Jimmy and Marla

About a year ago our friends Jimmy and Marla were having a yard sale and selling their Ikea desk for $100.  I had been desperately searching for a desk for my office and the one they had was perfect.  I did not, however, have $100 to spare.  I did have $70 though, and for that plus the promise of a photo shoot, I had a new desk!!  

And now, a year later, we finally got around to the second half of my payment.  Man life gets so busy and time flies by and before you know it, its a year later.  

We got together on a early Saturday morning and had so much fun!  They were prepared with 4 different outfit changes and smiles full of life and love.  These images make me so happy, and I am so glad we made this happen. 

Business Cards

Last week I decided that it was time for me to design and order some business cards for my photography.  As soon as I took Bekah's pictures I knew I wanted to use my favorite one that I took of her on the back.  I went through Vistaprint and I am very happy with the final product.  

A little bit about my business name:  my nickname has been Shadylane since I was nine.  And its always just felt like me.  It stuck, and struck a cord with my heart.  The name feels like home; captures what it feels like to be really known.  And that is exactly what my photography is about.  When I was a senior in high school (7 years ago already!) I did my senior project on starting and running a photography business.  This was the name that came to mind first in that moment and its propelled me forward to where I am today.  I learned so much through that project back in high school and from my mentor during that time.  I love that I have been able to turn my dream into a reality.  

And these business cards are just the next step in the journey.  I am so excited! 

Project Three Hundred Sixty Five

Here we are at week 14 of our 5th year of marriage.  

This week consisted of new shoes, decorating projects, flu shots, season premiers, family pictures, new hair and fresh pedicures.  

Life is busy.  Life is full.  Life is good.  

See the full album HERE. 

The Hair Diaries: Ombre

I am so excited to share another installment of "The Hair Diaries" today.  One of my favorite hair trends lately is Ombre which comes from a French word meaning "shaded."  Its been popping up all over the place in hair, make-up and design, and I have found myself drawn to it for awhile now.  

Here is my hair inspiration for this look that I pinned and saved: 

source // source

I love the tone of Drew's hair, but mine ended up a little more the tone of Laura's hair because of going from the red color.  My cousin Hannah (my lovely stylist) and I had to do a few tries before my hair stopped looking crazy orange.  Haha!  But I did get to go to her salon after hours for the first time, and that was so much fun.  She did my toe nails while we waited and talked about our plans for the future and threw around some business ideas.  

And here is the final product: 

  

I just love how it turned out.  And my hair always a little healthier after I get it processed.  That kinda sounds backwards, but I can even see a difference in these pictures.  

So, do you like the ombre trend?  Would you / have you tried it?  I'm diggin it! 

Bekah // Class of twenty-twelve

Chris and I have known Bekah and her family for a couple of years now through Masquers Theater and being in plays together.  At the beginning of the summer I got a Facebook message from her mum Stacy asking me if I would be interested in shooting Bekah's senior portraits.  I was so excited!  We made a plan for when we could get together and on a sunny afternoon earlier this month I met up with them and Bekah worked it!!  

Here are some of my favorite images. 

Click through HERE to see the complete album on Facebook.  This girl is just a beautiful person, inside and out.  It was a pleasure and honor to capture these images of her at this moment in her life.  

This is something that I love... shooting high school seniors.  I love the one-on-one interaction and the ability it gives me to make my subject feel beautiful.  I hope to really focus my photography more in this direction.  It feels like what I'm meant to do.  

Are you a senior looking for someone to shoot your portraits??  Or a mother on the hunt for someone to take picture of your high school senior this year?  I would LOVE to be that person for you and your family.  You can find out more about my sessions HERE.  

making mistakes

*source*

I saw this today and it just hit me sideways.  I had an interesting weekend....huge 28 person (holy cow!!!) family photoshoot and once it was over I just felt like such a complete failure.  I felt like all I did was make mistakes.  I felt so full of doubt.

But after a good heartfelt talk with my husband about my goals and dreams for my photography, and then seeing this quote, things fell into place.  

I am really trying.  I am learning.  I am growing.  

I am taking pictures and that is what I love to do.  

Stop Pinning // Start Doing

Today I want to introduce a fun new feature I am starting here on my blog called "Stop Pinning // Start Doing." The idea behind it is this:  many of us are addicted to Pinterest and find so much inspiration there and awesome ideas, but many times those awesome ideas sit on our boards and nothing gets done with them.  I want to take Pinterest to the next step:  DOING!!  

And so begins: 

One of the first boards I created when I first joined Pinterest was called: "Home" and I have since then filled it with pictures of things I would love to see or use or have in our new home.  Things like furniture, and kitchen cupboard organization guides, and how I wanted my home office to function.  And as expected a pattern started to form...colors schemes emerged and project ideas repeated themselves.  

One project in particular was this:  horizontal stripes painted on the walls.  I found myself pinning pictures of walls with stripes over and over again.  

source // source // source

 I've had a plan for a color scheme for my office (based off of this shower curtain) for awhile now, and knew grey would be a prominent color within the space.  So I matched that idea with the stripe project from Pinterest and a plan emerged:  grey horizontal stripes on two walls in my office!!!  

One of the stripe images I pinned was from the ever talented Elise Blaha.  She had done horizontal stripes on her textured walls and gave some terrific hints and tips on her blog post all about it HERE.  Luckily the builders had left a big 5 gallon bucket of the white paint used throughout our house, so we used that.  The measuring was the hardest part...and getting the lines level.  But Chris was a trouper and we worked well together measuring, taping off, and painting the stripes in.  After we pulled the tape on the first stripe I was soooo excited!!  It turned out just how I imagined.  

 After a bit of touch-up the next day I took pictures of the finished walls.  As you can see we took Elise's tip to make sure the top and bottom stripe were white so we didn't have too much cutting in work to do.  You can see a little of my dark purple wall in the first picture too.  :) The colors are really great together! 

So that is my first completed and shared SPSD project and I am so excited to do more!!  

Have you created something based off an idea you got from Pinterest?  Or are you planning one??  Feel free to play along and add this badge I've created to your blog and blog post!  Let's start a movement!! ;) 

download here

And please leave a comment if you create something too and link me up!  I am so excited to take Pinterest to the next level and start using and creating and doing the things I pin.  

font source: Kal Barteski

Project Three Hundred Sixty Five

I have uploaded, edited and put together this month's 365 pictures and thought I would play catch up and share them all today so I'll be back on track. :)  There are lots of images of people this month so far.  We've done a lot of visiting and I've had a few photo shoots and lots of editing hours.  So this will also be a little sneak of that too.  Enjoy! 

And as always, if you're looking for a more detailed description of each image you can view the Facebook album HERE.  Its been a full month so far!  :) 

September

September has always been one of my favorite months...  However here in the middle of Washington State it feels more like the middle of summer then the beginning of autumn, with temperatures around 97 degrees!  Whoa!  And the month has just flown by so fast (as perhaps you can tell by my "welcome september" post on the 21th. lol.).

I've done two photoshoots this month so far, one high school senior shoot and one couple's shoot.  I will share my favorites from those soon.  I feel like I'm really finding my voice in my editing style lately and these shoots are really dear to my heart for that reason.  

September has also been about music!  Chris has been asked to play bass in a local band and so we bought him a bass guitar and amp and he's been practicing every day.  It make my heart smile to see him able to create musically again and play.  Right now he's working on learning the band's already established songs and writing the bass parts for them.  They seem to jell really well together and the creative process has been fun for him.  I'm excited to wear my "I'm with the band" t-shirt again sometime soon. ;) 

Chris and I are still hard at work with our 365.  I'm about 3 weeks behind in posting them online, but we're still taking them.  I'll probably do a catch-up post for that sometime soon.  We're still enjoying the process.  

So that's what my September has been so far.  I just wanted to pop in and wave hello to those who still visit my little section of the world wide web.  What have you been up to?