Family Photos – Outfits and Framing

I don’t know about you and your family, but my husband DREADS family photos. Not just a teeny bit, I mean like he’s nearly going to have a toddler tantrum when I mention the phrase. I have to admit, though, for these last ones, he put on his big boy pants and faked a pretty good attitude (FAR from perfect mind you, but pretty good). AND…he admitted that the results were far worth any inconvenience he had to undergo. Ha!

I finally found a photographer whose photos I LOVE, AND she seemed reasonably priced to boot. Now, when I say reasonable…here’s what I mean. She does amazing work, and deserves to be paid for said amazing work. However, my family is changing DRASTICALLY by the month, and I want up to date pics. So, if I’m gonna splurge for them say, once a year, it needs to be moderately affordable. Robyn is up front, and wants to stay affordable. But again, I can’t stress…it’s an art and they deserve to be paid! Also a huge bonus, she’s super relaxed and rolls with the punches when it comes to kids.

**Funny side note…while on shoot, my son sat in an old tree trunk COVERED with red ants. Eek! Thankfully, we caught it in plenty of time and he recovered well. Robyn was totally relaxed and helpful.**

Her name is Robyn, and her company name is Captured by Robyn Lee. Click here to see her website. Fun eye candy! You can see one of our beautiful family pictures there, along with plenty of other adorable moments  she has captured as a photographer.

So….ANYWAY…

After finding the perfect photographer, I set out to get the dreaded family photo outfits. For other family photos, I hadn’t given the outfits much thought…and I think that was reflected a bit. Not that you have to have the PERFECT attire to get good pictures, but if you feel good about yourself, and look like a cohesive family, you’re chance at getting good results raises significantly.

So…I did a little internet searching. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep the websites for credit, so if you know them, please let me know. Here were some color templates I tagged for inspiration:

Then, I set off for Old Navy. I actually purchased EVERYTHING, except shoes and my daughter’s bow, from there. (we also used jeans we already owned) I questioned the shirt I got for my son, but am thrilled with how everything came together.

After waiting patiently checking online daily until our proofs were ready, I searched through the pictures to design a layout for my living room wall. Here’s what I came up with:I liked the combination of some with mats, and some without. I purchased all the frames at the same time at Michael’s using a 25% coupon DURING the 40% off sale. Woot!

I’d read this “how-to” with the idea of using wax paper to trace your pictures. Then, you hang the wax paper on the wall and you know where your nail holes need to be! Easy, right?

WRONG…it’s probably user error, but this did NOT work for me. I probably had a few things working against me.

#1. It’s such a huge layout.

#2. I only had parchment paper, not wax…

#3. The paper would NOT stay taped together.

Exhibit A:    See it falling down behind the couch? The only  purpose it did help serve was placing that first picture. It made hanging the rest much simpler.

#4. Many of the frames required 2 nail holes. If they’re not perfect, it’s not gonna be level.

Those are the four reasons I believe the wax paper approach was unsuccessful.

But, it did help to lay it out on the ground to get a feel for what it would look like, and whether it would fit properly or not. Here was my “floor layout”: So, all that to say…

When taking family pictures…

RELAX

FIND OUTFITS YOU LIKE AND FEEL COMFORTABLE AND CONFIDENT IN

LASTLY, PURCHASE PHOTOS AND DISPLAY THEM!

I actually did not purchase digital copies this go around. I second guessed myself a number of times, but once I got this photo gallery up on the wall, I never looked back! Digital copies are nice for a few things, but having those professional prints make me smile daily. Even my kids love staring at them!

Wearing my clothes – Day #7

So sweet…my son wanted to be in the pic! I’m gonna link up to this post, ‘cuz this is actually the outfit I purchased to wear for our family pictures back in October. (well, I wore heels, but otherwise, exacto!)

The sweater is Old Navy – I LOVE the color. Jewel tone, as they say. I used the shirt underneath (also Old Navy) to drive the color palette for family pics. The jeans are my “birthday tradition” jeans. The last 2 years, I’ve gone out with my MIL to try on VAST amounts of jeans in search of the perfect pair. Love these. Shoes are Ross.

