Life in Color Photography

Celebrating crafts, kids and the everyday through photographs.

This is who I am

My name is Amber Lee Garrison, I'm a thirty something mother of two who grew up right here in Salem, Oregon. I received my fine arts degree from Oregon State in 2004. Though I was trained in traditional black and white film photography I got my first digital camera in 2005 and went fully digital in 2006.

I love the flexibility of digital photography but I much prefer to be behind the camera instead of in front of the computer so you won't see a lot of post-processing from me. I love my kids, my husband, and my crafts. And I love documenting all of it here on my blog.

Some Layouts

Monday, May 13, 2013

“Are you going to post those layouts you made?” Sarah asked me. We had a scrap day a while back and I went nuts doing regular 12×12 layouts. I mean regular because I did Project Life last year, and because of it did few traditional type layouts. Totally fine, but I did miss it. Also I have a few months to complete on my 2012 Project Life, but I didn’t want to do it. I just had a few stories I wanted to get down and I wanted to play with paper, so I did!

I don’t know if I ever shared these pictures of Tuesday or talked about the awesome older woman I found to knit for me. Yes, I am getting help using up my stash. She’s awesome, she knits all the things I love but don’t have the time/patience for. This turtleneck dress from a vintage pattern is the perfect example.

I won Elle’s Studio’s You and Me Collection when they had a giveaway and oh my I love her stuff. The faux chalkboard is so awesome. I also love the little stamp. I’ve bought many of her tags; her stuff works great for Project Life too.

I should mention that I used sketches as a start to all of these. So easy to get back in the scrapbooking game for me when I have a sketch as a jumping off point. I didn’t keep track of which sketch I used for which layouts (and some went way off course), but I did start a pin board of my favorite sketches here.

And if I could find the layouts I lifted you’d see this is almost an exact copy. I love the simplicity of it.

Had to bust out my Silhouette SD to cut the love box. The Silhouette might be my favorite crafting tool of all time.

More of Elle’s Studio goodness.

I love that I scrapped this picture. It’s suck a great moment, when she joined us at the table.

Using little bits of an old gift bag (the sparkle). This is why I can never seem to get rid of anything paper related.

Very, very fun to have a day with Sarah to scrapbook. I love taking over the dining room table and eating candy while we steal from each other’s stashes. We were talking about when we first scrapped together at a now defunct local scrapbook store in Albany. I’m so glad she said yes to meeting me there (we had only been friends online up until then). I really doubt I’d scrapbook as much if I didn’t have Sarah to share the hobby with. That was six (I think?) years ago. She’s my only “real life” (I should say nearby, that sounds nicer) friend that scrapbooks. Long live paper and glue, right Sarah?

Posted in Scrapbooking Tags: 12x12 layouts

show hide 6 comments

add a comment

link to this post

email a friend

Before the incident… making baby food

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

So before the incident with Bennet I was making baby food and things were going really well in the house. Our kitchen is not that big, and honestly I don’t spend much time in it day to day. I like to make things like baby food though, and can, make granola, etc. Cooking meals however, not my favorite. I needed to keep the girls busy so I set up a super easy sensory play (from this most excellent blog) of ice + water.

I love the big cube shaped ice that these molds make (ooohhh finding that link I saw that they make even bigger ones!). They take a lot longer to melt. Tuesday requested a couple of limes so she could make some juice. Bennet is chewing on our juicer here, another find I love.

(carrots, beets, sweet potato – red because I didn’t clean out the blender in between foods)

So I do make my own baby food for Bennie. I did for Tuesday too, I talked about it here. Like I said in that post, I can really do this easily because I am home all day. So I can let things cook while I’m doing other stuff. Then I pop them in the blender (with a little water if I need it). Before we got our great blender I used a thrifted food mill, like this. I do like using that, it reminds me of fun times making pear butter with my mom, but the blender is just so quick and easy. I use the above mentioned molds since I have a limited supply of the containers made for baby food. I still like those, they are easy to travel with. I bought the honeycomb one you see at TJ Maxx on a whim and didn’t need it. But I love it! The cubes are smaller, but they pop out so easily, and besides, it’s super cute.

I do love the idea of baby led weaning, where you feed the baby straight from the table. I think I’m just too into everything being tidy for that. I like to spoon feed babies so they don’t get stuff everywhere. It’s just a sanity thing for me. Also I’d have to eat a little better… but that’s a whole other post! I didn’t buy baby food for Tuesday until she was three. Ya three; I got talked into a few of those squeezy pouch things. Who ever made them is a genius, because Tuesday was all over them when she went through a brief vegetable strike. I have fun making these things up, and Bennie has only been eating for a month (we delayed solids until she was 8.5 months), so I’ll probably be at it for a bit.

Posted in Cooking Tags: baby food

show hide 4 comments

add a comment

link to this post

email a friend

OH MY GOD BENNET NOOOO!!!!

Monday, May 6, 2013

You can laugh at this, I think maybe in a few months I’ll be able to….

So I was making a bunch of baby food in the kitchen. Cooking older carrots on the stove, had beets and sweet potatoes in the oven. The girls were playing awesome together with a tray of ice and water on the floor. Then Tuesday wanted some limes, she had me cut them in half, found all the parts to the juicer and got to work, Bennet was happy with her left overs. Of course icy cold water was everywhere and Bennet peed so I took off her diaper. I was just wrapping stuff up, getting labels on the food when I hear Bennet start to crawl back in the kitchen crying. She was playing super nicely by the orange shelves (very close by). I look down and I can’t believe it.

At first I thought; how did she get baby food? But no. It was poop. AND SHE TRIED TO EAT IT!!! I do realize this makes me seem very negligent but this all happened in under a minute. So she’s screaming because she has poop all over her face, up her nose, in her eyes… You get the idea. I grab her and yell at Tuesday to help me. She pulls back the shower curtain and I plop a totally hysterical Bennet in. Get the water going. Bennet gets up, slips in the poo (also over her whole body), and falls back on her bottom. I send Tuesday running for soap while I get all the chunks off. Luckily Tuesday had the forethought to grab a towel. She was pretty cool about everything until I was cleaning the floor (while poor Bennet wailed from the playpen) and came across a pair of sunglasses with a blob of poop. Thank goodness they were Bennie’s because Tuesday just started chanting, “I don’t want her poop on my sunglasses, I don’t want her poop on my sunglasses.”

And end scene.

Amber “mother of the year” Garrison

Posted in Bennet Marie

show hide 9 comments

add a comment

link to this post

email a friend