Her haircut

I have some more photos to share, but thought that I'd finally take some photos of Lilly with her new haircut! I might actually keep it short for awhile since it's so much easier to take care of with all of her curls.
It's snowing here today so we'll be staying inside all day. I'd take Lilly out to play in it, but it's really cold and windy so I think we'll stay warm inside instead! The kitchen floor has been removed and we're down to the hardwood. I'm glad that it's in good shape but at the same time I'm upset that it was covered up with so many layers of horrible crap! I'm glad that we decided to pull it up instead of add to the layers. Now we just need to sand it down, stain and poly it and it'll be as good as new......but with a little bit of character added in! We'll also be putting the drywall up and knocking down the wall between the kitchen and living room and turning it into a half wall. I think that the kitchen will consume my thoughts until it's done. So I'll be back with more pictures of the house, Lilly and Christmas!

Her Christmas Photos

I guess I can share them now since our Christmas cards went out already.....

Her first haircut....

I still need to take some photos of her after, but since the light wasn't that great outside today we'll wait a little bit. But here is a photo of her getting her hair cut with her big sad eyes and facial expressions.....

A new look.....

so I decided with my new found time on my hands earlier this week that I'm ready for a new look business wise. With that came a decision that I needed a logo. I was first thinking about hiring a graphic designer to do the work for me, but I thought that I'd try my hand at it first and get some opinions from some friends on what I created before I went that route. So here is the new look of Carrie Ann Photography.....
I love trees. They mean life to me and I think that they can be reflective of people the way that they change. I'll be working on updating my website and blog with the new look in the coming weeks. I may even get a whole new website sometime next year, but we'll see!

In other news, we're still in the middle of remodeling chaos! Part of the leaky pipe was replaced today only to find out that the other end of the pipe......the vent end that goes up to the roof has a leak. The leak is actually in the seal around the roof so since it was raining really hard today it was coming down the whole length of the pipe and right into my kitchen. The leak must have just happened since the pipe has been exposed a couple of times and it's rained just as hard and never leaked. Thankfully, it can be fixed and will be in the coming weeks. We'll also be replacing all of the plumbing in the bathroom since we have to replace the drywall in the kitchen ceiling anyways. It's best that everything is happening while everything is exposed anyways and in this case I'm really looking at this as a positive thing. We know then that everything has been updated and will be as it should be, with a little character thrown in!

Lillian had her first hair cut today and everything that I thought would happen did. I prepared myself by bringing along some candy, juice and the iPod with a Dora movie on it. Dora helped a little bit, but for the most part it was a cry fest with big crocodile tears running down her face the whole time. She was fine sitting on the booster seat, but as soon as the cape was put on her she freaked out. She kept saying "I stuck, I stuck!" I grabbed a few photos which I'll upload tomorrow.....not sure how good they came out since my glasses were on top of my head and I really couldn't see! She now has a cute little curly bob and we trimmed up her bangs since they were a little uneven. So I'll be back with some new photos!

This is what happens....

when little girls decide to not take their daily nap!


It was like 6:30 and she was watching Little Monsters (thank goodness for free movies and tv shows on demand!) and running around and loving it. From time to time she likes to sit on the edge of the coffee table and watch tv. So I'm at the computer doing some editing and all the sudden I hear some really loud snoring and there she is.....in her new dress shoes, a pink tutu and no shirt......totally picture worthy!

I'm pretty much done editing photos for 2008 which feels great! I'm working on some business stuff this week, but since there's no rush to get it over with I can take my time. I never imagined that I'd be as busy as I was the second half of the year! It seems like it's been non-stop since the end of August which I'm so thankful for because it makes me value my free time with my family even more.

So with more free time on my hands, I'll be doing some crafting, cleaning, painting and plain old relaxing and playing with Lilly and at the same time taking more photos of her. We both have a little bit of a cold at the moment, but hopefully the snow on the ground will stick around for a couple more days till her cold is gone so I can take her outside!

Oh....

and a couple pics of Marianna over on Betsy and Justin's blog....

www.betsyandjustin.blogspot.com

An out-take....

I won't share the rest of Lilly's Christmas photos, but I love this out take of her.....it shows her nice and long lashes....

She actually did pretty well while I was taking her photos, before hand is another story! I'm getting ready right now for my last session of the year and then I can just finish up my editing and stuff and get some much needed family time in. I'm hoping to be completely done with all of my editing and marketing for next year by this time next week, that way I can just enjoy the holidays ahead!

I have a wedding at the end of January in Bennington which is my next scheduled so I'm really looking forward to the break which I'll certainly need as the construction (or deconstruction) in the kitchen begins. We've decided to go down to the hardwood floors and sand them down, nail holes and all! It'll be messy kitchen for awhile (and messy house too) as we get things done, but it'll be worth it in the end. My first instinct is to just tear down the other wall in between the kitchen and dining room, but I know that we'd be biting off more than we can chew financially so that would be a stupid move on my part!

