5 on Friday | Sunbury Photographer

1. blinking cursor, blinking cursor, blinking cursor…. crickets……

2. I got nothin this week. This is a slow time of year for photographers. So really, I have been just working on my house. Not a lot of photography work.

3. Well I take that back. I have been taking lots of pictures. Pictures of my own family for my 365 blog. I get excited thinking about what the end of year blog book will look like with all these pictures that I’m taking for this project.

4. I recently posted on that 365 blog about Peyton and I loving the You Are My Sunshine song. So this week I made this little sign to print and hang in her room. I also posted here and here about her love of the Itsy Bitsy Spider. So I’m going to try to create another sign to go along with this. If you would like a copy of this Sunshine sign, email me and I will email you the file for you to print for yourself.  I'm planning on just printing it with my photo lab and putting it in a frame.

5. This is the little Valentine that I made for Cooper’s Valentine’s Day party at preschool. I haven’t shown them to him yet. He might hate them and want the regular character Valentines. Either way, I love this little card of him and will keep it for myself!

5 on Friday | Sunbury Portrait Photographer

1. Some how I came across a beautiful blog a couple of weeks ago that I think you might like. I love this photographer’s work. She is doing a 30 day photo project with her baby boy. She documented his life everyday for the month of January. She posted gorgeous black and white images of her adorable little boy. I mean he is too pretty to be a boy. So anyway, I thought I would share the blog with you too since I know you love beautiful photographs! You can visit Kerianne Browns blog here. http://keriannebrown.com/blog/


2. So last week I told you I had to work on my sales taxes over the weekend. Well, I didn’t do it over the weekend. Too busy having family time and taking naps.  So Monday night I stayed up late, after helping Brodey finish a project that was due on Tuesday, finished up & paid my sales tax online on January 31st. So I wouldn’t be late filing this time. Well guess what, they were actually due on January 24th, not the 31st. So they ended up being late anyway. I thought they were due by the end of the month. Lesson learned.

3. So we have had an incredibly yucky week! Cold + ice + snow + wind + no power = unhappiness

4. A little photo tip this week, use the snow outside to your advantage when you are taking indoor photos. Get your subject, whether it is a child, pet, or just a random object, and put it near a window. Use natural light instead of the flash. The snow is like a huge reflector bouncing lots of natural light in through your windows. Give it a try this weekend and see what you come up with. Post them on my Facebook wall so I can see if you try it. You might even go as far as taking the picture with the flash and then take it again using the natural light and see which way you like it better. I would be interested in hearing what you think.

5. Tip number 2 this week, get closer! When taking pictures, crop in closer on your subject. Fill the frame with your subject. This will eliminate distracting backgrounds and bring more attention to your subject. Again, please share what you come up with. I would love to see it.

5 on Friday | Sunbury Photographer

1. We have made it through our first month of our 365 project. A group of friends and myself have been taking and posting a picture a day for the month of January. 1 down, 11 more to go! You can check out my Pic of the Day blog here. If you scroll to the bottom of my blog, you can see all of my friends that are 365'ing it with me as well. If you care to join us, jump in now. Doesn’t matter what time of year you start. If you do start a 365 project, please let me know so I can follow along too.

Here is my pic of the day for today!

2. I have the fun task of getting my sales tax info together this weekend and getting that paid by Monday. I am looking so forward to it too. I just love doing tax stuff! NOT! I hate doing this kind of stuff. But it’s something that has to be done if I want to continue following this dream of mine!

3. So I found a new fav blog this week. I have been giving a lot of thought lately to my house. As many of you could probably guess. With all the mass decluttering going on around here. I don’t know what happened. But something inside of me clicked recently and I realized that my house is not a haven. It doesn’t bring me peace and happiness when I walk into it. I realized that it really says nothing about who we are as a family. Other than the photography in my family room, the rest of the house is just a hodge podge of stuff. I just finally realized that my home is decorated like it is supposed to be if you live in central Ohio. Well quite frankly, we do not really have central Ohio kind of personalities. Other than Ohio State Football that is! So anyway, I could go on and on about this, but this is not the post for that. I just wanted to share this blog that I found about home decorating. I’m not really into her style necessarily, but I do like her ideas and how to’s. You can check it out here if this is something you are interested in also.


