10 portraits and a partridge in a pear tree

This Christmas season, I had approximately a month and a half to finish ten portraits. To put this in perspective, last year I did four commissioned portraits over three months, and barely got them done in time! But I was up to the challenge, and it was fun to have something to work on.
Really, it was five kids to be drawn twice over. I assume to be given to two recipients?  For those persons of whom I had multiple pictures, I chose a different photo reference for their second portrait to mix it up a bit. But there were two kids that I had to draw the same picture twice, which wasn't as bad as I thought.
And I got them done and sent in time! Here they are,  both versions one after the other.

This group picture shows some of the color better- at least on the ones furthest away from the light source. It's weird how some of these were really similar in color in life, but because the photos were taken on different days the light made the colors look different. Oh well.
I like both of the baby ones, especially the one with the hand on the right- I like the hand.

Christmas Quilt

For Christmas this year, I decided to make Elora her own quilt that fits on her twin bed. Really, we just have tons of jeans and I hate throwing them away. Since I finished that quilt in May, I figured it wouldn't hurt to make a few more. This one turned out even better, because I knew more about what I was doing!
In making these quilts, I've discovered: I hate following patterns and symmetry , I like discovering ways to fit things together- like Tetris! And I'm still not very good at sewing, but its fun to come up with creative ways to hide that fact.
Elora's quilt is thicker and might I say prettier than the first one I made. She loves red, so I got some material that was super soft and pretty. Bonus, some of the jeans I used had some red detailing already! I got thicker batting too, so it's nice and fluffy.
 I tried to use a lot of Elora's old jeans that had fancy pockets or patches that added that unique touch.























Considering that the kids always fight over the other quilt when I get it out, I think she'll really like this one!

This was a patch in Elora's pants

I added some embellishment to the patches with light pink thread.  The patches are mostly used to tie the quilt together and add visual interest- also to obscure long lines that show where the sections were joined together.

These pockets were cute too!

It's hard to tell without any context, but the quilt is about 53" wide, and 100" long. I almost wish it was for me!

Halloween

Look, it's not even December and I'm writing about Halloween. yay!

There was the night we made Halloween sugar cookies: they lasted for almost a month! Joseph made vanilla, orange, raspberry, and lemon frosting for us to frost them with. I would have just made one kind, so that was very exciting for all. The lemon was the best, by the way.


















We did jack-o-lanterns too of course. The last two years I didn't even get one because it seemed like too much work after helping everyone else, but this year I decided to get a small pumpkin that I could decorate with paint. It was pretty fun! It helped that Josh and Elora could do there own, and daddy helped Jonah.


















I had to pick out everyone else's gourds because they weren't with me at the store, but everyone seemed pretty happy that they were close to what they wanted. Josh got the biggest, Elora the roundest, and Jonah the longest. Eli was with me and picked one with a funny bump, while daddy's had warts! We didn't know that meant it would be hard to carve. Good thing it was daddy's.

we didn't take the picture 'till the next day.

The school had their regular festivities with the Halloween walk in the gym and parties in the classes.
For the first year they had the brilliant idea of having the drum circle play some pow wow songs instead of playing scratchy Halloween songs on a cd player. The idea worked, because it was the first time in five years that I saw all the kids actually dancing as they went around the gym. Too bad they started it after the kindergarten had already walked around somberly.

 
Jonah got second place in his class, and Josh got first. Eli and I got to walk around with other preschoolers and parents, and we both got our own bag of candy for participating.
Elora was very disappointed that she didn't get to win anything, but she still had a fun day. She designed her face paint herself (in a drawing) and we spent a lot of time putting butterflies in her hair and on her clothes.

 





 
 Eli stayed all afternoon at Daddy- and Joshua's- class party. They had tons of treats while they watched Harry Potter! Eli was in heaven. Especially with the bag of candy he got at the costume parade in the gym!

I wanted a costume to capitalize on my belly.

Halloween itself was actually not on a school day. We were rushed getting everyone in their costumes because it was already getting dark. Cute.

Happy Halloween!

