Sophy in the Splash Pad

We had a little photo "mini-session" with Ryan. These were a couple of my favorites and it's how we found out that Sophy loves herself some splash padding! It's also how I found out that the water features in the park are called Splash Pads. Who knew?

 

Canvas Pop

This might be my new favorite item in the house. I took the pic as her regular pre-school pic. That night I was playing around doing some afterlighting on it then posted it on Instagram. I kind of loved it immediately. Shortly after I got an email that Canvas Pop had reclaimed wood frames. It was meant to be.

For a pretty hefty price (~$100), I ordered it. Hoping it would look good. I love, love, love it. This pic is just so perfect for her and a great color. The wood frame is fantastic. They've got a 30% sale right now and I may have done some Christmas purchasing. I'm not sure how I occupied my time pre-baby, iPhone/iPad mini and apps.

Anyway, I was not in any way paid or coerced to pimp out Canvas Pop, Instagram, Afterlight. Not that I wouldn't be willing, just no offers forthcoming. It's early in the picture season and I really am going to need to pace myself. That toddler is just too cute!

Blah

This was pretty much what I got when I tried to get Sophy out the door this morning. I can't really blame her. I kinda feel like that myself. 

Just in case you thought she was always picture ready. Not so much.

Weekend Round Up

Sophy had a fantastic time with Aunt Anita and Granny. She was more than happy to share how she'd like everyone to behave for pictures. Lots of snuggles and adventures on Friday while Mommy and Daddy were at work. Lots of shopping and tasty food and just hanging out.

The willing babysitters meant we ventured out for a movie, Elysium, which Rolland loved and I found meh. We did see it at the new DFW Alamo Drafthouse and I really wanted to love the theater but it was also just meh. It was 108 out and felt like it was 98 in the theater. The food was pretty tasty though. I had a baked pretzel with hatch chile queso... yum. It was disappointing when eaten next to someone smelly. Ick.

Monday we caught up on Top Chef Masters. I've been hoarding episodes. I'm really enjoying Francis Lam as a guest. He was a favorite on Cooking Channels "Unique Eats" and "Food(ography)".  I'm also ready for Sang to get off my TV. I usually love TCM more than Top Chef just because everyone's established and plays nice. There's always somebody who's kind of an ass (Michael Chiarello) but this is usually rare. I love the camaraderie and the season with Jonathan Waxman will always be a favorite. This year feels a little more bitchy.

Finally, we're caught up on visits for a while so it's time to start the crazy "to do list". Pray for me.

Saturday Car Ride and Shopping

The family visit has been lots of fun with car rides, tasty food and shopping. Sophy prefers the car rides to shopping but does enjoy running full speed through all of the racks so there's that. I found shopping highly successful with an entirely new pj wardrobe. Mine were looking ratty and are now almost fully replaced. Woo hoo!

I'm a little worried with all of the Fashion Week talk on the intranets I could succumb to a serious shopping binge. I've really been pretty good about the spending (except for the boxes that came to the house this week...uhm.  Ooops. Most were gifts I promise! For real!)

Update post lunch and nap: new jeans and plain white t-shirt. Multiple Sophy outfits. Couple of gifts also purchased. Macy's sale was decent.

Photoshop Apps

I'm trying to make use of the fancy DSLR and have been incredibly inspired by the blogger-nets (I kind of hate the term blogosphere. I don't know why). Some major favorites are Under the Sycamore, Meg's Whatever blog  which totally captures kids and Kansas for me. It reminds me of my summers when I was growing up. On the flip side, the city pics on Sweet Fine Day are a different kind of greatness. Urban playgrounds and city kids are fun to see. Finally, the food porn, plus kid, plus island pics and other awesomeness of Gluten Free Girl's blog gets me through the crazy Texas heat. Day dreaming of picnics on an island in the Pacific Northwest... sigh. BUT, I did see the sign for the Texas State Fair so fall really IS almost here!

