❤   Remember this? {link below} ...

Suburban Stash

Here are the final products for the event!! After a brief re-cap ❤ ❤ ❤  

Hi! :)
I am a photographer and I ADORE your beautiful clothing. I think you would be perfect for a project I am working on. I am teaming with several other boutiques (The TomKat Studio, Dolce Vita Mia, Bella Chateau)and shooting a fabulous Alice in Wonderland inspired shoot. I was wondering if you might like to be a part of this with an outfit. This will be amazing exposure as it will not only be on all of our blogs, but will also be on a great many party planning blogs as well. We are doing a modeling casting call shortly, so that will be further exposure. If you aren't interested, no problem--just thought I would ask as I think you would make a fabulous addition to this project. You can also have the photos for your shop. Thank you for considering it--you are so very talented! I have already "hearted" you and even if you aren't interested, I will be back to buy from you. :)
Thanks so much, and I hope you have a fabulous week! :)
Take care,
Laura

I almost passed out ;) Lauras photography skills are amazing and I am SO flattered!! Does this mean clothing will start selling now? that would be nice.

WOWZERS It was quite the experience :) ~ I got that invite to participate around the 17th of June { jump for joy but remain cool } and after gathering my composure ~ the main concern was the time frame before the shoot {& location it's in AZ - I'm in MI}

Then came this.... after I peed my pants {repost}

Check out this awesome event I am a part of!

"Hi Abby! :)
Thank you so much again for being a part of our awesome Alice in Wonderland shoot! I just wanted to let you know that the casting call with a link to your site has been announced on the blog and Facebook in case you wanted to share it. "

Hope you are doing well!

Take care,
Laura
http://laurawinslowphotography.com/blog/2010/06/15/model-casting-call-east-valley-az-commercial-photographer/
http://www.facebook.com/laurawinslowphotography

and I was like "Casting/Model Call?! woa - this is serious!" and now the theme from Wonder Pets runs through my head - little side note...

So the process began...first I needed inspiration - Laura was kind enough to send me this inspiration board - la la love.  OY! I almost forgot - I had to work with fabrics on hand or could be picked up locally with the time crunch. 

Then I started checking out some of the items that inspired the shoot for Laura - like over at TomKat Studio and and created my own :)   I rented the Tim Burton movie (of course) and began the hunt.  More pics can be found in the earlier posts, but here are a few from the narrowed down list -lol... I knew I wanted to do a ruffled suspender and I knew I wanted pink & aqua tulle or chiffon involved somewhere as well as bright colors and denim or black...and I knew I wanted some lace gloves as well as spats or something along those lines...the key is keeping it innocent - especially for the younger ones - yet still stylish for the older ones. 

Having a 4.5 yr old daughter myself, I knew I wanted needed twirl factor and wanted something out of the box.  Plus there were a handful of the most popular kids clothing boutiques from Etsy, which will also be featured in the shoot - I figure they will have items similar to what they are known for -but some ideas got ruled out because of that.  In searching for inspiration, I found that most Alice in Wonderland-ish dresses/outfits were either costume, something my husband

would love on me *blush*, or the light blue dress and white apron... I did find a gorgeous re-make of a dress she wore in the Burton film though. Could I talk anymore maybe? I feel like I'm blabbing & blabbing...

Last but not least I wanted something that could be worn through more than just one season (think sizing and looking cute wearing flip flops with it and a tee - or a satin blouse and hose with sweet shoes, or tights and a turtleneck.   I'm PICKY and lets just leave it at that *wink*  I'm also run-on sentance master :)  But then I also wanted something a bit edgier so the idea of creating two outfits happened - one outfit consisting of 4 pieces that can be seperated into two outfits and then a second dress - does that make sense?  A way of doing three looks with two outfits - I'll spare you the notes with each pic.  I was thrilled to come across this Amazing VOGUE ” Alice In Wonderland ” fashion editorial  by photographer superstar Annie Leibovitz from December 2003.  Annie Leibowitz, the model and the designers rocked it out.  I love the Versace and Lacroix. 

Donatela Versace

Christian Lacroix

John Galliano

Once the decision was made for basic design I got together with my girlfriend who is SO great,  and shared everything - sketches began...and fabric choices were narrowed down - I'm always narrowing down - lol. I need a team of at least 4 to run with all the ideas and things that go through my head :)  44 emails/convos later it had come to this...

some of the fabric choices were made...

But don't think it went so smoothly - I totally had a B r e a k  D o w n - here's a snippet of that for ya via email - LMBO now  - keep in mind I was up for three days straight...

" I am LITERALLY sitting here crying - I haven't slept in however long - this is night #2 so what's that... like 3 days... and ben has been on call - he is chief this year and ella finished camp so she is home with me and the house is a crap hole and my car died and we have no family here in %*&$#@! michigan and my machine broke and I have this great opportunity I thought I would have to scrap and bail last minute and then....well, hope that gives you an idea -

I promise I'm not insane - *grin* crying over your wonderfullness and working so hard on this with me but then to take my grumpy-ness and I bag your idea.... and then you come back like three times as strong... and I thank you SO very much - I owe u BIG... 

Now you know I've been up wayyyy too long b/c i am Over analyzing things - I'm gonna call it a nite and will be up and going again in 4/5 hrs.  thank goodness for full caffeine and sugared soda and wonderful understanding mommies!  i'm not even going to read this - just sending - so if it's a tangled bizarre mess of garbled nonsense then know this: rock on and you are super fantastic..."

and after all that - and a bit more - the outfits were born and here are the pics of the setup and outfit #1 - the Alice dress! 

SO??? What does everyone think?  FEEDBACK PLEASE! :)  Isn't Laura a fabulous photographer?!