Pictures of the Schmids

I took some pictures of the Schmids for them too.  However, we weren't able to head out with them until 6:30pm and it was getting dark fast!  I was really afraid at how the pictures would turn out!  I really hate grainy pictures but with it starting to get dark, that's what you're gonna have if you want the pictures to be bright enough and use a faster shutter speed and what not.  I had to play around with the levels in Photoshop because the pictures were also very blue because of the sun being down.  I'm actually pleased with these 3 family shots!  Woah, and relieved that I got 3 good family shots!  I should post the before and afters because I'm so excited at how I was able to edit them!  Maybe we'll save that for another post.

 Just a side note, Lora is expecting a baby in Jan.!  Yay!!!!

Okay, so this one still looks a little "blue" maybe I'll go back and play around some more!

 Aren't they so cute?!

Yeah, we like butt shots...

I still have more to edit, but these were the easiest because they were sort of the first ones we did, the later ones it got really dark out!!!  In order to get a decent picture the shutter speed was really slow and the ISO was pretty high, so I'm not thrilled with the others.  But I will try to edit them...

Pictures of My Kiddos

I have a frame that I wanted to put our family picture from beach trip in June in and a picture of Dave and I and one of all 3 kids.  But I didn't have a picture of all 3 kids on the beach.  So we took along clothes and got a picture on this trip.  I need it to be a 5x7 portrait.  These 2 are my favorite...

 The kids really weren't cooperating, Tanner and Mackenzie kept playing in the sand.  So we were not there for a long time, maybe 20  minutes.

I love this one of Mackenzie but not so much the boys...  

 My 6 1/2 year old...

 My almost 15 month old...

 I only got these 2 cute shots before she fell backwards off the wall!  And the person who was watching her didn't catch her in time!  Ughh!  She was finally smiling so cute then she fell!  I didn't get a chance to get close and get some really good ones!

Because of Tanner and Mackenzie throwing sand and all Mackenzie wanted to do was run and crawl in the sand, these were done back at the house on the wall along the driveway.  

My 4 1/4 year old...

I sure have some cute kiddos!

And these were done with my new lens, the 50mm... I think I like the lens!  What do you think?

More Wash Tub Pictures

Mackenzie smiles so cute for her daddy.  So I had Dave come out and we tired to get some more of Mackenzie in the wash tub.  These were my favorites...

New Camera Lens

I bought a 50mm lens and was playing around with it to see what it can do.  Here are some of my favorite pictures...

See how nice it blurs the background?

 Just in case you're wondering... Tanner had a swimsuit on...

 See how his feet are in focus but his face is not?

Baby Doll Sling

Mackenzie tried riding her car with the baby doll, so I used one of Tanner's blankies and made a baby sling for her by just tying the blanket.

She loved having her doll with her!!

And JJ is such an awesome big brother pushing her around all the time!!!!  And making sure the car doesn't go too fast when she pushes it!!!  She's lucky to have such an awesome big brother!!!!

Another T-Shirt Makeover w/ Yellow Flowers

I had seen a a cute t-shirt makeover very similar to the one I made.  I just put pedals on my pattern when I cut it out and I added sparkly tulle that matched the color of the t-shirt.  Here is the cute brown one from Tea Rose Home where I got the idea to make this one...

 So like all the other t-shirt makeovers I bought 2 of these t-shirts for $2.99 each.  

I used the patterns I had cut out for the flowers for the hair that we made with the activity days girls.  It was perfect to re-use them for making this t-shirt!  I love when things have more then one purpose!  You can click here to see my post about the hair bows.  I do plan on going back and making a hair clip with the left over material for Mackenzie and possibly myself, I just haven't yet.

I cut 2 at a time from the t-shirt and I think I did 4 at a time from the tulle.  I just cut the tulle in circles and the t-shirt with pedals.

Lay out and pin your patterns and cut...

Layer your pieces up... (after I had made the first 2 and took the pictures, I actually decided to add tulle behind them all, so I had 3 pieces of tulle and 2 pieces of knit)

 Fold it in half and then in half again... so, fold it in quarters and hand stitch a couple times through it...

 Open it up and pinch certain spots and stitch to keep it bunched up... hope that makes sense to you, it may make more sense when you do it...

 and just keep going around and doing it till it meets your approval...

 Here is what the back of mine looks like when it's finished...

Here is what the front looks like...

Make as many as you'd like, I did 11.  Lay them out and hand tack them down...

I only tacked down the centers but after it was washed it bunched up a little.  So I was thinking I'd go back and tack down a little more, but possible with fabric glue, just keep the flowers opened a little more like before it was washed.  But it's really not that bad after it was washed.  If I had squished them together more and maybe did 15-17 flowers it might look just fine after being washed.

If you are worried about fraying, don't... knit and tulle don't fray.

It's nice to have a hand sewing project to do it.   Because I can take it anywhere with me, outside in the yard when the kids are playing or sitting in front of the TV.  I actually enjoyed doing this by hand.