Camille up-close

Camille invited me to some photography event in LA. It ended up being a little smaller than expected and we were done within a few minutes... but we were glad to learn that sony had cameras there for a try-out. Of course we took the opportunity and just took pictures of ourselves and a few things around.
And while I'm not sure if she'd approve, I will just publish my favorite close ups of this my beautiful friend.
Thanks Camille for the belly-laughes, the support of my english accent (sometiems i try, and yes, i totally suck at it!!), and for sharing food truck snacks and for taking pictures of me, and for making me feel special and for just talking and talking and talking. I'm pretty sure I had a sore throat the day after. xoxo.

AND FIRST OFF, two pics camille took of me that i love. I love the unbrushed hair and the fact that indeed those were candits (i was trying to figure out the camera hahaha).

And here, the camille aka cammamille.

last but not least, a selfie. Life wouldn't be complete without those ackward, self-focused non-sense pictures.

drummrollll

Drumroll please: At 15 months, Gwen finally cut her first tooth. FIRST!! ;) The second one is right there too. 

Now she might even decide to walk too. hahaha. I love my late bloomer.

Living Room part two

When we bought our home, we knew that we wanted to make some sort of a built in in our living room. We bought a place we knew was a little tide for two adults, three children and a dog. But we also wanted to buy within our budget and in a safe neighborhood (in california, where everything is expensive), so we felt right about buying a home that's just 1028 sqft.

We have three bedrooms: one for us, one for the boys to share, and one for gwen.
We have ONE bathroom. I know, right? Kind of unheard of around here, but you know what, it totally works.

Here is what the built in needed to be:
-storage
-office (since i edit pictures very often and we did not have an office anymore and our bedroom is too small to have both, a bedroom and an office in one.
-storage for my photography equipment
-pretty
-we wanted it floating (not touching the ground)
-i "needed" the tv haning up on the wall, cables hidden behind the wall (just looks soo much nicer that way)
-white. yes, i LOVE white furniture. i know i'm strange. but i love it. did i mention, that i LOVE white furniture. maybe not yet? ;)

I think we made it work, thanks to my super-duper-handy-husband.

We opted in making the built in from scratch, but since we are too busy right now, this would not have happened for a year or so, and i'm not patient. We ended up buying the cabinets from Ikea (the besta series)

The "desk" one we had to make custom, both in length and in hight. But for my husband, no problem. (Sorry I'm being such a show off, but he really outdid himself once again and I'm just so greatful for how much work he puts into projects. This is not intended in making others feel less, but he's done so much, I felt that he deserves another official praise! ;)

Anyway, here the pics of our project.

In order to make it float and be stable, we attached a two by two wood strip to rest the cabinets on. 

Markus screwed on some wood to attach the cabinet to the studs.

Oh, and yes, this is our new dog, Krissy. We rescued her from a shelter. She's a miniture pintcher and still needs some training, but all in all, she is very nice and learns well. And she's soo cute, right?

Slightly scared still, this was the first or second day we've had her, so she was still a bit sceptical ;)

That's the "office" part, that we had to shorten to fit... 

Now I have enough space for my photography equipment and all the office stuff that goes with it.

it's floating above the ground, i think about 6 inches or so.

Aaaahhh, finally a haning TV and no cables exposed on the wall. still a little mess inside the cabinet, but not much of it is visable ;)

I'm so happy we did it. Happy most of our stuff now fits in our home. Happy it looks nice. Happy it's white and light. The only thing we might still change is the artwork. but for now we just hang up whatever we already had. ;)

Introducing our Girl, Gwendolyn

Today Gwen is already 4 days old!
I can't believe how much our life has changed this week. Labor and delivery was no piece of cake. My blood-pressure kept dropping and poor baby Gwen had her share of hardships with her heart-rate dropping. (They almost had to put us through an emergency c-section. I was scared out of my mind, not for the c-section, but for the health of our baby girl.)
In the end, she had the cord wrapped around her neck and was laying strange, so my  body kept pinching off her blood supply at the cord... I am so happy everything turned out good and that Gwen turned a regular color after she was purple at birth ;)

Here we are, with the probably cutest girl I've ever seen (no, I'm not biased ;))
As for now, just a few close ups, I was not planning a shoot and did not set up anything, so maybe next time i'll get some whole body shots.

Crazy fact: Her belly button fell off today during the cloths change. She's got a little birthmark on her nose... and yes, she pulls it off! ;)
Crazy prediction: I think she will have brown eyes. (They look like Max's looked at birth) and with any luck, she'll have red hair. It's hard to tell right now cause she pretty much has no hair at all ;)

We are thankful for a healthy girl and that our adorable boys lover her almost as much as we do. Max insists in holding her all the time and was confused when I made a trip downstairs to refill my water and no Gwen was with me.

One week to go - baby bump

It's been some time since I last posted. Not for no reason though.
In case you did not know, I'm one week away from the due date for my third baby... that would maybe explain why I have not been taking on any shoots for a while ;)

We are so excited to welcome another baby into our family, our little girl, after already having two awesome little guys!

Today I just felt like it was about time for a shoot, before it's too late. Normally I like to shoot pregnant women around 34 - 36 weeks (the latest), but of course mine was at 39 weeks. Normally I would love my family to be part of it, but we did it all without any preparation and I did not have time to get myself and the rest of the family ready within 30 minutes. (That's as long as it took to get ready and choose what to wear, but believe me, more time would not have made me look better, I tend to ruin things when I try to do it too perfect - strange, I know!)

Of course it was raining on top of everything... but you know what, I'm so glad it did, the clouds and dusky feel is special around here in SoCal!

Camille and I have worked together before, she's still in the beginning of her career as a photographer and was so kind enough to run over, without ANY notice and she even let me BOSS her around on how I thought I wanted the pictures. I'm so happy with how the pictures turned out, thanks Camille, you did awesome!!
I love to edit my own pictures because it gives me the freedom to express my thought on how the pictures should look. Everyone edits so very differently, there is no "right and wrong", just preference (well, sometimes people do ruin pics by editing, but then again, they might think that's what i'm doing too hahaha.)

Come back in a few weeks and you should be able to see our little baby girl here! ;) I can't wait to meet our baby Gwen!

xoxo, Lydia

 

Max is going to be in Tiny Tots

Of course I have to take pictures before this very exciting, new chapter for Max. He will start Tiny Tots next month and is really excited for "School".

And I can't believe how big he is getting!

I absolutely love this one of him.

And this is how I imagine him actually sitting / chilling at School ;)

Of course Sebi wanted to be part of this small shoot too.

This is so typical for him.. 

And here he's super cheesy smile. I love it. He totally laughs through his teeth when he sees my camera! ;)

Happy new School year to everyone!