Tulip Time 2011 poster competition

I meant to post this a while a go, but never got around to it. So,Late last year, I saw that there was a competition for the 2011 Tulip Time poster. I though, “eh, what the heck!” SO I submitted two pieces of art work. I thought it would never get picked, because they were photograph. Tulip Time posters seem to be mostly be paintings. But, I Thought it doesn’t hurt to try. The day the 20 finalist were notified came and went, and I didn’t hear from anyone. Not a phone call,not an email, not a envelope in the mail, nothing. I was kind of bummed, but what was I gonna do? Oh well, maybe I will enter next year or something…. a few days later….. Kenton receives a call. I was selected to be in the TOP 20!!! WHAT!?!?! FOR REAL?!?! WHAT?!?!  THey have been trying to e-mail me ALL along, but they had the wrong e-mail address. Then, they proceed to tell him, the print needs to be at the art council by the end of the day. SO this is kind of how it went in my head…

WHAT? For Real? ME? YAHOOOOOO, What did they say? YAY!!!! WOOT WOOT! Wait, what? Today? HOLY CRAP!!! WOOT!! What am I gonna do?? FOCUS !!<enter a few tears> FOCUS!! OH yeah, duh… PLEASE be open, please be open! YES!!! WOOT WOOT!

That was the short version.

Anyway, I had it printed and ran it over to the Arts Council as soon as it was done. I walked into the art council, and I finally got to see the top 20 art pieces that were selected. I felt honored! There were some really great pieces there.

Long story short, I didn’t win this year, and that’s ok. But I am still in the running for second place. During Tulip Time, there is going to be a “people’s choice” award. The 19 pieces that did not win the poster this year will be framed and located in downtown stores.   The public will then vote on their favorite.  Hopefully second place is in my future.

Here is the one image of mine that was selected…

Pinterest anyone?

I have a new addiction, and it’s name is pinterest. I am on there ALL the time…seriously!

Ok, so let me try to explain it to you. So, you, or other people,  load pictures or share photo links from some of their favorite websites to Pinterest. Whatever you think is cool! Then you can go through all the images and “pin” them to your boards. I have a bunch of boards started right now. I have a “dreams” board, a “DIY” board, a “cooking” board, and of course a board with images that I love.  It’s like having a bunch of cork boards, with a bunch of images cut out from a magazine, BUT they are categorized and LINKS to the website, so you can find it back!! AH!! I love it! Of course, you can follow people’s boards, like their boards, and comment on their boards too. Everything is social network these days… But it’s cool! You have to check it out! There is great inspirations there.

New Black and Whites

In our kitchen we have three 11×14 pictures matted and framed in our wall of our three little girls.  They were so cute, but so out dated. The photo that we had up of Lucia, was of her on her tummy. She was probably around 6 moths old– she’s now 2. I take TONS of pictures of my girls, but I rarely take them to the studio because I am usually there with other clients.

Well, we finally made time to get them in. They loved it and it was quick and painless. I think it took about 20minutes to get shots of all three of them. We wanted something that reflected their silliness and something that was fun. So, here is what I did…

I want a Kelly Moore Bag!

SO, I have been drooling over Kelly Moore’s camera bag for sometime. The problem is I have no idea which one I want… hmm….. I mean seriously, how cute are these?!?!

SO, I Think the bottom three would be great. I think they could hold all my equipment, and extra stuff I have with me all the time.

If you have a Kelly Moore Bag, let me know your thoughts. I really want to know how much you like them.

I almost forgot how to work this thing. ;)

Well, things are finally starting to level out for me. I am designing a fw albums at the moment–which is so much fun! I’ll try to get some pictures of those as soon as the finished product is delivered to me.I have a beautiful canvas that just arrived that is pretty cool too. I might have to take a picture of that too, and post it.

