Rested

Ooopsie. So it looks like there is a slight chance that my blog stayed on vacation even when I came back from mine last month. Bad blog. At least we both got some rest.

To break the awkward silence, I give you a little Instagram collage of our week in the mountains! (You guys know how much I like Instagram.)



We spent an amazing week in Boone, NC. My best friend Kati and her husband Stephen and their little Cole came to join us for the second half of the week. Mystery: why didn't Stephen make it into any of these pictures?? I promise he was there.

Well, it was nice to chat with you for a few minutes. Let's not overdo this- it's been a while. We probably need to ease back into our blogging relationship. How have YOU been?

Luck o' the Irish

Guess what? If you missed the spring sale... you are in luck!

Because I am feeling guilty for not having any Guinness in the house or wearing any green today, I'm bringing the Spring Sale BACK through Saturday at midnight. Wahoooo!!

All March, April, and May sessions booked by 11:59 p.m. on March 19 will receive $50 off a $200 print/product order! Whether you're ordering canvases, a disc of digital images, prints, albums, or mini-books, you get MORE for LESS, and that's always a good thing.

And for those of you that were hoping for later sessions, I've stretched it through May. If you've already booked a session for May, surprise, you get the discount, too! Other than that, same details apply: Session must be booked by March 19, 2011 and take place by May 31, 2011. Discount does not apply to previous sessions. $50 off applies to a minimum $200 print and product order before taxes or shipping charges. $50 credit will be applied to total before any other discounts or promotions. Only valid on print and product orders from this session. No cash value.

E-mail or call me to get set up!

I can't give out pots of gold and I don't know any leprechauns personally, so this is the least I can do to celebrate St. Patty's... I didn't even make any green cookies. And I may be married to an Irishman but there will be no corned-beef or cabbage in this house today. (Or ever.) So Happy St. Patrick's Day!

And since I am really busy editing the wedding I shot and haven't pulled out any images to share with you yet, here is an Instagram of my kid. Standard blog-filler. Will this still be acceptable when he is 15? Is this actually acceptable now? Probably not... : )



Wedding preview coming soon!

Off the grid

I may have dropped off the grid there for a few days... my apologies. But I'm not really sorry cause it was a good kind of off the grid. That kind that involves no Baby Monsters, as much as the Monster's mommy might love him. Thank goodness for Monster grandparents.

I was busy prepping for and shooting an incredible wedding in Philadelphia (more on that soon), and then off galavanting throughout NYC with my partner in crime. Except I don't think we committed any crimes... maybe jaywalking... the point is hello, I'm back on the grid.

Enjoy a few of my fave Instagram snaps from The Big Apple.



(And if you're an Instagram user, follow me! : karinsc)

And my apologies to those that e-mailed while I was gone... totally forgot an out-of-office message, and I didn't have consistent internet. If you haven't gotten a response yet, you will shortly!

The pressure is off

I feel relieved. Why? I shall give you three reasons:

1. It snowed last night.

Which means that schools were closed today. Which means that I had one more day of my super-husband slash baby-daddy home to make my life easier.

Do you ever feel like you have so many undone projects that you just don't even know which to start finishing? And then they just pile on top of you and get heavier and heavier like a big load of blankets? And then you think, hey, these blankets are kinda warm... maybe I will just take a nap under here... Today I dug out from under the blankets, both in a literal laundry sense and a figurative every-other-project sense. I got so much checked off of my personal and business to-do lists today and now I have much more clarity to deal with the remaining items. Big sigh of relief.



2. It snowed last night.

Because we had an awesomely snowtastic winter last year, I've felt slightly cheated by our average snowfall this winter. And then this past Friday it was 70 degrees and it really was lovely, but I got a little panicky. Is winter over? It's only February. What is going on? Should I be ready for spring? Do I need to plant some flowers? I'm still trying to figure out how dead LAST year's flowers are. They look pretty dead on my porch, but who can be sure? Do I need to buy some sunscreen? Change my closet? I don't even know what strange new summer fashion trends I need to avoid. Is summer going to last for TEN MONTHS THIS YEAR?

And then, ahhhhhh. A fresh batch of snow set everything right again. The world is as it should be and I feel perfectly content now to begin the gradual transition to warmer days. And also, my dead[ish?] plants are covered in fluffy whiteness so I don't have to see them. Win.



