Black Friday is behind us, Small Business Saturday is almost gone, the only thing left is Cyber Monday.  I will not be posting a special BUT I have decided that I am going to let you decide what my service and products are worth to you.  Contact me on MONDAY via PM on Facebook or Email and tell me what type of session you are interested in, what products you want as a result of the session and how much you think that is worth.  

There is no guarantee you will get the type of session or product for the price you give me but the worst that can happen is I counter your offer and give you an explanation as to why I can't do it for your price.  It may be a matter of just removing hair and makeup from your request or reducing the amount of time we spend together.  I will honestly try to accommodate your requests so we can have the opportunity to work together!

When you send me your info please keep in mind what I offer and how much I normally charge.  Please consider that this is how I pay my bills; it is not my hobby.  North Carolina sales tax will be added to your final quote price.  If your price is accepted, you will be required to make a non-refundable retainer of at least $50.00 to hold your session date, which must take place within 6 months of booking. 

I am looking forward to hearing from you and I look forward to photographing you soon!!  Take advantage and book your Valentine's session, senior portrait session or spring celebration on Monday!!

♥xoxo♥
Kay

It's been so long since I have posted anything here.  I wish I could say that I have been crazy busy with sessions in the studio but really I have just been crazy busy with life.  If you are a faithful follower then you remember my last post about completing the 101 class at Iron Tribe in Huntersville.  The day after I completed that I went on vacation to visit my family in Maine for a few weeks.  I am very proud to say that I stuck to my Paleo eating the whole time and I am still continuing to eat that way now.  As soon as I got back I headed straight to ITF and got to work.  I have been going 3 times a week since.  I also added PiYo to my workout routine, which is a program that I thoroughly enjoy and compliments my ITF workouts too.  I have lost 22 pounds so far and I feel amazing.

On another personal note, we are also preparing for a trip to Texas right after Christmas so that my daughter can have surgery done on her shoulder.  When she was born she sustained an injury that has prevented her from having 100% normal function in her arm.  She has had physical therapy for most of her 5 years and this past spring we met with a surgeon to see what could be done for her.  Unfortunately, this surgeon does not actually perform the surgery in NC so there is a lot of planning involved to make sure everyone is on the same page.  As of last week we finally have a date and all travel arrangements have been made.  This also happens to coincide with my busiest season, since Christmas and Valentine's are huge for boudoir gifts.  So on top of having to meet cutoff dates before each holiday to be sure gifts are in hands on time, I also have to limit dates due to us being away and me needing to take care of my daughter post-op.

With all that being said, I still have a few dates available before each holiday, so if you are considering one call soon or you may not get a date.  I also want to thank all of you for being so patient while I have been "away" from my site for so long.  I love being a photographer, I love giving women beautiful photos, and I love my clients but sometimes life gets in the way and I have to be a mom first.  

If you would like one of those limited dates for either Christmas or Valentine's gifts, please email or call today: 336.309.3506

♥xoxo♥
Kay

What a week!  I made it!  I graduated from my 101 classes!  4 Weeks down already.  I can't believe how fast the time went by.  I am also amazed at how far I have come in 4 short weeks.  I am excited to see what the future holds and I am looking forward to starting my regular classes when I get back in September.

Monday was class #10 and it was actually pretty easy.  We did 1 exercise with progressive weight.  Back squats; basically the bar is held across your shoulders while you do squats.  Sounds easy, the move was easy, the weight however, was intense.  We did 5 sets of 3 reps, each set we increased the weight by 10 except for the last set, which increased by 20.  My final weight was 85 lbs and I am sure I could have done more had I started out with a higher weight.  I am pretty sure that my legs are a lot stronger than my upper body because of riding.  I use my legs and seat to direct my horse so anything that only involves legs, like squats, are a bit easier for me.

Wednesday was a killer class.  Class #11 looked like this: 3 rounds, first round 21 each, 2nd round 15 each, 3rd round 9 each.  There was a 15 minute cap, so if you don't finish your final time is 15 minutes.  Three exercises to get through.  Hand stand push ups, power snatch and thrusters.  We did not do full on hand stand push ups.  We had to kneel on a 20" box with our hands on the floor in front of it and do push ups.  A push up was not considered completed unless the crown of our head touched the floor.  I hate push ups...period.  This almost killed me.  Power snatch is basically a lift from floor to overhead in proper position.  Thrusters are bar in front rack position, squat and then lift overhead.  My first round I managed to do the modified push-ups and 35 lbs for snatch and thrusters.  The second round I had to modify the push ups even more by just doing a straight overhead lift with 15#.  I also used 15# for the snatch and thrusters the next round.  I only got through the "push up" portion of round 3 before I got a pain in my back and stopped, therefore my finishing time was 15 minutes.  I did not want to chance a serious injury and my coaches agreed.  I spent the rest of the day and the next day resting up for the big finale!

