{Betsy + Eric}

  I met my good friend Betsy 4 years ago this Fall though a mutual friend.  Who knew that in those years, I would witness her meeting an amazing man, who eventually would be the man she would be spending the rest of her life with.  I also did not know that I would be meeting her and her husband to be on a rainy September Sunday evening, to take their engagement pictures (practically 4 exact years later).  I was so blessed to be able snatch some photos of this exciting time in their lives together.

 Also, merely by coincidence we happened to meet up at a park that has a memorial to those who serve our country and communities, and we happened to be meeting there on September 11.  Eric is a police officer, and I thought that it was fitting to pay tribute to him in this post. Thank you, Eric, for all you do to serve!

Betsy is one of those women who can hang with the guys.  She kicks butt at sports.  She loves her dog, and was probably never that girl who had dreams of her wedding day (I wasn't really one of those girls either and maybe the reason we are such friends).  She also has a striking beauty that is natural - and I'm sure that's just one of the many many things that Eric loves about her.  I had so much fun with them in this session.  We had to do a last minute switch-a-roo in location due to the imminent pouring down rain on our original location.  We mixed it up, met up in Avon, and had a fun time walking around, talking and catching up, and letting them be them.  The happy, silly, loving, gorgeous couple that they are.

R & J :: Filling our home

  To just about every person I know, I rave about Pinterest.  It's an online place for inspiration boards of all kinds.  Trying to come up with ideas for dinner?  The ideas are there.  Not sure how to decorate your bedroom?  The ideas are there.  Trying to come up with fun ideas for you wedding, your kids (or in my case, future kids), your car, your hair, your home, your dream home, and for me, photography inspiration?  It's there, and  it is pretty addicting!  But what I love most, is the artistic inspiration it inspires, even when you didn't know you wanted or needed to be inspired. 
  I recently got into some artsy projects for around our home.  I had an inspiration picture from Pinterest, and although I didn't completely do what was in the inspiration picture, I used it, and turned it into an idea of my own.  Check it out.

 I loved this artwork!  It's personal, and it's meaningful.  I love the initials and amphersand - and that's the part that I really wanted to focus in on.  The only thing, was when it got down to the real style and color of this piece, I thought that for our home, it really needed color.  Color is just more my style - and for our home, red and robin's egg blue is where its at! 

I went with the initials and ampersand - added in the color - and all for a super low total of $2.50.  (Okay, It actually cost a little more than that... find out the details below!)

So, I started with three frames that I received as a gift for Christmas last year (Thanks Mom!) and since I spent, oh, eight months trying to figure out what to fill them with, I decided to modify the inspiration idea picture, to one that could fit in these frames  (thus the ampersand and letters only).  I bought paper which was super cheap - scrapbooking paper in just the right shades (only 50 cents per sheet at hobby lobby).  I really wanted to find stencils, but I couldn't find ones I liked (none were big enough) so I ended up printing out letters on our printer and cutting them out as stencils (Why hello free stuff, I love you).  I probably wasted 15 sheets of paper in this process - in finding just the write font and just the right size - but it eventually got worked out.  I printed the letters, cute them out, traced the letters on the scrapbook paper, cut out the letters, pasted the letters on the fun colored backgrounds.... and vuala!  It came together quite nicely.  

Now, if I only hadn't broken one of the pieces of glass in the hanging process, I would have actually came out of this art project with $2.50 into it.  But after all was said and done (including the $8 replacement glass....) $10.50 wasn't too bad for this fun, vibrant, and centrally located piece of art for our home.  I love it!