New Year's Eve Sweater and Skirt GIVEAWAY!!!! CLOSED.

Yes, I know New Year's Eve was 22 days ago BUT I had been working on this in December when I got sidetracked. I hope you'll understand.

These photos were taken with my BRAND NEW used digital SLR. Oh, you don't know HOW long I've been wanting one of these. Probably before they were even invented. And now, I finally have one!

But is it everything it promised to be?

Yes....and more! Oh, so much more.

Taking photos of Lily has never been easier! Oh, did I just give away the surprise? Yes, it's Lily behind the silver balloon. And boy, she goes a mile a minute. There's no stopping her somedays. Keeping her from becoming a long blur in photos has been a painfully frustrating challenge. Now, with shutter speeds of 1/350 of a second (indoor shots) she's as frozen as the ice on the windshield of my car.

Did I mention it's freakin' cold here?

But I digress, the sweater....

I saw a post on Oh Happy Day about a j.crew sweater that a fellow blogger had tried to replicate. I too fell in love and attempted my own version. I have to admit, though simple, the time it took to make each of the flowers was terribly tedious. I wouldn't want to make another one every again.

To make each flower just cut about 35 petals in varying sizes with a silk or silk-like material. Take each one and fold it in half. Thread each folded petal on a string. When all petals are on, tie the end of the string to the beginning and voila! You have a lovely floppy flower. I'd recommend cutting the petals all together. I took five pieces of fabric and cut seven varying petals at once. It still takes what seems like an eternity to complete.

The skirt was a little easier. I used a shimmery duponi silk. I cut the fabric to hang to lily's ankles for a more formal look.

To be honest I wish I had one for myself.

When I'm holding my new camera I feel just like a real professional:) It's heavy and feels important in my hands. I imagine my camera laments over having such an amateur owner. Maybe that's because when we're in public it tries to pretend we're not together. What's that all about?

There was one disappointing drawback that I wasn't aware of. That being, only newer digital SLRs have live view. Something about mirrors and sensors. Was I the only one who didn't know that? It's taken some adjusting but I think I've gotten the hang of it.

Now, I'm thinking about all the cool extras I need. That is, a cool remote control for taking photos in front of the camera. A cool telephoto lens for taking extra blurry photos. A super cool speedlite, so my pictures don't look as if a nuclear bomb just exploded in our faces.

Needless to say, we had a fun photo shoot. Lily desperately wanted to help decorate. So I allowed her to punch the holes in the stars. Her favorite part was running through the silvery wonderland. And with my super cool camera I have about a hundred more photos of her mid-dance.

I would say that this outfit would fit a 3T-5T:)

Last day for posts is Monday 2/2/09 Winner will be announced Wednesday!

As usual, if you would like a chance to win this dress just link back to this post. If you have any questions see the "questions and answers" link to the right. If you use blogger just use the "create a link" link at the bottom of this post. If you don't use blogger, that's fine too. Just create a link on your page as you normally would and I will see it using Technorati.

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