Smile And Wave

Family Photos with Heather Gray: The Big Kids

When Smith was about four weeks old we were generously gifted a family photo session with the ever so talented Heather Gray. She's a Boulder based photographer that has similar ties to California. We grew up about two hours away from each other and are now living a little less far away. She's not only one of the sweetest women I've met since living in Colorado, she's got that special way of making you feel at ease both in conversation over lunch and in front of the camera. Our kids took to her within minutes and gave her the full room tour, complete with stories for each toy and drawing. 

This isn't even half of the photos she captured of the kids and their shared room but these are most of my favorites. There are a few that just perfectly showcase each of their personalities and I know when we revisit them in ten years or so we'll all appreciate the reminders of what their favorite toys were and how little they looked. I've got at least two more posts with more photos with Smith to share because there are just so many that I love!

I'm so thankful that Heather gifted us with these beautiful photos. If you're in the Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs area and are looking for a photographer you should add her to your list of people to check into. 

I've got more to share soon!

-Rachel

Heart print c/o Gingiber. Best and Mostest print from RBTL.

Lisa Leonard Giveaway Winner

The winner of the Lisa Leonard Designs Motherhood Matters Giveaway is:

 

Carrie Sunday said...

Oh the fine feather necklace is gorgeous. I'm pregnant with my first, in the hospital for observation right now actually, and at 26 weeks, she is my heart.

 04/26/2014 at 08:01 AM

 

Thank you so much for all of the entries and sharing all the special reasons why you'd love one of Lisa's necklaces and thank you again for your readership!

 

-Rachel

Motherhood Matters and a Lisa Leonard Giveaway

The other day I was nursing Smith after a morning spent trying to provide him some comfort despite his gassy belly. As I sat there unable to move on the couch, Ruby looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Mama, do you still have enough room in your heart for me now that Smiff is here?"

It was one of those moments where I became painfully aware of my limitations and my heart swelled with compassion wondering how I could reassure her. I patted the couch next to me and felt her lean in as I put my arm around her and told her she'd always be my best girl.

She brought me a book and I read it to her while Smith nursed and I silently hoped she'd always know of her special place in my heart-carved out with long eyelashes and her slightly gap-toothed grin. She's now sandwiched between my two boys who are equally precious in that one made me a mother and one gave me the opportunity to enjoy these early, challenging days in ways I was too tired and overwhelmed to with the first two. 

Lisa Leonard has been creating special jewelry (and more) for as long as I've been a mama. I remember first learning about her work shortly after Sebastian was born. One of the very first necklaces I received from her featured a single tag with his name on it. Those early days of pushing the stroller to the park just to get out of the house and interact with anyone else between the hours of 8 am to 5 pm felt so long. 

There were always cheerios underfoot, towels pulled out of drawers, and Elmo's voice always ringing in my ears. I had no way of seeing beyond the end of the week much less the time when I'd miss him while he was at school all day. Fast forward seven years and two more tags and I'm almost looking forward to a little more Elmo again. 

My Fresh Cut Birthstone Necklace is a beautiful reminder of how special and unique each of the little hearts in our family are and how there's enough room in mine for all of them. 

Lisa Leonard Designs has so many lovely pieces that would make a thoughtful Mother's Day gift and you can take 25% off your order right now with the code 'momlove' at checkout. Or maybe send the father of your children a subtle link to your favorite necklace with the appropriate monogram or gemstones attached? I vote yes.

THE GOOD NEWS is that Lisa is offering a giveaway to one lucky Smile and Wave reader! Leave a comment below sharing which necklace you'd love if you were to win and I'll randomly pick a winner by Sunday, April 27th.

NOTE: Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you if you don't have a link or active e-mail address attached to your link. 

Have a lovely weekend!

-Rachel

Why I Love Art Journaling

I was digging through a box of loose journal pages in preparation for this post and stopped to read each and every one. It doesn't feel like it's been as long as it's been since I made these two different journals but it's been seven and five years! The first grouping above was made for an online class that hasn't been available for awhile and documented how I was feeling about our last summer as a family of three back in 2009. Sebastian was about to turn three and I was a few months pregnant with Ruby. I remember feeling much more whimsical of heart and I think it's really special to look back at my thoughts as a mama of one. 

