Friday Fun: Vintage Halloween Photos

Photo via: mcmCPH

Trick or treat? How about some treats. In honor of my love of both Halloween and vintage photos, here are some of my favorites. The trick? Click on the photos and you'll get to their Flickr albums to see lots more.

First one from my generation - Star Wars! If only I could have convinced my friends to put this team together. Where's Chewy?

 

Photo via: stevechasmar/Flickr

Love the annoyed look on this little witch's face. You know she'd have rather been a flapper that year.

Photo via: foundphotoslj

An oldie but goody from Found Magazine's feed. Minus the one mask, the rest looks scored from their parent's' closets.

Photo via: chicks57

I wish there was more info on this shot, but I think we can safely guess it predates the Hershey's Kiss. Any idea what the boy is supposed to be dressed as?

Happy Halloween everyone!

Holiday photo cards: take your pick

It's the most wonderful time of the year for stationary nerds like me.

After briefly considering designing my own photo card templates, I decided to outsource. Luckily my lab offers amazing designs!

If I took photos of your family this year, take a look and let me know which design you would like for your holiday cards. Then send me the name of your favorite photo (or 2!) from your session and the wording you would like printed on your cards.

Without further ado, here are the 8 suites I picked.:

This shows the 4x8" option, but be sure to come to my site to see the 5x7" versions too and learn all the pricing & ordering info.  I'm so excited to see them with your adorable babies in the "Your Photo Here" spot!

If you still need to get your family's photo taken for these cards, book with me soon so there's time for the printing. Of course if you're running on the late side you could do what my friend does and just call them New Year's cards. Let me take care of the cards this year so you can spend time with your family instead!

Inspiration Wednesdays: RealBirth

 Early on in the hospital when labor was pretty mild & I was still smiling.

No, I'm not pregnant - that shot is from last year on August 30th when my husband and I rushed to the hospital to have our baby, Juliet. We were freaking out (of course!) but felt prepared after our  childbirth classes at RealBirth.

I cannot rave about this place enough. I was semi-confident that labor & delivery would be routine and I could do it. But after the classes - in childbirth, breastfeeding and infant care - we both felt excited about our baby's birth in a new way. Without scaring us with horror stories or pressuring us to go natural at all costs, the teachers at RealBirth gave us the tools to have an educated birthing experience and first days of parenthood.

Sure, we went the traditional medical route and chose a hospital birth, but it certainly wasn't a lay-back-and-let-the-doctor-handle-it birth. In the classes, I loved their tips on prenatal massage, walking the halls as long as possible and really feeling like the driver of my delivery. But the best part was that they treated my husband as the full partner he was in the birth. We felt comfortable asking questions and loved the hands on learning. Swaddling isn't as hard is it looked!

The result - a happy healthy mom, dad & baby

After the hospital stay, when we were forced to parent Jules on our own (um, with the help of our parents & friends...), the skills we learned in the breastfeeding and infant care classes really helped. Knowing the basics, we could focus on the new parent freak-outs no one can prepare for - like the first night home - and not sweat whether our baby was eating enough or going to have that flaky skin on her hands forever. Spoiler alert: it goes away.

I tell all my local pregnant friends to check out RealBirth & recommend founder Erica Lyon's book The Big Book of Birth to anyone who lives outside New York City. After your baby is born, they have new parent classes, drop in nursing groups and more. A great resource for any new parents out there.

Sneak peak - Halloween costumes from my weekend shoots

Look out! It's a scary bear!!

Phew! It's just the adorable Owen.

My fun - albeit crazy - weekend started in Boston for a baby photo shoot. Then driving through the rain Saturday night for my monthly April Glass shop day of mini-sessions on Sunday. The weather was iffy but we got outside both days. If you missed out but want to come next time, be sure to follow me on twitter and become a fan on Facebook so you get the updates. But both will recur before the holidays.

Luckily I got to fit in some time with my family and the children were uniformly wonderful. Some even wore costumes!

Before children grasp the concept of Halloween (candy, mainly) they still look terrific all dressed up. I'm partial to food or animal costumes for the first year, in a non-Geddes way. As Owen shows us (above) there's something silly about a harmless cooing baby dressed as a Grizzly bear.

Catherine rocks her Strawberry Kiss costume while swinging a bear (not Owen, fear not)

As for food, whether it's a peapod, banana or in Catherine's case strawberry, it just seems to make children even sweeter. Plus it's the closest they'll get to health food on Halloween.

And because my daughter humored me last week when her costume came in, here's a sneak peak of her all dressed up. 

She is NOT amused. But did manage to leave the hat on a good 5 minutes.

Yes, that's right, she's a garden gnome. Now the only question is what my husband and I should wear. Should we go as an over-the-top couple who may have a gnome in their garden? Or maybe fellow lawn ornaments - a pink flamingo? a Victorian gazing ball? Who cares? Everyone will be looking at the baby anyway!