Finally catching up!

Fall mini sessions: success : )
First Thanksgiving I've hosted: turned out pretty good.
Fall semester complete: check, finally!
Wait where did fall go? And why isn't there snow on the ground yet??
Christmas tree cut and decorated: it's pretty!
Presents wrapped: almost ; )
Photo sessions over break: in the works!
Studying for PCAT in January: I'll get there...

Wow. It doesn't look that busy when I sum it up like that, but man on man have the last few months been packed! I honestly wouldn't have it any other way, evidenced by the last two days, my first two days off from the end of the semester and I've helped my mom decorate her new house for Christmas, made  an Ikea run, and gotten my brothers futon put together and entertainment center hooked up. I'm not complaining my any means, but as much as I say I want to, this girl clearly doesn't know how to just sit still : )

So let's go back to late October/early November. I finished up the fall mini sessions that I was doing and had so much fun doing them! I can't wait to do it again next year and hopefully get a few more booked, but the amount I had was just enough to keep me happy and sane ; ) Here's a quick recap of the 3 other fall sessions that I did..

The Giovanelli's
This adorable little family was way too fun to shoot, and the leaves at Wright Park were absolutely perfect! Even though they live out of state, I hope to get to take their family portraits again next year when they come to visit their family!

The Gay Family
Even though their little girls were just not in the mood for a photo shoot, it was still a pleasure to work with them--not to mention the girls are absolutely adorable!

The Belcourt's
I have the pleasure of working with the lovely lady of this household, Maria. It was so much fun getting to meet her husband and kids and capture some great pictures of those handsome boys she's got : )

Thank you to all of you for the opportunity to work with you and your families! It was a great learning experience for me and hopefully you are as proud of the end product as I am : )

Thanksgiving this year was the first time that I, and Cody, hosted dinner. We jumped all over trying to find different spins on the holiday traditions, and aside from the turkey taking longer than we thought in the smoker it turned out great : )  (A very big thanks to my stepfather for getting the turkey ready for the smoker!) I actually had fun making everything, with the help of my wonderful mom, and maybe it was because we weren't cooking for very many people, but it was pretty stress free!

The end of Thanksgiving break brought on the final two weeks of fall semester, along with getting our Christmas tree and making the house a little festive. I also checked off another DIY project off of my to-do list and I like how it turned out..

While I was out painting and waiting for the vases to dry, I had a little friend pay several visits to the feeder on the back porch : )

A few more random pictures to share..
One morning I got ready to leave and had to hold off what I was about to do and get my camera to capture the beauty outside my front door

Words cannot describe how happy I am to be done with this semester! I do not have to return to classes until February 8th--it will be a glorious two months off, and man do I have a lot of things lined up to get done! I am taking the PCAT again on January 10th so I need to start being diligent about studying for it at least a few hours every day. But, I am so excited for Christmas time, for my brother to visit in January, and to head out to Oklahoma for a few weeks in January to hang out with my Dad and the rest of the family down there. This break from school is much needed : )

I think the last bit of news is that Cody and I "celebrated" our 3rd anniversary on December 7th--it's in quotes because we just went out for Chinese that night : )  I got him this poster he has been talking about for months, but I haven't gotten my present yet...I guess I was booking up our weekends and he needed a Friday or Saturday to take me wherever it is he wants to take me. Oh an my present was too big to wrap so it was being kept in the back of his mom's car...? I don't know what this boy has up his sleeves, but I will find out what he's had "planned" next Friday ; )

Be on the lookout for the latest photo shoots soon : )  I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas--only 8 more days!

Taking Time to Learn

Every time I pick up my camera I try to expand upon what I already know how to do. It's not always easy. I get into a comfort zone with the settings--sometimes forget to change them, and then get to be very thankful for Lightroom and Photoshop ; )  The other day, a photographer that I follow on Facebook posted a status update that I really needed to hear..

"There are so many bad photos out there because the photographer wanted to be artsy. Your clients are art by themselves. Their chemistry should be your canvas. By the way, I'm not saying I haven't been guilty of the same thing but I wish someone had told me before getting distracted by other artists' work. If you're a photographer, capture your clients as they are, not as you hope to impress other artists" - Carly, Carly Bish Photography

I sometimes catch myself being caught up in thoughts like "They take such good pictures, I want to be  able to reproduce that" or "They got the lighting so perfect on that shot", and "How do they think of these poses?!"

I am my own worst critic when it comes to anything to do with a creative outlet or school--my scores, my photography, how my scrapbook looks, perfection in my typed reports--I can always find something wrong with it. After reading Carly's post on Facebook, it brought to the surface what I already knew: This is first and foremost my hobby, and the reason I have been asked to do the photo shoots that I have is because they like the photos I have taken. Simple as that. To every one of you that have allowed me the pleasure of photographing your families and special occasions, as well as anyone who has ever told me that they like the pictures I take--I can't thank you enough!

