Shopping Altert!! Fun new store I found

Hi all, just wanted to share a neat store I found in Georgetown. They have only been open since Sept 1st of this year. Its called "Gatherings" and is at 1009 Austin Ave in Georgetown. They are open 10-5:30 m-Sat. This is a really unique store in the way they display their products. Its a fun combination of home decor and antiques, teh fun part is seeing how they meld the two in each booth. Every vendor seems to really compliment the others, it really looks as though it is one store although each "booth" is a separate persons wares. It is a fun store and you will see many of their seasonal decorations in the studio as well as new props. Recently I found a beautiful old pink prom dress that will be SO fun for some lucky little girl to dress up in for portraits...sound fun? be the first, call me to set up a session! :)

I'll be sharing fun places I find every so often, these are not people who have asked me to post about their store, FYI, they are just places I think you will enjoy. Many people ask me where I find my props and decorations, well this is one place! Feel free to comment about the store if you stop by! and tell them we sent ya!

Fun session from last week!

Is she not adorable? We had so much fun just playing around on the floors and then just had to get mom into the session. This was such a fun session and this little cutie hung on until the end before wearing out and even then she was precious. You can tell these two will be best friends. This is what mom had to say about the pictures:

"Jen,
The pictures are WONDERFUL!! They turned out so perfect! Thank you so much! I don't know how you did it, but you captured P (and P and me!) so beautifully. Some of them bring tears to my eyes. I don't know how we will ever pick! I've already spent several hours on the phone with my Mom, mother-in-law, and sister going through them one by one and "ohing" at each one. They really are terrific!
Again, thank you! "

Boy does that make my heart sing to hear!

Snow? in Texas? Wasn't it like 80 today?

Just had to post a couple of shots from todays Winter Mini Sessions, they were so fun!

Our Thanksgiving Sale!

We have decided to have our own Thanksgiving Sale! From now until December 22nd you may purchase Gift Certificates for half off!

Buy a $100 GC for $50

a $150 for $75

a $200 for $100 and

a $225 for $112.50! (thats the price of our Baby Club!)

A thoughtful & unique gift for moms, dads, family, friends, co-workers...anyone you want to give the gift of beautiful portraits to.

Call the Studio today, quantities are limited to the number of printed certificates we have on hand!

These are for gifts only and may not be used by the purchaser. Gift Certificate Amounts for this promotion are limited to the amounts listed above.

Recent Session - Look how big they are getting

I've been watching the Hoover kiddos grow up for many years now but this year it really seems like they are just SO big, wow does the time fly! Big sister especially, for those who have seen the gorgeous watercolor of the beautiful girl in the hat (I'd posted it if I had it on this computer), thats her several years ago. Now shes heading into "tween-dom" and growing into a beautiful young lady (as is little sister and of course their dashing little brother!

Custom Scrapbook Pages

Just for fun I put together a Custom Scrapbook page for our upcoming Winter Mini Sessions. With a $200 purchase, you can purchase this 12x12 Scrapbook sheet for only $49!! Text Can be customized but is limited to a single image as seen here. These can also be printed as a Gallery Wrap (8x8 & larger) or a silver bevel would be beautiful too! (This design is only available after a $200 purchase of prints, bevels & wraps are available at the standard pricing)

What a Fun, Fast & Fabulous way to update your scrapbook!

Holiday Traditions - It's not too late to start them!

One of my clients, Suzanne, gave me some great ideas on traditions they have in their homes during the holidays. One of the funnest ones she told me about was inviting an "Elf" to your home. It sounds like so much fun! Here are a couple of links she sent me to share with you. I just love this idea and I wish my kids were younger to be able to really have fun with these!

http://www.hostanelf.com/
http://www.elvesonholiday.com/

I would think you could do something similar yourself but send the elfs and letters from work or something. I love reading the stories of what the elfs do, how fun! It would be really fun to have a holiday portrait done with the elf! (or maybe not a whole session with them, but just bring them in for a shot, or even more fun, we could photograph the elf separately and make it look like he/she snuck into the session by adding them into one of the portraits digitally!)

I would love to hear other ideas that you have and we can share them here. Post a comment if you would like to share one of your holiday traditions!

Winter Mini Session Samples

Just for fun a couple of shots that show you a little about the look we are going for with these sessions. SO fun! The pink hat was moms, the rest are mine for you to use. Dont miss out, these are so fun!

