CONTESTS: Show Us Your Christmas Magic Winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered and voted in our contest. Also, we would like to thank those of you who also took the time to 'like' our three Facebook Pages. We really appreciate it.

In case you forgot to like our Pages and would still like to, here are the links:

Picture Your Life Photography
Take The Party Outside
Momstown Barrie

The winner of the contest is the photo that had the most 'likes' given to it. The total number of 'likes' was determined by adding up the 'likes' from each of our three pages.

Here are the results:

120 votes (69+32+19) Girl playing with bows - submitted by Jennifer Gould
53 votes (24+27+2) Girl and Dog wearing hats - submitted by Kim Yorke
15 votes (4+9+3) "Mommy's Having A Baby" - submitted by Cathy Colby
9 votes (6+2+1) Family looking out window at Christmas tree - submitted by Joy Webster
6 votes (4+1+1) Boy hugging snowman - submitted by Renee Jadek

Congratulations Jennifer! I think I can remember playing with those bows when I was a kid too. They are great because of their stickiness! haha I must say, you have very dedicated voters.

For those who may not have been following the contest, Jennifer wins a Custom Storybook Photo Session from me. I LOVE doing those sessions as they are so much fun and I can't wait to do one with that adorable little girl of yours! :)

Thanks for looking.

-- Lisa P.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK #30 - First Tottenham WINGS Open House

On the evening of January 18th, the Networking/Netweaving group I belong (WINGS & HEROS) to had our first little local vendor show in Tottenham. The event was held at Gigi's Green Beans Cafe. It was great to see what some of the other local companies do and sell.

I had a draw for one of my '2012 Outdoors In Ontario' Calendars that I make and the winner was Andrea McMullen. Congratulations Andrea. I gave your mom the calendar for you that night. :)

Thanks to everyone who came out to see us and to everyone involved in planning, organizing and promoting the event. Here's one of the photos I took that night.

In the photo from left to right: Jennifer (owner of Gigi's), Trudy (WINGS coordinator in Bolton), Diane (Founder of WINGS and HEROS), Cheryl (Creative Lanes in Newmarket) and Yvonne (WINGS coordinator in training for Orangeville).

Thanks for looking!

-- Lisa P.

CLIENT SHOOTS: Puppy Fun!

I think that if I ever take any more puppy photos for Peggy, someone definitely needs to do some behind the scenes video or at least photos. I'm sure we must look and sound hilarious while trying to get their attention! :)

I love babies and puppies. The advantage of photographing babies over puppies, is that the babies can't get up and move once you set them down. ;)

Here are some peaks from the session last week.

I am cute and I'm ready to do this!

Well hello there good looking.

Ummmm do I know you? Will you play with me?

I can make my own fun.

Hey! No smooching in the back.

Why they are all looking in the same direction is why I think we need to get some behind the scenes footage. ;)

This is kind of how I felt once we were done too.

Yup. Just like this.....

Thanks Peggy and Gail!

And thanks for looking.

-- Lisa P.

PERSONAL: Tottenham Santa Claus Parade 2011

I meant to do a blog post about the Tottenham Santa Claus Parade back at the end of December, but obviously that didn't happen!

Growing up in a place smaller than Tottenham, the local parade was always something to look forward too. We didn't have a Santa Claus parade (too cold I think!), but there was a Labour Day parade, and I can remember being in it doing Japanese dancing when I was a kid.

So here it is, better late than never. :) I always take so many pictures, so it's always tough to narrow it down. Here are a few of the highlights.

One of our friends was selling popcorn outside the shop his mom works in. Proceeds were for the local Food Bank. :)

Ben is impatiently waiting for the parade to get down to where we were standing to watch...trying to avoid my camera.

And here it comes!!

He loves waving to everyone. :)

You can't have a parade without the bagpipes!

I took this one for my mom. She likes McD's. ;)

Ben even got to shake some hands!

Love the bands. :)

And there she is......Jordan Clark!

One of Santa's Reindeer??

They were moving fast, so it's a bit blurry, but here are the kids of GSI Taxi. :)

The Gus Bus!!

Hey! I know those guys!

It must have been difficult to play in the cold.

And here is the guest of honour.

I snuck a shot in between floats of Ben waving to Santa.

And if I remember correctly, I think the folks beside me were drinking some hot coffee. :)

Ben said that we should be in the parade next time with Picture Your Life Photography. I told him we'll see about that. haha :)

Thanks to everyone who was in the parade and who was involved in organizing it. Such a great tradition. :)

Thanks for looking!

-- Lisa P.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK #29 - Out with the old

FINALLY, Ben is starting to agree to let go of some of his old baby and toddler type toys. I took this photo with my phone to commemorate this momentous occasion!

Here he is taking his Craftsman work bench to the little boy who lives down the street.

Thanks for looking!

-- Lisa P.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK #28 - Sushi anyone??

Last week I showed a friend's 10 year old daughter how to make rolls of sushi. :) She was very excited and I think she had fun. (And I think it was a lot more work overall than she was thinking it would be, even with me doing most of the prep work) ;)

Here are her rolls.

Thanks for looking!

-- Lisa P.

PERSONAL: Some 'wild' birthday fun!

Ben would like to warn Gramma Clare that there are going to be pictures of things she doesn't like in here, like slithery snakes. One of them is a really pretty colour, but you might want to scroll through quickly. ;)

For Ben's 8th birthday, Party Safari came to the house. I was sooo lucky to have won a monthly giveaway that was put on by Take The Party Outside and Party Safari earlier last year. I was able to keep it a secret from Ben up until probably a couple of months before his birthday.

Jennifer was awesome with the animals and the kids. I think they learned a lot about the animals as well as had fun too.

Here are some photos from the party. (You'll see that my studio space got taken over that afternoon. I should have tidied it up a bit more since I was taking pictures!)

Ben's decided that he doesn't really care for cake anymore, so instead we had fruit and ice cream. (except everyone was so busy, we ran out of time for the ice cream) These were from Fruity DeLites in Alliston.

These next photos include most of the animals we saw during the party.

Time for a break to stretch our legs and arms.

Isn't this one a pretty colour?

This turtle was pretty darn quick!

This one was anxious to come out and see who was making all of the noise.

The pinata this year was a pirate ship. That thing must have been made out of super duper strong cardboard because each kid had 3 hits with the blindfold on (with a baseball bat!). It sounded like the bat was hitting rock! Then I let Ben take some wacks at it without the blindfold and he finally cracked a small corner (you can see it in the photo below). Finally Paul really wacked it good and the candies fell to the floor.

Thanks to everyone for being a part of a super fun birthday for Ben, especially to Jennifer and her very special animal family. He had such a blast. I'll include a few more different photos in my newsletter.

Thanks for looking!

-- Lisa P.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK #27 - Everybody say it now......"Awwwwww"

The Photo of the Week from last week is from Ben's birthday party. My studio was taken over by Party Safari and we got to see awesome creatures like this one.



Isn't it sooooo cute! Timbit is a Pygmy African Hedgehog. I can't remember if Timbit is a girl or a boy. At first, all you can see are the spikey parts. Then, as it got more comfortable, the eyes would peek out and then the entire face. And then eventually.....those little feet would poke out. Hedgehog yoga??

Thanks Jennifer for awesome party entertainment.

Stay tuned for a blog post about the party featuring more of the animals. :)

Thanks for looking!

-- Lisa P.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK #26 - "This is mine, right?"

Christmas day falls in the week for last week's Photo of the Week. :)

What a fun day for the entire family.



And yes, that present was for Maggie. I wonder how she knew.... ;) heehee

Thanks for looking! :)

-- Lisa P.