babies, babies, babies...

earlier in the year i had the good fortune to take pictures of three beautiful babies.  there is just nothing like it....babies are so wonderful...so precious and i feel lucky that their mama's entrusted me to create these sweet memories for them.  

first up is baby maddie...three months old....

 i had not done a photo session with a 3 month old before....and i wasn't sure what to expect.  three month olds are more awake and active than the brand new ones.  i will admit that i was a little nervous about doing her shoot.  how would i pose her?  she was too young to sit up by herself, too old to lay still, and most likely too active to nap so i could get sleepy baby pictures.

i ended up just going with the flow.  and i was happy with the results...

she was the perfect age to prop up and that's just what i did.... 

i found a vintage suitcase last summer and i thought it would be perfect to prop her up in.  she was very cooperative and is adorable.

the great thing about older babies is their pudgy little bellies,  dimpled hands and beautiful bright eyes. 

i just wanted to squeeze her....and blow raspberries into that belly!!

 i got a lot of uncertain, furrowed brow looks from maddie but as long as she was in mama's arms, she was content.

she did fall asleep for a very short time so i hurried and took lots of sleepy baby pictures.

her lovely mama, megan, is the genius that created my photography website (on my sidebar) and you can contact her here if you are in need of website services....

 thank you megan, for sharing your beautiful maddie with me!!

next up is six-week-old old sophia...

i did maternity photos of her mama shortly before she was born.

baby sophia, who had slept most of the day before she got to my house, decided that she didn't want to sleep for me...at first.

but i was lucky enough to get lots of smiles...

but not for long.....  :)

she did eventually get tired though, and despite her costume changes, i managed to get quite a few sleepy pictures.....

she is just as sweet as she can be and her mama is absolutely smitten with her.

how could you not be!!!

and last but not least, baby mila....

mila decided to make an early entrance into the world much to the surprise of her mama....

6 weeks early...

these pictures were taken when she was just 3 weeks old, and still 3 weeks from her due date....

 she was tiny, just over 5 lbs when i took her pictures

 but she was beautiful with a complexion as smooth as silk and not a blemish or blotch on her.....

just the newborn flaky skin....and with a full head of hair....

she slept almost the entire time and was just putty in my hands...so very sweet....

i want to thank all of my fantastic mamas for entrusting me with your very precious treasures....i had so much fun!!

the laundry room revisited....

i think that this room has to be the one i am most proud of in my little diy portfolio.....

the before: 

yuk!!! 

(and i am the one who painted it like that in the first place....

i can't even blame it on the previous owners of the home because we bought it new).

i had ideas for the room swirling around in my brain for a long time.  i just wanted light and bright...i considered painting the room white.  that was a fleeting thought...what would my family and friends say....the girl with the easter egg house.....(so named because of the bright colors we painted when when we first moved into the house).  then i fell in love with turquoise.  hard.  i am sure that the inspiration for the paint came from the blue mason jars i love so much.

so i mixed the color myself from a can of  $5.00 oops paint.

when i started redoing the room, more ideas kept popping into my head and i just went with them.  

a chandelier in the laundry room???  who does that? 

i do..

(look at that bling bling)

tiffany blue walls in the laundry room??? who does that?

i do...

mason jars styled, photographed as art and framed?? who does that?

i do....

board and batten treatment in the laundry room??  who does that?

well, i saw lots of people who had done that in their houses so i figured i could do that too, so, 

i did....

and i did it all by myself...

well........almost.

don hung the chandelier 

because ever since i stuck a butter knife into a lamp socket when i was about 9 years old,  

i am afraid of electricity...

even if the power is off.  

and he helped me use the nail gun for the board and batten ledge 

because that thing is scary, 

especially when it blew the air into my face when i pulled the trigger.....

it scared the bejeebers outta me....

 i am, however, very proud of the fact that 95% of the work was done by yours truly.....

the planning, the painting, the woodwork and the decor....

 i love the room.  everyone that has come over to the house loves the room.  

it makes you want to do the laundry.

sigh......

there have been a few changes in the room since it was first transformed.  

most have been cosmetic changes, changing out the decor and adding other girly touches...

glass containers to hold detergent and oxyclean....

a wire basket to hold towels

and more of my favorite blue mason jars.

i made a little cover from a vintage sheet for the shoe storage cube. 

    the picnic basket holds gloves, scarves and hats for winter. 

i had an old half circle table cloth with lace trim that i added to the roman shade.

my friend lisa's parents have an old barn where i found this window.  the glass was so dirty that i thought it was opaque....when i washed it i realized that the glass was perfect.  the paint is original.  it was turquoise.  i didn't have to do anything to this window to get it to look like it does.  

the patina and rust on this frame is gorgeous and they let me take the window for free....

(thanks walt and penny)  

the one thing that i don't like rust and patina on is my washing machine.  

especially one that is only about 9 years old.  

of course, don tried to fix it. using caulk . which as you can see didn't work very well.

that lovely orange below??  rust!!  

i know that 9 years is a long time for appliances nowadays but it drives me crazy that the lid of my washer rusted.  

so i am entering a contest to win PartSelect’s $5000 GE Giveaway contest for new appliances

because a new washer and dryer would be the icing on the cake in this beautiful laundry room!
and
because my dishwasher is on it's last leg.....

i am keeping my fingers crossed to win. someone has to win, right?  why not me??

wish me luck!!!!

for the love of the game......

austen's football season ended last thursday after a very loooong season.

his practices for freshman football began last june, 4 days after getting out of school for the summer.

he had practice and conditioning every day from 2:30 to any time between 5:00 and 6:30.  this schedule lasted until the beginning of august when the schedule changed to 7:30 am until 4:30.  every.single.day. 

 in between football practices, we had to fit in a traveling baseball season.  surmise it to say, it has been a very, very long season.....but we all loved it.

austen's football equipment had to be turned in today, so saturday i wanted to do a sports photo shoot.  

i told him on friday that since his equipment didn't have to be turned in until today, he needed to be sure to bring everything home so i could do this shoot over the weekend.....

well, he's 14.

and a boy....

so of course, he didn't have all of his equipment when he came home on friday.  seems his coach confiscated his shoulder pads before he left school.

curses!!!!

after some brainstorming, i asked around for shoulder pads from all of the boys families in the neighborhood.  no luck. but one neighbor remembered that he had a box of hockey equipment in his attic.  he found me shoulder pads and we were off.

by this time, however, austen was no longer up to doing the shoot and was a little less than cooperative...

well, he's 14,

and a boy....

so i had to threaten to take away his x-box bribe him to cooperate with me. 

i wasn't really successful, but the attitude just adds to the whole sports vibe....

he wasn't smiling here, he was whining....

i figured a few action shots would help..

ooh, a little smile there...

it helped a little....

but he was done.

but i wasn't. 

 i figured as long as we were taking sports pictures he may as well put his baseball uniform on and get some of those too.... 

ooh, not happy with me....(hee-hee...sometimes i love being the one in control)

i love the faces in this set....

i couldn't get a smile for anything....

that's okay...i love them.... and i think that someday he will too!