*this post will stay at the top for the month of September or until all slots are filled!

My birthday gift to myself is spending time with new and old clients at my mini sessions! October 11, 2008 down in Soulard! A great time! Perfect for getting a few portraits for your Christmas cards or to give as gifts or to just document this time in your family. 30 minutes slots where we walk around Soulard and I shoot photos of your family. The LOW LOW cost is $100 which includes my time, 10 fully edited photos in either color or black and white (artist’s discretion) and a disk of your photos. I will be scheduling 6 slots in the morning and 6 in the afternoon/evening… tell your friends b/c if the slots don’t fill up then the whole day will be canceled! The deadline for scheduling is September 30th. 

Email me for more details and to choose your slot, first come first serve!

I love love LOVE that name for a baby girl. Love it. Harper. Isn’t it so cute? And isn’t she so cute?

This little girl belongs to Rev. Hope and Andrew Benko from our church,  Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Webster Groves. They brought her over to my house for a quick shoot… which btw worked really well for future winter babies! Hope’s sister was in town and came along to help me and Chris wrangle our kids while I worked and her arms were sore after holding Grayson for a while! Yes, he is a chunk. Expecially paired next to tiny Harper, who is actually a week OLDER than him! Anyway, Hope, Andrew and family I hope you enjoy them!

I would die to have that photo with my sister!

I will be back later today to officially announce the date/times/info about the mini sessions! They will be a birthday present to me! See you later!

And if you are a client waiting on photos don’t get mad b/c I honestly don’t know what came over me. I shot the Wright family tonight, got home at 8:15pm and finished their edits at 11:30pm. I’ve never sat down and edited a shoot the same day. Never. And I had 4 other shoots in need of edits ahead of them. I wasn’t even thinking! I always upload them off my camera the day/night of the shoot and "star" the ones I want to work on but for some reason tonight I just kept going. I was a machine. An unthinking machine.

Sorry Birdsong, Parrish, Miller and Benko families! Yours are coming!

Since I finished tonight I am going to go ahead and post some… how efficient am I?

Nolan and Spencer are Parker and Grayson’s ages… which means that from experience I know those are two VERY hard ages to photograph. An almost two year old does NOT sit still and a 3 month old is floppy. I warned Angie that we probably wouldn’t get any good+traditional family portraits and 10 minutes into the shoot, after chasing Nolan around begging him to look at me, I wasn’t sure I was going to get anything.

Boy was I wrong!

And I knew this next one would be my favorite when we took it!


He was totally throwing a tantrum in front of the "cheer up" sign! To die for!

It’s midnight and I got so much work done today I am on top of the world! And Adventures in Babysitting just came on. Do you remember that movie? Love it. Long live Thor!

Just kidding, but since I have taken so many photos of little Miss Kelsey it just feels like the longest shoot ever! Or maybe I’m just getting really slow at my post processing. Or maybe the last two nights I’ve actually fallen asleep while editing with my computer on my lap so it just seems like this has taken forever.

Like I said yesterday, I need a nap.

No time though! I have the rest of Kelsey’s photos to post, a shower to take and a shoot to get to tonight. Then I have the Birdsong shoot to finish editing. Then sleep will come.

Here you go Angie, I hope you love them as much as I do… your baby girl, or your littlest lady, is gorgeous! The perfect girlfriend for Grayson! Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match…ha!

And if you look at the sidebar on the right I got William: One Year Old and Hornberger: Family albums up for your viewing pleasure!  

Wright family I will see you soon…

It seems everyone is having a Labor Day Sale and I’m no different.

No, it’s not a discount on photos or design work. Sorry.

I have three children for sale. And they’re cheap. Like FREE cheap.

They are a little used, but not too much, and the tiniest one is still pretty new. Watch out though, he has a leaking problem. They all do actually. But aside from that they’re practically perfect. Well, except when they’re screaming, but don’t worry, they don’t do that often. I swear. And they are always well behaved. Always. Except when they are fighting with each other or talking back or doing things you specifically told them not to do. But other than that they’re great. And man, do they sleep like champs! I mean, most of the time they do. And really, when the little one is up all night eating it’s not that bad. Or when the middle one is up for two hours just screaming in the middle of the night it’s easy to get up when the oldest calls your name at 5am. On the dot. Every morning. Trust me, piece of cake. And who needs sleep anyway? At least they’re cute. Damn they’re cute. Even when the oldest one looks at you and says, "I don’t like your shirt." Or when the middle one unrolls every spare roll of toilet paper in your bathroom while you’re in the shower. So cute. And that little one, he just has to smile once and he’s got you. Even when he screams if you even consider laying him down. Adorable.

