rad

Tabitha Bianca Brown via her etsy shop

First thing up: art by Tabitha Bianca Brown. Her etsy shop goes by the name thepairabirds. I love it.

Have you heard of The Maker's Project? Jennifer Causey documents craftspeople at work with beautiful pictures. I am fascinated by the process of seeing artists at work, and how intuitive it is for them. 

I already posted about this on facebook, but I am pining after this book. Chris Koelle illustrated a canon-wide view of the story of redemption, and it combines two beautiful elements: love and art. Yes.

I love this tutorial on making cheek stain from beets and glycerin. She has lots of great natural skin care recipes on her blog.

Tyler and I just purchased something major-- a leather hide :) Look for lightnest bags with leather handles, coming this fall.

I find out on the 28th if I was accepted to Indie Craft Parade. I love this part of the process... the waiting and suspense. Hopefully it will end well.

Little Maitland is growing well, and I will be at 10 weeks on Thursday.  The morning sickness and fatigue has been rough, but I feel like I am coming out of it. I am having so much fun re-envisioning the nursery. I am really excited to see it all come together over time...  I haven't totally decided what changes I'll make yet, but I will definitely share. You can see some things I've found that I really like here, here (bless you Martha), here, and here.

I like the thesis behind Kinfolk Magazine. I found out about it here. Love her pictures. Speaking of which, I am about to have another role of Portra developed. I will share.

We went camping for a night last Thursday night, and Piper cried through the whole night. I felt so bad for her. Our campsite was beautiful though, and we went with a sweet family. It was still SO nice to be out there. Piper is still learning the ropes, little munchkin.

I had the honor of photographing a beautiful wedding last night. It was so full of grace and beauty. The bride was shining with joy. It reminded me of the day I married my husband, and I remembered every moment leading up to our wedding, and how excited I was to marry him. I want to live that way every day with him. And it reminded me of this talk by Tim Keller. Please, please, please listen to it. Seriously, please.

Trevor is currently sick, and I am praying (PRAYING) that Piper and I do not get it. He looks miserable. And with that, I am off to bed.

Until next time....

xoxo

farmer's market pictures and camping

These are some recent film shots from the Athens Farmer's Market.

Last Friday was our five year anniversary. We courted in Tennessee, got engage in Louisiana, got married in SC and moved out to Oregon, where we had our little girl. Our second child will be born here in Athens, and Trevor will graduate law school here next May. I wrote this to him already, but I fell in love with my husband all over again after seeing the things we have come through together. Our marriage is stronger, and I am more humbled, broken, and dependent on the God of my life than ever before. I realize more how much I need Him, and how much the gospel really is the most important thing in the world. I understand the gospel more and a little more about what it means to forgive, to love, to have tremendous hope in Jesus even in the midst of pain, to see things through, to not give up on someone, to really act out love by persevering. Things are not perfect; in fact, they are hard. Being in school (still) with very little income is hard. The pressures and craziness of law school has been very very hard. Trying to work to support our family and take care of sweet Piper can sometimes be hard and discouraging. But even in the middle of all this tension, I have a beautiful Hope, and I am satisfied and content. 

We went camping to celebrate our first five years. We had to come home early because the weather got so bad, but we plan to go again this weekend for a night or two before the wedding I am shooting on Saturday. We camped near Avery Creek in Pisgah National Forest. It was beautiful. Our campsite was near the place where the creek widens, and there are moss covered rocks and pretty woods all around. It was amazing to be totally shut off from technology and media. I didn't realize what a constant level of stress I was under until I went out into the woods and gave the people I love my full attention. I was renewed in a big way. It got me thinking about where I am headed, what life will be like with a new baby, and how the creative things I love doing have (in some ways) become the source of a lot of stress in my life. I made some decisions about how I want to do life in the future. I guess that is a whole other post. I'll write about that soon, and include links to some pretty rad stuff I've been enjoying lately.

Talk soon sweet readers. And I promise to take more camping pictures this weekend!

Paige

I have to change the title of my blog....

... BECAUSE WE'RE HAVING A BABY! We'll no longer be three, but four!


God is so good to me. He's the Creator of life. I am so thankful and excited about this baby. We found out this baby was coming on Piper's birthday, which is the day before my birthday. Both of my children are gifts. This came at a time when I needed to remember how intimately involved God is in my life, and that He is writing the book of my life with love, delicate care and beautiful plans. The baby is due at the end of January, close to Trevor's birthday.


The first trimester, and pregnancy in general, is not fun for me. There are things I love about it, but right now I feel icky and tired. We'll be out of the first trimester soon... I am eight weeks. Just a few more weeks, and hopefully I will have energy again (because I have some fantastic opportunities coming up for lightnest, and new bag styles in the works). We're seeing a nurse midwifery practice here in town, and I really like them. They have been super kind and reassuring. I did have some fears because of the closeness to my miscarriage, but they were so comforting and gave me an ultrasound at my first appointment, even thought it wasn't scheduled. Everything looked perfect and baby's heartbeat was strong :)


The pictures above are a couple more film shots, shot on Portra 400 NC. Piper says she wants to have a little brother :) I am sure she'll be happy with whoever the baby turns out to be.


Oh, and by the way... check out a guest post I did over on Rylie's blog! (There are some lovely other guest bloggers on there too!)