Anyways, time to get ready, hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and that you're staying warm!

Lillian

So Lillian had her 2 1/2 year appointment yesterday and she was rather traumatized by the whole thing! She hates being held down, so the moment Dr. Orton put her on the table to start checking her out she started to flip out! She wanted nothing to do with the appointment from that point on. She only had a flu shot which was a good thing. Her growth has finally started to slow down and she's only in the 50th percentile for height and weight. She's doing really well overall which is good to hear. I always get worried because as a kid that stays home and doesn't have day to day interaction with other kids and the fact that she was a preemie I tend to over worry that she'll fall behind. Dr. Orton assured me that she's doing great though which is always good to hear! So here's a new photo of her......
My camera comes tomorrow AND I'm getting a makeover at the Clinique counter in Saratoga which I totally need. I'm pretty sure that I suck at putting my makeup on and need to know what colors are best for me!

I'm about to....

head to bed but had to share my exciting news!!!! I just added a new tool to my camera bag......the Nikon D700! She doesn't arrive until Thursday, but I'm so excited about the growth I've achieved in less than a year. I tend to doubt myself a lot because I know my previous track record. I got so bored so quickly that I could never stick to anything. Photography has changed all of that for me. Each time I take my camera out of the bag, I know that something new is going to happen and that brings me pure joy. I get to stay home with my daughter, capture memories for my clients and help provide for my family......it's one kick ass occupation if you ask me!!!!

New Website

So one of the new things that I've been busy doing is transferring everything from my old website over to my new website. I'm still using the same template so it'll be the same for the most part. The new site has a shopping cart though so my clients can order and pay directly through the site. I've already been using it while I got things up and going and giving my clients the temporary website so that I didn't need to worry about transferring the proofing galleries as well. So the new website is up and running and I have A LOT of updating to do on the blog....I think I have like 6 or 7 sessions I still need to post. I'm staying busy till the end of the year and then things will start to dwindle down so I can start focusing on marketing for next year and getting my new camera gear.

My session for tomorrow had to be rescheduled till next weekend because there's a 100% chance of rain so we'll probably work on the kitchen. I picked up some paint samples at Home Depot today and looked at flooring. I'm excited to have a normal looking kitchen and something that I'm comfortable spending time in.

I think that I might take Lillian's Christmas photos tomorrow.....only problem is that she probably won't want to take her dress off once we're done! Anyways, got some things to do so hopefully I'll be back with some Christmas sneak peaks!

You'd think.....

that as a photographer that I'd be snapping photos of Lillian left and right, but I must admit that I've been very bad lately! I'm going to try and keep up with updating our family blog as things start to slow down this winter. Things have just been so nuts that I often forget to do the little things from time to time like capturing my own child growing up!

And let me tell you.......this kid has a personality and a half!! She cracks me up all day long, even when she does something that she isn't supposed too! I bought her Christmas outfit a couple of weeks ago so I need to take a photo this week so that I can make our Christmas cards as soon as possible. My life is consumed by work at the moment and while it sucks from time to time (I know.....sucks isn't a very lady like word!) I figure that it's just a part of building my business and my name.

In other news the daylight savings time totally kicked my butt this past week and messed with my schedule! I don't want waking up at 7 every morning to be the new daily ritual! I think that's about it for now.....need to get back to work but thought that I would mention that new pics of Lillian will be coming soon!

Busy, busy, busy.....

that's my life as of right now, which is a good thing most of the time. Busy means I'm making money, and making money is always a good thing.....especially being a stay at home mom! I know I need to share some new photos of Lillian which I plan on doing sometime this week. I also need to take some new photos of the house. Dan is done with the outside for this year. We're saving the front for next year since we have to rent a lift....better to do it right the first time around!

We'll be starting work on the bathroom first. We have to completely gut it other than the tub. New vanity, new toilet, new light fixtures, new tile floor.....basically new everything! We even decided to put in some new windows since the ones in there are probably in the worst shape out of all of the ones in the house! It'll stink once the whole process starts since it's our only bathroom other than the toilet downstairs, but we'll get through it! I'm just ready for there to be some light fixtures in there.....and an exhaust fan!!!

Anyways, the whole reason for this post is that I thought that I would share some of the holiday cards that I'll be offering my clients this year. All orders need to be in by November 20th to ensure that they'll be printed and delivered in time to be sent out. You can check them out better on the photography blog here.

This isn't the path I imagined.....

