Fall Babies

Playing a little catch-up and sharing three darling ladies that we photographed this fall. Starting off with the 6 month photos of Lil' L, followed by brand new Baby A at 22 hours old, and the super-hyper-yet-super-sweet, Jazmyne.

Merry, Merry!

Happy Winter!

I have been away much too long and look forward to re-joining the blogging world soon!

Until then...I can think of no better way to welcome Ol' Man Winter then with sunshine and palm trees.

Seasons Greetings!

Super-Scary Halloween Greeting

The Theory of Manageable Piles

Saturday we raked, and we have a couple more weekends worth because we have the planet's biggest maples. Whoa. I'm getting too old for this. So, while hubby was off in the side yard, I began raking "manageable piles," (first time ever I've been able to test my nugget of wisdom!) Hubby's theory: rake everything into a long, daunting snake-like pile that you could loose a small child in. Mine: small piles organized strategically for instant gratification. I think he liked my theory, though he has yet to admit it.

Blessings

It's been one year since setting up our home studio and we've been blessed to photograph 13 beautiful little ones, and one big puppy! Each shoot has proven to be super-fun and we have learned a lot. So, to all the parents and kiddos...from the bottom of our hearts...THANK YOU for your support. It's a privilege to capture these moments-in-time for you.

Welcome, Baby M.

It's not often we get to photograph a newborn, but when we do it's a real treat. Just 12 days old when we met her, Baby M was super-sweet and uber-precious wanting nothing more than to be in mama and daddy's arms. I'm already looking forward to our next session together! See more from the shoot, here.

Pretty In Pink

Aren't these adorable? A lady from my work creates these wonderful little packages for our art department. Friday we held a baby shower for one of the staff and Diane took care of all the details. The large one in back I got for winning a shower game, (and I never win those). It's a gourmet chocolate bar wrapped in a pearlized paper sleeve and tied with a super-cute ribbon. Great idea, huh! The small package in front carried a Hershey Nugget candy that sat on the middle of our plates. The heart package was a Valentine treat and held a small zip-bag filled with pink and brown m&m's. What great ideas. She is amazing.

Weekend Recipe Tests

Back with some pics from Friday's food blog post. Thought I'd spread these out over the weekend, but I got a little to into it and made everything this afternoon...and they were all delish! All three recipes pass the hubby test, too. I have yet to figure out how to get a smooth chocolate layer on anything, but it tastes the same nonetheless! Oh, and on the chocolate bars...very, very sweet. Make this when you have a party, or need to bring a dessert to the holidays, and cut them small. The base layer of these bars is so yummy, that you could simply top it with a layer of vanilla icecream, or fresh whip cream and be good to go!

Now back to sulking that the US Open Women's Semi-Finals are not on. Not sure why, but that's what I get for having the TV on mute!

Food Blogs to Follow

If you consider yourself a foodie (I'm becoming more of one everyday) you'll want to check out/follow these two sites I stumbled upon this week: Smitten Kitchen and Closet Cooking.

From the Closet Cooking blog, I will be making the Zucchini and Feta Ricotta Tart, Creamy Dilled Cucumber Salad and the Nanaimo Bars...this weekend! Oooh, wait, the 7 Layer dip looks delish as well. Oh, how I love dips. Goodness, this could be dangerous. I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh, So Quiet.

Hubby and I have this "thing" with cemeteries. It sounds morbid, I know, but it's really not that at all. Back in college we would visit cemeteries to take pictures of the sculptures, but it turned into something more than an art hunt. It's so quiet, and humbling, and historical. It had been years since we'd photographed a cemetery, until Saturday. We had breakfast downtown and then drove to Grand Rapids' oldest resting place at 801 Fulton Street.

It was a gorgeous morning and not a cloud in the sky. You could hear all the sounds of nature...squirrels playing, acorns dropping and the birds chirping, even though it borders a busy downtown street. We walked slowly and carefully trying to respect the resting places. What is so amazing to me is that some of these headstones are so old the engravings are virtually impossible to read yet others, equally as old, are so crisp and clear. And, some are simply being swallowed by the earth.

We shot about 40 images without disturbing a single leaf. When we got home and looked at the images there was not one that I wanted to go back in to crop (and I'm a cropper!), nor one that needed color correction. Each image was as honest and beautiful as I remembered.

Hmmm.

Sign of the Times

Known for their witty signs...I laughed out loud when I saw this one!

