Well Hello Fall,

So happy to finally see you again. I've really missed you.

Why don't you make yourself at home while I make you a mug of hot apple cider and later
we'll go pick pumpkins and make pie, play in crunchy leaves, go to football games and make bonfires.

I look forward to many weeks together and have many plans for us, so make sure you plan on staying through November.

Love,

Me

Your gracious host as long as you'd like to stay.

Jacob Raibley {Del Oro Senior 2011}

So any of you that know us very well at all know that we have a brother/son Jacob who is a Senior this year!

*gasp*
We know. We both just got gray hair. Just wait until you see his pictures. You'll have gray hair too!

So normally I get to tell you how much I have enjoyed getting to know our seniors and find out so many great things about them. Well, being Jacob's big sister I know him pretty well. I have been so blessed to be back in the area and see him through most of his high school experience. I can honestly say he is the best young man I know. He has grown into someone I am proud to be not only related to, but also friends with. He is trustworthy, faithful, hilarious, and of course handsome! Looking through his pictures I am reminded of when he was little and how much I used to torture him and of course he just put up with it. Now he's all grown up and turned into an amazing person, despite our relentless picking.

We really are proud of you Jacob and are so proud of who you are and who you will become.

Love Amanda and Mama

(And yes, I know he'll probably kill me for getting all mushy, but it's ok, I'm still older than him :P)

Wine Weekend at Villa Fiorente

Some of our closest friends, Mike and Lisa Duarte own and operate their small family winery, Duarte Family Vineyards. Their amazing wines, Popie Wines, are now being poured in Auburn at an amazing location, Villa Fiorente, along with three other wineries. This breathtaking location offers a unique experience with four very different wineries.

They are having a special sneak peek weekend this Saturday and Sunday. They will be serving mini lamb kabobs made with Sinclair Family Farm's grass fed lamb, herb roasted red potatoes, and of course lots of great wines to sample! For ONLY $5!

The Villa is located at 10555 Harris Road in Auburn California

And yes, you will find us there this weekend. :)

(These pictures are from harvest this past fall. We haven't had a chance to take pictures at the Villa yet, but stay tuned to see some soon!)

THANK YOU!!! Best of the Best TWO years in a row!!

We seriously have the best community EVER!!

Thank you Loomis for voting us BEST of the BEST two years in a row!

YOU guys are awesome!

And to show you how awesome you are we have something for you in this week's Loomis News! ;)

So make sure to check the special pull out section and while you're there you can check out the other Best of the Best winners!

Love you guys!!

-Amanda and Tina

Cha-cha-cha-changes!

We have some exciting changes happening around the studio. We can't wait to share them with you!

We will be showcasing some of our new products, props and other goodies in the next few weeks.

If you want to take advantage of our current prices you have until February 12th and all changes are going into effect February 15th.

We hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!

We haven't fallen off the face of the earth... I promise!

It's been brought to my attention that I have neglected our little blog. I'm sorry.

*hangs head in shame*

But we're back, and I won't let it happen again! December was crazy, and for any of you that came by the studio I know you can vouch for that! Here is a little tiny sliver of a glimpse of what's been going on here at Simply Portraits while the blog took a little vacation.

And of course, SANTA came!

For those of you that have asked, I've already talked to Santa and he said he would be able to come back the same weekend this year! So mark your calendars, he'll be here and he's bringing Mrs Clause too!

Yes, we dressed up like elves and helpers. (But clearly not everyone was as cool as Kara, Carlene and myself) And yes, I included my own "child" even though he didn't get to "see" Santa. He still needed his Christmas picture taken!

Overall 2009 was an AMAZING year! It would not have been the same without YOU! So thank you for being a part of our 2009 and we can't wait to see what 2010 has in store for us!

-Amanda & Tina

Eggplant Festival Tomorrow!!

Come to the Eggplant Festival in Loomis

Tomorrow, Saturday October 3, 2009

from 10-5 Free admission and parking!

Make sure to stop by the Simply Portraits booth and studio!

