Apple Jacks Hat Giveaway!

Are you ready for a fun little surprise?! Remember this cute little hat that I featured not too long ago?

Well, it's up for grabs, and the best part is that it's free! All you have to do is visit the designer's blog and leave a comment on the post featuring this hat... not just any comment though. It has to be about your favorite memory from 2009. Sound simple enough for a chance to win this awesome hat, called Apple Jacks? I think so too. So, what are you waiting for. Head on over to the blog and start commenting! Here's the link: http://bitowhimsyblog.blogspot.com/ Giveaway ends on Jan. 3, 2010.

"Mamma's Got a Brand New Bag"!

The 1980 (possibly even 78/79) camera bag has finally been replaced! I've been lovin' on this bag at the local camera store for half a year now, and finally decided to lay out the cash, in awe of it's roomy interior, tons of storage, and stylish good looks. (Plus, the manager gave me a discount!!!)

I have been patiently waiting for camera bags to go on sale, but just missed the sale of this particular bag, the week after Thanksgiving. I had rushed up to the store as soon as I found out, but it was too late, they were all gone. So, I have done what any faithful item seeker would do, called the store every week since then, to see if maybe they were on sale again. No luck. Yesterday, however, I was in the store and thought I would ask, and to my luck, the person I was asking happened to be the manager. He said they weren't on sale, and then asked me, "Do you need a bag on sale?"! He gave me 20% off! This bag is pricey enough that 20% is awesome. That was all it took, and now my camera no longer looks like it is being toted around by something from the 70's!

Another cool feature about this bag, is that it is actually 2 bags in one. There is a very padded inner bag with handles and removable/repositionable dividers. So, if I ever want to use it as a different type of bag (other than camera bag), no problem, just remove the inner bag. Love it.

Tiny Baby K & bitOwhimsy

Baby K. and I got to play with some brand new hats from Jacy, of bitOwhimsy. This little girly was so super tiny. She was almost 3 weeks old and still hadn't reached her original due date. K. was born 4 1/2 weeks early and weighed just over 5 lbs at birth. She is for sure the tiniest one I have photographed, and oh so cute!

With her tiny size in mind, these hats were just a little bit big on her, but we made it work.

Creme hat with pink bows.

I think baby K. likes the Pink Lemonade hat!

A peak at all that beautiful hair, hiding under the hat...

and, one more of the creme hat with pink bows (when I know the actual name for this cute little hat, I will add it to the comment section under this post.)

These 2 adorable hats are not yet in Jacy's store, but will be, in the near future. They are just a sneak peek of what's to come for 2010. For more information on her beautiful hats, and a few other items, visit her store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/bitOwhimsy. If you are interested in any of these sweet baby girl hats, before they are listed, you can contact her, using the contact link on her store page.

Thanks so much, baby K. for all your hard work ;). You're beautiful. Mommy, daddy, and big brother are blessed!

Now & Then

A year has now gone by since this sweet little boy came into this world. I love him so much, and can't get enough of his adorable smiles (with little dimples), snuggles, chubby cheeks, and even those little pouty faces. What would I do without him?!

For this first image, I wanted to put him back in the same basket with the same blanket to show his size difference. I love how it turned out. (I do wish that I had one of him in this basket at only a few days old though).

And, we can't do without a crying one. He's famous for these. There was a time, early on, when he gave me more crying face pictures than happy ones. For the image on the right, he was mad that he couldn't reach the ornaments. He loves to sit in boxes and baskets, contrary to how it appears!

This is his birthday invitation. The party was yesterday and we had a great time!

A New Love for the Hammock

I finally found a versatile baby hammock! I am seriously loving this new prop, found on Etsy, and best of all, my baby loves it too. He even got pretty mad when I took him out! This was my first attempt with a hammock and it was surprisingly easy. These 2 pictures are part of his One Year Collection. More to come soon.

This image was processed differently than the above, hence the sharpness with less of a "glow."

Groovy Little Boy Hats....Whoohooo!

