We’ve been busy doing lots of holiday shoots, some fun lifestyle shoots, and I’m producing a gigantic ranch shoot this Sunday in Healdsburg. I can hardly wait! Oh and did I mention we’ve got a fun event coming up with Heath Ceramics in Sausalito and Los Angeles – don’t miss this!

Also, we brought back mini-sessions for a limited time only. I’ll be posting a few more details but essentially these are 30 minutes sessions, perfect for holiday cards and gifts and we’re doing both on-location (Golden Gate Park and Crissy Field) as well as in-studio at a really great price! Email us to find out more and get on the schedule!

Finally, isn’t this the most lovely and colorful family? I just adore them.

Colorful family // Modern Kids Co. Fall 2011

Happy (almost) Holidays! Stay in touch!

Sarah

It’s been busy over here. I’m so excited for SEEING SMALL coming up in just a few weeks. I’m also moving studios, producing a few quick kids shoots, and working on a redesign – lots of fun stuff.

Enjoy this quick shoot of Lucas and his lovely family at the Oakland Museum. How great are his pants/leggings? Have you been to this Museum? The light in front of the chalkboard wall is amazing…and so are the exhibits. Thanks so much Lisa! It was great to see you guys.

p.s. [All shot on film - thanks Richards!]

As I was planning my trip to Europe I realized that I’d be within an hour or so of Gabrielle and her family. She is one of my favorite bloggers and is also behind Alt Summit (which I attended this year and just loved). Being so close to such an amazing family was hard to pass up. Also, I’ve been wanting to shoot more film and couldn’t think of a more perfect family or location.

I’ve photographed hundreds of families over the years but I have to say I started getting really nervous a few days before the shoot. Even though I’ve been photographing for the better part of 15 years I started worrying about my decision to shoot film. Would the kids be moving too fast for me? Would I be nervous and load all of the film incorrectly? Would six kids be overwhelming and a group portrait too challenging? Would I set my meter wrong, etc., etc. Sometimes the most confident photographers can be bested by their nerves and shooting on film which is slow, clunky, and takes a bit more brain-power than shooting digitally was a little risky. As I was falling asleep that night and fretting a bit I decided to simply try to memorize all of the kids names so at the very least I wouldn’t mess that up. They have great names so it was easy!

Shooting film with the Blair Family in Normandy

Finally, the day of the shoot arrived and we had rain! It was the first day of rain for me in nearly three weeks of being in Europe.  Thankfully the sun came out and we had perfect weather for the shoot. I packed my huge bag of gear and double-checked it about six times then hopped into my rental car for the drive to La Cressonniére. The trip was an easy one. After an unremarkable ride on a vacant French highway I exited through a few tiny towns and a horizon full of wheat fields. I recognized the house immediately from the blog posts and pulled in. I couldn’t find anyone but the door was wide open so I just peeked through. Then the most amazing thing happened. One by one all of the Blair kids came of out the woodwork and greeted me. They were all perfectly dressed and incredibly warm and welcoming. Within a few seconds Betty wrapped her arms around me and asked if I was her photographer. It was such a lovely experience and immediately put me at ease.

The next four hours was incredibly pleasant. It was one of my favorite shoots in recent memory and I want to thank Gabrielle, Ben and especially all six kids Ralph, Maude, Olive, Oscar, Betty, and June for being such engaged, easy-going, and simply lovely subjects. Don’t you think they did a wonderful job? My favorite part was hearing Oscar profess his love to me as I left. You can read about that here.

Take a look at the slideshow to see some of my favs and be sure to head over to Gabrielle’s blog to see more. Do you think I’m crazy for shooting film?

film wheat Blair141 Blair138 Blair134 Blair131 Blair127 Blair110 Blair106 Blair104 Blair086 Blair076 Blair075 Blair070 Blair068 Blair055 Blair051 Blair049 Blair044 Blair041 Blair039 Blair037 Blair020 Blair009 Blair0007 Blair006 blair0005 Blair004 Blair0004 Blair0003 Blair0010 Blair002 Blair0002

Finally, after the shoot I had an overwhelming feeling of relief that everything had gone so well that I got out of my car and took this image of the wheat fields near La Cressonniére. It was such a pretty sunset. Enjoy!

p.s. I’ll be sharing more from Europe including my shoot with Milk Magazine in Paris!

Have you been making books for your family? What’s your biggest hurdle?

Thanks to mom, dad, and Hudson for a fun morning!

What I especially love about Whistler’s nursery is that mom took an inspiration she found out the world (in this case Jenna Lyons’ son’s nursery in New York) and made it her own. Also, the nursery fits seamlessly into their thoughtful home which is chock-full of many unexpected decór combinations; from vintage to modern to victorian. Lezlie has an amazing talent for creating lovely and unique spaces. It also helps that her hubby has a gift with a saw. She’s first to admit though that many of her ideas are borrowed and re-envisioned for her own space. Here’s a little Q&A with Lezlie on designing her son Whistler’s nursery. I hope you find it helpful and inspiring!

