Gretchen Fawn Photo - part of the Snoqualmie Moms Support Collective

I recently brightened up my hair color with some Red Henna. I have had lots of questions about it, so I thought I'd give you the pros and cons today. Overall, Henna is a good thing for me. It's a beautiful, bright color, it fades slowly over time and it's all natural. On the "con" side, Henna is messy, it's not permanent and it's messy. Oh yeah, did I mention messy? By far, the messy part is the worst feature of henna. Let me explain.  Now let's say you want to color your hair and you want to do it yourself, you'd like to have it natural and not damage your hair. Henna is the product for you! It comes in clear, auburn, red, brown and black. I have only used the auburn and red. Red is more orange and light than auburn. It also depends a lot on your hair color. If you have lighter hair, it will be a lot brighter. There have been a few times I worried I looked like a clown, but after a few days it faded enough to look nice.  You can find henna at PC...

I just wanted to share with you a couple of my new portraits that were taken at the Quad at University of Washington. This is the perfect time of year to capture the flowering cherry blossom trees. They are a beautiful symbol of spring. I was able to wear the necklace that belonged to my Grandma Ruth who passed away last year around this time. I love how these turned out. A special thank you to Cheryl Ford Photography for taking them today! Take half an hour to stroll through UW soon, you won't regret it! Enjoy~Gretchen

I had the tremendous privilege today to meet up with some photographers I met on the Seattle ReSTARt facebook group. I really, really love cherry blossoms, so I knew I had to go to UW this year and capture the beauty there for my promo video. I put my idea out on the Fb group and it was like overnight our plan emerged, complete with two brides and an assistant. Thank you everyone who came and made it a special, fun day! Shout out to:  Reb ecca , Cheryl , Jennifer ,  and Jenny , 4 amazing photographers who came out to enjoy the fun, take photo and video and generally come with lots of ideas and open hearts! More to come in the near future, Enjoy~ Gretchen This is my friend Ari! Isn't she beautiful? Ari had a vintage headpiece that was so amazing!  Her eyes are so lovely! Ari in the blossoms.....sigh! The loveliest of them all! A little black and white to bring out the vintage feel.

A few weeks ago, I got an invitation for our family to celebrate our friend Kens 50th birthday! We all love Ken, so I put down that we would go play " Whirlyball ", whatever that is. I had never played, but the kids had been there before and thought it would be fun. For some reason, I had it in mind it was in Kent. Thankfully, as I plugged in the directions to my iphone, I realized it was the other direction, in Edmonds, WA. What would we do without our iphones? When I got there, I was battling a headache and bumper cars didn't seem like the best idea for me. After my medicine kicked in, I thought, "ok, I'll give this a try, at least one game." Let-me-tell you, I am a whirlyball believer! This is the most fun I have had in a long time! You get in your car and have 4 other team mates. You have a whiffle ball scoop and targets at either end. They help us grown ups out and make our car color match our target. One reason it's so fun is because you can barely...

Seattle Center. We like to meet for lunch and walk around the center. E Uncle Mark plays tricks and games with the little kids in the Center House. We got to tour Underground Seattle this year. It was interesting to see the city that used to be there. Saying our goodbye's from the last day at Great Wolf Lodge. The amazing and disgusting Gum Wall at Pikes Place Market. Every other year our "California Cousins" come up to Seattle for a visit. These are my husbands cousins and their kids and his Aunt and Uncles as well as his Gma. I hadn't gotten to know them much since we have been married, so I've been thrilled they have been able to come visit! Our kids are close in age to their kids which make it even better! Instant friends. They all get along amazingly well and have a blast when they are together. I'm pretty sure one of their favorite times is when we are at Great Wolf Lodge and they get to stay up in the lobby running around, talk...

I had so much fun collaborating with a group of photographers who I connected with on the Seattle Restart fb page on this portrait session. Brent and Natalia showed up dressed in their super cute, retro outfits. She even wore suspenders! (I later found out that Natalia owns an awesome upscale consignment store in Seattle, I'm drooling over. Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/sellyoursoleseattle ) My new friend, Erica Sciarretta, who owns http://sorellaphotos.com/ invited Brent and Natalia to model for us. They were married sometime in the last year and as you can see, they have that "I cannot keep my hand off you" vibe! Another new friend, Candy Acosta secured the fun location for our learning pleasure in Northgate. You can check out her lovely photography here: http://www.candyacostaphoto.com/ . Besides getting to shoot and create with a wonderful group of photographers, I also enjoyed just being able to talk and ask each other questions. Watching...

