You think you have great friends?

This time last year we visited the Blue Dome Arts Festival in downtown Tulsa. We watched some bands, grabbed some food, and shopped around all the artist’s booths set up in the streets. One thing I didn’t do was think, “Next year, I’m going to have a booth here.” In fact, I didn’t even know that I would start Darby & Dash five months later.

But, here we are, one year later and we did set up at Blue Dome and I would first like to say; I have the best friends and family in the world! Let me explain.

I had a vision of what I wanted my booth to look like but unfortunately I do not have all the skills to complete it on my own. One of the ideas was a small bar height counter that would sit in the middle of the booth, but because I drive a Scion XB and not the stereotypical Oklahoman F150, the cabinet would also have to be collapsible for storage and transport. Duncan was up for the challenge, and after working many hours on his off days and before his scheduled shifts at his day job he delivered even better than I had imagined.

Jess has been helping me with all of the photography of the products from the beginning and the photos are too good not to use in a dominate way. So I envisioned a large banner that covered the entire back wall of the tent and smaller poster shots running down the sides. Luckily, my Grandpa runs A Better Sign Co. and was able to make all the foam board posters and the banner on a short deadline.

Even more bragging on how awesome my friends are, most of the models are all friends from our CityChurch community group.

The booth is almost complete with one major piece missing, something to hang the clothes on. You know, the whole reason for the booth. Duncan is back to work on this one, building all of the racks in two days. Now we are ready.

This is all just the weeks leading up to the festival. 6 AM Friday morning, Duncan and I head downtown and set up the booth which took us until 11 AM when people started showing up. At 1 PM, Duncan was replaced by Jess so he could go work a full shift at his day job. Sarah joined later to finish out the night after getting off. A 15 hour day to start the weekend.

This was the case for the entire three day festival, we all worked 12 to 15 hour days either at the festival or split with day jobs. Like I said, I have the best friends in the world. Over all, the festival was a huge success, we sold tons of product, made new connections, and the counter that Duncan built was so good he was hired by one of our booth neighbors to build her one. Plus, a huge thank you to all of our friends who came out to show support!

Sunday, after the festival closed and we spent a couple more hours tearing down, Duncan and I went out on a man date since the girls left us earlier in the day for a wedding. Perfect ending to a long and exhausting weekend.

Where the heck have we been?

We have been so incredibly busy lately.

We have not had the time or energy to blog.

Sad day.

Here is a quick recap of what we have been up to:

May 11, Cody and I shot the Wann Wedding. It was a beautiful night at Skelly Lodge. With Sarah’s help assisting and our new purchase of some HoldFast Gear, the night was a success.

May 18-20, Darby & Dash had a booth at Blue Dome Arts Festival. Cody and Duncan spent weeks leading up to the festival constructing the perfect booth. We all took our turns working the booth and by then end, we were all exhausted.

May 19 During the festival I had to leave early and drive out to Grand Lake. Our friends, Melissa Letney and Josh Woodward got engaged! I was lucky enough to be able to witness it and photograph it.

May 24 I surprised Duncan with a puppy. He has been wanting one so badly and we had decided to get one but he thought we needed to wait. Meet Henley

May 25-27, Duncan and Sarah’s sister, Jessica, graduated from her first year of Master Commission in Dallas. So we made a mini-vacation out of it and went shopping. We hit up our favorites IKEA, Urban Outfitters, H&M and the boys ate their way around town. We had much fun with the family all weekend.

So needless to say we have been busy. So we took to the lake yesterday to enjoy some down time. We will be blogging about these events in detail later.

Looking Past the Lens

When I am behind the camera, it feels as if I am watching the world from a glass room. I feel separated, nothing can hurt me. I experience the moment differently than if my camera was not there. It’s a different connection. Sometimes this is good thing, however it can also be bad.

Last Saturday CityChurch was working at Laura Dester Shelter, just one of the organizations partnered with LoveTulsa. The shelter is a short-term emergency care facility for use while child welfare specialists conduct investigations into alleged abuse and neglect and to hold children while staff look for suitable foster care placements for those coming into state custody. We cook out, have inflatables, face painting, crafts, and just have with the kids. When I arrived, it was in full swing, however I was quite distracted. I had an engagement shoot that evening I was worrying more about. I took the pictures and was about to leave when this little boy came up to me. He did not say a word and instead of posing in front of the camera as most kids did, he came beside me. He grabbed my camera while it was still around my neck and looked inside. He would “snap” a few, only using the wrong button. I would watch his finger and take a photo in sync with his movement. Then he smiled and ran off, never saying a word. This little boy was autistic. He returned several times. Though he never said anything, I knew how much he enjoyed it.

He made me be apart of the day. These kids come from horrible situations and finding so much joy in something so simple. Something I do daily and have started to take it for granted. Laura Dester is incredible place and I am so glad to have to chance to be a part of it, even if just for an afternoon.