To see the coordinating family outfits and my wall photo gallery (and my amazing photographer)…click here.

Wearing my clothes – Day #6

I’m discovering that this process is educational. So these pants are Old Navy from QUITE awhile ago. I’m glad I still have them, but they are pretty large on me, and they’re my ONLY pair of black pants. So…note to self:

BUY YOURSELF A GOOD FITTING PAIR OF BLACK PANTS!!

The shirt is also Old Navy, from awhile back. The jacket was a steal at H&M a few Christmas’ ago. And the shoes are from DSW.

I put sort of a lame-o candid pic my husband took to show my hair a little closer up. Another realization throughout this “taking pictures of what I’m wearing each day” process is that I pretty much wear my hair down EVERY SINGLE DAY! Which is fine, but why not try to mix it up a bit? I found this braided headband tutorial on Pinterest and gave it a go! Practice will make perfect…and I’m far from there, but a nod to Princess Leah, ya think? Even my son told me I looked like a Prince…I said, “You mean Princess?”

“Yes, mom”. =) Happy heart!

Books, books, and more books!

In this post…

#1. Rain Gutter Bookshelves

#2. We Give Books

I never dreamed my household would be so obsessed with children’s books, but I’m thrilled we are! I’m sort of addicted to buying them for my son. I keep trying to lighten the book load, so to speak, but when I look through our “library”, he really does read almost all of them! So, we just enjoy housing them.

I also figured I’d make art out of them and took a stab at the interweb-famous rain gutter bookshelves. I think I used this tutorial, but I sort of winged it anyway, because the rain gutters I got didn’t have the same sort of brackets. We just screwed the actual gutter itself directly into the wall. Here’s how mine turned out! Oh yeah, I painted them red to give the wall some color without having to paint. My son’s room is sock monkey themed. =) And here’s Cooper enjoying the book display! So far they’re holding up. I was a little worried about little hands pulling them down. But they’re still in great condition over 2 months later.

My next new and exciting find is We Give Books! I just discovered it on Pinterest (I FINALLY caved and joined) and it’s AWESOME! Basically, it has a catalogue of 167 books (and growing) available for you to read online. For each book you read, the foundation donates a book to an ongoing campaign. What could be more awesome than reading with your child AND teaching them about needs in other parts of the world?

They even have a book in their library called Hope for Haiti. I’m looking forward to reading it with my son to attempt to further explain his dad’s trip to Haiti a little over a year ago. You can add books to your own library so you can read them over and over, with a book donation EACH time you read it! How cool is that? So what are you waiting for, hop on over and check it out!

Just added to our library are titles such as:

and…

Seriously…aren’t you soo excited? =)

Wearing my clothes – Day #5

This is called…cleaning all day Saturday. You’ve got to keep a couple of those types of outfits in the good ol’ closet, right? Ack! Again…waited until the end of the day (post cleaning even!) to take the pic. Oh well. These pants were either hand me downs from who knows where, or uber cheap at TJ or Ross. They’re DKNY jeans. The shirt is Roxy, tip off to my teen years! (not that I purchased it then, just that that’s when Roxy seems more appropriate) Shoes are from Old Navy, they’ve lasted forever and are actually pretty comfy! My necklace is Brighton, from my cousin. =) Happy Saturday!

Wearing my clothes – Day #4

**CONFESSION**

So, my goal in posting these is to not purchase anything new until I’ve worn everything in my closet. BUT…my bestie MAY have given me some Old Navy cash, and I MAY have already had $30 worth of merchandise credit there to boot! So technically I didn’t spend money. hehe

My pants are from Old Navy - $13! The shirt is as well, $7, and the sweater is also from Old Navy, but purchased last year (yeah, so I wore the sweater 2 days ago, but with a different undershirt…shh!) And the heels, sorry…you can barely see them, were from Payless a few years ago. I know, I’m weird. A mom that occasionally wears heels to the park. 

I had to wear a touch of red seeing as we celebrated Valentine’s at my son’s preschool today. Glee!