I wish I was a little bit taller…

Anyone want to finish that line? 🙂 I had my mom hold up a newly completed quilt, but I need a little bit taller someone to try again because I couldn’t quite get the whole thing just right. And since I started this thing untold many years ago I figure I should take some proper pictures of it finished.

Anyone remember when I started it? I’m hoping it wasn’t pre-blog, but I know it was a looooong time ago.

Hey, there’s a baby in there!

This weekend we met up with a friend of mine so I could snap a couple of pictures of her boys and give her some pointers along the way. She worked my camera for the first time ( D300 with a my zoom lens ( 24-70 2.8, a heavy combo, but she did great. I started with the camera in my hands and took a few of Tuesday to show her some cool places to get even light (it was surprisingly sunny!). I loved this tunnel.


I’m not going to lie these were completely bribery induced. And she still barely held still. So I decided I would be an easier model to work with.

I helped her with the settings and let her walk around me and see what angles worked better.

My favorite. My friend is really tall, and I was like, dude, use that to your advantage! I’m always placing subjects below me since I’m 5’4″ (on a good day).

Trust me, this was the best of all of us. I’d love to have tried for more but I am kneeling in a ton of mud, Tuesday is so tired and OVER IT. That’s why I always tell clients to book me at the time their kid will be the happiest! One PM is not our happy time! I am so glad to have at least one picture of us together though! I hope I can keep up monthly shots of us, but um, I’m already at the weight I was when I gave birth to Tuesday, oops!

Surprise

I came across these on my point and shoot. I don’t download those photos as often (it’s usually floating around my purse or the house). From a few weeks ago with my dad (he doesn’t live up here full time any more so we rarely see him). Tuesday loves her gramps!




The last one Tuesday took 🙂
A note about this camera. Has anyone ever used this thing in FULL manual mode? I really loath not shooting in manual, but every time I’ve tried with this camera it’s so clunky and time consuming I can hardly get a shot in. There is no way I can go to the menu and scroll around for a bunch of stuff while following around a three year old and trying to take her picture. I think this is a pretty nice little point and shoot, but I don’t feel like I’m using it as well as I could be. Any tips are appreciated!

What’s old is new again

In the past year I’ve spend hours dealing with my sewing machine. Dropping it off no less than SEVEN times to get it repaired (for a tension issue, “we’ve never seen before”). I couldn’t do anything with topstitching, including quilting, because I never knew when I’d get little loops on the bottom of my sewing. Needless to say I was frustrated. And I finally broke. With my meanest voice I told them the last time they called that, “I can’t wait, I want to talk to some one RIGHT NOW.” Yes, being able to curse would have been nice in the situation, but I just don’t have that in me (besides, who wants to hear that?). Well they finally broke and admitted they could not fix the machine, and gave me a new one. I was so happy, and have been sewing like a mad woman ever since.
Of course my first thought was to start a million new projects, and I did do the bedding and baby doll carrier, but then I got sensible. It helped that I realized backing my languishing quilt tops would use a lot of fabric (I may have a slight stash problem). So I pulled out the old tops and got to work. This one was (poorly) pin basted last year before I realized the severity of the problems with my machine.

I set out with no plan from the start on this thing. And once I started working on it I realized I was SO rusty with my free motion quilting. As a result this is going to be more of a sampler of sorts. I think I’m ok with that. I took these photos with my phone to ask Sciarrino for some more quilting ideas. She gave me a couple of good ones so I’m excited to keep going on it.
Of course I’m not perfect…

And when Bj said we could go to the biggest/weirdest fabric store around on the way home for our anniversary trip I said sure and stocked up on knits, including swimsuit knits! I’m so crazy. Hopefully it translates into crazy awesome knit clothing and not a bunch of stash that sits there for a while…

5 years

This weekend Bj and I celebrated our five year anniversary! I really can’t believe it’s been that long since that fabulous day!

And us now (an iPhone shot of course!):

It’s not always the easiest thing, but certainly worth all the hard work we put into it, this marriage thing. We were able to celebrate by going to Portland for the night. Bj got us tickets to Wicked (it was great), we had a nice long dinner at Marrakesh (a favorite!), full nights sleep in a hotel (even though I forgot my pillow), and the next day we got to do a little shopping (fabric!). I love being able to talk with Bj when we’re alone in the car (or dinner, or anywhere) together. It seems like we could just talk for hours, and I love that. So lucky to have my wonderful husband! I really can’t believe we’ll be a family of four soon(ish)!

Painting

It’s been a while. I washed the canvas drop cloth that I had made after a paper mâché incident and it shrunk horribly. Because I didn’t worry about grain when sewing it up it shrunk horribly in multiple directions which resulted in a big bubble in the middle that won’t sit flat. This doesn’t bother Tuesday of course, but I’ve got problems. So I was going to do a new drop cloth before painting again. Tuesday told me I was being ridiculous (well she looked at me and really wanted to paint and I realized I was being ridiculous). Yes, kid! We will paint!

The only picture of her I could get before she said she just couldn’t stand the shirt (but the way too small pants didn’t phase her. Time to make new painting pants!).

She took over my paintings too. That’s ok, since I do the same to her. We’re collaborative that way.



And then we got really messy. And I put the camera far away.

Clean up. With her “guys”.
More info about our painting area here. And tips for painting with little kids here.

More Project Life

As I said, I’ll share a little more Project Life. Thanks for all the kind words on the last post. I didn’t make it really clear, but all the page protectors, and a lot of the little cards and things are from Becky Higgin’s Project Life site. Clicking there will take you to all the products, which will take you through to Amazon to purchase was is currently in stock.

Here is a full spread. I think they are harder to see this way, but I wanted to show how my weeks usually play out page protector wise. Usually I use one A style and one D style (for vertical photos). I don’t worry about the order of photos with in the week, so this works, since I do take a lot of vertical photos, and the A style is just too limiting for me.

Bj has mentioned that I use a lot of sleeping Tuesday pictures. We’ve had a lot of Tuesday sleeping issues, so when she sleeps I sometimes can’t help but take a picture. And in this case the striped sheets were a dead giveaway that she was not waking up in her own bed! I think all these photos save one are from my iPhone, it really is fantastic for this project. I don’t usually use an app on them or anything. I do like that look, and will occasionally throw one in, but I know it will date this book badly if I go too far that direction. I make an  exception for black and white, it’s a huge help to the really bad photos (bad lighting, fuzzy, etc.).

Here is an instance where I did use an app for a photo (the one of Tuesday at dance). I didn’t want any focus on the other girls since I don’t have their parent’s permission to take their pictures.

Thoughts on a note of Tuesday’s.

Again with splitting up travel from “regular” life. The G style insert in the middle documents what Tuesday was doing while we were apart, flipped open the back and the next full sized protector show what Bj and I were doing. I focused more on Bj and I (or at least gave it more space) for a couple of reasons. The book is in my perspective, and it’s so rare we get so much time together I really wanted to celebrate it.

Hello little baby! I did just put in the actual ultrasound printout. I scanned them all in first, to have a permanent record incase something happens to the book (nooo!!!!!), and I like the authenticity of it in there. Oh those few sunny days; I sort of remember you…
I think this may be a good place to leave off. More next week?

Turning the lens on Tuesday

I had a photo shoot with a sweet family this weekend. You may have noticed that I’m not taking many new clients right now… I’m working on extended maternity leave. Seeing the lovely little kids that I shot Saturday made me want to come home and capture some of what Tuesday is right now.





Obsessed with her read along books. Loving her baby Thomas to the point of total despair if he is not around. Clothing optional. Three.