Oh No! Pink Eye!?!?!

Day Three of Allergic Conjunctivitis... allergy induced pink eye.  



Whoa is me!!!



Oh his sweetness knows no boundaries... See his swollen red eyes?  Since treating a 2 year old with eye drops is nearly impossible, we've gone rogue. 

I'm treating it three ways.  1.)  wiping the crusties off with a paper towel drenched in warm coffee... yep, coffee. It's a remedy I found online a few years ago.  It works and I promise it doesn't burn.  I've tried it myself. 

2.)  Rinsing his eyes with soft contact solution... It's bigger than the prescription bottle eye drops, making it easier to handle and squeeze with a squirmy, ANGRY bebe.  I lay him back shirtless on a folded towel, cross his arms over his chest. I pin his arms down with one arm and hold his forehead with the other hand and either have theHotness stream the solution over/into his eyes or I try to manage it myself.  It's not an exact science... which is nice considering the thrashing and screaming that results from said treatment.  :(  But, of course, it's over in a matter of seconds and the tears stop as quickly as they start.  *whew* 

3.) Our favorite and most non.traumatic treatment!  Hot baths with LOTS of bubble blowing.  I've read that warm compresses are good for pink eye.  Something about the heat kills 'the bugs' aka bacterial that causes it... plus it's soothing to the scratchy, itchy feeling.  At night I can sit and read a book covering one eye at a time with a warm, wet rag... but during the day we take 2 hot baths- one in the morning to loosen the crusties/heat the eye area without turning into an angry bebeBeast (thus making me crave a morning mimosa!) and another before bed when the swelling/goop returns. 

Can you tell which is my favorite remedy?  :)

Plus this pink eye also works hand in hand with a green nose and cough... it's been a brutal allergy season for us and our little nest. 

After.bath necked time... what?  yall don't do that?  Another favorite time of the day...

As a mom, you never know what the next day will bring... or which nights you'll get to sleep without interruption.  But I can say without question, even in the thick of it, there is Beauty in the trenches... Purpose for the weary... Hope on the horizon... and JOY just under the surface.  Don't miss it. 

Peace, love, and boric acid.
xo
lmkw

A real dream come true...

Oh!  Let's talk about Blue Lily, shall we?  *nodding/crazed look*

There are a million ways to tell you how special meeting Tyler and Wendy was... and how amazing it was to be in front of their lens... and how inspiring it was to watch Wendy work... and how special it was to receive the images as interpreted by her... of our little family.

But it's hard to clearly express those sorts of things while I am still in Blue.Lily.Euphoria... I could wait til it wears off- but if I do, about half a dozen of my readers will come for my head.  So, let's just get on with it, shall we? Plus, how much fun is it to upload pictures that I haven't taken and spent time processing myself?  Oh the ease of it... *sigh* 

To meet them, we had to drive over to Texas where they were spending ONE DAY shooting in Houston.  They are based out of California- but each year, they go on world tours... globe trotting around with sessions scheduled along their stops.  So far this year I think they've hit Australia, New Zealand, Japan... I may be missing a place.  So they came through Texas shooting in Houston, Austin, and Dallas... then up through the states to Canada... and now they are flying over to shoot their way through Europe.  *sigh* 

I was so nervous as we rode out to meet them at our location... we were all dolled up.  The boys were prepped with bribes positive encouragement. And I was armed with a sharpie marker and my shootsac in hopes of getting their autographs.  :) 

We started walking towards our location and I saw Tyler first with a family behind him walking towards us... then Wendy and her long red hair fanned out to the back.  It was such a neat feeling seeing them in person like that.  I was a little star.struck.  Immediately, I was struck by their sincerity and warmth.  Tyler greeted me so humbly and immediately got down on his knees to start rough housing with the boys.  It was so unexpected and special... makes me wonder if I greet my MSP children with such warmth and respect?  Then Wendy came towards me with her arms out for a big hug.  There is no way she could have known that I've been following her work since 2007ish... so hugging her neck was so special! 

In an instant, she made me feel like we were old friends... and her only client in the world.  Again, made me wonder if my clients would say the same about me and how I make them feel?  We talked and talked and walked and walked to our location spots... And then the magic happened.  We played.  We laughed.  We ran.  And she took pictures of it all. 

The weather was so odd... gray skies, 50 degrees and windy.  Really windy. 

The boys did great.  We had so much fun.  And she heaped a hundred compliments on my head about our little family as we walked back to the car.  I felt beautiful and special and lucky to be alive.  I felt inspired as a mother, inspired as an artist, and inspired as a woman.  Most of all, I was struck at her spirit of kindness, sincerity, and generosity....

