On January 1st, 2012, I embarked on a journey to take a photo EVERY SINGLE DAY for a year with a 366 project.  Mostly these images are coming from my iPhone but about once a week or so, I pull out the “real camera.”    After having proudly finished my first month of this project (which I will share soon!), I was looking back over the past year of my life, captured by my iPhone, and I decided it needed a proper chronicle.  Take a look at the book I made featuring my 2011 iPhone Art.

If you’d like to see more of my iPhoneography, check out my tumblr blog.  If you also have an iPhone and love to take photos, feel free to follow me on Instagram (mistydawnphoto) and make sure to let me know how to follow you too.

Their wonderful wedding day presented only a few hiccups and those were small at best.  The rain didn’t stop us one bit and luck would have it that I know a tiny bit about makeup and was able to fix a makeover mishap.  (Have I mentioned I often wear many hats at weddings?  LOL)  Hubby happily helped out with double duties as groomsman and photo assistant, which I wholeheartedly thank and love him for.    Please enjoy some photos from their day.

Lori, from Fusion Salon, did a top-notch job on Rachel's hair. It really was amazing. Unfortunately though, when we returned to their hotel room, Rachel was unhappy with her makeup. Thankfully, I have a decent enough knowledge of makeup (from my many trips to the MAC store for my own makeovers!) and since Rachel liked how my makeup looked, I quickly retrieved my makeup kit and did a mini makeover on her. Whew! Crisis averted! **Might I also add that this was a prime example of how having a 2nd photographer with me enabled us to not lose any time here as she continued to document as I played makeup artist.

Adam is the world's biggest Flyers Fan. I mean it. Don't test this theory.

How many bridesmaids does it take to get a bride into a wedding gown? A LOT. Seriously!

One of my favorites of Rachel (and her dress).

I love the excitement here as Rachel's Dad escorts her down the aisle.

Adam loves Rachel's son, Austin, as his own and Austin calls him Daddy.

I love when they think nobody's paying attention. LOL

My favorite moment of every wedding day.

This turned out to be one of my absolute favorites. Rain isn't so bad, now is it?

The dark purples, silvers and blacks turned out to be a beautiful combination for their decor.

Another favorite photo. This is is just sooooooo......THEM. This is the Adam & Rachel we know and love.

Adam and his mom are very close and so when the danced to "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, my tear ducts just may have been overactive. Just maybe. But it's not certain.

Austin was having the time of his life!

He's also quite the show off. LOL

I must admit that one of the hardest parts of this job is staying off the dance floor. Luckily, as part of the arrangement in having me photograph their weddings, my friends have been gracious enough to accept my stipulation that I be allowed to have fun at the reception. haha! (With my 2nd photographer still covering the event, of course!)

Tessie got this great shot of me & hubby - one of my favorites to this day.

and the coverage wouldn't be complete without a shot of the Boston Market club. All of us met each other while working for Boston Market! For many of us, it was our very first job.

Thank you, my dear friends, for trusting me to document your amazing day and for also offering me the choice to be a bridesmaid or guest instead.    That was the most amazing thing.  Love you all lots!  Thanks also go to my fun and amazing friend and colleague, Tessie, for her help documenting this wedding.  She was instrumental in my ability to lay back and have a few drinks with friends during the reception and she got some pretty rad shots of me dancing.  LOL 

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Ceremony: Holy Rosary Church in Claymont, Delaware

Reception: Concordville Inn in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania

Videographer: Lo Ki Productions

DJ: Schaffer Sound Productions

Cake: Dough Main Baked Goods

Hair Stylist: Lori C. from Fusion Salon

to every mom, grandmom and mom-to-be out there!  (furbaby moms too!)

In honor of Mother’s Day and my own very special mom, I thought today would be perfect to share with you a few photos from a wonderful day last fall, when my mom and step-dad finally got married!  They’ve been together FOREVER (okay, maybe it’s only been 15 or 20 years) but they just never sealed the deal.  Better late than never, right?    It was a small family affair but it was special and of course, I made sure to have a camera on hand.  Enjoy a few photos from their day.

My mom's favorite color is black, so it was inevitable that she would find a beautiful black dress to get married in. haha!

My mom’s bamboo plant aided in creating one of my all time favorite ring shots and as it turns out, ended up being published in Delaware Bride!

FYI – Bings Bakery ROCKS.  We pretty much shop there for all of our family cake needs cuz their cakes are sooooooo good.  Mmm-mmmm.  Now I want cake! 

Speaking of behind-the-scenes, one of my (many) winter projects was to update galleries on the website, so I’m happy to report that I can cross that off the list!  All of the galleries have been updated in the past couple weeks and there are all new Featured Galleries to enjoy.  You may also notice that the blog header images are new, as well.    So if you haven’t been over to the website recently, get on over there and take a peek and see what’s new!

Little old Delaware (and our surrounding areas) has recently been subject to what is now being referred to as “Snowmageddon,”  with record amounts of snow fall this season.  While it’s been nice to be snowed in, with nowhere to go for several days, I could really have done without the shoveling!  That said, I thought I would leave you with a photo of my dog, Oreo, trekking out on a snow drift in our yard.  He’s quite the little adventurer and he’s luckily light enough not to break the semi-frozen top layer and fall through!

