WELCOME TO THE NEW BLOG

Whew! That feels better! I've been due for a blog makeover for a while now and I am LOVING this clean, new design. And the blog design isn't the only thing getting updated; I have so many exciting ideas bubbling up in my head for some new posts and features so get ready, because it's about to be Awesome Time.

I will now be posting at rosemarywatsonblog.blogspot.com. You can see all my past posts from the past year and a half here- I'm keeping it live as an archive!

Scottsdale Civic Center Engagement: Stephanie + Paul

Stephanie and Paul are just the most gorgeous couple. They booked me to shoot their wedding this September up in the Verde Valley, which holds a special place in my heart. We met up in Scottsdale and took their engagement portraits at the Civic Center which is one of my favorite local locations. They are HUGE Ohio State fans, so of course we had to incorporate some of that fun!

I have my first weddings of the year coming up and I can't wait to share my experiences with my fantastic clients.

Nichole's Glam Shoot & sneak of something exciting!

I met Nichole after finding the most adorable girls clothing line, Matilda Jane, on pinterest. I researched the company, and discovered that she was the "trunk keeper" for Arizona. She became the winner of the Style Me A Lady giveaway and we did her glam shoot featuring Matilda Jane's women's line of clothes.

I fell madly in love with everything she wore, and decided I MUST hold my own trunk show. Their new line, Anchors Away just launched and we came up with the brilliant idea of having a mini session along with a truck show featuring the new line! Come back tomorrow for the big announcement and all the details of the trunk show and miniGLAM session!

Mothers Are Beautiful: Amanda Maternity Glam Portraits

I'm currently watching the Newborn Posing class on creativeLIVE and it is unreal how incredibly beautiful these newborn babies are and how proud all their mothers are when they see the images that Kelly Brown creates for them. Absolutely stunning work.

The thing that is so poignant about having a baby is how exhausting it is to bring a child into the world. No matter how many times you've done it, just remembering to brush your teeth and hair when you're pregnant or have just birthed a baby is a major accomplishment. Forget about putting on makeup or wearing something that makes you feel good. You're just trying to function not seeing anything under your belly or not sleeping.

That's why Maternity Glam shoots are one of my favorite things. You get to take a woman who's last priority is herself, and spoil her for a few hours and make it all about her and take the most beautiful images of her pregnant self she's ever seen.

Amanda was unreal to work with. Her and Dan were the nicest couple and so thrilled to meet their little Graham. The images perfectly reflected their personalities and the love they have for each other.

Mothers Are Beautiful: More of My Beauty Squad

I've known Emily since high school (do you see a pattern? I've been shooting a lot of girls from high school!) and she's always be so nice and absolutely gorgeous. She's the proud momma of two adorable boys and looks EXACTLY the same as she did in high school (just with chic-er hair)

She's Leah's partner in crime, sharing a chair at their salon, Molto Bella- and I am so lucky to have found such talented ladies to work with. Emily has been sending her clients over to me and has done some incredible work on hair and makeup. All the girls at Molto Bella are just the most fun and I'm so so happy to be working with them on some upcoming projects!

Mothers Are Beautiful: Marci's Glam Family

Marci is another photographer who was looking for some glammed up portraits of herself for her own business identity and a few fabulous ones of her husband and her together. Trust me when I say, as a photographer, photos of yourself with your family are hard to come by so I was thrilled to be able to capture those for her and even sneak in a couple with her darling boy Brig too.

Mothers Are Beautiful: Madisen's Maternity Glam

Madisen is my cousin and is over the moon with her new baby girl, Lucy Lennon. At her maternity portraits, she was absolutely glowing with excitement to meet her sweet new girl.

I will be photographing Madisen's wedding in July, and I can't wait to get my hands on that new baby. She's sure to be as gorgeous as her mother.

Mothers Are Beautiful: Momma To Be Maternity Glam

Mother's Day is just around the corner friends! I'll be featuring the most glamourous moms around this week on my blog with a special feature on Sunday, so be sure to check 

Meg is another fellow photographer and one of the funniest girls around. We went to high school together and she's just as insanely hilarious and sweet as she was ten years ago. The girl is lucky enough to live in sunny San Diego, so when we came back to AZ for a visit, I was so thrilled to take her maternity glam portraits.

