Every love story is beautiful and leaves you with that inner sigh where you feel your heart skip a beat and makes you smile without being aware of it.  Especially when you are a romantic like me.  The love story of these two particularly wonderful individuals is certainly one for the books and leaves you feeling inspired and renewed and believing in happy endings after all.  :-)  Let’s just say it involved many years, different paths, and “coming home” .

I keep telling myself that I should really limit my blog posting of pictures to just a few, but I just can’t help myself.  So, on behalf of all my postings past and future (and for this blog in particular), I hope you’re comfortable. 

Melissa and Jef - I can not tell you enough how honored I feel to have been involved in such a beautiful and magical occasion!!  Much love to you and the kids!  I know there will be a lifetime of love ahead of you. 

xoxo ~ Kara

Here are some images from our session…enjoy!

Michele and Morgan (and Cammie too!) - thanks for a really great afternoon!! 

xo ~ Kara

Here is the second session in our Year In The Life series for 2011…Enjoy!!!

Steph, Lily and Grammy - Thank you so much, once again, for the continued opportunity!  I love our playdates and am really looking forward to the next one!!! 

xoxo ~ Kara

I see the last time I posted an update on here for my photo-a-day project was May 18th.  It’s been a very busy 2+ months, so I have a lot to update you on.  I hope you’re comfortable.

May 21:  a good night with an old friend.

May 22:  another good night with a very wonderful and special person. 

May 23:  something tells me I would like John…

May 24:  curvy.

May 25:  honeycomb.

May 26:  new memberships. 

May 27:  quality time on a very special occasion.  

May 29:  ready for an old-fashioned summer date.  Have ice cream, will travel.

May 30:  cookouts. 

Jun 1:  crossing paths.

Jun 2:  repetitions.

Jun 3:  Pretty Mrs. Pringles.

Jun 4:  Old Skool.

Jun 6:  softness.

Jun 7:  Two Awesome Ladies.

Jun 8:  A Young Graduate.

Jun 9:  I’m happy to see this trend happening in Bloomsburg.  Kudos to the free spirit.

Jun 10:  Yes You Can!

Jun 11:  color time.

Jun 12:  This pretty much sums up the whole evening.  :)

Jun 13:  This mug may not be my “ideal” mug in its shape, size, etc., but it is definitely one of my very favorite ones because of the memories associated with it.  And for that, I absolutely love using it.  {happy heart}

Jun 14 A&B:  freedom of speech.

Jun 16:  bad ass. 

Jun 17:  Pretty Mrs. Pringles, cont.

Jun 18:  I wonder how quickly the “Ccrap” wood went??

Jun 19:  a new bunny nesting hole.  Sadly, she didn’t come back. 

Jun 20:  power washing:  before and after.

Jun 21:  So, it’s 9:00 at night and Don isn’t going to be home from work for at least another four hours.  I’m home by myself, and there is a squeaking/scratching noise on the other side of the attic door.  Yeah, I am *TOTALLY* sealing the hell out of this door.

Jun 22:  Gordon:  Young Entrepreneur.  (we love Gordon)

Jun 23:  Um-hmmmmm.  Disgusting!  Another night and a morning later (after the continued scratching the second night), Don opens the door to find this “baby” bat had passed during the night.  Is it any wonder they make horror movies around these things??  BLECK.

Jun 24:  Cool patterns.  (though I’m really starting to feel like I’m reaching my fill of gross things in or near my house)

Jun 26:  I have always loved this poster.  It just leaves me…inspired. 

Jun 27:  Are these signs available for life, in general?

Jun 29:  The finished product:  a rug I made for Caiti’s birthday.

Jun 20:  summertime in all its glory. 

Jul 1:  I love memories being made. 

Jul 2:  They seem to have the ability to make a bed out of anywhere…

Jul 3:  uninspired…

Jul 4:  parade watching.

Jul 9:  ethereal.

Jul 10:  watching the fireworks.  {adding to a happy heart}

Jul 11:  Today is Monday.

