Our DIY maternity session attempt (a few trees, a couple of fields, some humidity and a whole bunch of mosquitoes)
A couple of weeks ago I attempted my own DIY maternity session. Armed with my snazzy new camera, a tripod, the nursery and rather ambitious and self-assured me-myself-and-I, I attempted to document (via the handy-dandy self-timer function) my bump. Sadly, it didn’t go so well. Of the seemingly gazillion pics I took, I ended up with one that was semi share-worthy. One. And even then it wasn’t particularly spectacular (or, really, in focus.) I was a little bummed.
Then Sweetie lovingly offered to take me out to try a two-person approach to maternity shots (he’s pretty awesome, that Sweetie of mine.) With our trusty camera in Sweetie’s capable hands, off we went to a local conservation area where we knew we’d find trees and fields and all sort of pretty areas to serve as a lovely backdrop to my ever-growing belly.
What we didn’t anticipate? Humidity. If it was a tad humid when we pulled out of our laneway, it was a trillion percent humidity (possibly more) at the conservation area. Positively tropical, you could say. Rainforest-like, perhaps. My hair? It wasn’t at all impressed and immediately turned into a massive ball of frizz (as my normally-curly-but-oft-forced-into-straight-submission hair is apt to do.)
And, as one might expect from a humidity-laden area, we also encountered mosquitoes. Lots and lots of them. Swarms and swarms and clouds of (rather ravenous) mosquitoes. It was unbearable at times, but we plugged right along until we couldn’t stand it any longer.
Yup. Sweetie and me? We’re troopers.
Here are a few of my faves…
(And, yes. I’m holding a flower in that last one. A bit cheesy? Perhaps. Hence the “Sweetie, I love you, but I’m not so sure about this” look on my face.)
All in all? I’m happy. I could have done a professional session and possibly ended up with somewhat better (and maybe more plentiful depending on the mosquito-factor) results, but with money a bit tight at the moment (with me off on maternity leave and a few items left to purchase for Baby), this seemed like the far more sensible solution for bump-documentation. And it was fun! In between hair-obsessing and mosquito swatting, Sweetie and I had a lovely evening out in that tropically humid, bug infested (but pretty!) conservation area.
Which, I suppose, with our time as a two-some quickly waning, is nearly as valuable as the photos themselves. :)
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A quick update (I’m still here!) (and yup, I’m still pregnant!)
Many apologies for my MIA-ness over the past couple of weeks. I’m now off on maternity leave (which makes baby-day seem really really crazy close now!) and you’d think (logically) that this would mean tonnes of extra time to relax/sleep/enjoy sanity pre-newborn, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with me. I’ve had family to visit, friends to catch up with, a hospital bag (Sweetie refers to it as my “bug out bag”) to pack, projects to finish, a thousand obstetrician appointments (or so it seems) to attend, last minute baby “essentials” (ie: cute little onesies and sleepers) to buy, cloth diapers to prep, and (seemingly) a gazillion other things on the go.
So, in short (or, rather, long): I feel like I’ve been super busy, despite my currently newborn-pending, work-free status.
Although I did manage to fit in a quick DIY mat session the other day. For the record, I’m really quite awful at using the tripod + timer approach to self-photography. This was a rather challenging little project! For about an hour’s effort, I ended up with one image worth sharing…
…and even then, it’s out of focus. And my hands are all gross and pregnancy-vein-y. And I’m not sure if I look serene and contemplative, or sort of annoyed. Needless to say, Sweetie is taking me out later this week to try again, with an actual person (Sweetie) on the other end of the lens. Guessing (and hoping!) that we’ll have much better results with a two-person DIY mat session approach. I’ll keep you posted!
The good (and rather timely) news: I’m nearly finished with the nursery (finally!), so a big (likely long-winded) update/grand reveal will be coming shortly. In the meantime, if you need me, I’ll probably be marveling at the size of my belly while hanging/organizing/baking/shopping for something. At 38 weeks, I’m starting to feel really large. But I also feel amazing. And with only a couple weeks left before my due date (and, really, knowing that Baby could arrive at any point now) I feel so lucky to be a mommy-to-be. Can’t wait to make that transition into simply being “mommy”.
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My new camera (for taking pictures of the cats) (and other stuff too, I suppose)
This is a long overdue post about my cats. Which is really a post about my new camera. Someone pretty awesome (Sweetie) remembered me mentioning that I’d really like to own a good camera by the time we have the baby. And so, on my recent birthday, he surprised me with a snazzy Canon Rebel T3i. (I really have no idea what the random letters/numbers after the “Rebel” part mean, but thought I’d better include that info too, just in case that stuff is important.)
The verdict? I love my new camera. LOVE IT! I feel very grown up having options to change aperture and focus and f-stops and such (although I don’t really understand what any of those words actually mean), and knowing that if I want to go all rogue I can switch off of auto mode and (gasp!) manually take charge of my settings (although, honestly, automatic mode seems to be working pretty well for me at the moment.)
And (most importantly) my snazzy new camera takes awesome pictures of the cats.
Which, I’m guessing, means that it’ll likely also take rather fantastic pictures of the baby.
Who could ask for anything more than that? :)
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And now for something completely different (but something completely amazing)
Once upon a time (we’re talking actual decades ago now, and more than just one) (which makes me feel exceedingly old, btw), a girl (well, me) met a very special boy (my Shawn.) The details of this meeting have been well-documented and what seemed like an insignificant exchange of words at the time has since become a lifelong friendship. And I’m pretty thankful for that. :)
Then, one day, boy had an idea. Boy had always been a good person. That was indisputable. But he felt an innate need to help others using the incredible talents he’d been given (at least this is how I imagine the internal dialogue went, knowing boy very well and for so many years.)
The result?
My friend is truly amazing. I’m unbelievably proud of him.
Please watch! Please share!
Thank you! :)
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S&J’s photo of the day, photo number two (and surprise, it’s a cat! Good guess!)
So right after my last post (my epic “resolutions” post) where I vowed to blog at least twice per week (since that’s been my goal all along) I dropped off the blogosphere (bloggosphere? bloggingsphere? Whatever…) for a good 10-ish days. Why? We went camping the following weekend (post on that to follow, hopefully later this week!) thus rendering me laptop-free for a few days (since no one likes a sandy keyboard), and then most of last week was lovingly devoted to planning a very special baby shower for Tiff (one of my besties) who is due any minute now (but held out long enough for us to squeeze in a 39th-week baby shower yesterday!)
And while I’m recovering from this weekend’s baby shower still, I thought I’d quickly post my newest favourite “photo of the day…”
I call it: Irwin – Ferocious conqueror of small green fuzzy mice :)
That’s all. Hope you had a lovely weekend and a successful baby shower (if that happens, coincidentally, to be what you were doing too!) And I hope you conquer whatever you need to on this Monday (regardless of whether it’s a mouse, a house, or your 9-5.) Happy Monday!
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