I have been busy…..and a little lazy about keeping up with my blog & website. Bad, bad me. So here is a little post, to fill you in on some of the amazing clients I have been spending time with. I am blessed, in so many ways.
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xo~jackie
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Our baby girl. One year, already. So much has changed in our lives since last year…..this was the first birthday of many that we will spend without my beautiful big sister, Jen. I have always loved pink….and gold, so why not a pink & gold party, fit for a beautiful little girl. Read along to find out the details of how it all came together <3
An inexpensive fix to boring vases is some big mason jars and a can of spray paint! I painted about 4 for the party, as well I pained the ‘ONE’ letters, and the parts to the cake stand, I also glittered both of those with $1 glitter from the dollar store.
I purchased ‘old’ flowers from the local florist for $8, as well as $8 worth of baby’s breath from Safeway….mixed together and made 3 bouquets.
The canvas was $3 from the dollar store, I painted it pink and used glue and the same glitter from above to make her name, and the other canvas with the ’1′.
$10 worth of gold bows from the dollar store, which will become decorations for Christmas this year.
The banner was made by Everly Lane Design. Gorgeous. I LOVE it, and can’t wait to see it in her room next <3
Amazing cake, cupcakes & cake pops by the incredibly talented Starbird Bakehouse, in Nelson BC.
Thank you Tammy, for your help always, and the MANY wonderful family photos we are blessed to have. xo. I don’t know what I would do without you <3
A cute little shrug from JOE, the dress is Old Navy. Hair bow by Pink Poppy. My dress was $23 on Ebay. Love. And a fabulous vintage necklace borrowed from my moms’ vintage jewelry business.
My shoes are vintage, $2.50 from the salvation army, and I added some $2 bows from the dollar store to them….pretty cute. Harpers’ shoes are Joyfolie, well loved. I have been following Jessica and her amazing shoes for a few years now, and her business has gone from a small handful of OOAK soft sole shoes a week, to a full on BOOMING business!! I am so happy for her.
It just goes to show how you can pull off an great party without spending a fortune. My advice for weddings, your home, or any party, is to pick a theme, or colors and look for those things when you shop. Don’t look for something ‘specific’ always. It can be deflating when you look for something in particular that you see online, but can’t find locally You can contact me @ chickenlittlephotography.com under the ‘contact me’ section for advice for design, planning or photography. All images copyright to Chicken Little Photography & Tammy Kanigan Photography, 2012. xo. jackie       
This family is beautiful….stunning to be exact. Inside and out. Thank you guys, for letting me capture your family, year after year. Warms my heart <3 xo~jackie 
Their love. friendship. friends. family……everything. I lost my sister to cancer just 17 days before, and could not have imagined spending time with better people. There was a storm the night before the wedding, which knocked the power out of almost the entire town, including the secluded ranch where the wedding took place. The Bull River Guest Ranch did an AMAZING job of everything. It was all done with out power. Yes, I said NO POWER. Just a few generators. You would have never know. Congratulations Celia and Tanner. Tammy and I wish you many years of love, laughter and happiness <3 xo~jackie  i changed the music for jen. she loved this song, the dance/techno version by usher, she told me when she was feeling crappy, she would hop in the car, crank it and drive. but i found this version that i love, and every time i listen to the words it brings me to tears. ************ feb 20, 1979 – july 4, 2012 for jen. my big sister. a mother. a fighter. and missed, so so much.
