I'm so excited to post these photos since they're of my favorite couple in the world! My parents celebrated 26 years together in August, and I've been bugging them to let me do a photo shoot of them since their anniversary last year. I think they're adorable, but I suppose I may be a little biased.
I love my parents for so many reasons, but one of them is for the way they love each other. They have been loving each other well and loving God well my whole life, and I'm so thankful for their example. They exemplify patience and humility, joy and thoughtfulness. They're fun, sacrificial, prayerful, and authentic.
So it's been a very quite summer as far as Blue Cherry goes. I've been a complete slacker with all things online, and an even worse slacker with business classes/to-do lists/contracts/branding/website and other such things that need to be done for Blue Cherry. The summer started out with a lovely trip to Italy (more on this to come soon!) and has been busy and full ever since I got back. I've been spending lots of time with family, so all things business have been pushed completely to the back burner. But the time for loafing is over! I'm heading back to the to-do list, and hitting it hard. I'm hoping to be unveiling some big changes for Blue Cherry in the coming months (although I think it will likely be late Fall before anything official hits the internet). But first..... the big news....
I'm moving!! I'm moving to Florida and relocating Blue Cherry Photography! Starting in September, I'll be a South Florida Photographer!
This is both exciting aaaaaand somewhat terrifying. I love adventure, and can't wait to start a new one, but I am super melancholy every time I think about leaving my family. I'm thrilled to be finally moving closer to the ocean, but sad to think about leaving my New Mexico skies and mesas. I'm excited to meet new people, but I know I'll miss my friends here dearly. I worry about what this will mean for me when it comes to finding a job, and growing my business, but I'm excited and curious to see what God will work out! My hope is that this move will mean lots of new opportunities and hopefully lots of new beautiful clients for me to get to know and work with. I can't wait to shoot my first beach wedding, my first sunrise engagement shoot by the ocean, and am reeeeeeally hoping one of my future clients will want to incorporate surf or paddle boards into a photo-shoot.
Anyway- all of this to say- I would value your prayers as I head off on this new adventure. Pray that I will choose not to worry. Pray that I will find just the right job, and hopefully lots of great new clients! *Shameless plug here: If you know of anyone in the south Florida area who is looking for a photographer- I would love to meet them! ;)
Can't wait to fill you all in on the details of the move, show pics of the new apartment, and share all the goodness that God is sharing with me as I embark on this new journey.
Stay tuned for all that, as well as the changes in store for Blue Cherry!
xoxo
Jasmine
p.s. If you're in NM and wanting pics- don't worry! I'll be back for Christmas, and will be booking shoots then, as well before I leave in September. Give me a call if you want some photos!
Two days ago I got into a car accident.Thankfully, no one was hurt, but my car
is now a little crunched on one side. As I was laying awake last night thinking
about how I don’t have the money to fix this right now, and trying to figure
out what to do, like a gift from heaven, several verses were suddenly at the
front of my mind.
“And why do you worry about clothes? (Or cars…) See how the
flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not
even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how
God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown
into the fire, will he not much more clothe you- oh you of little faith? So do
not worry, saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall
we wear?’ (Or ‘What shall we drive?’) For the pagans run after all these
things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His
kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as
well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about
itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Of course, I’ve read these verses a couple dozen times, but I
felt like God had whispered them right into my ear that night. I’m his kid! Of
course He’s not going to leave me hanging high and dry. Why do I ever doubt
this fact? I feel like I’ve been given such a gift in this peace. I’m actually
a bit excited now, since God promises that He works all things together for the
good of those who love Him. I don’t necessarily see the point of this accident-
I didn’t pull someone from a burning car and then tell them about Jesus, I
didn’t meet my future husband in the police officer, so the way I see it-
there’s not anything really good coming from this.But He promised. So I’m gonna take that promise and trust
that He’ll make good on it. Maybe I’ll see the good that comes from this, maybe
not. But I know it’s there, and what an awesome thing it is to be reminded that
God can do things I can’t. He’s more imaginative than I am, and I love it. I
also was reminded that night that it’s not really my car anyway. Everything
I’ve been given in life really belongs to God. You have no idea what a relief
that is. I don’t have to kill myself trying to figure out a solution- it’s
God’s car! If He wants it fixed- He’s certainly capable of arranging to get it
fixed. And if He doesn’t want it fixed- well it’s His car anyway- I’m just
using it.
