Every year our family comes up with one big gift to give to our closest friends and family. Sometimes it’s an ornament, sometimes it’s a shirt; and this year it’s a little songbook with eleven favorite Christmas hymns. I really wanted to help out on this one, because it’s the type of thing I enjoy doing! So we ended up going with a hand-lettered design (turned into a stamp) on brown kraft paper, printed lyrics + music on the inside, and tied everything together with hemp and twine. I still have more to do (we’re sending out nearly fifty!), but…

Sometimes the light is just beautiful and you have to ask your sister to pose for just a minute. Sometimes I feel completely torn between photography and design…part of me desperately wants to pursue photography, invest in one or two more lenses, and focus on improving myself; while the other part says no, stick with design, because you know you love it. I’m not going to be changing what I’m doing anytime soon, but there’s still that tugging that I feel, especially after seeing the gorgeous work of other photographers and wanting to pour my energy to into getting better…

This was the first family photoshoot I’ve ever done, and even though I was a little nervous to begin with, it went so well and I am very happy with the shots we got! I’ve only ever done my own family’s photos, so taking someone else’s was a new but good experience. The kids are so sweet and did so well…each of them have the cutest smiles and it was fun catching them throughout our time. Previous to the shoot they were over at our house, and I ended up taking some lifestyle shots of the kids…there’s something about photographing…

I recently did my first-ever family session with some friends from church…it went really well and was so much fun! I’m looking forward to sharing more from this session – but for now here’s one of my favorite shots from the day.