Kentucky Children’s Hospital Radiothon 2008

WE NEED YOU!  As many of you know our family has literally been to hell and back in the past two years and we are still there.  I apologize to our clients that we have been MIA for the past two weeks but we have been back in Cincy dealing with new Kyleigh issues.  This week Kyleigh was dealt possibly our hardest blow yet.  Ky has been fighting a chronic UTI (or what we thought was a UTI) for 5 weeks now.  4 different infections have ravaged her body for well over a month.  3 different antibiotics have done nothing for her. Yesterday we were told that over the course of her two years her kidneys have sustained significant damage.  Her right kidney is functioning at 30% or less and her left at 70%.  Today, I woke up knowing that yet another part of my daughter’s body is failing her. The biggest issue with Ky’s kidneys is that she is a HEART baby.  How does that matter?  As her kidneys loose more function her heart will start to feel the stress.  Her heart is not normal… it is “repaired”.  We are left now to try our best and PRAY… and watch our doctors who we love so much as they shake there heads “no” that there is not a lot we can do.

TODAY I am begging you.  WE just spent the week in Cincinnati because we do not have a Pediatric Urologist here in Kentucky.  We are forced to leave our home, our boys, our hospital that we call home to go find treatment for Ky.  This is my plea to you… CALL and donate to the Kentucky Children’s Hospital Radiothon!!!! Even if you cannot donate… forward this blog posting to your friends, family, send text message, send it out to anyone on your contact list, post it to your OWN blog!!!  Social networking sites… anything!  Just do a little something today and know that a family very close to you will be eternally grateful to you!!!!

My incentive to you, my clients, is that I will offer EACH of you a FREE 8×10 for EVERY $50 that you donate to the hospital!!!! You send me an email and I send you an 8×10 of your choice from ANY session we have ever shot, any wedding, any senior, any family, baby, anything!

Tonight Kyleigh will host the Rush Hour Power Hour.  I would love for HER hour to be the biggest yet for the Radiothon.  Here are the details!  Please listen for our live on Air interview tonight between 5 and 6 pm!!

Thursday August 21, 2008
from 5-6 pm
on 92.9 the Bear

Our family will host the 5-6 pm Power Hour!!
We invite you to join us in listening and YES my online friends… you can listen LIVE on line!!!!!!

Click here to listen!

or go to The Bear website and click on the Listen live button on the right hand side.

Everyone asks WHAT can we do to help Kyleigh and your family? THIS is what you can do. This week we spent the week in Cincinnati. We had to take the boys to the grandparents houses and yes they love going but that is not our choice. We have no choice for several of Ky’s conditions but to pack up and leaved our beloved Kentucky Children’s Hospital to find the treatment she needs. Kentucky Children’s Hospital is HOME to us. We have made many friends there and we truly feel blessed to call it our home hospital.

I encourage each of you to make a donation. If its $10 just once that is $10 they did not have before!!! Donate in Kyleigh’s name, in YOUR child’s name, in the name of any child who is special to you but just make a donation!!

You can make a donation HERE

Our family also had a telethon montage made and as soon as I can get my hands on the mp3 we will be posting it here! Wish us luck as today is SURE to be a very emotional day especially with the events of the week.

Bridal Potpourri Bridal Show – Embassy Suites Lexington

We invite everyone to join us tomorrow, Sunday May 18, 2008 from 11 – 5 at the Embassy Suites on Newtown Pike in Lexington. We will be there enjoying a day of food and fun during Bridal Potpourri’s Spring Bridal Show. There will be over 65 of the area’s best wedding vendors, from flowers to dresses, caterers to photographers and everything in between!!! Before you go there are a few things you should think about!

Tips for Attending a Bridal Show:

1) Wear comfortable shoes! Yes your cutest strappy heels may fail you after three hours of walking around a bridal show!

2) Bring pre-printed labels. Nearly every vendor will have a list for you to sign up to receive special offers. Use your time wise by simply sticking a label on the paper instead of standing there to fill everything out!

3) Do you homework. Check out website (especially www.kentuckystudio.com) in advance to preview who you would like to talk more in depth with at the show.

4) Bring a Digital Camera to snap pics of your favorite IDEAS!

5) Come ready to sample foods, flowers, cakes, and everything in between!

For more great tips on Bridal Show know how… Check out this great blogging: http://www.nwsource.com/shopping/wedding-shows-things-know-you-walk-down-aisles-options

PS… if you come by our booth and are a blog reader definitely make sure you say hi!!!

Click here to register: http://www.lexingtonbridalshows.com/index.htm

makenna foundation. evening of champions derby eve gala

Part 1… there will be many more to follow but last night we had the privilege of attending and photographing the Derby Eve… Evening of Champions Gala for the Makenna Foundation to benefit the Kentucky Children’s Hospital. Obviously everyone knows that I have a certain attachment to all things dealing with KCH but last night was an absolute blast! If you have never been to the Derby Eve Gala at the Radisson you MUST put this on your list of things to do before you die! Seriously, amazing food, great gambling, rockin music and dancing, silent auctions… This event is the PLACE TO BE! (just in case you hadn’t gotten that by now!)

I will be posting all of the pics in galleries here and on the Makenna Website but here is a sneak peek of a few of my friends that I just love to torture with my blog postings!

