Friday, June 22, 2012

My First Maternity Photo Session

Recently I had the opportunity to take some maternity photos of my beautiful friend Meri who is having her fourth baby, but her first girl. She was VERY excited and I was so grateful that she would let me share this part of the experience with her. Here are some of my favorite shots from the session. The spot we chose turned out perfect! I'm very pleased with the turn out.







^This was my own idea, not from Pinterest or a website or anything. SO cute, right?



 These two belly shots are two of my favorite from the whole session!




Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Father's Day Gift Basket

I've really been into gift baskets lately. 

Gift baskets for my daughter's teachers at the end of the year, a gift basket for the last baby shower I went to, if I hadn't of spent so much money on the trip itself I would have made my sister in law a big gift basket for her wedding... so obviously when a fun holiday like Father's Day comes up, I'm totally going to make a gift basket. 

And I did. Total cost for the entire basket? $29.05. You know you've done well when you can get your husband all his favorite things for under $30. 

I made a theme, which was things he's been complaining about or talking a lot about, and kept his favorite color in mind while shopping. Blue of course. I started with some generic dollar tree tissue paper that I already had left over from the baby shower gift basket. Nothing too fancy for a guy. I put the tissue paper or whatever in the bottom so that it will look more professional and I find that if everything doesn't have to fit right into the bottom of the basket, it sits and is organized more nicely.


What went in the basket?
1.) New Earbuds for his Ipod. He's been complaining lately that the ones he has hurt his ears, and has been talking about getting new ones for weeks so I took care of that at FYE today. (on sale for $7.99)

2.) A Non-Dairy Chocolate Bar. He's allergic to dairy but loves chocolate, so I went to our local health food store and picked out a sweet chocolate bar for him (the company's version of milk chocolate). ($3.49)

3.) Cards from me and our daughters. Aren't the hand things cute? Found that idea here. I read about a dozen cards at Dollar Tree and luckily found one that fits our relationship so perfectly it was a little weird, so of course, I got it. Dollar stores are hit and miss with cards, sometimes they're good, other times, not so much. (used paper I already had on hand and my computer and tape I already had)

4.) A High Protein Bar. My husband is a work out junkie and loves this stuff. Not to mention he's massive and needs a huge protein intake to sustain him through his work days and workouts. ($1.85)

5.) Men's Lotion and Scrubby. My husband mentioned to me a few weeks ago that he wants so smelly lotions and sprays like me. I have 2 baskets full of Victoria Secret® and Bath & Body Works® lotions and sprays in my bathroom closet. Yes, I'm an addict :) So Twilight Woods for Men from B&BW was perfect. And it smells SSOOO good. ($12.00, lotion $11 and scrubby from Dollar Tree for $1)

6.) Thieves Hand Sanitizer. My husband works in the restoration business and often, around lunch time, sometimes doesn't have anywhere to wash his hands. This hand sanitizer is small enough to fit in his pocket and is made with our favorite essential oils so it smells great as well. Read about it here. (Already had it, but it cost $6 otherwise)

7.) A pack of blue gum. Everyone loves gum and having fresh breath! (already had it, but it cost $1.39 otherwise)

And here's the finished product! For the bag I just bought a box of oven bags from dollar tree (size lg is perfect) and taped the edges under the bottom with clear tape and tied a ribbon with a to/from/happy FD tag around the top. Piece of cake.