Jul 12:  Yes, I have short hair…but in this heat, it just wasn’t short enough.  :)  (new haircut)

Jul 13:  working woman…  (it’s drywall dust)

Jul 14:  a really, really fun night.  (and a great experience) 

OK!  That’s it for now…as I process the next set, bringing it up to date, I’ll post those too.  Thanks for looking!!

xo ~ Kara

We did a fun spin on an engagement-type session over the winter at Hoopla’s in Williamsport.  Seeing how Wendy and Dave are from the Allentown area, they are obviously up for anything and open to all sorts of travel (even on snowy days).  :)  They held their wedding at The French Manor Inn & Spa - one of my very favorite places to photograph, due to the awesomeness of the Inn and the staff.   And also, this post would not be complete without a shout-out to one of the best bands ever that provided the entertainment that evening, the Philadelphia Funk Authority.  Incredible!!

Here are some images from this wonderful day:

Their “first look” before the ceremony began:

Dave really loves his girls.  Well, you can tell that he really loves each of his children, but right now I’m talking about his two girls.  And you can really tell how much they love their Daddy. 

Wendy and Dave - your day was beautiful, in so many ways.  Thank you for letting me be a part of it and the honor of capturing this incredibly special time in your lives!

xoxo ~ Kara

Here are a few images from our session…enjoy!!

More to come from their wedding!

xo ~ Kara

Then came 2011, and I was looking forward to a break from everything - both the daily pressure of finding a picture (because not every day necessarily brings you something!), and from taking a long, deep breath from 2010.  Sadly, some of that did follow us into the new year, but even after we pulled each other through it, I was not thinking about my project.  The sadness of life was with me, and I was buried in it.

Then I started getting asked about my photo-a-day project.  Apparently I only sent the memo to myself that I was done with it.  I explained; I was done with it for now, maybe sometime in the future, I wasn’t in the mood, needed a break.  Still I was asked, even by the same people.

Then I started to think about it.  And think….maybe this is a way to appreciate life again, and its beauty?

It rolled around in my mind for a while.  What did I feel about that?  Was I ready?  After some time, I decided I’m back, it’s back, the project is rolling again.  It actually just sort of happened.  You will have to forgive me for the remarkably non-ceremonial restart of it all.  It was a Monday, the metadata on my first image tells me it was May 9th, I remember pulling out of the parking lot at the grocery store and seeing a bumper sticker on a parked car and thought…well, here we go.  It’s not the beginning of the year, or the month, or technically even the beginning of a week, but apparently it’s when everything fired just right in me and I decided that was the time, that was the day, that was the moment it’s going to start for the year.

I look at the missing first 5 months as a sort of scar…because after all, isn’t that what we’re left with, after all the bumps in the road of life?  It’s okay; scars can have good and bad to them, and besides, they’re unavoidable…they ultimately shape you into who you are and who you will become.  It reminds me of a T-shirt I saw once:  “Scars are like tattoos, but with better stories”. 

Anyway, here is my new beginning…of the continuation of the project, and much more.   I hope you enjoy.

May 9:

OK….so this one is pretty cool:

May 10:  Beginnings.

May 11:  Lines.

May 12:  Retired.

May 13:  These two birds were so cute…one would climb the stalk of the dandelion until it came down to the ground, then they would take turns eating the seeds.

May 14:  I love lilies of the valley…they always make me think of my Grammy.  And then there’s pink ones??  That just makes it even more special.

May 15:  delicate nature.

May 16, a & b:  The beginnings of pink eye, apparently.

May 17:  bearded.

May 18:  Chip.

xo ~ Kara

Some people are just so well-matched, so happy, and so in love, that you can just feel it in all its glory and warmth.  It leaves you a better person and thankful for love.  :)  Meet Ryan and Iuliana.

Ryan and Iuliana had my favorite kind of ceremony in one of my very favorite places…small and intimate, with family only, on a weeknight, at The Inn at Turkey Hill.  Simplicity and beauty, paired perfectly.

