Anna Mayer Studios

03/31/2025

When my little baby clients become big adult-like young people ready to take on the world . . .

06/25/2024

Hey hey Wisconsin!! Grab a Wisconsin special and save big!

best family photographer in Milwaukee is on sale

11/11/2023

I am sooooo excited about a lot of things right now.

1. Being Nana Banana is literally the BEST BEST BEST thing ever.

2. Did I mention being a Nana is incredible?

3. I have decided to go back to school after 25 years. I am going to study art education, which, by the way, is no small thing. Because in Wisconsin, an art education degree requires a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts), I have to go back to school as an undergrad. It will take me 3-3.5 years. It will be challenging as the classes are all arranged for a 20-year-old without a career, which I most certainly am not. However, I haven't wanted something this much in a long time. When I was in high school and spent 2-3 class periods in Mr. Blondeau's art room, I dreamed of this day. I certainly didn't know I would have to wait until I was 47 years old to get there, but you all, I am going to Art School!!! Whoop!!!

P.S. I am making Lucy a book about all the fun we will have together. It helps me to wait between visits.

10/28/2023

Waiting for my first baby to welcome his first baby has been an emotionally beautiful and tangled-up experience for this soon-to-be nana. Adding a layer of depth and complexity, this year marks the thirty year anniversary of the terrifying, joyful and seismic beginning of my journey as a mother. With a heart filled with pride, gratitude and peace, I feel like this tiny human, my first grandchild, is the perfect prize for the hard work of choosing to parent her father; for choosing to give up my youth to be his mother. What a beautiful reward.

Thirty years ago, nearly to the day, I was a girl bursting with all the potential and yet-to-be-realized talents of the young. One who had dreamed for much of her seventeen years of life as a professional artist, of traveling the world, of doing great and exciting things. I remember sitting at the kitchen table mindlessly doodling in my notebook some chaotic mash up of little characters, random thoughts, and the name “Tyler John” in every teen-girl font you can imagine. That name had been doodled on whatever surfaces passed by my pen, embellished with hearts and swirls of flourish. From the outside my scribbles would have looked like a teen’s love-sick crush; a dreamy wish for the thrill of young love.

As I looked down at my round melon of a belly straining against the oversized T-shirt I likely stole from my dad’s closet I ran my hands over my growing child; my future interrupted. I wondered, sitting at that table with the autumn sun warming us both, where those dreams would go. What would happen to my hopes when I turned my face away from them, letting go to take a small, dimpled hand in mine?

Two weeks later, in a rush of emotions from terror to joy and back again, I would reach out my arms to pull my beautiful boy against my chest. His wide blue eyes would blink up at mine, so full of trust, full of all the potential and yet-to-be-realized talents of the young. It was then that I knew; my dreams could wait. I would take his perfect little hand, the one firmly grasping my finger as he snuggled into my heart, and together we would find a new path and it would be beautiful.

And it was. It is. It will be. ❤️

09/06/2023

I had the privilege of taking senior photos for my niece Natalie, who is beautiful, kind, fun, and talented. We had so much fun!

Anna Thorson Mayer

08/15/2023

California, here I come! I have some space in the Bay Area for a custom shoot or a short and sweet, THIS WEEKEND. Let's get her done, eh?!!

Upcoming Bay Area Short and Sweets Short & Sweet SessionsAnna chooses a date & location and meets you there for a quick 25-minute shoot, with 4-5 sessions booked back to back. It’s a great way to fill in some photos in a gallery you already have, to get a sweet photo for your Christmas cards, and ...

07/19/2023

Hey, hey, hey! Did you know that you can hop on our fantastic new site and book your session in California or Wisconsin RIGHT NOW?! It's super easy, really convenient, and you can feel good about taking care of this very important task as a mom who loves her family: Booking A Family Photo Session! Do it now. You won't regret it (but you might if you procrastinate and miss my availability!)

Gorgeous photos of your family. Custom Sessions Anna lives and works in the Milwaukee area but makes frequent trips to the SF Bay area and annual trips to Boston, Portland, Seattle, and San Diego. For a custom shoot, you choose the location (at home, at the beach, downtown . . . you name it, we can....

07/03/2023

Hey hey hey! Are you following my little toy store yet?? I’m super stoked to announce that my sweet little Block Bots are now in a little local gift store with more coming soon! If you’re in the Milwaukee area you’ve gotta stop in to Mixed Bag Mke and check out my Bots and all the other goodies she has to peruse. And even if you’re not, come Like and Follow the Blue Chalet Handmades page to be the first to see what adorable things come out of my crazy brain and my super fun workshop!

06/28/2023

I love this quote and believe it to my core.

Sometimes a photo can look more like the experience of my heart ❤️than the moment as it happened.

🌟 -Double Tap- if you love this quote too!

06/22/2023

When our little brood of children was still young, we lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, where life was all sunshine ☀️ and high rents.

We got by, but sometimes barely, so when we wandered past the high-end toy store in downtown Willow Glen the only shopping 🛍️ we did was of the window variety. One spectacular toy caught my eye again and again, and I would pine for it with all my childlike heart.

It was a huge, beautiful treehouse that would have delighted me beyond measure when I was a child (and, honestly, still would). I turned to my husband one day, with the absolute belief of the young, and said,

“Someday, I will have that in my house. Someday . . . maybe not until I am a grandma, but I will have it.”

Continue reading here: https://www.annamayer.com/blog/montessori-treehouses-for-malieg-mice

06/20/2023

☀️California, here I come: Short & Sweets 🍦 are ready to be booked!!!

➕Book Here: https://www.annamayer.com/short-and-sweets

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