YOLO Momma Photography

Okay, I am really jumping off the boat and attempting to swim with the big fish as I get serious and try to push my talents into something that will help pay some bills!

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Ordered my business cards from Vista Print...Check!

Branded my business...Check!

Collected all my client images for promoting...Check!

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Our 18 Month "Old Man"

The time keeps slipping away as our baby boy is growing into a little old man of 18 months. So I decided to play it up and take him to some train tracks for a photo session, as I am not sure what we'll do when year 2 comes in the dead of winter.

I'm rather tickled at how these turned out and how I've gotten a lot of milage out of those old garage sale suitcases. I was uncertain as to what and where we could get them done, aside from all the other shots taken in the backyard. Although, we did get a lot of stares from cars passing over the tracks...even thinking I was going to do some harm to him. I'd have to be blind and deaf to not know if a train was coming our way. "Nothing to see here...just a creative mom trying to change things up." And we timed the trains and shoot just perfectly as we reached the point of nuclear meltdown as I saw the ubiquitous single head light on the locomotive.

The hat was given from my mother and found at JCPenney. Bowtie onesie is from Old Navy.

Oops! Did I forget my underwear? Oh wait...I wear diapers :)

I take my hat off to you mom

The train left without me!

Being Paid to Exercise

Being a mother has totally changed my life.period.

I decided to go out for a bike ride on my own over one of the weekends. It occurred to me that I hadn't ridden a bike since before I was pregnant with Eliza and was doing it to get to work since Matt had our only car to head to work outside of town.

This means, it had been FOUR YEARS since my butt touched a bike seat.

Holy moly!

I've also recently picked up a new hobby. Whenever I am out and about and come across a trash can, I take a peek to see if there are any redemption value recyclables. Doesn't matter where...parking lots, the park, store trash cans etc.

Now when I do take a bike ride, I am sure to bring a backpack and I stop to pick up cans/bottles on the road or in public places. Thus far, I've picked up about 50 cents each ride.

I am a mother....nothing grosses me out now a days and I am not too proud to rummage through a trash can. If there was a dollar bill laying on the floor...would you pick it up?

Since starting this hobby in mid May, I've brought in almost $20 of pure profit. Much of this comes from water bottles, as you pay a deposit on them in this state. All those Lipton/Brisk ice tea bottles or juice are a tease as they are of no value. It almost feels like being a kid again, looking to earn an allowance. It gets me out of the house and has the sense of being on a treasure hunt, scanning the sides of roads for coins :)

I am amazed at just how much money is thrown in the can or ground. The monies collected goes to my own "fun money stash".Maybe I should invest it into a beach cruiser seat to ease my bicycle crotch burn ;)

What am I going to do when it snows?

The Discovery Zoo

We had the chance to finally make a visit to Fort Rickey with the kids. This was a first for Nolan getting to be up close to a variety of animals. He'd squeal in delight at just about each one.

My little country girl

Eliza was very fascinated with these ducks. It took a good long while for her to understand that you can't run up to the animals and not everyone wants to be pet.

River Otter

Eliza quickly caught on that the sheep and goats would eat leaves off the tree.

The Peacocks were allowed to roam the grounds as they pleased, even if it was right on top of the table you were snacking on.

Finally, one wasn't skittish to let Nolan check him out.

We spent just a few hours there in the afternoon and ended up getting a season pass for myself and put Eliza on it as my free child and there is no cost for Nolan at the moment. I just have to take the kids there a second time and the membership has paid for itself. It will be a great place to bring a picnic lunch and let the kids get out of the house until the zoo closes at the end of October.

Because it is just outside of where we live, it is a great activity for young ones to enjoy without the high costs of alternative entertainment. Free parking is another plus! 

Taking it Back!

An early morning traditional breakfast at the grandparents

When we recently inherited an additional baby gate, we were able to finally take back the kitchen again.

I have now turned into an old married with children woman who gets giddy when she is able to open and load/unload the dishwasher without fear of little hands helping. And when I say helping, I mean grabbing at the biggest and sharpest knives and trying to find snacks left on the dishes.

Now I can sweep crud into a pile and not worry about someone thrashing their hands through it, sending it flying back into the crevices I swept it out from.

I no longer have a little 17 month old throwing a fit at the base of the pantry shelves because I will not allow him to sustain himself on graham crackers all the live long day.

I no longer have to kick "Little People" or play food or whatever the heck toys my kids find amusement back into the family room.

Oh...and I no longer have to fear my legs being bitten/scratched/pinched during meal prep while a meltdown is reaching the same intensity as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant fiasco.

The downside is having to run hurdles around the kitchen. I've gotten pretty good at the plastic dish toss into the sink because I am too lazy to unlatch the gate being held closed with a bungee cord. Either my kids have outsmarted it, or this $70 gate wasn't built to last more than 2 years : /

Excuse me while I go sign up with the local track team...

Better Late than Never

It took me awhile to get these done, but I am glad I still went through with it. I had fun with the chalkboard markers to display her 3 year stats. I am glad they wipe easily with a wet cloth as I made a few goofs in doing the typography by hand.

