Engagement Photos :)

Hey ya'll!

I've been quite busy lately between catching up on work and getting back from traveling last weekend.  When driving back I decided to take the scenic byway and it was beautiful! I can't wait to share some of the pictures I took while coming home! But that's for later :) Instead I have some more pictures from last weekend's photoshoot :)

Their first date

She said yes on this beach

I predict that when they feed each other their wedding cake it's going to be a tad crazy :)

The ring. Gorgeous right!

Well I need to get back to editing in hopes that next week all the pictures will be up! Have a great weekend!!

A Quick Tour

Hey ya'll!

Baby Ace is finally here!! That little guy was quite content to stay in his mommy's womb, fortunately he decided it was time to come out and to get kisses from his big sister!

I wanted to share a little tour of his room, mainly because it's so beautiful.  Aaaaaaand I may have included another picture of Ace at the end :)

Sasha lost the rocker, but gained an adorable tent!

I'm in love with the little pram! 

Sasha just adores this rug!  

Pottery Barn Mobile and a picture of Grandpa Ace in the background :)

All in all it's quite the cozy room for the little guy! I love how she decorated don't ya'll?! And as promised.....

He was quite determined to keep his hands out at all costs :) 

I will be taking his newborn pictures and his big sisters 18 month pictures this week, so be on the lookout for more pictures of this sweet family :) Have a great week!!

Independence Day

Hey Ya'll!

I'm slowly, but surely catching up on outfit posts :) Here's what I wore for the 4th of July.

 Shirt - Eddie Bauer via Goodwill ~ $5.00

Skirt - JCrew via Back By Popular Demand ~ $8.00

Undershirt - LandsEnd $8.00

Shoes - BOBS via Kohl's ~ $7.00

Necklace - Charming Charlie's ~$10.00

Earrings - JCPenny's ~$5.00

We had quite the busy day! First off we hit the beach and the waves were AMAZING after the hurricane. Although it really was not much of a hurricane, as it turned out.  However it was nice to spend the morning on the beach, enjoying the waves, looking for shells, and running into the waves with a three year old pulling you farther in :) After that we had a bit of a rest, so we would have the stamina to stay up for the fireworks AKA needing energy to keep up with kiddos! Once fully recharged we headed out to a pool party, where I found tons of cute kiddos to take pictures of :) From there we headed to the fireworks show and although we were the last to leave we were the first to arrive, pretty cool in my book.  While waiting of the fireworks to start LL Cool J was performing and I got my groove on! That was much to the dismay of the teenagers in the group, whom I enjoyed embarrassing hehe! The fireworks were beautiful! This was my first year attempting to take pictures of them and it was very fun! I cannot wait to experiment more in the future!

How was ya'lls independence day?

Adventures in Wilmington

Hey Ya'll!

Well it's been awhile! I was in NC for quite a while without a computer, technology does not like me!! But now that I'm back and feeling more settled so I can finally put some blog posts up! Y'all will be seeing quite a few outfit posts. I had a friend take them and I'm almost done processing them all :) So with out farther ado....

You know the saying while the cat is away the mice will play..... well we played in Wilmington! Wilmington is one of my favorite cities next to Nashville and I'm so glad while I visited friends in Jacksonville we were able to take a little day trip there! I have not been there since 2004 so it was a real treat to take a girls day and let the boys fend for themselves at home. We did leave dinner in the crock pot for them, so they didn't starve terribly :)

Once we were up and awake we hit the highway.  Our first stop was a thrift store, then a Goodwill.  I love Goodwill's down there, they are super sized! I managed to get quite a few things, including Gap, JCrew, Lands'End apparel.  I can't wait to share them with ya'll! After a bit of shopping we headed into Trader Joe's and picked up lunch, and I decided to take that opportunity to stock up on my chocolate stash.  They had the dark chocolate peanut butter cups, which I was waaaaaaaay to excited to get.  But every time I look a Trader Joe's here they are out and that is no bueno! After much indecisiveness we checked out and took our lunches to a cute little park. We found a shady spot near a pond to eat. That's where this little guy was spotted.

