In the past week we have had two inquires for Professional Wedding Photography and none for anything else. Life, goes on.
So my wife Marie is cooking up a myriad up good thing in the kitchen today! This is the How to Make Perogies Section of this Blog.
Roll out the Perogie dough with a rolling pin and a little flour
Mark the dough for cutting with a knife
Fill with your favorite filling (cheese, cottage cheese, mashed potatoes, squash)
filling
Close Mold
The Perogie should look like this in the mold
Cut off excess dough
Finished product in the mold
A pile of Perogies
Perogies also known as pedahha, was a staple food during the depression of the 1930′s. This area we live in was populated by Russian, Polish and Germain immigrants in the 1900′s, 10′s and 20′s!
Next she’s making Cheese Cake from scratch!
Tags: homemade, maries kitchen, perogies, stuffing, sweet water farm and studios
So I guess spring is here to stay, in fact today seems more like summer. Memorial Day weekend we are hosting a Community Wide Garage Sale for the Togo, MN area of Northern Minnesota. As of today, their are 6 or 7 families having sales in the area . So on Saturday, May 22, my Ex-wife and daughter came up from Grand Rapids to have a Pre-shop of our Garage Sale items. While they were shopping, I was making lunch for the four of us. My daughter, Miranda picked up some fresh mushrooms and cherry tomatoes and we made Kabobs on the grill. Yummmm!
Kabob's for lunch
Veggie and Beef kabobs on the grill
After lunch my daughter and Ex-wife returned to Grand Rapids. Then I had time to think about a Road Side Flower Garden.
I went over to a new business in Bear River, MN to look for some flowers for the studio. On the way home I too some time to watch and follow some of the Monarch Butterfly’s that show up around this every year. My but they are fun to watch and photograph.
the mating dance
I have spent hours watching their flights of fancy.
After the Garage Sale next weekend, I will start my 1950′s 60′s gas station photography set.
Tags: black, butterfly, cherry tomato's, cooked on our propane grill., fresh mushrooms, garage sale, Jim Fierek, kabob's on the grill for lunch, marinated red onions & yellow peppers, marinated round steak cut into 1 1/2 " cubes, monarch, put on a wooden skewer (soaked in water over night), yellow
My daughter Miranda making cookies
Hello from Northern Minnesota (200 miles North of Minneapolis) Well spring has sprung with rain we have had in the past day or two. However the fire danger remains very high! So please no fires in Northern Minnesota.
The studio is all unbundled from it’s winter wrapping and ready for business. Last fall we hung an New “shingle” on the road sign, it’s 5×7 feet and hard to miss.
This years addition has been in the planning stage for several years, it will be a 1960′s Gas Station set for the photography of Motor Cycles, Cars, Hot Rods, and people. Figuring out the logistics of what, who and when is the current process. Basically, I’m thinking Mayberry RFD meets the Clampets.
Once again, Lindell Trucking from Gheen, MN will be doing the dirt work, Denny Hill and I will be doing the construction and cement work.
Sweet Water Photo Studios has 16 miles of Adopt a Highway in the Togo area of Northern Minnesota. My daughter and I did the work yesterday, UGG! We both had fun afterward picking wood ticks off us.
Miranda Fierek cleans State highway 65 & highway 1 in the Togo, MN area
The day was overcast but pleasant, at our half way point, we stopped for lunch at the Junction Bar and Grill for a couple of Bacon Cheese burgers and a house salad. We found lots of plastic bottles, aluminum cans and misc trash. No money however! When we got back home I made a steak dinner on the grill complete with grilled potatoes, peppers and veggies, num! After dinner Miranda made chocolate chip cookies! After the cookies, we discussed her future plans to attend Bemidji State in the Fall of 2010 and her move to to Bemidji next month 
( her dad will miss her much!
Miranda's Home made chocolate chip cookies
Tags: 1960's Gas Station, Adopt a Highway, Bemidji, Bemidji State, Cars, Clampets, Denny Hill, Fall of 2010, Gas Station, Home made chocolate chip cookies, Hot Rods, itasca county, Junction Bar and Grill, Lindell Trucking from Gheen, Mayberry RFD, MN, Motor Cycles, people, Togo, wood ticks
Thank you for coming to Grand Rapids, MN to view our Art / Photo Show at Brewed Awakenings Coffee House. I’d like to show how the walls look today, Next Monday we are changing out images.
We have had a lot of comments from this show! Thanks to every one that has commented!
My wife Marie and I will be taking some of these images down on Monday, March 15th and adding our Northern Lights to the mix! They have been chosen as 1 of the 20 BEST in the World! 
Marie and I hope that all enjoy!
Welcome Brewed Awakenings Coffee crowd. 
Marie and I hope that you find our imagery worthy of the walls at Brewed Awakenings! Marie and I have been really busy all winter so far and will be adding images to the walls as ours frames arrive. We come to town from our home in Togo, MN 3 times a week for doctor’s appointments and to tend to Rental Property in Grand Rapids.
