Spring and other random things...

Spring is almost here! We've been having beautiful weather here and are starting to see the first signs of springtime life emerge. I love spring. It represents new life, fresh perspectives and new hope. Donnie and I have already been busy working in our yard cleaning out the old and making room for the new. We've got several yard projects up our sleeves that we hope to get started on as soon as the last of the freezing passes. (We'll keep everyone updated on before and after pics!) Our little animals are enjoying being outside more as well. (When you don't have kids you take lots of pictures of your animals.) I took some time last weekend to stop and capture the beauty of spring emerging as well as a few other random things. :).....

March Snow

This is really crazy...we had snow on March 2, 2009 and we just had snow again on March 2, 2010! It didn't stick around long, but it was beautiful to watch. Here are a few pictures I snapped while at work Tuesday and then later when I got home...

Trees in our backyard just barely covered by snow on the tops. The wind was blowing so bad that a lot of the snow wasn't sticking to much.

Outside the studio window. You can barely see the tiny snowflakes being backlit by the spotlight.

My car getting covered up pretty good.

This one is random, but as I was outside my studio door I was looking up at the archway over the door, trying to catch some snowflakes falling, but dusk was already settling in so there wasn't enough light to catch the tiny flakes. But, I saw this cool modern art shot opportunity instead!

A dried hydrangea bloom from last year, covered in snow.

Snowy stones & leaves outside our front door.

Heidi wanting to go play in the snow. She loves to watch it from the windows. She has had a lot of opportunities this year!

Fall in Carolina

I love this time of year!  I was admiring what a beautiful Fall season it has been in North Carolina this year...and of course I had to pull out my camera.  As Donnie settled in for his Sunday nap, I packed my gear and headed out for a fall photo shoot.  I'm still filtering through the dozens of images I shot, but I've posted a few of my favorites so far.  I love it when I get a few hours to go and do nothing but shoot what I want and admire the beauty of nature that the Lord has blessed us with.....

Summer Recap!

Oh my...I can't believe it's been March since I posted anything! (Well, I guess that shows you just how much of an exciting life Donnie & Courtney lead!) We've certainly been busy over these past months. Donnie has been staying busy stirring up new clients and staying involved in his local Tarheel Chapter of PRSA. He also volunteered for the Wyndham Golf Tournament last month. He worked a lot of early AM hours but enjoyed the experience all in all. We had a great time visiting with friends and family over the summer! It really is great to have been blessed with wonderful friends and family that actually want to come and visit! :)

I've been staying busy with Cat's Eye promos, commercial shoots, portrait sessions and a wedding here and there. The Lord has really blessed my business since we've been down here in NC. On top of keeping up with my normal website I've been trying my best to dive head first into the social marketing craze of Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In and Blogger. With A LOT of help from my social marketing genius hubby (seriously, he knows his stuff), I've begun to get a flow going and understand just how it all ties together! Please follow me on my Cat's Eye blog too! (http://catseyeblog.blogspot.com/)

Here are a few pics with a few of our friends who came to visit over the summer....

Our friends Andy & Catherine McPherson (from Farmville, VA) came to visit this summer. They have a darling little girl named Alley who I had the pleasure of taking pictures of while they were here.

Donnie filling in as my photo assistant during the portrait session.....

Grillin' out on our patio with our good friends Gordon & Melissa Yowell (from Farmville, VA as well).

As for vacations...what is that? We haven't been on one of those nice week long vacations in a while, but we were able to take a few mini weekend/day trip getaways over the summer. We slipped up to Chesapeake to visit with Donnie's family and caught a Tides game while we were there. We were even able to find a spot at the crowded beaches for a few hours of sun bathing! We made a trip up to Busch Gardens for the first time since before Donnie & I were married 7 years ago....wow, time flies! We also took a day trip up to Pilot Mountain/Mt. Airy with Donnie's sister and her family. (We probably could form a whole new blog with our adventures experienced that day, but we'll save that story for another post!) Let's just say we hiked, hiked, hiked and hiked some more that day and with the Lord's help made it back to our vehicles in one piece.

Donnie with his brother-in-law Kenny and nephew Phillip on Appollo's Charriot.

The whole clan eating lunch.........don't they look thrilled??

Me and Donnie hiking at Pilot Mountain.

Donnie's sister, Leslie with her family.

It's higher up than you think!

If we weren't visiting with family & friends or working we were spending the rest of our time in the garden and building our new privacy fence. As some of you may know we have a two wonderful little sweet pea puppies and one of them LOVES to dig and go on long adventures, so we've been in the process of replacing a very cute little fence that was already in place when we bought the house with a "Fort Turlington" version of a 6ft privacy fence, complete with snipers staked out in the surrounding woods. Usually taking her sidekick, Zoe, with her, Bella is the "Houdini" of all dogs. She has figured out how to escape the following, in order, in record time: invisible fence (she just figured out how to chew off not only her shock collar, but Zoe's as well), cinderblock barricades over gaps in fence, welded wire buried under fence, knocked out slats in fence and then we think somehow she learned how to climb up on the swing and swing herself over. Whew, they are a handful, but we love them to pieces because they really are part of our family.

Our yellow lab, Zoe, practicing her dock diving skills.

Our little escape artist, Bella. She's the younger of our two...and the sneakiest!

The girls love to ride in Donnie's pick-up truck. It's the perfect vehicle for going to the lake!

I'll try not to wait 6 months until I post again! Until next time.......

March Snow Storm!

YAAY!  We finally got our snow!!  We had about 5 inches fall in our backyard on Sunday night.  What a treat to wake up to this beautiful winter wonderland!  Donnie and I got up early that morning knowing we would have to eventually mosey into work, we had to go outside and play in the snow for a little while!  The dogs loved it too.  It might be a little late in the season, but it was well worth the wait!  Here are some of our pics from Monday morning....

The PERFECT Model

I'm expanding my photography services to include Pet Portraits this year, so naturally I called upon our most laid back and subdued canine to sit in for some test shots.  Bella is our hound mix we rescued while living in Keysville, VA.  She is the sweetest thing you'll ever meet.  She did everything I asked her to do (or at least she stayed where I put her!).  Zoe is our high energy lab, so I'm going to have to wait to get some shots of her after we've played about 3 hours of frizbee!  Here are just a few images from her photo debut!