You color my world

Day 39.  We love to make handmade items as gifts.  The kids have helped me make items since they were old enough to give a hand.  This year for Valentine's Day we decided to make our own valentines (we actually do that every year).  Lorelei spent an afternoon peeling our old, broken crayons and Tyler helped once he got home from school.  Then we melted them in a warm oven in a silicone heart shaped ice tray (I got it at Target for $2.50 in the dollar bin section).  We cut Lorelei's most recent watercolor pages into 3x4 pieces and hot clued our heart shaped rainbow crayons on.  I love to recycle the kid's artwork into greeting cards or wrapping paper.  It is the perfect way to share their art with the ones we love and I would feel too guilty just throwing it away so it is a great way to keep the paper load under control.   I think the valentines turned out amazing!  So bright and cheery.  Each of them one of a kind with their own original artwork card.  The kids are so excited, too because they mostly made them themselves (except the baking and hot glue gun).

iheartfaces

I have decided to enter this photo into the "I Heart Kisses" photo contest over at iheartfaces.  Head on over an enter your own photos!  They have fun contests every week.

Ember is giving herself kisses in the mirror.  There is nothing in the world more important than loving yourself.

Bittersweet

Day 38.  A year ago today, my precious little girl was born.  She was the tiniest little baby at less than four and a half pounds.  Today was bittersweet for me.  I have loved seeing her grow and bloom, but I am most definitely not quite ready for her to be one.  She is our last baby and I am doing my best to savor every moment.  The last year has flown by.  Way too fast!
If you have a new baby in your house enjoy every minute of it.  No matter if you are sleep deprived, unshowered, still in your pajamas at dinner, barely keeping up with the house, feeling like an overall mess.  Savor the time you have with your baby.  Snuggle a little more, take in their smells and sounds, squeeze that baby chub, and get every slobbery wet kiss you can.  Because it won't be long and you will wonder where the time went.

Happy Birthday baby girl!  No matter how big you grow, you will always be my little peanut.  I love you.

Our excellent adventure

Day 37.  I have stuck to my resolve to get more photos hung around my own house this week.  While working on a portrait collage wall, I realized that I didn't have a current horizontal presentation photo of Tyler.  I already had the frames hung the way I liked, so my only option was to go out and a shoot a new photo to put in the empty frame.  I grabbed my camera and Tyler.  We literally ran out the door.  There was only about 15 minutes left of sunlight, so we were rushing.  I drove down the street looking for a portrait spot to suit my needs.  I found what appeared to be an empty lot with old sheds and great fencing, so we parked and proceeded to take photos.  When we got back in the car Tyler said to me "Mom!  That was an excellent adventure!".  So, if you are reading this blog and this fence looks familiar to you then I really didn't mean to trespass.  But, a photographer has to do what is necessary to get a great shot.  :)

First, you must love yourself

Day 36.  There are life lessons I think that every parent hopes to teach their children.  I think Ember has mastered self worth.  Today she looked in the mirror and gave herself some love.

I am becoming a stalker

Day 35.  I am so excited about all of my new equipment!  I am stalking the mailman and UPS truck driver waiting for everything I have ordered to make it's way to my house.  Today I was able to shoot my new camera for the first time.  This photo is a self portrait.  I shot it looking into the mirror.  I thought it came out pretty cool.

Yay for storage!

Day 31. I am very lucky to have a husband who is both handsome and a wonderful craftsman. I can tell him what I need and he has the vision and skills to make it happen. Phase one of my studio revamp was to create an organized storage space for my props. I gave him a brief summary of what I wanted and in a day's time he built me this wonderful wall of storage.