Life Archives - Page 6 of 7

Garden Party

We recently hosted a garden party Birthday for my youngest daughter’s 11th birthday. Luckily we were able to continue with the planned party before the mandated “social distancing” went into affect due to the Coronavirus threat in March.

The table is set and ready for friends to arrive. Continue reading to discover why the door is closed to the party.

If you are going to have a Garden Party, you need to serve pretzel “sticks,” cucumber sandwiches, and pretty fruit.

I found the small floral cups at Trader Joe’s and they were the perfect pop of color to plant in the white painted personalized tin cans.

Chocolate dirt cupcake jars

We found an assortment of tea cups and saucers at the thrift store to use as planters for succulent plants. The girls could pick which green succulent they wanted to plant in their tea cup. We ordered an assortment of 20 succulents from Amazon that allowed the girls to decide what plant personality they wanted to plant in their cup.

The morning of her party, Sarah Beth came running in my room saying, “I have the best idea! I want to make an escape room with clues to let everyone into the party room.” I didn’t quite understand what she had in mind, so she ran with it and hide clues around the room with a number. The girls had to line up the clues in order and tell Sarah Beth the number sequence to unlock the door. I’ve got to give her credit, it was a great idea and fun to watch the girls working together to crack the code!

In true character, Sarah Beth began planning the decor weeks ago. She gathered all my fake flowers and arranged everything just the way she wanted, complete with a garden doll canopy/tent.

Have you ever hosted a garden theme birthday party? I would love to see pictures from your party, or feel free to take and use what we pulled together for your next garden party.

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Categories: Life, Photography, Spoiled Rotten Photography

High Five Friday – Kara Kellner

Meet my friend and business associate, Kara Kellner. I got to watch her adorable son, grow up in front of my camera lens at Primrose Meadowbrook. Little did Kara know when she sent her little boy to preschool in 2016, that his cap and gown portraits would tug at her heart so much that she would begin inquiring and dreaming about the opportunity to own her own piece of Spoiled Rotten Photography and be able to reproduce those same memories for families in Birmingham.

Kara and her family joined the Spoiled Rotten Photography family in 2017 and I have watched her work relentlessly to build a sustainable business for her family. That little brown-eyed, brown-headed little boy has become the #1 cheerleader and advocate for their family’s business.

At our Spoiled Rotten Photography conference in January, Kara was awarded the Purple Crown Award. The Purple Crown is awarded to the franchise owner who excels in all the SRP core values from the previous year.

Since my family moved back to Birmingham in 2019 and selling my Alpharetta SRP franchise in 2020, I have been between roles and careers. Back in December, Kara called me distraught knowing that she would need an additional photographer to make it through her Spring season, so I gladly stepped in to fill in the gaps for her wherever she needed help. It has been a pleasure working with Kara this Spring to provide beautiful portraits for the Birmingham preschool families.

Kara has built a nurturing and loving relationship with all the schools she works with locally and it is evident when I have walked into the schools and I hear the owners, directors, teachers, and parents raving about the quality she provides.

If you know of any daycares, mother’s day out programs, or preschools in the Birmingham area that aren’t currently using Spoiled Rotten Photography for their Spring and Fall Portraits, you can send me those names and referrals or reach out to Kara directly at kellners@spoiledrottenphotography.com. Kara has a goal of adding at least 3 new partner schools to her Fall schedule and I am confident she will connect with the right schools who will be blessed with amazing school pictures

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Categories: Life, Photography, Spoiled Rotten Photography

High Five Friday – Vinehouse Nursery

For today’s High Five Friday, I would like to give a shout out to Vinehouse Nursery in Alabaster, Alabama.

I had the privilege of being able to fill in as the Spoiled Rotten Photography photographer for their Spring Portraits this week.

Vinehouse Nursery is only a few years old and has organically grown each year as they add a classroom to meet the needs of their growing family of children. Depending on the age of the enrolled child, they move through 4 “Vine” themed programs – Seedlings, Sprouts, Stems, and Sunflowers. The classrooms and decor have a beautiful modern flair to reflect each of these growth stages.

From the minute I walked in the door, the owner Khiari Mcalpin, and all her staff were so friendly and super helpful. I felt like an honored guest being in their school. You could tell the children were all very well adjusted to their environment, their teachers, and other students.

Kaitlyn Mackey and I had the best time playing with all the children and capturing beautiful Spring Portraits on the new Daydream set. There should be a lot of proud parents as they receive their online galleries for viewing and ordering!

