Kelle, Author at Enjoying the Small Things

Wildflower Fascinators

June 15, 2015 By Kelle

Make Wildflower Crowns is always on our summer bucket list, but we’re pumping it up this year, taking inspiration from British royalty and turning our wildflower crowns into fascinators. Actually, we have a fancy tea planned in Michigan this summer and I was looking for hats for the girls and decided we’d make fascinators instead. I still wanted a soft and summery feel, so we went the wildflower route–silk because real ones wouldn’t make it in our suitcase.

They were super easy to make. Bigger kids could probably make them on their own (calls for a glue gun), and littler kids can at least assist in the designing phase.

Materials needed:

Cut a piece of mesh tulle (which will stick out or hang over fascinator depending on the look you want) to desired length. Fold a few pleats into it and hot glue into place on stiff felt circle, leaving plenty of tulle to hang off the edge.

Design floral arrangement, overlaying leaves and flowers and hot gluing into place as you work.

I handled the hot glue gun, but Lainey enjoyed creating the layout of her fascinator and telling me where to glue.

Try headband on and play around with where to place the felt circle to achieve desired look. When you have it how you like it, hot glue felt circle onto headband. The circle adheres better and stays put on thicker headbands.

Now look in the mirror and smile, dahling.

Her my-dad’s-trying-to-make-me-laugh-but-I’m-not-going-to face.

Fancy, fancy.

I wanted to make a natural fascinator, so I went foraging around our yard and found some greenery and a few flowers from bushes that turned into a fun one with a bit of a Carmen Miranda twist. It would be cute with a white dress for a tropical party. Or, better yet, to walk around the house, sip lemonade and feel fabulous.

Real flowers are a little heavier and I wanted to weave the stems in before hot gluing, so I used a canvas circle (found in needlepoint/crosstitch aisles of craft stores) cut to 3.5 inches.

I poked a few flowers in to create a base (you may need to cut open the canvas grid in a few places for larger stems).

And then filled in the rest with the hot glue gun to secure everything…

…clipped all the stems off the back, and glued a felt backing before securing to headband.

Now we’ll have to make tea and twirl. Twist my arm.

48 Creative Ways to Capture Water Fun this Summer

June 11, 2015 By Kelle

One toe in the shallow end of summer, one dive into my favorite photo book this season and one scroll through the Instagram feeds I follow and it’s clear: summer is photogenic. The vibrant hues of this season pop against blue sky, and water backdrops transform everyday scenes into paintings. Turquoise pools, rippled ponds and clouds of mist catching sunlight at the local water park all make my heart skip a beat. But sometimes capturing it in photos isn’t easy–our creativity hits a rut.

The above photos all present the same perspective: people in water, smiling at the camera, same angle, same story. Lovely, yes…but there are so many other ways to tell a summer story with photos–to capture color and childhood, freedom and fun, relaxation and warmth. Change it up:

Basking in that dreamy feeling, I dug through some photo archives this week to pull out tips for taking creative water photographs this summer. Whether it’s in the pool, off the lake or spraying the hose from the front lawn, there are a number of ways to dive into the challenge of taking water photos. Here are 48:

1. Shoot from Above.
Pool photos take on a whole new look when you get high enough (or have a lens with a wide enough angle) to surround your subject completely with water.

2. Looking In the Water
Capture that half in-half out exploration mode (think snorkeling) by getting as level with the water as you can.

3. Looking Out the Water
You don’t have to have an underwater camera housing to get underwater photos. In still, clear water you can shoot down at a subject just under the surface. My kids open their eyes underwater, but this would be just as cute with goggles.

4. Add Bubbles
Bring bubbles in the pool or to the beach–your kids will love it–and capture soapy rainbows against water–it’s gorgeous!

5. Include Pool Tiles in Photos
So many beautiful patterns and colors that add interesting lines to photos like these blue-green beauties.

6. Jumping In
The proverbial summer photo. Off a dock, from a diving board, into a wave, a pool, a lake, the ocean. Nothing says summer like arms-in-the-air and clouds-in-the-sky.

7. Coming Up for Air

8. Pool Caps
This is one of my favorite summer photos. Wearing some retro beach wear not only keeps your hair dry, but it adds some colorful summer style.

Our favorite swim caps: flower swim cap (like above), another flower swim cap, comfy reversible swimcap from Hanna Andersson (made from bathing suit material), stripe ruched bathing cap

9. Just the Feet
Baby feet in water. Enough said.

10. Funky Angles
Go ahead and get a crooked horizon. Get in the water, bend and stretch and play around with perspective. You might just capture summer in a way that brings smiles for years.

11. Baby Got Back…float

12. Get Level with the Pool and take a Profile Shot.

13. Under the Boardwalk
Piers and boardwalks are one of my camera’s muses. And this photo will always be one of my favorite summer shots.

14. Esther Williamseque: Synchronized Swimming Legs

15. From Where I Lie…in the water

16. Bright Pool Floats.
Since water can’t wear jewelry, we bring it accessories in the form of happy pool floats, the brighter the better.

Want to see some awesome pool floats that make your photographs drip with color and summer style?

Our faves: donut pool float, watermelon pool float, pretzel pool float, giant swan, rainbow pool float (love this one!)

17. Through the Fountain

18. How Low Can You Go?
Squat down, lie down, get low, low, low to see the beach in a whole new way. Think of it this way. If you were a crab with a camera, what would you see?

19. Zoom In!
Ten points for capturing drippy eyelashes, five for drippy cheeks, three for wet hair.

20. Reflection of…
Capture pool/lake/ocean in the opposite direction–the reflection of it in a window, a sliding glass door or reflective sunglass lenses.

