Things I’m Loving

Posted on July 5, 2010

I wanted to share a few things that I’m loving these days. No real rhyme or reason to this list…just simply stuff I LOVE!

Ruche – I just discovered this clothing website a few days ago thanks to a facebook ad. (Yes…I’m one of those people that notices those ads and regularly clicks on them to see what the dealio is, I’m such a sucker for advertising and marketing and pretty shiny colors…) This clothing is beautiful, delicate and feminine and oh my goodness I want to dress like this all the time!!!! I’ve got my eye on a few pieces I might actually take a chance on and buy…but I have this odd frame that is challenging to buy for…which is why I look homeless half the time in my ill fitting clothes but…Ruche, oh amazing Ruche you just might make me dip my toes into the water of looking decent. I’m 28, is that too old to pull off hair accessories? Or shall I say am I personally too old for such awesomness? I feel like I’m not nearly nifty enough. But I REALLY would like to try! And as a side note their catalogs are GORGEOUS!!! I’m browsing through them getting soooo inspired from a photographers stand point. Gorgeous stuff!

Elizabeth and the Catapult – I have my sister Sarah to thank for opening my ears to this fantastic group. I love how mellow their sound is. How rich the lead singer Elizabeth Zimans voice is. I love them!! Right Next to You is my new favorite song these days. Give them a listen, you won’t be disappointed! Well unless you naturally have a horrid taste in music, then of course you wouldn’t appreciate Elizabeth and the Catapult…duh.

Get Uncommon – I’ve been on the lookout for a company like this ever since I got my iPhone…which unlike the rest of the free world was a mere three months ago. This company rocks though and allows you to design your OWN personalized iPhone covers. They are a bit on the pricey end, but I think it’s a small price to pay for that level of customization! I just ordered one today for my incredible sister in law Ashley, and if hers turns out I’ll order one for myself. You see how selfless I am?? Thanks Ash for being cool with being my guinea pig.  In all honesty it looks like an amazing case and has tons of positive reviews! I can’t WAIT for it to arrive!!

My Mother – who as you notice is the only one on this list without a link and you wanna know why? Cause she’s too cool to be connected to any social networking sites, too busy being awesome to have time for a blog, she’s beautifully “un=plugged”. I love her for it too! She’s like this well kept secret only a few people get to be privy too and I’m excited I’m one of the few. She has MANY talents, she’s seriously the most creative person I know! She sews, cooks, gardens, builds (she takes power tools to school!), scrapbooks, crafts, creates amazing things out of literally anything, it’s amazing! I have full faith if you gave her a few empty milk cartons, screws, a broken down wooded fence, some paint and a bag of mini carrots she could fashion a desk and rolling chair…no lie. So my genius mother found this listing on Craigs List for a dining hutch and she talked me into going with her to check it out. You see I’ve been searching for a hutch for awhile, but I’d been looking at (get ready for it) furniture stores. Which my mother chuckled at. She sees no reason to go to furniture stores and pay full price when you can compile your milk cartons together and make something yourself! So we go check out the hutch and while I didn’t care for the color…the bones of it was perfect. I loved it! So I bought it on the spot and my mom, me and the nice lady who was selling it lugged it into my moms truck and we took it to my parents house and I really wasn’t sure what would happen at that point. Well a few weeks later I show up at my parents house and the most GORGEOUS hutch is there, it’s painted my new FAVORITE color (turquoise) and is PERFECTLY distressed. Oh it’s PERFECT! I later found out that she also got some sanding help from my precious Daddy. Just check out their amazing work!!!!!

I am BEYOND blessed to be her daughter and have her so excited and willing to help me create beautiful furniture pieces for my home. I’m just endlessly grateful! And she is also the one who helped me track down most of the white dishes on display on the hutch. I LOVE white dishes and have them all over my kitchen, but the soup pot/gravy bowl is the latest find (top center). AHHHHHH love!!!!

Vintage Photoshoot – Oklahoma High School Senior Photographer

Posted on July 3, 2010

I’ve been busy working on my High School Senior Representative Program. I’ve chosen some seriously FANTASTIC Seniors and I’m BEYOND excited for their photoshoots, I can’t wait to reveal who they are and show you how AMAZING THEY ARE!!!! Since my Seniors are all so unique and fantastic I’m on the lookout for unique and fantastic locations to conduct thier photoshoots. I try so hard to choose locations that are perfect for them and match their outfits, personalities, activities, etc., etc., so the other day I talked my sisters into coming along with me so I could experiment with a few new locations…they did SOOOO amazing.

