What does a photographer do when she has only one very unwilling subject to photograph(my hubby)?  She gathers the flowers growing in her yard and snaps away. Here are a few I took a few days ago.

The world today seems like a very scary place with all the political turmoil we are in and a  pandemic racing around the world. At times like these we can so quickly get stuck in fear and isn’t it awful thinking. For me I have always tried to look at life with an attitude of gratitude. I read recently when you are in the experience of feeling grateful there is no place for fear or anger or any other emotion to enter just happiness and joy. Its so easy to focus on the negative, now more than anytime in our history, but I think that right now we need to put all of our attention on practicing compassion and gratitude. For me I have so so much to be grateful for. My family,my friends, my home, my health, every single client that I have had the joy to work with in my lifetime of creating portraits are the ones that immediately come to mind when I am feeling grateful. But if I am really living from a place of gratitude I can find so many many reasons to be grateful in each moment of the day. So today I invite you to stop and look for all the ordinary miracles, big or small, that are around you all the time. Cherish these moments as a gift for that is what life is. How we choose to look at it is how we define our world. Mine is a beautiful amazing place. Here is one of my hearts biggest joys and he is 3 years old now. I will share more later and I would love for you to share we me as well some of your grateful moments. Hugs to all!

Whats more fun on an almost spring day than enjoying a yummy ice cream cone? Watching your precious little one gobble up all the creamy goodness with total joy.

When was the last time you enjoyed a ice cream cone this much?

One of the 1st things I did last  year when we moved to Sanford was to hang a rope swing.  I also just had to put up an arbor and picket fencing as well. In fact I will have at least 2 arbors here. When I did this portrait I knew it was going to be painted so I knew we could add in some of my beautiful backgrounds from our old place.It was seamless of course. The artist who does my paintings is the best! Here’s the before and after.

Here are some details of the painting. I just Love Love Love my painted portraits!

Such beautiful eyes,and rosy cheeks and lips!

I love the way the flowers look when painted.

And peeking out of that gorgeous dress… precious pinkies. A perfect portrait that the client will Love more and more with each passing year.

It seems like its always the simplest things that make me happy. I keep a little vase at the window over my kitchen sink. I love being able to walk out to my flower garden and pick a few small blooms to put in my little vase. The little bluebird was a small surprise my dear Ashlee gave me last year after we had been to big blooms buying flowers for the garden. She bought one for her and one for me and she keeps hers on her dash of her car so she sees hers every day as well. Every time I go to the sink I see my pretty flowers and my sweet little bluebird and it always makes me smile. What are some simple things that make you happy?

I can not believe I am just posting these portraits of Sam as they were taken a year ago. I have been so busy with work, remodeling our house and playing with Sam every chance I get that I have not squeezed in blogging. We do a professional shoot with him every month. This has been one of my favorites!

So here he is today….. Laughing …. running …..and speaking his own special language.  So much fun,my precious little man Sam!

SOOO…. I said I wanted another project and boy did I get one. I thought moving a 2 story 2800 sq. ft. house had been the ultimate home remodel but it was nothing compared to our new OLD place. I keep saying I am going to post photos of the progress but then I get busy doing something else around here. This was one of the smallest projects I’ve tackled. The built in butlers pantry is original to the house but boy was it ugly. Just like the entire rest of the house. A ton of sanding, several coats of white paint, some nice knobs and what I am most proud of here, a new subway tile counter. Why I am proud was because I did it myself with the help of google. Its the first tile I have ever laid but I was very happy with the results. What do you guys think?

We were expecting Sam to show up around December 28th last year. Instead he decided to come 3 weeks early. Ashlee’s blood pressure was way to high so she ended up having a c-section on December 7th. Best day of my Life! It was agony as all the family waited to hear that the baby and she were fine and that there were no more complications. After a couple of hours, which seemed like days the proud daddy called to say everyone was great. We were all beside ourselves to see Sam so Daryl face timed with us and we saw our precious baby boy for the 1st time. After what seemed like another few days we all got to go back to Ashlee’s room and see and hold Sam. I have to say I was a bit of a baby hog as I got to hold Sam 1st and I totally forgot for a few minutes that there was anyone else in the room but Sam and me. These photos are Sam’s 1st photo shoot. They were taken about 12 hours after he was born.

No one noticed until late the 2nd day after Sam was born that the tag from WakeMed said baby boy but had a F (for female) on his tag.

Daryl was excellent at making baby burritos.

Not even 24 hours old and he is so expressive! That has not changed one bit. Yesterday he was 10 months old. From newborn to 10 months in a blink of an eye. I have been trying to spend as much time with him as I can as I know how fast it all flies by. So I will update you on his progress along with the house in the coming weeks.

A couple of years ago I was feeling a bit restless as I was now a empty nestor. I loved my home and gardens and everything that Larry and I had created over the 16 years we had been in our home in Apex. I think we had run out of projects there and were doing a good job of maintaining  but it was beginning to feel just that,maintaining. So, we started thinking about what we were going to do going into our golden years so to speak. We seriously kicked around the idea of selling everything and moving to St. Martin and starting a new business there. I LOVE St. Martin but knew I’d miss my kids and friends as well as my clients to much to go so far away. Ashlee sealed  that idea when she announced that we were finally going to be grandparents. So…… I found a new project. I should say huge project. A year later we are still working on it. 

I have always loved white brick. I have always loved old homes. The date this was built was 1925 so check that box. And it had TWO sunrooms. I was hooked. That whole front porch had to be torn out and redone. Here is what it looks like now. Still trying to decide on what kind of railings I want.

Here is a view of the porch today,decorated for Halloween. Yes Slim and his dog Pickins made the move with us.

I love the blue slate. This was what was here and it was broke and cracked in many areas.

The steps came out and I chose this look for the risers. I am thinking of black wrought iron railings for the steps and porch. Let me know your ideas.

Look for my post tomorrow when I will share my precious grandbaby Sam’s 1st photo shoot.