I hope everyone had a fabulous Labor Day weekend. We stayed busy but had plenty of relaxation too. We ended up painting my daughter’s bedroom. She had outgrown the pink she asked for 3 years ago so we decided on a pretty turquoise. She absolutely loves it so it was time well spent. Here she is 3 years ago painting her own room (Age 9) and this weekend painting it again (Age 12).

This week I found a gorgeous photo wall that includes step-by-step instructions. It doesn’t get better than that! I found the original post on the Tatertots & Jello Blog. How cute is that name?!

The colors are so crisp and bright. Doesn’t it just say “Hello! How are you? Come on in.” to people coming in the front door? There are step-by-step instructions on everything from painting the frames to hanging them without putting holes in your walls. So go check it out and have fun with it. Who’s ready to create a beautiful wall gallery of their own? I know I am! Have a great Wednesday!!

Peace and Popsicles!

Heather

Who’s loving that school is back in session? Not so much, huh? Well to make the early mornings and late nights of homework a little more fun we’re introducing our very first Back to School Mini Sessions for the entire month of September. These sessions are so much fun! We’ve created an adorable set featuring a chalkboard background that will feature your child’s name along with some other special information for this particular time in their life including their grade, school, teacher, some favorite things and any other info you’d like to include. How freakin’ cute is that?!

Here is the Session Info:

Sessions will be 20 minutes long

Session fee ($29) will need to be paid to book your session

Packages are as follows:

Traditional Print: $59
1-8×10
2-5×7
8-wallets
(Up to 4 different images can be used)

Digital Package: $99
3 Digital Images of your choice
Add all additional digital images for an extra $99

You will choose your package and pay for it on the day of your session. Your Session images will be available to view in an online gallery within 7 days of your Session. Your gallery will be available for 5 days and you will choose your package images during that time. Your friends and family will have the option to purchase items during that time as well.

These sessions are only available during the month of September so please book yours now as we’ll only be doing them after school so they will go fast. Call the studio at 843-245-7320 or email heather@infinity-images.com to book your session now. Remember this special time in your child’s life with these super cute portraits! We look forward to seeing you!!

Peace and popsicles!!

Heather

I hope you’re having a wonderful week so far. The rain is a making it a little gloomy but I’ve been listening to Etta James on Spotify in my office and it’s making the day much brighter. This week I’ve found something that is so easy to create that just about anyone could do it. I found this idea on an adorable blog called Tidbits from the Tremaynes. This mom documents her home improvement adventures and makes you laugh the entire journey. Here she’s created a beautiful wall portrait gallery of various sizes, shapes and frame types. This is such a great idea for all of those mismatched portraits and frames you don’t know what to do with.  It makes it really easy to change out photos as well. And don’t we all have that awkward wall that we have no idea what to do with?! Let me know if you’re going to try this. I’d love to hear how yours turns out! Have a wonderful day!

Peace and Popsicles!!

Heather

I woke up Wednesday morning just like any other morning. Except it wasn’t just any other morning. It was the first day of school. I know, all moms deal with the first day of school every single year. But this year is different. This year my son is a Senior. This year I woke him up for his last first day of school. I’m in tears typing this because I can’t imagine a day when I won’t be able to wake him up for school. I don’t want to imagine it.

And my little girl started 7th grade. She made the transition from elementary school to high school (our town only has 2 schools). No longer will she be walked from class room to lunch room in a single file line with a teacher close by. She gets to mingle in the hall with her friends and walk to lunch completely teacher-free.

After the kids left for school and Daniel left for work, it really hit me how things were changing and changing fast. And there was nothing I can do to stop it. I broke down into tears standing at the front door. I pulled myself together long enough to get ready for the world. But later that morning I talked to mom (and we all know how moms can make us even more emotional than we already are). At that point I broke down again and didn’t recover until dinner.

It’s our little family tradition to take the kids out to eat after the first day of school. We talk about their day, find out what they think of their new teachers, see if there might be any issues. Luckily Daniel knew I was having a hard time with it all and he kept the mood light and fun. He made us laugh the entire time. The kids chose a Japanese restaurant so we indulged in some yummy sushi..my favorite! The entire ride home all I could think was it was the last time we’ll ever have that dinner. Yes, we’ll have plenty of family dinners together after Gage graduates but we’ll never have the First Day of School Dinner with all of us together…ever again. It hurts my heart to think about. My kids think I’ve lost my mind because the smallest thing will make me break down into tears. They just stare at me like an alien has taken over. I know all parents go through this and I’m sure it won’t be this bad every day. I’m just hoping I can get over it fast because I can’t continue to spend every day crying. My clients might think I’m having a mental breakdown!

