Jenny Anne Photography

New Things are Happening!

2011-07-22T12:06:00.001-07:00

(Just so you know, this picture has nothing to do with my blog.)

I just don't like to write a blog without some kind of picture...it's like reading a book without pictures. I mean, because you know...I don't read little kid books any more. Ok, whatever. I do.

There are some pretty fun things happening both in my personal life AND in my business life. For starters, in my personal life, I got a new job working with the Federal Bar Association as an Administrative Assistant. I'm excited...but so nervous. I don't really know what to expect. I know there are only 15 people in the office and it's near my house..ish. AND there's a Barnes and Nobles next door!! Tuesday is my first day at FBA! I feel like it's kindergarten all over again when I cried on the first day...I mean...ya know...ummm ok yeah, so? I cried on my first day of kindergarten!! (I also got in A LOT of trouble on my first day of kindergarten too...all my stickers were covered which is NEVER a good thing) Anyway, I feel like I need my Lisa Frank trapper keeper and my My Little Pony lunch box and thermos when I go to my first day on Tuesday. (anyone remember Lisa Frank!!?? loved her!)

Among starting a new job, I am also pregnant!!!!

Ok, no. I'm not pregnant. But I got your attention didn't I? I should really not say stuff like that here...rumors will start and I'll get asked a BUNCH of questions. For the record, I AM NOT PREGNANT. (Chill out, Mom! You'd be one of the first people to know if I was!!)

For my business life, I have mentioned a few times before that my business name/brand has gotten a whole new renovations. I am excited to announce I will be able to launch my new blog and brand in just a few weeks! YAY!!! I'm absolutely in love with my new brand and my new blog. I'll be able to tell you more about it when it launches...but the girl who did it is absolutely a GENIUS!

The day of my new blog launch, I will be hosting a contest! One of my sweet friends is also doing a side business. Her stuff is just so stinking adorable and I want to help her out...and I want everyone to see her cute things! I don't want to give anything away, but let's just say you can WEAR them!

So dear friendly-friends, be on the look out for my new blog launching soon...AND the way awesome really fun contest I will be hosting the day of the launch!

See all of you on the flip side!

Our Sprezzatura Saturday

2011-07-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

Anybody who is anybody with an iPhone will tell you the best app of all time is with out a doubt, Instagram. It's like caring around my camera as well as a built in post-processing system in my phone! I just love it! So when creativity sparks and I see something that catches my eye, and I don't have my camera...my iPhone does the trick! If you don't have this app yet, get it. now. It's free!! That's the best kind!! If you don't have an iPhone yet...well, I'm sorry. It pretty much rocks my world...especially since they are now available with Verizon.

Ok...enough of the free advertising. I do believe that Apple and Verizon should pay me $1 MILLION dollars!!
This Saturday wasn't something that was unique...there was nothing extrodinary about it. It was just another Saturday where Brian and I ran some errands and spent a lazy afternoon at the pool. But I loved it! I love the art of doing normal things together. Last night, Brian and I watched The Bachelorette. Ok, I know what you are thinking... 1. Why are you watching that show? It's horrible, offensive, the girls/guys are not what you would call "godliness". 2. Why is Brian watching this? 3. Don't you have better things to do with your time?
I have answers to all of these questions: 1. I can't help watching it! It's like watching a train wreck! (though, I don't really know why I would want to watch that either)...ok, it's like watching...well, I can't really think of anything to compare it to that would justify watching this show. I agree. It's a ridiculous show, and the relationships NEVER work out. 2. Brian watches it because he loves me and loves to spend time with me...and we kinda make fun of the people on the show together. (yes, we are horrible). 3. I DO have better things to do with my time...but I didn't feel like doing them at that time.

ANYWAY...one of the guys on the show is very sweet. Unfortunately, he got kicked off. Brian and I think it's because he is too good/intelligent for her. He mentioned this Italian word for being romantic through doing the normal, everyday thing. It's called Sprezzatura. Now, he may be wrong because I looked the word up on Wikipedia and it basically says "studied carelessness".

But I think this is a good word to describe mine and Brian's saturday's together...they are careless. Not in the way that we do things without thinking as if we'll go jump of the nearest bridge without a rope attached. No. It's just that they are easy...they are carefree. We enjoy being together that it's just careless. It's the art of doing the normal thing, but taking a carefree, romantic enjoyment out of it.

On our way to Trader Joes to get some groceries, we noticed a few yard sales (no one in VA has garages so they are called Yard Sales). I got super excited and screamed YARD SALES! YARD SALES!! Let's stop! Let's stop!! Ya just never know what you could find at yard sales. One man's junk then becomes my junk that I will turn into beautiful junk that will either hang on my wall, or redecorated and turned into something it was never intended to be.

We stopped by a few yard sales...hoping to maybe find some cheapo curtains or something of a unique sense, but had no luck.

We then drove by this house that had a whole bunch of furniture out in the lawn. We pulled up and my eyes were immediately drawn to this beautiful chair! I loved it! I had to have it! I asked how much it was! It was $250! All of the sudden, I didn't have to have it! As Brian and I were looking it over, I was picturing a new project for myself...reupholstrying. Now, I have no earthly clue on how to do this, but I could find a YouTube video that would show me how! I love the wingback chair, I loved how deep it was when you sat in it, and I really liked the pattern, but I wanted to make it my own. Brian's favorite part were the feet on the chair...they were claws! It was a pretty sweet chair, but way over what we could afford right now.

Moving on, we noticed another yard sale. I grew up in a neighborhood that held an annual GARAGE sale (because everyone in MI has a garage) every May. My mom always taught me the art of slowly driving by a garage sale to scan it seeing if it was even worth stopping. I scanned this one, and noticed a lot of boy things. I didn't think it was worth stopping, but Brian did. Sure enough, there was a lot of boy things...action figures, games, clothes...nothing really in the fun, kitcheny, artsy department I liked. We purused the books a little and noticed this little gem!

A C.S. Lewis children's book of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe! What a find for $1! I immediately started picturing us reading it to our children before bedtime and them being so excited that it became their favorite book. Right now, Brian and I are reading it to each other before we go to sleep.

I love all the illustrations in it!

After we got home and unloaded our groceries, a few friends came over to enjoy the pool with us.
And this is where I begin my rant about how much I adore everything about summer! Give me the heat anyday of the year over stupid, cold snow. BLECH! I love how the days are longer and the pool is open. Everyone enjoys the outside. You don't have to wear layer upon layer to keep warm. I love the smell of hotdogs and watermelon on a Saturday afternoon BBQ. I LOVE watching baseball. GAH! I just love everything about summer. I never ever ever want it to end.
I keep telling Brian and I'm so sad even thinking of how Fall and Winter are on their way in the next few months. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will have this picture to remind of how it feels to jump in the cool pool water on a very hot and humid day.

And, I had to laugh at myself this weekend. We went to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. I was about to throw away this Dunkin Donuts cup, but then realized...HEY! I could use this for my OWN iced coffee or ice tea...so...I kept it. What has become of me?!!?! Next thing you know, you will find a dozen or so Ketchup packets in my purse!

Last week, after church, Brian and I stopped at Barnes and Noble. I picked up Tina Fey's book "Bossypants". I know, she is hard core liberal, but who isn't? (besides me and my friends...and my family...and pretty much my whole church) But she is stinking hilarious. And I appreciate a good sense of humor. One of the many reasons I married Brian. If you've ever seen her show 30 Rock, you'll see what I mean. Her sense of humor is random and weird, and I like it. Needless to say this book was hilarious! It was so good, I couldn't put it down, and I never say that about books.

Anyway, that was our Sprezzatura Saturday. I love them! I do. They are sweet and special and I wish everyday was Saturday.

Ps. hopefully next time I'll be writing a blog, it will be on my pretty NEW site!! Can't wait to show all of you!

Guess I'm Falling For You

2011-06-21T15:37:00.002-07:00

Favorite thing about weddings:

The dancing.

Hands down.

I love when the party gets started and everyone's out on the dance floor letting their inhibitions fly free into the wind.

I didn't care about anything else at my wedding...I just wanted to dance!

Dancing brings people closer.
It draws from the soul.

It overflows from your heart.

and then you're face knows it...

your whole body feels it...

and you just. let. go.

But the best kind of dancing...dancing with the one you love. The one you were meant to spend forever with. It's a way to say, "Hey, I love you and I love to be close to you."

Often, when Brian and I are cooking in the kitchen, we will have some classic like Frank Sinatra on and he'll just randomly start dancing with me. I love it.

I love dancing with Brian.

Number 1: he's a great dancer!

Number b: he's cute.

Number 4: he's my forever dancing partner.

and Number d: it brings joy and happiness to each of us to be close with one another.

When shooting a wedding, i aim to get those feelings that swell up in pit of your stomach. I aim to capture those long gazes, funny distorted body movements, the soft touches of the

hand or back, the little kisses that sneak in there. Those are the pictures I want...and I'm sure you appreciate.

During my forever long editing evening tonight, I came across the reception part of the most recent wedding I shot and the dancing pictures made my heart swell. I

am in a good mood tonight because of these priceless treasures.

Just take a look.

When I look into your eyes
I see sunshine
The clouds are blown away
I hope you're here to stay
'Cause I've got me needing more of you
Guess I'm falling for you

You walk away
My eyes caress you
Then you turn and smile
You've caught me thinkin' of love with you
Guess I'm falling, I may be falling for you.

Since I met you days are brighter
Life's uneven loads are lighter
When I hear you whisper the words I long to hear dear
Now I look into your eyes
I'm lost in knowing that you are all I want
My need for you is growing
Guess I'm falling, I think I'm falling for you
Think about falling for me too

- Michael Buble

Superheros and Families

2011-05-17T09:58:00.000-07:00

So I actually have two subjects to post in the this blog. One being about Superhero's and the other about this adorable family I shot (with my camera) on Sunday afternoon.

First, because you just have to see these kids, let's talk about the Smith family. Diamond contacted me last year to do a family shoot for them. Yes and Yes. She contacted me again THIS year to do ANOTHER family shoot. Gosh, I love repeat clients. :) They make my life so happy. And it's always fun to catch up with them. I met the Smith family on the east side of the Capitol. Ok, yes, I have shot here many many many times. So I decided to do a few different things this time. The Visitor Center has great lighting and different angles and the green green grass on both sides of the Capitol are prime for good coloring.
So, further without delay, let me introduce you to ...

Will. (yes, his name is Will Smith) :) And also, how can you resist that face?!?!

or THIS face? I mean, come on. He stole my heart. He held my hand. He called me Miss Jenny. I swooned. :)

and here's William and Diamond Smith, the maker's of these squish-their-face-stinking-adorable-children.

I mean, that smile. Those eyes!! :::sigh:::

Oh! And here's Elizabeth. Another stealer of the heart! I wish I looked that cute when I was baby. (I didn't. I was fat.)

Oh and also, it's really no biggie (ok, yes it is) but the following pictures are of her FIRST STEPS!!! Will she do it?

There she goes!! Standing on her own!

LOOK! LOOK!!

STEPS! HER FIRST ONES!!

How far will she go?

Oh...uh oh...annnnnd....

Back down again. Diamond was thriilllllleeeed to see her daughter's first steps. And I was so happy that I could capture them on my camera for her. It makes me get excited to have my own kids and watch them take their first steps.

The world is now yours, Elizabeth! Go on with yourself and discover it!

(ps. did you notice something new on my pictures? Yeah, it's part of my new branding process. It's my watermark for Jenny B Photography. Hopefully soon my new blog will be up and running and I'll show you the whole logo. It's pretty.)

