Introducing Misses J and M

In preparation for this portrait session, I purchased two wooden letters from Hobby Lobby.

Now, I'm not a creative person, as far as decorating and crafts go, but I figured two wooden stained letters would be cute.  At the actual portrait session, I set everything up:  apple basket, blanket, real apples, and finally, the two letters.

Well, that was sure cute!  But it'd be much cuter with two cuties inside the basket.  Which is what I did.

Miss M leaned over a little, with her head resting on her sister.  It turned out to be, I think, the cutest shot of the day!

We got the girls situated in their Bumbo seats (I'm going to have to invest in those!) and proceeded to spend a bunch of time trying to get them not only to look in the same direction, but to smile.  Boy, was that hard!

Their mom wanted some shots of them on the couch, so we used another blanket and tried to get them to smile.  I kept the below shot for fun--don't you just love how babies love their fingers?  :)

The below shot was our best effort while they were on the couch.  I think these girls are adorable!

This was one of the most fun portrait sessions I've had in a while!  The babies were so easy to work with, and even though we all worked hard to get them to smile, we got some beautiful images.


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Project 2012 -- Week 50

Project 2012 -- Week 50

December 9-15

Welcome to my Project 2012 weekly post!  This is my time to look back over the past week, 
choose seven favorite images I've taken, and share them here with you.  
If you have a project you're working on, please leave a comment 
so I can visit your blog and see what you're up to!

What a busy week!  I wasn't caught up in Christmas stuff, necessarily, but I was busy with lots of other things.  I've gotten used to using my 50mm lens for shooting, but I seriously miss my basic lens.  I'll definitely need another lens next year, as shooting a wedding may officially be on my calendar!

The below is my phone upgrade.  Going from my beloved, but dying, flip phone to a smart phone was a huge step for me, a super-non-techy person.  But after about ten days with my new phone (as of today), I find that I'm loving it.  I do very basic things on the Internet--email, Facebook, and Pinterest--and I can access all of those from my phone.  Although, there's nothing like an actual keyboard under one's fingers.  :)

[344] My phone is smart!

My cayenne turned out nice and red this year!  It made for some very pretty cayenne pepper flakes.  The process:  cayenne plant, pick peppers, string and dry, cut stems off, process with stick blender, store.  Yum!

[345] Cayenne pepper

One really, really nice feature of my 50mm lens:  an f/1.4 aperture!  On a whim one night, I experimented with bokeh.  For some reason, Danny decided to cover himself with a blanket.  *goofy*

[346] Fun with bokeh

Well, it was a bunch of hype, but since Fernando happened to be home for lunch on Tuesday, 12/12/12, we set up the camera with the timer and captured a shot at 12:12pm.

[347] 12:12 on 12/12/12

Thomas is a goofy young man.  However, he's a great thinker and sometimes uses his noggin to design some very interesting things.

[348] K'nex crossbow

There's a wedding coming up, and I'm actually thinking ahead for it--though not much!  A gift--ack!  But at least I took some pictures and will use one of them, probably this one below, to create wedding cards.

[349] Wedding lace

Finally, I did spend time on one Christmas item--making cookies for our church's Christmas Hymn Sing on Saturday night.  I found a friend's photocopied recipe for cream cheese spritz cookies.  I had never made them, so decided to try it.  I have a Pampered Chef cookie press, and the cookies turned out beautifully.  Here they are, below, waiting their turn in the oven.

[350] Spritz cookies

Life has taken a sudden turn this past weekend, and many things may be changing for my family and me.  I'm so glad that I have peace through Jesus, His gift of salvation, and the rock solid assurance that my Father in heaven has my life and times in His hand.  I'll share more as events unfold, I promise.  Please have a beautiful week in the Lord!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Project 2012 -- Week 49

Project 2012 -- Week 49

December 2-8

Welcome to my Project 2012 weekly post!  This is my time to look back over the past week, 
choose seven favorite images I've taken, and share them here with you.  
If you have a project you're working on, please leave a comment 
so I can visit your blog and see what you're up to!

The week started off gloriously warm, in the upper 60s.  This is not normal for Chicagoland, but after last years very weird winter, I no longer rule anything out.  Fernando and I took advantage of a beautiful late afternoon by strolling through Knoch Knolls Park.  Again, my 50mm lens is pretty much what I use for all my shooting now, until I can obtain a new lens.  It's still challenging, but I'm learning how to frame my images better, especially the scenic ones where I'm limited as to what I can capture.