Prior to going on the photoshoot I expressed to them how much I’m wanting to experiment with “conceptual photoshoots” where it begins with a concept and then lets that concept or theme control the mood and feel of the photoshoot. I told them the concept I was wanting  for this shoot was “vintage”, this was a rather broad idea, but this is all an experiment at this point. I was SOOOO impressed with the outfits and accessories they put together! Sarah looks beyond incredible here!

And look at pretty Bethany rocking it out too!

This old house makes my heart pitter pat. When I was scouting out locations out before hand and I drove by this house I literally SCREAMED with excitement!!!! The whole vibe that this old bungalow gives off is beyond incredible.

I’m so pleasantly surprised at the amount of gorgeous ivy available here. I really thought when I left Germany it would be it – no more gorgeous ivy covered walls and I couldn’t have been more wrong! Check out the expressions on Bethany and Sarah’s faces – INCREDIBLE!! They are so fierce! You’d never know we were MELTING in the harsh Oklahoma sun in the middle of the afternoon (yes, I know it was crazy to even attempt a shoot at 2pm, but we were too excited to wait until a later time! HAAA!)

And in closing my favorite from the shoot: This old gas pump is such a gem…it’s like stepping back in time! Expect to see this gem appear again and again…it’s too incredible not to use more than once!!!!

Thanks Bethany and Sarah for dressing up and playing along with me and my random ideas. Thanks for not complaining about the heat (I was personally complaining enough for the three of us, right?). Thanks for being such great sports and laughing it off as a few locals drove by and gawked at you gorgeous girls modeling it up in the middle of town. YOU ARE SUPAH STAHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Annie Pennington
Oklahoma High School Senior Photographer

Personal Photos and Ramblings

Posted on May 14, 2010

I don’t usually post that many personal pictures just because my life feels a bit mundane at times and I can’t imagine why anyone would want to see random snapshots of my life, but since I haven’t really posted many of my girls recently I thought I’d include a few so you can see how they are growing and changing. Boy they are getting SOOOO BIG! How can it be that two years ago I found out I was expecting Claire, TWO YEAR AGO??? It feels like just the other day and now she’s an active, hilarious little 16 month old who enjoys nothing more than petrifying me with her climbing abilities (she loves the kitchen table the most). And how can Kate already be 4??? We enrolled her in preschool last week and the realization that starting in August she’ll be attending school each day…whew…that is just a bit too much for this Mama to wrap her mind around. My baby gone?? All morning?? EVERY DAY??? :sniff sniff:

My girls love each other so much. Sure they have little fights here and there but they are quick to make up and hug it out. Claire gets so sad when she sees her big sissy cry. No matter what she’ll come running up to her and give her a massive hug and sloppy kiss and Kate so appreciates it (well most of the time). Kate is very sweet about showing Claire affection as well, she’s become a champion boo-boo kisser, which is great considering there have been some moments when Claires climbing has caused a fall or two…or ten.

So here are some random pictures of my precious babies.

And finally, we’ve added a new member to our family. Her name is Sweetie and she’s a Schnauzer. She was dropped off at the pound for reasons we really don’t know, since she’s COMPLETELY PERFECT!!!! She’s the absolute perfect addition to our family!! She doesn’t chew, doesn’t have potty accidents, is patient with the kids, obeys us, hasn’t even attempted to jump on the furniture (I am big on not having dogs on our furniture!!). I’m so hoping her perfect behavior rubs off on the kids…maybe if I’m lucky she can potty train Claire.

In other news…Annie Pennington Photography has a facebook page now. So check it out and become a fan!