We took many more pictures after these, but I just wanted to give you a few to look at. We all had a really fun time on the Capitol lawn that afternoon.

Will chased me.

I chased Will.

Will held my hand.

I swooned.

Will gave me a stick.

I swooned.

Elizabeth took her first steps.

I cheered!

Elizabeth plopped back down.

I snapped a picture.

Will gave me the Gospel.

I swooned.

Will told me to pray.

I did and thanked Jesus for letting us have a fun afternoon.

Diamond and William were GREAT sports too in letting me play with their children and swooning after Will. :)

Ok, on to the Superheros part of my post.

Brian is a nerd. No, really he is. I told him that I was gonna post about him being a nerd. His words were, "yeah, but I'm a cool nerd, right?" Uhh...yeah...sure. :) I'm not disrespecting him. He tells me he's a nerd all the time. And now that we are married, I see it so. much. more. But I'm a dork! No, like really, I'm a big. time. dork. Not the smart kind of dork either. I'm the awkward, not really sure what to say in situations so I'll say something totally random and not very well thought out, kind of dork. So together, our poor, poor, children will get mocked ruthlessly in the school yards. Poor kids. Pray for them. Pray for them now.

I'll try to give you a few examples of how big of a nerd Brian is. (sorry, babe, but you know I love this about you anyway!) He loves, and I mean, LOVES superhero's. He also loves math. He also loves having things that are in a row neatly lined up against each other. He also loves science. He's just a nerd...but yes, he is a HOT nerd and he's MY nerd. :) Anyway, like I said he loves Superhero's and get's really excited when he sees something superhero related. He even bought a Superman t-shirt from Old Navy. Cute. :) So when the movie Thor came out, I knew we were going to have to see it. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE superhero movies too. (it's the dork inside me. dorks like those movies too) My personal favorite is Spiderman. So I was also excited to see this movie on Saturday. Which, if I may put in a quick plug...really, really good "family-friendly" movie. No sex. No swearwords (that I can remember). Just good vs. evil.

I don't really know much about Thor. Brian can talk your ear off about Thor and the rest of the Avengers. All I know is that Thor is the god of thunder. That's it.

Anyway, it was a good movie. Go see it.

Sunday morning, I got on facebook and saw my sister-in-law's status about Psalm 18 and God being the ultimate superhero. It peaked my interest since we have seen Thor just the night before and superhero's were on my mind. I didn't look up the passage right away since we were already running late to church (a usual thing I will admit). During the church service in one of the many weak moments of my A.D.D. mind (I SWEAR I was still paying attention), I wondered over the Psalm 18. I read it. I read about God being our shield, about God being our shelter, about God rescuing me from death and my enemies. What a wonderful passage this is! (Thank Sarah for saying something about it!) I'll be honest for minute here. I'm going through a spiritual drought. It's tough. I'm actually reading the book "When I Don't Desire God". It hurts to admit that. But maybe you can pray for me. I'd appreciate it! Reading this passage made me desire to stir my emotions for God. So for my Bible reading I've decided to start in the Psalms and Psalm 18 was a good place to refresh my soul a bit and remind myself that God is my ultimate hero and the one who rescued me even before I realized I needed to be rescued.

Married: Alexis & Coyle

2011-05-10T06:11:00.000-07:00

Do you ever sit behind a dating couple in church and wonder when they are going to get engaged? No? Well I do...but maybe that's because I'm too nosey and want to know everyone's dating life. It's exciting to see people whom I know, but not really know, start to date each other. I remember back in the winter, Brian and I showed up late to church (which seems to be a pretty usual thing for us...) and we sat in the far left corner of the church slightly behind the piano. We sat behind this boy named Coyle. There was this girl named Alexis who sings in the church ensemble in the mornings and when they were finished this girl came to sit next to this boy. The next thing I knew, this boy threw his arm around this girl and her head was leaning on his arm. YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!! Awesome people getting together to become a couple. love. love. love. I had no idea how long they were dating, but still wondered to myself when they would get married.

Well, I am here to say that on Saturday, May 7, I got to witness this boy and this girl who were sitting next to each other in church that one Sunday get married. What! What!! My good friend, Leslie was the main photographer for this wedding and she asked me to be her assistant. Umm..yes please! I love being a second shooter. You're not as stressed out and can have more flexability and creativity with different angles as the first shooter does their thing. It was fun!!

Saturday morning, I arrived at Leslie's house (despite my massively horrible tooth ache from my root canal 10 days ago) That's. another story. UGH! After some coffee, Leslie and I headed to CHBC to get the getting ready shots. We arrived in the Blue Room...yes, the room is actually blue...like really really very blue...hence the name, the Blue Room. Alexis was bright and ready to take on the day! She was so full of laughter. She enjoyed every minute of her day, as all brides should. She was lovely and charming and there was nothing that seemed to bother her. Such a great bride! The rest of the day was just like that. It was all so easy-going. There was really no rush for anything (except when Leslie and I got lost on the way to the reception..we blame the GPS!) Alexis and Coyle, I hope you guys are enjoying your honeymoon right now! Thanks for letting me tag along with Leslie. And seriously, you two were stinking adorable to photograph!

Ohhhhhhh her DRESS!! I feel like the theme of the wedding was from the 1950's. I just loved her dress!!

oh man, I loved her flowers! They were so simple and the color just made everything pop!

Adorable bride.

Leslie gettin it done.

Seconds before the walk down the aisle. I loved these few minutes the bride has to just get her thoughts together, pray, worship, talk with dad...such sweet times.

After all the vowing, praying, ring-exchanging, and kissing they were pronounced hubby and wifey!

(i know this picture is blurry, but I still think it's kinda cool)

I love this room. I love that at the beginning, the bride has sweet times with her dad who has been the one to care and protect and love her all her life. Then at the end the bride has sweet times with her new husband who will be the one to care and protect and lover her all her life.

and love her well, he will.

and make her smile and laugh, he will.

After the family pictures were over, we all head to the Library of Congress.

And I just loved the lighting in this hallway. it was perfect. and they made that hallway

sparkle even more.

and then we got the whole bridal party in there.

Alexis, STOP BEING SO DANG GORGEOUS!!

oh her flowers. Did I mention I loved her flowers?

I purposefully saved the best for last...HER SHOES!!!!!!! Leslie and I gushed and gushed over her shoes. Gah!! Love love love love love looooooovvveeeee.... I lust over shoes.

Ok, that was the LAST...I had to leave you with a few more pictures of this boy and girl who got married and couldn't stop smiling or keep their hands off each other. They were too sweet. :)

Catching up on my Weekends

2011-04-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

This has been my life the past three weekends...baby shower for our good friends Sarah and Evan, off to New Jersey to see Brian's family, and a deep-spring cleaning at the Bosak home. So I am now taking the time to update you on what's been going on lately. (Not that you would really care anyway...) I'd thought I'd throw this out into the blog-mo-sphere to see if my readers (or my husband) at least really wants to know about my weekends. Anyway, since I have not had many photography jobs lately, I have been able to do some personal pictures over the weekends. Let's start with Sarah's baby shower....mmmmkay? Sarah and Evan are due in May with a baby boy! Hoo Ray!! Brian and I had a bet about the sex of the baby. Brian bet that it would be a boy and I bet it would be a girl...of course. Our winnings? For me: a pedicure...oh how I long for one every time I look down at my caloused feet and plain toenails...blech! For Brian: a bottle of scotch. Well, Brian won. Dang. They are having a baby boy! Instead of a bottle of scotch, he opted for a snowboarding night with good friends. Sarah had her shower a few weeks ago and it was just lovely. I should mention that Sarah is a Marine so most of her gifts were military related from a Marine blanket to a little rubber ducky with a Marine hat. So. Cute. Well...let's scroll down the pictures to see what the rest of the day looked like.

Oh man, CAKE!! I love cake. I love sugar. I love anything with chocolate. I would eat it all...all the time...no veggies, no protein, just cake. :::sigh::: only in a perfect world. DARN ADAM AND EVE!! If it wasn't for you, we could all eat cake all the time and never gain weight or clog arteries or have a weird brain function because of all the sugar. Darn you guys! I hope there's lots of cake in Heaven. There should be right? I mean, we will be celebrating Jesus all the time...celebration. cake. Celebration = cake!!

And then there were these adorable onesie cookies. Too adorable to eat. You can't eat something adorable? Can you?

And then there were :::sigh::: chocolates....LOTS OF THEM!! You can eat these...they aren't considered adorable.

And then there were games...FUN games! We had to unscramble the words and they were all themed with baby things. Can you guess this one? (I don't remember it)

And then there were chocolates. It's the only reason I go to showers...cake and chocolates, really.

And then there was a thoughtful and sweet devotional by Sarah's mom. She read from her journal she kept whilst pregnant with Sarah. Great idea and so sweet!

And then there was another game where we had to guess how many toilet paper squares Sarah was.

And then there were GIFTS!! many many gifts. Baby got spppooooiiiilllllleeeeedddddd. Which is the way it should be.

Sarah and her BFF Emily who put together the shower all the way from Indiana. Tis a blessing to have friends like that.

Cute Marine bibs!

The ladies.

RUBBER DUCKY!!

Cheese! Yes please!

Coffee bar.

Adorable book from the Morgans.

And now we move onto our weekend in New Jersey. We had no specific plan of action on Saturday. We mainly just hung out and ate. But our main course of action was to put on these wicked awesome Transformers tattoo's. Everyone put at least one on for the day. We felt powerful! We felt alive! We felt like we were apart of Mega-Tron and Bumblbee's crowd...and then they washed off and we realized who exactly we were. Humans.

And then we went to Bobby's Burger Palace. I've never been before and have recenyly become a fan of the show America's Next Great Restaraunt. If you're a foodie, or you watch the show, then you know who Bobby Flay is. We were standing in line and Brian looked over in the seating area and says..."oh look, that's Bobby Flay!" Well, we all started freaking out because we all like food and well...were in his restaraunt. I had my camera (of course) so Jess and I made our way to him.

Oh hey Bobby Flay! Watchya cookin?

The Crunch Burger. I think it's a guy think to put chips on your burgers. I remember in elementary the guys would allllwwwaayyys put chips or cheetos on their sandwiches. I thought it was the grossest thing. But this...this was good!

Jess' friend Lisbeth, Jess, and A. Sammy-Sam

And finally, we move on to this past weekend. (ps. I'm sad it's monday) It was our deep-spring clean day! Seriously, I scheduled it on our calendar. I was looking forward to it all week! I blame all of my weirdness on my Pensacola Christian College Whiteglove days. These were days where we had to clean our dorms room from top to bottom...like even IN the drawers, they had to be organized and clean of dust. EVERYTHING, had to be wiped down and sanitized...and the best part? It was always during mid-terms and finals. Yes, thank you PCC. And now that I'm married and have my own home, you'd think I wouldn't EVER want to do that again. BUT I DO! I love a clean home! A clean home is a happy home. (Yes, I'll be saying this to my kids all the time and they will hate it.) So Brian and I start early Saturday morning and finished around 7pm. I debated on taking pictures of the whole process, but didn't want to disgust you. Brian started in the kitchen and I started in the bathroom...the very place I hate to clean. But after I cleaned it, I feel like I've won the battle and the monster has been crushed! I am. VICTOOORRRIOUS! As I was wiping down the toilet, behind the toilet, under the sink, I started to notice the walls....were black! EW! We have white tiles around our bathroom and they were all black! What? I didn't even know they were black. I was thankful I had my Shaklee all-purpose cleaner to handle this task. This wonderful little sample was given to me by my good friend Bethany who lives in Boston. I LOVED it! It conquered anything I put in front of it and it was only 1/4 tsp. and a 16oz. bottle of water and two drops and water conquered my windows. Fabulous!! Contact her to get her information on how you can get some of this magicalness!

