Love Yourself series post 13, Sandra

Accalia Carter June 22, 2022

In this series within my blog, I will share individual client stories, that they have allowed me to share with you, in hopes of encouraging you to love yourself more right now not when. These are real women, with real stories.

Meet Sandra woman who has struggled to find herself, she has overcome so much in her life and she did this session to help her celebrate herself after years of trauma and abuse.

She was one of the first ladies to jump on my prepayment plans last year when I rolled them out, so this was a year in the making as she was prepaid. When it came time to do her style session we were both so excited, this was something she had been dreaming about but had always listened to others rather than honoring herself, till last year when she took the chance to do what she wanted to finally.

The next month we had her shoot scheduled, and the day of anything and everything that could go wrong did go wrong, cars breaking down, needy people, styling issues, running several hours late. We went through it together, I went and grabbed her when her car broke down and gave her a ride back so her man could fix it while we did the shoot. It was stressful and quite a day.

We still did it though, we got her hair and make-up done, we got the outfits selected, and we shook out the stress and got some amazing images!!! We had so much fun and stayed a bit later because she needed some time, it all worked out in the end and a week later delivered her album and wall art.

She was working hard the day I dropped off her Album and wall art.

Love Yourself Series, Sue, Post #12

Accalia Carter April 27, 2022

Meet Sue, she came in for a gift for her hubby, she said that he was the only man who ever made her feel beautiful and sexy. They dated in high school, went separate ways, and later on came back together and the love they share is incredible. Over the years while they were apart she felt fat and ugly, she hated photos of her and started to realize she had no nice photos of herself, none.

So after years of work, effort, finding her love again, and finally starting to love herself, she decided it was time to finally do the shoot!! During her style session, we talked about how she had been working out, being more instead of working more. We grabbed a few things and talked about the things at home she had and wanted to use. Also, informed me he wants a large wall art, which I was all in for, I love when my clients get those wall arts. We talked about she had some tattooed makeup, and gets lashes done as well.

On the day of her shoot, we clicked, even more, and had so much fun. Our favorite outfit was something she threw in off-hand, and it was the perfect thing for her. She looked amazing!!! In fact, most of her and his favs were in this outfit, a red cotton form-fitted dress, simple, yet powerful!!!

When she came to get her wall art and album, she told me about wanting to buy pants, and actual jeans for the first time in over 30 years, did I mention she is 60. All I can say is how much I admire those who start the journey they know they need to take, no matter what the age, thank you.

Here’s what she had to say after her shoot, I forgot to do the video, so this is what she wrote:

“Before the shoot I was nervous. During the shoot, I was completely comfortable with it all.
And after the shoot going through all the pictures and seeing my husband's face, was worth it all. This is something every woman needs to do for herself. Women are beautiful in every shape and size and Boushie Babes takes beautiful pictures to capture your inner beauty. Thank you for this fun adventure. You have a rare talent. Thank you.” Sue

Love Yourself Series, Lucinda post #11

Accalia Carter April 13, 2022

Meet Lucinda, She is a 66-year-old grandma, mother, wife, and widow, who has always wanted to do a shoot like this, but never found the time, her husband really wanted her to have a session too. She battled with her weight her whole life, was finally seeing results, and loved it! This shoot was her way of celebrating her goals, and how far she has come.

We meet up at the valley mall, and I noticed right away that she loved to smile, she has an amazing heart and a very kind soul. She had ordered a few things online, I believe we grabbed a few things as well while there. We talked about how she was a beautician and had been doing it for years, and had just recently retired.

During her shoot, we had so much fun and it flowed, she wanted to do all the things, break out of outdated beliefs. So we did, we collaborated and created some amazing images, I just love the ones in the button-up shirt and the hat. Though enough about how much fun I had, here is what she had to say about her session:

Love Yourself Series, Post #10 Sheryl

Accalia Carter March 30, 2022

Meet Sheryl, this amazing 64-year-old badass woman. She is a mother, grandmother, widow, and one hell of a badass woman. She recently lost 40 pounds, and she and her husband always wanted to get this done for her and him. So, after his passing, she decided to really start living, and get out of her comfort zone.

