mr. & mrs. B + belly

simple. true.  real.  i learned a lot from this shoot.  fancy coordinated and finely ironed clothes don't make the photo.  professional landscaped backgrounds don't make the picture.  a clean shaven man and glamorized girl don't make the picture.  what is simple.  what is true.  what is real. that is what makes a picture.  these two are no strangers to my lens, see their sweet wedding session here .  i thought i was prepared to preserve this season in their lives...but that overcast day, in their front yard, during a break from home improvements for the new bundle arriving just weeks away, i was taken by surprise.  thank you f & j for being you and letting me into your world.  mrs. b you shine, i mean really shine when mr. b is being goofy. most wives would have been annoyed with their husband being silly during a maternity photo shot, but it was so obviously clear to me that you were meant for eachother. she shines, really shines when he is being goofy.  and trust me he was being goofy. i feel like i was blessed with seeing and capturing you two and your love in its purest form. looking forward to snapping some pix of that handsome baby outside your belly.

below is a custom announcement i designed to announce the birth of their little man.

the H family...also known as 'the moose family'

laughing. running. playing. loving.  that is what this family is all about.  and i am so thankful to have been able to spend an afternoon with them. if they could bottle Little Miss Moose's energy they'd be millionaires.  That battery bunny has nothing on her!   

(making it official - they are engaged to be married next year) YAY!

hugs 'n kisses to & from the Moose Family!

whatch'ya got cookin'?

before. (recipe book makeover) while this one is cute, in a farmhouse sorta way, and it is small (allowing for easy storage)... it IS small.  for this wife of twelve years, and mom of two boys, there isn't a lot of time spent on handwriting recipes.  more often it involves a search on google or an email from a friend, at which point i quickly print it out and get cookin', or bakin' as the case may be.  thus my cute & small recipe book has accumulated many folded, recipes.  this does not make for easy meal planning, nor timely retrieval of a particular recipe when i need it.  so it was time.  time for a makeover. 

step one.  picked up some super fun scrapbook paper, gathered some scraps of ribbon, printed a title page as well as some labels and set up my dining room table like the set of a commercial for all things food.  snapped a handful of themed pix to use for my dividers.

step two.  edit, print, cut, & assemble.  i layered the complimentary papers.  arranged my themed food pix.  stapled on some tabs and stuck on the labels.  then came the glossary.  one of the challenges of my old recipe book was that i had a pile of folded recipes in no particular order, so when i knew which recipe i wanted, it took me way too long to find it.  i printed out a few pieces of paper with columns -one for each letter of the alphabet-  as i add a recipe i assign a page number (note: each section has its own numbering ie. breakfast is b1, b2, b3...lunch is l1, l2, l3) log it in the appropriate column and look forward to the ease of finding it quickly when i want it.

after. when it all came together, i found myself oddly giddy about how organized it all was and actually excited to sit down and plan meals.  and i hope that some day it will be a family treasure for future generations.