Uncategorized – Page 53

December 29, 2016December 11, 2016

Petals | Small Business Feature

It’s time to feature Decatur’s number one location for custom-personalized EVERYTHING! Petals is a full-service gift shop and they specialize in personalization (especially birthday t-shirts!). Monograms, team spirit, you name it they can do it!

The Details: Kari Calhoun, Owner of Petals | In Business: 8 years

Hours: Monday-Friday 10:00am-5:00pm & Saturday 10:00am-4:00pm | Location: 1351 Hickory Point Dr Suite C Forsyth, IL

Tell us about your business… What do you do? We are a full service gift shop. We not only sell fun women’s clothing and accessories, gifts for men, school spirit wear and gifts for all ages we personalize these gifts for you. Monogram your items, create fun tshirts for baby to adult, embroider most items or let us design rhinestone shirts for fun or your school. Birthday shirts are our specialty.

What makes your business unique/special? We create custom personalized items. Infant, toddler, youth and adult. From special 1^st birthday outfits to a funny tshirt for grandpa.

What item/service on your menu or in your shop do you just LOVE and think everyone needs? We love our custom birthday items. Tutus, diaper covers, bow ties, hats, banners, t shirts and onesies. Another fun item is our custom t-shirts. Funny sayings to business logos. We love helping you design something unique, fun and just what you want.

Tell us about YOU… WHY did you choose to do what you do? I decided 8 years ago to open a gift shop after leaving the medical field. It has evolved into a gift shop with personalization over the years. We grow each year and are very thankful for our repeat customers and organizations. I am married to a wonderful man that shares my passion for Petals and creating new products.

When did you know you wanted to go into this business? It was just the time for me. I had always wanted my own business and I was in a position to change jobs or create my own. I chose the latter.

In what way have you gone above/beyond in the past for a customer? We help them get exactly what they want. Sometimes you have an idea and we can make it become a reality. Taking a gift and making it personal sets it apart from everything else.

What is the coolest thing you’ve ever had a client do for you? Become a friend. After 8 years in business some of my customers have become very close friends.

What tool/equipment/or other vendor could you not imagine doing business without? I could not do what I do without my embroidery machines, vinyl cutter, rhinestone software and sewing machine. All these tools help me create customer orders

What other local business do you just LOVE? Why? I would have to say Dels and Giggles. I love knowing I can go to either one of these and find exactly what I am looking for. As a small business owner, I have no time and hate shopping online. It’s great to know I can get great gifts local with wonderful businesses.

What are you passionate about outside of your business? My family and friends. Owning your own business is 24/7 job and when you create and make 80% or more of the items you carry, it really becomes your life. My friends and family understand this and will even come and work with me to spend time with me. It very important to have a support system.

Describe your PERFECT day… I think my perfect day happens very often. Honestly not all days are great, things go wrong, stress happens and it is hard wearing so many hats in a business, but I love what I do. Opening my shop every morning and sometimes looking around and seeing how far I have come makes a perfect day.

Introduce us to your STAFF…

Morgan Ground. High School Senior Maroa-Forsyth

Jessica Eastwood. Our newest employee who is skilled on creating embroidered items for our customer.

See the latest news at:

http://www.petalsgiftshop.com/

See our other past small business features to connect with more businesses in our area:

See more on our Facebook Page and follow us on Twitter @sjanephotog, Instagram @sjanephotograhy, and Snapchat @sjanephotog.

December 27, 2016December 15, 2016

| Tiffany + Damien & Family | Christmas Portraits 2017 |

One of my favorite parts of the Holiday season is that we start to think about our families, making efforts to travel to be near to each other, buy gifts that bring our kids and friends joy, share what we have with those that have less, etc. It’s also the time of year that families reflect on how much has changed over the past year and with it being our busiest time of year for family portraits I know it’s also the time of year that mommas (and some daddies too) think about capturing the memory of who our families and kids are RIGHT NOW.

On of my favorite additions to the SJP product line this year is our Limited Edition sessions. In years past I’ve offered similar short sessions JUST for the holidays but this year was the first time I offered a few other dates throughout the year and it’s been so much fun that we are absolutely going to offer them again this year. These sessions are SHORT 15 or 30 minutes and give us the chance to update your annual family images or celebrate a milestone (like birthday or holiday) in a quick and easy way.

It’s so easy to forget to update these portraits with the hussle and bussle of our daily lives so we already have our 2017 dates open for booking NOW. You can plan ahead, to block out just 15-30 minutes of your year to create a little piece of your family legacy. Booking available here for April 8, May 6, August 5 and November 4!

Tiffany & Damien are a couple of my clients who know how much their kiddos change each year (just look at how little they look at our last session on Facebook)!

