our new STUDIO!!!!

it's been a dream .... these past few years... we knew it would happen one day and the feeling that we're here... it's amazing! I get goosebumps every day I come to our studio.... I'm so happy!

***to see the entire post... you can visit our photography studio blog link by clicking here

quiet time...

lately our new rhythm has been amazing! with our new photography studio opening we needed changes... and fast! I could feel our strings crumbling apart and I didn't want it to be a bad change... so being the Virgo in the home.... we have been sticking to times, days, and seasons and it's working... the girls are in bed... and sleeping through the night... please please everyone knock on wood! but I will soon post our weekly/daily rhythm.... but lately instead of our oldest taking naps.... we have quiet time... unless of course she does need a nap... sometimes she does! but quiet times have been projects for just her... sometimes her little sister is a little too small for some crafts... instead of Isabelle getting upset with her little sister for messing up her projects... she does them during her quiet time.... the rule is we have to be quiet... easy time... mostly we are by ourselves.. I may read, rest, work on a project.... and she usually does a craft, paint, read... sometimes I read to her, we play a puzzle, and a lot of times I catch her take her pigtails down, find her ducky and settle on the couch for an hour or so.... here's a clip of one of her quiet times....

a really sweet Pappa.......

nothing like watching a grown man that I like to call my husband playing ever so sweetly with his daughters..... a Pappa with his girls... it just seriously melts me heart to a bowl of hot cocoa.... I love it so much and know just how lucky I am. The girls make him get their fairy costumes out.... he has to carry the wands... sometimes they even make him dress in all of the dress up attire (don't tell him I said that...) ... it's adorable... one day I must try not to ruin the moment but I have to grab a pic of at least them playing tea party! truly a sweet sight! I love that he doesn't question it he just puts on the pretty bracelet knowing that the girls are so very happy to see it on him. I found great guy for sure.....

a very pretty wedding day ... part 2

we had so much fun at this wedding! even though we were taking photos... how could I helps myself... I fully enjoyed it completely! sometimes as a mom my head can begin to spin, heart gets fluttery... stress starts to sneak in... I am pretty good at putting up my hand to the stress and opening my heart to really enjoying life... it's the best recipe! it takes constant maintanence and the willing to let loose but man oh man the reward of letting the kids get dirty, have belly laughs, run through the grass barefoot so that the dewy grass sticks to your legs all the way to your knees... it's fantastic and I wouldn't want to live any other way........

so we had some fun this weekend! danced until my toesies hurt... had so much wine... twirled our girls until their cheeks hurt from giggles! It was a Scottish style Swedish wedding... intriguing huh! wow, the dancing!!! Scottish country dancing is so fun... so dizzy... so clappy! a blast!





walking to the wedding site gave me goosebumps and I couldn't help myself but to imagine I was in Robinhood... don't you think it totally looks as so...



look at her beautiful dress! Our oldest, Isabelle, said to me, "Mamma, can I dance with the princess..."



frolicking children... I mean, can you stand it... lovely!



our sweet girlies..





I even got my picture taken... imagine that! :-)





homemade ice cream and berries... yummmmmy!



Isabelle dancing with "the princess" ... she really was in awe...





this was beautiful! rice paper lanterns... you lit them and the heat of the flame caused them to fly away... the sight was amazing... I still get chills from the memory...

a beautiful wedding weekend... part one

what a beautiful last weekend we had in Sweden...



our friends were getting married up in Smaland in an enchanted forest... the air was so fresh, the lakes were sparkly, the children were happy and so were the mammas & pappas... it was just dreamy.





the night before the happy couple hosted a fun bar-b-q for all of the guests... we had a lot of fun catching up with distant friends as well as meeting new ones...







we stayed with our pals in this quaint old home.... the home even came with a pony that peeked in our windows and chickens running around... and lots of cats ... I think we'll look back in laugh until our sides hurt over this stay......



wedding day pics coming sooooooon.....

a little bit of what I do....

I don't think I have really talked much about my job on this lovely little blog here.... well... I am a photographer and my husband and I have a photography studio... I spend my days balancing life with a family as well as life with a business and I love it so very much! some days I feel like I might possibly lose my mind... the to-do lists pile so high that they fill every edge of my pretty pink paper... but the joy of checking off lists and crumbling up the pretty pink paper and putting my feet up high on my desk... that's the best!

I try not to mix up business and family... I try not to work when I have family time... and focus really hard when I am working so that when I am done I can focus really hard on playing with our girls! when we have family time we are not aloud to talk about work! no answering calls! when we have family days all of us together it's all family... no working! We have to be strict with this or else it just would crumble... and so would my heart! all of my stories on my blog are family... that is why I hardly ever bring up that I am a photographer... it wouldn't make sense... really.



we both run our business... I do most of the shooting and my husband works with lighting sometimes and designs our albums, stationary, and our advertisements and marketing material! he's great! he also does most of the billing, accounting, and mostly everything that makes my head hurt! (I love you Mattias :-) )



on days when I have a photoshoot... if I do not need him as my assistant... he is home playing hide & seek with our sweet girls... taking them to the park while I am editing photographs... it's a great balance! on days when he needs to work uninterrupted I take the girls to the library, botanical gardens... off to the city we go... on days when we both need to work.. weddings, large intense shoots, meetings, brainstorming days, photography workshops... my parents watch our girls... our oldest girlie also goes to preschool 2-3 days per week.



these photographs are of a wedding we shot together at our town's Ritz Carlton hotel... it is so much fun to work together and I feel so happy!!!