This is a tiny subset of the blogs I read with lots gorgeous photos and decorating/beauty shots. However, these stand out for me as they capture everyday moments. Making them magical, particularly with kids. Sophy is growing at a crazy rate and she's at school while we're at work so I have less of an opportunity to see her everyday interactions with world. I want to have a record of this time when she's exploring, learning and finds everything pretty nifty. This is what I will hold on to when she's slamming her door and screaming "I hate you". She can even watch me weep over the pics after I remove her door for slamming it but that's an entirely different thing. Let's not dwell. Not ready, not ready!

I've waxed poetic~ish about my love of apps on my phone and really, really wanted something similar for Photoshop. Turns out, there kind of is! I read about Totally Rad Lab on Ashley's blog but couldn't quite figure it out but found they had a free trial so I started playing with it. Now I'm hooked. It's a lot more of a commitment than my $1.99 phone apps but so far I think it's worth it. I hope I'm not spoiling anything for the family, but photo stuff is my new gift go to so I feel like I can justify the cost. Kinda. I hope my husband doesn't read this. :O

So here is an example of a "before and after" with Totally Rad.

Before

After

I cropped the poop out of it so you can get closer to the tiny toddler in the photo. I know there's a lot going on but I wanted to really get that feeling from the splash park. There may have been a little fixation on the rainbows. I don't want to talk about that either. Rainbows rule! Anyway, the super processed feel you see on phone apps is a favorite but this isn't a look for everyone. They have a lot of options for some subtle adjustments. I may have mentioned I'm not much of a "less is more" kind of girl.

The next set are from Pioneer Woman. I kind of have a love/hate relationship with PW in that I used to love her but after she turned into a giant marketing brand the "simple prairie girl" vibe was kind of lost. I do love her photos though. Recipes... eh.

Before

Ok, so this one has the tiny toddler making a break for it with Daddy's shadow at the bottom of the pic. I kind of love it which is why I end up keeping all of my photos in an "originals" folder taking up huge amounts of space. I'll figure out something with picture hoarding after I conquer my actual "stuff" hoarding. Anyway, back to the photo. And then it became...

After

This. I did want to crop it a little tighter though to get more of Sophy in the pic again. I also really modified the contrast and did a major sepia moment. I wish I would have rotated the image, you know, so that it's straight (OY!) but I didn't. I think on the whole most wouldn't find it a successful photo but I kind of love it. She's just on the edge of exploring on her own. Ready to break free and find adventure. That's a moment I want to have forever.

To Do List

I always like to see people making lists since I'm a list lover from way back. Anna at Door Sixteen has some ambitious home project lists which inspired me to do the same. Also, I need the public shaming since the private list making isn't really getting me anywhere. This is a post-Labor Day list since we've got family coming and then we're free to run wild! It's pretty ambitious but here goes:

1. Move everything out of the studio/guest room
2. Remove the quarter round molding from around the floor
3. Patch quarter round holes
4. Remove laminate floor
5. Paint the walls
6. Paint molding
7. Install wood tile floor
8. Grout said floor
9. Rearrange and move everything back in to look like this or this or this. Or not.
10. Remove quarter round in the hallway
11. Patch quarter round holes 
12. Paint the hallway
13. Paint the molding
14. Convince Rolland I need a shiny sparkly chandelier (really love this) in the hallway
15. Put down tile
16. Grout tile
17. Move everything out of Sophy's room
18. Remove the quarter round from around the floor
19. Patch quarter round holes 
20. Remove the laminate floor
21. Paint? It's really, really pink and makes everything weird in pics. May just knock it down a couple of shades
22. Paint molding to cover hole patches
23. May consider a new light fixture since it's also crazy dim... Rolland really might kill me. :O  Maybe just use existing hanging IKEA light over rocking chair and add a switch?
24. Install wood tile floors
25. Grout floors
26. Build built-ins and window seat along window wall
27. Figure out how to make/find a seat cushion for window seat
28. Move all back in and hope she's still got a reasonable sleep schedule

Take a break for Christmas!

Sunday Splash Padding

It's been a super busy weekend but we took some time this morning for a doughnut and park run. We had a mini-session with Ryan last weekend and Sophy loved the fountains. Today was more of the same!

