Passing Of Previous Post

A month ago I posted about a photographer that used to take my family's photos. He just passed last week. Here is an article about him and there is a link to view more about his life. He was so talented. A great inspiration.

Why Do Friends Leave?

I recently had some great neighbors move. It has only been a week, but I miss them already.

Our daughters were such good friends. So Sad!!! But we are both military families and that is what we have to get used to. Moving and leaving good friends and making new ones. We went out for a photo shoot before they left and this is one of my favorite pics I have ever taken.

Anyone Who Hates The Rain, Has Never Danced In It

Or Has Never Had A Photo Session In It!!!

My friend Charisse wanted a photo session for her birthday. So her and her husband and very cute little man drove up from Richmond for their session. Rain had been predicted to start at 8pm that Saturday. I was excited because that meant GREAT overcast at our 4 o'clock session. But at about noon I saw the dark clouds rolling in. I got scared, so I called her and said lets go NOW! She hurried her family up and we tried to beat the rain, but no luck! It started raining on our drive to our location. They looked so great, and she had worked hard to make that great orange skirt she is wearing. I wanted to take something. So we found a porch that they could hide under. It was very hard to focus in the rain, but we got a few gems and plan to shoot again. Next time I am going down to them. They are such a great family.

We got more than just a photo shoot out of the weekend though. We got in two late nights playing our favorite game, Agricola. Don't know if I am more excited for our next session or our next game of Agricola. I love both!!!! Good friends make the world so much better!

Living Out Loud

I am trying to live my life out loud these days. I am tired of feeling like there are certain things I can't do in life, or shouldn't do because of what other people think. (Don't worry.....I am talking about simple things in life, I will still be a moral upstanding citizen!). I am trying to live a life full of art and creativity. This is how I am living out loud these days:

1. Quit my daycare

2. Opened Photography Business

3. Committed to Designing and Consulting for Heritage Makers (www.storybookingbyyou.com)

4. Living a Healthy Life

5. Buying clothes and shoes that I thought I was too old or too fat to buy....nothing revealing or trashy, just fun colors and styles.

6. Over accessorizing....big necklaces, bracelets, rings, big bows, big headbands, big flowers!

7. I CUT my hair off!!!



Pink was my inspiration for my hair cut....actually, Delana was my inspiration. She cut her hair yesterday and I started thinking of the funky things we would have to do to her hair to fix it. I came up with some clever haircuts that would look good on her, and thought "hey I want a haircut like that"



I wanted my hair much much much blonder but the hairdresser would not do it. So I asked her if next time I come in if we can go lighter, she said yes. Can't wait to go blonder!!! I love my hair! I can play with it in so many ways. Look for more pics of it. I can even make a rad mohawk with it. And how Pink has it styled above, I can do that exact thing!!! So many ways to play around with it! So happy and so free.

Delana got her haircut too. Her inspiration was Kate Gosselin.

Living My Dream

Two years ago this month I stood in front of a group of 11 other wonderful dreamers and a fearless leader named Doug. I stated my dreams out loud. My dream was to be able to get out of the daycare business. Today is the first day of living my dream. I am officially out of the daycare business as of today. I am living the life I want, a creative and colorful life. (grandma Cathy, if you are reading this, don't worry, I still have your girls. They are family, not daycare.) I have loved all the children I have watched over the years. I really mean ALL of them! Delana and I are missing Benjaroo, she keeps asking where is Roo. And she did not want to go to the bus stop this morning without ROO. I am grateful that I was able to run a daycare in the home and be able to stay home with my children. But it was never a career choice for me. Heritage Makers and Photography is my choice. I have a passion for pictures and most importantly the stories behind them. Thank you to everyone who supports me in my passion. Most importantly my husband, my mother, my clients, and my dream team #10.


This is my baby ben I used to watch. I sure like taking and editing pictures of him much more than changing his diapers. I love him and am looking forward to hugging on him at church and hanging out with his family and loving him. We are missing him, but like I said, I don't miss the diapers. I was starting to regret my decision of quitting last week until I went to change his messy diaper and it was every where!! It was a blow out and while changing that diaper he peed on me. So like I said, much funer to edit in pictures then to change! love and miss you ben, but sure am loving my life today!!!!

