I loved photographing this gorgeous family!  It was very cloudy and we had to cut it a little short, but we had fun!  Thank you ‘M’ family for allowing me to hang out with you!  I hope you enjoy your sneak peek!

I love my computer, really I do.  But, I’m pretty hard on them.  Mainly, I eat a lot of memory.  Lots.  Of.  Memory.

I also didn’t realize what could happen if you run out of said memory.  I found out this weekend.  300 gigs and I used it up, baby!  I have a dual hard drive system set up with RAID, which means that everything I do is automatically mirrored on another drive automatically so I don’t have to back anything up.  Yeah, right.  Well, here’s the thing - if you run out of hard drive space the computer really can’t function - it can’t save anything, it can’t write temporary files, you can’t even BACK ANYTHING UP because it needs HARD DRIVE SPACE to write temporary files! 

So, as I’m combing my computer looking for anything and everything I can delete, I’m not making much progress.  I can’t delete anything until I can BACK IT UP.  I uninstall unnecessary programs, of which there weren’t much, delete all my temp files, my internet temp files, old emails.  Wow, I freed up a GIG.  I needed at least FOUR GIGS freed up.  Sigh… at least that was according to the DVD burner that I was trying to use to back up my RAW image files so I could delete them off my hard drive. 

Finally, I found some files I could delete - evidently I had some old image catalogs backed up so I had 2 copies.  I was so excited!!!!  Now I could back up my files - yippee!  Now mind you, I’m a little bit of a techno geek who’s gone rusty.  I used to really be up on the latest technology and still am to an extent, but I never really burned DVD’s.  We had a stand alone DVD burner that died after about 6 months, but that’s it.  I’m not one to download movies or whatever.  So I  had no idea how long it took to burn a DVD. 

RAW files are huge.  Just so you know.  They are the images that come off the camera - no edits to them.  I figured out that 3 sessions would fit on a DVD.  I did the old ‘drag and drop’ and started to write the files.  Sigh of relief.  4 hours later it’s NOT DONE.  And get this - it timed out 90% of the way done.  Froze up my whole system and I had to ditch the whole thing.  I got nothing done. 

If you’re waiting on a session preview, please know I’m working on them now!  I freed up 10 gigs of space and that will get me through until I can dump some stuff to DVD, an online storage site, or something!  Thanks for being patient!! 

Isn’t she the cutest thing ever?  I called her a stinker, but really she was a total blast and I could have photographed her all day!  Mom and dad thought she was being a stinker, but really they were much more concerned than I was!  I was just having fun playing peekaboo with her!

Oh, and for a little funny story about Miss S… I had promised her a lollipop after the session if she let me get some cute pictures of her.  So, at the end of the session, of course she wanted her lollipop.  Mom justifiably wanted her to wait until after dinner for her lollipop, but Miss S was devistated.  She kept saying, ‘I want my lollipop!’ in her sad little I-can’t-believe-you’re-going-back-on-your-word voice.  I gave her a big hug and showed her the lollipop on the table that she was too little to see, and told her that I was, indeed, leaving it for her and she would get it after dinner.  She sniffed and quit crying… and then said, ‘I want dinnerrrrrrrr!’  Smart, eh? 

This first one is my favorite since she’s peeking at me before her big PEEKABOO!  Thank you dear ‘L’ family for allowing me to spend time with your beautiful Miss S!  Many more images to come soon!

I was given the important responsibility of being in charge of my son’s homework project.  This is for the 5 yr old who is in kindergarten.  We had to cut out a turkey and make a ‘disguise’ for him so he could avoid being caught for Thanksgiving.  Sounds simple enough, right?  Well, I cut him out fine.  Whew!  So far so good.  My son wanted to make him look like Spiderman.  WHAT?  How do I make a cardboard turkey look like Spiderman???  Mind you, he was supposed to have a DISGUISE - not just be colored in.  We had 5 days for this project.  FIVE DAYS.  I started with it last night (due today of course).  I honestly about hyperventillate every time a project like this comes home because I’m NOT - repeat - NOT at all good at these types of projects.  I freeze up and every creative bone in my body turns to jelly.  I lamented over it and decided that construction paper was my answer.  Now mind you, we were supposed to be ‘creative’ about designing this disguise.  OK, fine - I used to design clothing surely I can design a paper costume for a cardboard turkey.  I thought maybe gluing a plastic spider on the chest would be fun but where was that dang spider ring that I stepped on 2 wks ago?  I almost had a panic attack at the idea of trying to find that little plastic ring.  I mean I’d surely find it if I was wanting to puncture my foot, but for a class project?  Forget it - the walls probably swallowed it. 

