Busy with instagram (and other things...)

I haven't blogged in the longest time... For a number of reasons. Mainly because the holiday season and January are without a doubt the busiest time of year for me, but now I finally feel like I will have more personal time to tackle a few projects around the house, get back into shape, and hopefully blog more often. In the midst of all the craziness I have been addicted to instagram, I'll be honest, its rather addicting... I finally got an iphone and have been looking at all the different picture aps for iphoneography and so far instagram is my favorite. Its almost too easy to take pictures and just let your iphone do all the editing for you. I actually havnt been using my slr as much as I was, shame on me! In January I did the photo a day challenge inspired by Chantelle from fatmumslim. I started February but I have been rather slack keeping up this month. I put together just a few of my favorite instagram pictures from January.

If you are on instagram then I hope you to see you on there, my username is vanessaspencer.

Look what Santa brought.

Look what the stork Santa brought. Yesterday I had the pleasure of photographing my good friend Kate's new bundle of joy - little Max. This 11 day old sweetheart makes me want to have another baby right this very minute! On Saturday night while I was trying to finish painting my bathroom I had the stocking idea and sent Kate a text all excited like "OMG we need to stuff Max in a Christmas stocking - do you have one big enough?" She surely must of thought I was 100% crazy. Best. idea. ever.

This little guy makes my melt. Merry Christmas!

A Crate for Christmas.

My early holiday gift from one of my closest friends - Johanna. She knows me so well. This vintage crate she picked up from Goodwill - for $6!! I'm seriously in love with it and its now hanging on the wall in our living room. So far I just have a mini vintage camera displayed in it that I purchased from The Evol Pixie Supply Co. This present seriously made my day.

a giveaway hosted by yourwishcake.

I'm a little excited this weekend.   My adorable friend Kerri is kindly doing a giveaway on her lovely blog yourwishcake and you can win this flower bib necklace I created:

Kerri's blog is always an inspiration and quite frankly I feel all kinds of special to be featured on there for a giveaway... She kindly photographed herself wearing one of my bib necklaces and lets just say she is obviously better at self portraits than I am. If you take a peek at the giveaway post you can see hers.

So hop on over to yourwishcake to enter the giveaway and to get to know Kerri. Have a great weekend!

Holiday Boutique Craftiness

Recently my friend Jenn and I had a little booth at my daughters school for the annual Holiday Boutique. Jenn posted some great pictures on her recent blog post about it. It didn't go as well as planned but it was still a fun day, a good learning experience, and a great way to support the school. And now I have a ridiculous amount of handmade Christmas gifts so no complaints.... Here is a peek at some brooches/hair clips I'm adding to my etsy store soon, and a picture of the two of us at our table.

 

Happy holiday crafting....

Spicy Chicken....

I realize the title for this post "Spicy Chicken" may be a bit misleading... But I couldn't help myself. Today I decided to start wearing in my new 2nd hand vintage acme cowgirl boots (a thrift store SCORE for just $10). One of my coworkers (she cracks me up daily) referred to me as having gone all "spicy chicken" in my new boots. Whatever, I'll take it... I love Fridays, not just because of the soon arrival of the weekend, but because its casual "jeans allowed" Friday which is perfect for boot wearing.

I plan on living in these boots this winter so breaking them in was going to have to happen sooner or later. The previous owner must not have worn them much at all because these boots need some serious breaking in. They are however a perfect fit, but getting them on and off isn't easy! 

And I couldn't help myself with the suitcase. My old green suitcase had been sitting in the prop room at work for some time and today I finally decided to bring it home for a fun project I have in mind.  

When I was walking from one building to another at work I couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous I must have looked. Kind of like the "spicy chicken cowgirls leaving for a long trip!"

Off for the weekend, yeehaw!

Kate and Victor

I recently had the chance to do some maternity pictures for one of my favorite couples. My good friend Kate and her husband Victor are expecting a baby boy. This baby boy (Max) is due in a few weeks. This couple have been through a lot to get where they are now. They have endured pain that I cant even imagine so seeing how happy and excited they are is truly amazing. What makes me melt is knowing what these two have been through, yet they manage to still be so strong, happy and kind. Kate and I used to be coworkers and quickly became friends. I miss her terribly but wish her all the best with this new chapter. She is going to be a great mum. I miss her and I sharing our lunches together (pretty much daily) and having the kind of friendship where we could talk about anything. We have cried together through hard times and laughed our asses off (crying with hysterical laughter). Kate is just the kind of person who's personality is addicting. She is without a doubt one of the strongest, funniest, smartest people I know. So here is a peek at Kate and Victors maternity session. I'm looking forward to meeting little Max and possibly a newborn photo session...