MAGGIE HOLMES Photography and Scrapbooking Blog

Valentine's Day Recap Part 1

Valentine's Day was all about the kids this year! Brian and I tend to do random little things for each other throughout the year so we don't often get too caught up in making a big day out of Valentine's Day or even our Anniversary. In fact one year we both even forgot our actual anniversary! It might sound funny to admit that but I just attribute it to the fact that we are both secure in our love for each other and our relationship and so we don't need a specific day to remind us of that. 

It is kind of a funny story actually. About 3 weeks after our anniversary, we were sitting there one day with some family and I said "It seems like we forgot something important last month." We both racked our brains for a few minutes and couldn't figure out what it would be.... neither of us could think of anything. Then a little while later it hit me...... our anniversary!! We both forgot about it and it came and went just like any other day! We still laugh about it to this day!

Anyway, back to Valentine's Day. The kids were excited as ever to pass out their Valentine's cards at school. I thought I was being super prepared and we bought their cards really early this year -- as soon as they hit the stores. But then I felt bad for the next month because it was like torture for them to have to just leave them in the drawer and wait and wait....... and wait........ until the day finally would come! Nathan was cute about picking out his cards because he just knew that he couldn't give the girls the Star Wars cards he had picked out for the boys. Even though Tyler and Matthew tried to reassure him it was fine and that some of the girls would give him princess cards and other girly cards, he just couldn't be convinced. So he got a pack of Toy Story cards to give to the girls since those weren't as boyish. Such a thoughtful kid! 

But it did finally come and they got quite a bunch of colorful cards and yummy candy! Their favorite part is always coming home, dumping everything out and going through it all. Well, at least for Nathan and Matthew. Tyler "had" to check some scores on ESPN first and then he went through his later after I was done taking pictures. Typical Ty :)

Then Brian and I gave them some little treat bags and plastic hearts that were filled with candy. They loved it! You can never go wrong with giving kids more candy!! Oh and bubble gum. They loved that the most!

My favorite picture is the one above of Emily with the look of sheer excitement, surprise and happiness right after she looked into the little bag of candy. You would have thought we gave her a million dollars!! 

My parents also came over and gave the kids some more candy that they loved of course! Then we took them to dinner at Joe's Farm Grill, or "Joseph's Farm" as Emily calls it. Nathan had been asking for a few days what "special" things we were going to do as a family on Valentine's day so we thought taking them out for dinner would be fun. My favorite part was all of the hugs and kisses I got from them throughout the afternoon and evening. Nathan especially kept coming up to me, hugging me and telling me that he loved me. So sweet!!

Emily had her Valentine's party the next day at preschool... and I will share that in Part 2.

Hope you had a special day filled with love!!!!!!!

 

Things She Says....

There are so many things that this girl says that we don't ever want to forget..... ever.....

 

She says "I love you" and we ask "how much do you love me" and she says "right now".

She tells me "I'm the line leader" all day long and makes sure that she gets in front of me and leads the way.

She says "I call shotgun" when I pick her up from school.

She kisses my pregnant belly and says "cootchie, cootchie coo" to the baby.

She is always asking for "5 more minutes" when it is bedtime.

She still calls her favorite blanket her "green gwee gwee".

When I get ready she often tells me things like "you look fancy mom" or "you look pretty like a princess mom".

She calls her soft skinny jeans her "soffily jeans".

She touches the clothes at the store and says things like "this is goooogeous" or "this is soooo adorable".

Whenever she is talking about an event that occurred in the past, whether it was last week or a year ago she starts by saying "remember, last night, when......".

She calls cupcakes "pucakes".

She answers with a very prim and proper and ladylike "yes" rather than the slang "yeah" that the rest of us tend to use.

And my favorite right now..... She always asks for "5 kisses" from her daddy and she counts them as he kisses her. He will trick her by not making the kissing sound and then she stands back, holds her hands out in a very cute and dramatic way and says "kisssss meeeeeee!!!" I've got to get this one on video!! 