Then I realized we have NO red construction paper left.  WHAT??  So am I going to have to go dig through my fabric stash?  God forbid that I have to dig through that (seriously, you haven’t seen my fabric stash so don’t judge too harshly)! 

Then it hit me.

Make him a pumkin!!!!  OH MY GOSH how genius!  He’s got a big belly - just make his neck the stem, the body the pumpkin and VOILA!!!  Done!  My son thought this was brilliant!  Well, I had to coax a *little*.

I was really proud of myself. 

Until my husband came in THIS MORNING and informed me that the turkey, according to the instructions, was supposed to be an ANIMAL or CHARACTER. 

I told my son to tell the teacher the turkey was the Great Pumpkin.  He looked at me like I had two heads. 

Well, if my son fails kindergarten, it will be all my fault.

 These girls were just as sweet as can be!  The big sis loves to climb trees - every tree we passed she was so THERE!  Baby sister thought her big sis was the bomb and would just smile and laugh at her!  Anyway, this sneak peek is for the ‘T’ family!  Thank you so much for allowing me to photograph your precious girls!  Much more to come soon!!

Ok, so I have a sweet tooth.  My butt is a testament to this.  I try not to have sweets around the house because I have no problem having cake for breakfast.  So, when my sweet client, no pun intended, gave me a pound of her homemade fudge as a thank you gift for doing her daughters’ portraits, I accepted graciously, even though my brain was saying NOOOO DON’T TAKE IT. 

Well, I have to say this is some AMAZING fudge.  It’s creamy smooth and luscious!   It’s even pretty to look at with the fudge swirls and chocolate chips on top.  *sigh*  I told her that my butt was upset but my tummy was soo happy.  She said, ’sorry about your butt.’ 

She sells her fudge locally at craft and art fairs!  I’m sure she’d work out something if you want to buy from her directly!  Email her!  gssev @ sbcglobal.net (take the spaces out - I don’t want web spiders to get her email address).  It’s $10 a lb and $18 for 2 lbs and SO WORTH EVERY PENNY. 

She sells:

Peanut Butter Chocolate (what I got)
Dark Chocolate Mocha
Chocolate with Walnuts
Chocolate w/o Walnuts
Cookies and Cream
Peanut Butter

These templates will be customized with images from your session!  Cards are only available after $150 print purchase (prior purchases included).  These are available in 4×5 or 5×7 sizes in both photographic and press printed cards.  All cards are available in increments of 25 only.  Photographic cards are $29 for the first 25 and $25 for each additional 25.  Folded cards are available in press printed designs only - please contact me for pricing.  All cards come with envelopes.  The inside and back side of folded cards will be customized with your images as well for a truly unique, one-of-a-kind card for your friends and loved ones! 

I may be adding to these as time allows, but I’m really happy with the selection so far!  Some of these were designed by me and some were not, so if you like a design but prefer color changes, just ask and I will do what i can!  I will do up to 2 changes, though there may be limitations depending on the design.  Text changes are also allowed on all designs.  All designs can be converted to 5×5 folded cards.

NOTE: IMAGES MOVED TO MY WEBSITE!

It’s easier to click through and look at all the templates in a gallery without having to scroll down like you had to on the blog. So, they have been moved to the main site under client proofs.

CLICK HERE and enter ‘christmas’ for login and ‘templates’ for password under the ‘client proofs’ section. You’ll see both 2008 and 2009 designs!

Here is a sneak peek for the ‘W’ family!  It was truly a pleasure photographing you!  We even got one of Rufus, the family dog!!  He practically smiled for me!!!  Ok, he was smiling for mom standing behind me!  :)