Jared and Amanda's Wedding

I had a wonderful time photographing Jared and Amanda's wedding. It was honestly one of the most rewarding things I have ever done! It was a gorgeous September day, and luckily the sun was shining. Their ceremony was beautiful and the reception was a lot of fun. I definitely teared up as they read the vow they had written. I would LOVE to photograph more weddings! Here are a few photos of the day:

Refurbished Dresser

I love the idea of refurbished furniture. I once painted a high chair for my boyfriend's grandma and really enjoyed it. I painted the high chair yellow, green, blue, and red, with lots of fun shapes and designs that a kid as well as an adult would appreciate.  I stumbled upon this refurbished dresser.  Although I don't necessarily like each pattern on the dresser, I like the idea. I believe the designer used wall paper for the designs. Such an eco-friendly way to dress up an old piece of furniture and make it unique and personal:

Oh how I long to travel

I found this lovely states bulletin board online and thought it was a wonderful idea. Tyler and I made a list of places we'd like to travel to one day, including nearly every state. It would be fun to have a board like this to mark off places. So far these are the states I've traveled to:

• Nebraska (obviously)
• Iowa
• Missouri
• South Dakota
• Colorado
• Illinois
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Washington

This coming January we are flying to Florida for a few days, so then I'll have been to 1/5 of the states!

Enjoy life to the fullest

I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's that I'm graduating this year, or maybe it's just that I'm a sentimental type of person, but lately I've been thinking a lot about life and what I've learned so far. Just today I was telling my Dad that one of the life lessons I've learned is we often spend more time worrying about something than the actual thing takes. When I was little for example, I used to dread going to the dentist. I'd worry a whole week or two before that the dentist would find a cavity. Then the actual appointment would come and be over in a quick hour. Sometimes it's not worth worrying about things. Although I still have to remind myself of this quite often, I must have improved somewhat. I don't worry about going to the dentist anymore. What's the point?

Here is a nice little graphic I stumbled upon, with some of the most simple, basic, and wise advice I've found:

If you can dream it, you can do it

I stumbled across some craft ideas and one of the neat ones I found was this simple little "dream jar." It got me thinking about some of the things I would put in my own jar.

• Have a design or photography job lined up before I graduate
• Move to Colorado or Missouri
• Travel to Ireland
• Be able to quit a daytime job and simply do photography for a living
• Marry Tyler :)
• Learn how to bake bread
• Buy a beautiful Victorian house with a wraparound porch in the country
• Never give up on any of these dreams!

Sunflowers

I've decided in an attempt to blog more often that I'll post something quick every day. Lately I've discovered how awesome etsy.com is. Looking through some photography on etsy I found this lovely photo of a sunflower, probably taken with a macro lens. (I want a macro really badly!) I love the bright colors of this photo and the gorgeous detail. The sunflower also makes me think about Pocahontus, my favorite disney movie, and the song "Colors of the Wind."

Photograph by Guy Pushee- You can find his work at his etsy store here.

Nebraska Balloon and Wine Festival

I am currently procrastinating homework by blogging, but I needed to catch up anyways. I thought I'd blog and share some photos I took at the Nebraska Balloon and Wine Festival back in August. It was a lovely sunny summer day. Tyler (my boyfriend of 2 years this past week!) and I brought our cameras and captured some beautiful shots of the hot air balloons.

One of our favorite balloons, "Patches" getting ready for take-off