The Day My Nephew Turned 7

Doing pictures for family can be about ten thousand times more work than doing them for paying customers.  Here is how my nephew's birthday shoot went...

90 miles and hour down hill.

Awe, handsome boy, smiling, slightly goofy, but just so handsome.

All right goofy.  Where are your normal smiles?

That is a nice smile.  I don't like the 7 covering your face...

Well, now we can see your face and it makes me want to cry.

J, hold that number on the floor please!

Well, we have the 7 on the floor.  I am not really sure I like that...

Yeah.  Not that either!!!

Awe!  That is it!!!

Perfect!

Let's switch the backdrops......

Johnathon:  "Can I do my own pose?"

Me: "Sure. Um, OK"

Me again:  "So, can we have some normal smiles now?"

Or no smiles.  Lets just try a straight face.  No smiles.

OK.  That is a great straight face.  Not a hint of a smile there.  Now just a little smile...

Nevermind.  Lets change poses here.

OK!  I like it.  You look super grown up there.  We just need to repostition a tad...Could you sit up a bit, maybe lean forward a smidge?

Now that is more forward.  What is with the zombie eyes?

John, you are scaring me.  Stop with the eyes.  Hello?

Yep.  We are done.  

Happy Birthday Johnathon.  I hope your mom uses this very picture in your senior yearbook!

Love Auntie <3 p="">

Big Smiles

Me: "Alright Cutie, show me your smiles!"

"Wait!  What is that?!?"

Cute Girl:  "What?  What are you talking about?"

Me:  "Sorry.  Let's try that again.  Big Smiles!"

Me again:  "OK.  That is her big smile."  What a pretty princess smile :0}  

  

Cute girl laughing at us laughing.  I love this kid!

She was also a really tough one to get a smile out of, but we just kept going...

Gorgeous eyes!

And THERE!  Got it.  A smile.  No teeth like in the pretty princess smile, but, hey...

I am not going to complain ;0}

A Little Bit of Sunshine, Just for ME!

Well I did it!  I finally made something for me!  

I was supposed to be doing any one of a thousand other things, but I just put that all aside and had a little fun with my Silhouette in the wee small hours of the morning.  I was so excited when I had it all designed, cut, and picked, that I tip-toed upstairs and rubbed it in place at 2:30 this morning.  I had a bit of a late night last night ;0} 

I bought these magazine holders at IKEA, 2 in a package for around $3.  My dear sweet husband has a couple of piles of papers around our master bedroom and I am hoping we can get them gone through and contained in these four boxes.  When I say "we" I mean "he", of course.

Wish me luck!

Anyway, after staring at the blank boxes up there on the shelf, all empty and yet to be noticed by a certain someone, I decided I might as well play around with my vinyl and jazz them up a bit.  I do LOvE the bicycle image and came up with the saying after just looking for something cheerful to put on there.  The past few months have been so, so busy and overwhelming and slowly less and less joyful.  I picked the yellow/grey color combo months ago to cheer things up a bit.  Now if we can just get it a little more organized.  Oh honey.....

With my fabulous gift cards to Hobby Lobby from Christmas and my birthday I bought these sweet little signs for my bathroom.  I have been staring at that space on the wall every time I visited the room since we moved in, wondering all the while what I should put there.  Now I just need to decide on what I want above the "Love" sign and that little spot will be done.

The other area just driving me nuts is the space above my bed.  You see, I tend to sit and think and stare at an area for months and months, then finally it seems to get a bit of momentum and WHAM!  Great ideas hit.  This spot is still not quite rolling.  I did get this wooden pennant banner from Hobby Lobby at the same time as the bathroom decor.  Do you like my little pet hedgehog that lives on my headboard ;0}  I do!

Anyway, planning to hang some old windows here, and this pennant, if I can just catch a vision of how I want them up there.  The windows are big and different sizes.  I thought about painting them different colors, or all one color, or putting fabric behind them....

Such serious problems for one tired mind :0}

Regardless, I am so, so excited for my newly decorated boxes and the little bit of sunshine they bring into my room.  We all could use a little more sunshine in our lives.

Just A Thought

Last night I showed some ladies at church how to make Cake Pop Cones for a fun, creative little treat.  We had a fabulous, heart touching discussion on Creativity and how many different ways you can be creative, from actual art, to just how you face your day or motivate your kids. 

I saw this quote on the fridge while getting ready and just felt like it spoke right to my heart.

I teach the 14-18 year old girls at church practically every chance I get how important and precious they are to their Father in Heaven.  It has been a long time since my life allowed getting out of my own house and over brighten the day of someone else.  I totally feel like that is what I am missing right now.  I need to forget my own troubles and just help someone else's be a little lighter for a day.

I wasn't even intending on making these prints, but came across the picture as I was looking for something else.  Nothing really seemed as important right at that moment as putting these words to page.  I know they are nothing super artistic, but they are just what I need on my wall right now.  They are just on the blog in case you need them too ;0}

Forgive me for changing this up just a bit.  I wanted to express a bit more what crossed my mind when reading President Kimball's quote, so it isn't a word-for-word.

You can get at slightly-colored or black/white versions HERE in my Dropbox.

More Photo Loven'

Here are a few more families I got to work with for Valentine pictures.  It was seriously one of my funnest work days EVER ;0}