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I can’t believe our sixth week is already wrapping up for the project! Below you will find our beautiful group of featured images from the This Is Our Life photo project for Week Six. The theme was Good Morning … morning routines, the hustle and bustle and the reconnecting as a family after a long night’s sleep is always so unique to every family and so fun to peek in on everyone’s mornings and what makes them special!

For those wanting to find out more details or if you are just interested in lifestyle photography in general and want some helpful tips and examples, please check out the very informative post on lifestyle photography and This Is Our Life.

For my sixth week in the This Is Our Life project I captured my girls snuggling and being in silly in bed as is our morning tradition – they go to bed laughing and always wake up all smiles.

Edited with Luminosity actions – Lavish BW, Film Haze and Rich Deep Matte.
Shot with a Nikon 24mm 1.4G lens at ISO 2000 (it was really dark in the room still), f1.4, 1/200 second.

Before we get to the featured images of the week, here is the prompt for week seven of the This Is Our Life project (Negative Space … it’s a Positive!). Using negative space (also known as white space) effectively in your image can turn a so-so composition into one that really stands out and is unique. You can use it to convey emotion, be artistic, give emphasis to your subject and so much more! See my post here all about using negative space with lots of examples and tips.

There are always an overwhelming number of fabulous and touching images submitted and it’s very difficult just picking a few to feature! See the original photo (uncropped and larger) by clicking the corresponding link below the collage.

1. Claire Gilfillan Photography, 2. Christine Cousins Photography, 3. Michelle Kujawski Photography, 4. Goodness Grace Photography, 5. Anna Larson, 6. Twin Pearl Photography, 7. Kristen Murphy Photography, 8. Melanie Stephan Photography, 9. Kristin.B.Photography, 10. Diana Colleran Photography, 11. J. Alexandra Photography, 12. Squash Blossom Design, 13. Folly Photography, 14. Photography By Lorna, 15. Lindy Pfaff, 16. Emma Klosson Photography

And here is our regular Let’s Do 52 photo project wrap up! The themes this past week six were Strength and Yellow.

1. Susana Fernandez, 2. Lyndsie Hammond Photography, 3. Jujujems Photography, 4. Cris Passos Photography

And the new themes for Let’s Do 52 for Week 7 are Connected and Profile.

All the links …

Paint the Moon {this is our life} Flickr Group

Regular Let’s Do 52 Flickr Group

Original post with details for the Let’s Do 52

Share your project images on our Paint the Moon Facebook wall … come Share, be inspired, and ask questions!

 

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Miss Adeline Brett’s rock star 6th birthday party was a super blast to plan and even more fun getting to play there! Our kiddo parties are usually more along the lines of some pizza and friends in the backyard garden … but this year she asked for a punk rock star theme and we had so much fun planning and ended up getting a little carried away with the fun of it all.

Keep in mind that all this wasn’t *just* for Adeline (we’re not into the spoiled kid parties or getting so wrapped up in making things “pretty” that we forget to enjoy the important things and have fun) … it was for us, for her sister, for all Addie’s friends and all our friends and family to come and be silly and have fun! Apologies for the photo overload … this post is very image heavy (and all processed with Paint the Moon actions that are coming soon)! :)

The party was as surprise … the first surprise party Addie’s had, so there was extra excitement in the preparations. The awesome part was that I did all the planning and preparing while the kids were sleeping, and when it was party time I had most of the photos out of the way so I could put the camera down and not miss out on any of the fun!

It was bone chilling cold outside … the poor girls were troopers and we just took ten minutes to take a few shots of all of us decked out. I very rarely wear make up and felt SO weird with so much piled on. Both Scott and I agreed it just emphasized how dang old we are (he was the proud recipient of heavy black eyeliner errr… GUYliner, ha!). We looked like washed up oldsters who’ve seen too much rock and roll, drugs and alcohol and were refusing to admit we were washed up. LOL!

Getting ready Miss Eliza loved the boots and leg warmers but wanted nothing to do with any stinkin’ clothes.