So yeah. Big sale here at the Allen house. Just stop by anytime, the merchandise will be in the front yard in the cardboard box marked "free"… so just pick the one you want! They need a good home.

And I need a nap.

When money gets tight around here I always start window shopping internet style. I’m not sure what’s wrong with me, I guess it’s fun to find cool things I would buy IF I had money when I don’t. Although we never have money for the things I find, which maybe makes it even more fun. Or depressing, depending on how you look at it.

Today I got a bunch of stuff done so my reward was 30 minutes tonight blog hopping and website bouncing. I found these and am in LOVE:

I’ve seen the frog one like this but love the ladybug! A great way to clean up bath toys! Go HERE if you want to add one to your wish list too!

And is that not the cutest sippy cup you’ve ever seen? I mean seriously. I think a few of these might encroach on my hand-made Christmas and end up under the tree for the kids! Go HERE.

I’ve wanted one of these for a while and at $180 it might be what C and I get each other for Christmas this year. It’s a tiny little camcorder! Love it. Donna Downey uses one and loves it also. Go HERE.

So that was my little bit of window shopping for today. You should see my "dreams" folder in my bookmarks… it’s filled with great products like these! Maybe as it gets closer to Christmas I’ll start sharing more of them to give you guys good shopping ideas too!

And to share a bit of what I worked on today…

An ad for my parent’s company that will go in the Episcopal City Mission’s Moment in Time dinner auction booklet… my parents are big supporters of this ministry…HERE.

I also got a birth announcement done but won’t post it here until I have permission b/c some people that read this blog will be receiving it and I’m not sure they want me to share it yet.

Birdsong family… almost done with your edits! Hopefully can show you the finals tomorrow!

And working on a logo redesign for my neighbor… yes I said no more design work but I’m a sucker for more work and am awful at saying no! Here is my first draft…

So far she likes it so we’ll see if this turns into the final! I didn’t really change too much, just updated the look a bit.

*Thanks Jess for allowing me to get so much done today! You are the best friend a girl could have!

Anyway, all are asleep here and it’s just before 10pm, which means I have a few hours of uninterrupted work if everyone stays asleep for me! Back to work I go…

Working today with my friend Jessica at the helm here at home.  Such a nice set-up really. Grayson is asleep next to me on my bed, the girls and Jess are out riding bikes, I’m cranking out the work and listening to my new favorite soundtrack from THIS blog… perfect.

If you need more interesting reading than I have time to provide today go HERE and read about why I am convincing my clients to NOT go to the typical park for their shoots this year. Soulard is my favorite spot right now or any other city atmosphere and if you read THIS you’ll understand why!

Hope you’re gettin’ it done today too!

When I was a kid my parents watched Star Trek and sometimes I got to stay up late enough to watch with them. I don’t know why I remember this particular episode except that maybe somewhere in my sub-conscience I knew I would need to emulate it someday.  Data, the robot-like guy was sad b/c he didn’t sleep and so had to spend all the night hours by himself. He got lonely I guess. Whatever man. If I could only be more like Data I would rock this world.

Last night I got Grayson officially to sleep around 10:30pm and then worked until midnight. He got up at 2:30am to eat and then I worked until 3:30am (having a laptop you can lay in bed with is so nice!). It’s now 6:30am and all the kids are happily watching Backyardigains so I have a few more minutes. But can you imagine if I were able to work the few hours I slept? I would have gotten a few more shoots done!

I did get one done though and am proud to share it this morning… 1. b/c the girls are adorable and 2. b/c I did most of the work in the middle of the night which just impresses the hell out of me frankly and 3. that I’m up and not feeling horrible this morning.

