New colors

I decided that our living room needed an update. I had hardly noticed that we had started the third month of the year already when my grey, red and brown pillows were still sitting cofortably on our couch. They screamed "Christmas" at me and at some point that just wasn´t funny anymore!
And with the weather being so incredibly lovely and springy (is that even a word? I guess it is now!) I started thinking of what colors I could decorate our living room in.
Now I am a big fan of turquoise and a coolish blue, maybe mixed with green but I decided I wanted to try something new this year (or at least partially new since I threw turquoise and grey in the mix).
I LOVE yellow as a color but could probably never wear it because it would just make me look sick (I unfortunately have that skin tone).
After I had forced let Danny to buy a mustard jacket already I thought I could just as well put some yellow/mustard pillows on our couch (that way he would blend in oh so lovely when he would come home from work. He´d probably be too warm sitting on the couch in his jacket but you gotta do what you gotta do, right!?).


So here´s the result:

Standstill

I stood completely still for a second. I was totally in awe, standing in front of that tiny little person.
She was so small, so fragile and yet so perfectly created.
I hardly dared to breath let alone press down my shutter because I didn´t wanna interrupt her precious sleep.
I was once again reminded, that what I am doing for a living, is actually not "making a living" but to capture memories and moments for others.

Although you might think that I´ve seen and photographed enough babies to get used to it, I never do.
Every.single.time I am reminded of that loving father in heaven, that has such love for us and such hope in humanity to keep creating wonderful, sweet, gentle little babies.
And every time I am thankful, that I am there to witness that love!

Falling in love with a bride

A couple of weeks ago I met with a bride as I usually do to get to know my clients (or better: for them to get to know me) before they book me.
I thought the meeting would take up to 1,5 hours or so and told my husband when I would be home.
But then I met her and we started chatting. I asked her my usual questions like "Where are you getting married?" "Whats the color scheme?" "What does your dress look like?".
(I always wanna be able to paint a picture of the wedding day in my head, as accurately as possible.)
And then the one thing happened, that I always hope will happen with every.single.one of my brides: We started laughing together, finding similarities, making jokes and it got so much more personal!
As she kept on sharing and I kept on asking our whole relationship changed and in the end I didn´t feel like some vendor she wanted to hire to make her day perfect but like a friend she wanted to be at the wedding!
We had talked for over two hours which none of us had noticed (my husband had, he called me shortly after to ask me when I would be home, shreaking kids in the background).

I love it when that happens!

Now brides, if you´re about to book a wedding photographer: Make sure you really LIKE them! Not just their pictures, or their prizes or anything else.
Make sure you click with them on a personal level! The more you will like your photographer, the more relaxed you´ll be on your wedding day.
If you feel comfortable in the presence of your photographer and you can joke around with/him her it will automatically result in beautiful, natural pictures!

Love, Chrissy

Crazy life

Yesterday I felt like I should definitely write a blogpost. After all, it had been a week since I posted something last and I once read somewhere that you should write at least one blogpost a week to keep your audience entertained.
So first: Sorry, for not entertaining you sooner! ;)
But I really couldn´t.
I found myself sitting infront of my computer yesterday and couldn´t form one word in my head.
I had tons of good ideas what to post about, but couldn´t get myself to start.
For some reason I didn´t want to.
And then I noticed that I had to give myself some time to just BE.
Those last two and a half weeks have been crazy and I haven´t shared one word about it on FACEBOOK, TWITTER or this blog because I needed time to get used to the new situation and to verbalize my feelings.
As some of you might know Photography is not what I studied, I actually studied Social Work (way back in the day, when I was waaaay younger... Hahaha).
The vision for my life when I was 19 included renting or buying a big house in South Africa so I could create a home for street children. The house would have had lots of bedrooms, a big kitchen and dining room and a big sort of hall, where there could be school in the morning and homework and playtime in the afternoon.
Although I am sure that God planted this in my heart he led us to stay in Germany and over the years I sort of forgot about the details of that dream I once had.
But one thing I didn´t forget: I wanted to create a home for children that were not my own. Talking to Danny about that didn´t exactly leave me with the result I had in mind as he is more of a thinker and doesn´t usually decide on things spontaneously (something we´re VERY different at!). But after a while he warmed up to the idea of opening our house for other kids and we started the process with the Jugendamt to become short term foster parents (meaning the kids usually stay only up to 4 months). This process took about three months but since the middle of February we have a cute little 18 month old girl staying with us!
Now, we have been prepared for a lot but when it came to putting things into practice it was still a whole lot different than the stories we have heard.
For once I figuered that I have to watch out for my own kids not to get jealous or to feel left out since there is another person just marching right through their territory claimed what isn´t hers.
Now it turned out that the little one is the jealous one throwing tantrums whenever my daughter crawls unto my lap and trying to bite and pinch my son when he wants to play with her.
I totally get where she is coming from and that there is a lot of frustration built up in her and that truly makes me feel sorry for her. But she still has to learn that biting, pushing and pinching doesn´t solve anything.
So for the last two and a half weeks (and probably going on for a while) I was busy protecting my children from the tantrums of an 18 month old that we´re still getting to know and at the same time trying to make them understand her and her understand that this isn´t the way we roll.
So the title of this post really sums it up quite well! :D

I am glad that she is here though, no doubt about that! She definitely opened our bubble of just being the four of us and is teaching us to practice patience and loving your neighbor!

Here´s a picture that Danny took last year of my daughter Noa and me and that I recently discovered!
Awww, she is so cute man! :D

EDIT:
For reasons of data protection I can´t post pictures of our foster child online, but just so you´re getting an idea I found one where she´s hiding behind the curtain. :p