I know I've said it a hundred times before, but I am so very thankful that I'm able to do what I do! I always wanted to be a stay at home mom, but it's just such a blessing to not only be able to stay at home with my daughter, but also contribute to my household income. The wedding bookings are starting to come in and I had to make a decision as to how many I'd be willing to shoot......after all.....it does take up an entire "free" day from my family. At the same time, this is part of the price I have to pay to stay at home AND make money. I'm happy that I walked down this path, even with the mistakes along the way because it's made me want even more success in this industry even more. Keeping that in mind, I've decided to add a new little venture to my agenda. I just opened up a little etsy shop which you can check out here. I called it "On Batten's Edge" which I absolutely love! I have a few hand knit photographer accessories up for sale so we'll see how they do! I'm going to try and set myself apart from the others by using hand spun and overall great quality yarns! Anyways, I'll share a photo of Lillian when I wake up tomorrow (well today actually!)......in the meantime here's my add for the store......

See it bigger on my photo blog here!

Happy Sunday!

Just a quick post and hoping that the weather wherever you are is as beautiful as it is here in Southern Vermont! We're at peak foliage this weekend and you can certainly tell with all of the tourist driving around (driving 30 miles below the speed limit to look at the oh so pretty leaves.) Me and Dan spent our 5th wedding anniversary yesterday by going out to eat while Lillian spent the night at Nana's house. We were going to go to Saratoga, but Dan didn't feel like driving so we just went to Manchester instead. After dinner we continued a 3 year tradition......Carvel Ice Cream cake for dessert. I opted for the big $25 cake so we'd have lots of left overs......when did ice cream cake become so expensive?!! Lilly should be coming home soon which I'm happy about...it was a nice break, but I do miss her whenever she's gone! One thing I don't miss though is her little messes.......this child can make a clean house dirty in under 5 minutes flat! It's a good thing I love her!

Anyways, I'm going to get back outside and finish cleaning when Lillian gets back for her nap.

Happy Anniversary Dan.....it's been a great ride for the past 5 years and I look forward to the next 50!

A time to reflect.....

A time to remember.....a time to be thankful.....and a time to find beauty. Words cannot express how much I love Vermont. The people truly are the friendliest there are! I can't even begin to count the number of people that have stopped, either walking or driving their car's along the road to tell us how much they love what we've been doing with the house. I mean seriously, where else would you have complete strangers driving down the road pull into your driveway to tell you how much they love the color of your house?! It's this beauty, this sense of peace that I wanted to try and capture during my couple hour break I had yesterday. A break from what you may ask?! A break from my computer, a break from cleaning (which I admit I've been struggling with lately!) and a break from being a mom and wife. Two hours where all I thought about was whether or not to travel down a road that I've yet to drive down. A time to be thankful for what I have and a time to reflect on what on want for my future. This past weekend, the church in town had it's local Harvest Festival. I loved that I was able to load Lillian up in her red wagon and walk into town! I've been contemplating on possibly putting together some blank greeting cards with some of my photographs on them for some time now and it's when I heard about the festival that a light went off in my head that it's worth a try next year. So I decided to use my me time to take some images of the landscapes around me. I still have a lot more places to go and lots more to capture, but here's a small sampling.....

my bug

isn't she the sweetest little girl ever?!!!!! I thought I better take some photos of her in her Halloween costume while it's still nice out, so we went out in the backyard yesterday to grab a few shots! She was dancing and singing all over the place and it was really too cute!!!

I know, I know.....

I haven't been doing a good job taking new pictures of Lillian! You'd think that this blog would be full of them now, but I'm so busy that I forget to just take the camera out and capture her. She's really doing well if I say so myself! She started putting multiple words together and yesterday she told me "I won't do that!" which is more exciting that no for sure!! Her hair is still crazy as can be as you can see from the picture below. I decided that I'm going to let her bangs grow out and since the rest of her hair is starting to fill in I thought we'd wait a little bit longer until she gets it cut......or maybe I'm still just putting it off for some unexplained reason!

Business is booming which is fun, but a lot of work for sure. I take breaks throughout the day when I'm editing to play and read with Lillian, but I really need to make sure that I get out with her more often. I'm taking her to storytime at the library this week to see how she does with other kids. They have a playgroup that meets twice a week as well, but I thought that we'd start off small and go from there! I always said that we'd go, but I really need to make sure that I do it this time because she really needs the interaction with other kids.....especially since she'll be headed to pre-school next year (where does the time go!)

This week I have lots of things to do which include getting prepared for this weekend. I'm headed to Syracuse for 2 days of mini-shoots......eight sessions in two days! Lillian is going with Dan to CT so I don't have to worry about her and can just focus on the job at hand! Each time I've been home lately I've been so busy that I barely have time to visit with my family, much less my extended family! Anyways, I'm going to to do a better job of taking photos of Lillian from now on......promise!!

Wanna see new....

pictures of the house?! Head on over here to my photography blog where the photos are nice and big!!