Winter Mini Sessions - Update

I should have some pictures tomorrow of what to expect for the set. I have purchased several sets of hats and scarves in fun colors or bring your own. The best clothing for this is whites & creams for pants and shirts, long sleeves, very simple with either fun colored hats & scarves or you can go all white or all cream for a fun wintery look as well. I do have a 2T thermal, cream colored for a boy and I have long sleeve mock turtle neck onesies in 12 mos & 24 mos for girls but you need to bring the pants or leggings. We will have a light background with "snow" on the ground so shoes are a must as much as I love tiny toes :)

Session fee is $25, sessions are 20 minutes so you need to arrive dressed and ready. We are allowing "Card only" purchases with this session (normally you need to buy $100 worth of prints before you can buy cards) but it is a $50 minimum order of either prints or cards. We have "snowflake" greeting card templates that would be SO fun with these and a filter I can put on them that looks like falling snow! Sign up now, sessions are limited!

New Winter Mini Session with Jen!!

Ok, I'm working on details and will let you know soon but I have decided to do another mini session but this one will be for the Winter. All I can tell you now is it will be November 19th (yes I'm working on a MONDAY!), the theme is snow, hats & gloves & Scarfs...SOOO fun! Check back soon for info!

The Perfect Holiday Gift - Purses & Handbags!

I wanted to put a spot on here to give you ideas about holiday gifts. Right now is the perfect time to order your purses & handbags for the holidays, soon the deadlines will be gone and we won't be able to guarantee holiday delivery! We are so excited about these purses, they are SO reasonably priced and gorgeous! We have samples of the "Bucket" bags in our studio if you would like to see one. Order now! These are perfect for moms, grandmas, aunts, friends....ANYONE! They are also the perfect gift for yourself! Or send us dads email and we will send him a little "Email suggestion" for your holiday gifts!

Just finished our Annual Santa Limited Edition Sessions!

Wow, what a whirlwind, we did 19 sessions over 3 days. Angie & I are fried and sore but happy that these sessions came out so beautifully! This is truly one of our favorite times of year, it is SO fun to watch the kids with Santa and sometimes its just as fun watching the parents with him! Next year I swear we are going to add video to the sessions because some of the things these little guys say just have to be captured. The funniest part was watching them come in so excited an energetic, but when the big guy entered the room, you could just feel them go into a "awed" state. We had several kiddos this year who "grew up" over the past year to be big enough to sit with him for the first time! Wow, that was such a treat to see and just brings tears to your eyes. And some were afraid for the first time, but those can be fun memories as well and great images to show them when they are all grown up. I will post images soon of everything but I wanted to share with you and email a mom sent to me after her session:

"Everything looked beautiful and as usual I can not wait to get the pictures back to see the great shots that you got!! I love your Santa! He is great with the kids! Aiden has been talking about him all day long!
Thanks again for being such a great friend and such a wonderful photographer of the most important things and the most important people to me – my memories and my boys!!
You are truly terrific and so very talented!"

A BIG thank you to everyone who made this weekend possible. Santa, of course, who is amazing with our kiddos and with us! Anyone who would dress up in a giant fur outfit when its 85 degrees outside and smile the whole time is aces in my book. This is our 8th year together and we have these sessions down to a science now! Angie who of course, who always gives 150% during the sessions and works as hard as I do to get the smiles (and keep the trees from getting pulled over on them and us!). Cory who holds down the forte while we are locked in the camera room, makes sure we have food & coffee at hand (even with a sprained ankle this year!). Thank you to the families who came in again this year and trusted us with their holiday portraits. We so love seeing you all and spending time with your beautiful children. I always feel so honored to be a part of your holiday memories and sometimes even traditions.

And lastly, I have to thank Alison Cary of Alison Cary Designs (http://www.alisoncarydesign.com/) who created our beautiful "Christmas Whimsy" themed set. Her beautiful attention to detail, amazing talent at putting it all together, and patience in working with me and my neurotic indecision at this time of the year, came together to create one of the most beautiful sets we have done for Christmas. Alison specializes in holiday decor (as well as home decor) and I would recommend her to anyone who needs help with putting it all together for the holidays (or anytime really). Alison has helped us in the past re-arrange several rooms in the studio (sometimes without us even asking :) he hee) and has been a huge support to me. Thanks Alison for making this years sets such a success!