MoseleyWorld

Most of the time, I actually prefer to stay behind the lens. But sometimes, when I see a great opportunity to have a portrait made, I’ll jump on the other side of the camera. I attended a photography lighting workshop conducted by my friends Anne & Joseph Stefanchik, whose studio is just three doors down the hall from ours. We did some on-location shoots just down the street at the State Fair.

Twilight + State Fair of Texas + Big Tex + Camera in one hand + Fletcher’s corny dog in the other = the perfect storm for a portrait!

photograph by jvs

Samantha will be 12 weeks old this Friday. She’s displaying lots of smiles (and, oh, what a cute smile she has - I’m biased, of course) and is starting to really enjoy watching the world. Watching her, I am often reminded of one of my favorite Jimmy Buffett songs. In Little Miss Magic (itunes link), Jimmy does a great job expressing some of the thoughts that ramble thru his (and my) head while he watches his baby daughter.

Constantly amazed by the blades of the fan on the ceiling
The clever little glances she gives me can’t help but be appealing
She loves to ride into town with the top down
Feel that warm breeze on her gentle skin
She is my next of kin

About Little Miss Magic, Jimmy said, “When Savannah Jane was born, my world was definitely altered…Before she could speak I would watch her follow the blades of the ceiling fan with her big brown eyes, and I couldn’t help but to be a proud father. Besides, if you don’t write a song about your daughter, you will go to hell.”

My charge would be to make a great portrait of my daughter. I’ve made a few of Saxon and my portrait below, titled “Samantha’s Lucky Number,” will be enjoyed by my very own Little Miss Magic some day.

A long time ago, Carey encouraged me to enter a photograph of Saxon and her modern nursery (now Samantha’s hangout-to-be) in Domino Magazine’s decorating contest. Since Domino has replaced Elle Decor and Metropolitan Home as our favorite design & decor publication (and because it was free), I entered.

A big shout-out is due to Aunt Teresa, who noticed on Domino’s website that our entry was selected as a finalist in the Domino Decorating Contest in the bedrooms category (link).

Apparently the editors liked it so much, the used it as one of the featured images on the cover page of the bedroom category!

Update: we have had several inquires about the products used to decorate Saxon’s room - especially the colorful wall dots. You can go to the Favorite Stuff page (see the little tabs at the top of the page?) to see the ingredients used in the recipe!

Aunt Ashley’s tour bus stopped off at MoseleyWorld last weekend, after making stops in Beaver Island,  Napa, San Francisco, Atlanta, Wichita and Newport, RI just to name a few stops. Despite getting to see Saxon’s newest impersonation (she does a really good “whining 2 year old” from time to time - stick around long enough and you might get to see it too), Ashley had a good time with her two nieces (I think).

Saxon definitely enjoyed her Aunt Ashley’s visit, since she got a fancy new tutu and she got to go with her mom and Aunt Ashley to the salon - to have her toenails painted fancily (See below). This week, every time an airplane has flown over, Saxon says, “Aunt Ashley’s Airplane.”

click for larger image

Tis the season to order Christmas cards! Of course, you could contact a great photographer (uh, click the link) to photograph your kids, dogs or whole family so you would have a fancy photo holiday card (hey, who can blame me for the shameless plug - I’ve got another mouth to feed!).

Tiny Prints has great designs. From Christmas party invitations & Christmas Cards to cards announcing your new baby or that you’ve moved, they’ve got a great selection of cards at Tiny Prints. Click here to get 5% off your order with Tiny Prints (good thru Jan 5, 2009).

We recently made my annual pilgrimage to the State Fair of Texas, this time as a family of four. Regarding the State Fair of Texas, did you know:

• The State Fair was first held at its current location in Dallas in 1886.
• The Texas-OU football game has been played annually, since 1929, at the Cotton Bowl, which is in the middle of Fair Park.
• The ubiquitous corny dog was invented by the Fletcher brothers and popularized at the State Fair of Texas.
• Speaking of fried foods, the State Fair of Texas is where you can get almost anything deep fried or chicken-fried. Chicken-fried bacon, fried banana split, deep-fried s’mores (Ok, these were good), Texas fried jelly belly beans, fried chocolate truffles are just a few of the new foods offered at the State Fair this year.
• The Texas Star located at Fair Park is the largest Ferris wheel in North America.
• Fair Park was first choice of the Dallas Cowboys for their new stadium until former Mayor Laura Miller ran them off (in less than 48 hours - she’s got skills).
• Saxon made her 2nd visit to the Fair on the same day Samantha made her 1st.

Here are some photographs from our visit.

watching the dancing with dogs show

samantha awake, looking for the dogs (actually watching her sister)
running around proved to be much more fun than watching the dogs dance
performing

here’s one of those world-famous Fletcher’s corn dogs.
One word: yummy
mangy corn dog?
at the young farmer’s exhibit, staffed by FFA (that’s Future Farmer’s of America for you urbanites)
stopping for corn (which, of course, feeds everything at the farm)
planting her onion “seed”
cow milking - saxon told the gal she knew all about this because she sees it at home all the time.

saxon’s favorite activity was the petting zoo, where she got to feed everything from baby goats to giraffes. the ostriches and emus were true-to-form with their stares and freaky snakelike neck movements. yikes.