4. I’ve spent several hours of the last couple of weeks working on website updates. I’ve added all new photos to the galleries. I’m not finished with all the updates yet, but it’s closer then it was a week ago. I’m happy to have more recent work there to represent where I currently am in my photography journey. Hop on over and have a looksie if you have time!  Who knows, you might even find a photo of yourself or your children over there!


5. I fell off my declutter wagon this week. Didn’t get anything done really. Not even just regular house work. Our whole family has been passing around illness after illness for almost 2 months now. This week I was lucky enough to catch the stomach bug that the kids had last week, and my hubby had over the weekend. It’s funny how being sick and not doing anything for just a day or two can really make things just completely fall apart. And the truth of the matter is, it will probably only take an hour or two to get things under control again. It’s just the getting started part that I struggle with sometimes!

5 on Friday | Hendersonville, NC Senior Photographer

1. Last weekend I had the chance to shoot two of my favorite kind of sessions. Saturday was a High School Senior and Sunday was a newborn baby girl. Both sessions were a lot of fun. Last week I mentioned doing something different with your photo session. Bundle up and go outside! And that is exactly what we did on Saturday.  I mean tell me, how many times do you see childrens, senior or family portraits with people all bundled up in cute hats, gloves, scarves and boots? Not very often really. Most people plan their session during the summer or fall time. I’m telling you, winter sessions can really be fun. And oh so cute and unique! Here are a couple of images from last weekend to prove out awesome they are. :o)

2. I really do waiver between senior and newborn sessions being my favs. I can’t really decide which I like more. I love them both for different reasons. I love seniors because they are fun and energetic! They are up for fun new ideas and they do exactly what I ask the first time I ask! As opposed to other children, (I won’t mention any names, but you can see them somewhere pretty big on top of this blog) who I have to beg & bribe to get a few shots! Then I love newborns because they are so sweet and well, new! I love shooting newborn sessions because I just never know what I’m going to get. They can definitely be a challenge. But when you get that one special image, it is oh so worth all the pee, sweat, and tears that usually acompany a newborn session. Here are a couple of images from my newborn session last weekend to hold you over until I get the whole session blogged.

3. So we finally took the Christmas tree down this week. No the tree wasn’t still up because of laziness. The tree was still up because we were really, really enjoying it this year. Especially Cooper & Peyton! They would stand near it and gaze at all the bulbs & lights. Occassionally, scratch that, many times, they would break an ornament. But I tried not to get too bent out of shape about it. I was enjoying observing them all wrapped up in the magic of Christmas. Needless to say, I had a couple of unhappy kiddies after I took it down.

4. I kept telling myself that when January rolled around, things would slow down. I’d have a little breathing room. So why do I have a to-do list a mile long of things that need to be done? Website updates, marketing materials that need designed and ordered, taxes, a fun little surprise project that I am working on that really needs to get completed soon, business forms to create, etc… And I have a million blog post ideas swimming around in my head too! I have to say, I love the photography part of having a photography business. The business part of a photography business, not so much!

5. I have a new product offering this year.  I finally got around to ordering these really cool little albums to see if it was something that I thought all of you might like.  I have to say, I LOVE THEM!  And, I think you will too.  They are mini accordian albums that are perfect for throwing in your purse and showing off your beautiful family all the time.  You know how much moms and grandmas love to do that.  I will post some images of my sample album sometime soon so you can see what I'm talking about.

5 on Friday | Sunbury Photographer

1. A song I love. Sometimes I wish I took more time to look at things through His eyes and be more compassionate.



2.  Wow!  What a week!  I've been sick all week.  Nothing major.  Just a cold.  But there is never any time for downtime around our house.  I posted on Facebook this week that I wish this Motherhood career came with sick days.  I sure could have used a couple of them this week.

3. I have been receiving a lot of inquiries about sessions and weddings for 2011 in the last week. I took most of the month of December off from shooting. Except for personal images of course. It's been a great way to rejuvenate my creative mind! But I am excited to get back to it soon. 2011 is going to be amazing! I can feel it.

4.  I'm also starting to get calls about Senior Pictures.  For those that didn't have time to get them done last summer or during the fall, think about a little different look for your Senior pictures.  Maybe go for some fun winter images.  Layers of hats, scarves, gloves, and boots look awesome in pictures!  And if we're super lucky, maybe we could even shoot in the snow.  I already have one senior on standby waiting for a beautiful snowfall for her winter session.  Email if you are interested in this and I will contact you to plan a snowy session.  Here is an image shot last winter on a snowy Sunday afternoon.



