Winners, winners, WINNERS!

Random.org selected two winners for the Palmyra, New York prints:

Commenter #18:

"Barb @ getupandplay said...

Oh, Kim, I was already mentally "shopping" as I read this post before I even saw the giveaway part!!"

Commenter # 40:

"Cheyenne and Seth and Co. said...

Oh Kim! So beautiful!!! Crossing my fingers and wishing on stars that I could have the stunning picture of the Sacred Grove. I love you!!"

As always, SO thankful I don't have to choose the winners. Thank goodness for random number generators.

Due to the overwhelming response to the giveaway and so many of you requesting the ability to purchase a print for yourselves, I have set up on my proofing site for you to purchase these prints and a tremendous discount.

Please visit: http://kimorlandini.instaproofs.com/enterEvent.php?id=306592

And using the code: 50off Enjoy 50% off any print order from this event.

That is it! Easy as pie.

Love you all, and thank you for making this post and giveaway such a fun, fun, fun one.

xoxo

Savoring Summer

Loving these last moments of summer.

Going outside on Sunday evenings and letting the kids play.

Grabbing my camera and just shooting them, over and over and over.

Fall is on it's way.

I feel it in the crisp mornings and the chilly evenings.

Soon the frost will come, and with it the short days and long nights of winter.

For now, relishing in these last moments of summer, soaking in as much sun and warmth as I can...

...and loving in this little one whose days are passing just as quickly as the summer has, and listening to her constant (and new) "Mama! Mama! Mama!"

Did you know?

That I have a beautiful life?

As in, grade-a amazing?

I have grown so much in the past two months, it is astounding. I attribute that to my faith. I also attribute it to myself and getting to know myself and loving myself more. Trusting in who I am inside, who I was born to be, and letting her shine through.

It is not an easy thing to do by any means. It is hard. Some days I cry. Some days I still don't want to get out of bed. Some days I am not the perfect mother (okay most days). Still, I am trying. Trying to be better, and reach farther, and I am making huge strides.

Huge. Strides.

I hope that you are too.

Have a happy weekend.

xo

~Kim

I know...

...I am a cracker jack blogger.

For that I apologize. It is THE busiest time of year for me. Fall = family photos for EVERYONE. It also is the beginning of the holiday season, which for the r house couture, means crazy orders and boutiques. (Which we love.) Did I mention we just celebrated our first birthday, the r house couture I mean? I didn't...well we did, and it is incredible.

But this post is not about that, it is about how I left you for an entire week with no new posts. Nothing new is really going on besides said busy-ness. I have been incredibly happy, incredibly busy, and trying with all of my might to keep these people from growing.

But alas, they don't listen to me. Just like my cravings for brownies COMPLETELY ignored me the past weekend. (I was doing SO good with my diet and exercise.) I feel so icky for eating them, but they tasted SO good. (I blame Aunt Flow, damn her.)

Anyway, enough of this MEZCLA of a cracker jack post for this cracker jack blogger. Come see me next Thursday in Draper mmmmmkkkk? The ladies and I will be having a boutique with our new lovlies. Designs only available at our boutiques this year.

(pssst. click to enlarge.)

Okay. Done. Next time you come it will be a lot better and I promise to not blog at 1 a.m. and to make sure I am well rested the night before I blog. Love you all. Really, I do. xoxo

Crazy Busy

In a good way.

It is fall, and with it comes the mass of family portrait sessions (which I love and greatly missed last year while I was out on maternity leave).

I have missed shooting, the crazy business of it all. The shooting, and now developing and scanning and editing and packaging (oh I have the cutest packaging now).

I am in the midst of a rebrand with my photography business. I am very excited about the changes and the custom site I am saving up my pennies for. It will be everything I have ever dreamed about times a bajillion. I think I will feel like a big girl and a true professional once all of those things are squared away. I can't wait to show you the big unveil as it gets closer. (In four months.)

For now, stay tuned to the photography blog for some beautiful new sessions going up, and for a giveaway in another week for a print of your choosing. It will be great fun.

