Welcome! I'm Shawna, an on-location natural light photographer from Kent, WA serving the greater Seattle and South Sound area. My passion is for birth photography! In birth or family sessions, I strive to capture details and the spontaneous moments that truly reflect the beauty in your life, and that you will treasure for ever. Sit back with a cup of coffee and enjoy my musings, or better yet - pop me an email and introduce yourself. I love meeting new people!

10 on 10 August

"Nothing changes and nothing changes and then a month is gone and then a year" - me, last month.

Until everything changes.

And that Everything has made this post very hard to write because I can't believe how different life is now. Some things manage to stay the same. But our lives were turned upside down this month, and we are not the same.

Same quiet mornings. 

Same quiet hours spent drawing.

And a party that I went to -
that I was in no state to attend 
while stressing over my own daughter 
and mourning the loss of a friend's.
That I did my best to sit through 
(but I didn't manage to take even a phone picture) 
and then thankfully had to leave for a shoot. 

I can escape in photography.

Unless I'm in a parking lot on I-5.
And then I just sit there.
But it's better than being in a room full of people who don't share your grief.
 

And I spent the afternoon refilling my heart with these two beautiful souls, whose wedding I have the privilege of capturing in October.



And then this.

This picture hurts me because Bella is cuddling the first tomato of the season. 
And she can't eat it yet. 
And she is being so so understanding of that and snuggling it instead.

So Lia does the same.


 Time for Bella's dinner check.

 

A few days of needles adds up
and the holes and bruises are small
and dotting her little body
and Bella doesn't complain.
(But I do, I can't help it.)


Still, some things stay the same.
 

Or improve. 
She can run again. 
She hasn't run in months.
She didn't run last month. 
Or bike.
And we didn't know why.
 
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So there's joy in the simple things.

And my night ends watching the sun set at a cafe with friends 
(a gathering occasioned by unbearable grief)
but we are together 
and for the moment that is enough 
and we find our smiles. 

Life goes on as usual this month, but nothing is the same.

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10 on 10 July

July! I really do not understand how the days keep slipping out from under my feet. Nothing changes and nothing changes and then a month is gone and then a year. It's nice to have 10 on 10 because change is slow and ever present with kids. You're going along and then all of a sudden you realize that things are nothing like they used to be, though you can't remember them changing.

So I will love waking up snuggled next to this one for as long as I can, in spite of her morning squirming and mosquito bite itching.


Soft, bright summer mornings.



And then we sat around the house all day waiting to sign for a camera in the mail and in all the nothingness, I forgot it was 10-on-10 day. My mom even visited and I didn't take a single picture. Amazing how I can remind myself relentlessly and still forget when I'm in the middle of a project. :O)

The fairy donning her beloved gloves as we waited for the mail truck.


Testing out the camera. These don't count towards the ten, I swear!





Bella playing big sister, realizes she can undo Lia's helmet all herself.


Hopscotch after a painful math lesson. She drew this one all herself and left the numbers out this time.


Quiet time in the kitchen while I cook.


My view while cooking. I love our new white cabinets.


Daddy's home!


And to bed. They always pick him instead of me, and by bedtime I have to agree!

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10 on 10 June

10 on 10 for June! Apparently I took and processed all my images and forgot to blog them. :O)

So wonderful waking up to this bouquet fresh from my uncle's garden. Those white peonies are the most fragrant flowers I have ever smelled. I call them the stinky flowers because they are really THAT fragrant. They smell like your great grandma all loaded with perfume.

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A shoot for the farm -  planting broccoli starts.


Dropping Dave off at work.


And waiting waiting waiting at the doctor.


And more waiting. We waited for an hour, essentially to drop off pee. Hooray. I can say in retrospect that it was worth it, but alas, it was a long morning.


A beautiful day at the lake.


Hungry and waiting miserably for dinner.


Fresh picked strawberries!


And bathtime, at long last.


Sneaky little one reading herself to sleep.

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10 on 10 May

On Fridays, I go into Seattle and watch my friend's two kids, so our day is very full! We've done this for a year an a half now and their family is very much a part of our lives.

The biggest change this month is that we have sun(!) and that my baby is now 5 and can ride a two-wheeler. Oh, and Lia made it through the train park without headphones!

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10 on 10 March

My first 10 on 10: March 2013

A lazy day at home... one of many that blur together in an endless stream. And yet. Just two months later these memories are just that. Each day is imperceptibly different until these memories are distant nostalgia.  (Hm... apparently I was still attempting naptime for Lia and getting work done during that hour. HAH!)

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On Sunday, my little one turns two.  I'm not stunned like I was when Bella turned two. Lia is chatty and headstrong and chubby and seems very two, to me.  When Bella was two, Two seemed like an unbelievably large, grown up number. I might as well send her to college next year.


Now thinking of Five takes the wind out of me, and two seems like a drop in the bucket of babyhood.  Plus it helps that when Bella was two, I was getting ready in my mind for her to be a big sister in a matter of weeks. When she was two, there was a little marshmallow of a baby hanging out with us, always making Bella's age seem like the new grown-up.

 

It's very strange having a two-year-old and no baby on the way to alter perspective. Two is still my squishy, snuggly, nursing baby.  Whether there will be another two year old in our family some day, I don't know.  It seems to make it easier enjoy today if we leave that possibility open. Then I don't panic at every little event, thinking, This is the last second birthday we get to celebrate! This is the last time someone in our family is two years, two months, and a day and a half old! There goes another minute of the Last of the Babyhood. MUST. ENJOY.  ENJOY HARDER. NOW!!


And still, there are the days when I hope I am paying close enough attention, getting in enough cuddles. No mom wants to regret passing on just one more cuddle while time relentlessly marches on.


Last year's birthday already seems so far away that I barely remember that chubby face. It won't be long before this new grown up face looks like a baby.  So snuggle, I do.

Happy birthday, little one.  I will get back in the habit of jotting down some of your favorite things and funny quirks, so that in a few years I can use them as bait to get you to sit and snuggle with me while we giggle over your baby days.  For now, I must end this and go stock up on the last of my one-year-old snuggles.  I love you!

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And the winner is...

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Thank you to everyone who participated in our raffle this month, by donating or sharing with friends! Every little bit brings Cat closer to reaching her goal - a chance at a life saving surgery and getting to live her life more fully.

Please continue to follow her journey on Facebook. Share it with everyone so she can reach her goal, and stop by to offer some encouragement. She has been in the hospital for a month now, away from her daughter and friends, on a visit that was only supposed to last a few days. As a mother, I can only imagine the pain of being away from my baby a whole month. So let's send some love her way!

Now, on to the excitement!

We have three prizes up for grabs:

One grand prize: One Portrait Session including Complete Digital Collection - a $650 value! (Session must take place in the greater Seattle, Portland, or Corvallis areas.  Session must be completed by August 13th, 2012.)
Two secondary prizes: A collection of 5x7 greeting cards with original prints that may be framed after use.

Without further ado, our randomly chosen winners:


Grand prize: Keisha Reis

Secondary prizes:  Brie Chelton and Chrysoula Tsavelas

To everyone who participated, a heartfelt THANK YOU.  I was so nervous picking the numbers tonight and made my husband do it since I truly wish I could issue a prize to each and every person.  Congrats again to the winners - I'll be in touch!

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