Welcome to Midnight at the Oasis………

Our dearly beloved Dr. Joe Iocono and his (uhhmmmm better half) his lovely wife Susan…. for all obvious reasons he is the first on the blog posting! LOL So the fan club can pipe down now!!!

Mr Hunter Lisle of the Arthur Murray Dance Studio. Ladies and Gents… all of my wedding couples listen up!!! If you guys are getting married anytime in the next millennium… you must go visit Hunter and his crew. I don’t want to see any more lame first dances! You need some serious hotness in your first dance and Hunter is just the one to give it to you.

Miss Kentucky………… is she gorgeous or what ???

and of course “The Puppy”… he was a part of the Live Auction! OMG you could just squeeze him but MAN he was HUGE! He is going to be one BIG DOG!

Purify your desktop

Since I am now spending major amounts of time on the computer I realized something, my desktop was depressing me. I had icons and stuff I had quickly downloaded from over six months ago. Every time I sat down there was my computer baggage staring back at me. The icons lined up in neat little rows like those aliens on space invaders. Slowly making their way to the right edge of my screen. How to stop them?

Nirvana…. My friend Kevin Adams let me in on a little secret. Just create an ‘OMG’ folder he said. What?!?!? So, I went to the C:\ and made C:\OMG. I right clicked, copy shortcut, and pasted it to the desktop. Then, I selected all those old alien attacking icons and dropped them in that shortcut. It was amazing!! I had knocked out all my digital clutter. The best thing is that you can go later and clean up OMG. All those files waiting to be put in their digital filing system, old downloads that you have to double check what they are, all of them in a computer pergatory.

Now I had something. I couldn’t stop there. What about all those application shortcuts on my desktop? Surely I could erradicate them as well. Turns out you can. First I deleted any of the shortcuts I don’t use everyday and can access via the Start menu. Next, I opened my Start Menu and pinned the most used apps to the Start Menu. To get this option simply right click any of those icons on the left of your Start Menu. Pinning them will keep them on the Start Menu even if you clear your list. I also went to the Start Menu properties and customize to shrink the large icons to small ones. This meant more applications in my initial Start Menu.

So, now I was down to the Recycle Bin, OMG shortcut, and a handful of other icons and files I was currently working with. Oh how relieved I was. It looked quite pleasurable. Until I realized how blank a canvas I kept my desktop background. For so many years I had it set to black only to conserve RAM and just never changed. That was until I saw Really Stunning Desktop Wallpapers by Smashing Magazine. I went and found the most organic inspirational one I could find.

Everyone needs a place in everything to throw their backup of clutter waiting to be dealt with. For some the desktop is enough space, for others like me, I need a whole directory to deal with. Maybe that makes me a digital pack rat. The good thing though is I have found a way to deal with the unsightly backlog of digital sorting and make my logging in a much more pleasing visual experience. Perhaps you can do the same.

Photography Payment Plans

For a long time now, we have offered our wedding clients interest free payment plans. They are excited that breaking up their investment makes it much more affordable and manageable.

Good isn’t always cheap, but cheap is seldom sufficient.

We understand that our clients make a considerable investment in their family’s heirlooms when they come to us, because they realize how fleeting time is and how important it is to capture those memories. That is why we are pleased to offer payment plans for our portrait clients as well! Payment plans begin on orders of $300 or more.

If you need any further details, don’t hesitate to contact us! 859.514.4413.

Lexington’s Fashion Disaster

We have teamed up with 104.5 the Cat to help out with Lexington’s Fashion Disaster contest.  The winner gets a $250 gift certificate from Plato’s Closet, a $250 gift certificate to Mollie Beamer, hair stylist, and a photo shoot from US!  If you are in need of a makeover make sure you enter!

Georgetown Bridal Show Fashion Show

We were pleased to help out our girl Deata of the Wedding Center at the Georgetown Bridal Show this past weekend.  Here is a sneak peek of the images.  The rest will be posted to our  SS&G Page on Facebook.

Email Woes!!

Oh the horror… we have been so blessed to NOT have to deal with ANY major email issues in the nearly 4 years that we have been with our hosting company… alas it seems our good luck has run out!!

YES… our email has been acting wonky.

YES…. we have been receiving straggling emails at later dates (and into various junk mail boxes after searching for them long and hard!)

YES…. we are pretty sure that we have MISSED people’s email completely (wahhhhhh this makes us sad!!!  We *heart* you guys!)

YES… it is DRIVING US NUTS! (**pulls hair out**)

Please forgive our technical difficulties. As far as we can tell this has been happening for about a month. If you have Emailed us in the past month and not received a reply… PLEASE try again or CALL. We *think* we have fixed the problem and are looking forward to hearing from you!!!!

Off season Discount Wedding Photography

Schmidt Studio and Gallery is pleased to announce that off season complete wedding photography coverage will receive a 25% discount on the normal coverage price.  Off season is any wedding taking place November thru March.  So, get to planning those amazing winter weddings and take advantage of the savings.  This makes our complete wedding photography coverage only $2887.50.  Our complete wedding photography coverage includes two photographers from the time you get dressed until the last event at your reception.  It also includes engagement session, thumbnail book, and DVD montage.

Superbowl Ads

Man what an evenly matched Superbowl game.  Watching it is so exciting, but also agonizing as there can’t really be any big plays due to the matchup.  One of our most favorite things to watch are the ads.  We love all the new ads that come out.  Especially the Michael Jackson dancing geckos.  Checkout all the ads in case you missed them at Superbow Ads.