Kristen's 12th birthday celebration

Yay, I finally got it (the slide show) figured out. Although now that the birthday was 3 days ago, the desire to write about it is gone, but since I already made the slide show, I'll still share it. My sister wrote a sweet birthday post about her on her blog, so I'll just direct you there.

America's Next Top Model & Etsy Shop

My niece Kristen may have just gotten her first modeling job. Unfortunately it doesn't pay anything since she'll be working for her mom modeling purses for her new Etsy shop. I was over at their house when we took all these pictures and Kristen was loving the camera like a professional model. She told us she was America's next top model. This is all so different from when she was a little girl. She used to hate having her picture taken, and therefore in almost all of her pictures as a little girl she was rarely smiling and often looks grumpy. It sort of became her signature look in pictures. I think she finally started to like the camera in part due to Auntie Francie who is a bit camera happy and is always taking pictures. Once Kirsten's little brother Jack started allowing Francie to take pictures of him anytime she wanted without putting up a fight, Kristen started to get a little jealous of all the attention. (at least that's how I think it went down). Anyway none the less were all so happy that she is now more than willing to pose for pictures.

A little more about my sisters Etsy shop:

It all started when she taught herself how to sew to make her kids halloween costumes, and she made them all these cute little candy bags to carry (as opposed to a big plastic pumpkin). Then next thing you know she's sewing cute little bags for Kristen and Katya's piano books, and now she's making purses for her Etsy store. The great thing about it is that since November is National Adoption Awareness month she has decided to donate all the proceeds from the store this month to buy christmas gifts for orphans in Russia. You can read more about it on her blog or at her Etsy shop SimpleWishes. Or better yet go online and buy something from her Etsy shop. It's only been up and running for less than 24 hours, she started with only 2 purses on it, and now there is only one left, but check back often, she has many more cute purses that she has already made, she just needs to add them to the store.

Here is pictures of the Halloween bags she made that started the whole thing.