Back soon with more!
xo

lightnest is growing

So exciting things are happening with Lightnest! I have been telling you about Tyler, my friend who is working with me. She has been a valuable resource. It is so refreshing to see the things I make through someone else's eyes, and to teach her how to do the things that I do. She has taught me so much too. She has a vibrant, creative personality, and she is really good at helping me think beyond the things that I am usually concerned with. I am very interested in the details and mechanics of how the patterns and bags are made, but by being so detail-oriented, I can sometimes lose sight of the big picture. It is so helpful to have someone else to help with this. Tyler is talking with several brick-and-mortar shops about carrying our bags, she has been sewing and posting bags on etsy, has been collecting ideas for packaging and branding, and has brought in some great clients. She is awesome.


Lately I have been thinking through some ideas for new bag styles, and new ways to do the handles. I have some ideas that are different and fresh for the shop. I am looking forward to sharing those, and when I release the new style(s), I'll have a sale in my shop... market totes and city totes will be $10 off for two days. Stay tuned for that.


All of this work and effort to grow my business has gotten me thinking about how far I have come from where I started, and it has all been a gift from God. I have parents and a husband that have given me tools as presents, things that I could use to grow and develop as a person. I didn't go to school to learn how to sew, or design patterns, or take pictures, though I frequently wish that I had. (Instead I have a bachelor's degree in theology and Bible.) I just really love sewing. And designing. And photography. So my work is something I love doing. And all the time I have spent sitting at the computer, reading about sewing and staring at pictures, and wondering how things are made or done, has not really been a waste of time. I absorb all that stuff and it comes back out in the form of something I have made. It is such a satisfying process that I love so much. I guess when you are doing something you love as work, it doesn't seem like you are working all the time or that it is this huge burden to get work done. My work has been such a blessing in my life. I really didn't start doing all of this until after my daughter was born... before she was here, I was in school. Reading and studying was what I loved to do (and running). It's crazy that I don't do a ton of either of those things anymore. It is a goal of mine to be a lifelong learner, and begin studying and reading again at some point, but right now, I just love making things and learning about photography. I love the process of refining my vision for my images and the things that I sew. I love making my own clothes and repurposing things that would otherwise be unwanted, giving them a new life. Because that is exactly what God is doing in my life, every day. He gives me new life and purpose, and he is constantly creating beauty in my life out of brokenness. I love that I get to be like God and do what he does on a smaller scale.


I photographed a beautiful bride for her bridal portraits last week. Bonne and Kyle are getting married on June 25th in Marietta, and their wedding is going to be totally gorgeous. The setting is a historic home with landscaped grounds. I am so honored that they chose me to photograph this major event in their lives. And then there are two more weddings coming up-- Kristen is getting married the last week of August, and Amanda Kay and Austin are getting married September 4th. I love weddings. My hope is to shoot weddings exclusively one day. In keeping with that hope, I have slowly begun buying the pieces for my very own medium format film camera :)  Actually I only have the lens. And I bought the FIND guide (but I bought mine majorly on sale. Ask me how if you are interested in buying it. Best money I ever spent, seriously.) It is a dream, and it will mean reinvesting almost all of the money that I make this summer, but I am beyond excited and I can't wait to show you guys the pictures that it will take.


Oh, and my little two year old sweetheart is the most adorable person on the face of the earth. She gives kisses and hugs. She tells me what to do (hilarious). She is a picky eater but I love her. For everything that I love about being able to do the work that I do, the best part is that she is with me the whole time. The other day she said to me, 'I love seeing you all day. And Jesus.' Perfect, and so exactly true.


xoxo
paige

recents

I took this picture during a recent trip to Folly beach in SC. She's so full of life. She has no regard for what other people think of her; she's totally self-unaware. She is just experiencing the ocean and is in love.

Recently, we have been traveling, celebrating birthdays and working. Piper turned two on the 29th, and my birthday was the next day. So crazy that my little girl is two. Trevor planned a surprise party for us in Columbia! It was so sweet. Trevor has been busy, and Piper and I have been sewing and taking pictures. I have some important things coming up... a couple of seriously beautiful weddings, a couple markets (I hope I get into this one again... remember from last year? It's where I got my start.)

I am looking forward to the rest of the summer... trips to the lake, working with my own two hands, our church, camping, watching Piper grow and celebrating five years of marriage with Trevor. We spent the evening driving around in the country outside of Athens, looking for places to rent and potential places where we might buy some land eventually. It's so beautiful around here this time of year. We found a fantastic log cabin that we would love to rent, but we'll see if it comes together :) I know God has plans for our life that are good and beautiful. I am waiting to see how this will all work out.

Some things I have been loving lately:

Pinterest. Do you guys have one yet? You don't? Email me and I might be able to send you an invite. So much beauty. I learn alot about photography just by looking over my pins and seeing what kinds of images I like to look at. This girl's blog! She is totally living the dream (thanks Lesley for telling me about it!). Seaweed snacks from Trader Joe's. (Seriously, try them. If you don't like them at first, stick with it, they'll grow on you. They're addictive, and they only cost a dollar.) Romeo and Juliet-- you know the one from our younger days, with Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio... it still blows me away. Gorgeous movie. Listening to this music. And a good, healthy smoothie recipe my mom gave me. It is really easy to make, and Piper loves it. You need:

1 banana

5 strawberries

plenty of spinach

orange juice

Add the banana and strawberries to the blender; cover with OJ. Fill the rest of the blender with spinach and blend. You can also add ground flax seed or any other nutritional supplement. You could also add ice to make it colder.

That's all for now. Talk again soon!

xoxo

paige