21. From the Pool Steps
Switch it up from taking photos from outside the pool into the pool.

22. Water Ripple Circles…like tree bark rings

23. Wedgie in the Water
Baby’s gonna sport one some time this summer. Grab your camera.

24. Depth of Field
Focus on something different than the subject’s face in the water–feet sticking up, a pail and shovel in the sand, a starfish–but still get people in the background scene. It tells a different kind of story.

25. The Whole Scene
Back up, back up, back up. Use a wide angle lens (or phone camera) to survey the entire landscape. This is the cover of the summer coffee table that lives in your head.

26. Get Goggle-eyed
Keep the goggles on for the pictures. Goggles equal childhood summer.

27. Feet in Shoreline
This is a great way to capture a baby + mama photo if you’re holding the camera.

28. The Big Splash

29. From Below
Bottom of the dock, in the boat, under the diving board. Shoot upwards from the water for an entirely different look at summer.

30. Outdoor Shower (rig your hose and do it in your own backyard!)

31. Add Flowers
Float some wildflowers in the water and swim in them, wear flower crowns when you swim.

32. Water Toys
Don’t forget to photograph the little toys–the boats, the mermaids, the Nemos, the colorful pails and shovels.

33. Blankets in the Sand

34. Hair Flinging
Fun photos to take! My kids do this, ask to see the camera, laugh at the product, and want to do it all over again.

35. Hot Tub Bubbles
Love the white foam that shows up in our hot tub photos.

36. Through the Window
I love the juxtaposition of an inside watching/outside swimming story.

37. Out of Focus

38. Shoreline Sunset Silhouettes

39. The Dad Throw
It’s a summer proper noun.

No Pool? No Beach? No Lake? No Problem.

40. Kiddie Pool
Think a kiddie pool is too small to make splash? Lainey would beg to differ.

41. Pull Out the Hose

42. Car Wash
In your own driveway…or hit the local quarter car wash–your kids will have a blast.

43. Rain Droplets on Plants/Flowers

44. Mud Puddles

45. From the Hose’s Perspective

46. Rainboots in Puddles

47. Drinking Fountain

48. Water Balloons

Creative Inspiration, Disguised but Breathing

June 8, 2015 By Kelle

I wanted to write all day today. Felt all these feelings, had the words for them, knew exactly what Ruth Stone was talking about when she felt the urge to grab a pen and run after a poem, pulling it by the tail before it found another poet. But my kids needed me–all of me.

So I waved to the poem and nodded to the inspiration. I let it storm through me and heard it slam the door like it was leaving. I threw a pen to another poet. I said good luck. I didn’t worry about what was lost or if it would return because I’ve learned the secrets of this inspiration. It pretends to leave–makes a big fuss like it’s breaking up with me, begging me to chase it, wanting me to feel like it will never come back. It’s all a hard-to-get game, and I’m on to it. Not falling for it. I know you’re there, Inspiration. There’s no sand timer on your magic. You’ll wait if I tell you to wait. You’re part of me–you can’t leave.

It didn’t leave. It laid low for a bit–part of its game plan–but I trusted it was still there and, sure enough, felt it breathing late this afternoon, spun into a different kind of poem it hadn’t intended being.

Nella’s tutor came to work with her, so I nudged Lainey and Dash outside to get out of the way. Lainey grabbed a writing prompt book her grandpa Brian got her for her birthday along with a notebook and pen. “Let’s write together outside,” she said. And for an hour, we sat under the hot sun in rickety beach chairs, watching Dash ride trikes Flintstone-style and trading stories initiated by kid prompts. You’re an astronaut on a spaceship. Describe your perfect day in space. You find a bone in a parking lot. Finish the story. Listen to your surroundings right now. Describe the first sound you hear. There’s a fortune teller in the window. What happens?

My pen moved fast across the page, powered by the inspiration that humbly returned to the scene. I knew you’d come. Nice to see you.

She read her versions–somersaulting on spaceships, gasping at the discovery of dinosaur bones in the Costco parking lot, listening to bird whistles–and I read mine, both our stories manifestations that Inspiration is a beating heart already in us, waiting to be heard–not a fleeting outside source that sweeps in and out, taunting us in a chase to catch it.

It won’t always look like what you thought it would.

Like tonight. When I passed duties to Brett and ran to the office to have some alone time. The kids whined and the frustrations built and the dinner plans folded and the starry-eyed wedding aisle gaze was nowhere to be found. And love and romance and all the reasons we chose each other are hard to find–wanting me to feel like they’ll never come back.

It’s all a hard-to-get game, and I’m on to it. Scarcity. Not falling for it.

I know you’re there, Inspiration. There’s no sand timer on your magic. You’re part of me.

It won’t always look like what you thought it would be. Not the South Beach weekends we enjoyed with no kids. And hell, not the movies.

But sure enough, it’s there, and if I listen, I can feel it breathing, spun into midlife family poems.

We can write all different kinds of poems, giving Inspiration versatility, well-roundedness.
Today, we write poems of summer afternoons with watermelon in sticky hands.

And strong-willed boys begging to climb…

…but, thank God, resting too.

We write about little family joys that mean just as much, if not more, as big life things…like three lemonade glasses sitting beside the pool.

Homemade pizza parties.

And lemonade stands.

Treasured smiles…

Late night swims.

We write about our own childhood wonder that reignites, thanks to our kids, thirsty for the world.

We write about how we never thought we’d be here…but we are…and we’re so happy we’re learning things we never knew we needed to know.

And we nudge that Inspiration, show it who’s boss.
Tonight, romance looks like two tired parents, an open couch, and a recorded episode of Naked and Afraid (we’re obsessed). But inspiration’s still breathing, spinning its magic, even when we fall asleep ten minutes in. Don’t get too excited. Naked and Afraid is a Discovery channel show.