BonniePenny.ca

Spring is in full force! The way the temperatures have been lately it’s already starting to feel like summer. This year I feel like I’ve really taken the time to notice the season of Spring. Normally I think of it as the quick rainy season that later brings all the summer flowers. This year we’ve had a good amount of rain, but overall the weather has been warm and sunny. Since I’m not hiding under my rain hat or umbrella, I’ve really been paying attention to my environment. I’ve been noticing the buds appearing on the trees, I’ve watched these buds flower into brilliant shades of purple, yellow and crisp white, then watched them turn into leaves. A process I knew happened, but somehow it always went unnoticed, I just took it for granted. The process was so beautiful that I’m convinced we should get purple and white lilac trees for our backyard for next year.

I’ve also been paying attention to the dandelions in our backyard. Mostly because our backyard doesn’t have any grass, it’s all weeds. So dandelions are having a really fun time there. I love when dandy’s reach their brilliant yellow colour, inviting butterflies to rest on them. But they become really interesting in their old age state, where the petals turn into white fluffy seed umbrellas waiting for the perfect gust of wind to spread them around. The softness of the white fluffy petal is incredible and the texture of the strands and the seeds are complicated but interesting.

Dandelions to me represent the start of summer. The beginning of bright colours and fun wispy textures. What a great time of year!

Happy long weekend everyone!
~ Bonnie

Yesterday I found a prop that I have been searching for for a long time, a vintage basin!
It’s the perfect prop for any style of photoshoot, from newborns to baby, pets, parties, portraits etc.

Book an upcoming photoshoot with me before 5pm on Friday (May 18th) and receive 50% off!

Happy Wednesday!
Bonnie

image from wpclipart.com

Last weekend we had beautiful weather. The sun was shining, drying all the rain from earlier in the week and it was higher than 10 degrees! It was perfect for an outdoor pregnancy photoshoot in Beaverton, ON.

Here is a little sneak peek at two of the photos. More coming soon!

Last week I tired my first Pilates and Cycling classes at a local gym. The Pilates class was a lot more aerobic than I thought it would be, but was really great to work my core. The Cycling class was surprisingly easier than I thought. It’s great cardio and it really got my lungs burning.

I recognize that I have a long way to go in my personal journey to increase my overall strength and fitness, but I have to take a moment and reflect on how far I’ve come… from a pinched disc in my lower spine, to running a 5km race, then returning to couch potato and now back on the motivation train. I’m really looking forward to the next Pilates and Cycling classes and putting some fun back into exercise.

In the meantime I want to share a sneak peak of a photoshoot I did specifically on health and fitness. This image in particular really inspires me to continue with my daily stretches, in hope to one day be able to do this pose myself.

Stay tuned for more from this shoot soon!

Today is a beautiful and sunny day April day, with an unseasonably warm temperature of 21 degrees.  It makes me look forward to upcoming warm summer nights on patios with nachos and a nice cool beverage, with lots of ice.  Today also made me think of the many beautiful sunsets that come with summer.

I took this picture a few years ago from my friend Johnny’s apartment rooftop.

Tulips are in bloom, the days are getting longer and Spring has arrived.  Yet somehow I can’t stop wishing that Winter was still here.  Maybe I feel like that because we didn’t get enough snow this year, or because I didn’t get a chance to snowboard or break in my new snowshoes.  I did have an oppourtunity to visit a very cool beach in January,  the beautiful Crystal Beach in the Fort Erie area.  It’s not the tropical kind that people flock to in an attempt to escape the cold weather, instead it is a popular summer beach that patiently waits through the winter for the warm weather & the public to return.

I was on my way to the lovely little town of Crystal Beach to visit some family.  On our way to their house we decided to stop by the beach to see how it looked in the winter.  It was an extremely cold and windy day, my gloves didn’t do much to protect my hands from frostbite.  But I had so much fun snapping pictures.

It was very cool to see how one end of the beach looked completely different than the other end.  One end had sand that was smooth as glass and was lightly dusted in blown snow, the other end was completely covered in zebra muscles and you could barely see the sand beneath it.  I still don’t fully understand how just one side of the beach could be covered in muscles and the other end didn’t have any at all.  There wasn’t a pier or anything to separate them either… strange.

Some things I loved about the beach were the brightly coloured painted wall, the ice and snow layers frozen to delicate tree branches, the exposed bones of a building in ruin, the footprints in the snow from the beach travelers who were there before us and I loved capturing some pictures of a “Crystal Beach Ninja”.  Enjoy!

In January while carpooling with family on our way home from an event, we drove through the Niagara Falls area. My sister had mentioned that Niagara Falls often has a beautiful neon lights display at that time of year and we took a little detour. She wasn’t kidding, the lighting display was creative and impressive. Many of the lights were animated, some replicated Disney movie moments, while others were fun summer or winter scenes. Here are some pictures of my favorite ones:

This one doesn’t have any neon lights, but it was the parking lot that my family waited in while I snapped pictures. I thought it was eerily interesting looking, especially where the line of trees disappear into the darkness.

My husband and I moved into our first home this week and I have a beautiful book that I can not wait to unpack from all of our moving boxes. It’s called “Seasons” by Donna Hay. Yesterday we submitted the order for our dream kitchen and in 4-5 weeks I’ll have this wonderful book cracked open on my new kitchen counter trying out some of these lovely looking recipes.

What I love about this book is the simplicity of the recipes, the many fine details in the photography and food styling and the layout of the book. As per it’s name, the book is separated into different chapters by seasons, eg. Spring, Summer and so on.

Since I haven’t yet tried any of the recipes from the book, for now I’ll simply recommend it as a perfect coffee table book, that’s where I’ll keep mine for now. The fantastic photographs of the delicious looking food is sure to delight your guests.
Here is a sneak peek:

It’s hard to believe that this time last year I was busy planning and putting together the last few details for our wedding. I’ve been reminiscing about it a lot because everyone is excited with how unseasonably warm it currently is outside. It’s like summer! This time last year there was a snowstorm and I was quietly sitting with my fingers crossed hoping it would melt by the 27th, it did, well most of it anyhow, there were a few big snowbanks left.

Traditionally people have been known to celebrate their first wedding anniversary with “paper”. Surprisingly we were lucky enough to find a beautiful home outside of the city and just a few days before our wedding anniversary we will be moving in. I think we might celebrate our one year wedding anniversary with a bbq (something very important to us since we haven’t been allowed to do this for the last 6 years of apartment life), a bottle of wine and our paper… the deed to our house.

How did you celebrate your first wedding anniversary?

In October I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of a very good friend of ours. My husband and I made it a little weekend getaway and enjoyed visiting with friends and seeing the sights in Ottawa. It was a beautiful, sunny and unseasonably warm weekend. We enjoyed roaming the shops in the Byward Market, had some fantastic food (Beaver Tails & ice cream) and took lots of pictures.

The wedding was located right on the water at the Ottawa Rowing Club. It was a beautiful old building with lots of character. The sun was bright and acted as the perfect backdrop for the outdoor ceremony. It was such a treat to have warm summer like weather in October. Congratulations again J & B!