If you are looking for a clean, safe, calm, and nurturing environment for your babies in the Alabaster area, I highly recommend checking out Vinehouse Nursery! Or if you have a heart for working with children, I do believe they may be looking to hire an additional part time or full time employee.

Do you have a local business that you believe I should feature on a future High Five Friday? Send me a message and let’s chat!

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Categories: Family, Life, Photography

Hometown Love – Homewood

Homewood – Bandit Patisserie, Leaf and Petal

One thing I like to be intentional about is spending one-on-one time with each of my daughters. One of my youngest daughter’s love language is quality time, so she is always up for an adventure! When one daughter has a planned activity, it is the perfect time to take the other one out for a special date to Starbucks, Target, or to discover new places in our hometown.

I have been seeing rave reviews of the new Bandit Patisserie that recently opened in Homewood, so we began our Saturday adventure with breakfast together in Homewood. I heard you have to get there early to grab one of the adorable homemade pop tarts. My girls know I am not usually keen on sugary breakfast foods, but will splurge once in a while.

I loved the simplicity of the menu. Every item on the menu would have been a solid choice. The modern coffee shop/bakery decor was tastefully done and the morning natural light floods in the front windows.

I was curious why the shop was named Bandit, so I did a little searching and found that the owner Kristen Farmer Hall birthed the idea back in 2013 after baking pastries to deliver to the neighbors. They would ring the doorbell and run away. They became know as the “Baking Bandits.”

Why have to choose between the pop tart flavor choices? We ordered a strawberry and Nutella and shared. We both enjoyed the Nutella one the most!

The oat milk latte was on point!

Treat yourself and take a daughter or friend to enjoy a treat at The Bandit Bakery soon!

I am still looking for the perfect table to complete our kitchen, so we stopped at a couple furniture stores in Homewood to browse. Sarah Beth had never been to the stores on 18th Street in Homewood, so we walked around and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Are your kids as obsessed with squishy things as much as my girls are? Homewood Toy and Hobby never disappoints with their selection of toys and games.

Before leaving Homewood, I introduced Sarah Beth to another local Birmingham favorite. The chicken salad plate from O’Carrs Restaurant.

Our final stop of the day was my choice. I have been driving past the Leaf and Petal shop in Cahaba Heights the last month and wanting to check it out. I could have spent hours just soaking up the oxygen and warmth in the beautiful greenhouse! I was excited to find Calathea Rattlesnake plants in the greenhouse! I fell in love with these painted looking finger leaf plants at the Magnolia Plantation we visited in Charleston.

Small potted plants were the perfect souvenir from our Saturday Mother/Daughter date! I came home with my own rattlesnake plant and Sarah Beth got a small fern to hang in her room.

If you live in the Birmingham, Alabama area, have you visited Bandit Pastry or Leaf and Petal? Let me know what you think once you visit.

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Categories: Family, Life, Photography

Another Arrow in the Quiver

Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.
Psalm 127:3-5

I have been enjoying new found freedoms this year and one of those joys is being closer to family and not missing out in being present for the milestones in their lives. It was a blessing to visit with my Sister-in-law and boys this week. I have the sweetest nephews ever! I loved getting to snuggle with this little guy and capture his story. It has been years since I spent time photographing newborns, but I love the simplicity of these images taken at their own home. My Brother-in-law is an avid bow hunter, so we were able to surprise him with archer-in-training portraits.

Here are a few of my favorite images…

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Categories: Life, Photography, Travel

Postmarked – Mooresville, Alabama

I was on my way home from Huntsville today and I couldn’t help but get off the beaten path to take a trip down memory lane in Mooresville, AL. Mooresville is like a miniature Williamsburg of the South. Have you ever driven through or taken a trip to Mooresville, AL?

It was among these quaint rustic buildings and this perfectly preserved southern town that I fell in love with photography.

We lived in Madison, Alabama 2007 – 2009, so this town was basically in our backyard.

Thanks to Facebook for cataloging all my life memories since 2009, I was able to quickly recover some of these favorite images that were taken of my family at Mooresville, Alabama.

It has been so long since I looked back at the portrait work from my early photographer days as E. Bailey Photography. I had to go blow the dust off an old hard drive to access these images. My style and understanding of lighting and posing has changed over the years, but I am thankful for the opportunity to start somewhere.

I will have to make a trip back to Mooresville one weekend with my girls to check out the JaVa Coffee House and Lyla’s Little House.

Who else is ready for a road trip to Mooresville, Alabama?

