Schedule your Easter appointment by February 29, 2012 and receive a complimentary 5×5 bevel mount with the purchase of a package. Session fee is required at the time appointment is scheduled to hold the date for you. Our Easter Special sessions will be March 9th and 10th 2012. Session fee is $45.00 and includes one complimentary sheet with the purchase of a package. Call 770-831-0078 to schedule your session!

It’s Relay time…and we are going to have the best ever team for Relay for Life in Forsyth County with your participation!

We would love for you to join Ananchel’s H.O.P.E as a team member. Are you wondering how to get started? You just need to register on our Relay for Life Team Page where you will then have the ability to customize you own personal page. As a team member you will help raise funds for our team by asking for personal donations from family, friends, co-workers and the list goes on, participate in a team fundraiser, track your progress, share information about Relay for Life with others and encourage them to become involved by joining our team, participating as a survivor, or by simply attending the event or making a donation.

Share information about Relay for Life by including your personal story on why you relay. One of the easiest ways to raise money is by asking those that have been touched by cancer or know someone who has been touched by cancer to make a $10.00 donation for a luminaria to be lit in honor or in memory of someone they know. The luminaria ceremony will take place at 10:00PM on May 11th, 2012 and it is the lighting of hundreds of candles being lit to brighten the way for Relay for Life walkers throughout the night.

Please join us and make the commitment to stay awake all night! With that commitment every hour symbolizes the emotions that someone with cancer experiences. CANCER NEVER SLEEPS! I hope you will join us in the fight against cancer.

Our Reason to Relay

We are making a difference by teaming up to participate in the American Cancer Society?s Relay For Life.

At the event, our team will camp out overnight and take turns walking around the track to raise money and awareness to help the American Cancer Society create a world with less cancer and more birthdays.

Saving lives from cancer starts one team, one participant, and one dollar at a time. Our team is doing our part to make sure that cancer never steals another year of anyone?s life.

Please join our team or make a donation. The impact we can make together is much greater than what any of us could do alone!

In the meantime, please call us at 770-831-0078 if you have any questions.

We hope you’re all having a great, safe and productive summer and look forward to seeing you in the studio soon.

We have had the pleasure of meeting young Will Abernathy, a great three year old boy who has been diagnosed with Neuroblastoma Stage 4.  This race is being held to help Will get the treatments he needs.

You can get more information and submit your entry form at http://willtowin5k.blogspot.com/.

We hope to see you there, and we pray for Will and his family during their challenge.

My first topic:  WEIGHT LOSS!!!!!  So…raise your hand if you had a new year’s resolution to lose weight this year.  I just skipped the whole resolution thing and went for the photo and article in the Up in Cumming magazine so that all of Cumming could hold me accountable, and you have!  I so appreciate the encouragement from you all.  I have been stopped in stores, and people have been sending me little messages on Facebook and a few emails telling me how excited they are for me.  THANK YOU!  This journey has been along time coming.  You busy moms know the drill:  have the babies, then your health goes on the back burner and the family now comes first.  It has been 10 years that I have been trying to get it together.

After the birth of my youngest daughter, Maddie, I really wanted to get back to my college weight and start taking care of myself.  Then we started our photography studio and I felt like all hopes of that were gone.  So every year I have a new year’s resolution to make it this time.  Well…this year I am turning 40 and this WILL be my year!  I am changing a lot of things in my life this year.  I want to be more healthy and I want to strenghten my relationship with God, family and friends this year.  I have put so much into the business I have forgotten what life is all about.  A very dear friend of mine gave me a book at the beginning of the year, it’s called Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff and It’s All Small Stuff by Richard Carlson.  It’s a small book, but it is amazing and is making my daily life seem to fit back into my world.  I know that sounds strange but once you have ignored yourself for so long, it’s hard to get back.

So…what does all this have to do with weight loss?  Well what I am finding out in my journey is, first, you have to believe in yourself.  I know…I know it sounds so cliché, but it’s true…if you don’t believe in yourself its hard for other people to believe in you.  I find it necessary to have someone hold me accountable, not in the crazy psycho way, but in an encouraging manner.

As you know from the article in UiC, I am working with a trainer named Jim Stringer with XO Create Fitness.  He is fantastic.  At first was certain that he was crazy, but now I discovered that he knows his stuff and he loves to share his knowledge.  The best part about Jim is he explains why you are doing the exercises you are doing or if you’re eating too many wrong carbs, what that is doing to your body.  It makes it easier to stay on task when you know why and how things are working.  I will update by blog to let you know how it’s going.  For now, just know that I am sore…but it’s a good pain, my clothes are fitting better and life is good:)

Second, friends of ours have started Cole’s Halloween Store, an online source for all of your Halloween needs. Check them out at www.coleshalloweenstore.com.  They’re locally owned and operated, so support the local economy by using them for your Halloween purchases.

ORIGINAL POST:  We are still settling into our new studio location and encountering a few technical difficulties.  Right now it’s the phone lines.  The best number to reach us on is 678-466-6846, which is one of the new phonelines that we have had installed.  The previous numbers should be back in working order shortly.  We apologize for any confusion that this has caused.

The new address is

The phone numbers should remain the same, but we do expect a few minor disruptions while we make the move.  Call us at 770-831-0078 or 770-406-8080.

To get to Otwell Manor, take GA 400 exit 15 (Bald Ridge Marina) and head west toward downtown Cumming.  Turn right on Dahlonega Street (Hwy 9).  The studio is about 1/2 mile up on the left.

We can’t wait to give you the tour.