I have a very particular taste and lots of ideas in the back of mine, for how I like things to look and images I want to create. They are not always very solid pictures in my mind, but little bits and pieces. I love it in a BIG WAY when those small things come together, and even better when my memory does its job and I remember I have them. I collect odd vintage items and photography props, or rather things I think would make good props.

I had to quickly photograph a cute cardigan for Petite Purls today. It was the first in a series of them we are publishing but I had the others already photographed, this one I had tried to photograph a while ago but the lil’un had not cooperated. So on went her cream colored cardigan, a white t-shirt for underneath, and then I remembered that adorable size 4 lace skirt I had snagged in cream several months ago. Who can resist lace ruffles? Easy enough to fit on a 2 year old, it didn’t even slip off because 2 and 4 year olds have fairly similar hip sizes, it’s more the length of the legs and torso that change and when she sat down it worked itself out perfectly. BG pointed to the fuzzy cream IKEA rug I had snagged for random newborn baby photos, and it all came together perfectly.

Her hair is a mess so I found something decent in a little MJ suitcase I have full of random headbands I’ve been collecting. Then came serendipity. LG found a little gold owl (a holiday ornament) and BG found a gold bracelet and somehow they worked their way into the scene, I almost took them away but realized the color combination was perfect (and it kept her still for a little bit, which is paramount with two-year-olds).

I love the lace peeking out from the lovely garter stitch. Then she made her pouty-face and I knew she wasn’t going to put up with much more. Luckily I got a few good shots and ran off to code up the page for petitepurls.com.

For the Back to Basics shots I need to nail two photos, the horizontal one that goes on the main index page for all the B2B patterns, and a vertical shot that serves as the “main” photo for the pattern. I can tell you I honestly was not sure if I had gotten them until I got back to my computer!