Mommas-to-be are always just beaming with beauty (even if they're on their 2nd, 3rd, 4th or whatever number baby this is). Meg has a darling little man already and this new baby is going to have the best time with it's high energy, high style family.

Mothers are Beautiful: Cheyenne's Glamour Portraits

It's May! I'm spending this month celebrating Mothers, and featuring my beautiful clients who also happen to be moms.

Meet Cheyenne- she runs an incubator kitchen in Mesa and is an all around free spirit and creative entrepreneur. I was lucky enough to meet Cheyenne right before I had Clementine, and she contacted me recently to update her professional portfolio, as well as take a few fun photos of herself.

Cheyenne's inner beauty and fun personality just explodes out of her and is contagious. My team and I had a blast at her shoot.

More Glam Mommas & Family Portraits

I've recently shot a few families in their own homes, and I love the feel it gives the images. It's a very comfortable, relaxed environment for my clients to be themselves and it's fun to see how people live their lives day to day and finding the small pockets of beauty in their homes.

I photographed the Buxbaum Family a few weeks ago and swooned over their gorgeous home in the Historic Encanto District in Phoenix. Then I swooned again over their adorable son, Evan who became my fast friend when he showed me all his toys and his special Star Wars pop-up book. I can't wait to hang out with him again ;)

Family Glam- The Dewitt Family

Something that I decided was important to my brand and business is including hair & makeup with my family portrait sessions. Nothing is more stressful to a mom than preparing for family portraits, so I love that we get to alleviate some of the stress by taking care of the women.

Stacey is a mom to two of the CUTEST kids around, and we had a blast rolling around photographing her sweet little family. And their co-ordinating outfits were to die for!

Modern Glam Maternity

My friend Lindsee is an artist, an entrepreneur, and a pregnant momma of two cute little twinners.

She is teeny tiny and the most glam pregnant girl ever. I love her boldness with her coral lipstick and the gorgeous lace backgrounds were totally her idea! My favorite thing is collaborating with clients to create the most perfect shoot they've dreamed of. Lindsey also has a new Art & Hand Lettering Shoppe and Blog,  Glad Heart, she's developing and I can't wait to see what she creates!

More Smokin Hot Mommas

I am super lucky because I happen to be SURROUNDED by the most beautiful women in my family. My cousin Fawn has been one of the prettiest girls I have ever seen, and I was so stinkin excited when she wanted to do a glam shoot.

Her baby Kora is only a few months older than Clementine, and Fawn has two other kiddos Kali & Kai that my kids just love to hang out with. Having a fun day of hair, makeup, and a photoshoot without all our crazies was so fun, I can't wait to have another girls day out with her!

Gorgeous Mommas Month

Now until Mother's Day I'm going to be featuring all the beautiful Moms I get to photograph every week. There is nothing more gratifying than taking a woman who is too tired to brush her hair most days, and turning into a sassy lady behind the camera.

First up, is Krissi- this lady has the three most adorable boys and is married to the most fun Baseball Coach of a husband. These two coach their youngest son's team together, and Ben coaches the other boys' teams too! We spent the day at the park & baseball field to create some family photos to perfectly reflect them. We snuck in some gorgeous shots of Krissi too- a shoot with me wouldn't be complete without a touch of Glamour.

The Most Amazing 28 Days

Today is the final day of 28 Days With Sue Bryce- the most extensive and comprehensive Photography Class I've ever seen and am thrilled to have gone through and purchased. I have looked forward to every day's new video and learned so. stinking. much that I am going to have to rewatch the videos ten more times to fully absorb everything that was taught.




Every day was a different challege, with an hour long video showing things from creating a natural light studio, posing couples, marketing the corporate headshot, and creating information PDFs. The final day of the class is today, and am so sad it's all over, but so excited to go forth and conquer all of Sue Bryce's wisdom and plans for everyone. Watch the live class conclusion today to see what it's all about and purchase the class on the creativeLIVE course page!

Ask and you shall recieve

In the beginning of the year, I decided to launch a little genre of photography into my business. And now, most of my time is spent planning, shooting, and marketing my Glam Portraits.