I have not been blogging lately because we have just returned from our trip to Sweden... since we have gotten back we have been trying so hard to move into our BRAND NEW STUDIO!!!! We are moving our business out of the home and to downtown Sarasota... just a few minutes away in Historical Burns Square! We cannot believe our dream is coming true! pinch me!!!

I know a lot of you have been curious to what we use for equipment etc... I use only Nikon cameras... mostly for my blog pics I use my Nikon D700 and mostly use my 50mm 1.4 I love this lens so much!!! we also use our 70-200 but mostly for weddings and portraits... day to day pics.. I hardly use lighting... basically because I love natural light and also kiddos are crazy fast and I think it takes away from them... so I bump up the ISO and it's just perfect! We plan to have workshops in the future but love to answer questions that any of you may have... feel free to ask awayyyy....

Here is a link to our website and our blog...
I may let you know here and there on this blog about business things but mostly I like to keep this lovely blog to just family... it calms me and I love to just look back at all of the things we did as a family... maybe I will put a link on this blog to our website blog... put it on the list... :-)

crawfish couple of days...

we just got back yesterday for a couple of days of crawfish catching and lots of fresh beautiful forest air! We went to visit Pappa Mattias' Uncle and their beautiful family! The way of life is something else... sitting outside listening to the crickets... the stars... kids running free.....



they live out in the country and have a lot of land... which equals... a lot of fun!





we were quite proud of our little big girl this day.... and I'm pretty sure she was too... such a fun job catching crawfish... In Sweden August is THE crawfish month!!! all of the stores sell it, there are special plates, crawfish schnapps, balloons! The way you cook crawfish and prepare it is quite intense.... from putting out the traps in a creek to waking early to collecting your treasures... then you have to put them in their special water over night... then the cooking process... well that post is coming soon... :-)







they're HUGE!!!







here are the catchers... she was quite cute in her huge boots... trekking with her Pappa and Uncle in the prickly nettles taller than her... she was so focused and determined and I felt a little tug on my heart... she looked so grown up....... I love learning experiences such as this... life experiences are a fantastic way for the very young to the very old to learn... we're all sponges really



while they were busy in the rivers... our little Cecilia was quite content in the raspberry bushes... wiping them completely clean... sorry bears... Cecilia loves her berries... she gets so happy plucking them and stuffing so many in her little mouth




sometimes as a photographer I find myself in a moment... a moment where something is so sweet and tender that if I reach for my camera I will spoil the moment and it will be over... so I take it in to the fullest and just enjoy it... it happens a lot lately! there are just so many moments in life to document it's just better to relax and see them through my eyes instead of through my lens...... but I can promise you, I enjoy looking back through the years and remembering things through photographs and I do get teary eyed...

I found myself sitting on the edge of a hill having a beer... it was beginning to get dark out... the air was getting chilly... our girls found a sand hill on the side of the barn... on the hill there was a pale and two shovels... perfect! I just sat a bit away from them... watching from afar... they sat there together, as sisters, using their shovels and working together filling their pale. packing it down. our oldest was being so patient with her little sister... they were giggling at each other and talking. Isabelle said to her sister, "Cecilia, you can talk now! I'm so happy you're my funny sister!" then she called over to me, "Mamma, I'm so lucky to have a funny sister!!! She can talk now!" I enjoyed so so much just sitting there watching them play having my beer... relaxing on that hill watching our girls become best friends..... it's the best life for me!

an American friend in Sweden...

I always think it's quite amazing how small our world just is... whenever I think of my friend Heidi... it seems quite so! back awhile ago when I worked at a shop in town, one evening a couple walked in.. we got to talking and it came up that our husbands were both from Sweden... and from quite close to each other... like a town away! we would bump into each other at the Swedish club events every winter... then... when we went to our first midwife appointment with our first little girl... in walked HEIDI!!! she was going to be our midwife!!!!!!!! she delivered our little sweet Isabelle in our home 4 1/2 years ago... since then she has moved to Sweden with her lovely Swedish husband Martin... and their little girl Iris... THEN they had their little Camile in Sweden 1 1/2 years ago... both our girls are about the same age! Every year when we visit we get together with them! It's lovely where they live and the kids have so much fuN! It always reminds me of our daughter's birthday... remembering Heidi at our birth brings on a flood of Mamma emotions... and I just love her for that! Thanks for a beautiful day!!!! beautiful family you all are!!!



Iris and ISabelle off they gooooo!



Cecilia practicing hiking with Pappa!



can you seriously take it! This is just down the street from where they live! it's so gorgeous! I love forests... they remind me of every fairytale I ever read... all the best stories take place in a forest... it's fun to remember as you're hiking... looking at the mossy stumps... the huge trees... the green canopy... the trolls... the fairies...



Heidi and I and our girlies







they have such an incredible garden!



fun to see Cecilia with a little friend her age...



then we picked black currents from their garden and we happily took some home... yummmmy!