Uncategorized – Page 51

January 26, 2017November 1, 2017

Mint Salon | Small Business Feature | Decatur IL

You guys!!!!! I’ve been waiting excitedly to share Mint Salon with you. I’m a bit biased toward this gorgeous salon since my hair stylist (aka hair artist/magician) Katie is there but I have to say I’ve heard over and over again how much my clients and friends love all the gals here. And brides, seriously there is NOT a more adorable salon for you and they have the state of the art SalonTouch Studio software that facilitates communicating your desires to the hairdresser, perfect for getting ready on your big day!

The Details: Mint Salon, Brook, Randi, Katie, Lydia and Ashely | In Business: 4 years

Hours: Vary per stylist on Tuesday through Saturday| Location: 363 S. Main St. Suite 409| Phone: Vary per stylist

Tell us about your business… What do you do? We are a locally owned salon offering hair-cuts, color, specialty styles, makeup, facial waxing, nails and pedicures.

What makes your business unique/special? We stay up to date on current trends and styles. Also our salon vibe is a vintage chic style.

See clearly the rest of Decatur knows how awesome this place is! Voted #1 in the Herald and Review Reader’s Choice 2015:

What item/service on your menu or in your shop do you just LOVE and think everyone needs? We LOVE a good blow out! It’s the perfect way to start off your weekend or to make it less work for you to style over the next couple days.

In what way have you gone above/beyond in the past for a customer? We offer classes and parties for friends to learn new tips & tricks. This also gives them the opportunity to socialize and have a little fun with their friends.

What is the coolest thing you’ve ever had a client do for you? We have had numerous great/cool things that our clients have done for us over the years. From jobs for family members, gifts, and concert tickets! We love our Mint clients!

What tool/equipment/or other vendor could you not imagine doing business without? OPI nail polish and Kenra hair products are our go-to products that we could just not do without!

What other local business do you just LOVE? Why? Paco’s Sol Bistro and Donnie’s Pizza are our number one places to hangout and relax after a long week!

WHY did you choose to do what you do? We love people and love creating art out of hair.

When did you know you wanted to go into this business? From a young age I think we have all loved makeup, hair, and fashion. This is the best!

What are you passionate about outside of your business? Family, friends, music and of course a little shopping addiction as well.

Describe your PERFECT day… Brunch at the Blue Spoon, hanging at the pool with the family and some wine on the patio!

Introduce us to your STAFF…

Brook Banning– I’ve been doing hair for 14 years!! My reward and fav thing being a hair stylist is styling out the finished product of my cut and color! Outside of hair I absolutely love traveling so I can enjoy my favorite things like quality time with my kids, shopping, dancing, the beach and music!

Ashley Brown– I’ve been doing hair for almost 4 years. I love doing bright and fun colors. When I’m not at the salon, I like working on my new house and lounging with my animals.

Lydia Gentry-Nail tech at Mint Salon. I have been in the industry for 17 years. I have been at Mint since we opened 4 years ago. I love being the best part of my client’s day!!

Kara Williams– My favorite part of being a hairstylist is doing Upstyles such as weddings & proms. A little fun fact about me…I started college as a music major, so I love singing and enjoy a good family karaoke session.

Randi Johnston– I’ve been doing hair for 10 years and I love new color trends especially balayage and hair painting. When I’m not busy with my toddlers I love crafting, playing with makeup and decorating my house!

Katie Fucinari-Hair and makeup artist. I have been doing hair and makeup for ten years and specialize in bridal makeup. When I’m not in the salon I love to spend time with friends and family! Fun fact about me is I would love to own a old school muscle car!

See the latest news at:

http://www.mintsalondecatur.com/blog/

facebook.com/mintsalondecatur

See our other past small business features to connect with more businesses in our area:

See more on our Facebook Page and follow us on Twitter @sjanephotog, Instagram @sjanephotograhy, and Snapchat @sjanephotog

January 24, 2017January 23, 2017

| Kuznia Family Portraits | Decatur IL Photography Studio |

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Today, I get to share the Kuznia Family with you! Katie has to be the sweetest daughter ever and she called me to book this family session for a Christmas gift for her parents! And, of course, when she asked if they could bring along their dog Jake the answer was ABSOLUTELY! We had these four in for our last Limited Edition session date right before the holidays and I swear Jake is the perfect little model. Usually, I have to pull out a number of trade secret tricks to get pets to pose and/or pay attention to me during our sessions but not with Jake! He sat perfectly for nearly every photo in whatever pose we chose and not only looked right at me but even did a few top model head tilts to add just a bit of extra flare.

