It’s becoming very clear to me that I can not be the typical wedding photography blog{ger}. Most of my energy & time is spent being a mama, especially as I’ve cut back the number of weddings I photograph {to spend more time being a mama}. Everyone says that you should blog what you like, and even though I do like love my job {and will continue to blog beautiful weddings}, it’s not the only thing in my life. I’m realizing that the reason why I find it so cumbersome to blog my work is because I am not sharing what I’m most passionate about. Although I created a personal blog, it was hard to separate what is only professional & what belonged there. For me, it’s the little details that I sometimes want to share the most. Like playing around with thyme & shaping cursive letter A’s…

Some of you might have noticed some layout & category changes I’ve made to my blog. I’d love to unroll a new design as well, but I am in transition & just want to test the waters a bit before I commit to a new “face.” I’ve begun to optimize your experience by separating my blog into three easy to find categories. You can now find the personal posts {plus some posts from my personal blog now added to this one}, “Sweet Threads” in one category on the top menu. Weddings & Portraits in the “Weddings” link, and “DIY” projects in that link.

If you enjoy all of the posts, you can just always click on the “Home” link or www.andreadozier.com/blog where everything is found in one place.

Thanks so much for your sweet support & feedback! Please feel free to let me know what you think! ♥

* I think that quote I used in the photograph was written by another Andrea {clearly a *little* biased} but I couldn’t help but like it.  ”She is confident, honest, loyal, protective of what she has, strong, artistic, beautiful inside and out, excellent lover. A tower of strength for those she cares for, the rock to her family.” -The meaning of Andrea from the Urban Dictionary

Fred & Sally, thanks so much for being sticking out the weather! Best wishes to you two! ♥

It seems that as soon as one project is complete the next one is alarmingly obvious.
Or maybe it’s just been so exciting to see this home transform we can’t wait until it all feels finished.
And wouldn’t it be so nice if this were here or that could be replaced with something more stylish?

Sometimes I’m so focused on how I want things to be,
I forget to be thankful for where we are.

Today I woke up with new eyes.
Our little cottage is the most comforting & cozy of any place we’ve lived in these last eight years.
As I did morning chores I treasured it even more.
Broken stones in some of the flowerbeds? Yes.
Garage door that needs to be replaced? Yes.
Flowers that I’ve tried to grow, but haven’t quite found their place? Yes.

Learning to balance ambition with contentment is a mystery.
One I’ve been pondering over multiple cups of coffee today.
Everything is on the tip of blooming & maybe there is something wonderful in just knowing it’s almost time for it to happen.
At least there is encouragement in seeing how far it all has come…

The white phlox below {left} were originally planted in too much shade. I moved them & I’m crossing my fingers they’ll recover.
The ones on the right were planted in better light & faring much better.

I’ve been watching for our peonies all spring and they will bloom soon.
We were excited this rhododendron seemed happy where Rocky planted it & is still thriving. I love the shape.
Happy rainy spring day ♥

We did them at her house & it’s a very special place… where I had sleepovers, hayrides with bonfires, & even attended weddings in their beautiful garden.
Under this arch that her mama always thought looked like a heart, we could feel her love & even capture her lovely spirit in some photographs.

Much love to you Amber, you gorgeous graduate! ♥

MUA – Ruby’s Traveling Beauty Show

Beautiful Styling – Amber & her sisters Sarah & Leslie

My boys are feeling so much better & my husband is getting back this weekend from New York… I’ll be tackling my very neglected inbox.
My apologies to those of you waiting for emails!

I started baking early in the week, to give myself plenty of time to bake & decorate this cake that would be so perfect for my six year old, Kevin. He adores Krakens. He always loved Finding Nemo as a toddler & that grew into a wild fascination with underwater creatures. Especially squids & sharks. For some reason, the squids have been an obsession for a long time. When I found this cake on Pinterest, it was unanimous that this was “the one” to make. Before I even begin, I have to give Vina Jafar a lot of credit. She made her version based on a drawing. I had my iPad out at all times & made mine based on every step she had photographed from her own cake. I think it takes a lot of creativity & admiration to bake a cake from three dimensional from a drawing. I clearly took her design as my bible.
Major love goes out to Vina & the beautiful creation, “Long Journey.”  If you look closely, her details {especially her ship} are phenomenal!

I documented most of the major steps through photography. My mom always enjoys the process of how something is created, so I hope you enjoy this

It all started with a six eight inch layer cake. I was nervous about carving into it since it was my first time, but I really enjoyed this part & it was one of my favorite steps!

