I'm so excited to announce that my popular Wall Calendars are back for 2016!  (Yay!)  I can't believe it's time for calendar season already, this year has FLOWN by.  Since all of you enjoyed my wall calendars from last year so much I decided to offer the same designs for next year.  Why not, right?!

The top calendar above is my all-time best-selling calendar, "A Year of Nature", featuring 12 of my popular nature and floral photographs.  Florals, leaves, branches and other serene nature subjects fill the pages of this calendar with pretty color that is sure to delight you, your family and friends all throughout the year.  For a glance of each month, for more details about the calendar and to order, see the calendar on my shop at this link below:

"A Year of Nature" - 2016 Nature Wall Calendar

For all of my beach-loving fans, I'm offering up a year's worth of easy-breezy coastal calm with my calendar, "A Year by the Sea."  Soothing oceanscapes are featured along with an assortment of my most popular beach photographs.  You'll be reminiscing about happy, relaxed times spent by the sea, even in the coldest winter months.  For a glance of each month, for more info about this calendar and to order, click the link below:

"A Year by the Sea" - 2016 Beach Wall Calendar

Keep yourself organized while enjoying my art and the beauty of nature all year long.  I know some of you are loyal calendar fans of mine (thank you!) so be sure to grab one now since I have a limited supply each year.  When you pick one up for yourself, don't forget your family and friends as well, my wall calendars make great gifts!

Thanks so much to all of you for your continued support, it means so much to me.  The thought of you enjoying my art in your own personal spaces with family & friends brings me a TON of joy that words cannot fully express.  :)

Carolyn

A few days ago I woke up earlier than usual with a big to-do list on my mind for the day, knowing I had a lot of mundane tasks to accomplish.  I looked out the window to see what kind of a day it was... the morning sun was hanging low in the sky and I noticed that everything in our yard was covered in a blanket of dew.  When I see gorgeous light and dew outside, the photographer in me is ready to drop everything, grab my camera and go have some fun.  I decided my to-do list would have to wait and headed down to our local park...

I walked over to some ordinary field grass wondering if there'd be anything pretty to shoot.  Low and behold my jaw dropped to the ground... Thousands of little dew drops dangling from the grass were sparkling in the sun in the most magical way.  What a spectacular sight!  It looked angelic to me, almost as if the grass had been sprinkled with fairy dust.  As I stood there shooting hundreds of pictures of this gorgeous scene, one thing kept coming to mind.... "This is one of the prettiest things I have ever taken pictures of, thank you God for this amazing moment." 

When I'm outside taking pictures and am excited about what I'm capturing, life doesn't get any better for me.  Those special moments where it's just me, my camera and the quiet beauty of nature fill me with so much peace and joy.  It's so satisfying to be able to share these wonderful moments with you!  :)

Carolyn

Back in the spring of this year my husband and I took a trip to California.  I'm strictly an East Coast gal and had never seen the Pacific Ocean before so this was a HUGE deal for me; especially since I'm such an ocean-lover.  I could not wait to get out there and see the Pacific for the first time...and take a ton of pictures of it!  :)  Well, my mission was accomplished.  We had a great time, it was GOR-GEOUS and I took thousands of pictures to capture all the beauty. 

When the trip was over and we were back home, I looked through all the pics to reminisce a little and then "real-life" kicked in again.  As I'm sure some of you have experienced in this digital age, most of the pics have been sitting on my hard drive untouched for the past several months.  All that fun "daily life stuff" got in the way... work, cleaning the house, food shopping, paying bills, taking the dog for a walk, etc, etc... 

Yesterday I was in a funk and figured to pull myself out of it I should look at my California trip pictures again.  It worked!  Don't you just love how you can look at your old vacation pics and feel like you took the entire trip over again?  I love how photography can transport us, at least in our minds, right back to a time and place that was really special and beautiful. 

My inspiration kicked in yesterday and these new coastal prints above are the result.  Beautiful calming blues, the dreamy Pacific Ocean...ahhhh...I can just feel the stress from all those "fun" daily-life TO-DO lists melt away.

Since I was enjoying my new prints above so much yesterday, I also put a mock-up together of how they would look with another pic from my trip, the Lifeguard Stand photograph you see above.  I have so many blank walls in our new house...Hmmm....might have to think about doing this somewhere.  Then I would always be reminded of my awesome trip to the Pacific instead of the vacation just living unnoticed on my hard drive.  :)

Since the pictures here are brand new, I haven't had a chance yet to add them to my shop.  If you'd like to enjoy the photographs here in your space as prints or canvases, just let me know.  My lifeguard stand photograph is available as a print or canvas on my shop here: Lifeguard #14 Print

Thanks for reading my beach-loving friends, I'll be talking to you soon!

Carolyn  :)

I'm so thrilled.... A customer of mine, Wendy, recently ordered my pavilion beach print shown above.  She just sent me this snapshot yesterday of the picture framed in her daughter's bedroom.  Besides creating art, this is the BEST part of what I do.  I get so much joy and satisfaction seeing my art in people's homes.  To hear from customers that they couldn't be happier with their artwork is music to my ears.  Thank you so much for sharing this with me Wendy!

This particlular print is very special to me.  I shot this beach pavilion in the town of Beach Haven on Long Beach Island, NJ.  My grandparents had a house there for many, many years and lived right by this pavilion.  My family and I have a ton of wonderful memories on the 5th street pavilion, the beach and in Beach Haven in general.  I just recently added this print to my shop and since I'm sentimental over it, seeing Wendy's order come in made me so happy.  :)

See this print on my shop here... "5th Street Pavilion"

Until next time,

Carolyn

Now that I'm in the mood for Fall, I figured it was time to create a pretty Autumn moodboard to help inspire your seasonal decorating.  (and mine!)  This time my Fall nature print, "Autumn Days" served as my inspiration (seen at top left of board.) 

As I mentioned in my last post, I just started decorating for Fall.  I'm having a blast cozying up our new house for the season especially since the accent color in my decor scheme is orange.  Due to my love of this welcoming hue, I'm like a moth to a flame running around to all my favorite home-decor & craft stores lately.  So far I've picked up a new Autumn wreath for our front door, a pre-lit gourd and a sparkly tabletop pumpkin (see the gourd & pumpkin in my post below).  Are you having fun decorating for Fall?  Have you picked up any Autumn goodies for your home recently that you absolutely love? 

Here's a list of links to the pretty Autumn items above in case you want to check them out.  Happy decorating!

1. "Autumn Days," Fine Art Photograph by Carolyn Cochrane

2.  Spiced Cake Candles, Pier1

3.  "Welcome Autumn" Handpainted Wooden Sign by Vinyl Crafts on Etsy

4.  Leaf Hurricane Candle Holders, Crate and Barrel

5.  Harvest Plaid Table Runner, Pier1

6.  Capiz Ombre Pumpkins, Pier1

7.  Painted Pumpkin Patch Pillow Cover, Pottery Barn

8.  Pumpkin Wreath, Kohls

9.  Air Glazed Ceramic Harvest Phrase Pumpkins, Ellen Degeneres

10.  Decorative Leaf Bowl, Kohls