Sometimes it's so hard to find cute little boy hats. Girls have the advantage of sweet little bows, brightly colored flowers, and frilly little hats, amongst other accessories, but there just isn't that much out there for boys that hasn't already been done before.

I recently had the opportunity to try out a few new boy hats that are so fun and fresh (with a dash of groovy, if you will ;) They were created by the ever so talented, Jacy of bitOwhimsy.

She has many other hats, besides these in her Etsy store, including the oh so cute Mr. Monkey hat, and the whimsical Rainbow Bright. Her hats are priced just right too.

Of course, if you are looking for a girl hat, she has those too, and they're adorable. I'll be posting some pictures from 2 of her newest baby girl hats within the next few days. To visit Jacy's Etsy store and see what she has available, use this link, or the one above: http://www.etsy.com/shop/bitOwhimsy

If you don't see what you are looking for, don't forget to check out her "sales", listed under "other items". This category shows all of the things that were recently sold, and if you see something there, you may be able to get a custom listing for that item, or just wait for it to be relisted. AND, don't forget to check back often, as new items are added.

Newsboy Hat in Celery...

Applejacks Jester Hat... more of this one to come in a birthday post (this is an awesome hat for cute birthday cake pics.)

Ellie & Sophie: Christmas Princesses

Ellie and Sophie came to visit me for some pictures in their beautiful Christmas dresses. They looked like little princesses. These girls did so awesome during their photo shoot. We had a great time. We even got in some family shots. Thank you girls for coming over to play!

(On a side note, for those of you that know about my little Noah's girlfriend, she's in this post. Isn't she cute?!)

I don't normally share before/after pics when I blog a photo shoot (other than with my own children) but I thought I would share a little bit of what goes on during post process. This is why it takes a little while for the pictures to be posted. The one on the right is the final edited version. (Normally my backdrop stand is up a little higher but I had just finished taking pics of the little ones and forgot to raise it before the family shots.)

The above image (one on the right) was requested in a black & white with the dresses left in color. It turned out pretty cool.

B. & B.: I will have the rest of your pics in your gallery soon. Let me know when you want to come over and view proofs and we'll get something set up.

Merry Christmas: My 2009 Family Card

Well, I finally snuck in the time for my family 2009 Christmas card and now I can't wait to get it printed! It has been a whirlwind of busy-ness around here lately. I have lots to post, just not lots of time to post it these days, but very soon there will be some more brand new posts, including one featuring an awesome hat/prop designer and another one featuring my first attempts at using a baby hammock, and then there's birthday pics, and a fun tutorial on creative outdoor lighting... so stay tuned.

And now, a little Christmas gift: a peek into the designing process. The first image is the base card template. The base card, which is made to hold 2 pictures, was created by Sugar Lime Designs. I loved it just the way it is, but I needed to be able to fit more pictures on it... so away I went at tweaking, adding elements, and rotating images. (The elements that I added are also from Sugar Lime Designs. Just taken off of a different card template.) It took a few hours (in the middle of the night) to perfect it to just the way I wanted it, but that's it. It's done... whew!

The Beginning of a Beary Merry Christmas

It's hard to believe it is the first day of December already! Out came the tree and all the decorations, along with the cute little santa hats, and of course, I couldn't resist marking this first day with a festive holiday picture. Happy December!

T & M Engagement: Under Contract

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to photograph a very fun couple, to record a very special time in their lives: an engagement! These two were awesome models and were willing to try anything. Thankfully we had great weather and some really cool locations. It was overcast so we didn't get any unique sun shots, but in post processing I got to play around with a brand new bokeh light texture which has the ability create a really unique sunshine effect... see the first picture below.

I had such a hard time picking which pictures to post for these sneak peeks. More will be available on my website within the week! (Don't worry T., I didn't share the "Under Contract" pictures here on the blog, but oh... I so wanted to. They're so cute! Where can I get one of those signs?)

The full versions of the below pictures are really cool too. The one on the right was created to look like it is snowing.