Stampin Up Stamp Sets for sale

So D-Day has come......it's time to let go of the rest of my stamp sets! I haven't stamped in a little over two years and although I loved it, I just don't have the time anymore and they're just sitting in the garage asking to go to a new home. So, here's my list. Shipping for all of them is $5, US only. Set will be shipped via USPS. All sets may have some staining on the wood blocks, but all were cleaned using Stampin Up's Stamp Cleaner. Prices are non-negotiable. If you'd like to be able to see what the stamp set looks like, simply go to www.splitcoaststampers.com and hit gallery in the upper menu. Then select the Stampin Up gallery and it will let you browse the sets by alphabetical order. Most of my sets are retired and are no longer available in the catalogs!

Brighter Tomorrow- $7
Paint Prints- $5
A Little Love- $8- sold
Cute as a Bug- $8-sold
Right at Home- $10
Happy Hearts- $10
Simple Sayings-$7-sold
Beyond the Basics- $4-sold
Itty Bitty- $5
Handmade with Love- $3 (missing one stamp of set of 4)
Simple Wishes- $4-sold
Quick Thinking- $5
Small Script- $7-sold
Pocket Full of Posies- $5-sold
Wild About You- $12
Furnished with Love- $7 (two sets available)
Farm Fresh- $7
On the Farm- $25
Simply Sweet- $7

I only accept Paypal and item will ship same day I receive payment. Any questions, please contact me at carrie at carrieannphotography.com!!!

I still have more......just need to find the boxes in the garage! I'll also be getting rid of some of my cardstock as well and maybe some of my supplies as well so be on the look out for that in the future!

Still Busy, but

almost done! I only have one more session to edit and then I'm done for a bit! Then it's just ordering once my clients make their choices and I get a 2 week break before I'm at it again! I still need to put my holiday stuff together, but at least now I can focus solely on that! After I'm done with my last session, I'm going to start working on the garage. We're planning on having a yard sale Columbus Day weekend and I know that we have a ton of stuff that we can get rid of. We've had one side of the garage cleared for a little over a month now, but now I need to use that space to get everything into piles for the sale so I'll have to start parking outside again. I'm just ready for that side of the garage to be cleared out!

Not much else is going on here really so this is a rather boring post. I'm going to be going through some of my stampin up stamps tonight and pricing them and placing a list up on my blog. What doesn't sell off of the blog will go onto buy/sell/trade forum at splitcoaststampers and then those that don't sell from that will end up on ebay. It's just time for me to get rid of all of them because they're just sitting in the garage wishing that someone would use them!!

Two posts....

in one day....oh my!!!! So I'm taking a mini 5 minute break from editing and thought I'd give a little pimp to my friend Holly. She's already well know in the scrapbooking industry so it's not like she needs an introduction or anything, but she's back at designing digital scrapbooking stuff. Her new and fab stuff can be found over at Inspiration Lane here! And of course you can always pick up her paper designs from Pink Paislee all over the web!!

I recently had to remove myself from the one creative team that I was on, Lauren Grier from Sweet Shoppe Designs. I absolutely love her designs, but I wasn't doing her any justice by struggling to meet the month to month minimum which I was having a hard time doing with all of the time that I spend on the computer editing. Some of the ladies are able to crank out layouts left and right and here I am barely able to create the 3 layouts. I know that things are going to get better during the winter months and I'll probably be able to create more, but in the mean time it wasn't fair to her. So.......now when I get the chance and I'm able to have some alone time with no editing involved I'm just going to scrap for me. Not because I have too, but because I want too.

Anyways, I know that was another totally random post! Here's a 20x20 print I created for Matthew and his family.....

If you have a little girl.....

you need to check out my friend Gabi's Etsy shop here! She makes the sweetest little bows and Lillian absolutely LOVES them! They're actually the only bows that she'll keep in her hair. Gabi even made a little holder for Lillian and painted it with ladybugs since she remembered how much I love ladybugs (how can you not love something that means good luck!) Me and Gabi used to work together when me and Dan were living in Buffalo, NY and her and her husband have the most adorable twin girls that are the same age as Lillian. I was able to meet the girls last time I was out in Buffalo around 2 years ago, but we're working on getting out there so we can both catch up with some friends and finally have the girls meet. Every now and then me and Dan will miss something in particular about Buffalo, but half of the time it involves food which isn't a good enough reason to stay. We both had some great friends that are still out there though so it really would be great to get back there for a visit.

Other than that, we went to the VT state fair yesterday and let me tell you, I'm glad that we only paid $2 to get in!!! It was cute and all, but I would have totally bummed if we had to pay the $10 each for that!! It was even smaller than the Washington County Fair in NY! We did get to see a pig race though and Lillian absolutely loved it. Actually I should say that she loved all of the other kids jumping up and down more so than the pigs! It was nice taking a break from painting the house and editing! I have 4 sessions I need to edit so it will be a week filled with lots of time spent at the computer once again, but after that September won't be busy again until later in the month. Anyways, time to get to work!!!

