The Webb's

Dean's Hat

2011-12-13T16:42:00.000-08:00

My best friend Kristi sent Dean a hat for his birthday and today I FINALLY got around to taking some pictures of him in it. When I think about doing a photoshoot of Dean sometimes I cringe inside a little because he is kind of a pain to photograph. He doesn't sit still, he has to be bribed, and he is rarely looking at the camera AND smiling. For example, we went and had our family pictures done by Emily Hartvigsen in November and out of like 200 pictures, Dean was smiling in 2. Finally I just picked a family photo where I looked fabulous (ie unfat) and Dean wasn't smiling. Too bad for him.

Anyhoo...here's some photos of Dean in his darling monkey hat. Hooray for smiling! The photoshoot lasted approximately 7 minutes and involved lots of puffs, marshmallows, re-sitting Dean in the middle of my sheet, and putting the hat back on after Dean ripped it off. Dean decided when we were done with the shoot. I think when you photograph kids, there is a certain element of luck involved. The skill comes from being ready when the shot does come around.

Birthday!

2011-11-17T19:45:00.000-08:00

Someone had a birthday a month ago...and mom is just getting around to going through those pictures! Happy Birthday to my sweet boy. We love you Dean!

A Mess

2011-09-24T14:05:00.000-07:00

My mom and I make cards together occasionally. She is the brainchild of the operation, and comes up with the concept and then I help in the execution. We've made lots of cards together and most of them include photos of her doing something weird or funny, with a funny caption. Ever since Dean was born, Dean is now in the photo or the star of the card himself. My mom wanted to make a little "thank you" insert for some thank you cards she was sending out this week and had the idea for Dean to star by himself in the card, so I staged a photoshoot and this is how the final card turned out. My mom said as she was writing the card, "I kept stopping and looking at the picture for a few minutes between writing each card!" :)

Can you believe Dean is going to be 1 next month? He had his 11 month birthday yesterday!

Dean Today

2011-08-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I last posted some photos of Dean so I will just share 2 really cute ones I took of him today. I can't believe my little baby is already 10 months old!

Red Hair????

2011-06-29T13:59:00.000-07:00

My dad has red hair. Karl's cousin has red hair. And Dean has red hair. How is this possible?? Red hair + blue eyes = very very recessive genes. Anyway - he is just the cutest and I hadn't done a photoshoot with him in a long time, so I did one this morning. I know I am biased but he is so darling!

Also - Dean loves lina. More than anything. Everytime Lina does anything he laughs. Anytime you throw any toy to lina, he laughs. The other day I was throwing Lina some cheerios and he was screaming with laughter and he couldn't catch his breath, he was gasping for air! SOOOOOOOOOO cute. Here's a video of him laughing from a month ago when I was playing with him.

Here's some of my favorite photos from out photoshoot today!

RosalineOlivia

2011-06-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

My neighbor is really talented at making her own jewelry. After being consistently complimented on it, she is starting to sell it and is doing really well so far! The designs are unique and interesting and they certainly caught my eye.

She is starting her own etsy shop, RosalineOlivia. I took the photos of her jewelry for her shop - here are some of my favorites, although it was very hard to narrow down! Check out her shop for more images and to see more of her fabulous jewelry. Right now she is still working on getting the site up and running, so check back if not all of it is posted right away.

May I just mention here at the end that it is much easier to photograph objects than small children? Just saying.

Cruising

2011-05-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

Just got back from our Ensenada/Catalina cruise with the Draper's and the Anderson's. Had a blast and didn't pull out the 5d too much because it is so heavy! Here's the only 2 occasions where some decent photography was done. Formal night photos:

Teri and Michael:

April and Kevin:

Here's the photo essay I made for my photography class at the formal dinner night. It features my meal and dining experience that night:

Swimsuit Season!

2011-04-25T20:00:00.001-07:00

Somebody is all ready for the summer! I bought a 7peaks pass so that I can take Dean to play in the water over the summer. One of the perks of being a teacher - summers off.

Dean LOVES the water - he tries to eat the water in the shower and gets so excited and happy to be taking a bath/shower.

Dean's Blessing

2011-03-07T15:01:00.000-08:00

We had Dean's blessing yesterday at church. Since I bought him a $45 outfit for a one-time use, I figured I better take plenty of photos of him in it so that he can get some use out of it. Karl and I were so grateful that so many of our family and friends were able to come to the blessing. We love you all!

Mr. Dean Bean

2011-02-25T14:40:00.000-08:00

This little boy melts my heart every day. You know how everyone says about kids "It'll be different when you have your own" ? Well, I never understood that until I had my own. I just LOVE hanging out with and holding this boy. He is so darling and we are so grateful that he is part of our family!

I love my 5D also (almost as much) and love taking pictures of this boy!

Pictures:

I swear he is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen:

Danny!

2011-02-16T12:05:00.000-08:00

My cousin Andrea had a baby boy last week! I went to go visit her and her husband and their new baby at the hospital. It was so strange to be back in the hospital and Dean seems HUGE when compared to little Danny. Andrea and baby are doing GREAT and Daniel is just perfect! I brought my camera just in case they wanted some photos and we had a mini photoshoot. Here are my favorites:

Dean and Danny - friends on Day 1! Look how huge Dean looks:

More Dean

2011-01-24T18:24:00.000-08:00

I know all I ever do now is take pictures of my son. Guilty as charged. However, he is just SO cuddly and SO cute that I have to capture that little face before he grows up.

I woke up on Saturday to this little guy who just wanted to hang out with mom and dad. So, I grabbed my camera and took some photos while we were just hanging out on Saturday morning. As both my mom's say, "You can never have too many pictures of Dean."

The Dean Machine

2010-12-30T10:53:00.000-08:00

My little Dean Kelly slept for 5 hours in a row last night - truly a miracle. He is not the easiest baby in the world but in my opinion he sure is the cutest! Karl and I love having Dean in our family. He loves to look at lights on the ceiling and listen to music. He started smiling for me a few weeks ago and he laughed for the first time a few days ago.

