abc girls

for about a week now, i've been slowly editing a fun little ballet shoot that i did of allie, blair and chloe over the summer. the girls were nice enough to be my ginuea pigs for the afternoon, and lovely ginuea pigs they were! i had fun just shooting for fun for a change, playing with different techniques and styling.

i especially loved shooting their feet.
  this one is playing with depth of field.

what is it about toe shoes that's so fun to photograph? maybe it's because i'm such a fan of ribbon and also their lovely pink-ness.  i also love how they're worn out and dirty from so much hard work.

their shoes were fun to photograph even after they had come off their feet.

we had fun using the mirrors, although it was a huge challenge to shoot photos without catching my reflection along with the dancers.

at one point i put my camera in "rapid fire" (rich's term) and tried to catch some action shots.

there were several shots that will make a fun series to frame and hang, but my favorite might be this one of chloe because it catches the movement with the blur so well, and because she's completely airborne in the shot

i also tried to catch some more serious artsy portraits but ended up being stunned during the editing process by how grown up the girls are in these photos. especially allie, of course because she's mine and her grown up-ness in photos always startles me somehow.

the best part of the day though, was just how much fun the girls had hanging out and being silly together.

i am so grateful for the wonderful friendships of the lovely girls in allie's life.

lovely lovely girls.

i just adore them all.

note: there were way too many photos from the shoot to try and plug into a blog entry, so i loaded them onto flickr, and you can view them here. be sure to click on the ballet shoot icon on the right.

then leave me a comment on which one(s) you think i should blow up big and hang in allie's room.

i'm a quilter! i quilt!

tonight, i'm feeling a little like bob when he went sailing for the first time.

i'll tell you why...

for about a month now, i've been seeing a lot of this...

...and i love it!

i'm not much of a sew-er, but i've always wanted to learn. especially quilting, i just adore a well-made quilt and have always wanted to learn this beautiful skill.  about a month ago i was in our local quilt shop admiring all the stitched up goodness, lost my mind, and signed up for a quilting class! what the?! the lady promised it was a good class for a beginner, a very "forgiving" quilt because at the end you throw it in the wash, let it frey and it hides all of your mistakes.

and so, i picked out the fabric, went to the class, and tonight, i finally finished my

VERY FIRST QUILT! 

it was not easy, especially going to the class. it as a panic attack waiting to happen.
i was so intimidated, especially by the sewing machine, and i knew immediately that i was a fish out of water. i had butterflies in my stomach, and allie, the real sewer in our house, called me three times during the class to make sure i was doing ok. i should have checked her out of school and made her come with me!

but, like bob, i conquered my fear, wrangled the sewing machine and got it done. it feels so good!

i pulled it out of the wash tonight, and the lady was right, all the freying that took place added a ton of charm and made it harder to see all the bumps i hit along the way. it's adorable!

i am so happy with how it turned out, i already bought fabric for the next one.

i'm quilting! i'm quilting!

thanks bob.

inspiration everywhere!

i am adoring the new creative blog of my cute friend kristi (pink) and her girlfriend 2cleverblog.com and decided i really needed to share all this goodness! i don't know her girlfriend (think) who does the blog with her, but i'm excited to get to know her through the blog. i am a big fan of kristi's, i really think that she is really is amazing. i have no idea how she accomplishes everything, but i'm glad that she is generous enough to share her ideas! i have been a lame photo taker of the many projects of mine that i have come from her great ideas, but so far, from being a regular reader of 2 clever, and her personal blog, i have: 1. given conference weekend kits to the ladies i visit teach with much raving and compliments. 2. i brought allie's fabulous sixth grade teacher to tears with one of kristi's wonderful 100 books last year. 3. and most recently, i sent some good mail to presidents bush and obama to thank them for their public service. i told you! inspiration everywhere! the most important thing that i've learned isn't really about cute cellophane wrapping or brightly colored ribbon. she has taught me that every day is worth celebrating, whether it be silly or sentimental, find what is good about it and celebrate it! i love this girl! the bottom line, if you haven't visited 2cleverblog - do it now! who knows how she will inspire you!

every dog needs a boy

Friday was a great day of getting good things done, mainly a few Christmas gifts. Lauri and I worked at her house on some gifts for our sister-in-laws and since mine frequent my blog, all I can say is that it involved some of this...Ethan doesn't mind hanging out at Laur's house at all because he loves Lauri, but he also LOVES Goldie, Goldie doesn't really share the same sentiments about Ethan, but she is such a good dog that she tolerates all the eye poking and tail grabbing just fine. While I was busy painting away today, all of a sudden I noticed it was really quiet, which when you have a toddler, generally means bad news. I turned around to find Ethan using Goldie as his body pillow and loving every second of it. Goldie doesn't look too thrilled, but maybe she was too tired to care. What a good doggie, Goldie is. We're glad that we get to dog sit her from time to time since we will never have a dog of our own. Poor Ethan, and Spencer, they are the kind of boys dogs are made for. I just hate the hair! And let me tell you, Ethan was COVERED in it when he stood up from his Goldie snuggle session. Yuck. Lauri and I took a self portrait when we were done but I'm never happy about the size of my head when we do this. Do I really have that large of a head? And it looks like I need to start wearing mascara all the time, Lauri has great eyes. Later Rich and I opted not to go out, it was snowing and freezing and we hung out and caught up on our TV shows on the Tivo. It was nice to snuggle up in PJs and just relax after such a busy week.

girl's day out

For a few weeks Patsy and I have been trying to pull together some girls from our card swap group to have a girl's day out! We finally were able to pull it off and let me just say that it was the treat I needed, for sure! I have been dying to go to the new Archiver's store in Orem, I've heard it was a great scrapbook store and it was. It was smaller than I thought it would be and didn't have quite the selection that I thought it would, but it was definitely worth visiting. I found some great sale items and that's always nice. We ate lunch at the Brick Oven which was so yummy, especially because we took so long at Archiver's that we were starving by the time we got there. That diet coke really hit the spot for sure. The BEST treat of all, was that Ethan went to Ann's house to play so I was able to look at every piece of paper without chasing a toddler around! YAY! Thank you Ann! It was definitely the break I needed and soon we're going to find a day to get together to make our cards and maybe scrapbook. I need to get on that band wagon again soon. (L to R - Sky, Lauri, me, Patsy & Linda)