She’s turning 7 in a few days and she tugged at my sleeve, wide eyed and curious to ask if she could have her very own, just-by-herself birthday photo shoot this year.
It’s a tradition in our home to mark each daughter’s birthday with a special photo shoot. Past years have included both our girls in the same shoot in early spring (in between both their birthday months), usually as soon as a sunny day appeared in Vancouver.
Apparently, turning seven years old is different. Seven seems like the edge of a new world. A 7-year old makes their own friends, they can do the monkey bars on the school ground, they request to get their ears pierced, they can read and write and they question the legitimacy of both the tooth fairy and Santa.

So, her-very-own shoot it was. I warned her it was cold and snowy out. She was okay with it.
Sometimes styled shoots require lots of planning and meticulous organization. Sometimes, it’s as simple as grabbing the vase of white mum’s off the centre of the table, fashioning a hairpiece with twist ties and those old Valentine’s flowers, pulling the antique coat out of grandma’s closet and braving up for a 20 minute shoot in the snow.

We laughed and called it her “Narnia coat,” it was clearly too large for her, but it kept her warm all the same. How fitting that this magical 7-year-old of mine is traipsing around in a fur coat, off on new adventures of her own in childhood.






The monogrammed initials inside the coat of my daughter’s late great-great grandmother.

Happy 7th Birthday my noble and strong Audrey!
Love,
Mommy/Steph
***
A note on the fur: While I wouldn’t go out to purchase fur myself, this garment belonged to my great grandmother. We chose it for legacy purposes (as well to coordinate a vintage look and also for the re-purposing value). It really was a very practical coat before the scientific man-made materials that are out there now to protect in -45 Celsius!
Thanks.