i still don’t feel like it’s real. but deep inside i know it is. i miss her. i made it to here and am blinded by tears. sept 13th, 2011. my sister went into surgery, happy and healthy at the foothills hospital in calgary, ab, for what the dr’s expected to be large fibroids in her ovaries, at worst a complete hysterectomy would have to happen, cancer was not expected…..but when they opened her up, she had cancer everywhere. can you imagine waking up to find out that you were fighting for your life…..literally. this is not a nice cancer, not that any is, but goblet cell carcinoid is one of the most invasive and deadly of them all. and to all of our misbelief, this is what my beautiful, strong, full of life sister had. she was dealt a completely terrible hand. the dr’s removed anything they could, including all her lady ‘parts’, a part of her colon, her appendix & the omentum of her stomach. there were visible areas they could not touch. they closed her up and gave us all the devastating news. 5 years. her daughter would be 10. we could have a few more summers at the lake, a few more winters at the farm……hours of talks, thousands of laughs. they were so wrong. jen had been fighting for months. chemo every two weeks, then her body started to shut down. her digestive system was so messed up. she couldn’t eat. and that got worse and worse and time went on. no matter what she tried, she was sick, all the time. they came to see us for easter. i am thankful every day that i was blessed to fall in love with a camera (and tammy k.) i could not imagine my life without either. the importance of photography became so real the day jen passed, and i came back to look at these images. jen’s smile is still so clear in my mind, but i think of how my kids can see just how beautiful she was.
jen called me in early june, late in the evening and said she needed me……i grabbed a bag and was GONE. my husband jake, is the most amazing person in the world. we both knew if she asked for me, she really needed me. so i drove 4 hours in the dark rainy weather, get to the hospital in fernie, into her room and she greets me with THE HUGEST smile and hug ever…..i will never forget it. we talked until 2 am…….just about nothing. she had a ct scan the following morning and i went home a few days later, thinking she was just having a rough go once again. but it didn’t stop. jen was in the hospital for 5 weeks. on june 27th my dad phoned me. my heart stopped when he told me i needed to come there. the dr’s had some bad news. once again, i packed my bag, picked up our mom and left. we showed up and jen was okay….groggy, but still jen. we met with the most amazing dr. the following day. he told us that they suspected the cancer had spread to her brain. there was no large mass/bleed, but with this type of cancer, it’s often not very easily found on a ct scan. but he was certain. a few short weeks. maybe 10 days……. i will never forgot those words. and in that moment i knew i would be saying goodbye to my big sister, my best friend. she perked right up on friday. cleaned her room, showered, shaved her legs (lol)…….she was jen. it was amazing to see. but jake told me to not get my hopes up…..he was right. i left to come home for a day or two, and the next morning she phoned me. we talked, and she talked to cooper (who loves her SOOOOO much), but at the end, she said ‘goodbye jackie’. she never calls me jackie, just jack. i ran into the house in tears and told jake i had to leave…..now…… i got to the hospital and things had gotten worse…..her breathing was strained. she was so pale. as the hours went on, she slept more and more. woke only for a drink. stopped asking for starbucks. i knew what was coming. i will never forget seeing the priest outside the hospital that morning. i dropped to my knees in tears, put my head in my hands and prayed that i was dreaming…..this can’t be happening. but it was. for 40 hours my mom never left her for more than a walk downstairs. we were all with her. held her hand. told her we loved her. that it was okay to go. i love you too, so much she would say. she called my parents ‘mommy & daddy’. it was like she was becoming a child again. if they left her side, she would call for them. i held her hand and watched her take her last breath. it’s so surreal. in some ways it was relief, after all those hours of watching her suffer, but at the same time, it was that moment of never again. never again. laughs hugs smiles memories. oh my god. how do we go on without you? as i was kneeling on the floor beside her bed, i bowed my head and promised her that i would be strong. for her. for my family. for her family. for everyone. i have to be. i have no choice. and each morning i wake up missing her. missing her like crazy. mad at the world for being so cruel. taking her from me, from us. too soon. but i also go to bed each night, thankful for the 33 years she was here on earth. that we got to say goodbye. that we held her until she took her last breath. how blessed are we. blessed that she loved us all, that she shared so much with us all. and that most of all, she is waiting for us all. making sure it’s neat and tidy, and that the clothes and towels are folded just right……’cause that’s jen. she left us, yes. but she also left us so many memories. so much joy. and most of all, she left us this:
thank you jen. for sharing your life with me. every day for my 31 1/2 years. i will miss you more each day, but i know you are all around me. she didn’t want to leave us, but i feel her in everything. *** I am lost, I am vain, *** i love you jen. until we are together again <3  |
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