I Love Seniors!

One of my favorite things to do is to take pictures of Seniors. I LOVE them and would shoot them all day everyday if I could. I got a call from a friend of mine this last week. She said that she had just gotten the school pictures back for her senior. She said they were terrible!!! She wanted to know if I had time to take her daughters pictures. This Saturday happened to be one of my only open mornings. So I jumped at the chance. We went out into DC in hopes to find a mural one of my friends had put up at the National's Stadium. On our way to the stadium we came across this awesome mural, it was not my friends or any where near the stadium, but it caught both of our eyes and we knew we had to shoot it! It was perfect. We never found the mural at the stadium. It might be down by now, but we got so lucky to see this stadium.

Here is the pics from today:

SWATCH BOOKS........You can get one for free!

Look what I have been up to...



I have been creating these cute little books called swatch books. Imagine being able to scrapbook in a paint swatch book. They are so cute!! Been creating them for my friends and clients. Let me know if you want a free swatch book to create of your own!

Heritage Makers in Las Vegas

I just got back from a very fun weekend in Las Vegas. I went for a Heritage Makers Reunion (our annual conference). We call it reunion because we are all one family. Every time I reunite with my HM family it is like going home! I love these ladies.

A lot of new products were announced that I am SO EXCITED about!


This is Doug Cloward. I have blogged about him before. He is the president and Co Founder of Heritage Makers. He battled a fight against Lymphoma last year. I did not attend last years Reunion. I was so sad about missing it and feared that I missed my last opportunity to hug this wonderful man. It was so good to see him this year and to see him so healthy. I gave him the biggest hug. He has been a big part of my "why" with Heritage Makers. He has been a big supporter of mine.



I love this company! I love the product! I love the joy I feel being able to share this product with people. I love teaching people how to create the product. Yes it is a direct sale company, did I ever think I would belong to a direct sale company? NO! But when I saw these books and 100 ideas for storybooks went through my head I knew the only way to be able to make everything I wanted would be to join the business. I have been a consultant for four years now. I knew by joining that I would be able to make lots of books, but I never anticipating making so many friends. I have created relationships with other consultants and so many wonderful clients.

Open a free account if you have not yet at www.storybookingbyyou.com

If you want some of what I got...buy a book.
If you want a lot of what I got...host a party.
If you want all of what I got....become a consultant

Tag, Tagger, Taggiest

Bobbi tagged me probably because she knew I would do it and because she knows I Love photos.

Here are the rules...

Go to the place where you upload all your photos. If you don’t upload them online, just go to wherever you store your pics on your computer. Open the oldest album, and post the first photo. Then tell the story behind it. Then tag 3 people!

Here is the oldest pic on my portable external hard drive I carry everywhere with me. For example, I am sitting at Panera Bread Company right now enjoying peace and silence and getting work done while the kids are with a sitter. I think Panera is going to be my new office!

So here is the pic:

The story behind this is Emil's Studio. There used to be a photographer in Yuma, Arizona named Emil. (I don't mean to talk about him as if he is dead, he is alive, but he is in his 90's now and almost blind so obviously not still in business). He has taken pictures of my family for several generations. He took pictures of my mom as a young girl. My grandmother started a tradition with her grandchildren that my mother carried on until Emil retired. What they both do is take their grandchildren to Emil's studio when they are two and have some really great pics taken of the kids. Then they select their favorite to have done in a large oil painting. My grandmother has my generations of oils and my mother has her grandchildren's oils all over her house. They are so beautiful. The oils are colored, he did not paint the oils, he sent them out to be done. He specialized in Sepia Tone. He was a master at it! He did do color, but my mother always had him do ours strictly in sepia. The nice thing about doing that is that you can wear whatever colors you want and never have to worry about colors matching. For example...you would never know that my sister Charlie and I are wearing flourescent orange stripped dresses here....really we were! Flourescent orange!

