little girls...a reason to give thanks

This is obviously redundant following that last image, but these two girls are absolutely adorable. The above shot has now been added to my all time favorite shots hall of fame. I never thought I would even get them both looking at me, let alone looking happy. But they were so wonderful! And mom and dad were extremely helpful. If the girls are smiling in any shot, it's because mom's behind me whipping out the funny noise train, which they loved! Having twins would've thrown my world into total chaos, but Nicole and Jesse act like they've done it about twenty times before. They're so cute with the girls and with each other. Half way through the shoot the girls fell asleep on our way to a new location. Which ended up perfect. I was able to steal a few shots of mom and dad while we let the little ones sleep. I love that as a couple Nicole and Jesse stil have a young, sexy, fun vibe. I know how hard it is to keep that going once a baby enters the picture, let alone two at the same time. My props to them for not only creating two beautiful little girls, but one beautiful relationship that will be a forever family.

Enjoy this extra long post for the Thanksgiving weekend. I'm off to spend time with my own family and to give thanks. I am so blessed myself. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

No coats!

More to come from the Steiner family this week! These girls did amazing. And I still can't believe we took these pictures, without the need of coats, on November 24.

my Christmas teaser...

We had our family pictures taken today for our Christmas card and I'm so excited with how the images turned out. Our photographer is new to the industry, but did an awesome job. We only shot for about fifteen minutes before Ella was cold and done, but we have plenty of card worthy shots to choose from. I don't want to post the rest of our session until I design the card (we can't spoil it...), but I love this image and know it won't be on the card, so I thought I'd share it for tonight... Check back next week! I'm shooting a family on Monday with twin 6-month-old girls and I'm so looking forward to that. I'm sure I'll at least have to post a few from that session before we take our Thanksgiving break. Of course I'm always as excited about the pictures as my clients. It's totally a win-win situation. And it's almos that time of month again. Yep. They'll be 11-month pictures to come from my baby... Yeah!

homemade art for Ella and for YOU

As far as Ella is concerned, life's truest joys are found in her reading materials. And of course by that I mean the pictures in all her books. She will flip through a book and giggle out loud because she's so delighted by the feast before her. I think it's adorable. Unfortunately, she doesn't understand that some books are off limits to her, or that pop-up books aren't an invitation to tear things off the pages. So I decided for Christmas and her birthday (which for her are technically a whole 82 minutes apart) that I'd make her some books she can have to enjoy, and that hopefully will withstand her daily wear and tear.

Last night she and I headed to JoAnn's to get the fixings for a quiet book to help her "enjoy" the quiet aspects of church. Well, that was an adventure needless to say. I found myself in line behind 15 people all waiting to get our material cut. And then like magic, I found myself in line behind those same 15 people all over again waiting to check out. Don't you just love holiday shopping.

Anyway... my wonderful mother-in-law came over to visit and helped me get things started on the quiet book. Basically, she did all the sewing. So when I say "helped" I really can only take credit for the design. We finished the cover, which I knew would require the most sewing (and therefore provide to me the most frustration) and now it's up to me to put the pages together. But I'm excited to see what I can come up with. We found all sorts of fabrics and little garnishes last night, and so while I don't think the book will be too traditional, I have a feeling Ella is going to love it!

The whole time I was picking out fabrics, I had "textures" in mind. I LOVE how this cover material looks all put together with the cute flower/ribbon accent...





A sampling of what's to come inside...




(I had to throw these pillows into the post too because we sewed them today as well... they will now grace our boring black futon adding a perfect match to our dining chairs)


(And a random shot of Ella, who just finshed her Spaghettios five seconds before I started taking these pictures)



Okay. That's all for the quiet book today. Hopefully when after it's made it's birthday debut, I'll get some shots of the inside to post. Now on to the second book, which is way more up my alley of abilities: a picture ABC book!

I have a shelf where I keep my sample ablums and books, which are fun, bright, and colorful. Ella won't leave them alone. And her favorite to grab is one that's just her size, a cute 5x5 art album. So I made an executive decision this past week that Ella needed her own 5x5 to enjoy since the pages end up being way thick and hopefully un-tearable. I thought an ABC picture book would fill it's pages perfectly as it will one day teach her the alphabet, and it also gave me a chance to see if I had enough variety in my "art" picture collection to find something I'd shot for each letter. (I found all but Q and X. I'd say that's not too shabby.)

Ella will be getting this little gem for Christmas as her "something to read" (Jordan and I decided that our family members will each get four gifts for Christmas every year: something you want, something you need, something to play with, and something to read... and of course christmas eve pj's and an anything goes array of stocking stuffers...) Of course I'll store it on the shelf with the other off-limits books, so she thinks she's getting away with something each time she takes it down to read. I ordered a Hollywood Orange cover which is way bright and fun. And then I thought I'd post some of the insides below.

I tried to pick the brighest/most coloful images I had on hand for each letter. And then to match the magnet letters on our fridge Ella loves to play with, I added a little "3-D" to each letter, and gave some a tilt as if Ella had placed them herself. What do you think?





















Putting together the pages of her ABC book made me realize I have SO many images just laying around on my hard drive that have never gotten the proper love and attention they deserve. So, I'm excited to annouce, along with a special Femininity site, I'll also be launching a Fine Art website where some of my best art pictures will be seeking a new home, where they can debut as luscious fine art prints, mounted, framed or canvas gallery wrapped.

I truly believe the best way to decorate a home is with personal, hand picked art. And since we don't all have the time or resources to graze through fine art galleries, I thought I'd bring one right to your home. It makes me so excited to offer the best of the best in my art collection to you! But of course I can't take credit for the awesome subject material. Most of my favorite works are nature based, and I can only give credit to a heavenly being for that one...

Anyway, if you're looking for a unique Christmas gift for a loved one, please don't wait for my site to launch, (becaues I'm looking for those gifts too which cuts down on my "launching a new website time") rather email me ASAP and we'll find the right print for you. I'm also planning on offering fine art puzzles, so if there's a puzzler in the family, why not give them a one of a kind, custom piece to put together this holiday season... just an idea. And I thought we could all use a few of them this time of year.

Enjoy a few previews of some of the art you'll be seeing soon...