I heard someone say once (and I can’t for the life of me
remember who) that he tries to fight materialism and remember that life is
short by putting sticky notes on random possessions that say, “Soon to be
burned”. I thought of this as well that night as I looked at my crunchy car
door, and strangely it was a comfort. Soon to be burned. Thankfully- this world
is temporary and I’m not planning on staying forever, so the things of this
world don’t have to mean as much.
I think probably the coolest part of all of this is that I
didn’t come up with any of this myself. I’m not trying to pull myself up by my
bootstraps and self-help my way into feeling ok about a car wreck. The Spirit
of the Living God lives in me (mind-blowing!). I love when I actually notice
Him speaking right then- instead of weeks or months later.
So perhaps the “working all things for good” has already
happened. I now have three new lessons/reminders and a magnified view of God,
thanks to a car accident.And I
really, seriously do not feel worried. I can’t do that by myself. That’s epic.
1.I’m His kid. He’s going to take care of me. He
promised.
2.He works all things for my good. I can either
trust this, look for it to happen, and view setbacks as opportunities to see
God work, or doubt and be discouraged, and frustrated.
3.It’s a good idea to keep earthly things in
perspective and remember they’re not yours. It hurts less to let them go if you
weren’t holding too tightly to begin with.
Well that’s it! My life lessons from a car accident. I’m
excited to see what happens from here! I hope that one or all of these little
nuggets of truth is encouraging to you, friend. I feel like it’s always a good
idea to share when Jesus does something awesome for you, or shows you something
cool about Himself. I hope you are as encouraged as I am!
One of my favorite couple's shoots so far. My grandparents have been married for 53 years and are still fearlessly loving each other every day. It takes courage to live like this. It's a courageous choice to decide to walk through the storms together rather than running away. It takes strength to make a vow and let it age. I'm so glad they did. I was so privileged to photograph them.
"The bravest love is wildly faithful and it falls hard again every morning."
Ann Voskamp
I can only give you love that lasts forever,
And the promise to be near each time you call, And the only heart I own is yours and yours alone, that's all, that's all.
I can only give you country walks in springtime,
And a hand to hold when leaves begin to fall, And a love whose burning light to warm the winter night, that's all, that's all. There are those I am sure who have told you, They will give you the world for a toy. All I ask for these arms to enfold you, and a love, time can never destroy. If you're wond'ring what I'm asking in return, dear, You'll be glad to know that my demands are small. Say it's me that you'll adore for now and ever more, that's all, that's all.
15 days ago I visited Disneyland for the first time. Oh. My. Word. I thought I would die of happiness. Even now, 2 weeks later, I get ridiculously happy if I get to tell someone about it. I've been waiting my whole life to get to visit The Happiest Place On Earth, and I finally made it! Can I just say, "Oh my word" again? Oh. My. Word. What a place! What a magical, happy, delightful, incredible, wonderful place. I feel like I've joined a giant club of truly happy people who have had the incredible opportunity to have experienced Disneyland. As we walked in the gates, I felt like a little girl again. Once again, happy endings were the only option, magic was real, good always conquered evil in a tidy 90 minutes, and I was a princess. I kept feeling like I should see Tom Hanks as Walt Disney walking around greeting people. Does anyone remember the commercial on old VHS Disney movies where the little girl runs up to Mickey and says, "I've been waiting my whole life to meet you!"? I had this vision of myself running up to Mickey and saying that same thing. My sister told me she didn't think it'd be as cute as the little girl on the commercial... debatable.
I was only there for a day, but (as you can probably tell) it was a pretty important day for me, and I would love to share a little bit of it with you.
A few things that I noticed about Disneyland:
1. It's not nearly as overpriced as I was expecting. Don't get me wrong- $100 (ish) a person to enter the park is steep. I'm not going to argue that. I was hugely blessed by being able to enjoy my day at Disney for free, so I didn't have that price tag to deal with, which was amazing. However- all my life I feel like I've heard people talk about how ridiculously expensive Disney is. From the souvenirs, to the clothing, to the food- I've always figured it was some sort of highway robbery operation that would make airports look like dollar stores. I am here to tell anyone who believed the same as me- IT'S NOT TRUE! Maybe I'm a little jaded because I've spent a fair share of money at airports, but I can't even tell you how pleasantly surprised I was at the prices while I was there. I'm talking barely above what I would pay for a meal at the mall, and significantly less than what I would pay to feed myself at an airport. I can't even begin to tell you how shocked and happy I was to find out that I wasn't going to spend $25 for lunch. So happy. Even the souvenir shops aren't much more than I would expect to see at stores at the mall. And it's Disney for crying out loud! I'll take a Disney sweatshirt over a boring mall sweatshirt for the same price any day.
