Molly's excited for Jelly Beans -- A first for her!

The face I get when I ask for a nice smile lately.

the almost posed nice looking picture. that failed terribly.

First Egg of the outdoor Easter Egg Hunt!

makes me happy.

the Ladybug sharing her egg - Jackson less then impressed.

a change of shoes and dancing in the afternoon sunlight!

We hope your Easter was filled with love, laughter and sunshine too!

Much Love,

You matter

stage fort park, gloucester ma

guess who loves the see-saw with her daddy.. and guess who loves them both more then words.

that’s all.

much love,

After I had Molly I spoke with the wonderful people at my OBGYN’s office and asked them if they might be interested in allowing me to decorate their office with my images.  They had just finished renovating and with a blank canvas I thought my images would be a nice compliment to their waiting room, exam rooms and hallways.  Lucky for me, they fell in love with my images and style and were gracious and kind and allowed me to pick 16 images to display in their Danvers office.  They have asked me to display my work in two other locations as well.. super exciting!
I chose images that were mostly newborns and toddlers given the location and I couldn’t be happier with the way they look!  The best part is some of the images are actually from patients of the office – I always get text messages or emails when a Mom goes in and gets to see her little blessings photograph on the wall.  It warms my heart to know how happy it makes them

Check out some snapshots of just the waiting room I took today while dropping off more cards with all my information… (there were supposed to be three images per wall but they ended up moving some around so they could add them to the exam rooms instead..)

left and front walls

closer of front wall

right wall

peaking around the hallway corner

**NOTE:  If you are a patient of Essex County OBGYN, you receive a special promotion on your session fee and print order when you schedule your session!  All the information is located on the cards at the reception desk.  Be sure to mention it when you call to book!

Jackson was a newborn and I had started snapping crazy amounts of photographs of him.  I didn’t want to miss anything.  I didn’t want to forget anything. I knew with every passing day he was one day older, one day bigger, one day away from this newborn little precious miracle I loved more then myself from the second I knew he was going to be my son.  I knew in a blink he was going to be graduating! Although photography had always been a passion of mine, I never had any ‘formal’ training.  I played with my camera, tried different things, tried to figure out but mostly didn’t really know what I was doing.  When I was getting married, I did a lot of research on ‘The Knot.’  I was kicked over to ‘The Nest,’ after I had Jackson and there were some women there that were in my exact same position! They loved taking photographs of their children and they were learning about their cameras and how to get the photographs we’d all fallen in love with online from other great photographers.  Those women started a message board and before I knew it we had so many members who enjoyed the love of photography and many of them had young kids at home so it was an instant bond!  It was there that I became to ‘know’ Lyndsay.  We have never met, and I’m not sure she will ever know how grateful I am for her gifts she doesn’t even know she’s given me, but I know. And I am forever in debt to her.

She made a post one day about a friend of hers, Erin Cobb, whose daughter was in the running for the Gap Casting Call.  Sarah (Pigbear as she is nicknamed!) needed votes to win so Lyndsay posted the link to Erin’s blog and of course on Erin’s blog you could click to vote for Sarah!  It was that day that I added Erin to my favorites and have been following her ever since.  I started reading about her and her adorable little family and I felt like if she lived near me, we’d totally hang out!  That’s the amazing thing about blogs, isn’t it?  We feel connected and friendships for people that we may really have never met – how incredible.   It was about that time that Rick and I began seriously considering photography as a business.  I had been doing a lot of thinking and a lot of praying about it.  I had just finished my Masters in Elementary Education and received my license to teach, but Jackson was a newborn and I was nannying at the time.  I needed to work but with the great family I worked for, he could come with me and I could still work and watch him grow up – again, a huge blessing.  Should I go back to teaching just because I could? Should I try to start a business following my passion? Who knew which was the ‘right’ answer?  We discussed it, a lot.

One night after Jackson went to bed I was reading Erin’s blog and she had posted about her friend Wendy Schulz.  Wendy had mentored Erin and took her under her wing to teach her about her photography and help her grow into what she wanted to be.  After I read Erin’s post, I immediately went to Wendy’s blog and saw that she started offering an online workshop – to do the same thing!  SOLD.  I talked it over with Rick and we decide this was it.  Let’s give this a shot.

So I signed up for Wendy’s class and without a doubt, SHE is the reason I am where I am.  She gave me challenges and feedback that has taught me about myself, about my camera, about my craft.  She is amazing. She is inspiring, and boy is she hysterical!  I have since sent Wendy a few of my friends and even my cousin Jake took her online course.  I’m sure her waiting list is long, but if you want to know about photography from one of the greatest teachers, SIGN UP. You won’t regret it.

So lets recap.  Lyndsay ‘introduced’ me to Erin. Erin ‘introduced’ me to Wendy, and Wendy is what gave my business the foundation  to become a business.  Well, this past week Erin was visiting her friends in Boston and asked if any Bostonians would like to come out to get together — It was about a second of  before I responded – ME ME ME! Remember, we were friends in my head already! Ha..

So luckily, Rick was sweet enough to come home after a long day of work and let me take off to Starbucks to meet Erin, finally!  In typical Boston fashion, there was traffic so of course I was late but nevertheless, I made it and guess what…  She was JUST as sweet, if not more, in person!  Just like I knew she would be!  She jumped right up and gave me a hug and we all started laughing right away – like we were all old friends.  Just the way it should be with someone who has helped shape your life, right!?

Ellen and Diana are from Boston and also follow Erin’s blog so it was nice to make new friends too -  Samantha and Erin have been friends for a long time and the 5 of us had a great visit together just chatting it up!  The time passed too quickly of course, but hopefully the next visit Erin makes to Boston we’ll have some more time to catch up!

Totally ‘borrowed’ from Erin — You can see her thoughts from our meet up here:

(l->r) Ellen - Erin - Diana -Yours Truly - Samantha!

So Lyndsay, Thank you for posting Erin’s link.  Erin thank you for posting Wendy’s link and Wendy, thank you for making me jump when I wasn’t sure their was a net under me.  Turns out I didn’t need it anyways thanks to you.. For that, for all of you, I am grateful

We are grateful.

Much love.

Thankfully,