Friday!  Workout #12!  I knew what my workout would be going in but I was super nervous.  I wasn't sure if I would see much improvement and I was a little worried that I would find myself on day 1 all over again.  We had a little quiz after a nice warm up.  Basically we went over all of the lifts and squats and the differences in them all.  We were allowed to answer as a group and as a group we had to do burpees if we were wrong or couldn't answer.  I am pretty sure my brain was refusing to work since it was focused on my final workout.  We ended up getting 4 answers wrong in all.  Once we were done testing we went over our final workout.  As a reminder, the workout would look like this.  Run 200 meters.  Three rounds of air squats, kettle bell swings, and sit-ups.  Round 1, 15 reps each; round 2, 12 reps each; round 3, 9 reps each.  Finally, 200 meter run.  On day 1 I struggled.  I finished with a time of 14:35.  I was last.  I wanted to give up so bad and go home and not look back.  Boy, am I glad I didn't do that.  My final workout was a testament to what 4 weeks of hard work can do.  I finished my workout in 7:09!  I was the first one done!  I smashed my day 1 time by more than half.  On the first day I cried.  I cried because I was so upset with how far I had let myself go.  I cried because I didn't want to feel the way I did.  I cried because I was ashamed.  Friday, I cried again as I crossed the line and heard my final time.  This time, they were tears of happiness as I realized I am much stronger than I gave myself credit for.  I let those tears come just for a moment as I let it sink in how far I had come in these 4 short weeks.  If I can do this in 4 weeks, how far will I be in 12 months?  I am excited to see where the next year will take me.

I had a meeting Thursday with another fitness instructor/local business owner and we talked about my goals, how she helps her clients and what I am doing and committing to.  I am going to be sticking to my Iron Tribe workouts 3 days a week and adding PiYo 3 days a week.  I love Pilates and I am looking forward to adding it back into my workout routine.  I think this will be a nice complement to the lifting.  I am sticking with my Paleo eating, and I am excited about my journey.  I also realized that being healthy and talking about my journey is another passion that I forgot about.  Excuses are easy to make, commitment is not.  If you are not 100% committed to a lifestyle change for the better you will have a difficult time losing no matter how much you want to.

I am going to continue to post about this journey that I am on.  Maybe not every week, then again, maybe it is another way I will keep myself accountable for this commitment that I have made.  I hope you continue to follow along and I hope I have inspired at least one person to go outside their comfort zone, make a commitment to a lifestyle change and start their own fitness journey.  Until next time!

♥xoxo♥
Kay

I'm a slacker.  I forgot to post my week 3 post last weekend and I am almost done week 4 already!  If you follow my regular posts you may have noticed I skipped my Topless Tuesday post this week as well.  Since I am traveling most of August, I decided to take a little break.  I need some downtime to mentally prepare for the upcoming holiday rush.  Keep watching though because I will be resuming in September!

So, week 3.  A lot happened last week.  I signed up for a 12 month commitment to this workout as of Friday.  One year to reach my goal.  One year of lifting and losing.  Even though the workouts keep getting more intense, I am loving how I feel after.  I want to see the day that I can do the moves and not need to modify them.  I will get there.

So let's go back to Monday and workout #7.  We had to do as many rounds as we could in 10 minutes.  Each round consisted of pull-ups, push-ups and overhead squats.  I don't know about you but pull-ups are the one thing I could never master.  I dreaded pull-ups in gym class.  I was lucky if I could do 1, even the girl way.  So when I saw pull-ups I was ready to leave.  Turns out, there is a way to modify them and it makes it a little easier.  We use these colored bands to help us.  Basically they are attached to the bar and you put 1 foot inside the band and it helps you to get your chin above the bar.  We had to do 5 pull-ups.  Next up push-ups, same as we did before, 10 of these.  Lastly, overhead squats.  Basically you hold the bar overhead while you do squats.  We were lucky that we only had to use the PVC pipes but we had to do 15 of these.  That is a LOT of arm work in a 10 minute period.  I managed to get through 4 complete rounds, plus 5 pull-ups and 9 push-ups in that 10 minute period.  

Workout #8 was frustrating for me.  We had a new move that I just couldn't quite get the grasp of.  We had to complete 3 rounds for time.  A round consisted of 15 push jerks, 9 box jumps and 6 muscle ups.  The push jerk had me stumped.  I just wasn't understanding it and my head was stuck there.  Basically it is just an overhead lift but there is a dip in the beginning and the end.  The end dip wasn't happening for me and no amount of practice or explanation was working.  The box jump was more a nuisance than anything.  It gets in your head.  You start thinking, "what if I miss it?  What if I fall?  Can I really jump that high?"  Once I did one, I was fine, and luckily we only had to use a 12" box.  A true muscle up takes a lot of arm strength.  We got to modify ours.  It utilizes the rings and has 3 steps.  It's not easy to explain but it's kind of like a push up on the rings starting from a lying down position.  Yes, not easy to explain at all!  I made it through all 3 rounds with just a slight shin pain.  I attributed the pain to the box jump since I tend to land flat-footed.  The pain went away by the next day.

