ava mae

you are a spunky, hilarious, beautiful, kind and wise little girl.  i am proud to be your mama.

five?!  how are you already five?

i love you, sweet girl

our house is on the market so I thought I better take some pictures of our photo wall before we move!

being that I am a photographer, you would assume that I have pictures ALL over the house… not so much.  the shoemakers children go barefoot?

my husband is always trying to print off random photos and sneak them in frames.  unfortunately,  I have commitment issues with displaying pictures around the house.  I always feel like the frames/prints need to be well designed, laid out and perfect.

then, I thought of this great idea!  I (bryan) would build a frame out of our old baseboard, stick some cork on the wall and pin up ALL my favorite pictures.  I would have the freedom to change out pictures whenever they were outdated.

SOOOO….   bryan built me a frame.

fast forward 2 years, 9 months

not one picture has been replaced.  blake was obviously 3 weeks old when I created the wall… “who IS that baby up there mama??”

I love love love the wall and I can’t wait to create something similar in the next house!  maybe the same?  maybe I’ll change it up a little.  we will see!

basic materials:

baseboard

spray glue

insulation board

map pins

lots of prints in different sizes

scrapbook paper

basic directions:

build a frame out of baseboard and nail to wall (4ft x 8ft) – can be any size but this is the standard size for foam board

spray glue the entire area inside the frame

stick the foam board to the wall & hold for a few minutes

pin your pictures to the foam board.  start with 8×10 sporadically spread over the board, next pin up your 5×7′s and lastly, the 4×6′s to fill space.  I used silver map pins that I ordered online at theMapShop.

fill blank spaces with scrapbook paper

TA-DA!

i was interviewed as talent for a new shutterfly product, an all-new custom path for the company’s photo books. i used the product to catalogue a fourth of july trip with our close friends, and found the product to be a wonderful way to combine my professional talent with my personal memories, thus creating a treasured keepsake.

but it wasn’t just me that participated in the shutterfly launch. It was a baldi family event. my oldest son, carson and i spent a few days in san francisco, where we modeled for marketing material and our daughter Ava also participated in an on-site modeling shoot. i was interviewed at length on camera about my “mom” opinion of the books. family photos of which I have taken and also those taken of me were incorporated in the mock-books too.  what an experience it was to see a full-scale marketing campaign come to fruition – and how fun it was to see my little hams posing for the pros… they might have a future in this!

i also now know how it feels to wait for the final product. i was giddy with excitement as I waited the two weeks for the final product to launch on the shutterfly site, bringing to reality those same nerves my clients feel before i send them the photos i take while capturing one of their significant life events.

although i am behind on my own family albums, i encourage you to get a jump-start on yours. never before has a photo-sharing site given complete creative control to its users.

and a little video talking about how awesome the all new custom path is!

and one more

Here are the steps.

The contest closes on Wednesday April 6th at midnight.  The photo with the most “likes” will win a free session with Katie Baldi Photography!  The session can be a newborn, family, senior or engagement!