Brian and I still have to organize our linen closet which is in MUCHO need! On Sunday, we debated back and forth about what to do after church. The Cherry Blossoms seemed attractive, but then on our way home from church 395 was a parking lot. (Darn tourists) So we decided against it. Go for a run? Maybe. Well, we got home and I washed the dishes and Brian started working on my boxed herb garden. :) He's like me, once a project gets started, he doesn't want to stop. So we did that! My handsome handy man put the box on the outside of one of our windows, and then we made a trip to Home Depot to get the soil and herbs. So. Excited!

And there she sits! Waiting for rain, the sun, for growth!

Well hello Sweet Basil! When you have grown some more I will pick your leaves and put you on pizza, or with tomatoes, or chop you up for some pesto. You smell nice too!

Well hello German Thyme! Though I like how your frien Basil smells, I think I like your fragrance the most. I can picture a wide variety of meats you will be sprinkled on to.

And hello to you Rosemary! Together with Thyme, you two make a great pair!

Grow my little children, grow!

Family Session: Randi, Chris, and Lilly

2011-03-25T06:08:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I had a wonderful opporutunity to meet Randi and Chris and their adorable (seriously, folks...she's stinking adorable) little girl, Lilly. I was super super excited about this shoot. I love shooting families and especially love to work with kids. I met the family at Sandy Point Bay in Maryland that has a simply gorgeous view of this massive bridge in Maryland which I have never been over. It was so lovely. I love being on the water in Maryland. I feel like I'm in New England there and anywhere that makes me feel a little closer to New England, I am ok with.

I love kids! Really. I do. I love to play with them. I grew up in a Christian school where I knew every elementary kid there was. I still consider myself to be a big kid. When I was single, I would often offer my babysitting services for free just to hang out and play with kids. For some reason, life is just simpler in the mind of a child. It's refreshing. Looking at these pictures of Lilly made me so excited for her young life. I wish I could be a kid again...I mean come on, no school (or if you do have school it's the really easy stuff like adding 3 and 2 together), no politics, play time whenever, you can go out to the grocery store in a tutu and people would think you're just adorable. Can you imagine going to the grocery store as an adult in a tutu? Haha...I'd like to try that someday.

This little girl was so loved and special to her parents.

Kisses from both of them.

Making sure they are kissing each other.

And giving kisses back to them.

And one big Lilly squeeze from both parents is always necessary.

A Mom's hug is the best medicine.

And I mean, who can resist playing with a big red balloon the size of your body on windy day? No one.

I should let you know folks, that Lilly's favorite Princess is Ariel. MINE TOO!!! Brian and I are goind to Disney World in June and I soooooo want to dress up as a Princess one day.

When you were younger, did your dad every throw you up in the air to catch you? My dad would do it in the water with us, but he wouldn't catch us. He'd throw us as far as we could go in the water.

And tickle fights are quite possibly the best way to get your child to smile anytime...anywhere.

Don't you love her pink tights?

Someday, I am going to spend an entire day devoted to just watching Disney Princess movies.

Oh to be a kid again...

Mr. and Mrs. Worsley 2.26.11

2011-03-01T08:02:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, February 26, I woke up (early I might add) to get myself ready for a long day of shooting a wedding for Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Worsley. In my morning routine, I checked my email and Facebook. When I opened Facebook, the first thing I saw on my newsfeed was a status by the lovely Miss Sarah Becker (bride-to-be). Her status said this: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." I John 4:10

This was not a status that said "I'M GETTING MARRRRRRIIIIIIEEEEEEEDDDD TODAY!!!!" (much like mine was) :) It was a status about love...not just any love...but God's love. It was a status to give God glory on her wedding day. This is just a glimpse of the kind of woman Sarah is.

Sarah was a joy to photograph on her wedding day. She was calm and excited and eager to be apart of a picture of the bride of Christ. She enjoyed her day along with her fabulous bridesmaids. She enjoyed being with her parents for a while before they gave her away. She enjoyed doing her own makeup. She was gracious and helpful to others on her day. My second shooter, Sarah, from Ampersand Photography (who was such a delight to work with!!) said the same thing about the groomsmen. They were fun and easy to photograph. She had a blast with them. Thanks for helping me Sarah!!!

You should know, Jonathan is from England so there were some different traditions the English had from the American's. For instance, at the end of the ceremony, there was a group picture to be taken of everyone...guests, bridal party, family...everyone who attended or helped in someway with the wedding. You'll see the picture below. And at the reception, instead of giving toasts, speeches were given. I think I loved Jonathan's speech to his wife the best. :) It was a simply fabulous wedding! The ceremony was held at Capitol Hill Baptist Church and the reception venue was St. Fransic Hall...and oh man, I could've shot there all night.

Jonathan and Sarah are a lovely lovely couple. I'm excited to see how their marriage will bring glory to God.

Don't you love her dress?

this is the way every bride should look when putting on her gown.

DC produces a lot of tourists...so it's no question that any time a bride walks around DC, she will get her picture taken. This was a group of tourists by the Capitol. They LOVED Sarah and each of them wanted their picture taken with her. Sarah was so gracious to decline many opportunities.
This field was a bit mudding which made their shoes dirty, but they were willing! Love when a bride and bridesmaid are willing to go a little further for some pictures.

Gosh! I just loved her dress and the way it spun around her. :)

It's what every little girl does when she feels pretty in her dress...why not do it on your wedding day?

The last prayer after they said their vows, I peaked to watch Jonathan. The smile on his face didn't leave. As hard as he tried to not smile so much during prayer, it never left his face.

The group shot.

It was a fabulous day at the end of February! The sun light was perfect and I'm head over heals in love with these shots around the Capitol.

After the Capitol, we were off to St. Francis for some Bride and Groom shots before the reception began.

Matt Wertz In Concert

2011-03-01T06:50:00.000-08:00

Friday night, Brian and I and a few others headed up near Baltimore to hear Matt Wertz perform a concert to benefit Young Lives. Brian first introduced me to Matt Wertz when we started dating. I fell...in love with his music. Matt Wertz is that kind of acoustic, beachy, Jack Johnson kind of feel. But, get this...he is a Christian artist. He doesn't do a lot of Christian songs, but he is a Christian nonetheless. He is one of those artists who just sounds better live. Seriously, you should definitely go see him live. For those of you who live around the DC area, he'll be playing again in Vienna, VA on March 28 (I think). I love artists that get inspired to write music based on their life experiences and that's exactly what Matt does. It was such a blast and blessing to hear his music live.

The first song Brian introduced me to was the song titled "I Will Not Take My Love Away". This song is all I could think of during our Sunday morning message at church. CJ Mahaney came to be a guest preacher and his sermon spoke right to my heart. You see, I have a legalistic background. I think that if I don't do something (like serving every week in church or going to a Sunday night's service or putting off my devotions for a while) then God will not love me as much as he'll love the faithful servant, the devoted one to their devotions, the non-complaining. Instead of living in grace and knowing what God's love really looks like, I tend to live in fear that God is just looking for a way to discipline me or teach me a lesson. I live as though I should be making every effort to do things so that God will be pleased with me. But that's not what CJ reminded us of on Sunday morning through the book of Jude. He reminded us that we are loved, called, and kept. He said that if we don't have a right view of God's love then we will be prone to legalism. I sat in my chair contemplating that for a minute and well, yeah that's me. I greatly want to encourage you to check out the sermon by clicking here at the Capitol Hill Baptist Church website. I think I will listen to it again. :)

Anyway, this ties in with Matt Wertz, I promise. Like I mentioned, Matt has a song called
"I Will Not Take My Love Away". This is true! No matter what I do or don't do, God loves me because I am his and he called me.

"I will not take my love away

When praises cease and seasons change

While the world turns the other way

I will not take my love away

I will not leave you all alone

When striving leads you far from home

And there's no yeild for what you've sown

I will not leave you all alone

I will give you what you need

In plenty or in poverty

Forever, always, look to me

I will give you what you need.

I will not take my love away."

Silly Love

2011-02-14T08:34:00.000-08:00

I was planning on doing this super serious, completely thoughtful blog about what the Lord is showing me concerning my pride, self-reliance, and my own ambitions today. But then I thought about our Sunday afternoon Brian and I spent together about an hour before church and...well...it made me laugh. (you'll see in a few minutes) And that got me thinking about my hubby and then about Valentine's Day and about what I love about my hubby and then about what I wanted in a hubby when I was single and then about lunch. My mind is like spaghetti...it goes everywhere.

When I was single, I had a list of qualities I wanted in my future hubby. And then God humbled me and I threw out my list and said, Ok...I have my ideas, but God has bigger ones. Among those qualities on my list were (of course) Godly, a leader, protector, provider, humble, grateful, loving, supportive, loyal, Gospel-Centered...yeah yeah, you get it right?

Well, one thing I ALWAYS said was important to me was laughter...sense of humor. You have to have fun together, right? You have to be able to laugh at each other. It's important. I love laughing. I love being silly and weird...hey, it's who I am. I love that Brian dives right in with me.

Girls, if you have a list of qualities...yes, Godly and a leader should be numbero uno. But, make sure he makes you laugh. Make sure you make him laugh. Laugh together. You'll be spending the rest of your life together and you. must. laugh! Enjoy each other's humors. Brian and I will fight about who is funnier and truthfully, I am. He knows it.

So Sunday afternoon, after chilling and watching a few hours of House Season One, we drove down to the Potomac River next to the Lincoln Memorial. I have been dieing to get out and take pictures. As a part of our marriage contract, Brian must be willing in any and all circumstances to be my model. It's ligit. (too ligit to quit...)

The sun was setting and the sky was golden. It was beautiful...but cold...and windy. (ONE MORE MONTH TILL SPRING!)

Brian was strolling along the disease infested river bank (seriously, you DO NOT want to swim or even poke a toe in this water). He was looking down like he was searching for something and I liked that...and well...the picture below was of him before I gave him my instructions...

And here's the series where I told him to act like he was searching for something.

"Search for something!! No...what...what are you doing? I said search!"

"this is how I search!"

When we got in the car to drive to church, I was looking through them and just burst out laughing. I laughed so hard I cried.

I love that he is silly with me.

I love that he laughs when I am silly and doesn't look at me weird.

(Ok, he still looks at me weird)

I love that we can laugh together.

I love that our family will be filled with laughter in the future.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I Don't Get It

2011-02-07T08:15:00.000-08:00

Because I felt like my blog was naked on my last post from the lack of pictures.

I took a few pictures around/in our house Sunday afternoon.

They really have nothing to do with my post.

I just don't want my poor blog to feel naked again.

And well... no one likes feeling like they are naked.

It's like one of those dreams where you go to school naked.

Or it's like Adam and Eve, when they first saw their nakedness in the Garden and had to hide.

Ok, I've said the word Naked too much. I'm done. This IS a rated G blog.

Brian had to work (I called it study) Sunday after church. And I'm just in love with this candle from Target. So he worked, I flamed the fire :), and turned on Jack Johnson whilst I baked my snickerdoodle cookies where I accidentally forgot to put in the baking soda.

(Btw, can anyone tell me what EXACTLY baking soda and baking powder do anyway?)

