Hi I'm Amy!  Some of you kind of know me but most likely have no clue what I look like.  That's kind of been on purpose and kind of been just plain laziness.  I'm one of those people who HATE having my photo taken and runs away from a camera.  I'm usually the one behind the camera.  I've read many times that when you run a business and blog you should have a photo of yourself so people can feel a connection to you.  I totally get that and agree but for someone who doesn't like to have their photo taken that's kind of a big deal.  On my to do list I have "get professional photo taken".  Let's just say that always seems to slip to the bottom of the list! ; ) Why share my photo now?  Well, I got approached by a UK craft magazine a few months ago and they wanted to feature one of my cupcake ornaments in their magazine (exciting) and needed me to send in a few photos of my cupcakes (cool, no problem) and a photo of myself (eek, what?, no!).  I only had a few days to get this accomplished so there was no time to go about finding a professional photographer to get that done.  I panicked a little and told my husband he would have to put his photographers hat on (he's not a photographer, he's a math wizard) and do a little photo shoot.  I always knew this photo thing would never get done until I was forced to do so! ; ) The woman from the magazine said she would need a good-quality image with no sunglasses or silly faces.  When I read that I started to laugh a little because I wouldn't think anyone would send in a photo of yourself to be put in a magazine wearing sun glasses or a funny candid shot.  Then I got to thinking, pretty much 88% of all the photos of myself are me in a T-shirt, hat, ponytail, sunglasses and in the middle of a forest. Enter the many faces of Amy Miller:

Photo details: 1.  On a hike in Kauai, HI - this hike was so beautiful and green foliage as far as the eye could see.  2.  Also in Kauai - went to a farmers market and tried some new fruit and also got a coconut, mainly for a photo opp!  The coconut milk/water whatever you call it was horrible and went into the garbage about 4.2 seconds after this photo.  3.  Hike in Glacier National Park (sorry, forgot the sunglasses) - we are obsessed with finding moose on our nature vacations.  We asked a park ranger if there were any good moose spotting areas and he shared one that we had to take a ferry and hike to reach it and sure enough we found a moose to watch most of the afternoon!  4.  Again at Glacier National Park - on one of our hikes we came across a bunch of mountain goats and posed with them!  I'll have to share some other photos of this trip sometime.  It was like wildlife palooza there.  We saw our first bear (on a hike!) and many other animals.  5.  Hike in Flagstaff, AZ (sunglasses not on but hanging on my shirt) - I'm not pretending to shoot a leaf, not sure why I'm making a gun sign, I'm so gangsta...ha ha.  I'm playing our made up game called "When it's Windy in a Forest Try to Catch a Leaf While they are Blowing Around".  The first one to catch a leaf wins!  Yes, sometimes it gets a little boring in the middle of a forest and you have to make up games! ; )  6.  Albuquerque, NM Hot Air Balloon Festival -  not sure how this photo got in here, my hair is down, no hat or sunglasses.  I am sporting an awesome ear band though!  Ok, I had to sneak this photo in because I love those two bumble bee hot air balloons behind me!  I need to share more photos of this festival too, it was so beautiful.  7. Hike somewhere in NM - My husband and I are doing our best Posh Spice/Victoria Beckham poses.  You know her famous "smile" of lips slightly pouty and look like you are pissed at the world and loath living with the very unattractive David Beckham. ; )  I think at this time the Beckhams were moving to the US for David to play soccer here so they were in the press a lot which started to affect how we pose for photos! ; )  8.  Hike in Glacier National Park - sporting my pom pom stocking hat that is probably meant to be worn by teenagers but I'm rocking it anyway!  This is a rare photo that was taken by someone else.  Most of our photos are the good old husband holds the camera in front of us selfie style, like photos 7 and 1 (cropped my husband out of that one).  9.  Hike somewhere between Dolores and Telluride, CO - See, most of all our photos are in the middle of the forest!  10.  Around Lake City, CO - lying on a bridge watching the clouds roll by.  Do you ever stare at the clouds and find that they look like things.  I did it when I was little and still do it today.  I'll never forget when I was little I saw the shape of big bird in the clouds! Bonus Footage:

Here's how the whole photo shoot with my husband went down.  A floor lamp, milk crate, white foam core and a large clip were our friends for a background that day.  I knew I wanted just a plain and simple photo with a white background.  The only white walls in my house are in my office. My office is completely surrounded by furniture so I can't even really stand by a wall in there, so a piece of white foam core to the rescue!  We had to drag the floor lamp around the room to find the best lighting.  I originally wanted to do this outside on our covered patio for better lighting but it was about 180 degrees outside that day (ok, maybe only 108) and didn't feel like having beads of sweat rolling down my forehead for my debut!

The photo I chose to use was the last shot my husband took.  Off to the right of the photo I'm holding another piece of white foam core to bounce some light back on me.  White foam core is your best friend when taking photos!  I pulled the photo above into photoshop, cropped it, did a couple tweaks and the photo you see at the top was the end result.  I still would like to have a professional photo shoot done someday (probably 10 years from now) but I think this will work for now. So there you have it!  A face to a name!  One more thing scratched off the to do list.  It's now time for me to go back underground and design more things! If you would like to know a little more about me head on over here. P.S.  I'll share more about the UK magazine article when it's out.  I think it's suppose to be out sometime in October.