A Family Portrait Shoot

Over the weekend I had a portrait session with my brother-in-law's family.
Aren't they good looking?!




I took their engagement photos last year and they are so natural in front of the camera that it makes getting beautiful shots a breeze!




"My momma always said you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes, where they're goin, where they've been."
-Forrest Gump






But I bet you didn't guess from their shoes that they're also expecting!!!






I love that they are so willing to do "fun" shots!




And show genuine moments in front of the camera.

As well as let their inner cheerleader out once in a while. ;)

 

Flowers & Shells

I have no clue what this plant is.
Thanks to some smart ladies out there this has been identified as a portulaca, or moss rose.
It has not grown since we've lived here {until now that is} and I certainly did not plant it.
But it is popping up here and there throughout our little flower bed.
{I use the term 'flower bed' loosely...it's mostly dirt and mulch}
And I couldn't be happier! I love when nature plants pretty flowers for me...and ones that multiply at that!

 




We did plant this. It's a bloom on our bell pepper plant.
I imagine we'll get to eat this baby in...oh, October.






I've been wanting to do a minimalist-style sea shell shot {say that three times fast} but nothing I do is working how I want.
So these shells and sand have been sitting on our kitchen counter for about 2 weeks.
...within easy reach of Rowan.
She's been playing with the sand and shells on and off and yesterday I noticed this pretty little beach scene she threw together!

  

Cherries Jubilee

Before:



After:



  





For this edit I ran Nelly Nero's Blush action.
{I'm pretty sure}
As well as boosted the fill light and saturation.
Then I cropped slightly to get rid of the bare floor in the upper right corner.

I Pledge Allegiance...

My son learned the Pledge of Allegiance during his first year of preschool. From the time he was able to remember the whole thing, whenever we came across an American flag he would stop, put his little hand to his heart and recite the pledge.

In this photo he's teaching his little sister how to say it!


  

Summertime

...and the livin' is easy...




Aahhh, the summer sun....nice and scorching hot!









...but thankfully we have a sprinkler to cool off.
;)

 

Fluffy Towels & Pretty Irises

This is my grandparents' bathroom. It's painted a vintage carnation pink and my grandma even has mint green towels to complete the retro feel! I personally enjoy retro spaces, but what makes this even better for me is that my great grandma - this particular grandma's mom - also had a vintage carnation pink bathroom. It brings back such sweet and loving memories and I can only hope and pray when my own children are grown, they will have similarly fond memories of their great grandma.

I'm also linking this shot to Texture Thursday because of those towels...boy, were they super soft!!

 




And below is my entry for Pixel Perfect's Before & After:

Before:




After:







Step 1: Run PW's Boost action, merge visible
Step 2: Run PW's Heartland action, reduce opacity to 75%
Step 3: Increase saturation to +66, merge all and save

Winter Beauty

We finally got our gorgeous 5"+ snowfall over the weekend, so I donned my snow gear and headed out our back door.
This is our butterfly bush, apparently ready for spring.

Beauty is the theme this week at This Life is Sweet, pretty fitting I think.

***





This is the 'doorway' to our backyard.
As you can see, there was already a good amount of snow on the ground and more coming down.
Keep scrolling to see how I edited this shot.





***

Are you kidding me?!?!
I won again - for the second week in a row - at Pixel Perfect for my Bleeding Hearts shot last week.
Talk about craziness!
I believe a big, huge THANK YOU to Monica and those who voted for me is in order!

Before:

After:

I have found that my shots of snow falling are much better when I switch my camera to manual focus. Since it's impossible to focus on snowflakes as they fall, I guesstimate where I should focus, shoot and adjust accordingly.


I use PSE 8 to edit and did the following:

Step 1: Ran Paint the Moon's Jubilee action.
(hello. my name is katie and i'm addicted to jubilee)

Step 2: Added Kim Klassen's Grey Day Slate texture, set opacity to around 20%.

Step 3: Cropped to 8x10.





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Faces pressed against the glass,
inside and warm,
watching Mommy tromp through the snow with her camera.