Hi Edward, I just dropped in here to see what everyone was doing, and just had to tell you also, how much I admire your photography! Your work is wonderful. I love to take photos, and as you can imagine with all my cross country traveling, I have tons of photos, but I am no where near as good with a camera as you. I agree with everyone else, and you should make a career out of your talent! Hey, you can still raise a baby and use a camera. Just think of all the cute pics of the baby you can make!! Enjoyed your pictures. Jan

I laughed so hard reading this my husband woke-up in the other room and thought I went crasy(I don't laugh much) When I first started reading I thought well this must be someone who doesn't have to get up and out and gone by 6am. I don't, not because I'm a work at home or retired,but I work seasonaly.But still sorry to say I love to shovel snow.My husband says when I shovel I'm a loly-gager.I don't push my self to huffing and puffing but I do get over heated.I'II even go out at midnight if its piling-up and shovel.It's amazing at night.When I look out at 5pm and see the rest of the neibours coming home and can't get into their drive ways I smile.But I do remind my husband how good he has it.Our driveway is 400 ft and has four parking spots and a turn -around. Plus I shovel a path to the garbage can,the propane tank and a path to the barn. I make sure the out door plug-in cord is visable and easy for him to get at too.I don't want a hero cookie.But I bet the guys down the street wish I belonged to them ,at least during the winter. Thanks for the laughs.Purple

Yes, it will cost a small fortune, but worth having the professional photo years from now. I still treasure DD's communion picture. The church had a photographer that shot for everyone, but I took her to a professional photographer whose work I admired. He usually shoots with very light or white backgrounds. I told him straight away that the white-light photos were not what I was looking for. I wanted more of an old fashioned-type photograph, think old time library, victorian style. He shot her with a brown-taupey backdrop, sitting in a Queen Anne style chair. Stunning. Actually put her portrait in the brochures for communions as he was so well known for doing the lighter settings. He wanted to show that he could do something a bit different. So, let the photographer know what your expectations of the photo are. You are spending alot of money, so you want the photos to have a certain style or look. With the digital age, professional photographers shoot digitally. I've never heard of a photographer who will sell you negatives even back in the day of film. The photographer will arrange an appointment for you to view the digital pics or "proofs". It is a PIA and tough to make decisions on pics that way, but unless you are hiring someone to do a wedding or something on that scale, that's how the photographers in my area do it. You may be able to find someone who still shoots film? But I don't think they will sell you the negatives. That's the way they make their money - by selling prints of their negatives. We just returned from a beach vacation. Our house is at the end of the island where there are alot of jettys (sp?) and big rock formations just beyond the dunes. Every night there were oodles of families on the beach taking pics at sunset. It was fun to watch, they were all dressed in khaki and white or denim and white. DH commented that alot had their own equipment as opposed to hiring the "beach photographers" advertising in the shore community. Much cheaper, but surely not the same result. I don't know where you are located, but you may want to ask a friend or someone whose had a beach photo professionally done for a referral.

Thank you for the nice comments. Here is the dress and the vest. There's a zipper in the back of the dress, which made it difficult to add the collar and cape directly onto the dress. The vest is cut out of the same pattern as the dress (Simplicity 4764, girl's size 5), so the neck and sleeve parts match up. The vest fabric is inside out, so when worn, it looks like lining inside the dress. The collar is sewn onto the vest. The cape is gathered and stitched to the back of the collar. There is Velcro on the neck part of the vest, under the arms, and on the front where it matches up to the dress waistline. That keeps the weight of the cape from pulling it towards the back. I'm no tailor, so have to use patterns, but can make up some stuff as I go along. There is no collar on the pattern, and I never made a stand up collar before, so had a little trouble getting the shape right. The sleeves looked too small when cut out, so I cut larger ones, maybe adding an inch or two all the way around the pattern. I added an old pair of shoulder pads inside them. The teardrops on the sleeves were made by making little teardrop shaped 'pillows', with some thin red fabric for the back side, cutting a hole in the back, then turning them rightside out. It makes for a great applique even if you're not an expert at it (which I'm not). Hope this makes sense. Linda