"She's the one I want to tell everything to. When stuff happens at work, I want to tell Eryn. When something good happens, I'm excited to tell Eryn. I trust her and I want her to know everything," Jesse said as we carved our way through the back hills of New York. "I knew she was the one because I trusted her from the start. I trust her more than anyone. I've never questioned that. It's always been there." Then Eryn looked at Jesse and smiled. Life is in constant commotion. T

Sometimes, even I forget how much of a gift pictures are. In the times between handling pictures and photoshoots, I forget. But then I touch a print or I open one of my children's books or I stand back and stare at my walls . . . and I feel it. Don't ask me what the 'it' is. I don't have the words. It's something similar to reverence, wonder, and incomprehensible gratitude. Reverence because I'm so grateful for the person I got to photograph. I'm grateful for their beauty, t

"I am no longer allowing less than I deserve." It sounds so basic. But how often do we just accept the crumbs that fall from the table of life? I don't deserve that. That's only for special people. I can't have that. How often do we simply accept our own destructive habits, our own belittling way of thinking? We write them off by saying 'this is just who I am' or 'that's just how it is' or, worst of all, 'that's just how it's always been.' It doesn't have to be that way anymo

Creating things doesn't always go the way I plan. Sometimes it's an absolute mess and doesn't work at all. It will often look like an explosion of fabric, glue, glitter, and flowers with a few odd bits strewn about for good measure. Other times, it works . . . this always leaves me pleasantly surprised. This newspaper dress just came together. There was no mistakes that caused me to have to restart. No crying in anguish because something broke. No feeling heartbroken because

This desire to love yourself and honor who you are is an all-in-game. You stake your future happiness on this idea. You create a future goal of self. It’s serious. So why not go all in? Why not love who you are now- right now! What have you got to lose . . . that right there is actually a loaded question . . . I’ll tell you what you’ve got to lose- if you don’t choose to actively love and value who you are you lose everything. Your respect. Your sense of self. Your abi

What about the failure part from my last post? What if I fail? That question has sat like a rock in my gut for years. Failure. The red X on every test. The F the sealed my fate for summer school. The empty checkbox next to my name telling me I did not get into choir. The 'sorry to inform you . . .' letter saying they would not publish my book. F A I L You feel it too, don't you? That tightness in your chest, that squeeze of embarrassment, that hot shame that you fell short. I

Years ago I had this idea to create a dress made of newspaper. It's not really the most creative idea I've had and others have definitely done it before, many with more skill and success than I. But it was an idea that has been rolling around in my head for years. And this is my year of Daring Greatly. This is the year I get out of my own way and do the big things I have dreamed of doing. But that doesn't make doing the things easy. My dreams seem to always be accompanied by

Allyson's photoshoot came to her as a gift from her husband, Brett. He lovingly planned the whole thing including a weekend trip after the shoot. Brett sent me this message a few hours after he and Allyson left on their mini adventure: "Proud husband alert coming through... "Thank you so much for your work with Allyson. I've only seen a few tidbits of the work, but Allyson couldn't stop talking about it, and she exuded confidence in every syllable, not embarrassment, regret,

"If I don't do this now, I won't do it," Allyson said from the comfort of her home in Elmira New York, as we talked via FaceTime. This wasn't the first time Allyson and I have jumped face first into deep conversations- when you go the gym with someone in the midst of the whole world going nuts you tend to cut right to the chase with those who are of a smilier mind as you (shoutout to Journey Fitness in Elmira NY and Journey Fitness in Sayre PA). That's one of the things I app