After letting the cake defrost overnight, I noticed that it was leaning forward… in the worst possible way! It looked like the heavy, carved part of cake would make it fall forward. After taking Kevin to school {a 45 min round trip} & grabbing a cup of coffee, I decided think about my options. I had a small pep talk with myself & finally concluded that even if I had to dress up a couple cake dummies in fondant, everything would be ok.

CAKE DUMMIES!

First I cut a rough wedge in a 2 inch cake dummy {no measuring or fancy estimations… just winging it}. Then I covered the newly cut Styrofoam with Crisco so that the pieces wouldn’t get in the cake. I moved the cake to rest on the cake dummy wedge & began trimming the front down even further. Instead of carefully carving like I did the day before, it was all quick & drastic chopping to remove some of the weight. Then I did another coat of buttercream before I rolled the fondant.
I’m tired & stressed just re-capping this part of the story! It definitely felt like a Tim Gunn “make it work” situation.

Here is the more polished coverage of the cake baking process from that week… that thankfully… went a lot smoother!

After saving the leaning cake, I let the buttercream dry a bit too much. Since I’m not a professional baker, {I figured the guests would forgive me}, I did something on a whim… sprayed the cake with Baking Spray to get the fondant to stick. I don’t really know if it helped, but I felt more optimistic after I did it!

The fondant was probably rolled too thick, so when I covered the cake it instantly weighed it down {as you can see the dowel rods poking out}. My husband, Rocky, cut them later for me. The next step was to make fondant & gumpaste kraken parts & extra waves. Then I attached them to the cake with icing. I liked it in all white and would love to do another cake sculpture with a modern style in the future.

On Vina’s site, she uses a food marker to make her lines. I tried that, but it didn’t go very well. Maybe because the food marker was 3 years old? My solution was to mix extra buttercream icing with piping gel & dip that in vanilla extract to make it thin enough to paint with. It wasn’t ideal, but I was happy to have a relatively easy way to add dark lines.

Painting was a bit stressful, I kept wanting to be further on this cake than I actually was. Around this time, Kevin told me he found a flower more beautiful than roses. I asked him to pick one for me… and this gave me new inspiration to keep going. It helped me remember why I wanted to make him something he would like that would be unique to him!

I had never used food spray paint, and I was excited & nervous to do it! Especially because I had accidentally fallen in love with the {imperfect} Dr. Suess style of the painted lines on the waves. I didn’t know if I even wanted blue waves, but I had already bought the materials & decided to go for it. I honestly would leave it alone or spray even more delicately if I did this cake {or one similar} the next time.
For his party, I made a boats to hang above the cake as if they were the ones that sailed in safer waters.
You can find the complete DIY on how to make these beautiful paper mache boats {out of cereal boxes!} on Ann Wood Handmade’s blog. She also sells way more beautiful versions than the ones I made

 This year he actually had a decorated cake {unlike last year when I ran out of time}!
Thanks for reading this extra long post ♥

This is a shot of Kevin playing with the cake & putting his Pirates of the Caribbean legos on it

“Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease {HFMD} is a common viral illness that usually affects infants and children younger than 5 years old. However, it can sometimes occur in adults. Symptoms of hand, foot, and mouth disease include fever, blister-like sores in the mouth (herpangina), and a skin rash.” -Centers for Disease Control & Prevention website.

On different days, both boys came down with a 101 degree fever, showed signs of malaise, and spent the day in bed {on the couch}. Then their fevers broke & they were in better spirits, but the rash started in a day or two. In Damian, it was on his mouth, diaper area, & calves. Blisters appeared on his hands & feet too. It has taken about a solid week to see his blisters & rash go away. We didn’t think to separate the boys since we had hoped that Kevin was old enough to not get it & he was exposed to it at the same time as Damian but didn’t get sick. A few days after it started for Damian, Kevin had the same fever. It seemed his body fought it better & he only had a small rash on his hands. They resemble hives since they didn’t blister like Damian’s. Both boys were fortunate to not get them in their mouths, I hear that causes a lot more drooling {one of the main ways it is spread is through saliva} & pain when they eat {causing dehydration in some cases}.

Virgin Coconut Oil can be found in the vitamin section of most large grocery stores and looks like vegetable shortening. A little spoonful in bathwater helped keep Damian’s skin creamy & soft without applying lotions that could irritate his rash & blisters. Some say it is antiviral too.
It’s an ingredient in my organic shampoo & I plan to use it on my skin too!

Homemade Soup. I used as many fresh herbs as I could find {rosemary, thyme, & sage} and also added garlic to chicken broth with a small can of cream of chicken. I pureed some carrots & let it cook on medium heat until the carrot was nice & soft. Damian ate this really well & it was so encouraging to see him get some food & nourishment during his rough days. Kevin, on the hand, runs in the other direction from carrots! I was thankful his body fought most of it off naturally!