5.  Been cruising Etsy again this week.  On one hand I want to tell you to check it out.  There is some fun stuff over there.  But then on the other hand, I don't want you to become addicted to the site as I have.  But if you must check it out, here are a couple of my fav things from Etsy this week. 

Click here for this Etsy artist.

Click here for this Etsy shop.

5 on Friday | Sunbury Photographer

Five on Friday is a little early this week since Christmas Eve is on Friday. This week I am sharing thoughts about the things I am grateful for. With so many people hurting during the holidays, I wanted to make a point a of stopping and realizing all of our blessings.

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy;

they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”

~Marcel Proust

1. I’m grateful for a happy healthy family. We live a crazy, busy, chaotic life sometimes. But all in all, we are happy and healthy.

2. I’m grateful that I get to spend the next week at home with my babies. I normally have to send them off to school and daycare and then go to my boring corporate job all day long. But not this week. We get to sleep in everyday, stay in our jammies all day if we like, and do absolutely nothing. I have planned no activities for next week. Just rest and relaxation.

3. I’m grateful for our extended family too. One of the great things about Christmas is that it gives everyone a reason to make time to get together with family. We talk about doing it throughout the rest of the year, but rarely do we get around to doing it. Last weekend we spent and entire weekend in a lakeside cabin with my husband’s family, and this weekend we will spend with my family in our home.

4. I am grateful for a program called Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey that helped us get our finances in order and savings in place a few years back. If it hadn’t been for this program, I don’t know how we would have made it through 2 ½ years of unemployment. Thankfully Dennis is back to work now and we are working to get back on track again.

5. I’m thankful for friends, family, and church family that have helped, supported, and prayed for our family throughout these last couple of difficult years. Many are still helping out today given our current work situation. Without all of them, I’m not sure how we would have made it through. God is good. He has put wonderful people in our life that we are forever grateful for.

I hope that this post will inspire you to sit this Christmas and think of all the things you are grateful for. Count the many blessings that God has given all of us.

Leave a comment and let me know what you are thankful for this Christmas season.

This is an ornament that Brodey bought for me at Secret Santa.

Thought it was appropriate for this post.

5 on Friday | Sunbury Photographer

1. I didn't think I was going to be able to post this today. So many things to do. But I'm actually ready to go and have a half hour to spare before I need to leave. So I thought I'd sit and write something up real quick. There isn't too much going on right now business wise, so you are going to get a lot of personal stuff today. Hope you don't mind.

2. I spent this morning cooking and baking. If you know me well, you know that is not something that I do on a regular basis. I don't really enjoy cooking much. But we are having a family Christmas party this weekend so I made some treats for that. I baked I don't even know how many dozen cookies, two apples pies, made a couple different kinds of salad, and two big pots of Johnny Marzetti. Cannot wait to dig into those apple pies!

3. So we have all of our Christmas shopping done and most of it wrapped. Still waiting on a couple of more things to arrive from the UPS man. I will spend Monday wrapping the rest of the gifts and cleaning the house to get ready for the big day next weekend.

4. We sure had a busy week this week. Snow days, basketball games and practices, two Christmas concerts. Both of which were awesome! Cooper had his preschool one. So so sweet listening to all of those little preschoolers singing about baby Jesus. And Brodey had his 5th grade Christmas program. He put on quite a show. He volunteered himself to dance during one of the songs. He was doing John Travolta moves from Stayin Alive and Pulp Fiction. And Albert moves from the movie Hitch. It was quite entertaining! His Daddy would have been so proud. He is always doing those dorky dance moves around here! Took lots of pictures, but regretted both nights not having my video camera.

5. My daughter Peyton absolutely adores books. So when I pulled out a new Christmas book this week with a big star that lights up, she was beyond excited. She sat and looked through it over and over. I sure hope she continues to love books throughout her life. The older boys don't really read for entertainment. They only read when it's forced on them by teachers. Other then the sports page anyway! Both of the little ones love books and will bring them to me daily for reading time.

Don't you just love a snugly little toddler in footed jammies?

I sure do!

Have a great weekend.

