Fall is also one of the best times to have portraits done!   So, I’m offering a limited selection of mini sessions again.  The location will be the beautiful Middle Creek Wildlife Reserve – and we’ll have all those great fall things that I mentioned above (well, except for the cozy sweaters – those will be up to you! :) ).

Here is the information for the mini sessions.  I already have several of the slots filled up – only a few left!  Contact me ASAP to reserve your spot in The October Mini!

Feel free to pass this info. on to any friends who might be interested!   Most of my business is from word-of-mouth, and I am so grateful to all of you for that!  Also remember that for each referral who books a session, you get a $25 print credit!

Website: www.pinkpineappleprints.com

How long have been in business? I’m celebrating an official start – my 1^st anniversary is tomorrow (9/4)!

So, tell us a little bit about what Pink Pineapple Designs is all about? I offer professionally press printed, custom designed cards, announcements, stationery, invitations, photo cards, calling cards, canvases, labels, etc.

There are collections of pre-designed items on my website as well (and more being added continually as I complete new designs).  My goal is to offer complete customization and upscale cards at a reasonable price.  I love working one on one with the customer, starting the design process from scratch and seeing the original ideas that were in my head move to the computer and ultimately to the printed final product!

Are you married? Do you have children? I’m married to my college sweetheart, John.  We just celebrated our 10^th anniversary in July.  We have 2 beautiful daughters: Julia (7) and Lillian (Lilly) (3.5)

When you’re not designing, where can we find you? Chasing after my two children and shuffling them to their various activities.  Spending time with friends and family, reading books, cooking/baking and of course enjoying a cocktail or glass of wine while relaxing on my couch!

Do you twitter? Facebook? I LOVE Facebook!  It keeps me connected and enables me to share designs and special offers quickly and easily.  I try to Twitter- pinkpineapplepd

What is  your:

• guilty indulgence? Watching Big Brother over the summer.  What a time waster, but fun and mindless entertainment!

• favorite getaway? Best time ever without kids was St. John.  With kids (which is hardly a “getaway”) wold be Ocean City, NJ or OBX, and of course Disney World.  Our girls are counting down till the next trip!

• favorite family ritual? Spending time at the beach together, reading before bed, baking with the girls.

• favorite thing in your closet? Definitely my heels!  They make me feel pretty, never tell me I’ve put on a couple pounds and always look fabulous!

• current reading material? Getting ready to begin Philippa Gregory’s new release – The Red Queen

How did you get into this business? After a few years of designing all sorts of invitations, announcements, cards, templates, etc. for friends and family for fun, I decided to go for it (after a gentle push from my husband, John).   I jumped off the deep end and started a small print and design business.  A few have asked about the name- Pink: I have 2 sweet little girls and therefore A LOT of pink in our house.  And Pineapple: A traditional symbol of welcome and hospitality.

What inspires you as a designer? Color combinations, seasons, pattern trends, and most importantly the individuals I am designing for.  I try to incorporate their personal style and what they want to “say” when sending out the final product to friends and family.

What advice would you give to other moms who are looking to start their own small business? Go for it!  Trust yourself, trust your instincts and trust your support system of friends and family that surround you.

I was browsing through her website, Facebook page, and blog and I just love so many of her designs!  As a photographer I have looked at many design sites – most of which don’t impress me.  But, Pink Pineapple is delightfully different!  Her designs are laid out so beautifully, and they all have such lovely colors and adorable graphic elements.  What is so great about her business is that she will completely customize a design just for you!

Here are some lovely card designs I found…

And I *loved* this! Custom designed gallery wraps!  I can think of so many possibilities!

And of course there is much more on her site – magnets, backpack ID tags, note cards, stationary, address labels – AND it looks like she is working on a new website!  I can’t wait to see what new things she has in store!

And now for the FREE  giveaway that Kim is graciously giving us!  One of you can win 1 set of 25 monogrammed note cards with envelopes….completely customized for the winner!

These are the rules:

1.  You must live in the United States to enter.

2.  To enter, hit the “share” button on my Facebook page to tell your friends.  Then come back here and leave a comment telling me you “shared.”

3.  To enter a second time, visit her website and then come back here and leave a comment stating which of Kim’s designs are your favorite.

4.  A winner will be chosen by random.

5.  The deadline to enter is Sunday, September 19th at 10pm.  The winner will be announced on Monday, September 20th.

The class will be held on Saturday, September 18th.  There are two different session times.

Click on the link for all the info:  Photography 101 I hope to see you there!

For those of you who have not done a portrait session, your response to this might be something like – “My schedule is pretty busy as it is.  Wouldn’t it just be easier if I could just do all of this online?”  My answer to that would be an emphatic ‘NO!”   Let me show you why.    :)

When someone schedules and pays for a portrait session – what is it that they want out of it?  The number one reason is that they want wall portraits.   Either they have a big empty space they hope to fill, or maybe they just want to update pictures that are already there.    However, as most of you know, this can be an intimidating task because it is so hard to visualize what it will look like!  Do you want one large portrait, or a grouping?  If you want a grouping, then how do you know which ones will look good together?  And, perhaps the hardest question of all is what size will fit best in that space.   A picture that is too small for the space can look rather pitiful, and one that is too large can look just as bad.

So, here is where the in-person ordering session comes in.  Get ready for this…it’s pretty amazing, and you might have to re-read it to be sure you understand correctly.   Ready?!   At your ordering session, I can use a picture of YOUR wall space and virtually put any arrangement of your portraits on the wall so that you can see them true to scale.   How cool is that?!  You tell me what portraits you want to see on your wall, and then we change the size of the portraits until they best fit the wall space.   The end result is that you know with 100% certainty, what your wall portraits will look like in your own home (without even being there).

Let me show you an example of how I used this for my home recently.  I have a wall space I’ve been wanting to fill for a while.  I’m TERRIBLE at trying to imagine what would look good.  So, here’s a screen shot of ProSelect, the program I use:

This is the wall space with the collage I wanted to possibly put on my wall. And, keep in mind that at an ordering session, you would see this on a large projection screen.   The print size here is 24×36 – and you would see it at an actual 24×36 size.

This wasn’t the first size I tried though – I also tried  20×30, and 30×40 to see how they would look in this space.

Those certainly aren’t the only options for my wall space though!  Maybe I wanted one picture of each of my kids on the wall.  What size should I get?  5×7, 8×10, 11×14?  Which portraits look best together? Here is a screen shot of what would work.  I found that 3 11×14 framed prints would fill this space perfectly.

Or, maybe I just wanted one large single portrait, but I really wanted to see what it would look like black and white.  I love black and white portraits and love that I can instantly show clients what their portraits would look like as black and white.

Also, notice the frames around the prints.  That is another great option.  We can either view them with no frame to see what a gallery or float wrap would look like  (like the collage above).  Or, we can virtually add a variety of mattes and frames to your images to find one that suits the picture best.  Pretty cool, huh?  :)

There are many other reasons why an in-person ordering session makes the process a lot easier…but I’ll save those for another post.  This one is long enough!

Feel free to pass this into on to your friends and email me with any questions!  bonnie@cbportraits.com

We didn’t get all the poses I was hoping for because little Kellan was just not sleepy, and then it started getting cool and the light was fading fast.  But, he was such a cute little guy, and we definitely got some good ones!

Here’s precious little Auburn….

Little Miss K was such a serious little cutie!  I was pulling out all my tricks to try and get her to crack a smile.   We got a few really sweet ones, but mommy says she is just a very serious little girl.   Here she is – little Miss Kenzie!