[337] River in evening sun

[338] Sunset through the trees

When Joseph and I went in to Oberweis to pick up milk for the week, I noticed a turnstile of recipe cards.  One for eggnog cookies caught my eye, so we thought we'd try making them for a get-together at the end of the week.

[339] Cookie time

[340] Eggnog cookies

The recipe said that I could roll out the dough and cut out the cookies, but it didn't say I needed to refrigerate the dough.  A little internet research helped me out, and the cookies were gorgeous.  Yeah, they also tasted good.  They were soft, and tasted sort of like a sugar cookie, but with a hint of nutmeg.  I don't like eggnog, but these cookies were good.

The next images are from the luncheon that a Godly lady from our church hosted for ladies and young ladies.  Eight of us packed our Suburban to make the hour-long drive down to Lori's home.  She really likes the beach, the ocean, and everything about them, and her home reflected that love.  She and her husband have six sons, too!

[341] Ladies lunchon

[342] Christmas table

[343] Plate of food

The food was outstanding, and I came home with memories of a beautiful afternoon, awesome food, great conversation, wonderful fellowship, and Christmas carols sung in our car.


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Joanna's Wedding Shower | Chicagoland Event Photographer

I had the wonderful privilege of attending and shooting this very special wedding shower, held for a beautiful young southern lady.  Although I would've loved to have traveled south to shoot the shower there, she visited up north.  Because she and her family have so many friends here where they used to live, a wedding shower was held for her here.  Enjoy some highlights and favorites from this very special afternoon.

I'm constantly in awe of people who can decorate--whether it's signs, tables, or food.  I just don't have the knack.  I can, however, take a beautiful picture of all that.  :)

These flower decorations were created with sewing patterns.  Aren't they gorgeous?

All showers must involve a silly game--I think it's a rule.  This one featured a "create-a-gown" game where teams had to make a gown from special "fabric" (that would be toilet paper).

Little helper.

Seriously, these toilet paper gowns were so beautiful you could almost walk down the aisle in one!

The beautiful bride-to-be.

Gifts for the littler ladies.

Look at that sweet expression of warmth and joy!  Such a wonderful young lady, who is so very excited to be getting married just after the New Year.  I'm just as excited for her.  :)


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Project 2012 -- Week 48

Project 2012 -- Week 48

November 25 - December 1

Welcome to my Project 2012 weekly post!  This is my time to look back over the past week, 
choose seven favorite images I've taken, and share them here with you.  
If you have a project you're working on, please leave a comment 
so I can visit your blog and see what you're up to!

Winter is a time of hibernation for me; Ellie frequently takes long breaks as there isn't typically a lot to shoot. Such was the case this past week, but I did use her at the end of the week to capture a family event. Here is her work for the week. ;)

Earlier in the week, I ran outside (I did grab my jacket!) to capture this colorful sunset, complete with telephone poles and wires.  Such is a sunset in the suburbs.

[330] Back yard sunset

It's always fun to grab my 100mm macro lens and capture details of our Christmas tree.  I collect snowflakes and glass icicles, though it's mostly snowflakes.  I'd love to fill our tree with all types of snowflakes, and glass icicles glittering among the lights.

[331] Glass snowflake

Every year I purchase an ornament or two.  It's usually a snowflake ornament, and my only criterion is that it either be a snowflake, or have snowflakes on it.  Below is one of last year's finds, a metal stocking with gold glitter snowflakes.

[332] Snowflakes on stocking

Last weekend, our little extended family gathered at Target to shop for six needy kids.  My dad's church ministers to local families, and he chose six kids among two different families for us to shop for.  It is so fun to pool everyone's money and get some things these kids need, and some special things they want, at Christmastime.

After spending an hour running around the store looking for clothes, movies, books, and toys, we brought everything back to my parents' home to wrap.  Below, my mom's goose--now outfitted for the Christmas season--greeted us at the front porch.

[333] Christmas goose

These next images are from the wrapping party we shared.  Sustained by Chinese food, we set about dividing up the gifts by child, choosing wrapping paper, sharing tape and scissors, and a lot of laughter and camaraderie.

[334] Gifts of love

[335] Finishing touches

[336] Thoughts of others

This year, our extended family has decided to participate in a white elephant gift exchange instead of exchanging gifts.  We're finished shopping for this year's Christmas, but we're just beginning to look for "gifts" to share with our family on Christmas Day.  I wonder what's in those boxes labeled "Garage Sale" that are sitting in our basement...  :)


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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