Valentine's Day Photo Shoot

While the guys were busy working on the remodel this weekend, I got to spend some time with my favorite little guy!  My best friend's little boy is seriously the cutest thing ever! She wanted to take a few pictures for Valentine's Day so we gave him some lipstick kisses and dressed him in his best tie!

Here's a few of my favorites!

I could look at those baby blues for days!  

This one's definitely gonna break some hearts… :)  Good luck, Jen.

Make sure you're following along for updates on our remodel, baby #2 gender reveal and baby name reveal!!!  

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Practice makes perfect….{Photography}

Did you get to check out our update last week? We're making some more progress on the remodel.  The pipes are all laid and the concrete is getting re-poured tomorrow!  Then a few walls will go up and hopefully the progress will speed right along!  We're down to about 10 weeks to be safe, so we really have to put this project in fast mode, pronto! 

I've spent the last several months practicing my photography skills and I'm not complaining one bit!  I got to spend some time with one of my favorite little guys during Christmas time, take some family pictures for one of my best friends,  my first senior pictures session and even an engagement session!  

Here are a few of my favs…

That's all for today!  Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you have an awesome week!  

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Love of Family & Home

Family Photo with Number System

Allow me to introduce you to my Grandpa.

He goes by "Poppy".  Some people don't even know his real name actually.  Same goes for our Nana.  My friends and cousins friends all know them as "Nana & Poppy".  These names just happened.  When my cousin Stephanie was born (first grandkid), she started call them Nana and Poppy and they just stuck.  For some reason the name she decided on for my wonderful Great-Grandma was "Ingie".  No clue how she even came up with that, but again, it just stuck.

We're all closer than close.  We don't have a huge family, but they're all pretty young so we've been very fortunate to grow up knowing our grandparents and great-grandparents.  My sweet Paisley is even luckier as she can say she has been able to grow up knowing her Great-Great-Grandma.  How awesome is that!?

In our close, little tight-nit family, it's pretty much all girls.  My parents had me and my sister and my mom's only sibling is a sister, which also had two girls!  This never bothered Poppy.  He was, and always has been infatuated with "his girls".

From a very young age, Poppy used a number system to track all of us girls.  Each girl was given their own number which was based on order of birth.  It's a really serious system.  You don't mess with the system.  Even once my parents were married and my aunt married, the men were not allowed to have a number higher than "his girls".  When Paisley was born, the guys all dropped a number.  You didn't mess with the system.  Bottom line.

A few years ago, Poppy decided he needed to make an official set of rules regarding the number system.  It looks like this:

See.

I told you it was serious.

Did you read the "Note" at the bottom!

Serious stuff here, folks. 

So, this past Father's Day we all decided to surprise Poppy and order shirts with our "number" on it.  Each family chose a different color and we each proudly displayed our number on the front of our shirts.  When he arrived at our family dinner he was totally shocked!  That first picture is his reaction! :)

We went outside and took some pictures so we would always remember this special moment with our Poppy!

The guys thought it would be funny to cover up their second number and all be number "1" for a picture!

We also allowed my sister's boyfriend to be in a few pics, but of course he wasn't awarded a number just yet!  "Maybe" is all he gets for now! :)

We had so much fun and I know we'll all cherish these photo's forever!  The look on Poppy's face was priceless and he was so excited to capture these moments!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Check back next week for the big wedding reveal! 

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Love of Family & Home

When something magical happens...

I love my camera.  
I love it even more now that I know how to actually use it.  
(thanks, Tonya!)

What I love the most is that sometimes, just sometimes, when you push that button and you hear that click, something magical happens...

No, I don't mean a baby appears.... :)

I mean you capture this split second.  

Sometimes that split second is the second that changed your whole life.    

The second when nothing else mattered in the whole entire world.  

I think it's those moments and those seconds that keeps my camera attached to my hip, like all the time!

Remember Jen?  This is from her split second.  This moment is all hers.  And, I was blessed to have been by her side the whole way through, witnessing these very moments.  A day I'll never forget.  And now, neither will she.  
I took a few hundred photo's of this special day so she'll definitely never forget! :)

A few days ago, one of my other best friends asked me if I'd take a few pictures of her sweet three year old for her.  

I never, ever turn down a chance to work on my photog skills, y'all!  

And sometimes, even with an adorable little sassy three year old, magic happens...