Here are a few of the images from their evening:

Ryan and Iuliana - congratulations again!  I wish you many, MANY years filled with love and happiness!

xo ~ Kara

How many of us have read through obituaries of people we didn’t know, maybe wondering what they were like in life?  I once went to a memorial where the priest officiating over it said that our life is measured in the dash between the dates, between the dates of birth and death.  How true.  As I read through Carol’s, perhaps because she was so close to my heart, I thought of this, and was struck by what the obituary doesn’t say…

She loved to be near the ocean, and didn’t need to be at it all day, just thirty minutes here, or forty minutes there, pulling up her pant legs to above her knee to get a little sun; to wake up in the morning and grab her coffee and sit on the deck listening to it, maybe before the sun even joined her, to fall asleep with the window cracked to get the fresh sea air into her bedroom.  She would sit and just look at it, feeling refreshed and allow herself to recharge from the worries and stresses of life.

She loved Major League Baseball and hated Rex Ryan.

She watched the Weather Channel like it was the stock market, especially if we were on the road to vacation somewhere.

She loved her moment of peace in the morning when waking up, either on vacation or at home, when it was just her and the quietness of the early day, having her cup of coffee, followed a short time later by her daily small glass full of orange juice.  She read the paper a day late; she would get it in the afternoon at the Wawa and read it the next morning (but still skimmed the headlines when bringing it home).

She loved the glazed sour cream donuts from Wawa (often getting a bag full along with her paper), or saltines with peanut butter, or making black raspberry (or chocolate marshmallow) ice creams cones, sometimes eating three a night, in a row.  And munching on pretzels during long car rides.

Pope John Paul II was “her man”, and after praying to him every night (even after he passed away), she would begin her nightly reading in bed, with her glass of ice water on the window sill next to her.  What started out many, many years ago of only being able to read a page or two every night turned into chapters as she got more time and years under her belt; she really did become quite the reader.  Often you would look in on her, reading, with her glasses that were hopelessly crooked from being sit on, crushed in her purse, or bent from pulling them out of their case.  It just added to her charm and her cuteness.

She was a petite woman with a large appetite for not only food, but for the good things in life.

She loved to play cards, had a competitive streak in her, and if you made her mad by ruining her next move, she’d let you know it.  She also had the best laugh.  And she loved to laugh.

If you looked around in her house (specifically, her laundry room), you would easily find a collection of snippets from the paper on home cleaning remedies using vinegar, or ways to take stains out of clothes by just using everyday things you would find in your cupboards.  Carol valued frugality, cleanliness and quality.

She was sentimental about things from long ago, something I very much related to.  The teacups that her mother and aunt exchanged throughout their life, the little glass dishes that were her mothers’ when she was just a little girl, old casserole dishes that were passed down to her when she became her own woman of her house.  Some of her casserole dishes were 60 years old, and every time she used them, it was as if an important woman from her life was with her again, helping her make some wonderful dish.

She loved her family, and they loved her.  She always put them first, and raised five beautiful children in the process.  She was a wonderful mother, wife, and friend.  This picture was taken a little over 9 1/2 years ago, the day I first met Carol and Tom:

We made many, many memories together over the years, and I am so very thankful to have had Carol in my life as long as I did.

My sister-in-law, April, and I surprised Carol for her 70th birthday by taking her for a manicure, her first.  She wanted to go back the following week for another one. 

Carol, my dear, my friend…thank you for your presence in my life, for the gifts you gave me that can not be measured, and for accepting me into your family as you did.  You fought hard, but you were loved harder, by everyone who knew you.  I miss you and I love you, and my life will always be fuller because you were in it.

xoxo ~ Kara

A few weeks ago I had the absolute pleasure of photographing SeaJay again, this time for an intimate session.  You may remember her being in front of my camera before, for one of my tattooed sessions.  Here are a few from her intimate session…enjoy! 

SeaJay - you know how much I loooooooooooooove photographing you!!  Thanks for another opportunity, and a fantastic time, as always!  I can’t wait for the next time! 

xo ~ Kara