courtney jade’s blog

Let me just first start off by saying that this is one AWESOME couple you are about to see.

Kayla is beautiful, smart, optimistic and SO fun to be around.
When we first met, I complimented her on her adorable boots, and she took it off and let me try it on! Basically, she is totally RAD.

John is a ton of fun, sweet, and someone who could cheer anyone up on their worst day. He is so in love with Kayla, and it’s evident, even just in the way that he looks at her.

They met at summer camp years ago, and their summer romance just never ended.
They are fabulous, and they are even more fabulous together.
I can’t wait to shoot their wedding this summer! Kayla + John, enjoy your pics!

Their wood cookies So cute!

Major props to John for squeezing on this bench! I just adore this shot

Did I mention they are hardcore U of O fanatics?

Such a fun couple!!!

<3

well, if you’ve been following me for a while now, then you know how I’ve been dying to get a pair of Toms shoes. I am happy to announce that I have finally bought my first pair!! These shoes are  SO comfortable, and completely amazing, I’m considering investing in a few more pairs for shooting in

First, if you don’t already know about Toms shoes, then you should hop on over to their website and see what they’re all about. It’s a fantastic company that has it’s heart at it’s core. For each pair of shoes that are purchase, a pair is donated to a child in need. One for one. So not only are you getting an adorable pair of kicks, but you are also helping a good cause! See more in the video at the end of this post (also posted previously in my christmas list post).

I first found out about Toms a couple of years ago. My photo friends Matt and Kevin had some, and they swore that they were the most comfortable shoes that they’d ever worn (i agree). I looked into getting some, but at the time, money was tight and I wasn’t able to.  Then, AT&T came out with a commercial featuring them a while back, and they’ve been on my mind ever since.

I recently discovered that one of my old friends from high school is now working for Toms shoes! He does freelance artistry for them, and his work is awesome!! Once I found this out, I emailed him to find out how I would go about getting myself an awesome pair of these “custom Toms”, and the rest is history! He did such a fantastic job with them, I just HAD to take them out for a mini photo shoot so that I could always remember how sweet they look. (Oh, and to share them with you all as well! hehe)

Without further adue, here are more photos than you’ll probably ever want to see of my custom Toms!

Needless to say, I LOVE MY TOMS!!!!!

If you’re interested in having some custom Toms as well, you can email my friend Alex at: Alex@MinchArt.com. He charges $20/hour, and most all pairs take an hour or less to do. Check out more of his work here: www.minchart.com

Support your fellow artist, support your soles, and support a good cause!!! These shoes kick butt!

xoxo <3

this is baby Grayson

I’m trying out a new slideshow program, let me know what you think!

The weekend before last I got to spend some time with my lovely, wonderful step-sister and her two fabulous children, to shoot some photos.

McKenzie is now three years old, and a little firecracker! She has got an opinion of her own and she’s more than happy to share it with you. I just love little personalities! It’s so fun to ask them silly questions and hear their answers. I’m convinced that child logic is amazing.

Then there’s the adorable Brady. He just turned one month, and this was the first time I met him. What. A. Doll. I could eat him up I love him so!! Congrats on the handsome baby boy Bowling family!!!

Sometimes, when I’m lucky, I’m able to get a photo of a child that is almost like a vision into their future. It doesn’t always happen, but it did this day. Maybe it’s just me and my eyes, but when I look at this photo, I see a much older McKenzie than just a three year old little girl. These are some of my favorite moments to capture <3 And isn’t she just gorgeous?? Watch out Steph, this one’s going to be a heartbreaker!!!

And who couldn’t love a face like Brady’s?? Just look at those eyelashes! They would make any girl i know completely jealous. Why is it that the boys are always the ones with the thick, beautiful, long lashes? Thank heavens for mascara!!

Thank you for letting me capture some special moments for you and your family Many more to come!!

<3

brian (awesome) + lea (beautiful) = beautifully awesome couple.

Over a year ago the beautiful Lea asked me to be a part of her and Brian’s most special day- in Costa Rica. This was my first destination wedding ever, and I am so glad that I was able to have such a wonderful bride and groom (and their friends) to experience it with!

