Give Me Moore Workshop.Full Recap

I can't say thank you enough to those who voted for me to go to Kelly's workshop. Ben and I ended up making a trip out of it for the two of us, while Benson stayed at my parents house. Sunday we drove to Dallas and stayed in the Westin hotel connected to the Galleria mall. We ate some of the best sushi ever and went to the movies. The next day we did a little more shopping at the Container Store, which I truly believe I could live there. It is an organizers heaven, and I'm not necessarily the most organized person, but it made me want to be. The drive from Dallas to Ruston, La was beautiful. It is totally different from where we live in east New Mexico. The weather was beautiful and trees EVERYWHERE to block wind if any. (If you live in my area you know we could use some trees to block this tornado like wind).When I arrived to the workshop it was just Kelly, Brandi, and me for ten minutes. It was nice to visit with them one on one just in a friend setting. Kelly made heart shaped southern biscuits, fruit, and orange juice with fancy berry cubes :) The workshop was held in the cutest little cottage, called The Cottage in Ruston. It was perfect for our small group of eight girls to sit around and visit. The group consisted of lovely ladies just starting their business to being in business for eight years. I felt like I learned something from each one of them. Kelly shared information with us on how she balances personal life and business as well as workflow, and her photo taking skills. Brandi is her bestie/"sister" and she did all of the styling for the models. Here are more images from my Give Me Moore Workshop. Hahaha I just realized something on the first model...I guess my eye favors the "arm on head" pose.  I promise she's not doing this in all of her images :)

Keeping in the Heat.

So I've already shown you THE SCARF, and now here is the hat Danica from Danichka knitted me.  Can I just tell you that creativity flows from this girl.  I love the color combination she came up with on this hat.  And those flowers added the PERFECT touch.Also, take note of the background...more to come on that with my super awesome senior session I have tomorrow.  My senior came over and helped me put together this super cool backdrop and added a touch of her own flare to it.  This session is entitled, "An Artist", and I cant' wait to show you her fun, spunky and classic personality.

photos taken by the awesome Ben Cross

Powdered Donuts and Benson

Last night Ben gave Benson a powdered donut and the boy loved it. We didn't know how much until bath time. Ben was singing, and Benson was non-stop dancing for about 10 minutes. Taking breaks in between to shovel water through his legs while standing, and then to hold on the the bar in the tub to do a stomp dance. It was some of the best entrainment I've ever witnessed. Crying to the point of tears and I even got it on video. Can't show it to the public though because it contains a little nudity :) And then today, he put on his helmet, and instantly wanted to ride is tricycle. I love that he pairs the two together. That little brain of his is ticking away with smartness.

Inspiration.Objects

Taken with my Instax 200 Camera

Winter Accessories

**Update: Here is the link to view the scarf on Danica's etsy site.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=37801492

I am so lucky to have such a creative friend like Danica. She is the wonderful friend that knits the adorable hats for babies and little kids I posted about a few weeks back. Check her out here. So like I said, Danica is super creative and crafty and can knit like a mad woman. I saw a scarf I loved and told her about it and she was all, "I can do that" and I was all " are you serious? Can you make me one?" and she was all, "you got it!" So THEN I was all, "no way! I'm so excited!"  She also knitted a matching hat and they are so cute when worn together (hat picture coming in another post)  For Christmas I had her knit my mom one of the scarfs in green and purple and it too looks awesome. Thank you Jesus for my super awesome best friend and for giving her these wonderful talents. This is one of my most favorite accessories of 2010.

Oh, and who took this picture you ask? It was none other than Ben, my husband, and my second shooter-which is his second job:) He says he doesn't do very good, but he keeps surprising me each time he shoots with his creative wonders. I think he's got a future in becoming a life long photographer.

Happiness is...

Being with my family.  Last night we were hanging out with Benson showing him the Albums of Benson at my parents house.  Looking back on all of those photos of BB as a newborn up until now was such a blessing.  It makes us really excited for the years to come with our little fella.

Here are some snap shots of Benson when he was 6 months old that are some of my favorites.

