these are the days
A while back, I blogged to ask you guys to vote for a photo in a contest. wellll! I won 2nd place, THANK YOU! With that came a sweet little vintage Canon film camera. Being me, I hate asking for help, but I did it anyways, and since have been thinking of ways to pay it forward.
When we lived in our first house, our, then just two boys, were 2 something and 1 something, and we had hanging on a wall a piece of art, made by me, that read, "the best is yet to come." And, I thought it was the truth. Not that I looked desperately forward away from today, but just that good things were about to be.
Fast forward another baby, another house, and I decided the mantra for this current life should be, "these are the days." Probably largely because I've learned, the future is always coming. These fleeting moments of NOW are so precious. SO fast. And over before you know it. I now, desperately try to stick to TODAY, this very minute, as much as I can because it seems like tomorrow is threatening to come before I'm ready! (yeah ok, it sounds a little apocalyptic but I'm a mama, what can I say).
What I want to do, to show my gratitude for all the support is give away a session that salutes this notion of these moments making our lives. The not always poetically beautiful. The chaotic. The moments you're knee deep in (what you see today) as the .... craziness of raising babies, or puppies (!), but what you'll see in 10 years as the moments that have made you, and your family, who you are.
So how do you enter!? I'd like to propose a hashtag on instagram: #thesearethedayscontest you'll tag your photos that you think represent your crazy, your moments of your life, to show me, and I'll pick one as a favorite, and we'll schedule your session.
Now, of course, I want the session to reflect this notion, too. A true documentary storytelling session. I get to spend 2-3 hours with you capturing the beautifully mundane. YES! clean your house, put on your makeup, get ya hair did...but then, just be. Let it happen how it happens.
There you go! There's a lot of rules, it seems, but if you think you're down for it, please, hashtag #thesearethedayscontest (make sure you're public, or DM (@_jessicalovephotography) me on instagram so I can see it!), and let me see your beautifully normal moments. If you don't have instagram, I'll say it's ok if you use the contact me link via my website, too. I want to be all inclusive.
Looking to let this go for a month or so, with the session to be scheduled in the first week of April or so.
nursing sessions!
So here I am (or thought I would be, more on that in a minute) in the thick of all the emotions about coming to end on my nursing journey with my children...I always allowed baby lead weaning, Finn stopped around 12 months, Sawyer at 9, and Coco, well, while there's currently no end in sight, I know, now that she's a year old, that month by month is all I can really count on for her. The way her personality is, one day, boom! she'll just decide she's big enough to not need to nurse, because she wants to keep up with her brothers. And then? I'll close this hard, stressful, amazingly important chapter of my motherhood book. (hold on a minute while I wipe up my puddle of tears)
As a creative, it's hard to know when and where inspiration will hit. In this instance, it was through another talented photographer, Val Ely over at Happy Ely After
who, during our family session, snapped some of me nursing Coco. When I saw them, I immediately knew I would LOVE to give others the joy I felt when I viewed my photos.
What I'm planning for you guys is this: quick sessions that will be on location (a park in COLUMBUS OHIO), lots of pretty quilts, (if Ohio Spring agrees) some beautiful light, and YOU AND YOUR BABY. I don't care how old or young your baby is, just that they're hungry ;) . . . . and if they're not right away, I'll scheduled in time that I can make sure to get some sweet snuggles, and have time to wait for them to be ready to nurse.
What you'll get from the session is a full gallery of images online, and one digital download of your favorite from the day (the rest available for purchase), with no session fee. A big part of motherhood, to me, is supporting other Mamas. And this feels like my chance to get to do that. I'm happy to be able to give amazing memories of the most precious times in your life, when I'm able to, and so I'm taking this opportunity to do so!
Now the details. I don't have everything figured out because the weather is just so unpredictable, but I'm thinking around the week of April 18th through the 23rd. I want to shoot as many as I can, so I'll offer one week night and one weekend evening. What you can do, until we have an accurate forecast, is email me if you know you have availability that week. I'll base my week day solely on weather, so make sure you're available all throughout the week. And then once I nail down location, date, and times, I'll confirm your space!
I'm so so excited about these, and would absolutely love for this to reach as many families as possible, so please SHARE away, and let people who might be interested know!
Thanks so much for being here!