Brian and Lea make such a beautiful couple, but they are also genuinely wonderful people. It’s not every day that you feel like your clients are friends that you’ve known forever, yet this is how they made me feel. Thank you to both of you for making me feel like such a part of your group, not just on your wedding day, but my entire stay in Costa Rica. Brian and Lea were married at the beautiful Tamarindo Diria Hotel in Tamarindo, Costa Rica.

You are both lovely, I hope your photos will forever be a reminder of how extremely beautiful your day was.

view your slideshow here

the beginning.

<3

a while back i did it. i splurged.

i posted about it on my facebook page.. but never said what it was that i splurged on. it took about a month to get to me, but when it arrived from hong kong i couldn’t have been more excited!!! i have been wanting one forever now, so it’s really fun to have one… this is the beauty that i purchased:

a fujifilm instax mini 7s!!!

i also purchased 5 packs of film with it. It produces business card size polaroid photos, and i am in loooooove with them!!! Thank goodness they still make film for this baby, i hope they never quit!!

my first photos i took with it were of quincey and the flowers that mark brought me when he picked me up at the airport from costa rica

Then i took my fabulous friend Tonja out to a newer restaurant here that I’m in love with- Slappycakes for her birthday, and we had some Polaroid fun It’s a super awesome modern style restaraunt that is all about having fun, making pancakes, and enjoying deliciousness!! All of the staff is SUPER nice too! We ended up taking my dad there for his birthday the next weekend, we loved it so much! Oh, and they serve Stumptown coffee <3 win!

Making delicious pancakes!!

Us and our delicious blood orange mimosas! Yay birthday breakfasts!!!

My camera shaped pancake with butterscotch chips <3

The awesome booth decal! This place has STYLE!!!

Can you say “YUM!”?!

They came over and sang “Slappy Birthday” to Tonja, and gave her a deep fried banana with fresh made whipped cream and a candle to blow out

still learning to use the different settings on this polaroid cam… you can set it to indoors, cloudy, sunny, or really sunny…. i forgot to switch it, and it was bright out for these 2. Thanks to the random dude on the street who took these for us!!

And of course I had to get some fun pics of my boys and i

Mark bought me an amazing 7th Heaven bunny butt cupcake from JaCiva’s!!! THAT is LOVE! <3 Quincey wanted some, hahaha i love that pic!

<3

Needless to say, I’m putting my “splurge” to good use! And hopefully I’ll be able to use it soon on some of my photo shoots!

until the next post!

<3

I got to shoot the ever-adorable baby grayson yesterday! He is just 12 days old in this sneak peek!

It took us over 2 hours to get him fast asleep (one of the biggest keys to newborn photography is LOTS of patience), but it was well worth it. I’m really trying to be more creative with my newborn shoots, and really take my time and get the best shots possible for my clients! I just adore how this one turned out (and the little boy who’s in it!)

Many more to come soon

she’s even more beautiful on the inside.

this is jaimee.
jaimee works for Toni & Guy.
she is my hair stylist.
she’s been doing my hair for almost 6 years now.
the first time she did my hair was right before i flew out to meet mark for the first time.
she is beautiful.
she has one of the kindest hearts of anyone i know.
her laugh is even pretty, and infectious.
my dog de-flowered her dog (hehe!)
she has a great sense of humor.
she is creative, and full of fun ideas.
we shot this photo at our condo in Costa Rica last week during a mini-photo shoot.
i heart her <3

more to come soon…

Yesterday my bestie Ben, and his sister Jenna introduced me to what is now my favorite restaurant in all of Portland: Jade Teahouse & Patisserie

Located in the adorable Sellwood neighborhood, off of 13th and SE Lexington, is a beautiful green building. One of the reasons it was love at first site was the design of everything. From the moment you spot the place driving by, to the second you walk through the door, it’s beautiful. The colors, the lighting, the furniture, even the fonts on the menu board create such an upclass, yet homey feel. You can tell that everything has been carefully thought out and cared for with a whole heart. These people want you to feel comforable!!

