"A smile is an inexpensive way to change your looks."

The other morning I took Evelyn out for another little photo session. I haven't really looked around for cool spots to take pictures at yet so I just went back to the beach and to the place we had our family pics at. They are great places though and pics turn out great there! I got some great pics although it took awhile and a lot of work cuz Evelyn just wasn't being very cooperative :) She was more interested in running around and ignoring me. It was a beautiful day though so I can't say I blamer her :)

Anywho...here's some of my favorite favs!

I absolutely LOVE this one!!!

Such pretty coloring!!!

I love the beaches here

I love this dress too! Got it on super clearance at Carter's for like 4.50!

This is another one of my favorite favs!

I finally got some of her looking at me while she was sitting on this branch

She was saying choo choo though which is why her lips are pouted out :)

She just learned to say choo choo so it was the word of the day :)

I LOVED this little spot but unfortunately she only sat her long enough for me to snap two pics and she wasn't looking in either of them. This one is still cute though!

Even though Evelyn wasn't too cooperative, I still had fun testing out my new camera! I'm excited to go to MO, little Maci May's family wants a family photo shoot this time and Monie wants me to do family photos for them too. Yay! I can't wait!

"...Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before..." President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

I've been doing quite a few crafty projects with Mark gone, slightly going overboard on some of them, but that's alright! Last Sunday I did this....



Then this week someone on Facebook showed a link to these ADORABLE baby boots....Evelyn would look SO cute in these!


or these are her latest....(her blog is listed on the right in a blog list, joyfolieblog.com



Unfortunately I do not want to pay the price for those cute boots, no matter how much I love Evelyn, so I went on Etsy last night and found a simple, cute, inexpensive boot pattern and this is what I came up with today!




I didn't quite like how the way the lady put the lining into the boots so I tried out a second pair in a similar way I do the little baby shoes and this is how it turned out!



Looks just as good as her way but I think this is much easier :) I also tried out a ribbon flower instead of just buttons which are way cute :) These aren't as cute as Joyfolie's but she's been doing hers a lot longer than me and has perfected them. I've got time to perfect mine :)

Then the other two nights I knocked out some scrapbook pages. Which I'm not all the way done with, gotta throw on some embellishments and journaling :)





Anywho...that pretty much sums up all my projects for the week! I have another post I'm working on but having trouble uploading photos...so keep an eye out for when I figure it out! :)

"Happiness is doing what you love, and loving what you do."

It was a smidge warmer today so Evelyn and I headed outside to play at the playground for a bit. This also gave me a chance to play a little more with my new camera! Unfortunately for Evelyn she is my only subject available at the moment....when I get to MO I'll give her a break and take out my creativity on my nieces and nephews! :) I don't think my sisters will mind...

Anywho....here's some of my favorites...without any editing or anything but some of them don't need it cuz this camera is just so awesome! :)

Evelyn has discovered recently that she's a big girl and isn't afraid to go down the slide by herself. This is pretty much all she did the whole time we were at the park. I love this next little series of pics. She kept saying weeee while she was climbing and going down the slide. It was so cute!






These next ones are my favorites!

Evelyn checkin' out the "big" slide!

She deemed it safe enough for her to go down and off she went!

My little climber!

And lastly, my very favorite! She's got a silly little smile and it's just so perfectly cute!

Next week is supposed to be warm so I'm headed with Evelyn to some areas around here to play with my camera some more. I bought a super cute little dress today for $4 at Carter's that I want to use. She's gonna look so cute!

There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer. --Ansel Adams--

After a looooooooong, loooooooooong time I finally got my precious! :) This is something I've wanted for like 6 years and am so excited to finally have gotten it! And here it is!


We recently got our last travel reimbursement from the Navy and it happened to be a nice little sum so after paying some into tithing, savings, checking, and some bills, we had a nice little bit left over and I talked Mark into finally letting me get it! It took a bit and I had to tell him it could count as my Valentine's, birthday, and deployment gift before he'd finally say yes :) (I do have to say he wasn't completely left out of getting anything fun, he got some power tools and such for building things and the like which he was excited about). I figured now would be a good time to get it since I'm trying to be more serious with my photography and I'm gonna try to take a class in MO while Mark is deployed so I'd like to take the class with the camera I'm gonna use.

