Claire Bear is turning 1!

Hi my lovely readers! Hope your week is going well so far. Today, I come to you with some shots of Claire that I took a couple of days ago. I can’t believe that on the 19th she will be one years old! It seems like she just arrived!

I loved using this vintage yo-yo quilt as my backdrop! It’s like a field of multi-colored flowers. :)

I shot these upstairs in the hallway where we have a skylight directly overhead. It gave me great even, natural light.

 

She is actually wearing her sisters tank top…so she is swimming in it but I love the lace edges and it happened to be within reach so I figured, what the heck?

This one is a bit blurry so forgive me but I had to include it because…well…that grin is just too cute!

I will be sure to capture more photos at her birthday party!

Much love to you all!

xo,

Ivy

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My little Muse

Hello there! I know I had promised to share with you the other photos that I took of Grace but it’s been a little crazy around here lately. An emotional 1st grader and a teething six month old has made life rather interesting to say the least! But, all is well and I finally have a quiet moment to see the shots that Grace helped art direct.

I gotta say, I couldn’t have been more proud, when I noticed that Grace was paying attention to the light and composing the idea for her portraits. She was very particular and wanted to see the shot before we went on to the next. Adjusting her hair or holding her feather a touch more to the right. I just love it when we can actively collaborate on a creative project together. It doesn’t happen much anymore, unfortunately. I hope that as little Claire gets less needy we can all spend more time being artistic.

Okay…here she is…

The next set, she wanted taken in front of her window because she thought the light was all “glowy”. Seated at her new writing desk she announced, “I am going to pretend that I’m about to write a poem with this feather pen, like they used to in the old days.”  Such a romantic already, like her momma. :)

Hope you enjoy these. On another note, I just signed up for the next online art course, by none other than the fabulous, Jeanne Oliver. Go here to check it out here.

Have a wonderful rest of the week.

xo,

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year friends! Hope you all enjoyed the holiday season. We had a very merry time with family and friends but now it’s time to switch gears and get back to work! To be honest, it’s always bittersweet for me. Taking down the Christmas decorations, the twinkling lights and all the pretty trimmings of the season makes me a touch sad. Mostly, I think, because my family leaves and heads back to Montana and the house seems drab after all that glitter and shine.

So, to quickly beat the blues, I decided to do a sisterly photo shoot of my girls today. We have been blessed with crisp, cold days full of bright sunshine (very odd for Portland this time of year) so I figured I better make the best of it. The piles of laundry sat waiting while, Claire, Grace and I played in the gorgeous light. Grace even got into the art direction. She would notice the light change and say “Quick mom, you are losing the light!” Too cute! She directed some shots that I took of her…which I will share with you tomorrow.

So here they are…my six year old and my six month old. Sisters and hopefully, one day, best friends.

How has your New Year so far? Any goals or aspirations you want to share? Me? I want to cook more, read more and exercise more!

Have a beautiful Thursday!

Much love to all!

xo,

P.S. For those of you who are wondering…I am using Photoshop to edit my photos in addition to Rad Lab. I’m in love with Rad Lab! :) It’s a bit of an investment but so worth it and you can try it out for free.

Claire bear is 4 months old…

Hello. Today, Clarie and I spent some time taking pictures. She is 4 1/2 months old and I’m attempting to do a portrait of her each month.  This one comes in a tad late but I still wanted to share it with you all. She’s been sitting up more and even trying to hold her own bottle. Her expressions are priceless and that little baby giggle gets me every time!

Have a lovely rest of the week!

xo,

 

Life changes…

hello there! oh my goodness, I have neglected you dear blog. Get in line behind the laundry, grocery shopping, housework, socializing and sleep! Yeah…so life with a newborn has been a little hectic, to say the least. What did I expect, right? Here’s what I expected – a baby that napped all the time, didn’t fuss and allowed me to still do ALL the things I had been doing. Hah! Clearly, I was delusional. BUT – I will say that having Claire has forced me to slow down (significantly) and focus on what’s really important – my family! So while my social marketing prowess has come to an abrupt halt, my diaper changing skills are noteworthy and don’t even get me started on how good I’m getting with my Baby K’tan wrap!

Life has changed. A lot. But it’s okay – because that’s what it’s supposed to do. I’m trying to internalize this zen-like attitude, accept my poochy tummy and breathe in the precious, sweet moments with this amazing, new, little being.

I managed to get a shot of Claire this afternoon…she’s 6 weeks old now…

So what’s changing in your life?

xo,

A Vintage portrait with Grace

Hi everyone! Hope you had a lovely weekend. Grace and I got to work on one of the art projects for my online art class this weekend and it was so much fun.  The assignment was to create a vintage inspired portrait on a small piece of canvas.

Grace was anxious to start and dived right in! I love that about creating with kids this young – they have no fear! While I sat there, carefully selecting each scrap of vintage paper, she got straight to work, with no hesitation.

She, of course, finished before me.  Her little fingers were covered in glue but she was just giddy – as was I!

Soon we both had our canvas’ prepared…covered in a patchwork of vintage papers and doilies.

I showed Grace examples of Jeanne’s original work so she could envision the outcome of the project.  See Jeanne’s beautiful piece below…

image via jeanneoliverdesigns

We will be attaching these canvas’ to vintage door plates or escutcheons, just as seen above. I have two coming from Etsy! I love how this makes a stand for these tiny artworks!

Here is Grace’s finished portrait…

When I asked her to tell me the story behind this portrait she said, ” She is a princess, waiting in the garden outside her castle for her prince to come.” I melted. My little romantic.

Here are the first steps of my process…sketching in my girl…

I painted out some of the background papers to create a light area.

Using a Stabilo Marks all pencil, charcoal, white gel pen and acrylic paints I filled in the details. I couldn’t resist adding some tiny pearls to her headband. I thought I was finished but something was missing…

The flock of birds and flower in her hair completed the piece for me.

This was a wonderful little project and I can’t wait to do another one! I bought these little canvas’ in bulk from Michaels and Grace has already started her second one!

Hope you all have a beautiful day!

xo,