My Favorite Photo Shoot to Date

On November 29 we welcomed a precious little bundle into the world, little Xavier Joel.   After months and months of morning sickness and exhaustion, we were so thrilled to finally meet the little troublemaker!



He had a bit of a rough entrance into the world, but has since proven to be a champion eater and a very good baby. We are enchanted with all of his little faces and watching him wake up and explore the world a little more each day.



We're learning to balance all of the normal, everyday stuff along with caring for a little one. So far it's been an adventure, but we're having fun!



We are loving being a family of three, and celebrating our first Christmas together was so much fun.



Today our little man turns one month old. Can't believe a month has flown by already. Welcome to the world, little  man! 

Sweetie Pie Baby Shower

I think it is super funny that my friend Jen and I share a name, and lately more of my posts have been about her life rather then mine. :-) I showed you some of her maternity pictures, and then also the beautiful nursery that she made for her little girl, and today you get to see the shower that Andrea and I threw for her. So just so we are clear, Jen is married to a great guy, was pregnant, made a super sweet nursery, had a fun shower thrown by friends, and is now enjoying her sweet baby girl. :-)

Andrea and I decided to go with the theme "Sweetie Pie" and use the colors that Jen would be using in her nursery: soft gray, pumpkin orange, magenta and a little bit of green. Andrea handled all the food (and did a fantastic job) and hosted the party, I made a bunch of decorations, and we pulled off a simple and fun baby shower brunch where Jen got spoiled with gifts.

For decorations, we kept it simple and fun. I'm loving pennant banners lately, and we thought they tied in well with the "pie" theme. So I whipped up several different banners, one with the words "Sweetie Pie", another with the baby's name, and the last with some fun flowers and patterned papers. I made all the banners with scrapbook paper and gray ribbon from the crafty stores.





I also made a "mini banner" that we draped over the favor table. I have to confess that I liked this one the best! But I pretty much love all small and undersized things. :-)

We made balloon bouquets to fill up the corners, and Andrea bought a beautiful bouquet of ranunculus that was just lovely. On a side note, wasn't it nice of Andrea to paint her home in colors that coordinated with our shower colors? :-) In all seriousness though, Andrea and her family live in a beautiful old Victorian home that is just spectacular. I'll have to show you guys sometime. :-)

For food, Andrea kept it simple and delicious. She made two different kinds of soups and two different salads, and fresh bread for dipping. It was awesome. Food was ready as people came in, so there was no awkward waiting around or bad attitudes from low blood sugar. :-)

Andrea's collection of Polish pottery was the perfect touch to the meal that she served up. Of course we also had lots of coffee, tea and lemonade.

Immediately following lunch, we gathered in the living room for gifts. Here's a preview of the mountain that Jen worked her way through;

One of my favorite things from this shower that we did was that as each gift was opened, the giver shared a favorite memory of her mom and herself with Jen. (Andrea was kind enough to write them all down for Jen to review later) Here's Andrea sharing her memory.

Jen got lots of great stuff for the baby, including baby sunglasses (she'll be growing up in California!) and lovely homemade gifts.

Then it was time for pies! We subbed pies for cake, but Andrea also made Jen a fun little diaper cake.

The pies were delicious. And just to up the ante a little more, Andrea made fresh whipped cream. It was awesome. 

We sent the guests home with individual pies in a jar. (We got this idea from this blogger) Andrea and her daughter made up the pies, and then I whipped up little labels for each one. I used Japanese masking tape to create more pennants, and printed out reheating instructions for the back of the labels.  On a side note, I ate one of these pies the other day that I'd been storing in my freezer, and it was delicious. :-)

So that was it. Simple and sweet, short and fun. It was a blast to plan and work on, and I had a great time at the shower as well. A fun, simple and yummy Sweetie Pie baby shower! :-)

A Robot Pillow :-)

I had a baby shower for a friend of mine on Saturday. Seems like everyone I know is pregnant - which means lots of showers and lots of gifts! I try to buy something off the registry for first time moms because I know they are things they probably really need, but for my friend Kelly I wanted to make something homemade for her little guy too. Kelly and her husband decided to do something a little different for the nursery - robots and bright colors. I thought that sounded like a super fun idea and came up with the idea to make a felt robot pillow to go in the baby's room.