It's my blog....

and I can talk about anything I want too!!! Dan always says "why'd you put that on your blog?" Because it's MYYYYYY blog and I can do and say whatever I want.......THAT'S WHY!!!! Anyways, Dan went to bed early so I was actually able to watch the convention. One word.....AMAZING!!! I am so ready for a change and when I cast my vote in November, I hope that millions of other voters will be ready for the same change!

Anyways, I was just looking at this blog and thought to myself.......I really need to change my blog header!!! Lillian was only a year old in that shot and wasn't even walking.........ahhhhhh.......the good old days!!! That's back when I didn't have to chase behind her cleaning up her mess (I give up on some days and just let her do her thing!)......or when I didn't have to worry about her getting up during her nap time and throwing things out of her crib and taking off her poopy diaper and throwing it on the floor while jumping and screaming "I pooh'd, I pooh'd." (I seriously almost died laughing when I opened up the door and saw her all naked jumping up and down!) I seriously need to go to bed now.......my thoughts are very random and I'm not making much sense!!!

Aggravated

I won't get into the details because that would just be wrong of me, but let me just tell you this......ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT!!!!!!! I wrote the fine print and expect it to be read........enough said!

Anyways, today me and Lillian drove up to Rutland to go to Jo-Ann fabrics so I could pick up a few more colors for backdrops for this weekend. We're going back to Syracuse for my dad's annual clam bake that he holds every Labor Day.....clams.....yuck!!! I'll just take a coney and corn on the cob please! I have 3 mini shoots on Saturday and then the bake is on Sunday. We'll be coming home later that night so that Dan can spend all day Monday painting the house. And would you believe that he took Tuesday off.......the man that never takes time off is actually using his vacation days........SHOCKING I KNOW!!! Actually Dan has been doing a really good job at coming home at 5 since we bought the house. And although he gets right to painting when he gets home, I'm glad that he's letting go of the fact that the stuff at work will always be there tomorrow. Anyways, I'm going to be working on Matthew's photos later tonight and tomorrow along with some other stuff. Nothing to exciting and no new pictures of Lillian.....sorry! But remember to check out my photography blog here from time to time......I post all of my sessions over there and the pictures are always nice and big!!

A long day (and week for that matter!)

Today was a really long day and I'm really sleepy, but it was well worth it. Today I drove 3 hours each way to visit a little boy named Matthew. Matthew has Mito disease complex l and lll and CIPO(chronic intestinal pseudo obstruction.) At 3 1/2 years old, he's about the same size as Lillian. As soon as I walked through the door and I saw him I could tell that he was just about the sweetest little boy ever! You may be wondering why I drove 3 hours to meet him and his family. If you haven't looked at the wording on the lower part of my home page for my website, I'm a volunteer photographer for the Littlest Heroes Project. As a photographer, I donate my time and some prints to the family of a child who is ill. Matthew was my first session for this project and I'm so glad that I joined. I don't know how my photographs turned out, but I do know that while I was there, Matthew's mom Lisa told me that he was the most active he's been all summer long and I'm happy that I was able to capture that for them. I offered to photograph their family once a year with the same stipulations that I'll offer all of my clients through this program......mostly because he was my first and because I'd like to see him again. The ride was a nice one and I think that the money I spent on gas and will spend on the prints out of my own pocket is well worth the memories I'm hopefully creating for them. Anyways, you can learn more about the Littlest Heroes Project here and you can check out Matthew's website here!

In other news, I had two other sessions this past week.....one is proofed and I'm starting the other one tomorrow. I'm trying to have everything done by the time I leave for Syracuse which shouldn't be a problem. I streamlined my proofing while I was doing the wedding so I'm a lot faster and efficient!! Oh and another little tidbit, I'm reading again. My friends kept talking about the Twilight series and how they couldn't put it down. I totally love it! I bought Twilight last week and have been reading a chapter a night. May not seem like much, but I fall asleep easily when I read. I always want to keep on reading, but I know I'll forget if I continue. I guess that's about it. Dan finished stripping the paint of one side of the house and he's going to be priming it tomorrow. And then later in the day we're going to go to the Washington County Fair.....maybe we'll win a fish for Lilly!

