Farm Fair

Thursday night, Chad and I took Weston to the Farm Fair!!! We left around 4pm and lil W did not last too long! He was pretty tired from the start. We introduced him to the cows, chickens, pigs, goats, bunnies, baby chicks, donkeys, ponies, and alpacas! His favorite animals at the fair were the pigs!! He loved the noise they made!!! It was so funny watching Weston watch the pigs... he had the biggest smile on his face! He did not like the cows at all!! We were able to get super close to one of the cows and it freaked him out!!!

 

And on our way home this is what Weston was working on...      :)

Baby Jail ;)

It has been almost a week since I wrote on here! This photography business is keeping me VERY busy!! I cannot wait until we move so I can get all of my props and photography materials organized. It is in complete disarray right now.  Weston has been up to so much lately. He is crawling all over the place and it is so hard to keep up with him. Since our little house on the farm is not baby-proofed and stuff is everywhere, I have been feeling like I am going to lose my mind. Last weekend, I bought a play yard gate (AKA baby jail) and it has been wonderful! Now Weston can crawl and climb up on things and I do not have to move him every two seconds!

Weston is also cutting 2 teeth!!! He will wake up a few times in the middle of the night and cry, but will eventually put himself back to sleep. Meal time has been a HUGE pain! Weston will scream, throw his head back, and cry. I am not really sure why?? Mostly it is with the vegetables… I think he may be picky like his mama. I have also been working on giving him the Gerber Puffs. He has no clue what to do with them. It takes him a while to pick them up and then he just throws them. I will end up putting them in his mouth and he just spits them out! Maybe we will try again in a few weeks. 

We have one more week until we move into our house! I CANNOT WAIT! On Monday, Chad starts his new job in Baltimore and I will be headed to our house to clean and paint. I feel bad for poor Weston because I have different babysitters set up for him each day. We also have swimming lessons from 9-9:30 every morning for the next 2 weeks so that will be our time together! I hope he likes the lessons!! It should be lots of fun!

keeping up...

This week has been crazy!! I had 4 scheduled photo sessions, but unfortunately because of the heat two of them were canceled. On Tuesday morning, I had my first shoot of the week and the pictures turned out fabulous!! I was really happy with them and loved the location!! I think it is my new favorite spot! Wednesday afternoon I had a 3 month photoshoot with one absolutely adorable little boy! 3 months is one of the hardest ages for me to photograph. They are not at the age where you can pose them while they sleep like itty bitty newborns and they can't sit up just yet or hold up their heads for a long period of time. I ended up taking my new wooden floor mat and white basket. I took some pictures of him in there and they turned out great!!

On Tuesday, I began the "Summer Smiles" contest on my Facebook page. I started with 217 LIKES on my page and now am up to 850 fans!! Wow! Then came the emails!! A lot of people are interested in booking sessions. So I spent this week trying to catch up on all the emails! I am so happy that I decided to go through with this whole photography business. It is a little overwhelming trying to take care of Weston, keep up with house (which will be a lot harder once we move), editing photos, and finding babysitters to watch him while I have my shoots. My mom gave me some good advice... set aside specific times to do photography stuff (editing, replying back to emails, etc.). The best time for me is probably once Weston goes to sleep at night. So from 8-11pm is work time!! That way when he naps during the day I can get housework accomplished. I am still trying to figure out how many shoots I should plan in a week. 3 or 4?? If I do three, I will definitely be busy... but boy we could use the money! So I think I may alternate weeks. 3 shoots one week and then the next 4. I doubt I will be that busy, but come Fall everyone wants those Christmas pics! Winter will be my slow time so that is when I will get lots done around the house and maybe try to host mini sessions or more contests?? One more thing about photog... last night I bought a backdrop stand!! Thank goodness! I looked a little questionable going into my 3 month shoot with an Elmer's project board! Good thing the mom knew me and could care less! Thanks Diane for understanding!! :)   Now I will look more like a professional with my stand! It should be coming in 2 days! Just in time for my newborn shoot on Wednesday morning!

Weston has been crawling ALL over the place!! I am counting down the days until we can move back into our home!!! This little house that we are staying in now is not baby proofed at all! It is kind of hard to baby proof with boxes and junk ALL over the place! Now that Weston is pulling himself up makes it even worse. He is falling and bonking his head non-stop too! We needed to just get out and go somewhere with space so we headed for Aunt Missy's on Thursday and Friday. 8 more days to get in and paint and 2 more weeks until move in day! Wahoooo!

WPC- Surprise & Orange

Shutterboo Weekly Photo Challenge

Last Wednesday's word was "surprise". Perfect word because for weeks now I have been wanting to take birthday pics of Weston celebrating to give out to family members for their birthday! So here it is:

 And I am a few days early for this week's challenge... the word "orange". Weston and I found this pretty flower in Mumsy's garden.

Taking off...

It seems like my photography business is really taking off! It is a dream job! I am loving every minute!! I cannot believe I actually followed through with my hopes to one day start my own business. It still seems kind of unreal to me! I am having a blast!

At times it is a little overwhelming. Taking pictures of children is hard work! My previous experience as a kindergarten teacher has helped me out tremendously. I am able to get on the children's level and enjoy my time with them as I snap, snap away! But, boy... I sweat my tush off!! I don't know if it is my nerves or if it is hot out, but at the end of the shoot I am soaking wet! 

