Gearing up for the holidays!!!

This year is going to be an exciting one! I'm not always a big holidays person - decorating everything, baking tons of delicious treats, planning large gatherings, but this year will be special for BeachBabyKisses! I'll be attending THREE holiday markets this fall and I'm getting very excited! I will also be stocking holiday items in my Blue Moon Shop, so there should be something for everyone! I'm really looking forward to being busy... FUN busy!

I'm usually a "behind-the-scenes" kind of gal and am not good at marketing myself or my work (awkward!) so I've been a bit nervous about sitting behind a table at these craft fairs. While restocking at BM tonight, I had a few customers visit my shop and it was fun having a conversation - they each bought a framed photo and it actually got me really excited about meeting and speaking with my potential customers.

Want to meet me and do some holiday shopping with me and many other great vendors? Stop by one of the local craft/holiday shows below - can't wait to see you!

BEACHBABYKISSES WILL BE HERE:

Saturday, November 9 - Brunswick Forest Craft Fair, 10:00am

Saturday, November 9 - Cape Fear Mix & Mingle @ TMuffin, 7:30pm - 10:00pm

Thursday, November 14 - Cape Fear Academy Holiday Market, 6pm - 9pm
Friday, November 15 - Cape Fear Academy Holiday Market, 10am - 8pm
Saturday, November 16 - Cape Fear Academy Holiday Market, 10am - 5pm

July Photos - Custom Orders!!

I've had a busy July filling custom orders - it's definitely much harder to shoot in the summertime! Besides this being the wettest summer I've experienced in Wilmington, the beaches are so crowded during the day that it's hard to find a spot without many footprints! Here are the photos from some of my July orders...

This sunrise was worth the wait - my customer waited almost a month through many
rainy mornings to get this shot for her friends' wedding!

This is one from my sand photo collection, but this bride wanted it printed in black and white
in a square aqua distressed frame! She really made it her own and it matched her wedding beautifully!

This one made me nervous because it was a lot of writing and she requested script, but I was happy with the result. The customer was giving it to her friend as a gift... makes my heart smile - what a great friend!

I just love printing on canvas!

Every time I write in this design, the result is always fabulous!

This was for a local customer and was eventually framed - this was my first
anchor drawing, which was a theme for their wedding.

I love this design - I did another one on canvas above!

A rush order JPEG for a customer in Australia - love working internationally!

Finding Freedom

I'm reading Jesus Calling as I'm trying to set up my blog - not a great thing to be multi-tasking. The whole point of the book is to focus solely on God and his presence throughout the day. Spend TIME with him. Today I'm not doing very well with this. Then I picked it up (AWESOME DEVOTIONAL, by the way - written by Sarah Young: Jesus Calling).

Here is today's message (free devotional, ya'll!):

"Find Freedom through seeking to please Me above all else. You can have only one Master. When you let others' expectations drive you, you scatter your energy to the winds. Your own desire to look good can also drain your energy. I am your Master, and I do not drive you to be what you are not. You pretense displeases Me, especially when it is in My "service". Concentrate on staying close to Me at all times. It is impossible to be inauthentic while you are focusing on My Presence."

I'm really clicking with the "I do not drive you to be what you are not" statement... I'm feeling a little lost with regards to my small business - I would like more work, but enjoy having breaks. Since my children are still home with my 24/7 (Clara will go to preschool this fall), I like to spend my time with them and know that is what I should be doing more than anything else. At the same time, we're feeling like we can't DO anything because we don't have extra money. There are upgrades to the house I'd love to make, but I don't see anything happening in the foreseeable future. So, I'd love some more income to be able to "do" some of the things we'd like to do, which means I need to market myself better. I'm not very good at this!!! So blogging is one feeble attempt (but when I don't tell anyone I blog, it's not really helping at all, is it?!)

So frustration sets in and then I remember I'm supposed to be doing quiet time since the girls are napping... pick up my JC book and it screams at me - Be With Me. Simple as that. So, here is where I sign off to be with my Master, my one and only Master, despite what the world *thinks* I should be doing. Peace out!

June Photos - Custom Orders!