I'm still really drawn to the aesthetic of these pages. I love all the white with black letting and summer colors. I used a lot of found papers and cut out shapes to create fun collages. I had a lot of polaroid film left but must've run out after this because I haven't seen any for years. 

I still love so many things from those lists but had forgotten about some of the things I'd written down, such as my fear of all the garden snakes in our backyard. There were always (harmless) snakes in our big, beautiful backyard and I almost let it keep me from getting out there to enjoy it. I also often worried that someone would call Child Protective Services or at least really judge me for letting Sebastian run around naked outside at age two. It's so funny to think about how I'm not going to care one bit when Smith pulls off his diaper to run through the sprinklers. I guess some worries fade with each new addition.

This round of pages is from 2007. Brett, Sebastian, and I had just moved back in with my family after our apartment complex in Seattle was being sold to turn into condos. We were apartment managers on the weekends and got free housing plus pay and both worked part time through the week but the new owners didn't need us and we weren't going to be able to find anything else to work out with our schedules and budget so we had our stuff put in storage and moved in with my parents.

They were so generous to let us stay with them for so long but I remember feeling a little defeated moving home and running into high school friends and being in a hard place financially. It's reflected in one of my pages below. I remember one afternoon I was out to lunch with my dad when he spotted someone I used to know from school and I desperately hoped I could avoid eye contact so they didn't ask me what I'd been up to the last six years.

I can look back now with the confidence and humility that comes with age - knowing that we all have different stories, unmet expectations, plans that may not have gone accordingly, or experiences that have been greater than we could've imagined. I'm not sure I would've remembered some of the raw emotion and insecurities from my twenties had I not put them on paper in such a way. 

As I mentioned in the trailer for my 52 Weeks of Art Journaling E-Course, I hope these journals I've made over the last twelve plus years will give my kids as much as they gave me. They were a creative outlet, a chance to experiment with new techniques, a reason to take pictures of myself and the kids, a place to vent and question, a record of likes and dislikes through the years, but most of all they allowed me to get to know myself better. When my kids are walking through a frustrating time in their life they'll be able to see where I struggled and be encouraged. I hope they see all the simple joys we knew as well. 

They say children learn valuable lessons through play. I think the same is true when you have a medium that you love. I'll always love art journaling for the safe place it's been to make pages that are meaningful to me without the pressure of keeping up with trends or creating with others in mind. Some pages I'm really proud of and others I just needed to get out of my system but they're all for me. 

If you've purchased my latest Art Journaling E-Course and have completed any pages you feel excited about sharing you can add the hashtag #52weeksofartjournaling to your pages on Instagram or via Twitter. I'd love to see what you've done with the prompts and challenges!

Your turn. What do you love about art journaling? How'd you get started? If you've never tried it before have you ever wanted to? I'm all ears!

-Rachel

Easter Weekend 2014

We had a lovely, low-pressure day of relaxing and enjoying the Easter holiday at our house this year. We were up with the sun and then had to wait on a sleepy little girl to join us to see what the Easter bunny brought before making a breakfast quiche and letting the baby take a much needed morning nap. The big kids were thrilled with their goodies and I made a mental note to tell the Easter bunny (ahem) to hit up TJMaxx every year until they grow out of their inexpensive toy section. 

Since I operate with a foggy mom brain these days I completely forgot to make time in our day on Saturday to hard boil and then decorate eggs for the hunt so I boiled them late Saturday night and then had the kids decorate their eggs while Brett and Smith napped and the quiche finished cooking. Then we took two whole hours to get everyone showered/bathed and dressed in the coordinating outfits that I had halfway put together except I couldn't find Sebastian's clean socks and all of Ruby's shoes have suddenly become too small.

We loaded the half-fed kids, quilt, eggs, baskets, diaper bag, camera, water, snacks, and people into our Volvo with great hopes that we'd make it to the park before it started raining. Then our car wouldn't start. We let out a collective groan and Brett borrowed cables from a neighbor to see if it just needed a jump. Twenty minutes later we were on our way to the nearest coffee stand and then the park. 

