The Sweetest Puppies: contest winners

I've got to say there are a lot of sweet puppies out there and a lot of owners who love them like they are their very own children.  Good to know I'm not alone!!!  I absolutely loved looking through all the doggy photos that filled my inbox.  There were some little dogs, some big dogs and more then a few puppies that just had the sweetest faces!!!  I couldn't help but fall totally in love with every single one of them.  Thank goodness I didn't have to pick a winner all by myself or I'd have gone out and bought collars for everyone. When Shannon and I sat down to pick the winner we were very conscious not to pick just the pretties photo because that is not what this contest was about.  We wanted to see the love that the owners have for their four legged friend.  There were a few dogs that we absolutely loved but unfortunately were not quite the right size for this collar.  The littlest and biggest ones this collar just wouldn't fit so as much as we loved your photos we knew this prize wasn't going to do you much good.  After much debate we have chosen one winner for the collar and an honorable mention who is going to get a goodie from Four Your Paws Only for their pup to enjoy.

First place goes to Sledder- the dog who's eyes will match this collar and who's owner told such a great story about her love for her pup!  Congrats Nicole!!!!  Shoot me an email with your address and this collar will be on it's way!  Be sure to snap a few photos of Sledder rocking her new collar for me :)

Sledder is the love of my life (coming in a close third is Jason).  I, like you, never had a dog growing up and I've ALWAYS wanted one.  My mom would say, "We don't need a dog, we already have your brother".  I think the best thing about a dog is their ability to cheer you up, ALL the time.  I don't know about Coby, but Sledder tail is constantly wagging.  She's a big snuggler and greets me with tons of kisses when I walk through the door.  It's the BEST feeling after a long day at a wedding.

As if I haven't gushed enough about my dog.  Fun fact about her name:  Four years ago, when I left for my work training, Jason bought a beanie baby Husky and stashed it in my luggage.   Since I was a 100% full time travel consultant, I brought the little thing with me EVERYWHERE.  It's gone on over a hundred flights and to most of the US, via my work luggage.  A couple years later, when we finally got a *real* Husky, we decided to name it after the goofy little beanie baby, Sledder.

Honorable mention goes to Tucker.  This dog has the sweetest face even when covered in snowballs.  Allison please send me your address so that I can send you a tasty treat for Tucker!

Thank you to EVERYONE for your awesome photos!!  Here are just a few of the wonderful images that were shared with us. XOXO Spring

Wedded Bliss: 4 months to go

I almost had a heart attack yesterday when I looked at the calendar.  March 20th.... Wait... 20th... of March.  That is 4 months till my wedding day.  OH CRAP!  I have a good 20min break down.  Freaking out about that insane list of things that I was going to do over the "slow months" this winter and that is under a huge pile of mail and books on my kitchen island.  I feel like I haven't done one single thing on that list and it's not 4 months away.  Yikes! So after taking a few deep breaths and realizing I wasn't going to be sick I sat down with my list and started to check off things I've done and stared all those things that need to get done asap.  I guess I'm really not as bad off as I had first thought because when I looked at the timeline list that all the magazines have I am only behind on two things, so thats not that bad.

We had Silas measured for his suit just a week or so ago so that was a biggie for us.  My mom found a groupon for Banks & Ashby for a custom suit for less then $800.  We know we could have rented a tux or suit but Silas doesn't actually own a suit and I feel like its one of those things that a man should have in his closet.  So we looked into buying one.  Most were in the $500-$800 range.  Of course we had no idea what size he was so we went into our local Brooks Brother's Outlet and he tried on a few jackets and we discovered a problem.  My man as arms.  Actually that was the first thing I noticed about him.  I apparently have a thing for arm muscles.  So the problem is that the jackets that fit him were tight on the arms when he would move his arm around.  So when we saw the option to buy a custom made suit for close to the same price as buying one that might not fit that well we jumped on it.  The best part about Banks & Ashby is they come to your house.  One evening two girls from Boston drove into our driveway and came to sit, chat and measure Silas.  We got to pick out style, color, fabric, shirt fabric (oh year the groupon also included two custom maid shirts).  Now they will take his measurements, make the suit and come back to our house for a fitting.  One less thing to try to schedule-score!

We also went up to Harvest Gold last week and ordered Silas's wedding band.  I have my grandmother's band so I'm planning to use that for my own.  We picked out the style, size and width and placed that order.  The other things we are still working on are things like programs, menu cards, table numbers, place cards etc.  But hopefully I'm going to find that all those things will come together easily with the help I've got.  One of my bridesmaids will be home from college next month and has a lot of free time in May and June to be my slave helper.  I hope Anya knows what she is getting into - I'm thinking DIY projects weekly!!!  I've got a few ideas that I've stolen from Pintrest and Etsy that I'm hoping we can pull off:

As I've been booking a few more 2012 weddings and some 2013 weddings I'm realizing just how close my own wedding is.  It's crazy to think that I'm going to be Mrs. McKenney soon.  I'm so excited and ready to be married it's just the wedding itself that I'm stressing about a little.  But I know that when I walk down the aisle and see Silas even if the programs are not perfect and the DIY project I tried failed miserably I'm still going to be the happiest girl in the world.

XOXO Spring

Goals for 2012

Well I'm more then a little late on this post.  Last year I posted about my 2011 goals in early Jan- you know that typical time to look back and look forward and think about what you'd like to do differently this year.  Well better late then never.  Before listing off some of my new goals I thought I'd go back and touch on a few of my successful and not so successful 2011's goals.

