Oh, Hi!

Lots of things happening in the Brown household these days! Getting lots of coos and smiles from our sweetheart. She's so much fun to be around. She is really talking to us - like, she moves her little mouth when she's babbling and it really seems like she's forming words. I really believe that she thinks she's saying actual words to us. It's hysterical!! We're {sort of} sitting in our new Bumbo seat and we're {almost} getting too big for our favorite swing. What the heck am I gonna do with her when she grows out of her swing? Oh boy.

I've got 3 more weeks until I return to school {work}. 3 WEEKS. WHAT. THE. HECK. ??? Major sad face. But, really - I am ready to go back to school. I need to. Just to get out of the house and to socialize with humans that aren't still pooping in their pants. Don't get me wrong, I am in LOVE with the fact that I get to stay at home all day with Olivia and play with her and just be with her! But it's reaching unhealthy levels. I need to socialize.

So, I opened a new can of worms in my teaching world. I have decided that I don't have enough projects to tackle, so I started creating clipart. I had initially planned on opening an Etsy shop to sell my photo enhancement services, but let's get real. I don't have time for that. I mean, I'm a MOM. Who has time to sit around and make edits to photos all day? People that aren't moms, that's who. Instead, I started doodling away and my new clipart packages were born. I have 4 packages right now and I am going to wait until I have 10 to re-open my Etsy shop. Hopefully, that will be sometime between now and when Olivia turns 5.

Photo book! I am working on the cutest photo book for my cutie. I wanted to do something unique and different {not that photo books are unique and different} - but I keep seeing the same pictures with different kids in them. Like the onesies with the number of months on them. I didn't want to do that. I wanted to track Olivia's growth by using real pictures of her {not staged ones wearing the same outfit}. I love it so far:

I'm creating it custom using iPhoto by designing the page layouts first, then uploading the jpgs to blank pages in the layout of iPhoto. Love. So it'll be about this time next year when it's all done and printed. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Newest Pinterest find: Family Yearbooks. I LOVE the idea of doing a family year book every year. I mean, duh. It's still fun to look at my old yearbooks from school  - so OF COURSE it will be awesome and fun to look at family-based yearbooks for years to come. I love, love, love it and this will be the first one of many to come. Thanks, Pinterest! You have really turned me into a super-mommy craft addict teacher.

Things are basically the same as far as our schedule goes - and she hasn't really reached any other milestones yet- except that she LOVES talking to herself {and to us} - and she has recently discovered her hands. She slobbers all over them and sucks on them ALL the time. Hilarious, that child. Oh, and she can hold her own head up. She was sleeping all the way thru the night for a while there, but she's back to waking up once at night. I'm not too concerned though - she just gets a bite to eat and goes right back to sleep. The next big change will come here in about another month. She'll have to start sleeping in her crib {GULP} - and she'll start eating pureéd veggies/fruits shortly after that.
  

Well, it's 7:12am and the snuggle piglet is up! She's in her co-sleeper in our room just talking away to herself. I could sit here and listen to her all day long. It's so cute. She's even laughing to herself! I mean, I'm not sure what could possibly be funny on that wall that's she has a nice view of, but as long as she's entertained, that's fine with me. 

DIY Newborn Photography

So, I've already posted a few tips and tricks to doing your own maternity photos. But now that your baby is here, it's time to think about capturing those moments when your itty bitty is still itty bitty. It won't last long! If you splurged on your maternity photos and don't have the funds to host another professional shoot, take matters into your own hands. It CAN be done, and it can be done for a reasonable price. I am still a huge supporter of professional photographers and I strongly believe that the expense is well worth the investment, but when you simply do not have the extra cash lying around, make the most of it and DIY!

Oh, and by the way, I birthed a baby! She's officially here and you can read all about it by clicking here.