Sugar, Spice & Everything Nice

The pleasure was all ours last week for Lil' K's 2 year photos. Toward the end, as we tried to get her to stay in the middle of the backdrop, I drew a daisy flower to see if she'd stand on it. But she was more interested in my pencil, and so away she went doodling with her kitty friend close by. It was SO precious and she was very focused on her drawings, and I loved every second of it! Check out some of our fave pics, here.

Creme Puffs

Saturday I made Strawberry Creme Puffs. Not only did they look cool, they were yummy! Check out the recipe here, it's really easy. I will surely be making these again.

The Red Wagon

This wagon was given to my hubby's dad by his grandfather when he was a toddler. It has buggy wheels and "Larry-Boy" written on the front end. It's squeaky, the handle is bent and it's original paint is chipped...all things that make it extra cool. He recently gave it to us for a photo-prop, so in went his 3 grandchildren! He had no idea we were doing this. We presented him with the framed photo last night, and he was happy.

Sugary-Sweet Treats

A recent munchkin-birthday celebration yielded this mini-cake and cupcakes. Yes, those are sugary marshmellow flowers! Neat, huh? I saw it in a book and was skeptical, but it really works. Take a jumbo-mellow, a damp kitchen scissors and cut away. I would recommend pressing the petals in dish of sprinkles, (less sprinkle-waste that way). Oh, and lots of frosting to help hold the petals in place. If you are not a sweet-tooth, slowly back away.

Crazy Cousins

"Crazy" certainly describes the afternoon we had with these three...even hubby got caught up in the silliness! To find more from this shoot click here.

1 weekend, 2 boats, 15 friends

A peak at the annual Friends Weekend at Union Lake. Fun was had by all, even if it was cloudy and little bit cool. A big "thank you" to the organizers for another great weekend! Click here for more pics!

Hello, Love...

...so happy we finally found each other! A recent visit to Allegan Antique Market yielded this lovely cabinet.

A Fine Foto Frenzy

Whew, it's been awhile hasn't it? A few posts coming up starting with the latest sibling shoot.

3 kids, 3 and under = ENERGY! Lil' L was a doll, of course. At 10 weeks she was just being her sweet-self as we snapped away. Then...the brothers...whoa! What a fun challenge they were. The pic below pretty much sums up our time with Mister T and Mister L. All in all, a sweet family, a great shoot and a happy momma. What more could we ask for?

Sweet Granita!

Last Fall, I picked up a Domino magazine to keep me occupied during our flight to Mexico. I flagged a recipe that looked delish and then forgot about it. I ran across it this week and...YUM! Hubby likes it too, which means it's a keeper.

Blackberry Granita
2 pints blackberries
2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1 lemon

Wash blackberries and puree in blender. Strain into larger bowl, discarding the seeds. In a small sauce pan heat 1 cup of water and the sugar until dissolved, and add to puree. Then add the juice of one lemon to the puree. Lastly, add 1 cup of cold water and stir. Transfer mixture to a shallow glass pan and place in freezer. Stir every 20-30 minutes with a fork until the mix freezes (about 2 hours). Spoon over ice cream. Serves 6-8.

Two New Tees

Been an little pre-occupied with a mini home improvement project, but managed to find some time to create two new tee's! Behold "Sweet Cherries" and "George the Giraffe". The Cherry tee is now with Timber's momma, and George has made his way to my darling nephew. Now, back to paint touch-ups, spray painting and picture hanging!

Simply Silly Sibling Snaps

Get these two going and you'll be laughing as hard as we were! Miss S is so charming and extremely photogenic, and Mister C is the most expressive little boy I've encountered (he wants to be a movie director, ya know). We had lots of fun modeling vintage hats, tossing balloons and experiencing the classic sibling tackle-fest. Thank you Mister C and Miss S for a delightful Saturday morning. To see more from the shoot, click here.

The Birdy's have landed...

...on onesie's! I was so pleased with how these turned out that I promptly gave them away. Gifts for co-workers each expecting girls. One is adopting with delivery any day now, and the other has a cute lil' belly and will be a new momma in October. Congratulations, ladies!

Dance, Dance, Woof!

A week of fun photo-ops comes to a close featuring a little dancer and a big (and I mean BIG) doggie.

First we have lil' P all dolled up for a big night at her dance recital. She and her tap shoes cut-a-rug to "A Bushel and a Peck," a song that is now firmly planted in my brain.



Then it was off to a soire with our heaviest subject yet, the 97 lb gentle giant, Timber. He was fabulous! He sure was pooped by the end though, you could read it in his eyes and it went something like this: "Seriously, 260 shots? Can we please be done?"