So excited for a new year to start!  2011 was a complicated year. After almost 8 years of marriage we decided it might be a good time to grow our little family and after almost 4 years of owning my photography business, I wasn’t as happy as I thought I would have been. This little combo proved to be a lot more complicated than one might have anticipated.

Everyone knows I love my business, but after almost 4 years of working from home all by myself all day long I started to feel pretty lonely. And then I felt guilty. I had the job of my dreams and I wasn’t happy. Major guilt. I still loved my clients and the job I get to do, but I was overwhelmed with the amount of work I had and was desperately longing for some personal connections. The opportunity to work as an associate photographer for a friend came along and it seemed like the perfect solution to all my problems. I could still photograph as many weddings overall as I have in previous years, but have half the amount of the work on weekdays. I decided to take on half as many of my own weddings as I usually do to allow time for a social life (and in preparation for maybe a baby some day soon), as well as pursue some other interests. Even though we got all set up, I never actually got to work for her. Which I think it turned out to be a very good thing. First, it taught me that it’s ok to not have every idea or plan work out. Even if it sounds like a really great thing, maybe it’s just not meant to be. And most importantly, as I now reflect on what would have been, I’ve learned that what I love is not to just create images, but my passion is to form relationships with my clients and then create images for them.  And this little ‘discovery’ makes me so excited for 2012! It’s the core of my business goals for next year and I can’t wait to meet and get to know the couples and love stories I will get the honor of documenting over the next 12 months. I’m also happy to focus back into my own business 100% and give my clients the best wedding photography experience! I’ve been working hard on some changes and improvements and I’m so happy with how it’s all coming along!

Now on the home front, after a failed attempt at growing our little family, we are very excited to be expecting a little bundle of joy to arrive at the end of June. I’m still going to keep my maximum amount of weddings the same as 2011 which proved to be the perfect balance between giving each of my clients a lot of attention and also having time for my friends and family.

Speaking of balance, 2011 was the year I went back to yoga and it felt SO good! I’m not by any means a yogi, but I love the journey of trying to get there. And although it’s not very yoga-like to hold on to things or feelings from the past, I’m really excited to brag about the fact that I finally conquered scorpion pose. Sure, it may only have been two times, but it felt so good! It’s hard to explain how a physical accomplishment can do so much for your mind, but it totally does. If you’ve never tried yoga before, I highly recommend it! Find a good studio and it will change your body and your mind.

So besides a few struggles and some failures, 2011 was a pretty awesome year! I learned more balance, had a great time with friends and family, made some pretty incredible new friends (Hi, Megan!), photographed fantastic weddings of truly remarkable couples, worked with the greatest wedding vendors and traveled to some really extraordinary places.

Here are a few of 2011 Kodak moments:

A BYOP (Bring Your Own Pool) Party at my house:



Camping in Pinetop with my husband’s cousins:A perfect trip to Costa Rica with Tom and Trisha:

An amazing time in New York with my hubby:

And some other fun trips to Sedona, Florida, Vegas, San Diego and Montana! But I just realized those photos are on my laptop which is currently waiting for Apple to send its new battery. Oops!

Here’s to 2012 and all that it brings, including the best news ever that my family is moving back to Arizona! I’m so happy!!

After I professed my love for pinterest.com on Facebook, I had a lot of people ask me what it is and why it is so great. I was surprised by how many people didn’t know about it and so I thought I should share the news with all of you. Warning: You may become addicted. Pinterest is a website where you can organize images of things you like into different categories (or themed boards). Here’s a screenshot of one my boards full of images with ideas on how to display images in your home: You can pin any image that you find online or upload from your hard drive. You can also follow boards that you find interesting and new pins from those boards will pop up on your “home screen”. If you see something you like, you can simply “re-pin it” to your own board. If you are planning a wedding, pinterest makes it SO easy to keep your ideas organized and help you envision how everything will look together. It also makes it super easy to find clever and unique ideas to make your wedding feel personalized. Here’s a screenshot of a wedding board: On my last post I mentioned I was working on renovating the kitchen a little and pinterest.com has been a huge help! You can go see what my kitchen board looks like and I will be posting photos of our new kitchen soon. (I’ve been anxiously awaiting the handyman who’s coming to hang some lights and the microwave in about 2 weeks from now). After you check out pinterest.com, let me know what you think and I look forward to following your boards and great ideas! Once you are there, you will see that you can leave comments on pins, “tag” friends, like pins, share it on facebook, twitter, etc. It is super simple to use and oh-so-much fun! Happy pinning :)