Workout #9, the end of week 3, the final class before the final week.  What a doozy!  3 rounds, each round is max reps in 1 min followed by a 1 minute rest.  Each round consisted of power cleans, double unders and wall ball.  Power cleans start out like a dead lift and end up in the front rack position.  Double unders are just the jump rope and since we haven't really mastered double unders we got to do singles.  Wall ball utilizes the medicine ball.  Hold it in front of you while standing just shy of arm's length from the wall.  Squat down, throw the ball up to a predetermined target on the wall, catch it and go back to a squat.  I ended up having some serious pain in my shins from the jump rope.  This hurt my overall numbers because I just could not get good reps on the jump rope.  I was very happy that I had 2 days off to rest my legs before the final week.

Even after 3 weeks, I can already feel a difference.  Muscles that I haven't used in forever are reawakening.  My energy level is higher.  My clothes are fitting looser.  I am excited about the next week and beyond that.  I hope someone is reading this and it motivates you.  Whether that is to get up and take a walk or find your nearest Iron Tribe or even just to change what you are eating.  It is a choice.  You can choose to make a commitment to better your health or you can choose to do what you have been doing.  Either way, the decision is yours and nobody can make it for you.  If you choose healthy, great!  If I have motivated you to choose healthy, even better!  Let me know what journey you have chosen to take.  I would love to hear from you :)

Until next week!

♥xoxo♥
Kay

I recently went to a women's event and had the pleasure of meeting some amazing business women in my area.  I had a table with my work and business cards displayed and as you can imagine, it was quite the conversation starter.  During a few of these conversations, I actually had to check my emotions.  I am very passionate about my work, about what I do and why, and about the responses I get from clients.  I could talk for hours about my work.  If you haven't read my Mission Statement and Why I Do What I Do section, I highly recommend it to get a sense of my passion for photographing women and giving them this whole experience.

I want every woman I meet to spend a few hours in front of my camera, not just because I love what I do but because I love giving them something they don't get enough of.  Time for themselves.  A day to feel pampered.  A day to forget about the outside world and focus on themselves.  A few short hours to find that beautiful woman that lives inside her.  The one who gives so much she rarely has anything left to give to herself.  The one who takes on the weight of the world so her family doesn't have to.  The one who sacrifices what she wants to do so her children can do more of what they want to do.  We all do it and there is nothing wrong with that but we need a mental health day sometimes to just do something for ourselves.

I said this multiple times that night and it is so true, "She comes in thinking she is getting a gift for her man but she leaves with a gift to herself".  I would say 95% of the women who book a session come in thinking they are going to give their sweetie a great gift for their birthday, anniversary or Valentine's but when it is all said and done they realize it was them who got the gift.  A few hours of pampering.  A few hours of dressing up in something silky and sexy.  A few hours out of the house.  An afternoon of seeing their true beauty reflected back to them in images that don't lie.  A boost in their self-esteem and confidence.

That right there is why I love my job so much!  That is why I get so emotional when I talk about it.  Her reaction to her beauty that shines out, her realization that she is still that beautiful woman she thought she lost when she became a business woman or mother or wife, her confidence in who she is now.  She is me, she is you, she is every woman I meet on a daily basis.  We all have something that we carry around with us that has made us forget that we are still important and beautiful and deserving.  So tell yourself that you are doing this as a gift for him but leave knowing it was all for you.

Don't forget, you only have to take a day away from the job or the kids.  Your viewing/ordering session happens just 60 minutes after we finish with your session.  You are in at 9 and done by 3.  You can go home, check on the kids, wait for hubby to come home and head out for an evening of dinner and romance since you will be all dolled up already.  Or extend that girl's day and have hubby take care of the kids while you stay out, call up your girlfriends and have a fun evening of drinks and laughter.  I would be willing to bet you turn more than a few heads, which is just another awesome side effect of giving yourself this gift that brings out your inner beauty and boosts your confidence.

I hope you decide to do something special for yourself.  Even if you decide a photo shoot isn't it, I hope you take a day to do something special for you.  The bonus of doing a photo shoot; you now have a gift for that special someone too!  Another bonus?  Crossing a boudoir session off your bucket list ;)  Shoot me an email via the contact page or give me a ring (336.309.3506) and I would be more than happy to talk about a session or even more about what I do and why.

♥xoxo♥
Kay