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!