Chicken Screenprint from CourtneyCourtney

I love this print from CournteyCourtney!

Find her dresses with this fun print and others here:

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Have fun!

Happy 4th of July!!

Happy 4th of July!

This past weekend I took Serenity and her BFF Kayleigh to Oak Alley Plantation. 

Oak Alley sits on banks of the Mississippi in Vacherie, Louisiana.
Jacques Telesphore Roman built the house in 1837 for his wife Celina.

Several movies and TV shows were filmed at Oak Alley - including Primary Colors, Interview with a Vampire and Ghost Hunters.
Beyoncé's "Déjà Vu" music video was shot here too!

The girls got a chance to explore the beautiful grounds and I was able to shoot a few photos of them in their adorable 4th of July cournteycourntey dresses. 

I love how cute they look!

They are such great friends and have a wonderful time together!

They had a lot of fun acting silly and running around under the beautiful old live oak trees.
Amazing resurrection fern grows all over the ancient giant oaks and moss covers their knotty roots.

Some of the oaks are over 300 years old!
The magnificent double row of oaks in front of the plantation make up the oldest alley in America.

Oak Alley is the perfect spot for pictures.

The sweet one below was Kayleigh's idea.

There are several huge cast iron sugar kettles at Oak Alley.

They were used to process sugar cane.

Now they are filled with water, lily pads and lovely flowers.

Perfect spots for pretty pictures!

If you're ever in South Louisiana, I definitely recommend stopping by Oak Alley in Vacherie.

And don't forget to sign up for courtneycourtney's dress emails! 

Have fun!!

Sophie & Lili AND courtneycourtney!

Serenity's sweet Sophie and Lili doll wearing her look-a-like courtneycourtney dress arrived!

It took a minute for Serenity to realize the doll was wearing the same 5th Birthday dress as hers.

"She looks just like me!"

Then a minute or so later...

"Hey! She's wearing a courtneycourtney dress like MINE!"

She's so silly!

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Sophie and Lili and courtneycourtney have TWO dolls you can WIN!

You can enter to win the doll below by clicking HERE, liking Sophie and Lili's page, and then leave a comment.

You can also enter to win this next doll by clicking HERE, liking courtneycourtney's page, and then leave a comment.

I entered both Giveaways!!


AND....


Courtneycourtney will have an upload of dress using Sophie and Lili fabric today!


Fabulous dresses like this one:

Check out more dress previews on her FB fan page!


Make sure you're signed up to get courtneycourtney email alerts so you can grab a one-of-a-kind collaboration between courtneycourtney and Sohpie and Lili!

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Here's another pictures of Serenity with her new doll.
She's named her Princess Ally.

Last year for Christmas she got Sophie and Lili's sweet Clare doll.

She was happy that Clare now has a sister doll to play with and share secrets!

Have fun!!

Panda Dress!!

I love Serenity's adorable new dress from courtneycourtney!

It's made with up-cycled fabrics and the panda is actually from a very cool vintage sheet full of sweet animals!


I'm not sure how many of these with the vintage animal prints on them Courtney has left - they are going so fast!

Be sure to visit her Facebook page and sign up to receive the next email full of dresses!

Learn how I made Serenity's headband by clicking HERE!

Her sweet dolly, Arabella is a Bamboletta!

Have fun!

Photographing Serenity

I love taking pictures of my baby! I know I have tons, but I'm a late Mommy so now it's my turn to share pictures of my beautiful sweetheart!

I can't deny it's also cause I can practice my photography too. Not only is it fun to dress Serenity in all her cute and funky dresses and outfits, it's also a way to showcase my work to people who might want pictures of their sweeties!

I'm always trying to learn how to do better too. But for the most part I'm self-taught. Even though it's been a dream/goal of mine, I've never actually taken a photography class before last week.

After seeing Julie's (from ZozoBugBaby - don't you just LOVE her clothes?!) photography improved by leaps and bounds this Summer, I wanted to learn how she learned so much in such a small amount of time!

So taking her advice, I recently took two classes from MCP Actions to learn how to really make my pictures POP - like Julie's!

I took the "Learn to Use Curves" class first and the following week took "Color Fixing" workshops.

Now when I look at all the pictures I've ever taken I see a TON of color problems, because not only can I recognize the problems - I can fix them!!

I want to go back and correct every picture I have!!

Of course I need a lot more practice, but I learned so much.

Taking a live class like that is so helpful, much more than reading a book or watching video tutorials online. Don't get me wrong, both video and books are great and have of course helped me enormously, but knowing that I have an extremely knowledgeable person like Jodi right there (so to speak) ready to answer any questions I have about something she's showing me, well that goes a long way helping me to step up my game!

If you're thinking about taking an online workshop - DO IT!!

Don't hesitate!

I would recommend Jodi from MCP Actions because she made everything so understandable - no high tech terms that I would be scratching my head trying to figure what in the world they meant. It was very easy to take everything she taught me in class and apply that to my own pictures later.

Okay how do y'all like Serenity's outfit?
Funky, huh?!
Like flashback to the 70's! I love it!! Let me tell you a little bit about it.

Courtneycourtney created Serenity's up-cycled pants. These are some of her very first bell bottom ones (she created a different style last year). I hope more bell bottoms are on the way!

Wren Willow created Serenity's lovely 100% organic shirt. It's been hand-dyed and then silk-screened using Marla's own unique illustrations.

