so I'm a little behind

I have been terrible with my pictures lately! (More than usual!) November is quickly coming to an end, so I thought I'd better get my act together and organize all my photos for October. I am starting to feel a little lazy about this project, but I think I want to continue to do it next year. In my mind's eye I can see volumes of photo-a-day albums lining our bookshelves, and can also see Max and Cora pulling them down to find the years when they were small. This has been, and will continue to be, a fairly simple way to record our days.

Maybe next year I need to put a new twist on it to keep it fresh and interesting. I would love to continue to work on my photography skills, so maybe each week could focus on a different skill I'm trying to master. Still recording each day, but adding more technical focus. Maybe.

All I know is that I want to keep taking lots of pictures!

Now if I could only figure out a good system to organize all of them. My poor laptop is starting to buckle under the sheer volume of photographs...

christmas cards

Christmas cards you ask? Already? Yes. I absolutely love Christmas cards, and feel the need to prep them early. I think that Christmas cards are one of my favorite things about Christmastime. Love thinking of ideas for ours, love getting them all ordered, love sending them, love checking the mail every day to see who sent us one.

So, today I took the children to my studio (pretty light in there!) for our Christmas card photo shoot.

I had great plans. The kids had on cute and somewhat coordinating outfits. I had props: I bought these really neat and humongous candy cane lollipops and candy canes.

Too bad that trying to get my children to both look happy in the same shot is next to impossible. Too bad the props were very sticky and left bright red goo on Max's face. So, my friends, I present the Christmas card photo shoot out-takes! These are the best ones. There were lots.

Max tends to squeeze poor Cora whenever she is on his lap, and she of course hates it.

Hating it even more:

I actually did get one semi-good photo that I think will make it to the card. If all else fails, I think this shall be this year's design:

Oh man, I love that picture. I love how Max looks very angelic and is smiling beautifully and how Cora just looks annoyed and is so over it.

Oh well. I think that I will treasure these out-take pictures much more than the "real" Christmas card picture in years to come!

after her nap

Oh how I love Cora after her nap: happy, smelling sweetly of sleep. Reaching over the rail on her crib. Usually some sheet marks on her rosy cheeks.

Freeze. I wish I could freeze those after nap moments somewhere so I could take them out and experience them later when she's bigger.

So happy I thought to open up the curtain and take a picture of something so everyday, so her.

Love you so much baby girl.

a fun photo project

I love projects. I have lots of decorating projects that run around in my mind, but very few of them ever come to fruition. (I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that I am a bit of a perfectionist--therefore I resist doing things unless I have time to do them perfectly. I have little free time, so nothing gets done. This could be a post in itself! Is anyone else this way?)

So, the fact that I got a little decorating project finished is cause for celebration. That, and my perfectionist self is happy with it. Double good.

We will begin with the wall that was "Beigeland" above my couch. Wall=beige. Couch=beige. Cool window=beige-ish. Boring. (The old window we found at my studio, and it has been in a closet up there for about 4 years. It is so neat, but I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it. Mom helped me hang it above the couch.) The window is really neat and had lots of character, but it needed some color or something...

I started out with three small wreaths hanging from turquoise ribbons. (Sorry, no photo.) It was ok, but just not me. So, I decided to go through some of my favorite pictures and treat the window panes as frames. I love photos, I LOVE things in grid patterns, so I thought this would be neat:

I suppose that the wall is still "Beigeland", but at least it has more interest now! Each pane on the window measured almost exactly 12 inches. I wanted the photos to have a little breathing room, so I needed to order pictures in a 10x10 size. I ordered them from an online photo printing company that I had never tried before called Persnickety Prints. They had fairly inexpensive prices on odd photo sizes, so I decided to try them. I was very happy! I got all eight photos printed and shipped for $20 and some change. Not bad! I love a project that is on the cheap side! The best part about this is that I can switch out the pictures as I have new favorites, or with the seasons. I bet color photographs would change the whole look. I just attached the photos to the panes with Scotch tape. I'm sure that is a "no no" or something, but it seems to be working just fine.

What happened to the beautiful painting that used to hang above the couch? In case you were wondering (Lindsay!) I moved it above our bed. It looks even prettier in this room. Cora loves it too. I think she already has an eye for fine art.

Happy weekend!

"max man & robin"

I know that I am a few days late with the Halloween photos. I know you have all been waiting anxiously to see Max and Cora in all their cuteness. I have a couple reasons for why these pictures are a little later than I would have liked: 1. We had a little Halloween party on Sunday. I managed to get zero pictures of Max and Cora together. No prob. I just thought I would put the costumes back on the next day for a little photo shoot. 2. The next day I had the bit of a flu something-or-other and spent the day wrapped in a blanket sipping chicken broth while the children ran amuck. 3. In general I have been a bit of a bad blogger as of late...

Anyway, better late than never! We put the costumes back on this afternoon (it was sooo beautiful out!) and had some fun. After some unsuccessful posed photos, the kids just played and I shot away. A story began to develop in my mind...


One Halloween day, in the town of Farmville, a crisis was brewing. Things were too neat! Things were in piles! There wasn't a mess anywhere! How could this be? Luckily the townspeople knew who to call on...Max Man and Robin! They were the best heros for fighting neatness. They could tackle a clean room in no time.

The Max signal was sent out. But the only one to arrive was young Robin. Where was Max Man?

Robin was good, but she needed the wisdom and expertise of Max Man in order to make a mess of this neat bucket of corn!

Wait! Who is that running in the distance? It's Max Man! Never fear townspeople of Farmville. Max Man to the rescue!


Together Max Man and Robin tackled the neat bucket of corn. They would make a mess of it in no time. Neatness could not win!

Max Man helped young Robin to load up a dump truck with corn. She was to scatter it about. Oh no! Not now Georgia! There are messes to be made!

Max Man helped out once again and together he and Robin pushed the dump truck and scattered the corn around everywhere. Take that!

Max Man surveys the job well done. Neatness didn't stand a chance with these two heroes of mess!


Quick heroes! To the Maxmobile!

THE END

*Thank you Nana for making such wonderful costumes for Max and Cora. Adorable.

**Sorry Andrew if that corn was in a bucket for a reason. You will have to take that up with the heroes themselves.