Right after almost EVERY shoot, I totally panic. Did I do a good job? Did I get enough shots of each kiddo? I should have done this! Oops I wish I did that. Ugh. I just freak out every time. After editing the pictures, I am usually pretty happy with the outcome. I am definitely my own worst critic. 

There is always room to grow. Each day I am learning something new. I am so psyched that I am finally using the manual mode of my camera. I have taught myself all about the aperture, ISO, shutter speed, etc. But again... I can learn more. 

This week I am totally booked with photoshoots. I had 2 last week, a family session tomorrow, 3 month photoshoot on Wednesday, and another family on Saturday. I also have a baby girl due on Tuesday (her mama is getting induced). So I am hoping to take her photos before we leave for the beach on Monday.

I am hosting a photo contest on my Facebook page hoping this will get me more fans which will then get me more clients! I hope! To my Harford County/Baltimore county family and friends who are reading...PLEASE recommend me to anyone/everyone you think may need a photographer. I offer gift certificates too!  

And to finish off my post... I just had to share Weston's 7 month photo shoot! I cannot believe it has been 7 months!!!!! We had so much fun shooting these pictures. My mom would scream, dance, clap, and make funny noises to get Weston to laugh and smile while Uncle Joe was blowing bubbles. Thanks Gaga and Uncle Joe! I cannot wait to get these pictures framed for the bathroom (thanks Katie for the great idea)!! :)

Punky

Remember Punky Bewster?? The lil' girl full of spunk and mismatched clothes. Well that was Weston today. He was clashing from head to toe. But I loved it!

Green striped hat, orange striped onesie, and polka-dot leg warmers. :)

Wedding on the Farm

This past weekend, Chad's cousin got married. Her reception was on their grandparents farm. I thought she did such a wonderful job with all of the decorations and little touches. Here are a few things that I loved...

Vintage handkerchiefs were given out at the ceremony.

The three adorable flower girls wore cowboy boots. LOVE!

 Guests left a note on a postcard for the bride and groom. Notice the yard wrapped letters on the left... I am making them for Weston's room!

Cross-stitched table numbers.

Place cards on clothesline.

Paper bag lights when sun went down.

super cheap & easy leg warmers

I love leg warmers on babies!! Weston's knees are always so red now that he is crawling ALL OVER THE PLACE! So I thought it was time to try out leg warmers. Check out the website My Little Legs. They have some pretty cute leg warmers and some of them are on sale for $5 which I do not think is that bad at all (especially with free shipping). In the meantime, I decided to take the super cheap way and make my own. I found really long socks on clearance at Target for $1.75 a pair. Then, I cut them the length that I wanted for W's legs and.... easy peasy! I tried to hem them and it was just not working. After one wash/dry it will curl up on the ends and you will  not even need to hem them!!! So much easier! 
Guess I will be stopping back at Target to pick up the other socks that would look cute as leg warmers!

This weekend, Chad's cousin got married. She had her reception at his/their grandparents farm. It was beautiful. Will post some pics soon. Her husband danced with his mom to Taylor Swift "Never Grow Up". Wow. I cried my eyes out! Now that I have Weston... life has changed so much. Listen to this song if you get a chance. Absolutely beautiful. Tearjerker! 

WPC... I am back!!

I did not forget about the Shutterboo Weekly Photo Challenge. I have been trying to keep up with it, but a few weeks just slipped away. The last WPC I had posted was Week 21-Anger. So here are the other photos I completed, but never seemed to have the time or energy to post. There are a few weeks that I missed and I do intend to make them up (someday)!!

Week 24- Shadow (no picture)

I actually had a picture for this one, but deleted it and this is why- I was driving up the driveway coming home from my mom’s house and ALL of the cows were huddled together in this one little bit of shade from the tree’s shadow. I hurried up and parked the car, took Weston out of his car seat, ran into the little house to get my camera, and headed for the cows! In that short of time all of the cows decided to head to another area of the pasture. I was SO upset! It would have been the perfect picture.  

Week 26- Distortion - totally forgot to even look at the challenge word that week. 

Week 22 Brown

Week 23 Open

Week 25- person (my favorite person in the world)

Week 27- nighttime

Baked Cheesy Chicken Bake

Tried out this recipe from the blog, Real Mom Kitchen. It was pretty yummy. Chad LOVED it!

Prop- repainted pink chair & more...

Do you think this is pink enough? Well, I do!!

I also painted the other chair blue.

Yesterday I stopped by one of my favorite stores, Belle Patri, and bought this old stool. Another possible prop? Maybe for a newborn. It will also be useful in Weston's bedroom. His room (in our soon to be home again) has tall closets and I could never reach the top. So this stool will definitely come in handy and will also go with the vintage decor in his room! (While at Belle Patri, my car broke down. Chad and Harrison had to come to the rescue. Weston and I enjoyed a lemon snowball while waiting. Thank goodness the snowball stand was close by!)

My wonderful hubby bought me lens hoods for both of my lenses!! They came in the mail today. Too bad the storm canceled my photoshoot this evening. I wanted to try them out. I did a few with/without the lens hood and boy you can tell the difference! Although some photos I intentionally want to have the sun flare on the pic. He sent me this picture while I was at my mom's house... I was so happy. :)