Mom-ography 101

I'm excited for my new workshop series!! 2 spots left for this weekend...

Wedding's Galore {plus design for Shabby Apple}!!

Who's ready for August!! We have a lot of exciting things coming up... I'm shooting another wedding next weekend, school start's August 15th, then we head out west August 17th to Utah/Idaho for 10 days for my Aunt Julie and Cliff's wedding and then my Brother and Annie's wedding the next weekend!!  Eeeeek... I can't wait.

Speaking of weddings, I teamed up this month with Candace from Colour by Candace to shoot a Couture Bridal Session!!  I am very excited with how everything turned out... for the whole story/post visit: www.harttohartdigitalblog.com.  Here are a few of my faves....

Enough about wedding dresses... let's talk bridesmaids dresses!!  My adorable sister-in-law to be has asked all the sisters to wear gray dresses for her wedding.  There's going to be a lot of us, so I was hoping to find something really beautiful and different..... that has a little sleeve, hits at the knee and doesn't show enormous amounts of cleavage!!!  Mission: Impossible, right!!!  Actually, I think I did find something, BUT one of the first places I checked out was Shabby Apple Dresses.  They have gorgeous, stylish, modest dresses and I just LOVE the photography all over their website.  Well, I got to thinking... I wish I could just design my own dress.  THEN, I noticed shabby apple hosts a "dare to design" contest...... my pencil hit the paper and I started sketching.

Dress designer I AM NOT!!!  But, I thought it would be fun to try b/c I always have ideas floating around in my head and I really wish I could find something like this for my bridesmaid dress {I would choose paring #1 or #3}!!  Here is my "Design for Shabby Apple"

And just for fun here's one more dress sketch... I want this one too!!

Anyway, hope everyone is having a great summer... looking forward to August!!

Next Stop: Florida (again!!)

Last year I got a call from one of my Brother's best friends asking if I'd be interested in shooting his Orlando wedding in July of 2011.  THAT WAS A NO BRAINER!  You know me and my destination weddings!  And of course, any chance I get to head down to Florida... so we decided to make a 10 day family vacation out of it!

Though our plans changed a tiny bit with my grandpa's passing, I ended up flying straight to Florida from CA with my family that Saturday and Blake (awesomely) made the drive down with the kiddies.

I know I say this every time, but this trip was AMAZING!!

For the fourth of July we did some damage at the outlets and spent the rest of the day on lake!!

Tuesday, Blake and I took the boys to our favorite spot on Cocoa Beach!!  By the way, let me introduce you to my cousin Tristan! (far right)  He came back with me from California and is living with us right now.  He had a great time with us in Florida and we're really happy to have him with us.

AND the next day we took the kiddies to SeaWorld (I'm telling you, this was an awesome trip!) It was the first time for the boys... traditionally we've always done Disney.  I have so many childhood memories from SeaWorld so I loved taking them!!

Tristan LOVES reptiles so we had to show him a good time at the St. Cloud serpentarium!!

Quite possibly one of the most exciting parts of the trip was meeting my Brother Taylor's beautifully amazing fiance Annie Clark (yes, they have the same last name... how convenient is that!!) After a really late arrival - I think by the time we made it home from the airport it was 4:30 am, we had a wedding shower planned for her for the next day!  She was a trooper :)

How about a little tiny sneak peek into the bridal session I did with them the next day!! Could not have done it without the help of my Mom and our fabulous friend/neighbor Eva.  She's such a creative talent... I say it every time... wish I had her with me in Charlotte for every shoot!!

And finally a tiny sneak peek into the reason behind the trip: PJ & Lauren's wedding. Shooting a wedding at 12 noon in 100 degree weather in humid FL is no easy task BUT, these two made shooting a breeze!  We had a blast and I can't wait to share more from both shoots on the Hart to Hart Blog

San Diego Trip - Grandpa's Funeral

This post is probably more for family/for me to remember and despite the reason for this last minute/unexpected trip out to CA, it truly was a memorable trip and I'm so thankful I was able to make it out.

Because a lot of my family still lives out in Southern CA, there were many who were able to attend/participate in making it a celebration of the life of my grandpa.  It was a very beautiful, spiritual funeral filled with lots of memories.  Ash, Cami, myself and my 3 other cousin's sang "How Great Thou Art" along side a video recording of Grandpa singing the first verse a month before his death... that is something I will always remember.  

