Well my sweets, my dream is finally taking shape. I thought this would be a good time to explain where I come from and how I started brewing my sun tea in the hopes that it gives you a glimpse into my window.

Over four years ago, I sat in a dark auditorium nervously watching my husband walk up onto the stage along with so many others to pin on his rank and begin his journey in the military. I snapped dozens and dozens of pictures with our dinky old point-and-shoot camera, trying it with and without the flash with varying degrees of success. After the weekend was said and done and we returned home, I eagerly uploaded my precious photos...to find that almost all of them were either too dark or blurry. I was devastated. A huge moment in my husband's career and our life as a newly married couple had been lost - moments and emotions I would never have the opportunity to capture again. I started thinking about all the other firsts that would likely go undocumented if I didn't do something about it. 

So I searched and searched online, and finally bought my first DSLR, the most basic of the Rebel models (they don't even make it anymore), and doggedly began teaching myself the art of photography. I watched videos, I shadowed and asked questions of friends, I practiced until our dog even got bored. After I got the hang of my kit lenses and auto mode, I started using an old site (also no longer around) called Picnik to do basic edits. I was determined - never again would I miss out on something big. Three states, four years, two dogs, a baby, a house, and a brand new Canon 5D Mark II later, with the help of many professional friends (I wish there was an emoticon that would bow down to you for me through the computer right now), a lot of advice, some trusting friends and strangers who allowed me to photograph them, and here I am, having just completed all of my paperwork to legally and "officially" become a business. 

And that got me thinking - what should I call it? My name? A pre-made shop-in-a-box from Etsy? No, I had to think of something that was even more "me" than my name (since after all, I hadn't chosen that!) My grandfather had a heart attack when I was about five years old, and though he retained his sense of texture and temperature, he lost his sense of taste. Thankfully, he was the one who made the sweet tea. So my little brother and I used to always tell him, "more sugar, grandpa!" which he would shrug and add in on our word. By the time we would finish the pitcher, you could look into the bottom and see a layer of sugar that hadn't even been able to dissolve because we had asked him to add so much. 

Life is sweet. It's hard, it's raw, and sometimes it's very unconcerned with our feelings. But the fact is that from the moment you put that fresh water into the jar and add the fixins to the moment you get to enjoy the finished product, a whole lot of little things have had to happen. Isn't that like each of our stories? Small little moments that only happen once, that make up the sweet end result that we love so much. Don't let those little moments in the in-between go unremembered. They're your story. They're YOUR family's personal sun tea, slowly but also all-too-quickly brewing in the window. Capture them. Love them. Then, drink up.

Wishing you

Much Sugar,

Allie Marie