2011 Goals: 1. Launch my new brand, website and business name.  That one went off without a hitch.  The new website has been up and going for over a year now.  I still love it although I'm hoping to make a few small changes and update some of the galley images. 3. Shoot 15 weddings- believe it or not I shot exactly 15 weddings in 2011.  Plus a few second shooting.  It was a great year!!! 6. Offer to help and try to inspire other photographers.  This is a HUGE goal of mine and one that has really scared me.  This past week I announced my very first workshop for "Newbies".   I am so excited and so happy to be able to put this together and I can't wait to meet all these new amazing photographers! 11. Take portraits of my parents together.  Unfortunately this is one of the goals I didn't achieve this year- but I'm hopeful 2012 will see this one a success. 16. Blog more consistently.  This one is not a total failure but also not a huge success.  I'm still working on this one. 18. Invest in my business (including ordering new studio sample albums and some new equipment).  Well I did invest in a few new studio albums although two of them were in the early months of 2012 so not quite a full success but I did also invest in my new 35mm lens last fall and that has been a wonderful addition to my camera bag. 23. Have my parents over for dinner at least once a month.  Well i'm not sure we averaged once a month but we did host them for dinner quite a few times in 2011 and already a few times in 2012.

There are plenty of other things on my goal list that didn't get accomplished but by re-reading them and reminding myself of these goals it's helping me set new goals for 2012.  Here are a few:

2012 Goals:

1. Marry my best friend.  (July 20, 2012!!!) 2. Travel more (we are headed to Scotland for our honeymoon- I CAN'T WAIT!!!!) 3. Take portraits of my parents together!!!! 4. Shoot 15 weddings.  It was a great number for me and I'm happy if I can stay in this 15-20 weddings a year range. 5. Shoot more for personal projects.  I'm really hoping to expand my personal art portfolio this year. 6. Finish our backyard.  Currently our back yard is a big dirt pile.  Well it still has a little snow on it but still, there is no grass and it's not pretty and my goal is to have grass back there this year. 7. Going along with #6 and the home improvement plans- PAVE OUR DRIVE WAY!!!!  During this wonderful time of year we call Mud Season our drive way becomes a total mud pit.  It's time to pave it and solve this issues for good. 8. I'd love to be able to teach another Newbies Workshop.  I've already had 4 or 5 people who were excited to come but the date and time didn't work for them.  I'm hoping to schedule another one for this fall that these people and hopefully some more will be able to attend. 9. Keep better work hours.  I thought having an office/studio would really help with this and to be honest it does during the summer and fall but this winter and spring I've been a little too lax with my business working hours. 10. Visit my family in VA.  This is a big one for me.  My grandfather is in his 90's and I really want to make the effort to get to VA to see him more often.  Plus the other bonus of this is to also visit all my photo friends in the DC area :)

I could go on and on with this list but I felt like having 10 was a good place to start.  So although it's really 3+ months late I'm excited to look at 2012 for all it's possibilities and push myself this year to really check these things off this goal list and not pull it up in Dec just to realize that I've only accomplished one or two.

It's a beautiful, sunny, 70 degree day in March here in North Conway- so I'm headed out to enjoy it.

XOXO Spring

CALLING ALL NEWBIES WORKSHOP

 

My goal for this workshop is to be an open book.  I want to you ask questions so that we can all work together to find the best solutions.

We will start the day at my studio in North Conway, NH with some business and camera info.  Then we will head to Jackson, NH for a mock eng session to put some of those ideas into use.  Everyone will get a chance to shoot while we talk about light & posing.  This time is for you to ask questions, try new ideas and push yourself out of your comfort zone.  A pizza (Flatbread) lunch will be provided.  Anyone who can stick around after the workshop is invited to stay and network.

To register email me at spring.smith@me.com

A contest to start your week.

If you have been reading my blog or following me on facebook, twitter or instagram for any amount of time you know that I have a cock-a-poo named Jacoby (Coby).  He is shaggy as can be, barks at strangers and is a huge snuggle bug.  I can not even put into words how much I love this dog.  I never had a dog growing up.  My family was always on the go so cats were a better lifestyle fit, plus my mom hates the smell of dogs.  So when Silas and I got our puppy in the Wal-Mart parking lot (yeah i'm not kidding we bought him from a breader selling the last two of the litter in the parking lot at the local Wal-Mart in Jackson, TN) I freaked out a little bit.  I had no idea what to do with a dog.  I didn't know how to train them, I was so scared that I had just taken on a huge responsibility that might be a mistake. We have had Coby for almost 4 years now and I can't imagine life without him.  He is so sweet and as much as he drives me nutz sometimes I just love him to bits!  Coby has also inspired a friend or two to get dogs- poodle mixes to be specific.  One is my friend Shannon- the owner of the cutest little black puppy in the world Mr Bruin.  Well a week or so ago Shannon came by my office with a box from Coach (where she works) and had the idea to do a blog give away.  I was all ears although I was secretly planning to never run the contest and just keep whatever great little object she had in the box for myself. In that box was a beautiful Coach, light blue, dog collar which she had purchased for her parents dog but he has never worn it and it's too big for Coby and Bruin.

The contest begins today- anyone who wants to win this beautiful Coach dog collar just has to send me a photo of their dog.  It's that simple- it doesn't have to be a fancy photo, it can be a cell phone photo for all I care.  The best thing about light blue is it can be for a male or female pup so no gender exclusions here.  Now because this gift is coutosy of Shannon she is going to help me pick a winner.  We promise not to judge on quality of photo but on the feeling we get when we look at the image.  Be it a beautiful portarit of your dog on the beach, a cell phone snap shot of his nose in your face when you wake up or even a shot of your mini-min-pin all dressed up in a baby doll dress.  This contest is about showing us who your pup is and how much you love them.  We will be picking a winner at the end of this week so send your pics soon.

Please email images to: spring.smith@me.com

XOXO Spring