Lina Bear

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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!