I continue to grow with every photo I take, and I'm excited to dive deeper into the world of portrait photography as I go along. This past weekend I had so much fun with my first Fall Mini Session shoot, these ladies (and precious little boy) were awesome subjects, and we couldn't have asked for better fall colors : )

Hope you enjoy a few of my favorites from that day, and look out for my faves that come out of this weekend's shoot!

The Energizer Bunny didn't have a full class load, work, and photography on his plate...

It has been yet another busy month filled with everything from stressful school weeks to surprisingly relaxing and sunny days where I got a lot done.

First off, I think I finally got all of my photos hung up in the house! .....with the exception of the canvas print I need to order by this weekend with a Groupon that I have, but I don't know what I want to put on it! On a side note--I <3 Groupon, but those darn expiration dates sneak up on me every time!!

Here are a couple of pictures of the living room and dining room put together...we are already thinking about where to put the Christmas tree! : P

The shelf in the corner of the dining room was sanded and painted by yours truly today, which brings me to my next topic of conversation: my I-did-it-by-myself projects! ; )  The boys got the tools out, but this girl used them like a pro--and led me to discover how much fun hand sanding a shelf is NOT!! Note to self: don't rescue a shelf from Goodwill whose openings are too small for the power sander to fit through, even if it is only $2... : P  Despite the less than perfect removal of the stain on the inner shelves, I still like how it turned out. Here's a couple before and after pics of the future holder of my shot glass collection : ) The big shelf I decided to tackle after I got home from school today, already got a coat of paint on it! The best part: the power sander fit in all nooks and crannies of this one! ; )

 Before, sanded, and finished : )

Almost forgot to take a before picture--okay I did forget, so it's already got some paint on it, but you get the idea. It was a "pretty" shelf that had wonderful stain marks on the top : P

I've been a little project bee this week (thank you, Pinterest, for sucking me in to the dark hole of awesomeness!! hehe) Michael's craft store has all of their fall decor on clearance right now so I couldn't resist gathering a few things to make a fall wreath to hang on the front door. Including the glue gun and glue sticks, it cost less than $20 to make, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Yeah, I probably could have found one already made for about the same price, but there's much more satisfaction with the one I made myself. A few weeks ago I also made something I found on on Pinterest that was super simple and easy. All you do is take a picture frame and put a piece of scrapbook paper in the opening and ta-da! Instant dry erase board..

Also in the works this weekend--baking!!! On the menu: homemade chicken noodle soup, chocolate porter cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (maybe peanut butter, haven't decided yet...), and Halloween sugar cookies. I definitely don't need all those sweets hanging around in my house, so they will be appropriately distributed among the friends and family once they have passed my taste test.

Last weekend I was in dire need of some get away from thinking time, so I decided the perfect remedy would be to take Joey's nephew out to the park for a little bit. I killed two birds with one stone with this one--not only is Joey beyond entertaining these days, I was able to break out the camera and have some fun. I had gotten so caught up in school I couldn't believe weeks had gone by since I'd even touched it! It turned out to be a perfect fall afternoon and hanging out with Joey was exactly what I needed, even if it was just a short hour that I forgot about all that was waiting for me to do when I got home. After that though, it didn't seem so bad : )

 THE coolest watch ever...

Hey Ashaley, my watch has lots of stuff on it.

Oh yeah? Does it at least tell you what time it is?

Um nooo....but it has a couch on it and it blows air!

That must be a Marry Poppins watch!

No, it's mine.

: )

This has been a rather long post so I'll wrap up with this fun shot I took on Tuesday morning. My mom told me about this old truck close to PLU that has a tree growing through the middle of it in a field. When she told me this I imagined a pretty big oak tree right between the cab and the bed, and even though the scale and grandeur is not quite what I had pictured, I think it's just as cool...

Hope you all have a great weekend--I know I will, it's payday on Friday and my weekend off work so that's always happy! : )

Jumping into Fall

It's hard to believe that fall semester at PLU has already begun, but after these last few not-so-sunny days, I think I'm actually ready for a new season! Not ready for constant rain, but just for that crisp fall air and curling up on the couch in one of my over-sized hoodies! : )

The last few weeks of summer have been nothing but good, despite starting my oh so crazy school and work schedule last week. Cody and I have gotten most of the house put together (finally!), just a few things to drop off at Goodwill and some pictures to hang up and it will be complete. I'll share some pictures soon.

