Product Photography Opportunity

Do you want your shop or website to get more views? Great photos are the best thing you can do for your shop.

My sweet friend Beth (who owns a very successful etsy shop and is a photographer) is teaching a class on product photography... See the flyer for more details.

Project Elementary School

Have I ever told you how we came to live in the house we are in now? Well, it is a fantastic story about God's faithfulness but it is for another time. It is long. And I am wordy. Hence, saving it for another time. The point of me bringing that up is two-fold. One: I have experienced God's faithfulness in times of stress firsthand. Two: We are going to try to sell our house. Let me explain.

 

When we bought our house, it was a quick fix. We knew it would only be temporary and that we were not making an investment. We knew that we would have to make a change before our oldest child started kindergarten. We knew all this 4 years ago.

 

As it always does, time has flown by. While we still have a couple years until kindergarten, the time is now to make a change. You see, in our area there is only one good public kindergarten. One. As you would expect getting into the neighborhood zoned to this one school is not easy. Or cheap. Oh, and did you know that the housing market is not good? Yeah. There is that too.

 

So, here we are with a house that we owe more on than its worth. With "projects" that need to be done. Money to be saved to paid for said projects. And a bad housing market. Not the best situation to be in. My husband and I have looked at the timeline for all this. All this being said, the time is now. As in this summer.

 

So, here we are figuring out the details, making lists, researching and visiting comp properties. We are actually considering trying to do improvements this summer so that we can list our house on the market this fall. Isn't that crazy? My mind is actually spinning because of all the logistics of the entire thing. Oh, and did I mention that our summer is packed already? Right.

 

When all of this information started coming together late last week I was a complete mess. I was in tears and losing sleep. I have been praying a lot and feel much more at peace knowing that God is in control. He knows what we need, what the future holds and all the details in between. He wants to carry the burden for me and will be with me every stressful step along the way. This brings me so much comfort.

Anyways, so that is where I am right now. I just wanted to let you know since I have been a little absent. There is a lot more to the situation than I have shared and I will explain later. Just figure that I have talked enough for today.

I also wanted to share this sweet mom with you. I met her because our daughters are in dance class together. This amazing woman has just begun her battle with breast cancer. I was blessed with the opportunity to photograph her family last week. It was truly an honor. They are absolutely precious. Please join me in praying for this woman and her family. In one short week, her chemo treatment will begin and her life will be very different. See their full preview here.

 

 

Trying to get caught up

I cannot believe that I have not posted in almost a week! So sorry. Life happened. It never ceases to amaze me how getting behind on one day easily snowballs into being a week behind. Does that happen to anyone else?

 

Anyways, my husband had surgery (it was relatively minor) last Friday and it threw our family schedule out of whack much more then we anticipated. My in-laws were here to help with the kids but things were still completely crazy. I had no idea just how much more work I would have to do while taking care of my "patient" and not having his help with the kids. Remember this article, well again I feel so thankful for my husbands support in our day-to-day life.

 

My in-laws left today and my husband is getting back to full speed and I feel like I am climbing out of an overwhelming pit that is also known as my to-do list.

 

One thing I finally did today (actually just now at 10pm) was upload my images to flikr for my Opposites Class. I was 3 assignments behind. Awesome. Here they are.

 

 Day 2: New

(My daughter has "newly" learned to do the big girl swing all by herself.

 Day 3: In

My sweet baby indoors...doing baby push-ups. My favorite.

Day 4: OutPlaying outside. My daughter watches adoringly as her baby brother attempts the sippy cup on his own. 

If you want to sign up, you totally still can! Remember that it is FREE! Do it here.

 

Oh and for those interested, yours truly is doing the Wednesday lesson. Maybe you will learn something new. Maybe.

 

I gotta get some sleep. Will try to catch up a little more tomorrow. Adios.

 

Stuff

I am cutting it short tonight because tonight is TV night for hubby and I. Electronics are to be turned off shortly.

Anyways, I started the Opposites photo class today. Here is my shot. The theme was "old". My cat is the oldest member of our family. I have had him since my husband and I were dating. If you want to join the class, you totally still can. Go here to check it out. Remember that it is FREE!

I have a huge weight lifted today. I finally have an outfit picked out for a function I am going to on Monday night. I have been seriously stressing over this for several weeks now. I love clothes but not on a postpartum body. Anyways, I found something that "works" and is pretty cute too. Hallelujah.

