My sister, Angela Stott has just won two Awards from the prestigous Black and White Magazine. Angela is a portrait and wedding photographer based in Asheville, NC who travels regularly to SouthEast Asia to photograph families. She shoots film, and her work is incredible (I taught her everything she knows- HA!).

The first shot won a silver award in Portraiture/Children and the second shot won a merit award in the
Travel/People/Places category.

Both shots are featured in full page spreads in this month's issue.
Way to go Pete! I love you!!!!

My Super talented cousin JP has won Nevada's Duck Stamp Art Contest. His winning painting will be featured on a stamp! JP is a graphic designer and artist. We are so proud of you JP!!!!!!!

The results are here.

And here is the winning painting of a pintail duck:

Gorgeous work JP!!!

Kristine and Tim were married at St. Gregory's, and had their reception at the gorgeous Cavalier Yacht and Country Club. The florals were created by Avant Gardens and the cake was made by Custom Cakes.
Beautiful wedding! Much happiness Kristine and Tim!

Pretty bridesmaids all in a row!

It will be a slow blogging week for me as I process portraits and finish up my weddings for the season.
Last weekend I travelled to Winston-Salem, NC for a bunch of portrait sessions which I will be sharing soon. Until then, a few from one of the sessions. Happy Thanksgiving!!

This is the third time I have photographed Kristina and Bill's gorgeous family.

Laine and Mitch were married at Galilee Episcopal in Virginia Beach. Their reception was at the Princess Anne Country Club. This lovely evening wedding was a lot of fun, and the details Laine worked so hard on were wonderful. My favorite thing was the groom's cake. Evidently, Mitch is very fond of Starbuck's coffee, and Laine surprised him with a cake shaped like a Starbuck's coffee cup! It was darling. On the back of the cup Laine wrote an "The way I see it..." for Mitch that was beautiful.

I am so excited to announce that the fabulous Susan Stripling will be holding a seminar at my studio in February. I don't think I can properly describe my enthusiasm for this without sounding like a starstruck nutjob, so let's just say that this is a super big deal and leave it at that.

The seminar will be held on February 19th and 20th here in Norfolk. Go to Susan's blog right here. And check out her amazing work at SusanStripling.com.

The fee for the two day workshop is $1200. The workshop will be two FULL days, with small breaks for all three meals. Plus we'll have a get together on the 18th.

I urge you to download the pdf on her blog and fax it back to Susan very quickly if you are interested in this workshop. Space is very limited.

Thank you Susan!!!

Very early last year I blogged about some wonderful handmade hand bags I found online at Mynabags.

Later that Spring my gorgeous bride Molly had the ladies at Mynabags create lovely clutch purses for her bridesmaids out of the same silk dupioni their bridesmaid's dresses were made from. They were so perfect and wonderfully made.

I'm attaching some photos of one of the bags she had made.

But that's not all! Mynabags is having a super sale right now!
Bags regularly priced at $100 are marked down 70% or so. I just received two clutches and they are fantastic. I would show photos of them, but I'm giving them away for Christmas and don't want to spoil the surprise.

Janie has featured me on her fantastic resource and inspiration site again! Thanks Janie, I soooo
appreciate all your kind words. Janie's site is The Bride's Cafe. Be sure to bookmark the site or sign up for the RSS feed!

My great friend Janie Medley has just launched a wonderful blog full of wedding inspiration. I am so excited about Janie's latest endeavor because she is soooo talented and has the best taste ever...
Today she is featuring some shots I took of her divine flowers. Thank you Janie!!!

Be sure to bookmark her site and subscribe. She is updating daily with all kinds of gorgeous eye candy! Here's the link.

As of October, I have been blogging for a year! For me the best part of blogging (aside from showing off all the great weddings I get to shoot) has been linking folks up with some wonderful, creative, handmade stuff. To celebrate, I want to share some pendants I recently purchased from The Charm Lady's Etsy shop, which can be found here.

Addicted to Etsy? Yes, yes I am ..... I have more stuff I've purchased, which I'll blog about soon. I truly love the internet.

These charms are graphic and cool and well priced. The other day I wore one to the grocery store and got three compliments. At the grocery store! (My life is oh so glamorous). I am going to give these to some lucky girlfriends and sisters...they would make great bridesmaids gifts too. (No one has to know how thrifty you are :) ).

The pendants are about an inch and a quarter square. I bought some sterling ball necklaces to string them on. (Edited to add: these are clay, but a flexible clay, like sculpy, but not plastic feeling.)

And, I originally found these necklaces at the beloved MightyGoods a fabulous shopping site.