Talah's Quilt

If you have emailed me recently, you probably got an auto reply from me about our recent move. Things have definitely been a whirlwind because it all happened so fast--all the way from deciding to simply look at houses to quickly selling our home to moving into our new home. Even in early February I didn't imagine we'd be living in a different house...yet, here we are. What a difference a few months can make! The whole moving process has slowed me down a bit in terms of blogging (amongst other things!), but I'm getting back in the groove.
We've still got unpacking to do and lots of decorating, so I won't share any pictures of the house right now, but I did want to share a few pictures of Talah's new quilt! With the move came the discussion about whether or not we should move Talah from her toddler bed to a "big girl bed." We decided to take the plunge. Talah is now in a real adult bed and she's actually transitioned extremely well. In fact, it's the bed Jacob had built out of picnic tables for his brother when he lived with us (Hi, Phillip!).
To go with her bed, we got her a custom quilt. The quilt was made by Sarah Miller from Blue Barn Quilts on Etsy. I actually used Alchemy to find Sarah. If you aren't familiar with Alchemy, it's a feature on Etsy where you can put in a custom project/product that you want and sellers will bid on your job. I had several bids and I'm SO glad I went with Sarah. She was fantastic throughout the entire process. She had excellent communication and she sent me pictures along the way so I could see how the quilt was coming along. She is so nice and very talented and was able to do the exact pattern I wanted. All I did was choose my fabrics and I had them shipped to her. She took it from there. If you want to have a quilt made, you should absolutely get in touch with Sarah. Working with Sarah has been, by far, my best Etsy experience. Be sure to visit her Etsy shop!
I'll share pictures of the full quilt once Talah's room is done. Sarah's work is impeccable!
Below is the box I opened when it arrived.


The top two bundles are the fabric scraps I had requested in my Alchemy request and the bottom two are quilts. I'm hoping to practice sewing and I might as well have some cute fabric scraps to use!

Cassidy's Birthday | Raleigh Child Photographer

Cassidy, my sweet friend Tory's daughter, turned four! For her birthday celebration, Tory threw her a Princess Pancake party. All of the girls came dressed as princesses and had a pancake feast and then had their faces painted by Snow White. It was the perfect party.
I've blogged about Tory before, but feel I need to point out how talented she is. She has an Etsy shop (Shade That Lamp) where she sells her lampshades. She can custom make lampshades in the fabric of your choice and it can completely change the look of a room. She also does interior design and has a real gift for combining colors and patterns and figuring out the best way to use a space. She also finds really gorgeous and unique items to use in a room (for example, you should see the antique mirror she found that is now the headboard of her bed!). Definitely get in touch with her if you would like her to help make your space more functional and beautiful!
The face painting was done by Face Painting by Jandy & Co. She was fabulous and dressed as Snow White. She posed with all of the girls together and also with each girl individually (well, the ones who wanted to!).
I have to share a funny story about Cassidy. Tory told me that Cassidy was talking about Mother's Day recently. She knows how much Tory loves chocolate, but she also knows that Tory loves God. So, Cassidy told Tory that for Mother's Day, she wanted to get Tory a "Chocolate God." I thought that was hilarious.






Isn't Tory's kitchen/dining area so pretty and cheerful? That's one of Tory's lampshades, by the way.

















Talah's first face painting! We had tried over Christmas and she didn't want to do it, so I was excited to see her sit still for it this time.










Not even ten minutes later, Talah had already smeared it while playing in the water. No surprise to me!









You'd better believe I'm going to keep snapping away if a child will let me. Doesn't she look like an angel?















Happy Birthday, Cassidy!!

Nice Shades! ; ) | Raleigh Boutique Photographer

I am so thankful and happy that my wonderful friend Tory has moved back to North Carolina. And this time she's only 3 miles from my house!

I wanted to take a moment to spotlight her because she makes incredible custom lampshades and you need to check it out! She sells shades she's already created on Etsy, but she can also take custom orders so that you can pick out the fabric of your choice, along with the shape of the shade and the size, and she'll make it especially for you.

And if you're an interior designer, consider commisioning Tory for your next project. She's a consumate professional and has been hired for everything from individual homes to boutique hotel rooms to weddings (how cool is that? You could have a bunch of custom lampshades hanging at your reception! Especially if they were hanging from branches at night--super cool).

Here's her Etsy page and blog:
shadethatlamp.etsy.com
http://www.shadethatlamp.blogspot.com

Here are a couple that she did for me!

Etsy Treasury | Raleigh Fine Art Photographer

Yay! One of my fine art photos is in an Etsy Treasury today (until Wednesday)!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=30901

Happy Monday : )