Don't forget about my destash sale. Check out what is left and please help me clean it out. Oh, and don't forget that 20% off your destash purchase goes to help disaster relief in Japan.

One last thing...my baby is 7 months old! I cannot believe it. You can read about what he is up to on our family blog here.

Highs and Lows

Both of my kids took good naps today. However, when they were not asleep things felt intense most of the day. It wasn't all bad, definitely more a mix of highs and lows.

The highs included:

Enjoying a morning with my little man while sister was at school.

Running in and out of Target in under 20 minutes and sticking to my list.

Laughing with my daughter on the way home from school while I listened to her use the word "fancy" at least 5 times in a minute. It must have been the word of the day.

Laughing again when she informs me that our car is not "fancy".

Getting a phone call this afternoon with some good news.

Getting to play with my new baby while photographing my adorable baby.

 

The lows included:

The 3 hours from naptime to bedtime where mentally and physically exhausting.

I felt like I yelled a lot. I hope my daughter will remember me for something positive and not the yelling.

Coming to a difficult conclusion about our cat. We need to schedule a trip to the vet. That is all I will say about that.

Something I was expecting in the mail did not come today.

Having a heavy heart for several friends who are in great need of prayer right now.

 

Having to go to bed with only one thing checked off my to-do list.

  

Today

Tuesday's my daughter has dance class. The studio is literally 4 minutes from our house. I was expecting a delivery from the postman. I waited until the last minute to leave for dance then rushed home as soon as it was over. Sure enough, I came home to a delivery slip on the door. The only 55 minutes that I was gone from the house today was the timeslot that the postman attempted to deliver my package. Bust!

 

The slip said that my package would be available for pick up at the post office later that afternoon. So, just before naptime I loaded up the troops and headed to the post office. Luckily there was no line and the service was fast. I got the package and came home to tuck the kids in for naptime.

 

Then I dived into my box. This is what I found.  

My new baby. I decided it was time to upgrade. I went with the 50d because it is so highly recommended. There are two newer models and this one still gets the highest rating. Finding these new or used is not easy. The new ones keep getting more expensive because of the demand. Anyways, I found a great deal on a lightly used one and it is mine!

 

I spent naptime getting aquainted with this beauty. I love it. I do need a lot of practice on it because it handles very differently from my last camera. (Btw- anyone want to buy my old one???)

 

Today was rainy and super-dreary, so lighting conditions were seriously less-than-ideal. But, I was able to get a couple sweet shots of Ash. I am so eager to get out and really try this thing out and see what it can really do:)

 

Somebody had to be first

Well, it is official. I had my first paid client as a photographer on Sunday. I was sure that after I posted the opening of my business on facebook, that my first paid experience would be family or friends. Well, I did have lots of friends book with me (I am actually booked into May!) but the way the scheduling worked, my first client was someone that I did not know.

Ya'll, I was so nervous. The only thing that calmed me down was that I was working with a baby the same age as my son. This helped because I knew what to expect out of that particular age.

This little doll was so sweet but not sure about me at first. She definitely takes in her surroundings and is more serious than playful. I only got one semi-smile out of her. Thankfully her mom told me that she is a serious baby and doesn't smile much anyways. This made me feel better that I was capturing her natural personality.

Here is a little peek at our afternoon.

Happy President's Day

Well, I almost missed it (to many of you I will have) but Happy President's Day. I hope that you had the day off from work or school or whatever. My husband did but my daughter still had school. This was unusual. Hubby and I were looking forward to having a relaxing morning with just the baby and then just kind of hanging around. Didn't happen.

Thursday and Friday we experienced our computer crashing. Twice. Luckily it came back to life both times. It did tell us that we need to get a new computer. And fast. So, after a full Saturday of birthday parties and baseball games I went and bought a new computer. It was super easy because my dad did all the research and comparison shopping for me (thanks dad!) and told me where to go and what to get. I walked in, told them what I wanted and walked out within 10 minutes. Easy peasy.

I spent Saturday night and some of Sunday getting software downloaded and files transfered. After a lot of time and effort our new computer was perfect. Almost. You see I spent Sunday night editing photos for a friend. I promised to deliver her CD of images on Monday morning. I went to burn the disc only to find that the CD drive is not operating correctly. Seriously?