I talked about my love for my yellow wall and blue printed vintage plates in our dining room on my last post, so I decided to show you. Aren't they pretty? The yellow wall does my soul some good, especially on gray days.

The Ball jars were from my wedding. I used them as the decor. I just love the color and the light that comes through them. Don't you?

Ok, all done with the pictures. My shutter finger is itching to be out taking pictures again! Can't wait for Spring!!

On to my post:

"I don't get it." If our highschool year book's had a personal quote underneath our pictures, that would be mine. I think I told that to every teacher I had...more specifically to my math teacher. (Sorry, Mr. A!) But not only did I say that in my math class, I would say it in my English class, my history class, so on and so forth. I consider myself a slow learner...yes, slow. I was just trying to think of a time where I was a fast learner so I didn't paint myself as dumb or with a learning disability, but I couldn't. :) I'm slow. It's true. Learning and studying never came easy for me. Math was my hardest and then history. Though I love history now, it was hard for me to learn all the correct dates and get them right with the correct battle. And Math...well, that's just a loosing battle (date: August 31, 1985 - January 9, 2009).

The same applies to when I listen to messages and God is trying to work on my heart. In my pride and rebellion, I will fight and not listen to what God is trying to get across to me. I may listen, but even though I listen, it takes a while for me to really understand what he is saying. I don't get it.

"Hey, Jenny...you have a lot of pride. We need to work on this."

"I don't get it."

"Hey Jenny, there's your pride again...let's work on that."

"I don't get it."

"Hey Jenny, you know what comes after pride? Selfishness. I'm going to work on that too."
"I don't get it."

"Oh! And there's also this issue you have with Trust..."
"I don't get it."

Like I said...slow learner. Thankfully, God is patient and has a steadfast love and mercy with me.

My hubs is pretty patient with me too. ;)

The message on Sunday was good. It was short. :) Usually, our messages alone last an hour long. Which I actually really like. We had a guest preacher from Australia come. He spoke on the 10 Commandments. It was good. Honestly, there was not a lot my heart really grasped (it's the slow learner thing...I'll probably remember something in a few weeks).

But the thing I remember the most was his prayer at the end. This line wasn't meant to make a point. It wasn't meant for anyone to understand the significance. It wasn't a dramatic, spiritual attempt to convict our sinful hearts into submission. It was a simple line that came to me like..."hey! yeah! Ya know, you're right! And I get that!" It was one of those lines that I had to write it down before I would forget. God does that with me sometimes. In his patient character, he'll bring me to a place, or he'll allow me to overhear a conversation about the same thing he is trying to work on with me and I'll get it. I don't have to be at a spiritual conference or emotionally drawn to the worship music, or in a state where I'm crying, at the end of my rope and I FINALLY understand the lesson he is teaching me. Sometimes those things come at unsuspected places.

Anyway, are you dieing to know what the line was now? Did I play it up enough for ya? :) Good.

He prayed this: "Forgive us Lord, for we know so much, but do so little."

Do you get it? We know SO much about our Heavely Father. We know about his loving and faithful character. We know about the salvation he brought to us through his Son, Jesus Christ. We know so much about the Bible and the Truth in it. We know. We know about this. But we do so little. At least, in my humility, I (put in caps, bold, italicised and underlined) do so little. Convicting. Yes? yes. It really wasn't meant to convict me, but it did. So, how do I practically do this? That's another thing I have to figure out...

putting away my fearfulness and just speak truth...and most importantly living it out. It's gonna be hard. But why do so little when I know so much?

I Like...

2011-02-04T07:07:00.000-08:00

Well, my photography season is really slow for me lately. I don't have another job/project until the end of February so I have no pictures to show you right now. Plus, I'm just aching for it to be warm to be outside more often to take fun pictures. I know you can take fun pictures in the snow/frigid cold too, but...it's cooooooooold. Seriously, I don't think you guys understand just how much I hate being cold. It takes me forever to warm up. I have to put TWO (count them, 1. TWO.) coats on when I go to work. I walk home from the metro and bus and it's just awful out. Out of all things in this world I hate the most, being cold is in the top 10. I'll take humid days any day over frigid blowing wind/ice in my face. Anyway, all that to say, I wish I had some pictures to show up on today's blog for you...but alas, there are none.

I am excited about my upcoming Spring! Though, I don't have many weddings or really anything, I am excited about a wedding and a few pro bono things happening. I'll be shooting my FIRST 2011 wedding on Febraury 26 for Sarah and Jonathan, a lovely couple from my church. And in March, I'm participating in a silent auction hosted by Creative Memories. Nancy Creighton, from Creative Memories, is the one who contacted me about getting involved. I am so excited to be participating. They will be supporting Make A Wish Foundation. How I will be involved is that I am putting up my services to be auctioned off. So someone will be bidding on either a free engagement or family session to be photographed by yours truly. This will be a great way to hopefully gain new clients and be a part of a great cause. I'm thrilled! If you want to attend, please let me know. It'll be held in March in downtown DC and free to the public! Let me know and I'll shoot you over the information!

Also, I will be meeting with someone from the Sheraton Hotel in Baltimore to do a family session with her. She is the coordinator for weddings at the Sheraton so once we do her family session and she likes me, I'll be put on the preferred vendor lists for Brides. So. Excited!

Neither the silent auction nor the family session will be "jobs", but Lord willing, they will lead to other jobs. Pray!

I've been thinking a lot about where the Lord has me with my photography dream. Right now, it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Which makes my heart hurt. But, I'm learning to give it up to the Lord. Trust him that if he wants me to be a full time photog, then he'll make it happen. Right now, being a full time photographer AND working full time is a lot to handle. It means that I not only work on the week days, but I work on the weekends too AND week nights to finish all the editing. It's a process. Right now, I can't fully commit to photography. Ooohhh how I wish I could, but God is teaching me something through all this waiting. Right?

Anyway, I didn't want to bore you with my thoughts about my continually aspiring photography business.

I wanted to share with you things I like...things I think are funny...things that just make my day.
By the way, all these thoughts began this morning because of a doughnut and my love for them. The first Friday of every month my work gives the employees a breakfast which usually consists of bagels and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Oh man. I never partake of this day because...well...trying to watch what I eat in my almost 30 age. (I turned 28 on Wednesday) Well, anyway, I was really really hungry this morning. Really hungry. And I brought in my usual breakfast, Greek yogurt with Pomegranate seeds and coffee. It wasn't doing anything for me. The kitchen near me usually has the doughnuts...I ventured out of my desk to grab one. Came into the kitchen only to find muffins, bagels, FRUIT!, and OATMEAL! What is this crap??? I want a doughnut, dang it!! DOUGHNUT! Then I remember our other kitchen on the same floor. AH HA! They were there. The chocolate one starred at me...I starred at it. We fell in love. I FOUND THE DOUGHNUT!! I HAVE FOUND IT!! WE HAVE FOUND EACH OTHER! I WILL RAVAGE THIS DOUGHNUT AND BE UNITED WITH IT FOR...the next 5 or so hours until it's digested. I didn't eat the whole thing though...oh how I wanted to. I tried justifying it. But I couldn't. I still have left over birthday cake I want to sink into tonight. I don't think anyone really understands just how much I LOVE cake and other such things. Anyway, my love affair with this doughnut had me thinking about all the other things I like...and so...welll...here's a list.

I Like...
- the fact that Brian was racing me to finish my piece of birthday cake the other night, and I didn't eve know it. He said he seriously had to rush to eat the cake before me. I didn't even think I was going that fast. But apparently, I eat my dessert's really quickly. hee hee :)
- my birthday cake Brian bought for me (Obviously). It was Oreo!!
- that I bit into it before he even sliced a piece.
- Avocado's.
- my rock climbing harness Brian bought for me to go rock climbing this summer.
- Brian.
- weight training better than running. (Who'da thunk it??)
- my new blue phone! (Jess, we have the same one now!)
- Verizon and no more stupid AT&T dropped calls and late incoming texts.
- the fact that my phone is considered "basic". The iPhone stressed me out too much.
- Spring and all the fun Spring and Summer things Brian and I have planned...kayaking, rock climbing, many beach trips, a day trip.
- getting my hair highlighted tonight!
- Brian's eyes.
- that I get to spend much quality time with my Sexy Kitchen Aid this weekend making cupcakes and cookies!
- the new rug we bought from Costco.
- my new (but used) Craigslist Vaccuum. I love love love a clean floor...a floor so clean you could roll around on it...not that anyone would do that...Ahem.
- My yellow wall in our "dining room" and the blue printed vintage plates hanging on it.
- Brian.
- the fact that I can be the weirdest and silliest I've ever been around Brian and he totally gets it and laughs.
- Brian's smile.
- my sense of humor. It doesn't make sense to many people, but I think it's funny.
- Coffee, coffee, and more coffee (who doesn't like coffee, right?)
- wearing sporty/yoga clothes all day, everyday.
- getting up Saturday mornings, not taking a shower, leaving the house in a baseball hat, and still feeling cute.
- Brian.
- Brian's fashion sense.
- talking with Brian about how cute/weird/hyper our future kids will be.
- the fact that today I am wearing Hollister pants I bought 6 years ago, an American Eagle sweater I bought 3 years ago, an American Eagle shirt I bought 2 years ago, and Gap shoes I bought 2 1/2 years ago. :)
- Brian's cute butt. (oops!) ;)
- Capturing people with my camera in mid-laugh.
- Pictures of Brian on my desk at work.
- Brian's ability to cook!
- NoiseTrade.com where you can find new artists and download their music for free! (totally legal) I highly recommend Ben Rector and Nate Fowler.
- Magazines. Mostly Health, Fitness, and Bridal.
- Dancing in the gym to whatever gangsta music is on my iPod.

Well folks, I like many things. You get the idea. I want to hear some of YOUR favorite things. What are things that are worthy of the Facebook Like Button? Let me know.

-

Featured Friday: Jasmine Star

2011-01-28T10:34:00.000-08:00

In the midst of me chowing down on what could possibly be the BEST sandwhich ever made from Potbelly's, I feel inspired. Inspired to write about my absolute favorite photographer who is from California, Jasmine Star. (I have a local favorite photographer as well).

I have dreams. I mean, c'mon. Who doesn't? But seriously, I have TONS of dreams when I sleep. I think I have ADHD dreams. I also have dreams to attain in my life too...but that's another story. My dreams are SO. WEIRD. (btw, I just finished my Potbelly's sandwich in less than 2 minutes. Yeah, it was good.) I still remember a lot of my dreams from my childhood. There's this one (it's my favorite) where I was sitting on a dock on a lake playing with my Rainbow Bright horse (which I had just gotten that day) and then all of the sudden, it came alive! It was flying around, because yes it does have wings...all the good horses do, and then it picked me up! We were just flying around in the air, and I loved it! And then a gorilla appeared on the dock out of nowhere and the Rainbow Bright horse saved me from it! Then we landed on the dock and it went back to being plastic and the size of my hand...and I went back to reality.

My dreams are often not related to each other either. For instance, last night I had a dream that I was preggo and Brian was the last to know and he found out through Facebook. hee hee...oops. Not to self...tell hubby FIRST when/if I am every preggo. Then, suddenly I was in a room and Jasmine Star was there! I was getting ready for one of her super fantastic fabulous workshops she holds a few times a year. I was blow drying my hair and she came up to me and said "I'm intimidated by you." PA!!! And then my hair dryer broke (I think it's a sign. My actual hair dryer has been spitting sparks at my head...it's out to get me.) Then I went over to JStar with my wet hair and asked if I could borrow her hair dryer. She let me. And we were friends after that. It was a funny dream. :) But it went from being preggo to meeting Jasmine Star at one of her workshops. Random, I tell ya, random.