Annie Pennington Photography

Sarah

Posted on April 14, 2010

There was once a family of 5 that was soon to become a family of 6. There were already three children in the family: a 12 year old daughter, 8 year old son and 2 year old daughter and the sweet littlest one took her time arriving and went well past her due date. The oldest sister was by nature quite a worry wart, and she was was very concerned that unpredictable Oklahoma weather in January would be a problem and kept hoping and praying that labor would begin for her mother on a night that wasn’t icy and cold. Big Sister spent her evenings watching Mike Morgans forecast on Newschannel 4 to see if the weather would be good for the following day, praying so hard that her sweet baby sister would finally arrive. After many days of waiting labor did in fact begin, in the middle of the night and on the coldest night of entire year. Worry wart Sissy was so nervous she was almost sick as she was put in charge of trying to buckle a terrible ticked off 2 year old into her freezing cold carseat in the middle of the night. And even more sick as the Daddy drove well, well past the speed limit as she tried to console 2 year old sister while noting the highway lights flashing past her car window much faster than she’d ever noticed before. They arrived at the midwifery clinic safely and that was where sweet baby Sarah made her entrance into the world, and I (the worry wart 12 year old) have been enjoying watching her grow and change ever since.  She’s a completely amazing girl. She’s unique and interesting and completely lovely. Some other words to describe her are: Fun. Jack of all trades. Natural. Dry sense of humor. Down to earth. Not a fan of makeup. Hates Shopping. Plays multiple musical instruments. Intelligent. Devoted. Loves and appreciates literally every musical genre. Healthy. Patient. Strong, both physically and mentally. Determined. Loves sunglasses, boots and ice tea. Loving Aunt. Supportive Sister. Beautiful.

Bethany (the former 2 year old sister who screamed in her cold carseat) is incredible when it comes to hair and makeup, so she got ahold of tomboy Sarah and worked her cosmetic magic on our already gorgeous Sarah and then I lugged her outside and phtographed her. We all had a wonderful time!

Look at this beauty!!! CAN YOU EVEN STAND IT!?! She’s STUNNING!

Gasp!!!!! My favorite!!!

Best profile…possibly EVER in the history of the world. My other favorite!

Rusty wire. Rusty Purple Bike. Purple high heels. Interesting combo…but MY GOSH is she making it work!

You  know the Hall and Oats Song “Sara Smile” ? Well they mis-spelled her name but HOT DOG it HAD to be named after her!!!!

Are you FREAKING KIDDING ME????? America’s Next Top Model called…and they want Sarah! Another fav!

My other favorite…oh who am I kidding?? I have like 20 favorites! GORGEOUSNESS!!!!!

Sarah, you are  just completely beautiful. I’m so proud of the person you’ve become. I’m so glad I get to be your sissy. I’m so glad you are here…even if you did make me wait. Out in the cold. With a crabby 2 year old Bethany. I LOVE YOU SARAH!!!!

Busy busy!

Posted on April 12, 2010

I’ve been a busy girl! Busy making this new place a home. Which has been a bit challenging since we still don’t have our household goods. There is so only so much pillow fluffing, organizing & prettying up you can do to a place that still only have mattresses on the floor. But we’re getting settled and it’s been wonderful. Worked on my flowerbeds this weekend. Slowly buying a few things here and there for the new place and just generally getting used to our new home, neighborhood and shopping options. I’ve had a few requests to see our new place and I can’t really show all that much since so many of the rooms are still bare, but I’ll include a few little images of our new place.

1. Begonias: My new favorite flower. I planted them all around the edge of my flowerbed. They make me cheery!

2. Props to you Mr. Builder. I love the light outside my front door.

3. Geraniums (I think that’s what they are called??) They are my other favorite flower.

4. Our new sectional and the gorgeous quilt my mother made me. She knows one of my favorite color combos is red, turquoise and brown and this quilt has it all!!!!! We couldn’t stand life without a couch any longer and broke down and picked this new one out and we really are happy with it.

5. Shrubs, shrubs, shrubs. Planted a bunch of those this weekend too.

6. My beautiful kitchen island. Props again to you Mr. Builder, all the details in this house are just beautiful!

If any of you are being stationed at Tinker let me know and I’d love to share who my Realtor and Builder is. They were both fantastic!

Word for 2010 & Photos

Posted on January 1, 2010

Last year I was inspired to come up with a word to jump start my year. A word to focus on throughout the year. Link to last years post. I chose strength as my word for last year and boy was it ever fitting. It was perfect for me as I was met with certain situations and I felt it was a good overall word to help inspire me throughout the year. Between becoming a mom of two, being alone in a foreign country during Davids deployment, being away from my family during times I really would have loved to be there for support. Strength was something I definetely had to tap into at times.  I wanted to also choose a word for this year and after much thought I’ve come up with: nurture.

Description:
Nurture: noun, the process of caring for  and encouraging the growth of something or someone.

