A slice of Happiness.

The days after Christmas were just as sweet as the days before! My family took off to Dallas on the 26th to spend time with my brother and sister-in-law. It was such a great time! My parents and I stayed at the Gaylord Texan (Hey guys, let's go Gaylording!) which was so much fun! I get a kick out of staying in fancy hotels! The whole place was decked out for Christmas! I love Christmas. :)

So the whole trip was filled with good times with the fam including Christmas Dinner, Christmas light looking, and shopping (I bought a coat and a swimsuit in one day. Yes, weird.). The last day, I split with the fam to go shoot a wedding in Ft. Worth. It was a crazy fast paced day, but the wedding was beautiful! I've started editing the photos and they are awesome! Have a look on Facebook...I've uploaded some new ones!

This day before New Years eve, I'm at Starbucks, editing all my dear little photos. I've also found a new respect and love for Coldplay. I've never been too much into them, but now I am! Their short album Prospekt's March is rocking my world!

The Countdown to Christmtas! 5 Days to Go!

Thursday and Friday I was engulfed in Wedding World shooting the amazing Lauren Yeater and Klint Bratcher's wedding (It was awesome!!). So when I woke up on Saturday morning, I was so shocked when I looked at my phone and it said December 20th! Christmas only 5 days away?! It totally snuck up on me, so I decided I was going to enjoy the pants off this week! Each day I'm going to do something to celebrate/focus on beautiful Christmas and what it means (and you'll get to read about it because I'm going to blog about it!).

So today, I enjoyed this wonderful season with my family. Scott and I met up with my parents, brother, and sister-in-law to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" at the Historic Paramount Theatre! We even dressed up! Even though I've seen that movie many times, I was so into it! What a great movie and message. :) Afterwards, we went to my parent's house to eat homemade apple dumplings and hang out. It was so great to spend time with them!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Decorating Around Our Apartment!

So despite crazy schedules, Megan and I finally managed to decorate our humble abode. :) It's about time!! Matt and Scott were both able to be around, so we turned up the #1 Christmas jams and just had so much fun! Our decorating this year was not quite as involved as last year (we just managed to get our stockings hung and tree decorated), but we've just been so darn busy! With Meg in grad school and me finishing up my last semester of undergrad...well ya know. 

On that note, today I took my last final!! It's so not even real yet that I'm pretty much done at college. I mean, I've got student teaching, but I won't be on campus at all next semester, so it's pretty much the end. :( Five years went realllly fast! I'm so happy though. :) :) I'm looking forward to the rest of my life :)

So high fives for being done with school! Bring on the holidays! I've got a busy break with weddings and such but, of course, I'm excited about that.

Random Deep Moment: I've been realizing just how careful I need to be about not overloading myself next semester during student teaching. This is extremely hard for me, since all I really want to do is keep moving forward full speed ahead with photography. It is the most difficult, frustrating, humbling thing to have to let 

awesome opportunities pass me by. But, despite this, I'm feeling really "mature" ;) about making wise decisions. I'm kind of weirdly excited to be absorbed in something other than photography for a little while. Variety in life is good!

Okay, enough from me, let's check out the decorating pictures!

Here's me putting lights on the tree (dad would be so proud) while Scott puts lights on me. :)

Carefully putting the star on top.
All of us high fiving for our tree-putting-up success! 

 

Home sweet home

My head is a Christmas tree?
And as a final visual treat...Megan and Matt gave me an early Christmas present--a vintage camera from the 1940s!! How fabulous is this?! Perfect condition, with the flash and 3 unused flash bulbs!! I'm so excited! Did I mention that I've started collecting vintage cameras!? I have and I love learning all about them. The history of photography is fascinating! :) Cool huh?

Hello November!

Hellooooo friends! Let me see...I haven't blogged since the election and while lots of things have been going on...it seems like I can't remember any of them! :) Ahh, life. 

Well, I made it through my week of teaching 2nd graders and it was awe-some. Very great. Gotta love kiddos! :) School is wrapping up supa-fast and I'm so happy! Can't believe this is it for me and college...well the college campus at least. Let's not forget I'll be student teaching all next semester. I'm excited about it, but totally looking forward to the Christmas break and doing NOTHING (yeah right). :D

I just love this time of year!! (Who doesn't?) It's so great! Meg and I are putting up our Christmas decor right after T-giving. Yea! Remember our cool decorations last year? Check out the blog post!

