Clock Project Beginnings

Ben and I are working on a project that will be going on for a little bit. We are making a clock. We will use 12 pictures to represent each number and buy plain clock hands to tell us the time. I am so excited!

Eventually, the plan is that each picture will be family members and people we love holding numbers (1-12) to represent the numbers on the clock. But that can't be done right this second since I'm in Florida and our family is in Las Vegas.

So we got creative. We went to Magic Kingdom to find hidden number is the architecture. This is only a temporary fix until we get all the family photos we want. But it's turned out to be fun and artsy and cute and now that it's on the wall, my motivation is just getting stronger!

Here are some of my favorite numbers I found around the Magic Kingdom Park:

This came from the confectiONEry on Main Street USA. I accidentally took this photo vertically and had to crop it.  I thought I ruined it, but I think I like this even better. 

4. Mickey's Hand has 4 fingers.

I found this Five on the Carousal behind Cinderella's castle.

Ben came up with this idea and took this photo of the clock on Cinderella's Castle

I make a point to do projects like this periodically because it changes your way of thinking. It's such a great workout for your creative brain! I am never done learning and I love it!

Here is a sneak peak of my clock. Much more to come on my beloved clock project;

Bear

Meet Bear Brown.

I got to take pictures of this adorable little guy earlier this week, before he even turned 1 week old! He didn't want to miss out on the action and stayed awake for this first half of the shoot. Once we got him into Mommy and Daddy's bed however, he went right to sleep and was so peaceful. Even big sister couldn't wake up this happy boy!

See More pictures of Bear at MsPhotographer.smugmug.com/family

And saty tuned for a behind the scenes post about how this shoot all came together.

Walgreens PhotoBook Review

I'm not sure how normal this is, but I have been overwhelmed with "Free Photo book" offers through facebook, e-mails, and online ads. I have decided to order some of these "Free" books and put them to the test. Now I say "free" but I do have to pay shipping fees which can go up to $15 and maybe even higher.

Today I am reviewing my Free 12x12 Photo Book from Walgreens. This book typically cost $50 plus shipping, but I got it for free and only had to pay the shipping cost of $14.

My scale is: Terrible, Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent



Walgreens 12x12 Photo Book:

Binding
Good - Sewn

Size:
12x12 - Very big

Overall Quality
Poor

Price
$50 + shipping - Good

Cover type
Hard glossy cover

Cover Quality
Good

Print Quality
Terrible

Page Quality
Poor

Customizability
Poor

Software User Friendly
Excellent

Customer Support
Excellent


The price is great at $50 and you can always find coupons to get 25% - 100% off which makes this really affordable. And the book is 12x12 which is very big and will make a statement on your coffee table. The statement turns bad when your guest opens the book however and reveals the poor quality of the book. The thin pages, terrible print quality, and overall poor quality of the book is prevalent.

The software to design the book was on the Walgreens Page and VERY easy to use. Your projects and photos are saved there for convenience and the customer support from Walgreens is also excellent.

Even though the book is sewn instead of glued, I would not recommend this book for children as it does not seem sturdy enough to last long.

There are very few situations where I could recommend this book, and no situation where I would recommend this book over all other books. This book would work for Family Vacations or a book that will only be used once like a guest book at a casual event (NOT a wedding). I would recommend a Heritage Makers book or My Publisher book over this book, however the Walgreens software is the most user friendly.

Fun Free Stuff!!!

So just this afternoon I posted to all my facebook friends that I could send them a code to get a FREE book from My Publisher, which would then give me a $20 credit for me to get lots of cute more books and such! I found out that the codes I sent were Buy one book, get the second (same book) free. Not nearly as exciting.

So I found a link to the original deal, which unfortunatly means no extra $$ for me. But you get a free book and that makes me Happy!!! Just to show you all that I love you, I'm posting some of my other favorite Freebies that are currently active!!!


Free My Publisher Photo book ($8-$9 shipping)
 - EXPIRED, but I can e-mail you a coupon code for a free book.

