Yesterday I was getting rid of some old toys in the tub…it made me a little sad to think how quickly time has passed and my girls are about done with the tub toy age. Yeah sure they still play/draw with messy soap crayons but IMO, the tub toy stage passes a little too quickly. Who am I kidding MOST of it passes too quickly…

So I got inspired, haven’t done a shopping blog in awhile. So today’s theme: tub toys!

Unarguably, ALEX makes some great tub toys. This Beep Beep! Tub Stickers set seems like no exception to that rule.

We always loved animal squirters, these seem like a great alternative to rubber duckies and fish.

Another ALEX toy, this one is an Award Winning toy….make over anyone?

Finally, what bathtub wouldn’t be perfect adorned in colorful “bubbles”? The final end product may be a bit over the top but I love the idea behind this bath set to decorate the kids bath…

I’ve shared the image of Becca’s little bath tub dweller before but it seems awful appropriate to show it in a bath thread. 🙂

Bubble Trouble

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  • Heather Gibb - April 29, 2008 - 11:18 pm

    Oh I’m glad you shared it again b/c I haven’t seen it!! What a beautiful shot and a slice of time captured!!!!
    PS Love the slidshow running below to! Cool

  • Melissa - April 30, 2008 - 7:45 am

    Not a toy, but my kids love the bath wall hanging from Haba I found:

    http://www.landbridgetoys.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=359&zenid=55f45cf3f0395842c5905c530c173a73

  • PamN - April 30, 2008 - 12:23 pm

    What a fun post! And that picture is so darn cute – I sure hope it’s hanging in that bathroom, that would be awesome!

  • Denise - May 1, 2008 - 8:02 am

    LOVE the new design. 🙂

  • Anna Mayer - May 2, 2008 - 12:07 pm

    This image is perfect! Love the expression and that tub is to die for!

Two of the sweetest kids I have ever met.  Miss K played the role of shy girl for all of 20 seconds but I saw underneath the cool, quiet exterior to her inner diva:

Miss K

as for C….well, he never played shy boy but that’s only cuz I babbled on about video games and I think that video games are the key to a 7 year old’s heart:

Mr. C

Needless to say I think this brother-sister combo is a pretty awesome duo….

Sofa Antics

 

Thanks to their parents for bringing them out from Arlington Heights to hang out at the studio for a few hours this afternoon.  I’m so glad the weather cooperated!

 

xoxo, Mare

 

p.s. I was given the link for this nicely written article on having children’s portraits professionally done from Real Simple Magazine’s blog.  Please check it out….and if you have not done so yet please feel free to check out the Profeesional Child Photographer website for more consumer FAQ type information.  🙂

 

 

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  • Whitney - April 27, 2008 - 10:52 pm

    Looks like another fun day!!

  • Angela - April 27, 2008 - 11:31 pm

    So beautiful Mare, my favorite is the very first one! Stunning children!

  • Joyce - April 28, 2008 - 6:50 am

    Gorgeous images as always!

  • kathy wolfe - April 28, 2008 - 7:08 am

    I adore that last one… makes me want to be sitting there finding out what was so funny!!! Its just perfect. beautiful children.

  • Susan Braswell - April 28, 2008 - 8:14 am

    These are sweet but {wow} that 3rd one makes my heart sing and I don’t even know these children. That is something I’d want to see huge on my wall now, 10 and even 20 years from now.

    Beautiful stuff…

  • PamN - April 28, 2008 - 9:05 am

    oh my gosh, these are so beautiful and timeless – those kids look like pro models (they aren’t, are they?)

  • Meggan - April 28, 2008 - 9:16 am

    These are stunning children! You created beautiful portraits of them!

  • Carrie Steffe - April 28, 2008 - 11:01 am

    oh wow…these are goregeous children and you captured them beautifully!

  • Kendell - April 28, 2008 - 12:41 pm

    Simply beautiful. And yes, that image with both of them is timeless and priceless- I love it.

  • marie - April 28, 2008 - 2:57 pm

    what an awesome session

  • Julie - April 29, 2008 - 3:05 pm

    I just love these images. especially the sibling portrait…makes me want to laugh along with them

  • Ruthi David - April 29, 2008 - 9:55 pm

    Beautiful!! That is the sweetest sibling portrait – it is so REAL!

