A Moment with Melissa

I'm officially ready to be not pregnant. This baby has out grown its apartment in my belly and needs to move out!!

Being pregnant for a second time is TOTALLY different! You spend so much time taking care of the baby you already have that you forget you have one cooking! One of the big differences is that instead of getting all this new stuff for the baby you are just unpacking the stuff you had for your first. Most of the presents you get are more practical than all cute for cuteness sake.

That is why I was brought to tears by the amazing package I got from my mother-in-law, Susan, for the new baby! No only was it filled with beautiful things it reminded me that I really am having another baby!

All the gifts in this post are hand made!!! She is so talented and we are so lucky to get such beautiful things!

Here is a little sweater for the baby!

Yes, she MADE this! Holding this little elephant is what got the tears a rolling!





There was also a quilt and soft stuffed ball to match the elephant.







Here is the set together! Beautiful!!! The package also had a taggy toy, nursing cover, and wall hanging that was all made by Susan.

Zoe has been getting these amazing hand madepresents since she was a baby. Here is a doll that her Grammy made her for Christmas. She sleeps with her every night.

On the left is a set of barrettes! So cool! My fave is the one that says Zoe. The right is a little sushi purse with little sewn sushi rolls!!!

LOVE this genius shirt! It's just a plain white tee with a snap on it. We have a bunch of little guys that we can snap on and off.

See? Zoe loves to pick out who is going to be on her shirt every time she wears it. She often changes them throughout the day.

What's in this little rolled up package?

Zoe's crayons!!! How cool is that?!

Isn't this stuff so beautiful and really cool to boot!? This is really just some of the things she's made! You can add Zoe's curtains, my kitchen curtains with matching place mats, skirts for Zoe, toys, play food, pillowcases, doll blankets, hats, scarves and much more to the list! I am always SO excited when a Grammy package shows us at the door!

The funny thing is that she doesn't even have an etsy store! Doesn't she need one? She would make a killing.

A Moment With Melissa

I love to read! In my elementary school they had a reading contest every year. Guess who ALWAYS won? ME! No one ever came close to reading the amount of books that I read. I was a reading legend.

The amount of books I read definitely plummeted a few years ago. If you buy all the books that you read it sort of becomes an expense. Plus who wants to spend $20 on a book, read it and then it turns out to be awful. So, I became a shadow of my former reading self. Then came Zoe and the library...

The library has always intimidated me. I can never find what I want to read. I hadn't been to the library since I was a kid. I remembered how much I loved it so I decided to start taking Zoe.

Here she is enjoying her library time...

Then one day I went to the library web site to find out when they were open and my life was changed! I was so ignorant to what the library has to offer!! Did you know that you can search out books and have them delivered to your local library for you? No more searching aisles of books and not being able to find anything! I just go to the front desk and they have all the books I want waiting for me!!! It's like amazon but free!

Think of all the cookbooks they have access to! Look all the way to the right... The Cake Bible!!!

I'm also a fan of getting parenting books from the library so I can be an educated Mommy to this little bugger! I wouldn't say that I parent from a book, but I like to see what "the experts" are saying. Right now I'm reading "From One Child to Two"





Now that I know I can get books so easily from the library I'm back to my old reading self. Not only do I get my scary horror novels, but I've also been checking out lots of cook books, interior design books, and I'm going to teach myself how to sew! The possibilities are endless!

Some things I've recently read...

An Invisible Sign of My Own by Aimee Bender

Domino: the Book of Decorating

Ratio: the Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking

The Sookie Stackhouse Books by Charlaine Harris

So, this is the end to my love poem to the local library. Definitely check it out for yourself! I bet they have lots of wedding planning books!

A Moment with Melissa

One of the opening lines of the movie "Goodfellas" is "As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster". Replace gangster with photographer and you have me! As far back as I can remember I've always loved taking pictures.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to show you some old photos that in a way shaped who I am today. They are all old and scanned into the computer so please excuse the quality.

The first camera I got was a Kodak Disc Film Camera. I saved up my money to get it in 1983. I started taking still life of my toys. Here is one of my 1000 piece E.T. puzzle and one of my Garfield, Annie and unicorn stuffed animal...

A photographer is born!

After that I know you're all thinking "I need to hire Melissa to do my wedding!" BUT WAIT! There's more...

I started getting creative with the kids in the neighborhood. I was trying to take wacky photos and play tricks on the eyes. Like this one for example! Who is upside down and who is right side up? I was a thinking man's photographer...

This one really makes me laugh! I mean these girls must have thought I was nuts! I told them to tilt their heads but then I tilted the camera so in the actual picture the heads are straight! Brilliant, right!? This will have to be "my move" next wedding season... Just kidding!

Around freshman year of high school I discovered black and white film! The picture below is not a good picture, but at the time it was a huge turning point in my life. Written next to this photo in my album is "Photography begins". Something clicked when I took it. I started to think maybe photography could be an art for me instead of something silly.

I decided to approach the yearbook advisor about becoming the student photographer. She was hesitant because I was young and usually they didn't have student photogs. She gave me one roll of film and sent me to a football game.

Here was my favorite picture of the day. Again it's really not that good, but I loved it! I thought she looked so happy and natural.

When the film came back I went to see the advisor. She said "Looks like we have ourselves a budding photographer." Can't tell you how proud I was! Here I am sorting through photos at 14! You know you love my hair!

Here is a photo of my parents. It's one of those photos that will always be special to me. I think a lot of the photos I've taken over the years have meant a lot to my family. I took this with my first "real camera". My dad bought it for me from a classified ad in the newspaper. Thanks, Dad!