Diptic App

I'm still playing with my iPhone/iPad photos and trying out some new apps. I'm a bit of a photo app hoarder. Sigh. A lot of the experiments end up on Instagram. Usually late at night. You know, to hide the app hoarding via publicly posting on the intranet. This was not a well thought out plan.

These were made with the Diptic App which I'm still kind of meh about. I think it's fun and I do enjoy looking at all of the Sophy faces but I don't see this taking over for some of my standby's. Mostly, I don't see myself taking a ton of photos that lend themselves to grouping this way although I'm willing to do some foodie samplings to try it. Might be an interesting was to gather some travel shots for a book... well hell, I may be talking myself into finding more uses for it now! Oy.

I have 4 more days to finish my SnapShops class. I really hope I make it.

Sophy and the Bicycles

When we were in Oklahoma last weekend, we stopped in Ardmore at the Cloverleaf. I have a follow up post, just to drag those two days out even further, but this is a quick Sophy-centric post. She loved all of the bicycles outside the shop and had to take a closer look.

Five on Friday

It's Five on Friday time again link up at a.liz ... I kind of skipped the last couple week for reasons unknown.

5. We're doing a quick summer mini-session with Ryan on Sunday so I'm obsessing over outfits. Still have no idea what's "cute" but can get "wet". Those are sort of mutual exclusive for me. Oy. My true obsession about this is mpix. I'm seriously addicted to their print services. They make all my pics look great and I order nearly everything in the lustre finish for this fantastic metallicy finish. LOVE. I also use their app for pics on my phone and it's amazing.
Note: they did not in anyway ask me to pimp out there services, I just have to share my new photo printing addiction. If they want to give me benefits for pimping there goodies I wouldn't say no!

4. iPhone photography. I just got my DSLR fixed and took it on our mini-trip. I may have posted 1.2 million photos online. Not sure if you saw. Here or here. But, I don't normally carry the big fancy camera around but I always have my phone or iPad mini so I signed up for a class specific to the phone. It's SnapShops which is awesome. It has lots of great information and now I'm a little concerned I won't get through it all in the next week. EEK!

3. Afterlight. I have a bunch of phone photo apps that I rotate through but this is my latest favorite. I can size images to "square" then make all the edits and add layers with sizing perfect for Instagram. Love Instagram. I could add that as #2 but I'll just do a combine gushing here.

2. Loving these art posters from Loose Petals on Etsy. Since I work in the travel industry now, these seem like perfect additions to the office. I've already a purchased a Dallas print and am now undecided as to my next favorite. They're all fantastic!

1. Totally random baby panda! Sophy has started saying "bear" which sounds a lot more like "beer" than "bear". It's the best thing ever. We call her Sophy Bear or just "bear" so it's extra cute. I drove her to school every morning and we practice saying "Mommy", "Daddy", etc. When we get to Sophy she just giggles. Sigh. Heart melts. I hope to catch up on all of my bear snuggles this weekend!

Guthrie was good to us

So this is basically a giant post of family shots from last weekend. I couldn't resist the toddler cuteness.

Sophy in her new flight jacket Grandad bought for her. It's Daddy's new favorite. If he could put her in her Star Wars onesies and her jacket everyday I pretty sure he would.

A new Halloween outfit from Grandma. She can kind say "Grandma" now and it makes my heart melt. Aunt Jeni also got her a super cute outfit but it missed the pictures. There's also a new baby, bear, baby sized wagon, and a couple of books. Nope, not spoiled at all.

Aunt Jeni watching her navigate the stairs. They were tall stairs and she made it. Mostly.

My Mom and I. We did not coordinate the pink on purpose but it's a nice happy accident.

Baby snuggles. She wasn't feeling like a photo shoot and became a little resistant. Daddy was quick and got a pretty good one.

How can you not love a toddler in pigtails with her monkey. So. Cute.

Stair climbing is hard work. A little sippy before she heads back to it.

Tasty goodness that is Cracker Barrel. This bib from Wal-Mart is fantastic. It has a little pocket at the bottom to catch everything. Greatness.

