Wearing o' The Green: St. Patrick's Day Celebrations

What did you and your family get up to for St. Patrick's Day weekend? We had an awesome weekend full of a family date, parade, lunch at a friend's house and dinner with another group of friends at our house, church and a special visit from cousin Kade! I think we are all still exhausted but happy out! Here are our favorite pictures from the festivities. 

Our parade is amazing and Teagan had lots of fun!

Teagan, Isla and Daddy watch on!

I took lots of pictures of baby Landon for his mommy, Leah who wasn't at the parade. Here's Isla flirting with him!

My Irish baby is eleven months old today!

She has four teeth coming in and is still the sweetest little thing. 

Hi Landon!

Teagan takes a break!

Our babies are starting to get sleepy.....

...very sleepy! Mom's shoulder is a great place to snuggle....

After the parade we had lunch at Paul, Jackie, Molly and Bethany's house!

My little leprechaun loved checking out all their toys!

Krissy and Brecken!

Molly showing Brian that she too is a Manchester United fan! Good choice, Molly!

I could scoop up little Bethany who is hanging out here with her Daddy!

I love this picture! It is so Jackie! Always bubbly, always happy. Saying hello to Isla!

They are such wonderful cooks and hosts. The kids loved this yummy leprechaun treat!

D-lish bread!

Decorations galore! It's cool that they used the clover growing in their garden for this craft!

I think Teagan had three of these when I wasn't looking. I kept finding her with pops in her hand!

Corn beef and cabbage fare was amazing!

At the end of the party she remembered she hadn't turned on her cool earring lights! 

Thanks for an amazing lunch, Jackie and Paul! We had such a great time!

That night we picked up cousin Kade for a sleepover and had our friends, The C family over for bangers & mash.

Lonnie, Landon and Jennifer

Olivia

Landon

Madeline and Jennifer

We had such a great time with them, as usual! Big love for this family!

Finally, we had a little visit with Dave, Shanna, Caleb and Liam over the weekend. 

Liam is going to be ONE YEAR OLD this week! I can't believe how fast the past year has flown by. We so look forward to celebrating with them.

Precious boy! I adore holding this baby.

It has been so warm here that I broke out the summer outfit from Japan that my friend Michiko gave Isla. Isn't it beautiful with her red hair?

Oh somebody is going to get a Liam kiss!

Bye baby boy! See you this weekend!

After all the festivities Teagan fell asleep going to our family dinner date. Brian took us to the most amazing restaurant. They had duck confit...on the kids menu. I was really nervous taking our little munchkins in. But true to their word, they were family friendly and we had the best time!

I hope you have a great day where you are!

Michelle

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

When Irish eyes are smiling

Sure it's like a morn in spring.

In the lilt of Irish laughter,

You can hear the angels sing.

When Irish hearts are happy,

All the world seems bright and gay.

Sure, they steal your heart away...

We had so many reasons to smile last week as we celebrated St. Patrick's Day. On Wednesday we got together with Teagan's buddies at an art studio to make all kinds of crafty fun!

I love this idea! They used contact paper which allowed the kids to stick buttons, felt, glitter and more to their shamrocks. When they were finished contact paper was added to the top to seal everything in and the excess was trimmed away! My friend Nisha said she will do this with an egg shape for an Easter craft for her neighborhood kids. Brilliant!

Sweet little Ashleigh!

I am so glad we recently met Katie from England and her precious boy, Leo! He hasn't met little Brecken, Liam or Landon yet but they are sure to become fast friends!

Two of my favorite girls! Lera and mommy Natasha.

Lera always has the best smiles!

We were super psyched that Zea and mom Nisha switched their schedule around to join us!

Ellie and Vivienne are also new, treasured friends. They are the sweetest and prettiest little girls. This goo they are playing with is like play dough/slime that doesn't stick. I heard it was made of some sort of acid....yikes! Normally the mention of acid and my little babies make for one nervous mommy but thankfully by the time I heard what it was made of the kids had been playing happily with it. In fact, they LOVED it! I have a hard enough time getting our dinners made according to the recipe so I don't see us trying this one at home!

