Golden Hour

What started as a bone-chilling, damp, foggy morning turned into a pleasant afternoon, and then an absolutely gorgeous evening. It felt really good getting out of the house for a little walk and some playground time.

Matt brought his mini-drone to play with. It always draws a crowd of interested kids.

I recently exchanged my old Nikon D80 for a Sony RX100 Mark IV. It feels really weird holding such a tiny camera after lugging a big DSLR around for so many years. I feel very attached to my old Nikon - its original purpose was to distract me from the heart ache and bitterness of losing our first baby after a miscarriage, and has seen me through the births and milestones of three healthy babies, and so many other huge life moments. That being said, this little Sony is winning my heart. It's truly amazing to be able to take RAW images and 4K video on a camera that's tiny enough to fit in my pocket! It captures the light beautifully.

Christmas Cards With Tiny Prints

After Oona's diagnosis and surgery rocked our sense of normalcy, we have since found a new "normal" - it's a more exhausting, chaotic kind of schedule and we're all still adjusting. Because of this, I thought Christmas photos and cards would be impossible to pull off this holiday season.

We just so happened to luck out with the weather in October - 70F, sunny days for over a week straight in west Michigan at the end of fall is really rare! We rushed the kids to the beach on one of these nice evenings to grab some photos. It was all rushed and kind of chaotic, (hmm, kind of like life right now...) but I really love the pictures we got. I especially love how all the kids wore different shades of purple to match Oona's cast. These photos will always remind me of these crazy, grace-filled days with our kids.

I was thrilled when TinyPrints reached out to me this fall to try some of their fabulous personalized, holiday stationary options. We ordered our cards from them last year, and the quality is just fantastic. They seriously have so many beautiful designs and templates this year that trying to narrow down our choices was a real challenge!

We ended up going with the "Cheerful Holly" die cut snowflake card, in Hazlenut. Look at that gorgeous floral print! *Swoon.* I love it in all three of the colors TinyPrints offers it in! The best part is that it's the perfect ornament size, and is something family and friends can keep for years to come. (I hate throwing photo cards away every year, and love the idea of having the photos on an ornament!)

This year I also wanted to try out the matching envelope liners (an add-on when you purchase your cards,) and personalized postage stamps. These little details are such easy ways to make your Christmas cards look extra special! I think family and friends will get a kick out of seeing the small Freys on a postage stamp this year. ;-)

If you're in need of creative, high quality photo cards and accessories this year, I highly recommend checking out TinyPrints! I can personally vouch for their fantastic customer service, unique designs, and fantastic, quality photo printing! (They're running some great holiday promotional deals right now too - hop on it!)

* Thanks TinyPrints for partnering on today's post! Opinions are my own.*

Water On Fire

We had an incredibly powerful low pressure system roll in last week. It brought a ton of wind, rain, (and a headache for me! Am I the only person who gets storm headaches?) It was a couple of really dark, stormy days in Holland. I saw some pictures of the massive waves on Lake Michigan from friends on Facebook and decided to take a quick trip to the state park last Friday evening with Olive, to try to get some pictures myself.

We picked the perfect time to visit. We caught the most dramatic, amazing sunset I have ever seen since living here (or elsewhere, for that matter!) There was this incredible panorama of storm clouds leaving, and a fiery bright ribbon on the horizon over the lake where the sky was clearing, (it gave the illusion that the lake was on fire, it was that bright,) and in between the two were massive, low hanging orange, pink, red and violet clouds. The wind was incredibly strong still, (and cold!) and sand was pelting our skin. The waves were huge! I had never seen the water so high on the lake. Lake Michigan, man...it has such a personality. One day it can be as still and glossy as a sheet of glass, another day you might see 20 foot waves, and in the winter the whole landscape freezes over into an alien looking place. It's never boring, and it's always beautiful.

Today we take Oona back to the children's hospital for her 6 week cast change! While it's awesome to have reached this half-way point in her Spica cast treatment, it's daunting to have another 6 weeks to go. Praying for an easy procedure and comfort for our Oonie today and the rest of this week as she adjusts to the new cast.

Baby W.

Last weekend I was given a rather spur-of-the-moment opportunity to try my hand at newborn photography! (Yikes!) This was something totally new for me, and going into it I felt overwhelmed with pressure. Luckily the subject was the son of one of my closest girlfriends, and it ended up being a fun (sometimes hilarious) afternoon. Baby W. is such a handsome little sweetheart!

I was surprised how good it was for me to dust off my camera last weekend and remember my old love and fascination of it. Taking pictures for people I love is, I'm finding, one of my favorite ways of expressing love for them. I think I had forgotten that. I think I've also been forgetting how much I enjoy photography as a creative outlet. Taking pictures for others quickly demonstrates to me how very little I know, and how much more I'd like to know about my camera.

In a season where I have to choose very carefully what to invest time in (as time is in such limited supply,) these are good things for me to realize and think about.

In The Pottery Studio

I've been a horrible blogger lately. I don't even know how I feel about that! I've been thinking about the future of this space a lot recently, and still have more questions than answers, but that's for another post and another time...

That's just to say - I rarely pick up my "big" camera anymore. Instagram is my jam these days, and weeks go by without giving this space or my clunky camera a thought. I was kind of jarred out of this pattern last weekend when two opportunities popped up for me to dust off the old Nikon, and I'm excited to share a bit of those experiences with you here.

First up... My sister Grace is a potter. Over the last two years she's really made some huge strides towards her goal of supporting herself with her craft. I'm obviously extremely proud of her! She inspires me in more ways than I can count. She asked me to take some photos for her up and coming website/online store and I was happy to help.