Monthly Archives: February 2012

Something on the Horizon

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Mount Baker and the Twin Sisters photo by LinnyJo

Wouldn’t you love to wake up, grab your cup of hot coffee, open the sliding door, and sit on your deck and see the view above? The air would be so cool and crisp you wrap your hands around the coffee mug feeding off the warmth. Every way you glance you can’t help but soak in all the natural elements, from the bay, the mountains, eagles searching for breakfast, to the sun slowly rising. Eagle sitting on top of a tree photo by LinnyJo

It’s the beginning of July and if there isn’t rain in the forecast you pretty much know the day will be perfect. Time to get ready for a leisurely bike ride around the neighborhood.

Okay, okay….enough with the daydreaming!!! Everything you just read was me experiencing Birch Bay, WA last summer. This small town Texas girl who knew nothing more of flat dry lands and summer temperatures that make you break out in dripping sweat the moment you walk outside. Heat so intense when you get in your car after its been sitting out all day it takes your breath away and you feel like you’d suffocate if the air conditioner didn’t kick in soon enough. Oh yea, air conditioners. You know they don’t typically even have those in houses in WA???

My sister and her family moved up there and bought a house not that many years ago, so I’ve had the pleasure of visiting as I choose. That really is their view front the deck in the morning!!

The reason I bring this subject up is, well, I miss this place like crazy!!! Also, I’m 95% sure that I’ll be spending ALL of July there this summer!! Yes, all of it. Don’t worry there will still be plenty of sizzling Texas summer waiting for me when I get back hahaha

My niece and I taking that bike ride through their neighborhood

The last trip I easily took over 1000 photos in my week’s visit. I can’t even try to guess at all the photos I’ll take over a month!! I hope to take in some paying sessions as well. :) I did last time and the family was so sweet. They had just adopted a little girl and I offered to take their first family portraits as a whole. This was a chance meeting as my niece and I were taking in some sun and fun at the community pool.

Family Portrait photo by LinnyJo

So as the time gets closer I’m sure you’ll be seeing more posts about my departure from Texas and see the excitement building :) I cannot wait!

Gift Giving {Mini Accordion Book}

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Besides displaying your photos in your home you also may come across the need to gift photos. Perhaps you never even thought about it because you automatically think of the gift as a nice matted and framed 11×14 and that seems daunting. But what if it can be so much simpler? What if it doesn’t have to be this big purchase?

I want to introduce you to the mini accordion book. Not a bulky album with the photo corners. A neat composed book where photos can live forever that can be used and gifted with ease.

 

The Quick Simple Gift: Mini Accordion Book

I’ll hit you with the price first. That way you don’t think I’m going to surprise you with a big ticket at the end.

18 for a solid cover or $24 for a custom cover. Boom! A custom book for less than $25 dollars. I think that fits even the strictest of Chinese Christmas rules haha

 

Size.

Small enough to for grandma to carry in her purse for a brag book. That’s really all you need to know, right?! It has a soft magnet closure so its not flapping open and getting lipstick on the pages during transit. Not that I think she’ll have it in her purse half the time, but it’s nice to know the pages will be protected on the rare chance it is.

 

Real Estate.

10 pages for photos/text. That’s not including if you choose the custom front. That’s a lot of bang for your buck and if you have a large family everyone can have their own personal space and then some.

 

Presentation.

People are going to be impressed when you pull out the sleek hard covered book filled with your adorable family. The linen or pearl paper will probably send them over the edge. Jealously might even peek its little head out and you might have to tell them where you got it! Fine by me!! :)

 

And if you really want to knock the socks off the recipient and make them feel like you really went all out, you can purchase a frosted slip cover to go over the book.

I hope this has helped you think outside the box a little and also made your gift giving a little easier. The uses for this product are endless. Senior portrait books, birthday session book, brag book, mother’s day gift, etc…the list could go on and on. The recipient list is equally as long – mom, grandma, friend, aunt, stocking stuffer, or my favorite…yourself!!

Photos for Your Home

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I love taking pictures! Aren’t you glad since that is what I’ve decided to do with my life!? Even when I’m not taking photos for clients I am snapping away, whether I’m on vacation, driving down my country roads, or just walking around outside. This has left me with some quite spectacular images in a file folder on my hard drive. I just think it’d be rude of me to leave those there and not share them with you. I’ve been wanting to sell my prints for a long time now but never found an easy online way to do so. Etsy doesn’t provide an easy way for me to offer one print with different sizes and paper types. I’d have to create a separate listing for each one….no thank you! Ebay, no offense to anyone using it, makes me feel cheap. I don’t want anyone bidding on my stuff. I want you to see a price and that’s the price. Also, now I have a way to give you high quality products that can be shipped directly to you.

So within my wonderful circle of Facebook businesses I follow daily I’d kept hearing of this other thing called Big Cartel that a lot of prop makers use to sell their products. They said it was super easy and the cost of having one was really reasonable. So this past week I looked into it and was surprised to see how professional their “stores” appear.

They even offer a small free plan for you to try before upgrading. Free you say?! I’m game!

It allows you to sell up to 5 items, so I dove into my prints folder and picked my top 5. Not only are they photos that I love, but ones that I can imagine someone being able to add to their home decor.

With all that said please click the image to be taken to my storefront on Big Cartel. Browse around and if you have any feedback there is a contact form on there, please use it! Oh and share with your family & friends….Twitter, Facebook, and whatever else to help spread the word of my budding store!!

