Pregnancy Announcement!!!!!!

When our eleven year anniversary rolled  around, my hubby had no idea what a surprise I had for him. I told him the kids and I were preparing a special breakfast and to stay in bed until we told him it was ready. He obviously had a bigger gift than breakfast awaiting him. I put up this little clothes line of onesies then the kids and I all held numbers. My daughter held a 1, my son a 2 and I had a 3 with an arrow pointing to my belly. Since I'm pretty sure this will be the last kid in the family, I wanted to put together a fun and creative pregnancy announcement for my man.
This little bun in the oven was a complete surprise to me as well. We weren't expecting to get pregnant with a third. I always wanted another baby though. It was a constant on my mind and God seemed to think now was as good a time as any to add to the family.
So here we go with another sweet baby coming next year. I can't wait to meet my little one!

This is the photo Brett took of us as our Facebook pregnancy announcement.

Inexpensive Hand-Tied Wedding Bouquet {DIY}

A friend of mine was recently married, but being the talented makeup artist that she is, she did everyone's makeup and ran out of time for her photographer to take bridal portraits. So I recommended my husband take post-wedding pictures of the two of them. This turned out to be such a fun solution to a very common problem. So many weddings are rushed and there is often little time to shoot those crazy romantic and fun portraits of the special couple.
The night of our shoot she did her makeup,  had her hair done up all over again, he rented a tux, and I made up this sweet little bouquet for her to carry. Everyone knows Trader Joe's has fabulous, inexpensive flowers, so I just picked up $10 purple flowers with red roses and whipped up a simple hand-tied bouquet. If you've never made one, give it a try. They are so beautiful and easy to make.

How To Make A Hand-Tied Bride Or Bridesmaid Bouquet

1.  Start by gathering up the flowers in your hand one stem at a time. Be sure to alternate the different colors so all the flowers are evenly dispersed throughout. Since roses were the fanciest flower in this bouquet, I made sure they didn't get lost among the others. As you gather all the flowers together try to create a dome shape. Use stronger stems around the outside perimeter to give strength to the overall design.

2. Take a skinny rubber band, wrap it around the middle of the flower stems and tie it in a knot. If you use a really thick rubber band you will end up with a lumpy "handle".

3. Trim all the stems to an even length.

4. Wrap green florist tape around the stems, covering up the rubber band and extending down the length of the stems a couple inches.

5. Use wide ribbon to cover up the florist tape. Tie a knot or bow and use hot glue to tack the ribbon in place wherever you see a weak spot which may slip. 

You can buy all kinds of gorgeous ornaments to cover the stems at craft stores. For our purposes, we kept it simple with purple ribbon.

Flowers are beautiful, but the bride and groom will always be the shinning stars in a wedding.

An Afternoon At The Park

We took the kiddos to the "park" the other day. Actually, it was just an empty field and gravel path near our house. Our kids didn't care, as long as we played together as a family. This was also the golden hour for picture taking so I dressed the kids up as well. Kill two birds with one stone. My hubby wanted to play with the dramatic lighting of the setting sun and so he used an off camera flash placed to the side of our adorable subjects to be sure they wouldn't be lost in the growing shadows. Here are the best shots of the day:

Keeping Kids Still

My brother and his wife just loaned us this cool little bench for taking pictures. I couldn't wait to try it out as a prop. So I  dressed up the kids and prepped snacks to keep them in place. The last time I tried to take pictures of my little guy by myself was a joke. Not one picture turned out right. So you might see him with his mouth full, but at least he's where I want him to be!

Playing With Mirrors and Vibrance

The other day, I decided to take photos of my niece on our massive mirror. I'm not a skilled photographer like my hubby, but I still think they turned out pretty cute.

Here's how I bumped up the "vibrance" in the pictures.

1. Open your picture in Photoshop

2.Go to "Image"

3. Select "Adjustments"

4. Click on "Vibrance"

5. Adjust your "Vibrance" and "Saturation" until you like how it looks.

That's it! Now you can turn a not so great image into something pretty cool!

 

 

 

A little dull... to FUN!

Day At The Park

We went to the park the other day so I could practice my photography skills. 

I think it turned out pretty cute so I thought I'd share it with you!

Portraits

     I came to a sad discovery the other day when Ucreate needed a picture of me to put with my tutorial Apparently I didn't have any nice pictures of myself despite the fact that my husband is a PHOTOGRAPHER!
     Good grief! You know how it is. You are always the one posing people or getting the kids attention so you get left out and there are a million pictures of everyone else.
     So last night we had a little photo shoot after the kids went to bed. He then gave me a lesson in using Photoshop. I think they turned out great! Thanks honey! If you'd like to see his portfolio check him out at

Nelson Fotography