It was so fun to enjoy Christmas with this new little guy. Here are some photos that I have taken of him over the past few weeks.

This is Dean in his bear suit. Have you ever played the old mario games on the original nintendo? There is a power you can get where you can get a bear suit. Random thought - okay.

Texas Dallas Mission

2010-12-02T15:47:00.001-08:00

My brother left on his mission yesterday. I am pretty sad. Yeah yeah I am bursting with pride and happy that he has made such a good decision in his life. I just miss my friend. Vincent and I texted every day back and forth, talked on the phone all the time, and he came to visit me and Karl in Utah a lot this past summer. He was even here in Utah when I had Dean and helped entertain me in the hospital.

I miss my brother and am so proud of him for serving a mission in the Texas Dallas Mission! Elder Snow came to stay with me and karl for one night before we dropped him off at the MTC. While he was with me, I taught him how to sew on a button, how to do laundry, he fed Dean for me, we wrote his 19 thank you notes, I gave him a haircut, I forced him to let me take pictures of him, he made me breakfast, we played a game with Teri and Michael, he watched his MTC training movies, and we went to Sonic's Happy Hour and got RT44 Watermelon slushes (a tradition from this summer).

Here are some pictures of my brother Elder Snow:

Elder Snow in front of the MTC (they tore the MTC sign down!!):

Elder Snow saying bye to his favorite nephew Dean:

Here the last picture I took of him walking into the MTC. I don't think I was supposed to be taking pictures but oh well. I told Vincent to walk slow so I could and he did!!

See you in two years Elder Snow!

Dean Kelly Webb

2010-11-05T19:05:00.001-07:00

Yes I know, I have fallen off the blogging deep end. However, being 9 months pregnant is not the funnest thing I have ever done. Good news though: I am no longer pregnant!!!!!!! It is a Christmas Miracle!

Dean Kelly Webb was born on Oct 23 (8 days before my due date, bless his soul) and it was so great. I had a great day! The epidural was amazing and worth every penny. I was just watching TV during pushing and it was just no big deal. Dean was 6lbs 3 oz, 19.5 inches long, and just so cute. He is a really good baby.

Here are some great pictures of my great little man:

A 5D Photoshoot

2010-07-04T19:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read that right! I recently bought me a brand new Canon 5d Mark II! It is beyond fantastic. Here is a list of things that I love:

1. Karl (and other assorted family members)
2. Disneyland
3. Lina (my naughty puppy)
4. My 5d.

It is very near the top of my list. When I first got it I dreamed that I went on a cruise with Karl and he dropped it in the water. It was a very bad dream.

I had the opportunity to take some summery pictures of my two adorable cousins, Haley and Kelsey, this past week! We've been trying to coordinate to get these pictures taken for a while now but it has just been so hectic with all of our schedules. I was so glad to finally get these pictures done and it was so fun to use the new camera on the shoot! The girls were so cute and it is always great to have great subjects to photograph. I also enjoyed the location up in Kaysville because it was something I wasn't used to. Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot.

Baby Face

2010-06-16T20:28:00.001-07:00

So if you didn't already know...we're having a baby on halloween! And we just found out last week that it's a boy! I am so excited to meet him - his ultrasound pictures are so so cute. I am posting every single ultrasound picture because let's face it, both Grandma's are so excited they can barely stand it and they need to see ALL the pictures.

Here are the pictures from the ultrasound last week on June 8.

Here we were watching him eat a bunch of amniotic fluid.

Here are the pictures from the ultrasound today on June 16:

Cute feet!!!

Laying down and relaxing:

and my favorite:

You can see his little face and his arm under his face, and his other arm is tucked behind his head. Here is a close up:

More Kevin and April

2010-04-26T22:57:00.000-07:00

I was editing a few of Kevin and April's pictures the other day, and since I took SO many photos at their wedding, I couldn't resist posting a few more. The other pictures that I already posted were the original colors, straight out of the camera. These pictures have been jazzed up a bit!

Anderson Wedding

2010-04-18T19:59:00.000-07:00

I had the lovely opportunity last weekend to shoot the wedding of some dear friends, Kevin and April. It was a great (although exhausting!) day. Karl and I are so glad they moved close to us so that we can hang out all the time. Here are a few of my favorites pictures from the day...honestly, there are many, I just grabbed a few.

Kevin showing off his green socks from the day. I thought this picture was SO cute!

HOT cake!

Lina Bear

2010-04-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

My little baby dog is getting so so big. I can't believe it. I was looking for her the other day and I found her hiding in the back of the closet. At the time I had been practicing using the external flash that my friend Kevin lent me and so I took this picture in the back of a dim closet with one light bulb. Can you believe it? And all this time I thought flashes were the DEVIL.

Guess what? I've saved enough for the Canon 5d!!!

Lauren's chair - before and after

2010-03-25T16:51:00.000-07:00

Honestly, don't before and after pictures just BLOW YOUR MIND??????

Maybe it's because my mind is weak but I find a good before and after seriously motivating, refreshing and invigorating.

I went hope last weekend for about the quickest trip to California known to man but while I was there I promised Lauren that I would help her do something for her room decorations. When I got to California, Lauren showed me her desk chair. Believe me - this desk chair is RIPE with potential and READY for a redo.

This chair (set of 4) was given to my family when my Great Grandma died, so the chairs are 1) antique 2) pieces of crap. Honestly, they were very uncomfortable and breaking. Chipped, and covered in hideous fabric. Please see chair below:

The first thing I did to the chair was take a hammer to the music staff in the center. Goodbye music staff. Funny story - my mom forgot to tell my dad that I was redo-ing the chair. So he comes home from work, sees me and Lauren painting it and says to us "WHERE'S THE MUSIC STAFF?!?!?!?" hahahah. Whoops!

Anyway, then Lauren and I painted 3 coats of black paint on the chair after the music staff was ripped off and put on another coat of polyurethane.

