Sweetie Baby

I am pretty lucky to have such cute babies in my studio! Here's just a couple of Baby L, another sweetie I get to watch grow for her whole first year.

Baby S

I have had the pleasure of working with this cutie for a few months now. Here is one of her six month photos and a couple more from her recent 9-month session. She has some of the most beautiful eyes I think I've ever seen.

Website Updates

Woohoo! Website is finally updated with new news, pricing info, and a link to this blog! Now maybe people will actually see it! hehe. My next step is to add some new photos to my galleries. I have lots from this year, I haven't been able to update my site since Feb and now I can so I am excited to add some new things. Maybe I will add some new music too. I love the song on there but after so many years of the same song I'm a bit tired of it.

ALSO- on the news section of the site, please take note of the new pricing info! New prices are effective now, current clients have until Nov 1 to secure sessions and order packages with old prices. New clients get new prices. After Nov 1, everybody gets the new prices. Sorry if there's any inconvenience there, this is the best way I could make it fair.

I have also added a list of policies and procedures to the site. Please read them. They answer a lot of questions and also outline what my clients can expect from me and what I expect from them in return.

I took a bit of a reprieve in August and September with not a whole lot of clients. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed between all 3 kids starting school and me starting a new part-time job- I work nights to help get my family some medical benefits that we have gone without since my hubby got out of the military almost 2 years ago now! Plus I suffered a minor head injury and was unable to work for about two weeks, which affected production significantly. But I am feeling 90% better now, just a mild headache left. The slow down has been good and I am working on getting caught up with everyone and feeling great about going into the holidays refreshed and ready to be creative!

Relay For Life final total and Back to School Sale

Relay For Life
I wanted to quickly give a special thanks to everyone who made a donation to our Relay for Life team! Our team came in fifth place overall with just over $10K raised. My total donations came to roughtly $2200, so THANK YOU ALL to everyone who helped. A couple clients even came out to cheer us on and watch me get my hair cut off for Locks of Love (hey, a deal's a deal, right?). We had a great time- can't wait till next year.

Back to School Sale
For $250 you can receive your own private indoor or outdoor session plus an 8x10, 4 5x7, and 22 wallets (a $425 value). Preschool through High School Seniors welcome. Through September. Session times for this special extremely limited. Only 9 openings for this special all month, so call early to get the best spots on the schedule!

The holidays are coming!!
September is time to start thinking about holiday cards! Deadline for ordering your custom designer holiday cards is Nov 16 to guarantee arrival in time to mail before Christmas! Prices for cards start as low as $40.

Referral Bonus
I always hear from my clients how much they love my work and how much their friends love my work. I want to know who is telling who! So if you send your friends to me and they schedule their own appointment, make sure they tell me that you sent them, and I will give you a free 8x10 on your next session! Even better- if you refer TEN friends and they all schedule a session, I will give you a free 11x14 canvas covered session album from your next session!! I have never offered this before- EVER, and may not do it very long (as those books aren't cheap) so if you've been wanting one but couldn't convince your hubby that it was necessary- start talking to your friends. Send them to this blog, send them to my website (which is outdated because somehow my server login info got wiped out and it's a long weekend so I can't call them to get it fixed until probably Wednesday).

That's it for now for me. I hope everyone has a great Labor Day Weekend!

Just for fun!

I don't get to have sessions with my kids very often. On the rare occasion I do get them to agree to humor me and get to the studio, I get pretty excited about it. Today was one of those days. My beautiful girl who is about to be a SECOND grader in 3 weeks- asked if we could do some pictures of her that we could make look like Hannah Montana posters. Excited just as much about the fact that she is willingly going to wash her hair (instead of kicking and screaming like she has the rest of this summer) as I am that we get to "play", I agree and we set off. She was a good sport all during the getting ready- we did hair and even a little make-up- and then got her changed into her first clothing change- we had planned for 3 outfits.

However, seven shots into the session the mood changed, and we were done. I was thankful that we got a few really cute ones to work with right away, and she is thrilled with what we came up with for her "poster":

If you're interested, here is a post from last year with a photo of Kayla 3 weeks before starting first grade. My, how time flies...

A few recent sweeties

Here are a few of my most recent cutie babies. I realized it had been a while since I had added any new photos- since Mr. Elliott is now 9 months old! Here he is (see him again in the teacup in a below post). Enjoy!



And a few other little cutie pies. Names left out without parent permission.