Anywho....it took FOREVER to get here but Monday it FINALLY arrived, at the very end of the day after I'd been waiting allll day for it...and Monday was a long frustrating day without me being anxious for my camera to arrive. But it got here and I love it! I've been looking at it for, well 6 years, so I've watched prices everywhere and I got a nice package deal on it with Best Buy- so I got the camera body, a lense, an extra lense, and a bag! As you can see above :) It's pretty much almost the same model (Canon Rebel EOS) as my other SLR but this one is digital and therefore more expensive of course. But so worth it! If it's not too freezing these next couple weeks I'm gonna try playing with it around the area but the past couple days have been awful cold so I don't know how likely that will be. So far I've just taken pics of Evelyn in our living room.

The same day I got my camera I got another little toy. My phone, and Mark's, have just been awful...Mark's turns off all the time with the reason and mine isn't much better so my upgrade finally came this month and I got a new iPhone! I got a sweet deal on this too cuz I got a refurbished one on AT&T.com that was half the price of a new upgrade one. I absolutely LOOVE it! It's so much better than my old phone and I'm so happy I have it! Unfortunately Mark has to tough it out with one of our old ones cuz we're just gonna put a military hold on his when he leaves so he won't need it. Poor thing :)

This pic was taken with my iPhone the other day...it was just too funny! She never does this but was refusing to take a second nap and so she fell asleep on the couch.



These next three are my favs taken with my new camera.





Well that's all for today! Time to go be productive....

"When life gives you scraps, make something with them."

Lately I've taken a break from scrapbooking and have been exploring some other creative outlets :) My neighbor is into sewing and showed me some cute baby booties she had made and they were just sooo cute I had to try it out! Luckily Hobby Lobby had their Simplicity Patterns for $.99 last week so I went over and grabbed some patterns then headed to Hancock Fabric who were having a fabric sale so I got some fabric, figured out how to use my sewing machine and wa-la! Here is what I've come up with so far :)

These are the most boyish ones I could come up with. It's just so much easier to do girly!

I LOVE this fabric!

These are kinda hard to see but they are like the ones below just black.

These look way cuter in person btw. :)

I absolutely LOVE these baby booties. They are so adorable and sooo easy to make! Well at least easy after you get the whole thing down and stop reversing the outside and inside the wrong way :) Took me a couple tries to get it all right but luckily they are small and quick!

The next thing I tried was this little bag that was part of another pattern group. I made the yellow one first and am using it for Evelyn's Church toy bag. It's pretty basic and simple but I added the ribbon and button and it is so cute! Then today I tried it again with some changes to make it a little more sturdy and made this one! I had this fabric lying around so I figured if I messed up then it would be ok but it turned out pretty good! Although I realized after I finished that I did the handles wrong! They were supposed to attach differently. I thought they looked funny this way but oh well. They are still cute!



So that is what I have been keeping myself busy this week! I have some other things I plan on making but will wait to later this week. Mark is leaving for a 2-3 week field exercise so I've got tons of time to sew and scrapbook! I plan on turning my table/countertop into scrapbook central and just go at it. I am soooo behind on my scrapbooking! I haven't scrapped a page for Evelyn's book or anything since April. So this outta be a fun next couple weeks minus the fact that Mark is gone :(

"There is no greater gift at Christmas than to have everything you want before you open the gifts."

Back to Christmas! I never posted any pics of Evelyn opening up her Christmas presents so here they are! We opened our presents the night before we left for Missouri. Evelyn is still young and doesn't know what's going on or what day it is so I figured it was ok! :) I was hoping for some excited reactions to some of her Dora stuff or her new rain boots but she didn't really do anything! She'd open a present, she finally has figured out how to rip wrapping paper and open a present, look at it, and then go onto the next one. I guess she was more excited to open this time than the actual gift! Kids really do like the simple things, eh? :)

Yay for wrapping paper!

Dora jammies!

So excited.....? :)

Riiiiiip! What a fun sound

She looked so freaking adorable that day!!!

I guess I can see where she gets her excitedness from! :)

There's a smile!