2 Year Old Paints Her First Masterpiece

Last week we watched my niece, Rylee. She is two years old and a complete blast. It can be difficult sometimes to keep her entertained, which pushes me to creatively make everything a game. During the week, we had an accident and my white seamless paper ripped in my studio. Before we threw it away, I thought of a brilliant idea.

We put her in a white shirt, pulled up her golden locks, loaded her with paint and let her lose.

Ever been caught with your pants down?

It’s camping weather! Perfect weather for sitting on the beach, basking in the sun, and listening to the voice of nature. That’s exactly what we are doing tomorrow. We’ve been planning our trip to Keystone lake this week and it reminded me of a great lake story.

Last summer.

My Buddy is gone.

Spring is here, which means it’s scooter riding weather! Sunday, we spent most of  the day cruising around town. There is no better feeling than the wind blowing and the sun shining on the open road. We acquired our Buddy scooter last year, and along with Cody and Sarah, there wasn’t a day above freezing we didn’t try to ride. Not only does the scooter provide a relaxing escape, it saves us buckets of money in gas.

Yesterday, all the happiness associated with my scooter was stolen. I was leaving Lowe’s and walked out to where I parked, only to find my scooter gone! Someone picked it up and put in in a truck. I have the key, so the forks are locked. They could have only pushed it in circles. It happened between 9 am and 3 pm, so there is no telling where it could have gone. It could be in Tulsa or another state by now. Either way my blue buddy is gone.

I walked home and called the police, state farm, and the scooter store. A sigh of relief came once we remembered we have full coverage insurance, meaning we only have to pay a deductible to replace it. So, I suppose, there is a silver lining.

Now we are just anxiously waiting to hit the open road on again.

If you see my scooter, Please let me know.

Our jam-packed St. Patrick’s Day weekend!

Meet Eric. Eric is our good friend. He is also a blogger. You can follow him at http://www.followeric.com. One of the main focuses of Eric’s blog is finding new and interesting places. Sometimes he explores a marathon of venues during what he calls a blogathon.

We had the privilege of introducing Eric to Tulsa. Here’s a recap of our weekend.

Friday

Friday evening we officially kicked off the Tulsa Blogathon with burgers and a round of bowling at Dust Bowl Lanes & Lounge downtown. Although we’ve heard a lot of hype, this was our first visit. The vintage atmosphere made the bowling and bar that much cooler. Overall, Dust Bowl Lanes & Lounge lived up to the hype.

      

Next stop was the Max Retro Pub. The Max is filled with old school arcade games from Donkey Kong to Ski-ball, they had it all. The Max was great for grabbing a drink and engaging in some friendly competition.

Saturday

Our Story

Cody, Sarah, Jess, Duncan

We are family. We are friends. We are two married couples under the same roof. We are adventurers. Here’s to exploring our world.

Duncan and Sarah. Brother and sister. He is 17 months older. They had the same friends and rarely threw shoes at each other.

Duncan & Sarah Fishing

Cody and Duncan. The bromance began with their first band, Scubatank, in junior high. Where Duncan found his passion for drumming and Cody found his passion for Sarah, Duncan’s sister.

Cody (front right) & Duncan (back center) in 2004

Cody and Sarah. Best friends since junior high. In love since Cody swept her off her feet with the pick up line “my love for you wouldn’t fit on a terabyte hard drive”.

Cody & Sarah

Sarah and Jess. Ran in the same circle since first grade but were not friends until late high school when Jess told Sarah she would do anything that she needed for her wedding, even the crap jobs. She was the maid-of-honor.

Jess and Duncan. Remained close through Duncan dating all of her friends and confiding in her about all of his girl problems, until she became one.

Duncan & Jess

Cody and Jess. Still not friends.

Jess & Cody killing each other.

In 2009, Cody and Sarah moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Jess and Duncan moved to Lawrence, Kansas. After a string of events and practically begging them, the Jensens finally convinced the Grantz’s to move to Tulsa. During our first year living in Tulsa, we lived in adjacent apartments and were practically cohabitating already. Eating most meals together, watching TV together, and spending most waking hours together, one apartment was usually empty until it was time to sleep.

After coming to the conclusion that we already lived together, the four of us decided to forgo paying for two separate apartments, combine our rent, and look for a house to share. We found a 5 bed, 2.5 bath, 3000 square feet home with a “mother-in-law” suite. Essentially two houses combined. This provided enough space for both couples to have separate Living/Bed/Bath rooms, even our own kitchens. The extra rooms allowed Jess a photography studio, Duncan a practice space, Cody an office, and Sarah an office/craft room. A big upgrade from 700 square feet, one bedroom apartments with higher combined rent than the five bedroom house.

That’s a little about us, we hope you’ll join us on this journey and see what happens when four creative adventurers live under the same roof.

We are the Grantz’s and the Jensens. We are the Grantsens.