She saw my ad, and jumped, she knew she had to have one of these sessions for herself after all these years, it’s never too late, or early. The lesson I learned here is don’t wait, do it!! We did her style session, and we clicked right away, I just loved her personality, the fact she rode a bike and was really enjoying doing the things she never “had made the time” before, she said no more, now is my time.

She wanted to showcase her body art, and her new self, which we did amazingly. In fact, she was so in love with her images, she felt freaking amazing. Below are some of her images, her love note, and client reveal.

So without further ado, here is what Sheryl said about her session:

Love Yourself Series, Post #9, Rachelle

Accalia Carter March 16, 2022

Meet Rachelle, She just turned 51 and really wanted to show herself how beautiful she was, she had never really felt beautiful, and her whole life others told her the opposite, that she was fat, or even shamed her for being her. Her mom used to model, and she felt as though she always fell short of that, and wasn’t enough. As we got to talking she talked more and more about she felt shame around exploring who she was, I mean all the sides of herself.

She never really married or had kids, worked the same job for 20 years, she just finally started to invest in herself. She started to travel more, and do things she always wanted to regardless of what others thought. During the style session, we had a blast and found some amazing pieces for her session and the upcoming trip she was taking to Mexico. She wanted to be tan for her session, and it was kind of just perfect timing.

During her session we talked a lot about how much she never felt beautiful or pretty in her life, she had so much shame around wanting to explore the different sides of herself, she was grateful to have a safe place to explore finally, or a place where there are no judgments, shame, only love an acceptance. I was grateful and honored that she shared her story with me. I mean, isn’t she just amazingly beautiful? I think so.

Here’s what Rachelle had to say after her session:

Love Yourself series, Mandy post #8

Accalia Carter March 2, 2022

Meet Mandi, one hell of a woman. She started off with a brief rundown of her life: mother of 2, divorced and still, friends, domestic abuse survivor, battled with her weight due to thyroid issues, cervical cancer, ex-military. She has worked in the medical field for over 20 years now, as an EMT, CNA, Med Tech Pharmacy.

She has been through so much and finally decided to love herself more and gift her S.O. with some amazing photos for Christmas. She needed to pamper herself since she was so busy helping others and caretaking so many people in her life. Does this sound like you, always going and doing?

We meet in CDA for her style session as it was one of the first ones I did. We found a few things and talked about her riding leathers and it was the one thing she had to have a few pics of her ass in! I was super excited to get the shots she wanted to show off her assets, and her body now that she was happy with her weight.

The shoot was amazing!!!! We had so much fun. She got images with a wide variety, and the shots she wanted for her and her riding leathers, some in a special t-shirt she loved, and more. She had such a hard time picking her favs, but she finally settled on her favs. She went for the payment plan, so she could still handle life too.

So without further a do hear is what she said in her own words:

Love Yourself series, Tiffany post #7

Accalia Carter February 2, 2022

Meet Tiffany, a mother of 2 who like most of us struggle with self-esteem, and viewing our bodies in a positive way. She has been on the road of self-acceptance, struggling to learn to lover herself now as her body has changed over the years. She gets told by so many people that she is so beautiful, but she wasn’t feeling it. How many woman does that sound like to you? Is it you?

Do you question if you are truly beautiful, or tired of not seeing what others see in you? She had heard about friends doing these sessions, and had seen the changes in them and their confidence, and body image. She finally said if they can so can I, and that lead her to Boushie Babes. We did the style session and talked about life, parenting, and so much more. I was excited, and she was feeling more confident about stepping out of her comfort zone.

She arrived the day of her shoot, and we just feel into conversation and playing dress up, make-up went super fast, her hair was short and easy to do. I showed her a few tips and tricks, and showed her how to breathe, yes breathe, have you ever noticed when you take photos most faces looked posed, or stressed in someway? That’s because they are holding their breath. We had so much fun, and she loved her images. She did do a payment plan, so when we do those the images, and blog are not released till the client’s get their images first. We always strive to serve our clients more.

