Bathing Beauties

I'm not sure if it's some kind of survival mechanism relative to the number of consecutive days that snow has now been on the ground, or if it has to do with the uptick in the thermometer (to a balmy 30 degrees), but the girls have taken to wearing their bathing suits around the house. Sometimes they put dress-up dresses over the top, but I haven't caught that on film. Yet.

Flashback Friday: Walmart Portrait Studio

It's flashback Friday over at the other blog, which means I've been going through old photos. I found these portraits of Clio that we had taken at the Walmart photo studio in Illinois when we visited Barb and Pete in May, 2008, about 6 weeks before Eleri was born. I could have sworn I wrote about the session back then, but I couldn't find the post. Until....I checked the DRAFTS from back then, and found this:

"Flipping through a Parents magazine on the plane to Illinois, I was inspired by a few ads for various portrait studios- JC Penney, Target, etc.- and suggested a trip to Wal*Mart as one potential outing with Clio. The idea was to let her pick out a new outfit, and then go ahead and have her first formal portrait sitting.

Let's just say it did not end up being a great experience. I take responsibility for the fact that the timing was just bad- we were really pushing things with both lunch time and nap time, and by the time we actually got started, Clio was not her absolute best.

But mostly, it had to do with the fact that the seemingly to-good-to-be-true deal is, in fact, too good to be true."

I don't remember the exact details of the bait and switch, but I do remember that there was one, and that we went in for a $10 package of photos and ended up spending more than $30, and the photos weren't even particularly good.

But from the vantage point of nearly three years later, they are good! They are! I mean, Clio has had many cuter moments, but aren't these fun?

Face Paint

It's starting to look like Clio has two modes for the camera: shrieking "Don't take my picture!!!!!!!!" and throwing her hands up in front of her face, and total, utter ham.

Dave took the girls to the Children's Museum this weekend for a little much-needed Daddy time (while I had some much-needed Mommy time at home), and I was surprised that they came home having painted their faces. Clio has a short history of starting to get her face painted and then changing her mind mid-stream; perhaps the difference here is that the paint was self-administered?

Whatever the cause, I think I may have found the cover for this year's Christmas photo book.

Next up: Headboards

I can admit that I am better at starting projects than finishing them. Better yet at dreaming them up than actually starting them. Which is why Dave has told me in no uncertain terms that he will not help me cut the plywood for the girls' headboards until after I have sewn the dining room curtains. (12 yards of beautiful chartreuse silk has been hanging by clips for months now. In past rooms, I have pinned up curtain fabric and then never took the project further, but my sister-in-law, a designer and maker of beautiful curtains, has asked me to please not do that to this fabric.)

Still, it can't hurt to get a visual, right? Oddly enough, I'm no perfectionist when it comes to this kind of thing--I'm more of an eyeballer--it's more to get an idea of the right scale and shape.




Cute, right?

I'll use the raspberry "velvet" that I ordered online online to discover that it was more of a microsuede--not great for the living room chair for which it was intended, perfect for headboards in a little girls' room.

I'll share photos if the actual headboards ever make it to fruition.

In the meantime, enjoy these rare shots of Clio hamming it up.



An actress, perhaps? Believe me, her crocodile-tears performances are already Oscar-worthy.