Please join me over at COLD NOSE PHOTO!  And be on the lookout for a full-featured photography page soon arriving at STACEYHEDMAN.COM.

Happy Holidays to all!

With almost 400 guests, an amazing Boston band, enticing silent and live auction prizes, and sponsors such as Grey Goose Vodka and South Coastal magazine, the night was wildly successful in raising money for the Glenna Kohl Fund for Hope.

I’m guessing you’ve never been to a masquerade ball like this? It felt so very Shakespearian! People were decked out from head-to-toe, including elaborate gowns, top hats and masks. I look forward to seeing this event continue on in memory, support and celebration of one beautiful young woman’s life – and beautiful young people everywhere.

More photos can be found HERE.

Well what can I tell you for today…

My photography is up in our employee exhibit space at my office in Boston for the month of October, so that’s pretty fun. I put up about 8 or 9 canvases and two framed prints, and we even had a little “gallery opening” one evening. I just wish I worked on the floor that all the photos were on so I could enjoy seeing smiley dog faces during the work day too!

You may have caught that I also photographed some pretty big-name New England athletes a couple of weeks ago (click the photo for more). It seems I’m doing more and more events – another one coming this weekend with a masquerade ball! – which is completely unrelated to pet photography. Sure, I can get away with shooting the occasional family portrait, but how do I market myself as a dog and event photographer? Stay tuned, as there are a lot of thoughts like this circling my head now that I own staceyhedman.com for launch in the spring. Version 2.0 of my business is on its way!

In the meantime, Gary got his hands on six gallons of unpasteurized cider at the orchard up in Manchester, VT, and he’s currently in the middle of brewing a large batch of hard cider. The house smells yummy, and what a perfect time of year for it! The reason he was up in Manchester, and I was not, is that he’s helping his folks build a gorgeous pergola over their back deck. From the looks of the weekend’s photos, it’s reminiscent of an old Vermont barn framework – totally awesome.

My Dad’s birthday just passed and Gary’s birthday is next week! We missed apple-picking season (again), but we do have some prime pumpkin-carving activities in our future. Oddly enough, the cucumbers are still growing like crazy, and I pulled ten off the vine last week. What a confusing year to start your first vegetable garden. I’m kind of happy that we didn’t have a summer this year though… I mean, I love the sun and beach, but it was like having a year off of some of the thoughts you often have in the summer – cleaning the house for company, looking good in a bikini, making sure you’re wearing enough sunscreen, being out on the boat all day and thus accomplishing nothing on the homefront. I’m okay with just raising the white flag and saying “go ahead, winter, let’s do this.”

Since you just clicked on a site called SaltyHedman.com, I’m going to go ahead and assume you’re at least slightly interested in what we Hedmans were up to?… Well Friday night included a planned run around West Barnstable with girlfriends, followed by a spontaneous bonfire on the beach in Sandwich with a larger group of pals – what cozy fun!

Saturday was a day of errands and food prep for the big adventure we were to embark on Sunday morning. Months ago, we reserved our spot on a small island off the coast of Falmouth/Mashpee, MA. Washburn Island is part of the larger reserve called Waquoit Bay Estuary…. and it is approximately two miles long with 11 primitive campsites. As luck would have it, and the season winding down, we actually were one of only three or four boats overnight on the first night, and Gary and I were alone with just our dogs on the second night! What an incredible heaven for the dogs (we had four total), who ran around mostly off-leash to sniff trees, splash in the ocean and – in Bromley’s case – roll in human feces and eat dead bunnies. Blech.

If you are interested, make your reservations very early in the year next year. Particularly if you’re looking for a Friday and Saturday night, which we obviously didn’t get this time around. The island is now closed to campers for the season. We shared the trip with our friends Jess & Nate and Alicia & Tim, and dogs Kenai, Shiloh, Brewer & Bromley – but we look forward to being able to include more of you next time!

By the way, Washburn Island is one of those things that makes me completely doubt my first 18 years on this peninsula. I don’t know what the heck my friends and I were doing all those years that we never kayaked Scorton Creek or camped on a desolate island.

Anyway, I hope you had a relaxing and uplifting mini-vacation yourself over the weekend, and that you’re enjoying the crisp September air that blew right in!

I thought I’d share a few scenes from the beautiful evening my girlfriends and I shared with BIRTHDAY GIRL, Cindy. We had originally tossed around a bunch of picnic-by-kayak types of ideas, but with the whole hurricane “thing” going on, we found ourselves on the Yummy Goods-inspired farmer’s porch of our friend Melissa’s home.

Note: I’m pretty sure the deck doesn’t always look like this, but trust me when I say that the inside of Melissa & Stuart’s home is indeed that yummilicious.

That’s Beth in the corner, who just minutes before these festivities had posted a most lovely blog post about ME and Cold Nose Photo – thanks Beth!

Cindy, we hope you had a marvelous birthday eve in the company of your fine friends and bread n’ cheese – and wine and that heavenly chocolate peanut butter cake! Oh, and unicorns.