BTW: Keep a sharp eye out for some of courtneycourtney latest creations - Wren Willow's beautiful designs have been spotted on sleeves and more!

Serenity's wonderful vintage jacket (look at that cool blue stitching!) and red and white umbrella barrettes are from 3 Ring Circus. Be sure to check that store daily - Heather is always posting beautiful vintage clothes and even toys! You can be sure anything you buy from her will be in excellent condition!

Have fun!

Two Years In CC!

I first discovered courtneycourtney on ZozoBugBaby's blog at the beginning of last year and was blown away with Courtney's amazing creative abilities. The dresses Courtney designs are the result of over 5 years of hard work - and of course lots of pure raw talent!

Her work is art - and it certainly appeals to every little girl! They want to wear her designs not only because are they comfortable, but because each dress is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Every little Princess loves knowing her dress is extra special because she's the only girl who has one like it!

Serenity gets compliments on her CCs from adults everywhere we go, but the sweetest compliments come from other little girls - they adore her CCs! They always want to touch Serenity's dress too - it's so cute to see them do that!

One of the best features of a CC is how long they will fit your child. If a dress becomes too short, just pair it with cute leggings, skirt, or blue jeans and you've got a whole new look. After a couple of years, a CC tunic dress becomes a shirt and will look great with shorts, capris, a skirt, or leggings.

For a CC to survive a whole year of wear on a toddler or young child means it has to be pretty durable too and our CCs have held up in the wash just great.

On the left of both pictures Serenity is wearing a CC from last year, and on the right she's wearing the same CC this year.

I hope y'all enjoyed looking at the pictures!

Have fun!

The CC Market

Lately it's been so hard to get one of CC's unique little dresses. They sell out within seconds of being posted in the CC stores! So I turned to the CC Market on Facebook, and bought a sweet little green gem from Kim at Grow With Me Gifts!

Courtney took our pictures and put them together to create this adorable collage - I just had to share it!

Aren't the girls just darling? I sure wished we lived closer to Kim and Brianna - Serenity would have so much fun on a playdate with Bri!

Stay tuned for more pictures of Serenity wearing her latest CC dresses!!

Have fun!

GWMG: Flowers & A New Start!

Okay we are totally addicted to Kim's GWMG kits.
The last kit Serenity and I did together produced some very pretty flowers.
Serenity was so excited too!

It was time to start over and dispose of the old plant - it got really tall!
Serenity got to touch the roots and I explained to her how they helped the plant to grow and make flowers.
Then I cut the pretty white flowers off the plant so she could hold and smell them - she thought it was lots of fun!



We started another kit immediately after this one.
I bought the last paperwhite bulb (a Princess!) kit in Kim's Etsy store, and we are hoping to get more flowers!
Soon Kim will have her Spring/Summer kits available.
Remember to stay tuned to her Etsy store and her Facebook Grow With Me Gifts fan page for more details!

On to the next kit:

I washed the pretty "jewels" from our last kit, and Serenity put them in the new vase and arranged the bulbs.
She's getting to be an old hand at this!


Then she watered her new plant and sat back and admired her handiwork!
She's always so proud of her plants, and taking care of them gives her a huge sense of accomplishment!
I just love that!
Maybe she'll have a green thumb when she grows up?!


I totally recommend the Grow With Me Gift kits - and your child will enjoy putting one together just as much as Serenity does.
But you'll have to wait until Kim lists her new Spring/Summer kits since she's completely sold out of all her Fall/Winter kits.

POST-IT-NOTE:
And oh yeah, you know that's a courtneycourtney Serenity is wearing!!
It's an Abe Lincoln dress - very adorable!
I'll post more pictures of the dress when I get some full-length pictures.
To see more pictures of Serenity wearing CC dresses, check out my posts here.

AND...

Head over to Courtney's blog today and learn how you can win a FREE CC original for your little girl!!


Have fun!

So Many New CCs!

I'm posting pictures from the past six months or so of Serenity wearing some of her newest CC dresses!

It's been quite a while since I've posted pictures of Serenity in her CC dresses - but you can see a few of the newer ones in my GWMG posts too!

CC dresses are Serenity's absolute favorites - not only are they the most comfortable pieces of clothing in her closet, they come in a huge array of kaleidoscope colors and prints - no two are ever the same!

To me, courtneycourtney clothes represents childhood like no other!

Okay, so here we go (in no particular order), my Darling Stinker posing in her adorable, funky, and totally unique dresses from CC!



















Serenity is always thrilled when she gets a new CC dress in the mail! We've gotten so many, she instantly recognizes the packages from CC and screams, "That's my dress!"- and as far as I know, she can't read yet - da little stinker!

Go check out courtneycourtney's Etsy store to find a fun and chic dress for your Darling Stinker!

While you're there, check out courtneycourtney's 5 years worth of positive feedback and adorable pictures from hundreds of tiny satisfied customers!

I hope y'all enjoyed looking at the pictures!

POST-IT-NOTE: Serenity's flower leggings are from Little Lilies over at Etsy. They are well-made and so cute!
Most of Serenity's shoes and boots are second-hand from Ebay. You can get some awesome deals on little kids shoes at Ebay, and since they outgrow them pretty fast, they are usually still in great condition. Her Fancy Nancy and red glitter shoes are from Target.
Serenity's little jacket vests are from Ebay too - but the pretty multi-colored sweater was a Christmas present from my baby sister, Paige. She got it from KMart and I LOVE it!


Have fun!