This is my absolute favorite thing to shoot. Don't get me wrong, I love me some gorgeous weddings and adorable kids; but there's nothing quite like the reliability of a studio shoot where external factors rarely throw a wrench into your plans (like weather or a 3 year old in a bad bad mood). Working with other women that have such unique but similar stories about their lives is so incredible as well.  I also love that I get to reconnect with old friends; many of which I haven't seen since high school.

Amanda has been my friend since my sophomore year of high school. We danced together in Euporea Dance Company at Mesa High School, and she was the girl I most looked up to in school. She was always so kind and helpful (even though she was a senior and I was a silly little sophomore) and she is the freaking funniest person around. She's loud and crazy and she has a knack for getting people that just met her to fall in love with her. She's just so much fun to be around. I would photograph her and her family every week if I could- they are that beautiful and sweet.

Girly Glam

Emily's mom contacted me a few months ago about giving her daughter a photo shoot with her two best friends for her birthday. We glammed those girls up, and had the most fun shoot I've had to date.

Emily is a track star and absolutely stunning.

Johanna & Cristina are cheerleaders and are drop. dead. gorgeous. I love how Cristina's hair is short and Jo's is long. They are so different but are so connected like all twins are. It kind of made my heart a little sad to think about how fast I know my own twins are going to grow up. Sniffle. 

Anyway, the shoot was amazing and I was pleased as punch with the images that came out of the shoot. The hair & makeup done by Eryn was incredible, and I especially loved the flowers we put in the girls hair at the end of the shoot. I hope I get more fun groups of girls in to get glammed up, it's always more fun with friends.

Team Tuesday: A Happy April Iphone Background

Rhonna has come up with so many awesome Instafonts to use for your instagrams in the Phonto app, and today I wanted to share a little iphone background I created using her Instapattern font all on my iphone.

Tutorial Time:

1) I started with my PhotoForge2 App and opened an old frame image I designed that was saved in my Camera Roll on my phone.

2) I added another blank layer and filled in with the Electric Lilac background color.

3) I saved the Electric Lilac background into my Camera Roll.

4) Next I opened the Electric Lilac background in my Phonto App and added the Instapattern Chevron white and sized it to fil.

5) Then, I added the "April" in navy using Carolyna Pro Font that I've loaded into Phonto.

6) I saved the image into my Camera Roll, then selected the image and set as Wall Paper.

And that's it! Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy! Now you can go forth and create endless Iphone Wallpapers using just your phone, some easy little apps, and the Rhonna Designs Insta Fonts!

Happy Happy Spring from all the Watsons!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend! We spent most of the time outside in the beautiful Arizona springtime eating delicious food, playing yard games, and finding Easter eggs. I hope everyone's Easter was just as wonderful as ours.

And don't all these girls look absolutely FABULOUS in their dresses my mom sewed for them? Of course doing a small little photoshoot is so crazy hard with your own kids, but I managed to snap some sweet little photos of all my crazies before they were covered in chocolate and bubble soap. 

The Best Best Friend

This is Stacy.

My Partner in Crime, my other half, the blonde to my black, the macaroni to my cheese, my soul mate and my most bestest best friend in the whole wide world.

She lives in Brooklyn, I live in Mesa. She's traveled the world far and wide; I've never left Arizona and had baby after baby after baby. She's a little bit hipster, I'm a little bit glam. Put us together and it's like we've never been apart. It's just like junior high when I'd walk from my house, she'd walk from hers and we'd meet in the middle to spend every day together, eating popsicles. We could be on a wild trip in Mexico or Paris, or just floating in her pool or laying on my bed talking. It's all the same to us.

When we're old and fabulous you can find us on a big plantation with a wrap-around porch in Savannah, Georgia swinging on our porch swing, painting each other's toenails and sipping on Arnold Palmers (she'll have champagne, thanks). Until then, we'll keep living our very different, but parallel lives that only meet together every so often, but when it does, it's always magic.

Recap of the Twins birthday

I know it's a tad, but you know what they say, "Better late than never", right? My girls had the time of their lives at their ballerina birthday party. My mom made each girl a tutu, I made gumball necklaces, we had pinatas, and it was an all around fabulous time

Thanks to all our sweet family members who shared Evie & Georgie's big day with us!

A Photographer's Photographer

Last weekend was new for me. I got to photograph another photographer!

Ashley is a wedding and senior portrait photographer who I am working with designing her new brand and I also did an incredible glam shoot with her.