Someday, I hope to meet her! I admire her skill in photography so much especially the way she can make her clients stand in front of a camera and feel so comfortable. Her pictures are just genuine. I appreciate that she doesn't manipulate anyone's face or body type in photoshop. I appreciate how she can take six different fabulous pictures from one pose out of six different angles. Her wonderful tips and behind the lens blogs are so helpful for me, especially because I have so many questions about the photog business. She is talented with the camera, but it's also mostly her personality. To be a great photographer, you must have a fabulous personality. It takes a great deal of patience to work with brides and their families. You really have to put yourself out there to talk and listen to what they want in their photographer. When a bride and groom are looking for a photographer, they are not only looking for great and quality pictures and a creative eye, they are looking for a personality. The photographer is the one person that you will spend the most time with (besides your groom) on your wedding day. It's important to build a friendship with clients. That's what Jstar does. She is full of life and creativity. She's always thinking about her business and how to make it better. There's a lot more to learn from this girl.

In my ideal life, Brian would get a job somewhere out in Cali so we could be in the warm area, and I would study under Jasmine Star. We'd be like Dr. Cox and JD on Scrubs. Plus, we wouldn't be in the frigid cold any more. (No more white stuff! It is cold. I have to wear boots, gloves, scarves, and hats, and I can't play outside! Boo!) Brian and I often talk about moving out to Cali someday...or at least going somewhere warm for my birthday (which is NEXT Wednesday, btw...hint hint). Since my bday is smake dab in the middle of winter, I have to have a coooooooold birthday and nobody has any motivation to celebrate anything in the cold. Anyway, we were talking about going out to Cali for my bday. He found tickets to L.A. for $80 each! Say what??? Yeah...but alas, there's not so much with the profit right now so my dream of a warmer birthday will have to wait. Anyway, Brian knows I AD.ORE. Jasmine Star. Being the kind and sweet and thoughtful (ok, and hot!) hubby he is, he emailed JStar to ask that if we ever make it to L.A. in the next few months, we could meet up with Jasmine Star and her hubby JD...and ok, their cute dog Polo too. :) Awwwwwwwwwwwww (times infinity)! JStar's hubby, JD, emailed Brian back and below you can see his response. So. Sweet. Both JD's response and Brian for asking. (the bold words are my added two cents.)

Hi Brian,

Thank you for contacting Jasmine regarding meeting up in L.A. It's really sweet to see you support your wife as she pursues her dreams. (Yes it is, JD, it is.)

I'm also excited to hear about Jenny and her passion for photography and can't wait

to see what the future has in store for her!! (ME TOO, JD, ME TOO!!!) We are currently a bit overextended juggling a few new projects and wouldn't be able to meet up. (I hear ya!) Feel free to drop us a line anytime! Thanks again and we wish you all the best!

Best,

Someday Jasmine Star and I will be friends! Someday I will go to one of her workshops and drink in every advice she gives. Seriously, one hand will be typing on my laptop and the other will be writing hand written notes. Someday, Brian and I will move out to Cali where it's warm and the white stuff is non-existent and I can wear flipflops all year. Someday I will be like a protege' under Jasmine Star, and I will second shoot with her. I will become her project to teach me to be the next big photographer traveling across the world to shoot fabulous weddings. We will be friends. She will show me tricks on the camera. And I will bake her cupcakes with my Sexy Kitchen Aid.

Baking Nook

2011-01-24T07:01:00.000-08:00

This is my baking nook. I love it.

This is where recipes come alive...ALIVE!!

Our kitchen isn't very big and doesn't have a lot of counter space. So when we were looking for furniture, I found this little stand on craigslist and it was perfect!!

We had a very busy Saturday. We rushed out the door (because of course we woke up late) to church for a marriage seminar. From there we met our small group for the first time and from there, we headed over to a gym so Brian could kick butt in Basketball.

From there, we headed to Ikea...mmmm...So I'm not a BIG fan of their furniture since I don't think it will last very long. BUT I do love their textiles and picture frames that are really cheap.

So I got some new frames for something I'm working on in our bathroom, a new shower curtain, and some pillows cover for our couch. AND...this wall hanging rod thing (pictured above.) I LOVE IT!! It saves so much space on my counter tops and the attachments for my sexy Kitchen Aid (it's red. Red = sexy) aren't falling from the top of the fridge to the floor and whenever I need my mearsuring spoons and cups, they are in an arm's reach. My mom gave me the roller. It was my grandma's. It's vintage. I love vintage. zzzzzzzzzz...(oops, left my pinky on the "z" button thinking it was the shift. I was gonna take it out, but I think it's kinda funny. Plus, when you read it, your mind will go from words to zzzzzzzzzzzz. haha)

Brian was kind enough to hang it up for me.

So, later that evening after church, I wanted to spend some quality time with my sexy Kitchen Aid. Plus, Brian was watching football. So I decided to make Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. My mom got Brian America's Taste Test Kitchen recipe book. I flipped through it to find out how they made these cookies and decided to do it that way.

I turned my iPod on to Meredith Andrews. (fellow Liberty University graduate)

And I began to bake.

I realized I didn't have enough white flour for a cup and a half so I used about 3/4 of whole wheat flour. Then I realized I only had steel cut oats instead of rolled oats. So I found this "Hot Cereal" from trader joes that looked like rolled oats. The batter tasted pretty good (come on, ya'll know you lick the spoon, laddle, and bowl.)

Brian and I rolled the dough and plopped them on the cookie sheets. When I took them out they didn't form how I wanted them to. They were flat and ran into each other. How rude.

BUT they still tasted good and that's really what matters, right? Right. I'm glad we agree.

(My sexy Kitchen Aid)

Dear Sexy Little Kitcken Aid, I love all the delicousness to give to me.

Love, the chubby little girl inside.

Jenny

Featured Friday: Elle Street

2011-01-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

So I've only done ONE Featured Friday in the past. Woops. I am planning on doing more this coming year. I can't WAIT to write the one about my BFF and her little business with Shaklee. She was so kind to send me a sample of their product. I just have to try it out first. :)

I want to introduce to you my friend, Mrs. T. She is the wonderful little blogger at Elle Street.

You can find her blog here: Elle Street

Mrs. T. is a stay at home wife with creativity gushing out at every corner. I've enjoyed reading her blogs with tips on how to find cute and savy things at a thrift store and then turning them into something unique and new! They way she took fabric from a thrift store to turn them into an apron or curtains for her sewing knook. They way she is wise in spending her money on clothes and shoes and then adds a bow here, a ribbons there and VIOLA' it's a completely different outfit! She'll give you tips on how to make delicious meals or snacks from scratch, how to properly hem or take in a dress, and how to pretty much make a dress from scratch. It's a great way on learning how to use your money and other resources wisely.

I loved her latest blog on putting cute bows on shoes to make them more...unique and cute.

Mrs. T. LOVES God and LOVES being married. She's been a wonderful example of a Proverbs 31 woman: "She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. she is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet. She makes bed coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple."

It's a puzzle, but it makes sense.

2011-01-21T07:25:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 41: 17-20

When the poor and needy seek water,

and there is none,

and their tongue is parched with thirst,

I the Lord will answer them;

I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

I will open rivers on the bare heights,

and fountains in the midst of the valleys.

I will make the wilderness a pool of water,

and the dry land springs of water.

I will put in the wilderness the cedar,

the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive.

I will set in the desert the cypress,

the plane and the pine together,

that they may see and know,

may consider and understand together,

that the hand of the Lord has done this,

the Holy One of Israel has created it.

Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire (FIYAH!) it's been too long since I made a blog post. Sorry fans! (All two of you!) But it's been a slow month, photography wise. Last Sunday, I handed off a wedding album to some clients and that was the last of my work load. I'm done. I've got nothing. I do have to say, the album I handed to them was SUPER nice! I loved designing it for them. It was like putting together a story. I've realized a few things about myself lately...one: I thrive off being under pressure. For instance, when I was studying at Liberty and my 10 page paper was due in two days, I thrived! I locked myself in my room or in a coffee shop for hours and knocked out an "A" paper. (Seriously, I got A's on my papers...YAY!) Or when I used to be a waitress and the rush time hit, I thrived. I loved taking care of 3-4 tables at a time. It was fun! My mind was constantly thinking and going and it kept me sharp. And two: I thrive off being creative. I love it!! If I had unlimited resources (i.e. money) I would spend the entire day getting creative, finding cute fabric, or frames, anything to make my house more decorative...or I would spend the day using someone to be my model and take pictures of them. I still have this ONE vision in my head that I really really really need to take a picture of. It will win an award. It's THAT good. :)
Anyway, I loved making that album for Nick and Wensa. I loved giving it to them. I loved watching Wensa's face as she flipped through the pages. I love having a finished product where I worked with my hands and my head. It's a satisfaction I hope to capture more of in the future.
SoooOOooOOoo, if you know of anyone getting married in the summer time, or spring, or tomorrow, send them my info! (please)

Ahem, ANYway, these pictures are simply of the past month for Brian and I. The Needhams (pictured above) had made their way to Richmond for a wedding and on their way back, they decided to stop in the favorite city (their word, not mine) for a detour. Brian and I accidentally woke up late that Sunday (alarm didn't go off) so Bethany callled me and we met them at the Natural History Museum. I'm so glad we got to see these sweet friends and their adorable kids. Bethany was one of my bridesmaids and Andy played music in our wedding. They hail from Massachusetts so we only get to see each other few times a year. Boston spring trip!! Yes, please! I also appreciated having their son Josiah around to show Brian whose the best baseball team EVER!! (RED SOOOOOX!) The first thing Josiah said to Brian was something about how awesome the Red Sox are...totally blowing off the Yankees. :) Loved it. Sorry, Hun!

This past weekend, we had Brian's family come to town. It was super nice. His sister Jess and her boyfriend Anand came Friday night. Saturday morning we all woke up late. The boys wanted to hit the courts to play some Rock, as Anand calls it. Basketball for the rest of us white folk. Unfortunately, none of the gyms were open. Soooo, in my pursuit to get a dog, I suggested we visit the pound near our house. And we did. And I fell in love. :) And I realized that we can't get a dog right now. :(

This is Carrot. I wanted her. She was SO hyper though and a pitbull which required two hours of exercise a day. YIKES! But I sooooo wanted to take her home. Ugh! Puppy!!

Later that day, Brian's 'rentals came in. Yay! We opened our Christmas gifts to each other.
I got a bread maker!! Woot! Excited to try my hand at making bread. Yes!
And some way awesome gray converse shoes! Score!!
After a while, we decided to take everyone to one of my favorite places in Alexandria, Buzz. It's a coffee/cupcake/cocktails shop. I LOVE this place. When I was studying with Liberty, I spent most of my days here sometimes until they closed at midnight.

Hee hee...creepy, Jess.

I swear, they are brotha's from another motha.

And I got creative with the coffee sleeve.

Sunday after church, we went downtown to some museum's. I love this spot for pictures, so we stopped. :) If you'll notice my hubby in the middle acting like Superman and that he is protecting everyone behind him. I married a comicbook.

]

And our way to Potbelly's we stopped in the middle of the street to take couple's pictures in front of the Capitol.

This is Dan and Pam.

Anand and Jess.

