Texas Blue Lime Productions

Yep, it’s been about a year since we last updated our site. ….and updating our friends is long overdue. So, here’s a bullet list of the last year’s events:

• Serenity released, giving us the next part of the storyline to the Big Damn Heroes.
• Another BV QueSt fundraiser, a “Time Warp” was held at Halo. We raised a little money and had a lot of fun.
• Lori worked two college fairs helping to promote the University of Miami to college-bound high school kids. It was a wonderful way to volunteer.
• Luzaween 2005 was once again marred by rain, but we had a blast, anyway. We saw the last guests out the door at ~3am.
• Lori was found to be a potential match to someone in need of bone marrow. It didn’t pan out this time, but being in the database for the next level of testing means greater odds of giving at some point in the future.
• On Veterans’ Day/weekend, Lori’s grandfather was inducted into the Paris Junior College Hall of Fame.
• As You Wish was hired to shoot the wedding of another local photographer. Being asked was a huge honor.
• Emil was one of the M.C.s for the Student Affairs annual holiday talent show. He and the other hosts opened the show with a disclaimer like the ones you see on the bottom of some official email: “if you are not the intended recipient…” They voted against dancing to the song “My Humps”.
• Extreme Makeover Home Edition was in Washington (just a few miles south of College Station). Lori was asked to help with media and VIPs. It was an interesting process to see from the inside. As you might imagine, a lot of the logisitics are fabricated.
• Lori was diagnosed with an abscess, which caused the need for a root canal. Luckily it was small and easy for the endodontist to treat. This is probably why she had tooth pain after scuba diving the previous summer. The scariest part was that he had to drill through her bridge to get to the root. This could have cracked the bridge. Since getting a new bridge was the only trauma Lori had had to the tooth, it could have started a bad cycle. Luckily, the drilling didn’t crack anything.
• As You Wish had a successful day at the annual Bridal Show and Benefit. Lori booked one client practically on the spot (a bit unheard of for photography) and got serious interest from several others. It’s been a busy year for weddings. Lori’s goal for 2007 is to have bookings that are spread out more evenly.
• As You Wish shot both save the date and engagement portraits for Stephanie & Krishna and designed both the Save the Date cards and parts of their invitation folio for their May 13th wedding. In addition, Lori designed signage, a program, takeaway cards, and other event elements for this Calistoga, California wedding.
• Friends of the Bryan + College Station Public Library System hosted a good old fashioned roast of Clara Mounce. Clara was turning 75 years old and had been with the libraries for 25 years, so we celebrated 100 years of Clara with a fundraiser. Lori designed the invitation folios and the program and served as photographer for the event.
• Northgate’s Music Festival was a blast and was a nice feather for As You Wish. Lori was one of the photographers asked to photograph the bands at each of the stages.
• As You Wish was selected to do headshots for a candidate in a local election, party candids for a fundraiser for a candidate for governor, a group photo shoot for a magazine story, and a recital for a University of North Texas music major who grew up in this area.
• We threw a “leaving Texas” wedding shower for Stephanie & Krishna and even timed it near their birthdays to make for a nice party for them.
• The Spring GAYla was a huge success. We covered party expenses, put a little back to account for growth, and still gave $6,000 to local charities! Our GAY Paris themed event was a huge hit and came complete with a 17′ Eiffel Tower! Our charity group is still on cloud nine that we could do all this in “Closet Station”.
• The Larry Salter Memorial Golf Tournament has grown by leaps and bounds. They are still very disorganized (which makes it hard to be any real help when volunteering), but they have to very full flights with tons of prizes. It’s also great to visit with people who admired Daddy. It’s a wonderful way to keep his spirit alive. Now, if his spirit of organization can just descend upon the planners….
• In May, Lori shot 3 weddings (one of which was Stephanie’s in California) and coordinated another. As You Wish had one more on the books, but they had to postpone their event.
• Lori attended a photography workshop in Houston that spawned a lot of ideas about As You Wish and wedding shooting. It’s been hard to get some of these ideas implemented because she’s been so busy!
• Emil changed jobs. He’d been in Student Affairs since 1997 when he and Lori met. He’s now at CIS on campus. He’s kind of like an on-campus consultant. He works with Environmental Health and Safety, University Risk and Compliance, and the University Police Department.
• Laura & Steve moved to Nacadoches. They are both teaching in the English department at Stephen F. Austin State University.
• As You Wish was once again asked to serve as photographer for a Northgate event. A new event for them is a back to school party on the promenade. This first year’s event was small, but nicely run and fairly successful. Best of all, Lori made a new friend: Danielle.
• Brazos Valley was lucky to have Paula Poundstone come here for a benefit concert. She only does a few of this a year, so it was a real honor for her to choose our community. She gave a great show and had no problems making fun of Texas, our “lack-of-city”, and members of the audience.
• As You Wish played a critical role in getting a new logo for the Friends of the Bryan + College Station Public Library System. It was like pulling teeth, but we did it! Thanks to a local grahic designer, we have a new logo that is professional and has a punch.
• Brazos Valley now has a photographer’s guild, thanks to Michael of Bluefish Photography. One of the active members is one of Emil’s cousins! small world!
• As You Wish had its first 50th Anniversary party this year, too. While there were some glitches to some parts of the event, all went well and the client loved Lori’s work! Once again, some of Emil’s cousins were there. One had even been an usher at their wedding all those years ago.
• As You Wish also had several equipment upgrades this year. Lori is now the proud owner of a top-of-the-line Mac Book Pro with a high-gloss photographer screen, a 80GB iPod video for “showing off” photos, and a Canon digital SLR camera. A Treo 650 on Verizon and bluetooth headset have made it easier to return calls while doing other things, so she can make the most of her time.
• BV QueSt altered our fall event in an effort to make more money. So, this year, we held our first annual Texas Aggie Homecoming. This little party covered expenses for both the event and for some operating costs throughout the year (PO Box, IRS fees, etc.) and generated a $1,000 fund for scholarships! At this event, we announced the theme idea for GAYla. The 2007 event will be a Chicago mobster/flapper speakeasy roaring 20s party! Details coming soon!
• This year’s Red Wasp Film Festival drew a huge crowd. Lori was even called up to the front to belly dance with one of the best dancers in the country. It was both fun and embarrassing!
• Luzaween brought several surprises. No Luzas attended (What are the odds of THAT?). Now that Beth and Marc are back on the mainland, they were able to attend. Of course, Marc didn’t know that it was LUZAween; he thought it was LOSERween and insisted to Beth that they have costumes where no money was spent. Still, they made excellent Austin street bums. Lori’s mom and her boyfriend, Larry, drove down, showed up in costumes that hid their identity, and “crashed” the party.
• Lori was asked to assist with the advertising for Boogate and has gotten hooked on MySpace and Facebook.
• We’ve almost lost count of how many babies and in-laws have been added to our family. Since our last update, Dusty & AmandaR got engaged and are planning a June 2007 wedding, Melissa & Forrest welcomed Chrisitan Alan and found out they will have a third baby in 2007, Donna & Matt welcomed Peyton Louis, Sean & Audrey welcomed Alexander Patrick, Maegan & Larame welcomed Sarah Edith, and Charles & Dawn welcomed Jennifer Kay.
• As you may can tell from this new section of our site, we have installed blogging software on our website. This makes for much easier updating, so we hope that this will give us incentive to stay better updated to all of you.

Well, that should catch you all up on the main parts of our lives. Now that we have a blog, we should be able to return to regular updates.