Thursday, June 21, 2012

Guy Senior Pics

Whew!  It has been a while since I had the chance to say hello.  We are smack in the middle of packing up our house and moving, very temporarily into the house across the street.  Last night the young men from church came over and carried thousands of pounds Sew*CakeMaker junk across the street into the new house.  What a relief!  Now I can finally show you the senior pics I took a few weeks ago.  I had a little bit of a hard time finding "guy" pics to look at for reference.  That is why I specify "guy" in my post ;0)

This is Ryan.  He is awesome.  He is a total nerd and totally fun to tease.  I was happy to see I could easily crop out the "Star Wars" from his t-shirt for his mom :0D  It made her happy.

Here in the desert we have a bit of a hard time finding fun places to take pictures.  There are no lush green wooded areas to make a fabulous background of the textures of nature.  I found this abandoned house...just as exciting, right?  Um, Ryan thought I was totally nuts when I told him to just walk through piles of trash, but I think the pictures were worth it.  Hopefully he does too.

These ones were outside a little tire shop down the road from my house.  I didn't think this "guy" would like to hit the farm fields {the only foliage around us} so I tried to find more manly places to shoot him....with my camera ;0)  This picture above is probably one of my favorites.


I love the stacks of tires!!!

You will never guess where we took these!  They are water walls, put in place just in case we ever get a spot of rain around here.  All the spots of rain will just run across land since the dirt is too hard to absorb the moisture and so we have to have huge empty canals all around our cities...just in case...so for like the once a year rain.  I have actually seen these things fill to the top.  We had huge street flooding about two or three years ago....

Uh, guess I got a little off subject :0)  So glad these walls were in place cause they made a fabulous backdrop!


Wednesday, June 13, 2012

More Father's Day Printables

Here are a couple more printables that are for Father's Day.  I know it is coming up fast.  I made these up for the Father's Day mini-sessions I am doing tomorrow.  I had each one printed up, cut out wood to match, painted, then modge podged.  I made a couple different variations, if needed, just ask: vanessa.cam5@gmail.com




These are just in case you wanted to make your blocks two-sided for a quick surprise for dad. 




 You can print, cut out, and glue to the back side of your original I {Heart} Family blocks to make them fitting to the holiday... 
and to your favorite furry friend!

Here is a Super Dad logo I worked up.  I had it printed onto 11x17 paper and then mounted it to a cut piece of pine for the back.  

Last, but not least, I Wanna Be Just Like You!
Or at least the sign says I do ;0)  Print it out, mount it on pine or cardboard and you are ready to go!
Feel free to ask me any questions!!!
But let's make it tomorrow.  I really can't keep my eyes open one more second!!!


Monday, June 11, 2012

Photo Prop Fun

I am about to make a whole new batch of photo props and realized I never showed you my last couple.  
Photo props are so fun because they can be just about anything...anything you want to store, that is.

I have made several of the pennant banners.  Just recently I stenciled "FAMILY" on one of them.  It was pretty cute.  I had a little trouble with it just because the site where we took pictures ended up a little windy. Not too big of a deal though, I just had to take a few more pictures to get the banner all down rather than flapping in the wind.

One of my favorite things is to cut out letters.  I like the monogram letters of the family name like here

Or Here.

The & sign was one of my favorites and actually lives on my shelf in my living room when not in use.

The paper chains are super fun.  A red, white, and blue star chain would be super fun for 4th of July pics.

I love the scrabble tile sayings, but there isn't much to making those, just finding all your letters in the box :0)

I painted an old chair...

for a little more spunk for those sitting portraits.  That is Emmalee's bed-side table while it is not in use for pictures.

I found this old suitcase at goodwill a few years back.  I bought it {it was blue back then} for the kids to play with, but couldn't resist painting it and using in a couple pictures. 


No props, just a gorgeous girl ;0) 



Love the missionary pic!  I did warn him it would be cheesy.

Here is the big thing I wanted to show you, how I transformed my $5 Goodwill coffee table into a baby bed for pictures {saving myself $150}.  I started by hefting the table up on the miter saw and chopping off the claw foot portion of the legs.

