Tiny Dancer

My girl loves to dance. She's constantly moving and shaking, twirling and whirling. She's been dancing since she was three. If you ask her, she'd tell you that dancing is her life in a overly dramatic tone, with full facial effects, whilst jazz walking across the floor.

Her dance recital was at the beginning of July but I came across this photo while editing some images for a summer journal entry she was writing.

Love her! Love this! It puts a smile on my face every time!

My Style {Family Photos}

Once a year, every year, we have a little photo session with our family photographer to capture a small glimpse of our family and freeze it in time. Usually, I've been brainstorming ideas and planning/researching since the time Angela snaps the last shot of the prior years shoot...pinning photo ideas and contemplating the look and feel that I'd like the photos to portray. But after all the dreaming and the planning, our annual family photos must always fall within a few guidelines:

They may NOT cost us a fortune.

                      AND

We MUST use what we have in regards to clothing.

Sometimes it gets a little tricky but most of the time it ends up working out perfectly. Here are a few of my tips and tricks for styling our family photo sessions.

{1.} Plan, plan, plan. Think about what you want the photos to say about your family in that moment. For us, this year, we were doing a gender reveal for baby #3 and I knew I wanted to represent the new "blue" coming into our house while still representing all things pink and girly! But this could also be something as simple as a special treasure like a blanket or a little ones favorite t-shirt. 

Via PBKisses Photography

{2.} Think about any props you may want to include...if that's your thing. Styled photos are such a big thing right now but make sure that any styling is still a representation of your family and your life. For this shoot, I knew I wanted pink and blue balloons, a boy or girl gender reveal box, and blue and pink converse. These items were my starting points for everything else related to the photos.

Via PBKisses Photography

{3} Make sure to shop your closet before you buy a single item of new clothing. Lay everything you like out on a bed and mix and match it all up. You'll be amazed at what you can come up with. Remember, clothing should always coordinate but never be matchy-matchy. So, think of it like this...the kids can wear the same color/tone but the days of them being twins probably isn't what you want for the photos. Here's how our clothing broke down, with what we shopped our closest for and what was bought at a good old brick and mortar:

Via PBKisses Photography

My starting point was this blue and white striped dress on my Laneydoo with the sweet pink button detail and both the girl's pink converse. Both of which we already had on hand. Next up was finding something the Monkey could wear that coordinated with her sister.

Via PBKisses Photography

Lucky for us,  she had worn a plain white eyelet dress for Easter this year which would coordinate with everything and we always have a jean jacket on hand (it's a must have wardrobe staple). So I threw that in to add a little blue. Last the girls just needed a little more pink, so I opted for some matching pink bows. I ordered these two from SoSoBella.

Via PBKisses Photography

Next up was the Mister and I. I had everything for myself except the pink converse and some jewelry. I find that dressing the Mister always manages to be the most difficult and requires the most out of pocket $$$. He needed navy blue converse and a new shirt. Thankfully, I scored this plaid shirt number for him that incorporated both pink and navy. Double score for us, the pink is very muted and he can wear this shirt to work. Booyah!

Via PBKisses Photography

So there you have it, family photos on a budget. Now, in an effort for full disclosure, I did spend extra $$$ on props (i.e. painted box & balloons).  

Total Clothing Budget:  $123.00

{Today's} Vintage Treasures

Thrifting was on my agenda for the day. A favorite thrift store was having a 50% off sale,which can lead to some wonderful treasures. Here is the loveliness I scored today for a whopping $11.00!

{1} Grey, Orange & yellow afghan for little man's nursery, $4.50

{2} Grey tone on tone striped tie...for a future crafty project, $2.50

{3} Orange and cream crocheted trivet, $1.50

{4} The oldest sweetest paper doilies, still in original packaging, $.75. I really want want to try and date these!

{5} Small gold frame for the girls room, $1.50

2012 Family Photos

Every year we try to take family photos with our favorite photographer Angela of PBKisses Photography. She is truly AMAZING!!!!! She gets my crazy and she's down for shooting almost anything. She's witty, funny, energetic, and the kids love her. It makes for fun family photo sessions, where you'll usually find her rolling in the dirt and shooting us for longer than our allotted time.

This year, when our spring session time rolled around, we knew we wanted to do something special to announce that Baby #3 was indeed a boy. Here are some of my favorite shots from this years session:

The picture on the far left was how we announced to the grandparents that our little bun in the oven was going to be a boy. I love it because the picture doesn't scream...look this is a gender reveal!

Balloons were fun for the girls too. All in blue, of course! Since these two girly's will be big sisters to a little boy come October. We had a about two dozen to start with, but when it was all said and done, the girls left empty handed. All those balloons were either lost to the blue skies or popped.

And some of my favorite black & whites from the session. And probably the coolest photo of the entire shoot, well, to me at least:

My Monkey doing cartwheels. This is such a representation of my cartwheeling, hand-standing, twirling and whirling girl forever captured in her six year old form.

My Family

Photo Credit: PBKisses Photography

We will travel through this life walking hand in hand. Supporting one another, laughing with one another, crying with one another, and loving one another. In this life and the next. This is my solemn vow to you.

Quiet

It's extremely quiet in this new space. I can hear the faint chirping of birds, the whistle of the wind, and I think the dust and cobwebs are starting to set in. At this particular moment, it is glorious!

I love that today, this blog has no followers, few posts, and is just a small beautiful space waiting to bloom. You see, I have no direction for this blog, no plans, no other-worldly goals. I have little to no ideals of growing this blog, writing multiple posts, participating in linky parties, or garnering sponsors. With my other blog, the pull to grow and fit in with the cool kids club was always in the back of my mind, even when outwardly I said it wasn't. So this space is like a breath of fresh air, that I will take in and cherish.

Hopefully, it will turn into a place of honesty and beauty. After stalking blogs for so long, I've realized that many blogs are chalk full of pretty idealistic portrayals of life but not necessarily always honesty. I want this space to be a true reflection of self...not always happy go lucky but real life...the good, the not so good, and sometimes the downright ugly. For me, it's the combination of these things that is a reflection of life. This is truth.


And beauty, I want to portray the things that are beautiful to me without limitations. Some days, that may be my children, some days mother earth, and others design and fashion. The point is, this blog is an open road that I plan to travel without any limitations. A blog full of randomness because, once again, life is random and so should my reflection of that life be.

In the meantime, I will sit back, drink a cup of sweet tea, and enjoy the quiet because the chirping birds, the whistle of the wind, the dust, and cobwebs really aren't so bad.