{DFW Photographer} Our Niece, Zoey Ann

Cliff’s brother and his wife gave birth to their beautiful daughter on September 20th, just four days before we closed on our new house, so it’s taken me a while to get to editing her photos from her first photo shoot.  Zoey is absolutely beautiful, and I’m sure she’ll be plenty spoiled this Christmas as she is the very first grandchild in both of her families, plus she is the first girl in the David & Tricia Carpenter family.  I look forward to seeing this beautiful girl grow up and enjoy life!  She is such a blessing to all of our family.

{DFW Newborn Photographer} Joy in the Season

This was from part of the end of my photo shoot of baby Joy last month.  I love how peaceful she looks as she lays in her mother’s arms. 

{The New House} Christmastime is a Comin’

Well, right now we are planning on having my dad’s family over for dinner on Christmas day, so I’ve started planning for our first big dinner party at our new house.  We are expecting 11 people including Cliff’s parents.  A bittersweet thing about my dad’s family is we are pretty small.  My mom and dad were the only ones to have children of my grandparent’s three children and my aunt and uncle are both single so Jessie and I have been the only children at Christmas for many years, (which was good at times because it allowed for extra special spoiling ;) Either way, it has always been special. We always break out the nice silver and china and have the nice sit down dinner, which is a nice change from the relaxed atmosphere that is the norm these days, plus it’s easier to do when your family is a little smaller. 

We always have fun—especially since Jessie and I have gotten older and can crack dirty jokes with my aunt and uncle. ;)

In preparation for this special dinner, I picked up the prettiest napkin rings from ZGallerie the other day in Dallas, and can’t wait to use them.

{The New House} Lovely Mantle

I love our fireplace—it is not messy at all. I love it because even I can start a fire---by switching the “on” switch. :)  At first I hated our mantle---it was just so “blah.”  Then we painted the living room walls the nice Cobblestone gray color and now the white mantle just pops!  Recently, Cliff and my dad mounted our television and then began running speaker wires for Cliff’s new sound system that he “got for his birthday” when really I told him since it would make things easier—he could just go buy the sound system he wanted for his birthday. I decided to add a few of our pictures and I recently bought the cool silver candle holders at ZGallerie in Dallas last weekend.

Any way, here is our mantle:

This isn’t the best quality of picture---it was pretty late at night and for some reason I just could not eliminate the shake on my camera---which means I’m usually too lazy to break out my tripod. Oh well, it’s a picture—so there ‘ya go. :)

{DFW Photographer} New!

Christina Lee would like to introduce her new custom packaging! :) Who does not like to receive products wrapped up all pretty and arranged nicely?  I know whenever I make a purchase---particularly at a clothing store, I like it much more whenever the bag is of higher quality---like those nice paper sacks with the handles, or even if my clothing items are wrapped in tissue paper.  It isn’t necessary, but it makes the experience that much more special.

Here’s a preview of our new packaging:

I know Peacock isn’t exactly a popular color, but I love it, especially with the damask and black and white.  I find it to be sophisticated, yet fun, and that’s the reason I chose that color, because I want my photography to be exactly that---balanced—sophisticated and exciting at the same time.

{The New House}The Guest Bathroom

Well, the house is slowly coming together.  He have the tv hung and speakers on the wall, cable, and boxes are slowly, but surely disappearing. The room that is probably the most together would be the guest bathroom. So, I thought I’d share some pictures with you.

 

 

All of the above photos were taken using my Canon Powershot G11 point and shoot camera.  The shots were taken in raw+Large files and edited in Photoshop.  I am still loving my nifty little point and shoot for side and fun projects.  My dad is a little scared that I might abandon my dslr…..which I don’t EVER plan on that one happening.  I still use my dslr for photo shoots and the more serious stuff, but it’s fun to use this little gem as well. 

Now about the bathroom:

We really didn’t do anything in here but paint.  I used all the same materials we had in the old guest bathroom.  I really liked them and the towels were very lightly used, so I just kept the same stuff.

We, Cliff, painted the bathroom walls a cool silvery color by Behr paints that actually shows up more like a light blue---which is just what I wanted, and Cliff just happened to be happy with it.

The shower curtain and rug both came from target, while the towels and bathroom accessories such as the soap pump and trashcan all came from Bed Bath & Beyond, (all gifts from our wedding registry.)  The really cool apothecary jar with the cotton swabs came from The Container Store purchased back about two years ago after we moved into our last apartment.  All the lotions and whatnot come mostly from my mother who likes to give me a lot of Bath & Bodyworks stuff, but I never have the ability to use it all---plus some of it reacts with my dry skin. 

**A note about bath products** I like to take the stuff from hotels and whatnot like a lot of people do---I try to store some of these items in my guest bath in the drawer next to the sink so if my guests ever forget anything while they are staying with us---they have a backup option.  I also do this with some mouthwash and toothbrushes if we end up with extra after we come home from a dentist appointment. (Cliff has gone to the dentist a LOT this year so we have lots of trial mouthwash bottles sitting around.) 

{Mansfield Newborn Photographer} A Little Piece of Joy

Recently, I had the pleasure of capturing some of the first images of a precious bundle of Joy.  My friends the Wyatt family welcomed their first little one to the world in September and she already has her father wrapped around her little finger.

Here are some images from the shoot: