Holiday Card STYLE! Sat. November 28, 2009 shop style
**TAKE 20% OFF AT CHECKOUT BY USING THE CODE: mondayfunday**
Holiday Card STYLE templates are here! Four bright, modern, and fun designs to spice up your mailbox this holiday season! Designed specially for Jessica Claire by I Love Lollipops, these templates will make your photos pop! Use them for your clients, your friends, or even yourself!
The templates are fully editable to change the colors of ALL layers as well as text. Photoshop 7.0 users and later will be able to use the templates.
Totally Rad Action Sale: Till MIDNIGHT only! Fri. November 27, 2009 gossip
It's that time of year--the biggest shopping day! In addition to the killer SHOOTSAC sale happening right now (a MUST see if you want to grab a bag as a gift, for yourself, or just to stock up on covers), our friends at Totally Rad Actions are having an actions blowout! Click the banner below to grab a set with a nifty little discount, in honor of Turkey Day (not to mention shopping day!!) This sale is ONE DAY ONLY, TODAY, BLACK FRIDAY!! Save at least $30 off everything on their cart. Check them out now to see some samples and then go buy them!
Here are a few before/afters to whet your appetite:
Process: Lux Soft, Warm It Up Kris, A Better Web Sharpen:
Process: Boutwell Magic Glasses, Claire-ify, A Better Web Sharpen
Process: Boutwell Not So Magic Glasses, Grandma's Tap Shoes (20%), Lux Soft, Cool as a Cucumber (13%)
If you're thinking about picking these up, DO IT! The dirty pictures textures are $30 off and the actions are $40 off--that's about the lowest I've ever (or probably WILL ever see them, so get them and get them NOW!
An Engagement Session in 14 Minutes Wed. November 25, 2009 will you
When superstar wedding coordinator (my wedding coordinator) Angel Swanson of Love and Splendor asked me if I would be able to do holiday photos of her and her husband Erik, I was flattered, and a little nervous. Angel & Erik have been shot by some of the best: Amelia, Jasmine, and Nate & Jaclyn (twice). So I had an impressive roster of photographers to live up to.
We settled on the shoot being here in Orange County yesterday, and since it is getting dark so early these days, we would have limited time to shoot. Meaning, we'd only have an hour and a half or so, in which I would create these beautiful, Anthropologie-style photos that they would treasure and have from this year.
But, as fate would have it, there was a terrible accident, which caused Angel & Erik to be trapped in their car on the way down here for well over two hours. When they arrived, we scrapped the original location and headed to the hills of my neighborhood, Ladera Ranch, chasing the sun as it slipped behind the horizon. I knew that we had limited time to shoot, so we worked FAST!!
This shot was taken at 4:38pm:
And this last shot was taken at 4:52pm, 14 minutes later:
Here is what happened in between.
It was a rush of laughing, walking, and kissing :)
With a little sweetness:
And a little silliness:
And a bow:
And a favorite:
Not to mention some beauty:
A lovely moment:
Don't forget kindness:
And it wouldn't be fun without a little attitude:
Some teasing:
A dash of looking really really good:
At the end...relaxation:
And holiday cheer:
Angel and Erik--thank you for the most lovely 14 minute shoot. I'd say it looks like we shot for at least 30 minutes!
shop STYLE coming soon! Wed. November 25, 2009 shop style
shop jessica claire STYLE is coming soon! here you'll be able to find all kinds of cute, fun, modern things for your business, your shape, and your home!
The first annual Thanksgiving Debacle Tue. November 24, 2009 my life
In my family, Thanksgiving is the big holiday. It's the one we all go home for, and is my favorite holiday. There's no pressure, no huge gift-giving expenses, and usually relatively little drama.
Now that I'm married though, we decide what we're doing for the holidays together, and this year, having just had our wedding and honeymoon, we decided not to travel for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. So this year, we opted to stay here in California for Thanksgiving and make a go of it ourselves!
Fun fact about Jeff and I: We LOVE to have people over and to throw parties of all kinds. We picked this house based on its large downstairs living space, which was hard to find because usually houses with big downstairs areas have lots of bedrooms which we really don't need. This house has my gallery space instead of bedrooms, which is just fine by us.
In any case, we decided to try our hand at throwing a little pre-thanksgiving feast for some friends! Of course this meant that I needed to figure something out for decorations, which just isn't my strong suit. I try hard to make things look cute, but I never really know what to do. Thanks to hours searching Etsy, however, I was able to make a cute little spread here at home!
So...welcome!
Buying the hanging poms off Etsy was SUCH a good decision! I knew from Candice & Chenin that making these things is a huge PITA, and since I spent all last week in Mexico, I wasn't going to have time to take on a project like that. I got poms from two Etsy shops, this one and this one. They came flat and all I had to do was unfurl the layers--piece of cake!
The theme of this room is navy and orange anyway, so a few little pumpkins made it look festive:
I did not do much with Jeff's "man room", but look how cute it is coming out! I'm still working on it, but I do think it looks cool so far:
Here are more of the poms at the entrance to the living room. This is my favorite room because I love the nice light that comes in! That, and the worlds' largest sofa, which is perfect for entertaining but is kind of hilarious when it's just Jeff and I:
Speaking of Jeff, he got a chance to kick up and watch a little football earlier in the day:
Isn't he cute? Sorry, you can't find these on Etsy:
I got these really cute pumpkins at the store called Tiger pumpkins--that's what that odd one on the left is. The white one is actually a knitted pumpkin from Etsy seller Willow Creek Sparrow. The yellow pillow is, of course, from Anthropologie:
I love how our mantel is looking except for two things:
1. The frames are cute but blank because I am awful about framing our personal photos and
2. I bought all new stuff today to decorate for Christmas. So this is all relocating to another room for the holiday season:
Those silver pumpkins are from Home Goods.
This cute little banner is from, where else, Etsy also! You can find it here: Elle Esse Designs:
When I decided to host Thanksgiving, I had NO clue what to decorate with. Jasmine said, "Just get a Cornucopia and you're good to go!" I looked at her like she was nuts, but decided to do one anyway. Of course I had no clue what actually goes in one, so mine is an assortment of fake leaves, gourds, crabapples, and persimmon. And some weird pumpkin-like green thing that you can see off to the right there:
Jeff and I made the Turkeys (3 15lb Turkeys!!!) and gravy, and everyone else brought side dishes. Everything was AMAZING, I can't single out a favorite, but Chenin's homemade pies were pretty insane.
Of course, like all get-togethers here in Ladera, the evening ended with some gambling. In this case, a rousing game of tournament style Jenga for cash. This photo was shot by Tony (thanks tony!):
In any case, I was thrilled with how the whole party came out! In fact, it felt so much like Thanksgiving that I started my Christmas shopping today. I think I am single-handedly keeping Target and Home Goods in business.
Anyway, thanks for visiting my place!
I have some big things in the works, so get on the mailing list NOW so you won't be left out in the cold! I will be emailing this list FIRST when announcing all new things such as workshops, new Jessica Claire STYLE items, and others. Trust me, you do not want to be left out. Make sure to confirm the email you'll receive to your inbox once you sign up!
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