LONG HOT SUMMER | SUMMER HIATUS

Sigh. It's Summertime, folks. A time that sounds blissful to most, but to those living in the suburbs of Phoenix with 6 children 7 and under, it is less than awesome. It is chaos. It is too hot for kids to be outside, it's too hot to cook dinner, it's really even too hot to work. I knew this would be coming, and I purposefully planned not to take any shoots until the summer was over. Of course, that doesn't mean that there wasn't work to be done. I still have plenty of client orders to process, a wedding and an extended family session to shoot on location in Sedona, client consultations, and marketing and branding planning galore. I have actually been working my ass off, just more behind-the-scenes. And now I'm tired. I'm so tired of not being out in the world like a normal person, interacting with grown-up people that share my same interests, not just my DNA. Don't get me wrong, I have truthfully reveled in my children being home and we have created so many fun memories and have grown so much just in these short weeks of summer. We're in a place now that I never dreamed of being before. We took our kids on a trip ALONE. No other adult help. We take all our kids to the swimming pool; just Braden and I and 6 kids. Alone. I never thought that day would come. But it has. With the loss of my children's utter dependence on us, we have gained so much freedom as a family. We have been brave, and have struggled many a time, and we've been frustrated, and now we are proud. We have survived the summer once again in this blistering heat, and have only a few short days until our three oldest kids will be going to school, and our twins will start preschool twice a week.

I've missed my online world, but am gaining so much by taking a step back and taking a much needed "break" and have some really amazing things in the works. There's going to be some changes on the blog coming up- a new layout, a new approach, and a fresh perspective on where I want to grow as an entrepreneur and creative. I have a few other projects in the works that will be announced soon, that I'm just too excited about and have a lot of kinks to work out before their launch. I've tried to stay current on my instagram at the very least, and sometimes Facebook but again right now my days are just filled to the max, and I may be sparse for another couple of weeks until Back To School blows over. I just wanted to touch base with the world again and let everyone know what's been swirling around in this head of mine.

MESA GLAMOUR PORTRAITS | CHELSEA'S MODERN GLAM SHOOT

Meet Chelsea. She's a mom of two adorable little girls and one sweet little boy. She is an esthetician on top of being a full time mom so she rarely has time to do anything for herself. Ever. 

Luckily, Emily from Molto Bella Studio referred her to me and we gave her a Pamper Day just for herself to look beautiful and get some gorgeous photographs of herself done. Once in a while, it's so nice for it to be about Mom (for a change).

Hair & Makeup c/o Emily Anderson | Molto Bella Studio

GILBERT ENGAGEMENT PHOTOGRAPHY | JACKIE & JOE GUEST BOOK ALBUM

I'm so excited to have finally published my very first ever Issuu document. I have so so many ideas in the works to utilize Issuu, but for my first one I kept it simple and wanted to share Jackie & Joe's Engagement Album that I designed for them to use as their guest book at their wedding I will be photographing in December.

I hope you enjoy it! I'm ordering the book today and can't wait to see it in print.

MESA GLAMOUR PHOTOGRAPHY | LAURA + KELLI MOTHER DAUGHTER PORTRAITS

I fell head over heels in love with these women. Kelli & Laura are just the sweetest two ladies on the planet, and their kindness and gratitude exudes from them both. When we met up for their consultation, they talked about how they haven't had their portraits professionally taken in a long long while, and they were both super excited about getting all dolled up and having direction to be able to produce the best images of themselves. I called up my right-hand-girl Leah and she worked her magic on these two beautiful women.

Do they not look ah-maze? Leah is so so good, especially when working with other hairstylists, which Kelli is. She is a wizard with my over-50-and-fabulous clients- Laura looked elegant but not too done up. Perfect combination. I was so happy when I dropped off their Folio Box filled with their images- Laura sent this message to me:

"Thank you; thank you; thank you! You are AMAZING and I especially liked the tag on the bag. Love you tons!"

And THAT is what it's all about my friends. I have these awesome new hang tags I am including on all my clients orders that I'll share on the blog later this week!

Hair & Makeup c/o Leah Fitts | Molto Bella Studio

MESA GLAMOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | TIFFANY'S MODERN GLAM SHOOT

My favorite thing about what I do is turning moms into models. Women that spend all their time worrying about other people get to have a day to themselves where they can get their hair & makeup done and play dress up and get amazing photographs of themselves.

Tiffany is a mom of three who happens to also be a hairstylist in Gilbert. It was strange for her to be on the other side of the curling iron and makeup brushes for a change, but we had such a great time with her and she looked incredible.