The invite, aka, Rock Concert Ticket. She had her own little site set up for the invite and RSVP as well … adelinebrett.com. The graphic designer in me took over with the design of everything … late at night as the girls slept is when I worked on all this. And, yep, the QR code worked to bring the guest to the invite/RSVP site. We also had QR codes set up on the back of the backstage passes … the kids were met at the velvet rope out front to be given their exclusive, personalized Backstage All Access Pass and their pass code was scanned – on the screen they would see this pop up: backstage pass code, so we “knew” they were cleared for access. ;)

After photos outside, as far as Addie knew, I was going to go run errands downtown after they dropped me and Eliza off. I was actually setting up the party while they picked up some cupcakes … and then they came back downtown to “pick mommy up.” She walked in and still didn’t understand it was HER party. She was going to beg her daddy to just bounce one time on the bounce castle before she had to leave to go home to the tiny family get together she thought we had planned. :) Imagine her surprise when we told her THAT was her party … and the bouncy castle was her birthday gift! Okay, you don’t have to imagine it because I snapped a picture!

The very moment of surprise when she walked in, saw everything and realized it was all for her!! Also note that all these indoor shots were taken in a dark ballroom at night with no flash … so we are talking an average of 2500 for ISO.

The band invited ALL the kids up on stage with their little inflatable guitars from their swag bags to “play” guitar. It was quite a sight seeing 25 kids lined up rocking out together … the guitarist stood in the back playing so they all felt like they were the ones making the amazing music.

This is Adeline and her best friend, crazy Miss M.

The band played Happy Birthday to her as we all sang along … it just happened to be the coolest and the LONGEST rendition I’ve ever heard. She was *dying* to eat that cupcake and blow out those candles and kept a smile glued to her face the whole time, but it lost it’s luster about two minutes in. You could see the “Come on, already, there is cake to be eaten!!!” written all over her face!

We were so excited to have the amazing artist Miranda Vettrus play for us all night. We have friends of ours to thank for hooking us up with them (and for helping manage all the music and sound that night – Jason is an awesome friend and massively talented in numerous areas). Adeline had heard her music before and actually asked if she could come to her birthday party … I explained famous musicians were very busy, so I didn’t think so, but I would sure check. Imagine her surprise! And she played all of Addie’s favorites for her … a little Johnny Cash and the Bright Eyes song that was playing when she was born. This mama was a bit teary eyed throughout the night. Our good friends are up there playing too (Jason on drums and Silver on bass guitar) … take a look at their sweet little girl, Echo, rocking out with them!

I took a super simple light set up down with me so I could get mug shot style photos of any guests who wanted to jump in before leaving the party. Should have taken a seamless paper backdrop with me (the brown carpet and walls are not so punk rock), but in the end I poo poo’d the idea of dragging down the softbox, light and a giant 107″ roll of paper plus stand. :)

And here are some of the party details. I went a little overboard and designed a whole “brand” for Adeline’s party, right down to the little punk girl graphic that looked just like Addie and her own site (adelinebrett.com) was transformed for the party! I got so involved in the festivities and just enjoying watching my little girl have fun and be a total crazy girl that I never got to snap photos of the set up all complete, which was a bit of a bummer, but I don’t regret missing some silly photos in exchange for playing with my girls and being totally present in the moment. As many photos as you see here (and, yes indeed, there are a lot), they were taken very quickly so I could just enjoy the party and special moments without the camera in front of my face.

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And in response to some of the nasty comments I received yesterday that I had to hide …

Note: There was no elaborate spending being done here, just the combination of lots of hard work and creativity as well as being lucky to pull some strings including being blessed with friends in the music industry, finding a space where the rental fee was going to a good cause to help teens in need, taking advantage of this mommy’s graphic design skills and making it all come together. This was a super fun gathering of family and friends in the middle of the holiday season and I really don’t see why I’ve heard so many negative comments about throwing a fun party for our loved ones to enjoy. Everyone had a blast, and we don’t regret it for a second. For her party next year she has asked for her friends to come over to our place in the country and pet her animals – that’s it. :) She’s definitely not suffering from spoiled kid syndrome. And I suppose I have to be a little snotty and say, even if I did decide to spend a lot of money on my kid’s party and could afford to do so, ummmmm … who cares!? :P

And while I realize the punk rock theme may not be for everyone, the party was for a little girl who absolutely adores music (and, yes, she loves some authentic but kid appropriate punk music in there as well). We have many friends in the music industry and who are musicians themselves (half the band are close friends of ours). She loves dance, music and art. Her mommy and daddy and all her friends also love music and everything creative … so it was a natural pick for her to have a party celebrating those loves. To each their own! I know that all her friends and our friends and family all LOVED it, so we’re good with it! I’d also like to say that our usual party is somewhere along the lines of pizza and friends in the backyard … but this was a unique and fun experience too. :P

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