Chris & Roxanne

I do engagement pictures with all of my wedding couples now just as a little "get to know you" session. I find it helps us be a little more comfortable with the process so that come wedding day, hopefully there's no camera shyness.

I am so honoured to be shooting Chris and Roxanne's wedding next month! They were so easy and fun to work with - I'm really looking forward to wedding day!

Here are a few samplings from their session:

to whet your appetite...

...literally.

I've got a few things waiting in the wings for you - an engagement, a wedding, a grad, maybe some pictures from our jaunt to the cabin last week - but in the meantime, here's a little taste of something I whipped up for Canada Day. ("Whipped up". I say that like it was so easy. It took me all day because I had to pick the berries first and it was made during the frenzied rush of getting everything ready for a week at the cabin. Because really, I wasn't busy enough getting 5 people packed for a week that I had to throw in strawberry picking and tart making. Why do I do that to myself?! Okay, rant over.)

Add a dollop of whipped cream and they're ready! (And totally worth the craziness.)

Favorite of the month: June

I doubted myself on this one. I knew I really liked it. I chose it as my favorite. But then, when I was looking at it in Photoshop, I started picking it apart: "it doesn't look technically right; it's confusing; the water looks like it's flowing up; no one else will get it".

So I left it alone.

But I kept coming back to it. I like it - water flowing up and all! So here it is - June's favorite of the month.

Prairie Girl in the Big City (part 2)

So. Three days in Toronto. On my own. What to do?

I went walking.

I walked through parks, along the waterfront, through some nice neighbourhoods and some not as nice neighbourhoods, past historic buildings, into beautiful churches, up into a belfry (how cool is that?!), to some fun little shops and to some rather large stores.

I walked on one beautifully sunny day, on a couple of cloudy days, in a light rain and in the pouring rain.

And when Jonny was done work, we'd go walking together - to a fun little waterfront patio, along the docks looking at boats, on the hunt for an ice cream shop, to a neat little restaurant in the rain and underground to Union Station for some "people watching".

My feet and legs were killing me!

I met some nice people and saw some nice places and before too long I'd formed a new opinion about Toronto: it's not so bad. In fact, it felt a lot like home. Only bigger.

Here's the staircase up to the belfry - tight space!

The bells (I couldn't walk all the way up there and not take a picture of them, no matter how poor the lighting was):

The architecturally beautiful Union Station:

(Our hotel was actually only a short walk from Union Station, but I couldn't bring myself to use the subway for a few reasons:

1 - I like to see the sky above me

2 - How else would I have seen so many things?

3 - I was totally afraid I'd get lost.)

A small piece of one of many parks I walked through:

The view from our hotel room (excuse the dirty window, please!):

For those of you who don't know, that's the CN Tower. Which I did not go up.

So you can fully appreciate my sore feet, here's a map of where I went. The purple is me, each shade a different day. The blue is when I was with Jonny:

Prairie Girl in the Big City (part 1)

I have a confession to make: I've never liked Toronto. Maybe because it's so big. Maybe because of this impression I have of Torontonians being all business and cold (totally unfounded - I don't even know anyone from Toronto!). Maybe because I'm a prairie girl and I'm bred to dislike large urban areas. Maybe it's because of their sports teams (who am I kidding?! I'm not into sports!) Who knows? But without ever having been, I'd written it off as no place I'd want to go.

Recently, Jonny had to go away on business. To Toronto. He thought it would be nice if I came along - we'd take a couple of extra days, drive to Niagara Falls - make a little vacation out of it! Alright. Sounds good. But what was I going to do in Toronto?

Favorite of the month: May

So this one makes me feel like sitting outside with a glass of lemonade, enjoying the scent of flowers on the air, drinking in the blue skies and sunshine....

It also feels very quaint with the white picket fence and cottage-y with the flowers kind of overgrown... I like that.

Favorite of the month: April

Surprise!

April's picture of the month is to remind me that the "accidents" can sometimes turn out to be favorites.

A few weekends ago, we went up to Grand Beach for the fun of it. (Really, we think the beach is way more fun when there's no one else there.) The boys found this log they thought would make a perfect bench, so I asked them to sit down so I could take a picture. We were all ready to go and just as I was about to snap, Jonny called out: "Boys! Come see what I found!"

They were gone.

And this is what I've got. I love it!