Things I love #1 (in a series)

I'm still working on my photography class. So this week I decided to start taking pictures of "things I love." I love buttons and have just a few as you can see. I add buttons to everything I make.
Here's another picture I liked.
This is the one I turned in for my assignment. It's the first time I took pictures with the camera on manual. What fun and freedom. Candice explains things so well that it makes it easy. Check out her blog for her latest photography shoot. (Her life is not charmed...poor thing...but things seem to turn out in the end.)

Wishing for Spring

I had a fun two days babysitting Creed while Stephanie went to a literature conference. While Creed napped I set out my Easter Decorations and took some pictures for my photo assignment. I love this little bunny.

The first day of spring is next week. I've decided that just because you say it is spring doesn't mean the weather will cooperate. I put out the Easter decor and am thinking happy thoughts though.

A little View of our Home

Here is the living room. It's coming along. I just purchased a new light so I can change out the brass one on the living room ceiling. (I'll probably paint out the brass and use it in another part of the house.

A close up of the couch which I love because those cushions have down in them and are so comfortable. I could use this in my new family room addition, we are working on the plans for it right now, but it shows lint and would be a little harder to maintain in a family room.
Here's a picture of my bedroom. It's big and I love being in there.
More bedroom pictures. That is one of my husband's photographs. I used to have another larger picture there but I sold it. (I wish I had that to do over again because I really like how the picture was framed and don't remember the mat color and frame style to do it exactly the same. We sold the picture for the normal cost of my husband's picture and then sold the frame at cost. I'm kicking myself for that one because I could have just as easily sold the print for them to frame.)
We used to have a tv in that entertainment center but Eli took it over when he got home from his mission for his games. No big loss except for now we have a big empty entertainment center in our room.
Here's a pic of the master bath. We still need to change out the tile floor around the toilet. I'm trying to decide if I should sand and stain the oak cabinets darker to pick up the darker color in the granite. We used to have one of those ugly brass bar lights and a big solid mirror. We built the box under the lights because the electrical box was in the middle and I wanted to add a light over each mirror. It made for an easy fix and I like the added detail. It also made it so the lights stood out far enough from the wall to clear those thick frames around the mirrors. (The lights are from Lowes and the mirror were from Costco.)
Here is our kitchen with a close up of the tile design over the stove. We enjoyed designing this and doing the tiling ourselves. I tried to find a blind I like at Lowe's to go over the window but only could find a whimpy matchstick one. Those country curtains are way overdue for a change. Yuck!

We are in the process of redoing the bar. It has an oak veneer. My husband is making raised panels to match the cupboard style and I will paint the panels off white and then antique. I'm hoping it will look like a separate piece of furniture and add detail.
Looking from the kitchen toward the family room. We want to replace all the floors with hard wood. My kids think I should paint the cupboards. I like them but it might be too much with the hardwood floors too.
Here is the current fireplace. Should be get a new fireplace surround or redo this one in the new addition?
That wall with the fireplace is going. The room will extend out from there another 15 feet and add another 15 1/2 feet to the left making an "L" shaped family room. Man this room is ugly and way overdue for an update. I haven't done anything because we were trying to decide about adding the addition or moving or just updating what we have. We are moving in to the bidding stage on the addition and think that is what we will go with. I want to add another french door where that window is but it will make it much harder to do something with the space.
Here's what I want the new addition to look like. OK. I can't afford the chandelier and the room won't be white washed or quite this big. But, isn't this a great space?

OK everyone. Give me your expertise. You can see my style. What ideas do you have?

Check This Out

Here is a site that I want to go back and spend more time on. She tells how to make this and is giving it away. She made this Anthropology look alike for $6. She has a lot of other things too. Clever girl.

Pushing Myself, My Creativity Level, and my Brain

You might not hear from me a lot the next 6 weeks or maybe you'll hear from me more as I post pictures from my assignments. I'm taking a beginning photography class from Candice. It's called "Oh Shoot!" Isn't she a clever girl?

If you want to take any online photography classes, check out Jessica Sprague's website. Jessica is a digital wizard (learn photoshop and digital scrapbooking) and Candice teaches the photography basics and maybe advanced too. (I think she is teaching portraiture next...her specialty.) They both are highly educated and qualified. There is so much available and the prices are great. I plan on taking more if I survived this one anyway. (Oh, and if you want to take a class, you have to be quick. Candice's class usually fills up in the first 15 minutes that it is available. I'm not kidding. It's true. So, watch for the next registration time and get your computer ready to go before the time hits.)

