Oct. Favorite at "I Clicked it Up a Notch Pictures"

Hello Everyone!

I know I seem to be doing a lot on photography lately but that is what has my attention these days.  I am not a professional just an avid hobbyist. (is that a word?)  Anyway, over at I Clicked it Up a Notch Pictures they are doing a link party for your favorite picture taken in the month of October. Oh my.  How to pick just one!  With my niece's wedding and so many other happenings of this month, I had a hard time deciding on which one to choose.  I ended up picking one I just took this last Sunday at a friend's house.  This is my beautiful daughter with a not so beautiful pig.  Yes, I said pig.  Here she is holding a baby potbelly pig.

I guess some would call this cute but I'm still trying to decide.  :)  I mean, I think my daughter is cute but that pig?!?  I just don't know about that one.  Ok, B & J, you can ignore me insulting your pig but you know me, I'm more of a city girl at heart and pigs are just not my thing.  Unless, of course, it is in the form of a big fat ham on a platter in the middle of my table.  Ya'll did enjoy that the other night didn't ya?  Ha Ha!  All kidding aside.  I do think it is a cute picture and hope you all enjoy it and got a few laughs out of my silliness.  You will have to excuse me but I am pushing midnight here.  Anyway, check back later for pictures and thoughts on my niece's wedding.  I promise I am still going to post about that.  So until next time...

Have a blessed day,

maggie jane

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge- "Let Them Be Little"

Hello Everyone!

Each Monday, I Heart Faces , issues a photo challenge.  It has been fun to see what everyone submits.  This is the first one that I have entered.  As you know, my niece just got married on Oct. 15th.  I have yet to post about the event but I will get around to it.  Anyway, I was a little camera happy and took around 187 pictures.  I caught some great moments.  I will show you one of my favorites of my little niece who was the flower girl.

I just love the colors and the look on her face as she looks up at her mom. They were grouping for a family pose and I zeroed in on just her.  I think it is just too precious.  Well, that is it for now.  If you want to see other pictures being submitted, just click on the I Heart Faces button on my sidebar.  Thanks for looking.  Until next time...

Have a blessed day,

maggie jane

A few quotable quotes for the wedding week

Hello Everyone!

I just thought I'd jump on here real quick and share a few quotes that go with my week.  This is the big week before my niece's wedding with lots of preparation both for the wedding and out-of-town company.  The first one deals with my children and me wanting them to clean their rooms.

I can't clean my room because

 I get distracted by all the cool stuff I find.

The next one is a Keep Calm one.

Keep 

Calm...

oh 

Who 

Are We

Kidding?

This next one is how I function.

Nothing Makes a

Person More

Productive than

The Last Minute.

This one may be me come Saturday morning.

I just don't have time

for the 

Nervous Breakdown 

that I deserve.

And the last two are ones that happen to me on a regular basis when there is planning going on.

I want to 

sleep but my

brain won't 

stop talking 

to itself.

I hate it when I'm

 tired and sleepy,

but when I go to

bed my body says,

"Just kidding."

So there you have it folks.  I love quotes and I'm the type that likes a bit of sarcastic humor.  :)  I'm sure there is a little bit of exaggeration here.  I really don't think the week will be too bad but I know it will get very busy and I will probably stress out.  But I am so looking forward to it. (Except that my niece is moving out of state. Boo!)  Saying all this, I will probably not be back with you until next week and I've recuperated from the wedding weekend.  Hope you enjoyed my quotes and got a few laughs.  So until next time...

Have a blessed day,

maggie jane

PS.  All quotes came from Pinterest but I just retyped them my own way.  I'm not sure all the ins and outs of sharing things off of Pinterest.  I'll have to check into that for future postings.

Family Photos & a Rant!

Hello Everyone!

