ali harper photography

It’s super cold outside and all I can think about is spring flowers. I stumbled upon this gorgeousness and I couldn’t resist sharing.

My new blog has been a bit of struggle to get used to. I love that it’s all about my personal foray into photography, but I really am missing the other dialog. Short posts, long posts, posts about other people, posts about pretty little fun finds — simply swapping stories.

And I’m thinking you may miss that too.

So let’s mix it up again in the New Year. A warm and Happy Holidays to you and yours. Let’s promise to always be inspired in 2010.

Got to visit with my dear friend Andrea a little while ago while her Mother-in-law as in town — seemed a fitting time to take a short drive to beautiful Senoia to do a quick family photo shoot! (Look for the shot below of the store aptly named “Steel Magnolias”… Senoia is filled to the brim with small town Southern charm.) Miss Ambry has always been a ham for the cam; Trey is definitely not the biggest fan, but he was a good sport about it once we found the train tracks and got to go exploring! Ah, boys.

To view the rest of our play date, click here!

Miss Finn got her own little shoot with her Mom in their fabulous tunics during my too short of a visit a few weeks back. After that of course, it was tu-tu time! Who says tu-tu’s are only for dance floors? Too cute for words, I say.

I have a very special place in my heart for this post because this just happens to be my big brother’s family! I think my nephews believe I have a camera permanently attached to my face since my last visit. Riley is getting to be of the age where he’s starting to ask questions about the camera and what it does, which is really fun. Robbie, as always, is just happy to be along for the ride. And Miss Finn, well what can you say about this fair-haired sweetness? She has me wrapped around her little finger. So much so, that she even got her own photo shoot with her Mom earlier that day (stay tuned!)…

…to see the rest of our adventure, click here.

p.s. Your Auntie misses you. Be good for Santa.

My mom always tells me to stop watching the clock whenever we sit down to Thankgiving dinner. But I can’t help it. I have a guilty confession to make: I really do not love Thanksgiving. (Sorry.) Well, let me rephrase that: Even thought I love doing the cooking with my Mom (especially baking pies!), I really do not love that it takes 2 — sometimes even 3 — days of preparation for a meal that we all take only 25 minutes to enjoy! Bah.

Witt thoughtfully reminds me that if “you don’t enjoy the process, it isn’t worth doing”, so I tried very hard to be in the moment this year. Because truly, it isn’t really about the final product, right? It’s that you get that time with your family and friends to enjoy the traditions, whether new ones or old. This year, I got to spend it with Witt and his Dad, along with Mom & Dad, Grandfather and Miss Ellie. We took all our turkey and trimmings up to my bro’s cabin in Blue Ridge, and did our newest tradition of taking a walk down to the river and train tracks after the giant meal.

It was a really wonderful day. And I couldn’t be more thankful for my dear friends and family this year. Oh, and Miss Ellie. (Even though she’s sticking her tongue out at me in that picture above!)