Christmas Photos

Can you believe I've been working on my Christmas picture concept all year?  Yup.  I got the idea for a neutral palette of colors and some sort of woods backdrop in January of this year and then gathered pieces that fit my theme all year.  We bought my husband's sweater at an end-of-winter sale.  I got the tulle skirt my youngest is wearing at on clearance at Gap and I found my dress on clearance at Belk.

I was originally going to sew for everyone, but finding things on clearance is just too hard to resist sometimes.

I did sew a dress for my eldest.

Here is the Emory Dress pattern from Sew Sweet.  I used a suiting fabric for the bodice and a French architecture fabric for the skirt.

I drove around town and scoped out a place that had the lighting I wanted and then we waited for the leaves to turn so we could have a bit of color.  On the day of the shoot, we took a bench from our guest room, our camera, tripod and remote shutter release and parked on the side of the road next to the spot I had chosen.

We told the girls that I was "the director" and that everyone, even Daddy, had to do what I said and sit or stand where I told them.  My four-year-old had to be reminded a couple times that I was the one who was telling everyone what to do and not her. :)

I had several sleepless nights trying to think of ways to coach the girls to look at the camera and get some natural smiles.  I tried to keep my expectations low and just be hopeful for one good photo.

As you can see, we got a few good shots. ;)  

And there was this extra special keeper that is now hanging in our master bath.