Happy New Year friends.

Merry CHRISTmas

Merry Christmas everyone! I am officially off for the holidays. I will be working on orders that have come in this week and have them sent out next week, but won't be back to work until after the new year. I am going to enjoy time with my family just like I did today, which felt so nice. Benson and I woke up to a yummy breakfast cooked by Chef Ben, then played, played, and played some more. I started the decorations in Benson's "World" theme in his play room and we hung wall decor finally. I wrapped some more presents that consisted of Benson's new clothes from the GAP (shhh don't tell him) and they are so so so adorable. I was inspired with the hanging pine cones in Anthropologie when I took a trip to Albuquerque last year. And when we were in Ruidoso, NM last January my mom and I collected pine cones for this years decorations in the Cross house hold. The other lovely decorations were done by little B (or his teachers) and we cherish them so much. I just adore his little hands-tree, and pine cone tree. He is such an artist already :)

My Sister.Texas Photographer

*Update: Here is a little note Danica wrote on her blog: "Our dear friend and sister, Cristy Cross, took our pictures last week. We had SUCH a blast doing them too. When she put some up on her blog, I called her and we both ended up in tears! I think it was just overwhelming to see how Cristy captured all the elements of our family - quirky, fun, loving, and enamored with God's world. It was also so overwhelming to see the kids and how big they are, and especially to see our feet next to a picture of Russia. It just hit me, the verse from Romans, that talks about how beautiful the feet are of the ones who bring the good news of Jesus Christ to those around them. It is a special picture because we pray every night that God would use us to reach everyone around us, whether it be our neighbors across the street or our "neighbors" around the world. We are trying to raise our kids with a real consciousness that they are a part of a big world, with many people, who God pursues with His great and relentless love. Thanks, sis, for such a special time! These pictures mean so much to us." Okay okay! So this session was SUPER special for me. This family is my second family. Danica has been my big sister ever since I was a junior in high school. She and her sister took me in as a little sister (and I have no sisters so I loved it). She fulfilled my dream of having a sister :) Not only that, but she has been a great big sister and a wonderful role model for me. Her and her husband Greg, have been so inspiring to Ben and I and we love them so much. They were missionaries for Campus Crusade for Christ in Russia for many years and I didn't get to see her much and now she lives almost 2 hours away rather than 26 hrs (or whatever the distance was). I know she misses Russia, but I am gonna be selfish here and say I don't want them to go back :) But God does what he does and I'm cool with that. There kids call us Aunt Cristy and Uncle Ben, and sometimes Benson's mom and dad. We love there kids and we love that our kids love to play with each other. Recently we've been over and joined in on dance parties that consist of all three kids and all four adults. Max (their little boy) has got some mad skills! And little Marlys and Benson do their cute baby dances.

As I was working on these images I kept wanting to call Danica saying, 'Oh you're gonna love this one." And I'd talk myself out of it because if I just kept going then she'd get to see them sooner. But then I'd work on the next one and wanted to call her again. I started tearing up when I was looking at the close up shot of her and Greg, because it was so sweet and SO them.

Okay, well I better publish these so you can all see them! Love love love these with all of my heart.

Wedding Albums.New Mexico Photographer

I just finished Carrie and Barrett's wedding album. Once she and her family have seen it, I'll post a link here on the blog so you can see it too. It was one of my favorite weddings this year, so I'm getting a copy for myself.I have been working away on this album as well as orders, and Christmas cards, emails and phone calls. I am doing my best to get everything out in a timely manner with a long "to-do" list. Please be patient, and if you are curious as to where your order stands, just send me an email :) cristy@cristycross.com

The mail lady brought me something fun today

I get these Etsy emails daily about fun creative and handmade items. I normally just look through them saying, "oooo, aaaaahh" and go on to the next email.  This time I saw something I really wanted and so I bought it.Introducing my Etsy purchase, a handmade mix plumage feather headband from Bethany

Look at the beauty I purchased.  Simply gorgeous.  I think I'm wearing it this weekend just for fun when I visit some of my bestest friends.

