2010 was another busy year for everyone…. including my brother in law Jay who has done all of the Lot116 sites/blogs since day one. Along with his full time job, he also got married this past year. On top of that, his wife, Kristine, was offered a job at the Anthropologie headquarters in Philladelphia. An opportunity like that only comes once in a lifetime, so of course she took the job and moved to Philly (yes, a crazy way to start off your first year of marriage, but it has gone surprisingly well and they wanted to make sure that everything over there was a “go” before Jay up and moved over there as well). Things are going great for Kristine, so it looks like she will be in Philly for a while…..which also means that Jay will be following shortly. Because of that, my husband and I decided that rather than bugging Jay all the time (especially across the country), we should simplify the Lot116 site/blog so that we can 100% take care of things on our own. Jay has been amazing and has never charged us a penny for any work he has done, and we are so grateful that he spent countless hours helping us.

So anyway, check out the new Lot116 Photography site! We wanted to kick off 2011 with a new, fresh site, so here it is! It’s a work in progress but feel free to look around. Make sure you check out the Gallery for some of my favorite work, you may even catch yourself in it – Enjoy!

Ok, so this was NOT what I had planned for my holiday photo post this year. I had it all planned out, but 2 key elements were not on my side. The first being 6 days of straight rain. If you aren't from Southern California and maybe haven't seen or read about it.....it rained for 6 days straight here. Many roads were flooded, one of our sports stadiums looked like a swimming pool, cars were swept away, people were rescued, etc. So yeah, that was literally the RAIN on my parade ;) The second was that my awesome husband ordered my Christmas present last month and I was beyond excited for it to arrive.........

I had my eye on one of these couches for quite some time now (not only as a prop, but to actually use in our house as well)....but didn't want to be a copycat and get the same color as anyone I knew. When my friend Carey let me borrow her green one for mini sessions, I knew I had to have one. It was the perfect size (and fit perfectly into our SUV), wasn't too heavy, etc. When I dropped Carey's back off to her, we chit chatted for a while and I told her that I wished they made a yellow/gold/mustard colored one. I contacted the manufacturer and to my surprise, it was in the works!! So anyway, my amazing husband told me that it was my Christmas present and I had my whole holiday shoot envisioned, I just needed the sofa to arrive. During day 4-5 of the rainstorm, I was up at my sister's house and tracked the package via UPS...and the date changed to THAT DAY. I rushed home (keep in mind it was POURING out and I didn't want it to be left out in the rain) to make sure I was there for the delivery. Of course I was the last delivery of the day......and guess what.....only the ARMS of the sofa arrived.....and in the WRONG COLOR!! So there you have it. The main prop of the shoot didn't arrive as planned.....and honestly, due to all of the rain, it wouldn't have mattered because the field I had planned to take it to looked like Shrek's swamp.

As if the story couldn't be more of a fail, my last and final plan (plan B), I envisioned PJ standing in the POURING rain with an umbrella.  It was going to say "Hope you are showered with love this holiday season!". It was going to be perfect (or at least good enough)....so I thought. Well my niece and I quickly grabbed PJ an outfit, searched for that damn umbrella, grabbed the camera, etc....and I kid you not.....THE RAIN STOPPED. Not just drizzled or something....completely stopped. Yeah, it rained for 6 frickin' days STRAIGHT. Torrential downpour for days.....and of course the minute I WANT/need the rain.....it stopped. 

So there you have it. Lot116 holiday card post = FAIL!

Anyway, I hope you all have an amazing holiday! 

XOXO, 

Julie 

......and this year i'm excited to actually enjoy it more! I still can't believe it's December already. I swear the years fly by faster and faster every year! I LOVE this time of year though, and as usual, I couldn't wait to start decorating! We always decorate the day after Thanksgiving. We crank up the Christmas music, have a fire going and decorate in our pajamas. That's just how we roll in the Cruz household ;)  Each year I usually try and pick a theme for our tree. We've done robots, carousel animals, cameras/polaroids, etc. This year we did one that I actually wanted to do last year, but ran out of time and couldn't find the ornaments. I planned ahead this year and got exactly what I needed/wanted. So what is it? Alice in Wonderland! Nothing over the top or crazy, but still fun and cute. I was able to find a set of characters, cute little mushroom ornaments, spade/diamond/heart/club ornaments, etc and then bought a stack of cards (to represent the Queen's soldiers) and had showed my niece and PJ how to make them. Ideally we should have found a Mad Hatter hat for the top of the tree and maybe some red roses ("We're painting the roses red...."), but this will have to do for now :)  Anyway, here are some of our decorations (all UNedited pics - sorry....trying to really get a break here ;) haha).........

 

.....and I have to post PJ's cute wish list for Santa :) .......

Once again my sister outdid herself with another fabulous birthday party for one of her boys. This time it was a pirate party for Isaac's 4th birthday, complete with games like "Walk The Plank", "X marks the spot" (pin the X on the treasure map), a treasure hunt (complete with gold coins, jewels, messages in bottles, etc), decorate your own flag, a tattoo station, a treasure chest pinata, goodie bags with foam pirate swords and more!  I'm sure she'll do a more detailed blog post about the party soon, so i'll just post pics (since I know you landlubbers only care about photos around these parts ;) haha). Here are some *UNedited* photos from the party (it had rained that morning and it was pretty dark inside, but luckily later on the sun peeked out for a bit).......

Ok, so Macy (our pug) was supposed to be Robin, but of course a Robin costume in her size was nowhere to be found! :( It's ok though, a girl can never have too many Batman's (err Batmen?) in her life ;) Yes, miss PJ decided to be Batgirl this year. During this shoot she was so "in character" that I literally had to MAKE her smile...and she kept telling me that "Batgirl doesn't smile!!". She was sneaking around buildings in the most serious way, coming up with "Batgirl poses", etc. Hilarious. Oh and disclaimer: PJ must have had a growth spurt because that costume was NOT a mirco mini skirt when we got it a few months ago! Yeah, note to self: Try on the costume BEFORE you arrive at the shoot location ;) She WILL be wearing tights or leggings with it for school and trick or treating ;) hahaha.

Anyway, we've had a busy week and are going to have an even busier weekend, so have a wonderful and safe Halloween everyone!! :)