Isn't  she lovely? Her new website ashleyfreehan.com is in the works and I am excited and honored that I get to see my images and design work on a peer's site.

What Three Looks Like

Remember before when I said One Year Olds were the hardest to photograph? I retract my previous statement. 

This is my Evelyn- she turned three on Monday. 

And this is my Georgia. She turned three on Tuesday. 

They have different birthdays. Evie was born at 11:59 on the 11th and Georgie was born at 12:05 on the 12th. It's a fun little quirk that we enjoy- you can read their birth story on my old blog.

They are cray cray bananas, but oh so much fun to have around. Evie is sweet and Georgie is spicy and I wouldn't trade them for all the pennies in the wishing wells.

It's Friday! Hip Hip Hooray!

It's a pretty exciting day over here. First off, it's my sister's birthday

Happy Happy Birthday Ashly!

Secondly, it's pouring rain here, which is always an event in the desert. My most favorite days are cozy, rainy ones - eating soup & watching movies or reading books.

AND it's the first day of the mother of all Photography Classes- 28 days With Sue Bryce!


I cannot even tell you how stoked I am for this. I know it's kind of geeky to be so obsessed with education, but honestly taking these online classes is the biggest motivator for me. Hearing the most successful people in the industry sharing their experiences, knowledge, and business strategies is so so exciting and uplifting and makes me want to work even harder and become better.

Sue Bryce is the reason I started a Glamour Photography line and it is quickly becoming my favorite genre to photograph. You not only produce beautiful work, you get to make women feel amazing, and in turn, you feel amazing. It's a real gift to have been introduced to Glamour Photography and I know that after this class I am going to do big big things this year.

Now I'm off to make some tea and some soup and settle into my class on this drizzley day <3

The Best Part About Photographing Women

My most favorite thing about launching into Glamour Photography, is the connections I get to make with other women. Girls I've known since high school, that all have families of their own and go through the same day to day struggles as I do- juggling their kids and their own dreams, their husbands, their homes, their parents, their sanity. Everyone has grown up a bit but deep down, everyone longs to rediscover the beauty and life that sometimes we let slip away because of how busy we are. 

I was so so happy to reconnect with Jen. We danced together in high school, and now she has two kids that have crazy schedules and an amazing husband who works full time and goes to school; so needless to say her life is insane. We had the best time getting her all dolled up and playing for a couple hours in front of the camera where all she had to worry about was "chin down, bring in your shoulder, stick your booty waaaay out....blah blah blah". Isn't she just a sassy pants?

Creative Team Tuesday: A Procrastinator's Prayers Answered

So, the twins are turning three on the 11th & 12th of this month. They decided on a Ballerina Party, and I noticed that Sunday was two weeks before the date of their party. AHHHHHHH!!!! I obviously don't have invites out. Or a design. Or anything.

I suck.

But, wait! Rhonna Designs to the rescue!

I remembered Rhonna's Party Pack Kit and loved the palette for a modern ballerina party!

Here is the fabulous digital invite I used on the Facebook Event since I wanted to let people know about it asap. I've ordered the paper invites from Persnickety Prints for those family members that don't have Facebook.

It's going to be a simple little family party since March is a crazy busy month for us, but it will be filled with the twins most favorite things: tutus, ballet slippers, and sugar. What else could a three year old ask for?

If you can't stop the train, at least slow it down

When I met Kim, I knew that I had a glimpse of my life in about 10 years. She has two amazing kids, Erin & Brandon, and they are all so close. Her son has a love of baseball, and her daughter has a love of dance. We made sure we took photos of them with the things that they love, so she wouldn't remember the little things like her son tossing the baseball throughout the day, and her  daughter lovingly holding her pointe shoes.

There were other photographs I wanted to make sure I took. I wanted her to remember her kids being as close as they are now; both living at home with her. Before she knows it, her kids will be graduating, going to college, getting married, and starting families of their own. This precious time she has with them will be a happy memory and she will look at these photographs and remember. Remember how tight her daughter holds on to her arm, how her son laughs with her, and how her kids have the best time together even at a photoshoot with a stranger. 

I am so lucky to have been able to photograph this family and remind myself how fleeting the golden age of your children's childhood is. I know that in the blink of an eye, my kids will turn into teenagers, and then in another blink- adults. I have to remember to slow down and soak it all in while I have the chance.

