It may have been December...no, no...it was January.  I was going through a workout on the spin bike, and God gives me an idea.  A day, a full day, of portraits for some beautiful women that I have the privilege to call "friend."  I have been wanting to do this for months, but the thought of building a backdrop, storing a backdrop, setting up a backdrop, and planning five separate days like this....seemed a bit daunting in my tiny apartment with my tight schedule.  So, this idea of one day, one full day, seemed less daunting.  I could move my son out of his bedroom for a couple of days, set up a backdrop...this could happen.  Thanks God!  Let's do this!  I felt excited, creative and motivated which led to an amazing finish to my spin workout that day!  

As I researched and read to find out how to build the backdrop I wanted, I realized that Italy and my apartment may not be the best mix to do just that.  Good thing, I have a beautiful friend who is able to think outside the box for me and she looked at me and said, "Why don't you try wallpaper?"  Hmmmm.  I will tell you that Italy has an outstanding wallpaper collection!  It was a very creative and easy solution to my dilemma (this is the norm here, we are often trying to come up with creative solutions to dilemmas whether it be substituting ingredients in recipes, fixing our cars, or crafting in any way to name a few instances).  So, I found two papers, a gray solid and a cream pattern.  I sent out invitations to my friends, asked two of them to help with hair and make-up, made a schedule for the day and took off running with this idea.  

The whole day was inspired by Sue Bryce.  She is a glamour photographer whose passion is to get women to get out from behind the camera and exist with their families in photos.  She has been doing this for over 20 years and is an amazing portrait photographer.  I had been watching some of her webinars on CreativeLive, and was truly inspired at what she does for women.  It started a fire in my heart to do this for a few of my friends here.  My whole goal was to show my friends how I see them, as the beautiful, creative, loving, welcoming, strong women they are.  

It was a superb day with them.  It, also, was an exhausting day for my brain, but I learned a ton through this experience and I hope I was able to give these beautiful mothers, wives, daughters, granddaughters a photo of themselves that they love and their families will cherish for years to come.  Enjoy these photos, it was a labor of love for me and I can't thank them enough for following my directions no matter how strange they were!  

Alison Alison Kelly Kelly Danna Danna Thea Thea Elizabeth Elizabeth               Never, never forget....whenever you are having your photo taken, weight on the back foot, hand on hip, chin forward and down.  :-)

Grazie amici!

Mackenzie