John Deere Day

Yesterday, Karen photographed John Deere Day as a fundraiser for her church, North Kannapolis United Methodist Church. We scheduled 10 minute sessions throughout the afternoon for church members and friends. We ended up raising $1,400 for a missionary family in Africa. We had a very successful fundraiser and we hope to do it again!

Special thanks to Megan, Karen's lovely assistant from Sunday! Here she is holding the translucent to block the sun off the subjects. She looks like she was having fun, huh? :)



Here's a few of our favorites from the day! Enjoy!

Manicures & Pedicures at C.C. & Company

Adrian from C.C. & Company invited us girls to her salon and spa on Friday afternoon to pamper us! We enjoyed manicures and pedicures from their wonderful staff. They recently renovated their spa area in the salon... It's beautiful and SO relaxing. We were able to chat, laugh, and relax with each other... which is something we don't get to do very often.


Here's a few candids from our afternoon....

We had a great time. This is the PERFECT idea for a bridal party or even a birthday celebration. Get all your girlfriends together and relax while being pampered!

If you've never been to C.C. & Company, you're missing out. They have a beautiful facility and a wonderful staff!

Here's your chance to try them out... C.C. & Company is hosting our next facebook party. Friday, August 21st, from 5pm to 8pm, you can receive a hair style, mini manicure, make up, chair massage, and one underarm laser hair removal treatment. You can enjoy all these services for $20 a person and $15 of it will be donated to Focused on a Cure! C.C. & Company has volunteered to donate 10% of all add-on services and retail sales to Focused on a Cure also! You can invite all your friends and co-workers, sisters and daughters. You can RSVP to the salon at 1-704-276-6038.

We hope to see you there!

Camp Edge - NKUMC VBS '09

North Kannapolis United Methodist Church held their Vacation Bible School for 2009 this past week. The theme was Camp Edge... experiencing and discovering God everywhere. They enjoyed crafts, recreation, storytelling, missions, classroom activities, and music each night. On Thursday, they went to Camp Cabarrus in Concord. Friday evening, the kids hosted a closing ceremony where they sang all the songs they had learned throughout the week to their families. Then yesterday morning, during the Sunday service, they presented the music to our church family.

Here's some candids from the evening at Camp Cabarrus...

IP Facebook Party

Friday, we hosted our 2nd IP Facebook Party AKA Girls Night Out! We had a HUGE response and we were very satisfied with the amount of money that we raised for Focused on a Cure's Avon Walk team - Digital Divas. We raised a little over $1,100 in about 3 hours!

We had a great collection of vendors and volunteers from: Dream Dinners, Sugar & Spice Sweet Treats, B's Purses, Essential Bodywear, Mary Kay, Shear Image, C.C. & Company, and Scentsy. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE that volunteered their time and effort to help us raise as much money as we could!

We've gotten a lot of love on Facebook since Friday and wanted to share it with you!



"We had such a great evening! Thanks for everything and I think it is espically kind all the work you do towards cancer and a cure." - Jennifer Thomas Cannon




"Karen, thank you for having the Facebook party! it was so much fun!! Please have more of them!!!!" - Kelly Casey Falcone




"Thank you Karen and everyone who made this possible." -Lisa Meadows




"Had a great time @ IP's Facebook Party! I was amazed at how many people came for the GNO and how much fun it was...we'll definitely have to do that here!" -Anne Battey Grant




"I wanted to thank you for a wonderful time. We loved every minute and Sarah-Jane felt so special. Thanks for the mommy and me photo! So excited about seeing it!" -Cynthia Lorick Pace




"Karen, Thanks for Last night. Had a great time and was for a great cause." -Tracey Lewis Dorsey




"Karen...you are awesome and what an awesome thing to do for for others!!! I had a great time.....:-) Thank YOU!" -Tonya Stanley Linker




"It was so awesome!! Thank you!!" -Tina Sinclair




"Thank you!!! We had sooo much fun and it's such a good cause! Thanks for putting together such a great event! Love your studio too - its awesome!!!" -Jodi Gee




"You are wonderful!! Thanks for the invitation!!" -Sandy C




"I had a great time with my friends and making new friends. Your staff was so nice and helpful. Enjoyed all the side adventures, hair, makeup, bras, pocketbooks and of course "food". With your talents and all the help we had I know our pictures will be great. Thank you to all who made it happen...love ya Girl!" -Linda Reed




You can check out some candids from Friday night on our IP Fan Page. All the new profile pictures will be posted to Facebook in the next couple of weeks. We'll let you know when those are posted. We're looking forward to sharing all of them with you!

For those of you that missed this Facebook Party, we're teaming up with C.C. & Company. They will be hosting a Facebook Party/Girls Night Out on Friday, August 21st from 5pm to 8pm at their salon (160 Manor Ave, Concord, NC). Hair, make-up, and a mini-manicure will be included for a $20 donation. We will be photographing profile images at their location and $15 from each donation will go to Focused on a Cure. C.C. & Company will be donating 10% of all add-on services and retail sales from that evening to Focused on a Cure as well. You can RSVP for their Girls Night Out at 704.792.2001. We'll see you there!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame - Models

You're going to love this! Take Me Out to the Ballgame has been a hit year after year. This year, our challenge was how to make it even better. Our solution... We've teamed up with the Kannapolis Intimidators! We'll be photographing 30 minute portrait session at the Intimidators' Stadium.