Photog is rockin! I'm finished with big purchases for now, which is nice, but I'm so happy with all my equipment! I bought the 70-200mm telephoto lens last week and it has rocked my wedding photography world! Kick-tush! :) Today, I finally purchased a nice new blog for my photography schtuff. I'm SO EXCITED! The biggest plus is the extra large photos! Can't wait to get it all set up!

I also shot a wedding last weekend in Ft. Worth (awesome) which marks the beginning of my winter wedding season. I'll be a busy girl in December and January. OH! And! Exciting news! I'll be taking part in a bridal fair in February! First one I've ever done! I cannot even tell you how excited I am! You know me with organization and decoration--I love it, so this will simply be a blast! :) :)

Life's good. God's good.

So much fun...

I'm so blessed right now to be in the middle of a FABULOUS weekend! So far it has been just so much fun...and with all the school stresses and such recently...well, I needed some fun. :) The rundown is pretty quick and easy: Last night I got together with fellow photographers/friends Erin, Chad, and Tressie and we had a "just for fun" shoot! It was insane! Nighttime, graveyard, awesome models, and lotsa flashes/pocket wizards/umbrellas/equipment! Yep we had a shoot in a graveyard at night. So fun! If there hadn't been alot of us, I probably would have been creeped out! But as it was, we just had a blast and got some killer images! Head to the photog-blog to see some of the photos. My new flash had just come in the mail this week too so it was perfect! What fun!

Next, I left the shoot a little early to head to the opening night of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3! :) :) Yea! I'm not ashamed...it's so peppy and happy I just can't help but love it. I went with my awesome friend Nicole who loves it too, so we just had a blast! I'm pretty sure I sat next to a 10 year old girl who kept telling me how much she loved my scarf and how cute Zac Effron was. It was pretty funny :) After that, Nicole and I went to get coffee at Starbucks which was delicious and fun. I love hanging out with her! Pumpkin Spice Latte all the way :)

By the time we left Starbucks and I was driving home through a bunch of blinking yellow lights, I realized it had been a long time since I had been out so late...fun! It was refreshing to get to stay up late to have fun and not worry about having to wake up for anything in the morning.

This morning, I woke up to my roommate Megan waking me up telling me she had made eggs and biscuits for breakfast. Amazing!! :) :) And today, I've just gotten to do little things I've needed to do (that have NOTHING to do with homework--yay!) and it's just been relaxing and great. What a joy. I am just so thankful beyond anything right now for this weekend of simple fun! Yay!

October Update!

Well, life has just gone SILLY with busyness the past couple of weeks! I'm just trying to keep up! Here's a small-ish sort of update on me, in case you are wondering!

1. Today is my mom's birthday! Wahoo! Don't tell her, but I got her this awesome mug from Starbucks...she's gonna love it! ;)
2. Tonight I have a date with my dear friend Nicole. We are going to see HSM3! We've been highly anticipating this movie!
3. School is busy busy busy and this semester it's all lesson plans. My weeks are flying by so fast that I barely notice. I can't believe it's almost November, but I'm enjoying the cold weather. :) Come on graduation!
4. Kids Park at church is still going great. The Lord has been really affirming me in my position there which is awesome!
5. Last weekend I went to Ft Worth to shoot a bridal session. It was great! While I was there, I randomly ran into photographer Fred Egan while grabbing a burrito at FreeBirds! It was so cool to meet him! Check out his work here.

Next week, I have another bridal session, and then a few weeks after that I'll be busy with an engagement and bridal shesh (in one weekend), and then a few weeks after that the weddings start! I'm SO excited! I also got to buy a new flash last week (yay!) and hopefully *crossed fingers* I'll be getting another new lens in the beginning of November. Whew!

Dinner with the Newman's & SING!

Wednesday, I got to go see my dear friend Cherith and her family! It's always so great to see her and this time was especially exciting because she had a baby girl about a month ago, and this was the first time I'd seen her! And she was totally precious. :) I mean, who doesn't love to hold a baby? It's the most peaceful thing in the world. It was so fun and special to see my middle school/high school friend with her growing family of 4. :D

This weekend is SING! at HSU, which is always a blast. I went last night, and it tugged at my heart a little, knowing this would be my last SING! to enjoy as a student. It also marks a very important beginning in my life--the beginning of my photography career. That's right, my very first (paying) shoot was taking photos at SING! :) My, how time has flown! It's the funniest thought to me that I didn't care one bit about photography 2 years ago, and now I can't imagine life without it. Life is crazy! :D

Honesty

Today really, truly feels like Fall! It is so gorgeous outside! Clear sky, crisp, cool weather, and that smell of aged leaves in the air. Love it. :) It's funny though, I was getting ready to "peer teach" this morning in one of my classes, and I was walking in and out of doors all morning, but didn't notice the gorgeous weather until after I had finished my teaching. I was just too buried in my thoughts and plans to notice. 

Noticing beauty and the Lord's hand in creation is something I want to embrace during the day. I don't want to get too bogged down with my own stuff. Creation is such a powerful reminder that the Lord is in control, working, and with us. How encouraging and strengthening are those thoughts?! :) 

These thoughts kind of remind me of my attitude when I first started taking photographs. I was awed by the world around me, so I just was enthusiastic to take photos and capture the most important things in life for people (relationships, times worth celebrating, nature, beauty). Here now, a year later, I'm having difficulty keeping that attitude. I find that I'm driven less by joy and more by pleasing the general public, comparing myself to other photographers, and creating a perfect image of myself through "branding." Selfish gain is a giant temptation. 

But friends, I'm not going to give in. 

I can't do it of my own will though...because I've been trying that. I'll let you in on a secret--it hasn't worked. :) The only way I know to combat this, is to put it all into the hands of the Lord by freshly realizing each morning that He is the giver and sustainer of life (and business :) ) and knowing that He is in control, and I'm not. The Lord has gifted me with the gift of encouragement. I know I'm supposed to be using that gift all the time. Why hold back encouragement because I want to seem better than someone else? Seriously, why? It's the old battle of pride. 

I feel like, at least for a while, this will be a rebirth process every morning. That's fine. Pray for me as I continue to fight against this. 

Just so you know, I want to be a stand out light of encouragement, honesty, and love in a market driven by the perfect image and a get-your-own mentality. I'm so thankful for my photographer friends that I've made so far. You guys are invaluable and I so respect the way you share in this fight too! :)

Thanks for letting me get all that out! Whew! :D

14 days later...An update!

1. School: School is school. I'm trying to enjoy it since it's my last semester and all, but with photography going nuts (see more on that below) it's very hard to focus on school.

2. Photography: Okay, let me just say, I've been so blessed! I've been consistently booking weddings every week since school started! Simply wonderful :) What does the future hold? Exciting things! :) :) I've also gotten to make some exciting purchases! I bought the Canon 5d, two new lenses, a Shootsac, and a few new accessories! Posting photos soon...

3. Church: I'm so excited because I've started helping out in the 1st grade Sunday school class at Beltway! It's so great to finally have a spot to serve. I'm so glad I finally just took the plunge and got involved. :)

4. Friendships: Yay for friends! I feel like I've had some of the best times with wonderful friends this semester AND I've gotten to see lots of friends that I don't usually get to see. Friday nights are designated "hang out nights" where Megan and I have people over--it's so great! Last friday, a group of us played "Spin the Bottle" except with those fake kids tattoos! If you spun the bottle, you got to pick the tattoo for the other person AND got to tell them where to put it! We had them all over our faces and everything...probably the most fun ever. 

Rain...

Hello, hello all! 

It's a beautiful rainy Monday and I just love it! I don't really have much to say or update on, but just wanted to make a quick blog post. School is rockin' along, the photography ball is rolling faster every single day, and in my spare time (what's that?) Meg and I have had plenty of friends over to watch The Office season FOUR!! I'm also getting ready to make some exciting photography purchases...can't wait!

Something cool happened today though! Although it probably won't be a big deal to anyone else, I freaked out today when I saw, driving in front of me, my old beloved Camry, Waldo!! Can you believe it? Who ever sells their car (it was a very broken car at that) and then sees it again in their same town....or on their same college campus for that matter! I figured the guy we sold it to was going to junk it and try to get money for the parts. But it was Waldo alright, just driving like always. Same license plate, same ding on the trunk, same everything! :) I was just so excited! I get kinda sentimental about cars, and since Waldo was my first car...well ya know. :) Here's a photo of the little guy, back this summer, along side my new ride-- 4runner Simon! I know I'm a nerd. 

Happy Monday!

The Best First Day Yet!