The house....

is coming along nicely! Dan has been working his butt off and it's starting to pay off. We finished the inside of the back porch awhile ago and I thought that I'd finally post some of the pictures. I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not, but Dan ended up using a floor sander because the paint on the floors was in such shape that even painting over it would still be rather dangerous for Lillian (lead paint!) We still have to paint the floor in the upper rear porch, but at least now I can leave the back door open and lock the outside door so that Lillian can play out there. At the moment we can't go out there because Dan is sanding the house and the dust is all over the porch, but it should be cleaned by this weekend since he'll be painting (hopefully!) I really need to take a picture of the side of the house. It going to be such a huge transformation when we're all done. We still have to figure out when and who we're going to hire to paint above the front porch, or if we're going to rent a piece of equipment to do it ourselves......I guess we'll see!! Anyways, here's the pics of the back porch all done....I sanded and put poly on the picnic table that Tobias left us....

Just realized....

that I haven't had a rant in awhile!! When we were renting I think that my stress level was through the roof. I hated dealing with inconsiderate people. Now though, things are as they should be. We're the youngest couple in the neighborhood so they probably think we're the ones making all the noise. We don't make any noise to speak of anyways, although Dan pressure washing the house to get the paint off can get a bit loud! Dan finished painting most of the back side of the house and now he's onto the side. I pulled up some of the shrubs in the front yard cause they looked like pooh and I couldn't deal with looking at them anymore. That's kind of how I feel about the kitchen and the bathrooms at the moment as well! I don't spend much time in either of those rooms.....particularly the kitchen......that creepy wallpaper gives me the heeby jeebies! I'm ready for that part of the remodel to be over with!

In other news, when I said that my photography business is picking up......I WASN'T KIDDING!!! I have 3 sessions this week and 4 next week. I have 8 sessions next month and hopefully some more will be added. I've gotten 3 inquiries this week about shooting weddings.....one on New Years Eve which could be fun if I get booked! So fingers crossed, next year will be a good year for me and my little business. I'd be happy if I could pay the utility bills and be the one who buys the new windows for the house next year. Oh......and lets not forget buying a new camera.....time to upgrade baby!!!! I'm going with the D300 because I'm weak and don't think I can handle all that the D3 has to offer......maybe someday though! Anyways, I've got some proofing to do tomorrow and some more housework which seems to be never ending.......think we need to have a BIG yard sale at the end of the summer to empty out the garage.....wanna come help?!

A little funny.....

well not too funny! Last night we had some unexpected visitors in our house.......BATS!!!! Bats are something that we knew were around, mostly because of the river. Bats killing the bugs is a good thing.....bats in your house......not so good!! We know that they're in the attic and we'll be shooing them out once they're done roosting since we don't want the babies to die when the parents leave and never come back. They're not causing any harm at the moment, so we knew it was best to wait until they're ready to leave in a couple of months. So last night I'm sitting at the computer and Dan is watching TV.....all of the sudden he yells "Holy Shit." I look up and there's a bat in the living room!! He was able to make it go into the upper back porch and then get it outside. A couple hours later......another bat!!! This time Dan had had enough and he wasn't going to let this one escape. Long story short, he killed it. I don't think that you're supposed to kill them, but this one wouldn't go out to the porch so it's what he had to do. Where were they coming in you may ask? On the side of the air conditioner where there was a big old space for them to get through! So the air conditioner in the spare bedroom came out and we started trying to figure out what to do to make sure that they don't come back next year. Part of the repairs on the house is making sure that they won't be able to get back into the attic. But we also need to make sure that they don't try to get back in so we're going to be getting some of those ultrasonic devices that drive them batty to make sure they don't come back. So that's my story for the day!!

A little tip from a photographer....

Next time you're at a wedding, don't do this.....

Really......was it worth the quality of the cell phone picture to get in back of the wedding party? Are you going to blow it up and put it up on your wall.......highly unlikely! You wouldn't get behind the priest in a church ceremony so why do it outdoors! Can I fix this picture? Yes! But it's going to require some work on my part which I'm okay with........seriously though.......don't do this next time you're at an outdoor wedding!!!

Anyways, here's another one of my cutie....

A storyboard

We went to the park today and I took some photos of Lillian in her new dress.....


Check out the new blog to see it bigger!

A new blog

So I finally upgraded my photography blog and in time, I may completely transfer our family blog over there as well but I guess we'll see. The new blog is a lot more professional looking and it allows me to place full sized photos as well which is a huge plus in this business!

So you can check it out here (www.carrieannphotography.com/blog/)

Anyways, today is Dan's birthday........the big 3-0!!!!! We're getting old aren't we?! He's outside painting at the moment.....it was supposed to rain all day yesterday so he never painted.....we only ended up getting a few drops. I have some new pictures of the back porch all done and I'll download those later today.

A wedding in the park.....