For now, enjoy some Polaroid beauty. (I promise I have photos of the other kids, but these are just melting me today.)

Loves,

Me

I leave you for the weekend with this:

...may it be merry and bright.

xoxo

Winner, winner!

I feel like we all just ran a marathon and are at the finish line jumping and yelling for joy! YAY Corey and JoJo. Can't wait to meet you and have a lovely photoshoot. Best wishes on your adoption journey.

congratulations to cory and jojo.


after 1,890 total votes, they are the winners of the kim orlandini photography and the r house photo shoot!

i hope all the couples are feeling loved.
after all, there was quite a bit of voting going on! you can learn more about their hope to adopt by clicking on their names below:

brian and chriss
ron and darcee
jared and devin
spencer and jessica

and a HUGE, HUGE thank you to my sensei, kim orlandini and her generosity and this amazing giveaway. you are fantastic! i love learning from you.


i asked cory and jojo to share a little bit about themselves with us so that we could get to know them better.

We are so excited that we won! We are also very thankful to so many people who posted the photo shoot on their facebook and on missionary moms and we think that's how we won.

We started dating in 2007 and were married almost a year later, on May 24th, 2008. We have been married a little over 2 years and have enjoyed every minute of it.

We love being around each other and really enjoy going to sporting events together. We both have a love for the Medical Field and Anatomy.

Cory and I both work and go to school. Cory will graduate in April with his bachelors degree in exercise science and will continue on for his doctorate degree in Physical Therapy. He is a supervisor for a care giving center and takes care of mentally disabled adults. JoJo has two semesters left in her nursing program and works at a little college in American Fork, UT as a Campus Coordinator. She works closely with the teenagers and loves to be around them.

We are both are very excited to adopt and our profile will be posted on
itsaboutlove.org at the beginning of October. We cannot wait to be chosen by birth parents and to start our family by the miracle of adoption!

Thank you so much for this opportunity!

Never ending summer.

Aren't you loving this never ending summer? (At least here in Utah it is staying blissfully warm.) I like it like that. Where there is just the teensiest bit of chill in the morning and in the evening that is letting you know fall is on its way. But, it can take it's time.

Some photos from the past few weeks.

All taken on a Yashica Mat24G the SUPER close up ones were with the CRAPPIEST close up filters I have ever seen. I swear they are made of plastic or something. The film? Some OLD Kodak Portra 400NC I got from THE Ryan Muirhead. His work is bomb...you should check it out. Anyway, the older film gets the more whack the color is. Hence why these look so...well, whack. But all is well, I love them all, for their plastic-lensy feel and for the subjects. I think they turned out beautifully and truly express how I am feeling these days. Like the summer, I never want these days to end.

Hope you all have a BLISSFUL weekend. I have an amazing session in the morning and then I am free to spend it with the ones I love. Hope you can too.

Enjoy.

xoxo

Instant Gratification

All shot on the Polaroid 600SE camera, on Fuji 100c Instant Film. These are the instant film negatives, that have been bleached and washed, then scanned, adjusted for color and density and voila. Fun.

The more time passes, the less and less I feel inclined to indulge in instant gratification. We live in a world full of 'get it now' with internet on every device we have, and with noise all around us. The more time passes, the less I want to be a part of that. Which is why my switch to film last December has had such a lasting impact on me, on my heart.

Except, well except for the small part of me that loves this type of instant gratification.

Fuji 100c. What is that you ask? Instant film. Think Polaroid...but made by Fuji. You are probably thinking, "Like that stuff we had when we were kids, that developed almost immediately? The camera that spit it out of the bottom after hitting 'click'?"

Yes, like that.

This though? This is a step further. These are the 'instant' negatives.

Crazy right?

No actions, just a straight scan and messed with color balance for color.

I heart film. All types. All. My love letter to film is coming up soon. So stay tuned.

Just wanted to share.

Hope you are all having a blissful weekend. May your week be as wonderful.

xo

New York: Part 5 Statue of Liberty

Advice and things we did while waiting to visit Miss Liberty. (In no particular order.)