We will be selling Gift Certificates Custom wrapped for Fall, a Baby Shower or Christmas!

And while you're there enter in a FREE drawing for

your chance to win one of these amazing prizes!

GRAND PRIZE

Perfect for families!

16x20 Matted Custom Frame

with 11x14 Print

Package of custom Christmas or any occasion cards

Sitting fee

Valued at $307!!!

SECOND GRAND PRIZE!!!

Perfect for Seniors!

16x16 Matted Custom Framed

Series with 6 Prints

Package of Custom Cards or Announcements

Sitting fee

Valued at $256!!!

WE WILL ALSO BE GIVING AWAY

FIVE $50 GIFT CERTIFICATES!!!!

Happy Autumn!

Dear God,
Thank you for Autumn and everything it brings us.
Crisp evenings.
Football.
Apple cider.
Crunchy leaves.
Pumpkin pie.
Scarves.
Pumpkin carving.
A time to be thankful.
I will enjoy every day of it. :)

Eggplant Festival

Happy Autumn!! It is finally staring to feel like fall here in Loomis. I know you are just dying to find something to do on this crisp autumn weekend and I have JUST the thing for you!

The Loomis Eggplant Festival!

Loomis is such an amazing community full of history and rich culture. There are so many wonderful reasons why you should come this Saturday, October 3rd to the Eggplant Festival. I even made you a nice little list with the:

Top 10 reasons to attend the Eggplant Festival!

10. Wild Chicken Coffee and Tea will be hosting chicken races. Yes. Chicken races. So bring your own or borrow one from the 4-H kids.

9.The Del Oro marching band will be performing along with other local bands. If you've seen them yet this year you know how good they are!

8. Free rock wall! Free underwater balloon scene! Free parking! Free admission! Free shuttle! Free Free Free!! (I could have stopped here for some of you, but keep reading for even better reasons!)

7. Firefighter pancake breakfast. There is no better way to start your morning. But come early. They start serving at 7 and it is so worth it!

6. An amazing wine garden featuring local vineyards and wine makers. Come try some from the grape growers themselves. You can even get ahead on you Christmas shopping by buying local wine!

5. Amazing food. You can start smelling it a mile away. You can learn some great eggplant recipes to make for those vegetarian friends. And even some great eggplant appetizer recipes for those delicious autumn dinners. And then invite me over for dinner. If you invite me I might even bring you something from reason #6.

4. You can meet very talented local artists and even purchase unique pieces for your own home.

3. There will be entertainment and performances all day including a dance from our very own Carlene Raibley.

2. We'll have candy. We'll also have drawing for free portrait sittings and products. AND If you're ready to get on top of your Christmas shopping we'll be selling gift certificates for family portraits, senior portraits and baby packages.

1. You get to see US! I know we're not the main highlight, but we'd like to think that is why you're coming! We will have a booth near the wine garden and when you're walking back to your car feel free to stop by the studio too!

We look forward to seeing you this Saturday!!

Who made the front cover? We did!

Make sure you pick up a Loomis News today

and check us out on the FRONT cover!
And if you don't live in the Loomis area

and don't want be left out, you can see it here.

And make sure you take a peek at the Eggplant Festival insert.

It's got lots of good stuff in it, including an ad from yours truly.

Happy Thursday!

Labor day

This weekend we continued on our cottage project by learning how to tile. The entire house. If you ever ever need to learn anything about tiling go visit Skip at Home Depot. He was amazing and even held a special class just for us. We are now totally ready to start tiling next weekend after finishing the rest of the prep work this weekend. It will be a huge project but thanks to Skip we're feeling very prepared. But still a little scared. We may be smiling but on the inside we're asking what we've gotten ourselves into.

Prayers greatly appreciated.

Hope you all had a wonderful 3 day weekend and are getting back into the swing of things this week!

Fishing, fires, floors.... and grapes?

Last week I decided to start sharing our weekends with you and all that goes on around here. You can get to know us and we can get to know you! As some of you may know, when you have a big family your weekend gets split up between family members. Our weekend was very split.