My friends have asked if they "were all that you thought they would be?"  I mean, I regard their work as some of the best in the business... and in my world, they set the bar for honest and thoughtful photography... perfectly imperfect.  So that's a whole lotta pressure riding on a pair of people.  But they were completely what I had hoped for and more.  More warmth and more joy than I was prepared for.  Which of course made me wonder if my clients leave our time together feeling joyful... like something magical just happened...??? 

It was a beautiful moment for me... a dream come true. 

Here are a few images from our session.  I prefer being behind the camera... but it's a treat to have images of me with my handsome manlies. 

See?

*all photos in this blog post are credited to Blue Lily Photography

can't wait to send some images to Spotted Moth, the boutique I got my dress from... such a sweet indie shop.

oh... my boy.joys.

one of my favorites...

I *almost* didn't post this one... but when you mix a short dress and 4" heels into a family photoshoot, you may get a shot like this... precious, yet very very leggy.  Needless to say, this won't be our "above the mantel shot."  Lol

this one is for Erica... ;)

I'm so pleased with how the images turned out.  I can't wait to order our large prints and Organic Bloom frames.  :)  I feel so lucky to have such special images of my little family taken by my photography mentor... i'm over.the.moon about the whole experience.  And of course, it leaves me hoping that my mustard.seed clients feel the same way to some extent when they see my images of their lovies.  It certainly inspires me to be the best for them. 

***Thank you, Marcus, for always listening and noticing the little things that make my world bright.  Meeting Wendy and Tyler and having them document our little family the way that we love means so much to me.  With you, I always feel nothing is out of reach for me... for us... for them.  And that's credit to you and your heart and your never.failing efforts.  I love you. 

I'll share a few more in my next post... :)

Peace, Love, and theBlueLillies...

xo

lmkw

My Space

"Let there be space in your togetherness"

-Kahlil Gibran

Being a woman, I can say that I have trouble managing space... in the terms of:

What is mine. 

What is yours. 

How to give to a marriage and still see the value in maintaining some individuality. 

How to grow a bebe inside my body, allow my body to nurse that bebe into a thriving thing...

feed his mind,

teach Love,

show Love,

create and tirelessly enforce boundaries, facilitate imaginations and dreams

and harness internal motivation to reach as high as you'd like...

Sometimes I throw myself so deeply into these roles that I love so much, that I feel as if I'm dissolving slowly from the the toes up.  Dissolving mostly in a mess.of.happy, mind you- but still losing definition that gives me shape.  My husband loves the me of me... my boys run full force towards the me in me.  They love my generous nature and my tending of them, yes--- but I know they wouldn't trade me in for the comfort I create. 

So being last on my list of priorities, I sometimes lose sight on that age old saying that 'if momma ain't happy, no one is.'  One example of this could me my love affair with mustard.seed.photography.  Gosh.  It slays me how much I love photography... raw, natural, sincere connections we have with the people who matter most in this world.  The deepness, the richness, the magic.  For me to capture that level of connection, I have to feel that level of connection with my work.  I have to have enough of me to invest in each session/relationship/connection to walk away knowing I gave my very best during these magical moments to aptly capture them.  It may seem odd, but it's my method.  I don't know any other way to do things... nor do I want to explore other way.  I'm true to myself and I will only produce work that lights me on fire. 

All of this rambling to say, I've been overlooking the need for me to have my own space to process my work.  You weren't expecting that, were you? 

*This post is all about my office redo... I'm just not good at cutting to the chase of things!*

Before I realized it, mustard.seed.photography went from a little this.might.could.happen dream of mine to a full blown WAHM with a daily grind that has to be met. 

Our family office is a little built in nook that sits between the garage and the boys rooms on one wing of the house.  It's an efficient use of space!  But because it's in a transitional area of the house, it generally houses cleats, fundraising chocolate orders for school, an abandoned dinosaur, a collection of mix.matched socks, endless.we.have.enough.to.decorate.a.large.sports.bar LSU memorabilia from Marcus' football glory days, those store receipts they always give you that you never need/use, and junk mail.  For me to work at my best, I have to empty my cluttered desk, root around to find that scented candle I splurged on, grab my water, and start up my pandora, and hope to muster up enough Calm to allow a little inpiration to flow forth. It has been a soul.sucking routine that I face everytime I sit down to start up my post processing workflow. Between a full time MSP schedule and running my household, I started to resent having to spend so much time in that catch.all.energy.zapping space.  Even the scented candle wasn't cutting it. 

