2012 Seniors!!

Valentine Cards!

Still looking for the perfect Valentine?? Look at these!







I think I'm in love with the cuteness! Contact me to order yours today!

Word on Wednesday

1. We are officially in a winter tundra! I think we've gotten about 8 inches so far here in Gardner and there is no end in sight, it's crazy! And poor Luke is, of course, out working! Ick. Here's the view from our front door when it first started to snow...


And here is pretty much the same view about 20 minutes ago...


I promise there's a sidewalk and driveway in there somewhere. Normally I totally love snow, but I'm really okay if it would be done now. I was supposed to drive to Topeka tomorrow for a photo shoot and now I'm not sure I'll be able to get out of my driveway!

2. Our very nice neighbors shoveled our sidewalk and entire driveway again. During our last big snow, I was cleaning up because I had nothing else to do and went by our front door and heard something and looked out and 3 of our very nice neighbors were shoveling away! I went out to thank them profusely and all they could do was tell me to thank Luke for all he does in his job and saying how they noticed his patrol car was gone and that they wouldn't want to be him and have to come home after a hard day of work and shovel their driveway. It was so great! So we (and when I say we, I mean me) baked them cookies, and now I'll have to figure out something else to bake them... maybe cupcakes! I just feel bad that our driveway has blown over with snow again and you can't even tell they were here.

3. Yesterday my friend, Katie, and I drove into Olathe to do some shopping! But we don't do "normal" shopping. We go to antique and second hand stores and find all kinds of goodies we can decorate with or paint and make pretty again to decorate with. And we found some amazing deals!!! And we discovered some new stores! It was a great day and we're heading back out next Monday! I found a HUGE steamer trunk that would normally be $100 easily and got it for $12!!!! I'm going to paint it and make it look awesome to use at the bridal fair! So excited to get started on that project!

4. When we got back from shopping, Katie and I started setting out all of the new goodies I'd gotten and ended up redecorating my house. I have to give her pretty much all of the credit because she's amazing, and basically all I did was get her things. She's one of those people who can literally decorate her entire house with things she bought at Salvation Army and make it look like a page in the Pottery Barn catalog! The girls got skills!! I'm not completely done decorating, so I'm not ready to show you the final photos, but here are some details...












None of the things in this photo are new, but I thought it would help explain the colors I use a little better, so my stuff didn't look so random!








I'm still working on my centerpiece. And here's the mess of things I'm working with...






This isn't new either, but I collect R's and this is one of my favorites in my red kitchen!


5. Still no baby, my sister is still pregnant. And I'm getting really anxious to meet my new nephew!!

Well that's pretty much all I have for you this week. With the weather, we've been pretty boring! See ya next week, hopefully with some photos of 2 little girls that I'm supposed to photograph this week, weather permitting! *fingers crossed*

Word on Wednesday

So I really did start writing this weeks' Word on Wednesday yesterday and then got a migraine and went to bed the rest of the day. Sorry!

1. Luke and I have been pretty boring lately. He's been working a lot because "normal" work day hours in cop world means nothing! Lots of overtime though! I've been busting my butt getting things ready to go for the bridal fair and designing my booth, which has taken up a LOT of time. I'm lame and I have no real pictures to show you of my progress right now, but here's a teaser... I bought a plain old wooden chair and a ton of 3.5x5 and 4x6 prints. I know, you're on the edge of your seats!

2. I'm developing a new L.A.P. (Linnie Arnesen Photos... sometimes I'm lazy and don't feel like typing it all out, ha!) Senior Model Program. I'm really excited about this! I've heard of other photographers putting on these great programs for their seniors and I'm really jazzed to get mine going! I'll have details about this coming soon and 2012 senior had better be listening up!

3. I'm going to be an aunt again any day now. I feel like a fire fighter or a nurse or someone that's constantly on call, because I am totally ready at a moments notice to jump in my car and head to Hiawatha for the little man to make his appearance. My sister is probably getting a little tired of me constantly asking how she's feeling but I missed Marcus' birth because I was handing in my finals at K-State, so I want to be there this time! And I'm totally going to be using my new nephew to try out some fun newborn photo ideas I've been coming up with! He's going to learn real fast that Aunt Innie comes with a big flashy black thing.

4. Last week, Luke and I met our bff, Kody, in Lawrence for my belated birthday dinner. You gotta love police officers who work on the actual day but try really hard to celebrate it when they can, so we celebrated my birthday on the 4th instead of the 30th. But who cares. We ate at Free State Brewery on Mass street and it was amazing as always! And then went to the 23rd Street Brewery for a couple drinks with a friend of Kody's. We had a great time, but sadly I have no pictures. The boys suck and my camera stayed in my purse the whole night.

5. The first weekend in February I'll be on vacation! The Rieger's are going to Branson! Last year we all decided that instead of exchanging gifts we'd like to take a family vacation. So this is our first one and we chose a spot not too far away to ease our way into the whole big family vacation thing. I've never been to Branson and am normally not one for Dolly Parton shows, but I am actually really excited. I love to travel and see new places and this is definitely a new place. We've booked a really great cabin with 4 big bedrooms, each with their own bathroom, and plan to just relax and play games and watch movies and shop and have fun! I'll definitely have pictures from this one! If only I could get a shot of the caravan of 3 vehicles, 7 adults, 2 kiddos and 2 dogs... priceless!