This month was so rainy! It rained for three weeks straight... it made my job very difficult ;-) Fortunately, I think God works in miraculous ways and was able to clump my orders together so that I could take them all at once! The first week of June, my family was on vacation in Holden Beach - I had scheduled a few sunrise photos to shoot there since we were literally staying on the beach - thought it would be a nice way to wake up and work! Well, the first day I went out to the beach at 5:45am, wrote three different messages in the sand and waited... when it was about 6am, I noticed the sky was getting really light BEHIND ME! I hadn't done my research and didn't know HB was a south facing beach - we didn't see the sun rise or set over the ocean on our trip, which was a bit of a bummer, but we still had so much fun! I didn't get much work done that week though ;-) I reshot the sunrise pics below once I got home...

Ahhhh, and a beautiful sunrise it was!

This customer WON a custom photo through a Facebook contest I held with friends... her choice? Cornerstone :)

This customer wanted a lot of blues in the photo, so I brightened up the sky and sea to really pop!

A sunset picture - only my second sunset order, but I love these photos!

Same sunrise as above... gorgeous morning!

May Photos - Custom Orders!

May was a pretty busy month of shooting! It's also been busy at Blue Moon, so I've been working hard to get everything done. Painting frames, cleaning glass and assembling photos into frames, stocking my store, and shooting and editing my custom orders. I love this job - it brings me great joy! I try to stay connected to God through the stressful times and make sure I'm ultimately working for Him and not myself. I don't want to sacrifice time with my children to work on my orders - they are only home with me a few short year and I  hope once they are in school, I can make BeachBabyKisses a full-time endeavor. For now, I just want to enjoy it all and work for fun, more than need. Praying God sends me the right amount of work for a good life balance :)

Here are some of the photos I shot in this month...

This photo is the first of two (with the one below) and was created as a special mother's day gift for Ryan's mom

Ryan's wife framed these photos together as two 5x7 prints. A lovely gift!

This was a photo ordered by my aunt :) There were a lot of rocks on Wrightsville Beach
that day, but the sky and water were so pretty and serene!  

This was a rush order and the weather was awful - I actually used a different tool for writing than usual and had to merge it with a different sky - the original looked like it was about to storm. I try not to merge pictures from different shoots together, but in some cases (usually the combination of rush orders and weather issues) it is the only way to get a good photo in time. The handful of times I've had to do that, my customers were made aware of it and agreed.

This was a gorgeous day and I LOVE when the waves are a light green like they are here!

Shot the same day as above for a little boy's room - printed to an 11x14.

There wasn't much sand to work with this day and the sun was shining really brightly from
behind me making it hard to see the writing. It took a lot of editing to get the letters legible.

Daughters vs Dogs

Is it a birth order thing for all species? I swear, our oldest dog and oldest daughter are so similar in personality, it's scary! And our two youngest (dog & daughter) are also very much alike... is this a coincidence? Is it bad that hubby and I often compare our mutts to our girls? Probably, but I'm about to give you a rundown on our family. You let me know if we're crazy!

Dogs: Cali, 6 (left), Mosby 4.5 (right) - both Cavachons (designer mutts!!)

Daughters: Clara, 3.5 (right), Daphne, almost 2 (left)

Ready for the facts? Here we go!

Cali & Clara (our oldests)

-  independent

-  very catlike (cuddly only on their terms and not often)
- give dirty looks
- usually follow directions
- very particular about things (Clara and her clothes, Cali and her sleeping environment)
- run from others (and each other)
- take forever to fall asleep
- are more likely to whine when hurt
- wise beyond their years (like lassie and einstein!)
- a little bit sneaky
- cautious... takes their time figuring things out
- eats fairly neatly, uses manners

Mosby & Daphne (the littles)

-   love cuddling

-  always crawling into your lap
- follow you around
- pass out within two minutes and sleep soundly
- love to nap
- happy, happy, happy (Daph laughs, Mosby wags his tail... a lot!)
- dives in head first
- fast eaters - we don't think either one chews their food

My Little Dancing Queens

My girls love to dance. Clara does very creative ballet “like the Nutcracker” and Daphne just spins herself silly, round and round. The other day Clara started leading me in a routine. Kind of a ballet/gymnastics/hurdling routine… and she’s very specific about how she’d like me to participate. Lots of interesting poses, one arm in the air; sometimes a leg. She gave many instructions that I wasn’t following very well. She kept having me repeat moves because apparently I did them wrong the first time. She had hubby leaping over our (stuffed animal) cat today and I actually think hubby is more graceful than she is J And hubby just stated that Daphne “dances like a drunk freshman boy”… just spinning and rocking back and forth. Made me laugh hysterically. She’s so adorable though, you can’t help but watch her spin round and round until she gets dizzy enough to fall over or she’ll finally turn the other way. 

