I'm so crafty....

It's a boy!

Welcome to the world, little one. Just a few months to go...

Fall 2013

There's something for everyone at Alexis Ryan Photography! Please feel free to like or share any of these photos on your own page to spread the word.

Now through the end of 2013, any 1-hour photo session also comes with an additional free 8x10 print, when you bring the promotional poster (found on the Alexis Ryan Photography facebook page) to your session!

 

Constantine has something he'd like to say!

Changes on the Blog

There are some big changes here on the blog - I hope you enjoy them. First - new background color! Black was getting a little gloomy. I thought with Spring in full bloom, something brighter was in order.

I have also added an ABOUT page, a CONTACT page, and a link to my SmugMug photography account and Facebook page.

I hope these new changes make navigating my blog easier and more enjoyable. Please feel free to comment below with any feedback you have! Thanks!

-Alexis Ryan Photography

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me...

And I'm feelin' good.

Spring is finally here - and with it, longer days, more sunlight (plus that extra hour we got back with daylight savings!) and the thing I've been missing most of all is on its way... warmth! Bare feet weather! How I've missed you, you'll never know! I can't wait to go on adventures with my little man and explore the world around us!

Already, I've been working on fun projects for summer - a string of paper egg-shaped bulbs to fit around white lights and hang, a gallon jug became a lantern, and right now I'm waiting for two bowls made out of Trader Joe's grocery bags to dry! At the thrift store the other day, I picked up two saloon doors for $5. I'm going to grow herbs in coffee cans and hang them from the doors. These little projects are a lot of fun and great ways to reuse things creatively.

Annual Wedding Promo!

Now through the end of March, I am offering a 15% percent discount on all wedding packages. Same great service, even more affordable price. Call or email today to book!

Introducing, SeaGlass spa products!

This has been my fun little project the past few weeks. Spa products have been something I've enjoyed making for a long time and I've entertained the thought of doing it more seriously. SeaGlass is my first real step into that world.

Everything about SeaGlass is custom made. I designed the logo and the labels, researched recipes and used some of my favorites, but made them my own. Almost all of the ingredients are organic or all-natural and the jars were ordered from a small local business in Seattle.

As a stay-at-home mom, I know as well as most how few moments some of us have in a day to just relax and enjoy some 'me' time. A few minutes in the morning to treat your face to something sweet (literally and figuratively!) makes all the difference.

Cocoa Honey Face Mask

9 oz. $18

Order SeaGlass Cocoa Honey Face Mask for $18!

Sea Salt Honey & Facial Scrub

4 oz. $16

Order SeaGlass Sea Salt & Honey Facial Scrub for $16!

Eucalyptus Mekong Flower Rice Toner

4 oz. $14

Order SeaGlass Eucalyptus Mekong Flower Rice Toner for $14!

Or take home the complete set for $45.

Visit SeaGlassSpa.blogspot.com or email SeaGlassSpaProducts@gmail.com for more information.

Prices do not include shipping and handling. Please allow 2-3 weeks for product to arrive.

All is calm. All is bright.

With Christmas right around the corner, I am officially in holiday song mode. I know, the radio has been playing Frosty the Snowman since Thanksgiving, but I try to tune it out as much as possible until these last few days.

See, I really like Christmas music. So much of it is so absolutely beautiful, or lively, or fun, and I really enjoy singing along to all the old classics. But too much of any good thing eventually wears on you. So I wait. And now, with Christmas less than a week away, I'm excited to be dancing around the kitchen with my son in my arms, singing along to The Most Wonderful Time of the Year while the yummy smell of baking chocolate chip cookies fills the air.

For Nathaniel and I, the excitement of Christmas now has so much to do with watching our son experience everything. And I enjoy all of the family, the time spent together, the gifts, truly - I do. But I am most looking forward to Christmas morning at our church, where the beauty of this day shines through the commercialism and cuts to the simple, sweet message underneath it all.

