A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of working with Loretta Bryan.  She is a local artist and hand-makes each bead and pieces the jewelry together by hand as well! I have got to admit, I had to try on some of the bracelets and necklaces myself. I couldn’t help it…they were just screaming to me “try me on!”.  Okay, yes, I am a dork….but I can now say I am a proud owner of a matching necklace, bracelet and earrings!  If you are interested in buying her one of a kind pieces, please email me and I will get you her contact information!  She is the sweetest lady you will ever meet!! 

More from the engagement session! Look forward to seeing you both in March on your big day!

I am sooo very happy for Chris and Meredith! Chris and I went to school together, and when they asked me to do their photographs, I could not have been more excited to capture their special moments!  These two were awesome sports…I know they had to be freezing without a coat on! The snow made for a beautiful backdrop though…!!   Here is a sneak peak….more to come!

Yes, Chris and I are very excited about farming! Photography was my dream and farming is his!  Chris has helped me so much in the growth of my business and been so supportive. Now it is his turn to work hard toward his dream as my business continues to grow!  I tend to incorporate a little of my personal life, along with my “business” life (I mean, they are both my life and who I am right?) into this blog, so sorry if I bore anyone!   We hope by the end of winter to have cows and possibly some chickens.  We have nothing against store bought meat and eggs (heck, that is what we use now), but we want to be more dependent on ourselves for our food and feel the quality will be amazingly different (and better) if we raise it ourselves! We will use no hormones or pesticides so our meat/eggs will be organic!  

And because every post is better with a few pictures, here are some pictures from the other week! I came home one afternoon to this! My man had been cooking a bear roast over a fire all day while stacking/cutting up firewood (no, bear isn’t my favorite meat, but it was perfect over the fire and was pretty tasty)!  

  I am told we can never have too much wood!

Well, if you haven’t seen it on facebook yet, Chris and I found out on Tuesday that we will be having a little girl! We are so excited (although it really didn’t matter to us is we were having a boy or girl)!  The best thing is that she is healthy and everything looks great!  I must say, that after finding out the sex of the baby, all I want to do is shop and look at baby stuff (I am only allowing myself to window shop right now)….

Okay, okay…I did buy this cute little pair of gloves after we found out we are having a girl! I mean, I had to have something “pink and tiny” to take a picture of for the blog post right?

Happy 2010!!  It has been a cold winter, and I have got to admit that I catch myself staying around the house more when it is so darn cold!  We heat our home with our wood burning fireplace, and it works for the most part. However, there are those days that Chris and I are gone all day and cannot keep the fire going while we are out! This afternoon was one of them. The old Cristen would have waited until her husband got home from work so that he could get the fire started (I cannot help it….I was brainwashed as a child to not have a fire in the house or it may burn down). Although my husband has helped to un-brainwash me, I am still so afraid I am going to do something wrong!  However, this afternoon I decided I was going to surprise my man with a fire when he got home (I mean, he does the hard part by splitting all the wood right?). Maybe it should be a New Years Resolution, maybe I just feel kind this afternoon, maybe I am FREEZING cold and too cheap to turn up our furnace…)  :)  Here was my fire I proudly created in our little fire-room!

Yeah…I didn’t even have to go to the wood pile….he has a barrel of wood already in the basement!

Celebrating 2009 and what a great time I had with some fun kiddos! Here are the Top 10 in 2009 in no particular order!

Okay, so I am back after taking most of December off! I decided to do a “top 10 list” this year in several categories so stay tuned!  It was soooo hard to narrow down all of the wedding images from 2009 and only pick 10!  I decided to make my choices based on the emotion I saw and felt when I took the images. Of course, every wedding has its traditional images taken, but the non traditional, and the images that capture emotion, are the images I search to capture at each and every wedding!  I think most clients would agree that these are the images that really stick out in their mind too!

In no particular order…

Kissing his bride on the side lawn of the Biltmore Estate.

These two love birds having fun during the session!

Mo and Jason laughing at a toast her dad is giving them!

Jen and Russ right after saying their “I dos”!  Just look at how Russ is looking at Jen…melts my heart every time!

Beauty…..looking off into the pond. This picture hits my heart every time!

Ginger and her Bridesmaids laughing before the actual “posed shot” is being taken.

Joey was talking to some friends after he just got married and playing with his new “Bling”!

Just after saying “I dos”!  Love Jessica’s expression!

A bridesmaid at the reception dancing with her brother

Shawn seeing Melissa for the 1st time. It was so sweet. She put her hands up on his face and he grabbed her hands to kiss them.

Merry Christmas! As one year ends and another year starts, I cannot help but think of how thankful and blessed I am to have met so many new faces and made so many new friends this year by capturing special moments with the camera! Thank you for your continued support!  There are fun surprises and many new products to come in 2010 so stay tuned!  Wishing you love, joy and happiness this Christmas and New Year! 

 

This past weekend Chris and I kept hearing about the snow coming. We woke up Saturday morning and could see snow on the tops of the mountains out our window. Chris was like, “let’s go find the snow!” (we only had drizzle at our elevation). Myself being a born and raised Illinois girl, I always tend to stay away from the snow because I have seen my share of blizzards and storms.  However, that morning I was like, “yes, let’s go find the snow!”  Little Bobby (our pup) had never seen the snow before and had a blast!  Chris kept throwing him snowballs to chase and Little Bobby could not understand where the snowballs were doing when they exploded when they hit the ground! I hope everyone got to see snow this past weekend! :) 

Our boy all covered in snow!