She is 3 1/2, but still our baby girl princess and we adore her to pieces!!

 

 

 

Lately I've Been.... Editing

The last few weeks I have been editing lots and lots of our personal photos. I took a TON of pictures of my kiddos up in Utah last year (in the summer and the fall) and sadly to say I am just now editing and printing them! Did I really admit that? Yes, I guess I did. You would think that I wouldn't get so behind but typically I am busy working on photos for my clients so I end up letting mine go on the back burner. 

After the mad rush of CHA, I found myself with some down time and also some sick kiddos which kept us here at home for almost 2 weeks! (Yes I did get out during that time but the majority of our time was spent at home resting and snuggling and working on getting better.) While the sick ones slept I would sneak in here and work on editing my back log of photos. 

I have to say that my favorite part of photography is the actual photo shoot - being out with my clients or my kids.... interacting, snapping away and capturing those moments. I don't often love the editing side of things because it tends to be the most tedious and can take lots and lots of time. However the last couple of weeks I found myself really looking forward to and enjoying these spurts of time spent on the computer working with all of these images. Maybe it is because they were from a few months back and so they brought back memories.... maybe it is because I am biased and I always think that every picture of my kids is the cutest thing in the whole wide world...... or maybe it was the excitement of having lots of new photos printed and ready to be scrapped! I don't know.... but I have really loved it!

Anyway, I still have LOTS and LOTS more photos in my back log and I will probably never ever be caught up since I am always taking more and more..... but I am happy to say that I went through a few thousand photos, did a lot of narrowing down, edited the keepers and now have hundreds of photos printed out right here next to me!! Talk about rewarding!! I LOVE it! Pictures make me happy and PRINTED pictures make me even happier!! This is a shout out to all of you that have had photo shoots done or have taken pictures of your own family but don't ever print them.... schedule out some time each month to start printing them! It is sooooo worth it! I am making a new promise to myself to keep at this project and keep working away at my back log of photos! Even if it is just one day a month or a few hours each week, I am going to make this a part of my normal routine! 

Here are a few from Utah in the fall. I love doing photo shoots in Utah because there are so many amazing locations! Sadly for my kids, I can never get enough of shooting in Utah! I have been known to pull off to the side of the road at any given moment to drag them out of the car and snap some pics! If I see a spot I love, I will stop and use it! 

And yes, if you are wondering..... I do pack their cutest clothes when we go up there and I do tend to color coordinate them most of the time we are on vacation because you never know when a photo-op is going to arise! Call me crazy, call me a little kooky, I just call it being prepared! :)

Also, Emily's headband is from here: Miss Ruby Sue on Etsy! She makes the most amazing things and every time I wear anything of hers I get stopped and asked about it a million times over. This is my favorite headband of hers.... Emmy and I share it. Lots of new ones that I am eyeing as well! I'm just warning you ahead of time that if you click over to her shop you will be hooked!! :)

 

 

 

Girls' Paperie CHA Layouts: Vintage Whimsy

This is the last of my Girls' Paperie layouts..... Vintage Whimsy! I can't get enough of this line.... It was so easy for me to use and the clear stamps are a dream!!

I loved how each of the stamps are separate but they were super easy to "collage" together to create these little stamped vignettes..... lots of mixing and matching to be done with these stamps for sure!

The lace trims are to die for! I would love full spools of them!! If only! :) And then the buttons and flower brads.... oh my! I am sure I could use up about a thousand of each! This line is perfect for so many of my photos of Emily Jane..... just enough vintage and just enough bright girly happiness! Love it!

 

Girls' Paperie CHA Layouts: Kitch

Kitch is the second of Margie's three lines that she debuted at CHA last weekend. She tells on her blog how this line was inspired by her Gram... it definitely has that feeling of old school charm, and at the same time it is very bright, cheery and happy!! I love it!