Whistler’s  nursery 2010
inspiration: Jenna Lyon’s yellow striped nursery NY
colors and design elements: yellow, black, mushrooms, owls, and other animals
cost: $600

Whistler's nursery, Chicago

• where did you get your initial inspiration?
The inspiration for Whistler’s nursery came months before I was even pregnant. The now defunct, and greatly missed, interior design magazine, Domino, did an editorial spread on the Creative Director for J. Crew, Jenna Lyons, gorgeous home. Her son’s room had yellow and white stripes painted on the ceiling with the contrasting walls of chalkboard paint. Black walls in a baby’s room might give most people reason to pause. But those yellow and white stripes on our 3-sided ceiling really make it more circus tent than black hole. I was searching for something unexpected, we knew we were having a boy and really did not want the pale blue and chocolate brown that seems to be so popular. I tore that magazine spread out and tucked it away for when the happy time came our way.

Lezlie's inspiration for Whistler's nursery

• how did you give it your own spin?
I get a lot of my decorating inspiration from homes featured in interior design magazines. It’s a borderline addiction actually, maybe I could redecorate more if I would cut back on all those magazines! For Whistlers nursery I started with the yellow, white and black color scheme and ran from there. I really wanted a room for him that fit in with the rest of our eclectic house. I’m not a fan of the super precious baby room, this room will grow with him for a few more years than a typical baby nursery. I also did not want a “theme”, no  single room in our house has a theme, so why would I try to impose one with the nursery? Every room fits in with each other this way and gives the house a great flow.

• where did you source all of the linens/textiles? who helped you?
My mother and sister have great eyes for textiles and I’m forever picking up ideas from their homes as well. There is a great discount fabric store in Memphis where my sister lives, called Premier Fabrics.  Alot of the fabrics came from there, including the black and white stripe and the great yellow bamboo print. They were both $9.99 a yard! The monkey print fabric was 50% off at a local Hancocks Fabrics and I used my mom’s talented seamstress in Tennessee to make the Roman Shade. My mother herself sewed all the crib linens for us.

• can you tell us where you got the 1. crib 2. chair 3. mushroom table 4. changing table 5. decorations…and anything else you want to mention
The crib and changing table were hand me downs from my sister. We just had to purchase a new mattress. The rocking chair, which is on the small side and perfect for a tiny Chicago bedroom, was picked up at an estate sale for about $40. Again, I bought this chair months before I was pregnant as I knew it would be perfect for our small Chicago house someday. My mom refinished it and had it reupholstered for $50. The faux sheepskin rug is from Ikea ($130). The mushroom table set (my one big splurge) was bought at Mango Street Baby ($230). The Elephant Hamper ($125) is from Home Decorators Collection. The zebra head ($68.00) and framed dinosaur needlework ($130), which my husband gave me for my birthday and is a total inside joke between the two of us, are both from Anthropologie. The sweet Mama Mouse and Baby Mouse painting actually hung in my nursery as a baby. My mom painted it while pregnant with me and lucky for me, the yellow could not have matched the room more perfectly. And of course, it’s probably my favorite item in the nursery.

Lezlie's favorite element in the nursery a painting by her mom that hung in her nursery.

• did you have a budget for the project? would you mind sharing how much it cost, roughly?
Actually, my husband Brett, and I have been a bit shocked at how inexpensive our newborn son has been thus far due to great gifts from friends and family and greatly appreciated hand me downs. (We know this will not always be the case!) We estimate the total budget for the room to be around $1000.00, but we ourselves only spent about $600. We spent $90 on wood and hardware. $75 on paint. $100 on fabrics. And about $300 on decorations.

Lezlie found discounted fabric for Whistler's nursery

• how long did the nursery take from your ideas to completion
Well, considering I started to plan this room in my decorators mind well before I was even pregnant, it took years to complete! However, once we had a firm baby countdown on the way, it probably took about 3 solid weekends worth of work to complete. My impressively patient husband and father-in-law outlined and taped the stripes on the ceiling in 8 hours one day. They truly deserve a medal for that! Then it took about 20 minutes to paint them. But they are the straightest stripes you have ever seen!

• any design challenges?
While we love and adore our older and character-filled Chicago home, the storage and closet spaces leave much to be desired. This room didn’t even have a closet! Plus the slanted ceilings don’t allow for much wall space to work with. That is another reason why I love the stripes in this room, they are so bright and all encompassing that Whistler can lay on his rug in the center of the room and get so much stimulation just staring at the ceiling! A dear friend of ours helped Brett carve out the shelving into the empty attic space in the side wall. And then Brett built the “floating” shelves and small hanging rod in the one corner. The wall already had a perfect little cut out in it that was perfect for a “closet”. As Whistler and his wardrobe continue to grow, I foresee a great fabric panel hanging from the ceiling to create more of a door/cover for that area.

Lezlie & Whistler, Summer 2010, Chicago

Thank you, Lezlie!

If you’ve emailed us in the last week or so we’re still catching up on inquiries and order emails. We’ll be in touch very soon! In the meantime, check out these super cute lined paper tees for kids. Right here.

on the roof, Sloan & Caroline, 2010

I’m finally climbing back on top of my to-do list. What a busy year! Now that I’m feeling back on top of things (more or less) I thought I’d share this fitting image of Sloan & Caroline photographed recently on top of their playhouse. Don’t worry, no children were injured in the making of these images (teehee). Thanks to Sloan & Caroline for being such good sports! Aren’t they adorable?

Please stay in touch as I’ll be blogging a bit more frequently. I have an incredible amount of shoots to share with you. What a fun year we’ve had full of amazing families.

xo,

Sarah

Have you seen the first issue of Anthology, yet? Experience all the design gorgeousness here. Don’t miss, Thayer Gowdy’s lovely stop-motion video for them, here. And I’m loving this 100% organic cotton, kidsware by GOAT-MILK, in NY.