  • JUne - April 30, 2008 - 1:33 am

    These are fabulous. What I wouldn’t give for a sibling shot of my own like that.:)

  • Mary Beth - April 30, 2008 - 10:16 am

    Beautiful and fun as always! That first one is just *dreamy*. Their mom is going to love every. single. one.

Oh!  Old white garage

with peeling paint

You were only mine

for a small time

(but technically, not really)

 

Now you are gone…

Disappeared with no warning

Razed down by bulldozers,

tractors, and who knows what else…

 

When I drove by all I could see

Is a blank spot,

squared off area gravel in your place

They took away all the garbage

surrounding your crumbling, peeling

(yet photogenic) facade

And they took you away with the trash

 

Oh white garage!  You were not trash

You were beautiful in your own way

Go now, run, be free and play with your old garage friends

way up high….in heaven where you must exist now having served

this photographer oh so well…

 

Oh lovely old white garage,

a face only a photographer would love

I’ll miss you.

R.I.P.

 

LOL. Seriously tho, another location bit the dust last week. Too sad. Urban sessions will go on! 🙂

 

 

Old Garage I

Old Garage II

Old Garage III

Old Garage IV

Old Garage V

Old Garage VI

 

Knowing that life is about change, I accept that it is gone and it has served me & the families who I have photographed there well. Gotta have a sense of humor bout these things.

 

xoxo, Mare

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  • Chantelle - April 26, 2008 - 7:10 pm

    oh no! what a shame….such a cool location 🙁

  • Anna-Karin - April 26, 2008 - 10:49 pm

    How sad……… I hope you find a new place to use with great potentials as this one had.
    you got some lovely captures from there to remember though!

  • PamN - April 27, 2008 - 4:57 am

    I know your work will not suffer in the least – you have a knack for finding cool places!

  • Danna - April 27, 2008 - 6:22 pm

    oh no!!! that looks like an amazing location…..I am sure you will find someplace else even better 😀

  • elizabeth - April 29, 2008 - 1:28 pm

    Ohhhhh Noooooo thats horrible.. what a gorgeous old white barn… mean old men on levelers.. booohissss

  • Jen Lane - April 30, 2008 - 10:22 pm

    oh how I love you Mare. lol. Sorry about the lose of white garage. That really is TOO sad! I’m glad the two of you made such lovely art together, you won’t ever forget. And girl, the new blog is GORGEOUS!

And thank goodness for Chris because it was sofa king bulky, I don’t think I could’ve managed hauling it out on my own without the brawn!

Ok, now that I got to say sofa king in a good way…this session made me sofa king happy! I love my repeat clients. I got to see some of my faves this past month…Amanda, Denise, now Whitney & the girls (and guy).

We *R* Fam-i-lee….

 

The Wanderer

 

“Mary” Had a Little Lamb

 

 

I had the pleasure of photographing M & L (only mere weeks after they came to play at the workshop ). I jokingly told some friends that I’ve photographed them more than my own children in the past month! Anyway, these girls, the sisters that they are, are so beautiful and I don’t believe, not for a second, that a bad photo can be taken of them.

As usual, the girls were dressed to the 9’s. To the 9’s…I tell you. I love frilly girls barefoot amongst the wild. And wild it was, we got to play at the Tallgrass Prairie (sans tallgrasses, that’s a spring misnomer in my opinion) and the girls were in amazing outfits. All three of the girls!

So Whitney, thank you once again for being trusting in my vision coming all the way out from Channahon 🙂 to the studio to get shots taken out in our gorgeous grasslands at the prairie. I think you will be so happy once I finish up with these. Thanks to Chris for being the brawn and your mom for being the assistant du jour. And thanks to your beautiful girls, especially my new BFF 🙂 (hey! she said she was anyway…)

There’s other images of these gorgeous girls if you want to look here & here.

xoxo, Mare

 

p.s. Yikes, didn’t realize that I didn’t even post an image of the sofa on its’ first field trip…hmmmm…must rectify:

 

Love & Marriage

 

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  • Paula - April 21, 2008 - 9:18 am

    gorgeous………… truly some of my faves from you. 😀

  • Marianne - April 21, 2008 - 10:11 am

    Thanks P! Honestly, I have just rocking clients that make my job easy peasy. 🙂

  • elizabeth - April 21, 2008 - 10:36 am

    awww… these are great.. I espically love the second one. The way the light is filtering through her dress

  • Denise - April 21, 2008 - 1:58 pm

    Just stunning….. I want to travel with the couch too. 🙂

  • NicholeVan - April 21, 2008 - 4:58 pm

    So LOVE these, woman! I just can never get enough of your stuff!

