Once Upon

A couple of months ago, I showed you some snaps I did during my lunch break, a mini "Princess and the Pea" shoot.

What I was actually attempting that day was a short stop motion feature. It's taken me months to get around to putting it together-this is the result of rainy days on end and Jono being too sick to pay any attention to me.

Hope it makes you smile at least a little on this grey day.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/63858581 w=500&h=375]

Well, that's it. Happy Friday, peeps! I hope these lines find you full of weekend cheer.

p.s. Drawings in this are by The Anita Tamminga. I can't draw to save my life.

Black & White Is {Sexy}

Here is a little sneak peak I (Laynie) did with our photo intern Zach last week.

I liked the contrast of Gabbie's black outfit to the whiteness of the snow.

I liked the almost boudoir-esque feel to this shoot.

I loved Gabbie's eyes and make up but went with the black & white anyway, because sometimes simple is best.

{This is Zach, shooting some pics too.}

Okay, okay, 1 colour one just so you can see Gabbie's gorgeous eyes!

Kuljeet + Rajiv {engagement}

Here is a teaser video from Kuljeet and Rajiv's engagement celebration last week.

It was such an honor to document this gorgeous couple's special night.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/62014810 w=500&h=281]

Congrats you two! May your wedding in May be just as memorable.

Danielle & Jessica {Friends Forever}

Since Jess was coming to visit her over March break, Danielle got the fabulous idea for them to have a photo shoot. They left their men at home but brought the little ones (who will inevitably also be friends forever) to do an all-girls photo shoot last week.

We went for a funky "Spring Snow" feel and loved working with all their brightly-coloured props.

These two gorgeous gals brought me a yummy vanilla latte to start off our shoot and I loved every (freezing!) minute of our time together. What do you think, Ladies, should we make this an annual tradition?!

You can LIKE our photo page for future shoots and updates!

I love this one! Look at their eyes.

We needed multiple "warm up" moments in between shots.

I love these!

A-you are just sooooooo freaking cute.

I mean, come on, some of these belong in a magazine.

Blue eyes!

*Magazine.*

Love, love these.

...not all of our moments were happy.

But that's okay. All our memories of this shoot are now fond. Right, ladies?!

Come back and see me sooooon. And don't forget the latte!

xx.

A-B-C, 1-2-3

My friend Rebecca (HI, Rebecca) is the only one who has asked me about the "6 creative projects" I put on my "To Do" list I blogged a couple of weeks ago. To be honest, I really didn't have much of a plan when I wrote that down. I just love creating and love the challenge of new things.

So for my first project, I decided to document our life, alphabet style.

Here goes, a glimpse into our lives, in the simplest of ways.

A-Apartment. We LOVE our cozy home.

B-Books. My reading list is always eclectic.

C-Cup. Shirley gave this teacup for my birthday last year and I love, love drinking out of it. Every single morning...and some afternoons.

D-Dollars. We’ve been saving up since we got married for a trip to Australia and New Zealand in a mason jar. As you can see, it is slow going.

E-Equipment. Hello, Canon. We love our babies. Can you guess who's bag this is?

F-Flame. We are addicted to our candles and burn them almost every night.

G-Grimes we are.

H-Hoodies. We are gangsta like that.

I-Iphones. Even though we “only” have the 4 and the 4s (finally upgraded!) we’re not going to lie-they are pretty addicting. #helloinstagram

J-JOY. In January we each chose one word we wanted to define this year. We both, separately, chose JOY. May it be so.

K-”King Jon.” Just one of my pet names for the hubs.

L-Laynie. Enough said.

M-Macleans. Jono gave me a year’s subscription for my birthday and I’m constantly reading them in an attempt to stay up on the times.

N-Napkins. We only have cloth. Let's just say that this is the one place in our lives an iron  would be convenient. (Sorry Chris and Chuck.)

O-Owls. Sister made these for us. I.LOVE.THEM.

P-Photos. We have the everywhere. Shocker.

Q-Quilt. Shirley made a quilt for us as a wedding gift and we keep it on our bed all the year-round.