Things have been delightfully busy around here….SO busy, in fact, that I’ve neglected my poor poor blog and it’s wonderful readers.  My apologies.  After an insane month of October , preceded by an even more insane month of September (beaucoup weddings, album designs, illnesses, teaching, birthdays, etc), I’m happy to announce that blogging will resume this week.    Thanks so much for your patience with me and my blog.  I can’t wait to share all the really great stuff that’s been going on lately!  Stay tuned!  For now, here’s a couple Halloween photos of me and the hubster.

**Oh and can I just say I am sooooo excited to see The Twilight Saga: New Moon in 10 days!!!  Who’s with me?? 

Within hours of getting engaged, my friend Christine asked me to be her photographer. This brought a whole lot of emotions to the forefront….excitement, doubt, fear, love, joy, etc. I was afraid maybe I wouldn’t live up to their standards…I was excited that they thought of me to ask…I was super excited that they were finally tying the knot! I wondered how I would balance being a friend and a professional. I wondered how my husband would feel, being a guest while I was working. I discussed all of these feelings with her, because we’re open like that. We came to an awesome compromise…I would work up until the reception, at which point I would become a “guest” and pass the reins to my super amazing assistant, Tessie, who is a terrific photographer in her own right. This seemed to be the perfect solution but proved to be somewhat useless LOL because I don’t know how NOT to be a photographer. I couldn’t abandon my camera the entire night, but I did manage to get some drinking, er, dancing in.

Christine and Jason are dear friends of ours. I’ve said this before. They are genuinely awesome people and role models for how a relationship should be. They give and take so eloquently. They are somehow able to lead separate lives while still being completely entwined together. (Ahem, case in point…a 9 hour Black Friday shopping trip with yours truly didn’t even ruffle Jason’s feathers!) Their “fights” are even cute. It’s kind of sickening, actually. LOL All kidding aside, we love them and it was truly my pleasure to be the one to not only preserve their memories, but also help create some with them too.

Hehehe. The fifth four-legged critter to join our family that my dear husband, Marc, is referring to, is our newest doggie addition…..Peanut!

Peanut is a chihuahua (of sorts…he pretty much looks like a chihuahua but he’s got some dachshund in there too they think.), contrary to the fact that he looks like a little fox! Peanut came to us by way of my friend, Sarah, who previously worked with Peanut’s owner, who wasn’t taking care of him. Sarah convinced the owner to release Peanut to her and let her find him a good home.

The whole thing started while I was at Sarah’s office, getting ready to take her daughter out for some pictures. The girl had come by with Peanut to ask Sarah what she thought of him, as he wasn’t acting right and she thought the cat had scratched him. Ummmm….that’s no cat scratch, honey, that would be MANGE. OMG! He was a mess…he was worm infested, covered in mange, losing his hair, very malnourished and just plain miserable and in pain. Sarah and I looked at each other and almost started to cry! This poor little puppy (only 4 or 5 mos old) had been through so much and this wasn’t even the first time that Sarah had taken care of Peanut for this girl. This was her 2nd chance with Peanut after Sarah took him in for 3 weeks, a month earlier, when he needed shots and de-worming. Well, she obviously wasn’t at a capacity to care for animals….she had no money to take him to the vet and just simply wasn’t taking care of this dog, so thankfully she agreed to give him up.

These pictures were taken the day that we rescued Peanut from his owner.

Of course, I fell in love with him at first sight and with his cause. It didn’t take much convincing for Marc to agree to adopt him, after I told him the story (with tears in my eyes) and showed him the pictures. Sarah fostered Peanut for a couple weeks and took him to the vet on behalf of Spay and Save, who she volunteers with. They graciously covered his vet costs and I was excited when they accepted my application to adopt him.

These are pictures that Sarah took of Peanut, from the first time that she cared for him and then again when she was fostering him this time, before we adopted him.

He’s doing sooooo much better now!! After the long road of skin scrapings, Ivermectin shots, pain meds, and frequent medicated baths….Check out these before and afters:

When we first adopted him, one month ago, this is what his back and belly looked like – bald with only patches of hair left, that were still waiting to fall out.

These pictures were taken today…lots of new hair growth!! and only a teeny bit of pink skin left to turn purple (turning purple and then dark purple is part of the healing process before the hair starts to grow back in those areas).

Isn’t he doing great?! We just love our little Peanut! Oreo and Maddie are adjusting well…they weren’t too keen on the idea at first but they’re quickly accepting Peanut into the family. When Marc and I watch TV at night, they all 3 curl up with me on the couch. Its the cutest thing…one day I’ll teach that hubby of mine how to use my camera so he can get a picture of it!! haha

Peanut loves to play fetch….he will fetch a tennis ball (mini sized) all day long if you’ll throw it.

He loves to go places with his mommy cuz I take him everywhere I can, to socialize him well so that his previously neglectful upbringing doesn’t have long term damage. He has NO concept of his size – he thinks he may as well be a 50lb dog, the way he bosses around Bear – my dad’s full grown border collie. Got a pretty big mouth on him too, for bein so pint-sized!

So now that this post is so long-winded (how could I help it with something as cute as Peanut?!)…..please give a warm and loving Welcome to Peanut…the newest Pfeil critter family addition.

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Stay tuned for these posts to come shortly:

- an updated modeling shoot for an ambitious teenage girl who finally got her braces off
- Dina & Ryan’s spectacular Middletown wedding!
- Amy & Casey’s fabulous Old-Hollywood inspired Greenville Wedding!