So I decided to define the ME in that area.  Afterall, I'm the only one who really uses it... so I started to transform the family space into MY space.  My MSP space.  I needed a place I could be happy and inspired to be in... I gave myself permission to place this project above monogrammed easter basket liners, new spring wardrobes for the boys, playroom redos, etc.  :) 

I'm a thrifty momma... partly bc I have to be but mostly because I really love to be.  My style generally is an eclectic mix of things I love.  Mostly vintage and repurposed things accented with utilitarian and interesting new things.  With that in mind, I splurged on a few necessary staples and used my eye for spectacular vintage to accent the rest.  And lots of things were actually from other parts of the house that work best in this space... 

Here is the some.what finished product... I've got a few details to fine tune, but otherwise it's a huge shift in the right direction for me. 

The view from the hall entrance...

My little work horse editing desk... I splurged on a honest.to.goodenss Office Chair.  My little vintage favorite wasn't cutting the long hours logged in back here.  I needed a chair designed for this kind of sitting.  :)  But I didn't want an ugly one... so I found this white leather and chrome version on Overstock.com.  It had great reviews.  So I jumped! The woodland wallpaper is left over from our bedroom.  You can find it at Anthropology.

My favorite wall!  The fabric panels are vintage upholstery samples my sister found on one of her vintage romps around California.  She sent them to me and I had them stretched for my old house... they work perfectly here.  Yay!  The grey industrial wall file is a vintage find on Ebay.  It houses my release forms, photopapers, house stuff, and family coupon stuff.  The stool is a vintage find from a prop hunt I took one day.. The calendar is from good ole HobLob.  I snagged it with my 40% off coupon and painted the frame to suit me.  :)

This is a fun concept and collection that I started last year and never finished.  All the frames here are vintage and were bought anywhere from $1 -$5 each.  I have a few special momentos displayed in them... and I'd like to grab some japanese masking tape to display my fugi mini instax pictures, etc.  But for now, they are off of the floor and hung up!  So it's a start!

I'm loving this rug from Crate and Barrel.  It helps define the space and warm it up from the tile floor.  This isn't a big space, so I love how it gives a wall.to.wall feel here in my little nook.  Plus, the ombre colors are so amazing to me... shades of greens to mustard to blues and greys.  Gracious.  5x8 of pure perfection! 

A few detail shots... love these little bird on a wire display clips.

theHotness surprised me with the LoveNest print some time last year as well as the Vintage Mustard Seed Magic basal reader... as an English teacher and vintage lover, he figured it was an ace in the hold.  *And he was right.  ;)  The planter was a vintage find from years and years ago... cute little green clovers around the top and cable knit ribbed details around the side.  <3 

My beautiful white glazed faux bois bowl... I've got a hefty collection of faux bois going that I'm pretty pleased with.  This came from ZGalleries on a Houston Trip and use to be in my bedroom... found new life here! 

I love this card.  My sister Danyelle sent it to me when I was 15 I think?  So that makes it, what?  Nearly 15 years old itself.  :) She always knows just what to say... I keep all of the cards and notes she's sent me through the years.  This card says "I see the big picture.  -God" and it's something I constantly need to be reminded of.

Another print theHotness gifted me with... it's the French translation of my favorite mantra "Choose Joy."  It amazes me how he listens to me and knows me well enough to find such amazing gifts... It needs to find it's permanent home.  But for now, it's taped up in it's sleeve here. 

My beautiful task lamp in tumeric!  I scouted out this beauty from West Elm... the cork tile hidden with little things I need to keep up with.  James made me this heart for Valentines day... he wanted me to be able to look at it while I worked.  He gets it from his daddy.  ;)



This is one of my vintage cameras from my little collection... my sister Danyelle sent it to me from another one of her around town vintage runs.  My house is filled with the most perfect little treasures she's curated for me to have. 
Thanks D!  The cup of clovers are straight out of my backyard... the boys keep it full for me.  I die everytime they walk with their grubby hand outstretched to me with stubby yard flowers they've gathered up for me.  I usually keep it within sight of my computer monitor, but for staging this shot, I set it up there.  ;)



One of my most precious pieces!  It's my date book on top of a gorgeous vintage crochet throw.  The colors slay me... aquas, turquoise, mustard, and camel brown.  It's the most perfect weight and is ultra soft.  One of my dearest friends bought it specifically for this space.... bc she knows I edit late at night with a blanket.  It brings me so much joy!!! 



It's a small space to transform but it's made a huge impact on my WAHM outlook.  It functions better than ever before and I truly enjoy spending time creating my art... even when it's well into the wee hours of the night.  Now days, the scented candle is just a bonus- not a lifeline.  ;) 

Peace, love, and honest.to.goodness ergonomic office chairs,
xo
lmkw