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September Photos

I've had the opportunity to do quite a few photo shoots lately, so it's taken a while to get everything edited. I just finished editing these pictures of a lovely family from our church!

Andrea + Kyle

I had the pleasure of photographing this engaged couple recently on a farm near Andrea's home.  I really enjoyed taking their pictures - they are both so photogenic!  Just look at those eyes!

 

 

 

 

 

May God bless your wedding and marriage!!  I wish you both the best :-)

A Mail Solution

No, not a "male" solution.  Although that would be nice, too... ;-)

Our mail has always been an issue - we never have a proper place for it, and important mail always seems to get misplaced or forgotten.  My husband saw this idea in a magazine, and shortly after, I saw the idea on Pinterest.

We just happened to have some old "saloon doors" from our kitchen that were disregarded pretty much as soon as we bought the house.  I touched these up with some new white paint, and distressed them with sandpaper and glaze.  I sprayed them with some clear polycrylic and voila!  A mail system that seems to be working quite well.

Our entry area isn't quite done, but I'm happy with it for the moment :-)

Thanks to the Pinterest Challenge for spurring me on!

Following Through on Pinterest

As part of a Pinterest Challenge put on by Young House Love, Bower Power, Emily Henderson, and Lana, I followed through on a Pinterest pin from a while back.  I was inspired by these book pages with graphic silhouette type images on them:

They are also sold in a shop on Etsy, and this image was found here.

I decided to give this a try - but with a couple changes.  Instead of using real book pages, I scanned some old book pages to the computer, then put the images on top in Photoshop and printed them.  That way I didn't have to ruin any of my old books!

I used a couple digital collage sheets found at PaperStreet, manipulating them in Photoshop using the "stamp" filter.  I also found a great letter "N" to use for free through another pin, actually!  I also made the pages look old by applying a texture to the paper in Photoshop.

Then all I needed to do was print the images - I chose to use gray cardstock, again, to make them look like they had a bit of age to them.  I cut them to about a 4x6 size, then mounted them on plain white paper.  I was taught in an art class to always mount your artwork a little bit above center, so that's what I did!  Then I stuck them in some black frames I had already, and after much debate, I hung them above our mantel.

I'm quite pleased with the result, and I'm super happy I chose to hang them above the fireplace!  In order to get the placement just right, and to make sure I even wanted them there, I did hang up some paper templates first.  It was very helpful in getting the height correct.

You'll also notice a few other updates to the fireplace; the fireplace screen has been removed and an old bucket with a plant tucked inside has been put in its place.  A few things have been removed from the mantel, and the glass jars have been filled!  I love that the pictures add a bit of quirk :-)

Since I know most people don't have access to Photoshop, I decided to give you the images I printed (minus the one with the "N" since most of you probably could care less about that one...).  You could print them on any color paper you want, but like I said, I chose to use gray.  To save the pictures, just click on them, then right click on the image and choose "Save As."



I hope you enjoy these as much as I am!

A 67% Kitchen Reveal

I can't really call this a final kitchen reveal, because well... there's still a lot to do.  Even for "Phase 1".

What Phase 1 includes:

•  Getting new appliances (done)
• Tearing up the old linoleum floor (done)
• Painting and stenciling the subfloor (50% done)
• Painting the cabinets (DONE!)
• Painting the walls
• Switching outlets to white three-prong (50% done)
• Changing the light switches from off-white to white
• Replace cabinet hardware (50% done)

So for Phase 1 ... I'd say we're about 67% done :-)

Phase 2 will be much later - really one of the last things on our list for this house.  Phase 2 is gutting, possibly expanding, and getting a new kitchen!

But back to the big accomplishment of the week.  This was one of those projects that was on our list to do, but suddenly we found ourselves doing it much sooner than expected.  Maybe it was the salmon pink brick that finally got to us.  Or perhaps it was the doorless cabinets (totally my fault - I took the doors off hoping to start painting them before we even moved in).  Maybe it was just the disguistingness of the whole thing.  But whatever the case... we started, and we didn't stop.  

We started painting the brick on Saturday night, as in, 5 days ago.  And of course who wants to stop with the brick?  I figured it was a good time to go for the cabinets, too.  So we went.  One coat of primer and two coats of extra white semi-gloss paint later, the cabinets and brick were white!  

And of course... we couldn't stop there.  The microwave which had been living on the floor needed to be dealt with, too.  Which meant building a shelf to support the top of the microwave.  Which we started around 6:30 last night :-)

So we'll get to painting the walls and the final details when the mood strikes, but for now, I'm basking in the happiness of clean white cabinets.  With oil-rubbed bronze (ORB for short) drawer pulls.  Picture me jumping up and down in happiness.  For real.

So without further ado, what you've all been waiting for... the before and "67% done" pictures!

Gotta love those projects that you do on a whim, and that make such a huge difference in your home :-)  I'd love to hear any stories you have from similar projects!!!