I love my husband. Let me count the ways... (and his socks!)

I love my husband. So much. I really do. He’s an amazing man, husband and father, and a wonderful and strong spiritual leader in our home. I admire his passion for his job and his commitment to his family. I don’t deserve him and I am blessed.

I still remember the first day I learned all about his socks. I was at his apartment and we were watching TV. He was folding his whites and I noticed he was putting all his socks in separate piles after inspecting each one carefully. I asked him what he was doing and he casually explained he was folding his socks, matching the pairs together. He has distinct left socks and right socks. Let me say that again in case it didn't sink in the first time around... HE HAS LEFT AND RIGHT SOCKS!!!!! I thought I was going to pass out from laughing so hard. I’m pretty sure he thought everyone had left and right socks. Apparently he has very slanted feet so his toes leave permanent indentations in the socks, making them unbearable to wear on the opposite foot. My husband likes to be comfortable :)

For a long time when I did the laundry, I would just pile his socks on the bed and he folded them himself (he always offered to do this), but now I take the time to fold them just right. I separate the socks into the type/brand of sock and then each type/brand has four piles: Right, Left, Maybe Right, Maybe Left. Then I count them all up to see how I did. You can tell where his toes have indented each sock so it’s not too difficult usually, just time consuming. It no longer bothers me, but I do still make fun of him and share this quirk with others freely J And I believe this proves my love for him, right?

I really love this funky photo of him... so nerdy! Love this man :)

Seeking My Creator... 2013

My (growing) list of possible words for this year:

Fearless, Calm, Beautiful, Rejoice, Rock, Focus, Light, Journey, Grow, Forward, Within, Obey, Relate, Surrender

I’m close to picking journey, but I’m not sure what that means for me. I’ll tell the story of journey later J 

So I ask the questions “Who do I want to become this year?” and “What does God want from me this year?”

I believe He wants me to:

• Learn more about His story (the Bible)
• Feel confident in talking about him and sharing his love with others (including non-believers)
• Spend time alone with Him daily
•  Memorize scripture so I’m always prepared to face temptations/doubt
• Teach my children about Him and how to love Him
• Support and rely on friends and grow relationships I’ve already established

Journey

So the story goes like this: I’m on the beach shooting “sample” my one words and I used obvious ones at first. Then I wrote balance because it popped into my head. I knew this wasn’t going to be my word, but about 1 minute later a woman and her daughter walked along the beach and she stops and asked me “are these your one words?” And then she told me her word this past year was balance. I was literally taking pictures of her 2012 word as she walked by and I didn’t have any connection to the word myself. How cool is that?! So I shot one or two more words to use in my Etsy listing and was walking toward the access point to leave. I had a very strong urge to write one more word… Journey. I didn’t know where it came from and had not thought at all about the word. While I was feeling like I was ready to leave, I instead walked to the shoreline again to write the word. I felt compelled; the only explanation is that God wanted me to stay on that beach a little longer. I was trying to notice what was going on around me to see if there was an opportunity for something that I'd miss otherwise… a conversation with another stranger, a random smile, someone drowning in the ocean? I couldn’t figure it out, but I wrote journey, took some pictures, felt relief and left. Since then every time someone asks me about my one word, the first one that pops into my head is “Journey”… I just can’t exactly figure out what it has to do with this year. I’ve had a lot if “journeys” the past few years… being pregnant for the first time, having Clara, then being pregnant again and having Daphne, and boy was her first year a rough journey! Before that I was trying to get pregnant and before that it was moving to Wilmington. But there are no incredible journeys planned for me this year, at least not BY me. Since God is my creator and in control of my life, I’m wondering if I’m about to face a journey of some sort this year, whether a difficult one or a wonderful one, I’m not sure. What do you all think? Is my one word journey?? These are the scripture passages I’ve been memorizing lately, trying to narrow down to one for the year.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come.