Let me tell you a little bit about what going to him to have your picture taken was like: His studio was beautiful! It was a room that felt so big to me as a little girl, but I am sure if I visited it today it would feel very small. he had props hanging all over the walls. He had the neatest toys to keep kids happy and put a smile on our face. His camera was the best. He was a very small man, very short! He would climb up on this stool and put his head into this big camera with a drape over his head....one of those cameras. Can you picture it. He would get it all adjusted and push the button. He would stop, pull that negative. Readjust us, making sure every detail was perfect. then he would go back into his camera and take another picture. He was so amazing! He also was a pro at editing. All without digital and photoshop! He could edit out a mustache. One year my brother had this terrible mustache. My mom had Emil edit out my brother's mustache. He also use to be able to edit out parts of clothing that were in the wrong place and wrinkles on shirts. Could any of you imagine doing any of that manually in a darkroom without the ease of photoshop? Now it is all done with the click of a button or two. So that is the background behind this picture. He was an artist! Him and his wife lived, litterally lived at the studio. The studio was located in the older historical part of town. They still live there. My friend said they still have all their studio stuff up, even though they are no longer in business. She said you can walk by and look in and see all the portraits hanging in the gallery and then you can peek into the back and see his camera sitting in his studio. What a shame that such a fine art such as this style of photography is dieing. A lost art!!!

I Tag Tina, Linsey, and Nicole

Urban East Portraits

I have been trying my hand at photography more and more. I have some new toys, like a new camera and a new version of photoshop. I have my best friend to thank for most of this! My friend Maranda has been mentoring me and encouraging me for the past year or so in photography. She has welcomed me into her business. The name of her photography company is Urban Chic Portraits. The name of my company, which is a branch of hers, is called Urban East Portraits. To view some of my photography....much more to come in the future....you can visit www.urbanchicportraits.com and in the bottom right hand corner is a link called Urban East Portraits. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Been Speed Scrapping

If you digital scrapbook or have ever wanted to learn how you should check out my group on face book called Speed Scrap With Channon. I have been having so much fun leading and participating in some fun challenges. Here are some recent pages. These were all done with in the last week or two.

A Gem

I found this little gem today. This is a clip from The Ellen show from May 2009. This is some of the top dancers from the 2008 season of so you think you can dance. It is fun to see them a year later.

Only Two Days Left......

My favorite show starts in just two days. I am so excited! Here is a clip from my favorite dance from last year:



There are many reasons why I loved this dance. 1. It is just great!! The boy in this dance went on to win the entire competition. 2. I never liked this song before I saw this dance. I am not a fan of Chris Brown or Jordin Sparks..just not my kind of music. But after watching this dance, the song had an entire new meaning. The dance portrays a military man finding out that he is leaving for war. His wife/girlfriend became very sad. My husband left for war 6 years ago. to this day I still cry when I think about it. I cry whenever I hear a song that has to do with war and missing each other. I watched this dance over and over and cried every time. I know...I am a fruit loop! I love this dance.

I love dancing and I can't wait for the new season to start!!! It is the highlight of my summer.

I Heart Jimmy

I have not posted in a while. I went on a trip in April to Arizona and I was waiting to post some pics from the trip but I left my card reader in AZ so I can't post any of my pics. They are all stuck on my card reader. So I don't really have anything to post without my pics. But I do have a new guilty pleasure that I wanted to share.....

I have a crush on Jimmy Fallon. I TiVo it every night and look forward to watching it everyday. He CRACKS me up. I am in love with his boyish charm. My favorite thing is how he cracks himself up more than he cracks anyone else up. I felt compelled to share this with you, I don't know why?? I stayed up late to watch him tonight because I have tomorrow off work and I don't have to get up early so I thought I would just watch him tonight instead of waiting. He is so funny. I had never really been a big fan of his before. I have not really watched SNL for years so I missed his time on SNL. I just for some reason decided to check out his new late night show and have developed a crush on him. His laugh makes me laugh.

Plus he has a great band..The Roots. They are funny.

This is a pretty funny clip from this week:



I heart Jimmy Fallon.....I have shared my secret with Scott. He did not seem threatened. so I should not feel too guilty.