Once in awhile, I will offer headshots as a special. I did this a few weeks ago and got to spend a little time with this lovely lady, Karen. Karen is a fellow homeschool mom who I met through our local AWANA program. She also has a ministry to help ladies whose husbands are struggling with addiction. She's a great listener and I can tell the Lord has her in the place to help ladies because of the love that radiates from her. She has a gentle way about her as well. Don't let me forget to mention those amazing blue eyes! I love to be able to help her get a good looking headshot for her up and coming flyer she's creating for her seminar. If you need a headshot in the near future, give me a call, I'd love to help out! 425-922-2324 Enjoy~Gretchen PS If you want to hear more about the conference click here

I met Alaina Bos a few weeks ago at Restart, Creative Live. We were both in the audience. We sat at the table and got acquainted with the usual questions. I immediately felt comfortable talking to Alaina and her big smile kept me talking. Well, I love to talk, so that helped too! Anyway, she asked the question today about where we love to travel the most in Europe. I immediately wanted to have a pity party that I hadn't been to Europe, but instead, I'll turn it into a blog post and make the best of it! You can see her fun picture of her favorite place here: Alaina's Favorite Place in Europe  As for me, you will have to take a look at my pinterest board to get an idea of where I dream of going. The basic criteria include, warm, water, beach, good food and relaxation. These will change, I'm sure, but take a peek and see my dreams! Gretchen's Vacation Dreams  And as always, drop me a note and tell me where I must go. I'll add your ideas to my dream file and my p...

Although Hannah and Serafina hadn't seen each other a ton lately, it was fun to get them together for some senior portraits.  They were best friends for years when we lived near to them in Seattle. Our two families have been through thick and thin together and that has left a very special place in my heart for the whole Cunliffe family! Hannah has 7 other sisters and one brother. Serafina has two sisters.   Now they are both 17! I cannot believe it. And I cannot wait to see where the two of them will be in the next 5 years. Hannah is a world renowned track star and Serafina is a very talented musician. When they were little, they sang in the church Christmas Choir together, played outside for countless hours, went to LBC together and generally smiled and played whenever they could. It's been a sweet time looking back at the pictures from their childhoods! Enjoy each moment, they fly by before you can say: "super-cala-fragile-istic-expe-alidocious!" En...

I was planning another post for today, but came across these images of our first house and I thought to myself, "that would be fun to share with my fans". We lived in Des Moines, WA in a rental cottage and I got the desire to own our own home when we had our first daughter. After several deals that fell through, we were able to secure this house. It needed a lot of work and thankfully, my Dad is in construction and did a major overhaul for us. When we bought the home, it was 710 square feet and every inch of it was painted a light green color. When I say every inch, I mean every inch. Under the sinks, in the cupboards, all the walls and ceilings. Even the tub was that light green color. After we had our second daughter, our 710 sq ft didn't seem to have enough room for us. We looked into moving, but in the end decided we would end up with more house if we added on. I'll tell you, remodeling is not for the faint of heart! Especially when you h...

East of the Mountains, there was sun and no clouds! Bits of snow here and there, but a beautiful model and radiant light! We love to capture your son or daughter in a unique, natural setting! This rock was so big, we shot through the middle of it! It's that time of year again! I know it seems early, but the best time for Senior portraits is the spring or summer BEFORE your senior year begins! The year book photos are due in October in our area and it takes time to take the portraits and have our slideshow presentation. I know there is so much to think about Fall of Senior Year as well, so getting them done when the weather is nice and stress is low, is the PERFECT plan! We also have free wallets for everyone who either schedules their session in March/April or refers a friend! What could be better? You would want to choose us for your portraits if your son or daughter wants an outdoor, natural feel to their portraits, if they are either shy or outgoing, and if they wa...

I knew we would need some family time so in December, I started looking for a place to stay. The first open weekend at the worldmark wasn't until March! We had previously come in the winter for years and had so much fun sledding and playing in the feet of snow. This time, all the snow is melted and the sun has been shining. What a blessing it's been. We have not done much of anything. Just relaxed, played games, walked around town and by the river and eaten. It's been perfect!! We are working on our video for our "about section", so keep your eyes open for that in the next month. Enjoy-Gretchen.