The boys loved pudding, yogurt, & popsicles. Definitely a delicious way to get some nutrients.

Most of the reading material on HFMD says to avoid citrus juices or anything that would irritate sores in the mouth.
PediaSure chocolate milk was something Damian drank when he couldn’t eat.

I couldn’t choose a photograph so this one has two
Damian {pictured} was pretty quiet for several days. I was a human pillow as we did lots of extra cuddling, I let him sleep with me at night, & he played with my iPhone A LOT. Anything I could do to distract him helped us buy time until his body started to recover. We also let him take long baths {with added Coconut Oil}. Just before the tide turned, his brother Kevin walked into the bathroom & started blowing bubbles from Easter at Damian in the tub. My first instinct was to remind Kevin that we don’t play with bubbles in the house. Then one look at Damian’s face brightening & I told him to keep doing it & grabbed my camera.
We had a REAL bubble bath.
And there were many smiles instead of tears.

Now we are just about in the clear & I expect Kevin to go back to school in the morning. After the fevers, the hardest challenge was being quarantined in the house so we didn’t spread it. Rocky was only home a couple days before he had to leave for another trip, so I’ve been having lots of “quality time” with these boys of mine.
I’m excited to celebrate their recovery with some ice cream soon. With sprinkles of course. ♥

Do you have any useful home remedies or tips to add?

My favorite article {that I found on Pinterest} & resource for most of these recommendations is Natural Remedies for Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease by Justyn at Modern Alternative Mama

Images & Design © Andrea Dozier 2012

As a young girl I always looked forward to getting a new outfit for Easter, my basket of candy, & taking pictures with my family. Everyone else always hated wearing their church clothes so long, but I loved it. Growing up with so many brothers & sisters ensured that I was just as comfortable playing wiffle ball in a field as I was wearing dresses & medias  {what my mom called “tights”. Sadly, that’s the extent of my Spanish vocabulary}.

We spent Easter with my family & Rocky made it home from his trip in the early hours of Easter morning to join us in Findlay.

I love children’s books and collecting them {not hoarding} is something I have a weakness for. I can not take any credit for teaching Kevin to read {his amazing school & teacher have that honor} but I do hope that I pass along my pure fascination for stories & illustrations. I love nothing more than a beautiful book or an intriguing story… and especially Beatrix Potter tales at Easter!

Staying up to see Rocky on Easter Eve put a little twist on our day, so the boys didn’t get their baskets until sunset.
Kevin asked why they didn’t get them in the morning & I had to explain that sometimes our family does things out of order.

Abby & I laughed when we saw each others’ inadvertent matching dresses {we are missing my oldest sister in this picture}.My parents and all of my brothers.Fresh naps & happy to be together again.
My handsome little mans {partners in crime}.

It wouldn’t be fitting today if I didn’t wish my mother-in-law, Mary, a very happy 50th Birthday!
The boys both picked up a infection from the festivities & we are keeping close to home so that we don’t spread this very contagious virus.
Rock’s mom brought us some groceries this morning & saved the day! Can’t wait until the boys feel better & we can celebrate with everyone!
Here she is with Damian at Kevin’s birthday party. ♥

We baked chocolate chip muffins & Kevin requested popcorn with extra butter for our little egg decorating picnic. I brought out some of my favorite Easter books & Kevin read them while I set up the table {my husband’s makeshift utility table for cutting drywall… I want him to make one for our dining room & he laughs at me}. Damian ate all the chocolate chips & none of the muffins. His brother had to paint with little fingers always ready to steal the eggs, but he was a good sport. Kevin picked the tulips from our yard & even styled them for me. My soon to be two year old also painted the three gold eggs… I can’t even describe what it’s like to see Kevin & Damian get so excited about becoming little artists! ♥

Kevin’s birthday party was a lot of fun as well, there will definitely be pictures coming soon!

I’ll close with some black & white images from our day! ♥

I’m so excited for these two! Will managed a stealth-sneak-into-town & surprise his longtime girlfriend, Myranda with a visit after not seeing each other for months!
He also brought a pretty ring & a plan to ask her to marry him.
Their friends & family got to witness the beautiful scene as their surprise reunion + engagement took place.
Before he had to go back to his base in Florida they wanted to have some engagement portraits taken.
I’m so happy these pretty blooms held on long enough for us to have them in the picture ♥

Here goes nothing…

Of course, I made a Pinterest Board all things DIY Pirate Party, ships, & cakes with krakens {my inspiration for the cake can be found here}.
As you can see, I’ll be a little MIA this week.♥