Onto the cushion. The cushion that was there was just so hideous - and the part where your butt goes was very uncomfortable. So Lauren and I went to the fabric store, bought cute fabric, lining, badding, and padding (2" thick).

The piece of wood was also very flimsy so my dad cut us a new piece of plywood. Thanks dad!

Then Lauren and I covered the wood with the padding, badding, lining and finally fabric (golly it took a lot longer than it took you to read that sentence.) We used a staple gun to make it nice and tight around the plywood.

Final result? Prepare yourself.

Lauren picked out the fabric because her room is going to be purple with black and white polka dots. Isn't it adorable for Lauren's room??? She was so happy with it. I am so glad to spend time with my sweet sister and have fun projects to work on with her.

Another angle:

Still haven't worked on my dresser yet!

Jewelry Post Sneak Peek

2010-03-18T22:13:00.000-07:00

My friend Lindsay contacted me this week and told me that she is interested in starting her own jewelry business. She first wants to start online and go from there. To do that, she needed some "killer pictures" of her jewelry. Oh yeah - this is where I come in. I SPECIALIZE in killer pictures. She came over TODAY and brought all of her fabulous jewelry.

I promised I would post the pictures and link over to her online shop, but the thing is, I haven't even given her the pictures yet because I have just stated up all night editing them because they turned out FABULOUS. She will be receiving her pictures tomorrow (how's that for a turnaround time) and so I will only post my absolute FAVORITE snippets. That way, when I post the "real post" I can link to her shop and talk about all of the jewelry.

Just FYI - the studio we set up was on some chairs in my living room in front of my sliding glass door to get optimal lighting. We brought out fabrics, bowls, lights, and a plethora of other things to help us succeed in this awesome jewelry photoshoot. This was a fun one, let me tell you! Can't wait to do it again!

I would love to hear about what you all think!

Office Desk - Before and Afters

2010-03-15T10:53:00.000-07:00

Oh how I love before and after photos. Those photos just make me excited for all the potential every piece of ugly furniture has. I love read do-it-yourself articles and blogs, and since I have a blank slate of a house ripe for the decorating, the articles couldn't be more perfect for me!

I received a free desk from my in-laws. Even Karl didn't want it. But I saw that it had enormous potential, plus, my current desk was very ugly. I mean $50 at target particle board covered with fake wood sticker ugly. Here is a picture:

To figure out my re-do for the desk I first had to figure out how I wanted to decorate my office. I cut out inspiration from painting magazines and created an "inspiration board." Karl hated the direction I was going. However, since I work from home and I work IN THE OFFICE I told him that he could have a room in the house that we could decorate any way HE wanted - perhaps the bathroom. :) He really didn't care but it was a funny conversation.

Anyway, I had my office theme and then I was ready to paint the desk. Here is my lovely desk BEFORE the transformation:

Notice the nasty stickers on the side, the peeling-up plastic, and the un-moderness of it all. But shapewise? I'll take it. I can do cool things to this desk.

So I started by peeling up all of the nasty plastic with a razorblade.

That part took forever. Then I sanded down the wood underneath the previous plastic with my awesome sander. I also sanded off all the stickers.

I then went to walmart and bought shiny black paint and polyurethane. I then went to the scrapbook store and bought scrapbook paper to line the back of my shelves.

I put on 3-4 coats of black paint over the whole desk and then put on 2 coats of quick-dry polyurthane. (that sounds like it was so fast. But it wasn't)

I then lined the previous shelf backing with my scrapbook paper via decopauage glue.

I contacted Karl's aunt who has a vinyl printing business and paid her to print out a big vinyl sticker that I designed in illustrator.

Once the desk was dry, I nailed on the back of the shelves that are now covered in pretty paper. I then put my big vinyl sticker across the top. Are you ready to see the transformation??????????????

DESK AFTER:

SEXY SEXY DESK. Which Karl LOVES. He just couldn't see my vision in the beginning.

Here you can see better the sticker I designed and the back of the shelving:

And just because I love it so much and am so proud of it, here are tons more pictures of it.

Cute vase from target:

Side view:

Two diagonal views:

Desk again (the printer and junk has all been moved now)

AND GUESS WHAT??? I just got a FREE DRESSER!!! Stay tuned!

Anderson Engagements

2010-02-17T17:54:00.001-08:00

I had the pleasure this past weekend of shooting Kevin and April's engagement pictures. I had SUCH a blast at their photoshoot - it is always so fun to photograph cute couples. You can just tell that they are in love by looking at the way they look at each other. I had SO many favorites from this shoot, maybe because I took way too many pictures. Thanks April and Kevin!

I couldn't pick between these 2 of April. She looks FANTASTIC.

My favorite photo:

My baby puppy

2010-01-21T11:27:00.000-08:00

Karl got me the best Christmas present ever - a baby black lab puppy. She was only 5 weeks old when we got her and still bottle feeding. And yes - only slept for about an hour or two at a time. Luckily, she is the most precious dog I have ever seen and I love her to death! She is growing like a weed and her little personality is so funny. She gets annoyed with me and will sigh these funny doggie sighs. She is very afraid of the vacuum and will run to me if she sees it. She loves a good belly rub and frequently falls asleep on her back. Also she is too scared to go down the stairs. Not up them, just down them. Karl and I love our good little girl! Her name is Catalina, but we call her Lina. Here are some pictures:

This is me when I first got her. I was so happy and excited and I was just hugging her. She loves to be held.

Here's her stubby little baby legs (I hate the flash):

Cute girl:

So yesterday, Lina and I decided to have a photoshoot. This was difficult because Lina did not want to sit still for any photos. I had to get her favorite treats and hold them with one hand and the camera with the other.

Feed me!!!!!

Sitting patiently looking at the bag of treats. By the way, she is a very picky eater. She doesn't love milkbones! She will push them around with her nose and look at me like, "That's the best you can do?" - she definetly has an attitude.

My friend Lina:

Cake Boss(es)

2010-01-19T12:14:00.000-08:00

My very good friend Megan Rogers is into decorating cakes. She is going to start a cake decorating business and make tons of money! One day Megan and I were both bored on the same day, so she came over to my house and taught me some tips and tricks for cake decorating! I had a blast. Check out our beautiful cake!

