10 on 10 - March 2016

This month has been a little cray ...in a good way. If you hadn't heard, I recently left my day job, and I wrote about it here. It felt so good to walk out those doors for the last time, and to know that for the next couple of years I will be working harder than ever, but for myself. Freedom!!

Before we get into my most recent happenings and where I plan to go from here, below is the list of other 10 on 10 contributors. ...and for those who may be new to the blog, 10 on 10 is an ongoing project with other photographers around the country. We post 10 photos of our own lives on the 10th of each month, because while we all continuously preach the importance of documenting life to our clients, our own lives sometimes get pushed aside. We are here to contribute and share our own mantra: life is worth documenting.

ANYA ELISE PHOTOGRAPHY | AMY STRAKA PHOTOGRAPHY

BUTTON MEDIA | LELIA MARIE PHOTOGRAPHY | POGO PHOTO

SATIN SKY PHOTO | SHAW PHOTOGRAPHY | TWINTY PHOTOGRAPHY

Now, onto my most recent shenanigans...

This last month has been a little chaotic; still getting the hang of being a student again, quitting my day job, and ramping up my business to be a sustainable income has been exhausting and sporadic. All of this to say, that this is the first time in 2.5 years that I'm going to cheat a little bit at 10 on 10. This series is from two different days this past month. One we spent with our favorite niece, and the other we spent with some very good friends who visited from Seattle.

Our niece is one of my favorite humans. Watching her develop and grow into her own person has been so much fun. She's not a baby anymore. She's a real girl.

Joey and Ryan are also two of my favorite people. Sometimes in life, your path crosses with someone that you feel an innate connection that seems to transcend a lifetime. Things click and we all just get one another without much effort. I feel lucky that they've been so close over the past year and are willing to travel down and spend some time with us. They even came on a nice, sunny Portland day.

That about wraps it up for this month. More posts over the next month, so stay tuned. :)

10 on 10 - December

I say it every month, and I'll say it again, this month FLEW by. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and we always host for lots of friends and family. This year was no exception. We had friends from the area and family from Oregon and Washington. My sister even came out from the 303 for two whole weeks. Needless to say, a good time was had by all.

Normally, our "Black Friday" tradition is to avoid all the crazy crowds and meander on up to tMt. Hood for some family snowshoeing. It's a good way to burn off all those extra carbs that I stuffed in my face the day before, and we usually end up with a pretty spectacular x-mas card photo. This year however, the mountain hasn't had much snow. It's been crazy cold, but not enough moisture, so we sadly had to forgo that option. Instead, we decided to get a jump on Christmas and go hunt down our tree.

I thought "tree hunting" would be a fun thing to post for my 10 on 10 this month because since many of you are visiting from around the country, I thought you'd like to see where some of your Christmas trees come from! One of the awesome things about Oregon is all the greenery. There are many farms all over the area growing grapes, veggies, nuts, and TREES! We chose to head over to the Helvetia Christmas Tree Farm just outside of the city to find the perfect tree, and of course since we were in the area, we ended the day with some wine at Helvetia Winery. Nabil's cousin Connor was in town from Seattle and had never cut down his own Christmas tree, so we decided to forgo the "modern conveniences" aka chainsaws and take this thing down the old fashioned way.

Of course, it always takes a little longer than expected, so Syd and I decided to wander around with the camera while the boys finished up...

And there you have it, a Christmas tree adventure at it's finest. Now that you have soaked up your monthly dose of Oregon, head on over to all the other 10 on 10ers to check out their monthly post. They promise to be fantastic, as always, so get excited.

Anya Elise Photography

CLB Creative

Twinty Photography
Jamilah Photography - Jamilah just had a baby boy (and by just, I really mean JUST; it was less than a week ago), so I doubt she's found the time to edit and post some photos. I left her link up there just incase. If not, I bet she'll have something good for you all next month :) Congrats again Jamilah!!