Planning Family Portraits -- Winter 2012

Well, I'm working on compiling some mood boards for family portraits. We're taking them on November 30th and I'm really hoping we'll be able to find some snow to play in. Living in central California does have its' drawbacks -- especially to those who enjoy fluffy white winters.

Here's the color scheme:

Navy blue, merlot/wine, white, gray, and black.

Without further ado, I'll post a board of the family member and any relevant picture sources below.

Brandon's planning board is the most incomplete. That's because he hasn't given me feedback on a hat/scarf or what shoes he wants to wear. Additionally, he'll be using jeans we own (or buy from the local thrift store -- Deseret Industries) and we have yet to pick or buy a dress shirt for him. The only set-in-stone item on his planning board is the sweater and it's in the mail on its way to us.

Shirt Source
Pants Source
Sweatshirt Source: Kohl's

My mood board is missing my top - kind of. I purchased a gorgeous merlot colored sleeveless cowl-neck sweater at the thrift store. It is so soft and beautiful. It's from Forever 21. I believe that the picture below is the same sweater I have, but the flash on the camera is misrepresenting the true color which is more like the yarn to the right side. The two hats on my board are inspiration photos. The yarn to the side is actual colors of yarn we've purchased to make a hat/scarf for Cole and me. The two jeans are jeans that I own but have yet to decide between on photos. And the boots are some I'm going to look for in store tomorrow.

Fluffy Hat Source
Beanie Hat Source
Sweater: I seem to have lost my source for this (if anyone knows it, let me know and I'll add it) but the shirt is Forever 21
Thermal Shirt: Kohls
Earrings: Kohls -- These are so much prettier in person than in the photo
Right Jeans: Kohls
Left Jeans: Kohls
Boots: Target

Merlot yarn swatch: Red Heart's "With Love"
Gray Heather yarn swatch: Red Heart

Edited to Add: A picture of my actual earrings

Cole's planning board -- The hat depicted is again optional and not true to purchase. I'd like to have my mother create that hat with the primary color being merlot (yarn depicted to right of hat) and the stripes being in the gray yarn to the right of the hat.

Hat Source
Turtleneck: Kohls
Sweater: Kohls
Pants: Target
Boots: Payless

Merlot yarn swatch: Red Heart's "With Love"
Gray Heather yarn swatch: Red Heart
Collin's planning board -- Everything on Collin's board is cemented with the exception of the dress shirt. They were sold out in his size! We're planning to scavenge for a dress shirt at the Deseret Industries and I have high hopes for success as dressy clothing is in no short supply there.

Fedora: Children's Place
Infant Peacoat: Old Navy
Infant Dress Shirt: Children's Place
Infant Sweater: Children's Place
Infant Slacks: Kohls
Infant Shoes: Payless

I'm always so excited to see the photos come together. It's going to be a lot of fun to have another person in our regular family portraits.

Winter Photos

So, we're planning some more family photos with Trizza! I'm always so excited to put together ideas for the photos and my absolute favorite part is reviewing the photos a couple weeks after.

We want snow pictures and there is so many inspiration shots by doing a simple google search for family winter portraits.

My mother wants us to go casual with black, navy blue, and gray so we pop against the snow. I haven't decided for certain what my outfit will be, but I do have a few select pieces in mind already.

I own this dress:

I own this jacket:

I'm thinking leggings in a gray with some sort of pattern that doesn't look too wild for the classic look of the peacoat. I'm loving the sweater style leggings/tights.

Also, a possible scarf and some gloves. I'm loving this scarf:

I'm not sure if I'd pair my new black, short boots with this ensemble or if this will even be my ensemble. We shall see!

I really should start planning the boys' outfits.

News

I'm not quite sure where to begin. I guess I can begin with a cute picture or two.

"I have something to tell you"

"I'm going to be a Big Brother"

The shirt was fun. I just used iron on transfers to create it. It fits Cole's personality amazingly. He still plays as a 'baby bird' on the regular so it was naturally what should have a little secret and announce a pregnancy.