Nine years old

Yay, Elora is nine years old! And we took some pretty pictures too, while we were on our hike last weekend. I feel like I took a bunch of pictures that I didn't use; mostly because of the reflections in Elora's glasses that completely obscured here eyes. In this group, for example, I spent ages just trying to erase as many refections as I could, but they're still there. The only one that's not too reflective is the top left, where I told her to put down her glasses, but I know she doesn't like pictures like that. I like the background in the top right, and the face in the top left one.
(I took a bunch at the top right location, but her brothers kept getting in the shot and I didn't feel like editing them out multiple times.)
A

 
This spot had the coolest light. I love the way the trees are, the way her shirt hangs, and the light on her head. Her hair is hanging weird and her smile isn't the best, but this is still one of my favorites! We actually took a few shots here, but there were people waiting for us to move...and they were partially in the picture, so this is the only one I wouldn't radically have to edit to use.
B.























This was a really cool spot too, but there were tons of bugs flying around being highlighted by the sunlight.

C

















On our way back to our car, Elora kept running ahead and pretending she was just 'resting' in spots, but really she was posing for me. A few of them were actually pretty good spots. This was a pretty bright area, but when she turned this direction, it wasn't too bad. I like how you can see her cool shoes in these! The top left is my favorite, although I wish there was a little more space at the bottom of the frame, below her shoes. The top right has a good expression, but her back is too close to the side for comfort.

D























This was the final group of the evening. The sun had gone behind the tall cliffs but this spot was really pretty! When she's looking at the leaf, she was pretending to observe it as I came up to her (posing, totally) but once I found a spot to stand where the branches weren't obscuring her face, it actually looked pretty neat.
I really like all of these for various reasons.

E.
 





















So, I'm trying to figure out my wall. As my 5x7 I'm pretty sure I want this one, mostly because out of my favorites it fits the 5x7 size the best (it just shaves off a sliver on each side of the frame).

But I'm not sure about my big 8x10, which takes off quite a bit more from the top and/or bottom of the picture. Which of these two do you like best?

Or, I don't know. Maybe one of these? :

Thanks!

Fall Leaves

Last weekend we were so excited that we got to go see some fall leaves in Spearfish canyon! Last year the weekend we planned to go turned out to be the horrible snow storm that killed thousands of cows and buried the state in snow, so we missed it entirely. This year, we had several errands to run in the morning so we made it up the canyon in late afternoon.
















The weather was perfect- high sixties, no wind and sunny! It was a lovely afternoon.























 Usually when we go on hikes or walks, Joshua complains the whole time and lags behind, but this time he was walking ahead with Jonah without a frown in sight.













































I had Elora wear a pretty shirt so we could take her birthday pictures somewhere different than our usual grassland background or interior, but I was worried that it would be freezing like it's been in years past and we'd just have our coats on the whole time. I'm so glad it was not only warm, but we weren't there right at midday so we got some pretty light too! Yay! Of course there were the other issues of reflective glasses and a weird hair day, but as you can guess, that will be our next blog post.























It was funny because Jonah kept climbing on rocks and posing, asking me to take his picture. I think he was jealous that Elora was getting all the attention this time. I wish he'd been so keen on posing when I was actually taking his pictures a few months ago!













































This hike in Spearfish canyon is the perfect length and difficulty for kids: about one mile, just a few inclines, and it ends in some pretty waterfalls! (If you think Jonah and Eli look like they're grimacing in this picture, you should've seen their smiles in the other photo.) Sheesh.






















Halfway down the trail is a little dam with a walkway, where you can go out and see fish swimming in the deeper water. We were all enjoying the view when Joseph and I turned around to find Eli with his pants off, practicing his long-distance peeing off the other side of the walkway. Three-year-olds. At least no other people came right then!























 I was happy that we had such a nice walk, and got some nice pictures- even of Joseph! But I was sad that I forgot to have anyone take a picture of me. Not that I don't have enough already, ha.























We were hoping to go to a cornmaze/ pumpkin patch after our hike, but we weren't able to find anyone who knew where it was. It was probably for the best though, as it was about dinner time by then, and everyone was already worn out. It was a fun day!