Is such a beautiful place for a ceremony....and the Georgi Museum in Shushan, NY is the perfect setting!! Every first in your life can be such a rush of emotions. The first time you see your future wife/husband, your first kiss, your first walk as husband and wife......and last but not least, your first time photographing a wedding! Strangely enough, not a single bone in my body was nervous. My sister Betsy, also known as the assistant sent from heaven above was there to assist me and help me capture Tiffany and Leon's Day. And what a beautiful day it was! The sun was shining and love was in the air......corny I know! At any rate, I had a great time and I thought I'd give them just a little sneak peak of their day.....lots more to come. Thanks again for letting me capture your day!

My Silly Lilly

Starting to pick up....

So my photography business is starting to pick up which is fun and scary at the same time! If the whole wedding thing pans out, I'd be happy if I were able to book like 10 or so weddings a year, but I'd like to keep the focus on family and children for the time being. I just love the interactions between families. It's just so much fun and I think that I would miss that if I were to focus solely on weddings. Who knows what the future holds, but hopefully it only gets better from here on out. Here's a couple of shots from my family session this past week.....



In other news, I'm missing Lillian terribly!! She's been in Syracuse since Sunday and it's so strange with it being so quite around here. Mary offered to take her a few days before the wedding so I could prepare myself, which in the end has been a huge help. I've been working on getting the images from the family session edited so I can just focus on the wedding first thing Monday morning. It's going to be quite the experience editing and narrowing down a possible 3,000+ images for a wedding compared to my typical family sessions!! I'm sure I'll be a little overwhelmed at first, but like everything in life, practice makes perfect!!

We're coming along nicely with the house. We put in the new screens on the lower rear porch and Dan's going to work on putting the trim up this weekend. He's also going to start taking the paint off with the power washer. Who knows how long it will take for everything to get done, but it'd be nice if we could be done with the outside within a month. But somehow I highly doubt it with all that's going on!

My impatient, hard working....

husband decided that painting the house needed to be moved up. I understand the reasoning.....wanting the outside to look nice because everyone sees that first! My thing was getting the lower rear porch sanded because it was in really rough shape and it'd be nice for Lillian to play in there so I can unpack. Well Dan thought that we might as well start the scraping and painting process too while we're at it. Let me tell you........restoring this house is no easy task!! I say restoring because we'd like to keep the original charm that led us to it. How sad would it be to put up aluminum siding? With a lot of hard work, we can bring her back (yes it's a she) to her original beauty. So, we decided to go green!! It's Olivine Green from Behr just in case you're interested and I absolutely love it. The trim.....well....the first one we picked out totally stunk. So rather than risk another wasted gallon of paint, we decided to play it safe and go with a creamy off white. It's not like we're lacking in color or anything.....especially amongst all of the other white houses around us! We were thinking of painting the door black, but I don't think that will look good with the new floor paint which is going to be a dark brown color. So I'm still going to try and take the paint off and stain it.....otherwise I'll just paint it the off white color. I've been painting like a mad woman and sweating buckets to boot! I'm just really excited to see it all finished, though I'm sure it will be awhile considering we still have to get all of the old paint off. Anyways, here's a couple of pics.....

Been awhile....

I know.....it's been awhile since I posted a picture of Lillian. We went outside today since we finally had some relief from the humidity. I can deal with the heat, but it's the humidity that keeps me inside! Anyways, here she is looking all cute....


I cut her bangs again myself...probably too short once again. For some reason I'm afraid to bring her to the hairdresser! I think a part of it is me trying to deny the fact that she's growing up. She's starting to get so big that I'm probably going to have to make her start walking herself to bed. We'll probably also be removing the front rail from her bed sometime soon....most likely when she gets back from her stay in Syracuse with Grandma and Grandpa where she'll be in a big girl bed all by herself! She'll be there for a whole week so that she'll not only be able to visit but also to give me a break! I'll be shooting my first wedding on the 26th so that week will give me some time to prepare! Anyways, I need to go clean the floor and start preparing dinner.....have I mentioned how much easier it is to clean wood floors.....no more carpets for us!!!!

Oh Snap!!

So this is what I've been up to while it's been hot and humid outside (you can click on the image to make it larger)....

I just finished all of the details regarding the print packages and what not so I'm ready to start advertising. The packages.....let me tell you......are a steal of a deal!!! You'd totally be crazy NOT to book a party with me!!! If you're interested, be sure to contact me soon since my schedule is starting to fill up!!!

Be the first to book a session from this ad and mention the words "I'm first" and receive a free 11x14!!!

New pics

So I thought it was time to finally update what we've been looking at for the past couple of days. It was a lot of work, but well worth every drop of sweat. I'm sure we saved a bunch of money doing it ourselves and I happen to think that it turned out okay considering that we've never done it before. There are some water stains that we weren't able to lift with the sander, but I think that it only add to the character of the house. So as you can tell from this pic, things are coming along nicely. I still need to get a couple more sets of curtains and some stuff up on the walls and then we'll be all done with this room.



