I finally made some baby leg warmers for my baby girl.  It’s a refashion, meaning I took regular women’s knee high socks and converted them to leg warmers for my wee  one.

Baby leg warmers run about $10 a pair.  I was able to find women’s knee high socks on clearance at Target so each pair came out to be just a little over $1.  I’m so happy that I can make something so cute and practical for my little girl.  With these leg warmers on, it makes diaper changing lot easier.

Here is my little model:

If you’re interested in making a pair or two for your cutie, here’s a free tutorial.

From now until 1/31, at ArtsCow.com, get TWO 8X10 canvas prints for $7.99, shipping included! Just upload your photos, select your two canvas prints (same photo or two different ones), and use the coupon code B1F1CANVAS8X10 at checkout!

We’ve already taken advantage of the offer to take a bunch of portraits of the kids and print a bunch of canvas prints of these:

Who?  Well, our littlest one, of course, who just passed the 14 month old marker!  She’s not quite walking yet, but yesterday managed to climb up and back down a footstool by herself with a little assist from a nearby table.  The following sequence was taken discreetly, til the last frame:

Lois is enjoying making more cute shoes for Bethany…

And just for kicks here are a few fun photos of the kids from today:

Okay, Andrea, I’m in.

Starting with a couple photos from the past couple days, I’m joining you on the zany attempt to shoot & post a photo from every day for the next 365 days.

And I’m up this late cuz that’s how long it took me to figure out how to set up my new blog dedicated to those photos.

photoblog.dinghome.net

On occasion, though, there will simply be more than one photo per day that I really wanna post.  Is it kosher to post more than one?  I’m assuming not for the time being… so here’s a lovely photo that made me very happy today.  Our 5.5yo Andrew helping himself to his 2nd (or was it his 3rd) helping of broccoli at dinner:

So for this year, I got myself a Christmas gift, something that I’ve held out on for a long, long time.. a “proper” camera, aka a digital SLR.

I picked up an older (ca. 2007) model, the Nikon D40, a highly-rated 6-MP 2.5fps light camera that has everything I think I’ll need for the foreseeable future, for the primary uses I have for it: family/kid/vacation photos and occasional landscape/portraiture.

This is an upgrade from the point-and-shoot models that we’ve had for years, including the most recent “bridge” ultra-zoom Panasonic DMC-FZ28 camera that I picked up on vacation as a replacement for a lost camera earlier this year.

Out of the box with the decent kit lens, the main advantage of the D40 over point-and-shoot cameras is its ability to take photos fast without hesitation or delay.  That was fun enough, but honestly, not really enough to fully justify the extra size & expense of an SLR.  But my first accessory, a 35mm (equiv. 50mm) f/1.8 “fast” prime lens, has made me love this camera.  It’s allowed me already to take a number of wonderful photos, in available light indoors (no flash) and with shallow depth of field, that I don’t think would’ve been possible with any of our previous cameras.  In addition, I picked up an SB-400 flash that enables me to use a bounce flash technique to avoid harsh glare when in situations requiring a flash.  Here are a few examples from just the past few days, that are my favorites.  Looking forward to more chances to snap & post on the blog.

39mm on kit lens, 1/60, f/7.1, ISO 1600 with bounce flash

35mm, f/1.8, 1/125, ISO 1600, no flash

35mm, f/1.8, 1/60, ISO 500, no flash

35mm, f/1.8, 1/60, ISO 1600, no flash

This last photo is one of my personal favorites.  Calissa was just lying back on my legs, as I was resting on the floor.  I picked up the camera and just started shooting and got this great shot of her beautiful big eyes.

35mm, f/1.8, 1/60, ISO 1400, no flash

UPDATE: Here’s a photo taken tonight (12/18) at our annual outing to San Jose’s Christmas in the Park feature.  If you look closely, Lois’s face is ever so slightly out of focus due to the very shallow depth of field (focus is on Bethany’s hat/face), but that’s a small price for capturing this shot with barely any ambient light (8:30pm, street lighting) and no flash.

35mm, f/1.8, 1/25, ISO 1600, no flash

It’s hard to believe that my baby just turned one.  It seemed like yesterday that she entered the world with much drama and shock.  It’s been a wonderful year with our sweet Bethany and I look forward to many more years with her.

Here’s the highlight of her birthday celebration today:

Bethany wearing her princess hat:

Bethany opening a present:

While we were busy chatting with our guests, Bethany pulled up on the coffee table and helped herself to someone else’s cake.  Sugar makes her very happy!