It’s always important to me with every family session (even at our shorter Limited Edition sessions) that we take time to not only photograph the whole family but also couple’s portraits with mom and dad, and some individuals with each parent and kid. And for this session we even took individuals of Jake with everyone!!

Last, but not least it’s time to share the family’s favorite image! I’m so glad this made it to their wall as a classic framed portrait so they can not only enjoy it for this year but for many to come!

Don’t forget to pre-book your 2017 Limited Edition Session. Dates have already been set and have begun to fill. You can book ONLINE HERE. These sessions will not be themed so all session types are welcome; children, birthdays, families, prom, couples, pets, seniors, etc.

January 19, 2017May 2, 2018

| Bailee | Sullivan High School Senior Portraits | Class of 2017 |

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Oh my goodness guys, do you know when the last senior girl was on the blog?!?! Over a MONTH ago (Ariel’s feature was December 8th!). It’s been families, babies, weddings (oh my) around here for awhile and it’s definitely time we circled back around to some seniors!!! I’m getting so excited to wrap up work on our remaining class of 2017 seniors and the model applications for our class of 2018 models are already rolling in!

But it’s not time for the class of 2018 her on the blog yet…. no today is all about Bailee, a Sullivan High School SENIOR class of 2017! I am absolutely in love with SO many of Bailee’s images. She has the most stunning eyes and flawless complexion that she really didn’t take one bad image the whole time. While she has a stunning smile as you’ll see this girl can rock a serious face like no other. It was hard for us to say ‘no’ to any of the serious ones but that’s ok, Bailee picked out an album so we didn’t have to say no to many and can feature them ALL.

Checkout all her favorites below and be sure to head over to our Facebook Page to give her some love there.

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January 17, 2017January 17, 2017

| Orrick Family Portraits | Downtown + Country Club of Decatur |

Check out the Orrick Family!!! I swear these guys are the most photogenic and well-behaved little guys I’ve photographed (maybe ever lol). The Orrick family was amazing to work with and when Kristi said she wanted to do our longer session to work in two locations I was a little skeptical that I could hold the attention of three young boys for that long. But these three (and mom and dad) did amazing! They were perfect at following directions and boy did they bring the charm (just look at those smiles).

And Kristi already knew she wanted to make sure we fit in time for images around the Country Club golf course since Steve works there and these guys are quite the golfers! Well I love any time we can add a personal touch to a session like this and the golf course is absolutely beautiful (one of my FAVORITE Decatur wedding venues!!)

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I’m so glad that we were able to not only design a feature wall art piece and some accents for their home but also that they decided to showcase all their favorite images in one of our legacy albums. This is always my favorite way to preserve and highlight this slice of time in my client’s lives.

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Don’t forget to head over to our facebook page soon to give them some love with your likes & comments! And if you’d like to work with us to design a family session this year give us a call. We are now booking all of 2017 (including fall which fills quickly) and we’d love to work with YOU.

January 13, 2017January 11, 2017

| Lucas | 1 Month Old Portraits | Jefferson City MO |

BONUS Friday post! And what better way to end your week (before a cold/icy weekend) than with cuddly baby photos?!?!

Being a single momma has to be one of the toughest jobs on the planet and the ladies who are raising their little ones solo are some of the strongest, smartest, most loving and hard-working people I’ve met. But though they want/love/cherish photographs of their perfect little ones it’s often something they have to do without so they can provide the other more-essential items.

Well I was lucky enough to be able to gift this lovely new momma and her little man Lucas a session while I was back home in Missouri this fall. And in 2017 I’m excited to be working on a project to gift other single moms family portraits… the project is just in the beginning stages but I will be planning something around early August in memory of my own momma (stay tuned I hope we are able to create something really special!).

If you follow me on instagram (@sjanephotography) you may remember seeing some behind the scenes from this session. Knowing we were shooting on a cool morning and on location (since I was just passing through Missouri for the day) I decided to crank the heat in the car and create a little studio spot right there! This is definitely my first time in over 12 years of work that I’ve shot in my trunk but it worked out great and we were able to keep Lucas warm and comfy!