Our tentative due date is April 28th, 2012 which can cause some complications with my Spring semester so I'm working on a back up plan as it is. I was hoping to enroll in online courses but my field only has one course online at this time that I haven't taken. My general ed course isn't available this semester.

I don't want to have a baby early when I have on-campus classes and lab work. I don't want to have a baby in finals weeks either. I don't want to do only one course for my "big" semester. I don't want to take a break this early (I planned to take the whole summer off with the newborn and go back to school in the Fall). I don't want to take an "in progress" and be delayed until the following large semester. I'm just stuck a little bit.

I'll plan to talk with a counselor, get some answers and make my decision. Enrollment starts next month so I have a little bit of time to decide what I'm going to do.

In other news: My little sister is moving home in February and just in time to be around for her new little niece/nephew! She is visiting for Christmas this year and it will be the first time in four years I've seen her at the holidays. I'm quite excited.

I'm planning our twice annual family photos for the Winter and I'm thinking to incorporate my whole family as a surprise for Mom/Dad. They haven't had professional photos of their four daughters since we were children. Now they'll have pictures with their grandchildren as well. More on planning for photos later!

I promise I'll try to be less neglectful and pick up the blogging world again.

Family Photos - Summer 2011 (Image Heavy)

 We got our photos back from Trizza. I cannot preach enough about how awesome she is to work with. She's got an eye for a pretty picture. She's very patient and candid, but open and friendly to posed shots as well. We got the opportunity to meet her husband, new baby, and three girls. They're such a beautiful and sweet family.

The best part about Trizza (aside from her brilliant work and great temperament) is her pricing. It is so reasonable and affordable by professional photographers. I've seen sessions with less offered for so much more from area photographers. She gives us at least 25-30 proofs on a disc, along with copyright release. It's fantastic.

You can find her blog here and her facebook page here.

Without further talking, here's a lot of picture 'porn' from our beach session. We shot at China Beach in San Francisco.

Birthday Present

For my birthday, I got the lens commonly known as the "nifty fifty." You can find it here on amazon. I also got a glass hoya lens cover to protect my little investment. You can find the one I received here.

I'm in love with this little jewel. I don't do flash photography anymore. I'm using natural light and no photo editing as it stands now. I adore the pictures this baby produces. They're beautiful! Here's some samples with my pets, who just don't get enough love on this blog.


Sophie. She's got an e-collar on because she was just spayed and isn't being good and leaving that itchy stitching alone. But I love the picture. Sophie's eyes are yellow.

Booger (Booghera). She's pretty anti-social with the camera. But she's a big lover to me. She was really put-off that I wasn't petting her while I took this picture.

Booger has brown in her right eye. Her eyes are green.

Jessie, the border collie. She's so pretty! And so hard to photograph well. She has an abusive past so by habit, she hardly makes eye contact, almost never has her tail out, and doesn't put her ears up often. I love that I managed to snag some happy pictures of her. She's a good girl.

Her nick-name from me is Pretty.

I love this lens. Now I just need to find a good telephoto lens that's great quality for an even better price. I know what I'm begging for from Santa.

Learning My Camera

I'm finally trying to learn my camera. We have a Canon camera. It's not a digital point and shoot. It's a camera made to have pretty lenses and take professional quality images. I've had it for coming up on three years now and within the last week I've done something new and for the first time -- I've put it in manual mode. I've relied on auto-focus and flash for far too long and I'm trying to learn how to get away from that.

I threw it in manual focus and holy bonkers did I have some fuzzy pictures. I desperately need practice in manually focusing my lens. But, I'm working on it. Here's some pictures of our new(er) cat, Sophie. I took them on my first day (heck, my first twenty minutes) of manual camera play.

With manual focus + flash.

With manual focus + no flash -- natural light.