 2 Corinthians 5:17

“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have troubles, but take heart, for I have overcome the world!”  

John 16:33

He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

Psalms 62:2

Based on the verses I've been sitting on, it seems journey might be right fit, but I'm nervous to pick it because it seems my faith will be tested. I trust you, God!

35 is looming...

I turn 35 in February. This feels surreal to me. Every other year of my 30s there has been some other significant event happening so I haven’t really noticed my age creeping up, but 35 has hit me hard! I feel like you may as well just round me up to 40 (no offense, 40-somethings). Because we aren’t pregnant or have a newborn this year (nor do we plan to), I am taking my body back this year! After starting weight watchers two weeks ago, I can now fit into my jeans without cutting off my circulation. Yay, go me. But I’m starving!! I did WW ten years ago (once a decade ain’t so bad?) and it worked, but I don’t remember feeling so hungry every day. The points system has changed and my favorite 2pt treat on the old plan is now 4pts on the new plan! It is really hard to save 4pts for a tiny ice cream sandwich L It seems eating a few turkey slices with two pieces of cheese must suffice for lunch. I don’t have any good snacky items on the menu yet… let me know if you have ideas! So, with us being in this super fun stage with the girls and this being the first year since 2009 where I wasn’t pregnant or nursing, I should be excited about my upcoming birthday! The future is near and who knows what it holds? So thankful to my creator for the 35 years I’ve already lived and hopeful to have many more. Blessed.

Accidents Happen

Well, yesterday was beautiful… 70 degrees and sunny. Since I had a custom order to shoot, we took the whole family to the beach this morning. I worked for about 30 minutes while hubby played with the girls and then we all played together. Clara is so curious and so into digging in the sand, finding seashells, totally in tune with nature. Daphne all the sudden loves the sand too and was pretty much covered head to toe when I found them after my shoot. They both were willing to get their feet wet, but that water was cold! I’m so grateful to live at the beach. We try not to take it for granted and I think this summer will be amazing. The best perk of my job is that I get to go the beach often… it’s so great and God always meets me there. But, accidents happen. Today when I was editing my shot, I noticed my file size was too small for the enlargement that was ordered. I had taken some pics earlier in the week meant for email and had changed my camera settings so the files were small. Apparently I forgot to change it back and now I have to reshoot at the beach tomorrow… too bad the forecast is still 70 degrees and sunny. I’m not sure Hubby believes my story or that this was an accident. But it was. As Clara would sing, “Accidents happen! That’s what they say. Accidents happen, not today!” Those aren’t the words for anyone who isn’t familiar with the Elmo potty song, but she sang it so cutely after she peed on our living room floor the other night. Back to the beach for me!

Sitter Swapping is Awesome!

I am sitting at my neighbor’s house as I type. I’m watching HGTV… since we don’t have cable, I’m in heaven. Kids are upstairs in bed and I am relaxing by myself downstairs. My neighbors are out on a date. This is awesome. Sitter swapping has changed our lives! Here’s how it works: Every other week, hubby and I get to go on a date and have a free babysitter. The other weeks, I get a night alone with the remote and cable TV at my neighbor’s nice, clean and quiet home. It’s so great. When my neighbor (we’ll call her Miss Sara) approached me about swapping, I wasn’t sure if it would work or if we would follow-through. Miss Sara is the most organized person I know and she gets the job done – we have a two month schedule running and each get two dates a month. Hubby and I don’t even know what to do with ourselves. Last date night we ran around town trying to spend our Christmas gift cards! It’s fun because we don’t have to stress about fitting a bunch of things into one date since we know we have another one only two weeks away! It’s also easier to plan double dates with friends this way since we have a social calendar ready to go. Although Miss Sara and I have gotten to know each other much better since we started swapping, we don’t run in the same circle of friends wanting to hang out. Works well that way. Okay, back to house hunters!