The atmosphere is completely beautiful and warm. There’s a peace about it, and there are fun little details everywhere. Just look at the rack of loose leaf teas!

And the menu, oh, the menu!!! Mark and I have a hard time finding a place with food that we both LOVE. Sure, there are places that he loves, and I like, or visa versa… but this place is the perfect fit! They have menu items that are more traditional or basic (but still completely flavorful and delicious), and also items for the more adventurous tongue, and everything in between. I don’t know anyone who couldn’t find something here that they didn’t absolutely love.
They have a huge variety of asian influenced dishes, as well as baguette sandwiches, soups, and delicous baked goods! The head chef pours her heart and soul into every single dish that’s prepared, and you can tell 100%. Everything tastes and looks like it was specially prepared just for you. The people are extremely friendly, and go above and beyond the norm to tell you about the cuisine, even recommending things! All of the ingredients are fresh, and though I’ve only been there twice now, it seems as though they make most everything from scratch! They have a bakery downstairs where the head chef (who apparently studied the art of french baking for a time in France [i think, can't remember exactly what our server said about this.. but I know she studied it over in Europe for a time]) prepares delicious baked cookies, macaroons, and other tastey treats!
I could go on and on all day, but I’ll let the photos speak for themselves

Mark’s Thai Iced Tea & my fresh squeezed strawberry lemonade

A few cute shots of my markie <3

Our delicious food!!!

Hands down, best Pho I’ve ever eaten. Mmmmmm so good

And of course, we had to have dessert!!! Jenna was raving about their traditional cake that they make! It’s green due to the banana peels that they use in it, and it tastes like a light vanilla. The cake is moist and fluffy, and the buttercream is smooth and creamy. There’s a surprise crunchy layer in the middle of some sort of flaky pastry, and white chocolate shavings on top To. Die. For. And not too sweet either!

We also tried this traditional sesame ball treat, which I forget the name of! It was awesome!! It was like a rice/bread doughnut-like ball that was crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside, and it was filled with some sort of yummy almond paste and coconut. Then it comes with a sweet glazey honey caramel sauce (I think that’s what it was… it was all so delicious and went so fast I can’t be positive!).

Seriously. Best. Restaraunt. EVER. I’m officially in love, and SO excited to find a place that Mark and I are both totally blown away by! I can’t wait to go back, and I was just there 2 hours ago!!

Until we meet again Jade… <3

About a year ago I received an email from a gentleman who wanted to use my photo for the cover of their CD. They had seen the photo via my flickr page, and just loved it!

So we made an arrangement, and I sent off the full rez file… I completely forgot about it, and if it weren’t for the random email updates as to how the album was coming along it may have completely slipped my mind forever. So I was quite surprised and very excited when I went to the mailbox the other day and pulled out a package that read “ROYAL MAIL”. First of all, how sweet is that?! I mean, there’s really not much that’s “Royal” about the USA… I mean, we are the US Postal Service… so boring. Anyways! Here is what I was so excited to open!!!

AAHHHHHHH!!! There’s my BABY on the cover of a CD!!!! SO COOL!!!!
view the original pic here; it’s had over 14,000 views to date, and while I’m not sure exactly HOW they found it, I assume it was through google or something

My boo-boo is FAMOUS!!!! Haha, well at least in the UK!
Anyways, I think it was really great that even though copy writes on photos these days are completely abused and consistently taken advantage of, these guys were awesome enough to not only ask my permission to use the photo but also to pay me for it, and then fulfill their word and send me a finished copy! I was ecstatic!!!

I haven’t popped the cd into the player yet, as I was just too excited to write about it, so I’m not sure exactly what they sound like yet, but you can check out their website here: The Strawbs
Today it is GORGEOUS outside!!! I took Quincey to a local Italian Greyhound meetup earlier, and then we came home. He layed in the sun while Mark and I did a little spring cleaning Here’s a couple of pics of my workspace/psuedo office

If you’re curious about all of the lovely things on my desk, you can check them out here

Until next time!

<3