My First Styled Wedding Shoot

Hey guys, I'm super excited to share this with - well, with everyone!  This is something I've been working on for quite a while now, and it's finally ready to share with the world.  If you're interested, check out the newest post on my photography blog: Lauren Kaye Photography.
Here's one reason I have been having so much trouble posting regularly:

I'll try and get back soon (hopefully with this week's Illustration Friday!)

Adventures

Hello!  It's been a few weeks, I guess. Summer sort of arrived.  A little.  And what have we been up to?    Um, we went to the zoo.  I didn't bring the big camera, but when we got home, we all sat down to draw some pictures.  Holly mostly scribbled big red and blue scribbles over the animals that I drew, but here are some of Griffin's pictures:
A Zebra:

A Deer:

An Owl (in a cage, with a sign on it):

What else?  We had a tea party:

You can see more pics of that on the photography blog.
I've been busy organizing a photo shoot, which we did on Sunday (photos from that later).
Griffin had a Teddy Bear Picnic with his pre-school.  They packed up lunches and bears, and took the county bus into Annapolis Royal to picnic at the fort, then took the bus back to Paradise.  It was quite a trip, and Griffin LOVED it, start to finish.  Packing his lunch, wearing his backpack, bringing his bear - all awesome.

We've been to the beach with friends:

 And Jai's been practicing a little with my camera, so he can do a wedding with me in a couple of weeks.

 Also, we've been gardening, building a fence, and other adventures.  I'll try to get back here sooner next time, so I can think of everything!  Until then, happy Summer!

IF - Children

Illustration Friday time again!  It must be way past my bedtime on Thursday night!  Oh well, here it is: Children.  This is one loosely based on Griffin and Holly, paying a visit to our friend's property - blowing dandelions and dangling from tire swings.

IF - Sweet

Illustration Friday: Sweet.  This one is pretty self-explanatory.

Slight Catch-Up (part 1)

Oh my GOODNESS, I am behind!  I will catch up soon, I promise.  We've mostly been spending all our time outside, between gardening, and end-of-year activities, playground work, photo work, plus general outside-y-ness, I haven't been spending much time at the computer - editing personal photos, or writing personal posts!  Anyway, rest assured we are all well, and I have every intention of getting back here some day soon, with some new photos to share.  In the meantime...

Here, as promised, fire truck cake pictures:

Holly doing some baking, too:

 The still-fun box:

 Our willow playhouse, started:

 Fun at the playground by my parent's place:

 Fun on my parent's deck:

 Griffin wanted to paint his nails like his friend Ella:

 And this, all the time:

IF-Tension

Illustration Friday!

IF - Liquid

Hello!  Time for Illustration Friday again!  This week the word is "Liquid" and brought to mind the fable of The Thirsty Crow.   (Which can summarize as: a thirsty crow finds a pitcher with some water in it, but can't reach the water.  He then drops pebble after pebble into the pitcher, until the water is high enough to drink.)  I believe the moral is supposed to be something about hard work, but I always just think, "what a clever crow."

IF - Future

Hello!  Another Illustration Friday is here!  "Future."

Griffin and I went out on the deck to colour, so I managed to get this done (to this point, anyway.)  A scene that I am hoping to see around here in our very near future!

And Holly, Too...

I didn't want to leave Holly out.  She's been busy making pictures, too.  She pretty much wants to do everything everyone else is doing.  And she's willing to do whatever it takes.  She's starting to talk more and more; new words include "chicken" and "bum" and "baby" (which is more like "Bubbah").

Most days she is clamouring at the door, with her boots on, and her coat in her hand.  Sometimes even before breakfast.  She brings a lot of life to the house.

Astronauts and Original Art

We've been talking about astronauts a lot the last couple of days.  Hopefully you've already seen the video of Chris Hadfield doing "Space Oddity" (if you haven't, you should definitely check it out on YouTube!) - we watched it as a family, and everyone loved it.  Then we had to watch a shuttle launch, which had everyone clapping and cheering and jumping around.

Griffin decided he needed to draw an astronaut.  With a spaceship.  This is one of my favourite pictures, ever.  Griffin recently opened an Art Store in our dining room, and he's been selling us his original works of art for very reasonable prices (sometimes when you pay a boat penny, you get a moose penny in change).  Some of my other favourites include "Elephant", "Three Bunnies", and "Rhinoceros".   We've got the laundry drying rack set up with clothes pegs so he can hang his pieces.  Just a warning, if you happen to be in the market for some original art, though - he's a little bit choosy about who can buy what, when.

Real Cowboys

Hello again!  Bet you are surprised to be hearing from me already!  I just have a quick moment before Holly wakes up from her nap.  We had such a fun little day today, I thought I would jot it down.  I didn't have the camera with me, so the photos are unrelated (but still fun)!

 First we went to the Yard Sale for Griffin's Pre-School, and we got to pick up his first school photos!

Then we went to the Livestock Auction at the Exhibition grounds.  Oooooh - it's so much fun.  We saw real cowboys, riding horses, and herding cows into numbered groups.  We saw sheep and goats and cows and ponies and horses - Holly couldn't stop "moo-ing" the whole time we were in the barn.  I fell in love with a jersey cow, but couldn't bring her home.

Then we found the little barn, where they were auctioning off the smaller animals - chickens, guinea fowl, ducklings, rabbits, turkeys, and baby bunnies.  Griffin and Holly promptly set themselves up in front of the baby bunnies, and begged us to bring them home.  I told them they didn't have to convince me.  Luckily (I suppose) Dad was a harder case.

As I said to Jai, though, it was better than the zoo, and free.  Perhaps one day we can even buy something.  A girl can dream.