JESSIKA REED

Hip & Simple Creativity

Shmappy Shmalloween

My husband is hilarious. He makes me laugh every single day. I will never forget this costume! It was really fun helping him get it ready and putting all of the little touches together that make it so great! This was 100% his idea and I don’t know where he comes up with this stuff! The hair shows his great commitment to being awesome! Hope you have a Happy Halloween!

Seahorse Jacket!

A couple of weeks ago we were watching one of our favorite shows, How I Met Your Mother, when one of the characters walks out in a seahorse sweater!I love seahorses and so naturally I automatically fell in love and had to find it. I searched and searched online and finally found it… for only $335. That is outrageous, even if I had the money to spend that amount on a cardigan, I just don’t think I would.
I didn’t think I could make it but then decided to at least try. I found a cute purple zip up jacket, with thumb holes in the wrist of the sleeve, and it was only $9 from Walmart. I went to my mom’s and she helped me cut the design out of tshirt vinyl and we ironed it on. The tshirt vinyl would not have worked with cardigan / sweater material so I had to find a different option. Of course it is a different look than the original but honestly I will wear a jacket much more than I would be able to wear a cardigan. I am really pleased with the results!!!!

Texture Assignment

In my digital imaging class we had to learn to how to apply texture to pictures. Here are a couple of pictures that I used for their assignment, along with their “before” pictures! I love them both with or without the textures!

I love that I got a sunburst in this! I usually get a bubbly lens flare but I love how this turned out!

Blue Lemon, Dear Lizzie Boutique and Alpine Loop!!

Since my aunt is in town, I wanted to get in some time visiting with her. This week at work was crazy because I was helping put together the Miss United Nations Pageant at Utah Valley University so I was working a lot of hours. I didn’t think I would get to see my aunt Sherrie very much but had the opportunity to take Tuesday off work. My mom, grandma, aunt and I spent the afternoon together.
First we went to lunch in Highland, Utah at a cute and delicious little place called Blue Lemon.

The presentation of their food, was gorgeous and it tasted as good as it looks. I had the chicken, tomato, artichoke meal.

My mom had a salad.

We all had a little hummus. It was fantastic.

After lunch, we headed across the street to a little boutique called “dear lizzie”. They had very cute stuff.

My grandma found this cool hat there!

Then we headed to drive the Alpine Loop. I didn’t think the colors would have changed very much this early in the year but it was really pretty. We were trying to find a good place to pull over to take some pictures but there weren’t really any good spots on those narrow roads but this picture shows some of the colors in the back.

We pulled over on the way out of Provo Canyon. The colors weren’t as vibrant but it was still pretty.

Then we started to take pictures of each other. My aunt was trying to test out some modeling techniques, which made for some fun shots.

My mom and aunt were trying really hard to wink in their pictures but I think they had been practicing too much because they were both forgetting how to wink. My mom was especially bad. I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants! I think my mom would kill me if I posted the really good ones, but this one is pretty cute of the two of them, so I will share it with you!

Overall, it was a great day! Good food, pretty scenery and lots of laughs!

Happy 50th Grandma and Papa!

My lovely grandparents on my mother’s side just celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary! How many people can say that! They have started a great family and one that I am proud to be part of. To celebrate, my grandma wanted to go out to dinner and she chose Sizzler. My aunt Sherrie from California decided to surprise them and fly in. We had know about it but left our grandparents out of the loop on that one and I must say that was very hard. I almost spilled the beans a few times! It was very cute too see my grandparents light up when they saw her behind my mom in line at the restaurant.
I wrote my grandparents a letter and included my favorite memories of them, like making shadow puppets on the wall during sleep overs, making homemade pancakes with my Grandma, catching water skeeters in the ditch in their backyard, etc. I have very fond memories of them throughout my life and I just love them so much! Congratulations to them!
Here are some pictures after dinner!

Mr. & Mrs. Moyar

All of the kids!

I just love this one!

The girls!

My Aunt Sherrie and cousin Des!

Light Painting

In my digital imaging class we are learning light painting. We had a demo on this in my film photography class but didn’t really get to practice it. I really like it, it is fun and interesting. A little too artsy for me to do all of the time but fun to play around with!
To do this, you shoot in the dark and with a long shutter speed (all of the ones below were 15 – 20 second shutter speeds) and then you use any form of light and draw in the air. It is important to focus before you take the shot. To do this, set up your camera on a tripod or secure surface, then with the autofocus on, slightly push down on your exposure button to activate the autofocus, then switch to manual focus. Turn out the lights and shoot! You can get really creative, highlight different things, paint the sky, etc!
Here are some shots from my class!

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Family Photo Session – Utah Park

I had my first real photo session, besides little things with my family. This was for my good friend Sarah and her whole family… that is 6 kids, some of which have kids as well! It was great though! I got some good experience, especially with the kids and the large group! I think the pictures turned out really good. Here are some of my favorites! What a beautiful family!

My handsome husband!

I am taking family pictures for my friend Sarah, tomorrow. She has a pretty big family and I am a little nervous about it. I think the most nerve wracking part is that there are going to be kids there and I am not around kids very often, and I am not a pro photographer {yet} so I have been wondering how it will go. I am really close to Sarah and I have met all of the family at one time or another, so I think it will be fine. I am excited because it will give me some great practice and some nice pictures for all of them!

To ease my nerves, my wonderfully supportive husband agreed to model for me this afternoon so I could get some practice in with my camera. I was feeling like I might have forgotten all that I have been learning, but it was just fine and I think there are some great pictures of Stephen. It was short but fun! He reminds me everyday of why I am with him, he is so funny, handsome, supportive, kind, passionate, okay I will stop now but I do feel like one lucky girl to have found such a good person to spend my life with! Here are some of the pictures!

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