R-Robe. King Jon loves strutting around the apartment in his warm plaid. He is camera shy in The Robe though, so this is the best photo I got.

S-Shelf. We got a few pieces of our furniture off the side of the road and this is our fave...though we can’t move it an inch even if we want to.

T-Thanksgiving Tree. We had this at our wedding with a note to “write something you are thankful for” and despite the audacity of one soul’s “penis” we’ve displayed it in our bedroom ever since.

U-is for...either Underwear or US. Jono voted for "underwear." I'm going to stick with "US."

V-Vent. We have a couple of these bad boys in our apartment and pretend they are artsy.

W-Wine with dinner? Yes, please. We made 90 bottles bottles last year and have already given away or drank half of them. Mostly given away, we promise.

X-eXtra gum. eXcel flavour. We love our gum and minty fresh breath.

Y-YWAMy. It got it’s nickname from Jono because I brought it into our marriage all the way from my YWAM days. It is my favorite blanket on so many levels and it is perfect for almost any temperature. Jono gets jealous.

Z-Zenfolio. The site we use to host our online gallery for our clients.

And there you go-the alphabet-soup life of Grime.

Happy weekend y'all.

xx.

Say Whaaa?

Jono and I were recently on a late-night walk with our dear friend Pastor Mat-whom I respect ever so much- when I decided to pick his brain.

I asked Mathu for help in my life. I love the simple but sometimes things just get crazy up in the Grime world. And I am not always sure why.

He said, "You need to organize your life," and I sputtered for 2 dramatic offended seconds because I have more TO-DOs and Lists than any other person I know.

Why would I need to organize my life??!

And then I realized... he is right.

When I am deeply honest, some days I run around like a crazy person and no one-including me-is at peace. I hate those days. So TO DO lists or not, something needed to change.

Frankly, a huge part of the problem is that I am neither a cat nor a Hindu, though the convenience of having multiple lives is quite clear to me. There is just So Much I long to see, experience, do and be a part of in this lifetime.

Since I can't have 9+ lives, I tend to fill, fill, fill my days to the max, only to discover I'm not really living after all- I'm only busy. My hours are filled, but I'm empty, not full.

So I decided to humbly take Mat's advice and organize my life. I am guarding my schedule carefully so my days will be full of peace and JOY and not just full of stuff to do, do, DO.

That conversation was about 2 months ago and I have to say that I have been so happy in the weeks since then. I've slowed down, breathed a bit more and dreamed about our life this year.

I put "reading and personal growth time" into my weekly schedule and some much-needed ME time. I left a couple of spots a week open to grab a coffee with a friend. (Any takers?) I am leaving more than 5 minutes between my "To-Dos" so I'm not always rushing from one thing to the next.

I have heaps to learn, of that I'm sure. But I'm doing it from a happy place of serenity.

So I guess I'll seize my one life and live each day fully, happily wherever I am. I will be here now.

This is me skyping with an out-of-town wedding client yesterday. Don't I look so legit?

She actually said, "You sound so professional!" And it made me smile.

Fortunately our lack of home internet means I get to have fun meetings like this from the comfort of our dear local Starbucks. Amen.

{Girls}

I met these girls a couple of weeks ago while I was teaching in Kona, Hawaii. When a scheduled photo shoot was cancelled, we decided on a whim to do a creative shoot with these lovely ladies.

The girls and I started out with a "vintage" theme...but in the end it kind of just veered towards "gorgeous girls" and that was that.

These girls are so sweet-beautiful on the inside and out. I loved our wee shoot and wish we could have done a few more. Next time we see each other, Ladies?!

Alright then, it's a date.

xx.

This one is for all their moms.

I LOVE  these.

This is one of my absolute FAVES.

Selena was appointed the creative director for our wee shoot.

Foxey Family {Photos of the Family}

I [Layne] met Christian and Sharee 3 years ago while we were all working for PhotogenX in Kona. Since then, we've worked together, attended meetings together (hehe), and Christian, Annie & I all worked together with the 2011 PhotogenX track a couple of years ago...