They get two pictures. :)

And the hubby and I. (Photo credit: Jessica Bosak)

Whilst in the Natural History Museum, I took the opportunity to play with the slow shutter speed. Do you see all the ghosts?

And this is what Brian does during church. :) I don't mind.

So I know this post is really...well...nothing that compliments each other. At the beginning I gave you a verse. Then I talked about my friends the Needham's. Then I talked about creativity and my ability to thrive on deadlines and adrenaline. Then I talked about our weekend last week.

It's a big puzzle, but it makes sense because it's my life. :)

Christmas Favorites

2010-12-30T06:49:00.001-08:00

It's a sad thing when Christmas ends. Really. I get bummed. One, because that means I have to go back to work. Blech! Two, because now there's really nothing to look forward to in the winter now that Christmas is over. And three, Christmas music and movies come to an end. BUT, there are LOTS of things to look forward to now that Christmas is over...SPRING...and then SUMMER!! (how many more weeks till I'm doing freezing my toenails off everyday?)

Brian and I made our way to the big Mitt, the Glove, the up North, the cold, Michigan for Christmas. We had our own little Christmas Thursday morning where we opened each other's gifts. Brian is a darn good shopper! I love all my presents!! And I must say, I'm the way cool wife that got my hubby DJ Hero. Ok, ok, the gift was 40% selfish too. I love that game! We ate our crepes with ligon berries and got ready for the drive to MI. Well, my eye was hurting really bad the day before. I was going to try to wait it out, but as we kept driving on, my eye kept getting worse. We weren't going to make it to MI in time for an eye doctor to see me that day and they were closed the next day. So we stopped at an eye doctor in Maryland on our way. It's a good thing we did. I ended up with a bacterial infection in my left eye. It's my third time having this. It's a KILLER when it gets really bad. My doctor said if I didn't get it treated in time, it would've gotten much worse and could've lead to blindness in my left eye...UMMM...YIKES!!!!! As a photographer, I generally rely on my eyes to see things that would make a great picture. I'm sure I could use ONE eye and still be a photographer, BUT I still think it might've been kinda hard. We are so thankful God provided and allowed us to see the doctor just in time in order to get my medicine. God provides for his children. He knows what we need even before we ask.

Anyway, our Christmas was great! The Barnhart family did their usual Christmas tradition. Christmas Eve, Mom's birthday, dinner at the Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth, then off to Bronner's to check out all the ornaments, and then off to some Christmas Eve service. This was Brian's first time attending a Barnhart Christmas Tradition. haha...poor guy. I think he was in shock when he first stepped inside the Bavarian Inn to eat lunch/dinner. I can't really explain this place to anyone. (I've also found that I have a hard time explaining my elementary/high school and college experience at Pensacola Christian College to anyone...really, only those who have been through it know what we are talking about) Anyway, it's a Bavarian themed restaurant where the servers dress is knee socks and other garb I don't know how to say. The walls are very brightly colored and well...it's just weird. But, we like it! We've been going since before I was born.

The pictures below are just a few of my favorite that happened over Christmas break.

Mom, pretending I'm not there with my camera in her face.

Mandy, humoring me.

My dad, also humoring me.

My husband, tired of humoring me.

David being dragged into the picture to also humor me.

My mom, moments away from pulling off Santa's beard and dashing all the hopes and dreams of every child (and brother's named David) in the room.

These little plastic German boy and girl that come in our frozen yogurt and how we'd all remember Nanni collecting all of ours and taking them home with her.

The side of the restaurant from where we were sitting.

The view into the restaurant where our table was. (sidenote: this place has like FIVE other rooms for eating and they are all themed.)

Ok, this is NOT a favorite. This is a creepy doll face.

Bronner's, where it's Christmas ALL. YEAR. LONG.

Dad and a plastic Santa number 54 (There are thousands in this store).

This picture shows 2% of what the rest of the store looks like.

A Mermaid themed Christmas tree. Creepy? yes.

One of the many halls where ornaments are found.

I LOVE this picture!

I played with different Bokeh's in this store. It was perfect for playing with the Bokeh on my camera. (Bokeh - where you can get your camera to blur out the background in a picture. Sometimes you can get the background to be blurry circles, stars, hearts, etc...it's make the foreground of the picture stand out more.)

Bokeh.

Jolly Bokeh.

Perfect example of Bokeh. (notice the blurry circles? That's Bokeh.)

Brian copying Santa number 987.

Santa number 987 blushing whilst I kiss his rosey cheek.

Jack (my buddy) looking from the outside in.

Mandi's very festive cake she made for my mom's bday.

Singing Happy Birthday...off key.

THIS PICTURE! done. (she'll kill me when she finds out it's up, but I couldn't resist)

Jack, when he get's punished. He has to go down the basement. But he's smart enough to use the cat door to peek out...and actually get his WHOLE body out of the door.

Stocking's by the fire. (which one is not like the other)

My family in the living room, David watching The Christmas Story and us playing Speed Scrabble.

The dog's opening their presents first Christmas morning.

The Christmas tree after everything has been opened.

Rental's.

Offspring.

Offspring's and Offspring's in law.

Seester's.

Playing DJ Hero. What. Gangstaaaaaa.

And my buddy and me for a two minute stroll in the icey wilderness.

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas!!

Tell me about it!

365 Days Ago

2010-12-21T06:07:00.000-08:00

In 365 days...I met a boy.

Two days before we met, I got a call from this boy I had never heard of. He asked me out on a date for Saturday, December 19. We were to meet at Ebenezzar's coffee shop (a 10 minutes walk from my house on the Hill and normally a 15 minute drive for him from Alexandria).
I remember EVERYTHING about that day. EVERYTHING. That day was so crystal clear to me.
I remember waking up and being extra happy.

I remember running into my roommate's Leslie's room to wake her up by pouncing on her bed so we could go make a snowman. I remember her telling me 10 more minutes and then I went to the second floor to wake up my other roommate Kate. No one wanted to wake up so I went downstairs to wait for everyone. FINALLY, the house woke up and some of us were headed out to venture in the snow. I was extra happy.

Brian and I were supposed to meet at 1pm that day, but I texted him to see if we could meet later. I wanted more time to play in the snow with roommates. I just remember not being so bummed about it snowing, but I was excited! I'm NEVER excited about snow...but maybe my excitement was for something more that would happen that day. I just know I was extra happy that day.

After my roommates and I met some friends that were making their way towards Starbucks, we came back in. I got a shower, did my hair (who knows why...it was just going to get messed up anyway), talked to my roommates, and opened the door to get in my car to drive to Eb's. Closed the door and called Brian. "Umm, I'm not sure I can make it...you see, I can't get my car out of the snow and it's too deep to walk in." But then decided, hey, I'm from Michigan! I can do this!

Plus, I don't want to leave for Christmas break and have this guy forget to call me again. So I stepped out of our door, sludged through over the knee high snow, pushed against a blizzardy wind, mumbled under my breath "this guy better be worth this" and finally made it to Eb'z.

I stepped inside the door, stomped off the snow from my new boots, tried to fix the mess of my hair, and walked over to the guy that looked like the guy I was supposed to be meeting. I tapped on his shoulder and he quickly got off the phone, which from what I heard, he was trying to find a middle ground meeting place for us so I wouldn't have to walk in the snow. He stood up and I took off my coat and he said "Hi, I'm Brian." I said "Hi, I'm Jenny, I have to go to the bathroom."

He asked me what I would like to drink and I ordered a small gingerbread latte, skim, and then off to the bathroom I went to fix my hair and put myself together again.

The next three hours flew by as we sat and talked about who we are, what we dream of becoming, our family, our friends, college experiences, God, church, books, music, sports...everything. He made me laugh. I made him laugh. We laughed together. I took quick glances at him to subtly check him out. ;) Thought he was SUPER cute and that we really hit it off.

We looked out the window to see the sky get darker and noticed it was getting pretty late. I had a Christmas party that night I was going to. Though I wanted to spend the rest of the evening with him and contemplated on inviting him to the party, I refrained. He walked me back to my house...and I noticed his shoes. He was wearing Sperry's. :) Sperry's are boat shoes, not really meant for trudging in over-the-knee-deep snow. I also contemplated on throwing a snowball at him...but also refrained from that too. I didn't want to scare him off right away with my weirdness. We passed by the corner of the gas station where this homeless man often sits and says good morning to those passerbyers walking to the metro.

We finally came to my house where we stood outside of the gate to say goodbye. We both said we had a lot of fun. And I couldn't stop smiling. Maybe it was because my face was frozen that way, or maybe it was because I kinda knew I had just met my husband. Either way...I was happy. We talked again about our Christmas plans and then he said he'd like to do this again once we are back from Christmas break to which I very eagerly muttered underbreath , YEAH! DEFINITELY!

I walked in the house to find all my roommates sitting in the living room. They couldn't help but notice the HUGE (frozen) grin on my face. "How'd it go?" they asked. "Umm...it was GREAT!!" I said. One of them chirped up to say the moment I left the house, she knew there would be something different about this one. I kinda knew it too. I was extra excited that day...maybe because of the snow...maybe because of something else. ;)

"Will you see him again?"

"Gosh, I don't know. I really hope so, but I doubt he will call again. I think he thinks I'm weird. Plus, it's Christmas break, he'll probably forget all about me."

We all got ready for the Christmas party which was a block away from our house and then soon we were off to celebrate with good friends. The whole time wishing Brian had come with me or we could have spent more time together. I got in the house to find my friend Karen.

"Karen!! I had a blind date today!!!"

With those words, we quickly went down to her room to find him on Facebook.

"Jenny, he's CUTE!"

"Yep! and we had so much fun just talking! I feel like I could've talked to him forever! We'll see if he calls or texts me again though."

After the Christmas party, the text ring on my phone chimes! I open it to see Brian's name. :)

I smiled... It was simple text. Nothing that really said "Hey, I like you...alot!" It simply said "Hope your Christmas party was fun!" It was a good text to let me know, yes, I still want to take you out after Christmas.

At the end of the night, I was extra happy. Maybe it was because of the snow...or maybe it was because of something else.

On my drive back to MI, we talked what seemed like the whole way home. I smiled some more and was excited because it seeeeeeemed like he liked me back too. We talked all during Christmas break and finally I came back and so did he and we had our second date.

I was more nervous for our second date because that's when they REALLY decide if they want to take you out AGAIN. I wasn't really nervous for our first date. But the second, phew! BUTTER.FLIES. He picked me up from my house and we walked on a very very windy night to a restaurant called Sonoma. I mistakenly order Spaghetti...Ugh. I tried my darndest not to slurp and get it all over my face and clothes. I didn't eat much and neither did he. We mostly were both nervous and just talked the whole time. At the end of our date, we decided to take a little detour to the Capitol for a stroll. I had heels on that night and it was really really really cold and windy. But I didn't seem to mind. I just wanted to spend more time with him.

We then walked back to my house and about two blocks away, we held hands for the first time. It was kind of on accident and kind of not. He had a glove on and I didn't. :)

I invited him in to play a card game. Mostly, I just wanted to spend more time with him. I don't think he really cared for cards and frankly, I didn't either.

A few weeks go by and on January 3, he officially asks me to be his girlfriend. YES!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe this guy liked me!!! Where ON EARTH did he come from?

After a few months...ok one month, my feelings for him grew and I started to notice his did too. He would do things for me that no one else would ever think to do. My car was stuck under an igloo of ice, and he drove in one morning before I was up to dig it out of the igloo. He would tackle the mounds of ice surrounding our street parking so I would have a place to park my car. He drove in at midnight one night just to say goodnight to me and then quickly drove back to Alexandria. I fell in love.

