by Amy | Oct 6, 2012 | Blog, The Art of the Moment
Hey all! Amy Allender Productions is thrilled to have the opportunity to offer mini sessions at Angelic Gardens in Minot, ND. I’ll be on hand during their Halloween at the Gardens celebration. It’s going to be so much fun!
In addition to being a great outing for the family…it’s a great opportunity to get a few last snap shots of the kiddos or the fam before the cold weather sets in up here in Practically Canada.
It’s a pretty sweet deal…$65 for a 15 minute session. You’ll get 5 photos, fully processed in color and black and white. They are yours to print and share as you please!
Or…you can chose to have a single portrait taken for $15. I’ll process it in color and black and white. You’ll get it and be able to print it as you like.
But really, it should be a great time. I hope to see lots of you out at the Garden at the end of the month!
And for those of you who don’t live in Practically Canada…Here are a few tips for creating your own mini session. {I’ll be bringing you more tips after the session date!}
1. Go outside. Natural light always looks better than a flash.
2. Bring something outside with you. I have an old trunk I use sometimes to have families sit on. I’ve pulled my white rocker into a corn field…or in this case, I sat sweet baby Zoe in a potato crate.
3. Think color and texture. Add variety to your photos by adding pops of color around and on your subject. Zoe’s bow and the pumpkins pop in these images. Color is great…but try to keep the background fairly neutral. You want to notice the person first, not the electric green stripped background sheet. Using several different textures in your photos will add interest.
4. What to wear? Call me old fashioned…but I’m a fan of solids. You don’t need to deck your whole family in white shirts and jeans…or a uniform of any kind. But the cold truth is, simple, solid shirts and cozy sweaters will look timeless. Your colored jeans and lace tank {while adorable}–will not. My mom endured a good amount of fashion harassment from me as I looked back at photos of her. I try to avoid this in portraits by wearing something that will be harder to target by my kids 20 years from now.
5. Overtake. We aren’t using film these days. Take way more photos than you think you need. Then weed them out later. After you think you get the “perfect” shot…take a few more just in case.
Hope this helps. And I hope to see all my Practically Canada readers at the end of the month!
Amy
by Amy | Sep 16, 2012 | Blog, The Art of Projects, the house, Uncategorized
You know I’m a bit of a color-phobe. The one color I’m not afraid of?
White.
It’s fresh. It’s clean. It’s timeless.
When something is dated beyond repair, the first thing I want to do is paint it white. I like color on my walls, but I adore a room framed in pretty white. It’s so crisp and neat looking. Like a well ironed tablecloth.
So, we’ve started sloshing white around the living/dining room. Starting with the dark, sloppily stained built in hutches in the dining room. I know, it’s a rough preview…but it’ll have to do. And as Der-Bear and I like to say…”There’s no going back now.” The white is officially on and we are only going up from here. Our next victim? That wood paneling!
This project will be on hold in DIY purgatory until next Monday. Why, you ask? Well, friends…let me tell you. I’m lucky enough to have two wonderful friends who live in California and let me come visit. I leave today. I’ll be home in a week. I can’t wait for all the adventures in store. With this girl.
And this guy.
I’ll be posting on and off, but forgive me if I’m hit and miss this week. I really will miss you dearly.
Amy
by Amy | Sep 11, 2012 | Blog, The Art of Projects, the house
Nope. I’m not talking about that classic Jodie Foster flick from the early 00’s.
I’m talking about what lies beneath all of the surfaces in my house. In preparation to paint the living room and dining room I needed to do a little removal. Which led to quite a few unsightly discoveries.
All clues about the history of my home. The transitions it’s gone through. The fads and trends that have graced its walls. On second thought, I don’t know if “graced” is the right word for pea green carpet, striped wall paper and thick wood paneling.
As with most home improvement projects, this excavation job began with a simple, “Well, before I paint, I need to remove this chair rail.” Under the railing…I found
Believe it or not…we are leaving the paneling. Just adding a little class in the form of white paint and a sweet chair rail.
After this discovery, I moved to the stairs. You may remember my strong disdain for my carpeting. In case you don’t…I hate the carpet in my house. All of it. It’s in nearly every room, wall to wall shag in a variety of browns. So to paint the walls, I needed to remove the carpet hanging over the wall. Starting with this weird furry block.
Once the carpet was off the block, I decided that I needed to pull it off the bottom of the stairs as well.
So I kept pulling.
You know what was under all the brown carpet? Brown paint. Once I got to the bottom, it just kind of wrapped around the first tread.
And then I just kept pulling. Until my stairs were bald.
Along the way I discovered that the wall on the other side of the stairs was papered with brown stripes. Under the brown paint is mustard yellow. Under the brown carpet I found remnants of pea green runner. Woof.
It seems like my house is just begging to be pretty again. Not trendy pretty, but classic and simple. I can only imagine what I’ll find next. As soon as my hands recover from pulling all the staples out of the stairs…
Amy
by Amy | Sep 7, 2012 | Blog, The Art of Projects
Well…next week I dive into major house project number 2. I’ve been crazy busy this week and it seems like all of it will come to a screeching halt after this weekend. So, I decided that this is the perfect opportunity to do a little painting.
My living room. My dining room. My built in hutches. My front room. The ceilings. Some wood paneling.
The goal is to get all most of it done by the end of the week. Mind you…I’ll still some other obligations as well. Like feeding my husband and Panda Kitty, editing a super cute photo session, teaching fitness classes, maybe contacting a few nonprofits about doing some work…you know…the usual. Nothing super busy.