5 on Friday | Sunbury Portrait Photographer

1. So it’s been a busy week. Saturday we moved furniture all day. Sunday we traveled back to my hometown for a family Christmas party. Sunday night we put up our tree finally. Monday Cooper started breaking ornaments on the tree. Brodey started basketball this week and Drew had his first two basketball games this week. So I’m back to running up and down the road multiple times each evening to drop off, pick up, drop off, pick up. You know the drill. Fun times!

2. So you know how I have been on this major decluttering kick. And I mean MAJOR. I have been throwing things away or donating things daily. I am determined to get my house under control. And as Flylady says, “You can’t organize clutter.” So every chance I get I am going through a drawer, a cabinet, a counter top, and getting rid of things that I don’t love. Well this weekend Dennis moved one set of furniture out of my family room, and I sat in the house all day with only one chair while he went to get the new furniture and bring it home. I began to think about how I could get away without furniture cluttering up my family room. So far I haven’t come up with a way to do that. But I’m still working on it. There has to be some other option for my family room. The boys suggested big bean bags and pillows. Somehow I don’t think Grandma and Grandpa would like having to sit in bean bags on the floor when they come to visit. Drew also suggested some type of chair that hangs from the ceiling! I know, I just confirmed your thoughts of me being insane! :o)

3. Another Christmas song to mention this week. I heard a song by Amy Grant that I have never heard before, but I really like it. It’s called “I Need a Silent Night”. Check it out. If you are a busy mom trying to keep up with this amazing Christmas season, the song will probably speak to you too.



4. So I have wrapped up business stuff for the year. I feel sort of lost not sitting with my laptop in my lap every single night. But it’s also a nice break to do some other things and to refresh the creative side of my brain.

5. I looked at my calendar on Monday and realized that there is nothing written on it for this weekend. I know! How did I ever manage to have a free weekend right in the middle of December? I’m not sure how it happened. But I’m so thankful for it. The fact of the matter is, I have probably just forgotten something that I’m supposed to be doing. If you know what it is, please let me know.

5 on Friday | Sunbury Portrait Photographer

1. The first thing I want to share this week is that I AM OFFICIALLY CAUGHT UP! With business stuff anyway. The house work is not caught up. Nor do I believe that it ever will be. But I have completed a lot of editting, ordering, and delivering. There are still a couple of more deliveries to make, but I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Had you asked me two weeks ago, it was nothing but pitch black in that tunnel. I didn’t think I would ever catch up. Especially not this soon.

2. So my hubby and I have been working pretty hard on getting all of our Christmas shopping finished up before Thanksgiving. And thankfully, we have pretty much finished up. Now for the wrapping. He is great about helping with the shopping. Wrapping. Not so much. It will be up to me to get most of that part done.

3. We had a little impromptu photo shoot in my dining room last weekend. I pulled out some backdrop paper, which I rarely ever do, set it up next to the French doors, and shot some photos of Peyton and Cooper. Peyton needed her 2 year old pictures taken and Cooper will be 5 this month. I figured I might as well do them both at the same time in case I never got around to doing it in late December. The images turned out very cute. They are both little characters!

4. I’ve been creating a lot of fun new storyboards lately. Storyboards are one of our biggest sellers. They are fun, can be personalized, and can include multiple images to tell a story. AND, they come ready to hang. No framing necessary! In my opinion, that is one of the greatest things about our Storyboards, Portrait Wraps, and Gallery Wraps. There is no need to frame them. You can hang them up as soon as you receive them!

5. I heard the most beautiful, peaceful and calming version of a Christmas song this week. It was Celine Dion’s version of O Holy Night. Lovely.

Five on Friday | Sunbury Photographer

1. I was window shopping on Etsy again today and came across this print. I think it’s kind of cool!


2. More decluttering last weekend. We got rid of two van loads of stuff from our house on Saturday and Sunday. We hit Peyton and Cooper’s rooms pretty hard. Sent a bunch of homeschool materials to my niece to list on Ebay, returned some borrowed items, cleaned out some drawers and most importantly, got rid of a ton of toys from their rooms. Cooper started to fuss about a couple of things in the donation bag, but then I reminded him that we had to make room for Christmas and birthday toys. His response “Get rid of it!” So now he has an activity table, a box of cars, and a box of trains and tracks in his room. And he is perfectly content with that. And so am I!

3. I also recently came across these frames on Etsy too. They are cute, very well priced, and come in a variety of colors and sizes.



