Field to Fork on the Blue Bank Farm

It's the dead of winter and Mingus and I are still eating fresh kale from our wonderful garden.

While it may not look quite as magnificent in January as it does in from May through August but its products are just as delightful--if not more delightful due to their rarity alone! Fresh greens in the winter! Who'd have thunk it!

It's also amazing that just two years ago we looked at that field of dead weeds that had not been gardened in 10 or so years and said, "Let's bring this to life again." 

And so we did and in a matter of months we were blessed with a bountiful harvest.
 

1 down, Oh-So-Many To Go!

Incredible how quickly a year passes these days. I can only imagine how quickly they will move in another 50 years.

And just like that I've been married to my wonderful Mingus for a year.

This was a snippet of the year-end video I made for my family last Christmas about the wedding (thus being primarily photos of my immediate family, but I still wanted to share). I'm unsure of whether or not YouTube let's the music play, so please tell me if is silent!

It fell on a Monday, since it was a leap year, which is less than ideal for any anniversary, let alone your very first one! But it was magnificent nonetheless.

After spending the entire week prior reminiscing of the flurry of last minute prep the week leading up to the wedding, we began our anniversary weekend with a trip to Indiana for another family member's wedding. They picked the BEST weekend...if I do say so myself!

Andrew & Jessica

We took our time driving home Sunday, taking in all of the beautiful fall colors on our drive. We stopped by Huber's Winery--always a festive, fun place this time of year--as well as a trip to Target to... wait for it.... Use wedding gift cards! Yes, we have some still unused! Being that we live so far out, we don't make regular trips to a lot of places--such as Target. While I could have used them on one of my work trips to Louisville, I didn't want to spend them without his input (or I may have come home with hots and onesies...). Lucky for us, their gift cards don't expire! We're now fully prepared to still eat hot cooked meals during winter power outages with our Coleman stove!

Last day as "newly weds" in our first year of marriage.

Monday began less than perfect with both of us feeling rather under the weather. (I'll spare you details...) He rested most of the day and I worked from home... then I had to cover volleyball district games (working from 9-9 on your anniversary isn't what anyone wants), but Mingus came with me just to have the extra time together.

We ended the night breaking into our wedding cake topper. We let it sit out all day to thaw from its year in the freezer and I have to say, after a year, it was still quite delicious! We ate it on plates of our fancy pants china we have yet to really use and also opened a bottle of Greystone Cellars wine from the wedding. We looked through our wedding album and laughed a lot.

I discovered the face-detect feature on my camera for the first time
which resulted in a mini-photo shoot during our cake part!

I love my Wonderful with all of my heart and have loved the simplicity we have shared in this past year. He always puts me first and I am continuously amazed at how life-giving he is to me yet still acts like he does so little. Life far and away in the middle of Kentucky's knobs with just the two of us playing outside, getting dirty and taking on life's daily adventures is my kind of heaven.

My Wedding on a Budget: 50 Days to Go!

Videography: CHECK!
Sort of... I decided to not do a videographer and instead invest money in a video camera. There were several reasons for this decision.

1. Videos of people's weddings are always fun and cool but I feel like there is so much they leave out.
2. Videographers usually leave before the end of the night and the latter part of the reception is some of the most fun!
3. I want the raw footage to be able to edit and have fun with myself!
4. I can have this camera passed around all day from start to finish and I am going to ask Uncle Jerome and Aunt Janet to borrow their flip cam so the boys can have one for pre-wedding activities. (I'll probably put Deutsch in charge of that.)
5. We'll have a video camera to take on the honeymoon with us.
6. It's much cheaper (I didn't get anything fancy) and I can continue to use this investment.

I looked for awhile deciding on what to get. I really liked the idea of the small and simple flip cam but the drawback for me was that they have internal memory. The best one you could get is a 8 GB which holds approx. 4 hours of footage. Knowing that the ceremony itself could be over an hour plus you have some pre-wedding fun and then toasts and so on and so forth. Four hours may be plenty but I want to have plenty. This camera has a small amount of internal memory but has a slot for memory cards, which means I can buy as many as I want and have plenty, plenty of time for footage. I went with a Toshiba Camileo S30 full HD. It's very small and sleek. Not top of the line by any means but the good news is it was only just over $100. I originally looked into it because I found a deal for it for only $50. Unfortunately the deal ended up a little while ago and I couldn't take advantage but it sold me on that camera and then I found the new version of it and what the heck...gotta just check things off the list and make decisions!

Sara and Gress's Rehearsal and Dinner were tonight!! I cannot believe their big day is finally here! It's been a long time coming and I'm very excited to celebrate with them!

College Buzz Promo with Sarah East!

Sarah and I gave the FN Crazy fans a little briefing on The College Buzz. Thought I should share it here too. Hopefully there will be some actual material to show you! (And, YES, I know I am chewing gum and I shouldn't have been. I realized this as soon as Sarah and I watched it after videoing, but this was a courtesy shout-out--and I'm not a professional in front of the camera--another reason I stay behind it!)

College Buzz nearly ready for its launch!

While I am no longer spending my days working on FN Crazy, I am more than pumped to not be done with web video and the awesome people I've been working with through it. I'll let you in on a little project that has been in the works for a few months now...

Back in November I met with Bellarmine's communications office--where I previously held an internship while a student. With my involvement with web video they contacted me to express their ideas and interest in creating a show of their own. Being that through VuPal I already had the resources and connections to produce such a video, we decided to work out a business deal through Rob's company, Jotzel Media, which also produced PopCrunch.

We are on the verge of launching the pilot episode of the College Buzz. The website has yet to be developed but I'm hoping to gain some following on Twitter and YouTube (as well as other video sites) until then.

A big thanks has to go out to my VuBallers and their willingness to take on a new adventure with me: Joe Bennett (writer), Jay Bowman (Director), Sarah East (Talent/Host), Luke Stallard (Editor).