I keep getting that question.  Oh, and “How are you feeling?”  That one too.

Here’s the answer:

This is our friend Anson Holmes the cabinet maker:

This guy has been keeping me quite busy.  He is trying to get a nice brochure together and has wrangled 7.5 month pregnant me into the mix.  Unlike shooting babies and people, there are deadlines involved with photographing objects.  It seems that everyone in that realm wants the final product yesterday.  Which is fine with me, since I only have until tomorrow before the baby is here.

So last Monday I photographed this kitchen:

Isn’t that cool wood?  Not to mention that Anson designed and built the pulls.

Then Saturday he got me to drive to Woodland Park (only about 2 hours away) to photograph this home:

Some exquisite work and well worth the drive.  Not to mention the cool forest the kids got to run through all day.  Oh and the Spook House the owner built for Halloweens.  But that’s another story.

I love this family.  It is so nice that they are no longer just two.  Now they’ve got this little guy to cuddle and love.  He was a long time coming.  He may have been a month early but having mom on bedrest and in the hospital makes folks a bit impatient.

I arrived and, of course, he was tired.  What newborn isn’t?  He didn’t want to be moved about and he sure didn’t care that I was there trying to take his picture.  Babies.  They think they’re running the show.  Probably because they are.  We got past the usual newborn grumpiness and he showed us his cuteness from every angle.

I chose this beautiful blanket from their stack of Indian blankets.  It made for a very nice background.

Little and big toes.  Mom had a hard time not touching those little piggies.

I thought I wanted dad’s hand to show off this tiny hand.  But I love how he is just brushing across mom’s arm.  Perfect.

This one is my favorite.  So relaxed and so beautiful.

There is an dad and baby shot that I love, but I’ll see what dad has to say about it.  There may be a second instalment…

When Ezra saw this grouping of meters, he got very excited.  When asked if he would like a picture next to them he said “Yes!”

Ezra is totally boy.  He loves fight scenes in movies and tv shows, he loves cars, but mostly he loves, loves, loves any kind of weapon and often asks if he can have a blood sword.  Lately he has been asking if he can have a knife from the kitchen to walk around with.  Oh, he wants to draw blood very badly.  Sounds like he might need a shrink…

Over the past few months we have made quite a few more of these freezer paper shirts.  They are quite easy and pretty fun to make with the kids.  I have even hosted a shirt making demo/party and taught a few home schooled kids how to make these shirts.

These images are from the demo at my house in December.  It was very hot working in that room.  I sometimes wish for curtains on these windows… but only when entertaining in the day.

That was a great day and it is always nice when everyone is happy with what they created.  I think the most fun is peeling off the stencil to reveal the finished product.

This next shirt was the one that I probably learned the most on.

I learned that the background color cannot be painted too dark, or it will bubble if I try to iron on another stencil.  So we painted the figures first and made masks for them so we could paint the red over Leah and C3PO.  In any case this shirt was a huge hit and the girl who received it was wearing it the last time we saw her.

This was our next venture.  If you notice, the yellow of the toilet is not painted solidly.  I think we painted the blue of the water last, so could make it a solid layer.

Below are a few images of the reaction this shirt got:

He had to put this shirt on immediately.  Was it the toilet or the cape that made him so excited?  Who knows.  All I know is that he was ecstatic to receive clothing.  Ha!

We had fun putting this one together.  This was India’s first sunset to paint.  It was also our first attempt to fade the color… if I added water to the paint would I have achieved a smoother gradation?  We’ll have to try that next time.  This shirt was for a tiny baby who’s father is Indian.  I can’t wait until he’s big enough to wear it!

We all got hats from Grandma this Christmas.  Not just any hats, either.  She knitted a hat for all her kids and their spouces and their children.  The whole family got hats… Hummm, I wonder if the if Jennifer and Jay got hats.  They live in Arizona where it is too hot for anything like a stocking cap to be worn, ever.

Anyway, to say “Thank you” and as a birthday gift I took photographs of the kids in their hats and made a nice storyboard wall hanging for Grandma.  When the box came, I think it took her only a minute before she called to let me know how much she likes it.  Of course I had to get one too.  It is hanging in my office, which I am slowly trying to fill up with images.

Last Christmas update.  I just thought this too cute to skip.  We made a whole bunch of gingerbread cookies.  Both kids decorated a lot.  Well, India made about half while Ezra ate what he made.

Often our front room gets really warm in the winter, that’s why no shirts.  Even if it is 20 degrees outside, it’s a balmy 70 in our front room.  The rest of the house is a different story.  I love all the sun, especially after living in the north side of our Victorian through Boston’s cold, long winters.  It reminds me of the sliding glass door growing up.  I used to curl up in the sun like a cat and enjoy the rays.  There are no sliding glass doors in old Victorians or Colonials, which we lived in while in Baltimore.

If you’re wondering; the sun does not shine through these windows in the summer and the house often stays nice and cool throughout the hot season.  I believe we use the swamp cooler about 15-20 days out of the year.

Christmas in February?  Well, it has taken me awhile to get everything updated since I now have a faster moving computer.  Ironic, I know.

This Christmas we spent at home and had a very special guest of Uncle Noah.  It was great having him around.  The kids love to play with him and it is really convenient having another adult in the house.  I hope he might return in March… but I think he may have missed the cheap ticket prices that were being offered by Frontier Airlines after the Super Bowl.  Some good came from watching those ads.  The in-laws and my mom got tickets for after the baby is born… Um, I’m having a baby in April, for all those of you who do not know.  I guess along with not updating the blog, this announcement has been skipped.  Sorry.

Here is what our day looked like.  Pretty fun morning!