{misc: random motivation}

If you're having a slow-going week like myself, hopefully this will give you a bit of motivation. I'm loving pictures with a quote these days. I'm think I'm gonna pin it to my board!

{hump day help: inspiration boards}

So I have a few small obsessions lately. The other day you learned about my love for Britt's donuts. That, I do not hide. My other one lately has been inspiration boards. And the internet has made this too terribly easy. Which just means I spend more time doing it. So I'm warning you now: These can be addicting. I'm not responsible for the amount of time you end up spending on these sites!

Two really great sites for creating inspiration boards are Pinterest and Style Circle (by Style Me Pretty). Pinterest allows you to "pin" pictures from anywhere on the internet and use them or anything others have "pinned" to create your inspiration board. You need to sign up to be invited but you should get an email to join rather soon. You can see the boards I've created and follow other people and the boards they're creating. You can create a board for your ceremony or reception or for the colors and fashion of your wedding. I know for me this would have been really helpful in planning a wedding. I even use it for baby or wedding showers that I'm involved in planning (more baby than wedding showers lately, eeks!). The Style Circle allows you to create boards from any images that have been featured on Style Me Pretty or you can upload any of your own images. It's also fun to browse through other inspiration boards as well as look for boards by key words.



For me, inspiration is a source of motivation and some days I don't function very well without it. I like the idea of keeping an inspiration board of your favorite pictures and posting it somewhere where you can easily see it and be reminded of the things you love. Happy Pinning!

{inspiration monday: 04.25.11}

{personal: I love Britt's}

Some call me a foodie. I felt the need to look up the definition of foodie. According to the Urban Dictionary, a foodie is "someone who loves everything there is to know or learn about food or spends a keen amount of attention and energy on knowing the ingredients of food, the proper preparation of food, and finds great enjoyment in top-notch ingredients and exemplary preparation." What about just eating food? I don't necessarily care how to make it. And if you know me, you would say I don't care how to make just about anything.

But whoever has introduced me to Britt's has started a very bad thing. You just don't understand until you've been there. As you're walking down the "boardwalk" of Carolina Beach (and if you know CB, you know why I use the term boardwalk loosely) the waft of warm, sugary powder entices you down to the shop. And then all you can can order are donuts, milk, or a soda. For whatever reason, "a half dozen, please" always finds its way out of my mouth.

I'm simply writing this to express why all my tweets are in reference to Britt's or donuts, why I probably won't fit into my bathing suit this summer, why I reject your offer to hang out on the weekends unless you agree to go get a donut with me, and why I keep suggesting your photo shoot be at Carolina Beach or Fort Fisher. Please accept my apology.

Amen.

{family: the babson family}

Precious. That's the word that comes to mind when I look at this family and Edie and the way they look at her and care for her. Robert and Stephanie are fostering this adorable girl and more than anything I want them to be able to keep her. Because I know they will love her. And give her the things she needs. And give her a wonderful childhood and a safe place to grow up. But most of all, love.

My desire to photograph baby chub was burning inside of me ever since I saw this photo. So thank you, Edie, for staying calm, and not crying when we kept repositioning you, and making stupid noises to get you to laugh, and taking your binky away from you. I'll photograph you any day you want! As long as rolls are included.

Robert + Stephanie, I wish you guys the best!

{sneak peak: the babson family}

I love me some baby!

{hump day help: best wedding blogs}

Wow, Hump Day Help, I’m so sorry I’ve been neglecting you. You deserve as much time as any other post and I just don’t know what happened. Please forgive me. But you’ll be happy to hear I have some fun material for you today. The lovely little blog of One Wed polled their readers about the best wedding blogs out there. I certainly have my opinion of which ones I can’t live without but here are the results from their survey to help you get your creative juices flowing. Next week: a new, small (miniscule really) obsession called Pinterest! Warning: go at your own risk

{inspiration monday: 04.11.11}

{inspiration monday: 04.04.11}

{personal: peonies!}

You may remember my posts here and here about my trip to the Peony farm last summer in western NC. It was amazing and I almost want to make it an annual trip, it was so beautiful and picture heaven! Well the small family owned farm has just launched their website using my pictures, and they're getting ready to harvest the 2011 peony season!

So many brides are having DIY weddings these days and it's getting easier and easier to do a wedding on a budget and have a unique, beautiful DIY wedding. The Peony Patch is the perfect way to skip the middle man and have fresh, beautiful flowers for your wedding day. You can pick flowers up from the farm or they ship them worldwide to individuals, florists, and designers. Peonies come in so many colors and smell amazing! I almost changed the season I was getting married in just so I could use peonies.

So contact the Peony Patch today and get your order in! If for nothing else, just have them in your house so the whole place will smell yummy!