It's almost time...

Earlier this year, after my daughter got engaged and had decided on a late summer wedding, we started planning an invitation.

I was sorely tempted to design a completely graphic invitation, (just because I enjoy that process so much), but in the end we decided to go with a photo invite.

But how do you create the 'look' of a summer wedding in early spring? The trees are bare, the ground is soggy, the flowers barely starting to bloom.

Solution? The Salt Flats west of Salt Lake City.

The pictures were taken in mid-April and even though we do get some nice warm spring weather in Utah, we knew we could just have easily gotten a cold, rainy and windy day. Instead we got 80 degree weather, an almost cloudless blue sky and no wind. Perfect!

Summer dress, barefoot, balloons and what looks like a beach and there you go: Summer invites!

When we got to the rest stop along the I-80 (just shy of the Nevada border), we quickly realized we would have to wade through a few inches of water to get to dry land...or really, salt. So, off came the shoes, rolled up the pants and started wading. I quickly realized that looked pretty cool and so we took several pictures there and ended up using those for the invitation.

If you ever decide to do this, may I recommend you bring baby wipes to wipe all the white salt that dries on your skin? That and flip flops? Man, that salt is ROUGH on the feet...ouch!

The sun started setting and gave us a perfect silhouette opportunity.

Here's the other part of the invitation, simple and just how Emma wanted it.

We had such a great time that day with Emma & Christian...even Steve got into the romatic spirit of it all.

As a side note, the Salt Flats are used for land-speed records and the movie 'The World's Fastest Indian' was filmed there. I highly recommend this movie, it's kind of quirky and really inspirational. And Anthony Hopkins stars in it, so what more can you ask?

We just finished her wedding and bridal photos at the Young Living Farms last week with all that beautiful lavendar. I'll be sure post many more pics after the wedding. Thanks to everyone's well wishes and concerns. Two more weeks! Yikes! Still have to make a cake! Will be sure to blog about that whether I succeed or it's a big flop!

4 down. 1 to go.

My 4th child/1st daughter graduated from high school last week. I was doing just fine until I saw her after the ceremony was over. It was truly a watershed moment in more than one way.

After pulling myself together, I got into photography mode. Not the easiest thing to do when you have thousands of people milling about. I can't tell you how wonderful it was for me to see how happy my Emma was that day. Here's a little collage...



Always one to multi-task if possible, I did a graduation themed segment for Studio 5 a few weeks ago and have gotten a few requests to post the invitation and album I made for Emma on my blog.



I started with the graduation pictures we took last summer. I always purchase the CD and the rights to use these pics, because I always do! I also dug out a few photos of her school journey and created a little filmstrip in black and white. This quote by e.e.cummings fit the theme perfectly. It really was a simple card to make. This paper is by American Crafts. I used black photo corners, die-cut "AF" and printed the other sentiments from my computer. The card measures 5" x 5".

I had a 6" x 8" storybook album by Fancy Pants on hand and decided to transpose the basic elements from the card to the cover. I added that amazing "open" die-cut (from the Cricut Graphically speaking cartridge), cut a slit in the paper and threaded my filmstrip through it, so it could be pulled out.

I printed out some simple sheets for guests to write down some of their thoughts on (and they were GOOD!) and made sure to take pictures of Emma with all her guests to print out later and put together. There should be enough room to add pictures from her graduation ceremony as well.

I'm always a better 'before-hand' scrapbooker than after the fact! If you need more details on how to re-create these projects, please let me know.

snowy spring photo op

I know I should be peeved that it snowed in April, but this morning, with the sun slicing through the branches, making every color brilliant and every snow crystal sparkle, I felt blessed. I ran to find my uggs and my camera and spent a good hour taking pictures, getting wet, cold and enjoying this late winter gift.



I measured...8 inches of fluffy, heavy, perfect for snowmen snow. Amazing.



My Pear tree is half-way through blooming. The snow was so heavy it kept falling on me while I was taking pictures. I should have taken a picture of me, I was quite a sight!





My precious Rhododendrons were almost completely covered. I took a few pictures and then rescued them from all that snow. They are pretty sensitive plants and really don't belong in Utah, but if you baby them enough you'll get some show.



Just planted Renunculas and Yellow Pansies in my garden on Monday. Luckily these are super hardy flowers that seem to flourish with a cooler spring.



I replaced a dying tree in our front yard last year with a plum tree and was a little worried it may not survive the winter. It made me very happy to see it's beautiful pink blossoms pop out! It lives!



I've been working on my wee vegetable garden for 6 weeks now and just the other day planted the rest of my seeds and transplanted a few hardy herbs, hope they make it!






My Hyacinths and my Forsythia bush are on the downside of blooming, but what color they have left really pops with all that white snow around them. They almost look good enough to eat! Little flower ice pops!




The first tree I planted when we moved into this home 13 years ago was a Crimson Cloud Hawthorn. Somewhat obscure, but my Mother recommended it. She grew up with many of these trees in North Germany. I'm so glad I followed her advice. It's a tree that just keeps giving. Beautiful bark and bones for the winter, delicate and pretty white and pink blossoms in the spring, nice shade in the summer and crimson berries in the fall. It looks pretty good dressed in snow too!



Well, there you have it, a little tour of my garden. I hope you enjoyed seeing a little of what I saw this morning.

Star Trek meets Zoolander!

We finally had some family pictures taken on Saturday. Shauna Hunt, our intrepid photographer dragged us through manure, mud and ticks for some fun photo locales.

Steve took one look at this metal barn with it's individual 'pods' and knew we wanted to play around a bit here. Here we are working the 'blue steel' look Ben Stiller made famous in Zoolander.

Between a steady stream of "Oh Brother, where are thou" quotes, much laughter and some complaining (from the boys!) we managed to take a LOT of pictures. Can't wait to see them all and share some of them with you.