Filed under: BirdDog Press, Design, Friends, Letterpress | Tags: Baby Announcement, Julie Afflerbaugh
I really needed that two-week hiatus from the blog, and now I’m back in full-swing folks! So much In Progress to share. My photographer friend Julie who is doing the photo session this weekend that I mentioned yesterday, just had a little one herself. Here is his announcement as it was in production and here is his finished hello to the world!
Filed under: Friends, Inspirations, Life, Mama Monday, Tangents | Tags: 35mm, diana mini, Julie Afflerbaugh, lomography, photography
C and I went hiking on our Thankful Thursday right after music class last week. I had been telling him that we were going to take photos. He has this little plastic one-time-use style camera in the toybox at his Agi’s house and is always chasing us around beckoning “Say Cheese!” I loved photography class in college and had a great teacher, Baldwin Lee. This was real 35mm film photography, developing my own photos in a darkroom, I remember a high grain Illford film being a favorite. I loaded up the old Pentax K1000 with some film that I found, who knows if it is any good {or really where to even get it developed?} We set out and I taught him how to advance the film after each shot. He struggled a little with the weight of this metal beast, but was thrilled with the sound of the shutter. I am thinking of getting him one of these Diana Minis for his birthday. Digital cameras are great, I love the technology, but there is still something special about a limited number of frames and waiting to see the image.
Now for the professional side of photography, my dear friend Julie Afflerbaugh, who has taken photos of C since he was just sitting up, is launching seasonal mini-sessions starting this weekend, email her and get professional shots of your little one at a great price. Check it out:
Filed under: Craft Biz, Handmade Revolution, Inspirations, Letterpress, Life | Tags: birthday, Etsy, Julie Afflerbaugh, party, smallville, Wonderboy Clothing, yellow
My husband was up at the crack of dawn, making sure we got the spot at the park that I had scoped out weeks earlier. It was right by the creek, trees just close enough to string up my flag banner, and soft green grass for gaming. Although I was a little concerned when the wind & clouds kicked up as I was setting everything up, the weather held.
The specially chosen outfit I scoured online shops for with yellow patterned shirt from Wonderboy and fabulous handmade sailor pants from Smallville {on Etsy} arrived in time – and fit! Cullin’s best friend was the first to arrive.
You could say I went a little overboard. I’m sure all of the parents were grateful for the meltdowns that ensued soon after leaving this party. But in the end I was over the moon with how it turned out, and the Birthday Boy was too.
{thanks, again, to photographer Julie Afflerbaugh}
Filed under: Craft Biz, Handmade Revolution, Inspirations, Letterpress, Life | Tags: birthday, Julie Afflerbaugh, party, photography, yellow
Cullin’s favorite color, hands down, is YELLOW. After the request to play Ring-the-Gack, I thought about other old-fashioned fun for birthday parties and came up with a Bean Bag Toss, Clothespin Drop, and of course, Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey, which I found at Bake it Pretty while buying cupcake liners, then made the rest of the games myself, using paint, cardboard, glue & a little creativity with things we had here around the house. The kids won tickets for points earned playing the games and then got to visit the prize booth for penny candy, bubbles, balloons, sidewalk chalk, noisemakers & more.
The making of the desired jellybean cupcakes was fairly simple, I used a triple-citrus recipe for the cake, yummy cream cheese icing, because it’s my favorite and multiple flavors of yellow Jelly Bellys to top them off. Typically, I’m not much of a baker, but I enjoyed it so much that I made Lemon Meringue Cupcakes, complete with Lemon Curd, for the adults – mmm! So the rest of the food had to be yellow, too: we had macaroni & cheese, pineapple, bananas, popcorn and lemonade!
There were probably 25 kids there in all. It was a little hectic and a load of fun. I was so busy, I wouldn’t have all of the beautiful photographs of this party if I hadn’t been so smart to invite my wonderful friend, Julie Afflerbaugh, to come and shoot. She has been photographing my little guy since he was 5 months old – I am so lucky to have this visual documentation!
My sweet Granny Lou even flew out for the party. She stayed up super late with me for three days helping me craft party hats, cupcake flags, fabric flag banners and finishing touches. I had a blast with every detail, integrating the wishes of my 3-year-old wonderboy, and letting my own little imagination run wild. The greatest reward of all was when Cullin arrived with a bursting smile and said, “I’m so exciting!”
{oh, and that’s not all, stay tuned for more!}
Filed under: Craft Biz, Friends, Handmade Revolution, Life | Tags: baby, craft project, Etsy, Julie Afflerbaugh, photography, sewing, small skivvies, SmallThreads
Saul the Snail! Finally had time to put the finishing touches on the project that I posted last week with my friend Julie, of Julie Afflerbaugh Photography. I used a mix of new fabrics and vintage feedsacks, with some machine stitching and fun vintage buttons for embellishment. If you think this is cute, go see the pirate series small skivvies and other ridiculous cuteness made by etsy shop stitching genious, SmallThreads. Mandy’s designs were an inspiration to our little project, but ours are just for fun and hers are works of art in fabric! Buy Handmade!
ps. Updated post with photos from the SmallThreads Etsy shop below!
Filed under: Design, Friends, Letterpress, Life, Tangents | Tags: Julie Afflerbaugh, kiki morton, photo, photography, pickafig
I might just have to start a whole section on photographers as I seem to continue to connect with them, collaborate with them and create business with them. One Saturday afternoon of our recent spring-in-the-south trip, we spent celebrating my mother-in-law’s birthday and part of that meant getting all of the cousins/grandchildren together for a photo. I set up an appointment with Kiki Morton and we got giggly. Not only is she a great photographer, she must be a comedienne too!
Meanwhile, I met with Pickafig Photography about some logo and letterpress design work and am still in the throws of designing for my amazing photographer friend Julie Afflerbaugh, as we are collaborating on a photography and letterpress baby announcement idea – more to come on both of these little ventures soon!
Filed under: Design, Friends, Inspirations, Life | Tags: Cullin, Julie Afflerbaugh, motherhood, photography
Just wanted to show off a bit. Julie Afflerbaugh Photography recently created a new ad and it features my little Cullin! Julie has documented Cullin since he was 7 months old and I can’t say enough about her process, professionalism and her photos.
I can’t believe that he is almost two and a half and will be starting Montessori school in February. Becoming a mom is the most amazing thing I’ve ever accomplished.
Now that i’ve shared my wild & woolly birth story, I’ll reveal where we are today… I have a two-year-old, so full of life. If he is awake, he’s soaking it in – ALL of it.
More photos from this recent shoot with Julie Afflerbaugh.
Filed under: BirdDog Press, Inspirations | Tags: Julia Vandenoever, Julie Afflerbaugh, photography
I had two inspiring interactions with photographers yesterday. The first was a meeting over tea to discuss collaborating my stationery designs from the BirdDog Press with Julia Vandenoever Photography in order to offer her clients baby announcements, holiday cards, and the like … We had such a fun conversation and the inspiration was able to flow freely. We are both new moms, too, which also puts us in a similar frame of mind.
Next, I met another photographer friend at my local park for some family photographs. Such a challenge to get the light just right and to get a 1-Year-Old to smile on cue! But Julie kept her easy-going way about her and settled in behind the lens of Julie Afflerbaugh Photography. She ended the session with distinct confidence, “We’ve got great stuff here.” Photographers
are visionaries and view the world in their own unique way on both sides of the camera. As an artist myself, I really feed off of this energy and thoroughly enjoy spending time in their presence, bouncing ideas to and fro.
