My mid-year resolution is to blog a little more regularly; we'll see how that goes!  I still have plans to blog some past sessions, so bear with me! :)

Back in September, my husband and I got a unique opportunity to register for an amazing photography workshop.  Shutterfest took place in St Louis, MO, April 22-23, and it was everything we had hoped it would be, and more!  The motto was Shoot. Learn. Party.  Did we ever!!!  Bryan and I split up (ummm...not marriage-wise   lol) to attend as many of the classes as we could.  To have the chance to learn from literally some of the best in our industry was humbling.  We came back with fresh eyes, and new tricks in the bag.  We can't wait to put some of these ideas into practice to serve our clients even better!  Interested in who was teaching? 

The photographers I was able to work with in hands-on courses were nothing short of incredible people!  Huge thanks to Sal Cincotta, Lori Nordstrom, Blair Phillips, Vanessa Joy, Taylor Cincotta, and Roberto Valenzuela! It was an honor to learn from all of them; they are among the best in the world.  We are already registered for Shutterfest 2015, and looking forward to learning even more from the world-class instructors we didn't get to see this time around!

Check out some of the images we got to capture while we were in St Louis!  

Upon our return (a couple of antique shops and baby props later), what began as an almost empty week rapidly turned into a crazy one, as one booking and consult after another poured in, ending with the Mama & Baby Expo!  I wasn't able to get a table this year, but I wanted to check it out, and hopefully make some connections.  I met Troy and Suzanne Goeken, with Topstitch Embroidery Company, Haylie Plant, with Bee Bear Children's Designs (she makes the coolest burp cloths!), Glynda Richter, with Nature's Doula (very nice monogrammed booties & more), Emily Boyce, with Mandala Artworks (belly casting), and a couple of awesome midwives, Tawnya Schiebel, with Four Hands Midwifery, and Nikki McIver-Brown, with San Antonio Nurse Midwife.  Whew!  I linked the companies I have websites for, so check them out, and let them know I sent you! :) 

Finally, all of my last-minute high school seniors are trickling in.  It's making for a busy final month of school around here. LOL  I have some fun ideas to try with my next victims... um, I mean clients... so stay tuned to catch all the fun!  :)   

Some of my favorite memories are of picking fruit in the orchard.  Apples, cherries, blackberries, you name it, I probably got to "pick my own" at one time or another.  Bryan and I have been looking for somewhere we can take our kids to experience that too, and I think we found it!  It's not super close, but the drive to Medina was so pretty that it made up for it.  Love Creek Orchards boasts some fine blackberries, and the apples are almost ready, too!  While we were there, we made a quick stop at the Apple Store, and it smelled like heaven!  Fresh baked apple pies sat on the shelves and there were some samples of Cinnamon Apple Preserves and Apple Marmelade (which was SO good!).  Bryan treated me to homemade apple cinnamon ice cream and it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  I have to say that my favorite part was riding in the back of a little golf cart with Bryan to pick our own batch of blackberries.  It was super hot, and the best blackberries are on the thorned bushes, so we spent a good while carefully picking through the bramble for the big juicy ones.  We bled for those berries!  LOL

They even have a pumpkin patch out there in October that I think we are going to have to go back for; love it! :)  If you ever happen to be in the Medina, TX, area, you owe it to yourself to stop in for some apple ice cream... you won't regret it!