I'm no pro. 
I'm not even close.
I didn't even tell her to do that.  ^^^ SHE was just that good!
I take a few hundred photo's until I get that shot.  

And even when I get that shot, I do a lot of editing.  

(thanks, PicMonkey)

We happened to catch Princess Haley on laundry day...

Those baby blues...

Gets me every time...

So, that's all the magic I've got for you today.  

Just a handsome little miracle and a sassy blue-eyed princess.  :)

Have a great day!

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DIY Save the Date Sign

Hey, hey, hey y'all!  How's your Thursday starting out for ya?  I got to practice with my camera again this past weekend so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite shots with you!  One of my best friends is getting married this September and I'm helping her create some personalized save the date cards.  Her soon-to-be hubby has this sweet little dog that they wanted to include and we thought it would be cute to let him do all the announcing! :) 

Gunner was a SUPERSTAR and was not at all camera shy! He even gave us a sweet little smile!

Ok, before I tell you about the sign, here are just a few more of my favorites from the day...

I love this one.  Even though the focus is totally on the ring, you can just feel the happiness. 

Ok, enough swooning!  Here's the details on that sign!  We have some discontinued siding samples from one of our local hardware stores and it was perfect for this project.  It has a tree bark look and texture.

 This was a last minute thing...I pulled it together the morning of the photo shoot, so I don't have photo's of my process.  Ooops.  Don't hate me...

It's ok.  Remember our Mr. & Mrs. signs??? It's the same process...only backwards.  Stick with me, I'll explain.

Let's break it down:

 

1)  I used my Cricut Machine and some card stock and cut out the numbers

     and the two dots for the date.

2)  Then, I used spray adhesive and sprayed a quick light layer onto my siding

     sample.

3)  I placed my cut-out numbers and dots onto my sticky board.

4)  I used a bronze colored spray paint and gave the board a solid coat.

5)  Then, right away, I VERY CAREFULLY pulled off my numbers and dots.

     (if you wait until the paint dries, sometimes the paint pulls off when you

     remove your letters or numbers)

6)  Go inside and leave it alone while it dries!

Now, you should have a cute little personalized sign!

I had so much fun with Brie, Tim & Gunner!  Can't wait for their special day!

Make sure you check back tomorrow, too.  Charlie and I are starting a new Friday tradition here on B&W.  If you follow us on Facebook, you got a little sneak peak last night.

I would also like to inform all of you that tonight at dinner, Charlie spilled his entire glass mason jar of wine on the floor, on my leg, and on Paisley's white socks!  Remember when Charlie busted me out for dropping that bottle of wine? Well, this was my chance.  I grabbed my phone to snap some pictures and prove that I'm not the only clumsy wino around here, but you should have seen how fast Charlie got that wine wiped up and Paisley's socks removed just so that I had no chance to document it!!!!  Please just take my word for it, ok?  Thanks.

Don't forget to check in tomorrow and see our new addition to the blog.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great day!

 

 

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DIY Silhouette Photography

Hey y'all!  Remember Monday when I told you about a quick photography session I had coming up!?!?  Well, it went really well...even though we were freezing!  We were going for silhouette photos, so I had to do a lot of research!  I am nowhere close to being a professional with my camera.  But, it's become a really fun hobby and I love getting the practice!   I set out on a mission to find out how to shoot silhouette photography and you wouldn't believe the resources out there!

Here are a few of the sites I studied up on:

Pioneer Woman

Capturing Joy with Kristen Duke

These are the settings I used on my Nikon D3100 with a 35mm lens: 

SS 1/80   F10   200 ISO

This was my first attempt at silhouettes so it was really a trial and error session.  Plus, your best setting for these photo's are sunset or sunrise.  You want all of the light coming from behind your subject and minimal light hitting your subject from the front.  So, once the sun starts to set or rise you literally have minutes!  I was shooting quickly and glancing at my screen as we went.  From what I could tell, they were looking great.  When I got back to the house and started editing, ideally the photo's would have been a little darker.  However, it was nothing a little PICMONKEY editing couldnt' fix!  I uploaded my photo's and used the exposure tab to adjust the shadows darker and the highlights brighter.  They turned out great after a little tweaking!  But, remember....I'm no pro.  Do your research and practice until you get the right shot! :)

Ok, enough of all that...let's see some pictures!

I was happy with how they turned out for my first attempt, and I think Autumn was too!  Now, if that little baby would just hurry up and get here! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you have a great day!

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