Julie Harrell: Photographer

I adore the blog Hip Hip Hooray, and the other day they had a fun feature on Clara’s party! Thanks Suann for the post Whenever people ask me where I get my party planning ideas, I refer them to this wonderful place first! It is chalked full of the best kids party ideas! Go check them out at their blog.

Cheers,
jewels

8 years ago, the night before our little wedding, a group of us went to a local park and picked a handful (or 6) of daffodils for bouquets. Last night, the night before our 8 year anniversary Chris and I picked 8 daffodils at the park while the girls played. Eight years and three kids later we might not be as thin as we were in our wedding pics but I think we’re just as happy, and even more blessed. And if everyday isn’t sunshine and roses, I still am in it for at least 2 more years, b/c the modern anniversary gift by year for year 10 is diamonds… Totally kidding of course (though I do have an appreciation for diamonds)! The other neat thing about 8 is that if you turn it sideways, its infinity–artistically foreshadowing our lives together. I know, I dug deep for that one! I’ll save all my other mushy stuff for the card. Thanks to Vennesa Toland again for our beautiful photos that we still love They were taken back in the day of film, so the scanned in images don’t reflect the true quality of our prints. Still, they are beautiful.

Clara’s party theme centered on her dress. It was on sale after Christmas and when I looked at it I thought I was looking at Clara. My original party plan was to do a “scotty dog” theme, but the more I looked at the dress, the more it reminded me of a houndstooth pattern. So I decided to adapt the theme to be a modern whimsical take on that traditional textile pattern. So from the invite to the food I tried to use either colors of the dress and/or a traditional black and white of the real pattern. And while I did have a couple token “healthy trays” of food, most of the dessert table was also houndstooth inspired.

Successes: The pendant bunting. I started making it as an above the crib decoration when I was pregnant with Juliet… problem is I can’t sew with a machine, so I hand sewed the stinkin pendants. I would love to give you a tutorial on how to make these, but I definitely did things the hard way, and you’d be shouting not nice things at me if I were to tell you how I did it… I would recommend googling “Pendant Bunting Tutorial” and I’m 100% sure something easier than what I did will come up! My goal this year, learn to use a sewing machine!

Dog Print. I used the front of the invitation, minus the party info, to make the dog print above the table.

Fails: I didn’t get the menu tags set out… so when people were choosing what to eat I heard a lot of “oooh, what’s this.” They were cute labels…next time!

Table Cloth: Yes, it’s a bed sheet… with a white cut of fabric that I use for newborn photo shoots. I will be investing in good table cloths for the future ☺

At any rate, if you read any of that, bonus points!! Here are the photos!

Cheers,
jewels

Some Resources, please ask if you have specific questions about anything!!
Shoes Etsy: LippyLouShoes
Favors: Muslin bags with stamped child’s name, the houndstooth pattern self printed sticker (DIY)
Confetti: in onhand glassine bags (DIY)
Grey Striped Paper Straws: www.thinkgarnish.com
Milk Bottles: Starbucks Frappuccino bottles
Dog Print: Costco poster board print, www.costco.com
Fringe streamers: crepe paper from www.crepepaperstore.com
Pendant Banner: Fabric and bias tape from Joann’s www.joann.com
Small clear plastic tumblers: Cash and Carry www.smartfoodservice.com
Invitations: Me. Find a free download of it on this post here.
Cupcake flags: Bamboo Skewers with grosgrain ribbon (DIY)

My #2 turns 2 today!! I might have said it last year, but I’ll say it again… I need an award for keeping her alive (no really. The other day I pulled the butcher knife out of her grasp when she carried a stool to the sink and grabbed it out of there while I was feeding the baby). She is a risk taker, and rambunctious, and adventurous–no fear, and no mountain will stand in her way. But for every ounce of rowdiness, there is equal weight of tenderness, sensitivity and joyful love. I remember the day she was born, and she just wouldn’t stop crying. There was nothing wrong with her, the moment I would stand up and put her to my chest she would calm down. That night, so I could lay down on the bed, we begged the nurses for a pacifier to stop the crying. The sweet wonderful caring nurse, doing her job, showed us how to swaddle her (you know, that way they do it with 3 blankets, and even if you took a month long course on swaddling, you’d never be able to pull it off kind of swaddle. I think they do that to show off), and told us all the reasons why a baby shouldn’t have a pacifier in the first 2 weeks of life, yeah I knew all that, but the nurse didn’t realize I had just given birth to Clara! She cries, a lot, unlike any child I’ve met. Even our neighbors felt pity on us when they would hear her cry night and day through the open windows… My friends stopped calling me b/c Clara would be crying. I had cards from multiple friends for “Screaming Clara.” Every photo shoot she would cry, if she was in the carseat she would cry, through the night she would cry (she’s actually in her crib crying now, at midnight while I write, but the good news is that I said she was still in her crib, success!!)… But looking back over the two years, I really don’t mind the tears. Most of the time she just wanted to nuggle a little closer; to be held a little more. And I know that as she grows older, and finds her voice, most those tears will be gone, and probably some of those extra nuggles. I just hope that after she is done moving her mountains, and needs to be held a little, she will always know where to go.

Cheers,
jewels

These are a couple more recent snapshots, we nixed the 2 year old photoshoot last weekend due to weather, but I’ll post photos when I do the shoot, and I’ll have party pics after this weekend–YAY!

