All the a&bnews that’s fit to print. 

Written this month, like most months, by Anne (so you know who to complain to or compliment 😆)

Hello and welcome back to our monthly newsletter (sorry it’s a bit late this month with the holiday, moving storage units, and getting back on the road, it’s been a busy, busy month so far), where you’ll get all the latest a&b and studio news that’s fit to print: Where we’ve been and are heading, what we’re shooting and studio updates, along with some of our favorite things & people. Know someone who might like to receive this in their inbox on First Friday’s as well, please forward this free post to them and THANK YOU!

current location📍

We just arrived in South Lake Tahoe and are incredibly excited to spend a few days back in one of the most beautiful places on the continent. We last visited with family 10 years ago and it was such a fun vacation, but we know this trip will have its own special highlights and we’re excited to share more about it next month!

next exit 🛣️

September’s itinerary started with a visit to Salt Lake City to see said beautiful family above and celebrate my SIL’s birthday, followed by a stop at Great Basin National Park in Nevada. Have you been? It’s one of the least visited national parks because of its remoteness, but we had heard it’s also one of the coolest and after seeing Lehman caves, we have to agree. We’re now in Lake Tahoe for our anniversary before stopping in Napa for wine tasting and more family time. We’ll finish out the month visiting the tallest trees on earth at Redwood National Park. If you have rec’s for any of these places, be sure to hit the reply button. We’d love to hear your suggestions!

in the rear view ↩️

Well, regular readers of Road Trippin’ know that we spent the Summer in mountains of Colorado, just outside of Colorado Springs. (For non-regular readers, see issues 4-7!) It was absolutely delightful. While temps there were warmer than usual, just like many places, it was still cooler than many, many other places, and for that we were incredibly grateful. And unlike the city where all the concrete and black top holds onto the heat, it cooled down wonderfully at night, so much so that we could use our new propane fire pit. Thanks to all the burn bans, sadly a camping fact of life these days almost everywhere you go, no matter the state, is no wood fires allowed. Ours was under $100 and it was definitely money well spent.

Some pic highlights from August…

field notes 🗒️

We can’t thank you all enough for embracing the Love Notes Postcard Project and are thrilled that several of you got to enjoy the inaugural summer release! Here’s what lucky members received in July…

• Thick acrylic luggage tag with Hawaii photo on front and summer travel quote on reverse side and included both a black leather buckle strap and clear flexible plastic strap
• Personal letter from us about that quarter’s theme which included intimate memories from summers past and behind the scenes info about each of the photos chosen for the postcards
• Surprise bookmark with gold tassel and beach dunes photo from New Zealand on the front with a summer quote on the back
• Surprise octopus sticker

All wrapped in a vellum wrap custom printed with palm trees, sealed with a handmade a&b gold wax seal, and safely ensconced in a padded mailer which is sent with free shipping & tracking.

The five postcards were wrapped in tissue paper and were from top left counterclockwise: New Zealand, Hawaii, Sea Ranch, CA, Cabo San Lucas and Olympic National Park

Would you like to receive something special like this in the mail? If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up now so you can start your club membership with the October release. The theme style, gifts and most of the package will all be different and will be a surprise. However, we will be revealing the theme title, as well as a sample postcard photo from the release very soon! Love Notes members will receive the Fall project direct to their mailboxes around mid-October. Thank you for spreading the love!

travel journal 📔

Did you see our Carlsbad Caverns write-up? Such dramatic formations inside this gigantic cave system.

“wish you were here” 👋

Did you know that several of our photos are available as downloadable phone backgrounds? It’s a wonderful and inexpensive way to enjoy some beautiful scenery from HPA each and every day.

cats crossing 🐈‍⬛

As you know, we’re not alone on this journey of ours, thankfully. Our dear kitties, Frankie and Willow are with us providing much needed cuddles and lots of laughs, always. 

u-turnin’ 🔙

ICYMI our recent Tranquil Tuesdays…

wild hearts 💓

Where we share sightings of hearts in the wild, because who among us couldn’t use a little more love?

on the radio 📻

Since we were in once place for most of the summer we didn’t get a ton of driving time except when we traveled back and forth to Denver or Boulder, so we tried to get through The Correspondent*, by debut novelist Virginia Evans, before we had to return it to the library. Alas, we still have about 20% of the book left so we have a several week hold on it again.

I had already read it, but thought Bill would really like it, as well and since I was interested in the audio book version too, it was a no brainer. Definitely a great call. I generally prefer reading rather than listening, especially to fiction. For some reason, maybe you’re the same (if so, please write and let me know I’m not alone!), but I hate when narrators have to do all the different voices in a book. Especially women doing men’s voices. Ugh. Like nails on a chalkboard to me. But in The Correspondent there are multiple, and I mean multiple, narrators! Each character has their own narrator so no one is doing any voice other than their “own” and wow, what a difference it makes. Especially in a story like this where it’s being told entirely in letters back and forth between the protagonist Sybil and those she connects with via the written word. It’s so much easier to really get a feel for each persons character hearing their voice over and over rather than only seeing their name on a page.

Now in development as a feature length film and set to star Jane Fonda as Sybil (a most excellent choice IMHO), The Correspondent is Virginia Evans’s eighth novel, but her first published one. Her first seven were all rejected and apparently this one wasn’t really expected to sell many copies. Lo and behold, thanks to incredible word of mouth, it became a slow burn hit and has sold officially 2 million copies!! (Fun fact: Virginia graduated from my brother’s alma mater, James Madison University, in Harrisonburg, Virginia, albeit a few—ok several—years after he did.) Thanks to being a NYT bestseller and a 7 figure bidding war for the movie rights, Ms. Evans is now a very rich woman. LOVE to see it, especially after all those rejections. She just kept going, doing what she loved, when she could and keeping the faith. What an inspiration.

Well, as you can see by our Love Notes Postcard Project and our snail mail holiday cards, Bill and I put an extremely high value on written correspondence. The Correspondent tells a story of a complicated woman in the sunset of her life in an incredibly unique way and the fact that Ms. Evans chose to do it via this letter writing device made the story all the more moving to me and to many others. Keep the tissues close.

Five out of five stars ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

exit through the print shop 💝

We’ve heard you…you needed a little bit of extra time to finalize your choices so our Fall sale has been extended through this weekend! You can take 20% any prints through Sunday at midnight with coupon code FallLove26.

packing for our trip 🧳 

Holland Photo Arts Print Shop (and from the Oh Those Hollands! gift shop) is our full-time work. As artists, we love nothing more seeing our pieces proudly displayed in our clients’ home (yes, yours!). Giving a piece you love a home is one of the best ways you can help support us and our work and if you’d like any help at all choosing the perfect piece, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thank you! It means the world to us both. 💕

Lastly, if someone you know would enjoy this and Tranquil Tuesdays posts, please share this email or send your friends to our Journal. 

xoxo…
a&b

*We do not use affiliate links here. Everything and everyone we recommend or mention are just because we like them. 🙂

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