Making Grape juice

Henry was asking me how you make apple juice and grape juice a couple weeks ago and so we looked on Youtube and found all kinds of videos. He really wanted to make some juice after that! I decided to buy some Concord Grapes so that he could make some juice. First, I had him and Zoe take all the grapes off of the stems and put them in a bowl.

Then I let them smash the grapes with a potato masher. (I helped a little too) and strained the juice to get all the seeds and skin out.

And this was all the juice we got, about 7 ounces. Let me tell you, at 3.99 for the grapes that was the most expensive grape juice I have ever drank! (is drank a word?)

Henry liked it! It was good but I'll probably stick to buying Welches, It's much more cost effective. It was a fun project for the kids though!

B is for Book (or Blog)

As promised, I am sharing pictures of my Alphabet book. If you haven't been following my blog long, last year for Henry's 3rd birthday, I did a series of pictures of him from a - z. If you want to see a slideshow I did of them go here to see! Well, I decided that I wanted to have a book made of the pictures to keep. It took forever but I finally did it. Here are some pics of it. I'm really happy with it and Henry loves looking at it. I'm planning on doing one for Zoe for her 3rd birthday, which will be here before I know it! I guess I'd better get started :)

Here is the cover I designed for it. I wanted it to have that 50's schoolbook look to it.

and here are some of the pages from it

Fun night planned

can I write another blog? Is it ok to do 2 in one day?LOL I'm trying to make up for the lack of blogging over the last month. I have found that what I would have blogged about in the past I narrow down to a status on FB instead. I need to stop doing that!

Tonight my friend Tabitha and my sister Kelly are coming over to paint with me. I needed some "girl time" and I thought this would be something fun and different. Plus I can work on my painting at the same time that I want to try to finish this weekend. I can't wait to see what they paint!

I'll share some pics tomorrow!

Coffee Tawk with Sarah

Well, here I am again drinking a cup of coffee and in the mood to blog. I crossed a few items off of my list yesterday that I had been meaning to for a while.

First off #20 Sell a photo - thanks to my dear friend Elizabeth for wanting to display one of my pictures in her home! She wrote to me yesterday and asked if she could buy a signed 11 x 14 of this picture.

Liz is also a photographer! Here's her website. They do very unique photoshoots, check them out if you are in the Red Lion, PA area!

The next item crossed off is 61 and 62 get business cards and get a business license.

A very exciting one for me and one that I, if I was being totally honest, never thought I would achieve. #81, lose 20 pounds! yay! I'm hoping to lose about 10 more. Matt and I have decided to start working out again starting Monday.

and #27 get alphabet book made! I'll share some pics of it later.

anyway, I think that's it! so now I have 18 items crossed off, I'd better get moving, I only have 656 days left!

Editing and Identity Crisis

Just got a cup of coffee, nice and hot. Sitting down to edit some pictures. I am having an identity crisis of late. Up til now if meeting someone for the first time, I would tell them, if asked what I do, that I am unemployed. The other day I realized that I can tell people that I am a photographer. I may not make much money doing it after factoring in the money I spend on props and templates and the gas to and from shoots and my costs of the prints I sell my customers, plus the taxes I have to pay on every cent I make. But, I still do make a little money and so I guess that makes me a photographer. I sometimes am confused and scared to go out on a limb. In my mind I am too insecure to go further with my editing. I edit pictures sometimes and they look really awesome but I'm so scared to show them to a client because it's "different" I edit pictures of my own kids differently. For example here is a picture I took of Henry edited several different ways.

Up until recently I probably wouldn't have even shown this picture to my client. He's not looking at the camera so it can't be a good picture, right? I don't know, I happen to love this picture. It's so Henry. I love how his toes are curled up on the ground. I love how he is just looking down at the ground like he's thinking of how he's going to torture his sister when we get home. I would be disappointed if another photographer had taken this picture and decided to reject it just because he's not looking at the camera. I need to get over these insecurities I have and just be the artist that I want to be. If I think an image looks good, my client probably will too. I need to stop assuming what my client will or won't like.

I want to create art, I don't want to be your every day run of the mill photographer. I'm not putting down those photographers, they create beautiful portraits and I'm not knocking that. It's just not what I want to be. I need to decide what kind of a photographer I want to be, find my style and stick with it. I want customers to come to me for portraits because no one else can do what I do, not because my price is lower or because I'm the first photographer that came up when they did a Google search.

I want to be respected for my work. I want people to have the pictures I do of them and their children displayed not just as a picture of their child but as a work of art. I have recently started telling people that I am a photographer, I want to one day tell people that I am an Artist. I hope to get there one day!

Am I an artist?

I started a Facebook Page for my paintings. People have shown an interest in buying paintings from me ( I have 3 in the works Yay!) so I thought maybe during the Winter when my photography business is bound to slow down I can make some extra money painting. Check out my page and "like" me. Oh, and if you want a painting let me know!

New pictures up!

new photo blog up! Go check it out!! Leave me some blog love if you are so inclined!! Thanks :)

Finding my Joy!

Tomorrow I am starting this online photo class called finding Your Joy. Willette, the photographer / designer that is teaching the class describes it like this:

When you really look at all the photos you have of your family, how many photos are there of YOU? I discovered after printing my family photos for the year, that I was only in a handful of photos out of over 1000 photos. Finding YOUR joy is my personal quest to better document my own life (and my quest to help you do the same). I would hate for my children to see all of our family photos and wonder where I was (when in actuality I was there…I was just behind the camera). This three week online e-journey will help you explore how to capture your own life in photos and how to escape from always being behind the camera.

I think it will be fun and I plan on sharing some of the pics on my photo blog. This week's assignment is simply to take 20 self portraits. Stay tuned....

A year in the life of Henry....His fourth year. :)

Today you turn 4 years old!! Your daddy and I can't believe how lucky we are to have a boy like you in our lives! You love everything that is dinosaurs and sharks. You love to pretend you are a bug hunter and you get frustrated when you can't find any bugs to catch in the back yard. You make up stories about cardemon, and Nicky and you love to play pet shop with Zoe. You put the laundry basket over you and pretend you are a baby tortoise or baby hermit crab so that Zoe can buy you from the pet shop. Lately you have loved playing the "knight game" or the "turtle game" with daddy. I love the songs you make up, "I'm going to the fair, to see mamamama" or the classic "here comes a monster swinging his tail, ee I ingy, kingy kaaale" You must have popcorn and hot chocolate when we sit down to watch a movie. You love to help me cook and do the dishes even though I don't let you help me as much as I should. Sorry about that, some days I am in too much of a hurry to get things done.

You accomplished a lot this year. Potty training, learning to write your name, and now you let mommy occasionally take your picture.
You took your first trip to Disney World (thanks to Grammy and papa), and you are getting better at sharing with your baby sister. You also got to go see the Wiggles this year (thanks to Grandma and Papa)You are a sweet, smart, funny little boy, you have never met a stranger and you will talk to anyone who will listen. You teach me patience daily and I am a better person for knowing you. Thanks for always knowing how to make me smile when I need it, the snuggles in the morning, the hugs and kisses all day long. I can't wait to see what this, your 4th year has in store!! I love you :)