So without further a do, hear is what Tiffany said about her session:

Love Yourself series, Jenny post #6

Accalia Carter January 5, 2022

Meet Jenny, a local teacher of Culinary arts at NIC. She found out she had Crohn’s disease, and that led her to a healthier lifestyle and back to school. She has been on her own since she was 12, raised 2 grown daughters. She is celebrating 40 years of being here with us. She had a major tummy tuck to get rid of excess skin and tissue she had from years of medication weigh gain.

She said that learning to love her body now, thinner, yet different has been super hard for her. Her tummy was even more of sensitive spot because of her tuck, and the changes. She did the shoot as a way to showcase her to herself, and treat as well.

During her style session we went over outfits, and we talked about make-up too, I noticed she had 2 different colored eyes, one blue, and one green. In some of the photos you can see a difference in eye color, though the way I did her eye shadow has one eye looking more hazel than green, just an example of how you can bring out different colors using other colors. We had so much fun with this session. I will let you hear her side of things:

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Love Yourself series, Melanie post #5

Accalia Carter December 8, 2021

Meet Melanie, a school bus driver for over 17 years!!! She has an Autistic son who is a bus aide for special needs too. She is a widow with a happy love story. Her and her husband where madly in love, and then dementia happened. Though this one will get your heart strings ladies, her and her long standing hubby needed help towards then end, and she wanted someone to help who loved him as much as she did. That person ended up being his life long best friend, since they all where so close already it made things easier. In the end her husband asked his best friend to love her like he did, and to care for after he was gone.

Sometime after his passing her and his best friend fell in love, or shall we say a deepening of love they already had. They are now happy together knowing both their spouses would be happy they found love again. As she told me this during her shoot, we both teared up. She feels so blessed to have 2 great loves in her life.

Her hubby always said she was beautiful, even though she at one time was over 400 pounds. To honor her hubby, and show off her new body, after loosing most of the weight she wanted to showcase herself, for herself and her new love. So we did, she never wore makeup, so we got her all dolled up and ready for the shoot. By the end I felt I had a new friend and she felt so empowered and beautiful it was amazing. She wrote to me a week ago saying she is peeking at her album almost daily, and thinking make-up isn’t so bad. She feels proud of how far she has come, and now is loving seeing the results of her hard work.

So, without anymore to-do, here is what Melanie had to say about her experience:

Love Yourself series, Cecelia post #4

Accalia Carter November 4, 2021

Meet Cecelia, a strong woman, working in a man’s field, she is a ranch hand and a dam fine one too. After 2 not-so-great marriages', and 2 lovely kids, and a bunch of trauma that for a while she didn’t even know was happening. She started her healing journey and started to find out she wasn’t who everyone said or thought she was, that in fact, she is this amazing badass woman. She wanted to break free of her chains so to speak on this shoot, and so did I. She said we could shoot on the ranch and I said hell yes!!

We met up for her style session and ended up chatting for hours at the mall about life, and the struggles we go through as women in today’s world. The day of her shoot everything just came together, it was an all-day event of course, with the horses, the cows, and all the possibilities we had to stay focused. We got so many amazing shots, and watching her come to life and start to glow again was priceless. We made some amazing art that day.

So without further ado here is what she said about her session: ( we ran so late, I forgot to do the video)

“I was both very nervous and excited for my photo shoot. It is a big deal for me bare so much of myself. It was a wonderful experience, so much fun and laughing. I have felt that good about myself in a long time. It was so hard to choose a handful of pictures, there were so many amazing shots. It helped that we got to shoot in one of the prettiest in the county, with many great props. This is an experience everyone should do for themselves, it is a very powerful and uplifting experience.” Cecelia

As you can imagine for a ranch hand life is super busy, she loved her album, just had to run to feed the livestock. This was her reveal.

