adventures in sewing

Aaron and I have a date tomorrow night with another couple. I’ve been looking forward to it for awhile and so I thought the occasion deserved something special. So I decided since I really don’t know how to sew real garments yet, a headband shouldn’t be too hard. Here is my new item in honor of going out sans children on a Saturday night.

And then once I got the hang of it, I convinced myself that maybe it wouldn’t fall apart the first time I wear it. So I made some more. It kind of became addictive. They are pretty easy to make and I’m sure I did way too much hand sewing than needed. I bet I could’ve relied on my hot glue gun a little more and been a bit quicker.

Please excuse my pajamas and absolutely no makeup in the next photos.

I also made some cute little pouches. Greta has an endless amount of figurines and is always asking to bring a few with her, so I think these are the right sizes.

Sorry if the sewing talk is boring for some of you. It’s just very new to me so I will try and keep it down to one post every week or two. There is actually something I hope I can photograph this weekend that I am actually proud of. It doesn’t look wonky and it’s pretty adorable. If only I can get Greta to try it on, she has an aversion to anything I make right now, but I really can’t blame her. They look like 2nd grade art projects at the moment.

Nykiel Home Shoot

It seriously never rains in Los Angeles. We’re talking 5-7 days a YEAR! Well it DID rain, and of course on the day of a photo that could not be rescheduled. You may remember this family who have since relocated to Southern California. Their little boy has grown in the last few months and with grandparents visiting from Europe and the midwest we had one day where their trips overlapped each other. And this was the day it rained. All day I was hoping the skies would part for a little bit of sunshine. Nope. But I did manage to talk them into a few outdoor photos in the drizzle. The lighting was beautiful. We had to bring our shoot inside and this little man was on the move let me tell you. But I do love a home shoot where everyone is a little more relaxed and at ease, especially little people.

Here’s a few highlights, and for more you can check out my photo blog.

Oh that face!

I love the way mom and babe are looking at each other.

And probably my favorite.

mammoth, part uno

I really should be posting about my last shoot in December, but these photos are ready to go on my desktop, so we’re not going to go in chronological order. Not that you have any control of that. I promise to get my act together and by the end of the week, okay, maybe the weekend, I will post photos from my last shoot. These photos are from the first two days of our trip. The drive up was not bad at all. I ate at Subway for the first time in probably 5 years. Not a fan of fast food, there will be more on that later. Subway is still fast food to me. Blech.

The trees were gorgeous, as they always are this time of year.

Stopping for a pee break by the side of the road. Aaron tried to throw a snowball into the car, he missed, and it was not such a good idea in the first place.

We were planning on staying at the same condo as last January, but the owner double booked the week. So he arranged for us to stay in his friend’s condo in the same complex of Snowcreek. To our benefit, this place was 1,000 square feet larger and he arranged to get us the same deal we were going to pay him. Right above the kitchen is a loft where Gunnar, Sawyer, and Maddie slept. There were 2 bedrooms on the main level and the little girlies slept in our rooms. It was beautiful. Just stunning and so much space to run around in. We seriously were extremely fortunate to have scored this deal.

Aaron got altitude sickness during our first night and he slept most of the next day. So it was me and Elliott and 4 bundled up kids that went to the lodge. We had to get them all to ski/snowboard school. And let me tell you, so much work! We were exhausted by 9:30am. Just getting the kids out the door with their gloves and jackets and boots on, then carry their helmets, goggles, skis, boots, snowboards, etc. Buckle them in the car, unload the kids and all the gear. Walk them all upstairs to class, sign them all in, give each teacher the correct name of the kid, contact information, which helmet goes with which kid, which ski goes with which kid, I can go on like this for hours. Needless to say, when Elliott and I got on the first chair lift we were ready to take a nap.

Here’s Sawyer in ski school. Not such a fan let me tell you. He can stop and go down, but not loving it. In fact, the ski school instructor called at 1:30 to tell me to come pick up my kid since he was refusing to put his skis on. He would have been much happier in the lodge with a chapter book and some hot chocolate. But, can you blame him? Who wouldn’t like that?

