Storybook Photo Session

Nowadays it seems that every family gets new pictures taken for their Christmas cards, but sometimes it all seems like such a rush during the BUSIEST season. My friend and VERY talented photographer, Rennai Hoefer of Ten 22 Studio, came up with a GENIUS idea...Do family photo shoots centered around the theme of a favorite bedtime book for your family!

It's such a creative idea, and a great way to personalize your photo session so that you don't always have the same family photo every year. She asked me to be her first client for this new concept, and it didn't take but a second to tell her that Elle's favorite book was I had a Favorite Dress by Boni Ashburn.

It's about a girl who had this very favorite dress, but as she grew her mom had to alter it from a dress to a top to a skirt to a hair bow to simply a picture because of her size or because her dog chewed it up.

To see the full story unfold, visit Rennai's blog. Elle and I had so much fun modeling, but I sadly can't sew. I have a sewing machine, but I don't know the first thing about using it. haha. I had my friend Meghan Green from A Purposed Life create different variations of the dress using a $4.99 dress from Walmart.

First of all she took this plane Jane dress up a notch by adding tule and flutter sleeves, and then she did an amazing job taking it apart into the different stages.

Acting out a book makes you think outside the box to achieve such a specific idea, and it really made my time with Elle special when it all came together. I especially treasure these photos of us because they not only show our love for each other, but they capture us spending time together in a way we often do: reading books, playing dress up, eating snacks and watching her play outside.

To book a session visit, Rennai's website.

Photos by Rennai Hoefer, Ten 22 Studio Fashion design by Meghan Green, A Purposed Life Modeling by Elle Evjen and Alex Evjen

Front Door Makeover

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Earlier this week I shared with your our backyard makeover, and now I'm going to share with you our front door makeover. When we first bought our bank owned property our front door had a security gate on it, which wasn't attractive at all. Also, our front door wasn't even a REAL front door. It was an interior door that had been kicked in at some point in time (oh yeah, baby).

The front yard looked like old people lived there with randomly placed bushes and pale green paint to "match." Oh, that paint! The red brick with the green color just made me cringe.

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So, we changed the exterior of the home by painting it gray, and adding a pop of color with a "grellow" front door. We bought a door light kit on Crestviewdoors.com and then we purchased a solid wood door from Home Depot. With the help of my father-in-law we were able to install the light kit and add some shiny new hardware to make our home look more modern.

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I highly recommend door light kits over buying some expensive new door. It doesn't take more than a half a day's work to create a statement for your home. Not to mention, the inside of our house is filled with so much more light.

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Now we just need to do some more landscaping to make the front have more curb appeal.

Photos of the new exterior by Gina Meola.

Backyard Remodel

Ryan and I bought our home in 2011. It was a bank owned property that had been neglected for almost a year. We didn't have too much money, and we couldn't afford a move-in-ready home in the middle of the city, so we bought a little ranch fixer upper, and when I say fixer upper I REALLY mean it too.

It had what you would call "good bones," but it desperately needed some TLC as you can see. The whole backyard was a mess of dead oleanders leading to an alleyway for the trash. Our view was less than stellar to put it nicely.

So, more than giving our house some extra curb appeal, we decided to remodel our backyard.

We hired a landscape architect to draft some plans for us. I HIGHLY recommend talking with a professional. We chose plants that weren't water suckers, we put in a drip system, we re-graded the yard, built a new block wall, added a pergola, and resurfaced and extended the patio. We also put in a new gate separating a grassy area and pool area to make it safe for Elle to run around outside.

It was so worth the investment because we're able to enjoy the outdoors so much more! Just anticipate the process of overhauling your yard to last two months or so. Eep!

I'll be sharing more before and afters or our home in a couple days. Wait until you see the front and inside of our house...Let's just say our front door used to be a kicked in door from the inside of the house. EEK!

Baby Gender Reveal

Three years ago we announced we were having a baby girl with Ryan's favorite food in the world - ice cream (see here). It was a personal and perfect way to tell our friends and family. As we thought about how to reveal the gender of our second child we couldn't think of anything better than ice cream, so we decided to do it the same way again except this time Elle would help us. After all, ice cream is Elle's favorite food in the world too.

We went to Churn for ice cream, and ordered a strawberry cone and a blue vanilla cone (we put blue food coloring in it). Elle was in HEAVEN!

Can you guess which color remained?

We are having a little boy!!! Though Elle's favorite color is pink, she had a lot of fun eating the blue ice cream, and we're so glad she got to be a part of the experience too.

Ryan and I can't wait to experience what it's like to have a little boy. I have ZERO little boy experience, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. haha. Any advice is welcome, and now begins the hunt for fashionable boy clothes...YAY!

Photos by Jay & Jess.

Waterfront Style

There's something about being close to water that makes you feel free and relaxed. I live in a desert, so Tempe Town Lake is as close as I can get without driving several hours to California. When I hear the sound of the water and the wind blowing it makes all of life's stresses melt away.

I went and visited last week to take some fashion photos of my new favorite maxi dress from Bar III. This dress is the perfect shade of green, and it's so comfortable. I feel like it was designed for an elegant night on the waterfront. I accessorized it with lavender wedges from Shoe Dazzle, as well as metallic fringe bag, silver necklace and Tom Ford shades from Alixandra Collections.

Though it will be several months before I get to spend time on the Atlantic Ocean, my stylish time on the lake was enough to satisfy my cravings for the water.

Photos by Liz E. Studio; dress from Macy's; accessories from Alixandra Collections; shoes from Shoe Dazzle.