I am officially on a 6 week hiatus from Target which started on Thursday. I was going pretty strong as far as making work for Woodland then I was given more hours at work. Great for helping to pay for all things art fair related, not so great for actually making work. I do feel bad that I am leaving at such a busy time (my store is categorized as "super freaky" for the back to school/back to college season) but I am grateful that Target allows me the freedom to take the time off to pursue my art. I am also super thankful for the rapid rate at which my vacation now accrues (a benefit of being with the company for 15 years) and that I have a ton stored up so I'll be getting paid the whole time. Win!

Woodland is less than a month away now. Holy. Crap. I have taken care of most of the things not in-the-studio related. My booth has arrived, I have a tent, U-Haul is reserved, and I finally got in touch with a tax lawyer who is helping me with all the confusing (to me) business set-up stuff. I still need to order signing and of course, make a bunch more stuff. I had set a goal as far as how many pieces to make but everyone I talk to is all like, oh my gosh, make sure you have a TON of stuff, you'll need it!!  I am happy that Woodland has such a good reputation and that people seem to have so much faith in my work but now I am like, Oh shiiiiiitttt. What if I don't have enough stuffff???? So yes. I'll be busy for the next month but I am SO excited!! 

I'll be honest, this was only my second maternity session. Ever. I chuckle when I think of the first one with my friends Dana and Travis and how they posed with a metal snake sculpture outside of the UK Art Museum and made it look like the snake was attacking Dana and Travis was protecting her. Funny? Yes. Cheesy? A little, but not even close to bad enough to belong on a list of the Worst Maternity Photos EVER. (seriously, check out this list-I've never seen the photos on this one before...WOW). Anyway. I was really pleased with the way the photos turned out.

We started by taking a few photos in Lillian's future nursery. I may have squeed over the little stuffed owl and the pinwheels. Love them so much. I also loved the vintage silhouettes and had to use them in a photo. 

Next we moved on to Castlewood Park. I think I did a pretty good job of getting Chase to come out of his shell a bit :) 

Amanda was (and still is for a few more weeks!) the very definition of the beautiful, glowing pregnant woman. Her hair-I coveted it. So shiny and beautiful and curly. Since being pregnant I have become envious of baby bumps. I am glad that Amanda and I are friends and so every once in a while I get to feel Lillian moving around :) 

There is so much emotion surrounding pregnancy, including, but certainly not limited to, happiness, excitement, and love. Amanda and Chase, I hope that I have captured those emotions in your photos and that you treasure them always. Baby Lillian is due very soon and I cannot wait to meet her!

I hope you had a nice relaxing 4th. I had to work (yay for time and a half!) but we celebrated the 4th on the 3rd at a friend's house with lots of grilled meat and other goodies. Ruby and her friends (10 girls, 1 boy, ranging in age from 1-5...damn, we reproduce a lot!) ran around catching lightning bugs. At first she didn't know what the heck was going on but when she realized that they were bugs she was like heck yeah! Amazingly she did not smoosh a single one! 

This 4th marked Ruby's first sparklers and her first fireworks. As soon as one sparkler burnt out she was asking for another. She was very mesmerized by them. During the *cough* illegal fireworks she plugged her ears and asked repeatedly to hold me (daddy wasn't good enough, apparently) but when they were all done she asked for more. 

She was up past her bedtime but is usually pretty good as long as she is distracted. Before we left I changed her and put on her pajamas, that way, when we got home we could throw her right into bed. At home she went right down and I followed shortly after. How did you celebrate the 4th this year? 

Yesterday Ruby started a 4-week class at a local gymnastics place. I made the mistake of not bringing an extra set of clothes and so of course her shirt was covered in tomato soup (no biggie) when I picked her up from daycare and she decided to take a massive poo that creeped up and out the back of her diaper (biggie). A little water later and Ruby took to the mats, her pants a little damp, but hey, you do what you gotta do.

 As I figured she would she had a great time swinging, jumping and running around like the high energy kids she is. To us, her craziness is normal if not a little tiring. It's when I get around other kids who are so quiet and that generally stay in one place that I start to wonder if something is wrong with her! 

No, really, I don't think there is anything wrong with her but when she is the only kid in a group of 6 who isn't following the teachers instruction nicely and is instead running to and fro you start to wonder. Maybe you're thinking, just make her stop and listen! Well, I would welcome you to try my friend. She is a force to be reckoned with. Thankfully the instructor didn't seem to think that this was abnormal so I did my best to keep her focused but then just kind of let her do her thing. Which she did. 

If you know me at all you know that I am not a germaphobe. Those foam blocks? They grossed me out. When I jumped into the pit to catch Ruby as she jumped from the side my feet touched the bottom and it was wet. Wet with what I don't want to know. Gross. Plus you could just feel the foam particles everywhere, like they were sticking to your skin. Yuck. I'm sure I inhaled some. Not pictured, me trying to haul my ass out of the foam pit. It was about seven, maybe eight feet deep and not very easy to maneuver around it. As I pulled my ass over the side I was all like You'd better not be getting pictures of this! and Heath was all like it's too late mwuahahahahaaaa!. Little does he know of my editing prowess! Mwahahahaha!  Although I may be keeping a couple of them around to hang on the fridge for a little motivation.

My main goal with the class was to get her out of the house, doing something physical but not (very) controlled, for us to spend time together, and of course the fact that she'd more than likely go to sleep without any trouble whatsoever did not cross my mind at all. 

Recently I had the privilege of documenting a little snippet in time for Amanda and Chase, just 4 weeks (give or take) until the arrival of their baby girl, Lillian! Here's a little peek:

Full post coming soon!