Love this little family! They’ve been around the blog a few times before. ;) This year for their annual family photos, the mom and I wanted to change things up and bring a little more of an urban feel to the shoot, but with an old town feel. What better place than her hometown of Seal Beach? So much fun to run around with this fam, finding different backdrops and working with the afternoon glow. I love my tried and true favorite locations, but I also LOVE shooting in new places, too.
In honor of Valentine’s Day tomorrow, I’ll share some of the client favorites from the Valentine’s Mini Sessions this year! We had a blast at all three locations, and my favorite part was meeting some new faces!
My kids’ valentines this year:
I loved printing Valentines for my clients again this year, they all turned out so cute. It’s so much fun doing a photo valentine, and I make sure to put the year on it so I can collect them as time goes on. Or until they refuse to let me do these Valentines. HA!
This little man was a dream to photograph. He listened so well to my directions and let me pose, cuddle, move, and then pose again. Good job, buddy. ;) I traveled from Orange County up to Santa Barbara for this little man’s newborn session, and it so worth the drive. And hey, I’ll take 2 1/2 hours of uninterrupted time in the car with peace and quiet. Baby Rome, it’s fun watching you grow, and I’m looking forward to your future sessions!
So, it’s uh, no secret I love pictures. I love slightly changing the frames around my house each season or holiday to reflect the theme. It’s such a fun, simple way to “decorate” for a holiday without getting all crazy cheesy at the dollar store, ya know? I’ll take you on a quick little glimpse through my Valentine’s Day goodies I set out, and show you how to easily use the photos from the Valentine’s Day mini sessions you did with me. :)
This poor little XO has made it through its third year in the Valentine’s Day props rotation, but it still finds its way to resting on my living room mirror each year. The little banner I made hanging above using old book pages and this tutorial. The X & O are the wood letter’s from Michael’s and I modge podged scrapbook paper onto them.
I printed out 4x6s from the mini session I did of my kids and used the tiny little clothespins from Hobby Lobby (I think they’re in the scrapbooking section maybe?) to hang the pictures from a heart garland (another minis prop) I got a couple of years ago from Paper Source.
I have a grouping of random frames from Pottery Barn, Ikea, Target, Aaron Brothers…everywhere. I just collect them as I see them and move them all around the house. Anyway, these are the current frames sitting upon our sideboard. I change these pictures out throughout the seasons & holidays, and use old ones and new ones.
Look how little Jake looks here! It’s from Valentine’s Day 2012. I set out the mini accordion book from last year’s Valentines Kissing Booth session (so stinkin cute, guys!! A lot of you have seen the little accordion books at your session premieres and have fallen in love with them. Definitely a client and personal fave product).
Along with my selection of seasonal pictures, I usually set out a themed print. This year, I decided to go with the black and gold trend and create one that flows with this year’s Valentine minis. As my gift to you, sweet friends, download the printable and enjoy it in your own home! I created it for myself as a 5×5 file, but I also made it available as a 5×7 file.
Click on your desired size and save the file to your computer.
Click this picture for a 5×5:
Click this picture for a 5×7:
Spread the love, friends! Leave a comment below, or click “share” beneath my name to share with your Facebook friends, or post a picture on Instagram of your print in your home on and tag me @harleyjayphotography!
How is it that I have the best clients ever? While going through this session’s photos, I was trying to narrow them down, and I was cracking up remembering the fun we had. Jumping in on another photographer’s super adorable mini session props, thinking we’re getting busted, and contemplating climbing an old, rickety, abandoned chicken coop’s roof. WHAT?! Haha, FitzGerald family thank you for making my job fun and adventurous. Love your free spirits and Wyatt’s love of trains. And LOVE watching those kiddos of yours grow!
I love this sweet family! They let me be crazy and silly with sweet big brother B, and trusted me to do the maternity shoot for #2 and #2’s newborn shoot. Since this maternity session, baby brother was born AND I’ve done the newborn session, but hey, I’m still catching up on blogging all of my fall sessions. Afternoon in the park + a cute baby belly + an adorable big bro = a great family maternity session.
Funny story! As I was working on editing their maternity session, I posted this picture on my HJP Facebook page. He WAS supposed to be born the following week. Little did I know, (found out later that afternoon!), he was born I think about an hour before I even posted it. HA!
In an effort to keep GOING in redecorating the girls’ room, I’ve got an update for ya. Paper fans pop up everywhere in blogland and on Pinterest, and they’re just so dang cute. I decided to try this tutorial from Land of Nod’s blog to make some custom paper fans for my girls’ rooms to finish off the wall with the window. As I mentioned in my first post about the girls’ room, I am not a self-proclaimed crafter. I started the fans and then they sat, along with the supplies, on my kitchen table for two weeks. Thank goodness my friend Anna came over and inspired me to finish these suckers up–we let the kids run around and she let me cut and hot glue gun away, keeping me company and making the process much more fun. They found their way onto the perfect spots on the wall to finally finish up ONE wall of their room (well almost. I still need to spray paint the curtain rod gold).
I think the gold one is my fave!
I’m pretty stoked on how that wall came together with the addition of the paper fans.
I added the lace curtains (from Ikea), and the picture frames above the girls’ bed that have some of my fave photos of them. They were so excited when they walked in and saw the pictures! “That’s me, Mommy! And that’s Chloe!”
I’ve collected canvases and prints for the rest of the walls, and I’m slowly designing the walls as I go. I’m sure I’ll get around to spray painting the curtain rod eventually. But for now, I’m just glad one more thing was accomplished in their room. Thanks for keeping me accountable, friends!
I had an old blog–a family blog–and I used to blog “Meal Planning Mondays.” That was fun! I wish I could be so on top of my game and blog MPM again. Sigh…that’s not going to happen. However, I still cook every weeknight, and still plan out my meals for the week. I’ve been doing it for so many years now that I can drop Jake off at preschool on Monday mornings, brainstorm my week’s meals on the way to Trader Joe’s and how they’d fit in with our schedule/activities, remember most of the ingredients in our fave tried & true recipes (or pull them up on my phone), and grocery shop with my two tails, Ava and Chloe.
The important part about meal planning is working with your schedule you’ve got going on. We like to do Disneyland on Tuesdays when we’re able to. When I’m prepared and have a crockpot recipe going, it makes my life so much easier when I get home and the kids are READY to eat (and take baths and GO TO BED!). I may not be the most organized person you’ll ever meet in life, but if there is ONE thing I try to stay on top of, it’s meal planning. Because hellllloooo. It’s food.
Anyway, although I’m not about to begin blogging Meal Planning Mondays again, I would LOVE to occasionally pop in and share favorite recipes we’re loving at the moment. We lean towards loving fresh, easy, balanced meals. The crockpot chicken fajitas are the easiest and best invention ever–I use equal sprinklings of fajita seasonings and taco seasonings. MAKE THE ROASTED ROOT VEGETABLES. The dressing to roast the veggies in is amazing. A newer recipe to our rotation is the chopped Greek salad–it will quickly become one of your faves, as well! I made Ree’s potatoes on Christmas (definitely a special-time-of-year side dish) and they were my favorite leftovers I ate every day until they were gone.
1. Roasted Root Vegetables | guest post on I Heart Naptime
2. Crockpot Chicken Fajitas | Eat at Home
3. Chopped Greek Salad | The Garden Grazer
4. Beef & Cannellini Bean Minestrone | Giada De Laurentiis
5. Creamy Rosemary Potatoes | Ree Drummond
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