And now we grab coffee or a treat every few months when we are in the same town and enjoy some good conversation. This year we got extraordinarily inspired and added "family photo shoot!" to our list of activities. Haha.

Ms. Maiya and Baby Elijah are sooooooo cute and obviously Christian and Sharee modeled {or should have} at some point in their gorgeous lives. So we persevered despite a bit of rain and a bit of a sleepy babe. {Elijah, not Jonathan.}

I am happy with how the shoot turned out, if I do say so myself.

Love you, Foxes!

{Maiya's message to...the world?!}

Later that night, Sharee and I slipped out for dessert and coffee on the edge of the ocean. {Yes, my life is ridiculous. I know that.} One of my Very Favorite Things about this dear friend is that I leave all of our interactions feeling full of hope and with renewed dreams. Sharee is one of the most peaceful, centered, honest souls I know. Sharee- I am grateful to know you! So excited to see you again in May. :)

And then I met George.

My friend Esther (she's so great) has long dreamed of being a mom and last year she and her hubs, Max, became pregnant with their first. Or wait-how do I say that? ..."announced they were expecting their first"? Hmmmm.

I digress.

We spent many a coffee date last year dreaming together about their coming wee babe. She was due at the end of December so we were hoping we could greet Baby before we left...but George didn't come until a week after we left.

I finally got to meet him this week and he is absolutely delightful. He even smiled when I tapped his cheek and cooed "Ah, he's soooo cute." Translation: He understands me and we are sure to be good friends in the coming years.

And Esther is already such a good mum-it was so fun to see her in this new role.

Aggggh, he's just SO CUTE.

Let's just say that L squared {Lulu + Layne} don't seem to have the natural motherly instinctives that seem to come to easily to moms like Esther.

She tried to help us, but....

Sigh.

Don't judge me by this photo-please, please still let me hold your babies. I love them...just maybe more than they love me.

Seth & Kayla {after shoot}

Seth and Kayla have a beautiful story involving years of friendship, a sad breakup, months apart and handwritten letters.

We did their after shoot on a gorgeous grey day in Idaho and had so much fun exploring the wild with these two lovely souls.

CONGRATS, Seth and Kayla. We are sooo happy for you and can't wait for another photo/sandwich date. Let's dream of next week?

xx.

{Their first wee home.}

And We're Back!

Okay, I have to confess that as we went to bed to a snowing world last night, I begged Jonathan to declare a "Grime Family snow day" for Wednesday. But he seemed to think that we should work today since we've been away for a full two months.

My response? Hmmmph.

In the end we compromised on "lazy, lazy morning and work commences at noon." Man, we love being self-employed!

We lived it up this a.m. with blankets, Americanos and "Big Bang Theory" in bed. (Thank you Shirley Grime for this Christmas gift!)

And...I at least put my nose the grindstone at 12:03 exactly. What a life.

And now-my TO DO list awaits.

It goes something like this:

to do in next two weeks:

enjoy Jonathan

enjoy Lulu

enjoy life

clean apartment

make Lulu welcome basket

edit:

Thomasons

girls

Seth/Kayla

Foxes

P & P stop motion

melby & chris

blog:

Thomasons

girls

Seth/Kayla

Foxes

something funny

something funny

something inspirational (dreaming?)

something funny

track stuff:

book Pastor

book Luke

balance budget

2012 grades

email 2012

email 2013

email Kyle

email Sarah

email Andrew/Anita

email our friends re. yardsale

write grants

write Nikon

write Canon

October or April start date?

find staff!

go through all of notes with Paulie & do

logistical staff manual for staffers

email Paul re. Track degree

email Texas!

JonoLaynie:

update/tweak website

upload more?

set dates for interns

a photo a day

think of 6 creative projects for the spring

watch SEO thingy

lunch with Rick!

personal:

taxes! 

enjoy time together

send off passport

respond to emails

meet George/see Esther

something with Alyssa

get drivers license

apply for OHIP

organize my life

go for walks

Grime family budget

book Ottawa

EMAIL MELANIE ABOUT SKYPE

How is your "To Do" list coming?

