I have begun offering Art Birthday Parties this year and so far it's been nothing but fun. We started off with a Sleepover Themed birthday where the girls all designed and decorated their own SleepMasks. Our second project was Watercolour/Yarn Unicorns which have been such a huge hit that we had double classes of them over our Spring Break Art Club. Unless my Mom Brain is betraying me, I am certain that this was the next one in line and what an awesome and easy and colourful and visually fun project it is. Mini Wall Tassle Hangings!
I am a million percent mega into providing these Art Birthday Party services so please hit me up with your party theme and I will do my best to create something for you! These parties are not exclusively for children either, they are fully open to all ages looking to get their art on!
Munroe
It's going to be pretty interesting to see what life is like in 20 years. I am in the time of my life where so many friends are starting or growing their families. Our parents did not have social media to maintain contact with every single person from high school and beyond. Today, even if we don't hold long conversations or meet up with everyone we have added from high school or post-secondary, we scroll through their life on a daily basis. We are in a time where we literally are watching everyone's lives every single day, and probably maintain this network long enough to see each other's kids childhood and teenage years. I don't think we will ever be leaving Tsawwassen in this housing market, so I am constantly imagining how all these kids are going to grow up together in the tiny community of Ladner/Tsawwassen. How did I get to this?
Ah yes! Thinking about how long it has been since I have known Steve + Serena. I met Steve and Serena about a year or two before I had Moses which is a whopping 9 years ago. Over the past decade, they have been the ones watching me stumble through parenthood. They have seen me and my kids grow together, they have read my ups and downs, and they are hopefully a little more prepared than I was with what to truly expect when you are expecting. They spent the last couple of years travelling before hunkering down to start their family, and are now proud new parents to Baby Munroe.
As is always the case, I was thrilled to photograph them in these early days of parenthood and I am excited to follow them on their journey!
Congratulations! Welcome to the club!
Sophie Evelyn
2018 began with new babies! Back to Back babies for people I know from back in highschool who happen to be friends and live in neighbouring condos overlooking beautiful False Creek. I love how life comes full circle. I love how highschool is a petri dish of hormones, bad decisions, blind immaturity, and closed-mindedness, that nobody can see who and how the future might bring people back together. I guess this isn't necessarily true of all experiences, but I love that it is mine. I love being able to re-enter the lives of those with whom I share history (great or small), see who they have grown to be and witness the love for their young families spill out like liquid gold. It's a beautiful thing to be vulnerable. I love connecting with people and I love being a part of so many people's special moments. There is so much beauty in how we live day by day, in just who we are, in our humanity.
A few special moments with little sister Sophie and Mama Jess.
Baby Wren
My last family session of 2017 was with a sweet trio I met through my cousin Nik. They moved up the road and across the Tsawwassen/Point Roberts border into a sweet little rancher to start this new period of their lives. Like us, they moved into a new place with a new baby and renovations to be had. This pushed our newborn session to a 3 months old session which, honestly, was just as delicious. At 3 months, new Mamas have developed a system and babies have plumped up into juicy morsels asking to be bitten all over...
I met them in their new home on a beautiful sunny afternoon the first week of December. Everyone was in a cheery mood, including little Wren who was all big shiny eyes and bubbly gurgles of laughter. It's hard to know these days are gone for me. After waiting what seemed a lifetime for babies, I have somehow already birthed 3 and they are all no longer these tiny helpless creatures covered in down with sweet breath. It is a wonderful thing to be able to revisit this preciousness through my work and I am so grateful to pour my hindsight into creating memories that will shine through the foggy memories as they grow older.
A select few from this warm cozy collection...
Abandoned X: Amercian
Another fun event out in Downtown Vancouver was the Opening Reception for photographer Antonia Jane Allan. Her show, Abandoned X: American, took place at MakeShift Spaces, a pop-up space dedicated to helping small businesses, artists, and speakers to achieve exposure.
It's been quite a while since I've attended an art show (my last gallery visit was at the VAG whom was hosting the dinner conference I was shooting...) and I am pretty sure that checking out more art is on my TO DO list for 2018. Antonia's scenes were rich in colour and textures. Abandoned places never lose their creepy interest. Seeing past lives decay and their spaces be left vulnerable to mother nature reminds us of our own temporary stay here. When we are gone, what is left behind of us? I've started reading becasue 2018 is also the year that I am trying to exchange scrolling for digesting actual physical books. One line I read the other night from The Essex Serpent is quite a fitting description for this Abandoned collection:
"All that is solid melts into air ... whole empires are brought down by nothing but ivy and time."
So very true.
More gallery shows and more books. 2018.