Christmas Eve Senior Pictures

2009-12-29T11:41:00.001-08:00

I went home to California for Christmas and it was sure nice to be able to wear short sleeved shirts. I miss it already! Now I'm at home with my Christmas present - my new baby puppy Catalina! She is a 7 week old black lab with a fiesty personality. She has separation anxiety and always wants to be right at your feet. She loves to chomp her little teeth on everything. I have a little santa hat I am going to put on her and do a little photoshoot, so pictures next time.

My mom had my brother go into a studio to get senior pictures taken and they all turned out really corny and not real-looking at all! While I was down for Christmas I took my brother out to see if I could capture his real self on camera - ie, not the fakesy smile, the real smile. We went to the beach first but it was so sunny that portraits would have been terrible. As we were driving around, I found this awesome red dumpster that we took the majority of the shots in front of. Here are my favorites:

Our one shot on the beach:

Hilary and Eric's Wedding

2009-12-15T09:22:00.000-08:00

Hilary and Eric asked me to take some pre-wedding pictures for them at the temple. I was so honored that they asked me to take more photos of them! They are such great models- they are so in love and it is easy to capture on camera. We arrived at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and it was well below freezing...in fact, it started snowing soon after we got there. I was freezing, and I was totally bundled up! I felt so bad for Hilary. However, with these great shots, you would have never known that she was a living popsicle. I have many favorites from this shoot; here are a few.

Our REAL Christmas Tree

2009-12-11T20:38:00.000-08:00

Karl and I decided instead of doing a fakesy tree this year we would do a real tree to celebrate our real house that we now live in. So in now-annual Webb family tradition, we loaded ourselves up in the car on December 1 and went to the Christmas tree lot. It was fun to pick out a baby tree. We wanted something under $20 so here it is! I thought it would be a lot smaller, but 5 feet is pretty good for $20.

A few nights ago I decided to play around with the shutter speed on my camera and I got this result. By the way, Karl agreed to let me start saving up for the Canon 5D camera if he could get some sort of expensive weapon. So now I am saving up for both. Hooray!

Halloween Costume Shoot

2009-12-02T13:32:00.000-08:00

Andrea and Jon requested that I take a few pictures of them in their halloween costumes. Boy was I surprised! I don't know what I was expecting but I don't think I was expecting both of them in spandex. Oh well - they looked great! I took a bunch of fun pictures. Here are a few of my favorites. They are both NATURALS in front of the camera. Maybe it's because of my expert training??

My favorite of the shoot:

Godzilla!!

...Scandalous...

Carrie's Senior Pictures

2009-11-30T11:07:00.001-08:00

I got the chance last weekend to take some spectacular pictures of my cousin Carrie. She's a senior this year and wanted to get some nice senior pictures. Let me just tell you - I love taking senior pictures! It's fun, it's way easier than taking pictures of little kids, and for me it is not like work at all. Plus, Carrie has watched a little Top Model so she has the "smiling with her eyes" down pat. Love it! Here's a few of my favorite shots from the shoot. By the way - the location? Carrie's idea. I'm going back there every time from now on!

Halloween Craft Day

2009-11-22T14:34:00.000-08:00

I know this post is late but I couldn't resist posting the pictures that Teri, Andrea, Megan, Hilary, and I did this year. We got together on a Saturday to take a break from our routines and do some crafting. Thanks mom for the cute craft package!

These are IKEA frames with halloween tissue paper decoupaged over the frame.

We painted a wooden plaque black, then decopauged scrapbook paper and a vintage card over the plaque to make a cute holiday decoration. Some of us then sanded the sides for an actual vintage look.

Here we are holding our new crafts!

Hilary and Eric

2009-10-19T20:46:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of taking Hilary and Eric's engagement pictures last weekend. The shoot went fabulous! They were both so fun and cooperative. I had such a great time shooting their engagement pictures. By the way, I got both of the ideas for the locations of the shoot from another fabulous photographer, Emily Hartvigsen (her blog here). Here are some of my favorites from the shoot - although there were lots of good ones and I had a hard time choosing!

My Pumpkin Jolly

2009-10-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

Teri and Draper invited Karl and I over to carve pumpkins with them. I wanted to use a pattern so I made one in photoshop and brought it over. The result is our little pumpkin who's name is Jolly. Have a look!

Haunted Sugar Beet Factory

2009-10-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

So, as most of you know, 1) I am currently student teaching at Provo High School (tomorrow is my last day, I start at Oak Canyon Jr. High on Monday) and 2) I just moved to Spanish Fork.

In my photography class this past week, I assigned a project that was basically a photo collage. We studied the artist David Hockney and then went out and tried to copy his style of work. One student raised their hand and said, "Well are you doing the assignment too?" and I accidentally said, "Of COURSE I am!!" Oops. So last weekend I set out to do my assignment.

The view from our second bedroom window looks out across an old abandoned sugar beet factory. I have been longing to photograph it, but with student teaching taking up all of my time, hobbies have been on the back burner. I was able to kill two birds with one stone and photograph my beloved sugar beet factory for the assignment that I accidentally said I would do. The collage turned out better than I expected!

Also, I am doing some great engagement photos this weekend so stay tuned for some awesome pictures!

Closing Week

2009-09-13T19:58:00.000-07:00

Karl and I have our final walkthrough of the house tomorrow and we couldn't be more excited. We drove down to see the house today and we had to tear ourselves out of it after staying for over an hour. (This is an empty house I might add.) I know I haven't been blogging about much else lately, but this is just what is going on with us.

I am student teaching at Provo High and it is a constant stress. This week is going to be crazy! We have the final 2-3 hour walkthrough tomorrow, close on the house on Wednesday, I am in charge of the YM/YW mutual on Wednesday (teaching photography), we get the keys Thursday, we move Thursday/Friday/Saturday, I teach YW for our final sunday in our ward on Sunday. Not to mention every day I have to plan lessons for the kids at Provo High. And I guess I just found out today that Karl told our landlord we would find the next renters for him. Oh well! Life is great and busy. Here are some pictures for the people that like the pictures.