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Categories: Life, Photography, Printables, Recipes

Galentine’s Party

My girls love hosting parties for their friends, so this year we hosted our first Galentine’s Party! As I mentioned in my previous Share the Love post, I love all things decorating and crafting for Valentine’s Day. This time of year is usually pretty calm on most people’s calendars, so it makes for good timing to get a group together. For several weeks my girls and I have been scouting out Pinterest ideas and brainstorming the perfect food and crafts to have at their Galentine’s Party.

We were inspired with the beautiful Charcuterie Board food craze! It is amazing how simple food can look so pretty when laid out playfully on a board. We went with a variety of kid friendly foods like heart-shaped ham, turkey, cheese, crackers, carrots, strawberries, and heart shaped cookies.

I was walking through Trader Joe’s one day and saw a box of waffle cones and thought it would be cute to make a fruit arrangement. Of course I wasn’t the first to think of this idea as I found plenty of visual inspiration on Pinterest.

After lunch we passed around the tray of what I am calling Girls Affirming Paper Cookies. Each cookie had a life-giving bible verse that each of the girls read out loud to announce their personal affirmation for the day. We were inspired by these paper fortune cookies.

Choose coordinating printed pattern paper. Use a glass cup to trace a 3 inch circle on the back of the paper. Cut out circles. Print the page of affirming bible verses and cut into strips. Fold circle in half with the verse strip inside. Pinch in middle and attach a glue dot or adhesive. Fan the two edges out to look like a fortune cookie.

Download the page of bible verse strips to make your own cookies.
Girls-Affirming-Paper-Cookie-VersesDownload

After lunch the girls broke into their groups with their friends to bake cookies and complete a craft. We made heart-shaped shortbread sandwich cookies. They turned out, oh, so cute, and the girls had blast mixing up the ingredients and cutting out the shapes. Each girl took a baggie of decorated cookies home to their family to enjoy.

SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Ingredients:

1 cup cold butter, cubed
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cold water
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients together in a mixer.
Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Roll out dough on a flour covered surface.
Cut with desired shape.
Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes.

While one group was baking their batch of cookies, the other group was constructing soothing rice bags. My mother, Vanessa, taught us to make these in various forms over the years. Instead of hunting down fabric for this project, I had another idea that would be easier for my girls to do the sewing to help their friends put together a soothing rice bag. We pop these soothing rice bags in the microwave for 2 minutes and warm them up and lay them across our next back to soothe tired muscles and relax before bed.

We bought a giant bag of rice from the grocery store and added about 10 drops of Young Living Lavender Essential Oil to a bowl of rice and stirred it up well before scooping into the arm tube.

Moms, as you are cleaning out closets and drawers for consignment sales or donation drop-offs, save long sleeve cotton shirts. They make a great tube shape to fill with rice with an easy stitch on both ends.

Outgrown children’s size long sleeve shirts or toddler size pants are the perfect size for upcycling for this project.

Leave my girls a note in the comments and let them know which of their ideas you would like to try at your next gathering.

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Categories: Life, Photography, Printables

Share the Love

We want to share the love with each of you this Valentine’s Day with 8 free custom designed Valentine printable cards!

If you haven’t already downloaded the oh so cute, fun and fresh designs, make sure you go grab them HERE.

I have always loved crafting and designing things for Valentine’s Day. There is something about the simplicity of a heart that catches my eye and draws me in every time. It is fun to stage and create portraits for clients and my own children during the Valentine season. My girls have finally grown out of the stage where it is cute to bring in photographic cards of themselves that their Mom designed. We always had fun with them and I am thankful for the years they indulged me.

Wow, that was a trip down memory lane!

Whether it is Valentine’s Day or any day of the year, sometimes you just need a cute card to attach to a package or send in the mail. If you are a busy mom like me, you don’t have time to get lost reading every card in the Hallmark aisle, looking for the perfect sentiment.

I’ve got you covered with 8 different designs to show your friends and loved ones that you care any time of year. Make sure you grab the pull page .pdf printables at the link above. After your print the 2 pages of Valentine’s, you can trim along the guide lines to make 8 different 4×5 cards.

Connect with me in the comments and let me know how you were able to use the Valentine printables and please share the love by sharing this link with your friends so they can grab the printables also.

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Categories: Life, Photography, Spoiled Rotten Photography

Passing the Purple Crown

Hindsight is 2020

When we are called to leave and start something new, we may not have the vision to see what it will be, but we can have faith in what it can be.