Meet our Thomasons.

We got home last evening and (embarrassingly early bedtime aside) have spent the last half day getting re-settled into our life. Grocery shopping, post office, un-packing our bags and apartment, business phone calls....

But I (Layne) snuck away this afternoon to check out the free coffee McDonald's is giving away all week (what? You know I like a deal) and actually spend an hour online. It's been awhile and I think my computer misses me.

It seems fitting for our first blog back to be a sneak peak of a family shoot we did with some of our Very Favorite People while we were traveling.

We are a bit behind on posting our shoots (something about "living in the moment"), but we'll catch up soon!

World, meet Mat, Aimee, Kindle & baby (bump).

We LOVE you guys! Here's to foreverrrrrrr.

He is just soooo good looking.

I love this series!

We did a whole series of Kindle's faces.

{Why, Hello Layne nostril.} BFFssssssss.

I mean seriously-can a family get any cuter?!

"I wanna be a millionaire so stinkin' bad..."

We'd buy Joseph a car-and Mat & Aimee too,

Give Chris & Mel money for a house downpayment as a wedding gift,

Buy my mom a house so she wouldn't need to get a second job,

Pay fees for all the V for V DTS students,

Build a few homes for the orphans of Swaziland,

Surprise our friends with plane tickets (to come see us of course),

Buy a few tons of food for the people who need it the most,

Give $100,000 to help rehabilitate the former militants of Nigeria,

...and treat our friends to coffee every single day. Obviously.

Just saying. I think it would be pretty darn rad.

There is a Korean Chorus right outside our window as I write this....

Meet the Voice for the Voiceless media school. Aren't they cute? I know. I've been pretty happily looking at their faces all week. 

Today is our last day together, so we wanted you to meet. We've been talking all week about identity, dreaming and destiny.

Pretty big stuff, right?

It's been fun.

And Jono has been teaching photography, Photoshop and Illustrator in the afternoons-equally big topics on another scale.

We promise we'll write funny entries next week, you'll pee-your-pants funny.

But for now-HAPPY WEEKEND.

x.

To Be Honest.

{Because we should always be honest, right?} it's been a bit hard for me to blog while we are away on this tropical paradise.

I mean, come on-great chunks of my day are already filled with teaching (which I am Loving-the class is great-but more on this later) and meetings galore. I crave play time in all my free hours.

But, just because I'm excited about this shoot-here is a sneak peak from an after shoot we did we the adorable Seth and Kayla while we were in Couer d'Alene last week.

{We'll catch up on our postings next week!}

Oh man, just look at that sign. You know this is going to be good!

HELLO, Hawaii.

Okay, so....we have only actually been to the beach once this week, for a sunset picnic....not as romantic as it sounds as there were about 30 other people around.

Layne is teaching every morning and I am teaching every afternoon.

Blah, blah, blah.

And yeah, here are some photos!

The Mama in her Greene Shorts.

Orange Tree. (Anne-Layne wants to know where you are for all these guilty pleasures.)

You know you are on a YWAM base when...

you hear saxophone lessons to the tune of "Jesus Loves You" on the front lawn in the middle of the afternoon.

Mama + beer...=giggles. Correlation? Tarryn serenaded us all at the BBQ.

What a stud.

 For a strict photojournalist, Laynie gets semi-taken with sunset photos.

This photo was found on the board in Mama's room. Note who is cut of the photo. Should I be offended? Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Shut.Up.

{Lucas L., I think you especially will appreciate this story.}

We Grimes love simplicity, but sometimes, quite frankly, things get complicated. ...Like the time a few months ago when I {Layne} tried to book our tickets for this trip from Redding to Spokane to Kona to home. Six hours later...I got off my third phone call with a United agent 30% frustrated {working on my kindness level peeps} with Jono + Laynie getting to Kona on separate flights.