4. If you read this blog post, you know that I’m offering a digital file special this week! Please check the post out for more details if you are interested. The order deadline is tomorrow.

5. I’m excited that I have a newborn session scheduled this weekend. And I just received the most adorable little hat to wear on him. There hasn’t been a newborn around here for a few weeks now. I’ll be sharing all the sweetness soon. We can all get our baby fix without the late nights!

Five on Friday | Sunbury Portrait Photographer

1. Sorry I have missed the last two Five on Friday posts. I had started writing a few things for the post two Fridays ago but never finished. Needless to say, it didn’t get posted. I’m still going to use some of what I had written back then. So pretend that I wrote this post the weekend after Halloween!

2. So we actually made it out on another little family outing this past weekend. All six of us! Can you believe it? All of us available on the same day to do something fun together. I can’t. We had one child, I won’t mention any names, that was refusing to go. I was too tired to fight it so I said “Fine. Stay home.” Then I also added “Since you are going to be home all afternoon, you can get your room straightened up.” Miraculously, I had four children in my van when I pulled out of my driveway on my way to the pumpkin patch! We were also lucky enough to have Grandma and Grandpa in town this weekend. And my niece, Zhoie, was also here. So they went along for the fun as well!

3. The kids had a great time at the farm. Especially the little ones. So much stuff to do and see. Zip lines, jumping pads, a Banana Bus, pigs, cows, goats, huge boxes of corn to play in (imagine a ginormous sensory table full of corn kernals), all kinds of fun slides, hay rides, the list goes on. The one thing the farm did not have was a pumpkin patch. Thank goodness I was the only one that seemed to care about that. The kids could care less.

4. Are any of you beginning to wonder if I am actually still taking client pictures? You should be. It has been so long since I posted client pictures on here. I’m being a bad blogger. I’ve been completely overwhelmed lately and have been taking shortcuts where ever I can. I have been posting sneak peaks on my Facebook page. It’s just so much quicker and simpler to post a few pictures over there. Right now, time is not my friend. I am lacking about 6 hours of time per day to get everything done that I need to get done. Rest assured that I will blog all these beautiful people in the future though. Over the winter when everything is blah and ugly outside, you will appreciate seeing the pretty end of summer and fall pictures. It will bring back fond memories of a warmer time in our life!

5. I’m working on some fun new product offerings for next year! I hope to get everything together at the beginning of the year after the holidays. I also added some fun new greeting cards this fall. In the past we have only offered one sided photo cards. This fall we have started designing and offering two sided press printed greeting cards. Can you say GORGEOUS? I’m in love with them.

Five on Friday | Sunbury Portrait Photographer

1. I’m feeling absolutely horrible about the fact that I have had to say no to so many of you that have called for fall sessions in the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately there are only so many hours in a day and there is no way that I could possibly accommodate everyone’s requests and still continue to feed my children daily and sleep. As it is right now, I’m only sleeping about 5 hours a night! Thank goodness my husband does the laundry. So the kids do have clean clothes at least! So please understand that I am only saying no because I don’t want to over commit myself and not be able to provide the best service possible to each of my clients.

2. Can’t believe that Trick or Treat is this week. Where did October go? This year we are wearing costumes that we already have in the house. When I asked Cooper what he wanted to be, he said he wanted to wear his Bumblebee costume. Awesome! Apparently he didn’t realize that there was the possiblity of going shopping for a new costume. And I will allow him to believe that we wear what we already have around the house for Halloween as long as I can get away with it. I have a cute little ladybug costume for Peyton to wear. I don’t even know where I got it. Someone gave it to her somewhere along the line. Sadly we will be trick or treating for the first time ever without Daddy this year. He will be out of town that evening and won’t be able to go with us.

3. The wedding that I shot last weekend was a lot of fun. Such a laid back bride and groom. I wasn’t nearly as stressed out as I was for the first wedding back in September. I’ll be blogging some of their pictures some time soon hopefully. I have been blogging out of order lately. Actually, I haven’t been able to even get pictures on the blog lately. But when I have, I don’t think they are in order of when they were taken. You can see a few of the wedding pictures over on my Facebook page if you don’t want to wait for the blog. While you’re over there, click the like button so you can keep up with things that are going on. I tend to get sneak peaks posted over there right now more than on the blog.