I want to continue on the nurturing path I’ve already started with my family – I want to keep nurturing my children in spirit, mind and body, to help build them into quality, loving little people. I want to nurture my marriage and make it a priority to spend time with David one on one. I want to nurture my new home and help turn it into a home (I’m so completely pumped about decorating!!!!). I want to nurture my business as I move to a new area. And finally I want to nurture myself, I’ve gone a very long time not really caring for myself as much as I’d like, but I want to change that. So that’s it…my word for 2010 is nurture.

And in closing here are my Top 9 Personal Photos throughout 2009. Some of them I took, some I didn’t, but they are all special to me for one reason or another.

January 2009 – First Family Picture
My sweet Mama took this of us. It’s our first family image and one that is proudly displayed in my living room. I love this picture for so many reasons, but the main reason is it was the first time our family of four was documented. I so love my little family.

January 2009 – Claire Elizabeth
A close up of our new little baby girl. I wanted her so badly and faced something that was a great fear of my own – delivery in a foreign hospital – which ended up being an amazing experience, but none the less, it was something I feared and I’d put having another baby off because of that fear. Once she was here and the delivery process was all over I was so, so thankful. Thankful for the precious gift of life and thankful that I had another perfect baby girl to get to love and adore.

February 2009 – Sisters
I so badly wanted to give Kate the gift of a sibling and to see them interact with each other blesses me beyond measure. I just LOVE watching them love each other. I’m so grateful they have each other.

March 2009 – Holding Hands
More sisterly love here. This photo will be framed and displayed in our new home because everytime I look at it I’m filled with happiness.

April 2009 – Family Photos
Taken by Dream Street Photography
My wonderful friend Susanne took these photos for us. David was about to leave for a deployment and I wanted some family pictures to show to Kate while he was gone to help keep our family unit fresh in her mind. I love these so much!!!! These will also be displayed in our new home (remember I’m excited about decorating? I can’t WAIT to decorate with photos!)

August 2009  - Sissies
This might be my favorite photo of the ENTIRE YEAR. Oh my gosh I love it. I love how you can tell Kate is helping show Claire all about flowers (Kate is a great little teacher). I remember her saying things like, “These are flowers Claire, they are yellow” and followed up closely by “NO!!! Don’t EAT flowers” (said in Kate’s best frantic tone). I love these girls so much.

August 2009 – Katherine Grace
My sweet little Kate. She grew so much throughout the year (becoming a big sister does that to a girl). She completed so many important milestones – potty training, school, learning to write her name, becoming a more mature, obedient little girl. She is a blessing to us and we love her so very much. I love this picture of her because it shows off her big beautiful brown eyes and she really looks like herself here. So often when I bring the camera out she shows off her goofy face (and I do love it too!), but this face is her – really her.

October 2009 – My man and me
Photo taken by Valerie Raybon
This picture is sooooo us. HAAA! I adore it! David’s expression is priceless. I think it’s so very important to get pictures of just David and I together sometimes. It’s so easy to fall into the habit of only taking pictures that include our children, but it’s important to document us as a couple sometimes too.

December 2009 – Christmas Eve
A big part of our family routine is reading before bed. We always make it a point to read The Night Before Christmas each Christmas Eve night and this year we got to include Claire in our family tradition. Sure it was a little hectic since Claire doesn’t really have a concept of sitting and looking at the pictures yet, but it was still fun. I just set my camera on a self timer and take a ton of pictures of us interacting as a family. This was my favorite shot out of the night. I love that we’re all in our jammies piled up in Kate’s bed, I love the girls interacting with each other, David and I enjoying them. Great family stuff.

Hope all of you had a wonderful New Years! HAPPY 2010!!!

My Girls

Posted on August 10, 2009

I love my sweet little girls so much. As Claire is now getting older and mobile and able to get into big sisters stuff it really is so heartwarming to see her so patient and gentle with Claire. Sure I’m not ignorant enough to think there won’t be some little disagreements here and there, but I’m just so thankful for the great start they have. They are already wonderful playmates for each other. So thankful for them!

Claire and Me

Posted on August 2, 2009

I’m proud to say I think my 3 year old already has some totally rad photography talent. Check out this photo she took of Claire & me. Awesome composition, perfect expressions captured, love the back lighting, my gosh the kid has talent. Oh and she didn’t take it with a regular point and shoot, she took it with my heavy DSLR. I’m crazy proud AND I’m super excited to actually be IN a photo!!! It’s pretty rare these days!

