≡ Menu

About Me

Who is BeachMama?

I am BeachMama, lover of all things ocean and beach related. I was given this nickname many, many years ago in high school. Our family would visit the beach at the end of each summer, returning just in time for the first day of school. I would arrive in my surfer shorts, tanned and ready to start another year.

BeachMama Meets Farmhouse

I am a beach girl at heart, but I married a guy that always dreamed of living in a farmhouse. So now, I live in a farmhouse.

I can’t believe it has been ten years since I opened my photography business! And even more than that since I first made my online appearance as BeachMama. I am so grateful for the amazing clients I have worked with over the years. I have truly done it all; from portraits to conventions, head shots, businesses, weddings, as well as newborn and maternity sessions. I am so happy to be an owner of a beautiful farmhouse/studio/crafting mecca. I can’t wait for you to come visit!

It is a joy to wake up everyday to the beautiful light that skims the fields surrounding the farmhouse. There is such a warm and inviting feeling here, that makes you just want to invite people over. This feeling inspired me to relocate my portrait business to the farmhouse. I love to play hostess. Sitting with friends and family on the front porch with a glass of lemonade and scones is my favorite way to pass the time. Sometimes I may even enjoy a glass of wine (or two) on the front porch!

If Martha Stewart, Ree Drummond and Joanna Gaines had a baby, I would be that baby. I am a crafting goddess; I have yet to meet a project I couldn’t complete. Baking and cooking are two of my favorite pastimes. You cannot stop in at the farmhouse and not enjoy something homemade.

When you do stop by the farmhouse, hopefully you will get to meet my husband, my two children and our fur creature, Bear. You will usually find Hubby working around the yard, and the kids are often helping me as assistants.

0 comments
Categories: About Me

November is here

annaepp_farmhouse_web-1

November is here and with it brings a challenge for me. Can I do it? Is NaNoWriMo still a thing? Or was that just for novels? Somewhere along the way I lost my blogging mojo, but I realized recently that I missed writing. I think it has to do with the kiddos growing up and their desire not to have me write about every little moment. I definitely has to do with work and life getting in the way.

Let’s pave the way for the BeachMama 2.0.

I am still and will always be BeachMama, however, with our move to the Farmhouse I have also become something in between. I have found that country living is a really good thing. With our neighbours being so much farther away from us, not so far that you can’t see them just far enough that you rarely hear them or interfere in each others lives, our lives have become so much simpler. I have become much simpler. I have found my love of baking again, making jams and jellies, canning and sitting on the front porch with a glass of lemonade or wine, depending on the day.

Rural living is not for the faint of heart. Going for a long walk requires carefully walking along part of the old highway in front of our house. No more quick walks to the store or the coffee shop. The kiddos take buses to school and we don’t have public transportation, which means we drive a bit more. On the other hand we don’t deal with much traffic so our drives are more enjoyable and we knew what we were getting into living out here. It also means we can get snowed in and when the power goes out so does our well pump so we have no water, thankfully it has only happened a couple of times in our three and a half years here.

The bonus for living out here are the beautiful, unobstructed sunrises. No matter if we see it every day, each new one is a gift, the sunsets are also unbelievable and a great reminder that each day comes full circle. The views are spectacular and depending on the time of year, it is always different. If there is corn in the fields, they start small and green, then grow tall, move on to a golden colour and make lots of noise in the wind. Wheat was the most beautiful, swaying in the wind, it was like watching water flowing in a river. Soy is lovely, changing from green to gold.

As November brings the colder weather and possibility of snow, I will do my best to reintroduce you to myself and see if I can find my blogging mojo somewhere in there.

0 comments
Categories: About Me

a fresh new look

Those would be "No Swimming" flags flying today
It was time for an overhaul at the beach!

I hadn’t been blogging and one of the biggest reasons was that my blog was out of date and I was constantly getting spammed and all sorts of good stuff. So I reached out to the wonderful Kristi Trimmer, whom I met at BlogHer’12 in New York City.

Since meeting Kristi just over two years ago we have had a great long distance relationship. Kristi, originally from Phoenix, Arizona, set out on an adventurous trip over a year ago. She packed her bags and decided to travel the US and parts of Canada, camping and running marathons. You can read all about Kristi’s adventures on her blog.  Kristi even stayed in my home in Ottawa while we ourselves were out of town, that is how good of a friendship we had developed over the year and a half since we met.

We finally got a chance to catch up this summer in Petaluma, California (Kristi actually featured some of my images in her Petaluma post) for a fabulous wine tour and then on to San Jose for BlogHer’14. When I was just about at my whits end on what to do with this wonderful blogging space, there was Kristi ready to help out. Kristi is currently based in Alaska and showing us a side of Alaska that we wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to see.

So what am I doing now that I have this new space, looking so fine? Well, my kids are older and in school so less of their adventures and more of mine. In the last few years I have had some amazing opportunities to travel more of the US and I would like to share those with you as well as a trip that I will be taking over the pond in a little over a week. Not that this space is going to turn into a travel blog per se, but more of my adventures and less of the kids. I still have lots to say and am feeling the itch to blog again.

0 comments
Categories: About Me