4. If you are interested in ordering Christmas cards, please be in touch soon. All card orders will need to be placed by November 19th to arrive in time for Christmas. As I think I’ve stated on here before, if you have pictures from a session we did earlier this year that you would like to use for Christmas cards, please let me know. I’m happy to create cards with those pictures as well. Don’t think that you have to book another session to order cards.

5. Turn around times are running right around 3 weeks right now from session to your gallery being posted. Orders are still arriving about two weeks after I receive your order. Many of you asked me throughout the year about ordering more prints at a later time for Christmas gifts. If you are in need of ordering Christmas gifts, please be in touch soon. Same deadline of November 19th applies here as well.

Just a funny picture of the kids out playing AFTER their bathtime in their jammies! Look at the look on Peyton's face as Cooper pulls her along for the ride! She adores him and will follow him anywhere.

Five on Friday | Sunbury Portrait Photographer

1. Do you know that it takes approximately a whopping 30 seconds to pick up all the toys on my living room floor each evening? Those 30 seconds make me feel so much better in the mornings when I walk out into my living room to start rounding up the troops for another school day! So why do I fight it so hard?

2. I am shooting my third wedding this weekend! I’m pretty excited about this one. It’s one of my cousins getting married. So it should be tons of fun and an opportunity to see lots of family as well.

3. So I think I told you last week about Brodey wanting to give band a try this year. We went to the meeting last week and found out that all practices will be at school. No after school commitments. Other then practicing at home. So he can give band a try, but still continue his football and basketball as well. I became the proud mama of a baratone player! But then this proud mama went home and got online to rent his instrument and discovered that it is quite expensive. Almost 2 ½ times more expensive then the other two instruments he was considering. Said proud mama went to 5th grade boy and asked him to reconsider his instrument choices. He was cool with picking something else. He mainly picked the baratone because he didn’t think any other kids were playing it and he wanted to make sure that his band teacher had all the instruments that she needed in her band. He is such a kind hearted kid! So now, I am the proud mama of a trombone player! Wish me luck! Just what I need, some more noise in my house!

4. Two weeks ago I was taken to a new shooting location by an awesome client of mine. The Ohio Wesleyn University in Delaware. I have since been back there two more times and have plans of going back again for a Senior Portrait session. It’s a great location for pictures. Lots of beautiful buildings, amazing foliage, and cool little nooks and crannies for pictures. It will definitely be another location that I add to my list of suggestions for future clients.

5. I somehow volunteered myself to create a DVD slide for my son’s football team. I don’t know why I do this to myself every year. I always think, how hard can it be? Sure. I can do that. But then it ALWAYS ends up taking me hours and hours to get it just right and then burn all those discs for the team. I’m a bit of a slow learner apparently!

You know me and my love of baby feet.
The only thing that could make baby feet any better are some adorable Buckeye socks!

Five on Friday | Sunbury Photographer

1.) I’m going to be shooting my first session at the lovely Jeffrey Mansion in Bexley this weekend. I’m looking forward to shooting there and hoping for beautiful weather. If you haven’t visited this property, you really should. It’s absolutely beautiful!

2.) We have a mouse in our house that I cannot catch. He is driving me insane! Cooper has started giving me advice on how to catch this mouse based on his experiences watching hours of Tom and Jerry. He actually told me the other day “That is not how Tom would do it Mommy.”

3.) I’ve been having a lot of fun designing Christmas cards lately. If you had photos taken earlier this year and would like to order cards, please let me know and I can send you a link to the card gallery on my website for you to pick out the design that you like.

4.)My 11 year old son, Brodey, is thinking of giving band a try this year. We usually don’t allow more than one activity at a time. Meaning they can play one sport per season. Not play two sports or a sport and boy scouts, etc… We have a hard enough time fitting one activity per season, per kid, into our schedule. BUT, I think band is all done during the day at school. No extra evening practices. Probably just an occassional concert to attend in the evenings. So he should still be able to keep up with his sports that he likes to play and give band a try. He is thinking of trying the trumpet, trombone, or baratone. Any advice out there from other band parents? I have never participated in band or had any kids in band.

5.) I’m on a mission to declutter my house. I cleaned out 5 big bags of clothes out of the kids bedrooms this past weekend. I also visited Flylady’s site again recently. I use to follow her and her methods really do work. But I eventually lost momentum and desparately need to get back on track. I started last night with 15 minutes of decluttering in my kitchen. I emptied a basket that collects junk and completely removed it from the counter all together. I knew if I put it back, it would just collect more junk! Wish me luck on my decluttering mission.

