Kristie Serra Photography Blog »

That’s definitely the bumper sticker that I would proudly display on my car! I HEART that iphone of mine and especially since discovering two of my favorite new apps, Hipstamatic and ShakeItPhoto! Goodbye boring old cell phone images, HELLO fun and fabulous images! And, the icing on the cake? An inspiration challenge to leave the DSLR at home from Two Photogs (for photographers by photographers). The Two Photogs blog, which is a recent find for me, is such a great place to learn and grow as a photographer. I love that there are challenges and that I am able to connect with other photographers. So, fellow photographers, if you haven’t stopped by their blog, you should check it out! You’ll definitely be glad that you did!

Okay, so now, the challenge. I wasn’t allowed to touch my professional camera for this one and funny enough, my camera battery was completely out of juice, so I didn’t feel like I was neglecting it by using the iphone, just giving it time to rest and recharge (we all need that, right?)! We had such a blast exploring our new city and I have to say, I enjoyed not lugging the Nikon around! All the images below were taken with the Hipstamatic app on my iphone, no editing done, just pure fun straight out of the phone!

And, in honor of the iphone, I’ve decided to do a monthly post of our favorite iphone images. We took a vote as a family tonight, even Quigley got in on the action, and I’ve got some favorites ready to share tomorrow. I just thought it would be a fun and different way share my nutty little family on the blog!

Thank you Brandy and Danna for this fun challenge!!

Blogging about Chronicle Books has been on my list of things to do, but then I just realized that from now until January 31st, they will donate 20% of the sales earned on every single book sold on ChronicleBooks.com, Irreference.com, and KnockKnockStuff.com to the American Red Cross to aid the Haiti relief efforts, so I had to get crackin’. This is such a great opportunity to help those affected by the earthquake!

At the end of last year, I made a promise to myself and to my kiddos that I would journal more about their childhood. These days, my brain seems to be limited on space and I was afraid that I’d forget the little (and BIG) things that happen in our day-to-day life. So, in an effort to keep that promise, I purchased these super easy and fun to use books from Chronicle Books:

My Quotable Kid: a parent’s journal of unforgettable quotes
School Years: a family keepsake of school memories
Happy Birthday to Me: a keepsake album of celebrations

They have so many more wonderful journals and albums like these on their website as well as books for grown-ups and kiddos and lots of cool gifts too! No need to feel guilty for doing a little shopping when any purchases made by January 31st will help in the Haiti recovery effort! So, hop on over: http://www.chroniclebooks.com/ and start shopping!

My dear fabulous friend, who is the amazing designer behind these fabulous clothes and this crafty creation has just opened up her Etsy store, Georgia Grace Designs, to raise money for Haiti. Her Spring Collection, i HEART you, is beyond ADORABLE and 15% of her sales will be donated to the Heartline Ministries to aid in the recovery from the Earthquake in Haiti.

Please help to spread the word and when you have a moment, stop by the Georgia Grace Design Shop to fall in love with some lovely Spring goodies!

I should WARN EVERYONE first that this just might GROSS YOU OUT (especially if you are a germaphobe at heart), but if you can get past the gross factor, you just might laugh or appreciate a new side of art that you’ve never seen before or would have never considered as art. So, “what is it?” you ask, well, it’s a wall of gum that surrounds the Market Theater in Seattle. As you can imagine, it’s Pike Place Market’s more unusual attractions. We stumbled upon it while playing tourist recently. The gum graffiti began in the early 1990s, when theater patrons waiting in line for a show discovered this odd way to pass the time.

It’s truly mesmerizing and yes, gross too! We spent at least thirty minutes finding images, messages and symbols on the wall. Before we left, we each added a little extra color to it and then we sanitized ourselves from head to toe. Ha!

M. and A.’s favorite find of the day! The are slightly obsessed with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles right now!

We skipped through the city (which is a great workout by the way or I’m just really out of shape – both could be true)!

And, we were on the hunt for S’s. It was a great day!

Today she has declared it her forty-ninth birthday (and mentioned that all future birthdays will be her 49th as well)! Oh, how my heart aches that I am not there to celebrate her birthday. All I can say is thank heavens for Skype! There will definitely be some birthday wishes made over skype today!

If you can’t tell already, I am a total momma’s girl! And, if it were up to me, we’d go back to a Friday night in the 80’s to celebrate where we’d be watching Dallas (remember that show?), eating popcorn and taking turns scratching each others backs! It was my favorite night of the week and the only night I was allowed to stay up late. *Sigh*, the good old days!

I thought I’d leave you with some of my favorite images of the birthday girl… Wasn’t she the cutest? She actually still is though! Make sure you all hug your mom today if you can!

Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you to the moon and back! ♥

I found this little tune on fellow photographer, Tara Whitney’s, blog a few months ago. She’s always so great about spreading joy! It was just after our move and I was having a sad moment. Listening to this happy tune, instantly put a smile on my face, so I’ve kept it in my back pocket for moments like those. It always does the trick too! I had it playing today and thought I needed to share it!

I hope it puts a smile on your face! Enjoy!

…who had a lot of curls
All around his forehead;
When he was good, he was very, very good,
And when he was bad, WATCH OUT!!

This is something I remember my mom saying to me a lot when I was little (the girl version, of course).  I love that we’ve let the boys’ hair grow, I love their curls and I love that I can now say the same thing to them!

What a memorable year it was!  I’ve experienced such joy and have truly been inspired from the families that have allowed me into their hearts.  I hope the year ahead continues to bring wonderful memories to you all.  Many thanks for your continued support in following my dream!

And so, without further ado, I’d like to present the 2009 year-in-review slideshow!

xo,
Kristie

Our New Year’s celebrations have certainly tamed down over the years, but they couldn’t be more perfect for our family!  This year we brought in the new year playing game after game (until I fell fast asleep by 10, while my twins and hubby made it until midnight).  We have a new favorite game that came in the mail just a week ago.  One of my amazing (and very fabulous and crafty) friends made us a very own custom Matching Game.  It’s your traditional matching game, where you match pictures, but the pictures happen to be of some of our favorite friends!  We LOVE to play and the boys especially love to look at all of their friends!  It was such a FUN way to celebrate 2010!

Edited to add: I’ve been asked where to purchase these and as soon as my AMAZING friend decides to sell this custom Matching Game, I will let everyone know, promise!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that Buddy the Elf made it into our Matching Game!  I don’t think it would be the same without him.  Ha!

Dearest J Sizzle, thank you for bringing us such FUN!!!  You are truly amazing and beyond fabulous!!!  xoxoxo

Celebrating our first Christmas in Seattle couldn’t go undocumented!  Scarfs, hats and sock monkeys were gathered for my little bag of tricks.  Each family member got to choose props for their kooky-christmas-hot-cocoa-mug-shot.  This is definitely a tradition that I plan to continue (here’s hoping the family continues to go along with it)–what fun it will be to look through the years at all of our kookiness!

Together we made two Pat’s, two Matt’s, two aunts, two uncles, two dogs and five cousins.