On a WAY more exciting note than school and cleaning, we welcomed the newest addition to Cody's family into the world on September 7, his new nephew Van Gryffin Callon. He is seven pounds of absolute cuteness!!! I already had the pleasure of doing a few of his newborn pictures with the help of Cody's sister Keana--Van's momma : ) --and we got a few good ones in before he had had enough of us trying to mold him into poses...so far this is my favorite, take 2 is being held this weekend so hopefully we'll get some more good ones for Keana and the rest of the family to enjoy.

My last little excursion of the summer was this past weekend. Cody had "planned" a trip for my birthday, and 6 weeks later we had a weekend we could do it. We stayed in Astoria, OR and had absolutely perfect weather the whole trip. We made our way about 50 miles down the Oregon coast on Saturday, stopping in Seaside, Cannon Beach, and Oswald State Park. Since I didn't know where we were going and therefore did not know how to pack, we had no blankets or anything to take down to the beach and just relax in the sand, but nonetheless I had a great time walking on the different beaches and enjoying the sunshine--and of course taking lots of pictures : ) 

 Out on the jetty just outside Astoria

 One of the best pictures of Cody and I--thank you stranger! : )

 Hwy 101 bridge into Astoria

            Car show in Seaside--<3'd this one : )                                 Cannon Beach

Back to the grind--daily quizzes in Biochem are keeping me on top of things, which means I really do have time to sit, stare, breathe...even if it is just for a few minutes ; )

My How Time Flies...

I've come to the conclusion that I fail at this whole blogging thing.. : P  So much for "I'll definitely post pictures when I get back!".......

So as to pretend I never disappeared--Key West was AWESOME..

I had sooo much fun taking pictures at this wedding!!! I must admit I was SUPER nervous about it since it was my first wedding shoot, but thankfully it was nice and small, and the bride and groom's families were more than welcoming. In two short days I felt like part of the family and was so glad I got to capture their special weekend. I am heading up to Seattle later tonight to photograph their reception they are holding for all of their friends and relatives in the area, it should be just as good of a time--and even more fun since I work with most of the people who will be attending!

This summer I volunteered to work nights for 2 months--don't ask me what I was thinking. Overall it wasn't too bad, I just now feel like I missed out doing a lot of things. Get home at 6:30am, wake up at 5pm, eat, get ready to go to work again at 8pm. Doesn't exactly leave time to do things on the 7 day on stretch. Then I spent the 7 days off stretch catching up on all the things I didn't get done the week before!

Despite the icky work schedule, I did get to do a few fun things on my weeks off. This past June my mom turned the big 5-0 and my stepdad and I planned a surprise party for her. I was afraid she knew about it somehow, but I was wrong--she was definitely surprised!! Her coworkers, our church family, and some of my good friends made it a huge success : )

We also had another big birthday to celebrate in June--my little brother turned 21!! Planning TWO surprise parties was stressful, especially when one of them was being held 2,000 miles away! : P  But, with the help of my Dad and the bowling alley that my brother works at we were able to pull a fast one on him as well! He was told that he had to come back to work after his shift was over to help work a  party of about 100 people, but really there was only 20 and it was his family *lol* Thinking he would get a head start, he set up tables and chairs in the alley's banquet room for 100 people...I felt so bad that I couldn't tell him not to!!! But he was surprised to see us in the party room instead when he was told he needed to get a table from where we were hiding. Plus I was excited that my cousins were able to make it too, I always love seeing their little ones! Just wish I could see them more often : )

The Barrett Girls! ...and Ty : ) 

Never too old to sit on Grandma's lap! ; ) 

Me and my brother Avery : )

With Grandma and Dad

I did a few photo shoots over the summer too, one for Margo (whom I did family pictures for last year, she was my first paid shoot) and her husband Ty as a sort of anniversary session. Ty is not a fan of pictures, but we got some good ones anyway..

That reminds me--while half asleep one night at work, a new logo idea popped into my head! I started working on it in Photoshop as soon as I could and here's the new design--I wanted something fun but simple and I think I accomplished just that...I love it!

After my night shifts were over I did two more photo sessions--my first maternity shoot for Cody's sister Keana and a senior portrait session for my brother's girlfriend, Caitlin, while I was in Tulsa a few weeks ago. Keana's due date is in just a few days and I can hardly wait to meet the little guy and smother him with my camera!! ; ) 

My last little adventure of the summer was just this last week, Cody and I headed up to the Snoqualmie area to do some biking and then met our good friend Alicia for lunch in Seattle's International District for some delicious Chinese food at a place called KauKau. It was Cody's birthday that week and we normally go there for lunch on his birthday, but he didn't have that day off this year so we went earlier in the week instead. After lunch we went to Pike Place Market and browsed around, found some good gift ideas and got some good pictures out of the day.

Well I think I've caught up on summer in a nutshell....getting ready to start school in about a week so I'm gearing up to be going nonstop!

Hope you all have a great weekend, it's supposed to be gorgeous out there!