house becoming "home"

Waiting for Tanner to be done trick or treating in town! LOL. He's 13, but I remember going out at 13 having fun. Hope he's staying out of trouble!!! *grr*

The house is coming along really well, kinda slow at times, but it looks better than when we moved in. All the boxes are arranged neatly (mostly) out of the way, I wouldn't be really embarassed if the plumber had to show up and look at my kitchen at least.

Updates on some of the things we've accomplished.


Here is my BLACK cabinets (people look at me like I"m crazy when I say that but HELLO, they look great!). I spray painted all the hinges and saved a fortune! I also got all my cabinet pulls at walmart and I must say I really did like them. They are an oval brushed nickel (silver is my favorite metallic color and probably one of my favorite colors over all). Because I saved so much on the knobs and the hinges, I decided to go all out and get what I wanted for drawer pulls. I love the antique feel, but with a modern "stainless steel" type look. You also get a glimpse of the floor as it looks after we got it done. Still needs a couple more coats of urethane (which will be so FUN with us living here!).
Upper cabinets. Same basic idea.

We bought some cabinets from Amber and Cole over the weekend. They remodeled their kitchen, and it just so happened that their old cabinets look a lot like the cabinets that we put in the laundry room and will also put on the opposite side of the kitchen for the home office. That saved us a few hundred bucks, and it will get them out of their garage! win-win! Really looking forward to getting my home office done. I hate all these boxes sitting around here. I'm not a huge clutter fan (well, I like things, but I don't like them cluttering up and screwing up my space!

Anyway, we're going to paint those cabinets the same color and then add a really smallish island. This kitchen's storage will about triple! I will probably have more cabinets than things to put in them! (a good thing)

My NEW stainless steel stove, which in the picture looks dirty. grrr. I love it, it's so pretty, we're going to get all new stainless. There'd be a new dishwasher if the guys at home depot had not talked us out of it. *???* He was weird. Good thing, because we decided that we needed carpet for the back bedrooms worse. Although since moving here, I realized how much I hate doing dishes (probably because there's more room to let them pile up more)

And lastly, king of the beasties (well, more like a prince), Jingles, was helping me the other day put the new doors on the laundry room cabinets. too cute not to take a pic of him. I lurve that stupid cat.

You get an idea here how UGLY the wallpaper crap was when we moved in here. We're literally covering every square inch of this house inside and out. *every square inch* A bit daunting if you think about it like that.

Anyway, Amber had this AWESOME dusty pumpkin orange color in her entry way of her new house and I really loved it. I went to Lowes to try to find some like it with no luck so I called her and asked her about it. WELL, she said that I could have the rest of hers. *score* So I'm going to paint the laundry room in that color instead. Maybe I'll even sneak a few of my old pumpkins back in there (I had pumpkins in my kitchen/dining room for several years now - all year long). What's funny is, everyone looks at me funny when I tell them that, and Amber is doing the same thing! I love how much we're alike. Of all my siblings, her and I are almost telepathic at times. *weird* Now if I could be even half way between her weight and mine I'd skip through the grocery store naked. (scary visual - it IS halloween after all LOLOL)

OK, gotta go get around to get my kid in town and buy primer I forgot to get, and precious Jingles keeps harping at me cuz I forgot catfood too. Oops.

Happy Halloween!

Haven't posted for a while. Just honestly either been too busy or not in the mood! Amy and Anthony's wedding went really well. They were supposed to get married at the lake, but instead plans tend to change and they got married at their back up church and it looked like they really intended to be married there to start with. It was a really pretty little church, not a ton of decor but very nice. Amy and her family did an awesome job.

I'm almost done editing her photos. (I so need a faster computer if I'm going to keep doing this). Here are some of my favorites.

I really didn't INTEND for Amber (baby sister) to be the first picture LOL. It just uploaded that way and I can't change the order on this thing!!

dreamy?

So I was readying Kal's blog (see links at right), and she was talking about "dreamy" photos. I really want to learn to do that. Technically, you shouldn't have to photoshop every photo you create or you'll do nothing but sit in post production. Having said that, I'm working here on limited lenses, etc (since the camera is new) and so post production is necessary.

I really like the dark around the edges effect. The problem with that is I HATE PHOTOSHOP. I just absolutely refuse to use it. I suppose someday I'll be forced to cave, but until then, I challenge myself to see what I can do with my Paint shop Pro version *5* (yes, 5.. from like 7 years ago) This is the only thing kicking my butt so far. I messed with this photo for a couple hours tonight. Before and after and I think I did a pretty good job of getting that dreamy effect I'm looking for.

Dark edges, slightly blurred background, even more slightly blurred Laicey and her face punched up a bit in brightness. I'm pretty happy with what it looks like so far.

Click to see the larger version.

Off to bed. Just wanted to post!

Amy's wedding on Saturday! I"m very excited, I hope it's not too cold for her. It's been real chilly. After some POST PRODUCTION, I'll share some of my favorites.

Where did the time go???

The photos I promised of the senior session I did with my neice Laicey. She's 6 months older than Seth, and a grade higher. She's my older sister's only daughter and the first grand"baby". Where the heck did the time go.

Laicey has changed so much. She is so outgoing now, and mature (and immature still in ways, that's GOOD LAICEY). I was so surprised how willing she was to let me drag her around to *anywhere* to take her pictures (including the *cemetary* LOL). She even had many good ideas of her own. Here's hoping they are all as easy as she is to photograph.

She's sure come out of her shell, no more quiet little girl that just sits back bashful. She's out there. Kansas city has been good for her I believe.

And lastly, poor child looks like a Perdew. I swear no one can match our dominant genes. *no one*. We all look like we came from the same pot. It was weird, seeing her in the lense and catching glimpses of ME. WEIRD. And then editing photos later and seeing Torrie, and my Mom in her face. So strange!



She wants to go to school for Criminal Justice (good call.. I'm jealous.. my dream degree), so when we drove past the sheriff's department, she HAD to have her pic taken there.

Hands down, my favorite photo. Young, innocent and grown up, all at the same time.

Pop... this wall just called to have this shirt in front of it. here she is doing the "duck" that we called it. It's the nice little trick to making your little extra "something" under the chin disappear. Stick your head out like a duck and tilt down. She got tired of me saying it, but it really does make for a good picture.

If you have a senior or know a senior that needs their photos, or if you are interested in maternity shots, weddings or informal portraits, contact me! I will send you a price list and set up a time we can meet.

a whole month

It's been a month since I posted! I'm at work so no pictures to share at the moment. I felt so guilty when I saw that, I decided to post an update. I will try to post some more pics tomorrow.

House update:
It sucked.
I hate moving. nuff said.

Floors got done just in time for them to cure before we moved in. Personally, they need at least 2 more coats of urethane. There are several dry spots. I might move furniture and do a few rows at a time. Just to make me happy. Not at the moment tho, I"m still recovering from moving.

Had our garage sale. Mom came down every day for 3/4 days straight. I don't think I could have gotten it done without her. I tend to be a bit ADD when I'm overwhelmed and finally we decided that I'd price and she'd arrange. She didn't do it how I would do it and I decided that THAT WAS OK! Don't get yourself worked up over the small stuff when there's big stuff left to do! We borrowed mom/dad's truck for about a week, (don't tell dad, he doesn't know!) and without that, I don't think we could have made it! THANKS MOM!!!

Speaking of Mom, it was fun spending time with her. With work and her being 45 min north, I don't get to see them much. Well, now I guess it's only about 35 min north with me moving out of town.

Unpacking has been *so-so* I kinda like unpacking, but this time I'm a bit paralized because:
a.) not all the rooms are done so I don't know where to put some things
b.) even tho the living area is larger, I technically have less space because of no basement so it's hard to think of where to put stuff.
c.) My scrapbook room got switch. Since seth spends most of his time at his dad's, I decided it was more fair I got the larger room for crafts. So the 3 bedrooms/scraproom has to be all finished then rearranged.
d.) I'm nervous about poking holes in walls I spent hours working on making sure the holes/cracks/texture/paint were perfect.
e.) I can't decide which wall what should go on.

MOM! LOL.
I should just let her do it.

I got an AWESOME new stainless steel stove with some of our garage sale $$. It's beautiful and gonna look awesome once we get all new stainless in the kitchen with all the black cabinets / granite tops.

I had a theory, and I was right.

World famous scrapbooker heidi swapp moved herself, husband, household and five VERY BLONDE children to China to help support her husband's business. It just so happened they all moved to china the same weekend I moved 3 miles north of town. I predicted she would have an easier move than me. She's now been shopping, church, set up house, even been to ikea and bought some cute black and white dishes to set up house.

I on the other hand, dug through a cardboard box for underwear this morning.
TRUE STORY.

Heidi.... you suck.
(in the I'm jealous sorta way)


In other news...

About 3 weeks ago I took all of my niece, Laicey's, senior pictures. She came up and spent the night with me and we hauled butt and took about 175 pictures. I'd say 60 are really good and the rest. pretty good. Very few were deletable. I spent 2 days editing, but in the move, I haven't had time to finish. I"m going to work on that this weekend and post a couple here, so at least SHE can see!

Next weekend I have my first paid wedding. Amy was one of Amber's (sister) bridesmaids, and she is a real sweetheart! I have her a "you know my sister" discount, and I'm trying to build my portfolio up. I'm really looking forward to doing some sessions with people I don't know as well (personally). She seems really low-key / whatever goes, and I dig that. I will get her permission to post some photos here.

Next Sunday, there is a bridal fair in Maryville. I wish I had a booth! I didn't know who to contact but saw the advertisment in the paper, so I think I"m going to go and check out whats there, the competition and talk to the promoters about getting in next time. I have no idea if it's big or only 4 booths. But it's only 2 hours. That part's not all that impressive. I also just remembered that the BPW craft show is at the same time same location. That might be interesting.

In the month I've not posted, I've thought of 800 things I wanted to share with you guys, but that's all I can think of at the moment. I"m going to get back into the swing of things. I'm happy about that, so expect to see more from me! I promise!