He threw me a surprise birthday party...which I actually knew about it, but pretended not to know. :) Then on February 14, he told me he loved me and I said it back. I knew at this point, he was definitely the man I was going to marry. I couldn't picture myself with anyone else. I was amazed at how unbelievably perfect he was for me. I didn't actually think there could be anyone like that.

A few months go by and then he meets my parents for the first time. Another month goes by and we travel to NYC together. Little did I know he would ask me to be his wife that night on May 15 next to the Plaza Hotel.

I cried and said YES!!

Wedding planning happens during the summer.

And on September 4, 2010, we became Husband and Wife...Mr. and Mrs. Bosak.

They went on a very relaxing honeymoon to Cancun, had lots of fun, slept, ate, and drank all day, everyday.

And now, we are building our home together, making memories as husband and wife for the first time and praying through building our family someday.

We have many fond memories and inside jokes. There are things only I know and things only he knows. It's wonderful.

It's amazing the difference one year can make. We met, starting dating, got engaged, and married within the year. What? Who does that? But when you know...you just know and why on earth WAIT any longer??

I love being Mrs. Brian Bosak. I couldn't have picked a better husband. I had a picture this guy who I wanted to marry in my head forever and never ever thought he would actually exist until I met him 365 days ago on December 19...the day I was extra happy.

In That Day

2010-12-09T11:34:00.000-08:00

When I first moved to DC, I was told that everyone either already is an over-achiever or has become an over-achiever. Honestly, I didn't really know what they were talking about. But then I had to eventually start talking to people. And I eventually had to ask THAT question..."so, what do you do?" And I would get answers that threw me over the moon a few times: "Oh, ahem, yes, I work for NASA doing intelligent things with Solar Planet variations and speculative fractions on intercontinental and national blah blah de blah. (Ok, that wasn't a REAL job title...in case you didn't notice) ;) But I was meeting people who held superior titles at their jobs and most of them were MY age or just a little older, married with 5 kids, and working on their second PhD.

"And what do you do?" they would ask me.
"Umm...I'm...well...I'm an Administrative Coordinator." With their blank stares looking at me, I would begin to justify and pronounce my position to make it look like it's more than what it really is.
"Oh, but I work in a prestigeous law firm downtown...it's highly known throughout the law community. AND I'm also working towards becoming a full time professional photographer."
I would usually get the oo's and aa's I was looking for when I mention the photographer part.

Why do I do that? Why does my job title seem to matter? Why do I care about having many small letters after my name: Jennifer A. Bosak, PhD, MDD, esq., brb., lol., (ok the last two were...well, you know)

Honestly, it's a struggle for me not to compare my job title with others especially in a title obsessed city. I am an Administrative Coordinator. The very thing I told myself when I was younger I DID NOT want to be. I have too much energy to be sitting at a desk all day. Though I am thankful for this job, especially in a job market like this, I still dream of the day that I can finally say "Hi, I'm Jenny and I'm a full time photographer."

Don't get me wrong. Those of you who are working with solar planet math fractions as well as working toward your Master's in Alien Functions on Mars, and those of you who are doing WONDERFUL things for human kind...PRAISE GOD for giving you a job where you are able to use that talent and intellegence. (I just wish I HAD the intellegence to do something like that) God gives us each different gifts...and sadly, Math...and Science...and well, pretty much anything that has to do with numbers was not my cup o' tea. (insert me sitting back in my desk rewinding my life to yesteryear when I was at Liberty writing papers all day...seriously, I miss writing papers! There is something wrong with me. But doggon, I got good stinking grades on those papers!)

As a Christian, my job title should not be my identity. My identity is found in Christ. This is something I have to remind myself constantly. The job I do while I'm here is something that I do for the Lord. It is not my end goal or end achievement. My church does a good job at reminding us about this. Our identity is wrapped up in Christ! Praise God!

I was reading in Isaiah yesterday and came across this little nugget of truth and encouragement:

Isaiah 17:7-8

In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look

on the Holy One of Israel. He will not look to the alters, the work of his hands,

and he will not look on what his own fingers have made,

either the Asherim or the alters of incense.

I found this as a reminder that at the end, either when I die and meet Jesus or when Jesus comes to take his church, I won't be looking at the work of my hands. I won't be looking at what I have made; none of that will matter. The pictures I take will be gone, the houses we build won't matter, the service we give to people will stop. The only thing that will matter is worshipping Christ as Lord forever and falling on my knees and saying "Holy, Holy Holy, Who was and is and is to come!" God has given us wonderful gifts here on earth, whether that be a job you love and are talented in, a family, or even just your sparkling personality that others are instantly drawn to. If we use those for his glory and his purpose then we have done well in them. Though things we have done and our work will disappear, in the end we will still see him face to face worshipping at his table.

Simple Things...like pea soup

2010-12-07T08:32:00.000-08:00

I'm about to go off to an Administrative lunch with my work pretty soon, but I wanted to knock this blog out before my creative juices start melting into the pot of forgetfulness.

I really enjoy simple things. I enjoy watching a movie (every) night with Brian. I enjoy making dinner or baking with Christmas music in the background. I enjoy going to the movies. I enjoy road trips with Brian (when he lets me sleep a little). I enjoy cake, cookies, ice cream, and more cake...oh wait...that was the Gerdy, the fat kid inside me coming out. Hee hee.

This weekend was filled with enjoyable favorites. Friday night was one of my really good friend's wedding. I was a Bridesmaid! (Yay!!) It was such an honor to be apart of this wedding and to be apart of Leslie's life. I love this girl! Her love for Jesus is so obvious in the way she constantly cares for others. Anywho, (we'll get to Friday pictures in a bit). SATURDAY, Brian and I sleeeeeeeeeeept in. Phew! I haven't been able to sleep in on a Saturday in forever! I'm also a go-getter so I like to constantly be moving and doing something. If I have a free minute, I try to think of something else that I should be doing (laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, maybe organizing our hall closet or linen closet). But on Saturday, I just took it all in and relaxed. It was ahhhh-mazing! I enjoyed the simple things on Saturday, like my comfy JCrew pj's, the bread and honey I ate for breakfast, and then going out to go Christmas shopping with Brian. It was GREAT!

The pictures in this post are just a few I took this weekend. They all have something I admire in them.

I love Leslie's eyelashes in this one. I wanted to focus right on her eyelashes so they stood out in the picture.

I love the sheer elegance in both of these pictures.

I love many things about this picture.

I love the way she is looking in the camera.

I love her veil that covers half of her face.

And I love the chandelier in the background.

I love this picture so much I edited it twice.

I loved it in color.
I love how her red lipstick stands out.

I love how her slip is coming out from under her dress.

And the red coat she is holding to contrast.

and the colors in the room that make your focus go right on Leslie.

As I mentioned, I was a bridesmaid in this wedding and it was killing me not to take my camera out and shoot everything. My friend Paul was the photographer and he did an excellent job.

This was my Saturday night favorite!

I love the bowls we got from Crate and Barrel for a good price! (they are our new Christmas bowls)

And I love the pea soup Brian made which was so healthy and yummy. I love pea soup!

and I love the left over bread.

I love the composition of this picture.

I could've taken it straight on from up above which would have only shown you a round green circle.

BUT, I wanted to showcase what was going on in this picture.

So I got down on it's level to show you...

my bowl,

the soup,

the bread,

the Christmas tree in the background,

and the nice Bokeh I got from the lights on the tree.

This is a good composed picture, even though it's just of pea soup.

It's the simple things that my life better...though Monday morning comes and work starts all over again, it's little things that can make a day so much better...like pea soup. :)

Family Session: Roy, Hayley, and Ryon

2010-12-07T07:44:00.000-08:00

Dear Blog Readers,
Meet the Myang family. They are ador.able. Hayley and I used to work at the same law firm a few years ago. I was the receptionist and Hayley is the recruiter for in coming associates. I left that job in 2008 to focus more on school full time so I could get my degree quicker. A year or so after that, Roy and Hayley had this precious bundle of joy, Ryon. I just love his eyes!!! I met Hayley and Roy a few Saturday's ago in Georgetown for their family pictures. They were very easy to work with and super fun! Roy and Hayley definitely have the best friend/hubby wifey thing going on. They enjoy each other and it's fun to see them work off each other's energy. I got some great advice about not waiting much longer to start having babies. :) Note taken.
I loved hearing how much Hayley loves to be a mommy! She just poured over how much she loves to put her family first, and how nothing compares to taking care of Ryon (and of course, Roy). It was encouraging to hear such enthusiasm about having a family. I love the excitement from women (and men) about being a new hubby or a new mommy for the first time. It's sweet and exactly what it should be like. It's amazing that once one starts to have a family for the first time all selfishness (ok, not all selfishness), but the new natural instinct is to put your baby's need ahead of your own. It is such a wonderful joy to take care of someone like that. I love that Hayley loves to do that with her family.

Enjoy your pictures!!
Thank you for letting me be apart of it!

Umm, yes, you have beautiful eyes!

So sweet. :)

"So Dad, listen..."

We tried so hard to get a picture with this adorable hat on, but Ryon wouldn't have any of it. So this was the only picture I could get. I think it still works. :)

a favorite.

Mom and dad.

hee hee...I love his little smile.

and his cute little laugh.

The Tree

2010-12-03T06:12:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, there was a boy and a girl who set out on a days journey to find their

first Christmas tree. You see, they were married just a few short months ago and were both very excited to have their first Christmas together. They had a few Christmas ornaments but, they just didn't seem to work lying on the floor. They knew they had to buy a Christmas tree they have heard so much about for the ornaments to hang upon.

So, they wandered very far away from their warm, cozy home. They knew their journey would end up at a glitsening palace they had heard was called Home Depot.

The girl stepped inside the palace for the first time and was immediatly overcome by the sweet aroma of cut wood

She knew instantly that this was where they were to find their tree.

The boy took the girl by the hand and lead her to where the Christmas tree's would be. They wandered up and down the aisles smelling the fresh pine, but unable to locate their perfect first Christmas tree.

All the tree's they look upon where too short, too tall, too fat, too skinny, too brown, too green.

Until, GASP! At last, the saw this one. It was perfect! They knew this was the tree for them to take home.

The boy gave the girl the thumbs up as a signal to say, "We have FOUND it! Let us take it home and be merry. "

But first, the boy and girl had to give it to the Home Depot Helper's to trim.

It was such a glorious tree.

The Helper's snipped...

and clipped...

and sawed.

and finally the boy threw it onto his shoulder's to carry it to their blue carriage.

Where it would have a safe ride back to the boy and girl's lovely little home.

The tree came home and was placed in their living room quarters. A lovely tree just plain, but it needed some coloring...

So the boy and girl started to put sparkling lights around it.

And then on went their first ornament! (Thanks Mom!)

Soon the tree would be fully decorated!

With special little ornaments all around.

With the last finishing touch, it was finished!

And the boy and girl rested and enjoyed the lovely glowing light from the their first Christmas tree.

Engagement Session: Katy and John

2010-12-01T07:09:00.000-08:00

Meet Katy and John.

I like them. They go together like...like...maceroni (sp?) and cheese...like Peanutbutter and Jelly...like Taylor Swift and a guitar. They fit. I enjoyed getting to know them together a few Sunday's ago whilst taking their engagement pictures.

With these two together...goodness! They will conquer the world with John being a lawyer and Katy a Physical Therapist doctor! Their kids are going to be smmaaaaarrrrrrttttttt!! Phew!

