Oh, So Very...

Grateful. Grateful is the word of the day. The word of the week, the year...ok, it's the word that exemplifies my entire straight-out-of-a-novel-life. But this was quite an exciting week for me and it really was the icing on the cake having my blog so graciously made over by my friend, Kelli Taylor, of Purple Tree Photography. Between Kelli and Cheryl Oz...those two have been helping me put my vision together of how I REALLY wanted this baby to look. These two are master-crafts-women. Between their paintbrushes, cameras and computers, they can make ANYTHING look good...even almost 40-year-old me....hahaha! Kelli had her work cut out for her, I PROMISE you, with me as a subject. "Wait, is my hair right? Wait...it looks fuzzy. Can I pull it back? Can I change my shirt?" I'm sure she couldn't wait to get to the "still life" part of the photo shoot...haha! It's one thing when you're getting your photo taken for your Christmas card (yup, those still need to be sent out too. Dang! Ha!)...just make sure there aren't too many wrinkles in everyone's color coordinated outfits, get the dried milk off of junior's face. Maybe use some spit to smash down Joey's bed-head. But these photos were different for me. This was a bit more exposure for me.

This is about my business. My heart and soul in this business. My family in this business. My friends in this business. Everything that represents me. Fuzzy hair and all. Kelli is so great at what she does. Really and truly. I can post something about her on FB to say...book something now OR YOU'LL BE TOTALLY STUPID IF YOU DON'T!! Blah, blah, blah...but I'm saying this really and truly. You get what you pay for here and then-some. You'll get patience, expertise, she WON'T make fun of your hair too much - HAHA! (she was honest with me though, which I appreciated, when I wanted to pull my hair back and it ended up looking pretty blech in the pics) and in the end? You'll get these incredibly gorgeous and natural light-filled photographs that you'll pass down for generations and when you're a grandparent you'll say..."I remember the day Joey cried the entire time through our session with Kelli but she brought out the best in him for these gorgeous photos and oh, look! I remember how she helped me fix my fuzzy hair!" :)

We set up everything ourselves that you see above in my banner. How it all turned out just blows my mind. Some simple behind the scenes facts: The fabrics are actually two amazing tablecloths I had just purchased at Target. The little white frame has a picture in it that Lexi painted when she was three years old. I keep it in our dining room. The art books are all ones I purchased at the last estate sale I went to (totaling all of, I think, $6) from Cari Cucksey, host of HGTV's, "Cash & Cari." And the candlesticks are ones I found at a flea market in Grand Rapids. The holes are so wide, it's tough to find a wide enough candle to put in them so I decided to place these little decorative votives on top of them and I really like how they look now. I found the votives at Ikea a few years ago during the holidays.

So, as you can see...you can really fill your home with little pieces of love and pieces THAT you love that don't have to break the bank. Hunting for all these treasures is the best part.

There are oh, so very many things to be thankful for on this almost Friday morning. I'm thankful for my wonderful friends, Kelli and Cheryl, that have been such a force of inspiration on this media journey and I'm thankful to you for stopping by to read this tonight...almost tomorrow morning. :)