Winner Announced :)

The Winner is...............


JEAGLE222!

Congratulations :)

And as always, HAPPY SEWING!

The Sami Dress is HERE!!!!

I have a brand new ebook that I am super excited about! It's "The Sami Dress"!! This sweet criss cross bodice and double layer ruffles dress is simply ADORABLE to boot. You will enjoy making it and your daughter will LOVE wearing it!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22617014

To Kick of my brand new ebook, I am also having a drawing for a Joann gift card!

For every ebook purchase from March 22, 2009 until April 11, 2009 I will add $1 to the value of a JOANN gift card (up to $40). Everyone who purchases an ebook from my store will be entered into a drawing to win the gift card. One ebook equals one entry, three ebooks equals three entries! If more than forty ebooks are sold before April 11th I will start a second prize drawing for an additional JOANN gift card worth up to $20.

No worries, if there is not a JOANN store near you, there will be an alternative prize of equal value.

Drawing(s) will take place on April 12, 2009.
Winner(s) will be contacted by email.
Contest rules subject to change without notice.

Testers Revealed!

Thank you to all those who participated in my little contest! Since there were so many willing participants, I decided to pick 3 testers instead of two!

CONGRATS to: Christina, Jay and Syl, Sue!




Email me at prettybabyboutique@gmail.com and I will give you further detail information and the ebooks!

As soon as these testers give me their feedback, the ebook will be ready for sale in my etsy store. Someone could win a little something something to feed her fabric addiction! Check back often!

PHASE ONE: Testers needed!

For the last few months, I've been working hard on this brand new ebook. Typing, picture taking, rewriting, editing.... Finally, it is now going into the "testing" phase. I'm not going to show you what it is yet.... but I will tell you it's a super cute dress for spring/summer. How do you become a tester for my FABULOUS ebook?

ETA: Pattern is for size 1/2 to 4T

It's as simple as leaving me a comment! Just tell me you want to be a tester! I will post the 2 "winners" tomorrow morning, randomly drawn of course. Tester will be given final version of the ebook as well once it is all finished.

All I ask is that the testers finish the dress within 1 week and give me feedback on grammar, clarity, and general flow of the ebook. Also, a picture of the finished dress :) So if you don't think you can do that, please don't put that your name.

BUT............................. STAY TUNE!!!!!! Once the ebook is finished and in my etsy shop, I will have a drawing involving some fabulous prizes!!!!

Scouting New Location: Adams Park

So with only 1 car in the family, the kids and I have started taking the bus around town (and by around town, I mean to the Library). We keep passing this park that has this cute shabby building there. I thought it would be great to take pictures there so that was our adventure today!

It was bad timing though... 10:30 AM and the sun was WAY up. I tried to stayed in the open shade, which elimanates 1/2 the building. But I think I got some pretty good shots anyways.

That was his most natural smile... I hate when kids cheese it up lol



What can I say about this girl, she is TROUBLE!



Doesn't it look cold? Well, it WAS!



I love a great vintage action! Don't you?

Adventure In Babysitting

I got to babysit my sister in law's baby today and it was so fun! Granted, she is only 5 months old and couldn't do much but I just love cuddling babies! She cooed and yelled and peed and spit up. Pretty much a normal routine day for her. I know her mom won't appreciate this, but I didn't put her down for her nap, I just held her the ENTIRE time! It's so much fun spoiling other people's babies....

So not only did I get to hold the baby, I had a chance to take her pictures too. Mental note, taking pictures of babies by youreslf... not a good idea!

This is SOOC (straight out of the camera), taken with my rebel xt and 50mm 1.8 lens with natural light.


I wish my headboard wasn't going through her head, but you make do with what you've got right? I love that she is somewhat smiling AND eating her hand at the same time. I think I took about 30+ shots and only this one was usable. What did we do before digital??? I can't even remember!

This is after photoshop

You know I LOVE photoshop right? I'm not really going for a natural look here, it might look over process to some people but I like it how it is. I used coffeeshop's free action (again!) but before I did that, I did adjust the temperture and exposure in ACR (adobe camera raw). If you are not shooting in RAW, you should get started! The actual shooting part is no different at all, there is no special way to shoot RAW vs JPEG. You do the exact same thing! RAW just takes up more memory. Then you go to ACR in photoshop, and you can adjust the picture like it is in camera. Go ahead, make the switch next time you take a picture!

I Love Photoshop!

Okay, yes, I realized that this post contradicts the post before, but I've got it all figured out!! Sort of... I figured out the action part anyways (thanks to a fellow ILPer!) I took some valentine's picture of Ms. S because she doesn't go to preschool and won't get to do anything fun with her classmates, so I thought she can make some cards herself and sent them to her cousins. We live for little things like this because, quite frankly, it's too cold to go outside and play! That and we don't have a car and can't drive around and explore Logan.

