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!!

a sweater pillow....

who knew that you could take a goodwill sweater for $1.50 and make a pillow cover out of it?

ME....that's who....  :) thanks to the internet there are tons of ideas and tutorials floating around.

simple enough.....

make a few simple cuts

find an old pillow or get one at the thrift store for .25 cents

sew a few straight seams down the sides of the sweater you just cut the sleeves off of.  i didn't even measure it,  i just eyeballed it for the seams....

sew all the way around and leave a small opening to insert the pillow form.

pin the opening and whipstitch it closed.

here is the finished whipstitched seam....

and you get this

cute but boring.... you can see in the picture at the top of the post that the pillow insert i used has a dimple in the middle.  had i left it as is, it would have looked weird as pillows usually are pouffy in the middle.  so i took some of the scrap sweater fabric 

tied a knot in the end of it....

twisted it around and sewed it into a rosette.

i found a button in my jewelry armoire.  you know how you get a new piece of clothing and it has an extra button and usually some extra yarn attached to it?  well i throw all of those into my jewelry armoire  and have amassed quite a collection of buttons....do you do that too???

anyway i sewed the little button on to the rosette because it was looking a little like a pair of folded socks and it needed a little something....

i added another button on the other side of of the pillow so that i could tighten the thread to achieve that dimple...

 and a super cute pillow. So soft and cozy for winter....when it needs to be washed, i plan on just throwing it into the washer and dryer.  you could probably put a zipper or a button closure on it if you wanted to but i am all about the easy way to do things.  in fact, if you use a sweater that has a button down front or a cardigan, you have a built-in opening....

remember those sleeves i cut off of the sweater?  they're going to be turned into a pair of 

boot socks like these....two projects from one thrift store sweater.  gotta love that!!!  

now go search your closet for some old sweaters, or if you can't bear to part with any of them, hit up the goodwill or salvation army.  look for great colors or design, (cable and chunky knit designs look fabulous as pillow covers), and you will be helping out a couple of great organizations....and getting some custom decor for your pennies...

now get out there and make something amazing!!!

14 days of valentine.....celebrate.....

here is a recap of the last 14 days of valentine

with love from cameras and chaos....

just because.....

just because i love this picture...

and this one....

here is another try with the actions

here is the picture straight out of the camera (sooc)

cute isn't she???

here she is about a year ago........

and here are her sisters...

and here she is after a nice skin softening/lightening action..

off to practice some more!!!!

another busy couple of weeks.....

lots and lots of this

which was played on the west side of the state in grand haven, michigan.  what a gorgeous town.  

there was a beautiful beach where austen and i walked the boardwalk, 

and got ice cream 

after his games on saturday...

we left friday and got home today.  

wow, since july 6th, austen has played in two baseball tournaments and had two regular season games for a total of 12 games in 12 days.

i am about baseballed out!!  

but we had fun. but we also had a very scary day too. 

 on the way back to the hotel after first game yesterday, one of austen's coaches and his son were involved in an auto accident.  the coach had 5 broken ribs and  a concussion and austen's teammate had a slight concussion.  he was t-boned while turning onto a main road.  thank goodness for side crash airbags.  his injuries would probably have been much worse.  

we are all praying for a speedy recovery and i hope you will say a few prayers for them too!!  

i also was lucky enough to take pictures of two beautiful baby girls...

this one, baby j

who was just 5 days old...

isn't she darling?? she was close to nine pounds!!

and this one, baby s

who was two weeks old but just over 5 pounds.

and so very precious...

needless to say, there really hasn't been too much time to blog.  

but baseball will be over in a week since austen's last tournament is next weekend.  

hopefully i will be back to regular posting by then....please be patient.