Today

Posted on June 27, 2009

With David being deployed I find myself wishing the time away. Being in a constant count-down mode of just wanting each day to go by quickly so he can be back with us. I spend alot of my days complaining to myself at how challenging it can be for me to get both girls down for the night. Being tired of how lonely I feel after they are in bed and it gets dark out and I have no one to chat with. Tired of not having anyone to cook for who will praise me and tell me how great it is (Yes, Kate does compliment me on my mean PB&J and grilled cheese sandwiches and while I appreciate that, it’s just not the same! LOL!). Really resenting having all the bug squishing duties and remembering when to take the trash out. I really love my husband and while I’m completely capable of keeping the home fires burning without him, life is sure so much sweeter and easier and more joyful when I have my best friend to experience everything with. But today as I was cleaning Claire up after Kate assisted with feeding her some delicious pureed baby food goodness I realized how she wasn’t eating solids when David left. She wasn’t rolling. She wasn’t as alert. She was 2 months younger than she is now. Then I look over at Kate and see her inspecting her beautiful piece of glittery artwork from preschool. She wasn’t in preschool when David left. She wasn’t using the word mischievous, wasn’t potty trained, didn’t own a pair of fabulous pink plastic dress up heels and didn’t know that Beatrix Potter books existed. We didn’t have picnics at the park next door, we hadn’t discovered Odwalla juice & didn’t rock out to the song Jungle Drum by Emiliana Torrini. My girls are growing and drastically changing and the real tragedy is that not only is David missing it, but I’m missing it too. So starting today I’m going to stop wishing the time away until he’s home. Starting today I’m going just enjoy the moment – the moments where a perfect slobbery little hand reaches up to touch my face, the moments where my three year old honestly beats me in playing memory and yes, even enjoy the moments when it gets hairy and crazy cause while it’s hard, at least I get to be with them, cause David isn’t, and I know he’d love to be present for a hissy fit or a diaper blow out cause that would mean he’s here with us.

Here is a small collection of this weeks photos. Of me enjoying them and their preciousness. Of me simple enjoying today…no matter what.

Daddy’s Day

Posted on June 20, 2009

I take LOTS of photos. I usually have at least 100 personal images to dig through each week, but sometimes more. I work my best to immediately go through and delete the ones with closed eyes, bad expression, etc., label the keepers for reference and do a little editing to them, but sometimes I just upload the images to my computer, get distracted and (gasp) forget to look at them!! This is UNACCEPTABLE! I need to seriously strive to put the same time and attentiveness with my personal images as I do my client’s images, but alas…there aren’t endless hours in the day!

Since David is currently deployed I wanted to give him something personalized and special for Fathers Day from his two little girls. So I decided to create a book for him. So I began digging through all our personal images and I found so many pictures that I just ADORE and I’d completely forgotten about! I loved going through our family pictures and remembering the moment, it was so special! Here are a hand full of  a few of the layouts in his Daddy’s Day book. I know he’s loving flipping through this while he’s away! Some of the images I chose were pretty and others were just natural not at all perfect. But I loved them all for different reasons!

This first one is a great example of printing something that isn’t technically perfect. The two images on the right aren’t perfect at all…Kate was actually kicking my legs as I took it and I know in the top one especially I was losing my balance as I shot it (which is one of the reasons why Claire’s head isn’t even in the frame at all!) And the second image on the right Kate is a blurry mess. But you know what? It reminded me of our LIFE, Kate always moving. Claire hanging being chill and hanging in her Bumbo, Daddy on the floor playing with them, that’s life!! Bad composition, blur and all.

These are special to me because this is our last Spring here in Germany and the last chance we had for images in the yellow flowers. They are gone now and man I miss them! Glad Daddy was home JUST in time for me to capture these before he left.

These are images I COMPLETELY forgot about!! How sad is that??? Glad I dug through and found them!

More natural shots of my precious girls.

So here is my challenge to you – take LOTS of personal pictures. Don’t forget what you’ve captured (HAAA!), and print them in a way where they are easy to enjoy – for your walls or in a book that is out and easy for you to flip through and enjoy. It really does make me sad how so many great photos are stuck on hard drives and not enjoyed. So while digital photography is AMAZING and computers are even more nifty…nothing really compares to having those precious photos in hand…nothing like it.

Happy Daddy’s Day everyone!!! Now go out and print a picture of the #1 Daddy in your life…your own Dad or your kiddo’s Dad…and while you are at it print a picture of you, and your kids, and your pets, and your home and…well you get the picture (pun intended) – just PRINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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