My Little Coupon Book

Saving money is on everyone's mind. I want to start using coupons more but I am guilty of clipping but not using coupons. I made a coupon book to help me get organized. You can see more pics HERE. None of these pictures do it justice. It is so cute.

I used the Heritage Makers cookbook to print this project. You can get a free HM account HERE

March Madness

I am going to hit all of these Bdays at once. My mom liked having babies in March, 3 of her 5 kids are born in March.

Charlie....Charlie and I are the closest in age, meaning that she probably knows the most about me out of all my siblings. She was around me the most. My other two sisters were older and already living out of the house and in other towns most of my life. It was mostly just me and Charlie. I am no means trying to say that I am not close to my other sisters, it has been wonderful how close we have become in our adult hood. I felt so special when I got married and had babies. My sisters welcomed me into a special club that knows no age boundaries. I have never felt closer to any of them then I have has an adult, but Charlie naturally had been there the most for me during those awkward Jr. High ages, or there for me to tell her about my first crush on a boy. Charlie was the one that helped me with my homework and did all of my science projects. And Charlie and I lived in the same town even after she moved out. Her house was an escape for me when I needed one. Thank you Charlie. Living on the East Coast and being separated from Charlie has been the hardest part at times of living out here. I had written earlier a happy bday wish on here, but it was brief and short. I just wanted to let you know I love you and miss you.



My brother Chuk's (not a typo! He dropped the C because it is silent.) Bday is March 7th. I am a terrible sister and did not call him. I don't talk to my brother much, but he ALWAYS calls me on my bday. I love talking to him so much. He is fun. I don't have a ton of memories of my brother, but these are some I have: he worked at a grocery store and I loved to go with my dad grocery shopping so I could see my big brother. And I remember my 6th bday. My favorite gift was some crayons he gave me. He loves to have fun. He loves to play a sport called OTL (over the line). It is like baseball/softball without the running. And it is best played on the beach. He travels from AZ to CA and to Mexico to play it. He helped to get it going and get its start in our home town of Yuma, Arizona. I remember one time at the gym I worked at in Yuma someone found out I was Chuk's little sister and they acted as if I was related to celebrity. They were about my age and said they had never met him, but said he was a legend in Yuma OTL. They kept going on and on about how Yuma would not have OTL if it was not for my brother. He asked if I could introduce them. It was so odd. But he is good at OTL and I am glad someone is grateful for the work he has done. He is loved by not only me but by many.



My sister Cheryl's bday is on the 23rd. She is the middle child and has had to bear the burden that comes with that role sometimes, sometimes forgotten and left out. She is the most level headed person in my entire family. She is so smart. She graduated 2nd in her class (was it 2nd or 3rd, I think it was 2nd). She graduated with honors from college. She is a busy mother. She is also the most active one in our family. She is very athletic. She loves to be out doors and is very adventurous. She loves to travel. Her and her family go on some fun adventures. She just recently returned from a hunt in Africa. What I love most about my sister is that I know she loves me! She is always so good at calling me. We can sit on the phone for an hour talking about everything and nothing! I love it. Those conversations have saved me on some days. And she has made a lot of effort to come and see me out here on the East Coast. She has started a tradition of coming out every October. She has always brought different children with her, except for one year she brought my sister Charlie because they came out to help me with the delivery of Delana. I missed her this last October. It did not quite feel like October without a visit from Cheryl. I love you Cheryl!

I was pregnant with Delana here. We went to a Toby Keith concert. I thought I had started labor after the concert. But no luck!!!! She did not come for two more days.

Create

This is so powerful and meaningful.

