I don't think you're ready for this Jelly: a Valentine's Photo Shoot

So, you might remember that I have this aversion to store bought Valentines. I like to make them and I like to be creative. The only thing holding me back really is that I am not skilled at crafting things. "Not skilled", as in, I own a glue gun, but it has a safety lock on it. How lucky for me that my kids are reasonably cute when they're not covered in boogers or sporting a black eye. Also, they are still young enough to not insist on picking out their own Valentines and will occasionally consent to wearing props if I bribe them with Slurpees.

I was going to wait to show you these til next week, but then I thought maybe I should share in case you'd like to conduct your own Valentine's Photo Shoot in advance!  (she says. after she's had time to recover from this one).

Supplies Needed:

• white drape (tablecloth or thick sheet) for backdrop
• tacks to hold up the backdrop
• red heart doilies (found at the Dollar Tree)
• children scrubbed clean within an inch of their lives
• Valentine's Wear:  for girls this is easy. For boys, good luck. I tried many things. This was about as "Valentiney" as they would go and I had to up the Slurpees to Large. Red Suspenders bought at consignment store; glasses at Dollar Tree, other items scrounged from closet
• camera*
• patience. lots of patience

*I should specify that you should probably use a digital camera with a large capacity SD card because if you have an experience anything like mine, you will take 283 photos and end up with about 7 of them that are usable.

First we have Hopper. He was not happy with either hairstyling skills or my attempts at making him try different poses. He's also at that stage that I think a lot of little kids hit where they react to being made to take photos by doing that thing where they sort of raise their eyebrows, squint their eyes and put their top and bottom teeth together in a death mask rictus that makes me pop a blood vessel in my eye. So. These are what were left:

this one cracks me up so much

 

 

 

But at last! An honest to goodness smile.

Next, Rowan. Oh Rowan. I have so, SO many pictures of him doing something like this. This is quintessential Rowan, right here. He didn't like the glasses very much.

 

 

But then, THEN, he decided to get a little cute. It took me til probably shot #216 to get here, but we got here. Little turd.

 

 

And then I had to stop and drink a bottle of wine.  I'm just kidding, it was like 10 in the morning, I waited til 11:30 to open it up.  Plus, I still had to get shots of them TOGETHER. God help me. They did a lot better at this once I let them ditch the glasses. I think I have like maybe 2 shots of them wearing the glasses and in both of them Hopper is making that face and I cannot take that face. THESE faces, however... I have to admit, pretty darn cutemas.

 

 

So, there you have it, you still have 10 days to go forth and do your own Valentines photo shoot to make homemade Valentines with love. You can even buy yourself a Slurpee if you're good.