I didn't take a "front of the house" picture because nothing has changed really, except rain gutters and screens. Boring.

Here is a picture of the great kitchen with the stove, dishwasher, and sink added. YIPPEE!!

Close up on the sink for those who are detail-oriented (and yes, those are the deep sinks that we paid $70 extra for):

By the way, don't forget to notice the great carpet!

Now, let's head up the stairs and check out the fabitty fab upstairs.

In this picture, the top of the stairs is on the left. The master bedroom is behind the stairs. Bedroom #1 is the open door at the end of the hall. The baby door that is open is the linen closet. I am standing in Bedroom #2 taking the picture.

Linen closet. I'm on the stairs taking the pic.

Here's me at the opposite end of the hall. Bedroom #2 is visible directly in front of me. The door on the left closest to the Bedroom #2 is the second bathroom. The door closer to me (that's not the linen closet) is the laundry room.

Beautiful Bathroom 2.

Here's Karl on the floor of the master bedroom.

Another master bedroom shot.

Master bath view:

My favorite closet.

I can't wait!

17 day countdown!

2009-08-29T15:18:00.000-07:00

Every time Karl and I go and visit our house, we are blown away by the amount of work that has been done on it from the previous week, and then it gets harder to leave and come home to our basement apartment because we are so excited about the house!

We had a pretty open Saturday today so we drove down to see the house. We are closing in 17 days and I can't believe that we are going to be homeowners so soon! Here are some picture updates for those of you who are interested.

Front of the house:

We walked in today and couldn't believe that the cabinets, some flooring, and some crown molding were in already! AND they are doing carpet next week!!! I had thought about painting my cabinets after we move in but I love them too much now to change them.

Here's a picture from the living room. This is that raised bar that we paid extra for, which we LOVE. You can see the pantry in the background.

All of the doors in the house look like this one. I forgot to take pictures of our doors in our actual house, but this is one from the model house center. You can kind of see the doors in some of these pictures in this post.

This is the cute 2nd bathroom upstairs. It has a normal sized tub/shower so I didn't take a picture of that.

Here is my favorite part of the whole house (which is now in competition with the kitchen), the master closet. It spans the whole length of our bedroom.

Master bathtub:

Master bathroom counter:

Can't wait to move in! Will post more pictures after our meeting with the contractor next week.

DIY frames & bookshelf...and house update

2009-08-23T18:40:00.001-07:00

Hello! It has been a long time since I have posted anything. School started and I am student teaching at Provo High. Our house is about 3.5 weeks out from being done. Karl has been more busy than ever with work and he is on a last minute business trip to Chicago today, which is why I am finding time to even post this. :)

So a few weeks back, my family came out to visit and my mom wanted to do a craft while she was here. My mom suggested we decoupage some frames, so we loaded up supplies at Michaels/Walmart and came over to my house for a crafting extravaganza!

First step was to paint the plain frame with some special craft glue, then lay your cute tissue paper on the front of it. We tried to smooth out most of the wrinkles but, as we were later convinced, little wrinkles gave our projects charm.

We then continued to paint the glue on and cut the tissue paper until it was just right on the frame: (Hand model courtesy of Lauren!)

The frames turned out great! Here is a picture of Lauren's frame (my mom's cute green frame is out of focus in the background):

Teri's great damask pattern frame:

My frame, that I transformed into a magnet board for my kitchen. I bought buttons and hot glued magnets to the back.

So, after all those frames, Teri and I were HOOKED on decoupaging! We saw an old bookshelf in her house and decided we found a project that was RIPE with opportunity. Here is an old raggedy bookshelf that Teri and her new husband had laying around in their apartment:

We put some nails into it to make it a little more sturdy. We then busted out my new orbital sander (RIDGID - has a lifetime warranty - I got it at Lowe's) and got rid of most of the scuffs and dings:

Since Teri and I are never ones who want to do more work than necessary, we decided to spray paint the bookshelf instead of having to actually paint it with paintbrushes. Here is a shot from the midst of the spray painting journey:

After about 4 cans of paint and zillions of coats, we brought the book shelf inside and decoupaged cute polka dot paper that we had leftover from the frames onto the shelves:

Here is an almost finished version of the shelf:

We then put a few layers of polyurethane on it to make it all nice and shiny, and dent proof. I don't have pictures yet from that stage. :( :( :(

So - lots of crafts. I just went to Honks and the dollar store and picked up a few more things to decoupage because it is SO FUN!!

Here's the house - we can't wait to move in!

Update on the house

2009-08-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

Karl and I went to go visit the house today and we were SO EXCITED to see that the house has sprung up from the ground!

Here is a view from the driveway up the front walk way.

When you walk in the house, you look to your left and here is a view of what you see.

Then if you walk in a little bit more you are standing in the living room and you can see this view of the kitchen. The wood poking out into the room is the counter/sink and the bar attached to it.

I didn't take any pictures of up the stairs except this one of me standing in the back bedroom looking into the master bathroom/closet/bedroom. The master closet is the big long skinny room on the right hand side of the picture!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This closet sold me on the house.

Also, for the people who are excited about the view of the "haunted" sugar beet factory, here is a view from the bedroom that I was standing in when I took the picture of the master closet/bathroom:

We are so excited for our house! I bought some packing boxes this week to start packing. I have some more posts to come; Teri and I have been working on a DIY project!

Hole in the Ground

2009-07-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

I realized I never blogged about our brand new house! Our house is scheduled to be finished no later than halloween of this year, which means we will qualify for the $8,000 bucks from the government. Yesssssssss. We went and picked out all of the colors and designs for the house in the first 4 weeks after signing. And now, we wait. We drove out to the lot last Sunday just to see how things were going and we found construction! It was SO EXCITING! Here is a picture:

The house has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, since we paid to add a half bathroom to the first floor.