Free 8x10 canvas ($14.99 shipping)
 - EXPIRED, but they do this deal often ONLY for new members.

Free Bath and Body works item ($14 value) with $10 purchase


Free 7-11 Slurpee when you download their app

Free Nursing Pillow. Enter code: ENBABY at checkout. ($12.90 shipping)

Free Nursing "Uddervocer" Enter Code: ENBABY at checkout. ($12.90 shipping)

Free Carseat Canopy Cover. Enter Code: ENBABY at checkout. ($12.90 shipping)


Free Baby Sling. Enter Code: ENBABY at checkout. ($12.90 shipping)


Hope this helps! Free stuff is always fun :)

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I am especially thankful to all those who have supported me. The friends and family who comment about my photos and say such encouraging things. And to my wonderful clients.

"The best compliment you can give a photographer, is to book them."

Thank you for all of your support! I truly love what I do.

Coming from 37,996 feet up

I am writing to you from 37,996 feet in the air! I am on my way to Las Vegas to visit my family and friends for my 22nd birthday!!! I'm not so excited about turning 22 really. I kinda want to be 21 forever. 21 is the perfect age. When people lie about their age, they jokingly say they are "21." And everybody wishes they can just be 21 again. So does that mean it is all downhill for here? But the oh so thoughtful Alexandra Beckstrand introduced me to Taylor Swift's new song "22" and I'm getting excited! As long as I'm listening to this song (as I am right now) I am excited about turning 22! This will be my theme song for this week, and perhaps the year.

I have been away from my blog for a few weeks now. And I promise that it is for a very good reason! I am working on something SUPER exciting and I cannot wait to tell everyone!!!!! But your going to have to continue to wait. But this will be BIG and helpful to such a deserving family! Get excited and get ready to help share a special story with the world! Once the big news is revealed, I'll talk all about what has been going on the last few weeks, why I haven't been blogging and a little out of touch, and why this story has taken so long to finally tell.

You're just going to have to wait until then. I don't know when "then" is, you'll have to find out with me.

In the mean time, I will blog about some of my adventures in Vegas. I'm celebrating my birthday while I'm in Vegas, but I still have no clue what I should do!! Any suggestions?

Roasted Red Pepper and Sweet Potato Soup

Today is an exciting day! It's General Conference! The leaders of the LDS church will be talking to the members of the Mormon church and the public who have an interest in our faith throughout today and tomorrow. We just finished watching a session earlier today and another session will begin in just 2 hours!

You can go to this page to find a list of ways to view General Conference:
http://www.lds.org/church/events/members-and-friends-of-the-church-invited-to-participate-in-october-2012-general-conference?lang=eng

When we lived in Las Vegas, the first session of General Conference began at 9am. We had a tradition of a big delicious breakfast before watching conference! Now that we live in Florida and the first session begins at 12pm here, we changed our tradition to lunch!

We got today's recipe from Landen's Blog:
http://thecloakroomatvictoriastation.blogspot.com/2012/10/sisters-share-it-all-favorite-fall.html

The recipe has been handed down from blog to blog and now I am sharing it with you!

Roasted Red Pepper and Sweet Potato Soup

2 large or 3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
1/2 ;arge yellow onion, chopped
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
dash crushed red pepper flacks (This is optional, the more you add the spicier it is!)
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/4 dried parsley
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth


Preheat the oven to 450

Coat the Sweet potatoes and bell peppers in olive oil. Place chopped sweet potatoes and bell peppers on a tinfoil lined baking sheet. Sprinkle basil, oregano, parsley, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes over the top of the vegetables.

Bake for 25 - 35 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are nice and mushy!

Put all ingredients, including broth, into a blender and blend until smooth. Bring the soup to a boil on the stove. Let cool. Serve. Enjoy!


This was the perfect Fall General Conference lunch! AND it is "Skinny Girl" Recipe Approved!