A Few Rays

We got a couple small peaks of sun in Portland this last week. And while they were fleeting, I could almost imagine the possibility of Spring... which, in true Camp Comfort form, the changing of seasons makes me wonder "What will I wear this Spring?"... In a lovely dream-world I think I will be wearing lots and lots of Wren.



Not to mention those cute multi-colored espadrilles... Does anyone know a good source for espadrilles? Read More.. Read More..

New domain...

I'm in the process of changing my photography website and my photography blog. I want to have one site that reads like a blog, but navigates with tabs like a regular website. I would also love to have a slideshow in the header. That would be super cool. Can you tell I have no idea what I am doing? I looked into getting some professional help with this and it would cost from a couple hundred to close to a thousand dollars. Being the cheap skate that I am, I will be attempting this transition solo. Any advice or tips?

For now, my photography blog will be at the longest URL known to web-kind: alysunpetersphotography.blogspot.com. I will post my latest photography sessions there and any news pertaining to my business. The blog previously read "paradisephotography" and I'm ditching that name. Although I still think of a captured moment of beauty as paradise, it was too hard to convey the thought to others. My name is descriptive enough and won't limit the subject matter that I shoot.

This is a photo from a session I did on Saturday with a friend's newborn. I wanted to practice photographing a newborn other than my own. My friend was willing to share sweet little Ella for some pictures. She is 11 days old! I love this photo. I could stare at it all day. Newborns are so beautiful and it makes me want to have 20 more babies. Or I could just photograph other people's babies and eventually sleep all night long. That would be awesome too.

I've been busy enough with sessions. I'm happy with 2 - 4 a month, which isn't a lot by professional standards, but keeps me satisfied creatively without overwhelming my family life. I have 1 wedding in my queue for spring and I'm really excited. It is the wedding of my cousin, Phil to his fiance, Melanie. Weddings are the "big time." Whew. It's a big responsibility. I photographed one wedding before Christmas. While it was a huge challenge (should not attempt with a 3 week old nursing baby), I enjoyed it. I would love to do more in the future, but for now I will practice on my   family. :)

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How I'd Wear It: Mette of Ungtblod

I am so excited to share with you our next guest blogger in the "How I'd Wear It" series... Mette of Ungtblod is one of my favorite fashionable bloggers (with adorable baby, doggy, and apartment to boot). Here's Mette's outfit


Acne Jeans ($269), James Perse Shirt ($195), Eley Kishimoto Helmet (to match her favorite Cons of course!), Acne Trench ($396), Sway Necklace, Eley Kishimoto Converse, Happy Socks ($10).

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend - More next week! xo Read More.. Read More..

Total Hair Genius!

Despite wanting to have long hair, I prefer to wear my hair back and off my face. I have fully embraced the top-knot (sans bangs for once) - The look is sexy and non-fussy. That being said, having your hair pulled back everyday can get a bit boring.


But wait! I was reenergized today seeing these photos of artist Francesca DiMattio via Refinery29.... I mean, look at those braids! She even has a scarf laced into her braids - The genius of it all! Of course, I am sure I could not figure out how to do this on my own hair!

Here's what she said regarding her hair:
R29:
"We know you really never like to wear your hair down. How exactly do you achieve that tricky braided look? "
FD:
"I change it slightly every year or so but now it is made by making two French braids starting in the back, inter-weaving colored scarves, and then pinning the ends with bobby-pins. I am working on a tangled silk scarf turban but haven't perfected it yet."

The rosy cheeks and red lips are also lovely... Alyson recently helped me locate the perfect shade of red lipstick, but so far I have just worn it at night. Not sure I could pull it off during the day - what do you think? Red lipstick for day?

(images via Refinery29) Read More.. Read More..

I am in love with two men

... on the next Maury Show.

I fell in love with the first man nearly a decade ago. He still makes my heart go a-flutter. I love him 45,000 times more than I thought possible. He is the father of my precious children. He is everything I hoped for, dreamed of, and more. Sexy, smart, a good kisser. What more could a girl want?

Two timing a great guy like that seems impossible. But then came the second man.

Second man? "Man" might be stretching it a bit much. Little man. Small baby. Whatever. I love him to pieces too. Just look at those hunka-hunka-burning love legs.

*First man declined the photo request of his less chunky legs. This is a family show. He has his limits*

I've never seen a cankle look more beautiful.

* Cankle is derived smooshing the calf and ankle together. Hence, ca-nkle. It isn't always so attractive. Like when I was sporting them at 9 and a half months pregnant.*

There is no cure. I am hopelessly in love.

