Indoors is Good

We snuck in a little impromptu photo shoot the other day while the girls were playing in the guest room. I'm glad we did - I love these casual and fun pictures. I'm definitely an outdoor photographer at heart - but sometimes, indoors is good too!

Only 10

Before January is over, I have to account for my other resolution from 2010, which was to buy only 10 items of clothing. I found this was quite a polarizing idea when talking with other people. Either you buy way more than that in a typical year or you haven't shopped for yourself since you had kids to drag into the dressing room with you!

Well, I find that I'm such a good bargain shopper - when it comes to clothes - that I aquire more than I need because it's a good deal. Some of these deals are not things I dearly love or wear often. So, to curb that habit (and because we watched Confessions of a Shopaholic, which scared me to pieces) I decided to try this and see if I could do it.

The cruise we took in June and family pictures took up several of my items - but it proves it can be done! Also, Gavin sweetly bought me a pair of pants for our anniversary, which I didn't have to count. Otherwise, honestly, this is all I bought for myself last year.


Red sweater for family pictures. I love it and wear it all the time.


Long wool sweater, love this for layering.


Something sparkly for the holidays.

Got to have a wide brown belt, right? I didn't count scarves or jewelry, but I did count shoes - which I did not buy all year.

Got sucked in when shopping in the fall. But, classic colors and 3/4 sleeves are good year round.

Love, love this dress. I had watched in online for awhile and then, just before my birthday the boutique was closing it's doors - so I snatched it on clearance! Lucky birthday present for me.


Nice button-up white shirt is a necessity - like the texture of this one.

Long black dress for the cruise. Actually super comfortable and still formal-looking.

Swimsuit top - for the cruise. I could be happy never buying (or wearing) a swimming suit.

Red jacket for the cruise. And my favorite color.

There it is. Not sure what goal to undertake in this area this year. I'm thinking of the 1 in- 1 out rule. Ideas?

Refashion Goal

For 2010 I set a goal to do 10 refashions. That went along with my other goal to only buy 10 items of clothing - more on that later.

Here are 10 refashions for 2010...

This beauty came from a sheet - also became a dress for Eleanor and Katie.

I sent Gavin to the fabric store to buy me some black tulle. It cost him $0.19, which he had to charge on the credit card. We never carry cash.

I love these flowers - made from fabric from another old t-shirt.

I think this one is my favorite of the year. I bought this men's XXXL shirt for $2 from JCPenney, so there was lots of fabric to work with.

This was a two-fer. Bought this Sara Jessica Parker jumper from the DI couple years ago just because I liked the fabric. I cut it apart and made the skirt, then cut out some flowers from the extra fabric to use as appliques on the shirt. The lace edge also came from the jumper.

Fun reverse-applique scarf from two of Gavin's old shirts.

This was a refashion squared. I previously tried to make this into the flower-petal embellished shirt, but the fabric is so soft it curled all up in the wash. So, I took off all the flower petals and used some strips of fabric to embelish with this curlique design - taking advantage of the fact that I knew it would curl up. Like it much better.

There you have it. I don't think I have any plain t-shirts left in my closet, but it was a fun year!

Baby It's Cold Outside

That never stops me from going outside with my camera. I love catching frost on everything.




Too bad my electric blanket just died. I guess I'll turn on the fireplace and drink hot chocolate!

Bugs

Santa was very sweet to get us a family membership to the Butterfly Pavilion this year. We took the chance to go before Eleanor headed back to school. The girls had a great time!

Ok, I had a great time too. A year full of photographing butterflies sounds like fun to me!

Eleanor had two butterflies land on her. Maybe it was her lucky butterfly shirt.

I tried not to look too closely at the Tarantula exhibit. Eww, creepy. These two didn't mind.

A Very Merry Christmas

We enjoyed a very peaceful Christmas. It was fun to see Eleanor and Katie so excited! My favorite line of the season was Eleanor saying, "Some kids don't believe in Santa Claus. Then what's that red light in the sky, reindeer pulling an empty sleigh?!"

Eleanor designed this Ernie doll for Katie all by herself. She drew the pattern and cut out all the pieces. It turned out adorable and Katie loves it!

Gavin's not too old to need a toy for Christmas.

Here I am being pleasantly surprised by the present Katie bought me while we were out shopping together. :)

And here is Katie enjoying all her Christmas presents at the same time! I think her own bag of goldfish might have been her favorite gift!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

When it looked like a White Christmas at home was just a dream, we had to take action and go find snow elsewhere. So, we bundled up on Christmas Eve and headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park to go sledding with some friends. We didn't see much snow until about 10,000ft!


Seeing this Winter Wonderland was well worth the drive. This is Katie's favorite type of sledding, by the way.

Eleanor enjoying some air time! She played for hours until she couldn't feel her feet any more.

It was a beautiful day! After a few freezing hours we were ready to get home to a warm dinner and cozy Christmas eve.