Four Oh in Twenty Twelve

Happy New Year! Things are usually quiet here on the blog in January and this year has been no different. The past few weeks have flown by and I can't believe it's almost Feb already.
I never make New Year's resolutions, but this year I am making some "resolutions" for lack of a better word. They appear to be New Year's related because of the timing but it's actually goals I have for the coming year before I turn 40 in December.
I had my husband take this photo on my birthday- what I'm employing in this pic is called strategery...if you don't like your body, hide it with cute kids! :)


So, my first goal for the year is to lose at least 15lbs. My husband decided to start a new plan as well so since the start of the new year we've both been logging our calories and exercise on myfitnesspal.com (LOVE that site!) It's so easy entering your food (and kind of fun!) and I'm a very visual person so being able to see exactly how many calories I have to work with for the day is key. So far I'm down 5lbs and it hasn't really felt like dieting so as soon as I'm done writing this post, off to the gym I go!

I thought I would have a "40 before 40" list, but so far I'm nowhere near 40 things... but I'll keep adding on to it. Right now here are few:
Go ziplining
Go to a movie by myself
Take a winery tour/wine tasting
Get at least one chemical peel
Vacation for us sans kids
Check out some Charlotte museums- there is so much of this city that I haven't seen!
Have our family pics done-it's been almost 2 yrs so it's time!
Get a full physical- I'm embarrassed to admit how long it's been since I've had one

I'm looking forward to the coming year and closing out my 30's with a bang!

I'll be back soon with sessions from the past busy Fall season!

Happy Holidays 2011!

Although I haven't blogged all of my sessions from this fall, I'm signing off until the New Year! Thank you to all of my wonderful clients! I'm so very lucky and look forward to seeing you next year!
From my family to yours, have a wonderful holiday season!

Home for the Holidays

For the third year in a row I'm linking up to Nester's Christmas Tour of Homes. This year includes a lot of iPhone pics for two reasons: 1. I love Instagram and use it to document everything and 2. I was too lazy to properly photograph the house (ie clean up to make it photo ready :)


What's cuter than a 5 yr old's handwritten Christmas list to Santa?
The annual Lego Advent calendar makes it triumphant return with the Star Wars version
The kid's playroom tree
Hers and His ornaments :)


I bought this photo holder thing at Nester's yard sale last year and hadn't figured out what to use it for yet- It's a great spot for the yearly Santa photos!











Can't believe that Christmas is only 10 days away!

How is it December?

It truly feels like school just started and the holidays weren't even on my radar. I'm trying to get the house decorated and am having tree light issues so I thought I'd take a break and try and play some catch up on the blog. This session was in October- yes that's how behind I am. It's been a very busy season (which is good!) but, when something has to give it's always the blog.
Anyway, I've gushed about this family many times before...and for good reason. In the past 3 yrs I think they've had like a dozen sessions? If I had a frequent client punch card, there's would have been filled many times over :)
To me they are friends and I love seeing them. Our sessions are always easy and laid back and they are up for anything which I also love.
Kristen, I'm so sorry it took me this long to do a blog post- I know you like to see which ones I pick!

August in November

Since this session was in August, I'm guessing I'll get around to blogging my current sessions sometime next year.
Last year one of my neighbors was hosting an event and asked me if I'd be interested in donating something for the auction to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It's a cause that's near and dear to me as my brother is a Hodgkin's survivor. This young lady's mom won the session and was looking for some photos to use for her upcoming Bat Mitzvah. And since it was 30 degrees this morning, these pics make me miss the late summer, late evening sun!

Not a Writer

I wish I was better at writing blog posts- I have the images, I get ideas about topics (unrelated to sessions) and yet when I want to post session images I go blank. Not because I don't have thoughts about my wonderful clients because I do- I have amazing clients who've been around since my beginnings many years ago. But, I don't want to just throw out a blanket "this family is great" because it sounds insincere and doesn't convey how I truly feel. Just know when you see your images on here, even if the wording is brief it is not for lack of thought or caring. But, there is a reason I'm a photographer and not a writer :)
All that being said, I am so happy this gorgeous family chose to do the first year sessions. I mean, look at this little girl- I could photograph her all day every day and never tire of it! And I have a little soft spot for the big brothers as well.

