We're sick.....

again!!  It's seems like it's a given each time we travel home that we'll return sick.  It's around 6 pm right now and we just started functioning a couple of hours ago.  Anyways, just thought I would share a pic of Rowan in her crib......way too cute!  Still have some more to go through and hopefully me and Lilly will feel better tomorrow so we can finish those up and move on to the next session that I need to edit!

Time flies.....

when you're having fun!!!!  I've really been enjoying myself sitting in front of the computer and editing my images from this past weeked......strange I know!!!  My first storyboard arrived yesterday so tomorrow me and Lilly are going to head to Saratoga to get some supplies for the finishing touches and I'll post a pic once it's finished.  I already know I'm gonna love the way it turns out and I haven't even started it!  Since I'm a little pooped from some yardwork me and Lilly did today I'll keep it short and leave a couple storyboards that I made tonight....

  

My little bunny.....

This is what happens when your little one decides they don't want to take any pics in their Easter outfit!!!  Just stick 'em in a giant crock and put jelly beans down at the bottom to keep them occupied!  I really wish that the ground wasn't so mushy so I could've taken some outdoor shots.  This winter has been the first one that I've ever wished it would hurry up and be over with.  I LOVE the winter and all of the fluffy snow.  But as a photographer, I wish I could take portraits outdoors all year long.  Needless to say, I'm really looking forward to some warmer weather so I can do some exploring for new outdoor locations.  I just look at things a lot differently now as a photographer.......it's like I have a new set of eyes!

I was able to accomplish a lot this week so now I can now focus on doing some advertising and what not, so be on the lookout for some ads in the Eagle and Bennington Banner if you're from my area!  

What's on your iPod?

Wish I could use those cool earbuds that everyone uses

but I have little ears so they don't fit!!!!!

I don't know about you, but I love music.  As soon as Lillian goes down for her afternoon nap, I turn off the TV (even though she never really watches it!) and turn on some music.....plus I tend to work faster.  Whether I'm cleaning or editing a photo at the puter, there's always music.  As far as what I'm listening too, my taste varies!  I've yet to tackle putting all of my CD's onto the iPod since we just got it last week so I've really only been listening to what I have on iTunes at the moment.  Right now I only have Kate Nash, DMB and a few scattered songs.  But if you were to open up my CD holder, you'd see a few different genres of music.  So here's a few of my favs......

Dave Matthews Band (me and my sis are DMB junkies and used to go to 2 concerts a year up until I had Lillian 2 years ago.....hoping we'll get back into the swing of things before they retire!!)

The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Maroon 5, The Cranberries, Allison Kraus, Linkin Park, Sara Evans, Coldplay, Nickel Creek, Madonna (the classic stuff), Third Eye Blind, Sarah McLachlan, Gwen Stefani, James Taylor, Enya (when I have a migraine!), Janet Jackson, Led Zepplin.  The list goes on and on but my brain is fried! 

So tomorrow is hopefully going to be a good yet busy day for us!  First we're going to head to Office Max to get some stuff printed and check out the printers since I'm in need of a new one.  THEN (and most importantly) we're going to attempt to take Lilly's Easter pics......can't wait to see her dressed up.  I wish we could get outside to get some shots, but the ground is still way too mushy hear.  It's only as a photographer that I wish that I lived in a warmer climate.  And by warmer I mean it gets no hotter than 60 all year long!  I love the winter, but it'd be nice to be able to shoot outdoors all year long!  Anyways, I need to get my files ready for printing!  Hope everyone's week is going well so far!

Storyboards

So I've been putting my experience designing digital scrapbook papers and stuff to use by creating some storyboards!  I plan on making some with doodles and my handwriting on them to add a bit of whimsy so we'll see how those come out!

So today was a complete flop photography wise!!!  It rained cats and dogs outside.  I really hate rain!  I'd rather have ten feet of snow (like we had in Buffalo that one year......at least it was fun trying to find our cars!!) than rain any day of the week!  So our day was spent on the road to the mall in Albany to pick up our new iPod!  We ended up going with the classic one since it was only $50 more than the 8GB shuffle.  At least this way we shouldn't have to worry about deleting any songs to make room for new ones any time soon!!  I also picked up some shoes for Lillian for Easter as well as her Easter basket since I didn't want to pay to have it shipped from Pottery Barn.

Nothing planned for tomorrow as of yet.  The temp is supposed to drop and we might get some flurries, but it's supposed to be windy all day so I guess I'll have to wait until later in the week to get outdoors for some shots!  Anyways, I really need to head off to bed!

What are you doing this weekend?

Well since it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow what could be better than the mall?!!!  We're going to head to Albany tomorrow and pick up our gift for each other with some of our tax money.......an iPod!!!  It feels like we're the last people on the face of the earth to have one.  Dan's been downloading one cd each week off of iTunes which is fun to watch.  His taste in music has COMPLETELY changed since we first started dating!  He went from Snoop Dog to Merle Haggard.  I always feel like I'm in the truck with an old man when he drives......an old man with a lead foot though!!!  Anyways, if by chance there's a break in the weather in the morning I'm going to head out and take some outdoor shots which is something that I haven't done in a long time.  We're gonna start having Carrie night again once a week which I'm excited about.  When I was taking that class from Andie, Dan would make sure that he came home on time to watch Lilly so I could go shoot on my own.   I'm looking forward to a little me time again........just me and my camera!

So how about some new products?!  Need a custom storyboard?  How about a custom announcement?  A custom album?  You know you need a custom canvas print!!!  And don't

 forget about the bling......gotta have some photo jewelry!!!  Still working on a few details and ordering some samples but I'm super excited to be adding all of the above to my services!  Check out my website or contact me for details!!

Anyways, have a wonderful weekend wherever you are!!!

How about some random facts.....

about me!!!  I'm going to tag myself!  Here it goes.....

Favorite color: gotta be pink by far.....and all shades!

Favorite food:  Pizza and ravioli's!

Favorite dessert: elmo cookies from Original Cookie......LOVE all of the frosting!

What camera do you use: Nikon D80 at the moment, plan on upgrading to a D300 later this year and use the D80 as a backup

Favorite Band:  Dave Matthews by far....absolutely amazing in concert!

Other creative outlets: digiscrapbooking, knitting, painting

The one thing you can't live without: my family

The one thing you can live without:  poopie diapers!

What makes you cry:  a good chick flick and the episode where Dr. Greene from ER dies......gets me everytime!

Favorite Vacation spot:  Bar Harbor, Maine- we're going again this year for the 5th time.......at least I'll be able to take some awesome shots this year!!

Last time you wore a bathing suit-  probably my first year of college so like 9 or so years.......I hate my short legs!

Significant other and how long together:  Dan and we've been together for 10 years

Morning or night person:  without a doubt a night person.....could stay up all night if I didn't have an alarm clock named Lilly!

Ever get in trouble as a kid?:  once in the 4th grade-  I was sitting in the back of the bus and this kid made fun of me so I stabbed him with my mother's pen-had to sit in the front of the bus for the rest of the week

Favorite TV Show: Project Runway......it's fierce!!!

If you could travel anywhere where would you go?  Probably on a tour of Europe.......I love history and would love to just go to all of the museums......oh and I'd LOVE to be able to go to the attic where Anne Frank hid with her family.......such an inspiration for all of us.

Glasses, Contacts, neither?  I wish it was neither but unfortunately my eyesight totally

 sucks!!!  Contacts during the day and my fab DKNY glasses in the evening!

That's it for today......I'll think of some more questions to ask myself in a couple of weeks!  How

 sad is that.....tagging myself!  Anyways, here's another pic of my cutie patootie niece Marianna.....

She's the reason....

I got into photography.  For those that don't know, Lillian was born premature at 32 weeks.  The moment that she arrived, I felt the need to capture everything during her stay in the NICU.  My digital Kodak camera, knitting needles and a book accompanied me every day that I went to the hospital for my daily visit.  From her first bottle feeding, to her first test in her carseat to see if she could come home........these are the images I cherish most.  When I look back now at those images, I'm thankful for the experience we had with the hospital staff and consider that we were one of the lucky ones since Lilly was one of the larger babies at 3lbs.  What means even more to me is the fact that these imperfect, unprofessional images continue to touch my heart each time I look at one of them.  This is what I love most about photographs.......the emotions that each one brings.  Lillian came home after a month in the NICU and from that point on, my love for photography was ignited.  I took countless pictures of Lillian, learning little things along the way and getting pointers from my dad who's a photographer as well.  Then Lillian dropped my camera early last year.  When it came time to replace my trusty Kodak, I decided to switch to Nikon and a new world was opened up to me.  From that point on, I've been learning new things and building my own style.  I took a couple of classes at Pink Ink Studios from Andie which helped immensely and I started to read a lot more.  All along the way, Lillian has been my perfect little model.  And now with the business side of things starting to dwindle down, I can start advertising and handing out my business cards (which should be arriving tomorrow......yay!!!)  and capturing some new souls!  Anyways, I just thought that I'd share my journey towards photography and the reason I was drawn to it!

Being busy....

is a good thing, but it certainly requires some adjustments on my part!!!  Being a stay at home mom really didn't involve deadlines or needing to wake up with an alarm clock.  I've actually gotten to the point now where I don't hear Dan's alarm clock go off anymore, and he sets them really loud so you would think that I would hear them!!  But as soon as I hear the faintest little whimper from Lillian, I get up and out of bed.  Lillian is still my alarm clock, but I tend to move a little bit faster now throughout the day.  Making lists is a BIG THING for me........I have a lot of them!  Blogging today was actually on my list of things to do.  Next weeks' list is a long one, but I'm happy that I have something new to look forward too.  Being a mom will always remain my greatest joy and accomplishment, but when I see images like the one below that I was able to capture for my sister and BIL, I'm happy about the joy that I'll hopefully be able to bring to other people.....

So in other news, I picked out some albums that I'd like to add to my services!  I'm still pricing out some other ones that I'd like to offer as well, but I'm really excited about being able to offer the Asuka Books and I can't wait to get one in my hands when I order one later this week!

I'm also working on creating some custom items like birth announcements, save the date cards, etc.  Time to put those digital scrapbook designing skills to work!!!  Anyways, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!!