beautiful sundays

My favorite kind. Luckily, most of our days start off just like this.

cuppy cake love

I'd be happy to share if I could only find a way to email these cute little guys.  Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours, from me and mine!!!

xoxoxox...

Born 4:56pm 3/9/09, 6 pounds 7 ounces, plenty of hair, but no name yet.

Enter to Win! And my 2 biggest fears for l+d

With less than 20 days till my due date I've been thinking about the whole labor and delivery process. And there are two things that top my list of fears, and here they are in order of importance to me:

#1. She will not be a girl. (and I will have to completely redo her uber stylish pink insanely girly bedroom and wardrobe - and my son will come home from the hospital wearing this). I should explain that I have no problem having a baby boy [in fact, I had high hopes of having a mini DH lacrosse player], I thought that's what I was going to have - before I knew. I'm just completely not prepared for one. And if you know me, you know I like to prepare. A LOT).

#2. My epidural won't work - and I have no plan B. (with all the craziness around here the last couple months my prenatal classes consisted of the lamest DVD EVER in the history of lame DVDs, that I checked out from the hospital. I think it was written for fourth graders. But apparently there's a market for that kind of thing now).

Basically those two things top the charts for me. What were/are your biggest fears? On becoming a mother OR father? Leave a comment here on the blog with one or two, and I'll enter you to win a $30 gift card to pcLayers, we'll pick a winner at 12noon MST on Wednesday 02.25.09 by the random number generator so be sure to check back then and see if you've won!

P.S. I love that in the pic above; you can't even tell I just jumped out of the shower and my hair is dripping wet in a towel and I don't have a scrap of makeup on. Yay, for creative cropping.

Bedrest is for the birds.

I've been a busy girl the last couple months. Haven't had too much time for blogging, but have quite a few new pics and tips to post soon. I had lots and lots of nesting and freelance work to get accomplished before the baby comes. But that all came to a screeching halt Wednesday night when I went in to labor and delivery to ask a simple question about seeing spots.

Three hours, some blood tests, and a few other uncomfortable procedures later (I'll spare you the details), I was released on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy. And let me tell you, I had no idea how much I liked moving. My instructions are to lie on my left side. In bed. All day. For 21 more days. Right.

But! On the scrapbook side of things, I did get a new camera recently and LOVE it. If you're in the market I've got a good recommendation. I wanted something light, an slr, and that took great photos without me doing a lot of photoshopping. I ended up with a Rebel XSi and two lenses recommended by Ali Edwards: a 50mm 1.4 and a zoom EF 28-105mm. And they are perfect for what I need!

And on a side note; the fabric for the pillow is from Heather Bailey's Pop Garden Bijoux line (Sugar Mallow), and is what I ended up deciding on for the nursery. I just couldn't resist making something that I knew nobody else had for nursery crib bedding. I'll have to post updates on those photos soon too. The great ruffle pillow pattern is a freebie from Sandi Henderson. Yes, ladies and gnetlemen, I have now learned to make button holes!

Halloween Tutu How to!

I don't know if you've seen these super cute tutus around on little girls, but I found some great instructions a while back on YouTube on how to make them, so I've made a few for gifts for friends lately.

I was lacking a model so little Miss Lamb-y volunteered for my photo shoots. She is a trooper. The picture above is of a cute little Halloween version and the pic below shows a shorter smaller tutu for newborns.
I also wanted to link you to this great you tube video (in case you are a visual learner like me). I love the easy way she cuts out all the tulle strips!

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Well, not really. But I'm sharing a sneak peek of my studio for my Chicago buddy Sara (hi!) who has been requesting photos of my progress! So here we go. I realized that I could probably paint the exact same light I'd bought at Lowe's for my entry with some paint. Oh, but not just any paint. It most definitely HAD to be tiffany blue. I started on this project at the very end of last year, and finally found someone at my favorite Lowe's who could match the color in oil paint. Riverton's Lowes has the most helpful staff ever - yes; I do have a favorite hardware store! And! He took one look at my tiny color sample bag, and said, "oh! not just any blue, yeah no wonder you couldn't find it in a spray paint." Bless him. I love how it turned out, but will warn you if you are considering the endeavor; pick a color that comes in spray paint! It took me 3 days to paint it all by hand with an old sable brush. And yes; it was completely worth it.

My big surprise....

So I came home from my trip to CHA in California to a huge surprise. My dh had moved ALL our furniture from our old house to our new one! AND decorated and arranged it all (I know that may sound scary, but he knew where I wanted everything - he's been asking for months, and has a good eye). It was the coolest thing to walk into your house and then think you were in the wrong house (it looked like a magazine), and realize it's your house. I am SOOO glad not to still be sleeping on the floor!!! He did an awesome job. He even got flowers for the table which went perfectly with the Red Velvet valentines day cake I hand carried home from a specialty bakery in CA. That cake is just about the reddest thing I've ever seen in my life. I have to include a close up just to show how magnificent it is! Hope you and yours had a great Valentine's Day too!

Vintage Wedding

Yesterday I had the privilege of shooting a wedding for a close friend and talented artist, Lori Gardner. Lori was the glowing mother of the bride, both of whom looked spectacular even though it was only 18 degrees outside!!!

Madi wore her grandmother's vintage wedding gown, which set the tone for her reception and invitations as well. While I was sitting in the photo room, waiting for the bride and groom, I heard all the other photographers talking about having trouble with their cameras because it was sooo cold. Of course, all I could find to wear on my hands (yes, still in the process of moving - does it ever end?!), were some mittens. Mittens = not good for anything requiring manual dexterity. Luckily Lori had some amazing leather gloves she was kind enough to let me borrow, or else I'm pretty sure I'd be fingerless by now.












I'm still not sure how they did it all, Lori was completely sick with the flu for two days before the wedding (yikes!), but the wedding reception that night was amazing. I'll have to post pics from that when I get them downloaded.

Special thanks to Greg, the father of the bride, for all his help carrying my equipment! He, the bride, the groom and I were the only ones to last through the whole hour long session outside.
Congratulations again Eric and Madi!

Another Gorgeous Thanksgiving

We were fortunate enough to be invited for yet another absolutely gorgeous, not to mention delicious, Thanksgiving with the Robertson/Malan families. Nanette did a fabulous job of decorating; our tables were prettier than if Martha had come and done them herself. I had to snap a few shots before everyone arrived, and probably should have snapped a few more once everyone had sat down to eat, but since we've been out of town and haven't been grocery shopping since we got home, I was more interested in dinner once it was served. After dinner we played "Apples to Apples." Our good friends Tim and Carly introduced it to us a while back, and it's always a fun group game. I did manage to snag one person shot of cute Miss Nessa before being tempted away to the buffet line. This year, as always, I'm most thankful for my family; both my wonderful inlaws and their extended family, and also for the family that I've was lucky enough to be born into.

August

I have a Canon 30D for work, and decided that I needed to learn how to use it by taking some pictures of my adorable nieces. Poor kids, by the time I was done, they were saying, "I don't want to pick anymore flowers." They lasted through 697 shots. I'll post a few more later along with before and after photoshop images and maybe a tutorial or two.