Baby's First Photoshoot

When newborn Ivy was about 1-1/2 weeks old, we tried to take photos ... things did not work in our favor that day.  Ivy was fussy & didn't want to sleep ... and she kept peeing everywhere!  My 3 year old niece and 5 yr old son tried to play while I took photos, but they were pestering each other, pestering me ... it was just kinda chaotic. Despite all the craziness, I think we captured some nice memories.

All my helpers ...

Baby Ivy

Late one night, several days past my sister's due date, she sent me a text to let me know she was at the hospital & finally in labor.  I was already in bed, but quickly made my way over to the hospital so that I could be present for the birth of my newest niece & take photos of the birth.  I wasn't at the hospital for too long before things got exciting ... but not a good exciting.  Machines keep sounding alarms, so a nurse finally came in & checked my sister & her baby.  After the nurse checked my sister, she said, "NO!" and ran out of the room.  My sister & I just kinda sat there & stared at each other, wondering what it the world was going on.  Her easy-going husband was sitting next to me on the couch and said, "Hey, now if something was really wrong there would be at least 7 doctors in here right now."  The door swung open and the nurses started pouring in ... my brother-in-law starting counting the number of people coming in & we started to realize something was not good.  Before I knew it, they were telling my baby sister that she had to have an emergency c-section & they we were racing her down the hall.  Almost immediately, I was left alone in a all-too-quiet room, feeling stunned, and too scared to even cry.  And then it was my job (because I was the only family member at the hospital) to call all our family & tell them what was going on.  I was shaking, but deep down I felt strongly that everything would turn-out well.  My mom came down with sodas and we sat & waited for news.  After about 30 minutes, we got a text that my sister & her baby were both safe & doing great.  I eventually went home & tried to sleep a little before I had to get up with my kids, but I was anxious to see my sister & her baby with my own eyes.

The next morning, my kids went to play at Bushka's house so I could go visit my sister at the hospital & meet her new baby.  We were bummed about all the photos that we missed-out on, but of course those things don't really matter and we still got a few fun hospital photos.

 

Raise the Bar: Street Scene

Friday's photography assignment for the week was "street scene".  I've been wanting to document the progress of the street we hope to live on someday, but life gets busy & documenting our street never happens.  Friday brought us some nice weather, so I took my boy for a 3 minute drive to our future street and snapped a couple quick photos.  As of Friday, March 1, 2013, three houses are complete and four others are under construction.  I think three or four more houses are in the planning stages or are getting close to breaking ground.

So far this "little" project has been a lot of frustrations for me.  We've had to put our plans on hold a couple of times for various reasons, but in January we decided it was time to get moving on a home for our family.  On Feb 2, we met with an architect for several hours and by Feb 12, I had a 10-ish page document with pictures & links for what I want in each room of the house, the styles I like, etc.  I've bugged the architect a few times since then ... he told me he'd have something for us by the end of last week and then it was by Saturday afternoon ... he still doesn't have anything ready to show us.  I can't tell you how many architects I've contacted about designing a home (these are architects that friends & general contractors have used & recommended) and only 1-2 of them have responded to my emails, calls, etc.  Guess no one wants to make money right now ... or something ....  So, the waiting game continues.

Other street scenes can be seen here.

Raise the Bar: Laughter

This week's photography assignment was laughter....

To see other photographer's results, go HERE.

Blank New Beginnings Invitations - The Right Shoes

Here are some "blank" invitations that you can add your own text to.  Go HERE to see my blog post & my finished invitation.  Go HERE for free shoe printables.

**Update: I just uploaded PDF files for invitations and program covers to my blog.  Find them HERE.

Leave me a comment with your email address (I won't publish your comment) if you have any questions. 

Raise the Bar: Rule of Thirds

This week's challenge is rule-of-thirds.  I felt challenged by this even though sometimes I feel like I'm stuck in some kind of rule-of-thirds prison that I can't escape from.  I like to see that rule-of-thirds grid in my camera, on my computer screen, in my head ... you get the idea.  {If you have no idea what I'm talking about go HERE & note the photos in the center of the screen that have the flashing on & off grids ... that's what goes on in my brain when I grab a camera.}  I tried to think of something that I have three of ... like my 3 kids, 3 vases, 3...  

In the end, my favorite way to use rule of thirds is to put my subject to one side of the photo with a very plain & simple background.  I like things that are clean & un-cluttered.  My mom talks about her dream kitchen with a rack of pots hanging from the ceiling ... like Williams-Sonoma she says.  The thought of my dirty pots & pans hanging from my ceiling makes me cringe.  I'll build more closets & cupboards before I consider such a thing.  Sorry Mom. :)

Check-out the results of other photographers here.

Young Women Christmas Extravaganza

**UPDATE: Hot Chocolate Bar Printables can be found HERE.

**UPDATE: Inn Crowd/Stable Few gift/printables are now available HERE.

We, the YW Presidency, wanted to do something special for the Young Women (12-18 yr old girls that attend church with my family) of our ward for Christmas, so we planned a progressive dinner for the girls which affectionately became known as the Christmas Extravaganza!

I made invites:

We started our evening in the backyard of one of our girls.  I was in charge of the hot chocolate bar.  {Someday when I have a minute, I'll share my printables & more details.}  The girls made yummy mugs of hot chocolate, the Grinch made a visit, & the girls enjoyed a reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas around the fire pit.

After our tummies were warm with hot chocolate, we paraded next door to the home of two other girls for dinner, a visit from Santa, & a reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Our last stop was the home of a leader where the three wise men read a story to the girls, we enjoyed a variety of desserts, and had a little gift for the girls ... free printable for that to come too.

Raise the Bar: Self-Portrait

I came across a message on Facebook posted by my friend Libby ... she's hosting a photo challenge this year ...  one theme per week.  Maybe I'm too late to join the fun, but I still wanted to try this week's challenge because some of the other photographers had some fun results that inspired me & my cameras have been growing too much dust. Week one is the dreaded self-portrait.  To me, a self-portrait is nothing more than a crap-shoot cause I'm not behind the camera & able to see what's going on.  I fiddled around with my camera for a bit & gave-up because nothing was working how I wanted it to.  Tonight after the kids were in bed, I stuck my camera card into my computer and this one was my favorite:

To check out the results of some other photographers, go to Libby's blog!

Baby Jada Part 2

I've been a bad sister.  I took photos of Baby Jada back in early September & still haven't given my sister a CD with all the photos, but I'm trying to go through lots of photos & clean stuff out.  TODAY I'm making my sister a CD so I can get that off my to-do list, so here is Baby Jada ... Part 2.