David & Becca tied the knot on a beautiful November day in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  It was such a joy to see all the details of their special day come together, all their friends & family join forces, and create the fairytale wedding that Becca & David had planned.

Becca is my new step-sister and it has been a great joy to get to know her & her fiance, David, through their whole engagement & wedding process.

Enough blabbing from me, just take a look at their special day!

Getting ready…

Their first look…

Some fun with the bridal party…

(and I’d just like to point out Drew, my step-brother, on the far left.  White boy can jump!)

And now on to the wedding & details…

Joy, and her sister Hope, were some of the first friends I met when my family moved to Maryland so many years ago.  And it was such an honor & delight to be able to photograph her engagement to David.  To see her so utterly happy made me quite emotional.  During their session I wanted to cry with happiness, and even more so during editing it.

Enjoy their photos…

Occasionally I get the photo session that I have to keep under wraps until it can be presented as a gift to a loved one.  That’s the case with Devin & Steph’s session.  They sweetly planned to give their family some photos of themselves for the holidays.  But man, if you know me, keeping secrets is so hard!  Steph let me know recently that I could share their lovely photos.  Yeah – a weight off my shoulders!

We met up in Patterson Park in the autumn and they brought along their sweet dog, Nimbus.  We had a great day, lovely weather, and plenty of pups for Nimbus to make friends with.

Enjoy their photos!

It has been a whirlwind of holiday photos up in this place!  Whew!  I LOVE the holiday excitement, and the Christmas photos that go along with them, but it can be a bit tiring on these editing fingers!

I’m super excited to take a different direction for a bit with some senior photos of the lovely Emily!  Emily is one of my models for Rockbridge Academy.  She is a beautiful girl, and her heart is equally as beautiful, too.  We had never met in person before her photo session, but she was so sweet & funny & welcoming that I felt like I was with an old friend – an old friend who is much younger than me, but you get my point.

Enjoy Emily’s photos in Downtown Annapolis.  Oh, and Emily’s mom, who helped picked out most of her outfits – yeah, I’m calling YOU the next time I need to dress myself!

If you have children in school, there is always the pressure (from your kids) to get each of their classmates a Christmas gift.  I’m all for making gifts, although I don’t know if these turned out any cheaper than buying what we made.  We had fun anyways, and that’s what counts.  Plus, I think our homemade playdough kicks butt in terms of softness!  Thank you Pinterest for the recipe!  Here’s what we did, in case you need a quick gift idea too.

First we started with the containers.  The Pinterest post on this recipe used re-purposed baby food containers with lids.  Since I don’t have a baby, I needed to buy containers.  We found these plastic cups with lids (and a bonus spoon) in the baby section of the Dollar Tree.  They were 2 for $1.00.

Then the ingredients:  flour, vegetable oil, salt, water, food coloring, and cream of tartar.  You’ll probably have all of these lying around except the cream of tartar.  And now my assistant will show you the steps…

One cup of flour…

One cup of water….

1/4 cup of salt….

Two teaspoons of Cream of Tartar…

One tablespoon of oil….

And the food coloring!  It’s probably easiest if you add this to the cup of water before putting all the ingredients in the saucepan.  It won’t hurt adding it on it’s own though.  Brooke & I realized that these food coloring bottles reminded us of the cast from Gnomeo & Juliet…haha!  She chose to make purple for her first batch.

Stir all of those ingredients in a sauce pan.

Then add the sauce pan to medium heat on the stove top.  {Adults only, please}

Keep stirring this gloppy mixture until it starts to stick to itself.  It will pull away from your saucepan & form a clump around the spoon.  Just grab the last bits off the sauce pan so you get the most dough for your ingredients.

See…it stuck!  Put the whole blob on wax paper – careful, it’s hot!

Then knead & knead…knead all those frustrations out.  This might be a tad hot for little hands.  You can put a dishtowel over the wax paper so they can knead too.  It’ll cool off in about 5 minutes.  And you’re all set!  Keep it for yourself, or give it to a friend!

Super Soft Homemade Playdough

1 cup flour

1 cup water

1/4 cup salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

food coloring

I’m pretty sure the store bought Play-Doh brand packets are cheaper, but this stuff is softer by far – especially good for little hands.  Plus it’s a fun winter break activity.  Slap a sticker on it, tie a ribbon on, and attach a cookie cutter.  You’re done!