Today was my very last "first day of school" EVER! Well...that's kind of a lie...since I'm an education major, I'm sure I'll have a lot more "first days." :) But it was definitely my last first day as a student!! I think that knowledge made me just enjoy today like nothing else! It was such a good day! Knowing this is my last time around just made me let go of all the bad attitudes that come with school starting. And remember that professor I mentioned who I was not excited about having? She didn't seem so bad today either! :) It also rained some today and we've been having the most gorgeous sunsets here. You know what I'm talking about it you're from around here. I was driving home this evening and the entire sky was orangey pink...it was breathtaking!

Anyway, it was a good first day of school. I hope yours was fabulous if you are doing the school thing!

Also, you might want to check out the photog-blog. I had a session Saturday and LOVED the photos from it! Here's a peek!

Wedding Weekend!

This weekend, my dearest friends Chase and Kassie got married! It was wonderful! I got to shoot their wedding, so head to the photog-blog to see it all! Here are a couple of my favorites.

I really owe a lot to Chase and Kassie. During one of the hardest months of my life, they really shined as friends and helped me keep my joy. When I was first beginning in photography, Chase helped me find opportunities that became the base of my business. Kassie has always been an amazing friend, and my favorite thing about her is her honesty. They are just wonderful and I'm so glad they're married! After something like four years of dating, it's about time! :)

Olympics, Photography, Yoga, and Grandpa's Birthday (All rolled into one post!)

Who's in love with the Olympics?! I AM!! I'm watching them every chance I get! If you ever want to come over some night and watch with me, I'll cook for you!! :) When I watch the Olympics, I'm always reminded of the '96 Olympics when Kerri Strug took the U S of A to gold! Man, good times! I was so freaking out when that happened.

Anyway, it's always been a big dream of mine to go to the Olympics...just to watch, you know. :) Now that I have my cameras, I REALLY wish I could go. Just look at some of the cool photos (remember, I did NOT take these):

And also, on the note of photography, you might want to zip over to my photography blog. I posted a few sessions that I'm proud of :)

Next, you might wonder how my yoga class is going since I made such a big to-do about it...it's going GREAT! I adore it while I'm there and miss it when I don't get to go! I've been going three times a week which has been incredible. I can already tell a difference in my overall health and feel-good-ness. If you ever wanna come with me, I can bring guests. ALSO, I just bought a new yoga mat while my mom and I were in San Antonio. Isn't that fun?! I got a little too excited about it :) It's purple with a sweet damask design on it.

Important Side Note: I've always wanted to know the name for this design, because it's so popular, and I found out: it's called damask. I know you've seen it before. Just type "damask" into Google Images, and you'll soon be saying, "Ohhh, THAT'S what that is called!" (Unless of course you already knew it...then you would just be cool).

Finally, my grandpa's birthday was this past weekend! The whole family got together to celebrate, and it was wonderful. Here's a photo of him opening his birthday present from all of us...an Ice Cream Maker. He loved it! My grandparents are so inspiring...they are just as active, spry, God-loving, and sharp as can be...at 80+ years! I want to be like that!

Home!

Hi friends! I just returned from another wonderful weekend in San Antonio...this time with my mom! We had a girl trip, and it was so fun! First of all, we stayed in Boerne, this sweet little town just a few miles out of San Antonio, at this lovely mix between a Bed&Breakfast and a hotel. It was so authentic and WAY better than staying in a hotel. It was almost like staying with a relative in their home. Definitely a nice place to come back to at the end of a long day at Sea World or shopping! Yes, my mom and I went to Sea World! :) But first, have a look at the "Ye Kendall Inn" where we stayed.Some of the old school artwork found in our room...This is a picture of the lady whom our hotel room was named after, Laverne McQuinn (the hotel rooms didn't have numbers, just names).They had a "Texas sized" hot tub! We hung out there after the day at Sea World and it was glorious!Seeing this sign made me very happy :)The first night we ate at Papasitos--I'd never been there before and I give it an A+! The salsa was the best part!! This photo represents us getting our "gangsta" on in SA! We are ridiculous. :)And here we are at Sea World!Here I am petting a Clydesdale at Sea World!! It was GIGANTIC and BEAUTIFUL!We also got Baskin-Robbins ice cream! I haven't been to a Baskin-Robbins in probably something like 10 years!
What a great trip!

Shhhhh...Secret Preview of My Biz Card!

