Ahhhhhhh, well another Christmas has come and gone and while I enjoy seeing and spending time with the family, I won’t miss the commercialism of it all. I mean, I get that retailers are trying to end the year in the black and as a small business owner, you can’t remain successful unless you are doing so, but some of the madness that is created with sales and limited quantities make it a complete turn-off!

For the first time in forever, I waited until almost the last minute to shop for my family. Yeah, that was a bad decision as well, but I survived.

Anywho, I planned to use last week as complete downtime but found myself behind the camera as usual! It truly is my happy place but I will be forcing myself to enjoy some time to myself in order to regroup and determine how I want to achieve some of my 2015 goals.

With that, here is a recap of my latest happenings:

– I completed a one-on-on Make-up Application Workshop with Monique Floyd of Monique Floyd Make-up Artistry in Charlotte, NC. I used my friend and owner of Divine Designs by Randi as my model.

– After my make-up lesson, which was harder than I thought it would be, I took new headshots for Randi since she will be updating her brand soon.

– Also while I was in NC, I shot a holiday portrait session for newlyweds, Porsha and Eric. They decided to start a tradition of celebrating each Christmas and since this was their first one, they came dressed, with gift boxes and a personalized ornament! We decided to shoot at the Historic Biltmore Hotel in downtown Greensboro since they has a beautiful display of holiday decorations and then we ventured over to the Proximity Hotel for a more modern take on the holiday portrait and because that’s the hotel where they were married, so it held sentimental value for the couple. It was a great time and they were so cute together!

I’m planning to enjoy the new year with friends and prepare for exciting things in 2015! I hope this holiday season has treated you well and that quality time with loved ones outweighed any madness of the season!