Wednesday, September 30, 2009

NEW BLOG

I have started a new blog to go along with my new business! I am very excited to begin taking pictures for people again. I have spent the last year attending workshops, mentoring sessions and on-line training sessions to get up to speed on all of the fun digital stuff. (When I stopped my portrait business a few years back, I was doing just film!) I have been ready for a while now to get back into it, but felt I needed to update my ways. It has been a fun year learning and trying new things out and I am excited for the upcoming year.

It seems really early but if you want Christmas cards now is the time to think about it. The weather is perfect, not too cold, not too hot and it takes a while for the lab to get them printed during this busy time of the year. I am now offering press printed cards which are super fun and can be customized with different colors and sayings.

One last item and this is for my family members who visit the blog to get updates on the family stuff. I will still include daily happenings of the Callister family on the new blog, right now I just think one blog will have to support both purposes, maybe when Henry gets a little older I will have tons of time to do two. (A girl can dream!)

Enjoy the new blog and comments are always appreciated!!


C. Hardy Photography New and Exciting Blog

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Fun with Tessa

Tessa and I had another fun day pretending we were different animals. I have pictures of her on her first day of school to post but for a fun one for now!

Enjoy!


Monday, September 14, 2009

Thirteen Years Ago on the Thirteenth...

I met Stephen. I know it is the 14th today but yesterday instead of sitting at the computer by myself, Stephen and I spent quality time together, tackling Mt. Laundry Pile. Yes, the mountain had to be moved, we could no longer enter our bedroom without the risk of bodily harm. One of the many perils of apartment living. So one day late for the anniversary 13 years in the making.

The top thirteen reasons why I love Stephen:

1-4. He is really good with kids. We have four kids so that is four big reasons to love him.
5. He is really smart, ask him ANYTHING about the termite gut. Okay he knows a lot about other things too but right now the girls are very impressed with termites.
6. He is pretty funny, this is where I won't divulge anymore for fear of retaliation.
7. His driving has improved. Greatly improved. Good thing too because he is now a big part of my carpooling plan.
8-11 Did I mention he is really good with kids?
12. He is always looking out for the welfare of others and won't let me talk to our realtor right now. Saving him from the wrath of an angry woman. Like I said always looking out for others.
13. He has put up with all of my rantings and foul moods for the past couple of days, well weeks, okay for the sake of honesty...5 months.

Seriously, I am so glad I met him on that Friday the 13th. I am very lucky to have such a good person in my life. I hope the next 13 years are as great!

One picture of Stephen and Henry at the park the other day. I am not joking when I say he is good with our kids, he helps out a ton and I am thankful for all he does for our family.

Enjoy!

Monday, September 7, 2009

Tessa's Violin

Tessa has started violin lessons! She has been a very good student and very diligent at practicing. For now all I can say is I am glad she has a very patient teacher.

Enjoy!





Henry's New Shoes

Henry is growing fast. I type that statement and can not believe how much he has grown this summer. He went from doing the army crawl to a full-fledged walker. Well, I say walker but in reality he is a runner. Henry moves fast and I am reminded everyday how hard it is to keep up with a toddler. In celebration of this milestone, we went to the mall and bought him a pair of "big kid shoes" complete with laces and everything. The shoes have helped him out and unfortunately have helped him move faster! This is the one shot I got of the new shoes that wasn't a blur. After chasing him around, we thought it would be a good idea to put him on Tessa's scooter to get him to stand still. It worked until we had to take him off, I will skip posting the picture of the meltdown after extracting him from the big kid toys.

Enjoy!





I am loving the textures right now. It reminds me of back in the day when I was in school and trying out every different technique I could. I would spend weeks researching different formulas and photographers who printed on every imaginable surface, paper, glass, or metal. Pinhole cameras, zone plates, cyanotypes, polaroid transfers anything that was considered alternative processing I had to try. I even think a pinhole camera accompanied Stephen and I on our honeymoon.