I’ll leave with a couple of photos of my babies. I know this image is horrific (I wasn’t always a talented photographer lol) but it’s my favorite photo of them when they were little. Gage had just learned to whistle and was whistling a tune for Lindsay when she was ready for bed. Again, my heart is breaking. I can’t even look at these without breaking down.

And fast forward 12 years to Wednesday – the First Day of School 2012.  Gage’s LAST first day of school.

Lindsay’s first day of 7th Grade

Please excuse the bad cell phone pic but getting them together in a photo isn’t and easy thing to do. They look thrilled to say the least. But they are my heart and I’m looking forward to making the most of every single day with them!

How freakin’ cute is this? Daniel would never let me do this in our living room but I absolutely love it! I can see creating this design in a hallway instead of doing the same old line of photos down the wall. Or maybe in a child’s room replacing the black frames with colorful ones. I know Hobby Lobby carries wall clings that look very similar to this but you could also find them online. Or if you’re really creative just paint your own tree! Have fun with this one! You could really use your imagination!

Original post here

I’m sharing this Wall Art Wednesday post on Thursday. I was having some technical difficulties with the blog yesterday which led me to serious thoughts of throwing my computer against the wall. Luckily I took a breather before I could do any damage and the problems worked themselves out. So this morning I have a blog post for you and a computer that isn’t in 400 million pieces.

I came across this awesome idea on Pinterest (are you on Pinterest? If not, you definitely should be). How many times have you happened upon some old windows at a thrift store and wondered “Hmmm I know I could do something cool with those, but what would it be?” It would be this! What a gorgeous way to display your family’s photos and add a unique point of interest to any room in your home. It would be beautiful in a kitchen, dining room, family room…any room! I love the cottagey feel it has. Do you have some old windows that could be pulled out of the garage and put to some use? I’d love to see your version of this! Share it in the comments section or email it to heather@infinity-images.com.

Have a wonderful Thursday!

Kisses!

Heather

I fell in love with this wall when I came across it on Pinterest. There was no link to the originator (I hate when someone pins something without a link) so I can’t say where it came from. But isn’t it a gorgeous statement piece…and all about the family that lives in this home. It helps tell the story of how much this family loves each other and how important they are to one another. No landscape picture can do that. I can tell by looking at this that these images were printed on canvas that’s ready to hang but you could also do it with prints mounted on foam core and use Velcro pieces to adhere them to the wall. That way you can change them out as your family grows. I love this and I may consider this for a wall in our home. I hope you enjoyed today’s Wall Art Wednesday. Is anyone feeling inspired yet?! Tell us what you think in the comments. We’d love to hear from you! Peace and popsicles! Heather

We love our pets!! Yep, I said it. I’ve turned into one of those crazy pet people. I dress my dogs up for Halloween, I feed them leftovers, I take them to the vet to get their teeth cleaned (I know!). I never thought I’d love our animals as much as I do. They have become part of our family and I couldn’t imagine living without them.

But not all pets are so lucky. When I visit the shelter in Darlington my heart breaks for all of those helpless animals. They look so sad and desperate to find someone to love them. If I could bring all of them home I would. But I would definitely be single if I bring home even one more animal (we have 3 inside dogs and 2 cats). So I do what I can to help out when I can. We’ve created an event that will help the shelter and all of the other crazy pet lovers out there. Our Pet Days Charity Portrait Event is an annual event where we collect puppy and kitten food for the shelter in exchange for a portrait session and print of your favorite pet. A win/win for everyone! Here’s how it works:

You bring your pet and a 20 lb or larger bag of Purina puppy or kitten food to the studio to have a 10-15 minute portrait session. You can even get in there if you’d like (we limit it to either 2 children or 1 adult). You’ll pick your favorite image and we’ll send you a FREE 5×7 Professional Quality Print. How cool is that?! You help out the shelter and you get a beautiful portrait of your furry friend! We were able to collect lots of food for the shelter last year and we’re hoping to top it this year. If you’d like to schedule your session please call 843-245-7320. If you don’t have a pet but know people that do (and don’t we all know a crazy pet person?) please forward this email to all of the people you know so we can spread the word and raise enough food to feed these desperate animals for a good long time. We’re looking forward to seeing you and your furry friend at the studio on August 18 & 19th!!

The shelter also needs tons of other items if you’d like to make a donation. They need blankets, towels, bleach, collars and leashes, chew toys, gas cards for transporting the animals and of course cash donations made directly to the shelter are always welcome.