This is Greta, in the pink jacket, the tiny one. She loved ski school this day. Just rode the magic carpet and came down the hill, and rode the magic carpet and came down the hill, about 20 times. I have the most adorable 9 second video of her walking with her skis across the snow to get to the magic carpet. I will do a video post with clips later. When I picked her up she begged to go to ski school the next day, which I was not expecting. Unfortunately they have male teachers who also teach 3 year olds how to ski, and that was not flying with her. So after an hour and half of her crying the following day, I just picked her up out of class and brought her on the lift with us. Video of that to come too. Really hilarious.

Fortunately by this night Aaron was feeling better and I knew he’d be good to go the next day with us. Gunnar boarded with Aaron and I had Greta with me, Elliott had Maddie and we pretty much stayed on the beginner run all morning. Sawyer opted to go to Color Me Mine with Amanda and Mallory, so everyone was happy. I have to say it was pretty awesome to be with Gunnar and Aaron on the first ride that morning. I realized that Aaron and I have never ever skied/snowboarded together. Ever. We’ve been together almost 12 years, and either I have been pregnant or breastfeeding, or the kids too little to actually go to the snow, or last year we took turns staying with Greta. So it was very exciting to sit next to each other on the lift and ride down together.

More to come as soon as I get my head on straight. It was kind of hard to go from our trip to the very next morning all 3 kids back to school after having 3 weeks off. We all needed a little adjustment and my house is still kind of scary.

how i did. . .

Last year I made some non new year’s resolutions. And I accomplished them all, I am very happy to type this. Although it kind of makes me think I set my goals a little too low. So this year I am going to challenge myself a little. I didn’t consciously set out to accomplish my resolutions, but I think putting them to paper, or to blog I should say, helped solidify for me that I really wanted to achieve them all.

1. Personal study. Having kids completely destroyed any type of personal study schedule for me. And I most definitely have missed it being a regular part of my week. I would really like to study in depth each week in preparation for one of our meetings and just on a personal theme that I choose.

2. Learn to sew. I am loving playing around with my sewing machine, but I would really like to know what I’m doing and not “wing it”.

3. Cook more. I am doing better recently, but I would like to cook 2-3 nights a week, a whole meal.

4. Learn to knit. I still really want to learn to knit. Nothing fancy. I will settle for scarves and hats. But something! Anything!

5. Redo the boys’ room. I envision changing their tall bookcases that hold all their toy baskets and books to something more open. Like open shelving. And getting rid of their small bookcase by the window. Their books don’t fit in it anyway, so I’d like to combine their books and toys onto the same furniture.

6. Host a few more giveaways for photo sessions. I loved doing the last one and can’t wait to deliver their photos to them.

7. Keep up pilates. Although it’s hard, I can really tell a difference in my body.

8. Do one more cleanse. I know, crazy right? This time I won’t do a whole month, but a more severe, one week cleanse. Anyone want to join me? I’m thinking when spring comes since change of season is the best time to do it.

There they are. Now that I typed them, I feel like they must be done. . .

seriously?

when did you wake up a teenager?

and we’re baaaaaack. . .

more to come when i can find the flooring to my house again.

work

First, I have to mention that I have worked at the same spa in Brentwood for 8 years. 8 years. As you can see, further evidence I hate change. I have been an esthetician for 10 years and I truly love what I do. It’s a totally different kind of joy when I work on people as an esthetician than when I photograph. Photography is definitely fun and creative, but I know skin. It’s a comfort and ease when I do facials or wax because I do it well. On the other hand, I still get butterflies when I drive out to a photo shoot. No butterflies when I have my esthetician hat on. Being an esthetician fulfills the clinical side for me, it fulfills the chemical reactions and allergies and ingredient lists that I love to analyze. Photography fulfills my creative desires. But when I am asked what I do for work, esthetician comes out immediately. Photography? I still view that as my hobby and it will probably always remain a hobby. I can’t see ever giving up being an esthetician to pursue photography full time.