Despite the crazy wind and cold we were able to not only create family portraits for these four but some individuals with the boys and a few updated ‘brotherly love’ photos with these guys together. I just LOVE the personallity of these two little guys who are always so much fun in front of the camera.

And if you know these guys you may have seen this in your mailbox recently. I love the rustic/glitz combination we put together for their design!

December 23, 2016December 27, 2017

| Liz + Justin | Family Portraits Decatur IL | Christmas Cards |

BONUS extra blog post this week! With all the sessions this fall I have our typical Tuesday/Thursday blog posts scheduled out until MARCH so it was time to throw in some bonus Friday blog posts to be able to fit everyone in for their little minute in the spotlight.

Elizabeth and Justin are getting married this May and I’m thrilled to be a part of their big day. We needed just a few images of these guys pre-wedding for Christmas cards so we were able to get them set for our Limited Edition session date down in Macon. I have been in love with this pine tree lane since Rebekah’s senior session and after we had her family session there I knew I wanted to host a portrait date there and the Nash family was on board and so welcoming.

The wind was a tad crazy that day (if you follow us on IG @sjanephotography you may remember seeing all our presents blow away!) but these four were rock stars and did a great job pretending it wasn’t freezing. Here’s hoping for MUCH warmer weather the next time I photograph these beautiful family.

Some of you guys may have seen this gem in your mailbox this Christmas. I LOVE the design they chose for the card!

Be sure to head over to our Facebook Page to give them some love with your likes/comments.

December 22, 2016December 14, 2016

| KeepingitKelley Wedding | Kellie & Ryan Kelley | Springfield IL Wedding | Erin’s Pavilion Reception |

It’s time to show off Kellie & Ryan’s beautiful Niantic wedding with you today! One of my favorite parts about smaller older churches is the beautiful wood work and window details that are perfect for creative detail images… and that front door – swoon.

One of my favorite things to do during formal portraits on every wedding day is to try to create photos for the parents of the bride and groom along with the formal of the wedding couple. Often it’s been YEARS since parents have had images of just themselves and I just love seeing the connection and love in these families and even though it’s Ryan & Kellie’s big day, it’s also a big day for these four loving parents.

Every wedding is beautiful and unique and most are meticulously planned, yet somehow at just about every single wedding something goes not quite as planned. For these two our little hiccup (or adventure) for the day was that about 5 minutes before the ceremony was to begin the whole church lost power! Bride was a little nervous but we were prepared and able to photograph with no interior lights as was the videography team and the minister did a wonderful job sans mic. The result was actually a lovely candle-lit ceremony which will be a story for them to tell for years to come. (And about 5 minutes after the ceremony was complete the power came right back!).

It’s not every wedding that we have the chance to personalize their images like this…. at Kellie’s grandparent’s home with a tractor that’s been in her family for generations!

Erin’s Pavilion in Springfield is a beautiful venue for any wedding or reception and one of the biggest reasons why from a photography standpoint is the abundance of stunning locations close by for portraits. This small garden out front was my favorite for this ‘wall of ivy’ type look. We had fun with everything from laughing poses to Kellie’s fierce model look below.

Whenever possible I like to sneak out of the reception with the bride and groom for a few quick sunset images. This gives us something different from what we’ve created earlier in the day, shows the bride with dress bustled (and/or veil gone – Kellie rocked hers all night) but it’s also just a minute with the two of them alone amid the reception festivities which is always romantic!

I have to say it was a joy to be a part of this beautiful couple’s wedding day and I love their hashtag #keelingitkelley because YES this bride’s new name is Kellie Kelley (isn’t it adorable!).

December 20, 2016December 13, 2016

| Mullen Family Portraits | Decatur IL Family Photographer |

You guys might remember Kayle one of our class of 2017 senior models! Well this fall I had the chance to get her whole family in for their session. I absolutely loved working with Kayle and her mom for her senior portraits and it was even more fun to get her sister and dad in front of the camera too for these family images.

Some of you might have gotten this little treat in the mail from them! Their Christmas cards were one of my favorites. I just loved working in their favorite family portrait with just a subtle foil border on the front and a little reminder of the reason for the season on the back.

Now this design you’ll find hung on their wall soon! For Kayle’s senior portraits we created a wall collage with 3 separate canvases so they wanted to do something a bit different for the family portraits and decided on a digital collage to feature all their favorite images in a single canvas piece.

As happens often with our senior families, Kayle now has feature images in the home but poor Mahala (who’s not a senior yet) was a bit underrepresented. So the solution?! We took a few minutes during their family session to create some individual portraits for Mahala! While, of course, we’ll create LOTS more come her senior year this will tide them over until then.

Don’t forget to head over to the Facebook Page to check out their full session proof video to see all the images we created for them AND give them some love with your likes/comments!