Deena Riley Photography :: The Blog

OK, so I had thought that I would do this post today, then this morning I had a thought for another post I could do.  I was prepping to write the new post, and had a change of heart.  This has easily been the most requested thing to post via comment, facebook message, and e-mail.  So, instead of being a meany-pants and making you wait another day (or two!), here it is:  The nursery!

Before we get started, I have a map for you.  Yes, a map of her room.  You see, her room is smallish… we live in a 2000 sq ft house that has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, an office, a living area, a dining room, etc…  So, while we have a lot of unique areas in the house, none of them are HUGE to say the least.  It’s hard to get a good shot of the layout of her room due  to the cramped spaces without just drawing it out for you.  Plus, Mikel’s still in bed recovering from our epic last-date-as-just-a-table-of-2 that we went on last night (Melting Pot + Michael Buble Concert!  We’ve been going to bed around 9 PM just because I’m exhausted by then, so this was an epically late night for us!), so I need to entertain myself while I let him sleep.  So, here’s the map:

Nothing is to scale, so to speak, but it’s good enough for government work.  You get the idea… now, on with photos!  Please excuse photo quality… I was going for speed in there.  I had a dog and and a cat who were way too curious about what was in the crib, closet, bookcase, etc. to really stop and mess with camera settings!

We’ll start with her door.  Crown hanger from Hobby Lobby, wreath made by me using remnants from her bedding fabric! 

Instructions on how to make the wreath found here:  Little Birdie Secrets

OK, upon opening the door, you see the this (For the record, we ended up painting her room a mocha-y shade.  We had told everyone we were going to paint it yellow, but it just seemed like it was going to be too overpowering with all the color in the bedding and accessories!) :

Before you safety mavens get on my case… yes, I know there shouldn’t be all that stuff in her crib when she’s actually sleeping in there.  I just have her “bed made” for show if you know what I mean.    Details:  Crib (and dresser, which you will see in a moment) from JC Penney, custom bedding designed by me using fabrics in the Oz collection by Sanae for Moda and made by the fabulous people at Be-Dazzled, letter forms bought at Hobby Lobby and covered in fabric from the same collection by Mikel and me (he was the engineering brain behind cutting the fabric just right, I was the freak with the modge podge ), and yellow afghan made by one of my co-worker’s wives especially for Miss A.  The little gizmo in the upper right is our super cool night vision baby monitor, purchased for us by my mama.  Hehe!

Now, to the left you see her bookcase / changing table:

Book case from Ikea, green and pink bins from Target.  The bins hold all kinds of goodies she received at her showers – extra diaper changing supplies, bath supplies, toys, etc.  You can see she’s also begun her very own book collection.  The ladybug at the bottom left is a super cool night light that projects star patterns on the ceiling given to us by our fabulous friend, Jen. (Mikel had tons of fun playing with that the other night, by the way!)

To the right of the crib, you’ll see her dresser:

Dresser from JC Penney, diaper cake from our shower thrown (and made by) our fabulous friend, Jessica, as yet empty frame from her Auntie-Cousin Carey (my cousin Michael’s wife), and butterflies found in the French Quarter from our New Orleans Trip last year.  True story about the butterflies:  I was expecting Miss A at the time we bought the butterflies, but didn’t find out about her until a week later.  I had said something to Mikel about “If we ever have a little girl, wouldn’t these be cool for her room?  I’ll find somewhere to put them until then…”  They sat on a counter for months until we finally started putting her room together. 

Just to the right of the dresser is her window:

Again, curtain made by Be-Dazzled using fabrics from the Oz Collection.

Close up of the curtain hangers:

Those are clear drawer pulls in the shape of roses found at Hobby Lobby and MacGyver-ed to work as curtain hooks by Mikel. 

Finally, her closet:

She just has a few clothes (few of which were actually purchased by me… we have very generous friends and family!).  Hehe  You can’t really tell in the photo, but I have little organizer tags on the bar and the clothes are arranged by size (they’re green and white – you can see them if you look closely).  Her little white hamper is from Ikea as well.  The stuffed animals are a combination of my favorites from childhood, Mikel’s favorites from childhood, and some that Mikel has given me throughout our relationship.  We figured we’ll see which ones she enjoys and then cull the herd later.
That’s it!  That’s my very long winded tour of her nursery!  It took forever to get the room cleaned out (we’re talking months here… we started in March and didn’t really finish until June), but once we did, things came together quite nicely I think!  If you’re ever over for a session in the studio, feel free to ask for the nickle tour – we’ll show you the real thing in person (as long as it’s clean!).

