Category Archives: personal

Dec.30
2009

Is it December 30 already?! In the midst of getting ready to welcome 2010, i’ve had a lot of thoughts swirling around in my head- about life, business, family, friends, and so on. And then today, I was asked by a good friend of mine what my New Year’s resolutions would be.

I’ve never really believed in making New Year’s resolutions, I think that when you do that, if you are not able to stick to them you end up feeling like you failed in some way. At least, I do. So I looked up “resolution” in the dictionary, and this is what it said:
1. The state or quality of being resolute- A firm determination.
2. A resolving to do something

What I take from this is- a resolution really isn’t a complete change you make in your life, but more of a finite point of trying to attain what you aspire to.
So, instead of making resolutions, I have decided to count my blessings and set forth some personal goals for myself and for business. ;)


1. Spend more time in the presence of the Lord.

Too often I have been guilty of turning to Him when things are not going my way, and then forgetting about praising Him when things are right in my life. :) It’s easy to talk the talk but not to walk the walk! I want to spend more time living a life that is obedient to the Lord; and perhaps more importantly, I hope that my life will always be a living testament to His will in both word and deed. I want those around me to know that His love is unfailing, and that is NEVER too late to turn things around in your life- God always has a plan He is doing great and marvelous things! :D

2. Take more time to appreciate my family and friends!

This morning I received an email from a friend of mine who moved to Connecticut a little over a year ago. She wrote me through my website and her email simply said how proud she was that I was doing well in life and in business.
Instantly, my heart broke for her. You see, we were really good friends, but she moved away and we lost touch. I was so sad to feel that we had completly lost touch with each other’s lives. I immediately jumped on the phone and called her- I just needed to tell her that I loved her.
My family and friends are the ones who have inspired me so deeply and continue to love and support me through it all- they are the reasons why I have come so far in life and in business, because they push me to always be a better person today than I was the day before. I don’t ever want there to come a point where I feel that I have become so involved in the MOMENT that I can’t appreciate the JOURNEY.
I’m also saying that my clients hold a very special place in my heart- because you are so much more than that. I am beyond blessed to have friends like you that I get to hang out with on a regular basis, and that help me continue to do what I love. :)

I have never been able to shoot my entire family all together, which I have been wanting to do and I finally had the opportunity to do so at our family Christmas shindig. I think we should do it again next year, what do you think ya’ll? :)
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So there you have it. I know that if I can make these a daily priority in my life, there is nothing that I cannot achieve! We have already been blessed ten fold going into next year, now we just have to hit the ground running with an open heart and open mind!

See you in 2010!
xoxo
Lauren

Dec.20
2009

Every year before she passed away, my grandmother would spend the weeks leading up to Christmas making hundreds of cookies, delicately and neatly packaging them, and shipping them all over the country to our family.

Last year, my cousins Rachel + Hayley + I decided we were going to continue the tradition in her memory, making all her traditional cookies she made every year, and then adding a new recipe of our own to the mix.

We spent all day in the kitchen mixing, shaping, flouring, sugaring, rolling and baking…

…and when it was all over- we realized what a HUGE undertaking this was for our little Momo, and we were amazed by how 1 woman made this happen for our entire family year after year. It was almost too much for the 3 of us to handle!

We packaged the cookies and shipped them off with a little letter to each member of our family, signed by all of us under the self proclaimed moniker “the Christmas Cookie Ladies”. And so began a new chapter in our family.

The cookies were a huge hit- and this year, we had a little extra help in the kitchen from some seasoned cookie making veterans. Our Aunt Lori who flew in from California, my Mom, and Aunt Deedee showed us the ropes, whipped us into shape, and made sure we didn’t make the same mistake of using the wrong type of flour again (the fruitcakes don’t bounce on the floor anymore!!) :D

Dec.19
2009

In a word, it’s the only way I can describe this year. It shaped up to be a phenomenol year.

At the beginning of 2009, to be honest, I was worried. I wondered if I was going to be able to produce the kind of work that so many people trusted me to create, I worried about how I was going to keep business going, I worried about whether or not I was going to be able to do it all, while working full time and still manage to make our house a home.

I have been reflecting on 2009 for the past few weeks, and I feel such a strange and wonderful mix of happiness, blessed, humbled, surprised, excited, flattered, and many other emotions of the positive variety. My clients this year were, in a word, wonderful. Just absolutely wonderful. I don’t know many things, but what I do know is that the people I have been so privileged to work with are the ones that put my worries at ease. It’s because they are the ones that remind me why I do what I do.

It was a wonderful year. As I watched this slideshow I am again reminded of how beautiful 2010 will be, and how much we are looking forward to meeting new people and making new lifelong friends. :)

First, please let me say that we had some amazing entries for the free wedding contest.
Michael + I had a tough time trying to pick between all the wonderful entries, and we came to a decision on one couple whose story really stood out to us.
We loved reading everyone’s stories and seeing all your awesome ideas for your wedding, and we would love love love to have everyone as a winner (which you already ARE! :D ) but we since we have to pick 1…

the winner is…

oh i’m so excited…

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D Christine + Matt! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

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“I get to marry my wonderful love this Summer of 2010.

How Matt and I met: We both moved to Pensacola, Florida for Bible school. I came from the San Francisco Bay Area and he came from Massachusets. We were friends forever. We have a cappuchino bar at church, and he would volunteer at it. Every time I would walk in the door of church, he would sing sooooooo abnoxiously loud, “Dun Dun Dun, everybody loves Loretz!” It didn’t take long for everybody to start singing that song anytime I walked anywhere at church or school. But we were just friends and Matt was just silly. To this day, people still sing that song… and it’s been 10 years. Anyway, to make a long story short, one day out of the blue we sat next to each other at church and then walked by each other later after church, and something just clicked out of the blue. Seriously. One moment we saw each other as purely goofy,fun-loving friends… and then the next moment… out of the blue, we saw something more. And from there, love grew. And boy did it grow!!!