Sigh. Despite the inconvenience, we have since accepted the inevitable and hugged each other goodbye at 4:30 this a.m. when Jonathan left to catch his flight.

I went back to sleep for two more hours before I headed to the airport alone. {How did he end up on the 6 a.m. flight and I on the 8:50 a.m. one? Hmmm. Sorry babes!}

...I arrived at my gate about half an hour before we were supposed to take off...only I couldn't actually get to my gate because of the masses of people standing in my way, so I went next door for a coffee instead.

Then they announced they were giving away vouchers for people to fly to Kona tomorrow instead of today. This wasn't an option for me as I'm teaching tomorrow, so I ignored them until they paged me to the podium by name 3 times.

It turns out that right before flight time, the planes got switched and United was suddenly 100 seats short for people who want to get to Hawaii today. Oops.

Before I knew it, I was being handed a first class ticket to Kona for later today.

Settling in for the long haul.

Whaaaa?

My gate 2 minutes before the plane was supposed to take off. Like I said, it was insane.

So to re-cap:

On the downside:

I now have a 8-hour day at the San Francisco airport.

I land in Kona 5 hours later than originally scheduled.

On the upside:

I get to fly to Hawaii first class. (?!) Why hello dinner with wine.

Jonathan and I have a $500 travel voucher to use in the next year. I'm sure we can make this happen.

I have a $15 food voucher to spend on treats today. (I would have asked for more but...well, I'd already bought breakfast anyway.)

I have a day to catch up on my inbox, etc.

I now have a direct flight from San Fran to Kona instead of having a layover in Honolulu.

The airport has free wi-fi.

I have my blanket, laptop and hours of music on my computer.

...I'm pretty sure I came out ahead today.

....8 hours later...I caved and asked for a second food voucher. And then I had to spend the whole $20.

Who Am I?

Jonathan thought I was joking, but I {happily} bought this toiletry bag while running errands with Aimee yesterday.

I really don't know what possessed me, but the red bow could not be resisted. Just look at that shine.

I.love.it.

Though I must tell you that I do not own even an ounce of leopard print outside of this, I swear! Jessica Simpson knows what's up.

I am high rolling these days, peeps. Just saying.

You Know You Are in Idaho When....

We've had an amazing week with the family in Idaho-slow days of conversation, catching up with a side of work. Just the way we like it. The is Jono's first official time in the Great State that is Idaho, and it feels as if we've both been seeing the place with new eyes. Some things we've discovered.

You know you are in Idaho when...

-there is excessive beauty everywhere. We had the most wonderful drive south earlier in the week to surprise Aunt D and Uncle Shawn.

-you find guns chilling in your bedroom....

-you are surrounded my animal heads and skins....

-target practice is the standard afternoon fare...

{meet Uncle Shawn & Aunt Deanne!}

-you get into a vehicle and the keys are still in the ignition from the night before {at least in small towns like Craigmont}....

We head out to Kona over the next two days, but we are so entirely grateful for our week in this place of peace.

p.s. We love these Thomasons. More photos of them to come!

And one last thing-

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/59764892 w=500&h=281]

Happy Valentines Day and all That.

First of all, we are Very Happy to announce that our free wedding photography contest has at last come to a close for 2013. The winners this year are the very adorable Chelsea and Daniel. We are excited to document their upcoming September wedding. Stay tuned for more photos of these two!

Now you should know that we Grimes don't celebrate Valentine's Day as a general rule...but I guess we made an exception this year. Jonathan surprised me with a full set of swim regalia. {We got a giftcard to the pool for Christmas.} He didn't exactly say I looked beautiful...but I think he was proud that I will at least look legit?

A face only a mother could love? Hmmm.

I got Jono an adorable (if I do say so myself) book of date coupons. He even said we can take turns choosing the coupon we use each week-I think that meant he likes it.

Here are a few of our upcoming dates:

You can make and order your own date book here. So happy night, y'all. I hope you are getting your fill of chocolate and kisses.

Here are a few from us Grimes-xxxxxxxx.