We also threw in blue carnations (his favorite color/flower) with tags filled with memories and letters.  I loved the picture with my uncle and cousin in their military uniforms.  All things considered it was a very nice day.

Growing up I have so many memories of going with Grandparents to Disneyland, Seaworld, Knottsberry Farm etc... so the day after we all decided to do something fun and enjoy our last day.  We had a great time at raging waters.

I have to give a HUGE THANK YOU TO BLAKE and many friends who helped out with the boys and made it possible for me to leave on a moments notice.  Thank you.

Just June!!

is what I told myself all last month!  We have the whole summer ahead of us... it's just June!  And here it is right smack in the middle of July with school starting in exactly one month!  Whew!! (so many mixed emotions about that)

But anyway, we really enjoyed our first month of summer! Gavin did awesome with swim lessons this year (learned to swim without floaties... he is such a little fish) and of course we enjoyed (are enjoying) almost daily trips to our neighborhood pool.  We made a family trip to one evening of girl's camp this year - all the bishop's were asked to participate in a really neat little play the last night.  Wish I had more pictures... the boys were in heaven.  

June was another high volume {*read: insanely busy} month for photography.  That last week I had 6 sessions in a row that had to be moved/postponed due to my Grandpa's death and a last minute trip out to California for his funeral.  Bring on July!

Rest In Peace Grandpa Clark...

Braden's FIRST Piano Recital

I know 5 might seem a bit young to start piano lessons BUT... I started when I was 5 AND Braden had been begging for a while!!  I thought I would give him a few months to see if he was genuinely interested... turns out this boy is obsessed with the piano.  He learned this first song almost on his own and added left hand all on his own!  It's only been a few months, so I'm excited to see his interested and lil' talent grow!  BTW, he begs to practice daily... bets on when that ends!!  {ps, he got to play this at church in primary a few weeks ago... as it stands he's in line to be the spanish branch primary accompanist...given that the current option is a CD player, lol!!}

Preschool Graduation

It's been a few weeks, but I officially have a preschool-graduate-headed-to-kindergarten on my hands!!  Braden absolutely LOVED preschool and his adorable teacher Ms. Pam (a retired kindergarten teacher of 30 years... she was AMAZING!!)

Had to post a few pictures of this "labor of love" gift we made for Ms. Pam.  A few of us mom's got together and coordinated a classroom scrapbook.  We had each of the kids submit digital pics as well as a piece of artwork.  From there I put together a lay flat (professional grade ... no skimping here, hehe!!) album highlighting pics from throughout the year as well as individual kid's pages, with their artwork on the adjacent page!  It was beautiful!  Took waaaay to long, but so worth it.  I knew Ms. Pam would appreciate every little detail.  I am wishing I would have gotten some better pictures of the actual album b/c I don't know if I would ever have time to do something like that again for a teacher!!  I am going to order a smaller version for Braden though, so it will be a great memory!!

Lastly, you've got to watch the video... if anything for the entertainment value of the little boy standing to the left of Braden.... seriously, it keeps getting funnier!!!  Kindergarten here we come!!

I'm so excited about my new blog... I almost forgot to blog about it!!

I was thinking to myself tonight about everything that has been going on in the past several weeks... preschool graduation, Bray's first piano recital, summer fun AND my largest volume photo session month to date... so much to blog about!!  But, perhaps the most exciting has been getting my new and improved Hart to Hart Digital BLOG designed and up and running!!!  Yay!  I am so excited to finally have this project finished and ready to go!

I had an exciting giveaway last week and it was a great way to kick things off!  Since then, I have started doing Magazine style blog posts and I have so many cool/new things in the cue!!  In this industry it seems like there  is always something new, beautiful, cutting edge etc...  It's all I can do to keep up with my growing boys, family, home, church and run this business... BUT, I've been wanting to switch to a professional "dot com" blog for a while, so I'm glad I bit the bullet -- It was a tad bit on the time consuming side, but worth it!!  And let me just say WORD PRESS ROCKS!!  My friend and author of this fun blog inspired me make the jump... {and now I would highly recommend word press for your business... just sayin'}

Take a peek if you ever have a minute: www.harttohartdigitalblog.com

MUCH LOVE and HAPPY SUMMER!!

Crispy Fried Goat Cheese

Made these today.... YUMMMMM!!  If you are a goat cheese fanatic {like yours truly} you're going to love these tasty bites.  Recipe and more photos here!!!

Changing it up...

as in the living room!!  Here's what colors I'm inspired by this month:

And this chair...

