A cute, cute series!

It's impossible to not have an adventure when you're photographing kids!  They will never cease to surprise me, which is awesome!  It makes every family shoot I do unique in its own way.  Olivia and Sydney found a turtle during the session, and they were very worried about the puppy, Brody, hurting the turtle.  They didn't seem to be worried that they might be hurting the turtle - by scaring it to death ; )  Some people might call this a failed attempt at trying to get nice sister shot, but I love it!  I think it's perfect as to showing their big personalities!  Oh and the last shot is me directing Sydney to not hold the turtle in front of her face, so she holds it out to the side instead (I was expecting her to pull it in close to her similar to how Olivia is holding Brody).

And the Winner is....

Elizabeth and Jason!  It was a tight race, in fact it was tied yesterday morning with Elizabeth & Jason and Baby Ella.  I wish the contest could have ended there, because I love all my clients!  THANK YOU to everyone who voted and visited my blog, I hope you'll be back.  Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

My basil is looking good, and I think I might make some pesto before this long weekend is over.

Picture taken on iPhone with Hipstamatic app.

1st Ever Contest

Hello blog followers!  Thank you for helping my blog surpass 5,027 page views!  I'm doing my first ever contest on my blog!  Woohoo!  Everyone can participate, but the winner will be one of my 2011 clients.

Below are pictures from my 2011 sessions.  Leave a comment with your favorite picture.  The prize for the winning photo/client is 2 free 8x10's from their photo session!  Now is the time to send all of your family and friends over to my blog to vote for your picture (one vote per person please).  Voting will end this Saturday May 28th at midnight.  After I see how this contest goes, I'll decide how often to do them, and come up with better prizes!

#1 - Elizabeth & Jason

#2 - Baby Sophie

#3 - Baby Ella

 #4 - Brown Family (Amber, I know you are looking for a "nice" family photo, but this one cracked me up!  Don't worry, the nice pictures are coming!)

Coming Soon....!

A full post on the Brown family!!

Art for Sale & Other Exciting News!

I bought this from the Tobacco Barn the other week, but Sam wasn't a big fan.  So now it's for sale for a steal of a deal for $35!  Leave a comment or email me if you are interested in buying it.

It measures:
27.5" tall
15.75" wide
.25" depth

In other news, you might have noticed that my blog address is now www.meredithdanielsblog.com.  You no longer have to type in .blogspot.com.  Thank you Sam for your IT help, I don't know what I would do without you!

Also, I am very close to having 5,000 pageviews!  When I reach 5,027 (May 27th, this Friday is my mother in law's birthday, so that's why I picked that random number), I am going to do a special contest on the blog for my 2011 customers!

Callie's Baptism

Earlier this month, we celebrate my niece, Callie, with her baptism.  Callie just turned 10 months old, and she is sooooo cute!  I love her little smile and rosy cheeks.  There were several moments this weekends where I just I wanted to take Callie back to my house and not share her with any other relatives.  I don't think that would go over too well with the rest of the family...

Here is the beautiful Callie with her beautiful momma!

Matt and Rachel had the minister that married them perform the ceremony.  Callie was checking him out...Rachel calls this the scowly-revenge face.  It's everyone favorite picture of the bunch.

I really want to add to add subtitles to all of these pictures like for the one below "why are you touching me, please stop." But it was a very nice baptism ceremony, and that would take away from the beauty and all of the love that was there that day (but you'll catch yourself smiling at Callie in these pictures, and her cute little faces).  At the end of the baptism, everyone in the family got to read a blessing for Callie that we all wrote ourselves.  It was very sweet!

With her Dad, Matt.  She was really into pointing at things this weekend.  

 

The whole family with G'mama unable to look at the camera because of Callie : )

 Thank you to Rachel for taking these next 2 shots!  

Callie with her 2 aunts!

Sam and me with Callie : )

Callie with her great-grandmother, G'mama.  I think Callie looks like G'mama.  Y'all probably think I'm crazy for saying that (and you can't tell from this picture), but I see the resemblance in their eyes and smiles.

And one last close up!

Cupcake Surprise!

This is a fabulous idea for the end of a 1 year old shoot!  I love it, and so did Ella!  It also helps if you have the cutest homemade outfit from your great-grandmother to wear.  I was excited when Elizabeth told me she had a cupcake for Ella to eat as the last part of the session.  I love that Elizabeth let her get messy, and just enjoy the sweet, sugary cupcake!

Sweet Ella!

Hi guys!  I am ready for the weekend!  Sam and I don't have any plans, but that's the best part about the weekend, we just get to hang out with one another.  I've got a pork shoulder roasting in the oven, and tomorrow night I will make pork tinga with it, a recipe I learned from Dad.

Onto to the cute pictures, I have a few pictures to share with you of Ella.  I love this little series of Ella with her mom, Elizabeth.  Most parents that I work with book the session to get pictures of their children, but I always insist on at least one shot with your child.  And I think these photographs of Mom and Daughter are so sweet!