I gotta say… I just picked up a few print copies at the village store and WHOA! The article – and the photo – are huge!!

What’s even cooler, however, is the fact that I grew up in this town, and have been in the Barnstable Patriot through elementary school, middle school and high school for various activities such as crafts, clubs and sports. We were so used to having their photographer on the sidelines among our parents. Now that I’m back here (as of five years ago), it’s really an honor to see myself in this paper again!

This isn’t my usual bus…

I’m typing to you from the bus up to visit my friend Jessica in Portsmouth, NH! But this isn’t just any bus… First, I printed out my ticket directly from the C&J website. I arrived at the gate and was handed a bottle of ice cold water. Walking down the aisle of the bus, I turned from leather chairs to televisions (with headset jacks at each seat) to the ample leg room, and right to the jewel of it all – CUP HOLDERS. Why is this the first bus I’ve been on with cup holders? How awesome that would be in the morning for our coffees.

We start to pull out of Boston’s South Station and – what’s this? – we have WIRELESS INTERNET??

Anyway, Jess moved to Portsmouth recently while beginning an exciting job opportunity in Newburyport, MA. I look forward to getting up there, taking her dog for a walk (her other dog is home with Gary and the boys right now), and walking around town with only margaritas as a goal.

So what have you been up to lately, my friends? Are you enjoying these lovely two weeks of summer before it all disappears again? Exciting to be talking about hurricanes already…

I’ve gotta say, the photography biz just took an extreme turn for the sky in this beautiful weather (that means it’s gone “up”).  I have booked six dog gigs over less than three week’s time, and that’s not including a spontaneous session at a family reunion with four families (and three dogs) on the coast of Rhode Island! My press release was picked up for the first time today by the new BostonPetLink.com, and I even interviewed with the Barnstable Patriot yesterday. How funny, because my friends and I used to be in the Patriot for local rec and high school sports.

Gary’s been doing a ton of fishing, and we’ve been eating a ton of fish. Our garden is finally catching up and we’re seeing lots of cucumbers, tomatoes and hot peppers forming. Unfortunately, our many dog walks through the woods and ponds has led to us both having poison ivy on our hands right now – ITCH!

These photos are from the recent annual trip Eric & Jill made to spend a week on the Cape with the kids and friends!

First was the rehearsal dinner, a blended BBQ to include some of the father-of-the-groom’s most INFAMOUS grilled foods, yummy yum. I almost dropped vegetarianism right then and there when I smelled Chip’s buffalo wings. Emily treated us bridesmaids to monogrammed L.L. Bean totes (we’re so famous) and gorgeous green necklaces that she specially designed for each of us (we’ll come back to that in a sec). We camped overnight on the stunning property, and it downpoured harder than ever imaginable. The sun was shining bright when we opened our eyes on the wedding day.

The bridesmaids gathered that morning to make the bouquets and flower arrangements, and then we were off to the salon. It wasn’t until we were back at the house, Emily already in her wedding gown, that I realized I had lost my green necklace *GASP. After minor crying on my part, fast driving on Mike’s part, and sweating on Sarah’s part, we discovered the necklace was only a few steps away in the guest house. I had only brushed my teeth there that morning, but it was enough for the necklace to fall from my bag.

And then it was game time! What a beautiful ceremony and a beautiful couple!

Wait wait, there’s more! You know how you feel when you wake up the next day after an out-of-town wedding, and you’re kinda like “we better start heading back home, so tired, worn out, tomorrow’s Monday…” Well not at this wedding, no sir-ee! THIRTY-EIGHT guests rented tubes and went for a big float down the Deerfield River!! We took our own vows that weekend, and it was to include more river floating in our lives!

We’re so happy for you, Emily & Anthony! You deserve every single speckle of sunshine that shone on you that day and forever!

Well that week was now two weeks ago for us, and unfortunately it was a bit condensed. We arrived late – really late – Tuesday night, and left Friday morning for a beautiful wedding weekend in Western MA (more on that to come!). Still, it was nice to be there, nice to remember what running hills really means, and nice to cozy up with Mom & Dad Hedman over a game of Yahtzee.

Even their cats came out, since we couldn’t bring the dogs on this trip!

Gary’s big project right now is building a monstrous pergola over the entire length of his parents’ back deck! The home is all deck and all windows across the back, which is wonderful but also very very warm, so the pergola will provide some shade.

I also started chatting with the incredible folks at Northshire Bookstore about possibilities for a doggy-focused event in the fall – how great!

Speaking of which, when we pulled in on Sunday evening, I came home to a bunch of packages in the mail (on the table inside, thanks mom!). 300 postcards for my table at a huge Border Collie event coming up, 500 outdoor-quality stickers of my logo (want one?), and a custom rubber stamp of my logo! We’re hittin’ the big time, folks.

In anticipation of what would surely be a great hike with friends… this was us trying to dry out.

But thankfully the sun did come out and we managed to hike Pico Peak and some of the Appalachian Trail! This is Jess with her adorable little Shiloh pup.