I mess with it. And mess with it some more. Nope, not working. At this point it is late and I go to bed. This morning I wake up and it is the same story. Nice. Really nice. I call the store that I bought it from and let them know that my new computer that is less than 72 hours old is not working properly. The manager told me that I could bring it back with the reciept and I could exchange it for another one.

So, I painfully un-do all the work that I poured into it and set it back to factory settings. I put it and all the "stuff" that came with it into a Panera bag (we pitched the box already) and take it back to the store. They exchange it, no problem. So, my relaxing Monday turned into a school drop off, computer drama, store return and new computer set-up kind of a day. Whew. I am tired.

Oh, and I did something else of note today. I started a new business. Again.

I am sure that none of you are surprised by this. I have a true passion for photography and can't help but feel like I am being led in this direction. I have had lots of encouragement from friends and family and decided to take the plunge. Never fear, Noodles & Milk is not going anywhere. The new photography business is meant to be another side thing that helps to pay the diapers and formula fund. And also to keep me involved in something that I love.

Speaking of Noodles & Milk, I finally have a new pattern in mind. If the stars align and I can get the thing created soon, it might just be released before summer:) Trust me, it is a cutie and would make a great addition to any little girls summer wardrobe.

PS: Sabrina Gebhardt Photography is on facebook here. A blog is coming soon:)

Sweet sisters

This past weekend I got to photograph a sweet friend's little girls. She has 3 adorable ones...ages 3, (almost) 2 and 5 months. We didn't really have an agenda, so while we did some posing stuff, really the girls just played and I followed them around. It was a fun time. Here are some of my favorite shots.

 Playing in the snow!

 Look at these sparkly eyes.

 Smiley baby sister.

 A little dress up. We told her the boa felt like baby chicks and she kept petting it and looking for the chicks. It was so cute!

 An attempt at getting everyone to look at the camera at the same time.

This was totally un-prompted... Big sister loves the baby.

Keeping it Real

I am hesitant to even type this because the week is not over yet. Like that I might jinx the rest of the week. That being said, this week has been rough. Really rough. Monday was normal and then things went racing downhill. Monday night a major front blew threw bringing snow and ice and ridiculous temperatures. Businesses and schools have been closed and are closed again tomorrow.

 

Honestly, Tuesday and Wednesday were not that bad. We didn't watch tv all day, there were no major fights and Emerson managed to stay out of time out. Pretty decent. Then today happened.

 

This morning Emerson had timeout for telling me "no" too many times. Then we had a screaming match because she wanted help velro-ing her shoes when they had already been correctly velcro'd. Then we decided to go meet daddy for lunch. We couldn't leave without Emerson slipping on the ice in the driveway first.

 

All I had seen since Monday was our street from our front window. It seemed fine. The second I turned the corner in our neighborhood I knew the roads were not fine. So much ice. Ice packed on more ice.

 

We made it to lunch and everything was fine but the punishment was that I only got to be out of the house for an hour. We get home and watch one cartoon before Emerson's naptime. All that had gotten me through the lovely morning was knowing that I would get my yummy dr pepper and cookie snack while Emerson took her nap.

 

Well, she went down for her nap without much of a fight. Then Ashton went down. Things were looking good, but then the computer tech got here. He started working on my laptop (which means I can't be blogging or fb'ing). He continued to work on the computer for 3.5 hours! Straight through naptime and my husband getting home. Oh, and did I mention that the tech didn't even fix the problem? He has to come back another time. Whatever.

 

I am ready for today to be over. Except that tomorrow is going to be much of the same. More ice. More closings. More staying at home. I think I might actually concede and just watch movies all day. Please don't call the parenting police on me.

 

On a better note, one of the only fun things this week has been working on my assignments for my Joy of Love class. Here are my first three days of  homework.

  

 Day 1: What they do

Loves to read.

Day 2: How they lookTummy time!

Day 3: Then and Now

Looking at her baby book:)

Here's to better days and praying mommy is a better mommy tomorrow.

Pure Bliss

I had the joy of photographing one of my very best friends new babies last weekend. He was an absolute delight. So tiny and precious. The most adorable sleeper. I could have just eaten him up. I have an almost 5 month old and have already forgotten how tiny and helpless they are in the beginning. The sweet newborn sounds and smells and the jerky reflex movements...I love it all.

Shooting a newborn is hard work and requires patience. Everything works at their pace. Here are some of my favorites from Saturday.

Is he not precious?!?!?

And because several of you have asked... I have a Canon XS and use a 50mm 2.8 lens most of the time.