Catch Your World

Fall Favorites slideshow

My fall schedule is sorta like childbirth - you forget how bad it was until you're doing it again :).  It really gets nutty around here.  I shoot a lot, design a lot, work too much and sleep little but also have lots of fun and get to play with tons of kids! 

I'm sure I didn't hit every session, but wanted to share a few favorites from the past two months.  Thanks so much to each of the families that trusted me once again with their memories!  I hope each of you enjoys the next few weeks when most kids are off school and families are in town to celebrate the holidays. 

Community Connections - Lakewood Ranch Booksellers

We are lucky to have partnerships - and friendships - with many other local businesses.  As many of you are aware, local small businesses are the backbone of a healthy economy, and patronizing them leads to prosperity for the area.  Many small businesses are family owned and operated, just like the Mom and Pop stores in years past, and you'll receive personalized service from local retailers that you just can't find in every big chain store!

As part of our regular blog updates, we will be including information on one of our partners each month.  We hope you'll enjoy learning a little more about local businesses where you are more than just a number.

This months focus is on Lakewood Ranch Book Sellers.  This brand new general bookstore is owned and operated by the same great people of our favorite children's book and clothing store - Little Bookworms.  The mom and daughter team of Holly & Heidi responded to numerous requests for more variety in books for grownup by opening this new store, just two doors down from Little Bookworms on Lakewood Main Street! They offer all the benefits of the big book stores with a personal touch.  If it isn't on their shelves, they will order it for you - trust me on this one, I put it to the test as soon as they opened!  I am a book fanatic and have a list a mile long for gifts for Christmas...Heidi had many of my selections in stock, and ordered the others for me and called me when they arrived.  The out of print books on my list?  Heidi had alternatives picked out for me.  And in spite of just opening, a schedule of events including book signings with local authors is already underway.

Lakewood Ranch Booksellers is proud to be affiliated with www.indiebound.org, an organization dedicated to keeping alive the spirit of one-of-a-kind businesses just like theirs (and mine!)  So stop on in and have a look and get some great gifts for your friends and family.  Tell them Catch A Star sent you:).

Lakewood Ranch Booksellers

8111 Lakewood Main Street #105

Lakewood Ranch, FL 34202

www.lakewoodranchbooks.com                                                                                              

thankful

I'm thankful for

warm sunshine because I'm always cold
butterflies
my children's health
the ebb and flow of the tides
national parks for protection of beautiful American places
people who don't litter
people who pick up after those who do litter
my daughter's gift for art
my son's gift of humor
my hot tub
rain
dads who are not crabby at photo sessions
the sound of laughter
fresh sheets
airplanes to take me where my wanderlust leads
coffee
my home
my husband's belief that I can do it, whatever 'it' is right now
sunflare
dog beaches
snowball fights
calvin and hobbes
my crazy brain
pineapples
babies visiting my studio for pictures and letting me hold them
rocks to climb
lightroom software....organic eggs from my chickens....fuzzy socks for my cold feet....america.....seahorses.....love.......mountains.......the full moon.......hot chocolate.....soldiers......old doors and buildings.....paint......hammocks.....making a living doing what I love......homeschooling, and the joy it brings our family.....kittens.....bulletproof vests.....rollerblades.....palm trees, heck any trees, i love trees......

I am thankful for hope........

There is so much more. 

Whatever you are thankful for, I hope you enjoy it this Thanksgiving :)

Peace ~

Heather

Belated Boo Day

We were in SC/NC for the past week +, including Halloween.  We had a blast with the cool weather and gorgeous leaves!  We even saw a little (tiny bit of) snow way up in the mountains during a hike :).

Just sharing a few of my Calvin & Hobbes from Halloween :).   Hope you all had a great holiday and please email me pics of your little goblins if you have them - I'd love to see! :)



 

5 cousins

Technically, it was Sydney & Ryans session with their mom and dad.

But we wanted to get some extended family shots too, and of course, some cousins shots.

These five see each other daily and are more like siblings than cousins!

I'm starting to think that some of these kids I've photographed for years are getting *tooooooo* comfortable with Miss Heather :D.  I am fair game with this bunch for all manner of craziness! - and I love it!  I had to include some of the silliness in this slideshow.  The girls brought tutus, and I could have photographed these two adorable girls in their tutus in a gorgeous museum all day long.  The boys like my 'silly faces' pictures way more than the normal pictures, and I capitalized on that this time by capturing a Three Monkeys image :D.






Oh, and a very special congratulations to the grandfather of these five fireballs - for his recent induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame! :)

Family Fun Day - tomorrow!

If you are looking for a fun event this weekend to enjoy the awesome cooler weather that has FINALLY descended upon our little corner of SW Florida, stop by the 2nd Annual Manasota Kids Family Fun Day!

The flyer is attached, and full info can be found on the Kids Directory website - www.manasotakids.com.   There will be lots of fun things for the kids to do!

With the craziness of holiday season, we aren't able to do a booth tomorrow, but we have sent some great goodies for the raffles and the silent auction! 

Come on over and ask about raffles for your chance to win:

*one of three picture frames, with a coupon for $50 off your session fee

*one of 10 packs of fine art cards created by moi, with a coupon for a complimentary brag book with your session!

For the silent auction, we've donated two of our *new* Limited Edition sessions for 2009!  The winners can choose a beach session in January, or a Selby Gardens or Children's Garden session in February!  The sessions are much like our holiday sessions, and include a set of 15 5x7 prints.  Very fun stuff, and the proceeds go to benefit Beyond The Spectrum, a local organization devoted to helping families struggling with autism.

 

 

Hey, I know that cat!! :)

With my sporadic and sooooo often behind blogging over the past year, there is a really neat story that I never did get a chance to pass along.

Several years ago, I was reading my monthly newsletter from local Circle Books on St. Armands, and my jaw hit the ground.  A local author, Blaize Clement , had written a book (now a series) about a former Sarasota County female deputy who left the job to run a pet sitting company.  *I* was a Sarasota County deputy, and I ran a pet sitting company while still on the job!  I eventually sold that company to an employee when I retired from SSO and dived full time into my photography business, but the parallels in the story were shocking!  Thankfully, my reasons for leaving law enforcement were not nearly as tragic as her characters, but you'll have to read the books to learn more.......

So, I checked out Blaize's site and sent her an email to tell her that I walked right out of her novel.  She asked if I could come up to the book signing, and we met and got along just fine :).  We have kept in touch on and off, and late last year she asked me to do some fun images of her for promotion of her latest book.  She doesn't currently have any pets of her own, so I offered the use of mine for our session.  We had so much fun at her session!  She's a smart lady who always carries catnip (she staples little bags of catnip on bookmarks she gives out at book signings -- just one of the coolest things I have ever seen :) ) and that made her rather popular here.......

.....if you've been to the studio, you'll recognize the awesome cat in this picture/article in the October 2008 issue of Cat Fancy Magazine with Blaize as being our one of a kind studio cat, Winston :).    Click here to read the article! 

Not only was our Winston on the Cat Fancy site, but posters of he and Blaize used in her promotions were up in bookstores nationwide earlier this year!  Awww I'm so proud of my first 'baby' !  (Winston is 16 and has been with me since college.....quit doing the math on that!!......)

Class of 2009!

I don't photograph too many seniors, but I really enjoy it when I do! I'm also addicted to these fun slideshows :).