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?"

Designer Birth Announcements

I have a new line of designer birth announcements. They are so sweet! I LOVE photographing babies. It is so special capturing their first days when they are so tiny. (There are even more birth announcement designs to choose from than this.)

Favorite Artist of the Week: Sarah Harber

I have to brag on my cousin, Sarah Harber. She made my son the CUTEST animal baby quilt. Some of the animals are even made out of African fabric from the clothing our grandfather wore as a missionary in Nigeria in the 1960s. That really makes it special to me. All the animals are cut free-hand, without any patterns or templates... and my son's name is hidden amongst the animals' names. It's SO COOL!

In this last picture here you can see some of the outfits my grandmother and grandfather would wear in Nigeria, West Africa (1967). They would only dress the family up in matching outfits for special occasions. This is right before they came back to America on furlough. (My Mom is the tall brunette on the left.)

Orange Jello Salad

There aren't very many times when I'm cooking that I feel the urge to lick the bowl clean. But when I'm making Orange Jello Salad, it's definitely one of those times. I don't know whether it's the tangy orange or the fluffy marshmallows or the creamy cool whip, but I can't get enough of the stuff. It is one of those recipes I always asked my Mom to make for me for my birthday as a kid. Then one day I realized that it is so easy to make, I could do it for myself!

Maybe you'd like to whip up some of your own fluffy goodness.

Orange Jello Salad:

6 oz. pkg. Orange Jello powder
16 oz. carton of reduced fat sour cream
8 oz. carton of lite Cool Whip
1 cup mini marshmallows
1 can mandarin oranges (drained)
1 small can crushed pineapple (squeezed out)

Mix Cool Whip, sour cream, and jello powder. Add fruit and marshmallows. Mix and pour into dish. Refridgerate overnight. Makes about 8 servings.

JULY SPECIAL: $50 Print Credit with Portrait Session

This month I am offering a special deal. Book a portrait session ($100) and get $50 in prints absolutely free! You can't beat a deal like that.

This offer is good for a session with up to 4 people and can be used on maternity, newborn, child, or family portraits. Any additional people in the session are $10 each. About 1 week after your session I will show a sneak peek of your portraits here on my blog and on my Shutterstitch facebook page. Two weeks after your session your images will be in an online gallery where you can select the prints you want and show your friends.

This deal must be booked and paid for between July 1-July 31, but the session doesn't have to be scheduled for July. So you can plan ahead for fall sessions too!

Call (706) 714-6967 to book your session today with Karen.

Fabulous New Logo

I am so excited about my new logo and blog design, created by The Modern Polkadot! She was a pleasure to work with.

Granola Bars

I came across this recipe for Do It Yourself Granola Bars and decided to try it out this week with my friend. It was really easy to make, wholesome, and very tasty. The only thing I would change about it is they were a little crumbly so next time I would add more honey and almond butter to make them stick together. You can find the recipe here. We made two different kinds. In one kind we put mini chocolate chips and dried cherries. In the other we put assorted dried fruits. Yum. Yum.

"Pretty Little Pillows" winner

The randomly drawn winner of the autographed "Pretty Little Pillows" book is......

Stephanie Sanders!

Congratulations! I will mail you the book this week!

Don't Throw That Away!

Skateboard bench
Book house

Bus stop made from a recycled bus- (Here in my home town of Athens, Georgia!)

Toilet paper tube bunnies

National Geographic magazine wall shelf

My new favorite website is www.recyclart.org . It is an online portfolio of innovative art made by many different artists that use recycled items in a new way. I can't stop pouring over all the great ideas!

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.

Mother's Day: It's the Thought that Counts

I just thought you might get a kick out of what I got for my first ever Mother's Day present. Since this is the first time I am a mother myself, I was kind of expecting some lavish treatment on that day. Instead I got a gray blob. Yup. You heard me. A gray blob. My husband attempted to make an impression of our two month old's foot and our son moved around so much that the impression ended up as just a blob of gel. He never got around to adding the plaster of paris to the gel base (which is step 2) because it didn't turn out. Oh honey, thanks anyway. It's the thought that counts. Maybe try that again when he's about 5 years old. :)

If anyone out there has successfully achieved this with an infant, let us know how you did it.

New Quilt for Sale

I just posted my latest creation for sale on Etsy. It is a sunny yellow play quilt, perfect for that summertime baby shower gift or tummy time for your own baby.

Favorite Artist of the Week: Michelle Stitzlein

As an elementary art teacher with a tiny budget, I love learning about how to use recycled products to make fabulous art. When I came across artist, Michelle Stitzlein, I thought her use of found materials to create new sculptures, was pretty awesome. She uses piano keys, broken china, fragments of old furniture, and other scraps to make butterflies. She also teaches workshops on how to turn bottlecaps into sculptures. Her book, Bottlecap Little Bottlecap, will also show you how to do it.

GIVEAWAY: Autographed "Pretty Little Pillows" book

I am so excited to announce that one of my pillow designs has been published in a book called Pretty Little Pillows by Lark Books. It's a really fabulous hardback book with the directions on how to make over 29 different types of pillows. Some of the featured designs are on how to make pillows with creative stitching, quilting, piecing, and other techniques. There are directions on how to make fold-out pillows, cushy toys, tooth fairy pillows, ring bearer pillows, eco friendly pillows, travel pillows, and gorgeous decorative ones too. Basically, just about any pillow you can think of! My featured pillow in the book is a quilted pillow (seen above) that is great to make out of scraps of fabric that you might have laying around the house. It's eco friendly and fun to make!

I AM GIVING AWAY ONE FREE COPY of PRETTY LITTLE PILLOWS. I'll even autograph it for you. :) You can enter to win the book by becoming a follower of this blog. Go to the light green side bar on the right side of this page. Scroll down until you see "Followers of Shutterstitch". Click on that and sign in. I'll be picking a follower of my blog at random on May 31 to win the autographed book. Don't miss your chance to own a copy!

If you can't wait that long to find out if you've won, then you can buy your own copy here.

Favorite Artist of the Week: The Wonderland Studio

I adore these fun and funky mobiles by The Wonderland Studio, available on Etsy. They come in a variety of colors and designs.

New Pillows

I'm finally getting back into making pillows again after being on maternity leave. Here are two lovable, huggable custom pillows that I made for Renee in Ohio. And yes, those are flamingoes in the pink/green pillow!