jasper mastered waving today
Monday, June 29, 2009Labels: baby love
what is my family coming to
Thursday, June 25, 2009Labels: family matters
My poor little momma... First my brother got a tattoo, then got a second. Josh got his forearm tattooed. Now my dad joined the tattoo club. He decided on a running tattoo above his ankle. I think it turned out pretty cool. The tattoo artist combined the version I designed and another version. It's also cool because it means something to my dad. It's like he's announcing that he has committed to running forever. 
I have been tossing around the idea to getting my eyebrow re-pierced. (I had my eyebrow pierced between the age 22 and 23.) I really miss it but can't help wonder if I'm too old for it. The other night at supper I said to my mom, "What would you think about me getting-". My mom interrupted, "getting your eyebrow re-pierced?". (That's the problem with your parents having Facebook too...) I said, "Yeah, I'm considering". Little Momma says, "What is my family coming to?? Tattoos, piercings?"
So it seems we're all rebelling a bit. Who's next? Little Momma? I doubt it. When hearing about my brother's plan for more tattoos she responded, "Oh gosh. I'm going to have to start a prayer chain". I love that little lady.
clothes, clothes, clothes
Sunday, June 21, 2009Labels: baby love
camera onesie by Egg + Avocado
I get asked ALL the time where I get Jasper's clothes. When I was pregnant I always said that if we have a boy I would dress him like Josh dresses. It's been kind of tricky but I'm not one to shy away from a challenge.
striped pocketed onesie from BabyGap
At the risk of sounding like a snob I'm going to come right out and say that I am not a fan of Carter's clothing. They are EVERYWHERE. Every single onesie has some sort of patch, embellishment, something extra on it... Sorry but I do not like the shirts that say things like "Daddy's Little Hero".
black onesie by American Apparel
So basically I look for simple shirts and pants that are solid or patterned colors. I buy most of his clothes on sale at BabyGap or Old Navy. I got him quite a few solid color onesies from American Apparel (really like those). A random shirt here or a splurge on something I found online...that's what makes up his wardrobe. For awhile there I was taking a lot of pictures of his outfits so most of these were when it was cooler out.
top left to right: shirt, flannel and jeans - Old Navy; shirt - Target, jeans - The Children's Place; shirt - American Apparel, jeans - Old Navy;
bottom left to right: jeans - Old Navy, hoodie - Kumquat; pants - Old Navy, shirt - American Apparel; onesie - Threadless, long sleeve onesie - American Apparel, jeans - Old Navy;
So yeah, the kid dresses pretty snazzy. We always get compliments about what he's wearing. Maybe I should strive to dress as well as my son.
a day in my life
Monday, June 15, 2009I have been asked quite a bit what I do every day. Am I bored? Never. Do I keep busy? Always. My days are always very different. Some days I don't feel like I do anything, others I barely sit down. Some days all I do is work on Knight Light, others all I do is clean... Today was a pretty typical day so I thought I would document with photos. It's kind of cool to look through the pictures and get an overview of the day. Here is a slideshow of the pictures from Flickr (the picture names document what was going on): Labels: baby love, kodachrome, sahm
the tattoo
Labels: all you need is love
Josh has wanted a tattoo for as long as I've known him. I always had the same response, "No way. No tattoos". Every so often, Josh would bring it up again. A few months ago he started talking more seriously about the tattoo he's always wanted. "Veritas Vincit" which is Latin for Truth Conquers. It pretty much encompasses how Josh lives his life and feels that others should live.
One night a few weeks ago Josh was playing around with some fonts in Photoshop trying to find one he liked. I was bored so I said that I would come up with something. I gave him some options and then totally redesigned a specific font he liked. He had me print out different sizes to get an idea of scale. When he finally settled on a size he cut out the letters with an Exacto and made a stencil of the lettering.
Every night for a week we would sit at the kitchen table and I would stencil this "tattoo" on his arm. We'd look at it, talk about it and then he'd wash it off. I knew this was serious. 
Josh asked when he could do it and I said I needed some time to adjust to the idea. "Not before August", I told him. He got it at the end of May. And you know what? I actually really like it. It's not enormous, or ugly. It's simple and clean looking. Plus it's pretty cool that I ended up designing it.