Okay, I'm so super stoked out of my mind because of this sweet little biz card design that Scott did for me. He KILLED on this design!! I couldn't be a single bit happier with it! I ordered them yesterday and I was going to try really, REALLY hard to wait to show you until I had the actual card...but I can't! So scroll down to the bottom of the post to see a preview!! It's perfect! I just smile every time I see it.

And you may be thinking, "What, no picture on a photographer's business card?" But it's a pretty daunting task to try and choose ONE photo to represent your entire photography career to the general public. So instead, I opted to go with a fresh, fun, and funky design that will hopefully convey my enthusiastic love for life and photography, AND make people stop and stare at it! :) ALSO, this is only the front side. The back (which is also yummy delicious) has all my info artfully stated on it. Cool!


P.S. It may be about to rain right now! I sure hope so! :)

P.S.S. Happy August!

Mmmmm...

Can I just say that I am so proud of this photo!? Is that strange? I mean, I know it's a stack of cookies, but I am in love with it! The lighting, textures, colors...everything is perfect! Doing this cookie shoot yesterday for Jerita (the owner of local cookie biz, One Smart Cookie) kinda made me want to go work for Martha Stewart Living and take pretty pictures of food all day long :)

Saturday Happiness!

On any given morning, as soon as I'm awake enough to roll out of bed, my tired feet walk my tired body over to the window for some sunshine. It's deliciously rejuvenating and refreshing! Saturday morning, that sunshine was especially appreciated.

I was up and at 'em super early, getting ready for a photoshoot and a long (but happy) day. My dear friend Cherith had scheduled a shoot with me for her beautiful growing family. The day before, when I was getting all my inspiration together for the shoot, I was just becoming more and more excited! Family shoots (especially with little kiddos) have got to be one of my favorite things to do! There's just so much love and happiness that come through in the photos. Life gets hard and stressful, as we all know, but the thing I love about a photo, is that it can absolutely remind you of the good. Looking back though my family's photo albums, I remember we had hard times, but the photos show all the good. And there was so much good! We need to be reminded of that sometimes, I think. Anyway, here are just a couple of my favorites.

After the shoot, Cherith invited me to come over for breakfast. It was so great to spend some time with her!! We've been friends since middle school, and I love it that we still keep up :) Good times. Anyway, I had to be back in town by 11 for my *yoga* class and it was great! After being thoroughly stretched and strengthened ;) I jumped on over to Starbucks to edit, edit, edit. I had the most productive time up there, getting ALL my recent photo sessions completely and totally edited and finished. Man, it feels good! Once finished with that, I went home and had a lovely afternoon nap (which I NEVER get anymore). Afternoon naps are indescribably wonderful :) To finish off this great day, Scott and I went to see The Dark Knight at 9:45! IT WAS SO GOOD! If you haven't seen it, you must go!

So Saturday was just an all around good day. Don't you just love good days? :)

Megan's Birthday!

Megan's birthday was on Thursday, so on Friday a few of us girls took her to the Homeplace for dinner! We had the most delightful home cooked meal! This place is just so West Texas, and I love it :) After dinner, we explored a little bit, and then sat on the porch and had wonderful conversations about where we are in our stage of life. Yay for girl talk! Here are a few photos!

Roomies!

I love these girls!!

San Antonio Trip :: Part 2!

After a lovely lunch at McAllister's Deli and a spur of the moment shopping trip to this sweet modern furniture/decor store "Motif Studio," Scott and I jumped in the truck and headed homeward.

On the way home from San Antonio, we most definitely made a stop in Fredericksburg to do a little walkin' and shoppin'...not that we could actually buy anything...or at least not anything I wanted! :) I fell in love with this little antique side table/mini dresser, but check out the price. It was also pretty much the least expensive item in the store, so just imagine the price of the other lovely things.
We also stepped into this anthropologie-like store called "Root." It was so inspiring and fun (and girly...Scott was a good sport), but alas, expensive.Then we got photo happy and started snapping away. I personally love this one. You can see in the lower right hand corner the date the building was built. 1889. Cool!I wanted to do a little photo collection, but couldn't figure out what to do...until we had passed store after store with adorable "Open" signs! So here you have it, a sampling of the "Open" collection. So as not to wear you out with too many photos, I've hand selected my favorites. :)

When people say they "hand selected" something, you know it's going to be good. :)

This trip was just what I needed. Fun and relaxing, with the most awesome family ever!

Have a lovely day!