Madeline has been involved in the most adorable and most incredible cheer program here in Bellingham. This is her 2nd year doing the “Twinkles” program with NW Silver Stars. NW Siver Stars is a competitive all-star cheerleading organization, and the twinkles is an introductory program for little ones interested in cheer. Tonight Madeline is going to be performing at the Ms. Whatcom County Paegent. (I first accidentally wrote “Mrs.” Whatcom County… Now wouldn’t that be entertaining :p). Her coach is the reigning Ms. Whatcom County, but passes her crown tonight. I am totally doning my mommy goggles, but I think this is one good looking little twinkle… she must take after her mom, MRS. Whatcom County *meh*

Cheers,
jewels

Usually I have my inspiration boards completed a little earlier than this, but on the flip side, my invitations are printed and addressed already, and I’ve already purchased her birthday dress (top right)!! I’m still working on the menu, but I have all the colors and deco ideas ready to go. I think at the rate I’m going these days, though, I’m going to have to start my decorating a lot earlier this year…so um last week!? I can’t wait for her little modern scotty dog party if all goes according to plan. And if you would like the invitation to use at your own party, I’ve included for download a layered .psd file so you can insert your own wording, and change the colors if you choose. For fonts, I used Raleway for all the writing, and League Script for her name and age. Both can be downloaded free from The League of Movable Type.

Photo credits top left to right: Invitation front, Julie Harrell; Cake and bunting, Hip Hip Hurray; Dress, Mini Boden; Scotty dog, Flickr, Boots, Joy Folie; Banner, How About Orange; Cupcake, Hostess with the Mostess; muslin sacks, Etsy; Scotty dog invitation back, Julie Harrell; Streamers, Dandelion and Grey Twine, Olive Manna; Fringy Streamers, Oh Happy Day.

Download the Invitation here.

Cheers,
jewels

Wow, that was a long two months away from my blog!! I have a ton to update, but I thought what better a time to share a couple photos of my girls than today. Juliet is still on oxygen, but since she ripped out her nasal canula and needed new tabs to hold it on her face, we did some photos with her tube-less. She’s getting so big and strong. I’ll share photos of her journey with-in the week. I’ve been putting together a long post to fill in gaps and details with some photos of her stay in the hospital and coming home. I love my family of 5 and having little Juliet with us to celebrate Christmas was the most perfect gift for us this year. Merry Christmas.

Cheers,
jewels

We just welcomed into the world Juliet Adele Harrell.

I went into labor at 1am, and gave birth at 1:45am. Juliet is stable right now, but we ask for prayers as she is going to be transported to Seattle. She has pneumonia due to meconium in the lungs. She will be on oxygen for a few days. The situation, though not uncommon, is a serious situation for how far into Juliet’s lungs the meconium traveled. I was able to see her for a few moments, but it will be a couple days till I can hold her though. I’m pretty anxious, so please keep us in your prayers and thoughts.

Date: 10.31.10
Weight: 8lbs 6oz
Height: 20 inches

Cheers,
jewels

I have been such a bad “mommy” photographer lately. I keep my camera tucked away, and often forget to photograph the most special little ones in my life!! My new years resolution is to photograph our daily life more, and blog about it. I have to say I love my girls (and maybe will soon get to love a little boy?) so much, and really want to capture each moment of their lives. I have got to be better about it. You know the saying, “The cobbler’s children have no shoes?” Well if I’m going to be a “cobbler” my kids better have nicer shoes Ha ha.

We spent a weekend at my parents celebrating my sister’s 27th birthday (and Tracy, I had a 5 year old and was pregnant at 27, just putting it out there). I made Tracy an Apple pie for her birthday. This time I used a little bit of cornmeal in the crust, sooooo delicious! I’ll share a pic or two of the pie, and even the recipe sometime soon as well. The pie was easy to photograph, but Clara on the other hand was not. She really is a pill to capture in a photo. It took myself, my mom, my dad, Chris, Tracy and my brother in law Brandon all working together so I could snap a few decent frames of this 18 month old (adorable) stinker! So now finally I can share some updated photos of my baby. She only has a couple more weeks (days?) of the title “baby”, so I’ve been using it liberally with her. I overheard Madeline tell her, “Pretty soon you aren’t going to be the baby anymore, and won’t get all the attention.” I think this will be a day for Madeline to celebrate; maybe with more Apple pie?

Cheers,
jewels

OUTAKES: There will be tears, its the Clara way.

And of course the apple pie

Ok, so we had a major dilemma last night, the outfit Madeline had been dreaming of wearing to her first day of school was just not going to be practical due to rain. She was a little (as in tears welling up in her eyes) bummed, but I told her that she could wear her red trench, and life was better again! So we carefully re-planned the outfit and argued for 10 minutes about what shoes to wear with it and thankfully Chris stepped in and chose the “right” ones!! Now, was I sad to see her off today? You’d think with all my crazy pregnancy hormones I would have been crying all the way home, but I wasn’t at all–let’s be honest I was very excited to have school start today! As Clara and I walked back to the car, after an hour of labeling and organizing Madeline’s desk and supplies and catching up with parents in the hall, Clara said, “sissy all gone.” I think she’s going to be the sad one the next few days.

Cheers,
jewels

Yes, this is Madeline missing her two front teeth, hard to tell, but they are gone.




Madeline is so excited to be in class with her friend Chloe, I wish I knew what they talking about here…