We finally meet Kailyn!

My best BEST friend (Sondra Lafferty Riney) lives in San Antonio with my niece Kailyn and her husband J.R.

This is my favorite shot of her. I love white backgrounds with babies.

 Its so pure and simple and I love how you just see Kailyn in this, nothing else. :)

 Kailyn is 6 weeks younger than Branson and we'd never seen one another's babies until this Christmas! I have been dying to love on her and of course take her first portraits. She's such a beautiful child. We love you SO MUCH Kailyn Elizabeth!

She looks so snuggly in her winter hat. :)

 


Love the color in this one. She looks like an actress. :)
 

She loves her feet! This was her momma's favorite. I love her eyes. They sparkle.

This & That

Hello All! Just posting previous work, trying to get caught up on this blog...

My studio is here at our home. I am currently working out of our media room but my actual 'studio' is a big room on the 3rd floor that my dad & uncle finished out for me. Its technically the attic but it makes a great studio, but its still is not heated... So, until I get it finished I shoot out of the media room. But I have no windows in that room so I rely strictly on my lights. 

Showing off his big boy toofers! I love this one but I cropped off his head accidentally.

Before I started shooting professionally I used natural lighting for all of my portraits and I really miss the way window lighting looks and feels. So, for Branson's last photo shoot I put him in a toy basket in my living room and snapped a few. Here's what I got:

I love the vintage feel of this one.

The the ratio of shadow and light that window light produces. I really like the tone of this one too. I chose a more magenta colored sepia for a vintage feel.

This one is my favorite. I really like the composition and I LOVE the way it looks like he's just peacefully sneaking a peak at me. This cracks me up because it looks like such a beautiful moment between the two of us but really I snapped this so quickly. What you can't see is I edited the vent in the bottom left and the electrical sockets. ;0)

I was terrified the basket was going to tip over. My dad is inches away from him, ready to grab him if he had fallen over!

Carrots

I buy the bags of baby carrots to save me time. This way I don't have to cut and peel them. They take probably double or triple the amount of time to steam as do other veggies. I don't measure the amount of water. I 'eyeball' it. I also don't use the Beaba machine because I need to steam these on high and the beaba doesn't get quite hot enough.
So, I add the entire bag of baby carrots to my medium stock pot (actually the steam basket). I then pour approximately 4-6 cups of distilled water in the bottom of the pot and cover them. I steam these for 20 min or until for tender. Remove the carrots and reserve the water. I usually don't have the time to do this all in one step. Mostly after my food and reserved water has cooled down I wrap them up in the fridge and blend it the next day or sometimes two days. You can even pour some of the water back over the food to ensure it stays hydrated. It makes it easier to puree`.
 Make sure your carrots are very fork tender the 1st couple of times I under cooked them and had to sautee the blended chunks in the bottom of the pot because they weren't blending smoothly.

This is hilarious! As you can see it took a while for us to get the eating with a spoon thing down pat. Despite the expression, he enjoyed them!

Total Cost: $1.99 for a one lb. bag of organic carrots (16 0z).

Earth's Best Organic Carrots: $9.99 for a 12-pk of 4 0z jars.     I save $4.00

Amazon.com has 20 0z of Gerber carrots (2.5 tubs) @ $25.00!!!!  That's $1.25 per 0z!

 My cost

$0.32!

I'm sort of back lol! AND Baby Food 101

I am embarrassed to say I haven't blogged since August!!!!!!!! I've been so busy being a SAHM, taking care of Branson that when I do get a free minute I usually check my facebook or do something productive around the house.
I've been thinking a lot about blogging my baby food recipes. I make all organic baby food for Branson and I LOVE doing it. I know exactly what he's getting, the quality and cleanness of it and it gives me some ME time. Plus, I'd be lying if I didn't say that I am a paranoid nut when it comes to what my baby eats. My family jokes w/ me all the time that they've given Branon chicken tenders behind my back. There will come a day when he will get bad stuff...I'm just not there yet!
My MIL got me the Williams Sonoma Beaba machine. It it a small machine that steams food and blends it into a smooth puree`.  It is not as powerful as a food processor but its much easier to clean and it makes small batches. When I'm steaming one small bag of frozen peas I use the Beaba because one bag yields approx. 5 or 6 servings and its the perfect size. But if I'm making an entire bag of apples or a 6-7 sweet potatoes I steam them on the stove and use my food processor for larger batches.

Peas:

I buy them frozen because they're not in season. I let them partially thaw on the counter and then steam them w/ distilled baby water for approx 10-12 minutes. You can even shock them in an ice bath to stop the cooking process. This will keep the brightness in the color. I reserve the water I've steamed them in because it holds a lot of nutrients. Slowly add the water until you get the consistency you're looking for.

This is what peas look like.

Kelli (my SIL) would be grossed out beyond words bc she despises peas but oddly, Branson likes them.

Okay, considering he'd never had baby food before, I thought the consistency was too chunky. I bought a metal strainer from Walmart and pressed the peas through the mesh w/ a rubber spatula. Below is what I got. They were way too thin. You could've drank it, it was really watery.

 So next I added some of the un-strained peas to the above photo and below is what I got.

This was the 1st bit of baby food!  Peas, Love, Happiness! ;)