October Joy Mini Album

blah blah blah, insert paragraph about absentee blogger here... 

One of the things I'm coming to realize about my picture taking habits is: I LIKE OCTOBER.  I mean, REALLY like it.  There's something about putting on a sweatshirt and dragging the kids out, the crisp air, the excuse for hot chocolate afterwards.  Everywhere you look the world is putting on a show.  The perfect background for portraits is all around.  Who doesn't glow when shot against those beautiful yellows, oranges and reds?

This day was supposed to be about hunting for pine cones.  Why?  Because this summer I bought big bottles of brown and copper glitter on deep discount, with the pie-in-the-sky thought that we'd find some cool pine cones, paint some glue on them, sprinkle them with glitter and voila, we'd have a cheap and easy craft and cheap and easy fall decorations.

Ha.

I'm certain that there are plenty of pine cones laying around just waiting to be picked up for glittering, but very few existed at Squire's Castle on this particular Tuesday.  But that's quite alright - I'll take the pictures I got on this particular Tuesday over pine cones any day.  Besides....  You can buy pine cones from etsy.com - really cool pictures of my kids leaping out of a castle window are much harder to come by.

 

I'm sure it goes without saying that the shapes are all cut from my Silhouette.  The album was purchased from TwoPeas last year, it's by Maya Road, and I'm fairly certain that this particular book is long gone.  Shame, really.  Turns out I love the visual cacophony that it creates.

Journaling reads:

Eleven months of the year, the answer to the question "What's your favorite month?" is, without hesitation, "June!"  After all, it is a month of birthday cake, long days, trips to the pool, flowering Bradford pears, and sleeping with the windows open.  That's the total package, if you ask me.

But then, October shows up and it, too, has birthday cake (thanks, Ted!), and it often offers the opportunity to sleep with the windows open.  Add in ghost stories and changing leaves, and suddenly I realize that it's wrong of me to hate a month just because it got assigned a space on the calendar too close to December for my liking.

So for one month of the year, October is my favorite month.

For one month of the year, I drive to work with a smile plastered on my face because the world is so crazy beautiful.

And if I play my cards right I get an afternoon with the kids to enjoy it.

Just a point of note, the page on the right is acrylic.  I like the way it allows what's behind it to show through, but I have to admit, sometimes it's intimidating to work with.  The control freak in me has to really let go.

Left page Journaling:

It was a lovely day, and I had my camera.  The children were clean...  It was a good day for a portrait.

Right page Journaling:

I like that they just know how to pose in a way that captures their individual personalities.

Two points of note:
I really dig the picture of Maggie.  Need to remember this for senior portrait time.
I really dig the leaves scattered under the tree on the right page.  I think I'm so clever because I folded the leaves in half and ran them through the Xyron so only half would be covered by adhesive, and therefore they're a little more three dimensional.  They're also falling off, so so much for my creative genius. :P

See? 3D GENIUS!

I want credit for including that picture of me with the kids. I practice what I preach, as PAINFUL as that may be.

Journaling reads:

They set themselves up this way, they knew I'd fall for it and shoot it.

But what's not to love?  The serenity, tranquility, the beautiful colors, the scale of the trees...   Beautiful.

The journaling for the three pages simply reads:

Molly is a timid jumper.

Ted is a fearless jumper.

Maggie is a showy jumper.

I'm not crazy about the extraneous journaling.  But then, I also don't care.  As Maggie said when she was looking through the finished book last night "It doesn't need to talk about how much fun we had.  The pictures show that we had a blast."  Fair enough. 

And now, back to my regular absenteeism.  At least until after Christmas.  I've got a pretty big assignment due at school soon, and then right into the dreaded holidays.  One of the many things that drive me to getting this school thing done and getting certified to teach is finally being able to relax during the holidays - or, if not "relax", at least be able to enjoy them to some degree...

Thanks for looking. :)