s'more nature photos {KAYE photo}

I found these while digging through my hard drive... they were taken in my beautiful hometown in the Upper Peninsula of MI one sunny afternoon. I thought I would share a couple.

Photographs stand the test of time... {personal}

I've been hanging on to these images for a while now, not really sure what I wanted to do with them. They are photos (of photos) from a collection that my late great-grandma collected. The people in the images, though I'm not sure who many of them are, are family and family friends from years ago. I'd like to share a few of them that caught my eye, because they reminded me how important photographs are for a family record. Beautiful nastolgia.

I *think* this one is my Nana when she was a little girl:










Looks like somebody spooked the baby: :-)



The following are old photographs from where I grew up... the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan:





Eagle River:






Aren't those great?

Gatlinburg, TN {Nature Photography}

I am so NOT a nature photographer. I've tried before, but I get bored easily with subjects that aren't walking, talking, and interesting! Though, I couldn't resist getting some shots of our sourroundings when we took a hike up the Chimneys in the smokey mountains in Gatlinburg, TN.

101 in 1001

I love lists. I love making them, checking things off, and revising them over & over. It's my way of staying accountable to myself, and actually remembering to do things! Usually those lists are work-type stuff... which are gratifying, but not super fun. So, to fix that, here is my 101 things in 1001 days list (roughly 2.7something years):

My list

What's on your list??

I'll keep you updated on my progress!

Home improvement : Personal

So the other night, at 2AM, while the hubby had an overnight duty... I did this:







It began as one of those "questionable" pieces of furniture that B managed to keep when we moved into our new house (there's still a recliner in this category that needs to be dealt with, I will keep you updated). After sanding, priming, more priming, painting, and a little more painting -- I love it!

This will be finding a home in our guest bedroom. Best part about it was it was free - we had all of the primer and paint from other projects already. Not bad.

Guess where? : Clarksville Portrait Photographer

Can you guess where these headshots were taken? The only problem with this place is I'd have to clean it before I'd take shots of a client here. ;-)





The hubs was nice enough to be my model for these. I married a hottie.

House project!

As many of you know, we bought a house back in February. Now that we're back from the honeymoon and getting settled in, I've been doing some projects! Here's my latest:

Old vanity cabinets were this color in both bathrooms:


After stripping, sanding, staining & varnishing:

Guest bathroom:


Master bathroom:



We definitely need new countertops and faucets, but that will come later...

Other progress...

I booked our photographer, who I LOVE. Her name is Julie, and her website is: http://www.jclportraits.com/ Her work reminds me of my own in a lot of ways (must be why I like her so much, ha!). She uses a lot of natural light, punchy b&w, saturated colors, and captures people interacting and having fun. On top of that, she was willing to come all the way up to the wedding from down where I live now which I am BEYOND pleased about!

The lovely bridesmaids dresses are ordered (shown in gold, we ordered a gorgeous grey color):

Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel

Flowers! Oh my!

For anyone who knows me, I'm generally not a fan of fake flowers. Really, like at all.

Go figure, we're doing faux florals. But LOOK AT THESE! They're gorgeous!!! Caroline and I sat down today and made these. I'm over the top thrilled at how they turned out.

Please don't ban me to tacky-land :-)


My bouquet (notice the feathery goodness to tie into the bouts I made earlier):






For the ladies:

Flowers/a little project

I've been going back and forth about if/how much to do myself for the flowers. I think the conclusion I've come to is to do the small flower projects myself (boutonierres, maybe corsages, pew buckets, bud vases) and to enlist the pros for the bouquets and alter arrangements.

While sitting in Clarksville waiting for my B to get home from work, after a trip to the craft store, I came up with these for the boys:

The supplies, courtesy of Hobby Lobby:


Wrapped up:


Final product!


A group of them:


ETA: These bad boys costed less than $1.50/ea to make! NOT BAD!

Running of the Brides!

I think the event is best described in photos... (all courtesy of the lovely and talented Kara Granroth!)


Walking, mirror in hand to the event... with our faulty map. Totally went about 2 miles out of our way trying to find the place.



Waiting in the 3 block long line!



Once in the doors, the entire floor was utter chaos. Jen and I are trying to get through the crowd to claim a spot where I can try on dresses.


All of the racks where bare when we got in, and stayed bare the whole time we were there. To get new dresses to try on, the girls had to barter with other groups of girls!



One of the many no-goes of the morning.



Ha! I think I made this face a lot. After trading up numerous times, we were SUCCESSFUL! I ended up buying my dress here!



Nap time.

Look at me go!

Yay, yay, YAY! I am finally accomplishing things!!! I don't have any new photos, so those will have to come soon (stay tuned).

In the last couple of months since I last posted I have:

Changed the date! To March 20, 2010. There are rumblings on Ft Campbell that they will be deploying right away again in Jan 2011, so B & I decided we wanted to be married more than 5 months before he leaves again. Such is the military. Its going to be a fabulous winter wedding. (authentic YOOPER wedding. hehe)

1. Bought my dress!!! At the famous Filene's "Running of the Brides". Full report on this later. For now I'll just say - SO MUCH FUN. Completely worth the hooplah and production. Unfortunately I won't be able to post photos... I don't trust the groom to keep his eyes away. ;-)

2. Picked our bridal party (check FB if curious, I have them all on there). Its huge. LOL.

3. Picked a photographer... more on this later too, I want to wait until I have the contract & deposit all taken care of so I know for sure I have her. Her work is awesome.

4. Ordered the engagement photos! The disc at least... I need to figure out what I'm going to do with them.

5. Tested out my table runner idea - wallpaper with a sweet pattern on it - and its totally going to work. Photos soon.

My accessories are all bought as well (except figuring out what winter gear to wear over the dress), and my centerpieces are closer to being done. I started the conversation with the florist I want to use. The bridesmaid dress is getting close to being picked out too.

Things are rocking and rolling over here.

projects !

I finally got around to taking nicer photos of my projects... so here they are so far...







And now, my newest crafting... my idea for centerpieces. My original thought for the tables was I was going to buy some wholesale flowers online, plunk them in some vases, and be done with it. After pricing out flowers (even at wholesale), putting a vase of flowers on each table, or even every other, was looking wayyyy too expensive. So, this idea was born! Trial run #1:





As you can see, I still need to figure out what to put in the inside. Also, if I am going to spray paint it a matte gray instead of leaving the galvanized steel. I think I might paint a monogram on the front too. Any opinions? Thoughts?

Thats all for now, folks!