J Cooper Photography

Remember my letter wall inspiration???  I finally got around to getting all those crazy letters up on my wall (and I finally have my dining room table back!)  This was a SUPER fun project!  I collected letters from Jo-Anns, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Home Goods, and my own basement (it’s always best to shop your basement first).  I had a wire letter “C” on one of my bookcases, a big black “S” stashed away for little man’s room, and a host of mismatched cursive letters from a mishap with a project for the girls’ room (I had planned to spell out their names and then broke a couple of the letters…oops!)

The letters are made up of all different materials:  wood, chipboard, cardboard, metal, etc.  And I love that they are all different thickness too!  Most of the wooden ones got a coat or two of paint and the cardboard and chipboard letters got decopaged with scrapbook papers.  Some lucky letters got the combo package (paint AND paper) and few of them got hung straight on the wall AS IS.  That cute letter “M” was on the clearance shelf at Home Goods, the orange “B” sitting lonely in an antique mall, and letter “W” was already handsome as a leather paper weight. 

I used double stick velcro to attach most of them to the wall.  Easy Peasy.  But don’t expect to be able to reposition them…unless you are handy with a paintbrush

For me the hardest part was the layout.  They looked better on the floor…getting them onto the wall in the same configuration was making me completely cross-eyed!

I debated where to hang them…over our couch…even contemplated them in a wall in our dining room.  But I eventually settled on our downstairs family room right over the massive green toy cart.  They are the first thing you see when you come down the stairs and they are a very HAPPY touch!

When I got the latest Pottery Barn Kids catalog…I KNEW I was cool.  THIS wall is a bit more eclectic than mine…but they must have gotten wind of my little project, don’t you think?  Surely they’ll be sending me a major gift certificate to use in leiu of my fabulous idea, right?  HA!  I wish I could claim it but I’ve seen this idea plastered all over blog world!

So GO FORTH and alphabet your space!  And then send me a linky-do so I can see your fun project too!

It has been a LONG week without computer access.  Wow.  You don’t realize your dependency on the dumbuter until you don’t have one for an entire week!  We had an attack of a serious virus here at our house (electronic virus that is) and it wiped out my hard drive.  Praise the Lord for Carbonite is all I can say!

We are back up and running!  You’d think I would have billions of images to share…but quite frankly…I’ve been so busy with my Matilda Jane gig I’ve hardly had time to breath.  I think I am starting to take orders in my sleep!  And while it has been fun (and is helping us with our “Get Daniel Home Fund” I am not cut out to be a trunk keeper.  That is hard work folks! 

So I’ll share a couple of snapshots from our weekend.  We attended a fancy wedding at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral which brought back a flood of college performances and acquantences.  The girls had such fun seeing a wedding in a cathedral and were the hit of the party

The reception was at a beautiful house near the Country Club Plaza and the girls spent the evening doing 3 things: 

1.  Chasing the servers around the house stealing carrot sticks

2.  Cuttin’ a rug on the dance floor

3.  Squatting on top of all of the floor registers and laughing hysterically when their dresses bellowed out and looked like round little ottomans :)  They started a “register revolution”…even grown women could be found throughout the evening squatting over the vents and giggling!  And they didn’t even get paid for their nightly entertainment

The Matilda Jane shows continue throughout the week…we are still waiting on court dates…school starts in 10 days…and I’ve got a number of household projects up my sleeve that involve pillows and paint.  Never a dull moment here

I’ll be back with more when I can master all the new settings on my computer!

I’m hosting the FIRST Matilda Jane Trunk show in Kansas City this weekend!  Would you like to come???

This season’s collection is called “FIELD TRIP” and the pieces are absolutely gorgeous!  Plus…there is a lot of possibility for mixing and matching with last year’s line!

Want to see the line??  Visit www.matildajaneclothing.com for details!

It was only 156* outside when we took these images…and so humid that I couldn’t keep my lens from fogging!

But the clothes were so beautiful (and somehow despite it all the kids were insanely cooperative) so we didn’t mind

There will be plenty of FUN and FOOD at the party…if you want details about ordering or stopping by to join the festivities…EMAIL ME at info@jcooperphotography.com

Everyone who attends will have the opportunity to earn a FREE FALL MINI SESSION!!

And don’t forget about the fun DOOR PRIZES!

ARE YOU COMING???

We have a choice in life whether we’ll keep the things God has given us tightly bound to ourselves…or if we’ll give them away.  Sometimes it’s hard.  Sometimes the giving comes easy.  But I’m finding that as I work to give things away…I’m not losing a piece of myself.  I’m gaining love.  And that is the exactly how God designed it.  And it feels so beautiful!

It started with a simple plan.  Invite my niece to come to Kansas City for a freebie senior portrait session with her favorite photographer (that’s me people…she doesn’t live here so she doesn’t know any better!)  We had fantastic plans that included a morning session downtown and a rural session in the evening.  Two perfectly planned picture ops sandwiching plenty of eating out and shopping.   The weather cooperated, my children behaved themselves (mostly…we won’t mention the head butting couch incident that almost required stitches), and the weekend turned out just as I had planned.

Except for one thing.  I didn’t give anything away.  Not my time.  Not my talent.  Nuthin.  Zilch.  Zip. Nada.

Because this beautiful girl…with the gorgeous strawberry hair and piercing green eyes…gave me something much bigger than a session on a Saturday morning…she gave me her heart.

Determined, successful, funny, smart…the list goes on and on.  We share a love for the violin.  She plans to venture off to my very own college stomping grounds.  This girl with a song pulsing just under the surface is going to take the world by storm!  She came to see me perform with the symphony when I was in college.  I wore a giant red dress and she sat near the front of the auditorium.  She claimed I was the “Bravest Woman Alive”.  Later when her family moved to Kansas City she studied the violin with me.  (I know I am a bit of a closet violinist here on the blog…but I did do my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin).  I can’t say that I was the inspiration for her song.  But it connected us in a way that I hope will always keep us close.  I have big BIG plans for this beautiful girl.  I can’t wait for the world to hear her play!

And if the music thing falls through…probably she ought to model for Calvin Klein don’t you think?

I’d love to show you all of the 495 images we took this weekend.  Because at least 493 of them turned out amazingly.  But this tired girl is paying the price of keeping up with teenagers and this is all the editing I can muster up for one evening!

Lex…you are beautiful.  Keep playing your heart out and giving it away and your life will be full and rich.  We are so proud of you!