2. People at Disney are so happy. Again, maybe spending too much time in airports has beaten me down and made me forget that sometimes people are friendly, but wow! I expected the cast members to have about the same disposition as a TSA agent, or a Walmart cashier on December 24th. Again- I was so wrong! I've never seen a happier bunch of people! From the start of the day when a cute little old man congratulated me on being a first time visiter, to they guy running the Matterhorn, to the parking lot attendant at 10:30 in the evening- everyone was charming, friendly, and legitimately seemed like they were having fun, and wanted you to have fun too. Maybe it was all acting, but I'll take someone acting over a genuine scowl, thank you very much. (I'm a bit obsessed with customer service. I can monologue on it for a good bit, so you can understand why this excellent customer service struck such a chord with me.) I'd just like to take a moment and say Thank You to a company that clearly understands the value of their customer's money. Disney understands that people are spending their hard-earned money with them, and they appreciate it. They want your experience to be worth what you paid for. In this society, I feel like that's rare. I was pretty impressed.
3. Disney is full of beautiful details. This was probably my favorite part of Disneyland. I was privileged to be able to tour the park with someone who is in the Disney college program, so I got a ton of random facts and trivia about Walt Disney, the company, the parks, and the history of Disney which made the day way more interesting than just wandering around aimlessly. Bri knew the best places to go, the not-so-well-known places that were interesting, pretty much every hidden Mickey in the park, and the best times to get in line for various rides- it was perfect. And while we wandered all over, what I noticed the most were all the little details. You know how sometimes you go to a play and the set design barely makes it to the edge of the set before the paint stops, or the fabric runs out? In Disneyland, even places that people probably aren't looking are beautiful and thoughtfully designed. Even little details that most visitors likely will not notice, (like making sure that an odd number of red and white lightbulbs alternated perfectly- see my picture below), were thought of and attended to. Nothing was considered too small to notice. I love that. It was this aspect of Disneyland that reminded me of God. How many lovely little details of life does He take care of, and make beautiful, that I never notice? He doesn't do anything halfway. Everything He touches, everything He creates, even things that we don't see, or don't bother to see- is beautiful. There's thoughtful design in all that He does. I love that about Him. I love His artistry and the fact that He has allowed us to be artists as well.
Did I really just write 5 paragraphs about Disneyland? Yes I did. I can't tell you how happy I was that it did not disappoint. All of my dreams and fantasies about what it would be like when I finally got to go were not let down. And on top of that- I feel like I have a new appreciation about my God. That's a good day in my book. If you haven't ever gone- Go. Make time at some point to visit. If you ever cried in Fox in the Hound, or held your breath as Beast became human again, or secretly wished you could have a pet tiger named Rajah, or felt any sort of affinity at all toward any Disney movie through the years- this place will blow your mind!
My only disappointment for the day, was that I didn't get my Mickey moment. I was there for 12 hours and still didn't see that famous mouse. It might be just as well though, I told my parents that I would probably knock small children out of my way as I ran for my hug. Guess I'll just have to come back...
~Princess Jasmine
Just a teeny bit excited...
Hidden Mickey!
Why yes, I am wearing my "First Time Visitor" pin
Check out that red and white lightbulb. Apparently Walt Disney was a little bit OCD and didn't want there to be two whites or two reds next to each other.
Best tour guide ever!
Here's that commercial- I can still remember being little and imagining the day when this would be me
I can't believe that tomorrow it will be 16 years since that Sunday afternoon that she arrived. I still like to think of her as 12. So tomorrow she will be turning 12 for the 5th time. Today I had the pleasure of snapping a few pictures of this beauty. I'm so lucky to know her, and count her as a friend. Rienna is kind, thoughtful, creative, funny, clever, and loving. She is talented in many areas, quick to serve, and a very dear person. Here is a quick glimpse at this special girl.
Rienna is super artsy and crafty. These are some of the little gems in her bedroom.
