Christmas Picture Preview

I am one HAPPY girl!  We just took out family Christmas pictures and I am really feeling like we should have some good shots.  It seemed like everything came together, despite the fact that we got a late start, Lydia hadn't had her full nap, and one major prop jumped ship at about 50 miles an hour (more on that later!)  It might be a little while before I have the picture files in my possession, and then an extended amount of time as I turn them into our Christmas card, so here is a little background info on the major elements of the photo-shoot.  PJ had the winning idea for our wardrobe selections.  He wanted RED to pop against the turquoise of the "daddy wagon".  I already had a red jacket and I knew I wanted layers to create more of an "out-doorsy" feeling. It ended up being in the high 60's this afternoon, so the thin layers were plenty!  I bought a new teal top and through on another green shirt and a coral necklace.  Then I remembered that I had one peacock feather left over from the circus top hat that I made for Lydia.

I also had a couple of teal feathers from a different project and those light blue feathers in back actually came out of our feather duster! (Hey I was desperate!)  I glued it all to a scrap of cardboard and glued a fancy button to the end.  On the back I glued a hair clip.  I wanted it to be multi-functional and I figured a hair clip would get more use.  To attach it to my jacket lapel, I just ran a safety pin through the back of the lapel and then clipped the hair clip onto the metal bar.

Lydia wore a red and orange patterned shirt.  It is one of my FAVORITE tops on her.

 Here is a better view of the top.....

....worn as a DRESS when Lydia was 18 months old. Way back in 2009,  I bought a 3T on sale ($3 at Children's Place!) and have been able to enjoy it on Lydia for 3 different fall seasons.  This year will be the last opportunity to wear it, so I am glad it worked so well in our photos today.

Here you can see PJ in his red sweater, with our photographer friend and the other key elements; the car and the location.  I was initially looking for a rustic location with evergreen trees for the photoshoot.  The photographer suggested an area that looked like downtown shops, since I wanted to pile the car full of gifts and packages.  I thought it was a GREAT idea!  The problem was, stores meant people and cars and that would not work for our pictures.  So, I found this area of mostly empty store fronts across from a vacant restaurant in downtown Knoxville, right near the mission, in a somewhat sketchy part of town.  I though there wouldn't be any cars, since all the businesses are closed.  I was WRONG!  One building is a theater and they apparently had a good crowd today!  So on the good side, we weren't in danger of getting mugged, but we were in danger of getting run over a few times.  I don't care.  I LOVE the red and green on that one building!  I hate the KIA that was parked in the prime spot in front of that green and red building.  Oh well!  Oh, you can also see the Christmas tree that will hopefully make our "Griswald" style Christmas complete.  In true Giswald style, it careened off the top of the "daddy wagon" at near freeway speeds and had to be rescued from the middle of Ashville Highway.  Fortunately, that was the only thing to go wrong that I am aware of. Here are some finished pictures so you can see for yourself.!