HAIR & MAKEUP c/o Leah Fitts

A NEW VENTURE AND A NEW RESOURCE

I've been quiet on my blog & social media all week, in preparation for some exciting upcoming projects that came out of nowhere and hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm dipping my toes in the waters of business consulting and education next month, sharing what I can do for business owners in the Beauty Business. Since my Glamour Photography and hair htylists, makeup artists, and other beauty industry professionals go hand in hand, I had a request from T & G Concepts owner to teach my first of possibly many Visual Marketing for Beauty Business classes in July.

I met with the owner, Tanya on Monday and since then, I've designed this flyer and tickets for distribution today; put together a quick little website that will be added to and upgraded as I develop more content for the class, and I've began my keynote presentation that is already blowing my mind.

I purchased this Power Point Template from Creative Market that works on my Apple Keynote program, and it's crazy awesome. Last night I started customizing the designs and filling in with my content and I can't believe how good it looks and how it is sooooooooooo much faster and better than trying to start a keynote completely from scratch. I have a real micro-managing problem and always think, "oh, I can make that myself for free", but it's not really free if I spending hours and hours and getting frustrated on something when I could be working on other aspects of my business that could be making me money and I can be happy and spend time with my kids instead of cranky and irritated. So, for $15 I got an awesome template that I can use in so many ways (I can give a fab looking presentations to my portrait and wedding clients during their consultation and ordering sessions!) and there are literally dozens of other designs that can all be customized to fit anyone's brand. 

GILBERT GLAMOUR PORTRAITS | SARA'S LOCATION GLAMOUR

Sara is one of my stylists' clients, and we wanted to do a glammed up shoot on location, instead of a studio look. Location shoots are always a bit of a challenge, finding great backdrops, dealing with the elements (heat), and crossing paths with spectators, but when you find a great spot, it is MONEY. 

She found this incredible vine wall at ASU Polytechnic campus where she goes to school, and it was the perfect place to shoot, since there were multiple and unique backgrounds all in one location. And, bathrooms! Hooray! Whenever my clients don't have to change in their sweltering cars, it is a bonus.

Now I'm on the hunt for more fab locations to bring my clients that want a little something different for their own Glam Shoots.

FATHER'S DAY IS COMING, WHAT ARE YOU GIVING YOUR MEN?

Some of my favorite clients, Kristi, called me up and wanted to have a glam day with her two girls and give her husband portraits for Father's Day. Her oldest daughter was one of my Senior Models this year, and is going up to NAU for college in a month, and she wanted to photograph this precious time her girls have together before Sam leaves.

I'm sure her husband is going to break down when he sees his favorite ladies in their beautiful Folio Box. Best Fathers Day present ever- the girls get to have a great glam day together and create memories and the men get amazing photograph of the girls and woman he loves the most.

ONLINE EDUCATION: creativeLIVE Illustrator CLASS

Happy Thursday! It's creativeLIVE time again, and on today's agenda is an Adobe Illustrator class, and I can't. wait. I have ben playing around in Illustrator a bit (I designed all my mom's Petite Pomme Preschool branding in it) but again I only know a fraction of what is possible in the program.


On Tuesday I watched Khara Plicnic's InDesign Class, and loved it so much, I purchased it for the $59 sale price. I'm so excited to use the templates she included in the class and rewatch so I can do a review here tomorrow- I'll do both the InDesign class and the Illustrator class review together.

creativeLIVE is putting on a whole week of Adobe Creative Apps For Beginners : Monday was Graphic Design for Beginners, Tuesday was InDesign, Wednesday was DreamWeaver (which I didn't watch- I  have never even opened DreamWeaver and don't really know what it does. Anyone else watch it?), Thursday is Illustrator, Friday is Photoshop, and Saturday is After Effects (another one I have never opened or know what it is). If you've purchased Adobe Creative Cloud like I did and have access to all this amazing software that you really don't know how to use, this is the PERFECT opportunity for you to dive in and get dirty with them.

One thing though- I have watched dozens of creative LIVE classes, and purchased a few, and I realized that many times I take notes on what I learned, but never go back and revisit those notes. It becomes a waste of time and money if we don't start putting our education into practice, so I'm going to create a learning system to go over the classes I took and review the material on a weekly basis so everything doesn't go out the window. I'll post my system once I develop it!

AHOY DARLING! LIMITED EDITION MINI SESSIONS AND MATILDA JANE TRUNK SHOW

This Saturday I hosted my first Matilda Jane Trunk Show, and I was blown away by all the gorgeous clothes this company produces! Boutique, exclusive, and collectible; these clothes are SUCH a treasure for a mom like me with 5 girls to dress that are all pretty close in age and size. We can mix and match tops, shorties, pantes, skirts, and dresses between all the girls and get different looks and even combine them with a lot of clothes they already have! I gave my wishlist to my trunkkeeper Nichole, and am so stinkin excited for the girls clothes to be delivered.