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How I'd Wear It: Stephanie of Dores

Next up in our "How I'd Wear It" series is the ever-so-lovely Stephanie of Dores... Stephanie is a jack of many trades: Jewelry maker, fantastic vintage clothes slinger and style blogger. This girl can put together some lovely and thoughtful looks.... Here's Stephanie's outfit for An Afternoon of Lunch and Thrifting with Her Husband:


JCrew Panama Hat ($58), James Perse Shirt ($195), JCrew Denim Shirt ($128), Anthropologie Leggings ($28), Uniqlo Scarf, Vans KVD ($40), Urban Outfitters Bag ($68). Read More.. Read More..

How I'd Wear It: Cecilie of Bakerby

First up in our "How I'd Wear It" series is Cecilie of the blog Bakerby. Cecilie has totally adorable style, making Bakerby one of my favorite new blogs of 2009.... And this lucky girl works for A.P.C. (Yes, I wish I had that discount too)....


James Perse Shirt ($195), Fedora ($49), YMC Jacket ($158), APC Shoulder Bag, APC Purse, APC Jeans ($165), Chloe Ankle Boots. Read More.. Read More..

Bright Spot

A bit of color goes a long way during the dead of Winter...


Echo Scarf ($54) available at Bird Read More.. Read More..

Window Bulletin Board - tutorial

I saw a great idea a while ago. Fabulous idea. Someone took an old french door, popped the glass out, and put cork board in the panes for a great looking bulletin board.

I don't have an old french door, but I do have wood frame windows that we (meaning my handy husband) took out of our house, circa 1939. Vinyl windows don't have the charm, but I love vinyl because I can't feel the wind whistle through them and they don't collect mold and condensation. My husband was going to throw out the wood windows and I cried out! I knew I could come up with something to do with them.


You can see the potential, right?

The windows were piled behind the garage and were so gross and moldy. It was pouring down rain when I quickly snatched one from the pile. I brought it in and me and the girls scrubbed it clean. Then, I busted the glass out. That was super fun. This process made a huge mess, but I had it cleaned up by noon when Jeff came in for lunch and said, "What have you guys been up to this morning." I explained my idea and he gave me one of his I-adore-you-so-I-will-humor-your-nutty-idea looks.

After a good sanding, the frame was ready for primer. I like Kilz. Especially since there were spots that still held a tinge of green from the mold. Kilz covers anything.

Emma loves, love, loves to paint. I rather grudgingly let her help me. Doing crafts with kids required more patience than I wanted to extend, but I let her help. She said, "Thanks for letting me help you, mom." She is always so quiet and doesn't share her thoughts often. It's moments like these that I realize that I am shaping my child's memories. Emma will remember that I let her paint. Not that I made her watch because I wanted it to be perfect.

I had a hard time deciding what color to paint my window bulletin board. I knew I wanted to put it in my white and blue kitchen. White would be logical, but kinda boring. I have a great dark blue paint that I could have used. Or I had this red that makes my soul sing. I went with red. It is usually best to go with the way your soul is leaning.

I put on 3 coats of red and then did a bit of distressing with black. I had NO idea what I was doing as I smeared black paint on and then waited 4 and a half seconds and then wiped it off. I just wanted it took look less freshly painted and more worn. My husband came to see my progress and gave me a I-adore-you-so-I-will-humor-your-nutty-ideas look. I love that man. Mr. Practical can't fathom why I would distress something I just freshly painted.

When I was done painting and "distressing," I was ready to assemble my bulletin board. I bought cork board at Staples in 12" square sheets. They were 4 for $5 on sale. I shopped around for the best deal, but often the bulletin boards were the wrong size to get enough rectangles for my project.

I cut out the size I needed. Or rather, I had my scissors cut out the size I needed. What a dumb picture. When I saw this picture, I laughed. Seriously, do you have scissors that work without any help? Please never underestimate how difficult it is to take pictures for a tutorial. If someone knows of a tutorial on taking tutorial photographs, please leave me the link. I obviously need some guidance.

I used good old elmer's glue and added the cork board to the back side of the window.

It was a little flimsier than I wanted, so I added card board to the back of the cork.

I'm feeling so "green" right about now. Recycled window, recycled cork, recycled cardboard ... from a box of disposable diapers. And there is where my "green" train fall off the tracks.

The books smooshed flat the cork/cardboard sandwich.

I let it dry for a bit and then checked out my creation.

Ooh, I like. The wreath needs to go. It has been hanging in that exact spot for nearly 8 years. I didn't realize it was screaming "1992" until I saw this picture. But I like the bulletin board. And I love the red.

A quick craft project was to glue buttons to plain ol' thumb tacks. I put my children's names in three of the window panes to hold reminders specific to them. The top left area is for reminders of events and invitations. We're looking forward to my cousin Phil's wedding in April. I was privileged to design the invitation.

