BOSTON CHILDREN'S PHOTOGRAPHER, BOSTON FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER, BOSTON NEWBORN PHOTOGRAPHER

I will never be as [well dressed, put together, cool, nice, charming, hospitable, gracious, beautiful] as my clients.   Seriously.  You all know that I just love to love my clients.  And in the back of my mind, I always think “this streak will end, someday I might meet someone I don’t click with, I might not fall in love with them and then what will I do?”  Maybe.  But not this time.  I actually drove away from this session thinking “OK, so next time Amanda is at Carolyn’s, would it be totally inappropriate if I called Stephanie and we both went over there with a bottle of wine?”

Actually, yes, because Amanda would be working as she is Night Nurse extraordinairre.  If you live on the North Shore and are having a baby and think you might need some night help, email me and I’ll give you Amanda’s 411.  She is an amazing nurse and has ventured out on her own and I highly reccomend.

I digress.

Amanda & AJ and their kids are really awesome.  Like any parents, they were worried about how everyone was behaving, probably thinking that I wasn’t getting much and what a rambunctious brood of children have they.  But really, their kids were kids and they are the kind of kids I love.  In my world, I say you can take spirit out of a kid, but you can’t put it back in.  Anyway, I loved them… and I was really thrilled when I looked at what I captured.  I could stare at family images forever… I love seeing the little nuances between parents, each kid, how they have each other’s traits and how they interact.

So Amanda, I am so sorry it took so long to blog these… but the good news is that they are all done and I should have your entire gallery to you sometime in the next few days while I hustle between here and Austin!

The long awaited awesome nursery!  I shot this about 9 days ago and am just getting around to a sneak peak!  The upside is that the gallery is done as well!

So this totally adorable family won the nursery contest.  And you can see why.  They are very cute, very put together, very creative, and most important, very happy!  I had such a great time getting to know them.  I came home and immediately sized up my mismatched upholstery issues and was motivated to finally decide on some fabrics.  Then I painted the kid’s [Owen's] bathroom.  It would be nice if I was this inspired every day.  But really, this home/nursery has all the little touches that I never think to complete.

This family is also just really neat.  I love meeting families who are just really in sync and so clearly love each other.  It is so evident in how they interact that they are threesome that is just blessed to be joined together.  Baby Paige is adorable… and she’s going to be a beauty.  She has a great little attitude, complete independence (I’d bet pretty soon they’ll hear “I do it myself!”), but still knows enough to snuggle in with her mom and dad.

Thank you for a great morning, and for participating in my contest.  I am thrilled I was able to capture your family as it is today.

An explanation.  Sometimes I shoot a session and immediately run home to blog.  This is usually the case if I am not behind on blogging OR if I get home and no one is home bugging me, and making me answer the never-ending question “Why do you come home and immediately race up to that computer?”  Sometimes I shoot a session and immediately proof it because of specific conditions and it’s done, blogged and in the can super fast.  And sometimes I have a hybrid of those things and I don’t blog until the session is proofed, but the bonus is a big blog sneak peak and the client gets their blog/slideshow/gallery all in one shot.  I just figured I’d explain that because it’s not that I forget about people or jump people ahead in the queue… it just depends on what harddrive I have with me and which child is needing me.

I did a little solo road tripping on Friday, taking a rather long route out to Quogue for a day with Amanda and friends.  I started out having a little coffee with Amy Ro in Providence and from there headed over to Riverdale to see my longtime college homegirl Wendy and her awesome family.  It was really nice being in the car alone for 3 hours.  Like really nice.  Not only was I able to fully converse with myself — outloud — but I was also able to hear my own answers!  I busted out to a lot of old school music (“Engine Engine Number Nine… on the NY transit line…”) and for once was able to listen to it really loud without having to hear “no mom, put on the song with the man that breaks plates” [from Free to be You and Me] or “ABCDDEEEEEEEEEEEE.”  And although I missed my peanut gallery, I didn’t miss them that much!

Catching up with Wendy and Gerard was great.  I hadn’t seen them since our wedding and now we are combined 5 kids into it and both finally seeing the light with kids being a tiny bit more self-sufficient and self-entertaining.  We commiserated over how your life becomes a time warp and a time suck and how even though you wouldn’t want it any other way… man, it is HARD being a parent [and a spouse].  I am thinking parenthood is a lot like the weather in New England — one nice day makes up for twenty days of rain, snow and wind! Anyway, she looks amazing, her family is beautiful and we decided there is no way we can let another five years go by.

I am off to Austin mid-week for an amazing wedding, so hopefully before I leave I’ll blog the 2-3 sessions that are all proofed and about to go out to some very cool families I spent time with last week/weekend (including my nursery contest winner and a very awesome family with a very awesome house).  And tomorrow is another installment of the Jack & Will Show!

On that note, I am outside pretending to garden with the littlest terrorists [this actually means I put on a garden glove, stand with a shovel, and play with my iPhone and when I hear Owen I pretend to weed and dig -- and occasionally keep the kids from running into the street].

I was thrilled today when I received my Helping Handbag. If you know me, I am relatively void of style. Like I don’t wear mom jeans, so not bad style (except for the coat that Stephanie will never let me wear again)… but I don’t wear Choos, so not high fashion style. I am just middle of the road, rather blah. I am also not so great at carrying bags, purses, clutches, whatever. I am the person at Trader Joe’s that has their keys stuck in the slots of the shopping cart and wallet hidden under the carton of eggs because I just didn’t grab a pocket book and my coat pockets are filled with pacifiers and my iPhone and crunched up receipts. So when I got the message that these had gone live, needless to say, I did not jump on it.

But then I sat back and I really thought about what my friend was trying to accomplish. And how important her goals are. And how this is her dream. And rarely do one’s dreams translate into doing so much food for so many people. So I searched back through my 6,778 unread gmails and I found her notes to me. First I paused and realized that she is looking really good. Like WTF good. For the love of Jack Bauer, Melora, you look HOT!

Then I went over to her website (www.helpinghandbags.co.uk) and read through the material. Then I logged onto the site and I purchased. Today it arrived. Not only do I love the bag itself, but I am so happy I could support her cause. So even if you can’t swing a bag right now, please take a moment to read through what she is doing and give her some props.

Don’t tell Owen, but I am really not cleaning the toy room.  I couldn’t.  I was just way too excited to come home and look at these and blog them.  I gladly encouraged him to drive to Brighton to clean up the yard so I could have some time to work on these.  How could I not?  LOOK AT HIM.  Seriously, have you ever seen such a cute baby?  Absolute favorite stage… newly sitting, not moving and a happy little boy!  He was so tired at one point, pulled it together and was a rock star right up to the last frame I shot!

I was so excited to meet Stacie and her family because she came to me via Erica (and apparently via quite of few of you Topsfield peeps).  I love it when friends connect friends.  The weather was great, the timing was great, and everything just sort of fell into place for this one!  Yay!

And with that, I am off to make up two hours of cleaning in about 15 minutes!