Cousin Gingerbread Party

Last weekend we got together with some cousins to build gingerbread houses!

The structure of my house had some trouble in the beginning, but I got it standing before the night was through.

Matt and Jessica are so cute! I've always loved Matt, and Jess is such a great fit for him!

Melissa and Tyler- well, not as "Cute" but lots of personality :) Thanks for hosting you two, Killer party!

Allison, me and Melissa. I love my girl cousins! We missed Sarah and Rebecca!

Do we look alike?

Awkward Things About Pregnancy

Here is an awkward post inspired by Betsy.

These are a few things that have happened lately:

1. Having a ~50 year old lady at work that you don't really know or like pat your belly.

2. Throwing up in a plastic bag at the produce section of the grocery store.

3. Putting on "belly butter" daily.

4. Leaving a church meeting early because your clothes are seriously too tight.

5. Gaining 10 lbs in 13 weeks.

6. Weighing less at 20 weeks pregnant than you did a year prior when you weren't pregnant.

7. Someone looking you up and down, then asking "Do you have indegestion?" To which you respond, "No. I am growing a person."

Festival of Trees

I've regretted not going to the Festival of Trees for the past 3 years!

I almost didn't make it again this year, but we pulled through, and it was totally worth it! The Festival of Trees has been going on for 41 years as a fundraiser for Primary Children's Hospital in SLC. It is so impressive to see all the trees/quilts/wreaths made and donated for this cause. Individuals, families and businesses can contribute and then the trees are auctioned off for... lots and lots of money. Many of the trees are dedicated to children who have either passed away or are currently battling a terminal disease. Their stories are written on the back of the plaques. I only read 2, both of them had my crying so I had to stop reading them. They were too sad. I think I was especially sensitive to the sad stories about these babies and young kids since I am growing one of my own!

Here is a world/travel themed tree:

My dad's firm Stoel Rives has a branch in Salt Lake who decorated this tree:

Each tree had such variety and was totally different from the next!

Stoel Rives' was a sock monkey tree!

Here is a White House gingerbread house! So impressive!

Lots of Disney themed trees and things. Here is a cute one from Tangled:

Mom- this quilt screamed your name!

We took this photo for our friend Margene- it had sand dollars and beachy things all through it!

And you want to know the coolest part? As we were standing in line for tickets, this man came up and told us that 2 from his party couldn't make it- And then he gave us his extra tickets! Talk about spreading some Christmas cheer! Loved that!

Guest Post

Today I am guest posting over at my good friend Amy's blog, Naptime Crafters. So head on over and check out what I have to say about holiday photography tips!

But for today, here is my version of the "Pee Pee Teepee." These are becoming more and more popular as protection for moms and dads against their little boys!

I used the most boy-ish looking material I had on hand for the outside, and a soft fleece for the inside!

I started by cutting out my fabric to the template of a bowl from our kitchen. Just use anything you can find with ~6" diameter. Then, cut the circle in half to form a half circle :)

Sew around the curve, right sides together, of course!

Then, iron out the curve.

Finally, sew a single line connecting the two sides to form a teepee shape. I did a second zig zag stitch just to secure it, but you don't have to.

DIY Camera Bay

I really love my new camera purse! For a total of $25 (instead of $90 + shipping for the similar Jo Totes bag) I came up with a camera bag I love! Shopping for the purse was the hardest part. I wanted something with a base to it, a flat part on the bottom. It needed a zipper closure on top. Not too big, not too small! And, I am glad I ended up with a classic black exterior! Oh, and it had to have handles that were the perfect length. It's the worst when you can't get it over your shoulder comfortably.

Because it's black on the outside, I wanted to make it a party on the inside! So I got 1/2 yard of this fun upholstery fabric on sale for $5/yard at Joanns. Love it!

I really didn't follow any method in making this, I just took it one step at a time and it was done in about 3 hours. As with any project, it would go much faster if I made another, now that I know what I'm doing. I used a 1 inch foam for the base, and 1/2 inch foam for the sides and dividers. Measure, cut and fit the foam before sewing the fabric case.

Once you have your foam pieces cut and you've put in your camera body and lenses to make sure it all fits, then cut your fabric!

I sewed the two long sides right sides together first and then put in the foam- the case was about an inch bigger than the foam at this point. We have to leave fabric to connect the foam pieces!

Then I pinned the fabric right next to the foam. Next step, sew it up! I probably could have been more exact with this, but it turned out great, so no complaints :)

Once the sides were done, I just folded in the extra fabric at the ends and top-stitched them closed. Sewing is much less time consuming when you're not flipping things inside out and ironing and measuring all the time. (I do all those things normally, just not with this project!)

Then I tried velcro-ing (sp?) the 1/2 in sides to the 1 in base, but the velcro wouldn't stay attached to the fabric without velcro adhesive... I just had a lot of trouble with it. So I ended up taking that off and just did a basting stitch to connect the pieces together. It went very quickly, looks nice, and I think it will hold much better than velcro in the long run.

So this is the inside once the sides and dividers were attached.

And everything fits inside quite nicely :) There is a lot of space on the right side, I am considering adding a vertical divider, or I will just put miscellaneous things in that section.

I've read on photography forums that this is the best position to store your camera body- lens up! Any thoughts?

And there's the beauty:

Very excited not to lug my huge camera bag around when I'm downtown or when doing a mini session. (not a great pic of me, but it kind of shows the size of the bag.)

23rd Birthday

My 23rd birthday was pretty much killer! Scott and I both worked a half day, and then got ourselves to Tucano's as fast as possible! It was better than I remembered :) The meat, the ensalada caprese, the pineapple! SO good!

After a quick knife demo at Williams Sonoma, we went to my glass blowing class at this shop in Lehi. They blow glass and do stained glass pieces for seemingly every temple in the world. It was pretty cool. I felt like the apprentice to my favorite artist, Dale Chihuly.

He's showing me what I'm about to do.

And now here I am! Gloves, large tweezers and ready to stretch that glass!

Thanks so much Scott for arranging this cool opportunity and making it happen! You're AWESOME!

And then, my Birthday Fondue Extravaganza!

Plenty of food and plenty of friends!

I wish I'd gotten a picture with everyone!

I was so happy that so many friends made such an effort to be there! It was great to reconnect and catch up!

As far as presents go... stay tuned for my BIG present that is a Birthday/Christmas combo!

Hathaway Christmas

Since we'll be in Washington for the real Christmas, we celebrated Christmas Hathaway style the weekend after Thanksgiving! Decorations go up! And stockings are open! Santa was very good to us. Specialized Sees candy and Bath and Body Works soap!

A trip to Sundance was in order!

We saw some cool glass blowing and kept our eyes out for Robert Redford.

No luck.

And later, presents!

Scott really loved his gifts. Months ago, he mentioned these glasses that would make him feel like a king with every sip. So I logged it away, and had them wrapped under the tree for our pseudo Christmas. Well Saturday morning Scott ran to grab some things at the store, and he came back with 2 boxes of the exact glasses that were under the tree!

Luckily SueAnn liked them too, so the other set didn't go to waste! And no returns for me!

John got us each an awesome Colombia titanium waterproof shell! We were not expecting them at all and really love them! I don't think I've rocked my gangsta pose since college. Wow.

And we finally got around to eating dinner at 10:45! Well, we sort of had a mix up with the meat which delayed our eating time. Everybody had a good laugh and we ended up eating our traditional prime rib before the day was done.

Scott was very eager.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!