6. I have been doing some uber research and educational videos/webinars/seminars for my photography lately. I've decided with the down time that January brings that I would catch up on all the latest trends and products in the biz and I'm going to be announcing some new things soon! So excited! And if you're a loyal/recent client of mine (or I just like ya!) you can be expecting a surprise in your mail very soon!

7. I have a few shoots coming up with little girls who have graced my blog recently. Little Miss Lilly, little baby Ella, and adorable Faith. I'm super excited to see these little ones again! Have I mentioned how much I love taking babies photographs?!

Okay that's all I've got for you right now. I'm hoping my life will get more exciting for next week!

My Life in Ornaments

In my family, ornaments are a big deal. Every year for as long as I can remember, we all went to the local craft fair to pick out an ornament for our collection. Since I'm married now, my mom gave me the box of my ornaments to hang on my own tree, and I had a lot of fun looking through them all and seeing the years on the backs and remembering when I picked it out. I think the years on them are accurate for the most part, although some written by my mom looked brand new... hmm.

The first ornament actually arrived before I did. I was due November 30th and didn't make my entrance into the world until December 30th. Whether I was just a late baby or they got the due date wrong, who knows. But my very first ornament came before me!


Oddly there's a 4 year stretch where apparently I got no new ornament. But the next one was the ornament I remember always being a big deal. The lady that made it still has a booth at the craft fair every year, kinda neat. (And yea, that's my real name.)


My sister and I both have this ornament. And now that I look at it, I don't think it came before I was 6... I wonder what date she has written on the back of hers!






I remember I bought this ornament at Claire's, the jewelry store in the mall. I was 10 and thought it was very cool that I could buy the ornament by myself!




I collected lambs when I was little. My very first stuffed animal was a lamb and thus started the collection of about a million stuffed lambs and then came these little figurines.


I have zero memory of this little guy, but I think his Santa slippers are cute!


This year I got a "Jo" ornament in honor of Little Women, my favorite book of all-time. And then of course you have to have Mrs. Pott's from Beauty and the Beast! There used to be a little Chip with her, but I don't know where he is by now.


The next year I got "Meg" and Madeline! My favorite!




And in 2004 started my obsession with Willow Tree angels. I love them!


2005 was the first Christmas that Luke and I were together. I think I picked this one out for him.


My grandma and I used to watch the Peanuts all the time. We loved the music and the goofy characters and the cartoon still has a special place in our family. Now Marcus loves to watch the holiday specials!


From here on, I bought 2 ornaments every year. Luke and I had been together for a while and I had a pretty good feeling that we were going to end up together. I love this snow man!


I don't know where my ornament is from this year, but this is Luke's.


The Barbie shoe was a gift from a good friend in honor of our wedding and my wearing pink heels. It was technically given to me in July of 2010 but I call it my 2009 ornament because I don't think I bought a special one that year.


I bought this cookie cutter ornament this year from Nell Hill's, one of my favorite stores in the whole wide world! Someday I want to have a really cute tree in our kitchen (if we have a big kitchen) and put this on it with other kitchen-y ornaments.


Here's my favorite addition!! I found this one at Kohl's this year, on the 23rd... never go to Kohl's on the 23rd of December!! But I love it! If you know me well, you know that the Beatles are and always will be my favorite!


This ornament was a wedding gift from a good high school friend. It's pretty!


And here ends the ornament tour. I hope you've enjoyed yourselves, you can tip your tour guide on the way out. Sorry for the lack of posting ideas, can you tell I'm hard up for something to show you!!

I have to put up this photo of my Christmas card ribbon. I love it! I clip the cards we receive on it but this year they overflowed. So now I'm sad that I'll have to come up with another way to display my cards. Maybe someday I'll have ribbons of cards everywhere!! And I love that there are cards that I designed on there! Makes me feel good! My good friend Liz's card on the right side of the photo is my favorite that I made this year! So fun!

Jessica, Brad & Colton | Topeka Family Photographer

Jessica was the winner of my photo shoot giveaway that I held a few weeks ago! She and her adorable family now live in North Carolina, but they were going to be in Topeka visiting family for the holiday, so it was perfect timing that we were able to get together! I took Jessica and Brad's engagement and wedding photos a year ago and I follow her blog and was very excited to see that they had a little boy! Mr. Colton is 4 months old and absolutely adorable! Here are the favorites.



He has the best smile!




This is definitely one of my favorites!


They are just one of the cutest families ever!




Gotta love tall grass!




He is one lucky little boy. This was their Facebook teaser photo.




And I have to end this post with my favorite photo ever!!! I think I might have to print a big one of it to put in my office just because he's so cute!


Thank you Jessica for entering the contest and congrats on winning! It was so great to see you guys again and meet your little man!