I'm glad it's done. It wasn't the fastest or easiest project, but I think it will be really practical for organizing as well as snazzy. Need a window to do one yourself? I have stash I am willing to share. :)

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How I'd Wear It, Part II

Happy Monday!

Today we are diving into our 2nd "How I'd Wear It" Series here at Camp Comfort! I am so excited to show you the outfits that some of my favorite bloggers have put together with this James Perse Oversized Shirt Dress ($195):


To start things off, here is my outfit for A Casual Day At Work:


James Perse Shirt ($195), Gap Scarf ($24.50), Gap Anorak ($79.50), Marc by Marc Jacobs Bag ($188), F21 Leggings ($12.90), Nike Blazers ($85).

Check back tomorrow for more! Read More.. Read More..

Defining me

I am a wife. I am a mother. It is who I am. There was a day when I was not defined by these roles. Or these rolls either. Get it? Roles. Rolls.

Life was simpler and more like a Wheat Thin as compared to the rich complexities of a 12 layer chocolate cake of my current life.

A couple friends have recently posted about defining moments in their lives. I think I will too. Kind of like those cheesy email surveys you are supposed to send to 20 friends. "Which one of your friends will complete this first?" I find myself completing them each time they come around. For the record I am wearing a yellow sweater and my favorite food is spaghetti with angel hair noodles. Make sense out of that one.

A few years ago my grandma gave me an envelope full of pictures from my childhood. I had time to kill (this was obviously more than 5 years back) and I made a scrapbook. Behold the magic of Creative Memories. I took pictures of the scrapbook to highlight some of my somewhat and mostly shallow defining moments.

Childhood:

(good luck reading any of the captions. My computer's camera reversed the images. You could hold your computer screen up to a mirror to read them. Or you could come over and I would gladly show you my AWESOME scrapbook. Just please don't tell anyone I claim to be a photographer.)

Barbies, Barbies, and more Barbies, and one Ken

my sister as my favorite playmate

a super pink room, including the carpet (thanks dad)

books about missionaries because I was going to be one someday

homeschool friends and friends from church

bangs that started at the middle of my head

The Teen Years:

Pillazo pants

my first airplane ride and the beginning of an unquenchable desire for travel

homeschool, correspondence school, public school, and private school

playing piano in church and singing in the choir

PCCC, the CA camp where I worked during the summers

Dr. Pepper and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

growing out the bangs that started at the middle of my head. we've had a sketchy relationship ever since, bangs and me

The College Days:

finally some tall friends, amazing and wonderful too

oversized sweaters and faded blue jeans

mostly harmless practical jokes

Dr. Pepper and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

While You Were Sleeping

first boyfriend

20 extra pounds because of always asking for extra gravy from the cute cafeteria guy (who was not my first boyfriend)

The VW Rabbit that could actually hop

Getting Married, the pre-child years:

learning twitterpated is fun, but committed love is better

a home to decorate

dilutionally thinking I could have all-white anything while living on the farm

trading up to a VW Jetta

living the DINK life (double-income-no-kids)

sleeping in and snuggling

Africa

learning what love really means

Mommyhood:

throwing up in every bathroom in the Magic Kingdom. throwing up in general = pregnancy

"If any of you lacks wisdom..." (James 1:10) as my life's theme

gaining weight, losing weight, gaining weight, losing weight, gaining weight, and still trying to lose weight

Hooter Hider

sleep deprivation

family vacations

thinking my kids are so fantastic, and cute, and funny

finally something to take pictures of and loving it

the best days of my life

Read More.. Read More..

Ask Camp Comfort: Baggy Sweatshirt

OK, I have been majorly slacking on Ask Camp Comfort lately... Apologies to all the readers that have written in to no avail!

In a attempt to do some catching-up, I stumbled across Isabella's Ask Camp Comfort inquiry (from November!)... Isabella was looking for outfitting tips for her new T by Alexander Wang Baggy Sweatshirt. You know I am a huge fan of stripes, so this laid back style is right up my alley!


Here we are cozy-ing-up the sweatshirt with warm layers. I think my favorite part of this outfit is that it just ever-so-slightly does not match... brilliant :)

T by Alexander Wang Sweatshirt ($118), J Brand Skinny ($160), Creature Comforts Sweater ($74.99), Pendleton Dopp Bag ($48), Barbour Socks, Palladium Boots ($55). Read More.. Read More..

Projectile smiles

Claim to fame: I do at least one laundry load a week that consists of burp cloths only. I've found that flannel receiving blankets work the best for catching the ever flowing stream of spit up from our baby's mouth. I have at least 20.

