Long story… I was in a photo shoot November 2012 for the Vintage Couture Spring 2013 catalog.  I woke up at 6AM for the shoot the day we got back from Curt’s funeral.  Our plane got delayed the night before, so we didn’t get home until 1:15 that night… and fell asleep about an hour after that.  I remember thinking there was no way I was going to have the strength/energy to do the shoot, but I knew they were counting on me.  I’ll never forget how insanely tired I felt during this photo shoot, how tight my dress was, the pressing pain behind my eyes, but I thought hearing my story behind the cover would be a testimony that things don’t always look as bright and sunny as they seem.  Enjoy the beautiful pictures, and giggle knowing they are just make-believe! 

 

The girls were obviously very concerned and confused to see their Mommy with another family when the style guide came out this spring!  We talked a lot about acting for a job, and how it’s really fun to pretend to be someone you’re not for a story or a play or even modeling.  After a lot of processing, they began to get really excited I did something different and fun, and eventually wanted to show everyone that came over how silly it was that Mommy pretended to be a part of a pretend family that doesn’t exist.

This next group of pictures is amazing to me, because it looks like our “mother/daughter” love is so real and strong.  I literally met this sweet little girl 30 minutes before this picture was taken.  She put a lot of trust in me to hold her on this bridge with water below, and I was just relaxing, thinking about my little blessings at home.  And that I was actually there, but yesterday, was in California grieving my friend.  It was such a weird feeling.  I was here, there, everywhere, no where… in a place I’d never been.  In one section of the garden, they were cleaning up pumpkins from Halloween, in another section, they were putting up Christmas, and in our section, we were hunting Easter eggs and playing with spring flowers.  It was so wacky!  The weather was beautiful too, so it really did feel like Easter in November!

 

Honestly, I kept thinking about Curt this entire morning; wondering if he got to peek in and smile at the irony of it all.  Curt was alive, and I was in California taking family photos of them a few weeks prior, when I found out all three of the Pond girls were chosen to be in the casting call for this photo shoot!  That just means you get to come try on their sample clothes and if they fit and you’re the right person for the job, you get to model!  I was running around the Ziemke house, so excited all the girls were going to get to have fun trying on beautiful clothes that were top secret for the spring.  Turns out, when we were at the casting call, they asked me to try on this dress, and one thing led to another.  They didn’t have spots for our girls this season (they had other models their same age/size they’ve used before, and they get first priority), but they asked me if I would model for them.  At first, I thought, “No way!” because it’s really out of my comfort zone, but then I started thinking (they gave me time to think about it), “I need to be a confident example of the way I want my girls to feel about themselves… I need to take the lead on being thankful for the way I look and comfortable in my skin.”  So… this was a comfort challenge for me as much as it was a fun thing!  I had something to prove to myself.  And I knew Curt would be grinning and giggling at how the whole thing turned out.  I wanted to make him proud.  He would’ve made me do it!

 

And once I relaxed, it was actually a whole lot of fun!  This was my cute pretend son picking some flowers for me that he just got out of the bag from Kroger!  You’d never guess!  That was the fun thing about seeing everything behind the scenes!  They were super creative with their props, locations… and made everything fun and easy!

 

I don’t remember what was so funny!  No clue.  And I don’t think I throw my head back normally when I laugh.  Who knew?

They gave me so many images of myself in the garden to keep.  That was really cool to me, because I have very few pictures of myself.  I think the girls might really enjoy seeing what their younger Mom looked like someday when they are mothers.  I know I would!  The ones I’ve seen of my mom when she was my age are incredible.  I wish I had more!  She has always been totally gorgeous!!!  I wonder if all little girls think their mom is the prettiest woman in the world?  I know I do about mine!

Although I would give anything for these pictures to have been with one of my girls, it’s all part of the job.  I think seeing these pictures makes us all a little sad, even though they probably make everyone else feel happy!  That’s the mystery of photography/marketing/acting… you never really know what’s going on behind the scene.  That’s what enticed me to do this in the first place.  I was so curious how a VC photo shoot would work; what it would look like.  I wanted to observe the photographer for positioning, timing/any photo tips I could learn while he was clicking away.  I wanted to see who designed the sets, who told us where to smile, who told us how to pose, how many people would be a part of it… I was so interested in all the behind the scenes logistics.

 

Their little model and I did have a unique chemistry… for me, when I held her, she felt exactly like Anna Kate, same size and shape, so it was natural to be all lovey dovey, because I’m usually hugging someone this exact same size.  And she was so cute, sweet and nice!  We were little kindred spirits for our time together.  You can just tell a good person when you meet one, and this little girl is going to be great!  Her happiness, ease in front of the camera, and positive attitude was definitely contagious!

I’ve gone back and forth for almost 6 months now whether I should post these pictures or not… but I finally decided it would be interesting for you all to see; to see a real example that you can’t read a book by the cover; that pictures don’t always tell the whole story.  That although our life sometimes might look perfect in the pictures on our blog; it’s not.  I mean, these pictures look like she is my child, and that is farthest from the truth.  Pictures exist for different reasons… these modeling pictures were created to tell a story that I think they successfully told in order to evoke an emotion in those that see them to buy these beautiful clothes so that you can be this happy little family too.  I hope it worked, and they sold a lot of our dresses this spring!  But that’s it.  We were just evoking emotions in people to sell dresses.  We were pretending.  We were acting.  We were modeling. 

I want everyone to know that our blog pictures are created to spread the true, genuine love that we share, but every now and then, there might be pain behind the happy pictures too (like the fact that I had just come from Curt’s funeral in the above pictures).  We might be smiling through a storm… we might be making the most of a terrible week.  You just never know the whole story unless you are living it.  So, don’t read into our pictures and let them get you down that your life should be anything different than what it is (that’s the last thing we’d want).  Take them at face value, and live your truth being confident in yourself too; even if it is out of your comfort zone. 

We love our family!  We love our life!  But we are normal, and we have pain and sadness that we work through as well.  No one is perfect.  No one has it all together.  But we all try to cope and make the most of everything, the best that we can, right?  I hope everyone has a great week, enjoying all the blessings and happiness that you find in your life!

*Since I wrote this, Vintage Couture has announced that they are going out of business.  I’m so sad… everyone at headquarters were so warm and friendly.  My heart goes out to them.  This is one of my favorite lines of clothing!  To shop their going out of business sale or to see the entire style guide for the spring,  go to www.vintagecoutureinc.com.  Under the Shop Now tab, click Spring 2013 Style Guide to check out all of the spring fashions.  You will see some of the spring lines on our girls this summer!  This is a great brand of creative and quality U.S. made clothing!