So, there’s this big name, hot shot wedding photographer out in California (I say that lovingly, by the way – I think she’s the bee’s knees) who blogs every. single. day.  Seriously.  It’s not always a shoot, but she does share photos from her life and things like that in her daily posts.  Yowza.  She says that part of the way she accomplishes that is to plan out what she’s going to blog in advance.  So, while I don’t think I can commit to doing this forever, I’m going to try to do it for a week, starting this Sunday!  So, out of fairness (and to keep ya coming back for more…), I’m asking you – what do you want to see on the blog?  I have a couple of shoots coming up, so those will be involved, but what else?  Recipes?  Baby Stuff?  Photography tips?  Something else completely different?  PLEASE leave me a comment and let me know what you’d like to see!  Hehe… hopefully, I’ll keep ya coming back for more next week!

Hello all… I know it’s been VERY quiet around here the past week, and I’m here to explain why.  I’d like to thank everyone for their patience this past week – many of my clients know out of necessity what’s been going on, and some of you are probably wondering from my “Vague-Booking” on Facebook just what’s been up.  Well, here’s the short version of the story:  last Monday, my very loved Uncle passed away suddenly and unexpectedly.  We are a VERY close family on that side (my mom’s side) and it has hit us all like a ton of bricks.  There were little to no warning signs, we had all seen him recently (as recently as last Saturday and Sunday for most of us), and he was much too young – 60 – to have this happen.  To say we are all shocked and saddened would be the understatement of a lifetime.  I have spent the last week with family and helping my cousins prepare for his memorial service which was this past Friday.  There are orders to process/deliver, and sessions to blog about, and those will be handled this week.  Again, thanks to everyone who has been SO patient with me as I have needed this time to be with the ones I love.

I’m writing this post because all of this has made me realize that something that seems so trivial can become so important on a moment’s notice – photographs.  Now, don’t roll your eyes at me.  I’m not trying to use my dear Uncle’s death to sell photographs.  I’m talking about the everyday, point-and-shoot photographs that we all take at birthday parties, family gatherings, etc. – the ones that many of us (myself included!) try to dodge every single time someone takes a camera out of their purse or pocket.

My main task this past week in helping to prepare for the memorial service was to put together a picture slideshow to play at the memorial.  I helped my mom and cousins cull through thousands of pictures in albums and boxes to try to find a good representation of my Uncle’s life.  There were plenty to be had of his childhood and early life with my Aunt, but we began to notice as time went on and we moved towards the “digital age” of photography, we had gaps in coverage (so to speak).  We found ourselves asking why we didn’t have photos of him with this person or that person.  Cameras are so ubiquitous these days – they’re in our phones, they’re in our music players, they seem like they’re everywhere – and I think we all tend to take it for granted that we “must” have a picture of “that” somewhere.  Pictures that would mean so much to us now especially that we were “sure” existed seemed to be completely non-existent.

So, what I guess what I’m trying to say is that we all (me included!) need to be more purposeful about photographs in this day and age.  Would it be great to have professional photographs with every single family member that’s important to us?  Sure!  Is that usually possible?  Probably not.  But I know that I am going to be more aware of capturing the day to day images that may be important to my children and grandchildren one day – not that I’m planning for my death because that’s really morbid and scary, but because I have learned from experience that while I may hate to have my picture taken, being there and being in photographs is ultimately the way that we choose to record milestones in our lives and it’s important to honor those occasions.  We can’t let technology make us lazy in recording our family’s history – we MUST take the time to take, organize, and *gasp* even print those photographs that we stick in a folder on a desktop with a mental note that says “get to these one day.”

Okie dokie… that’s all I have to say.  I hope it makes sense.  Forgive any grammatical errors… it’s been a long week.  I’ll end with a photo that we are so grateful to have of my Aunt and Uncle dancing at my wedding in 2006.  Thanks to Photogenic Images for this one.

We’ve got a virtual garage sale going on over on Craig’s List… will you please check it out?  Lots of furniture and home decor items!  Help us make room for baby!  http://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/for/1781980741.html