We have a puky, puky baby. He is such a sweet little guy. Really. Truly. The happiest baby you'll ever meet. He'll grin and turn your heart to mush and then spew breast milk all over you.

Check out this clip from the movie, Four Christmases. It's about a couple without children who endure 4 sets of odd relatives over the holidays. This made me laugh out loud. And reminded me of some pretty unpleasant personal experiences with projectile vomiting. Jeff could stand in as Vince Vaghn in this scene.

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A Ring Perfected

Hold the phone! How perfect is this gold triangle ring??? Seriously!

(Available at Diament Designs via Katey) Read More.. Read More..

Decorating Meddler Strikes: Jill's Office

I know Jill as a fellow hard working mom from our MOPS group. We were on the steering team together last year. She grew up with my husband in church, so it is fun to connect after all these years. I've been to Jill's house and thought, "Wow, she has great style." Jill knows what she likes and doesn't like, is working with a budget, has a bit more creativity than the average, and enjoys reading/seeing other people's decorating styles and skills. I feel privileged that she would ask my opinion. Seriously, I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to decorating. But I love it and am glad to help if I can.

Here is what she wrote....

• This is the current state of the 'home office'. We have moved our office to our shop (yippee!) and that leaves me with this old master bedroom, office, wanna-be giant den/craftroom at my disposal.
• I loved the wall color, but it is very dark, and the room has only one window - thus I complain ALL the time about the dark hole I get to work in. I would love to lighten it up, but I still like color. I may want to leave the dark brown trim around the room for texture and depth, but I would paint it, I think.
• I love the style of The Lettered Cottage, and I was hoping to incorporate some used furniture pieces for a desk; mixing light colors with dark wood? I have a bunch of old whitewashed fence boards that I thought would be fun to build a desk out of, but I have no idea how that would turn out. I have also fallen keen to the idea of having a desk be kitchen counter height; I could either stand and work at the desk, or sit in a tall chair. A big corner desk would be fun, but I don't like staring at a wall when I work, but I don't like a desk jutting out into the room either (been there, done that).
• I'm thinking I would like various plain shelves on the wall where the chalk board is; different depths and sizes. The lights are such a hideous excuse for ambience - but what to do differently?
• I love baskets, warm colors, and anything with a 'twist'. I would love to change out the dark green carpet, but it is glued down, and so is my floor trim.

I love that Jill said, "fallen keen to the idea," and "hideous excuse for ambience." Don't we want this fun person to have an amazing home office?

(this is the before picture when the room was still the office for their business)

(this is the office currently. Hey there, cutie-pie Owen playing in Mommy's things. Jill has 3 girls and 1 boy. They are gorgeous kids.)

After reading Jill's note, I was inspired. There are so many great office ideas out there:

This bulletin board idea is really great. It is from Better Homes and Gardens. They put cork-board, covered in linen into regular frames. I was inspired and began a project involving a six-paned wood window that would function as a bulletin board. It is ALMOST done. I promise pictures to come.

Jill mentioned she likes tall, kitchen counter height tables. I like this one from Country Living. The metal stools are great too.

I like the wire baskets used here, hooked to the wall and on the desk.

I set about virtually decorating the space. It's free! I did try to incorporate things that would be easy enough to build or replicate on a budget.

So here is Jill's office again:

And here is my after:

• paint the bottoms of the walls a creamy, very pale yellow. The tops, a darker shade with white chair rail in between. I would paint all the moldings in the room white.
• Put the desk centered between the "hideous excuse for ambience" light fixtures.
• Change the fixtures to bigger ones in antiqued bronze.
• Make a bulletin board out of 2 old windows or a french door on its side and center it above the desk. The scale will be big and fill the wall.
• The desk is from Pottery barn. It is on sale right now for $949. What a steal. I imagine Jill and her crafty husband could come up with something similar for nearly free if they used existing lumber.
• The rug is a real steal from Overstock.com for less than $150 for an 8x10'. It is indoor/outdoor and will function as a fantastic color piece as well disguise the floor. Dark colored carpets are hard to keep looking clean, so I think a large area rug would be very practical.
• The chair is red leather and I liked it. It isn't terribly affordable at $300 for 2 at Overstock, but a painted red chair would work too.
• I also took the shelves from Pottery Barn. I can't help it. I love that place. They have mastered a warm, homey look. Mastered it! The book cases are $799 each. Jill is crafty, I'm sure she can whip out a welder and create the same look with some iron and her distressed fence boards.

As far as the rest of the room, I think there would be space for some more shelves and a small table and chairs for her creative children. So, what do you think? Do you have any more ideas to make Jill's office workable and welcoming?

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