Sometimes, your path just crosses with the right person, ya know? Like it is meant to be, where everyone walks away having gained something marvelous. Meeting Amy was like that.
An incredibly positive, joyful, energetic person, Amy, a designer and wildly creative person herself, came to me months before her session full of light and ideas and excitement for collaborating on making something really special together. It was thrilling!

By the time our session rolled around, I was so ready to meet this girl in person (And her cute little family, who, rumor had it, was as fun and happy as she was). Oh, cute little trio-- you did not disappoint!

The outfits were fantastic-- the ideas were flowing, and the locations made my little art-heart so happy:

And this sweet girl of theirs-- she was ADORABLE. Those doe eyes kept me coming back for more!

This was a session that reminded me that I can combine very personal ideas of what I love into the work I create, and come out the other side having defined my "style" just a bit more. These are the kind of clients that make me feel like I have something lasting to offer by capturing a piece of life for them.

Thank you Amy, for your passion and energy. I was utterly delighted to be invited to THIS party!

*

Hello, My Sweet.

Oh my Anthro birthday gift card... How gorgeous you are, coming to me each June from the store I love best. How much lovelier you get each year. I am liking the pinhole cupcake and ceramic candle necklace this year. The white on white is simply lovely.

Hm... now what to treat myself to at the store?

happy early birthday to me.

♥

7 New States in Under a Month

Random... But my sister in law had this on her blog, and since I just recently visited seven new states in under a month (Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Mass.), this seemed particularly fun!


visited 33 states (66%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

The above map is only states I've spent time in ON PURPOSE, even if only for two hours. If I count states I've PASSED THROUGH, either via road trips or airports, I can add:
Delaware
Georgia
New Mexico
Pennsylvania
West Virginia

Which puts me at this:


visited 38 states (76%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Kinda cool!

Your turn!

Uh Oh.

Damn you, McDonalds.

I don't have much willpower as it is. And I usually avoid you, but with Noah loving the chicken nuggets/apple dippers Happy Meal, whaddya gonna do? So I'll be faced with your new temptation whenever I cave and take Noah to the "M", as he calls it....

*sigh*

Gosh, I love cookies.

In other hilarity, check out what Noah got in his Happy Meal today:



She's so pretty....

Having a good summer, ya'll?? I totally am. :)

Happy Father's Day!

Since this cute fella's daddy is just about the best dad I've ever known, I knew he needed something extra special for Father's Day. Something unique. Something that played to Joe's "big kid-ness"... AND his taste buds. Something that would put a HUGE grin on his face.



I found the PERFECT answer when browsing my Google Reader blogs the other week:



This DIY "Hero Supply Kit", conceptualized and designed by Jordan Ferney of "Oh Happy Day" and offered as a free download printable kit through her guest post at the AlphaMom blog, is AH---MAY---ZING. Seriously. I drooled for about ten minutes at her clean line design, the utter cleverness of it all, and the presentation of the final kit.

And then I put shoes on Noah and headed RIGHT to the store to recreate one of my own. Because not only is this thing BRILLIANT, is is absolutely, completely PERFECT for my Joe-- a lover of comics and heroes and classic vintage toys... as well as a connoisseur of all snacks. So Noah and I got to work, and compiled our own Hero Supply Kit, just for Joe:







I personally LOVE the "X-Ray Drops" (chocolate covered sunflower seeds) and the Vitamin Pellets (hand-sorted M&Ms.. Hm. Wonder who got to eat all the brown/red/orange/green ones??):



Cute, right?!

And the kid who has given Joe the chance to be the best daddy ever:


(LOVE him. Seriously. My baby is the danged cutest kiddo EV'AH.)

The kit was PERFECT, and the yellow gifty was a fun book I'd heard great things about: The Year of Living Biblically, by A.J. Jacobs... The kind of book Joe could get into-- nonfiction, humorous, deep, spiritual, interesting.... Oh, and I also got Joe a Noah-sized baseball glove and ball for him to begin teaching Noah to play catch. Awww!

All in all, a not-too-shabby effort for my sweetie's Father's Day. Noah and I are happy with our efforts, and Joe is pretty much in LOVE with all of the above. Nice!

*

And one more shout-out to Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day!, the generous and incredibly clever creator of the above Hero Supply Kit:


If you don't read her blog, you should. It looks like she's done it again with another recent post-- this time a S'Mores Kit to be used as a wedding favor. She is FULL of incredible ideas and inspiration!

*

Celebrate!

It's nearly a month after the fact, but......



My handsome husband GRADUATED! And with honors, to boot!

On May 15th, be walked to get his Bachelor of Arts in French at UMSL. I was surprised at how emotional it was seeing him up there...I thought I'd just feel PROUD... But I also felt.... MOVED. AWED. And HAPPY for him.







And seriously--- is he not the best-lookin' grad?!


I LOVE these shots... And honestly, wanted to post them sooner... But three days after graduation we whisked off to Hawaii, and the rest has been madness since then. But here we are. A new phase for Joe, and something worthy of celebration.



Next up?

Who knows? We are awaiting news of a possible job here in STL. We WON'T be attending grad school this next year, so anything we can find to get through the next year until he can reapply is kind of our goal. And while that sounds stressful, let me honestly reassure everyone--- we are past the hard part of feeling scared and hopeless... we got through the stinging and bitter pain of rejection. It wasn't pretty. We were NOT very happy or faithful for a little while there... But.
There has been a palpable "passing through" and I have not felt this light, this free, this at peace about life in general for a long time. And now I do. I have faith again. It is all happening as it should. And while we are not headed to the things I thought we would be headed for, that doesn't mean we should forget to CELEBRATE the absolute HERE and NOW.

Celebrate one more year in STL.
Celebrate a happy, healthy family.
Celebrate the opportunities we forget to remember.

And mostly---Celebrate Joe's massive accomplishment in getting a college degree. That's a lot of work, baby. And you did it. IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE.

Love you, Joe. And you're hot.

Congrats!

Four Years Ago....

Four years ago we were in Italy.

I felt like a missing piece of me had been found.

I still feel a visceral loss when I let myself remember our time there.

We will go back, that is a promise.

It is when June gets hot and sticky here in Missouri that I remember that we were once in Italy.

Back.

Home... Back.

Back to life. Back to the house that needs a bit of tidying. Back to an email inbox that needs a LOT of tidying.

During my travels I got to see: my amazing mom and dad-in-law; Sarah and Nate Page (what a treat!); my sweet Kate S. that I have missed (and her ABUNDANT family!); Jessica H., stylista of Portland; the inspiring and serene Megan and Co.; gorgeous mama Terina and her fabulous pair of smarties; Kari and Rory, both so kind and smart; Sarah Rader, my long-lost BFF and her family; the spunky, REAL Lyn(say) and her trio of partners-in-crime.... A good haul, I'd say!

During my travels, I also:

Got to have Dole Whip. Eat at a luau. Explore Portland. And Tillamook. And Oahu. Took a LOT of naps.

Had a fun, unintrusive form of jetlag.

Drove in some of God's most beautiful places, both in HI and OR.

Read three novels.

Found a bit of myself again.

Missed Joe and Noah INCREDIBLY during Week Two, the week without them.

Had Portland cart food. And cupcakes. And pastrami cheese fries.

Stopped being stressed for a while.

Didn't cry once.

Held Joe's hand a LOT in HI.

LOVED the new, the inspiring, the spontaneity, the CHANGE.

Now that I am home, I am:

Trying to find "normal". But not wanting the old normal back at ALL.
Snuggling Noah a LOT.
Taking it slow. All shall be well.
Missing the list of folks above.
Feeling joy. Abundance.

To bed with me. I have done enough today. there will be time for the rest of my To Do List.

*

{Photo: my ONE photo goal the whole trip: get some silhouette shots. This is Honolulu, HI, our last night there. My favorite one is yet to come. I need to edit it for web...}

Baby Sam {St. Louis Newborn Photographer}

This wee one belongs to my sweet friend Stef. She has the audacity to live in WISCONSIN instead of next door to me, so she asked if I would ever consider traveling to her for her newborn session.

Only a 6 hour drive? A chance to snuggle this bundle of newness and shoot the heck outta his photos with no time constraints?

Sign me up!

So I got to travel to WI (alone! A SOLO road trip! MY OWN MUSIC!) at the end of April, car FULL of photography equipment and props... and I got to spend a lovely few days with Stef and Co. The photos were just a bonus. Truly, it was just lovely to be with my dear fiend for a little while. LOVE seeing her be a mama to a newborn...Since we have sons the same EXACT age (same birthday!) I only ever see her with a kid like mine. So watching her get extra tender with the teeny one was special. And this teeny one IS special. Meet Sam:

Favorite:

I love you, Stef. Loved this experience. Love your boys. Thank you for being in my life, my dear...