The responses to it have really surprised me. His family was pretty chilled out about it. My brother and his two tattoos already paved the way with my folks. I asked Josh what he was going to say to Jasper when Jasper wants a tattoo. Josh said, "If you want the same tattoo for two years and it really means something to you then okay".
a knight light catch up post
Thursday, June 11, 2009I haven't been so good about blogging all of my photo sessions lately. One I'm not very good at self promotion. I feel like my work speaks for itself and if someone wants to hire me then cool. Also, I'm totally lazy and hate going through watermarking all of my pictures. I kind of think if someone is going to steal them then they can photoshop it out. Watermarks usually take away from the picture and are they really necessary? I mean, if you're looking at my pics you know who I am. (This is me justifying my lack of watermarking.) So anyway, I thought I would just post a bunch of pictures as a bit of a catch up. Labels: knight light
This is my August wedding couple. The sister of one of my brides from last year... I wasn't sure if I would do any weddings this year until she asked me. I got along so well with the family that I couldn't say no. 
I've had a lot of fun Senior sessions lately. Kids that really "get it". They understand that I've usually got a vision and just go with it.
Even my own husband thought I was a little crazy for asking this girl to run down the alley in her prom dress. But I had this image in my head and thankfully it worked out. I love when people are up for any of my weird ideas.
It also helps if they are flippin' gorgeous. Seriously, I did not look like this as a Senior in high school. Ha. What am I talkin' about? I don't look like this now!
It makes me really happy when I can get genuine smiles from every member of the family, even the dad who wasn't really into it.
And I am also happy when lighting works in my favor or have a husband to hold my reflector.
I get excited when newborns actually sleep for me.
Although I really can't complain when they look this cute when they're awake.
I have a TON of sessions coming up that I'm looking forward to. Expect to see more as they happen, just don't expect them to be watermarked. :)
the almighty swaddle
Monday, June 08, 2009Labels: baby love
Before getting pregnant I had seen babies swaddled before, but I had no idea how amazing swaddling really was or could be. Josh and I read The Happiest Baby on the Block. This book talks about how the first three months of a baby's life is really like a fourth trimester. It's important to comfort them by making them feel at "home". (Home being womb-like.)
From the very beginning we put the techniques into practice and boy, did they work. Jasper could be calmed by swaddling and shushing in a matter of seconds. Josh impressed many nurses with his calming techniques while we were still in the hospital. The swaddle above all was Jasper's favorite. He would instantly relax if we swaddled him. Arms down by his side and tight, tight, tight!
When he was just past three months old, he started waking more in the middle of the night. He would bust out of his swaddle then wake himself with his flailing arms. After a week of getting up numerous times to reswaddle him, Josh and I decided it was maybe time to stop swaddling. So we did. It's funny because I read on a lot of baby forums how people didn't know if they should still swaddle or were still swaddling their 9-month old. Giving up the swaddle really wasn't quite as traumatic as I thought it would be. One night we just stopped. He did fine. The first couple days were an adjustment but that was that.
After about a month of going cold turkey on the swaddle, he started waking up more in the middle of the night. Not knowing what else to do we swaddled him again. That only lasted a week or two. Turns out you can "help" teething with the swaddle! For that week we had to do a serious tight double swaddle. I guess once he got used to teething he didn't need the swaddle anymore so we stopped and haven't done it since.
New mommy Jess mentioned to me in an email tonight about needing some swaddling lessons. So Josh and I pulled out the video camera and gave her a little tutorial. Sock Monkey was the baby. It turned out pretty good for on the fly, no editing or planning. That's how we roll. So if you desire, you can view our swaddle tutorial which includes the double swaddle we had to use on Jasper.
the intern
Sunday, June 07, 2009Something kind of cool going on with Knight Light this summer...we got an intern! Emily was a client two years ago as a Senior in high school. Since she's now in college and studying photography she asked if I'd like an intern for a couple months. Why, yes...I do need someone to fetch me lattes. Labels: knight light
I threw her right in with one of our cameras and told her to snap away. I've also been showing her the ropes with Photoshop although I'm trying not to overload her. She's a quick study and really seems to be enjoying it. Plus she puts up with my husband's extreme goofiness so bonus there.
Occasionally she'll snap a picture of me in action which I always enjoy seeing. I rarely am in front of the camera so it's nice to have those pictures. 
I think by the end of summer I will be wishing she wasn't going back to school!
