I got an email from a friend, Gina Maxine, of Gina Maxine Photography in California, about a group she is a part of called Elevate. The concept, led by the amazing photographer Nichole Van, is a fantastic monthly jaunt into the realm of fantasy and fine art. As I read Nichole's introduction to the project, I felt like I was reading about my own childhood dreams and playtime with my sisters when we would watch a marathon of Anne of Green Gables, or pretend that we were stars from the movies. Much like the talented group of women participating in Elevate, I love that photography allows you to bring those childhood fantasies to fruition through the lens.

Although I am not part of the group, I can't help but want to play along..... to expand my horizons, and push myself to create and think outside the box. So here is my contribution this month. I have had this rolling around in my head since seeing a similar shot from another photographer in a magazine. We drug out an old ladder and I snatched a few photographs of my baby sister and her husband as the light dimmed at the end of their maternity session. Then I set out to create the magic of the shot in photoshop. I hope you love it as much as I do.

Hello all.....yes I'm still here....What is that you say? Yes I have been gone awhile, and I must apologize for my absence. This year some other projects have taken me away from the blog and from focusing fully on Lily P. Studio. This has been and is continuing to be a year of learning for me. Learning to weed out the distractions in my life....that I only have so much time and I can't stretch in all directions. Learning to trust the Lord and the path he wants me to follow...and learning that he wants happiness for me, and if I would just stop digging in my heels, he would gladly take my hand along that path and show me the way. The past few months have also brought me this gorgeous little blessing...She has been so much fun. I'll post more about her soon. She has brought so much joy to our family and her personality is getting so fun! She has brought me a fresh outlook on life....reinvigorated my passion for the things I love.....and brought out the girliness in me that was buried under dinosaurs, scraped knees and Lightning McQueen. I can't walk into any store that has a baby girl's section and get away without falling prey to some devilish pink and sparkly temptation! 


Sooo.... I'm back and so excited to focus on photography. I have some fun projects in store, as well as a collaboration with my talented sister and stylist, Lisa to bring you some fun fall sessions. So stay tuned!

I love springtime. Here in Arizona, most of the winter season feels like spring, so I'm not going to complain about the winter here at all. We'll be heading into the sweltering heat of summer before we know it, and I've got a nasty sunburn from this weekend to give me a taste of what summer will bring. But for now, we are enjoying spring here. This week, we planted two gardens. Yes, you heard me, two. We get the fantastic opportunity to participate in a community garden, and just planted our little plot last weekend. We participated in the garden last year, (I have months worth of images that really wanted to be blogged last year, but just didn't make it) and I looked forward to my time in the dirt every weekend. Here is the start of our garden last year.

We went into the garden with very low expectations. We had no idea just how successful our garden would be. 

We ended up with the most gigantic zuccini and squash that I have ever seen, more tomatoes than I knew what to do with, and a love for gardening that I definitely did not expect.

 It was like therapy for me to go out each week and weed and harvest. I looooved it. So this year, I decided that one garden just wouldn't be enough. Yeah, I'm reallllly lame, and need a little plot here at the house too. We don't have much room, but I'm carving out a little space between our house and block wall.

We took some of what we learned at the garden last year, and changed things up some. We planted less zuccini and squash (I don't know that many zuccini recipes!) and branched out to try some other vegetables, like carrots and bell peppers. We discovered that we hate, hate, hate armenian cucumbers, so we are switching those out for a different variety, and trying a few different types of tomatoes, rather than having 6 cherry tomato plants.

For our home garden, I'm trying for some herbs, carrots, spinach and a salad mix (though I think the summer heat will kill them too early, but I'm an optimist). I'm also trying pumpkin at home, so we'll see how that goes. Cooper and I decided to try and grow our seeds in little dirt pots in the house (don't ask me why cause I have no good answer other than we thought it would be fun). Here is our little garden now, complete with the list of which plants are which.

It has been really fun to check on the seeds from time to time during our day, and see the progress. These are less than a week old.

We have our salad mix

 

Cauliflower

 

Spinach (though it looks a lot like onions in its infancy so I could've goofed)

 

sweet basil

 

white pumpkins (I really hope these guys make it, I have visions of a beautiful centerpiece at thanksgiving)

 

onions (allegedly, I think they just look like tiny salad prongs right now)

 

and watermelon

 

The rest are hopefully growing too! We'll see how we do, and how our little garden experiment shapes up. We already have some mint and strawberries growing out in pots in the back. Mint juleps (disney style- have you tried them? you should.) are on the menu later this week, so we're looking forward to pinching some leaves off for a garnish.

Really, even if nothing were to be edible, I wouldn't care. Going out with Cooper and working in the dirt somehow makes me feel happy. I think I'm going to go play in the dirt now.

If you have a garden, I'd love to hear what you are planting. And if you have any tips, send em my way!

 

 

When I planned and created this blog, and the direction that Lily P. Studio would take this year, I hoped to get everything wrapped up and running smoothly very quickly. As I've learned over and over throughout my life, my timetable is rarely the one that ends up being reality. This short span into the new year has been more than a little unpredictable, in both good and bad ways. I surely didnt' plan on debuting my lovely new blog, only to leave it idle for weeks if not months. This past week has been challenging personally for my family, and I am reminded that life does not work on our timetable.... that we can allow ourselves to be swept up, and give ourselves permission to speed up and slow down with its ebbs and flows. So I'm letting myself go to the flow of life, at least for now. I had a mini session today with a young lady I have photographed since Lily P. Studio opened our doors. I was a little bit down today, and she was just the pick me up I needed. At the end of the session, as we drove back to my house, she sang Annie's "The Sun Will Come Up Tomorrow"  and as I sang with her (a little bit off tune, but that's o.k.) my heart sang with her, and I was reminded that no matter what today becomes, tomorrow is a new day, and the sun always comes up. Thank you, Emily, for that little reminder.

For some reason this didn't post- so it is way late. Sorry mom!

My mom is the most fantastic lady. She successfully raised 7 children into adulthood and is the proud grandma of 13 grandchildren. And 3 of her kids haven't even started having babies! Here is a pic of 12 of the kids.....the 13th just came into the world a couple of weeks ago, and is a state away, so I haven't got a pic of him yet.

 Pretty cute kids, don't ya think? I don't think there is an ugly gene in any of them. And don't you think Kallin on the top left looks just like SJ in Blindside! He acts just like him too.

Anyway, back to my fantastic mom. She has always been so busy and so on the ball. I remember being amazed even as a teenager that she could juggle all of us kids with our various activities and clubs. She and my dad always made sure we were involved in either an activity or a sport and they came to watch us in most of them. The staff at school always knew my mom well, and so did the students and everyone genuinely loves her. Now that I'm older I depend on my mom in entirely different ways, and I am thankful for our relationship. I'm so glad that I can call her my friend as well as my mom. Mom, I love you! Happy birthday.