These 2 pictures are both edited in Photoshop Elements 7 and taken with my Canon Rebel xt and 50mm f1.8 lens. Usually I like the very natural looking photos but I wanted to be funky and fun for this shoot. (I use the term loosly becaues I am in no way a professional photographer!) I downloaded some free actions over at Coffeshop, applied urban action for the photo above and color pop for photo below.

Well, when you don't have a car and you live in a small town AND you are impatient, what do you do? you print your pictures out at walmart. It's one hour and 19 cents a copy. Mind you, without a car, one hour means nothing but it's better than waiting by the mailbox for 4 days if we do it online. I just have to wait till hubby gets home to pick them up :)

My Beef with PSE 7!!

I just installed Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 and it keeps spasing out!! What is up with that?? They are on version 7 already why is there still so many bugs??? Not only that, I've been trying all day to figure out how to install actions into the program. I am having no luck unhide my folders. The internet is a great thing to find info, but sometimes you just need someone next to you to show you (and maybe actually do it for you)!

I gave up after a few hours, plus I was a bit sleepy because my body told me to wake up at 5:30 am! We went over to the in laws for a Super Bowl party, the food was yummy as usual. I was able to get this drooly (is that a word?) pic of Ms. E. She didn't want to smile for me, but that's okay, I love her just the same. Even more after she hurled on me...

Fashion Crime (Have you heard?)

Sometimes people act without thinking about the consequences and this is a MAJOR one! February 10 2009, dubbed "National Bankruptcy Day", all items geared towards kids will all need to go under extensive testing. Sounds good right? Do you know how much that will cost? Do you know how many things a child under 12 comes in contact with in just one hour? This not only affect sellers, but buyers too. As of right now, not even schools and public libraries are exampt! That means they will need to buy ALL new books and supplies or close down. Yes! It is that serious. I want our children to be safe, but this is the wrong way to go about it. Please contact your local congressmen and get the word out! Read more about this subject here!

My First Day as an American! (WE DID IT!)

Yesterday, I went to Salt Lake City for the Naturalization Oath ceremony and it was AWESOME! There were 198 New citizens there, one lady couldn't even wait until the actual ceremony and had to take the Oath ahead of time because she was about the give birth! She's okay though, they gave her the oath and took her to the hospital with an Ambulance.

First, we had the Pledge Allegiance , but before we did, a SLC firefighter went through each words and explained what the words meant.

A lady lead us to sing the National Anthem, which was interesting to hear We had 2 speakers, Cindy Toone from Daughters of the American Revolution and Michael Fox, another SLC firefighter. They spoke about freedom and the most important responsibility of an us citizen, which is to vote.

Then we took the Oath of Citizenship all together. And the Judge (who was a special judge because he took the Oath ceremony when he was in law school!) and some of the new citizens made some remarks. It was really inspiring to hear them speak, and feel their love for America. I was too chicken to stand up but I felt extremely grateful to all those who helped me get here, especially the boutique community. This really is a great country and I'm proud to live here and proud to be a citizen!

THANK YOU!!!!

pssst.... my father in law took pictures but didn't download them yet, I'll post some when he does!

Back To Real Life....

The first week back from vacation is always so depressing to me. I miss my family, I miss the chaos, I miss the noise, I miss the smell...EVERYTHING! I just spent the last 3 weeks in (not sunny) California visiting my family and it was so fun and relaxing. Okay, relaxing was a poor choice of word because the only time it was relaxing was when I went to get a massage. There were a total of 21 people in the house! Including 4 kids, 2 tweens and 2 teenagers, enough said. But I had a fun time anyways. I got mani-pedis, 3 massages, and a haircut! We shopped till we drop and ate until our bellies were full! My cousin Jeff hosted a sushi night and made sushi for all of us! He was my favorite cousin that night!

Hands down though, the highlight of the trip was getting to hang out with these 3 kids here! They are my cousins babies and they are just SOOOOOOOO adorable! They made me want to have another one, until, that is, Logan starts spitting up every 30 minutes. I hate the smell of spit up!




Speak of the lil devil, there he is! He is suffering from some major cradle cap right now, but so chubby and cute nonetheless... Check out his natural Mohawk! I love that kid to death!



This is Ashton (Jeff's kid), he doesn't like me much because I always take away his binky and that drives him nuts. Then he makes a quizzical look at me and gives me 2 kissing sounds... that means he wants his binky back. Cute right??

And here is the queen of them all, Lauren. We call her lala, and she is the BOSS! She has a mind of her own and don't need you to tell her anything. She loves following Sean and Sami around but gives them a piece of her mind if they get out of line.

6 more months till I see them again, that is too long I think!