Portraits by Josee

Product Name: Portraits by Josee

Review 1: I'm always very nervous going into photo shoots, whether it be I am the centre of attention or my daughter. However, as soon as I stepped foot into Josee's studio, I was immediately put at ease. Her kind, calm and welcoming nature put all of my fears aside.

We spent the perfect amount of time getting photos taken of my active toddler, Josee had instinct when it came to a toddler's attention span. She was well prepared with toys and distractions in order to keep my daughter intrigued and happy all at the same time.

Josee is a creative photographer who uses a candid approach in her work. This helps with the subject feeling more at ease as well as the natural look of her work.

After the photo shoot, the photos are placed online (password protected) for viewing in a timely manner.

All in all, having a photo shoot with Josee was a positive experience for both me and my daughter.

Review 2: We booked our photo session back to back with our friends, reviewer #1, and we too felt comfortable from the second we walked into Josee's studio. Josee was so fun and genuinely

excited to take pictures of us, with our little 'cookies'.

The session was the prefect length to get some breathtaking photos of my nearly two year old that will become family heirlooms and treasured memories of toddlerhood.

Our extended family loved that they could go online after the shoot and order their prints, as did I. It was so hard to choose pictures from the shoot to have blown up, but in the end we did and they are hanging on our walls as a testament to Josee's great talent as a photographer.

I didn't know at the time, but I was just pregnant with baby #2 and I look forward to meeting with Josee again in the late summer so she can help us capture our growing family and new 'cookie'

Belly Casting Kit from The Better Baby Company

Product Name: Belly Casting Kit from The Better Baby Company

Review:7:49 – Dinner is over and my toddler is with his grandma. I finally have uninterrupted time to start my belly cast.

Following the directions, I set up a chair and drape it with the plastic sheet provided. It’s Sunday

night and the Amazing Race is about to start so I put the chair near the tv. I get my husband to fill up a bowl of water. We cut the plaster strips according to the instruction sheet – the messiest part about the whole process as plaster dust settled over our coffee table – and we lay everything out like we are doing surgery. My husband is skeptical about the cast but gets into it a little more as he realizes its plaster of Paris. It reminds us of our childhoods and we reminisce about art projects gone wrong!

As I read the instructions, I like the individuality of the casting process – you can do whatever you want and decorate it however you want. I decided to only do my belly but according to the box and the website lots of women choose to do their entire torso, breasts included. I sat in the chair with a towel protecting my pajama pants and my husband started to apply the strips of plaster we had cut. I recommend using an old towel as protection for clothing as the strips do drip a little and it made clean up a breeze. He laid the strips across my belly slowly building up the layers. We chatted and laughed (and watched the tv) and genuinely enjoyed ourselves. Generally when our toddler is at Grandma’s we use the time to catch up on other stuff and don’t spend quality time together. I was a little apprehensive to start the cast because I thought it would take a lot of time and require a lot of clean up. It really didn’t. We were done in less than half an hour and the clean up was about 5 minutes – including vacuuming the plaster dust from our coffee table.

8:19 – I sit back to continue watching the Amazing Race and wait for the cast to harden. I am pleased with how easy it was to do. When we are done my husband says that was kind of fun and I agreed. Now I must wait 48 hours to decorate it and I am trying to decide what method I should use. I’m a scrapbooker so the ideas are flowing. I don’t know that I personally will keep this for life but it was really fun and easy and gave my husband and me something to bond over with the baby-to-be.