As many of our friends and followers know, I (Virginia) decided to branch out our MLP “brand” of serving joy by moving from Bossier City to Minot, North Dakota. Or rather the Air Force decided for me by telling my husband he had to move. Either way, here I am in the cold, northern tundra of the continental United States.

It usually takes a long time to build up clientele when starting out a photography business or in my case, moving to entirely new area, so things have been slow. REALLY, slow. Which is actually ok because God knew I needed some down time in this season of my life. I’ll be honest, I’ve been dealing with anxiety for awhile and having a baby, a deployed husband, and then a cross country move has really taken its toll on my mental state. Not being busy professionally, has been a blessing in disguise. This has lended itself to rekindling my love of needlepoint. So with this lack of clients, here are some pictures of my projects that I designed and created as Christmas gifts for my family!

I have a ton of new designs in the works, but haven’t had time to stitch them up yet. As you can see, I’m really into unorthodox designs. As one of my close friends put it, “cross stitch isn’t for old people anymore!” If you have any ideas for me, feel free to share! Or if you’re a stitcher yourself and want some of my patterns, you can check out my Etsy page, Virginia Lee Stitches. I also started an instagram account called stitchesbecray so I wouldn’t be annoying my friends and family will all my projects.

I did mention I had a baby, right? I'm still chasing and photographing him and his older brother. Not to toot my own horn, but my husband and I make some pretty cute kids. They both have taken this last year very well, all things considered, but that's the life of a military child. Unfortunately they don't have a choice in all the big changes that have been happening for them, but now that we're mostly settled and the holidays are over, things have gotten better. 

So that's my update from way up north! Hopefully, I'll be able to share sessions with you soon, but if not, I'll just share more photos of my babies. 

- Virginia Lee