Charles and I are photographers. If you’ve been following along for awhile, then you know we’ve been shooting clients since around 2015. Business has slowed down since having kids. We typically shoot around 5-10 clients per year. We also take on a handful of brand shoots when the time allows. Since Charlee was born, we’ve taken quarterly family photos using a tripod. This year, I let Charlee pick the family photos theme. She’s a bit obsessed with tennis and pickleball right now. She loves pink, so that’s what she went with this time around.
This shoot was a lot of fun. We captured as many shots as we could and just let the kids run around and wear themselves out.
Drop all my favorite shots below for all the folks living off Instagram and experiencing the real world, lol.
Another year around the sun my friends! If you’ve read my latest IG post, you know this shoot was inspired by the character Isabela Madrigal. She is from the Disney movie, Encanto. Her character development really resonated with me, especially in this particular season in my life. For those who haven’t seen the movie, Isabella has one of the coolest gifts. She makes the world more beautiful with her flowers. Throughout the movie, she is praised for her beauty. Her gift to make things beautiful is also noted. However, one thing that really stuck with me about her character development was her learning two things. Two things can be true at once. There is a point in the movie when her world begins to crumble and challenges arise. Because of these challenges, she is unable to make flowers bloom and starts making weeds and less desirable plants. One lesson I interpret from this character’s story is that life isn’t always beautiful. Family isn’t always beautiful. Trauma happens and life happens. But the weeds and the flowers that life brings us can exist in the same space. They still have meaning and both promote growth and development! I’ve learned that of my grief and joy. They exist in the same space and I’ve grown because of both. May this year be beautiful and may the challenges you face bring growth and meaningful change.
Here’s a few more snaps from this flower filled photoshoot. I hope you enjoy.
I never intended to share so many posts on my health and fitness journey on this blog. However, it’s been therapeutic to type things out. It’s been a way to actually document things other than what I ate for breakfast and what I wore for said breakfast. That content is great and all, but I’ve been hyper focused on inner work which has translated to outer work results.
The picture on the right was taken August of 2024. The picture on the left was taken February of 2025. This is my first time taking progress pics. In the past, I only used the scale as my tracker. Now I realize that was a horrible idea. The scale is not an accurate measurement of progress, especially if your goal is to tone and build muscle. I had to accept that there are other ways to track progress that don’t include the scale. Taking pictures and videos is one way. Monitoring how I feel physically and mentally is another. Observing how my clothes fit are even better ways to measure progress. It was hard for me to accept that tracking progress through pics was necessary. I lacked confidence in even share pics like the one above. I didn’t want people to see how much I had “let myself go” and then a light bulb went off. I gave myself some grace. I acknowledged that the body in the right picture gave life to two beautiful humans. I think as women we often forget the emotional, physical, and mental toll carrying and birthing human life can be. We become obsessed with losing the weight fast or as my friends would call it “snapback” culture. This time, I don’t care about “snapping back.” I want to be happy. My happiest self is someone who is well rested. She is confident enough to love both bodies in the pic above. She makes better food choices but doesn’t sacrifice the foods she loves. I want to be able to fit my clothes, the clothes I own, the clothes that have meaning to me and allow me to express myself because buying new ones seems too much of burden right now. I want to be able to keep up with my two toddlers. I want to fight against my pre-diabetes diagnosis. I want to be a good example to my children when it comes to self love. To do that ultimately means doing what feels good and right for me. I want to challenge my body to feel strong and be strong. I do not want to be skinny. In this season, my focus is on strength training. I am making efforts to ignore the scale and all its false readings. I want be an example of realistic progress, slow progress, sustainable progress because that too is progress. Getting from the right to the left pic wasn’t easy. Losing my mom made it even more challenging. I was diagnosed with prediabetes and Diastasis recti which made it pretty clear to me that I had to take it slow. It was obvious I needed to focus on my health as a whole. This time, I’ve taken a holistic approach that provides me a healthy mix of flexibility and discipline. I’ve changed habits. I’ve reframed my thinking about my body. I’m intentional about what I want and what I need to do to get there.
There is still work to be done, but I’ve come so far, not just physically but mentally. I’ve created space for error, because we are human, but I’ve also created space to celebrate small wins, to celebrate slow progress because even that deserves recognition. Slow progress is still progress.
Coils Curls & Coffee 