100 Posts!

I can't believe I've already hit 100 since I only started this blog a few months ago...

For post number 100 I'm excited to share that Ella's birthday party was featured today on a fabulous blog called Totally Tabletops. It has party and entertaining ideas and all sorts of good stuff- check it out!

Consumer Guide for Custom Photography

I highly recommend reading this article if you are interested in having your child's portraits or your family portraits taken. It's a good read and highly informative.

It is helpful in understanding why photographers charge what they do, the time involved on the photographer's end that you don't see, and why investing in custom portraiture is one of the best options for truly capturing your family.

You will notice that many photographers will not have a link for 'pricing' but rather they have a link for 'investment.' I truly believe that it's just that. An investment.

Ella's first photograph

Ella was sitting on my lap and pushing buttons on my camera while it rested on the counter (don't worry, I was supervising and holding the strap). I didn't notice it until a few hours later, but she'd captured her first image. And I think it's so beautiful. Perhaps I'll frame this lovely assortment of books and magazines.

Roses

I am extremely picky when it comes to roses. I'm not a huge fan to begin with, so they have to be truly something to behold in order to catch my attention. I've worked in enough flower shops over the years to know which roses bloom the best, bloom the longest, are the most fragrant, etc.

Red are my least favorite for many reasons, so you can imagine my disappointment when I went to Costco for roses (they have fantastic roses at a great price) to decorate for Ella's tea party and the best looking variety were red. However, they looked gorgeous, matched our red and blue color scheme, and smelled lovely.

Even though I took care of them properly, I fully expected them to last only a few days and then die (they generally bloom fully, they just wilt and die) like the red ones always do. I was pleasantly surprised with this gorgeous result four days in.... lovely. Lucky me!

Ella's Tea Party

We love England. Kyle and I met and fell in love while attending a semester abroad in London, and then returned for graduate school a few years later at Oxford. We found out we were pregnant and spent my first trimester in England, so all three of us have lived there... sort of. We thought it would be fitting to have a tea party to celebrate Ella's first birthday.

We hosted the event at our little apartment. We had the food set on our table and all the the desserts spread on the counter and it worked well considering our limited space. We put away all our pictures in the living room and hung up our favorite pictures of London in their places.

In keeping with the British theme, everything was blue and red. The paper tablecloth was from Ikea (and perfect since we had kids running around... no risk of pulling down the fabulous pewter on their heads), we picked up 2 dozen roses from Costco to dress up the tables, spread red votives everywhere, and teapots, double decker buses, and phone booths, etc. We found Ritter Sport, Cadbury chocolate, mint meltaways, chocolate digestive biscuits (amazing British cookies) at local specialty stores, and we had blue and white take-away boxes filled with homemade caramels as favors for our guests.

I've never had so much fun putting together a table in my life. My Mom brought down some of her cake stands to add to my pewter collection (all from Old Town Imports) and I love how the pewter dressed up the table.

The food was delicious and I especially loved the ribbon sandwiches and the lemon tarts. My sister Erin designed the oh-so-fabulous invitations (we took off our last name and address to post here). I found the free graphic of the Tower Bridge she used through this fabulous blog...

Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us! Happy Birthday Ella...