It’s a well-documented fact that I run a little more than a little behind in most of my blogging efforts. And to date, I have always gone about back-dating posts to have them fall in the same time-frame that the images were edited and went to the online web gallery. Well, missing Scott + Sharla’s post, now shown below, threw a monkey wrench into my typical protocol - because back-dating their post would mean burying it under layers of new posts and not giving them their time to shine. It also confuses you, the reader, as to what is a new post.

SO - from this moment on, I will no longer be back-dating tardy posts.
What I’ll be doing instead is listing the date of the shoot, so everything feels a little more together and better documented. It’s really pretty cool for me to get to look through the blog and see where we were two years ago - so adding the shoot date and location info will be a fun little addition. <– Charles takes credit for this, though, since he’s been yelling at me to do this from the beginning… What can I say; I like things the way I like ‘em. (Admittedly, this will be quite a bit easier to keep on track - just don’t tell him I said that!)

More posts super soon!

- Meg

For those of you don’t know it, Meg & I drive a Honda Element. Everywhere we go, random people stop and say things like, “We love your car!”…or “What a cute little car!”. Or even better, “Your car looks like an orange box.” We appreciate you noticing! We’ve even had a few clients really taken by our car! Jen & her mom (Dorene) couldn’t get enough of it when then visited us here in Pensacola, and Rachel & Stephen (you’ll meet them soon!) were ready to buy one after their session! We love our Element, and we wanted to share a few images with our loyal readers!

All the floor & seat surfaces in Honda Element are a rubbery plastic which allows for quick wipe downs. There are no floors mats in the cargo area…so less trash hangs around! I’ve even heard it said that you can actually hose down the interior of the car!

The car features “suicide doors” which allow for easy entry from either side. There is also a cool side benefit…if both sides are open, you can see all the way through the car! The back has TONS of leg room too! I am 6′2″, and I can seriously sit comfortably behind the drivers seat when it is pushed all the way back.

I love the retro stylings of the dash & knobs in the car…not you typical interior! One of the coolest features (that we actually discovered after buying it) is the MP3 auxillary jack that is built into the dashboard. This allows you to play your iPod directly through the car’s stereo system without any sort of radio station gizmo.

Another fun component of our Element is the Coconut Bay air fresher made by Yankee Candle. Meg purchased a pack of these in a Cracker Barrel on one of our road trips. Since then, it has become a permanent fixture in our car. I can’t get her to stop buying them!

I hope you’ve enjoyed meeting our Honda Element! See you on the road!
~ Charles

**note by Meg: I wanted to add that Charles asked me the other day if he could make a blog post dedicated to our car… I said “why? Who cares about our car?!” But he thinks it’s cool and it didn’t want to squash his enthusiasm… and before I knew it he was outside taking shots of the car for this post! So, enjoy this one a la Charles - and if you like it, let him know. If you hate it, let me know! *snort* - Meg

I’m writing remotely tonight via the laptop - so I apologize in advance for any typos!

We’re in St Augustine, FL right now taking a little time to enjoy the city before our wedding here on Saturday - more on that soon! We shot an engagement session with Jackie + Bobby (who y’all will also meet soon!) in and around historic St Augustine village this afternoon and had a blast getting to know them and watching them together - such great chemistry there! Then, tonight, we were in for the biggest treat when our wonderful clients Valerie + Ryan (y’all met them a few months ago when we highlighted their mini-golf engagement session here on the blog) drove from Jacksonville (where they live) to St Augustine and took us downtown for dinner! Good friends, good food, and good conversation - what more could a girl ask for?!

Over dinner we got to talking about St Augustine and our plans for this week/weekend. Valerie asked me who the couple was for Saturday - wondering if she had seen their engagement session on the blog, perhaps. It made me laugh when she divulged that she knew most all of our past clients by name just from being a devoted blogstalker - though she’s never yet had the good fortune to meet any of y’all face-to-face! So we talked about that for a bit and the sense of community that is created through the blog, etc - and then, she ever-so-subtley hinted that I had fallen behind - wait, how did she put this? - I think it went something like “You are so far behind in your blogging - you really need to get to work on that!” LOL So true, Valerie, so true.

SO - y’all can thank Valerie for these next few posts. I have a current backlog of 23 enteries that I need to get up here… yesterday.

Wish me luck!

Help a girl out, ladies. (and gentlemen, if you happen to be cruising the blog!)

I need some ideas about what to buy a guy (at any age) as a gift.

(Yes, I’ll admit, this question is spawned by the looming Valentine’s Day deadline - but I’m talking more in general.)

I’ve done web searches, flipped through my favorite gift-giving catalogs - but even redenvelope.com typically limits guys gifts to a monogrammed desk thingy or a monogrammed nightstand thingy or a monogrammed bathroom thingy - stop the insanity!

And don’t tell me to give a gift card or cash because “then they can get whatever they want.” Pppfffffttt.

To me, gift cards say “I didn’t want to give you cologne or a tie, soooo…..” (Of course, just one woman’s opinion - I know some will disagree and that’s cool…)

So, let me have it.

Tell me some good gifts for a friend, coworker, brother, father, fiance, husband - whatever. Because truthfully, I am so tired of explaining my last minute purchases with the “well, I never know what to get you!” line.

This blog post goes out to all my crazy stalkers (and I mean that in the best possible way) who somehow, in the last 12 hours, have actually checked our main website at megphoto.com and noticed that I was doing some loooooooooooooong overdue updates from the hours of 1am through 5am (yea, I’ve been an insomniac this week). Y’all are crazy - I’ve already gotten more emails about it than I can count on two hands! So, for the few of you who haven’t seen the revised website, check it out. I’m in the middle of a big revision - about 1/3 of the way done - but you’ll notice all new content and new galleries already!

It’s about time, eh?

Yeah, I thought so, too…