My lovely Mother’s birthday is in the beginning of December, which is easy to lose somewhat in the busy holiday season. This year, since we now spend three days a week at their house while Adam’s working in the shop with Dad, I decided that we should have a fancy dinner. At first I thought I’d do a red and gold table since the centerpiece was already there, but those are the colors I’m planning for Christmas dinner at our house. I found the dark green tablecloth and the smaller plaid one and at that point it became a Tartan Christmas Birthday.

The best way to build the table was to add layers of color and texture without making it too busy. I started with a forest green tablecloth, then added the dark green plaid cloth next, finished with a small green and gold embroidered runner. The centerpiece is a small ruby red vase with holly berries and frosty white greenery.

The plates are a simple but woodsy pattern with dark green borders. At first I thought the olive patterned napkins would clash, but the other options were much too busy, and since they weren’t touching the tablecloth it worked visually. Layered  on top is a cut glass bowl topped with a spray of pine and a sprig of holly.

To finish the look each person got a (non-matching) china teacup! Because no meal is complete without several cups of tea.

I know this is a little late but hopefully I’ll be more on top of things now. I’ll admit this summer has been a bit of a wild ride with a lot of unexpected twists and turns. I believe that God is using these experiences to lead us towards new places and exciting changes to come. So for now it’s time to buckle down and do what needs to be done in the present while looking forward to all the possibilities beckoning from the not so distant future!

But on to other things. Here is the August calendar page featuring the photo “Branching Out.”

To print the calendar, click on the image which will open it in it’s own window. Right click and “save image”, so you can print it however you prefer from your computer. The document is sized at 4×6. This is a non-editable file for personal use only.

Going for a walk in the woods – age 2

Riding the tiger at the zoo.

Enjoying a Valentine’s Day treat.

Water melon season! (Notice the trend of wearing Daddy’s sunglasses)

4th Birthday – Ballerina

]]> http://erinbeutel.wordpress.com/2011/05/12/my-little-girl/feed/ 1 erinbeutel Jazzy film strip going for a walk tiger tamer valentine watermelon jazzy's 4th birthday http://erinbeutel.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/may-calendar-page/ http://erinbeutel.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/may-calendar-page/#comments Mon, 02 May 2011 11:37:13 +0000 erinbeutel http://erinbeutel.wordpress.com/?p=395 Continue reading »

Well that month went quickly-yikes! We’ve had incredible amounts of rain here in Ohio, and it’s been relatively cold all month, so naturally our flowers are a little behind. Our tulips are still blooming and the lilacs just popped. The upside is that it’s also a lush green jungle now that we’ve had a few warm sunny days. (The picture above is from a walk we took in the woods at Mom and Dad’s on Easter weekend). We’re getting ready to dig into gardening and outdoor projects now . I think this year we’ll diversify the plantings a little. Last summer we had way more tomatoes and peppers than we needed. The chest freezer is still fairly well stocked with frozen corn, green beans, applesauce, jam, apple cider, strawberries, peppers and a few tomatoes. I guess we have some eating to do before we start putting up again!

Good news – I remembered to do the May calendar page! Jasmine picked out the photo for me and I think it was a good choice. I’ve decided to try a new look and go with square photos, which I really like. When the month is over you can cut it off at the little gray lines on the sides and have a 4×4 print to frame or put on a card as a lovely little gift!

To print the calendar, click on the image which will open it in it’s own window. Right click and “save image”, so you can print it however you prefer from your computer. The document is sized at 4×6. This is a non-editable file for personal use only. Let me know if this method works well for you or if I should be looking for a new one. Thanks!

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I can’t believe it’s already April! Especially since this morning there was an inch of snow on the ground. Thankfully most of it has melted off by now. Above is my “Purple Dreams” print – I can’t wait for the flowers to start blooming again! This weekend I’m thrilled to be heading to my friend Kaleigh’s wedding. My mom is doing her flowers and I’m going along to photograph them. This is the third wedding she’s done flowers for and she is really good! These are a few pictures of my wedding flowers (mom did these). My bouquet on top, bridesmaids on bottom. Photos courtesy of Wade Mullet and Kimberly Glick.

I’m also hoping to grab some artsy pictures of the decor. I’ve been reading David DuChemin’s book “Visionmongers: Making a Life and Living in Photography” (amazing author and photographer!) and I’ve been taking stock of what I’m good at photographically and what I would like to aim for in the future, and I think what I’d really like to do some day is take pictures for books, magazines, or maybe second string at weddings for the artistic shots of flowers, tables, rings, programs, you get the idea. Right now I’m mildly obsessed with the Stampington and Company magazines like Artful Blogging, Where Women Create, Somerset Life, and Where Women Cook. The photos alone are fantastic and so inspiring. Other places for inspiration are Victoria magazine and of course Etsy! Hopefully I’ll be posting some cool shots from the wedding at some point soon.