The first assignment was about shutters speed. The picture above is of a beaded heart that I spun on the chandelier and took the picture with a slow shutter speed (and 60 mm lens) to show movement.
This heart is also spinning but with a fast shutter speed, you can capture the picture without showing movement. I even put photoshop on my computer by myself...I've only had it since Christmas. :) Now I guess I'll have to jump in and learn that too. Be still my heart...my own laptop, my own camera that isn't a point and shot (OK, it was a hand-me-down that my husband agreed to part with now that he has a new one, but it's still mine) and now photoshop too. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the new challenges but I'll keep you posted on my progress if you are interested anyway.

Now I want to know what you are pushing yourselves to do. Did you say nothing? I hope not. What's life without the joy of learning something new? I love to learn!

A Dinner Party

My husband had his student officer's and their dates/spouses to dinner on Saturday night. I thought I'd share the table setting. I love to create different looks. This one was pretty low key. We ended up putting plywood over two tables to try and get enough space for everyone. We don't live in a McMansion .

In this day of economizing, I thought I'd share what I did and where I purchased my items. (All these things I already had. I didn't go out and buy anything for this event.)
The square plates are from Taipan trading. I think they were around $2 a piece. The red goblets were on clearance after Christmas from Target. The stick placemats and rocks were from the Dollar store. The wooden candle trough with 7 of the glass candle cups from $10 from Ross. The black napkins from Tuesday Morning. Now all I need are some decent dining room chairs. I've never had any unless you count folding chairs from Costco as dining room chairs.

I did whip up the Osnaberg table cloth on the far table. I had the fabric hangin around. I want to get some more and experiment creating french, vintage looking, pillows. I love osnaberg fabric.

My Trip to NYC

I had such a great time babysitting Grant and Cole. Candice and Mark took us to Max Brenner for a yummy chocolaty treat. Yes, I did eat some. That is my plate to the left. Yum, it is so good.
Grant had waffles with fruit.
Cole loves dogs so we went on dog hunts. He thinks this is Underdog. Underdog didn't want to pose for the camera though.
This was the duck wallpaper border that I stripped off while the kids were at their one day of school. They were out on winter vacation for most of the time. It made it ever so much more fun. We could even spend the day in our PJ's.
cole took this shot. We were on a photo scavenger hunt. It was so cold, I had to think of something so try and get them out of the house.
We had fun playing in the park.
Cole looks thrilled doesn't he. I think he really did have a fun time.
Grant loved doing this. (I found out afterward that his mom doesn't let him climb this tree. oops!)
Grant created his own stick spider web. Unique and we he had fun doing it.

Here's Candice's Amy Butler bag that I made and brought to her.
After Candice got back, we spent a couple of days together before I went home. We found Rachael Ashwell's store. They had a linen slip covered couch that I loved.
We all went to see Shrek the Musical. It was really good. I loved it. Cole sat on my lap and was mesmerized. Between scenes he clapped so hard and enthusiastically, that that alone made the the evening. They both got "Shrek the Musical" hats. Cole hardly took it off.


My last day, Candice and I went to visit Matt. One of his jobs is working for Michael Feinstein, a famous pianist/singer. Michael was out of town and Matt took us for a tour of the billion dollar brownstown. It was so amazing. I loved, loved, loved, the whole experience. I didn't take any pictures of the interior except for these with Matt. (Candice did though. I think it's been in Arch. Digest though. I felt like I was intruding.) They do have incredible antiques, hollywood memorabillia, and artwork. Hey, there were three original Picasso's in one bathroom alone. Yes, the bathroom.
Here is Candice and Matt.
Any number of famous people haven sat on these very chairs. Liza Minelli, Barbra Streisand...OK, I'm not really into name dropping and I don't even know how to spell their names. Take it from me though...it was great.
Here is the outside of the brownstone. They recently redid the whole front of the building. It used to be two different brownstones. Michael owned one and when the one next door became available, he bought it up. They then remodeled and joined the two sides together adding arched doorways, a master suite, a full new kitchen, etc. I loved it and spending the morning with Matt, Andy and Candice. After the tour, we went out together for brunch. Then, Candice and I met up with Sarah, another friend, to go through a few antique stores before we had to run home to pick up the boys from school.

I almost got to stay another month. We bought the airline ticket online and somehow didn't notice that my return trip was for Wednesday, March 25 not Wednesday, February 25. Luckily Delta changed my ticket without charge. I was a little worried there for a minute.

Since returning home, I've hit the ground running. Hence, the lack of blog posts. I don't know how you all keep up with everything. Clue me in would you?