Here is a photo of the picture we were given of house our home will look after it is done. However, we were able to get a free stucco upgrade instead of the siding pictured here and we also paid for bricks to go around the bottom.

Our house with have gray stucco with a white outline and black front door with dark red bricks. Here is a picture of what our house with stucco will kind of look like:

I Love America!

2009-07-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is, but ever since I got married I have become very weepy. I cry in everything. Especially in all things patriotic. I went to girls camp last week and every time we had the flag raising ceremony I found myself getting teary as I recited the Pledge of Allegiance. When I sing "The Star Spangled Banner" I cry at the part 'that our flag was still there.' Perhaps I'm starting to fully understand what freedom is and what it costs. I love my country and I am proud to be a United States Citizen!

I celebrated the Fourth of July with my in-laws in Kaysville. I brought my camera to document my day. How was your 4th of July?

I started out my day with rousing game of Risk against Karl, John, and Tricia. Karl and John basically lost and then decided they didn't want to play anymore.

We had a great barbeque. Here is a picture of me and my hot husband, courtesy of Tricia:

I tried having a photoshoot with their 2 dogs but the dogs weren't really interested. In fact, the only way I could even get Courage (the dog in this picture) to look at the camera was to say the magic word: TREAT. Don't worry, I gave him a treat when the photoshoot was over.

I experimented taking pictures of the different fireworks that we did in the street and here are a few of the results.

and finally...

I love the USA!

Teri's Wedding

2009-06-14T12:44:00.001-07:00

Last week was my sister Teri's wedding in San Diego. It was so beautiful and we had a really wonderful time visiting with family before and after the wedding. There was a reception the day of the wedding and an open house a week later for Michael's side of the family. I snapped a few photos at the open house and here are a few of my favorites.

This is Michael's niece, who is about the cutest little girl alive. She grabbed my leg and wouldn't let go. We were playing animals together and she was a butterfly and I got to be a bunny, since those are both "girl animals." "Boy animals" included sharks, tigers, and worms. I could not convince her that there are girl tigers too.

I really liked the centerpieces. Orange sounds like a crazy wedding color, but it really was beautiful.

Candid shots are great because they show real expression, in this case, you can tell that they really like each other!

My fave of Teri:

My House

2009-05-21T20:16:00.000-07:00

We just bought a house. We are going to build it. We will move in before halloween of this year. Here is a picture of me on my land!!!!!!!!

more deets to come...

GUNS and stuff

2009-05-10T23:34:00.000-07:00

I have never understood what all of the excitement about shooting a gun was about. This weekend, I got to experience that excitement FIRSTHAND. Karl and I went up to his family's ranch/farm up in Idaho to celebrate his Grandpa Jay's 80th birthday.

Going to the farm means a few different things for me, namely, camping, bbq, nature, hiking, atvs, etc. etc. Going to the farm for Karl and the other boys means another: GUNS! RIFLES! REVOLVERS! 45 SOMETHING! MOSSANS (sp?)! In other words, "IT'S THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE" - Karl (well actually he didn't say that but I know he thought it.)

So after the families with little kids left, the guns were brought forth. My brother in law Johnny received a gun for christmas this year that is very big and called a mossan. I shot it once and that was enough. After shooting the .45 for 4 rounds and hitting the dirt instead of the target each time, I decided that I was having much more fun taking pictures of the gun show than actually shooting the guns.

I'm glad the boys had fun. It was fun for me to shoot, but I don't really mind if I don't ever do it again. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend.

This is Johnny, posing with the .45 and the mossan. I told him to think "movie poster" and then I snapped this shot.

This is my cute husband Karl, who I might add, is hitting the target aka the balloon on his first shot. Robbers beware!

Between shooters, I would wander around and take random pictures.

Here's Johnny again shooting the .45:

This is Karl's cousin. Check out the smoke and the cartridge!

My Grandpa Plays the Accordion

2009-04-29T13:19:00.000-07:00

My grandpa is cooler than most grandpas. Why? Because he plays the accordion. He gave us a concert when we went down to visit my grandparents in St. George over conference weekend. Isn't he GREAT?

Easter

2009-04-14T13:53:00.000-07:00

I love Easter! I especially love Easter in the springtime. There are some trees on BYU campus that I think are so beautiful - they have white and pink blossoms. When I look at those trees I wish that people were taller so that I could have a photo shoot in front of those gorgeous trees.

This Easter, I was able to take pictures of the cutest girls around- My cousin Matt's wife Julia and their two little girls, Alexis and Lily. They wore their cute Easter dresses and it was so fun! Alexis needed a lot of coaxing and refused to look at the camera mostly. I learned a lot about shooting younger kids from this session. Here are some of my favorites. Thanks Julia and Matt for the fun!

Draper Engagement Shoot

2009-03-18T13:48:00.000-07:00

My sister is Teri engaged! Yay! Now she no longer has to buy a cat to keep her company. They are getting married at the end of May.

I am also very happy because I had two more willing participants partaking in a photoshoot. We had a great time. Here are some of my favorites.

valentine roses

2009-03-12T16:13:00.001-07:00

My Valentine's Day roses died. The roses looked pretty sad because all of the buds fell over onto their stems. This event called for a sad black and white photoshoot in my kitchen--when I should have been doing my homework. Oh well.

I love the pattern on my kitchen floor.

Brooke's Senior Pictures

2009-03-03T15:28:00.000-08:00

It was Karl's birthday this weekend so we drove up to Kaysville. We had a great time celebrating his birthday with his family. While I was up there, Karl's cousin Brooke asked me to take her senior pictures. A photo opportunity with a willing model? Sign me up! We had a great time. Brooke is gorgeous and great in front of the camera. Here are some of my favorites.

I Love Animals.