At the Trunk Show I had a sneak peek of the Ahoy! Darling set I will be using for the miniGLAM sessions this week. We had a couple of moms that ordered Matilda Jane Clothing bring their girls and get their photos taken early- the rest of the mini mavens will be photographed this week. Penelope and Evelyn were able to buy "off the rack" and get their dresses Saturday. 

ONLINE EDUCATION | creativeLIVE InDesign CLASS

I know most of you have heard me rant and rave about creativeLIVE (basically my university- have learned SO MUCH thanks to them) and today I am shaking with excitement because FREE today, there is an Adobe InDesign For Beginners Class taught by Khara Plicanic.



Stream videos at Ustream

I have had InDesign since purchasing Creative Cloud last year, but have only used it a few times, thanks to Khara's Album Design Class last year. I've only seen the tip of the Iceberg with the program so I am stoked to see everything I can do with the program because I know it will make my workflow so fast and there are probably so many possibilities for me to use the program I haven't even thought of!

I'll be posting a class review later this week sharing what I learned and my favorite parts about the class.

MESA FAMILY PORTRAITS: THE WASHBURN FAMILY

Summer is now upon us, and it's officially waaaaay too hot to drag a family on a location shoot. Our last family shoot of the season was with this adorable little family. Their kids were so friendly and well behaved (yes even the teenager!) and the love that they all had for each other radiated out of all their faces all day. 

Since it's so hot down here, I have a few clients that have scheduled family shoots in the cooler regions of Pinetop and Sedona! Which, of course I'm thrilled about since that gives me an excuse to travel a bit and get out of this heat. Plus, there are so many amazing locations in Northern Arizona I can't wait to explore. 

HAIR & MAKEUP C/O >> Eryn Michelle
WARDROBE STYLING C/O >> Lindsay Taylor

RESOURCE REVIEW: DESIGN AGLOW PHOTOGRAPHY PRINT RELEASE

As a designer and a photographer, I fully understand and appreciate sites that offer templates for photographers who don't have the time or desire to craft their own forms and studio materials. One of my favorite websites for inspiration for my own collateral is Design Aglow; a one-stop-shop for all kinds of studio templates.

Last week I had a client who ran into problems at her personal print lab since I did not include a print release form with her digital images. This is the first time any of my clients have ever had an issue with printing their images, but of course it had to be one of my maternity clients who is pregnant and irritated and HOT and did not wish to wait for me to craft up a custom print release. Luckily, Design Aglow came to the rescue with their Print Release Form and I was able to purchase, fill in blanks, and email right over to her in a blink of an eye.

From now on, I will be printed a stack of these from my lab and stick them in every client order so I don't run into the problem again. I'm so so thankful I had a resource to turn to in a pinch, and now I have my eye on a few other forms in their shop- here are a couple of my faves:


PHOTOGRPAHY STUDIO SIZE SAMPLE WALL DISPLAY $50



STUDIO FORMS & LEGAL CONTRACTS SET $170

>> images c/o Design Aglow

MESA MISSIONARY PORTRAITS: BRIANNA + CHASE

This strapping you man just left for a mission for the LDS church. Brianna, one of my glam clients, asked me to do a shoot with her and her boyfriend Chase before he left on his mission. And just like that, I was shooting my very first Missionary Shoot.

It was a new experience for me, but I had a great time with these two, capturing the precious few moments they have together before they are separated for two years. No one can tell the future, but I will say that it is rare to see the connection that these two have in people so young. I'm hoping that I'll get to shoot their engagements and wedding someday in the near future.

HAIR & MAKEUP C/O : Leah Fitts

THE SUMMER HOME SERIES: DIY FARMHOUSE PLANTER BOXES

I hope you all had a marvelous long Memorial Day Weekend. I know I did, working on some new projects, shooting some wonderful Engagement clients, and happily building some new planter boxes for our front yard with the kids and Braden.


I found these planter box plans on the Ana-White website; an AMAZING resource for all do-it-yourselfers. I have my eye on so many more plans for upcoming projects.  I have more planter boxes planned for next weekend to go on our back patio, and a couple more easy projects to enhance our outdoor living space.

WELCOME TO THE NEW BLOG

Whew! That feels better! I've been due for a blog makeover for a while now and I am LOVING this clean, new design. And the blog design isn't the only thing getting updated; I have so many exciting ideas bubbling up in my head for some new posts and features so get ready, because it's about to be Awesome Time.