There was quite the bale (did anyone else know this is the proper term for a group of turtles?!) of turtles! They came over to check us out and I think to score some food :) Even turtles understand the awesomeness of Trader Joe's :)

When we had finished eating, I took the opportunity to get some pictures of my outfit.  I love having people around to take pictures, I get tired of the mirror shots that I have to do when I am alone. Maybe I will be motivated to start trying with my self timer.... maybe.

Skirt - JCrew via Back by Popular Demand ~ $8

Shirt - Anthropologie ~ $20

Shoes - Lucky Brand ~ $15

Necklace - JCPenney's

Earrings- Kohl's

Garnet Rings - Gifted

Diamond Ring - Antique Warehouse $10

Watch - Seiko via Kohl's ~$70

Lastly, we heading to the Riverwalk and I geeked out over all the filming locations I recognized from Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill :) It's definitely one of my favorite places in Wilmington.  I could I walked around for hours taking pictures, sadly it was getting close to 8, the sun was setting and we were all tired.  All in all it was a wonderful trip!

Do ya'll have any favorite cities you like to visit?

The Tulle and The Flea Market

Hey Ya'll

It has been quite the busy time for me lately, lots of catching up on processing pictures and organizing files on my "new" computer.  Which I'm absolutely loving! It's going to be so hard to leave this beauty while I'm in NC, good thing I have a "new" laptop to keep me occupied  :)

*Disclaimer I receive no monitory gains from doing this review*

So onto what I wanted to share with ya'll! As some of you may know there is not a ton to do in Southern Maryland.  There are some neat events that happen from time to time and this is one of them; it's called the Vintage Source.  They have a ton of vintage furniture that has been refinished and looks like it belongs in a designer catalog.  I have been going to their store for a couple of years now and have enjoyed looking around and getting inspiration.  Personally I have never bought any furniture there because feel like they are too expensive for my comfort zone, although at times I have been tempted to. Just knowing that I could do the exact thing for whoooooooooa cheeper I haven't succumbed to that temptation..... yet :) What I do buy there is decorative pieces, propts, and jewelry.  I have blogged about a couple of the many many pieces I have bought there (flower bobby pin and necklace).  On my website you can see some of the propts I have bought like the pink cradle and the window frame,

The Vintage Source has a jewelry lady who has her products in the store every month.  However the real highlight for me is the flea market they have 3 times a year.  I LOVE it!! The vendors have a ton of reasonably priced furniture, accent pieces and jewelry.  Also that jewelry lady I mentioned previously has a booth set up for the flea market with so much more jewelry and knick knacks.  I think I scoped out her table over 3 times before I made my decision, then found more treasures as I was checking out.

Here is a very small sample of what the flea market has to offer...

    

I bought the pink box on the far left :)

I wish I would have bought "perfume" box :(

Love the bracelets! 

I bought this charm bracelet and I'm going to take the charms off and use them for necklaces :)

Yes I added another camera to my collection! I also finally bought one of these!!! Aaaaaaaand a couple rings :)

Love the glass bottles!

 And here's my outfit..... people loved this skirt and so do I!!!

Skirt - Lauren Conrad for Kohl's ~$10

Chambray Shirt - Nordstrom Rack ~ $15

Bracelets - Charming Charlies, flea market and thrift store ~$10 total

Watch - Seiko via Khol's ~ $70

This weekend The Vintage Source is open (not a flea market though), so I hope ya'll get a chance to check it out!  Be sure to look at their calendar of events too!  Before I forget the Maryland Antique Center has a flea market this weekend too and it's well worth checking out!  It's close to the Vintage Source and the Antiques Center is being awesome and timing their flea market with the Vintage Source weekends, so smart! I hope ya'll get to check them out as well!

Do ya'll have other go to events in Southern Maryland?