This part was saved for later.

Next was to use the same saw and chop this curve out of the table on both sides.
I only had to saw the sides because this table was originally a glass-top table.  That made it nice because I didn't have to bust out the table saw.

This piece was not used for later.  Into the firepit with you!

K, here are my pieces.  Two table halves, four claw feet.

I pulled out the nail gun and shot this baby back together.  I just glued the seams and nailed a strip of wood over them to give it added strength.  Next I nailed in some scrap 1x3 for slats to hold up the mattress.  The mattress by the way, was a couch cushion.  I saved it when we decided to get rid of a fluffy arm chair that broke.  Very convenient because the cushion was so thick I was able to use that foam for so many projects.

Anyway, I nailed the feet on the bottom to be like bunt feet under the bed, spray painted the whole thing white, and roughed it up just a bit.  I brushed on a couple coats of varnish and now enjoy using the bed with all my baby girls!

I think it made a darling four poster bed!  Now I have a baby bed that can be used Inside AND Out!


This week I am making a boy bed, an Oscar the Grouch set up, and a couple others.  Have I mentioned that we are moving???  Not super excited, but the house that we are renting is apparently foreclosed.  Yea, found out in a crazy way.  Whatever, I am sure I will complain about that all more later, but for now, I need to figure out how to get prop-en between all the packen'!  Wish me luck :0)


Saturday, June 9, 2012

Maddie Is Back!

I recently lost two entire nights of my life sewing a pile of pioneer garb for my baby girl Madison.  We are Mormon, belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and while I try to leave religion out of things, I did a heck of a lot of sewing and wanted to show it off :0)  Every once in a while the opportunity comes up for our youth to live a few days like the first pioneers, traveling the plains pulling hand carts.

Don't ask me why we sign ourselves up for this kind of thing :0)
All I can say is no one who lives to tell about the event regrets going. 

Somewhere around 170 youth, and who knows how many adults, set out on a four day journey, taking only what they could fit into a 5 gallon bucket, and walked across the prairie.  The early pioneers walked in search for religious freedom, in search of Zion.  These kids walked this week to gain an understanding of the sacrifice and the hardships the pioneers faced in their pursuit.  

I had a horrible time while Madison was gone.  Hubby worked extra and Eli was always gone playing or at swim team practice.  I found myself thinking about Madison most of the day and praying for her safety morning, noon, and night.  Finally this morning we got to make the three hour drive up to Flagstaff to greet Mads and her new "family" as they walked their final mile into the clearing.  

Madison said they walked pulling those handcarts something like 20 miles over the four days.  The first day they walked 10 of those miles.  They ate pioneer rations, 1/2 cup of oatmeal for breakfast, an orange for lunch, then broth and a biscuit for dinner just before climbing into sleeping bags laid atop the rocky soil.  Thankfully they were fed much more heartily the rest of the time :0)

Imagine 170 teenagers all bawling and hugging their parents all across a clearing in the forest.
It was such a touching moment, the kind to make the kid's whole trial worth it.

Here is Madison's war wound.
Do note the amount of rufflage around my girl's leg.  Once we drowned and scour all of her dresses and such I will show you what I made for her to wear.  We had a little fun, to say the least.

This is a picture of some of the kids in Maddie's "Family." Each family had a Ma and a Pa, ten kids, and an older brother or sister {extra adult to help when needed}.

I thank the Lord for the woman that cared for my girl while she walked the plains of Flagstaff :0)

She did it.  I am so super proud!

 You can see her bucket in this picture...kinda

I will get you the details on the thing I made later, two pioneer shirt/skirts, a long nightgown, two bonnets, and apron, and a swivel-top padded seat for her 5 gallon bucket....oh!  And ruffle bottom bloomers too :0)  but for now, I am going to bed.  It has been a long day and I didn't even walk the trail!


Novelty Print Quilt Pattern

I have had a hard time finding good quilt patterns for novelty prints the past couple times I purchased them.  I made up this pattern so tha...