greatest hits

happy new year, my loves!

i am drawing up a storm again for valentine's orders (good news!) so i'm a little behind.

let's catch up, shall we?

1) bonner family traditional new years eve dinner consists of: the four of us, spaghetti carbonara, wine and "wine" in fancy glasses, eating in the dining room (faaaaaancy), roasting marshmallows, me and chris drinking wine until midnight after the kids go to bed.

good times.

2) i found this recipe from garden & gun on facebook and decided to give it a shot on christmas day.  it's called 'luck and money' and it's delicious.  i used mustard greens instead of collards, because that's all they had at the store, and it was divine.  adding this one to the new year's recipe line-up.

3) my sister is getting married!  hooray!! and she has asked me to stand up in her wedding.  i said yes!  i love weddings!!!  dancing! booze! romance!  so many exclamation points!!

4) ben plays basketball (my new favorite).  he mentioned his game to a classmate one day and she showed up to cheer him on.  sweet friends.  warms my heart, and his too.

5) one of the million perks of working with every member of your family is that many of them are great cooks and one in particular is ninety years old and still brings giant pots of gumbo for everyone to enjoy for lunch.  thanks, paw paw.

6) this picture actually deserves it's own post, but long story short, chris makes ben's lunch everyday and includes little love notes/words of encouragement on his napkin.  ben comes home with food still on his face because he doesn't want to ruin his napkin by actually using it.  i've saved every single one. my heart, y'all.

7) we had gift cards to spend, so we took a family trip to good records where ben air-drummed to the white stripes and crosby got to know weezer's newest album.

8) dallas is experiencing earthquakes.  it's so bizarre (not cool, fracking).  three of us think it's a pretty cool feeling.  one of us does not.  little dude thought the small tremor he felt was actually ghosts playing on the roof.  bless his heart.

9) we tried to tell cros that buzz-cuts are best suited for summertime. he thinks that is ridiculous, per usual.

many things happened that are not pictured, like marcy's birthday celebrations, but i was too lazy to snap a shot.  but trust, we had a good time. 

how has january treated you so far?  we have been pounding our resolutions recently, more on that later.

looking forward to finishing up my orders and a weekend with no plans.  

what are you looking forward to?

love,

coco

the motherload

for those of you on facebook, i started a business page for coco custom.  click this link to take you there.  if you like coco custom on facebook, you have seen my holiday motherload already.  this is where i post all of my portraits, promos, tips, etc.  it just occcurred to me, however, that my blog readers may not be my friend on facebook, or be on facebook at all.  duh, cortney.  so since i neglected my sweet readers while i drew all of my holiday orders, the least i can do is show you the finished products.

here goes, joes.

1) a lakewood home in dallas, texas

{i adore this one.  look at all of those curves.  hubba, hubba.}

2) a charming cottage in east rome, georgia

3) l street home in lake highlands

dallas, texas

4) another lake highlands home

dallas, texas

5) a southern charmer in marietta, georgia

{this one is special because this customer found me!  i did not go to elementary, middle, high school or college with them.  i never worked with/for them.  i never taught them.  i am not related to them by blood or marriage.  this means, they saw my portraits and liked them enough to order one.  exciting stuff, amiright?}

6) a church in indiana

7) a condominium complex in encinitas, california

8) a sweet house in the burbs

frisco, texas

9) a sprawling plantation in louisiana

10) a canopied ranch in lakewood

dallas, texas

11) a family home in arkansas

12) another stunning plantation home

13) a north dallas modern

and there you have it.  it took many many nights by the fire with a grapefruit vodka and soda to crank these puppies out.  and thanks to these portraits, i afforded christmas.  so THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

much love forever and ever,

coco

coco custom etsy shop here.

new favorite song

happy monday!  i owe you guys a greatest hits, so while i gather what i need to do that, here is my new favorite song/obsession.

remember when i discovered that jimmy fallon and i are soulmates?  well, i fiiiiiiiiinally got around to buying sylvan esso's album.  

verdict: i love it.  and i'm sure fallon/bff does, too.

here's my favorite song from it, for now.

i'll be back soon.

love,

coco

my friend liz

liz was my first mom friend at ben's elementary school.  my family was new to the neighborhood and knew no one.  i met liz, she was also new, and she was warm and funny and a pleasure to chat with at the millions of kindergarten functions we attended last year.

she is an incredibly talented photographer.  seriously, i am obsessed with the light in her photos.  it looks like a dream.  this christmas, we decided to swap talents.  we met her at white rock lake one afternoon and she snapped away.  i am so, so pleased with how they turned out.  she had her work cut out for her with crosby's bad mood, but managed to get him to cooperate by the time it was all said and done.  

and that ain't easy.

bravo, friend.

to see more, check out elizabethan photography on facebook.

website here.

p.s. another favorite local photographer and east dallas original is melissa of melmarie photography.

remember this?

facebook.

website.

do you have a favorite local photographer?  i'd love to know.