But here is the dilemma. I’m a color-commitment-a-phobe. I know it’s just paint, but paint is expensive. And I am very cheap. And I make very little money. And I have this complex about making little money and spending buckets of the dollars Derek earns by having a real job. So, while I know if I hate it I can always redo it…I’d rather get it right the first time.
So, I’ve started a Pinterest board of pretty paint colors. You should totally go over there and check it out. Seriously, they are pretty.
Then I started thinking about creating my own pallets from things that naturally appeal to me. Like my favorite photographs. Here’s what I came up with.
There are two bonus pallets over on the Facebook page. You should check those out too. And while you’re there…go ahead and like the page. *Insert corny smiley face here____*
After I had made my own pallets…I thought maybe you would like to make some of your own. So here’s the skinny on how I made it happen. (more…)
by Amy | Aug 21, 2012 | Blog, The Art of Projects, the house
When I first saw our house I thought “Whoa…there’s a deck.” Immediately I knew that I wanted to pretty up the front porch and make the back deck look more like it is part of the house. Instead of something just slapped on the back. I wanted things to flow.
To me my front porch looked kind of hap hazard. When I visualize the words “front porch” I see something cute and inviting. When I looked at my own porch I saw something that fit neither description. With a small budget and we added a whole lot of curb appeal to our home. And we didn’t even have to uproot any posts, pour new cement, or rebuild.
In the front we removed the square spindles and replaced them with more shapely ones. We painted the new spindles {before attaching them} and the rails with a white deck stain. Then we coated the floor and steps with a cedar colored stain.
Now…it’s not quite done. I still want to add some post caps to the rails. Maybe like these. They are only about $3 from the local Menard’s. Pretty sweet deal. I’ll add them to the back deck too. Speaking of which…take a look at that!
Back here we didn’t bother removing the original spindles. Instead we just added new brackets to straighten up the existing railing and painted it all white. We used the same stain on the floor here as the front porch.
It’s definitely not perfect. There are a few white drips on the floor. I moved our giant grill off the deck solo…which left a huge gouge in the steps. I may have even spilled some stain on the cement surrounding the deck. But I really love the way it turned out. And I think it’s quite lovely.
Now I’m looking to further improve the curb appeal by adding a cuter storm door, maybe painting our house door…and adding pots of mums and pumpkins just in time for fall. Oh, and I’ll be whipping up some back deck seating {hopefully in time to enjoy the rest of the nice warm weather.}
To help me pull it together I’ve started a couple pin boards! One for the front entry…one for transforming my back deck into a lovely outdoor room. So go over and check those out. And if you like, you can follow me over there.
Let’s look one more time.
Oh yeah, and here’s a cost break down. We used Weatherscreen deck stain in white and natural cedar. Our decks took 2 gallons of each. {2 Coats of white, 1 coat of cedar stain.} They were on sale for $20 per gallon. The new spindles for the front were $1.19 each, we used 15. Leaving the whole project under $100 to complete. Awesome!
Amy
by Amy | Aug 15, 2012 | Blog, The Art of Design, The Art of Projects
Hey all. So I know, I’m a little late to the finish here…but I’ve got a great back to school project for you. This is simple and cheap and fast…and sure to get any little one {or bigger ones} off to a great year.
I created s simple card-stock envelopes then filled them with some pretty pencils. I finished things off by adding some cool scrapbook paper and catchy graphics.
To make this craft you’ll need:
Card-stock | Double Stick Tape | Scrapbook Paper | One of the graphics below | Pencils
Here are the three graphics I worked with. Pirates for the boys. Back to school rhyme for the girls. And a “Billy Madison” quote for my older recipients.
I thought that pirate play on words was pretty clever.
Here’s how I did the envelope.
1. I looked for fun pencils. Target’s selection was a bit disappointing. I ended up buying Smencils from Barnes & Noble and getting the others from a party supply store. I was just at Walmart and they seemed to have some cool ones though.
2. Start with a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 white card-stock. Make a tri-fold length wise. So your folded paper is 11″ across.
3. Cut a scrap of card-stock to fit along the back side of your tri-fold. Fold the scrap in half and double-stick-tape it in place. Repeat on the other end.
4. Now put a piece of double stick tape on the bottom flap of your tri-fold. Fold it up to complete your envelope. Write a note to your student and tuck the pencils, stickers, etc inside. Then fold the top down and secure with tape.
1. To save paper I cut strips of scrapbook paper and wrapped them around, then secured with tape.
2. Then I wrapped a thicker piece around the center to overlap the strips a bit. Finally I added my back to school graphic.
3. This is what the back of the envelope will look like.
And that’s all there is to it. I got all my paper from Hobby Lobby. For 6 packets I used less than 4 sheets of 12″x12″ paper. Happy back to school!
Here are the links for the graphics:
Pirate | Rhyme | Billy Madison
I recommend inserting the images into a word document so you can fit multiple graphics on one page! Share this with your friends…just remember to tell them where you got it!
Amy
PS–This post is entered in the CSI {Create Something Inspiring} Weekly Challenge. Go here to see where else I link up.
Hey all! Amy Allender Productions is thrilled to have the opportunity to offer mini sessions at Angelic Gardens in Minot, ND. I’ll be on hand during their Halloween at the Gardens celebration. It’s going to be so much fun!
