Featured - The Wedding Atlas

Mary & Ian's MSU Wedding was recently featured on The Wedding Atlas.

Christmas Card 2012

This is the Christmas card I made for  Brenda's Wedding Blog Card Swap. I made 7 of these and sent them to people all over the country!
The flower is actually a pin! These handmade pins are available on my Etsy shop.

Embossed stamp.

Vintage Lansing, MI postcard print inside.

Featured - Paper Moon Weddings

Amy and Craig's Autumn Wedding was recently featured on Paper Moon Weddings.

Silverbells 2012

2012 Silverbells in the City, downtown Lansing, Michigan.

The Silverbells celebration brings over 115,000 people to downtown Lansing each year. With the tree lighting ceremony, electric parade, concert on the Capitol steps, shopping village and fireworks – there is something for everyone to enjoy!

I have the privilege  of living in downtown Lansing. The Capitol building is across the street from my house (to the left of the row house shown in this photo). The pedestrian bridge (center) linking the Capitol building to the State buildings (right) is where they launch the fireworks for Silverbells. A cloud of smoke is seen rising from the launch site. All of these photos were taken from my front porch!

There's nothing like inviting 115,000 people over to hang out in your front yard and watch fireworks!

Fall Wedding

Some of my favorite photos from Amy & Craig's fall wedding.

Fall Family Session

A few of my favorite photos from a recent family session at Cooley Gardens in downtown Lansing.

10-11-12

10 Things I'm Thankful For, 11 Things I Like About Myself, and 12 Things I Want to Accomplish This Year.

This is my 10-11-12 list for the year:

10 things I'm thankful for:

1. My husband
2. My son and step-daughters
3. My cats (Yes, I love my cats!)
4. My creative job
5. The roof over my head
6. My extended family
7. My health
8. The beautiful Lake Michigan beaches
9. Sunsets
10. Kisses

11 things I like about myself:

1. My creativeness
2. My ability to "craft" something out of almost nothing!
3. My retro style
4. My ability to learn new things
5. My ability to take a photo and capture the emotion of the moment
6. Thrifty-ness and ability to stretch a dollar
7. Decorating style
8. My compassion for animals
9. How loving I am towards my husband
10. That I like to dance!
11. That I'm a pretty good cook!

12 things I want to accomplish this year:

1. Increase the number of weddings I shoot
2. Be active in the new groups I've joined
3. Attend a photography convention
4. Buy a house
5. Market my business effectively
6. Spend more time with my son
7. Enjoy summer more
8. Take a longer vacation with my husband
9. Take more photos with my husband
10. Craft/scrapbook more
11. Continue to count calories and get to my goal weight
12. Thank my husband everyday for being the love of my life

No Fat Greek Yogurt Cheesecake

Since I've started tracking my calories & fat intake, I've been looking for low calorie/low fat dessert options. I've seen some recipes for cheesecakes using greek yogurt, but they all seem to use a buttery graham cracker crust. I don't know about you, but adding butter to anything doesn't seem very low fat!

My version:

Crust:
2 cups Special K Red Berries cereal
2 tablespoons skim milk
1 teaspoon Splenda

Crush up cereal in plastic ziploc bag (or a food processor). Mix in Splenda and 2 tablespoons skim milk to moisten the cereal. Press into pie pan sprayed with cooking spray.

Filling:
2 cups Fat Free Greek Yogurt (I used Vanilla, try a flavor you like!)
1 small box Jello Sugar Free/Fat Free Cheesecake Pudding mix
2 tablespoons skim milk

Mix together yogurt, pudding mix, and milk. Use hand mixer to blend ingredients. Spread into pie crust.

Notes: I was worried about how the crust would hold together, but the milk made the cereal just sticky enough that it held together and served up well!

6 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories		113.6
Total Fat		0.0 g
	Saturated Fat	0.0 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	0.0 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	0.0 g
Cholesterol		0.2 mg
Sodium		308.6 mg
Potassium		40.3 mg
Total Carbohydrate		19.6 g
	Dietary Fiber	1.0 g
	Sugars	9.2 g
Protein		8.4 g

Mary & Ian - Eagle Eye

 Here are a few shots from Mary & Ian's wedding reception at Eagle Eye Golf Course.

Mary & Ian - MSU Chapel

Here's a few of my favorite shots from Mary & Ian's MSU Chapel wedding. We shot all of these outside, behind the MSU Chapel along the Red Cedar river.