Tag: women

Categories
BlahBlahBabble

A Little Bit About Me… (30 Days of Lists: Day 1)

I was inspired by 30 Days of Lists and decided to participate. Today is day 1. I may take some of these offline, but for now writing them here seemed just as easy, and I’d rather share.

List 1: A few things about yourself

  • Wife to Mike
  • Mom to Jason
  • Owner or owned by 4 cats: Mona, Maggie, Lincoln & Graham
  • I have the most wonderful and supportive family & friends and I’m grateful for them daily
  • I love being a Boudoir Photographer
  • I believe all women are beautiful
  • I passionately want to help women feel beautiful in their own skin, and I use my camera to help me do that, I also recommend the best acne scar treatment for those who feel intimidated by their skin
  • I like photographing weddings too, especially when we get to go to cool destinations
  • I’m still working to define my dreams and decide what I want to be when I grow up
  • Blogger of over 10 years here
  • I named WordPress, my only geek claim to fame
  • I’m an only child
  • I tend to overshare
  • I’m learning on a daily basis to love myself more
  • I love to knit with wool and I’m a fiber snob
  • My Mini Cooper (Horizon blue with a white top and white bonnet stripes) makes me smile every time I see it
  • I loved living in Germany in my early 20s and I hope to live in Europe again someday
  • I had a hysterectomy in 2007, and sometimes I still wish I could have a baby
  • Sometimes I’m glad I can’t have a baby because I love my life just like it is today
  • I taught myself to code HTML by hand in 1996 when I had nothing to do over the holiday season at work
  • While I’m better at it, CSS still makes my eyes bleed a little bit
  • I have decided I don’t want to edit this list to make it go in any sort of order that makes sense
  • I’ve learned to just do brain dumps lately and then just move on to my next task so I can get things done
  • I’m a piler, not a filer
  • I dream of living a minimalist lifestyle
  • I find it hard to get rid of things away because I spent money on the item or I have an emotional attachment
  • I want to move into a small bungalow style house with a porch in a neighborhood where I can walk or ride my bike to get places
  • Making lists is fun
  • I want to buy my studio building but I question whether or not I should or can
  • I love Houston but wish it wasn’t so blazing hot all the time
  • I miss living somewhere with seasons because I love fall, winter & spring so much
  • I’ve decided to accept that I’ll be living in Houston for many more years but I’m not always happy about it
  • I never finished college
  • When people say I’m successful I have a hard time agreeing with them – but I’m working on it
  • I want to find a BIG WAY to help women learn to be comfortable with their bodies, but admitting that I have this big dream scares me so I’m putting it at the bottom of my list
  • I want to learn how to dream BIG and then BIGGER THAN BIG and then make those dreams come true
  • I’m still learning to put words to my dreams
  • I am happy.

Hmm… seems I don’t follow instructions well since that is more than a few. Eh, whatever. I don’t want to edit it. I might even add to it someday.

Categories
BlahBlahBabble

Cultivating a Sense of Wonder – Reverb10 Day 4…

Brought to You by the Letter B...

Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year?

I’m truly fortunate. I have a sense of wonder naturally, which is so helpful as a momma boudoir & destination wedding photographer.

With my boudoir photography, I have had the opportunity to get to know women who are nothing short of amazing. I always make a point of starting off my sessions with some time to just talk and get to know each other. To learn a bit more about them. After all, they are allowing themselves to be quite open and possibly even vulnerable with me. I want to make them relax and be comfortable. It is through our conversation, and them letting their guard down, that I get the most amazing photographs of them. I always love the photos that involve laughter. True, hearty laughter, accompanied by genuine, beautiful smiles. It makes my heart sing. I love that I get to empower women, especially moms, to see how amazing and beautiful they truly are. As women, we are often so hard on ourselves. I get to use my camera to show them what I see. A sense of wonder is what gets me to that point – they are the ones that make the photographs beautiful.

Farhana, Waiting

I also love looking for the little things, the small details, and the moments of love between people. It is the most incredible thing to be an observer on the inside of a wedding day. In the past three years, I have had a front row seat to some of the most amazing and beautiful moments. I’ve gotten to hold bride’s hands as they were nervous before walking down the aisle. I’ve listened to people as they shared stories through tears of the loved ones who were unable to be there that day. I have seen some of the most joyous moments in people’s lives, that pure elation as they walk back down the aisle after they have said their vows. The toasts, dancing and celebrations. Laughter. Tears. JOY.

My love of people and the life around us only grows stronger as I am affirmed over and over of the goodness in this world. I see it all the time in my boudoir sessions and at weddings. It is just incredible, and it has made me grow in my sense of wonder. I am incredibly blessed.

Sarah & Sean's Wedding - Alone Time

Categories
Getting Down to Business

Women CAN Be Successful Business Owners…

Women can be successful business owners.

This is probably an obvious statement in some ways, but one that I’ve been thinking about a LOT this past week. While we can be successful, I don’t think we often believe in ourselves. We set a lot of limits for ourselves, often unintentionally, having a hard time believing we can’t rise to the top.

Fear stands in our way.

If you think about it, women have really only started to rise in the ranks of business over the past 100 years. Before that, it was predominantly a man’s world. I think that to some extent, that is why we don’t always believe in ourselves.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve been checking out the Rich, Hot & Happy B-School. Ok, I’ll admit it, I think the name is a bit cheesy. But what Marie and Laura are teaching is FABULOUS! I’ve already gotten some really great ideas from the free videos they put out there. So after a few days of consideration, I decided within the final hour last week to sign up for RHH B-School myself. I can’t wait for it to start in a few weeks!

They have decided that they wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to sign up, so they opened it back up for ONE DAY ONLY. You can register until midnight tonight, Pacific time. Personally, I think you should definitely check out the videos to see if you’re interested! (And it isn’t women only – men can sign up too!) Check it out!

Want to know more about who is behind this? Marie Forleo is a best-selling author, speaker, online-entrepreneur, Nike Athlete and Master Trainer, fitness personality, and dancer/choreographer, Marie has defied conventional wisdom and achieved phenomenal success across multiple industries. She recently worked with Tony Robbins for his DVD training program, The New Money Masters. Yes, THE Tony Robbins! Laura Roeder is a social media marketing expert who teaches small businesses how to create their own fame and claim their brand online. She is the creator of the Creating Fame Classroom and Your Backstage Pass to Twitter.

Basically, these women know their stuff!

So often I think wedding photographers and other wedding vendors get so focused on what their competition is doing, they forget to learn outside of the industry. I think that is a really important thing to do — as I witnessed first hand at Entrepreneur Camp Houston this past weekend. Stretch yourself and grow!

Check out Rich, Hot & Happy B-School, and maybe I’ll see you in class there? Don’t forget though – you only have through tonight to sign up!