Hope ya'll (I lived in TX for 5 years) had a great weekend.  We had a great one with much getting accomplished.  Hope to post on that later.  Today, I am sharing with you a few photos from a session I did for my sister-in-law.  This is the family with the much talked about "niece that is getting married".  They wanted to have family pictures taken before their daughter got married.  I volunteered, well, actually begged for them to let me take some pictures.  I have mentioned this in a previous post.  Sorry it has taken me a while to show you some of the results.  We had fun doing the pictures but were very limited on time.  The sun is setting sooner and sooner these days.  We went to a little town that isn't really a town.  Confusing I know.  This is a place that a local artist has built.  He has brought in a bunch of homes and buildings to his property to make it look like an old town.  There is a church, old school with a bell, general store, houses, barns, etc.  It has some old cars, planes, gas pumps, train car, and more.  Just an excellent place for pictures.  I could have spent several hours there but like I said, we were running out of light.  So here are a few of my favorites.

This was one of the first pics we took.  I brought props that would deal with each person's interests.   I wasn't sure how these would turn out but I'm really liking them.

Same idea but with everyone looking at the camera.

What family doesn't have the kids making faces at their parents smooching?

We just had to add the future son-in-law in there somewhere.

The littlest loves making goofy faces.  I got a kick out of this one.

Liking the vintage look of this one of the 3 brothers.  Old boat, old truck, sun setting. 

Dad and his boys.

Mom and her boys.

Mom and her girls.

This one is sweet to me.  Shows love of siblings, love of parents and love as a whole family.

I like the special effects of this one done with Picnik.

So there are just a few of my favorites.  Thanks for letting me "shoot" ya'll.  Glad we were able to fit it in before the big wedding day.  (Next weekend.)

Now for my rant.  I got called for jury duty.  Booo!!  Not that I mind doing my duty as a citizen.  However, I am a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom.  I tried to get out of it when they sent me the first questionnaire but apparently that excuse didn't fly.  Now I have to wait around for them to actually call me for a case and try to plead to the judge to let me off.  It wouldn't have been so bad if the timing would have been better.  I have to be available from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31.  That is like 2 months.  Am I supposed to just put my life on hold for 2 months while I wait to see if they need me or not?  Well, unfortunately, I guess so.  We were planning to go to CA to see my family at the end of Nov. / first of Dec.  I'm just glad I hadn't bought the plane tickets yet.  I almost did that the other day.  I'm just hoping I'm called Nov. 1st and I can beg the judge to let me out of it and be done.  Then we can still make plans to go.  Whew!  I'm glad I got that off my chest.  Now that I'm done ranting, I guess I better start praying.  You can join me if you wish. ;)  I better sign off for now so I can hit this last week before the wedding with some decent nights of sleep.  So until next time...

Have a blessed day.,

maggie jane

Decorating with Portraits

Hello Everyone!

Hope everyone has had a good week so far and are looking forward to the weekend.  I'm looking forward to getting a few things done this weekend. One of my projects that I've been slowly trying to work on is a family picture gallery going up my stairwell.  I have been searching the internet for different inspirations.  I came across a blog run by photographer Kristen Duke.  I have really enjoyed looking through her posts.  She has a lot of advice when it comes to photography and decorating with portraits.  In September, she ran a special series on using portraits to decorate with and invited guests to post every day of the month.  It was really fun to see how others use their family pictures to decorate their homes.  This month, she is doing a link party for anyone who wants to join in to share what they have done.  Sooo, that is what this post is all about.  I am going to share only some of the places where I have used pictures of family to decorate my walls.  Those of you who know me well know that I love pictures and use them everywhere.  I am only going to share some of the places but it still may seem like a lot.  So here goes.  We'll start off in the living room.

This is what I call the ancestor window.  I have been fortunate enough to have lots of old pictures from both my mom and dad's side of the family.  Most are all in excellent condition so it makes it fun to display.  This window shows my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents from both sides.  Unfortunately, I don't have any good ones from my husband's side of the family.

