photo shoot / nicole's maternity session

i was more than excited when nicole, one of my best friends, asked me to do her maternity shoot. nicole is gorgeous and has the most adorable baby belly. what's even better is she let me do whatever i wanted for the shoot (she is the easiest and nicest person i know). i had seriously thought about how i wanted to do it for months, but of course pulled everything together last minute.

i always knew i wanted to use our vintage couch we got for my wedding (from a thrift store for $75! can't beat that!). i decided to put it in front of our back sliding glass door, and hung tulle ikea curtains up as the backdrop. i have been inspired by bright white photographs lately and wanted the perfect lighting. i went to my favorite antique store and found some vintage night gowns that completed the look.

doesn't this first dress remind you of wendy moira angela darling? i love that it came with a slip and a robe and has such perfect lace detailing! 

this is the second night gown i purchased. it looked a little bit hospital gown-ish on, but we loved having it open for some bare-belly shots. 

for her third outfit i knew i wanted to do a black maxi. luckily sydney has one and left it home for me to wear almost every day. it looked awesome on nicole and created the perfect contrast against the bright white sky. i wanted to do some outdoors, but it was super windy so we didn't get to take a ton. we used the vintage umbrella that kira got me for christmas one year. i think these picture would make the coolest prints (if i do say so myself!).

thanks nicole for letting me take your pictures! i can't wait to take more of your little lady! 

ps. it was really hard to narrow down these pics- i might have to do another post of outtakes!

photo shoot / boho glam family pictures

before syd left we really wanted to take family pictures. we hadn't gotten any done since jarman has been an official part of the family. we decided to just try to take them using a tripod and a clicker. it was actually a lot harder than i thought it would be- my clicker wouldn't work if we were too far from the camera, but my good lens makes it so we have to be kind of far. so the ones with the whole family were literally timer pictures where i was running in my six inch heels in the sand to get back to the camera. it was totally worth it though because i love how the pictures turned out.

we decided we wanted to do a boho shoot (which not only provided our stylistic choices but also lots of jokes from the boys). we all tried to wear longish or flowy dresses with big heels. we also brought down a bunch of furs to wear for some of the pictures. we like to choose outfits that loosely go together, rather than things that are obviously matching (like white shirts and jeans). i love the bright blues that pop out of some of the outfits, and we also had creams and browns and black and few others. 

we took the pictures in oceanside (this little outing was on sydney's last day so she got to see the beach and eat at phil's as well). some of them are just in front of people's houses, and the others were on some rocks and stairs that we found. we went down with some ideas of places, but nothing set. it was fun to drive around and find the cutest places we could (we ended up parking the car only once though- all of these locations are within walking distance of each other).

seriously though, how cute is my family? my sisters get prettier and prettier, my mom looks younger and younger, and jarman is handsomer and handsomer. you better believe we will have lots of these pictures all over our house!

from my camera / st. george

last weekend we went to st. george to visit our aunts and cousins. it was kind of our last hurrah before sydney leaves to costa rica (even though we will have lots more 'last hurrahs'). we spent our time shopping, seeing movies, lounging, and eating. oh, and we went on a hike (which somehow was the only thing i photographed all weekend). we kind of have this tradition of going on a hike every time we visit, and my aunt, joylyn, outfits us in all of her workout gear. because carpenter girls don't really own workout gear- everyone thought i looked goofy in my nike getup. we had the best time in st. george- even though it's utah and kind of boring- the people make it worth it.

we wanted to take a sisters' picture, but farah really wanted to be in it- we happily obliged!

is her sweatsuit real???

the whole gang!

lots of cousin love going around!

i'm kind of obsessed with cacti right now.

he posed like this on his own.

the one other picture i got of the weekend.

from my camera / audrey's birthday brunch

audrey's birthday was on friday and i kid you not when i say that she loves her birthday more than i love mine. and that's saying a lot, because i loooovvveeee my birthday. she made a schedule two weeks beforehand of everything that we were going to do, and then posted it all over the house. she also made andie sign a contract promising that she would be nice all day on her birthday, and threatened the rest of us and her friends that she was going to make us sign one too. first on her list was to open her birthday outfit and have her birthday brunch. the night before, audrey and our mom went to the dollar store to get supplies for the brunch. they got the polka dot table cloth, balloons, and plates to accent the leftover decorations from the bridal shower last week (which i am posting about on wednesday, be excited!). after her brunch we went shopping, then came home and she tried on all of her new clothes for us. that night she went to sushi and we had lava cakes for dessert.

almost everyone says that me and audge look the most alike and act the most alike. she is kind of my twin separated by ten years. we are both a little bit spazzy, very excitable, and tend to over-think everything. we have a few good qualities too. audrey is by far the most thoughtful person in our family- she is the only sister to consistently give presents and always chooses meaningful things. i'm happy to call her my twin, not only because she is so cute but also because she is such a great little sister to have in my life.

photo shoot / missionary farewell

both of these girls are going on missions really soon! actually, krista (my cousin) leaves today! she will be serving in the west indies french speaking mission for the next 18 months! sydney leaves on march 5th (which is coming way too fast) for the costa rica mission. they are both going to be so awesome! if you have any questions about mormon missionaries, feel free to contact me or check here!

before the girls left, their mothers requested a photo shoot of the two of them. they have been best friends/cousins since birth, so it seemed only fitting! i was dying over the blossoming tree in the backyard (you know if have a weakness for blossoms, look at my cover photo!). and forced them to sit and stand awkwardly on a table to get as many blossoms as possible.

i am seriously going to miss these girls so much over the next year and a half!