Have a wonderful weekend!

Enjoy!

• Most of the furniture was purchased used from Craigslist and then refinished to coordinate together.
• Many of the ideas in the room came from design blogs, Pinterest, and the yummy inspiration of Ohdeedoh.
• With my somewhat limited sewing skills, I made the curtain and bedspread.

I’ll provide the resources for items as I can at the bottom of this post.  But, I know you want to see the eye candy first:

• Dresser, bookshelf & bed from Craigslist
• 4-square Expedit shelf from Ikea
• Red rocking chair from local antique store
• 4 square frames from Ikea; artwork is scrapbook papers from Michaels
• 2 prints above bed from Olliegraphic
• Alphabet flash cards from eeBoo on wall next to bed.  (I punched small holes in either side and strung red ribbon through to make it easy to hang on the wall.)
• Shelf from Ikea displaying her Pez collection.

The new room is a huge hit, and all the work it took to pull it together (remind me NEVER to undertake a painting project in the Summer!) was worth it. She loves it and its a really nice room to hang out in.

Little moments indeed.

This week, the word and idea is “treasure.”  When I think of what I treasure the most, the first thought that comes to mind is my family.  Being married only a few short years, the idea that *I* have my own family is still new to me and I get a bit of a thrill each time I think of it.

But, instead of just focusing on my treasures, I thought I’d expand it a bit to show the idea of a treasure in the eyes of a child … specifically a 2  year old.  Her treasures lately have included her babies, many of which she just received for Christmas and her birthday.  Her favorite seems to rotate day-by-day, but its always the same group that joins her in her bed at night.  Don’t you remember your treasures when you were a child?

Technical stuff: Canon 5D, 50mm, f4.0, 1/50 and 1/60 (when I shot this I didn’t have as much light as I wanted.)

Please head on over to Efi’s blog with StudioEIGHT Photography.  She has a wonderful eye … her work is always a treat for me.

This is the first week and our theme was “Inspire”.  I loved this theme because I try to use the beginning of every year to inspire myself creatively.   After the craziness of the Fall portrait season is done, I feel like I can take a breath and start to be creative … for me.  Sometimes that means picking up my camera and being creative, but a lot of the time it really means diving into other creative pursuits.  It is this time of year that I get the urge to create.  Lately I’ve been thinking about sewing projects (I can sew just enough to be dangerous) and spending time at the fabric store drinking in all the delicious textures, patterns and colors.  I’ve also been creating some new marketing materials for my business.  Again, creative juices dripping over colors and patterns and designs. I’ve also had the urge to paint recently, and I don’t mean painting on canvas.  My daughter is teetering on the verge of being ready to move from nursery to toddler room and I really want to celebrate by giving her a whole new look.  Soon I’ll be fawning over paint swatches.  Yum!

Color plays a big part of my creative inspiration.  I love color.  So I decided to use color as my first Project 52 photograph.  Yummy, inspiring color….

{Tech specs: all natural light from a large sliding glass door to the left of the photo. Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens.  ISO 400 F1.4, 1/640}

Ready for the next one?  Meet Gigi: www.gigimcgill.com/blog

Taken with the iPhone camera and processed using the ShakeIt Photo App.

I wanted to share this really cool new kids album (do they still call them albums? … ha!) that was just released on iTunes today called Do Fun Stuff. Why is it important? Well, for a couple of reasons. First, it was put together by a friend, Cole and her husband, local photographer Ryan Marshall. (Ryan also writes a really fun blog — you should follow him.) He put the album together to raise money for a little known syndrome called SMS – Smith Magenis Syndrome. Their 6 year old son has been diagnosed with this syndrome and they are both huge advocates for their little boy. Every penny raised in selling the album goes to the charity and to families around the world who are dealing with this in their lives.

One of the “rules” in our household is that any kid’s TV show, movie or music has to pass the parents test … meaning that we have to like listening to it or watching it too. Well, I can tell you that this definitely passes the test. I think I’ll enjoy listening to it as much as my little one.

Bravo, Ryan & Cole. Its a hit!