Simple Actions That Rock

I've been searching for a while now for a good black and white action that allows me to completely customize the layers after the action has been played. I have my own Photoshop recipes for black and white conversions, but they are usually pretty time consuming in the end. I also have a set of purchased black and white actions that would be awesome if the layers were editable, but once the action runs, it flattens in the end which usually results in an overblown conversion that doesn't have any ability for changing layer visibility- ugh.

Enough talking about BW conversion actions that don't work. I hit a gold mine today with a wonderfully editable, easy black and white action from Kristy. Gina (of Prop Insanity... one of my favorite sites by the way) shared some of Kristy's new actions and a link to her site. I headed right on over there, and was sold right from the beginning. Her brand new black and white action, Silver, looks really good too, but that's not the one that I got. I fell in love with the All-In-One action. This action has great instructions and flexibility for editing layers. Below, you can see 2 different black and whites that I created within minutes with this action. One of the best parts: it was only $15.

With great prices like that and more awesome actions to choose from, I couldn't just stop with that one! One of Kristy's brand new actions is the Shimmer N' Shine set. It's perfect for adding a warm sun shine glow, with a hint of vintage tones. I love it! This set came with two actions, which can be played separately or together. Again, every layer is customizable and has awesome instruction throughout.

Below, is the same picture used from above, just cropped in a little. The 2 Vintage Creme actions used in this example were from Nichole Van (the Chic Vintage set) and the bottom right picture has the new Shimmer action on it. I included all 4 of these examples below, so you can see the steps that I took to get to the final picture with the Shimmer action.

Shimmer (bottom right picture from above) enlarged. I love how it looks like there is hazy sunlight in the upper right of this picture. It was actually cloudy when the picture was taken.

If you like the Shimmer N' Shine set (which is only $10 and also includes a Sharpen layer) you can visit this page to see more examples and purchase the action.

Hope this post was helpful! Have a great day.

Brand New 2009 Christmas Cards!!!

Then new 2009 Christmas cards are here! I've added 7 new 5x7 card designs and 1 new 4x8 design. I pieced together all of the designs myself, with the exception of #2 and #3 below. Those 2 designs are pre-created templates in which I just tweaked the colors and text, and of course the pictures as well.

Because all of my cards are made up from elements and papers from different kits and designers, I do not sell my templates. However, if you would like a photoshoot, or want to use some of your pictures from a previous shoot I have done, I can create a memorable card for you from one of my new templates. As always, my other card designs are still available if you prefer one of those. To see all Christmas card designs and pricing information, click on this text here.

Here is the new 4x8 design:

Amaya and Big Sis, Olivia

Meet miss Amaya (one week short of 3 months) and her beautiful big sister, Olivia. Amaya just adores her big sister, and Oliva is so wonderful with her.

Amaya crashed at the end of the session and even let me pose her a little while she slept. She gave me 10 minutes of peaceful sleeping pictures, which is awesome for a 3 month old!

This one has a slightly different processing... a honey wash.

The one below has a vintage, honey effect.

A Custom Party Invitation

If I could have another job (as if I need more) I would love to be a card designer. Creating templates for sale would be awesome.... maybe someday. Photoshop is so much fun, once you know what you are doing!

My middle baby, Noah, is turning 4 soon, so I decided to make his birthday invitations this year. This was my first stab at a double sided flat card, and here's a peek at how it turned out:

FRONT SIDE:

BACK SIDE:

(The address and phone number has been changed for security reasons... so if you are coming to this party, don't rely on the info you see here!)

ALSO IN THE WORKS: BRAND NEW CHRISTMAS CARDS!!! I'm hoping to have 6 brand new designs posted here at the end of this week. Check back soon!

The L. Children: Gettin' Ready for Christmas

I've photographed these kiddos for several years now, and they are growing up so fast. They are good friends of my children, and we wish they lived closer. The outdoor pictures from this session were done in their wooded neighborhood in Oklahoma.

More will be on the website soon. (Thanks for letting me photograph you guys again, and we really miss you!)