It is with great honor and excitement that I announce my collaboration with Ana White of Knock-offwood.com and soon to be ana-white.com. Ana is an Alaskan stay-at-home mom just like me with a talent she wanted to share with those who would read her blog. She has a degree in computer science and is a self-taught carpenter. She began building by using scrap pieces of wood from around the house to tinker around to try her hand at making furniture. In no time she was building beautiful pieces you could find in any major furniture store. Her work was selling faster than she could keep up so she put her computer science degree to work and figured out how to make the building plans digitally and decided to start blogging to share her free plans with the world. Ana’s blog launched at the end of October 2009 and it took off like wildfire. By January she had over a million hits to her site and today her site has well over 5 million page views. Ana’s work has been featured in The San Francisco Chronicle and The Oregonian and she will be featured in the September issue of Women’s Day magazine. Ana has a book and TV series in the works both tentatively titled “The Handbuilt Home” as well as a freelance contract with HGTV. She will likely be speaking at a major blogging conference and has countless other opportunities and offers flooding her inbox each week.

When my husband and I came across a feature about Ana in the local Newsminer I knew I had to at least do a photo shoot with her to help her with updated fresh images for her blog. We chatted on the phone and Ana shyly admitted that her photos were taken by her three year old, Grace. In addition to both having little girls we discovered we have a ton of things in common so we agreed to meet for coffee. In the meantime my new site launched and Ana fell in love with my images and style. We met for a playdate for the girls and to talk about working together. Her vision for the book and my vision for the images were a perfect match. Ana has asked me to be her photographer for her book, personal blogs and for her features on HGTV and words cannot describe how grateful I am to be working with someone so beautiful and talented and for the incredible opportunity. I can’t wait to share this journey and to see where it takes us!

Enjoy!

This little boy has made a mark on my heart that is difficult to explain…

I think it’s a combination of a few things…sharing in the miracle of pregnancy and birth with my cousin, girl friend and business partner was a treat and blessing beyond what I can express. Savoring the moment of learning a little boy has been born was such an awesome surprise! Capturing Pius’ first images as he came into this world and greeted his Momma with open eyes that stared into her soul was breath taking. And, I think top on my list is the mark this little guy will leave on us and especially the baby in my belly – it’s a joy that melts my heart. For almost 33 years I have cherished my relationship with my sweet cousin and watching our three year olds light up when they see each other brings a pitter patter to my heart. Marek and Lael are 5 months apart and Pius and this little one in my belly will be too and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for them.

It has been awesome watching your family grow, you guys have done an beautiful job raising your babies. The tenderness that Jahnna and Zavier have shown to Lael is so special and it means the world to me that they take time to make her feel so loved,  Thank you for letting us share these moments with your incredible family. We are blessed to have you in our lives!

Enjoy!

I have been dreaming of this shot for quite some time and I needed the perfect fit to make it a reality. Kelly’s Tire Station has been apart of our family since my dad was a little boy so having a family baby boy this summer made it perfect.

The smiles he was giving me were to die for!

I mean seriously, look at this smile!

And there’s another one!

We had an awesome weekend in Anchorage with our cousins! It was my cousin Justine and her husband Ryan’s son Beck’s baptism and we had the wonderful honor of being his Godparents. The service was a beautiful, private ceremony with close family and friends and were were so happy we got to be a part of his special holy day! I can’t wait to see photos! The other exciting reason we headed down was for my cousin, Nicholas’ first art show which was held at an adorable coffee shop called Coffee Cats. Nicholas’ work is incredible and it was so great to see his collection hanging. What a treat!

The weather was amazing and I had so much fun photographing all the cousins playing together at the BBQ celebrating Beck’s baptism. I’ll post some images here, but to see the full gallery of 60 images click here.

Our drive down and back was beautiful…the mountains were spectacular, the budding leaves were just showing their pretty green faces and the 12 moose, two porcupine and lots of rabbits stayed out of our way.

What a great trip!

Enjoy!