Planning Mischief

This week's challenge at I Heart Faces is "beautiful eyes" and it was so hard to pick a picture to submit. I'll admit, I may be biased, but I do believe my children have the most beautiful eyes ever. LOL And how do you choose from the gorgeous blues my daughters are sporting or the chocolatey brown my son has?

In the end I chose a shot of my youngest. You'll recognize it from my header. Mia has gorgeous blue eyes but in the end I chose the black and white version of this shot because I think it brings more attention to her eyes. With the color version it is easy to be distracted by her strawberry blond hair and busy plaid dress. Either way, her eyes just sparkle. Possibly with mischief.

She's probably plotting world domination or something.

(Click on image for larger version)

Black & White for Pioneer Woman

This week's assignment for Pioneer Woman has been black and white. Yeah, so I don't do B&W all that often. Which is a shame because it can really bring out beautiful details in a photograph. It's just out of my comfort zone so I shy away from it.

But this week I decided to challenge myself to get out of my comfort zone and experiment with B&W and then I entered some that I liked into the contest. Shocking enough, this morning one was chosen to be a part of group 5. LOL

I'm always so honored to see one of my photographs chosen alongside so many beautiful shots. :)

The small Bathroom

Back to the ugly house again!

The other bathroom in the house was probably the grossest thing I'd ever laid eyes on. Some of it was unspeakable filth, the rest was the awful wallpaper and fixtures.

And did I mention it was gross? I mean guh-ross! LOL

This bathroom is actually in the part of the house that was added on. This is nice because not only can you enter it from the house, but you can enter it from what was once a patio that has been enclosed, also. It's nice for when we're all outside or when the kids get absolutely filthy (with mine that's often). We can enter or I can throw the kids all straight into the bath without tracking it through my nice clean renovated home. :)

After:

It's so much nicer and brighter in there now. And I love the new bathtub. It's nice and deep. :)
I still need to buy towel racks and things for both bathrooms, but I'll get that done soon.

Amelia in Dreamland

A few months ago I walked into the kids bedroom to find Mia passed out asleep with a book across her lap. She just looked so sweet there, fast asleep, that I couldn't resist taking a picture. It makes me happy that my kids love books so much. <3

My new kitchen

The kitchen in the ugly house was just like the rest of the house-butt-ugly. LOL

It was dirty, dingy and dated. It's oddly situated but very open. It's in the very center of the house, which I actually kind of like and even though we'll probably want to put in new cabinets and things one day, it looks pretty great with the facelift we gave it.

Before:

Please ignore random odd boys mugging for the camera. LOL Though they are certainly more interesting that those ugly brown cabinets and gross floor.

In process:

The room had been painted and Jason and his friend Billy made me new cabinet doors. They just needed paint to match the cabinets. As you can see, Jason is pretty proud. :)

A quick shot of the red color before the touch up painting was done. LOL

Now:

Please excuse my mess. LOL I've moved the boxes in but haven't started unpacking. Here you can see the finished doors and my nice, new floor.

It just amazes me how much brighter and cleaner everything is now. And how much I love it. I love my black counters and sink, and the walls and cabinets are such a light gray that they look white without the blinding effect. It's softer, somehow.

Really, it's just lovely.

Ugly House Updates

I did remember to get some shots this weekend so I wanted to do an update of a couple of my previous posts.

First is the master bath. (Original post here.) I grabbed a quick shot of the outside of my shower. I didn't get an inside shot because it's well, dirty. LOL It's yet to have been cleaned out since everything was finished so it's all dusty and dirty and gross. But here's the outside to give you an idea. Weird angle because of the way the bathroom is shaped, sorry.

Next up is the girls' bedroom. Mostly it's Claudia's bedroom because I can guarantee that Mia will want to be with Anakin more often than not. Well, we got the shelf up in Claudia's closet and her dresser is finished so I started unpacking her stuff and putting all away. I couldn't resist getting updated pictures because it's really making it seem like our home, now. :) (Original post here.)

Claudia's bed is going to be set up to the left. This picture is weird because the room really is wider than it appears. LOL (Side note/brag: Can I just say I love this pic only because my reflection makes me smile. For the first time I can really see the difference that 30 pounds makes. I curve in instead of out! ;) LOL)

A couple shots of Claudia's closet. I still have to pick fabric to make the curtain we are going to hang instead of putting up doors. And that is her bedspread on the floor. It's going to be so much fun picking out all the decorative little touches to put up in her room. :)

The dresser. It has been completely refinished. I sanded it down completely, painted it and redid the handles. It looks a thousand times better and I can't wait until she gets home and sees it.

So that's my update. I still have lots more pics to share so I'll post another room soon!

First impressions and second looks

Anytime I shoot, I come home, upload my pictures, and immediately weed out the ones I hate, and choose my favorites to edit. The rest usually languish in their folder never to be looked at again.

But lately, I've been going through those old shots and giving them a second look. And I've been surprised to find some were better than I initially thought.

This butterfly is a good example. At first glance I thought it was underexposed (fixed!) and the composition was weird. It's not tack sharp, but it's not horrible either. In the end, I like it.

I like the colors. I love the bokeh effect. I like the moment I captured.