Is it okay if I just merge the scrapbooking portion of this program with the photography portion of the program? lol I am kidding myself by trying to keep up with the two different pages!

This is for the design team on Two Peas....

It can be found online here. Journaling: You colored eggs for the very first time. You both enjoyed slam-dunking the eggs into the dye cups. Your fingers were stained blue & green! You also had your very first egg hunt! Sydney found the golden egg! Saige said all of the new goodies she found was her "loot"!

My (private) studio is almost done. I took the girls' 2 year pix before everything was done. It is not complete but it's functional;)

I absolutely A*DORE modern damask back drops... 

A lot of people are asking where I bought their outfits. Tutus, bows and #2 shirts (designed by me) from here, red patent leather shoes pictured here but purchased at Nordies. Suckers... haha from the Christmas photo shoot;)

Golly gee how cute are we...

Ideal caption: "I'm gonna get you, sucka!"

Tutu sweet. Tutu happy.

Ok ok! Now I have the perfect caption for this image...
"I'm with 2pid"!!!

Ok... am I beating this photo shoot into the ground or what? lol wait til you see what I have in store for St. Pats! lol

I made a few of these name badge albums. I couldn't post this right away because I made some for gifts that hadn't been received yet. You can see the album here:

http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=1460505

Here's some "personal" work I did for Valentine's day. I hunted for a few days for some props that I thought would be fun for the girls to use. I didn't think they'd actually keep the headbands on, but they did. They even put them back on after naps! lol We practiced putting heart stickers on our noses - and also the pouty look.

I heart you... can they be any cuter????
This is my FAVORITE new font. La Carte.

We practiced this pouty look...

These photo sessions were a blast! I love shooting enormous bellies and teeny tiny newborns. Thank you Miss H. for letting me create keepsakes for your family during this grand event!

First we started off in the studio for some family and belly shots...

The new big bro...

Big bro and I thought it would be funny if he wrote on mommy;) Love the baby WITH an arrow!

Then, along came baby L, a few weeks early!

A little antique action...

My personal favorite...

...and a video with sugar on top!

Hello, my name is Jill... I am a Photoshop junkie. I made a friend over the past few weeks from the Coffee Shop. Her name is Rita and I put her straight to work on Cre8tive photography templates;) She was able to take my blog templates and create an auto load action for them. What does this mean? I can simply make low-res blog frames in seconds!!! All set to crop and place your image(s) for you - even the correct journal entry width, 600 px.

THEN, I dug deeper into her site. She has these cool actions as well. I ran the "Coffee with Cream" actions on these - with a tinge of my own adjusting. The left images are SOOTC - the right is the action with the BG layer bumped up to 60% and the gradient layer changed to 70%. Now... if I can just find a lab that can print these;)

We had our annual Christmas card photo shoot at Image Source. Thank goodness Dave had some time to help take the pictures;) He is so awesome! We've been trying to work together for the past year - but you see the little munchkins below??? They win! The only thing on my Christmas list (again) this year is TIME. Well... and maybe a Wacom tablet and cash for my lens fund. lol oh, and maybe Focal Point for Photoshop. And don't forget the new digi 50mm lens!!

The studio lighting cuts my work flow in half! There's no (or very little) color correction like there is when I'm on-location. The Lightroom/CS3 junkie that I am, I still ran some color conversions to pump up the blacks and red saturation and of course added the ribbon frames. I love Lightroom because I save my actions (presets) for every session so I can go back and use them again for other images.

We had Elaine go outside the studio door and start knocking. Duh! why didn't we think of this earlier? We do this every night in their bedroom. They stayed put for several minutes while Dave captured some really really good shots! Note: the hair do's and... is that Gymboree for Mommy? Yep! I have a small head. I wore a youth hockey helmet (when I was 27).

For all of you who have never been to or helped us at a photo shoot... it ain't easy lookin' as good as we make it look. hee hee There's REAL sweat involved. So, I thought I'd put together an out takes collage. I've always wanted to do this - and thanks to my sweeties, I had plenty to choose from!!

It went a little something like this: Saige!!! get back here. Saige, come on! Sydney, don't pluck at daddy's eye balls. Well do whatever you want - but could you at least smile? itty bitty one? Ooooh, the grand ole duke of York... smile. Up. down. smile. cheese. he had 10,000 men. he marched them UP to the top of the hill. whoa. cheese. did you get a decent one yet? Sydney, do you like to move it move it? I like to move it move it. Saige, boo. Smile. Where's Elaine? Where's Tennessee's froggy? Do you want some raisins? Want some juice? If you're happy and you know it clap your hands. A martini sounds really good right now. Can I have a kiss? kissy kissy. Don't you dare come after my sucker. This is my sucker and in no way can it possibly be yours. Don't even look at it. Ok, one lick for one pic. Are we done yet?

The Nikon 24-70 mm 2.8... I have to have it. I had the opportunity to borrow this lens from a Nikon rep out of the local camera store in downtown Lafayette. I used it for the "B" Family photo shoot... very dreamy!

So... I decided to get it for my fall line up. The price was a little steep (ok... V E R Y steep) but we're talking the difference between eyelashes and no eyelashes in images. I had to be seriously blown away from my test images to even consider this lens. I was. It's incredibly sharp! Yes, there is a downside. It's expensive and H E A V Y. It's literally ripping out the muscle under my shoulder blade! ouch!

I dumped my 24-70mm 2.8 Tamron off at the camera store on consignment without hesitation. I've been complaining about that lens for years - lack of sharpness and I don't think it lived up to the 2.8 end of things. It didn't perform well in low light. I think my problems will be solved with the new super duper Nikon lens.

So, if you see me in front of retail stores with a red bucket and bells in hand... please contribute to my "in the doghouse fund" for buying this lens. lol

I've been meaning to do this for a while. Since I'm not in the stage of building the business - I never got around to it. Here it is... my new biz card. It's kind of scrapbooky/digital - I wanted to express my cre8tivity other than photography. I think it's colorful, cheery and inspirational;) Most digital elements from here.

FRONT OF CARD

BACK OF CARD

Ideally, I wanted to have some writing room on the back of the cards to enter gallery names/passwords and links to the twins' blog. The front is glossy - the colors just POP, the back is matte for pens.