Happy September

Happy September everyone!  I am so excited about the Fall.  The weather is so enjoyable, cool and breezy.  This month also has a bunch of fun things in store. Some of those things are:

Hanging out with my best friends who are basically my sister- Sept 5

Carrie and Barrett get married-Sept 12

Baby Shower-Sept 20

A fun reception party for a childhood friend Sept 26

Another childhood friend who is very dear to me is having a baby-Sept 30

And our new house should be finished and we can move in-Sept 30

Not to mention some good quality time with the family this whole month because I won't have a wedding every weekend like in August.

Again, Happy September!

Sweet and thoughtful

I received a Facebook message the other day from Lexi who is a client, but also someone I'd like to call a friend.

"Just wanted to tell you that I made you a little something for doing such a great job on Ezra's pics!  It's a little late, I have been meaning to do it for a while...time has flown by!

But anyways I would love to bring it by sometime when you will be home :)"

And this is her sweet gift she made me.  I will wear this with pride I tell you.  I love it so much.  I love it that Benson's name is on it and I feel like he is close by me even when he is not.Thank you Lexi for thinking of me and for being so thoughtful.  You are so crafty and creative.  And I will cherish this necklace forever. I mean it- for-evvvv-ur.

7 years of blessings

On Sunday, August 16, 2009 Ben and I celebrated 7 years of marriage :) One of our traditions we like to do is watch our wedding video. Its so awesome to look back at our wedding SEVEN years ago (hard to believe) and be reminded of what great blessings we've had in our lives together. Its also a great reminder of how a wife and husband should be towards one another. Our minister (good 'ol Russ Murphy) said the wife should be an encourager and the husband a protector and provider. I know Ben has been both a protector and provider for me and our son. He is a hard worker and a still makes time for us and always has and I know always will. I hope that I have been a good encourager to Ben. I know for year numero 8 I am making that my goal as a wife; to be an encourager and give affirmation every day in some way or another. Recently Ben was telling me that he is thankful for me being his wife, but I also want to say thank you Ben for being my husband. Not only is he the BEST husband, but he is also the BEST dad to our son. As we watched the wedding video Benson was in the living room with us and we never even thought that one day we would be sharing this with our baby boy. Life is so special and sweet and I just can't praise God enough. (giving God a big MUAH right now) This was one of our first dates. We were very new at dating, but were officially boyfriend and girlfriend at this point :) We had just been to a LeeAnn Womack concert that sadly got rained out. Our friend Jay Reed took this picture for us, and it is one of my very very very favorite pictures of ALL times of me and Benny.

Colors of Inspiration

Inspiration comes in many colors. You just have to look for them...

I'm a blogstalker!

I'm blog stalker of the month on my friend Lauren Clark's blog :) If ya want to know some random things about me then go check it out!

Garage Finds

Last night Ben and I were cleaning out our garage and I stumbled upon this picture. The first words that came out of my mouth were, "I love this picture." I noticed there was something written on the back and ya know what it said? " I love this picture." I must really love it if I wrote that almost 9 years ago when we were dating and then saying it again 9 years later, being married for almost 7 years:)I'll say it one more time. I LOVE this picture. Oh and yes, that is Ben with hair. When we were dating his hair was to his shoulders. I loved it, but i also love his buzz hair-do as well :)

Holga.Film

A holga camera is a fun, inexpensive medium format plastic camera that has light leaks creating one of a kind images.  They are so child like and its kind of nice not knowing what the image will look like until you get the film back.  It's also nice not having to be perfect and just letting your hair down.  Have a great night :)

From the Streets of New York

New York at a Glance

Ben and I headed to NY last week and enjoyed lots of fun times, just the two of us. When I get a chance to post more, and tell you some of the fun places we ventured to I will. Benson is about to wake up and we are gonna go play in the sand.Enjoy :)

Happy Father's Day

Little Benson is the luckiest boy to have Ben as his daddy.

Benson says thanks daddy for everything. For all the wrestling and for making me laugh and for holding me when I'm hurt and for hugging me just because. You are the best.---Benson