So it’s a new year, and I made a few resolutions/goals. And when I say a few, I mean a lot. Here they are..  1) lose weight–of course, who doesn’t make that resolution. But it’s about time I do it. My youngest daughter is now 2, and I can’t blame it on my pregnacy anymore. 2) Take at least a picture a day.–I tried the whole 365 thing, and it never really worked for me. I just got too busy, and felt like the pictures had to be something faboulus. SO this year, I am going to try to document what is going on at home, with three little girls. There is ALWAYS something going on here. 3) blogging. I am awful at blogging. Aw-ful! Updating this blog is so easy, but my goodness I never do it.  SO, even if it’s just a picture, at least it will be a post. 4) Spend more time with God.–My days are filled with chasing kids, errend running, cooking, work, gym, and my relationship with God has fallen to to the waist side more than what I like. SO I am gonna get back to spending more time in His word, and doing my devotionals. 5) Be a better Mom and Wife–spend more one on one time with each of the girls, have some craft nights, and play dates with them. Also, more dates with hubby. Looking forward to that. 6) keep up with cleaning.–This is SO hard for me. I have three girls. Three girls who love to color, cut paper, sharpen pencils, put on make up…whatever, and my house gets trashed. I currently have toys all over the living room and paper scraps all over the kitchen floor. But I would rather them have fun doing all that stuff than to tell them NO don’t cut paper because it’s too messy. You know what I mean? Anyway, they get so busy playing and I get busy designing, then it’s lunch time, or dinner time, or we have to leave, whatever–then the cleaning doeant get done until I get home. SO I have to have a better system. The clutter is driving me nuts!!

SO there you have it. I’ll let you know how i do with those. To end this post, here is a winter picture. I <3 winter!

Flower Post

It’s that time of year again….It’s almost TULIP TIME, here in Holland, MI and  I am so excited! Really, come on, who doesn’t love tulips?!?! They are so pretty and come in so many different colors. Anyway, we were out today, and I was able to take a few shots of some flowers. I’ll share a few with you….

My little ladies

A few weeks back my middle daughter, Isabel,  kept asking me if I would  take HER pictures. I Think I may have had a few shoots that week and she was feeling she wanted her time to shine. So, I had an idea on how to make it more special for her. I let her pick out her own outfit. Now, that may sound kind of trival to some, but you have to know my girls. They are SOOOO girly! SO girly!!! I always pick out their clothes for school, so this was a real treat for her. OK, so Isabel, my middle daughter, had it in her head what she was going to wear already. What can I say the girl has style!! She had dress-up bling, from the playroom, and one of my necklaces….she didn’t miss a thing. I’ll post her pics in a minute…

So, My oldest daughter saw the pictures of Isabel on the computer and said she wanted to do the same thing. Again, she was so thrilled to pick out her whole outfit. It was so fun to see her so excited about having her pictures taken. Oh, and listening to her talk about “the tights matching her dress” was so FUNNY! She had some bling too… Of course….Her a few pictures of them.

Now it was my youngest daughters turn.  She can’t pick out her clothes yet, so I had to help her out. She came with me to her sister’s shoots, and it wsa finally her turn last week. SHe hardly has any pictures of her, by herself, so I made sure to take more than just a few. She is a little honey!! Ok, so it looks like I gave her some direction, but I didn’t! All I told her to do is “smile like a princess” and this is what she gives me….

Those are my little ladies, and I adore them!!! I can’t wait until we do it again.

Spring is in the air

Here in little Holland (MI), we are finally having some beautiful spring weather. We have been outside for only a little while though because Eva has croup. But I did manage to get some shots while we were outside.

Poor Eva was not feeling the best, but she REALLY wanted to play outside.   She lasted outdoors for all of 10 minutes, poor girl.

I haven’t forgotten about photo-a-day

For a little while there, I didn’t have time for a “photo of the day.”  Life just got a little too busy. Things have finally slowed down a little bit, so I was able to catch a few shots this past week.

March 15: My Lucia.

March 13: Lucia holding on to her toes

March 11:  A happy Isabel after eating chocolate. There is still a little piece under her lip.

March 9: Lucia. She looks like she had a long day, doesn’t she?

Have a great wek everyone!

-Selena

Can you tell that they are sisters?

A couple weeks ago we were looking at some old video that I had taken on of the girls.Well, it actually was a video of Eva when she was around 6/7months old–Lucia’s age right now. I never really thought our kids look that much alike until I saw that—holy cow! Lucia looks SO MUCH like Eva. Dino actually thought that we were watching a recent video of Lucia. Anyway, so I thought I would  compare pictures. Can you tell that they are sisters or what?

Eva was obviously a bit heavier as a baby, but for the most part they look pretty close don’t ya think? I can’t help but laugh when I see that photo of Eva. Her thighs are so chubby…well what isn’t in that baby photo. I LOVE it!! Ahh, they grow so fast….