First, let me tell you a little about Katy. Katy is a friend from my church. She is a quality...quality, top-notch kinda gal. (I mean, let's be honest here folks, ALL, I mean A.L.L the women in my church are stinking top. notch. quality.) Katy and I worked in the youth group together for 2 years and this girl's love for Jesus and the youth just exploded!! The kids just loved her, and personally I just loved when she gave a devotional. The girl is one wise woman of God! She is selfless in serving in the children's ministry, which is NOT an easy job. And through all of this, she STILL worked on getting her Ph.d in Physical Therapy. She is incredibly good at any sport you put in front of her (she plays basketball with boys), and OH! did I mention that she is an artist? Yeah...she is. Sporty (did I mention that John likes Bball as much as Katy does?), artistic, smart (ahem, incredibly smart), loves Jesus, fun, active...I mean, what else could a man ask for. I guess John must see all these things in Katy and more.
They have much in common! A love for Jesus and basketball...what else do you need right? ;) But they also make each other laugh. John makes Katy laugh, and I like that. Any man that can make a woman laugh is definitely a keeper.

Their story is so...just...wow-that-is-most-definitely-a-God-thing kind of story. They told it to me really quick as we were leaving so I might get a few details messed up. But you MUST hear this story. I was blown away. (if you see this * it means I'm not sure if that fact if true)

So, I believe it was Katy's Sophomore* year at Houghten College. She went to a lecture from this woman who had practiced Physical Therapy in an overseas country. At this point, Katy's major was NOT PT. I may have been Art, but I'm not sure*.

Well, Katy was just enthralled by this woman's presentation. She said it was the most moving lecture she ever heard. This lecture from this woman convinced her to switch her major to Physical Therapy.

And well...as time went on, Katy graduated from Houghton with a Physical Therapy degree and then on to Grad school to become a legit doctor. As well as getting involved in her church, helping with youth group, and rocking it out in Children's ministry.

Katy graduated from her Grad school and became a doctor...yay Katy!!

About two years later, Katy has a patient who told her about this guy named John.
Katy and John met and immediately hit it off. It was one of those...yep, this is THE ONE kinda thing.

On one of their dates, Katy was talking to John about this woman who is the reason she switched her major to Physical Therapy and how influential her speech was (OH! I forgot to mention, John went to Houghton too! But graduated before Katy was there). Katy didn't know this woman's name still to that date and so she thought maybe John knew since he was at her college before she was. Well, John pulled out his phone and opened up a picture of him and the woman. "Do you mean THIS woman?"

"Yes!! That's her!!", exclaimed Katy.

"How do you know her?"

"Well," said John, "She's my mother!"

HIS MOTHER!!! MOTH. ER!! MOTHER!!

Excuse, me what?????

Yeah, my jaw dropped. I couldn't believe how God ordained this!

The very woman that influence Katy so much many years ago, was going to be her mother-in-law. Katy met John through a random patient of her's. God timed that patient's matchmaking perfectly. Through that patient, she met her future husband who is also the son of the woman who changed her life.

That just goes to show you. God knows.

God knows every detail and desire in your life.

He has plans. Such good plans for you to glorify Him.

YEARS will go by without so much as a glimmer of what's to come. But trusting him pays off in the end.

You never know where God is working or when he is working...but he is!!

Katy didn't know it at the time of the lecture, but she was about to see her mother-in-law for the first time.

You might have an old friend from high school who was best friends with your future hubby or wifey in college who then introduced both of you at a Christmas party.

You may have worked at a sports camp five years ago and one of your hubby's best friends was also a counselor at the same time.

Or maybe you have a favorite Christian author's whose book you first read three years ago and then visited the church he was speaking at to find your future spouse talking to someone in a corner.

You may have gone to the same swing dance shindig three years ago, but just never ran into each other.

You just never know when or where God is working...but take heart. He is.

God is sovereign. He knows every detail of your life. He cares about them as much as you care about them.

Sidenote: this picture +

this picture =

awesomeness. Boom. (sidenote ended)

I love LOVE hearing stories like Katy and John's. It makes me praise God more for being so powerful to time things just right and to give his children good gifts.

You'll never know how a surprise from God will come up. He works in many ways. But just wait for it. Wait for his perfect timing. Katy and John's meeting was such perfect timing from God.

It may have taken a few years...

But the wait is SO worth it.

Especially if it's with the person God hand picked just for you.

Congrads, Katy and John! Praise God for his awesome faithfulness in your lives!

Editing: Before and After

2010-12-01T06:27:00.000-08:00

So I have never done this before, but thought it might be fun to start doing. It may help others who are trying to learn photography editing. Here I am, doing my first ever before and after picture of an editing job I did on the photograph below.

This photograph was taken at Dean and Deluca in Georgetown on my Nikon D90 and 17-55mm f2.8 lens. I can't remember what the ISO, aperature, or the shutter speed was at this point. (I forgot to look last night amist my other editing jobs, hot chocolate, hubby's delicious dinner, and The Event season finale all in front of me) BUT I did take down how much I bumped up color and saturation and other things. At first, I thought this picture was good...good, not great. I liked the color of the walls, the lights hanging from the ceiling were lovely and the black ceiling complemented nicely with the blackness of the wine bottles in their crates. But then I thought...hmm...what if I boosted those colors and made this picture more vibrant...more alive!!

Sooooo...this is what I did:

Started out with the Punch Preset

Back Clipping up 28%

Temperature 6%

Contrast 8%

and Vibrance 6%

And...dun da da da!! VIOLA'! The picture and the colors and the lights and everything just becamse more alive and vibrant! I like how it more clearly defines the narrowing of the hall down to the end of the store. It became a feat for my eyes!

How you edit a picture is all in your eye and what you imagine your pictures to look like. Sometimes when taking a picture I have a distinct way I want to edit it in my head. I will get images in my head of certain pictures I want to take. I have a picture (might I say, would be a GORGEOUS picture) in my head for the past two years. It's going to take a lot of lighting, a barn, and a couch...well, I don't want to give away too much of this idea, but it would be so stunning! I got the idea from a song from the group Augustana called "Boston". I'll leave you with that much. The term "tortured artist" has a new definition for me. It's seriously killing me NOT to get to shoot this picture. Someday....someday. (anyway, that was a rabbit trail and a half...sorry about that)

EDITING...it's all in your eye and your taste. But I liked how this picture came out compared to the original.

Let me know what you think!!!

Wrestling with Pizza

2010-11-22T07:49:00.000-08:00

We love pizza. Really. It's soooooooo good. We also love to cook together. Brian is a FANTASTIC cook...and I'm well...I follow the recipe because if I didn't, we would end up eating take out every night. But Brian...goodness, he can just add a pinch of this, a dash of that, a sprinkle here, and VOILA'! he just made decadent steak with mushrooms, white wine, garlic, and something else really yummy he thought would taste nice in it. He has the cooking skills...and I have the photography skills, I guess. :)

A few weeks ago, we had our good and soon-to-be-married friends over for dinner. Brian and I made pizza. It. was. yummy-in-my-tummy delicious! We even made the tomato sauce from scratch! (don't be too impressed, it wasn't that hard) Our pizza was topped with basil, tomato, and motzerella. Classic. So good. Well, we enjoyed it so much we decided to recreate it again on Friday night. The only difference this time was that we decided to use REAL dough...like...mushy dough you have to knead out and flip around. Last time we used the premade stuff (which I thought was better).

It started out with Brian flipping and tossing it in the air. I just let him handle it from here whilst I documented it.

I thought they would be pretty sweet pictures.

more flipping...

He looks like a pro! I think it's the Italian in him.

Now he must concentrate...

Kneading is pretty hard...

The kneading and flipping around was done and we thought we were ready to start topping it (which was my job). We topped it, poured the sauce, cheese, tomato's, motz, basil...and then Brian stood for a minute, looked at it, and realized Oh shoot...we can't actually put it on the pizza stone that has been sitting in the oven on 500 degrees for the past ten minutes. The dough was sticking to the cutting board. It was NOT come off no matter what we tried. Brian tried his darndest to get our dinner off and on to the stone with minimal destruction. Our tummy's were hungry and grumbling at this point (it was about 9pm) and we were desperate to get our pizza on to the stone. Pizza fail...we didn't use enough flour on the bottom for it to come off... Well, after figuring out twisted ways to get the pizza off the cutting board and on to the stone, Brian finally gave up and started gathering it all in a ball again...sauce, cheese, tomato's, basil, motz...it was all in one crumbled up ball of dough. And what did he do? He plopped it on the stone, spread it out to make it look some what of a pizza and put it in the oven to bake. "Are we really eating that?" "Yep!" he said with a smug look of determination. One thing I realized about my husband is that he doesn't like defeat. He didn't let the pizza defeat him. He was determined we were going to eat this for dinner...

and well...this is what it looked like. One ball of dough spread out to "look" like a pizza. You want some?? mmmm......blech.

Did we eat it? Yep, sure did. :)

Oh, but our pizza story isn't over yet...

Then Saturday morning came. :) We love Saturday mornings. I can usually find Brian in this chair drinking coffee either watching some TV or reading his Bible. This is my view from the bathroom. It's the simple things in life I like...like this view. :) I was in a hurry to get out the door to go to Georgetown for a family shoot and he was in a hurry...to...do nothing.

For the family shoot, I was to meet them at Dean and Deluca in Georgetown. I walked in and loved this view. I love the lighting, the bakery goodness, the coffee, the fresh produce, the everything.

Behind Dean and Deluca is this view. Brian and I had our engagement shoot here. Again, I love the lighting, the buildings, the river, the Fall foliage, everything.

The family came for their photoshoot and I got busy.

That afternoon, we were headed to Annapolis for another family shoot. Gah! I love Annapolis. It's my Boston away from Boston. I got done with the family and headed to a basement Starbucks to meet Brian for a little date.

I loved the lighting in the underground Starbucks.

Holiday Gingerbread skim latte? Yes, please!

We are kinda big coffee drinkers and because we didn't get enough at Starbucks, Brian told me about this cute little coffee cafe called Baltimore Cafe. (clever name)

We treated ourselves to a bag of freshly ground Christmas blend coffee and Apple Cider tea bags.

They had the coffee beans on on their front counter so you could smell them. My nose was in love.

We got home that night and wanted to try our Christmasy coffee blend (which was DIVINE, btw) and well...as I said before, Brian doesn't like defeat so we tried the second time to make some homemade pizza with real dough.

(btw, we are collect starbucks mugs from cities. We bough the Mexico one on our honeymoon and the NY one a few weeks ago during our trip...strangely enough, we don't have a DC mug yet...or a Boston mug.)

I didn't document the pizza making this time, but in the end, the pizza successfully came off the cutting board and onto the stone. Here it is...smelling all yummy and looking bubbly in our oven.

mmm....finished product. Looks good, right?

WRONG! I had one bite, turned it over and there was an INCH thick of flour on the bottom. I knew my stomach won't be able to digest all that flour and I knew Brian's wouldn't either...

"Want to order pizza?" I asked.

"No way, we'll just scrape it off."

Next thing I heard was Brian flipping through the draw to find a knife, a bunch of scraping, and the water turning on.

Water? Was he washing it? Maybe. Not sure.

The next words that came from the kitchen were this...

"Babe, want to order from Dominoe's?"

Haha...he humbly accepted his defeat with the homemade pizza, and I proudly accepted the delivery of the Dominoe's pizza man.

Homemade Pizza, 2

Bosak's, 0.