Julie Harrell: Photographer

Did I ever mention Juliet turned 1 on October 31st, 2011?! She did, since I’m positive my first sentence wasn’t a dead giveaway. I am blessed to have a fully healed, and healthy little girl. What a long way we’ve come from her first few months of life. Since I’m slowly getting caught up on blogging, I thought I’d share a few images of the day. I started planning her party shortly after we came home from the hospital. Long days at home allowed me time to find inspiration, imagining the celebration. I know in the past I’ve made inspiration boards for various events, but this time I used Pinterest for my inspiration board. I started pinning at a time when people would look at you with the curled lip, squinted eye and tilted nose, and ask, “Huh?” when “Pinterest was mentioned. Its the same look my kids give me when I pull out an old corded phone. Today Pinterest is next to Facebook in recognition, and my late night addiction aside, it was a useful tool for getting an early start party planning. Is 11 months too early to plan a party? Here is the inspiration board. I was going for a sweet fall and girly feel. Since her birthday is on Halloween, I thought I’d embrace the day and add a slew of white pumpkins into the decor.  To add to the whole fall feel I used linen for the bunting banners… and that’s about it! To achieve a girly feel I incorporated a lot of glitter, roses, pinks and frills. Aside from 11 months of planning, I found myself up in the wee hours of the night before the party hanging bunting, making favors and filling jars… I appointed Chris head cake baker at midnight He really did make the cakes, I acted as sous chef and froster! We enjoyed her special first birthday with friends and family… and Juliet only cried when Chris put her birthday hat on and snapped the elastic under her chin. He still claims he didn’t know that would hurt… I still claim I wanted photos with a happy baby It didn’t matter, we ended the night with a gorgeous fiery sunset, my window photo doesn’t do it justice. Anyways, I hope that 6 months after her birthday these photos will still be appreciated.

Cheers,
jewels

Last October was party month, starting with a babyshower for Amy and Heather. My dear husband Chris and girls were super patient while I crazily crafted through out the month of October. I co-threw two babyshowers, planned Juliet’s first birthday party and hosted a fall dinner for 12 wonderful local MOPS leaders… all 4 events within a two week span! If you know me, and how I procrastinate operate, I’m sure you just gave my husband bonus points. I did, but not in the form of points And if he is reading this, he’ll disagree… but to stay a little more on topic, cough ahem… I had great friends to work alongside to help the showers go smoothly… I’ll hopefully have all the parties posted by Christmas, but at the snail pace I’ve been blogging that’s very optimistic. I’ll start with Amy and Heather’s co-baby shower and work my way back (I didn’t even take one photo of the dinner party… all well). There are a group of local photographer gals who get together separate from our other photographer’s meetups just to hang out. So when Amy announced her pregnancy at one of those hangouts the rest of us decided we would throw her a baby shower. Soon after, Heather announced she was also pregnant, due within a couple days of Amy.  It was clear we needed to do a fun shower for the two of them.  Megs, from Evantide photography, offered up her beautiful studio as the venue, and so we (Megs, Karlyn, Nicole, and myself) began our planning for a late fall co-shower for two dear friends (both having boys). We wanted to use traditional fall elements, yet make the shower sweet and pretty for the two amazing women having their first sons. We were inspired by burlap and linen, white pumpkins and green pears and added a vintage mood with vintage china, blue mason jars, and pink flowers in vintage vases. Two of the most coveted local wedding and event florists, Kim Zylstra and Colleen Elkins did all the lovely flowers. The plates were part of the Passed Plates Collection, and the food and decor was divided amongst the four of us. When delegating tasks and responsibilities, we of course had Nicole come up with the game. No one was surprised when she pulled out a huge poster for “Pin the sperm on the egg!” Complete with sperm showcasing the face of either Amy’s husband or Heather’s husband… that game, which had us all in tears, was the best way to end a wonderful shower. Amy and Heather (now that it is January) have since given birth to their beautiful boys, Justin (Amy’s little man) and Myles (Heather’s lil dude). They are the most handsome little guys ever… Here are a handful of images from the shower. Photography by Nicole Medcalf, Meg Nelson and myself.

Cheers,
jewels

Menu:
Carrot Cake
Homemade donuts with cardamom vanilla glaze
Mini blueberry, yogurt parfaits with almond granola
Chocolate cake pops
Celery spears with peanut butter
Cashew nut chews
Yogurt covered pretzels

Selected Drink:
Spiced Pear Cider

Venue:
Evantide Photography Studio

Flowers:
Kim Zylstra, The Backyard Gardener
Colleen Elkins, Botanikal Design

Table Settings:
Passed Plates

Justine’s baby shower is featured on Life and Baby! Thanks Evelyn for the lovely post! Check out her blog for all kinds of fun parities and raising young ones wisdom.

Cheers,
jewels