I love it. It just looks so much softer. Of course, now I'm looking to Pioneer Woman's camera lessons to learn about aperture. I have a ton to learn! I really need to read my camera's manual to figure out how to adjust everything in a snap too. I might need to write myself a small cheat sheet.

So, with this girl's aspirations to be better at using her camera -- what's next? Well, I've been eye-balling some lens for my camera for well over a year and heard nothing but rave reviews about the "nifty fifty". My birthday is coming up next month and for around $70, it'd be a perfect gift.

Then I go online and see it nowhere for cheaper than $110! Even the product reviews talk about buying it at $70. I'm bummed out big-time. Hoping I can find it locally for something cheaper than that. Price hikes don't please me. But this new lens, I must have it. It's hard to eat that much of a price hike when I could put that much money elsewhere. Oi.

B didn't flinch when I mentioned the price hike. He's a love, really. So, I'm a real big baby on this manual camera thing, looking to improve and oh-- get a new lens to build on that. And there's the possibility of learning photoshop basics. As it stands now, don't ask because it's already way too much to take in. Baby steps!

School + Pictures

Since school has started, I'm wiped and really have no energy for doing much of anything. I'm too tired to even write about what it is I'm doing, how long I'm doing it for, and all the fancy details. I'll save that for this weekend when I've had a day to unwind.

In other news, we took our newest set of Family Pictures -- Summer Edition! We went to China Beach in San Francisco. There's a long story behind that but I'll point to my last paragraph in regards to details. We went with Trizza Grantham Photography again! Trizza has already posted a single picture as a teaser.

How cute is Cole's outfit? I love, love, love that shade of blue.

You can't tell in the picture, but he was soaking wet from the waist down -- we played in the waves a bit. He was also shivering like a leaf and he's got a cold! He's got the cheesiest smile in the world and that's because the poor kid was terrified to be alone on the rock, but the picture looks fantastic and he's a lot braver since he was and did fine.

I'm excited to see the rest. She's promised a blog preview next week. Group cheer anyone?

Summer Family Pictures

So, it's that time again. We're having our Summer Family pictures taken the first week of June, which means I'm scrambling (quite excitedly) about to find the perfect outfits. We're planning a casual look at a top secret location -- perhaps a sandy one.

Here's what I've got rolling so far for outfits. Everyone will be wearing flip flops!

We'll start with the boys! Smallest first.

Cole's outfit:

This puppy is at Kohl's. You can find it here. It's the perfect color to me and I love the casual but dressy look the polo gives.

His shorts are a pair we own, but I can't find an exact picture of. So this is the "similar" look and you can find that here.

Cole will be sporting these flip flops from Payless. He adores them! His toddler style has the around-ankle strap, but the shoe is the same. You can find it here.

Brandon's Outfit:

I think I might have a polo problem. Adore this. Find it here.

The shorts will be these. Also love them! Like big time love. Find them here.

B will be wearing some flip flops we bought at Kohl's about three years ago. They look similar to this pair. You can find the similar pair here.

Val's Outfit:

To say I love this shirt is an understatement. I triple dog effing pink puffy heart this shirt. It's gorgeous! And could it tie into Cole's shoes any better? Methinks not. Find it here.

I have a very old pair of khaki colored capri pants. They're loose-fitting, have drawstrings on the bottom (calf area), and I can't find anything that looks quite like them. I desperately like this similar pair I found and am thinking about begging B for them, since they'd be a splurge. But the old pair has been mine since as early as 2005, so I think a new pair is okay, right? Find this similar pair here.

I have some cute white flip flops that scream beachy to me, but they're scuffed up and getting quite ugly to look at so I'm really thinking about getting a new pair. This pair is almost exactly identical to the pair I bought last season, except the flower was individual petals, rather than the cheap full piece of plastic they have now. You can find this version here.

I really like the simplicity of this pair here. Maybe I'll beg for these for the photos!

Decisions, decisions! That's all the eye candy for now. I adore our photographer. Cannot wait to see what we get back this time. :)

Bonus: I get to knock off another task on the 101 Challenge