Real Housewives in Atlanta

This past weekend I got away for a little girl time in Atlanta with my friend Aileen. We've been friends for over 10 yrs and met when we lived in Maryland. We both happened to migrate South within months of each other about 6 years ago- she to Nashville and me to Charlotte. We picked Atlanta because it's about the same distance away for each of us, not to mention the fabulous shopping and dining opportunities.
I received some awesome recommendations on spots to hit from Alston and they did not disappoint!

We stayed in Buckhead and had an awesome dinner Friday night at The Horseradish Grill. I was quite busy "Instagramming"(I'm bowerstudio on there) but somehow didn't document our dinner there.
Saturday was all about the shopping- here is just a taste...


This little area was heaven and from a design standpoint was just a feast for the eyes. Beautiful design was everywhere from the complimentary umbrella stands, to the restroom doors (not kidding) All of it GORGEOUS.
We lunched at JCT Kitchen- again, I was just in awe of the details (not to mention the food) I mean, don't you just want to live here?

I had the most delicious lamb burger with goat cheese and basil. Fueled up, we headed out for more shopping and worked up an appetite for our last dinner in town.





We had the 2 gals at the table next to ours snap this and I should've known better than to allow this angle- not flattering! Thankfully I at least was able to crop out most of my body.
Yet another fabulous meal at Eclipse Di Luna for Tapas. Sooo good. Anytime I can eat empanadas, olives, Marcona almonds, lamb meatballs, risotto style potatoes and beef tenderloin in one sitting is a good thing.

Getting out of dodge for the weekend was just what I needed and definitely flew by, but I'm excited to head into the very busy holiday season and I'm recharged and ready to go! :)

Party Time!

Still catching up on posts from my end of the summer sessions. When Mom emailed me to see if I'd be interested in shooting her son's 3rd birthday party, I jumped at it... who doesn't love a party :) As the mom of a superhero lover, I loved seeing all of the cute details. And, for future reference bouncy slide + water = AWESOME.

Pen Pals

When I was a kid, I had a few pen pals. The first one lived in Austria and I don't remember exactly how we were paired up, but it was from the show Big Blue Marble (anybody else remember that show?). We wrote for a few years, but the language barrier was an issue. In my early teens, Teen magazine had a pen pal match up. I remember how cool it was receiving that first letter in the mail, and little did I know that those letters would continue through high school and beyond.



I still have those letters, and thanks to Facebook we're in touch once again. I loved reading through some of them again.



The first one is postmarked 1987, and I think the last one I have is from 1996. We went from talking about our high school classes, friends, and activities to choosing colleges, going away to college, finding jobs, getting married. I had the opportunity to visit her once during that time and spend time with her family and see her hometown and meet the friends she wrote about. I'm sure she'd love that I'm posting this pic, but this was from that visit (oh how I loved those Tretorns)



It was also fun seeing all of my past addresses-


So, it comes as no surprise that when I had the chance to sign my oldest up for a pen pal I jumped at it. If you have boys, you must read Allison's blog All for the Boys. It is one of my favorites, and I LOVE that she had the idea to get these boys writing!

When I told my oldest that I signed him up for it, he seemed a little skeptical, but knowing that he would be receiving mail I think won him over. He's been waiting anxiously, and the big day finally arrived today. It was so cute watching him read his first letter, and he started talking about what sort of things he wants to write about and possibly send to his new pal. I really hope he sticks with it, and learns to love it the way I did.

The week where I hope to have more posts...

I am trying to catch up so hopefully I'll have multiple posts this week!

I spent a late summer evening with this family last month- some family was visiting from out of town and they wanted to get everyone together for some pics. I loved seeing the grandparents surrounded by all of the grandkids. You can't tell by the photos, but it was HOT. And HOT. And did I mention HOT? :)