Chit-Chat and a Flashback

Hi, everyone! Just a quick post to catch up!

Yesterday morning we sat for our first family portrait in five-and-a-half years. How could you have possibly let so much time go by, you ask?? I'm certainly wondering that myself. Our 12YO was in first grade (and had a broken arm!) for our last one.

Anyway, wanting a unified look for our portrait, we decided that we should all wear the same color. I suppose I could have simplified things by buying new matching polo shirts at Lands End for everyone, but oh, no. I was too cheap to do that. I figured that I could find solid shirts in similar colors for everyone with what we already have in our wardrobes. So much harder than I thought! We started with red: the guys both have solid red sweaters (long sleeves), DD has a solid red long-sleeve T-shirt. And I have red short-sleeve T-shirt. Which of these things is not like the other?? So I tried again with black, except all of DD's black shirts have big graphics on them. Not the look we wanted. We got close, but no cigar, with orange, lime green, yellow, white, and turquoise. There was always one of us missing a shirt to complete the set. Finally, after a lot of digging through drawers and closets, I realized that we all had a short-sleeve T-shirt or polo shirt that is approximately baby blue. Nevermind the fact that DS's baby blue shirt is a hand-me-down complete with hand-me-down stains. We hoped decided that they would be faint enough to escape notice by the camera. Fingers crossed!

After all that scrambling, our sitting went even better than we dared hope and in a few weeks we'll be all set to pick up our packet of priceless keepsakes. After getting some wonderful group shots, the photographer took an adorable shot of just the kids standing back-to-back and grinning over their shoulders at one another. So cute! And my hubby and I had our first portrait of just the two of us since, well, our wedding nearly 18 years ago!! We are over-the-moon thrilled with how everything turned out and can't wait to share them with our extended family.

And now I'd like to share a project for the Flashback Friday 12.0 challenge. Kathleen, of the Daisy Chain, is the guest designer for this go-round, and she is challenging everyone to re-post her very first card using summer colors. Going all the way back to May 2009, I have this note card set to share:

I wish I would have ditched the flash for this photo, but otherwise I'm still pretty happy with these, even through the lens of time and experience. Simple but cute, fun patterns, graphic sentiments. I could totally use that layout again--in fact, perhaps I will very soon!!

Thanks to Amy and Kathleen for the opportunity for this trip down memory lane!!

Thanks for dropping by. Have a day filled with bliss!
Emily