The weather was looking ominous on the mountains but it wasn't half bad in town. Other than getting a little dark at one point the sun shone through the stormy clouds here and there and we were able to handle the wind blowing our baskets and quilt away by having Brett and Smith lay down on it while the kids gathered the eggs. Ruby gave Sebastian a run for his money this year but it made me so happy that they were able to resist the fairness wars and just enjoy being outside having fun.

Smith got his first Easter basket this year with the softest little bunny inside. Brett wondered aloud if he'd be walking this time next year and I couldn't help but wonder what next year's Easter might be like with Ruby holding this little guy's hand as he takes wobbly steps and is surely going to be more interested in eating the grass than collecting eggs. #cantwait

Next year let's bring the tripod so we can get a great family photo. It's just not polite to ask the sweet man that happened to be walking by as we got there to take our family photo one more time because someone wasn't looking and someone else was about to pick their nose. This year, I'll settle for the one of my handsome husband and three sweet kids in front of the mountains that still take me by surprise every time I look up. 

We hope you had a lovely Easter weekend full of (more) hope and love. 

-The Denbows

P.S. The last few Easters.

Smith's First Photostrip

I've been itching to get that boy in a photo booth since forever! Okay, about five weeks. We knew our usual photo booth in Manitou Springs would be out of order until it warmed up since it was at an outdoor location and the ink always froze. I also knew there was one inside a quirky pizza place but the one time we went our photo strips had big black streaks down the middle and were pretty fuzzy. I finally decided that was better than waiting another six weeks before we could guarantee the first booth would be working and was pleasantly surprised that they'd fixed the streaky problem! 

It captured his classic side eye quite well.

Ruby was close by for his strip and photobombed the third frame. Then we took our own and she wanted the sticky hand that she'd procured from a quarter machine to be in the first frame with us (see below). 

I have a growing collection of photostrips on our fridge that hold such fond memories because most of them were taken during a special part of life. One from the time my family came out for Sebastian's birthday the first summer after our move, one from a few days before Brett deployed to Kuwait for four months, one announcing our pregnancy, and most recently one of the four of us on Valentine's Day with Smith taking up a lot of room in my belly.

I took them all down this afternoon and decided to write down the details so I never forget which year something happened or how old the kids were. I'd like to scan them all into a few art journal pages as a visual reminder of our time here in Colorado and all of the things that have happened in the past two years. 

I laid these two side-by-side before realizing it looks like Smith is purposefully giving us the side eye in our own strip. Ha! That boy has no idea how many more of these I'm going to stick him in. 

-Rachel

Edible Crafting

Yesterday I had an after school surprise for the kids thanks to the lovely folks at Elenis Cookies. I told them someone sweet had sent us cookies in the mail and they squealed. Then I told them we could color on them and Ruby gasped. This cookie craft was a mash up of two of her very favorite things at four years old and it was all I could do to keep her from jumping out of her seat in excitement as I got things set up for coloring.  

I let each of them choose six to decorate with the special markers that came with the cookies. Ruby drew some faces and added some abstract art to hers while Sebastian drew some minecraft inspired characters. I didn't pressure them into making these look like traditional Easter eggs because it would've taken all the fun out of letting them customize their edible works of art. Sebastian was so proud of his that he didn't want to eat them until Brett got home to see them. 

The last thing Ruby said before she fell asleep was, "That was the best day ever!" I have a feeling coloring on cookies and then eating them was a major player in that.

I love the idea of getting to decorate your own cookies with markers but I love that these are available for sending out to friends and family even more. They'd make any birthday party or baby shower a little more fun, too! 

We've got a few other Easter-themed crafts to keep the kids occupied after school this week thanks to a trip to Hobby Lobby yesterday. We may not see our dinner table until next Monday!

-Rachel

Here Kitty, Kitty Pillow Tutorial

Ruby is officially my only girl to sew for and she's always been a girl with a fondness for animals over dolls. When I was planning out the kids' shared room makeover I decided I needed to make them each a pillow that helped define their space and that reflected their interests. Ruby loves to pretend she's a cat so I decided she needed a fun cat pillow for her bed. Note: I've styled it in Smith's bassinet but only because their beds were a mess and I had a baby on my shoulder. Sometimes the easier option wins out.

