Well hello stranger!

So I haven't blogged in a while. I guess that would be a bit of an understatement! How do you start a post after taking an almost 5 month hiatus? I logged back into blogger, and saw that I had something like 15 new comments, which sounds like hardly any given I hadn't blogged in so long, but in reality, not a lot of people comment, so I was excited to see what I was in for. Turns out, there's cheap wedding dresses out there, insurance, a few websites that sounded terribly innappropriate, and one comment thanking me for helping him with his college assignement. I think I turned off my spam filter somehow...

So what have I been up to for 5 months? Taking a much needed blogging break, for starters! I love to blog, but I think I finally managed to burn myself out on it. It was kind of bound to happen. But I also spent a lot of time learning and spending time with my girls. I went to a conference in Detroit at the beginning of January, which totally helped focus me on where I want to be with my photography career. Definitely good things are happening this year for Platypus ;)

I might end up sharing some last images taken in 2010... but I might just skip those, and move on to 2011. So if blog posts seem out of order for a bit, sorry about that!!!!

I'll end this one with images of Claire. Every year in June, I take pictures of my oldest daughter Olivia in my wedding dress. My youngest Claire's birthday is in December, and wearing a wedding dress in 20 degree weather probably isn't the wisest parenting decision I could make. So instead, I take images of Claire in my fancy winter coat.

The focus actually fell on this closeup (silly fluffy fur caught it instead) but I like her expression in this one so much better than any of the ones where the focus was dead on.



For comparison, here's Claire at one year old


Such a dreary December day...

And then here's her at 2 and a half


She'll be mad at me when she's older, but I missed taking the image in December... I took it last June when I took Olivia's picture. I know I know, she's going to have such a second child complex!!!! I can't help that her birthday falls during the busiest month of the whole year!!! I was convinced when I took these pictures 6 months ago, that when I took her 3 year ones in December, they'd look identical (minus the snow.) But I actually think I was wrong... Claire's grown up a lot in the last few months (or as much as any 3 year old can I guess.) She's so much a 'big kid' and not my baby anymore. She wants to do everything for herself, and she can do anything her big sister can do. Silly peanut!

So here's 'baby Claire' six months ago


and my sly big kid now

The wedding dress and the coat

Every year around Olivia's birthday, I take pictures of her in my wedding dress. I saw someone on Oprah do it, and thought it was about the neatest thing since sliced bread. Given that it's July, I'm a little late. Here's a recap of the last 3 years:

2007

2008

2009

2010

But being a month late on Olivia's picture is nothing compared to Claire. I didn't do the wedding dress with her, because her birthday is in December, and I thought a strappy wedding dress in the winter was, well, cruel. So I take her picture with my fancy coat, that I bought the year before I had Olivia. I love that coat. I can't fit in it anymore. It's such a drag! So I took Claire's picture after her first birthday... and realized over the weekend that I never took hers after her second birthday. Why must December be so busy!!??!! So I took her picture in the coat the same day I did Olivia's. I figure having one at 2 1/2 instead of 2 is better than not having one at all.

2009 (really for 2008, but I took it in January)

and 2010 (really for 2009, but I took it in July, yuk!)

and the same picture, just playing around