Sweet as Sugar

One of my favorite photos to date that I have ever taken. Sweetie baby Elliott is 6 months old. What a joy he is. Always happy... until I took away the spoon... haha.

Been a while

Things have been sooooooooo busy here I haven't had time to update, so I will take a minute now.
The studio is closed this week and next due to an unfortunate incident involving a washing machine and a carpet. We are replacing the padding this week and will probably wait a while to replace the actual carpet.
Since we had everything moved out of the room already, we went ahead and painted the projection area on Sunday. We have had the paint for a while but never had time to move the furniture out to paint, so I guess we killed two birds with one stone. I hate that expression- it is so violent! Who would want to kill birds with rocks anyway? That's awful!!

ANYWAY- we are also finishing up the redecorating of the studio bathroom- which is exciting because it has been so HORRIBLE for so long. We painted and got new flooring in the entry a couple months ago and the intention has always been to do the bathroom the same, with beautiful, warm, Tuscan colors. My wonderful husband also installed my new pedastal sink in there- and we finally found a mirror that works. Bless his heart- he wrestled with that sink for quite a while. Apparently pedastal sinks are pretty hard to install- but he's a champ and he did it and it's beautiful.

In other news- I was very disappointed to get a UPS return note in my PO Box the other day and I was 99% sure it was for my new Cupcake Courier. But I wasn't sure, so I called the # on my paypal receipt and the owner of the company, Jennifer Gunn, answered and was so nice and helpful and apologetic, though I'm not sure why, it was just a misunderstanding, stuff happens. I was very impressed that she answered her own phone and was eager to fix the problem and get me a new one shipped right away. Anyway- I can't wait to get it, I got a pink one. For those who don't know- a Cupcake Courier is a big tray that stacks 3 dozen cupcakes (or one big cake) without messing any of them up! The PERFECT way to get cupcakes to school or another function easily! After my first attempt at bringing two dozen cupcakes to school a couple weeks ago for my first grader's birthday- I knew I couldn't manage this three times a year (3 kids) plus school carnivals and whatever else- so I HAD to have one and it was my Mother's Day gift to myself. (Well, one of them, anyway- ha).

Anyway- if you have kids, or if you ever have any reason to transport cupcakes, muffins, or a big cake- check out the Cupcake Courier. www.cupcakecourier.com I will post again after I get it. I'll be using it for Relay for Life in 2 weeks if it gets here in time.

IN RELAY NEWS-
I am only $275 away from reaching my goal of $1250. I also have an uncle who REALLY wants to see me cut my hair off- which I will do if I reach my goal. Not all of it- cutting off 10" for Locks of Love. It will be to about my shoulders still. I'm not thrilled about it but a promise is a promise... I will get a cute style before my trip to LA 2 weeks later.

I have so much I am looking forward to right now!!
Saturday May 19- Relay for Life fundraiser Garage Sale in Monroe
Sunday May 20- Council Fire for Kayla's Campfire group at Camp Killoqua
Memorial Weekend- Grants Pass (hopefully- have a mom being induced that Friday if she doesn't go sooner)
June 2-3- RELAY FOR LIFE!
June 14-17- Los Angeles
July 4-17- West Virginia
August 18- Mackenna turns 4 and possible family camping in North Bend

What a fun summer!

"Famouser even than Cap'n Kangaroo..."

OK, maybe not so much... ok, so that's a gross exaggeration- but it is really wierd to have people I have never met say they have "heard" of me. Don't get me wrong, it's not wierd in an awful "I think I have a stalker" way- it's wierd in a kinda surreal, but neat, "I hope my bank balance fattens up soon" kind of way. haha.
I used to get mad at the photographers I knew who would complain about being so busy. I was like- "oh wah, what a problem to have" but now that I am also so busy, I am going a little bit crazy and my children feel neglected (although I think that's just a guilt trip my oldest has learned) and my husband is annoyed that I can't even sit and watch a movie on the couch with him without working- but I have no choice, people want their photographs!

Maybe someday- when I really AM rich and famous- like Annie Liebovitz or Anne Geddes (hm maybe my mother should have named me Anne?) I will be able to hire someone to do all the computer work for me. In the meantime... I'll be here... on my laptop... 18 hours a day.