My sweet baby is so easygoing and having her first photo shoot was a pleasure. She loved getting dressed up in her tutu, pearls, and head accessories. It went well, but I did do some research before delving into this little project. Here are the tips that I found for doing your own little photo shoot:

1. Feed your baby until she's milk drunk. Nice and full is the key. Wait about 10 minutes, the change the diaper. {If you want to take naked pics, take them first and FAST!}
2. Make the room very warm, like 74 or higher.
3. Set up all your goodies before feeding and diaper changing.
4. Have a big soft bed or cushiony palate ready. Put a Boppy pillow underneath a big, neutral colored blanket so that your LO can be propped up real nice.
5. Look at Pinterest for photo ideas and then come up with your own spin on them. I get tired of seeing the same crocheted hats on babies. They all look the same! Take your baby's personality and
add his or her own flair! Or create a personality for her, since you know, she's only 12 days old. I love putting U of L {for those of you living on the moon for the last month, the Louisville Cardinals won the NCAA Championship and I couldn't be more excited about it. Go Cards!} stuff on her, but instead of buying a bunch of team onesies or outfits, we did a little black and red tutu {compliments of the MIL} and I got the cutest black and red headband to match. It screams CARDINALS without actually saying it, you know?
6. You need a friend or lover boy to help you. Have neutral colored backgrounds ready for them to hold up so that you're not capturing Sparky in the background licking his butt at the same time you're  trying to capture a sweet baby moment.
7. Take some pictures while she's sleeping and some while she's awake. Both are cute and fun! And don't delete the outtakes! Those are hilar!
8. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. You don't need. 55,000 perfect pictures. Get a dozen or so great ones, and you'll be just as happy them!

Here are my faves. She's such a diva. I'm smitten.

DIY Maternity Photo Shoot

Maternity photographers are VERY good at what they do. There is no question about that. I love seeing the gorgeous shots that they are able to catch and I am definitely an advocate for supporting photographers. With that being said, true professional photography sessions are expensive, and rightfully so. The time it takes alone to retouch photographs to get them just right is worth as much as they charge for the whole package. Seriously. But with diapers, daycare, car seats, clothes, cribs, bottles, boogie wipes, and the endless list of baby gear that continues to grow {well after you think you have it all} - paying for yet another expense is stupid scary. If you have the money to spend on professional photography - definitely do it. No question about it. But if you truly just do not have the funds - like poor me, then you can host your own photography session and still get gorgeous pictures! Even some of the less expensive cameras can produce quality pics that you can retouch using regular ole' software, like iPhoto. Google is your friend. Use it. I got the DIY maternity photo shoot by using it. Shameless! This post by Lindsey from The Accidental Wallflower was a HUGE help in getting me started in the right direction.

Pinterest is your friend, too. And if you are one of those people that have been living on the moon for the last 2 years, discovering Pinterest should be your #1 priority - after reading this post, of course. I spend many o'hours wasting time on Pinterest. Sometimes, however, I become productive and take some of the things I've seen on Pinterest and put them to use. Case in point: my wonderful DIY Maternity Photog Board. I was able to steal borrow some of my favorite poses that I found and use them during my own photo session {during which I had a dear friend take the photos using my Sony DSLR camera - an investment EVERY new parent should make}. Below are some of my maternity photos from my el cheap-o DIY photo session. I edited most of them using Photoshop {and FYI...I'm by NO MEANS a Photoshop expert - and again, this is where Google comes in handy}, but some of them I edited just using iPhoto - so that you can see that you don't need fancy software to get your pics looking like you want them to look. Another good, less expensive photo editing option is Photoshop Elements, software that you can download for about a hundred bucks and can be used by the dummiest of dummies out there with a little patience. Photo editing software is a great investment because you know you will ALWAYS want to take pics of your babies and you will ALWAYS want to make them look better than your neighbor/sister/friend's photos. You know it's true.

 

So, don't panic if you're newly pregnant, short on cash, and you know you want to have some awesome maternity photos taken. This is also my plan for my birthing photos. Which may or may not end up being a great idea. More on that later.

19 days and counting until my little angel makes her debut!