This project only took me about 40 minutes including shooting the steps. I've included the pdf of the kitty pillow pattern below for you to download and print to use as a template but you could also cut out a variety of animal shapes. 

1. Supplies: You'll need about 1/2 yard of fabric, soft stuffing, yarn or embroidery thread, a tapestry needle for your yarn or an embroidery needle for your thread, access to a printer, straight pins, shears, and a sewing machine. It's possible to hand-stitch this as well. Not shown is a small embroidery hoop. This will make it easier to add your stitched details. 2. Print the pattern and cut your fabric so that you have one cut measuring about 18" wide by 13" tall. Fold it in half as shown above.

3. Cut out your cat template and pin it to your fabric so that the long edge of the template is flush with the fold of your fabric. This will give you a symmetrical cut of fabric when you're done. 4. Unpin your template and unfold your cut of fabric. Use the same template or use your first cut of fabric to cut out a second cat face from the rest of your fabric.

5. I goofed and forgot to add my embroidery before stitching this together. Hoop one of your cat faces and thread your yarn or embroidery thread and add whatever details you'd like. 6. I added simple stitches to create eye lashes and a nose as well as ear details. Once you're done stitching one section, unhoop and then rehoop another section.

7. Once finished, lay your two cat faces together with right sides facing each other (embroidered side facing in) and pin at the edges. 8. Stitch about 1/4" from the edge of your pieces (seam allowance) starting at the top of the head and all the way around until you're a hand's width from where you started. You'll need to leave that open to stuff it. Cut little triangles along your rounded edges that almost touch your hem. This will allow your pillow to round nicely once it's stuffed.

9. Turn it right side out, fill with stuffing, and stitch shut using a blind stitch. Ta-Da!

Ruby already loves it and my mama heart is happy she's happy. 

Download Cat Pillow Pattern

I'm still working on Sebastian's pillow. I'm thinking a big thunderbolt since he's into super heroes and would love a big body-sized pillow to replace the pregnancy pillow that he's claimed as his own. Smith may get a star or swiss cross. We'll see.

Speaking of Smith, I think he needs a round of applause for taking two long naps without needing to be in my arms. It felt really good to do something creative.

-Rachel

 

Venturing Out

It took us about an hour but we got everyone fed, dressed, and ready to leave the house on Saturday. The weather was fantastic for spring in Colorado Springs and snow was in the forecast so even though the amount of energy spent getting all parties involved headed in the same direction at the same time was a bit ridiculous, it was worth the effort in the end. It usually is. 

We walked/scooted to a relatively new coffee shop, Fifty Fifty Coffee House, in our neighborhood that is officially my favorite in town. Their lattes and americanos are the best we've had in awhile and they have some great treats and breakfast food. The decor is kind of minimalist meets vintage meets Kinfolk magazine and it's always got a handful of students mixed in with middle-aged clientele. It's got a great atmosphere and the owner and employees are always friendly to us and sweet to our kids. Also, their couch is kind of iconic.

Brett and I sipped our coffees while our kids literally made themselves at home. Ruby had to introduce herself and bear hug all the dogs on the patio while our seriously untalkative son chatted for almost half an hour at a guy on the couch. I say at because Sebastian wasn't leaving much room for a two-way conversation. The guy was sweet about it and assured us he was fine with it and had a little brother himself. It was fun to overhear a few of the things Sebastian told him about our family. Smith slept through most of our visit snuggled up in my wrap which was just fine with me.

After awhile we walked across the street to Sebastian's old school and let the kids burn off some steam before heading home. The first few hints of spring were on the trees and it was so refreshing to get out in the sunshine as a family. I wouldn't hate it at all if we made it part of our Saturday routine.

I hope your weekend was lovely.

-Rachel

P.S. Wrap c/o Solly Baby. It's the fourth wrap I've owned and my favorite for this age. If you're in the market for one I can 100% recommend it. I've worn it almost every day these last two weeks. It's become a necessity for making dinner and lets me feel a little bit less restless when Smith won't let me put him down. 

My Heart Times Three

Not many words today. Just this.

Motherhood is the hardest and the best thing I've ever taken on. I'm learning every day how to be what my kids need. Thankful for the grace we can offer each other most days and hopeful that all of the best things stick.

-Rachel