2009-02-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

I got 13 hours of sleep last night. That means tonight at 1 AM, I am not tired at all. After Karl and I had an IBC root beer party where we scobbed Teri at word twist and then drank root beer to keep up moral, we then watch 4 episodes of Prison Break and now Karl is too tired to stay awake. So, I was reading some blogs and decided it had been a while since I updated my blog; however, I have no new pictures to update it with! So I scoured my hard drive and looked for something to blog about. Hooray! I have successfully located pictures. My family went to Sea World over Christmas break and I never blogged about it! I am so happy for a belated Sea World Extravaganza. I will now give you a tour of a wonderful place, full of magical mystery, and deadly fish.

It all begins at the very beginning, when my camera was too heavy to hold so Karl was holding it for me...

My mom, Teri, Me, Vincent (punk)

We decided that it would be best to go and visit Sting Ray Pond. This is a place where you can go and feel sting rays. I was very excited because I got to go see and touch a real animal that could very possibly take my life! (RIP Steve Irwin) You can tell by my face JUST how excited I was:

My Dad, My Mom, Me, Teri

After this, we have the Shrieking Eels, made famous by the most quoted movie in history. One of the eels gave me the "eelvil eye". Get it? I reclaimed my camera as we shot this memoric event:

Crazy Eel, hungry and ready to be fed

Lauren was pretty scared that she was going to be eaten by an eel. I comforted her by making her model her scared face for me.

Lauren, scared after an eel made an attempt on her life

Here is my hottie of a husband Karl. He is apparently needing a neck rub and his wife is slacking.

Karl is so happy to be at Seaworld!

Vincent (punk brother) stole a woman's wheelchair and tried to roll away before I caught him on camera. He returned the wheelchair.

Vincent, caught in the act!

Finally, we reach the Rocky Horror Shamu Show. I honestly thought Shamu was either going to eat someone or squash someone. Both would be equally horrible. Here is the evidence:

Shamu, after getting a running head start, begins to surface...

...right into the audience, where he proceeds to bite someone's head off!

Last but not least, we arrived at the Penguins, who were very cute. I can't think of anything really clever to say except that this particular penguin looked like it was trying to decapitate itself.

Cute Penguin

Overall, Seaworld was great. I had a lot of fun 2 months ago. I think that everyone should go. Time for bed. It's late.

Blue Background of Glory

2009-02-15T18:22:00.001-08:00

I am entering a photography contest where the winners get to go to Egypt! I have a great partner. Her name is Chaela and she is great (check out her blog). We were scoping out some locations to do photoshoots at and we stumbled upon this awesome factory with cool blue walls, which Chaela so appropriately titled "the blue background of glory." So, being the photographers that we are, we got out of the car and did a photoshoot.

This is Chaela. She's beautiful!

Here is my favorite shot:

If you look closely, I'm hiding in her eye.

Blue Background of Glory - courtesy of:

PS. Got a new lens. THE lens. Will post more pictures soon.

Innovation and Creativity Bootcamp

2009-02-11T11:55:00.000-08:00

I am the TA for BYU's school of technology. About once a month, we hold an Innovation and Creativity bootcamp, where kids from every major in the school of technology come and learn how to be more innovative. It's really fun, and I've learned a lot. Here's some pictures I took from last week. If you are interested in finding out more about it, go HERE.

And here are the lovely prizes for the winners, not to mention, a possible $500 prize at the end of the semester:

Fruit Salad!

2009-02-04T19:30:00.000-08:00

Andrea, Jon, Teri, and Draper came over to play games and laugh and have a good old married-persons time. Andrea brought her new trifle bowl and I bought a bunch of fruit at Macey's, so we decided to make a delicious fruit trifle. It was so beautiful that I couldn't help myself and I took pictures of it.

Jon and Andrea's Wedding

2009-01-18T16:00:00.000-08:00

Jon and Andrea liked their engagement pictures from me so much (go figure!) that they asked me to be the photographer for their wedding. I initially was appalled--considering, that if I ruined their wedding photos we might be enemies for the rest of our lives. I accepted their offer and I had a blast doing their photos. Here are some of my favorites (although there are about 400 more to choose from--I'm trigger happy.)

New New New....

2009-01-13T20:01:00.000-08:00

Lens. I now own a canon fixed-50mm lens. That I love. Picture:

Jon and Andrea's wedding pictures to come...Stay Tuned!

California Dreamin

2009-01-03T22:58:00.001-08:00

Don't you love California in the wintertime? I stepped off the plane and felt alive again. My trip home was a little piece of heaven.

I was asked to take Jon and Andrea Ware's wedding pictures and I wanted to be at my best for them. So, I practiced about every day, changed lots of settings, and improved a lot over Christmas break! I talked Lauren, my baby sister, into coming to the beach with me for a sunset shoot. She was a little hesitant at first, but I think she is a natural and the pictures could not have been cuter. Here are some of my favorites:

Dress Up

2008-12-25T20:42:00.000-08:00

I got to babysit this little cutie last week and while she was over, I took advantage of a willing photography subject. Bribery works wonders!

It's a Christmas Miracle!

2008-12-25T20:08:00.000-08:00

Finally I found some sweet girls who wanted to participate in a photoshoot with me! For those of you who don't know, I'm always asking people if I can take pictures of them, and the answer is usually not in the affirmative. However, during this lovely snowy christmas break, I found 4 of America's Next Top Models right before my eyes!

Here is the lovely Janice, who needed almost NO coaching:

This is Abby, who is eleven and already can pose like a pro:

Tricia is just a bucket of hotness:

My camera just LOVES Katie's eyes:

Gingerbread houses

2008-12-17T16:27:00.000-08:00

My and my sisters made gingerbread houses. Here are a few pictures:

Hurricane Katrina accidentally hit the middle one here:

Ware Engagement Shoot

2008-12-01T23:55:00.001-08:00

Jon and soon-to-be Andrea Ware asked me to take their engagement photos this past weekend. They drove up to Kaysville and I scooped out some spots for photos. It wasn't easy to find a pretty place in the deadness of fall/winter; however, Karl had just the place - a little nook in a park that turned out to be just perfect. Here are some of my favorites. The originals and some others are posted here.

