The K Family ~ Ashford Family Photographer

On Sunday afternoon, I had the chance to get together with the K family for some family photos. The weather cooperated (it was foggy and chilly that morning!) and it was a beautiful sunny and fairly warm afternoon for some family photos! Shannon was our doula for Adi's birth (if you're in need of a good doula, check out her website or let me know and I'll get you in touch with her -- she's AWESOME) and she and her family have become good friends of ours. One thing I love about Connecticut is that there is no shortage of fun places to take a family photo. Both of these places are right down the road from my house! Here are a few of my favorites:

I know this one isn't a "typical" good photo, but I love how each of the kids is doing something a little different and showing a bit of their own personality... So true of a large family! :) 

Adi, Week by Week

So I'm completely stealing this idea from John and Sherry over at Young House Love (whose blog is awesome, so if you haven't been reading it, check it out. It's a mix of DIY, life, and craziness that's just wonderful).  Anyways, the idea is this: weekly pictures of Adi, to show how much she's changing from week to week. Hopefully, it'll be fun and a great way to remember all those silly faces and general goofiness.  Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Here's to hoping I can keep up with it for a whole year...

I actually debated skipping our week one photo. Let's just say between a very tired mommy photographer and an Adi baby that was not at all thrilled about ever being on her back that this didn't go nearly as planned. But in the spirit of remembering what that first week was like, I'm including it. Afterall, she was only a week old and I've never been a mommy before... So here's week one:

Week two went a little better (ah, yes, you can just hear me saying "SO big" in my best mommy voice, can't you?)

And here's week three! Hopefully I'll get a little better about getting these up more quickly, and it won't be sporadic posts of "Oh hey, here's what she has looked like the past few weeks." :)

How Pinteresting...

Because I'm stuck on bedrest, some things I'm loving on Pinterest lately:

Because I'm a dork. (From here)

Fall prettiness. (From here)

Yummy pumpkin pie bites. (From here)

To remind me to capture the details. (From here)

Yup. It's pretty random. And that's okay. :)

PS -- Pinteresting is totally Jared's word. And I totally stole it... :)

A Nursery Update

Blogger is telling me that my last post was August 10th... In some ways, I'm not at all sure how that can be true, and it others, I can't believe it's only been that long since I've posted.  Meatball is still cooking (haha, bad pun, I know) but should be arriving sometime in the next week. She is, afterall, due on Sunday (the 25th).  I honestly don't know how much I'll be posting after she's born, since I have no doubt that my life and schedule are going to be turned completely upside-down. But I thought I'd give you all a peek at her nursery before she arrives. If you're friends with me on Facebook, you've probably already seen these pictures. If not, enjoy! And I've put down where we purchased things, too, in case anyone is interested.

First, remember where we started:

 

Then we painted:

Then, we put together the crib and changing table (and are still married, haha!) and, during the three days we were without power due to Hurricane Irene, we put up this wonderful tree we got on Etsy:

Don't mind the red things sticking out from under the crib. It's a jumper seat that Meatball won't be using for awhile, and under the crib seemed like a good storage place for now!

We put up chinese lanterns over the naked light bulbs (one is purple, the one near her crib is white). We also added insulated, light blocking brown curtains to the windows, and cute brown baskets to the changing table (one of which was part of a baby shower gift and matched perfectly!).  The rocking horse, small cradle and it's accompanying toys were all gifts. :)

We're so happy with the way everything has come together. It's not quite finished yet (you're not seeing the other wall because of that... maybe soon!), but it's looking much more like a nursery now!

Where we got things:

Crib: Graco Lauren in white, from Target

Changing table: South Shore, from Walmart

Hamper, mobile, crib sheet, crib skirt: Tiddliwinks Batik Butterfly collection, from Target

Baskets: Target

Flowering Tree: SurfaceInspired, Etsy

  

Strength

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Phillipians 4:13

Henry ~ Ashford Baby Photographer

Let me introduce you to Henry. Henry is a VERY serious little man, not to be taken lightly. He's also my newest nephew and now that we've moved, he and his big sister live just an hour from us which means we get to see them much more than before! While we were visiting last weekend, Henry and I had a mini-photo shoot. He's two months old now, and has the most serious expressions! Enjoy this little bit of cuteness!

This is the closest thing I got to a smile (the WHOLE DAY...). :) 

This is my favorite shot. I love his big eyes!! 

Nursery Update

Remember that "to-do" list I had for the nursery?  It went something like this:

1. Paint
2. Crib and changing table
3. Wall art
4. Lighting
5. Rug
6. Organize clothes/toys

Number one has (mostly) been crossed off of the list, as of last night. Here's what we started with:

The original color of the nursery was a mustardy yellow that looked perpetually dirty. Not only is yellow really not my thing, but this particular shade was just too much for me. Not to mention that at certain times of the day it looks like it has green undertones. No, thank you! Oh, and the light you see there? That's natural, from the windows on the other side of the room.

Here's another "before" shot. I do love this little built-in bookshelf on the wall.  It took two coats of primer to cover up the yellow paint:

We didn't tape off the windowsills or baseboard, because I plan on painting that as well. The finish on it is not great and is peeling in some places. In others, it just has a bad paint job! A coat of primer and a coat of glossy white paint will freshen it up. 

We had three options when it came to what color to paint the walls. We knew we wanted a light blue, so I picked three colors, each a little different, and got samplers. (Side note: how awesome is it that you can get little samples of the colors you want to try? So much better than taping up a little piece of paper on the wall). Here are the options:

We went with the color on the far left (Cloud Nine, from Olympic). We stuck with the Olympic Premium paint because it (and their primer) is zero VOC -- better for me and Meatball! I was very impressed with both - they both went on well and there was ZERO odor from painting. Anyways, back to the colors. The middle color (Blue Booties) was a little to bright for what we wanted (after all, we're not deluding ourselves that Meatball is a boy here) and the one on the right (Elegant something, can't remember!) was a little too grey.

So then we painted... in the wonderful heat that has sprung up here in CT. And it looks wonderful! We left the trim around the ceiling white (we had to prime it -- it had been yellow as well) and of course the windowsills and remainder of the trim will be repainted.

View into the back corner.

The little bookshelf and our temporary storage area!

You can see now where all the light on the back wall comes from! The room has seven (!) windows total. I'm not sure what I'm going to use for curtains yet -- I was thinking maybe something purple, or brown to block out the sun for nap time. 

The next project? Lighting... We actually already have a bit of a start on that and plans to finish it this weekend while Dad is here to help Jared with the wiring, etc. Why do we want new lights? Well, this is what was in the nursery:

Yes, it's rather retro. But Jared was hitting his head on it all the time, not to mention hitting his head on the other one which hung even lower. So they'll be replaced, hopefully this weekend! More pictures soon!