dancing that I will post on facebook for them.  Wes I posted the chicken picture on here just for.

Journey wasn’t in the mood for pictures yesterday morning.  She was a stinker.  She is just way to smart.  She didn’t fall for my usual tricks I use to get kids to smile, well I guess she did a few times but unfortunately she had gum in her mouth and kinda’ had a crazy smile.  I told Brooke that Journey is sooo much like Samantha at that age.  Oh how Brooke is gonna have fun times for sure.  Sorry girl wish I could help ya, that’s what happens when you have smarty pants kids.

Oh and I have to share this cute quote from her questions….

What is dancing?  Something daddy doesn’t do.

Sisters!

I seen Noey at story time today and she said she had fun taking pictures.

Nani & Noey are going to be in the kid’s quote book.  Noey goes to the library for storytime with my son Brandon.

LOVE this cute little baby smile  :)

This next picture makes me want to curl up and take a nap.

Well Gretchen wasn’t as good for her photo shoot as her big sis was when I did her pictures.  We still got lots of good ones, and she is so darn cute.  Congrats on the new baby girl.

Meet my new friend Lindsay….

Lindsay is a cool kid.  I had fun hanging out with her in the studio.  We talked photography for awhile.  She takes photography in 4-H.  I hope I helped her out some and didn’t totally confuse her.  I tried to come up with some project ideas for her to do this summer.  I can’t wait to see what she ends up doing.

Here are a couple more ideas I have for ya Lindsay and for any other kids that want ideas of what to take pictures of….

1.  Pets (get down on your tummy and snap pictures from their level, or maybe don’t take pictures of them but of the view from a pet’s perspective)

2. Family (follow around a family member for the day and document what they do at work, at their hobby.  This would be especially fun if you have a little brother or sister.)

3.  Your Town (take pictures of buildings close up and far away, act like you are doing a documentary)

4.  Long term project… document the seasons.  Pick a location near your house  or maybe even your house and snap a picture of it every month.

Have fun with photography kids!!  Let me know if any one out there actually takes my advise and does any of these projects.  I would totally feature them on the blog.

Their mom is a vintage kinda’ gal and asked me to make some of the images vintage, which isn’t really my style but thought it would be fun to play around. Here we go..