Our Little Tree

Per Doug’s request, we put up our holiday decorations the day after Thanksgiving. Mia loves Santa on her butt!

Don’t you??

So we don’t have a big tree. Just this little one. Exactly like the little one that I had growing up. And Doug and I love it But Mia was not a fan of the blinking lights. She’d demand that the tree be turned off once they started blinking! So weird. The ornaments and {previous} set of blinking lights were handpicked to be saved from the 30+ year old Christmas boxes from my parents’ house. I purchased our angel topper over 10 years ago and it’s Swarovski Crystal, straight from Austria!

When Mia gets older, do you think she’ll be sad that she was bigger than her Christmas tree?

I don’t think so…Hooray for the holidays! {Same time last year}

More heart warming pictures of our little tree here. I can't wait till it gets surrounded by lots of pretty gifts!

Mia already likes helping me wrap *sigh* That's mah girl!

linking up with Thrifty Decor Chick

Holiday Bokeh

I finally sat down and went through 300 pictures of my holiday décor. Yes. 300! And my condo is not that big! But, the only way to get better at photography is to practice practice practice. Let’s start the holiday décor posts with some more custom shaped bokeh, shall we? 

Three different sized heart shaped bokeh, all with the same heart cutout. More details on the how-to here. I changed the distance between me and the tree/subject or the distance between the subject and the tree. Play around with it! 

{1} In the winter, I love my cozy DIY sweater pillows leftover from last year's Winter Onederland party.
{2} This little Santa is a keeper from my parents' stash of holiday decor that we tossed after 30+ years.
{3} Mia's slippers are soooooooo soft! They're from Nordstrom. Now if only she'd wear them more!

This little tree holds lots of love. © See little tree with regular bokeh here. 

Even my ornaments {at the top} turned into heart shaped bokeh because they reflected light off my lamp!

The bottom set of hearts are from the lighted garland on my balcony. Kinda reminds me of Valentine's day.

More holiday decoration posts to come!

Thanks for the feature Jaymi! Linking up again:


 I may be late to the linky parties, being the 750th link and all...but better late than never!
Linked up with Hi Sugarplum! and Centsational Girl.

Good Night Chicago - Lincoln Park

Last year, I decided to put together our own version of the book "Good Night Chicago." After we take pictures all around the city, I'll make it into a book. Then when Mia grows up, she'll have pictures with Chicago's iconic landmarks and can hopefully show her kids to see how the city has (or hasn't) changed.

When my cousin came at the end of October, I convinced her to take our babies to the Lincoln Park Zoo. You never know when Chicago weather will turn cold or wet with no more warm sunshine for the rest of the year...so I had to spend any chance I could outside! Here's the view of Chicago's skyline (John Hancock, Trump Tower, Sears Tower and everything in between) from the bridge by the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Hello, kids and kites in Lincoln Park.

And because I couldn't pick just one...

  *sigh* I love this city. And this silly little girl. © And I guess this guy too.

 

Only six more pages to go!

     Good morning, Lake Michigan. (There's a lot: May 2010, May 2011, July 2011, and many more not blogged about!)
     Good morning, Chicago Harbor Lighthouse. Are we ready for a wonderful day? (Not sure this will ever happen.)

     Greetings, Navy Pier and Ferris Wheel.
     Greetings, Chicago River and bridges.

     Hello, great Chicago buildings, reaching up into the sky. or here

     Hello, kids and kites in Lincoln Park. 
     Hello, fantastic fountains.

     Good afternoon, gorillas. Isn't it fun to visit the zoo? 

     Good afternoon, sharks, fish, turtles and mammals at the aquarium.     
     Wow! Look at those dinosaur bones at the Field Museum of Natural History.
     Choo! Choo! There go the model trains at the Museum of Science and Industry. (ETA - 2/9/2012)
     It's nice to see you, art.
     Hello, historic Water Tower on the Magnificent Mile.
     Good luck, Chicago Sports Teams, you can do it. Can they??  (ETA - summer 2012)

     Just listen to those blues and jazz musicians. (This'll be something new for Doug and I, too!)
     Good evening, star gazers at the planetarium. Have you ever wished upon a star?

     Goodnight Chicago, sleep tight. Thank you for a wonderful day!

linked up here:

Custom Shaped Bokeh

**Update** Thanks for the features Nikki (Thrifty Decorating), Jaymi (Live, Love, Travel) and Kate (Centsational Girl)!
All you need is black cardstock, scissors (or Xacto knife or craft punch) and a little trial and error J

A few weeks ago, two girl friends and I got together to photograph baby Avery. Liam and Brendan now have a baby sister! And mom can now get her pink and girly fix J Please please read about B’s story, who at just over a year old was diagnosed with Retinoblastoma, a rare, life-threatening pediatric eye cancer. He underwent 6 rounds of systemic chemotherapy. Learn more here and please spread awareness. 