An Ode To My Thirty Year Old Man

Braden's birthday was last Sunday. A month before his birthday, I thought about planning a surprise party for him. I looked around Pinterest for a good theme, I made a Pinboard filled with ideas. I bounced some ideas off my family, and I began to make lists. Then I got frustrated.

I became frustrated because all my ideas and all the things I pinned were more about me than my husband. I had a dessert table planned, a burger bar, a cool creative tablescape, adorable decor, fun games, and a darling photo booth planned. Unfortunately, while Braden would have been a good sport about the whole thing, the truth is he is rather low key. He's not really one to be the center of attention (clearly this is another case of opposites attracting) and he'd much rather our money go to different place than on a party for him. The more I tried to plan the perfect party for him, the less it was about him and became about me. I realized this in the nick of time and out of utter frustration I scrapped the whole thing and settled on making him his favorite breakfast of biscuits and gravy and having burgers with family. There was ice cream cake of course (another one if his favorites) but other than that, it was a pretty basic birthday. It made me kind of sad and a little disappointed in myself to have not made his day more special.

But, when I saw him laugh and laugh at the dinner table, and share his cake with the twins and about die laughing with my dad over a stupid Bud Light commercial I knew that in spite of the lack of grandeur, he had a pretty great day. And that's why my Braden is so wonderful. He is a simple man. He'll never cure cancer, or go to the moon. He'll probably never rescue anyone from a burning building, win a Nobel prize, or be on the Forbes richest list. But he is tied for the best father that's ever lived (tied with my father, obviously) and he has quickly and quietly become the most perfectly crafted companion for me. He fills in all my gaps, doesn't put up with my crap, and forces me to be the best person I can be (usually by teasing the crap out of me). And honestly, lets be real, he is absolutely crazy about me. I'm pretty nuts about him too, so that works out.

Since we're getting all gross around here, I'd like to spill a few of the best things about Braden:

1) He pretends to not like newborns but I always sneak in and catch him talking quietly to Clementine and smooching on her when he thinks no one is watching. That little girl will be the end of him.

2) He loves how spicy Georgia is and always calls her his firecracker. Then they squawk at each other.

3) When Evie couldn't go to sleep tonight he went in a snuggled her in the tiny daybed the twins share until she fell asleep.

4) He always talks to Penelope in her crazy Peepers language ("ah-AH-ah" for those of you that have heard this) and tries to do her crazy eye (for those of you that have seen this) with her

5) Landen is his best buddy. Hands down. And he ALWAYS buys him a new racecar when he goes to the grocery store. We have a thousand cars in this freaking house

6) When Olivia forgot her gymnastics clothes today, he drove all the way out to drop them off so she wouldn't be sad she forgot them. He does all kinds of special things for the kids so they won't feel sad for a minute.

7) He is seriously the funniest. His best talent is singing and changing the words to songs to really inappropriate hilarious new lyrics. I just told him today that its too bad that no one else will be able to hear his songs because they are so freaking hysterical but so so so naughty. He's a riot.

I'm super glad he made it to thirty- lets hope he can survive the next 21 years raising all these crazy kids (and being married to me)

My Beauty Squad: Leah Fitts

As much as I love doing hair & makeup, I love having an AMAZING hair stylist & makeup artist to work with for my clients to look gorgeous for their portraits. 

Leah is my go to hair & makeup guru, and of course she can make herself up to look this fabulous every day. It's funny because she was the most nervous of all my Glamour clients because she was worried she'd be awkward; but honestly, check. her. out. Stone cold fox, that one.

She's also the most fun girl to hang out with ever, and I couldn't be luckier to be able to work with such a talented friend.

I Heart Before and Afters

Transformations. We are obsessed with them. From Extreme Home Makeover to Beauty Blogs to Bar Rescue to What Not To Wear; I'm a huge sucker for a good transformation. When I decided to launch a Glamour Portrait Line, I knew that the transformation would be a big part of it.

You take a happy, fresh faced girl next door and turn her into a drop dead gorgeous vixen. Then you show her how to be a model, and BAM! you have magic.

I've now made a Before & After page on my website for you to take a peek of all my amazing transformation make overs. I'll be updating it after each shoot so you can feed your makeover obsession ;)