Old friends, new experiences

Friendships are quite interesting. Everyone has all different kinds of friendships. Of course there are the regular kinds where you someone, have plenty in common, talk frequently. Everyone should have at least a few of these. But then there are other kinds. Some friendships you have maintained over the years simply because you have always had them and it would be too wierd to not have them anymore- even though you have nothing in common and probably wouldn't choose them to be your friend today. And then there are the friends who you used to be really close with but now are lucky to get an email that's not a forwarded joke. And then there are the other friends who you could go years and years without seeing or hearing from, completely lose touch, and then one day you get a call or an email out of the blue and suddenly you're talking for hours and you would never believe that more than ten years had passed since you last spoke.

This last kind of friend is what I'm writing about today.

When I was 12 I met Amber at a family function. Her grandma was good friends with my aunt- they attended the same church. The following summer I started going to my aunt's church, and Amber and I started hanging out more. For about 4 years we were really good friends, until she turned 18 and her job kept her working on Sundays so I rarely saw her after that. A year later I moved away and we lost touch. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when through a mutual friend Amber figured out my married name and found me on myspace and emailed me. Now a mom of a precocious 3 year old and 8 months pregnant with her second daughter, Amber came up to the studio yesterday and we had the best time. Total freedom to do whatever we wanted, we came up with some pretty nice stuff. :) I'll share a few (only because she shared them first!)

Thanks Amber! Can't wait to meet the baby!!

Painting Time

Today I am painting my studio entry hallway. I also plan on painting my studio bathroom and the office/projection area of the studio itself but... all in good time. I am very excited about the new "look" we're getting though- it's going to be an italian themed entry. Tuscan colors. Yellow textured walls and dark marble tile with new accent fixtures as well. We figured, since chances are good we are going to be here for a while and not moving at least this year- we might as well do our best to make it more inviting. I'm pretty excited to get it done... I will post before and after's after I'm finished! :)

God Speed, Little Man

I received sad news this morning. One of my NILMDTS babies- Kaleb- passed away sometime during the night last night. I was supposed to go to their house tonight to do a family session and his one month photos. Unfortunately we didn't get that chance.
I am so glad I was able to meet him when he was born and get some photos of him then.

Kaleb was a true fighter. When he was a few minutes old they told his parents he didn't have the will to fight. I think he heard them and said "Oh yeah!? Watch me!!" Kaleb began to fight as soon as he met his big sister and brother. He fought for 30 days.

Sweet Dreams, Kaleb.

Belated Valentine's Day

OK so I'm late in posting these but I wanted to share them anyway. These are my kids' valentine cards we made for their friends at school and for our family. Hope everyone had a good V-day!

Evening Magazine

On Monday, Feb 19th, TV show Evening Magazine (click to see video) in Seattle did a segment featuring me and the work I am doing for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. They also featured two very special families I have had the honor of working with, Erin and Waldo, and Angie and Waldez. I actually blogged about Erin and Waldo, and their beautiful little boy Tyler- last year. I was quite honored (and plenty nervous) to be a part of the story- but we were all absolutely thrilled at how well done it was. I sincerely want to thank Erin for contacting King 5 about our story, she did a wonderful job telling how it has helped her to heal! And thank you Angie for allowing the news crew to be there for our session with little Faith Marie, I know that was hard, not knowing what the outcome of the day would be, you are a rockstar and I love you! And a HUGE thanks to Kim Griffis for her wonderful reporting- you were great to work with and I was SO impressed with the story! And one last HUGE thanks to cameraman Tom (sorry I don't remember your last name!) for your expert skill in making me look like a halfway decent looking person! haha. Seriously- there is a reason I usually stay behind the camera and Tom deserves an EMMY for the miracle he pulled off making me look good!

The response I have received from this story has been wonderful. From families who "wished they'd only known", to photographers interested in joining. The word is out now, and hopefully someone who might need our services in the future will find out about it now, when they wouldn't have before. What a blessed organization to be a part of!

RELAY FOR LIFE 2007!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN!?

I can hardly believe it's time for Relay For Life AGAIN! Didn't we just do this? Well our team Walk For Sam (name change is pending to something cooler) is busy forming and back at it full speed, getting ready for the relay June 2nd in Monroe! We have SO MUCH to do and only 4 1/2 months in which to get it all ready! Can we? Who knows. But it's going to be a fun ride!

Visit my Relay For Life website and donate $5 or $10 (or more if you want!) in honor of someone you love. Help us beat this beast called cancer.

A couple recent favorites

I have been doing quite a few more maternities lately, and here are a couple of my favorites! I will try to post more later (although based on my blogging history, how often is debatable).