10 tips to improve your self-esteem

Accalia Carter October 29, 2021

To be frank self-esteem is your opinion of yourself and your abilities, you can high, low, or somewhere in the middle. While we all have doubts, low-self-esteem can leave you feeling insecure and unmotivated. So, if you’re wondering how to improve your self-esteem here are some tips:

Be nice to yourself: tell your bitchity cricket to shut up! Make an effort to be nice to yourself. Progress not perfection.
You do you: Stop comparing yourself to others, that’s a sure way to feel shitty.
Get movin: exercise is a great way to increase motivation, practice setting goals and build confidence. Breaking a sweat also cues the body to release endorphins, the feel good stuff.
No one’s perfect: Progress over perfection, baby steps are better than no action.
Remember you are human: Everyone makes mistakes. Mistakes help you learn and grow.
Focus on what you can change: It’s easy to focus on things out of your control, won’t get you anywhere. Instead, focus on things that you can control.
Do what makes you happy: If you spend time doing things you enjoy, you’re more likely to be more positive and upbeat.
Celebrate the small stuff: You got up. You had breakfast… Celebrate the small victories is a great way to build confidence and self-esteem.
Be a friend: Being helpful and considerate to others, will certainly boost their mood and yours.
Surround yourself with a supportive tribe: Find people who make you feel good about yourself and avoid those who tend to trigger your negative thinking.

I have used and still use most of these tips myself, at first you won’t feel much, but over time it becomes so much more, as you build yourself up, as within so without, things change. It’s not one days efforts, but many days of baby steps small actions that get us thru. More tips soon.

Love Yourself series, Callie post # 3

Accalia Carter October 19, 2021

Love Yourself series, DeAnn post #2

Accalia Carter October 4, 2021

Meet DeAnn, always a mom, even with Chiari, having had one brain surgery for that and the other 2 on her lower back and soon to have hip surgery. She has also been on a weight loss journey as well. She is an incredible woman on a hard road. The last few years have been kind of rough for her. She has been discovering who is she is again after some trauma, she is learning to set new boundaries for herself, and to spoil herself finally.

When we met up for her style session, she mentioned her divorce and the death of her beloved dad. We chatted about all the things she has overcome, about how she always wanted to do a shoot, just never had the courage or the right support till recently, and that’s why now was her time. I felt honored that she chose Boushie Babes to help her explore a few different sides of herself.

She pulled up in her Dad’s car and I knew to make this special we had to grab a few shots with her and the car, you know I just had to. So we started there and ended there, after hair and makeup. She even brought her new man’s shirt to get a few shots in too, so yes we did, I just love when clients bring different outfits to showcase their different sides.

She just wanted to see what others see when they say she is beautiful, to actually feel confident in her skin now, something I find most of us really need at least once in our lifetimes, if not more often.

Here is what DeAnn has to say about her session:

More behind the scenes from Finally Love Yourself.

Accalia Carter September 22, 2021

I love doing behind the scenes stuff, whether it be just stills, or like here a time-lapse video.

Where are all my witchy ladies at? It’s October……

Did you know we can add a spooky element, a bit of dry ice and a bit of this or that to your shoot?

We had so much fun playing with dry ice, fans, and all things witchy for this shoot. I just love capturing the different sides of my clients.

This series is part of my Finally Love Yourself Blog series. If you are ready to finally love yourself go here:

Finally Love Yourself

Model: Callie

HMUA: Lacey Cravens, BE-You-tiful Salon

Photo and Video: Accalia Carter, Boushie Babes Photography

Love Yourself series, Larkin post #1

Accalia Carter September 11, 2021

In this new series within my blog, I will share individual client stories, that they have allowed me to share with you, in hopes of encouraging you to love yourself more right now not when. These are real women, with real stories.

Meet Larkin, she is an amazing woman on an amazing journey. She has been on a weight loss journey, after several surgeries. She has scars on her belly from them both, she has been working on learning to love her new body, scars and all. As with most of my clients, she was on a personal path to reclaiming her personal power back. These sessions are what I live for, why I do what I do, the transformation, the change I see in each client from start to finish.

We met first for her style session at the valley mall, safely of course. She started chatting about working as a teacher among other things such as a Disneyland employee too. Telling me about the other times she had been photographed, and she herself likes taking some amazing selfies, for example, the beauty side from above. We really hit it off and by the end of our shopping time we had a few outfits, ideas from what she had, we knew what direction her shoot was going to go.

I reached a few more times before her session just to clear things for hair and make-up, and then I did my research. She wanted a pin-up look, with some curls in her long locks. As the day got closer we both got more excited.

During her shoot, it was like hanging out with a friend doing hair and makeup, playing dress-up, and taking photos. We had so much fun. She was a natural, and that smile. We laughed, we talked, we got some amazing photos.