More will be added within the month. This is just a start to see how I like the site. If you should so decide that one of these photos would look great in your home please know, too, that shipping is free!

I ♥ Faces {Hearts}

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This week’s theme is none other than “Hearts”. Very fitting since love day is tomorrow. I took this photo last week and I just fell in love with it.

Please visit click the image link below to see all the other wonderful submissions or enter your own photo!

How Do I {Fill in the Space Pt 2}

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So in Pt. 1 we covered how your home reflects your style and personality.  With that said, there are many ways you can use photographs to enhance that style and particular look that you want in your home.

This is going to be an ongoing lesson as I cannot cover all the different options in one blog post. I don’t think I could keep it interesting for that long! So let’s think of this lesson as one in a lesson of size. You know what they say…….Never mind, not going there.

I could sit here and tell you all day that size A is better than size C but I’d much rather show you. I’ve put together a few wall display guides to visually show you how the different sizes impact you as you view them in a room.

*Note – These are not precisely to scale. I did my best to accurately portray the measurements but please don’t take me to court over a couple inches. The message is still powerful. K thanks!

I think you can see what I’m showing you here. This is an 8×10 drowning over the fireplace.

Now if you walked into this room you would take notice right away! This is representing a 24×36.

You could easily have just the one over the fireplace and it’d be enough to grab attention.

Again I’m starting with an 8×10, the standard that we’ve been conditioned to gravitate towards. Not because it’s the best size, its just common. I’d love to see it go away all together! A 8×12 would be my replacement. (More on why in another post)

Here’s a 24×36. See how more balanced and pleasing to the eye this size is? Already the empty wall looks better. If you had some overhead lighting and not lamps you could put sconces on either side and waaalaa! You’d be done!!

For this room however since the lamps are there I’d put two other canvases on either side to complete the look. These are two 12×18 canvas wraps.  I love the idea of a frameless photo on the wall in place of framing each photo. The gallery canvas wraps are perfect for this room.

Once the kids grow up these can be easily moved to the den or hallway to make room for more current photographs.  If you had a smaller wall the two 12×18 canvases could be stacked on top of each other to conserve space.

If you feel intimidated to configure your own collection we have 5 predesigned gallery wrap collections you can purchase. These are designed for wall spaces 20×20” to 45×24” with a 1” space between each canvas.

I hope you enjoyed this post and possibly learned a few things. I would also like to make it known that I am not trying to pass as an interior decorator and will not be advising you on drape choices or fabric colors haha (However, I would like to hope that I know a thing or two from my 6 year experience working for an interior decorator.) Stay tuned for further tips and ideas…

Let’s Go on an Adventure! {Cami}

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Yesterday morning I couldn’t wait to get to the park to shoot my next appointment. Yes it was barely reading 45 degrees outside and the skies were very overcast but I was meeting with my friend Christy who I used to work with a few years ago and her adorable little girl, Cami, who just turned the big 3! I live way out in the sticks west of Fort Worth and she resides in the big D so we rarely get to see each other outside of Facebook.

Christy is a very talented interior designer, visit her website here. Her style is so fresh, chic, and inspiring! Be forewarned you’ll want to have her redecorate your entire home! She even has a catalog of her original custom crib bedding that is adorable beyond words!

 

So we get out of our cars and like most toddlers Cami needed a few minutes to warm up to me.

I love interacting with children in the toddler stage. LOVE it!! My nephew is 4 and watching his imagination bloom is incredible. You can turn the simplest, boring object into something magical in seconds. You see a stick, they see a sword! You see tons of tiny pebbles, its the treasure that they’ve been searching for! What was that sound? A dragon in the woods!! Run!! Ahhhhh!!

I keep all that in mind during shoots and I always have a trick or two up my sleeve. Here’s the first little bit of a smile I got when I told her Tinkerbell was in my camera lens. She’s still not sure of me but you can tell she was curious as to if Tink was really in there!

Slowly but surely she was able to move away from mommy. Did I mention how adorable her little outfit was?!

And before we knew it she was off!! Running, chasing, laughing, twirling, and exploring! But every once in a while she’d check back in with Tinkerbell…

We even searched for a Backyardigan or two! Tasha, are you in there?! 

All in all we had quite an adventure!!

Thank you so much Christy for allowing me the pleasure of taking your sweet girl’s photos!! I look forward to seeing you both again!

How Do I {Fill in the Space Pt 1}

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You live in a  home. Maybe you own it, maybe its a rental. You might have everything decorated and updated just the way you like it or your home could be a work in progress. (Still not loving the floral wallpaper in the bathroom? I get it!) Whatever the current condition may be it is still your home. It’s where you raise your family. It’s where after a certain time you opt to be on a Saturday night rather than going “out”.

Another thing about your home is it’s where you can show your personality and show off your family! It’s the one and only place that basically is your territory and you get to show visitors just who you are and who your family are.

If you’re spunky and outgoing you may have a funky bright accent wall in the kitchen or living room. If you are a minimalist you might have clean lines and a soft color palette throughout.

How you display your photos needs to reflect your style as well as show off your unbelievably adorable family!!

So you’re asking “How do I?”. I know that big empty wall in the living room is scary and its just easier to leave it blank than actually come up with a way to fill it up.  I also know about the small bathroom and how you think the kids’ rooms are just hopeless.  I’m here to tell you to take a breath and that I’m here to help.

Stay tuned for Pt. 2 of “How do I?” for inspiration and tips to fill in those gaps and amaze those who enter your home.