Part 1:

The youngest Raibley kiddo, Adam, was invited to go fishing with our good family friend, Todd. Todd is an excellent fisherman and invited Adam to go with him to "Take a kid fishing" tournament.

And who might you ask won the tournament?

Adam did. :)

He is sooooo excited.

Besides catching the 2.6lb fish he also caught a plaque! (now hanging above his bed) He also won a fishing pole, tackle box, and an assortment of bait and other fishing gear. Such a fun experience for him and great bonding time with Todd.

*Thanks again Todd for taking him and taking pictures of his catch!*

Part 2:

Grape picking! Our good family friends, the Duartes, have a family owned vineyard and every year a group of friends and family get together to help pick grapes. For me it feels like the beginning of fall. Even if it was 105 the day before, as soon as we start cutting grapes it feels like fall. (And if anyone has known me for any length of time, you'll know that fall is by far my favorite season.)

*Note: That cute raggamuffin wearing my dad's old moose t-shirt is mine ladies. All mine (: *

Part 3:

Another part about fall is Kara returning to college. By far one of my least favorite parts of fall. The only other unfortunate part about this time of year are the wildfires here in California. Sadly on their roadtrip they witnessed one first hand. They make for devastatingly beautiful photos.

Part 4:

The floors. The dreaded floors. As you saw last week we were finally able to paint the cottage. Well, in order to seal the concrete floor, it had to be sanded down. It was very messy and not at all picture worthy. But those boys worked in 105 degree heat and got (nearly) every speck of paint and plaster off those floors.

Phew! That wraps up our weekend! Hope you all had a great one too!

Brent

So I'm going to take a quick break from photo updates to tell you about an amazing friend of mine. Some of you know when Jay and I lived in Arkansas one of his best friends/roommate/coworker Brent was in a horrific dirtbike accident while they were out on a normal weekend ride.

His injuries should have killed him, but God had other plans in mind for him.

It's been over a year and a half and he has made

some AMAZING accomplishments.

His most recent video shows him crushing his past walking record.

If you need a daily dose of inspiration read Brent's blog.

We started it when he was in his coma and now he updates it with stories from rehab. He's not only an amazing friend, but truly an inspiration.

I could go on for hours about Brent's story and how amazing he is, but I'll let you find out for yourself. Just do a little reading and you'll probably come to love him just as much as the rest of us.

How was your weekend?

Remember in elementary school the teacher would go around the room and ask each of us to share what we did over the weekend? We even did it in high school. It was my favorite part of Monday. (Ok, so maybe it was the only good thing about Monday) I loved listening to what other people did, and it was always a way for me to briefly replay my weekend in my mind.

So, I thought on Mondays maybe I should share a little bit of our weekend with you. Some weekends we may be assisting our cousin Betsey in two back-to-back weddings, and others we may just sit on the porch with a glass of lemonade. Either way, you'll get to know us a little better! And maybe you can share your weekends with us!

No, it's not Monday, I'm fully aware that it's Tuesday. But after hearing what our weekend was like, I think you may forgive me. As some of you may know we are renovating a building at the Raibley home to be a brand new in-law quarters or guest house. And by renovating, I mean gutting and starting over from the studs, and in some areas even removing the studs. It's been quite the project. Well, the walls are up, the texture is done, and we were finally able to paint! Our good friend Ally even came up for the weekend to lend a helping hand. So with rollers in hand we attacked the cottage and finished all priming and color coats by Saturday night!

The cherry on top of the weekend was our amazing Aunt Becky popping in for a visit. Her and Mom hit every antique shop from Auburn to Roseville. (We have some awesome new props you'll see featured soon.) They also saw Julie and Julia and said it was a must see.

Needless to say, we had a very busy house over the weekend! We are so blessed to have such amazing family and friends.

*Are you wondering what the paint is doing on dear old dad's face? And J & J's for that matter? These boys are so smart they decided to use the paint sprayer to spray the primer and then the ceiling paint. (Which made for a very speedy job) What they didn't account for was the spray back. I'm just glad they all wore masks.

