Mother's Day Mini Sessions

When: Sunday, May 4th
What: 1/2 hour session with focus on mother and child(ren)
Where: Olivia's Studio (or if by a miracle it's nice, outdoors)
Cost: $100 which includes custom 8x10 collage print and online gallery

Email me if you're interested and I will set up time slots!








































Perfect gift for Mother's Day! Bring your own mom and do some generational photos!

Just a reminder, I am not booking portrait sessions during most of May up to almost mid June. If you had planned on Spring photos, please keep this in mind. I have openings at the end of April and on weekdays in early May. Otherwise, we're going into June with limited weekend availability. Holy buckets!

Seriously?!

Just when all of the snow had melted from the previous snowstorm we received last week, we get nailed with another 5-7 inches today! This obviously is Mother Nature's April Fool's joke.

I'm beginning to think it is going to be winter forever.

Etsy

In case you've never heard of it, Etsy is the website to buy and sell handmade items. There are so many cute boutique style clothing items for kids. If anyone out there has an Etsy storefront and is interested in some professional product photos, please let me know because I'd love to help you out. Or if you are currently making your own handmade items and have thought about selling them, Etsy is a great resource!

Here are a few of my favorite stores if you're looking for unique children's clothing for your shoot:

Citefuzz
York Patty
Mod Dot Textiles
Pretty Me
Courtneycourtney
K Bella Bambino
Pish Posh Girls
Sweet Pepita













































I love these cute new apron style dresses!

Jack and Joey

What can I say about these two?! I had such a great time with Ann-Marie, I feel like we could have sat and talked for hours! She was really great, she brought a bag full of outfits and hats and just let me do my thing! I'm so in love with the blue knitted hat shots. Joey's great aunt in Los Angeles knitted that hat for him, it's so cute!

Oh and by the way, I'm officially obsessed with Baby Legs!

I am so happy!

The sun is out, it's warming up, I'm feeling better... I AM SO HAPPY! You have no idea what a difference a little sun makes! After being cooped up in the house all week, the little bit of fresh air I got today while picking up/dropping off my kids at school today did WONDERS for me. No jackets, windows down... I just want to rejoice that Spring is finally here!

I had this really crazy dream this morning that I wanted to share. I had a dream that I was asked to sing at somebody's church wedding ceremony. Let me just start by saying I am the world's worst singer! So, I showed up late to the wedding in my fancy dress and had to walk right up to the altar. I was standing at the podium in front of the entire congregation and the music started. I was terrified and flipped through my music book trying to stall. I knew I had to start singing so but I couldn't do it because I didn't want to ruin their beautiful ceremony! The music played on and on and I kept flipping through the pages during the entire song not singing at all. Thank goodness I woke up and it was just a dream! I'm pretty sure that's the equivalent of the dream where you show up to school naked.

Have a great weekend everyone! Get out there and enjoy some sun!

The power of a brand

The way into my boys' heart is through Reese's. So much so, that anything that has peanut butter is Reese's! I had bought some chocolate and peanut butter eggs (of a different brand) and my 4 year old asked me what was inside. I told him peanut butter and as he proceeded to eat it, he announced, "There's Reese's inside!" I told him that it wasn't Reese's and he said, "Well, it tastes like Reese's!"

I'm feeling better but I've got huge amounts of catching up to do so bear with me! First and foremost, I need to go grocery shopping! Being sick not only affected my work, but we have absolutely no food in my messy house so things are pretty much a disaster right now. In a last ditch effort to survive, my husband went to the grocery store last night and bought 5 frozen pizzas! Poor guy... Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed, I tune into Jon & Kate + 8... now that puts things into perspective!

Sadie

Although Sadie is just 6 months old, Sadie's mom is a long time client. Big brother Aiden stayed home while Sadie had her solo photo shoot. I always love all of the cute boutique clothing her mom brings. It must be so fun to dress girls up!

Addison

Little Addison is just two weeks old. Isn't she sweet?! Erik and Amy are such proud new parents and it was so cute to see that they had Addison all figured out. Addison wanted to eat during most of the session but we took any chance we got to get photos of her. What a beautiful new family!

I've got a lot of "junk in there..."

My husband (bless his heart), got me an hour massage for Christmas which I cashed in today. I'm feeling better after a day of rest, a long hot shower, and my massage this evening. I cannot say enough wonderful things about professional massage! I have a new plan this year to schedule a massage the day after shooting a wedding. Could you imagine anything more wonderful? Photographers, I know you know what I'm talking about.

She was taking extra time on my shoulders because I told her I do a lot of computer work. Then she brought out these smooth, heated stones. Oh the stones! The stones were so lovely! After the session was over she told me that I've got a lot of junk in there that I need to take care of! Eeek, I could feel all of the knots as she was working on them... I guess I had no idea how bad it was. So yes, I will be making this a regular thing because I think it's so worth it.

Sicko.

I've been fighting a bad cold since last Friday so I apologize if you're waiting for your gallery to be uploaded. I am so bummed, I missed out on my photo meeting this morning because I can't bring myself to do anything but rest. It feels like the past two years of me running myself ragged have finally caught up to me. I hope to be back in the swing of things soon.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Olivia

Fun with fisheye

My husband helped me move out of my old studio today which was a big task. I didn't realize I had so much stuff! It was kind of sad to see it empty and it brought back all of the memories of being excited when I first got it.

I finally opened up my fireproof safe! It's been sitting in its box next to my desk since Christmas. ;) That was one of my winter projects and today I made it a mission to start putting things in the safe. I had lots to do today and managed to get some photo archiving done.

Today I had my camera out with my fisheye on. Owen thought it was so funny to see the distorted images so he was hamming it up.























I hope everyone has a Happy Easter! The boys are excited to start the day off with a good old fashioned Easter egg hunt.

My new photo friends...

At the seminar the other night, Darcie came up and introduced herself as a blog stalker. She and her friends are in school for photography at Ridgewater College in Willmar, MN and while they were in town, she wanted to arrange some studio tours. It was pretty last minute but I'm so glad they came down to see me! They were so much fun and it was great to see their enthusiasm and passion for photography. It also made me appreciate how far I've come.






















From left to right Darcie, Amy, Adam, Amanda, and Aimee.

They live way west of the cities and hopefully will be joining me for my "Shoot with me" day. I've been getting some great responses so I'm really excited that others are excited as well.

As for the photo contest, I've received only one entry so far. The contest ends in a little over a week so get those photos in!

Darcie and friends, thanks for visiting! I told you you'd end up on my blog. ;)

Yahoo mail problem

This is so very irritating. When I reply to emails sent from yahoo accounts, they are either getting bounced back to me or they are delayed. My only solution at this point is to email you back from another account. I have created an OWP gmail account so if you're a yahoo user, you may receive a reply back to me from my gmail account. Check your junk mail boxes just to make sure!

Thanks!

Sawyer

Sawyer is just 3 weeks old and the smallest baby I've seen in awhile! He was born 2 weeks early so he's still just a little peanut! He was so sweet and Delia is such a beautiful mom. Look at her! She's got that radiant new mom glow and you can just feel all the love she has for Sawyer when you're around her. Congratulations on your beautiful new baby boy!