Picture the Holidays: Week 2

342.365: December 8
Reflecting on the season.

December 9
It’s a sign!

344.365: December 10
twinkle, twinkle

December 11
shaping up

346.365: December 12
a whole lot of happy

347.365: December 13
simply divine

dec14
sincerely yours

I am finally getting caught up with posting these photos. They have been going into a folder in my December folder and just sitting there. I’ve been editing when I get a free moment. I’m in the midst of a huge toy purge and laundry is slaaaying me.

Also? Not a fan of my boys being together ALL DAY LONG. Really. It sounds awful, but they NEED the break school provides. 10 hours together and they’re pretty much hating each other by the end of it. Wash, rinse, repeat, every…single….day.


Small Style: Dressing for Santa edition

a2

the almost Tebow

the boy in corduroy

345.365: the brothers

Sunday morning, my mother-in-law emailed me to let us know Santa would be at R.E.I. that day taking FREE photos with kiddos. She suggested we stop by on our way to her house and get a shot of the kids with him. I went through their closet looking for the perfect little combinations and finally settled on a red gingham shirt for Andrew and a green gingham shirt for Nathan. FESTIVE!!

All was wonderful up until Andrew standing next to Santa and the photographer slowly walking to his camera… “NOOO!” He ran away. He actually told Santa what he wanted, but then got creeped out by the guy taking the picture. No offense to the photographer, he was nice enough. My little one is just at the age where #1 DON’T tell him what to do, and #2 Who are you? GET AWAY! Basically, only mommy can take his picture.

Oh well. Nathan looked pretty adorable–

REI_Santa-29

Andrew is wearing: thrifted shirt & blazer, boots from The Children’s Place, pants from Target, pin from Mod Cloth.
Nathan is wearing: shirt & hat from Target, Levi’s pants, thrifted blazer.


Our Christmas Card 2011

319.365: the hand printed card

It was last Christmas when I gifted myself a copy of Print Workshop and the basic tools of a block-printing kit. Over the past year, I’ve made quite a few stamps using my trusty lino cutter, including a crochet-inspired one that I’ve been using on the envelopes for my Lace Love orders. I’ll share that one with you soon, but today I want to talk about my Christmas card!

I doodled this tree, inspired by a drawing in a children’s book, several times and knew I wanted to incorporate it into our Christmas card somehow. I cut a small version on a scrap piece of Speedy Carve and liked it so much, I began drawing it larger. When I was finally satisfied, I drew it directly on a linoleum block and began carving. I found some metallic Speedball ink on clearance at Hobby Lobby one day and took it as a sign. THIS needed to be on the front of my card! I got to work immediately and had my 30 cards printed in a few short hours.

texture

Its metallic-y shiny goodness–which was surprisingly hard to capture in photos–is not the best part of the card. Nope. The BEST past of the card? The handsome little fellas on the inside:

card11-01-rgb

Thrifted blazers, vests, cardigans, lollipops. Informal to the max, but just our style.

You want to see outtakes, you say? But, of course!

out1

out2

solo2

solo1

oops2

ch04

solo5

I took the outdoor photos first. There was more than one meltdown, I can promise you that. The black & white photo shows what a toddler looks like when his big brother tells him he WILL NOT hold his hand. Oh my word, the tears! I spared you the photo of them BOTH crying because I threaten their treat. When we finally came back in, they got their lollipop prize and were still so adorable, I HAD to take more photos. In our dining room. Lucky I did because I ended up loving one of those the most!

—————
Did YOU take your own Christmas card photo? How did it go?? How did you “dress it up” for your actual card? I want to know!

—————
p.s. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for 100 custom postcards I posted earlier today!

—————
p.p.s. I totally forgot to mention I’m linking up with The Paper Mama’s Holiday Photo challenge!
The Paper Mama