MINI SESSIONS 2010: Subscribe to the blog OR be a fan on Facebook to get details

I plan to schedule mini sessions about once a quarter in 2010, so watch the blog for details and how to sign up. They’ll run about 30 minutes per client and will take place at a location/date/time of my choosing and will be scheduled first-come first-served …  a great way to get pics in at a discounted rate for those occasions that don’t warrant a fully-customized session. Mini sessions won’t be available for newborn sessions which have their own special requirements and “flow.” Beginning this month, details and special promotions will only be available on the blog and on Facebook, so if you haven’t already subscribed to get regular blog updates via email OR signed up as a fan on my Facebook page, it will be worth your while to do so, I promise!

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming …. three of my favorite kids. I’ve known each of them since birth and they’re about to welcome a new baby brother in February. My favorites from their mini session and the resulting holiday card (names blurred for privacy):

I’ve had the pleasure of shooting and designing their holiday card for the past few years, but they had a little something extra to be thankful for this year. Something of the two-legged variety with ten tiny fingers and ten tiny toes.  He arrived before Thanksgiving and I think he’s just perfect.

These are a few of my favorites from their holiday card mini-session and the resulting combined holiday/birth announcement card design. (Names blurred for privacy; custom-knitted hat by Angelbeez.)

I love incorporating elements of the baby’s nursery into their custom-designed birth announcements and this one was no exception. The bottom border is a shot of Emma’s crib bumper pattern and the colors are strewn throughout her nursery. It’s a 5×7 flat front and back design on pearl press-printed card stock which gives everything just a hint of sheen when you tilt it in the light. 100 percent girly girl … 100 percent chic … 100 percent “Emma.” I have several collages and a few more custom designed elements to share when things slow down a bit, but this one was sitting on my desk begging to be blogged.

What a wonderful weekend! If you’re reading this, I hope you’re doing so in your pjs ready for bed after a completely exhausting, but “oh so worth it” holiday break.

Fall session schedule update: A quick note and then a blog share: August and September are now booked for sessions and the deadline this year for conducting your session and having all holiday cards ordered/completed is Nov. 12, so if you’re thinking custom-designed holiday cards, call/email now to grab one of the few remaining October session dates. Except for regularly-scheduled First Year baby session clients and yet-to-be-born newborns, I won’t be booking sessions in late November and December this year so that I can spend holiday time with my family and retool business items for 2010. I can’t believe I just typed 2010! Yikes. Time flies.

Speaking of custom-designed cards, here are two recent 5×7 designs for clients I’ve been meaning to share (last names/addresses blurred for privacy):

Custom-designed cards can showcase one or several session images, custom text, unique colors and – as in the birth announcement above- unique items from the nursery (like the “ABC” print hanging in his room). Each design comes in your choice of art paper (such as linen, watercolor, matte stock and pearl).

In the next card, my client had a great idea to turn their “we’ve moved” cards into a birth announcement, too, since they hadn’t previously done birth announcements after Lauren’s birth. I love this idea!

Front and back: