With Pamela Sutton’s attention being split between her four children, her husband and her Leaves of Grass Photography business – the 34-year-old’s hands are always full.

“There is never a dull moment,” Sutton said with a laugh last week as she met with The Journal at one of her favorite spots in town – The Coffee Landing.

In fact, the spot stands out so much to Sutton that she frequently meets at the coffee hub to discuss details with clients and even included it in an autobiography-type story she contributed to the inaugural issue of “Cake and Whiskey” magazine, a publication devoted to women in all stages of their business.

“It is something I think I’ll be part of as future issues are being produced,” Sutton explained.

Sutton said she was contacted by the magazine’s editor, Megan Smith, a friend from college who was curious what it was like to run a business in a small town on the Canadian border.

Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, the now-International Falls resident speaks so highly of her personal and business life that she compiled into the 11 paragraphs she wrote for Cake and Whiskey.

The story, which Sutton titled, “Ms. Small Town U.S.A,” offers a glimpse into her routine as a mother, wife and businesswoman and how to find balance between all three.

“For me, having a successful business is equally about spending time with my children and providing a home where they can know they are loved,” she said. “It was really scary to put myself out there. I had no idea who was going to read what I wrote. I haven’t even read it yet myself. I don’t want to read it.”

With only one issue under its belt, Sutton said now it is a wait-and-see period to find out if the publication takes off.

“I think it will,” she explained. “There is some really great stories about some incredible people.”

What is Leaves of Grass

Shortly after Sutton and her husband moved to International Falls, she said the couple experienced the financial burden of a one-income family.

“I know I needed a job, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she said.

It was her mother, Eleanor Riemer, who came to the rescue. She invested in a Canon 40D camera for Sutton, who began offering photography services in 2010.

She said she didn’t have a formal college degree, but having been surrounded by photography and arts her entire life, the skill behind the shutter came naturally.

“It was always something I was interested and always something I wanted to do,” she said of owning her own photography business.

No business, of course, is complete without a name.

“I was never going to have a business until I had a name I liked,” Sutton said, adding several suggestions of names were discarded before she stumbled across the one that stuck.

It was her husband, Wade, who suggested Leaves of Grass based on Walt Whitman’s volume of poetry titled, “Leaves of Grass.”

“Walt traveled America to listen to people’s stories and write poems about them,” Sutton said. “He called the people the leaves of grass...I loved it...that is what I do with my camera, I tell stories. The people in my photo stories are my leaves of grass.”

Soon word of mouth helped grow and shape Leaves of Grass Photography into the successful business it is today. Sutton couldn’t be happier.

“I hope the joy I have in what I do comes across in what I wrote in Cake and Whiskey,” she said. “Being a photographer and owning a business has shaped me more than anything.”