Baby Owen

 My sweet baby is here!  Born in early September.  He's a handsome little fella and I thoroughly enjoyed capturing his first few days as a newborn with my family.

 

 We got some stick-on mustaches at church recently at one of their activities.  I couldn't resist trying one out on him.  What a little man!

Maternity Leave: Aug to Nov

I am going to be having a baby soon and am taking some time off for maternity leave from August to November. During this time I will not be doing any photo shoots so that I can spend time with my family. I will probably be doing some Christmas card sessions in my studio starting in mid-late November though. And of course I'll be posting newborn photos of my little pipsqueak when it arrives. Stay tuned!

1st Birthday

My little cutie pie turned one recently. I was stoked to use his new cute felt applique shirts and birthday crown from Two Lollidots. They have some really neat little clothes for kids. (You may recognize their product photographer on their blog too.) :)

1st Birthday on the Farm

Recently we celebrated my son's first birthday with a party on our relative's cattle farm. I made some delicious barnyard cupcakes. The cows and chicks were vanilla cake with white icing and the pigs were strawberry. You can get the full recipe from the Disney Family Fun website.


These super cute animal balloons were bought at the Joy Shoppe in Commerce, Georgia. We had a whole farm of chickens, ducks, cows, dogs, horses, and pigs! All of the children took them home as favors.


I bought these cute animal plates at the grocery store. Silverware was stowed in pots for plants.


I tried to keep the menu farm-y so we had: bunny food (carrots and peppers with dip), fresh fruit, deviled eggs, moo-tastic meatballs, chips and fresh salsa, chickpea hummus, farm animal cupcakes, and I meant to also do pigs in a blanket but just didn't get around to it!


I made little tags for the food out of scrapbook paper.


I made a coordinating banner out of scrapbook paper, string, and die-cut letters. Thank goodness for being a teacher and having the die-cut machine handy!


When it came time for the birthday boy to blow out the candles, I took off his cute birthday shirt so it wouldn't get cake on it. The little girl in the red dress exclaimed, "The baby is getting naked!"


We gave him plain strawberry cupcake (no candy on top) and he was like, "What the heck is this?" He hadn't really had any sweets up to that point.


"Mommy it may taste funny to me, but it's fun to smash up!"


My two favorite guys in the whole world!




Everyone wanted some lovin' from the birthday boy!

Adventures in Finger-painting

I recently let my son, (then about 10 months) try finger-painting. I mixed up some Jell-o vanilla pudding with pureed sweet potatoes, pureed peas, and pureed blueberries. I make my own baby food, so I had some readily on hand. Then I put them in little dishes with a large piece of drawing paper on the kitchen floor and let him have at it! It was fun watching him really get into it. The only thing I would do differently is put the "paint" in plastic cups instead of ceramic ones, because he did try to throw them!

Back to Work!

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I've posted on this blog. Yikes. I'm feeling guilty about neglecting it. I started back to work teaching art in August since the birth of my son and have been working like crazy since. Life is good. I have the sweetest husband and baby and have work for my hands to do. Thanks be to God.

Family Reunion

Every summer my extended family gets together in South Georgia for one big weekend of food, fun, and fellowship. This year we also celebrated two birthdays and there were a LOT of new babies in the family to play with. (Stay tuned for my upcoming post where I attempted to photograph 5 babies at once, ranging in age from 4 months to 3 years old. It was CRAZY...) There's nothing like spending some quality time with family!

Sarah is such a Ham!

Aunt Cindy's famous sourdough bread

"Why did I have to get stuck in a family of all GIRLS?"

The BIG 3-0

I just turned 30 years old yesterday. Crazy. Time sure does seem to fly by. So, I spent a little time reflecting on some of my favorite things I've done over the last decade. Here's a sampling:
2001- I fell in love big time in this very room at my campus ministry. Later my sweetie beat me in a pie eating contest here. This photo reminds me of a lot of good times.

2001- Studied painting, photography, and bookmaking in Cortona, Italy. Ate way too much gelato and loved every second of it.

2002-2010 I've been teaching art to a bunch of awesome elem. kiddos. We really got into Jackson Pollock with this project!


2004- Studied art history and photography for my Masters of Art Education in Bayeux, France. Here I am at the Palace of Versailles.

2006- Got married to the love of my life.

2007- That year I started Shutterstitch and began doing festivals and selling my travel photos and pillows.

2010- Gave birth to what I think must be the cutest baby on the planet. :)

Goals for the next 10 years:
1. Write more love letters to my husband.
2. Have more kids. Later. Not anytime soon.
3. Be a good mommy and wife.
4. Go to Ireland, Prague, Greece, and Japan, or at least some of those places.
5. Learn how to grow and sustain my own vegetable garden.
6. Continue to grow my business.
7. Breathe and take time to enjoy each day.