My oldest daughter got my youngest daughter all dressed up like Tinker Bell…it’s the most amount of clothes she’s worn all summer! She’s my only kiddo who’s LOVED getting her picture taken.

The first two images are what she looks like when she plays peek-a-boo. Which really comes out as “Pee Boo”

She is so animated it just makes us laugh all the time…but it’s very hard to dicipline her.

So this year’s theme for Young Women’s at church is “Growing Strong in Courage” and I was in charge of the decorations for New Beginning’s back in February. It’s basically the kick off for the year and tells everyone (parents and young woman) about the program for the year. I meant to post the images a while ago, sorry. I feel like I need a disclaimer for the photos
florecent lighting is HORRIBLE so yes, this image is soft. And somehow the original images have been lost. So the resolution on these images is really small and my blog tries to blow them up. (You’re welcome to share the images, just please link them back here, thanks)

I decided to go with a pink and green spring theme for a couple reasons. When I think of growing, I think of the garden, plants, “newness.” Growth having two meanings…the literal meaning of going from a seed to a plant and also growth as in learning and progressing. So I built boxes designed to fit on top of the piano and planted wheat grass in them. The boxes are sitting on top of mirrors to reflect the light (this really brightened up the area)

This was covering the chalkboard. The frame is actually an old screen (with the screen cut out and replaced with fabric) the “Growing” was cut from plywood with a jig saw, spray painted green and hot glued with reindeer moss. Magnets were added to the back which allowed it to stick to the chalk board. The shutters were able to just rest on the eraser ledge. The letters over the pink fabric were cut from cardboard and strips of newspaper were wrapped around them with modge podge; they edges were lightly painted with white paint.

I used some of my vintage locker baskets to hold various items needed for the night.

This didn’t quite turn out as great as I’d hoped. It really says “Be Strong and Courageous” but the florescent lights COMPLETELY washed out the pink letters, and even the green a bit and you couldn’t read it.
The frames are actually recycled cupboard doors. Then I cut the letters out of cardstock and modge podged them to the doors. The “&” sign is paper mache covered with strips of newspaper attached with modge podge.

Another leader made the seed packets which turned out darling! She did a fabtastic job!


I made the wreaths out of book pages and hung them on two of the doors and the back of the piano.


I made the bird house for my porch and brought it along for the decorations. Looking back, I really wanted to do more to accessorize the bird house but forgot the ideal time to do that would be BEFORE putting on the roof. So I’m not sure if I can now.

I made the table cloth for my lessons on Sunday and the colors worked for new beginnings.

Such a sweet little guy…did NOT fall asleep once while I was taking photos of him. Mom said he conked out as soon as I left.
So I first met this family when the mom called me after seeing my website. She noticed (at the time) I had no images of high school seniors BUT she contacted me anyway (LOVE THAT). She said she loved my style and asked if I’d be willing to take her daughter’s senior portraits. OF COURSE! The rest is history…we shot her daughter on their farm and in some urban locations. They were seriously FABULOUS.
THEN she called me a year later to do their family pictures…SO MUCH FUN. One of her son’s was the jokester making everyone laugh, the other well, bless his heart, he’d just come home from LA and lets just say Trendy LA lifestyle and the idea of Family pictures on the farm was NOT on his to-do list. And her daughter…(OK, I love her) but we were laughing that she could only go about 5 minutes without texting “someone”….I even caught a picture of her in the background on the phone.
SUCH a GREAT family!


I know, I have SEVERAL sessions to catch up on. Here’s a recent session with a darling Senior! She did fantastic, even saw a killer spot to take a picture.

Here’s one of little miss Suga Muffin (suga=sugar without the “r”)

Well, I tried three times to create the post below with images AND text…no such luck. So I just wanted to add, this little one year old was darling! She had recently developed a case of stranger anxiety about 3 weeks before our session and I was not on her friend list
BUT she LOVED her mommy and daddy…so we used them a lot for the giggles and smiles and got some great shots!
Photoshop is finally transferred over to the new hard drive, no thanks to Adobe. Nate said something about being able to find the file that he needed to complete the “upgrade” we’d purchased several years ago. SOOO lovely pictures to come!
Still working on the garage…it is now primed. I also started building a shelf that suspends from the ceiling. Nate helped finish the front and now we need to anchor it to the ceiling. I’d work on that today except that it’s FREEZING outside. No painting until Monday, since it’s supposed to snow tomorrow I think.
by Brandi
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