This is a long post…be forewarned. If I had it my way, I’d post every single photo I took over the three weeks I spent in Sweden with my niece Astrid, because I love her that much. I’m a super proud Auntie, and will be THAT Auntie with a wallet full of photos of her niece (exploding at the seams like George Costanza’s). Astrid loves early morning dancing to old school hip-hop, snowflakes on her cheeks, splashing water all over the bathroom, diddled pipe tunes, and when you squish her cheeks. My sister is a great mom, and Anders is a great pops…which isn’t a surprise to me at all. Counting the days until the next visit…xo.

A rare photo of me here on the blog, taken by my sister Shannon with my Fujifilm Instax Mini.

I’ve known Sheila since we were kids. We were both day-students at the Gaelic College and often met over bagged lunches in the cafeteria with the other 3 day students. We ended up in the same piping classes and played in the same pipe band. When a couple of guys from the Aberdeen Celtic Society came over to the College, Sheila met Calum and…the rest is history. They now live in Scotland with their two adorable freckly kids Christy and Duncan. During my trip over to Glasgow, they came into the city to pick me up and we drove out to the Whitelee Windfarm for their session. Lots of laughs followed until the moment we went for lunch and little Duncan spotted the life-sized skeleton statue in the cafe. He ate his sandwich in tears underneath the table and we bolted once the last bites were chewed.

Back to business after a month away from the office being Auntie to sweet little Astrid in Sweden (seen here taking care of my post-production work and trying out her bouncing legs). Lots of editing to catch up on along with some exciting projects lined up over the next few months.

If you weren’t actually there, you wouldn’t believe from the photos that Travis and Kate were married in Port Townsend, WA on December 17th. We woke up to a typical dark, damp, Pacific Northwest December morning. I went to the chapel to take some photos of folks decorating, followed by a quick trip into town for coffee, and by the time I came back to Fort Worden to photograph Kate and Travis getting ready, the sun was out and it felt like a September day! I’ve known Travis through piping for a good long while and he introduced me to Kate over Skype about a month before their wedding. The wedding was exactly what I would have envisioned. Kate, Travis, and their friends and family came together to help make and create almost everything for the day…the dessert buffet table, the decorations, Kate’s veil, and probably the most unique ‘made’ detail were the rings! Kate and Travis met with a Portland jeweler and spent an entire day in his workshop designing and making their rings from start to finish. Kate’s dress was amazing and she wore a pair of fantastic mustard satin heels, and Travis had a custom pair of Nike sneakers with ‘O’Futton 4 Life’ stitched into the back of the kicks. They were married in the evening and the dancing and partying continued well into the wee hours of the morning. So much fun! Thanks for picking me O’Futtons! A few additional images are on their sneak peek HERE.

I had a session with Sabra MacGillivray during the week of Celtic Colours. She was needing some promotional photos for her upcoming instructional dance dvd, so we met at Little River in between shows and festival clubbing! It was absolutely freezing around the wharf with the wind cutting right through us, but Sabra made it look like a balmy day! Sabra and I go way back and used to spend summers teaching together at the Gaelic College, and even spent a few weeks as roommates in one of the super-haunted dorm rooms. She’s a lovely highland dancer and stepdancer, as well as a Registered Massage Therapist/business owner at Celtic Touch Day Spa…make sure to stop by on your next visit to Cregnish! Sabra’s fisherman husband Iain came along for the session so we managed to tear him away from visiting the fishermen on their boats and in a few photos.