This project was super simple. Hobby Lobby was  having a sale on their 8.5x11 pieces of felt (30 cents each!)  so my total cost for the felt was 1.50. I knew I was going to sew each piece on with embroidery floss, and as luck would have it, I went to a garage sale where the lady was cleaning out her crafting stash. I scored an entire box of embroidery floss for $1. Awesomeness!

I trolled the web for some inspiration pictures, and ended up basically using an Etsy seller's design for the pillow. Don't worry, I may have copied her work but I don't plan on plagiarizing her design for profit. :-)



Anyways, assembly was pretty straightforward. Cut out individual pieces, assemble on background to make sure I liked it, then start sewing. It was pretty fun and therapeutic. And fast. In no time at all I had all the pieces sewn onto the background. Then I sewed another piece of blue felt onto the first one to form a pillow, stuffed it and hand sewed it closed. Easy peasy. And it cost me about $5 to make. Not too shabby! Here's a closeup of  the finished product,



and the fun bin I found to give the pillow and the rest of the gifts.

This little project was so fun that I even whipped up a little initial tag for the bin too! Fun times. :-)

What have you made recently?

Lucy's Room

A few months back I posted a maternity session that I did for a friend while she was in town. We also threw her a super fun shower, which I have yet to post about, but in the mean time, I wanted to show you the super sweet room that jen created for little Lucy.

jen went with a sweet and modern color scheme of soft gray and white with pops of orange and sherbet pink. I love the mix of fabrics that she used on the pillows for this daybed. And, how great of an idea is having a daybed in a nursery? I imagine that cozy little spot is getting lots of use these days.  And that collection of frames is just fab. And those are some of the pictures I took! :-)

And how sweet are those curtains? I love the little orange ruffle. The crib is a simple white one from IKEA, and jen made the crib sheet out of fun orange fabric.

jen recovered that rocker/glider she found on Craigslist, and that fabulous knitted blanket was a gift from our friend Andrea. Remember the glassy crafty day? This is the blanket that she was working on then. :-)

Little wooden blocks from etsy (also from Andrea and her family) are so adorable. And isn't that the cutest name for a little girl? I also love that elephant background. :-)

jen is all ready for all those diaper changes, with a sweet white dresser topped with a changing pad, and little shelves stocked with necessities and some pretties.

Art made by a friend, in just the right colors. It ties in perfectly with this pennant banner over the closet doorway,

which was also one of the decorations for her shower. So much fun! I love all the little touches and creativity jen put in this room. Everything is adorable. Especially this little girl,

Well done jen! Now, if I could just magically transport myself to the West Coast to spend some time with these girls (and take thousands of pictures of course :-)

What's your favorite part of the room? I can't decide between those ruffled curtains and the fantastic frames on the wall. :-)

A Handy Dandy Link to All My Projects

One of the things I've been meaning to do forever for this blog is create a listing of all of the crafty projects I've tackled over the last three and a half years. Well, I finally did it!

Right above this post you'll see the word "Projects" on the menu bar. Click it, and it will take you to a listing of all my completed projects. OK - full disclaimer here, I cheated a bit and created a Pinterest board where I pinned all my projects. Hey - I am a busy girl and I didn't have time to individually list each and every project! :-) Anyways, please return to your normal Wednesday affairs, whatever they may be. :-)

Little Braedon

This is Braedon at 8 days old.

Normally, when I do newborn shoots, the babies are about a week old, and sleep like rocks though the whole session. Not little Braedon! He was wide awake and happy for most of the two hours I was there. It was so much fun for me to get shots of this little guy's eyes!

Braedon's momma is so pretty, and I loved getting some family shots. 

He was super happy to be held by daddy - slept like a champ. :-)

And then he just cuddled in and slept, and I could hardly stop myself from taking pictures!

Braedon's momma told me that she discovered when he was a few weeks old that when he was very fussy, what he wanted most was to be put down and left alone. Can you believe that? What a sweet little guy. Thanks for letting me come hang out with him!