we are have a great big sale!  the sale will be in thousand oaks, california this coming sunday, may 6th from 12pm-5pm.  in an effort of continuing our journey of simplification and looking towards the simple country life, we will be selling a good portion of the furniture & decor from our house as well as a ton of anthropologie decor, vintage clothes, props, vintage couches, big chairs, dining tables, dressers, old toys, cradles, bassinets, old signs, sheets, a hundred afghans & blankets, quilts, etc..!   yah, we have a lot of awesome stuff.  we are keeping our favorites and the practical stuff but trying to put a price tag on the rest.  so, as for the prouty family, our game plan on life right now is to hopefully have our home sold by the end of the year, live in our (soon to be restored) 1950 Spartanette trailer on the beach somewhere local for six months or so and then figure out if perhaps we would like to if you would like to move to the austin, texas area and find us a little farmhouse on some land.  we will ABSOLUTELY still be working and shooting weddings and portraits in california and texas (and anywhere else you can dream up) we just yearn for a slower pace to raise our family (and have more babies, who knows), have the flexibility to travel when we’d like, set down roots in a less expensive area and also be closer to the texas hill country and all those super amazing wildflowers.  :)

so… as for the sale, to attend you must EMAIL for the address and to r.s.v.p. to our office manager, ali at hello@wildflowersphotos.com.  and because i know there may be a few of you wondering, we won’t be doing any online listing or selling… we expect to sell pretty much everything on sunday but we may list a few things after, who knows.  :)

so, if you are local, hope to see you on sunday for some lemonade, happy faces and treasure hunting!

these photos are a few peeks inside our home.  we are not selling all of the things featured here but it gives you a good idea of the style of things we will have for sale!

.

so, i am not up on my donut high horse, i am surely not a baker.  but i am pretty excited about this little contraption that gives me that added inspiration to not dread the early mornings.  it helps me to transform my mind into being the fun mom instead of the grumpy, bitter mom.  it helps inspire me to wake up for the kids instead of to them.  i love that i can feed the whole family so affordably and intentionally.  and it gives us a reason to make any morning into a party, and let me tell you that turning on the disco ball at 8am is just as awesome as 8pm, actually way more awesome because we are already in our jammies.  <—  that is our favorite part.  ;)

so here are some of our donuts, all images taken in instagram with my iphone.

so here is my step by step process of the quickest possible way to do the donuts, this is like 14 minutes flat…blueberry, pumpkin spice & strawberry…we make them for every occasion…it can be entertaining for quite some time!  icing makes for good finger painting too…
these are two of my fave recipe inspirations…

(be sure to check out some of our making of the boat instragram snaps at the end!)

and a few of our creation process leading up to the session!  :)  

a few months back, we received the most awe-inspiring email inquiry seeing if we would be able to travel to the desert to do a portrait session and after reading this email i responded an enthusiastic “YES! YES! YES!” and we began making our plans for a little trip.  heidi bonnell said she was happy for them to share their story and also set up an annual charity event (Hope Live)  to assist others facing challenges post cancer.  heidi and joe are really super amazing!  so, here’s her initial email to me, i promise you won’t be able to read this without getting goosebumps, too:

    ”Hi Joy, here’s our story and what I see as the title of the shoot for us: “welcome to our happy ending”.  In brief – Joe and I got engaged in Rome after an amazing three year friendship which turned into a courtship and co-parenting a dog which then turned to love. Three weeks after that proposal I got unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer. Three operations and eight rounds of chemo later – we got married. One year after that we miscarried followed by a collapse at the gym which was a sudden cardiac arrest and I ended up in a medically induced coma for a week. Coming out of that (without impairment) was a miracle. That said, my bucket list has always been singular – having a child – thus the road to surrogacy. We had been smart enough to freeze embryos prior to my chemo. That’s how we ended up in California all the way from Canada!  Even with our wonderful surrogate, this took three attempts and now here we are – almost at the finish line with two beautiful boys almost ready to join us!  So I gave you all the mushy background not to overshare but to give you a sense of a long journey and this most wonderful ending. I chose you as your work beautifully uses light to show warmth and brings to my eye an instant happiness – that kind of never-ending Saturday afternoon feel we all enjoyed as kids.   It’s going to be difficult for me to imagine how it will roll given I want intimate, warm images in a destination that is currently unfamiliar to me and a home I don’t own without our personal belongings… but from what I have seen of your work – you can create warmth anywhere!  I do hope this works and we all get to spend an afternoon together in what they call the “Gem of the Desert”.  It has been quite a journey and we are looking to capture this incredible happiness early. So given the travel and late booking – Is there any possibility you might be available?”