Teagan and Ellie painting with colored shaving cream.

With the Irish, Russians, British, Americans and French representin' we've become quite the international play group! French Ellie is here with Teagan. Ellie is seriously talented with her art as is photographer mom, Catherine!

Aren't Vivienne and mom Heather beautiful? They lived in Colorado and Texas too!

It was a treat to catch up with Daniel, sister Ashleigh and their mom, Polly! We miss seeing them each week.

Zea and Teagan grabbing a quick hug!

This was another project where the kids used tongs to drop metal balls covered with sparkly paint into galvanized pizza pans. When the balls hit the round paper they made a cool pattern! Those ladies at the studio are just genius! I can't wait for Tea's next class with them later this month for Easter!

I spied little Ashleigh working away on her own as the class wrapped up. I just love this shot but wish my blog template would let me display a bigger version. It would even be cool in black and white or with a color focus. And I love that we can see all our kid's artwork hanging up above her drying before we head home with them.

Destination: Inspiration is coming up for Tuesday! And I can't wait to share photos from our Paddy's Day celebrations on Saturday afternoon and night! Have a great Monday, all!

Better Blog Pictures for Under $5!

We are off to another great week here and I am thinking about...pictures! How do those great big blogtastic sites in webland get such fantastic photos, I wondered? Are their authors pro photographers? Do they have a studio helping them out?

I started doing some research on what I could do from home knowing my photos, especially of close up crafting projects, could use some help! Thanks to a great site called Via U! I got some great tips to get me off and running on making my shots look better! I thought I would share what I've learned today and hope you'll pass on your tips in the comments section as well.

First, I needed more light and a great background. So I chose the sunniest room in our house which is our bonus room upstairs. Then I snagged Isla's baby gate and Teagan's table that she uses for Legos. Don't fret if you don't have a baby gate hanging around. The original tutorial called for a cardboard box where you cut off two sides and the tops to get basically the same shape.

This table was just the right height to catch the best rays from the sun. The gate was sturdy enough for what came next....

I bought two pieces of 20 x 30 x 3/16" white foam board and pulled a few bits of burlap and felt I had from previous projects. I put the two pieces of foam together at a 90 degree angle and used the tape to secure them to the gate. 

Next, I wanted to experiment with adding in texture and a bit of color so I took several shots with the bare table as a background, felt and burlap. I've also read wrapping paper makes a great base for pictures. Ultimately I found neutrals work best.

This setup allowed the light to reflect and made for a wonderful, soft background that highlighted the subject of my photos.

This is loads better than the pictures I took to originally introduce this vase. I edited the picture using an amazing free site called Picnik. This site is sadly going away in April but in the meantime I am putting it to good use. I cropped the photo, added rounded edges as a frame, my watermark, and an airy matte finish.

I think next time I just need one more piece of foam board to use as a base to give it an even softer finish.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am lovin' me some burlap and St. Patrick's Day decorations this year!

I also revisited the felt Valentine's wreath from the tutorial I posted here. In this photo I used a thumb tack on the back of the foam board to hang my wreath for pictures. And I used Picknik again to crop, add a matte finish and my watermark. In addition, I used their clone feature to fill in some areas that needed more fullness and intensified the pink color with a Vibrance feature.

I love my new shamrock from Hobby Lobby this year! It is hanging over my mantel which is decorated for Paddy's Day!

I did this during nap time while the kids slept (kinda) and Daddy snuck off for 9 holes of golf. All told it took about 30 minutes and I learned a ton! I hope this helps you as well!

Do share if you have photography tips! I especially need help photographing my mantel which is in a pretty dark room...with blue walls (I so haven't been able to talk Brian in to painting them neutral).

Have a great Monday! And be sure to join us for Tuesday's Destination: Inspiration linky party where you can link up crafts, recipes, Etsy shops and more, as long as it is family friendly and you made it!