Behind the Scenes

Hey Ya'll!

Wow does it feel good to have my computer back!!! I'm so grateful that my friends have Amazon Prime and were able to order me a knew power cord!

So to catch ya'll up these past few weeks have been kinda crazy! I went up North to visit my family for a long Memorial Day weekend.  It was really great to see them all! I had planned on blogging while I was there unfortunately, for some unknown reason, my laptop will not connect to the internet at my Grandma's house. iPad, iPhone no problemo macbook..... problem! Also by the time I was able to sit down and do some work, it was late and everything was closed.  Then lots of events kept me busy. So ya'll will have to bear with me while I catch up on past posts!!

Today I wanted to share a few behind the scenes tips with ya'lll.  With summer here the days are woooooooah longer and that means magic hour ("period shortly after sunrise or before sunset during which daylight is redder and softer compared to when the Sun is higher in the sky" in laymans terms, the best lighting time) is really really really early in the morning or later into the evening.  I however have no problem with this, but it does create quite the dilemma for families with little ones.  Both magic hours come at a time when little ones are not at their best.  So unless you want cranky or sleepy kids in your pictures/ putting out tantrums you have to work around the lighting situation. Here is how I did it and here are some more detailed tips thanks to Pretty Presets. 

1. Know your lighting

I use this great app that predicts the sun's location, it is one of my go to apps.  Utilizing it I knew which buildings I would use for the shoot.  

 

2. Use shade!

 

The location we chose had this great boardwalk with a covered porch area.  The shade coverage was nice and even so I would not have to worry about hot spots on faces. Now I could have used some shaded tree area for this shoot, but I chose not to. The main reason for this is when shooting with little ones they tend to want to be on the go. For me it would have been more of a risk that I would be capturing this amazing moment and the little one would have uneven exposure all over the face because she was facing/angled the wrong way

3.  Backlight

Having clients backs to the sun can give a great backlight to photographs in a harsh sun environment. Clients facing the sun is a big no no! The shadows and squinty eyes are just awful.  See above

Some random tips

1. Bring snacks

If you are not hungry they are, if you are hungry they are starving!

2. Let them run around.... and think they are in charge :)

 

Enjoy the silly faces you capture!

Casual in Converse

Hey ya'll

Today has been pretty laid back.  I'm working on transferring pictures from my corrupt old hard drive.   I used it for my personal pictures while I'm editing them, my laptop is pretty full so I needed it.  So it's been fun transferring batches of pictures and just waiting for an error message (dripping with sarcasm)

I thought I would share with ya'll what I wore today. Like I said before I'm getting work done at home, but later tonight I'm meeting with clients to help plan their family's wardrobe for a photo session with moi :) So I needed something comfy to lounge around in and then go out later.  Needless to say this dress fits the bill.  I really really really wanted to buy this dress at Kohl's ages ago, but it was too much for my budget.  Then on one of my Annapolis trips I found it at Goodwill! I was super excited and grabbed it! I'm so glad I did it's super comfy!  love the mustard yellow with the gray Converse! 

I also wanted to share the memory verses on my mirror :)

The shoes I just got on Saturday with my mom.  I was able to get 3 pairs of Converse for $24! The lady was kind enough to make each pair $8 when two of them were marked $10.  After putting them through the wash they look brand new! This was another item I was super excited to find at a thrift store because I have been looking for a pair for years. I refused to pay full price, so I guess waiting pays off huh? :)

As for my accesories the hair clip I also purchased on Saturday at a different thrift store.  The rings are from Khol's and on a side note I wouldn't recommend buying fine jewelry there.  The diamonds fall out, but I'm glad they haven't fallen out of these rings yet! Earrings are from JcPenny's fine jewelry clearance.  Lastly the necklace I think I got it at the flea market from my jewelry lady.  I especially love this necklace because of the windmill that is painted on it, it's so different.  

Hope ya'll enjoyed the outfit! What do ya'll hang out in?