I am Mommy « GOODKNITS // a knitting & crochet blog

take the picture now

By Lisa Gutierrez on 01/09/2012

there are blue skies in my dreams
and laughter that seems un-ending
there are green grass fields there
and happiness and hopes for tomorrow

Just a few photos from our weekend taken with my Instax 210. We were in our old neighborhood, so we passed by one of the parks we used to take the boys to and found it torn down and replaced with this new…weird structure. There was a slide there that had NO EDGES on it. AND it had an awkward twist way up top. It was terrifying! I was kind of bummed to see this new place because I took some pretty lovely photos of the boys there when Andrew was a baby. Oh yeah, there are also no swings left behind at the park. I’d be so upset if we still lived in the area!

It’s so bright out!

By Lisa Gutierrez on 01/06/2012

It’s been in the 70s, the past few days and it is downright ruining my winter mood. In fact, I’ve given up on Winter already. Spring designs and projects are being brainstormed and put in my little notebook already. I may even tackle some Spring cleaning, this weekend, too (I make no promises).

I’m sorry for the bloggy slowdown. I’m working on a few crochet projects and enjoying my one-on-one time with this little fella. I can hardly believe he’ll be FOUR (4!!!) in less than 5 months. He is a little sponge, so I’m trying to take advantage of it and really working on getting him ready for school next August. My new favorite line from him is when he tells me, “oh just forget about it, mom.” Yeah, he calls me MOM. And yeah, he wants me to just chill out. It’s all sorts of cute and him just SAYING it makes me…forget about it. It’s the best.

He’s wearing sunglasses I bought for Jason from Tumbleweeds for Christmas. J bought this wood veneer helmet and so when I saw these glasses, I HAD to get them.

Picture the Holidays: Week 2

By Lisa Gutierrez on 12/21/2011

Reflecting on the season.

It’s a sign!

twinkle, twinkle

shaping up

a whole lot of happy

simply divine

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

By Lisa Gutierrez on 12/16/2011

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–

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

By Lisa Gutierrez on 12/12/2011

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.

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:

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

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

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!

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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!

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

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