I volunteer and teach art to children as a hobby at church. It’s something I love. Many of the children are bussed in from projects and it’s their only opportunity to express themselves artistically. I’m one of those people, that if I don’t get to express my creativity, I get fidgety. I love to share my love for arts and crafts and color with others. I’m confident that anything can be achieved with paper, glue, and paint! :)

Yesterday I made a 9 foot Christmas tree with bamboo garden stakes and a blanket of green tissue paper “flowers” for leaves. I like to think that my class is a little bit like “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium.” The children were amazed at the big things they can create with their little hands!

I am planning on getting married in a botanical garden. I would like my wedding to be 10% vintagey, 10% shabby chic, 10% country picnic, 10% old time country fair, 10% fiesta, 10% Jane Austen, 10% whimscial and…. the rest can just be pure color and fun. Of course I’ll have a beautiful white gown and all that, but around all this wedding magic, I will build with color and creativity.

Sooo, WE’RE GETTING MARRIED IN 2010! Thank you for hearing my story. I had fun telling it. :)

YAY FOR CHRISTINE + MATT!!! Michael + I are excited for your wedding!! LOVE YOU GUYS!!! :D

From Christine: “Hi Lauren!! WOW!!! I am so unfathomably excited, you just can’t know!!!! That is soo cool!! Thank you so much for giving us this gift and right before Christmas! SO EXCITED!! :) Thank you again…I AM THRILLED and I might BURST! :)

Hello out there!
Is anyone still out there?…
I have been a horrible blogger lately. *slaps hand*
I promise I will blog more often. I promise I will blog more often.I promise I will blog more often. I promise I will blog more often.I promise I will blog more often. I promise I will blog more often.I promise I will blog more often. I promise I will blog more often.I promise I will blog more often. I promise I will blog more often.

Ok, enough of that! :)

Onward!

This week we were featured on the completely lovely blog for all things inspired, the Flights of Fancy blog! Ms. Gia Graham is the brainchild behind this awesome blog, and we are so proud to have Heather + Tyler’s beach wedding featured!

Thank you so much to Gia and to Heather + Tyler! We love all of you!

Please click the pic below to get to Gia’s amazing site and see our feature! Love love love you Gia!
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Happy Halloween! Muahahahahahhahaaha…. :D

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I know I have been promising for quite some time to give everyone a glimpse of the studio space we have created in our home. Here it is finally! I have just now gotten it to the point where it is all put together! :D

I needed the space to be cheerful and, of course, to be reflective of our style. I think I achieved that! It just makes me happy to spend time in here. :D

We hope some of you will come by and see us sometime and eat some fresh baked cookies and enjoy a lollipop!

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It’s bath day at the Kinsey hacienda. :D

I don’t have to tell you how much Renegade truly detests bath days. I’ll let the images speak for themselves. ;)

**DISCLAIMER! No Westies were harmed during the making of this post. Notice that no “Peachies” are included either. Mainly because she kept jumping out of the tub and dragging soap everywhere. I gave up. ;) **

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Yes, that is an FSU cup. You know you love them. :)

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This is what he does when you tell him to “shake-a-shake”.

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Clean pup. Isn’t he handsome?

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Bye for now! :D

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Sep.12
2009

I’m majorly bummed because today we were supposed to go hang out with Tyler+Heather and shoot what I am sure was going to be a totally rad engagement session.

BUT…

We had to reschedule. Because it’s raining. I mean, pouring. We are in Destin, FL staying with my family and this is pretty much what the radar has looked like all….day….long.

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So, we decided that some pie and whipped cream would be in order. :D What happened next?

Peaches decided to get in on the action. :) I had to pull out the camera. I hope it makes your day as much as it made mine! ;)

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plus

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equals

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new again.

filed under: personal
Sep.08
2009

Some things happened today that got me to thinking about my business and the people I have been fortunate enough to meet along the way.

As many of you know, Michael + I are still green in the wedding photography business, and there are many things that I am coming to know over time. It may seem like “no brainers” to some people, but I am still learning and growing.

I have been doing a lot of soul searching recently, and have realized that I took God out of the forefront of my business, thinking I knew better for myself than HE does. I am learning that the right road is definitely not the easy one, and I want to be better than that. I want to do what is right all the time. Before, I was willing to compromise what I knew was right and wrong, and burn bridges and dig holes. And to this effect, I forgot why I started my business.

I originally started this because I loved it. I still do.

But what changed along the way? As hard as this is for me to admit, something in me changed that said it was ok to step on people and hurt peoples feelings, to act as if I was in some way better than everyone else, reject advice from others, and go it alone. I continued on thinking that I was going to be fine, but I was only hurting myself by not taking the advice of others and trying to make myself a better person- not just in business, but in life.

I am through with making excuses. I have a list of people that I owe sincere apologies to. But this is the first step I can make in this direction. I pray that any of you reading this will come to understand that we are all human and we all make mistakes. I am no different and trust me, I have made a LOT of mistakes.

Thank you to all of you who have stood by me, even when I was wrong, and for you constant love and support.

I thought it was appropriate to post something with this, so I am posting one of my favorite Christian songs by a very talented lady- Bethany Dillon. The song is “New” and has come to mean so many things to me on so many different levels.

Tomorrow begins a new day. I’m new again.

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