The Christmas Season

Hi everyone! I hope all is well!
Christmas is on it's way FAST and I don't know about you, but the rush is on! I have been designing Christmas cards everyday for 2 weeks and I am ready for a break! Last night I dreamt that I was designing cards...I can't seem to get away from it.

If you're not doing press printed cards for your clients...it's a must. So many labs are offering this service and I would say it is well worth it. Burrell, WHCC, Allied, JD, ProLan Express and Millers....just to name a few. The hard part is getting those designs done in a quick fashion.

I wanted to give you a few resources for some card templates you can purchase that might help you. These are just a few that I think have great designs and have reasonable pricing.
http://spdesign.blogspot.com/
www.designaglow.com
www.swissmissdesignhaus.com
and http://www.uniquelyyoudesigns.com/uniquely/

Check those out...I know you will like them and maybe help you out!

Don't forget about the Christmas Party at Okemos Studio on Tuesday!
We'll see you there!

Here comes Santa Claus

Well, the Holidays are upon us....is everyone surviving? Late nights working on the computer can be so hard on your body. My back, neck, arms and legs are all sore by the middle of the day, and then I can hardly drag myself out of the bed in the mornings. My mom says I need to get up and stretch every hour...so I'll pass that on to you as well. Take my mother's advice...she's a very SMART woman.

The good news....only a few more weeks of craziness ahead and then we will all get a little Holiday break. Make sure and join us for the Christmas Party at Okemos Studio
on November 9th. We will relax, eat and talk the night away! This is always a great event to catch up with everyone. Also, make sure and bring your significant other. They probably would like to meet all those crazy photographers you talk about all the time :)

A little advice from Santa....set your limits this Christmas! If you are already dealing with more than you can handle, it's time to set your deadlines for Christmas. Put them out on your blog or website and tell people when the last date for sessions are and also when your last order date is. This is an easy way to let your clients know your dealines without having them calling you every 5 minutes. And, you will be less likely to bend the rules. When you have a client begging you over the phone, it's easy to give in and do just one more session. Don't kill yourselves!

May your days of business be blessed and your efforts pay off!
Lots of love
Jackie

Allison Watkins cont.

I promised images for y'all...so here they are! Check out her blog too for the nice words she had to say about us :)

Allison Watkins..WOW

Did you miss it? Man if you did, you REALLY missed it! Not to rub it in to those who didn't attend Allison's SNAP and seminar but you should have been there.
The SNAP on Monday was truly magical! Allison photographed two families, in the rain, and came out with the most gorgeous images! I will post them soon.
It was awesome to see her work her magic with the kids and put them under her spell.
I know that we all learned so much...especially those of us who went to dinner afterwards...mmmmm hot chocolate and cheesecake :)

Tuesday night was just as great! Talk about putting us all in check with our priorities. I know I look at things differently now. If you didn't come, sit down with someone who did and have a little chat about it. You might hear the answer to what you have been searching for.

Thank you Allison!

Listen up!

There is so much to celebrate!!! Did you hear? We have NEW members to our family!
First to announce is Jason and Beth Aten's new little one...Madison Ruth.
She was born July 16th and she is a cutie! 8 lbs, 12 oz and 20.5 inches long. I was blessed to be able to witness the process of her coming into this world and she took her time :) 24 hours!

Proud daddy



And our second new member...Kate Lyn Jarmosco...daughter to Juliet and Daryl Jarmosco. She was born August 4th and was 9lbs and 2oz. She came quick...something like 3 hours...don't tell Beth that :) They are now the proud parents of 4 children! Congratulations to you both!




And last but not least our dear president ROSE! She has a great article published in this months The Rainbow by Burrell. Way to go Rose!!!

A few random things

Hey everyone!
First I wanted to double check and make sure we will see you at the picnic...I hope everyone is going to come hungry because the dessert competition is always worth starving yourself for the day. :) We will see who wins this year!

Second, if you are signed up for SNAP with Allison Watkins next month make sure you know that the time is from 2 to 7:30ish and we are meeting at P2 in Old Town Lansing.
So make sure you line up that babysitter for later in the day. You don't want to miss anything Allison has in store for you.

Third and lastly, take a day off or go home early soon...you work too hard!

SNAP with Andrew Jenkins

SNAP #3 with Andrew was great! Thank you to all of you who attended. I have to admit, Andrew was a little nervous about the weather before SNAP started. It was forcast to rain all day. And since we had 13 people here, he was trying to figure out how he was going to entertain all of you crammed inside all day. But, we were blessed, the clouds parted and we fit in our downtown, loft and garden shoot all before the rain came. We had two great models who we would like to thank! They did a great job working in the heat all day! Here are some images and a show of the images we took from that day!

Click on the play button to play a slideshow of the models!