One last thing before I go today. Hello April, here is the new calendar page! I’m not sure if they’re cherry or pink apple blossoms, but they’re gorgeous either way.

To print the calendar, click on the image which will open it in it’s own window. Right click and “save image”, so you can print it however you prefer from your computer. The document is sized at 4×6. This is a non-editable file for personal use only. These are great displayed in a small acrylic frame, or magnetic pocket for the fridge or any other way you choose. If you have a great way to display yours I’d love to see pictures!

Mmmmmmm breakfast – I’m a huge breakfast fan! Usually I just eat a bowl of cereal in the morning, but breakfast foods are great any time of day. Waffles, pancakes, french toast, coffee cake, breakfast burritos, scrambled eggs, omelets, chocolate cream of wheat. . .I’m making myself hungry now, but you get the picture. In the last few weeks I’ve had some trouble getting Connor to eat much breakfast, particularly things that I don’t have to cook first. Since Adam moved to his new early morning schedule at work, I’ve been making granola again so that he has something to eat on his morning coffee break. All the sudden I remembered how we used to eat muesli in Nepal and how Dad still mixes his with yogurt and fruit. To make ours, I mixed equal parts Vanilla and Plain yogurt, added a handful of granola and topped it off with a few slices of fresh strawberry and home canned peaches. Hurray! Both kids loved it! (I did too.)

Something I’ve been wanting to work on lately is some recipe cards with cool photos of food on them. I thought a recipe for granola was the perfect opportunity to “have a go at it”, as Jasmine likes to say! To print the recipe, click on the image which will open it in it’s own window. Right click and “save image”, so you can print it however you prefer from your computer. The document is sized at 4×6.

These are a few pics of my adorable little boy (beware, biased opinions ahead!) I took these while he was waiting for mommy to get him out of his highchair so he could go play. This lens, the VIvitar 70-210mm f/3.8, is just fabulous. I scored this fantastic piece of glass for a mere $17 on ebay! I love it for shooting kids because you can get a nice close-up without getting in their faces.

Connor started walking about two weeks ago, and he’s so cute! I love watching his little zombie walk as he cruises around the house non-stop. The last few days he’s started making some word sounds that actually sound like words! “Cracker” is the most common of course, being a boy he’s a snack maniac.

To print the page, click on the image which will open it in it’s own window. I give you permission to right click and “save image” since at this point that’s the easiest way to print it! The document is sized at 4×6. Please note: colors differ from one monitor to another, so the colors that print might differ slightly from your screen! This is a non-editable file for personal use only. These are great displayed in a small acrylic frame, or magnetic pocket for the fridge or any other way you choose.

One other thing I wanted to share was my new treasury. There are so many beautiful things on Etsy it’s hard to choose what to include! I don’t have time to make them all the time but I love doing it.

Click on the picture to view it on Etsy!

I just want to say I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE my Vivitar lenses. This is my newest  and second. I got it on Ebay for $47. (Score!). It is a relatively hard to come by lens, now that Pentax users have discovered its awesomeness, or at least so I hear on the Pentax Forums. For those of you who don’t know, I pretty much exclusively use old film lenses since they work beautifully on my Pentax K20d and are so much cheaper than digital. Really I wouldn’t have any lenses if it weren’t for that. Aside from the fact that I was already an avid Pentax lover before I switched to digital, the other main reason to stay with them was to use old lenses. I now have two fantastic Vivitars: the 70-210mm f/3.8, and more recently the Vivitar 28mm f/2.8 Close Focus. I will be posting more pics this weekend from these beauties, so stay tuned! The photo above is me with the 28mm.

I’ve been wanting to print something at Moo for a while. I love all their products but I didn’t have the money or need until recently. I decided that with the christmas season coming up I should make some bookmarks to sell or give as gifts. Many people use the mini cards as bookmarks but I was looking for a way to do a more standard 2 x 6. After thinking about it I decided I would make use of Moo’s postcards. I sorted through thousands of photos to pick the 40 that I thought would make the best bookmarks and arranged them in Photoshop, two images per postcard.

When they arrived I was thrilled to see how gorgeous they looked. They are super high quality heavy paper with a fabulous glossy coating. All I had to do was turn them into my final product. Each card was cut, punched and threaded with a coordinating ribbon. I have to say I am notorious for not using bookmarks even though I read voraciously, however after seeing these I think I want to keep them all!  Perfect stocking stuffers or small gifts for any occasion, these are a great way to add a dash of beauty and art to your everyday life. I will be adding them to my Etsy shop so be ready to snap up your favorites! I’m looking forward to coming up with new images to add to the next round of printing from Moo!

<a href=”http://moo.com/link/h3fq” title=”MOO: Much more than Business Cards” alt=”Inspiration – moo.com”><img src=”http://www.moo.com/is/o/cb412815-2149-558545ee-4c876727-f64e.jpeg”></a>