With the economy’s downturn the spa hasn’t been doing that well, and rumors have swirled for over a year that they would close. I won’t go into details about my boss, but honesty isn’t a strong characteristic, and he’s closed down past salons without giving employees a day of notice. They showed up for work one morning to a locked door. I decided it was time I research what it would take to start my own business and become licensed as a business owner.

I learned many things about our city and government. For reals, the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing. I am super anal about doing things “by the book” and I like to have all my ducks in a row. Wow, could I have put any more metaphors into that sentence? Anyways, I went from zoning, to business, to city, to county, to state. Finally, my ducks were all in a neat and tidy row. And my husband provided the swift kick in the rear needed to finally cut the cord.

So I present to you, Skin by Deborah. Yes, I only had 30 seconds to come up with a business name because I wasn’t prepared to actually name the business at the little clear window with the city worker tapping her acrylic nails waiting for me to decide. When I came home with my paperwork my husband did point out it kinda sorta sounds like a strip club name, but oh well. What’s done is done.

I am now solely self-employed between Skin by Deborah and Deborah Justine Photography. It feels fantastic. Somehow I wish I didn’t have 3 separate websites to keep up to date, but anyone who knows me, knows I like to stay busy. Busy it is. And busy hopefully it will stay. I work a lot of nights now which actually works great since I can tuck the kids into bed and then go do my thing. Since Greta is in school 4 mornings a week, I have freedom to schedule clients around those days as well. I feel so much better able to service my clients when it’s convenient for them. I hated having some clients rush over on their lunch hour to fit in a facial only to rush back to work. Now they can show up in their sweats and flip flops for a facial and then head home to take a nap or watch a movie.

I have put my new website into my blogroll and I feature specials every few months that I will post about on here as well.

This is a new chapter for me and a very exciting one. I feel like the timing was perfect, my confidence and certainty that this is the right move for me and my family was overwhelming. So, here we go 2010. Somehow I don’t think 2009 can be topped, but I’m about to try. . .

milestone!

I meant to post this last month, but the photo is on my iphone, so it took forever for me to remember to import it onto the computer. My camera, emptied everyday onto the computer. My phone? The phone that is plugged into the computer to charge every night? It’s more like a monthly upload. Better late than never. Greta’s first time writing her own name. And let me tell you, she’s a mad name writer now! On everything! Piece of paper and pen around? Look out, it will have Greta scrawled on it in no time!

I kept the paper, but don’t have a photo of the finished product. She added a girl under her name with, as Sawyer likes to point out, “legs coming out of it’s head!?” She hasn’t figured out how to draw the body part of her people yet. Even though she’s my third, some things are just as exciting as the the first time around.

I’m signing off for a blog break for the rest of the week and will be back next week. We have some skiing and snowboarding to attend to, but not to worry, snowy pictures of bundled up children waddling in their gear is awaiting you. Hopefully I don’t make the same embarrassing fall that I did during last year’s Mammoth trip. Our first trip of 2009 was to Mammoth and you can see a recap here, here, here and here. And then just as a family we headed up again to Mammoth last March, where you can watch how Gunnar’s snowboarding skillz improved quite a bit.

2009

I really wanted to get this finished by Friday, January 1st, but alas, having a husband who seems to work every single holiday, it just didn’t pan out. He had to work Christmas Day and again on New Year’s, and today too. So needless to say, I have my excuses, and their names are Gunnar, Sawyer, and Greta.

Anyways, it’s complete and I think it sums up our year pretty well. 2009 was most definitely the best year of our lives, and it seems that it’s a pattern. Each year just keeps getting better than the last. Don’t kid me wrong, we have our bumps and bruises, our arguments and tears, but last year was good to us.

A lot of the blogs I follow are summing up 2009 with the highlights from their year. But I think it’s only appropriate my highlights are the photos of our lives. It’s best in HD, so I think if you click on HD it will take you to the vimeo site and you can watch it in better quality.