HooT, HooT!

Paper Shoes - When I saw these on Skip To My Lou, I fell in love! When I downloaded the FREE template and saw how easy they were to make - fell even deeper!

I used my own patterned paper to print the template on. All of these were just made with the stuff I had in my craft room. It took no time to make a bunch of them. How cute would these be as party favors or place holders, or Visiting Teaching gifts, or teacher gifts, or, or, or! LOVE THEM!

And here I made another SOCK OWL. I bought 2 pairs of socks for $1 at the dollar store, so this one sock owl cost me about 25 cents! NICE! I'm making a little family of owls for one of my girls for a Christmas Eve gift. I like this one. I think I'll call her Olivette.

And speaking of Owls - here is an owl pillow I made from my own template I drew on some newspaper. I like how it turned out. I made the shape of the ears from turning a bracket chipboard album upside down and tracing the shape. Then just free handed the body shape. The fabric was from an old shirt that was torn and falling apart, and the tummy was left over fabric from the apron I made. Again, this will be one of my daughter's Christmas Eve gifts. I'm working on a couple more so each of them will receive something handmade from me to cuddle with on Christmas Eve :)

Life has been so busy lately (but what else is new?). We've had birthday parties, Thanksgiving guests (more on that at another time) and snow, snow, snow! I've had to push back several photoshoots because of the nasty weather. I mean, who wants snow in their fall pictures?? Really.

But, it's supposed to warm up for the weekend, and I hope it does because I've got 2 booked for Saturday.

TJ had a girls night out with her buddy and they went shopping, out to dinner, and her friend had her ears pierced. TJ had the time of her young life! She is all about fashion right now and is always trying new looks. This was the one she put together for her shopping trip:

Yeah, that's my winter hat. But, she looked so darn cute in it! It's funny, lately we've seen a few shows where there are moody and sassy teenagers yelling at their parents, or just huffing and puffing. Every time, TJ hugs me and says " I'll never be like THAT!" Hmm.. can we get that on tape, please?

Had a wonderful shoot with a family of 17 over the thanksgiving weekend. They opted for an indoor shoot which was a great idea given the gale force winds and the snow! Brr.... I was a little nervous about photographing a group that size, but they completely put me at ease within minutes. They were so fun - I was laughing much of the time. They were also very organized, which made getting the variety of shots a breeze. Here are just a couple:

 

 

 

So how am I doing, personally? Not bad, not bad. Life is busy, but not overwhelming - which is good for me. I'm figuring out this  balance thing and it's working for me! I'm learning to value in taking some time every day for myself and for my own personal spirituality. If I take the time to pray and meditate every day, things go smoother and somehow there is time to accomplish those important things I have on my schedule. The other funny thing is that I'm better able to distinguish between what is actually needful and what can be allowed to fall by the wayside.

Hubby is in his last semester of classes before the winter semester of working on his final paper. His graduation is looming closer! I'm thrilled!! He has worked so hard for this and it will be a blessing in his life. I sure love him for it. Another 'funny' thing. When I take the time to work on myself and my relationship with my Savior, somehow I've come to love my husband more and more... and more and more! I love everything about him. Isn't that funny? We've all heard that our spouse is our flesh and bone, and yet now it's real. If I love myself, I love him - and if I love him more, I love myself more. Funny how that works! It's one of those things that you can't describe to people - it's something you have to test out for yourself.

Anyway, I've got to get back to work editing some pics from my Thanksgiving weeknd but I thought I'd check in. Thanks for sticking it out with me- even when I'm not as consistent at posting as I should be!