Gold Thistle Photo

01/03/2025

01/03/2025

To start, I should address business first ✨

Many of you may have received an email from me yesterday, but as a recap, all galleries will be coming down on **January 28th**. Please make sure to download your photos if you haven’t already! If you did NOT receive this email from me, please let me know so that I can get it to you, and if you are still having trouble locating/downloading your photos, please let me know so I can assist! After the 28th, there will be an archive fee and I can no longer guarantee retrieval, so I really want to make sure you get those photos tucked away for safekeeping ❤️

I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season. Mine was filled with baking cookies, making my first loaf of bread, and learning to sit down and write out my feelings. We’ve come so far with our home, though we still have much to do before Baby arrives and our hope is to get a contractor to help us tie up some loose ends (this is code for: my nursery is still drywall and subfloor). But, it does have a beautiful bay window that we got installed, which I’ll be so excited to show you one day when the room is finished.

Growing a baby has been an experience; body changes are a lot to mentally keep up with, and I’m always perplexed when I find simple tasks (like sitting up) to be growing steadily more challenging. Sleep has become a faint memory, and the last few days his kicks have been growing ridiculously more insistent. Ultrasounds have been surreal. Food has become more of a challenge, surprisingly in my 2nd trimester rather than my 1st, though I really had no complaints about our New Years Day tradition of going to the Chinese buffet and eating a pound of jello cubes ❤️

11/08/2024

I can’t believe a little boy will be running around in these someday, right in this yard 💙

Please see my second post for the full message.

11/08/2024

I have a lot of news to share and I’ve written and rewritten this ten times ✨

Let’s start at the beginning: We’re expecting a baby boy this spring, maybe even for my birthday. And it will be the best gift I could’ve asked for. The emotions of fear and hopelessness that had lingered within me for the last two years have finally led us here, and it’s still hard to comprehend at times that he’s real. Every doppler check is the happiest moment of my life all over again.

I constantly wonder about who he’ll be, what will his hair look like, what color are his eyes? I hope he has little curls like his daddy, I hope he’ll come home with bugs in his pockets like me. And at the same time I’m terrified — how does one care for and mold an entire human being? How am I [at all] qualified for this? I was top of my class, I loved chemistry formulas, I was a whiz at calculus, I could answer any trivia on Harry Potter or Tolkien lore — but creating an entire person and keeping him healthy and safe? This is much harder than any test I ever had to take, it’s ridiculously challenging to study for, and no one’s grading me but God himself. And yet, it’s been my life’s dream.

And that brings me to part 2 of this major announcement, regarding my other dream. When I first started out in photography 5 years ago, I actually initially took it on as a side income. I had gone to a fine arts school and graduated with a degree in children’s illustration, published my own book, designed and sold numerous freelance bodies of work, and taught as an art instructor for 4 years. Photography was, at first, a hobby that I’d hoped to make a little bit of extra pocket change from, and it grew into something so much more than I ever could have imagined. It put food on my table, it paid my bills despite Covid, and after several long years, it helped me get qualified to buy a home with my husband. It gave me the stability I needed to get to here, to have a little boy forming inside me. YOU all were a piece in the puzzle that helped me get to this point, and I’m eternally grateful.

But, with this immense news comes big change. [NOTE: Continued in comments, too long!] ⬇️

11/08/2024

We are expecting a little 🫐💙blueberry💙🫐

Please see my second post for a full message.

10/31/2024

The first year that we finally get to host trick or treaters in our own home. Happy Spookin’ ✨🍁🍂

10/31/2024

My own personal spook. He was on discount.

10/31/2024

Don’t come to my house if you want trendy candy, I am but a 60 year old woman trapped in this body and I will teach the youth the value of variety.

10/29/2024

𝔗𝔦𝔩 𝔴𝔢’𝔯𝔢 𝔟𝔬𝔫𝔢𝔰.

10/29/2024

If you’re ever wondering whether you should read your vows during your ceremony, or privately afterward while sitting in a historic apple orchard, I hope this post answers your question.

This was what spooky October wedding dreams are made of. Although I’m not totally done yet for the year, I’m so excited that I got to round out the end of wedding season with these two. Historic museum? Pizza truck? Apple cider and donut towers? Creepy masks and bones in the bouquets? Let’s just say Sam & Chris had been discussing these ideas with me for over a year and they did 𝒏𝒐𝒕 disappoint ✨

10/29/2024

𝕿𝖔 𝕰𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖓𝖎𝖙𝖞