Your Nativity, O Christ our God,
Has shone to the world the Light of wisdom!
For by it, those who worshipped the stars,
Were taught by a Star to adore You,
The Sun of Righteousness,
And to know You, the Orient from on High.
O Lord, glory to You!

Christmas angels

Christmas is a time for joy and celebration, but for a lot of people, Christmas is a very difficult season. For a few friends in particular, these past few weeks have been a struggle to get through. For others, these days remind them of people who aren't here to celebrate anymore, and no matter how much time goes by, you never stop missing them.

At Christmastime, I miss my great-grandmother more than ever. The festive lights always remind me of how we used to drive around and rate houses together, always deciding that although we loved the decked-out gaudy one for its daring, we like the simple white lights best. These should be happy memories, and mostly they are, but I can't recall them without feeling the aching longing for her to be here again and to relive those moments. I'm grateful to have been as close with her as I was, she was an incredible woman.

My beautiful little man is always smiling, laughing, finding something new to explore. His new curiosities are the stuff of professional comic relief and he's recently started giving me kisses - wet, open mouth, protruding tongue kisses on the cheek - and there is nothing in the world that compares with the love that they make me feel for him. He is my Christmas angel. He reminds me of all the beautiful good in this world. Amidst chaos, uncertainty, fear, loss, there is this boy playing in the tub and smiling up at me as though everything is ok. And as strange as it may sound, that gives me hope.

The ones we love.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Here's to the ones we love. Please remember to be thankful for the people in your life. Maybe it's hokey, but I don't think it can hurt to have a day dedicated to remembering all that we can be thankful for. Hopefully, we're remembering more than just once a year!!!

A very long year.

Spring.

 Try to take time to stop and enjoy the little things. They're everywhere and they're easy to miss.

Design - for Journalists.

I took some family portraits just outside of Philly last week. It was a beautiful day - a barefoot in the grass kind of day. I've missed those so much.

Right now I'm working on a new business card and web design for a solar paneling company. Definitely different from my usual work but it's nice to use my Multimedia training! What do you know, I'm grateful to have taken Design for Journalists, after-all.

Every day I wake up in love with our beautiful little home. It's got its quirks but it is the most inspiring, lovely place I have ever lived. We have an incredible life!

Insomnia.

The last several weeks I've had a near impossible time getting a full night's sleep. I wake up in the night feeling like every muscle in my body has been beaten up and it's just very difficult to get through the night.

The upside to this, I suppose, is that I have time at odd hours to do things - like edit photos.

We will be done housesitting in less than two weeks now and then we'll be completely transitioning into our new home. There's a lot to get done between now and then and I think that, coupled with the stress of making sure everything is ready for Constantine's birth have been contributing factors to my lack of sleep, as well. Coming from someone who obsessively makes lists and tries to organize every minute detail of everything, surprises and the great unknown are not on my list of favorites!!!

I'm looking forward to working with my talented friend, Hillary Petrozziello in the near future. Hillary and I went to Temple together and I've always really admired the way she sees things artistically. It'll be fun to let someone else's artistic vision of what my pregnancy looks like take a different spin on things. I'll keep y'all posted.

Milestones

A lot has happened since I last wrote. I'm 34 weeks pregnant today - which means Constantine is going to be making his debut appearance very, very soon!

Nathaniel and I just signed the lease for our absolute dream home - a stone cottage on a 200-acre organic farm. The owners of the farm rent out the cottage and the *enormous* garden next to it for an unbelievable price, and since Nathaniel found work in the area, we are officially moving to Berks County!

I also confirmed today with an old friend of mine that I will be shooting her wedding next summer. I'm honestly so happy - weddings are such a happy occasion to begin with, but this particular couple is so perfect for each other, I'm just so excited that they're getting married and that I get to be there!

In a week and a half I've got a baby-pictures session with one of my dad's co-workers. I'm really excited about this too, because as you've all probably figured out by now, I think babies are pretty much the most wonderful people ever.

