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Why Have We Never Done This Before?!

Jeff and I are doing something right now that we’ve never attempted because it quite honestly hasn’t crossed our minds. We’re heading up to Santa Barbara for an engagement shoot today on the train. It’s like… so cool. For all of you east coasters out there that may be scoffing at my train naivety, Southern California is not your public transportation kind of place – it’s cars, cars, and more cars. The few train routes that are offered only hit certain big stops so it’s not the most convenient mode of transport. But Jeff and I have so many friends…

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What We’ve Been Up To…

Gah. This happens to me every year. I let a week slip by without posting anything on the blog. It doesn’t mean we’re being lazy and ignoring the blog while holed up in Hawaii or anything… Oh wait. It actually does. And it’s totally messed me up. Jeff and I were in Kona, Hawaii, for a week and we let ourselves unplug from our email, phones, blog, and internet. It was delicious. We beach-hopped and bar-hopped our way around the island and for a few days my body didn’t believe me that I was actually serious about the whole relaxing…

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Board Game Engagement, Sneak Peek
Plus Giveaway Winner!

Happy Friday dear bloggy-blog! We’re sending you off into the weekend with a sneak peek that will melt your heart from Chris and Nicole’s board game themed engagement session at Balboa Park. Just wait until you see the full session next week – these two are huge board game lovers and bike riders, so they rocked the props with Scrabble, Risk, Bananagrams, playing cards, Stratego, books, wine, a picnic blanket, AND a sweet red Schwinn tandem bike. Say it with me everybody – “HOLLA!”     But that’s not all we have for you today. We have a winner for…

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In Light of My Recent Cooking Skilz…

After my awesome finger slice in the kitchen last week, my dearest hubby surprised me with a gift from Amazon. I feel soooooo legit. The back of the tag has a big caution warning: “This glove is cut resistant and not cut proof.” So basically it’s just Erin-resistant but not Erin-proof… I’ll still take it. Which reminds me, don’t forget to enter the latest giveaway at this post here to win the most darling oven mitt set from Sur La Table. Happy commenting everyone! Hugs, Erin

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A Week in Our Life: Saturdays

(I’m writing a short series on the blog about a week in the life of The Youngrens. This is the fourth installment – read the entire series here.) Because we specialize in weddings, our weekends are reserved for those special events, so we don’t schedule any other shoots on the weekends – no engagement sessions, no random projects – nothing. Weekends are for two things and two things only – weddings and normal life. So if we’re not shooting a wedding, Saturdays are scooter days. They’re laundry days. They’re cleaning, organizing, grocery shopping days. They’re randomly drop in on our friends for…

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The Klutz Chronicles + Sur La Table Giveaway!

I’m in the process of learning how to cook. Like how to really cook with technique and stuff, because I’m a five-foot-nine gangly klutz with a brain full of hot air when I’m in the kitchen. I’ve dropped, burned, cut, dried out, over cooked, undercooked, and over spiced so much food that it could feed a small country. And I’m sure they wouldn’t eat any of it. Just an example: Jeff and I were on an intense green smoothie kick for a while, where we would drink smoothies made of spinach and fruit. We even bought one of those commercial grade…

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Frosting Sandwiches To Go

This next part of our love story has only come up in conversation one time. Not because it’s embarrassing or private, but because I’m at the point in our story where the saga of how we met ends and the tale of how we fell in love begins. The version of how we met that we usually tell people in typical conversation doesn’t go beyond that amazing first date. Everything beyond that is summed up in, “ after that first date we dated for two years, were engaged for six months, and married in June of 2006.” So this is…

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The Stolen Journal

I started my first journal in the seventh grade. It was a wide-ruled yellow notebook leftover from sixth grade english. Every night in my blue flannel pajamas, hair pulled back and zit cream on my face, I would dump my pre-teen soul onto it’s spiral bound pages, dishing all of the latest middle school gossip and lining the margins with doodles that I learned from the cool kids in class – the pre-digital era emoticons of my junior high days. I wrote about the best and worst moments of my daily life. Nothing in between. As a twelve year-old, there…

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David Toney’s Broken Hallelujah
A Dreamer and Doer

Dream big dreams. And then do it. Jeff here – hijacking the blog for the day Last fall I got an e-mail from my friend David (pronounced ‘dah-veed’) with a link to a Kickstarter page. He had a big dream of finally recording and producing a worship album, and the only way his dream could come true would be if his community supported the dream. David is a ridiculously talented musician fascinated with odd instruments, Apple products, and good (really good) beer. Now you know why we’re friends… I worked with David on the photography and album art for his…

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