Get there EARLY. As in, 6:00 a.m. to stand in line early. (Or so is the word on the street.) Or else stand in a REALLY long line for 4 hours, and MAYBE get a chance to see her.

Be super disappointed when finding out they only give out 3,000 tickets daily to go any farther than the height of the island. We got to stay on said island while we watched hundreds of people enjoy her feet. (Sorry Sam, I couldn't get your shot because we were shunned to the ground.)

If you want to hang with the cool kids, get your tickets here, so you can go to the crown and see the statue as she was meant to be seen.

The wisest man I have ever met in my life was selling water to the hot and huddled masses standing in said line of death. He must be a millionaire.

Sit on the benches if someone can hold your place in line. Make sure to sit by someone wearing a beautiful Sari.

Try to divert the attention of your children from the 90 degree weather and 70% humidity by letting them get super dirty and pick up rocks, sticks, and pull the seeds out of the tree pods. Then take photos of all of those things so they can remember them.

Look down at the ground. There is a lot of spit out gum on the sidewalks of New York City, and really pretty sewer covers. Wait, can sewer covers be pretty?

Get teary when seeing the Statue of Liberty for the first time, up close from the ferry.

Take a rare family photo with the New York City skyline behind you. And thank film because you can actually see the skyline.

Edit photos of New York on a gray background in photoshop, because if you use black, you will see the negative on your scans. Oops.

Lastly, take a photo of your kids in front of Miss Liberty. You may have to lay on the ground on all of that gum we discussed (because of the lack of a wider angle lens) but it will be worth it. See their smiles and be thankful you came. Five hour trip and all.

I sure am.

New York: Part 4 Central Park

The evening of our first day, when we were all beat and tired and hot, we ended up in beautiful Central Park.

I cannot tell you the feelings it brings to my heart to have given my children this experience of traveling. Since our trip, whenever they see the park, or a show set in New York, they remember.

This trip was to celebrate our ten-year wedding anniversary that is coming up in December. Of course it would have been much cheaper, simpler, faster, to have gone by ourselves. But that is the thing, it was so much better taking our kids with us.

I love sharing my dreams:

Hot dogs and pretzels in Central Park.
(really stale hot dogs and pretzels.)







(She was the only smart one, she is only pretending to eat here. She spit is out immediately.)





Kids were enthralled with the rocks.











And the bridges.



It was a short stay that day in the park, I wanted to go back, the kids wanted to go back.

Hopefully one day we will.

New York: Part 3

My family arrived bright and early, courtesy of the red eye flight.

They came looking ragged and sleepy. Luckily we were able to sneak in a small nap for them at The Hilton before we had to attempt a check in at The Wingate. A little known secret if you haven't been to New York: good luck finding a hotel room to accommodate five people. So I lied. I blatantly lied that we only had 2 kids and spent my entire time in New York hiding that fact from the hotel.

Unluckily they wouldn't allow us to check in until 3. (Effers) So we dropped off our stuff at the hotel and went walking. The kids were in jammies, I hadn't thought ahead to change them, thinking they would let us check in early. I had changed Millz, but not the other kids, so off we went after breakfast/brunch at the RUDEST Burger King on the planet, then off to the largest Macy's on the planet. We got the kids some clothes and then we went walking...and walking...and walking. (Please ignore the black film line on my scans, I didn't notice it until uploading, as I edit on a black background...that is changing right now.):

Still exhausted. Sweet thing.



Joth lost a tooth in NYC! It was amazing the Tooth Fairy found him SO far away from home.







Uhm, most definitely my most favorite photo at the moment.

We ended up at FAO Schwarz, the famous toy store (or infamous if you are not going to buy your kids a thing...i.e. me), and finished up with a walk on the 'Big' piano. That was rad. I loved that movie when I was a kid. We would watch it over and over and over while staying at my aunt's house. It was fun for us adults and super fun for the kids.

Making a belt out of a plastic bag. We are stellar parents in case you were wondering.







Probably my favorite view our entire trip. Love looking at these tiny, squishy feet.

Stay tuned for more New York minutes later this week.