so we went to the desert and we spent a lovely dream of an afternoon with them at the parker hotel in palm springs.  we fell in love with the bonnell family.  and we received this little note from heidi just after they returned back to canada the following week…

    ”It’s like I first told you – this is our “Happy Ending”.  Just being home with these babies, surrounded by family and friends – there are no words!  Life is beautiful.”

so… now for the winner!  we said a little prayer and then clicked the generate button for a random number between 1 and 445 (using random.org) and the lucky lady is…. COMMENT #30 JANAYE JOYNER!  can’t wait to meet you, janaye!  :)  and for the rest of the ladies i would love to meet you all too, remember you can still register for this workshop and receive the 20% birthday discount until this friday, we have a few spots left.  and no, i won’t do this offer again (we have had a few questions about doing this for future workshops).  just a one time special.  to register, email us directly at hello@wildflowersphotos.com.  sending out lots and lots of love!!!!!! xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

—————————-

so, it’s my birthday and since it is so much better to give than to receive we are giving away a free seat to ‘a wildflowers workshop’ for our workshop next month in santa barbara, california, april 16th-18th at the fabulous milk & honey farm!  all you have to do to win the seat is leave a comment on this post below (one comment only, please) and we will pick a lucky winner on wednesday, march 14th just after 5pm california time (winner will be picked by comment number, using random.org).  AND, that’s not all… because we love any excuse to celebrate, we are also offering a 20% discount off of our normal workshop registration fee for this santa barbara workshop only from now until friday, march 16th.  we do expect to fill up, though, before friday, especially with this generous discount, so the quicker you jump on this, the better.  if you happen to register and then are picked as our free seat winner we are happy to refund your registration fee.  also, for the ladies already registered for this workshop, do not fret, we love you, and we have worked up some very (i mean, VERY) fabulous yet-be-be-unveiled wildflowers signature presents for you worth much more than the 20% discount that you will receive at the workshop (we promise, you will not be disappointed).  

things to know about our pro workshops before you comment to win:  these workshops for women photographers that currently have a photography business (we take 20 women per workshop), we spend 2 1/2 days together talking everything related to business, we style & photograph two themed sessions, teach how to build storytelling and creativity into your photo sessions, discuss prop making, cover streamlining your workflow, marketing effectively, finding the heart of your passion for photography and making your business unique to YOU, balancing everything and how it relates specifically to us as women/wives/mamas/creatives/business people – aka being superwomen.  ;)  the cost is normally $1400 and covers instruction, meals during the workshop, our workshop book and a serious amount of bonding and fun (travel & lodging not included but we give lots of recommendations and have facebook groups set up for attendees to get to know each other and arrange sharing all that good stuff).  if you are not familiar with our workshops please visit our workshop website here for all the important info before you inquire to register (also, our workshop website has not been updated with these new dates but all the info there otherwise is current).

to register and take advantage of the special discount or for more information please email us directly at hello@wildflowersphotos.com.  please do not post any questions in the comment section below.  the below comment section is for contest entries only!

good luck!!!  and a happy day to you!

P.S.  if this is your first time commenting on our blog, your comment will first need to be approved to be visible but i will approve them in order they are submitted.  also, i am a firm believer that no matter where your comment ends up that the woman that is meant to win the seat will win it, no matter which number comment she is, so please do not fret.  i will do my best to approve them all as quickly as possible (a girl’s just gotta sleep sometime)!  thank you so much!