3. It snowed last night.

And not only did I take some pictures in the park today, I am sharing them with you right now. This may surprise you. Have I mentioned that I am loving the Instagr.am app on my iPhone these days? It's super un-fancy, like me, and makes my iPhone photo of the week more fun (and more likely to happen)! I follow a pretty strict policy of only downloading free iPhone apps, and this one is well worth the $0.00 I spent on it.

I have such a perfectionism problem feeling that I have to edit every image I shoot- even just snapshots- which is why I have a backlog of personal photos from September hiding on my computer. But because there aren't endless editing options and adjustments in Instagr.am, I just take a picture with my phone, choose one effect, and boom- a fun, square picture is born. I literally can't do anything else to it, so the pressure is totally gone. It somehow makes me happy that the images aren't, and can't be, perfect. I need to be ok will a little more imperfection in my life.

So while the rest of Maryland pouts that the snow came and ruined their pretty spring weekend, I'm a little sad that it's been melting so quickly. Tonight I take a deep breath and go to sleep feeling much lighter. Thank you snow.

The way to my heart

This morning, my child woke up at 5:15. As he has every day for the past week. Not cool.

I sat half asleep in the recliner "watching" him squeal and play on the floor in his room. Dylan walked in to tell us bye before he left for work at 6:15. (Dylan, don't take this the wrong way, but I hate it when I get to see you before work.)

Anyway, he said, "It's kind cool... for the next ten years or so, Brody is always going to think you are his Valentine." I'm not super-cheesy, super-mushy, or super into Valentine's Day, and let's be honest, that statement is all of those things. But it still struck me as kinda cute.

So after his morning nap, my little Valentine took me out on a date. Nevermind that he didn't pay, it still counts.



We went to Dunkin Donuts. He knows his mommy well- donuts are the way to my heart.

Mommy ate donuts.



Brody ate a stuffed hippopotamus.



Mommy considered giving him a piece of donut, but since he barfed up all of the bread he tasted for the first time the other day, we stuck with the hippo. Maybe next year.

And now we are off to bake some sugar cookies for my real Valentine. (And by "we," I totally mean me while Brody sits and cries in his exersaucer. Awesome. These sort of memories will be much more fun when he is older.)

And p.s., who knew that by waiting until Valentine's morning the shelves at the grocery store would be wiped clean of all heart-stamped pre-sliced cookies? Booooo for boring undecorated circle cookies that actually look like squares.



Oh and thank you Instag.ram for making my iPhone pictures kinda pink in honor of today.

Hope you have a happy Valentine's Day!

iPhone Image of the Week

I think I only did this once and never actually named this segment, but I can thank Kim for being the ONLY ONE to answer my pleas for help coming up with a name for my weekly image from my phone. Kim, you are the bomb dot com. She came up with a very clever name, but for reasons I cannot divulge at this time, the official naming ceremony is on hold (oooh mystery). For now, we stick with the boring title: iPhone Image of the Week.

My five-year-old computer has been trying to sneak off into a quiet corner to die for some time now, but I refuse to let it. I think it's getting mad at me. Yesterday it upped the ante with this clever move- shedding a key. Just minor enough to be "not a real problem", but just annoying enough to make me want to punch it in the screen. Well, little MacBook Pro, I will not be worn down by your games! You will not get out that easy! You may have won the battle, but I will win this war.



The best part? Texting this image to my dad yesterday. I said, "Well this makes life more interesting." His response: "Sur dos."

I love that man.

Oh, nothing

What, this little old thing? Oh, it's nothing, just the park that I walk through every day two blocks from my house. Just the perfect refreshing fall weather after a warm (albeit lovely) visit to South Carolina. Just the perfect combination of green grass, blue skies, and changing leaves. Just something I shot with my iPhone the other day. No big deal.



That's right, my iPhone. It's ok to be impressed.

I started thinking, maybe a weekly iPhone photo would be a fun blog installment. Maybe even I'll give it a fun weekly installment name. [Now accepting submissions.] If nothing else it will be a nice break for you from the over-sharing of my baby's face while I'm editing sessions and don't have them ready to post. Shall we make it official? Done and done. I promise to try very hard (well probably not very hard, probably more just the average amount) to share an image off of my iPhone each week. I promise to try at the same level to make it interesting and not always of my baby. But since this week it's the park, next week I can use my baby. Ha.

Ok, back to work editing all the pictures you ACTUALLY want to see. But seriously, give me name suggestions for my iPhone sharing.