In 2013 when our family was faced with a move to Atlanta, GA I decided to put my established E. Bailey Photography custom photography business to the side to open one of the first Spoiled Rotten Photography franchises. The prior year I had met the owner of the company, Melissa Tash, and was fascinated with the business model she had created. For me this proven successful preschool/daycare/mother’s day out portrait model made perfect sense and was the opportunity I was looking for to regain my weekends and still be able to be a stay-at-home mom, doing the majority of my work while my girls were at school.

The Lord opened doors and provided the people and resources I needed to get Spoiled Rotten Photography – Alpharetta established pretty quickly.

Moving into my 3rd year, I saw the potential for adding a photographer to come alongside me as my schedule was beginning to be full. In my own might I tried to fit several people who were already photographers into this role, but it never seemed to work out. Then the Lord opened my eyes to the potential of training the photo stylist/assistant who had invested 2 years of her time with me. One of the beautiful things about the SRP model is the ability to take someone who has never used a professional camera and teach them how to achieve beautiful portraits in all settings, through an intensive in house training program.

In sending Christine through training in 2016, also came her sister Patricia who wanted to be a part of what we were doing. While I didn’t have the vision for triple capacity at that moment, what we created was a beautiful dynamic sister duo who I was able to trust to provide the quality portraits I was used to providing my schools. In the seasons that followed, I was stretched in my ability to manage employees and give up control of different aspects to effectively scale my business.

In 2019 I was given a job opportunity for the year in Birmingham, Alabama. This meant I would need to completely step away from the on-the-ground operations of my SRP business in Alpharetta. I knew my two photographers wanted to take on more work, so this would be their time to shine as I was able to pass off almost all of my portrait events for the year. We worked in harmony with each other, and thanks to our amazing new proprietary software system, I was able to manage the business remotely.

After our move was made permanent to Birmingham, we discussed the option for Christine and Patricia to aquire the Spoiled Rotten Photography – Alpharetta franchise so they could continue to nurture and grow the business beyond what I could ever do remotely. This scenario was best for all three of us.

I am excited to announce as of January 2020, Christine Mamon and Patricia Mesi are the new owners of Spoiled Rotten Photography – Alpharetta.

In releasing my own Spoiled Rotten Photography franchise, it will free up my time and allow me to assist and help with growth for new and existing Spoiled Rotten Photography franchise owners. I love business, business strategy, marketing, developing brands, and developing leaders, so I’m sure I will find plenty to keep my hands busy in the years to come.

If you have ever considered owning your own business, love children, love photography or have a teachable spirit to learn, this opportunity may be right for you to bring to your hometown. I speak with perspective owners all the time, so ask me all the questions you might have!

It was an honor to receive my Master Photographer award after our 2020 Image Competition!

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Categories: Faith, Family, Life

Let It Go

Let it Go, so you can grow…

I recently joined a small group book study on the topic of moving in and moving on when moving to a new city. The theme of the first several weeks has been all about Letting Go of what you are leaving behind in order to settle into your new life.

This past year Jonathan and I made our 5th move since we have been married. After being transferred to Atlanta in 2013, we had the opportunity to assess in 2019 if now would be the right time to make a move back to Birmingham. While this was the first move we were able to make the choice about, it doesn’t minimize the effects of starting over with new schools, new church family, trying to figure out what circles you fit in, etc.

I was telling a friend today that one of the biggest blessings of having lived in various places is the friendships and relationships that are formed. While those relationships may seem severed by not physically being so close, the internet today makes it so easy to stay connected to those relationships. It is in moving to new areas that your mindset is expanded and you develop empathy for different groups of people.

As I was reviewing the story of Abram today in Genesis 12 to share with a class of K/1st grade, I see the direct statement from God for Abram to pick up and leave his country and people to go to a new land on faith that he knew nothing about. In following that direct request from God, he would be blessed through a great nation, land, and through his seed. Abraham would not see the fulfillment of God’s big vision, but he didn’t let that stop him from walking out what was put before him.

While we aren’t all called to pick up and move to foreign lands like Abraham, we can find blessings, growth, and purpose in moving to new cities, new jobs, new communities.

Whether my mailing address reads Auburn, AL, Hoover, AL, Madison, AL, Birmingham, AL, Woodstock, GA, or Birmingham, AL ultimately I want to end up with my address reading HEAVEN and I want to bring as many friends and family members with me to that permanent home.

We are all traveling through this life on our Way Home to the final home that has been prepared for us.

If you have ever changed jobs, moved to a new city, or faced any other major life change, what were some things that were the hardest for you to let go of?

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