Here's another day or roll of film that will always mean a lot to me. My friends and I skipped school one day in senior year. I took so many great pictures of my friends that day. Here is one. It was the 90's and we were SO "alternative"

When I got the photos back from this day my friends went crazy for them! I had to make copies for everyone. To this day they all remember these pictures and this day. One of the biggest reasons that I love photography is it gives me the chance to give people beautiful memories. That plays into my personal and professional life now. I do it when I take a picture of my daughter and when I go to shoot a wedding. It's an amazing feeling and one of the many reasons I love my job!!

A Moment with Melissa

Looks like I have some competition...

My Uncle got my daughter, Zoe, her first camera for Christmas. It is a Fisher Price Kids Tough Camera. I wish I could take credit for buying her this because it's changed her life! She loves to take pictures! I don't know where she got that from!

Here she is doing some different angles for more creative compositions! She's even doing a slanted angle!

Here is some of her art work...

Something she never sees! Mommy taking a picture of her!

She's getting her revenge though. Zoe has taken so many pictures of me in the last month! I finally know how she feels. She's also been telling me to make certain faces and poses. Total blackmail material...

My husband, Miles, is also getting his fair share of camera time. He is Zoe's muse.

When Zoe was about 18 months old she named her feet, Janice and Floyd. It has remained that way ever since. Instead of saying "That shoe goes on your right foot" I have to say "Put this shoe on Janice." Anyway, before she snapped this picture she said "I'm going to take a picture of Janice and Floyd."

We call this her dinner series...

The best part about this camera is being able to see things through Zoe's eyes. She walks around the house carefully looking at everything. It's just so much fun to see what she chooses to take a picture of.

Here is her self portrait.

If you have a three year old in your life buy them this camera! I love it! The only problem with it is the flash only goes off half of the time. Besides that it is so easy to use. Any kid in your life will love it!

A Moment With Melissa...

Hello! It's Melissa, again! I thought I'd take this opportunity to tell you guys about one of the ongoing photo projects I have. It involves my daughter, Zoe, (I think all of them do) and her birthday. Here is the plan. Every year I do a simple portrait of Zoe around her birthday. My goal is to do it every year for the rest of my life. As time goes on I think it will be something she'll really appreciate having. I know I will.

What am I doing with these pictures? Right now I have a canvas for each year. The innocent 1 year old, crazy 2 year old and my big girl 3 year old...

My hubby, Miles, jokes that we are going to have a house covered in canvas by the time she is 17. I don't think I'll get one a year because that might be overkill, but if one year is particularly awesome I'll replace one of these with a new canvas. I'm also making a scrapbook with all the photos.

Since we're on the subject of birthday photo projects I do have another one! My goal is to seek out cool numbers and take Zoe's photo in front of it when she is the right age. For example she is 3 now so here is our 3 photo...

In case you are wondering... Yes, I will be doing all these photos for the new baby, too! If not in 12 years I'll be hearing "Why are there so many pictures of Zoe and none of me?"

So, those are my ideas. Hopefully I've inspired some of you to do your own little photo projects. You don't have to be a professional and it's something you'll have forever.

A Moment with Melissa...No. 2

I consider myself a green lady. I try my best when it comes to doing things that are environmentally friendly. One of my New Year's resolutions is feed the fam only organic meat. It's a little more expensive but in the long run I think it's worth it.

If some of you are looking for an easy and free way to reduce your "Carbon Footprint" a good place to start is your junk mail! Check out
http://www.41pounds.org/impact/ to see how junk mail effects the environment.

Credit card offers are annoying! I never opened them. Finally I went to optoutprescreen.com. There you can fill out a form and no credit card companies will send you any mail for 5 years! I permanently took my name off the list by sending in a letter.

Another thing I did was sign up at http://www.catalogchoice.org/. This site will help stop unwanted catalogs from coming to your house. It's nice because you choose what catalogs to block.

Well, that's my good deed for the day!

A Moment with Melissa... No. 1

I'm up! I guess it's my turn to tell you a little bit about me, Melissa, in my first ever Moment with Melissa blog post. A Moment with Melissa... Sounds romantic! I'm sad to say that I have little to report. Nothing really going on with me these days. Let me try and think here... What have I been up to?

Well, I picked up my vitamins yesterday.

What else? Went shopping for some new clothes.

Ended up buying some doo dads for the house...

I'm a big reader! Love to read! I was leafing through some old books I have...

I also got some new books for my 3 year old daughter, Zoe!

I guess there is ONE thing going on with me - I'm pregnant! Duh! My husband and I are be expecting a new family member this March. I can't believe in two months we will be a family of four! Sometimes I look at Zoe and I'm just overcome with emotion - love, happiness, amazement. To me she's the most perfect thing in the world. To think that coming up very soon there will be another little person who will make me feel that way. And it all happens in a snap! (no pun intended). Pretty amazing!

Here's the little bugger when I was three months along. Sort of looks like it has flippers!

Here he (or she) is 7 months along! This one freaks me out because it looks like a deformed puppet of Jay Leno! Please don't let my baby look like a deformed puppet of Jay Leno! Look at the pointy chin and big puffy cheeks. My husband assures me that all ultrasound photos look strange. Regardless I'm not watching Jay Leno's talk show (I like Conan better anyway)

Another thing about the above photo - it is a cruel joke that it is being held up by a sushi magnet! I'm not supposed to eat sushi while I'm pregnant. It's my favorite food! Makes me very sad...

There has been an outbreak of former snap clients getting pregnant!! Congrats to all the past snappers now turned future moms! Anyone else sad about sushi?