On top of all of that, I just picked out paint colors with my sister for the new house and we've got to start moving in and making sure we're all ready for Constantine's home birth. 34 weeks is a good milestone, but it also means that he could really come any time now and we want to be prepared!

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P.S. I don't know why the color is desaturated in these photos but they look much better on my Facebook.

To have and to hold.

Nathaniel and I celebrated our first year of marriage on Monday. This photo was taken just days after we started dating - it's amazing to me how completely in love we already were. We just "knew" - and that was enough.

To celebrate the year, we headed off to West Virginia and spent three days on a hilltop, sleeping in a straw-bale house, making breakfast over a fire and looking out at the incredible stars that are so difficult to see in Philadelphia.

Constantine is getting stronger every day. He is a little over 32 weeks now and the past few days I've been waking up really early with a contraction - I get one or two of them a day now, it seems. These are pretty normal 'getting ready' contractions - not actual labor. But it definitely feels strange when my entire belly becomes this solid mass, like a literal watermelon is hanging out in there!

The calm before the storm.

This morning breakfast looked serene, as odd as that sounds. So I decided to take a picture. I need to keep my iron levels up, so I had cream of wheat with some fresh raspberries and blueberries and a light drizzle of honey. It was delicious.

Today at 5:30 I submitted the very last assignment needed to officially be done school. Not for the summer, not for the semester. I'm just... done. Considering I've been taking college classes since I was 14, this actually feels very strange. I think I'm happy. At the same time, though, I've always been used to having another semester to look forward to, another class to take. I love learning. I've had some really awful teachers over the years, but the good ones have made up for it, every time. Everyone is telling me that I'll have my hands full in two months and I know it's true - little Constantine is going to take up my whole world and I am impatiently waiting to finally meet him and give him a thousand and one kisses. It just feels strange to be done with one part of life and moving on to another.

This last semester I had to take a TV Broadcast News course in order to fulfill a surprise last-minute Journalism degree requirement- something I was not looking forward to. I kept thinking great, I'll be six and seven months pregnant with this huge basketball sticking out where my abs should be, all puffy-faced and hormonal and I'll have to be on video - somewhere I am not usually very comfortable being. There's a reason I'm pursuing photography and why I quit modeling all those years ago.

Oh me of little faith - I was surprised once more by the good that can come from an unexpected situation. My teacher, Denise James, was absolutely wonderful. Not only was she a wealth of knowledge on the topic of story presentation and the newsroom, she was just an inspiring, kind person.

I had pretty much resigned myself to graduating with this degree and never really using it - I mean, I have every intention of continuing with photography, but my degree says "Journalism" and I'm, well, about to have a baby. I can't exactly work for National Geographic right now. Professor James encouraged me to find ways to continue working with what I'm passionate about (you all know, that's pretty much babies, home birth and "natural mommy" stuff). And I think I'm going to do it.

A statement.

This is my favorite person.

Right now I don't really have anything else to say.

Not easily broken.

The past two weeks have been a difficult time for me. In one week I will be done my BFA at Temple and it only just hit me on Tuesday how I can use this degree in journalism to my advantage as a stay-at-home mom.

I'm thinking about starting a new YouTube channel focusing on home birth. I have all of the equipment I need to conduct video interviews and take photos and if I haven't learned how to write an article by now I've been wasting my time. It could be more casual, more intimate than a news outlet, not so structured. But a consistent, maybe once weekly or twice monthly video interview with someone who has something to contribute to the natural birth world. It wouldn't even always have to deal directly with home birth - there are so many "Mommy" related things to talk about and I know I'm about to be introduced to a whole new world of them when Constantine arrives.

I have found that this is what I'm passionate about. This is what I love. I'd like to do something with it.

The past few days, I have been glad for the reminder that even in difficult times, a cord of three strands is not easily broken. I have my husband and I have God loving me through every single day, no matter how hard it gets. I'm thankful for that gift.