Please share this on Facebook too! We need all of the help we can get to reach our goal of filling up these time slots!! Thanks so much for your support!

Hugs and sloppy puppy kisses xxxoooxxx!!

Heather

I’m so excited about this new weekly blog. Wall Art Wednesday was brought about after I made a delivery to one of my favorite clients. She’s been putting together a photo wall since her son was born 18 months ago (well longer since her maternity portraits were there too). She’s talked about it before during her sessions but I hadn’t seen it in a while. I was blown away by how much thought and effort she had put into it. She was on the Baby Plan so her son had his newborn, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month and 1 year portraits taken with us and they were all displayed along with her maternity portraits, family snap shots and a few from the Limited Editions they participated in this year. There were gallery wraps, small framed prints and larger prints all put together to make an amazing photo wall that I’m sure everyone loves to look at when they walk into her home.

Obviously I’ve gotten to know this mom over the past few years (I shot their wedding too) so I know that she is extremely crafty and loves Pinterest as much as I do. So it wasn’t a huge stretch for her to come up with something like this and execute it on her own. But lots of people have no idea what to do with their portraits and snapshots. They sit in a box or worse on a computer hard drive waiting for someone to do something with them. I thought it would be a great idea to help those people envision what their photos can look like and how beautiful they could be hanging on their wall. And that it doesn’t take a huge space to make a huge impact. So Wall Art Wednesday was born. Here on the blog I’ll post wall art that I find on the web or photos of my own clients’ walls. I hope to inspire people to take down the landscape picture of a windmill and replace it with beautiful pictures of your family. You’d be surprised how just passing by them can bring a smile to your face. I know mine do…especially when my kids are getting on my very last nerve.

Our very first Wall Art Wednesday is so much fun. I came across this idea on Bliss Images and Beyond’s Blog.

I loved the idea of adding a conversation starter as well as beautiful images. Using clocks below each of your child’s photos stopped at their birth times you are giving people something to talk about. Of course when someone sees it for the first time they’re going to ask what it means. It’s such a unique way to tell a story about your children and I couldn’t wait to share it with you.

I hope you enjoy this new series and get something out of it. Please feel free to comment and let me know your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you. And please send a photo if you have a gorgeous wall in your home or if you create one using the inspiration you find here. You can email it to heather@infinity-images.com. I can’t wait to see what we create together!

Thanks!

Heather

I was out of the office last week on a much needed vacation with my family. My sister lives in Cincinnati and we are only able to see each other once a year…which is not nearly enough. Every summer we get to hang out and catch up and it’s the best week of my year. I miss my sister immensely. The day our visits come to an end are nothing but sad and depressing. I usually cry for a good 24 hours after.

So why do I choose to not bring my camera on our vacations? As I sat on the beach with her sitting beside me and our children playing in the ocean in front of us I started thinking about this. I choose not to bring my “big” camera on our vacations and it’s been like this for a while. At first I thought it was just because it was an inconvenience because it was so big and cumbersome to carry around. But while sitting on the beach I figured it out. Snapshots of our vacations is all I need. I bring a point and shoot that actually belongs to my daughter. I snap a few here and few there. Some of our kids being totally goofy and some are typical touristy shots. Those are all ok with me. I’m not a professional photographer when I’m with my kids. I’m a mom that wants to live every moment out with them, not be worried about whether I got “the” shot.

I wish I could drag around a professional photographer with me on vacation to capture moments between me and my sister and the rest of my family but that would be impractical. It’s sad that most moms are the ones taking the photographs of their families. So this leaves no photographs of us interacting with our families. It makes me sad that I have very few images of me and my kids just being together. Yes, I have professional portraits of us and I absolutely love them. But what I wouldn’t give to have some of us playing on the beach or snuggling on the couch after a long day of fun. These photos are mementos that our children will cherish one day. I know I love flipping though my mom’s old photo albums. My children love it too. It shows them our heritage, where they came from. Without those snapshots time disappears. Our children will have nothing to look back at…unless you want to count Facebook. I certainly hope that isn’t how they will reminisce about us. My point is that you shouldn’t forget about those most important snapshots of every day life. And get in the photograph! Have someone else take photos of you and your children just doing silly things. These are the photos that your children will want to look at when they’re older and have families of their own. They won’t care if you were 10 lbs overweight or that your hair was a mess. They’ll look at the photo and say to their own child “Look how beautiful my mom is.”

Here is a snapshot of me a my sister several years ago. This is one of my favorite shots of her and I together. We don’t look like supermodels and the image is technically terrible. But I don’t care. I LOVE IT!