I thought this was a cute little series of Ella crawling.  She loved it up on this surface, the stones were smooth (unlike the concrete of a sidewalk), but the sound of her little knees scooting/scraping along worried me slightly (I'm going to be a big worry wart mommy!).  If you're a Wofford grad, you might notice this is at the top of Old Main and the other pictures are on the steps of Old Main : )  And yes those are elephants on her skirt, there is child character with books and stuff called Ella the Elephant, very cute!

Stay tuned throughout the weekend, I've got a fun surprise to share with you from Ella's 1 year old session!  Happy Friday!

Yes I bought it, and I'm not ashamed...

A house divided

I thought I would go above and beyond my photographer duties and help settle a house divided between the Wofford Terriers and the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs.  Ella is the daughter of my Wofford College cheerleading coach Elizabeth.  Elizabeth's husband, Marc, works in the athletic department of Gardner-Webb.  I felt the need to go ahead and solve this issue : )  We did have her 1 year old portraits done on Wofford's campus!  More of Ella will come later this week!  But for now, Go Terriers!

Happy Mother's Day!

I know everyone thinks they have the best mom in the world, but let me tell you why I think my mom is the best mom in the world.  She is...

Nurturing - She knows how to take care of people!  I really missed her when I was sick this winter with the flu in Asheville.  

Singer - Okay, so she's no Whitney Houston, but she's not afraid to sing, any occasion can warrant it's own tune.  For example, there was a song for the first, middle, last, and every day in between for school, a song for Christmas, Easter, a Sunny Day, a song for when you're down, a song for waking up in the morning (this is a fav of mine, it starts with "How many biscuits can you eat this morning"), and many more.  I'm not sure Sam is happy about this trait that I have inherited from my mom, I like to sing impromptu love songs to him.

Giver - My mom would give the world to me if she could.  Here's a great example from the other night when we went out to eat at Curate.  We decided to share a dessert (a critical mistake made by my mom).  And let's just say, she got about 1-2 bites of the dessert, and then she gave the rest to me!  I'm not sure I could ever give chocolate away!  Sam likes to test this theory on me by asking to have a bite of my ice cream every night.  I'll give him a small bite as long as it isn't my last bite (and it's only because I love him dearly that I give him bite, I'm not sure I would let my friends have a bite - I know I'm extremely selfish with chocolate!).

Listener - I have talked to my mom almost every day of my life.  Thank goodness we had cell phones when I went to college, because I remember talking to my mom a lot out on the front steps of Greene (the freshmen girls residence hall, yes there was only one, it was a small school).  It wasn't that I was homesick, it was adjusting to living with people in a dorm room, going through sorority recruitment, cheerleading was horrible that semester (I wanted to quit, we weren't very talented), all the silly things that seem so serious while you're in college, she was there to listen, comfort, give advice, and make me feel better.  And there has been countless hours spent on the phone with my mom, I look forward to talking to her every day!

I guess I should move onto the pictures, I don't want to make y'all any more jealous than you already are of my mom :) :) :)

Okay, here are my wonderful parents!  I love my dad too, he's pretty awesome!  You'll have to wait until Father's Day to hear more.

Mom, because I love you, I am not including the "out-takes" of you making silly faces!  Although they do remind me of Papa's silly faces he would make :)

I should also say that I love my other mom and dad (Daniels) very much as well!  I am one lucky girl to have in-laws that (a) I like (b) I like spending time with (c) I feel completely comfortable with (d) they are kind (e) they have a great sense of humor (f) and they are extremely fun to be with!

Celebrations!

May 2nd is a wonderful day in my family!  Not only do I get to celebrate my Mom's birthday, but it is also my 2nd wedding anniversary to the most wonderful man in the world!  The past 2 years have flown by, and we have had so much fun together!  

My parents are also the best ever!  Happy Birthday Mom, I love you bunches!  Thank you to both of you for all of your hard work this weekend in my yard!  I'm looking forward to growing more herbs this year and tomatoes!  

My parents were in town on Friday evening, and we went out to eat with Sam's parents as well in downtown Asheville.  We tried out a new restaurant that has only been open 1 month.  We went to Curate, a Spanish tapas bar.  Oh my it was amazing!  The food was incredible (I also loved the decor, I wanted to take our table, chairs, and chandelier home with me)!  The food was so good, that I actually ordered a chocolate mousse dessert, and then ordered a 2nd chocolate mousse dessert, because it was soooo good, and one just wasn't enough.  It was an exciting dinner as well, because, the men made the order of the 14 or so different tapas.  The food was new to all of us, and I didn't know what we had coming out to the table to eat, so it made for a fun atmosphere with that element of surprise.  I will say that as much as I love The Admiral in Asheville, dessert is their weakest meal.  I feel like they overdo the dessert at The Admiral, they try to add to many things to their chocolate.  I just want a good chocolate dessert, and that's what Curate had (I hope they always keep that chocolate mousse dessert on their menu!).  We had a great dinner, celebrating, eating good food, and drinking great wine!

I took a few pictures of my parents on Friday evening, I will be sharing more later this week.

I love every single picture from our wedding, it was such a fun and exciting day!  Thank you to Tamara Lackey for this beautiful image.  I love you Sam, and I'm looking forward to our 3rd year of marriage!  It keeps getting better and better!