I said "No Pictures MOMMY!".

Well maybe one more with scrunch face. No resisting this.

Daddy and Sophy out for a stroll. I know some people hate the "leashes" but she loves her Monkey and it makes me feel better that she can't just dart out into the street. She pretty much refuses to hold your hand unless it's at her request and then she prefers a parent on each side swinging her. So, Monkey is the winner with her feeling independent and Mommy not having a stroke. Mommy not having a stroke is a big win with Daddy.

"Hi, my name is Sophy Huff and I'm addicted to Peppa Pig. And pacis." Although we've started hiding the pacifiers except at bedtime and she hasn't noticed. She only demands monkey when we get in the care. I cave. I know.

Sophy with Grandma and Aunt Jeni. Such a great picture for a great weekend.

Guthrie, Oklahoma

Sophy's school was closed on Thursday and Friday of last week in preparation for school starting this week. Fall will be here soon!!!... digressing. And serious wishful thinking. Anyway, Rolland took the week off so on Thurs night, after work, we packed up and headed for Oklahoma. This could be considered an odd choice but it's halfway between us and our family (Kansas and Missouri). For this test run we met my parents who came down early Friday morning. It was a super short drive and just within Sophy tolerance limits.

Said little cutie, who appropriately looks a little bossy here, was our tour guide running wild through downtown Guthrie, Oklahoma.We picked Guthrie since my Mom had been there several years ago and there were lots of antique stores for browsing. The downtown/square area is adorable with tons of shops and great walking areas. It was really pretty. Kind of a Midwestern version of Stars Hollow.

This garden was on the corner and a little weedy but a terrific spot for some photos. Very few of which turned out. Ugh. It's a great little area to take a moment, journal, rest, whatever you need. I think McKinney needs one on our square.

Love these details on the buildings.

Relatively nice weather. It was crazy humid making the high 80's temperature seem much warmer. Everyone was a little "dewy" by the end of our shopping excursion.

Another little garden. This one a memorial garden. I'm a sucker for a vignette and this one with the pretty garden and the rusting metal roof behind it. Love.

And maybe most importantly, my goodies. I was on a quest to find some studio redo items but mostly just found stuff. This is slightly counter to my clean out project but I'll just have to replace not so pretty fun stuff with the new pretty fun stuff. I've been on a big pottery kick lately and found some great pieces. The two on the right are both McCoy pottery and in my favorite aqua/blue green. The pinecone jardiniere is a great piece combining my aqua~ish dining room/kitchen color with the rest of the mocha downstairs. Plus it reminds me of winter and I love that! I also need to credit the husband with finding it. He's a keeper!

The sweet little deer vase had some damage that had been repaired but I love him. He was less than $10 bucks and the cracks are barely noticeable. He had to come home. It's likely he'll end up somewhere in the studio space or Sophy's room. It's another piece of Shawnee pottery for my tiny collection. Sophy has a cute little Buddha planter that's on her bookshelf that I love. And I have little tiny fairy planter holding random bits on my desk. I may have to swap them out and put Buddha in the studio. So many choices!

The giant pig was at a fantastic store called Prairie Gothic.  She has a great mix of new and old finds. I kind of wanted one of everything but only piggy made the cut. I had my eye on one I saw in a Napa Style catalog but I hate Michael Chiarello so much I refused to order it. This one was cheaper and I like to think cuter. I want some of the serving pieces she has with western images of bulls, cowboys, Native Americans, etc but I need to do some major decluttering before I bring anymore kitchen stuff home.

And last, but not least, findings for jewelry and other arty goodness. A large jar of keys, a box of cracker jack charms, chandelier crystals and a Tupperware container of mix/match jewelry that smells a little but will clean up well. Lots of chain pieces to be taken apart for links in new necklaces and bracelets are worth a little moth ball smelliness. All in all the perfect mini getaway.

Up next, tons of family photos that if you won't care about if you aren't related to me. Plus more Sophy than a normal human can be expected to tolerate. Super excited about this week aren't you?!