Tuesday, June 28, 2011

A Whimsical Week at I Heart Faces

This week's theme at I Heart Faces is "A Touch of Whimsy." How absolutely perfect for this week, following the big Woodland Tea Party! This is probably my favorite shot from the day, and it is definitely whimsical.

To see more of the Tea Party CLICK HERE.

And to see more great whimsical entries go over to I HEART FACES


Woodland Tea Party ~ Lake County Children's Photographer

One night last month I was sitting on the couch with the iPad, wasting time and avoiding things I probably should have been doing (don't judge, you do it too), when all of a sudden it came to me. I need to do a tea party session. The idea had been percolating back there in the dusty corners of my brain for a while, but suddenly someone flipped a switch and I just had to do a tea party session or else. (Note: all the italics are meant to emphasize the seriousness of this subject. No really. It is quite serious being inside my head. You get that, right?) Anyhow...


Problem: I have a three-year old little boy who loves dinosaurs and baseball. Not tea parties.



Solution: I have a ton of awesome clients and facebook fans who have adorable tea-party-rific little girls!



So, I put out a model call and month or so later I end up with five precious three-year olds dressed in their tea party finest. BLISS!!!! The whole thing was such a blast to put together. It felt a little bit like planning a wedding again, on a much smaller scale, of course. And I've come to the conclusion that I need to do something like this once a year or so just to exercise my creative brain and feed my need for a project. Maybe next time I'll do something for the boys. Super hero session, anyone?



Anyhow, I'll delay the picture reveal just a bit longer to say THANK YOU to the little girls and their families who came out to play with me at my tea party, and an even bigger THANK YOU to my totally awesome, incredible, outrageously understanding, and indulgent husband. See that cabinet the food is on? Yeah, he hauled that across a not insignificant-sized field for me. That and a bunch of other stuff. Am I lucky or what?



Okay, now really.....presenting the KSP Woodland Tea Party:














Erin ~ Libertyville Senior Photography

Erin's senior session wins the award, hands down, for the most long-awaited session ever. Erin has been on my books for almost a year but due to some medical issues and then crummy spring weather, it wasn't until this weekend that I finally got to meet Erin and her mom in downtown Libertyville.

It was totally worth the wait, though. Erin is such a beautiful girl with a lot of spunk, and I had a great time during her session. She was up for anything, too (love that!). Like, for example, when I said, so "can you snuggle up to this vine that I'm pretty sure is not poison ivy?" She said, "okay." And when I said, "so how about you take your shoes off and go stand in that freezing cold river?" She said, "sure." "Oh and can you pretend the mosquitos are not eating you alive?" "Um, yeah."

I had a little surprise during this shoot. The field I was planning to use for some backlit sunset shots had been mowed and roped off! What?!?! Who does that to my field? No worries, though. We quickly came up with a Plan B, which turned out to be awesome and resulted in the river bed shots below. Love Plan B!

Thanks for coming out and being such a great sport, Erin! Enjoy your summer and watch out for those mosquitos!




Tuesday's Top 5

I learned so many useful things this weekend. Would you like to learn them too?

THE TOP 5 THINGS I LEARNED THIS WEEKEND

5. The vine growth covering the north-facing wall of the building next to the Legion Hall in Libertyville is NOT poison ivy. Thank goodness.

4. If it looks like the perfect location for a Woodland Tea Party, it’s probably the fairway of the 8th hole on a Frisbee Golf course. Oops.

3. When creating a Woodland Tea Party (on a Frisbee Golf fairway or otherwise), it helps to have a husband who loves you and a neighbor who owns a wagon. I, thankfully, have both.

2. In general, when Plan A turns out to be unavailable, don’t despair. Plan B may just be a thousand times better. (Neither of which, by the way, is a Frisbee Golf course.)

1. Bring bug spray. Despite its other positive qualities, Plan B will possibly involve a mosquito-infested river bed.

And now you know. More on Plan B later, but for now, speaking of vine-growth which is not poison ivy, here's one from a senior session this weekend with beautiful Erin. This was shortly after I said to her, "I'm 99.9% positive this is not poison ivy. So you're going to snuggle up with it, okay?"

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Father's Day is for Cinnamon Rolls

To be accurate, Father's Day (or this one, at least) is for cinnamon roll pancakes. Yeah, I know, right? Trust me, they taste as good as they sound. I found THIS picture on Pinterest the other day, and knowing, as I do, that the hubs would probably marry a cinnamon roll if given the opportunity, I forwarded it along to him.

His response: Can we have these for Father's Day? My response: Why yes, dear, we can. My thought: Oh crap! I have to make these?!?!

Fear not, however. The link for the recipe was still attached to the pin and they turned out to be only about half as hard as they look to make. Would you like me to show you? Okay, but be warned, I am most definitely NOT a food photographer.

To start, all the ingredients are fairly simple. You probably have most of them in your house already.


You may need to enlist some help doing all the mixing. There are three separate things to mix: the pancake batter, the cinnamon filling, and the cream cheese glaze.


The cinnamon filling is heavenly. Brown sugar, cinnamon, and an entire stick of butter:


Then you pour the pancake onto your griddle on medium-low. Let it sit for 30 seconds or so, then drizzle on some of the cinnamon filling. On the recipe site it is drizzled on in a lovely swirl design. I can assure you they still taste good even if you can't get the hang of the swirl:


Last, the most crucial part: the cream cheese glaze. You'll probably want to do a taste test of the glaze before you apply it to your pancakes. Just in case. And maybe after you pour it on, too. These things tend to be finicky and you don't want to risk messing them up:


Are you hungry yet? You can get the whole recipe HERE on the Recipe Girl blog.

After the pancakes were made, Max and I took ourselves upstairs to wake up the man of the hour and present him with his feast (topped off with eggs, sausage, and pineapple). The verdict on the pancakes? "This is quite possibly the best thing I've ever had." That is a direct quote. I am still basking in my glory.


Thursday, June 16, 2011

Project Nursery: Step 1

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. I've been so tired and then I was sick and then I had gum surgery and then....you get the idea.

But I'm here and I've decided that in addition to blogging about photography, I will also share (or at least try to share) the "grand transformation" of our guest room into a nursery for Baby Shores v.2.0. I'll warn you, though. I'm no designer and I'm certainly no "home design blogger," so don't get your hopes up. But in my head things will be just grand. Shall we get started?

Everything needs a beginning right? And remember how I mentioned about my prop closet that is overflowing but needs to be underflowing to make room for baby things? Well, last weekend I made a substantial step in that direction. It involved a lot of rubber maid tubs and some trips to Goodwill.

Tadah!!!!!


I know, you're thinking, "um that stuff is still taking up a lot of room." But trust me, if you could see the whole closet you'd be mad impressed. Until next time...