We have the "old-timey" baseball uniforms for girls and boys, but you're welcome to bring your own uniforms. The Intimidators have even offered to let us use their jerseys!

Last Wednesday, we met a few families at the Intimidators Stadium for a model session! Here's a few of our favorite images.... Enjoy!

But that's not the best part! IP will buy each child a ticket to the Intimidators game on Saturday, August 22nd. That's Back-to-School Night and the first 1,000 children will receive a free backpack! IP will also give each child a food voucher. We'll sit in the reserved section and enjoy the game together!

Beach Photography - July 2009

We were closed through the week of July 4th, but we scheduled a few beach sessions during that week. Renda and Tara took a day trip down to Sunset Beach, NC to photograph the Otteni family. Karen was unavailable, but we couldn't miss this chance of photographing all the extended family while they were gathered for vacation!

Sunday, Karen and Jess had the pleasure of photographing the Niblock family at their beautiful house on the waterway in Ocean Isle, NC. Karen photographed Franklin and Jessica when they were little ones, so it was really neat to photograph them now, married and in college - all grown up! Janet had one of her life long friends in town for a visit, so we had to get a few images of the ladies together - an image they'll cherish forever.

Wednesday, Zachary entertained us during the Meadows family portrait session at Sunset Beach, NC. He was determined to lay face down in the sand, so there was a little bit of bribery with Smarties. But we got some GREAT images of their family and Zachary playing in the sand.

Friday, we photographed the Motley family. Some of you might remember Renee from our first Facebook party; she sold the Thirty One gifts. Her beautiful family was staying nearby Sunset Beach, and thought it was time for a new family portrait. Karen captured some stunning family images.

We've put together a video of a few of our favorites from each beach session during our vacation week. We can't wait to show off all the images to each family. Enjoy!

Focused on a Cure

Don't forget about our Focused on a Cure blog. You can get to it by clicking on the "Focused on a Cure Blog" link under "Check this out" in the upper left of your screen on our IP blog or just add www.focusedonacure.blogspot.com to your favorites!

We've got a lot going on right now. We're hosting fundraising events, such as our facebook party, for our Avon Walk. We're planning for our Piggin' Out for Pink event in August. We're collecting silent auction and raffle items for the event. We're being interviewed by WBTV! And all of it is on the blog... so stay tuned!

Dream Dinners

We've known Kristi Deese for many, many years, but just recently realized she owns Dream Dinners in Kannapolis. We are so excited about this discovery that we have to share it!

Dream Dinners provides you with a convenient way to provide healthy, delicious meals to your family. We have a menu which changes on a monthly basis so your family gets to try new meals every month. You can come in to put the dinners together after we've done all of the hard work (shopping, chopping, and clean up) or just come pick them up!

Dream Dinners guests benefit with a stress free, healthy solution to the nightly question of “What’s for dinner?” that also saves them time and money. Dream Dinners offers guests easy options for promoting family health:
· Entrees are low in fat and preservatives
· Most entrees are under 350 calories per serving and less than 10 grams of fat per serving

Average price per serving is less than $4.00 (20% less expensive than buying the ingredients at the grocery store and making it yourself).

17 different menu choices each month to choose from.

Meal assembly available.

Dream Dinners provides the nutritional information for all of our entrees.

Dream Dinners entrees can be packaged in dinners that provide three or six servings.

Fun Facts:

Value: Save nearly $200 a month. Our customers tell us that they have saved an average of 28% on their food bills.

Convenience: You can prepare a month's worth of meals in about 1 hour.

Health: The entire family can lose weight with our healthy, nutritious dinners. The average serving has less than 300 calories and 10 grams of fat.

Here are a few quotes from satisfied customers:

“Dream Dinners saved our family meals after the departure of our nanny. Who knew that healthy dinners with your family could be so easy and delicious?”

“Having recently remarried, my husband thinks I'm a gourmet cook. My busy schedule does not leave much time for preparation of home cooked meals…that's where Dream Dinners comes to the rescue! I can have a beautiful, flavorful meals on the table in less than an hour!”

Dream Dinners will be donating the food for our Facebook Party this coming Friday evening. So, here's a chance for you to taste Kristi's delicious food and chat with her about what type of dinners would suit your family's needs. We're looking forward to it and hope you can join us!

Dream Dinners

3387 Cloverleaf Parkway

Kannapolis, NC 28083

phone: 704-784-2144

cloverleafparkwaync@dreamdinners.com

Unique Senior Portrait Session: Jessy Brooks

This week, we had the honor of photographing Jessy Brooks. Karen has been photographing Jessy since she was an infant, and now she's graduating from Mount Pleasant High School.

Here's a couple of our favorites from her session at the studio on Monday...











Then Tuesday, we headed to the stables where she keeps her horse, Caroline.

Of course, Renda fell in love.

Then we met Pear, a philly. She was adorable.

It's an honor to photograph people like Jessy at such a monumental time in their lives, after photographing them for so many years.