{Grateful on Sunday} Enjoying the Tropics

Happy Sunday morning! Today I'm writing to you from the Big Island of Hawaii! I am with my mom and a couple of our close family friends and today we're off on a lava-seeking adventure! It's so fun seeing new places and exploring how different each Hawaiian island is! I'm here for 3.5 days and this mini-holiday is just what the doctor ordered. In fact, I'm here with my entire medical staff - I'm on holiday with my nurse, doctor and physical therapist -  safest trip ever! Ha! 

This week I am grateful for smoothies,

sunglasses that make the world sunnier,

watercolors,

shopping for insane amounts of tropical-themed alcohol with friends in Costco,

pretty bedsheets,

refreshing tropical downpours that kinda remind me of seattle,

Oreos dipped in chocolate!!!!!

my new fav... salted Carmel mocha frapaccinos :),

photo shoots in the ocean 

trips with family (especially when they pay for your ticket hehe)

enjoy a beautiful weekend my friends!!!

Beautiful Portraits of My Mom Up in the Branches of a Cherry Blossom Tree

Tomorrow morning I am hopping on a flight to the Big Island of Hawaii to spend a long weekend with my mom and a couple close family friends. I haven't seen family or friends in person for 1.5 months and I am so excited! I've had some wonderful chats with my mom over the phone this week and I'm counting down the hours until I get to throw my arms around her and give her a big hug and welcome her to tropical weather (she's escaping Seattle's November). This afternoon, while daydreaming about this mini-vacation, I remembered that I still have some pretty images of my mom that I haven't blogged yet! How do we fall so far behind?! I photographed my mom back in April for her birthday. She wanted to be photographed up in the pink cherry blossom tree outside our house. She was a gymnast and she adores being outside in nature so a photo shoot in a tree was a dream come true for her. She was more relaxed than she might have been if we'd been in the studio and it really pushed me out of my comfort zone — I was taking pictures while lying on my back inside the raised bucket of a tractor (so I could be up in the branches with her!) Thanks mom for giving me this creative challenge, for trusting me to create portraits for you and for flying me over to Hawaii to spend time with you! I'm so excited to see you!

 

 

Anybody else ever been to the Big Island of Hawaii or taken portraits in a cherry tree? :)

Peacock Inspired Beauty Portraits Turned into Drawing

Last December, I photographed a young woman named Megan who came to my studio for a peacock themed photo shoot. She arrived carrying her bag of clothes and balancing multiple Starbucks cups — a generous caffeine offering to us ladies working in the studio. Incredibly sweet.  She also had one of the most powerful transformations I've ever seen. Recently, Megan sent me a message that made my day and I'm so excited to share it with you today....

"A man named Renaissance Jack from Model Mayhem was so moved by our photos he asked to draw me. :-) That was a few months ago. Now I have just received this and wanted to share it with you. It's so unique I love it. I also wanted to say thank you. I have never had a photo shoot that has went as comfortably and fun as with you. I wanted to say thank you also, because no matter what I'm going through, or how down on myself and life I feel, I can look back at those photos and see that I was happy and carefree at that moment. And there is hope again. Thank you."

Thank YOU so much Megan for sharing this with me. I love that we created an image that inspired another artist to transform it into a drawing! Thank you so much again for sharing so much of your inspiring story with me during your photo shoot and for being so supportive of what I'm doing with my photography. Hanna and I loved working with you last winter, just days before Christmas. I hope I get a chance to photograph you again in the future. Enjoy wonderful autumn in the PNW and give my love to Duvall! :)

Hair & Make Up by the fabulous Hanna Mazur!

{My Happiness Project} Loving from a Distance & My Letter Production Line

It's month three of My Happiness Project! November's theme is 'Loving.' My goal is to improve the way that I love other people, primarily focusing on how to make them feel loved. Of course, this includes little acts of kindness, little compliments and lots of hugs and kisses to the people who are around me. But seeing as the majority of people I love are scattered around the globe, far away from me here on this little rock in the Pacific, I think my main aim is to master the art of making people (who are very far away) feel loved. 

One way that I try to make my friends and family feel loved is to write them letters. I became a regular letter writer when I moved to Scotland for university and writing letters was how my grandma and I stayed in touch. Our regular correspondence has become one of the most beautiful joys of my life and both of us have saved ALL of our letters to each other. I hope one day to make a big book of them all. I wish more people experienced this beautiful art form because I think it's the most wonderful form of communication. Click here to read more about THE ART OF WRITING LETTERS.

Since moving to Hawaii, I've created a spreadsheet that keeps track of who I send letters to and how often I'm sending them. (And people accuse me of being type-A? It's totally normal to create spreadsheets for your social activities, right? haha) I'm aiming to work through my list of loved-ones every two weeks. Miggy told me that he read some trivia that in order to keep a strong friendship alive, you have to be in contact with that person at least once every two weeks. Hence, the inspiration for my letter writing schedule. I also keep track of the type of letter I send — postcards, long letters, little packages, etc... but so far I've only managed to send postcards. They're so easy. hehe

Back in September, I learned Resolution #4: If you want to celebrate, you have to PLAN. So, I'm hoping that this lesson will also apply to letter writing. If I want to build a consistent habit of writing regular letters, I have to plan ahead. So...

During the month of November, my goal is to set up my "letter production line." This production line includes my spreadsheets ;) and I also want to make a little letter-writing toolbox that has stamps, envelopes, cards, postcards etc... all ready and waiting for me. I'm hoping this will make it easier for me to write, removing obstacles and excuses like, "I don't have time to go to the post office to buy stamps." 

Resolution 10: Make People Feel Loved at Least Once Every Two Weeks