The lollies are amazing!! I can't get enough of them. For the top layout I cut them right in half and used them to create the scalloped banner going across the page. I just glued a piece of trim along the tops of them to cover up the raw edges. I misted both of the backgrounds to make the photos and everything else pop off the pages a little more. Her ledger papers are a staple for me and I love that I can easily mist them to make them a different color, depending on what I want to do!

The third and final new Girls' Paperie line will be next...... Vintage Whimsy!

Girls' Paperie CHA Layouts: Jubilee

As promised, I am back to share my layouts that I made for Margie and her Girls' Paperie booth. Margie shared some amazing photos of her booth on twitter and I have to say that I was dying over all of the detail and girly beauty that she and the rest of the team created!! WOW... wish I was there just so I could have seen it all in person! It was pure eye candy for sure!!

She released three new lines and I made two layouts for each of them.......

First up is Jubilee:

I don't really know that I can pick a favorite out of the three lines but if I had to, then it would probably have to be Jubilee. The bright colors are right up my alley! The pinks and oranges are so rich and vibrant! These products work great with party themes because the clear stamps are themed in that direction but they also will work for any other type of layout too. 

The banner border stamp (that I used on the top layout) is definitely a favorite and will be used time and time again! I love that it will work for boy or girl pages! So versatile and so cute!! The chipboard letters are a white ledger which I love because that means I can mist or ink them up to tint them any color I want! Here I used some of my pink Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Inks along with my blending tools to turn them pink! Quick and easy! 

Next up is Kitch..... Stay tuned!

Studio Calico February Kit: Candy Shoppe

Popping in to share my layouts for Studio Calico's February Kits. All of the kits are already sold out this month and boy did they go fast!! Crazy!! They were definitely an amazing set of kits! The only thing left is the More Patterned Paper which has the exclusive Studio Calico paper and the exclusive paper that Studio Calico collaborated with Crate Paper on. That rainbow paper was a fave among all of us designers! 

First up is "you are my everything"

I was instantly in love with the Love Notes paper by Sassafras and that's where the Love and love birds pieces came from. I also got the Sassafras stickers and used them here but they sold out super quick as well. Loving these polka dot glitter thickers from American Crafts. I inked them up a bit with Tim Holtz Worn Lipstick Distress Ink just to make them a little darker. Also loving these new Mementos metal bookplates from American Crafts. I cut two of them in half and used them here on the edges of the page. Pen is American Crafts Slick Writer.

Next up is "good friends are priceless"

Used some mists to make the background the perfect shade of pink and I can't recall which ones I used this time. I forgot to write it down. Sorry!! Someone asked about how far I hold my hand from the paper when I am misting so I thought I would answer it here..... It's not exact but I would say about 12-18 inches. I definitely like to start lighter (which means holding your hand further back) and then you can spray more and add to it until you like it. If you hold the mist too close and get it too dark right off the bat, it is pretty hard to correct that. But if you start light, you can always add more. That's my motto. Then if I want those darker more concentrated splatters (like you see up in the top left on this page) I will hold my hand closer and press the nozzle only a little bit down (not all the way). That will often give you just a few of those little splatters instead of the normal misted spray. Hope that helps!!

I also sprayed the yellow Sassafras letter stickers with the Mister Huey's Sunshine mist because I wanted them to be darker. They took a little longer to dry but it still worked. Here are those new American Crafts polka dot thickers again, but in a turquoise blue! So cute! Loving those SC cloud stamps!! Also used the AC slick writer again.

And my last layout is "muffins"

Misted the background again but forgot to write it down. Will make sure to do that next time! Lots of Sassafras here - the paper, the stickers, alpha stickers, the banner stickers. It's all super cute stuff that I LOVED!! Used the American Crafts Precision Pen this time because I wanted a thinner writing tip.

I think that's it. Pretty basic on this one. These are pictures taken with my iphone, hence the kind of wonky colors but I still love them! Nathan takes bites of food with his eyes closed like this all the time.... especially when he is really digging in and enjoying something. We adore it and I am glad I was able to capture a photo and document it!! It's those little things that we will forget too easily and now we will have it forever!! love that!!