Then I got to thinking why not take all my inspirations and put together a story board (I know I'm a dork/wanna be interior designer!!)

I have a start: I got the all pillows for mother's day and the cute yellow chevron fabric... and I have plans from there!!  I love the look of a clean, cream flokati rug as a base against our hard wood floors... how would that fair w/ busy boys and do I dare find out?!

I LOVE the thick horizontal stipe curtains but I know they are IMPOSSIBLE to find.  LOVE the sunburst mirror (so trendy, I know... still LOVE it).  Love the pink hydrangeas, forsythia and topiaries and the other fun accents.

It will be a work in progress and will probably change, but at least there's a mini vision!!

Just My Luck!!!

It's been a BUSY week... to say the least!  FIRST OFF... Blake and I celebrated 9 years on Wednesday!! Very exciting.  We figured we'd go all out next year for the 10 year anniversary (think Mexico or Spain!!) So for this year, the fact that we coordinated a night out was good enough for me!!  Our date conveniently fell on a Wednesday, which for Bonefish fans, this means $5 bang bang shrimp... I'm telling you, eating that was as thrilling for me as romping on the shores of CABO {well close}.  We also saw Water For Elephants - I finished the book last month so I was looking forward to that!  I loved the movie... thought the actors did phenomenal (though I'm not the world's toughest movie critic)... I just love a good movie on a night out.

Thursday night I had a huge bridal session that I have been coordinating and looking forward to for a LONG time!  This bride booked me 2 years ago and I wanted to do something special!!  I'm going to do a big blog post on my new Hart to Hart Digital Blog, but I did want to post a few here.  My good friend and make-up artist Candace had the hook-up with the car and location... THANK YOU Candace, that was big!!  I was really happy with how everything turned out... but that was NOT my only shoot for the week!!

I had a total of 4 sessions between Thursday and Saturday, plus two more this week!  Always a blessing to have business... I just pray I can keep up!!

OKAY... let's end this with a fun story!!  Whenever May rolls around and the weather turns nice, my good friend and neighbor Kelly and I start hitting the yard sales... it's a bit of a tradition, we'll say!!  With Kelly's sharp eye and mad mini van maneuvering skills and my crazy luck, we do pretty well!!  Anyway, this Saturday, bright and early we decided to hit a few before the mayhem of my day hit.  I told her I wanted to find a cool crate {photography prop} and a bench among a few other things... we were on a mission.

Literally the first house we stopped at I picked up this white crate for $3... it was perfect for my session last night!!  We were on a roll and it was only 7:35am!!

We hit one other big neighborhood sale and had some great finds!!  I told Kelly as we pulled in I wanted to buy a skateboard for Bray and Voila.... found one at the next house!!

Here's the kicker:  We had to take an alternate route home but decided to follow one more "Garage Sale" sign and ended up in this really nice neighborhood.  By then it was 10:30 which means most of the good stuff is usually gone, but we drove around for a bit and I commented I still needed to find my bench.  A few minutes later we pulled up to a house and saw THE PERFECT BENCH sitting outside.  I literally ran from the car ready to purchase it.  Can you imagine how BUMMED I was when the lady told me she had sold it earlier this morning for $20 and was just waiting for the new owners to come pick it up!!!  What... I would've paid a lot more than that.  DANG.  Kelly and I drove off slowly with our heads hung low.  Man... it was the PERFECT bench!!

Well, somehow, in trying to get out of that huge neighborhood, Kelly's van circled around and we found ourselves driving by that same house (with the perfect bench) in time to watch the new owners loading it up.  They had a huge truck and trailer with lots of other furniture... they could spare this bench surely... and it was an older Asian dude... he would have no idea/nor appreciate the fact that he had scored a pottery barn-ish bench for $20... I had to act FAST.  I jumped out of the car, ran over to his trailer and offered to buy the bench from him for double what he had just bought it for.  "Plllleaaase... I have been looking for something like this for months - I'm a photographer and it will make the perfect bench".  He laughed and told me to go ask his wife in the front seat.  We rolled around the corner, out of sight from the original owners... she told me they staged "trailer homes" {noooo, this bench does not deserve to just be staged in a trailer!!!!} but could probably find something else.  I offered her $40 and she took it happily "now we can go out to dinner tonight!!!".  I was dying.  You would have thought we won the lottery with how excited we were!!  Seriously guys, it's the little things for me!!   And can you blame me... is it not the perfect bench!!

Here's to another great week...