**And I would like to clarify that my entire home is not green. Just the bedroom. And kitchen. Don't judge me, it's my favorite color! And if the green on your screen looks minty, it's just your screen. It is definitely sage (or Spanish Moss, according to the can) but not mint.

4th of July Weekend

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! We had such an amazing Saturday full of grilling, visiting, baby holding, and of course, lots of eating! We were even able to celebrate a 60th wedding anniversary! I love to see how much they still adore each other after all these years. Sunday we had a wedding shower for our sweet cousin Andrea and her fiance, Blake. (We even took some engagement pictures! I'll post those later. They are sooooo good!) So here are a few snapshots of our weekend. I hope you had great weekend to! Ok, enough about us. More recent sitting soon to come, and boy have we had some good ones!

Fireworks, food, family.. and thanksgiving

First of all, we wanted to let you know we'll be out of town this weekend to spend 4th of July with family and friends. Hopefully you'll be doing the same! We get together with our Raibley side of the family every summer, and we have so many things to celebrate this year! Two brand new babies, a 60th wedding anniversary, weddings and engagements that bring new faces into the family. We are so blessed and have so many things to celebrate and be thankful for. Not only the independence and freedom of our great nation but for what that independence and freedom give us each day. I am so grateful that we live in a nation where a mother and daughter can not only become photographers, but open their own studio. Even today there are so many countries where people are not only deprived of the right to choose their own career path, but be able to do so in the technological world that we live in today. In economic times like this it can be hard to remember to be thankful for the country that might not be on our good side. We know it will pass, but in the meantime it can be hard to be grateful. I know, it's not Thanksgiving, you'll get that rant in November, but for now just remember to be thankful for the country that we live in, the people we're surrounded by, and the God-given freedom not everyone is privileged to the way we are. (:

Hope everyone has a happy and safe weekend!

-Amanda

New Beginnings

So along with many other things we’re changing in 2009, one of them is this blog. I’ve always enjoyed writing, but have never really been a blogger. I decided this was a good way for some of you that know us to keep up with what we’re doing here. And if you don’t know us maybe this will act as an icebreaker!

About us…

In case you don’t know, we’re a mother-daughter team with an occasional dad, brother, sister, or friend team. My mother, Tina, is not only an amazing photographer but an amazing person as well and I thoroughly enjoy working with her. I know I’m lucky, not everyone can work with their mother! My mom does the majority of the picture taking. (She is the one with 25 years of experience after all) She has an amazing eye not only behind the lens, but for editing as well. And being a mother of 5, her ability to work with people is no surprise. In both high school and college I studied photography, and being the daughter of a photographer I have had my fair share of experience behind the lens. However, having a marketing degree I try to stay in the office. But what I enjoy the most is designing cards. I never get tired of learning new tricks in Photoshop! Hopefully I'll be able to share some of my creations here.

Happenings in 2008…

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Over the last year we had to keep reminding ourselves of this verse and that God really did have a plan, regardless of how crazy things were! And 2008 was definitely a busy year for us!

Mom flew to Arkansas and drove cross country with me to move me to California. And by me I mean me, my stuff, and my dog, Ezekiel.

I could put together an entire album of Zeek on our road trip. He kept us laughing the whole way.

On the way we stopped in Vegas for the WPPI convention.(WPPI is an organization of photographers from around the world who get together and teach each other. So awesome!) And what an experience that was!
We also were able to see the sun set and rise over the Grand Canyon.

Being Mom’s first time, she had a hard time containing her excitement!

It's hard not to be in awe of God's beauty while standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon watching the sun rise.

Back at home we got right to business. We changed Tina Raibley Photography to Simply Portraits and opened our studio in July. Having our own studio has been such a blessing and a learning experience.

Among other crazy events in 2008, I got married in October and for those of you that came know how eventful it ended up being! ;)
Over the course of the year we had a lot of trials along with a lot of blessings. We are really enjoying this adventure of working together and constantly growing, not only in the photography business, but with our family as well. So I plan on keeping this (moderately) up to date and possibly even posting a picture or two from recent sittings!

Amanda :)