Five on Friday | Sunbury Portrait Photographer

1.) It has been, and will continue to be, a very busy week. I shot a wedding in Huron, Ohio last weekend. I had a session last night with three adorable little boys. I have two sessions today and then two more on Saturday. Lots of pictures to share with you. Someday. When I can get caught up on blogging. Don't be surprised if I am still sharing summer pictures with you this winter!

2.) On that note, another update on scheduling. Our calendar is completely booked for the remainder of 2010. We will however still find time to squeeze in newborn sessions. Newborns can't wait. They are only newborn for a short time. We will let you know when we open up our 2011 calendar for scheduling.

3.) We spend every Thursday and Saturday sitting at football fields. I spent a couple of Saturdays ago trying to photograph Brodey's game. It's quite a challenge to capture action shots and keep track of two little ones that love to run wild at the field! I need to find someone to watch those little people this Thursday so I can photograph one of Drew's games. Please don't avoid my call if you see my number on your caller ID!

4.) I've been listening to THIS a lot lately while working around the house or editting photos. I love his music! I discovered him on Pandora a while back and listen to him pretty much daily now.

5.) My awesome Mom made me three cool new camera straps for my camera! Thanks Mom! I love them! They are so cute.

Five on Friday | Sunbury Photographer

1.) Spent a very nice afternoon on Sunday with my sister's family and my mom, celebrating my sister's birthday. We met at Moundbuilders State Memorial Park in Newark for a picnic. The kids searched for acorns all afternoon and Aunt Jenny enjoyed filling my little ones with sugar for two hours!

2.) I took some time to create this cute word collage last weekend. I posted it on Facebook and everyone seemed to really like it. Thought I would share it here too in case you missed it. If you haven't clicked over in the side bar here and "liked" us on Facebook, go ahead and do it now. I'll wait for you to come back!

OK. Great! Let's continue!

3.) I came across the cutest blog the other day. Milas Daydreams. You should take a minute and check it out. It is so cute. What a creative mommy! I especially love the paper doll picture.

4.) I was recently browsing around Etsy and came across this. I really like it! If you haven’t discovered Etsy yet, you should really check it out. It’s a very cool webiste! I also really like this. What a cute Christmas gift that would be. I’m just sayin…

5.) Session scheduling update. I have two time slots left in October for fall portrait sessions. They are both on October 30th. One at 10am and one at 11am. I am shooting in Delaware that day at the Scioto Township Park on SR 36. Let me know if you need one of them.


See more of Billie's work at http://www.billiemitchellphotography.com/.

Become a fan of Billie's work on Facebook. Email Billie at billie@billiemitchellphotography.com.

Five on Friday | Sunbury Portrait Photographer

I had this thought to start a series similar to Wordless Wednesday to post just 5 random thoughts on Fridays. I have read other blogs that do variations of this and I find myself looking forward to those posts on those blogs. So I thought I would give it a shot. Not sure if you will like it or if I will keep up with it. Not sure how many of you even stop by on Fridays to see what is going on around here. All that being said, we will give it a try and you can let me know if you like it or not. I thought since so many of you like Wordless Wednesday that maybe you might like this as well. Hopefully this will help us get to know each other a little better. Some comments will be personal and some will be business related. Whatever happens to run through this scattered brain of mine and actually makes it to my keyboard!

1. I was kicking myself twice on Tuesday for leaving the house without my camera. There was a gorgeous sunrise on the way to work and then there was a beautiful sunset at the end of my day at the football field. Would have made wonderful pictures for a Wordless Wednesday.

2. We are having a bit of a hard time adjusting to our new schedule with school starting, Dennis going back to work, kids going to daycare, football games beginning, Cooper going to preschool, and first night of Wednesday night church this week. Exhausted. Need I say more.

3. Looking forward to heading to northern Ohio next weekend to meet up with two of my SOAR Sisters to shoot a wedding together and hang out for the weekend on the lake.

4. Cooper said to me the other day "Look at the sky mommy. It's so bootiful." How sweet is that? I love that he is noticing things like that on his own.

5. I handed my extra camera to my girlfriend while I was photographing her kids last week. This is one of the 200 pics that she took. Me in action with her munchkins.

Have a fantastic weekend all!