I love the photographs that cross the line between a piece of art and a snapshot. For some reason hand coating the surface of paper and exposing it to light, getting back to the very beginning of photography, is so fulfilling. I loved the idea that I created something with my hands. I am happy that I can duplicate some of the looks of these photographs on the computer but am really missing getting my hands dirty. One day I will have the time and space to do this again but for now I will take what I can get.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Evelyn to the Rescue

Lillian has started first grade, entering the world of firsts. Normally the second child in the family has an easy ride, the older sibling has blazed the way for them. But not so in our family. Lilly is blazing the way for herself. Everything we had figured out for Evelyn just wouldn't work for Lilly. The most troubling of the firsts was lunch. Lilly has very rarely eaten food not in our presence. So eating lunch at school was a big deal.

At Lincoln the children go to the lunchroom and then take their lunches back to the classroom to be consumed at their desks. (Deep sigh inserted here). It is not an ideal situation especially when sitting in such close proximity to all of the children drinking milk and eating pizza and nachos and basically everything children would want to eat for lunch. This was (is) a nerve wrecking experience for our family. We had no idea how to handle this, we knew this was coming but didn't know what to do.

So at lunch Lilly sat in the back of the class, by herself, watching her friends eat and talk and laugh together. The first day I was able to go in and sit with her to help ease her into this new situation. Everything seemed great until the next morning when she casually asked when I would be coming to lunch. We had thought she was fine with the situation knowing and understanding why she was in the back, removed from the danger of being near all of the milk. Never did we think she would want us to sit with her everyday. As parents we were torn; she would have to learn to deal with eating when we weren't there but she is still very young to have to deal with such things. There was no way we could go to lunch with her everyday so we decided to have her eat alone that day to help her transition into the new routine. So the second day a she ate lunch alone in the rear of the class. That night our easygoing, school loving, little girl was unconsolable. She hated being alone during lunch and begged us to help her. Now understand, she begged for us to help, not to put her back at her desk to eat. She was torn just as much as we were. Lilly felt uncomfortable being that close to the other children while they ate the foods that make her so sick.

That night she had a very concerned sister who asked us how she could help Lilly. Evelyn who had done the first grade with ease, offered to go to Lilly's room, forgoing eating with her friends, to sit with her sister so she would not feel so alone.
The bond these sisters share is amazing. I watch the way they interact with each other and the things they do to help one another and am so proud of the way they are growing up. Evelyn has always been Lilly's comfort and security. I have watched them enter new situations together with Lilly holding tight to her sister's hand and Evelyn stepping up to help her younger sister out. Lilly was very excited that her older sister would come from her classroom to eat with her. They both said they had a great time having lunch together and Evelyn said to me that night she would do it as many times as Lilly needed.

So things at school have finally worked themselves out. Lilly has had friends offer to sit with her, teachers offer to take turns spending lunch with her and finding a placement for her desk during lunch that we are all comfortable with. I am very grateful to all of the people in Lilly's world who are caring and compassionate enough to go out of their way to help her out. I am especially grateful that she has a sister who truly understands and cares about her "little sis."


Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Family Portrait

It has been years since we had one done.





Check out post below. I know- hard to believe two posts in one night!

So Long Summer

Before I can post about the start of school and how well the kids are doing I first must say farewell to summer. Summer has been good to us, the sleeping in, the long days of nothing to do, the trips to the park, eating outside, bubbles blown, warm evenings, cool treats, I could go on and on but I suspect many of the same things are missed by lots of people. Summer has been really good to us and it is hard to say goodbye. It is really hard at 6 am when I am forcing myself into the shower so I can waken the children to get ready for school, going to the park with only two children, looking at my watch and wondering how the girls are doing, being strict about bedtime, and oh probably one of the most physical discomforts of the departure of summer; shoes and socks. Summer can not come back soon enough!

One last adventure in the park this Sunday, the last tromp before school officially started. Enjoy!