The Girl I Love To Hear Giggle

I wanted to give an update on Natalie. I know there are some readers of my blog that have never met her before, but were praying for her fast recovery. Your prayers were heard. She went home February 21st. A few weeks shy of two months after the accident. It is a miracle. I am writing about this now because I was so happy last night looking at her at YW's new beginnings. She walked in, perfectly healthy and looking cute. She walks without a walker. She is amazing! I have to tell you a little bit about Natalie......she has a hard time keeping serious. When there is a quiet moment or serious moment in the room the silence is usually broken by Natalie's laugh. Serious moments give her the giggles. I remembered four years ago planning a New Beginnings night and we asked Natalie to lead the music. Another YW that was helping us plan the event asked why we were going to ask Natalie to lead the music. She did not want Natalie to lead the music because Natalie can't make it through anything without giggling.....that YW was right. We did have Nat lead the music and she giggled the entire way through it. It is just who Nat is and what she does. Four years later and not much has changed. Last night as the music started we all got off to a rough start. We were singing accopella because we did not have piano player. Everyone started out on the wrong key and Nat starting to giggle. I was overcome by so much emotion as I heard her giggle. It was a giggle that just a few short months ago I was not sure we would hear again. It was the best sound I had heard in a very long time!!!!! I love that giggle. I love you Nat!!!!

Delana's Talking

I have to blog these before I forget about them:

Delana has started to talk and she has a few words that she says over and over and they have their own meanings to Delana.

1. "Wash": wash means that she is thirsty and would like something to drink. She started saying this in December. I think she started because she only had one sippy cup. And anytime she wanted a drink I had to wash it out for her. So as she would be throwing a fit for a drink on the kitchen floor I would try to calm her down by saying, "calm down! I have to wash your cup out. Just a minute....I am washing as fast as a can." So now she asks for wash when she is thirsty. Even the little 2 year old I care for during the day asks for a wash now when she is thirsty. I had to explain to her mom what wash meant.

2. "Bye Bye's": Bye Byes means that she wants her pants and shoes on. Whenever she wants to go outside to play she brings me some clothes and says "want Bye Byes". We only get dressed some days if we are leaving the house. And if she sees me getting dress she says "bye byes?"

3. "hello": hello means telephone. She will carry my phone around and bring it to me and say "you hello?" and if the phone rings she runs and grabs it and brings it to me the entire time saying "mom, hello! mom, hello!" and if I try to take the phone away from her she will say, "my hello"

I love two year olds and their learning process and how they view the world.

Happy Bday to My Baby!

Maelee and Claire

Today is Maelee's Bday. We had a party for her a week ago. She had a Rockin' Hannah Montana Party with her friend Claire. There was 17 little girls in attendance. It was loud crazy little girl rockin' fun.

we played Rock Rock Roll (our own little version of duck duck goose) and the bday girl was mad that she ended up in the middle.

Delana was so funny at the party. She kept cracking me up all day. I think I ended up with more pics of her than I did of Maelee

Maelee has a Bday Bud, Her Aunt Char (Maelee has always called Charlie "Char"). Charlie's Bday is March 1st. I was at Charlie's Birthday party just hours before I went into labor with Maelee in 2002. We love our Aunt Char. She is such a fun Aunt. We miss her very much.

Look What's Cookin'

A new product, that’s what’s cooking! Introducing, the all-new, incredible Heritage Makers cookbook. For four days only (Feb. 23–26), you can get in on a “sneak peek” of the new cookbook. The cookbook won’t be available to the general public until March 3, 2009*—but you can get yours now—and save BIG!
But there’s so much more than just a cookbook here. The new product can be used for a journal, day planner, child’s diary, address book, school journal, school yearbook, guest register, and so much more! Plus, it’s a great price, our lowest price yet!
- 6″ x8.75″, wire-bound, soft wrap around cover
- 21 pages, expandable to 50
Creating a cookbook is perfect for families, clubs, or any other group with favorite recipes.

Click HERE to view the official details and then call me at 703-730-6155 or email me at storybookingbyyou@gmail.com when you are ready to order!
*Purchasing during this sale is for credits only. You can begin creating the cookbook product in Studio on March 3, 2009.

I am excited to make some mini digital scrapbooks for my kids out of these cookbooks. The possibilities are endless. I am picking up a few of them because they are only $15 right now. I am thinking I will start with a quiet book for church. And then maybe a portfolio for my 1st grader of her favorite artwork she has created. I am ordering a bunch of these at the price of only $15. So cool!