I’ve known Katie my entire life, literally, b/c I was baptized on the same day as her little sister, Betsy, who has been a close friend all my life. So Katie was always the scary big sister! She would yell at us to get out of her room or to leave her alone. Betsy hated it and I always sort of loved it b/c I didn’t have a big sister. Anyway, now she’s a mom to two beautiful little girls, the youngest is only a couple of weeks younger than Grayson. They live in CO and asked me to photograph the girls while they were in town this week… so yes, I cheated and bumped them to the top of my pile, but they’re only here a short time and really, it’s my pile and I’ll do what I want with it!

Katie I hope you like them!

I LOVE that I caught this photo as she was about to POKE ME WITH HER HUGE STICK! Did you know photographing two year olds is a contact sport?

And this next one is my favorite… total blackmail for later in life!

Isn’t that hilarious?

Thanks Katie!

Today is a BIG day in this house… as Bailey has been saying all week… "is it Bean Bag Bop day yet?"

We’re leaving in 2 hours for the Babaloo concert and she is beside herself with excitement! So I’m off to get all four of us dressed, me showered, breakfast eaten and out the door by 9am. If I rock out another session today I’ll be back here later! Have a good one!

Ok, so I’m still working with this but I did get the photos 200 pixels wider… so it’s a start. And really, it may be as much as I can do with Typepad, I don’t know.

Anyway, I am stressed. And when you hear me say this please don’t NOT hire me b/c you like me and don’t want to add to my stress. I’m just venting here people. It’s my blog and I need to vent for a second. None of what I’m about to say means that I hate my business or don’t want to work or want to work less. In fact, we just were thrown an unexpected expense so I really need MORE work.  And I’m sure tomorrow will be another day and all will be well with my soul. So they say.

I’ve had a shoot for three days in a row which means I’m SEVEN shoots deep in need of edits. And I swear I am working every spare second I have, it’s just that my spare seconds are so few and far between. So I have 7 shoots to edit, 2 business designs to work on (yes I just accepted more design work even though I swore I was done), 1 coffee table book to create and so much on the horizon it’s insane.

The worst part is that I used to get the girls in bed around 7pm, do chores and eat dinner until about 8pm and then work until about midnight. Every night. So I was averaging 30 hours of work for Jodified a week if you add in weekend time. Now though, post-Grayson, my night is taken up with his fussiness. Especially now that Chris is at soccer I have no break until Grayson passes out around 10pm. Which means my chores either happen while he’s fussing or once I get him asleep. SO lately I have been working from about 11pm-1am.

AND I AM TIRED. Like constant headache tired. Mountain Dew isn’t even really helping much anymore.

And like I said, we just got an expense we weren’t counting on so there goes affording preschool for Bailey and daycare for Parker. Which MEANS, I need MORE work with LESS time to do it. Nice. I’m not really sure what’s going to happen at this point.

I’m just stressed. Money stresses me out. I hate money. But I hate not having money more than anything. I know money can’t make you happy, but it sure can make things easier, and that would seriously make me happier right now.

Ok. I guess I’m done. Except to say that I appreciate Fern talking about WIC b/c I think that’s my next move to help with grocery costs. And I appreciate everyone hiring me to do their photos this fall b/c every penny counts right now.  Speaking of photos, I finished a cute little one year old today…

This little guy was one of my very first shoots last year! And now look at him! He’s a walking soon-to-be-toddler named William and I am in love with his eyes. We met at the St. Louis Art Museum which is now one of my new favorite places to shoot! Enjoy a few bigger photos!

I have the laptop on the counter and wrote this while "cooking" dinner for the girls. Since starting this they have been served and are throwing food on the floor eating. With C’s first paycheck since May coming on Friday it’s slim pickings around here so they had grilled cheese, Spaghettios and yogurt. Bailey just told me it is NOT a good dinner. Thanks kid.

Maybe your Tuesday was a bit better?

I’m working on getting a new website up and running and ideally it would have a new blog with it that would allow me to post bigger and better photos. That’s a few months off however, so for now I’m messing around with Typepad to see if I can get my photos a tad larger.  The bridal portraits just didn’t quite do Vikki justice in my opinion! So if you notice some changes around here don’t be alarmed, it’s just the man behind the curtain…

Hell Yeah! That’s better isn’t it?

"I am the Great and Powerful Oz…"