Cute Models

2008-12-01T14:15:00.000-08:00

I went up to Kaysville this Thanksgiving week and took my camera with me, hoping that I would be able to scoop out some suitable models for practice using my new telephoto lens. My Aunt Kathy's children decided to oblige me and we played "Top Model". Here are some photos from the shoot:

Vacation to California!!

2008-04-27T18:40:00.001-07:00

We just got back from our super fun vacation to California!! I took over 500 pictures with my brand new beautiful Canon Rebel xti and I am posting some favorites. Our favorite highlights from the trip were going to disneyland twice, hanging out with my family, playing guitar hero, going to the beach for bonfire and surfing, TONS of shopping (this is not karl's favorite highlight) and just relaxing and not going to school or work.

Og the frog blogged in the soggy fog

2007-11-04T21:05:00.001-08:00

I've never blogged before, or at least not in this sense. Ash says I can write about anything I want, like my brain on paper, only less messy.

Right now, we're just sitting here killing time, ironic considering all the stuff we have to do. Like laundry for example (which I have to go change in like five minutes). My whole life I've stuck to having about two or three pairs of pants and half a dozen shirts to cover work, church, and casual dressing agenda's. Therefore, I never much thought of laundry as being a particularily grueling or time consuming task. I'd just toss them all in the laundry pour some soap in and: ta da* clean clothes. Who'd have guessed your supposed to do seperate loads for lights, darks, colors, bright colors, pastels, jeans, hankerchifs...maybe thats a little bit of an exageration but not much. It's one of those things I've already learned in the two and a half months we've been married. I've been trying to learn how to do husbandy things like cook, clean, and watch sports on TV. I even joined a fantasy basketball league with some guy at my work. Apparently you pick a list of real players and then watch all of there games and add up their stats and stuff. I haven't watched any games yet and I don't remember who is on my team but I have a good feeling about winning. HaHa. I've never been much for sports, except of course for BYU football, and hockey fights and X games. And occasionally golf. Ironic huh? All in all tho- I must be doing something right because I'm married to the cutest girl you've ever met. :) !!!! And speaking of that, I guess I'd better go jump on that laundry. (like seven baskets) But I'd like to leave you all with a great picture of my good friend Doxey who is in the Ukraine right now spreading the gospel and doing sick back flips off of tanks.

Our Apartment - the remix

2007-11-02T19:56:00.000-07:00

Due to popular demand - more pictures of our apartment are now available. I will caption them here:

This is our blue bathroom. Karl wanted it to be blue and I couldn't pick what kind of blue I liked so we went with a bunch of different color blues:

This is half of our living room. In the corner you will see the potted palm that Karl gave me for my birthday yesterday!! It is so great. I wanted a pet that was low maintenance and I have also always wanted a potted palm. I watered it today and it was fun. I am still thinking of a name for it - any suggestions??

This is the other half of our living room with our bookshelf from target ($40) <-- bargain.

This is our cute red kitchen!!! I love it so much. It is so nice to have your own kitchen.

This is our table and chairs from IKEA that you can't see very well because my jacket is in the way.

This is our bedroom with the cute quilt that I got at my bridal shower! You can see my laptop on the bed where I am sitting now typing this and uploading pictures.

By the way - I had a great birthday. Karl bought me the cutest matching shirt and headband AND a potted palm. I got a great birthday package from my family (mommy) in the mail and it had a bunch of cute stuff from my un-finished registry at Crate and Barrel. Karl and I went out to Winger's and then went and saw "Dan in Real Life" at the movies - which I loved. Then we came home and went to bed EARLY! At 10:30!! So I got enough sleep that night, which was double nice. All in all it was a really great day. Tomorrow I am going out to eat with Teri and Andrea at Tucano's with my birthday coupon they sent me in the mail.

I LOVE being married!! It is so fun!

Pell Grant Ahoy!

2007-10-31T22:16:00.000-07:00

Since we just got married, I decided to take advantage of the fact that I can now legally claim that I live in almost-poverty. Even though I was basically living the same way I am now - in fact, I think I live better now than I did when I was single - my expected family contribution has gone down by about 20,000 dollars. What does this mean?

The government wants to give ME money to finish school. And who am I to pass up such an opportunity as this? Not I. I submitted a FAFSA (one of the smartest things I have ever done)and now the government is giving me a $1600 wedding present.

Well - I gladly accept.

PS. I got a 98% on my exam for my physics class.
PPS. It's my birthday in 40 minutes. This would be a lot more cool except for the fact that I am working tonight from 7 PM to 1 AM.

Sunday Sunday

2007-10-21T10:59:00.001-07:00

Today is Sunday - what a beautiful day. The snow is all melted. It makes me want to go out and take some pictures. Yesterday Karl and I finally had the afternoon off on the same day (This never happens) and so we went to Winger's and then to the Haunted Forest in American Fork. It was so fun!!
Of course - we weren't sure if it was outside or not. So we assumed it was indoors and I just wore a sweatshirt and Karl wore his short sleeved shirt. Did I mention that yesterday it snowed? We got there and it was freezing. Karl usually keeps a jacket in his car but we did laundry yesterday and I made him wash all of his jackets!! The only this in his car was a little girly cardigan that belonged to me. Karl decided to "be a man" and wear it; he justified this by saying guys wear girl clothing all the time and he would just blend in with the Utah crowd. The maze wasn't very scary at first but then crazy guys with chain saws kept jumping out of the walls and chasing us because we were in the back of our group. Karl laughed and I screamed. We had a good time. The maze was about 45 minutes long and was decorated very cool - I think it was worth our 15 dollars. Note to Self: Next time bring a coat.

Our Apartment

2007-10-15T14:57:00.001-07:00

I just started a Karl and Ashley blog so that way our friends and family would have a way to keep up on us. We are doing great - so happy and having so much fun being married. Karl is working on getting some computer certifications for the moment and I am still working on my Technology and Engineering Education major. My mom helped me arrange our wedding pictures on the wall and so here is a picture of our living room. I guess you can see into our room as well. So - whenever you want to keep up on us - come to our blog!