I am ashamed. It has been nearly (oh wow this is worse than I thought!) 5 MONTHS!!!! since I last posted. I have excuses…good ones too, but really, come on, who am I kidding? My biggest excuse is that it is winter (tralala…) the time when snow fairies and frost pixies dance around outside, but I do NOT (lol)! And since I do the majority of my sessions with families and kids, and most outside, well, that does limit my winter schedule. just a tad. But let me let you in on a little (teeny weensy) secret. i. love. it. The break, that is. Don’t get me wrong, I adore my chosen profession, the creative outlet, seeing an image in my mind and then making it appear in front of my camera, just getting out of the house and being productive (as all moms know!) But here it is, the truth. I burn out. every. single. year. And winter comes like a cold reprieve from my computer and camera gear and time away from my kiddo and late nights but most of all early mornings editing. And for any other non-morning person types, its the early mornings that kill me. But since I am not much of a night owl either, well late nights just about kill me too. And so as most kids and teachers look forward to summer vacation and a break from the school, I look forward to winter and a break from work. That is my numero 1 excuse du jour.

So on to the myriads of other excuses…well we sold our house. We put it up for sale in the middle of November (just as my Christmas orders were winding down…talk about good timing!) and boy what a pain it is to have your house on the market! You always hear about it, but really, it is. Especially when you are OCD (that’s Organizationally Challenged and Deficient) AND have a two year old AND a husband that suffers the same. So then Christmas whizzes by in a flurry of gift wrap. And January hits and it is snowing so bloody much that I can’t even leave my drive way (stupid car!!) and am stuck literally inside my house trying to entertain said toddler whilst the mountains of snow cover our entire yard with a good 4-5 feet of snow (that is just the snow that landed, not counting the piles we made shoveling our 2 kilometers worth of sidewalk {stupid corner lot!} and driveway!!!!!) Regardless, just as it looked like we were doomed to take our house off the market and be forced to shovel miles and miles of snow for the rest of our natural lives… we get a showing…that turns into an offer…that turns into a sold sign. Hooray!!! Now on to 3 weeks worth of packing and moving…well as you can tell there just hasn’t been much time for anything but life right now.

I did manage to get a quick trip in to Phoenix to visit my parents after the move, and we enjoyed some mediocre weather (ok ok I am NOT complaining…it was definitely -28 celsius a good portion of the time at home!) But it didn’t get ’swim in the pool’ hot until the 2nd last day we were there, and so we hit the pool and played outside for the last two days. My sister and nieces from NY were there for 3/4 of our trip and the chaos of 4 kids 2-5 years old and 4 adults was just what I needed to take my mind of the boxes and chaos I would be coming back home to. And so I have been home, in our new, temporary home (we are renting until we either build or buy…didn’t want to be stuck with a house we just couldn’t sell and paying two mortgages!) since the beginning of this month and I am happy to say that I have unpacked the last box today, even created a ‘family wall’ of pictures that I am super proud of, have a load of laundry happily zooming away and the dishwasher whirring as the kiddo sleeps and pheeeewwwwww I have a minute to sit and update this ol’ blog!

So that is the story of this girl’s winter, the craziness, the fun, the…relaxation? Bwaaaahahaaahahaaa (maybe not!) I am excited to get back into the swing of things, first off by editing a maternity session I photographed almost a month ago (BWA WHAT!!! Oh yeah..I have been going through crazy…that’s right. Good thing these are very amazing clients that are so extremely patient with me!) And I am SO excited to shoot my first newborn session in my new shooting space in our new home. You read that right…I am crazy happy to have a beautiful naturally lit studio space in our home for my sweetest little newborn clients, as well as babies up to one year and a few other select session groups (details to come in the future) I am still thrilled to offer my on location natural light baby portraiture (because I love being able to come to you and make your life as a new parent that much easier) But for you parents that want to get out of the house, don’t have the space for me to come in to yours, or are too bleeping tired to think about clearing off the spare room bed for a photo session, well now you have another option! I can’t wait for you to meet the newest tiny client I will be photographing this week (on my studios maiden voyage!) So stay tuned!

That was a novel. More than I probably wrote in all of 2010 lol! But at least it has assuaged some of my guilt of being the most neglectful blogger in the universe. And on that note, I am pledging to update this blog once a week. Even if it is just to share the newest crazy amazing thing that my kiddo has done (I swear she is ready to go to college already. Hahaha…spoken like a true mother ) And since you have made it this far, and this IS a photography blog, here we are enjoying (insert sarcasm here…) the snow. JK.  It actually was really warm and fun that day. And Daddy built this snow man and took the photo with me in it (FYI) Also an honorable mention to my Mom who suggested the palm tree. It DOES create a certain irony, does it not? Not sure if I ever shared this so publicly, but my daughter also has a thing (and I mean a BIG thing) for eating snow. Here she is trying to eat her and Daddy’s creation…And one last one for the road. My favorite image I took in Phoenix. Of who else???Thanks for bearing with the LOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNGGGGG post. It feels good to get it all off my chest I am happy to be back, and so excited to start sharing more! Have a warm week all.

**Justina**