  • Tobi - April 21, 2008 - 6:10 pm

    How cool is this!! That lighting is wonderful, and those compositions are just plain lovely!!

  • Danna - April 21, 2008 - 7:20 pm

    wow! these are stunning! sofa king amazing!! lol

  • Angela - April 21, 2008 - 8:24 pm

    Oh the black and white one is my favorite!

  • Brandy - April 22, 2008 - 12:41 pm

    Beautiful work Mare!

  • Stacy - April 22, 2008 - 2:29 pm

    hee hee, you crack me up! Love them all. Your use of light is always amazing!

  • kim - April 22, 2008 - 5:35 pm

    beautiful portraits – so ethereal looking.

  • kathy wolfe - April 22, 2008 - 9:34 pm

    gosh, that last bw one is stuuuuunning. and that couple on the couch..just beautiful.. love your work.

  • MaryAnn T - April 23, 2008 - 8:41 am

    Mare, you know how much I just love that b&w portrait!!

  • Kendell - April 23, 2008 - 8:54 am

    Gasp- that black and white image is pure perfection- it is childhood personified. What a stunning family and such beautiful images!

  • Kirsten - April 23, 2008 - 11:30 am

    Love, love, love your stuff! If you ever want to ship that sofa to San Diego, let me know! 😀

  • Mary Beth - April 24, 2008 - 2:21 pm

    These are *beautiful* and so nostalgic looking. LOL on forgetting to post one of the couch… that cracked me up.

  • Shellie Gansz - April 24, 2008 - 8:17 pm

    these are so beautiful and timeless! you really have such a creative eye!

  • Jen Lane - April 24, 2008 - 8:38 pm

    AAAAAHHHHH! Gorgeous!!!!!!!!!! Well done Mare! I bet Whitney will be THRILLED!

  • Anna Mayer - April 25, 2008 - 10:58 pm

    These are really wonderful! I love how unique and “you” your style is. One of a kind photographer. 🙂

  • Anna-Karin - April 29, 2008 - 4:58 pm

    Love that you took the sofa out on the fieldtrip. Makes for awesome photographs indeed!
    Great stuff as always!

Please follow THIS LINK to the See The Light Workshop site for details on my workshop 102!  I am so excited to presenting a second workshop to help you learn, grow, have those wonderful AHA! moments that Workshop 101 attendees had.  I promise it will be filled with solid “meaty” (as one of my attendees from 101 so eloquently stated) bits to take with.  My goal, ultimately, is to help photographers find their right path to not only $uccesses but artistic successes as well.  I want each of you to be the best you can be.  The entire premise behind the See The Light Workshop is to help the photographer who feels they are not on the right path, to help the photographer who may be just starting out, to help the photographer who is NOT seeing the proverbial light.  Ultimately it is about making your business work for you.

If you have not seen some images from 101 I’m here to share just a couple of the gorgeous models from that day:

See The Light Wkshp I

 

See The Light Wkshp II

 

See The Light Wkshp III

 

xoxo, Mare

 

Posted in Children's Photography Workshop and Photographer's Seminars, Photography Related, Suburban Chicago Child Photography and Chicagoland Photos of Children and Families
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  • Mellissa - April 18, 2008 - 11:45 am

    This really sounds like a fabulous workshop. I wish I could come.

  • elizabeth - April 18, 2008 - 4:32 pm

    wish I could go.. sigh..

  • kathy wolfe - April 18, 2008 - 8:01 pm

    You ROCK Mare!!

  • Brandy - April 18, 2008 - 8:19 pm

    LOVE these! I wish you much success with the workshop!

  • Chantelle - April 20, 2008 - 6:18 am

    sounds amazing! wish I could come all the way from Aus!

  • June - April 20, 2008 - 8:35 pm

    These are some fantastic images! Love the way you see the light!

  • Mary Beth - April 24, 2008 - 2:22 pm

    Oooo – that second one is to die for! 🙂

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