For baby Avery’s birth announcement, Danielle (who makes amazing cookies, cake pops and more. Seen here, here, here and here) wanted to recreate an image by Michele (from Pinkle Toes Photography). I can’t find the exact image. But don’t worry, you’ll love all of Michele’s images.  I am now blog stalking her. Appropriately so, since that’s the name of her blog. And is not to be confused with the other very talented photographer named Michele who I also blog stalk. J  

Back to Avery's photo shoot....here's what we used:

² 2 strings of white lights (with white cords) ² 1 ladder ²  2 chairs ² 1 shower curtain rod ²  1 white sheet ²  

² fuzzy fabric ² 1 big ottoman ² 1 movable bar ² lots of big windows for natural light ²

² black cardstock ² small craft punches ² Xacto knife ²

² 3 crazy photogs ² 2 boys ² 1 peaceful baby ²

Pull back shots are always so helpful to see how it really went down...

And here’s what we came up with…

*sigh* Who doesn’t love sparkly lights? And these pretty little faces with gorgeous blue eyes!

Mmk back to the title of this post – custom shaped bokeh (blurry background)….I saw this tutorial last year, but my Christmas tree came down before I could try it. So this year was a must! It was tricky, but worth it! Here’s what we noticed through a lot of trial and error:

² Play around with the size of your shape. If it’s too small, your camera might have a hard time focusing. If it's too big, the shaped bokeh might not appear. The second time around I didn't even make a "hood". I just cut a piece of cardstock bigger than my lens. Cut a heart out and held the piece of cardstock flat over my lens with one hand and shot with the other.

² Since my shape (the heart) isn’t the same all around (like a star), my heart would be sideways when I switched compositions from horizontal to vertical. I had to keep switching my heart shaped “hood” to avoid sideways hearts.

 ² The more underexposed, the crisper the shapes are. These are SOOC, no editing...

² Shoot wide open (the widest aperature your lens can go i.e. f/1.8) to get the true shape. 

² Play around with varying the distance of your subject from the lights and the distance of your subject from you. It will change the size of your bokeh. Don't focus on the lights, otherwise they'll be in focus and not bokeh, duh!

² Sometimes we’d get a vignette or distorted fisheye effect, and weren’t sure why. If you have any insight, do tell! 

² Photographing three children is very difficult, ha! The boys needed some bribing...

Go try it! It's fun and you'll have magical holiday pictures. J

Linking up here:

As seen on:

Just Like Grandma

Checkin' to see what's on sale, just like Grandma and Mommy do J

linked up with:

Twin Boys at the Lincoln Park Conservatory

After Mia's dance class on Sunday, "Mommy go to work. Mommy take a pictures boys." J I had the pleasure of shooting adorable 14 month old twin boys at the Lincoln Park Conservatory. Good location suggestion by Mom because the lighting was soft and even, it was free, and Christmas decorations were up, but not obnoxiously all over the place.

Normally, Oliver and Andrew wear their signature colors (Oliver - Green {like an olive}, Andrew -Blue {rhymes}) so people can tell them apart. Such a good system! But not today, can you tell who's who?

The boys did great, especially for being out and about an hour before I arrived. It's always helpful when Mom and Dad interact with their kids to make them laugh and naturally smile instead of saying "Cheeeeeeese! Smiiiiiiiiiiile!" Which Mia totally says everytime she's in front of a camera (or pretending to take pictures of herself).

These two have come so far from being born early, weighing under 4 lbs and spending time in the Infant Special Care Unit.

 

And I just have to leave you with these adorable, lovable, heart melting mommy and daddy kisses ©

  **Don’t see any family pictures in this post? I don’t want to spoil their Christmas/Holiday card!**

Annnnnnnd that's the last of my family photo sessions for this holiday season - promise! Now let's get back to some crafting around this DIY blog! I plan to peacefully stroll around Michael's and Joann's on Sunday...by myself. Don't be jealous.

linked up here:

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

Since we weren't seeing my niece and nephew for Thanksgiving, we decided to take the kids to the circus on Saturday before my 10 year reunion. When I called ticketmaster to order tickets for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the United Center, I mentioned that I had a discount code (for just a few dollars off). But then the service rep decided to find me a bigger discount and I scored tickets for 40% off bringing it to a mere $18/pp! I © service reps who are actually helpful. And unexpected discounts J

It was nearly every one's first time to the circus and we were all pleasantly surprised at how fun it was!

These two cousins remind me of me and my brother since we have almost the same age gap.

And especially because Ryu totally looks like my brother as a kid and Mia is a mini-me.

We were in awe of the tight rope walkers...

...clowns, acrobats, zebras, horses, fiesty tigers...

...jugglers, moonwalkers, a human cannonball where the guy was completely on fire! And our favorite, the elephants J

The 2.5 hour show (including intermission) was just a little too long for the kids (7, 4, and 2) and oftentimes there was so much going on Doug didn't know what to look at! This stupid sno-cone was $10. But the souvenir cup that Mia now eats her snacks out of is worth it haha.

Then it was off to my 10 year high school reunion. Let's just say it brought back the good ol' {college-type-partying til 5am} days. Then on Sunday I miraculously took Mia to ballet at 1030am and photographed a pair of twin boys! Check back soon....