We both work full time jobs at Bergquist Switch in Bigfork, MN in the Assembly and Press Operations departments. Photography, however is what drives us!
Marie attended St. Cloud State for Visual Communications with a minor in Graphic Design. Jim learned by trial and error and then attended Ohio Institute of Photography & Technology, in Dayton, OH.
Marie started Sweet Water Photo Studios in 1991, met Jim in 98 and after OIP&T, brought Jim on-board in 2002. Then stuff really started to happen! We doubled our wedding photography business 4 years in a row! Now we are working on our High School Senior Photography. With the 
addition of our new studio last fall, we hope that will bring us the needed work we desire!
This spring (2010) we will be adding a 1960′s gas station set for Hot Rods and Motor Cycles. Located just fourty beautiful miles from Hibbing, MN and the Crusers Car Club. We hope to draw area clubs to our unique setting and location, for that one of a kind photograph.
… …
In these trying times, our home based business is more important than ever. My wife and I have a electronic manufacturing job at a small membrain switch plant 40 miles from our home. A month ago, the company cut our wages 15 percent, I lost about 1.50 per hour in my wages. So, even though we have been attempting to grow and nurture our photography business, this year it will mean even more to our bottom line.
We just completed our first bridal show last weekend in Grand Rapids, MN and their was a good turnout. Bridal shows are like planting the seeds in a new garden, you never know what’s going to germinate and blossom, and whats going to whither and dye on the vine.
OH, for the month of March, we a re going to have a showing of our work at “Brewed Awakenings” coffee shop in Grand Rapids, MN. We will be showing our various subjects from babies to One Million Dollar “Cabins”. I’m thinking about where else to put our show for the spring and summer months. The show will include many large prints, medium sized prints and a Digital Picture frame loaded with several hundred images. So if your in the Grand Rapids, MN area, be sure to stop in and take a view of our work.
Brewed Awakenings Coffee House
www.brewedawakenings.biz -
| (218) 327-1088 |
Tags: babies, brewed awakenings, Brewed Awakenings Coffee House www.brewedawakenings.biz - (218) 327-1088, bridal show, Grand Rapids, home based business, http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweetwaterphoto/, MN
Another year…has past into the record books of history. In the past Decade, we have been witness to Electronic Revolution; Smaller, Faster, Smarter. From Walkmans to Ipods, Desktop PC’s to Pocket PC’s and from Photographic Film to 32GB cards in 21mp cameras! O M G!
So in this day and age of Quick, Instant, Green Screen Photo Studios we built an Old Fashioned Studio, Forty miles from town! Why?
Because we believe in the Old Fashioned Values, Quality not Quantity. One photo shoot per day instead of Two every hour! You just can’t rush art! Anybody can take a picture, but it takes years of practice, thought, experience and yes failure, to know when Art is in the making.
My wife Marie has been a Professional Portrait Photographer (Making her living on photography) since 1989! And I have been making my living off photography since 2002 when I finished photography school.
Last year at this time we were in the process of changing our lives (we just didn’t know it), our studio has grown, the word has gotten out and we are a recognized name in Professional Photography! We ask ourselves this question often, (at what point do we quite our day job and do only photography and apartment maintenance?
Stay tuned for more information!
The Grand Rapids, MN Bridal Show is Saturday February, 6th from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at Timberlake Lodge in Grand Rapids, MN.
Tags: 2010, art, bridal, experience, Grand Rapids, iron range, MN, practice, quality, value, wedding
We have added a Splash Page with the Option of High Speed, Blog, or Dial Up for all our customers, including those on I Phones and Dial Up! The Splash page also includes a FLASH Download for those that have not installed FLASH yet. FLASH is required for High Speed viewing. We have added Bellies and Babies to the Ongoing Projects area. This includes some of the babies that we have photographed during 2009. ALSO in our Ongoing Projects area we have added Architecture an assortment of photos from a one million dollar “cabin” on Lake Vermillion outside of Cook, MN. More changes will be coming as soon as the Web Site Gods smile down on me. Below is a sample of the new background.
Well after a long and weird Autumn, winter is making it’s presents known. The New Studio is put away for the winter and we are making plans for the 2010 season. We continue to add to the Coka-Cola theme with old wooden cases and old signage. This winter we will be printing direct mailers for different groups, Motor Cycle Clubs, High School Graduation Portraits, Engagements, Portraits of Families and course Bellies and Babies.
We are currently scheduled to attend the Grand Rapids 2010 Bridal Show at the Timber Lake Lodge on February 7th from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., also we are making plans for a One month showing at “Brewed Awakenings” Coffee Shop in Grand Rapids during the month of March or April?? And the a Bridal Show at Giants Ridge, Biwabik, MN April 17th from 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.
It has been a very busy Autumn with Christmas Cards and finalizing the 2009 Wedding orders.
Once again the Turkey Dinner fairies made their rounds, serving the needs of those that need. Drop suggestions for the Turkey Fairy via email. 
Tags: 2009, 2010, MN, motor cycle club, studio, thanksgiving, turkey, Winter