this precious life.

I keep seeing all of these creative and simple ideas for coasters and thought I should just do a round-up:) These make fabulous and inexpensive gifts and with Christmas right around the corner I'm sure we can use all the help we can get when it comes to ideas!  Which is your favorite take on the coaster and which one{s} do you plan to make?! Decoupage Tile Coasters  via Wedding Window Braided Rug Coasters  via Dreams of Frippery Coiled Rope Coasters  via DIY Life Sliced Tree Trunk Coasters  via ehow {source} Scrabble Tile Coasters  via Intimate Weddings Chalkboard Tile Coasters  via Crazy Wonderful Cork Coasters  via How I DIY Recycled Magazine Coasters  via howaboutorange Terra Cotta Coasters  via Joyisathome Wine Cork Coasters  via Heart Made Blog

Materials 1 or 2 long necklaces | 1 3/4 yard of ribbon Take one necklace at a time. Fold in half and grab ends. Layer on top of each other and decide where you want to fasten them together. Cut your length of ribbon in half so you have two equal pieces.  Take one length of ribbon and fold it in half. Grab the folded end of the ribbon and on one end of the necklaces,  loop it under both necklaces at the place you want them fastened together.  Feed your two loose ends over the chains and through the loop of ribbon. Pull until snug and adjust as needed. Repeat for the other end. and tada!! You have a new necklace!! I think this is the first time I have taken the pains to photograph a tutorial with good light and give you eye-candy images-- want to celebrate with me?!! haha oh and this is proof that you can get stunning images with natural light! I *never* use my flash { unless it's a priceless picture that I simply ...

OH MY WORD!!! Check this out!  I was just flipping through my latest issue of Popular Photography {which I really like and find *way* more informative/instructive than Shutterbug} and came across a page devoted to a new kind of camera called the  Lytro camera . Right away I had to jump on  their website  to learn more.  What I found were images taken with Lytro cameras that have been shared-- you can click around the image to see for yourself how these camera's use light field technology to enable you to change your depth of field and focus point *AFTER* you shoot!! so so cool!  Each camera holds an 28-224mm equivalent f/2 lens and comes with either 8GB or 16GB built in memory.  { Read more about how they work here } Oh and I was expecting to see a *huge* price tag on these guys but they are only $399 or $499!  The downside for PC users at this point is that the image manipulating software you would need to go with th...

Finally getting this family's shoot up on the blog!!  They are so wonderful and I've been incredibly blessed to get to know them. Needless to say, I was super excited when they asked if they could schedule a family session! You'll probably recognize two of the girls, Jessica & Kathryn , from this marvelous summer shoot :) But joining them this time around were their parents and two more beautiful sisters, Kelly and Anna!  We chose to meet for their session in a fabulous historic neighborhood downtown. It was one of those places where the first time I saw it I just knew I had to do a photoshoot there!!  So thanks to the Spiars family, I can now check this location off my list!! {Though I'm sure I'll use it again-- it's just *so* pretty!}  It was a nippy late-October morning as we walked around and they were all just super! And I mean that! It's a whole lot easier for me to take pictures in the cold, all bundled up than it is for someone to ...