Unlike her 2 year pictures, it was a nice surprise to have Eliza cooperate with me in being posed. Dhe'd mimic some of my hand placements with easy and then of course "I see I see" right afterwards.

But the phrase I had to continually tell her was "Tongue back in the mouth!"

Some other tidbits of fluff 3 year stats are:

Current Obsession- Air Planes (air naines)

Potty trained- AM & PM

Say hello to just about anyone

Can forward roll

Loves the park and climbing on daddy

Is becoming increasingly more aware that mommies and daddies have different private parts

Daily songs sung- Anything Frozen, Peg + Cat 'We Solved the problem', Jesus Loves Me, I've Got the Joy Joy Joy.

Most repeated phrase- I hungry 

Current Friends- Evan, Lydia, Brett, Dorothy

Can count to 10

Knows her basic colors (loves pink)

Peddles a tricycle

Enjoys her swing and almost has the motions of pumping her legs, but lacks leaning her body

Brushes her teeth on her own

Likes to talk to grandparents on the phone

Super Fun: Pintrest Test

There was a recent birthday party for a 3 year old boy that we were invited to. When asking the mother what he might like, even she was a little perplexed. He has an older brother who is 3 years ahead of him. He has benefited by being the first and getting most of the traditional gifts through the years. There are no shortage of boy hand me down toys.

Yet, this little boy loves Barney!

So I decided to craft up a Barney inspired superhero play costume.

In taking to Pintrest, I found this pin the most helpful in providing a free printable sewing pattern for the cape.

I purchased a few sheets of craft felt, while going with 1/2 yd of purple felt from Joanns. Velcro and elastic were already on hand. Use your own child for gaging just how long of cape you want, and don't be afraid to jazz the bottom hem up. I made mine come to a point in the middle, but sky's

the limit.

Although you can't exactly see it, I tried to jazz up the mask (channeling my inner Ninja Turtle) in painting some white tulle with black acrylic paint to put in between the layers on the mask where the eye holes were. Also, in giving the felt some strength, I used a material used when making baby shoes or fabric baskets that gives some extra strength (almost cardboard like). You could even used a sheet of craft foam I bet.

I did more hand sewing than machine, as felt is very forgiving. Use a hot glue gun to glue on the front mask portion, as fabric glue does not work well when gluing felt on felt.

Hexagon Quilt Binding Tutorial

If you were wondering about how to do a fancy quilt binding, here is an inside look at how it is done and links to free resources.

Find the pin here about how to do paper piecing so you can make oodles of pieces to sew.

Find the Paper piecing hexagon printable as a pdf file. Be sure to print it on heavy card stock so you can reuse the pieces instead of printing more out.

 

Once I had all the hexagons, I hand sewed them together by using a simple loop stitch, which is basically a lazy blanket stitch. You just don't push the needle through to catch the last stitch closing. When you have your chain, take the iron and press it in half, being sure to fold it with the outside pattern on the inside.

Pin your binding to the raw quilt edge with the pattern on the inside and run it through the sewing machine at 1 quarter inch inseam. The real time consuming part is doing that same loop stitch as you pull the points up to each other and close it up. For the corners, I ended up leaving some excess hanging off to be like tassels.

Most of my thread color was a blue/grey color, as I am finding out just how powerful the color of grey can be when trying to find a balance with your colors and patterns mixing. It is like a universal thread color when you can't match it exactly. 

Hand sewing isn't as scary as some may think. I found it to be very relaxing while sitting with the hubby and watching a movie or sitting in church. Give it a try :)

Go Crash Laugh!

      

These toy Cars from Target have been a lot of fun at the grandparents house lately. Nolan finally figured out how to pull them back and let them fly off the coffee table. Their laughter is quitcontagious to one another. 

Sometimes its the simplest facinations that become the home run memories.

Quilting for a Blessing

"Pinwheel Garden"

It was a labor of love to create and sew this quilt for an upcoming addition to a special family. After a lot of sadness and questions, they will be welcoming a little girl come August.

While my mother was visiting, we checked out some local quilt shops where I found the grey free motion pattern and the pink batik print in between the pinwheel.. Everything else was found reasonable at Joanns (Calico Prints).

Every time I do a quilt, I try and push myself to try a new technique or challenging pattern since I started sewing almost 3 years ago. It was a talent I envied others who could sew. Envy continued to grow until it pushed me into a new world. I remember being deathly afraid to buy any fabric and try and make something of it, after finding out what fabric ran in price.

This quilt is about 50/50 done on machine and by hand. The binding is what took me almost as long as cutting and sewing the pinwheel blocks. Look for a follow up post on just how to do it with a link to a free printable.

Color!

Nolan is starting to enjoy crayons...beyond eating them at least. We tape some blank newsprint to the table. This will hold his attention for maybe 15 minutes before he takes interest into what Eliza has. 

Coloring makes ya hungry!

Summer GQ Edition