I'll be stripping the paint off of the front door and staining it since the paint kinda looks icky. Just another one of the many summer projects at the Bombria house this summer......that sounds so strange to me still.....Bombria house......it's actually ours!!!



So our next project is the drywall in the kitchen. We're going to replace it because it's really damaged and I don't think that I can stand looking at the wallpaper much longer. The major kitchen remodel won't happen for a couple of years, mostly because we want to do it right. Tearing down a few walls, getting all new cabinets, appliances, floors, etc. isn't going to be cheap and obviously it isn't something that we're prepared to do right now......I guess now would be a good time to win the lottery! I'm just really proud of all of the work that we've been putting into the house so far......my only wish is that all of the boxes would unpack themselves because I really HATE unpacking....but at least this is the last time right?!

Anyways, not much else is going on. I'm turning the big 2-9 tomorrow.....for the first time too!!! Can't believe I'm that old.....it still feels like I just graduated from high school sometimes. Nothing planned because really....who wants to celebrate your 29th birthday?! Maybe I'll pick up a Carvel Ice Cream cake for myself since Dan will most certainly forget like always (I'm used to it).....he'll remember like a week later though so I guess that's all that matters!!!

The Outside....

So this is the outside of our house. It was built in 1927 and we have a slate roof. As you can see, the slate needs to be cleaned, but other than that it will probably outlast us as long as we take care of it. Since Dan used to do landscaping, he'll be working his magic with our yard. That big old bush/shrub/whatever it is next to the stairs is coming out. We're going to put raised beds around the house and put some flowers and what not. The beds won't happen until next year, but we'll probably just rip that bush and trim the rest in the meantime. We also plan on taking out the concrete paths out and replacing them with something else. We also need to pave the driveway at some point as well.
Here is the main reason that we're painting this year. The whole house looks like this and with a 2 year old running around it probably isn't the safest having little paint chips all over the place. In all likelihood there's some lead paint involved so we'll be taking extra special care with the scraping and disposal of everything. We're painting it some shade of green....like a moss or sage sorta color with tan accents.
And this......this is where it's at!! This is the Battenkill River from our backyard. The water is a little high at the moment because of all of the rain that we've been getting. It's such a beautiful river and Dan's told that there's a fishing hole right around the bend.....who thought we'd be able to put our waders on and fly fish from our backyard!! We're just going to make a little path to the river and leave the rest as it is because it's part of the habitat for the fish



So when I said that we have a lot of work ahead of us, I wasn't kidding!!! It'll be a complete transformation inside and out!

Whew!!!

I'm pooped!!! Actually we're both really pooped....or maybe more exhausted....and we haven't even moved in yet! We closed on Friday and started working on the house as soon as we got the keys. We came back and started painting the living room. Pat picked up Lillian after work (which we're so thankful for....no way we would have been able to finish with her running around!) While we were waiting for the paint in the living room to dry we started painting the dining room. It's a dark teal and it was a little shocking at first, but I really like it (need to take pics today of it) Yesterday we spent the day sanding the floor in the living room. We now know why the professionals charge so much to do it......it's A LOT of work. But we saved so much doing it ourselves. It looks like the last time it was done they cut some corners and were a little sloppy with their work. They used a circular sander around the edges of the wall and left some circular marks in the floors. I did my best to remove what I could, but I guess in the end it adds character to the house! So, how about some pics?!

This is our lovely 1970's kitchen....wallpaper and all! We have a lot of longterm goals for this room which include ripping out the the wall of cabinets and moving in the wall on the right. The wall with the sink and fridge will turn into a half wall to open it up to the living room. Since it will be a couple of years until we're able to tackle this, we're going to work on some short term goals. First thing to go is the wallpaper and some of the drywall which is damaged. We're also going to put some of that peel and stick laminate flooring down that looks like tile since the flooring on it now is damaged. We're going to paint the fridge black to go with our new stove. I'm sure once we're done with the short term stuff it will look like a completely different room.....which is certainly a good thing!!

Need a 30 year old stove?

The lovely wallpaper with glitter on it.....seriously......how could this have ever been in style?!

Living Room Before

Living Room After Paint and sanding....Dan also put in new light fixtures and the base and top of the stairs.

Living Room Before.....the main reason we decided to sand the floors!

After sanding. We're staining today......a dark walnut color!

The nice and wide staircase!

Living Room Before

After

Anyways, it's going to be a long week and we're going to be really tired.....but in the end it'll so be worth it. Besides the kitchen stuff that we'll be doing a few weeks our only other major task this year is going to be repainting the outside of the house. We have to completely scrape the entire house. We'll be starting late August so we'll have a little time to relax.....but not too much time. We knew it was going to be a lot of work when we bought it, but it's ours and we can make it our own!!