This is the ever changing piano.  A couple times a year I will change up what is displayed on the piano.  Right now, I just have a picture of my husband and me.  The other end sports a poem about Christian Marriage that my husband bought for me.  This arrangement has been up for a while so it is probably time to change it.  We'll see.

This area I've just done in the last year and a half or so.  I've had the picture hanging but it was just  kind of floating in never, never land.  Once I added the shelf and table it seemed to flow a little better.  This picture of us is a few years old.  Time to re-do that as well.

This is a little side table by my couch.  I have a couple of fun pictures that I took of my daughter with a few of her "big-sister" friends a couple of years ago.  These might actually get moved up to her room because I am going to do a photo gallery above her bed as well.  (Just adding to my "to do" list.) ;)

This is on the table under the big family picture.  It is just a basket of loose pictures that people can casually thumb through.  These are usually ones that have come off of my refrigerator after spending a bit of time there.  Or, they might be a few duplicates to ones I have in an album or frame somewhere else. 

There are two small sections of wall between some windows in the living room.  I  have pictures of my two kids when they were little on top and then a more current one on the bottom.  Sad to say, the "said current" ones are not very current.  Need to update those as well.

My son's side.

This is also in my living room.  I have mixed a few pictures in with my pitcher collection.  I like the variety there.

Now on to the bedroom.  This grouping is across from our bed and above a long desk.  I love these pics of the kids but they may also get moved to the stairwell wall that is in process.  I have recently read that the master bedroom should be about the couple and it makes sense.  So, I will probably update this space with pictures of me and the hubby.

I do have this one above my dresser but I will probably do more.  I would like to do more formal ones to replace the ones of the kids.

This is a little grouping just outside of our bedroom door in a very tiny hallway.  Actually, I don't even know if it would qualify as a hallway but we'll just call it that for now.  These pictures sit above a bookcase that holds the kids books.  This way they can see themselves often and hopefully read the little plaque that goes with their pictures.  It says, "Do everything without complaining or arguing."  Still working on that one.  FYI: These pictures need to be updated as well.  Sigh, more to the "to do" list.  But hey, I get to take more pictures!  Fun!

This is at the end of the so-called hallway.  These aren't technically photographs but they are drawings taken from some photos that I took a few years ago.  A very talented friend of ours did these for me and I love them!

Like I said, this is a lot, but really just a few.  I haven't showed you the other parts of the house.  I am hoping to share when I get the stairwell wall done and my daughter's wall done.  The big wedding I've mentioned before is next weekend.  I would like to get the stairwell done before our company arrives but I'm not sure if I'll make it or not.  These things take time and thought.

So I'm linking this up to Kristen Duke's link party so go check out her site and what others have done with decorating with portraits.  So until next time...

Have a blessed day,

maggie jane

Top 5 Photos of Summer at: Click it up a Notch

Hello Everyone!

Today I am doing a special post to link up to Click it up a notch 's September Top 5 Quarterly Link Up.  This is a link where you post about your 5 favorite photos of your kids taken between July 2011 and September 2011. This is not a photography contest as much as a sharing of your favorites.  There are prizes involved so all the better.  These prizes are picked randomly and there are 5 winners.  So without any further ado, I will share 5 of my favorites in no particular order.

One of the two kids together on our summer vacation to Branson, MO.

From my son's 12th birthday photos taken by me in August.

Another from his birthday pictures.

This is a fun one of my daughter that we took in a party store while shopping with my niece for wedding stuff.

This one I just took last Sunday while we were working in the yard at my nephew's house where the above mentioned wedding is going to be held.

Unfortunately, my daughter's birthday pictures were not eligible to be added to this link since they were taken in June.  I really got some good ones of her but I still love the ones I included above.  I tend to have more of my daughter than my son because well, you know boys, they just don't like having there pictures taken as much as girls do.  So there you have it; some of my favorites.  It's probably a good thing it was limited to only 5 pictures because I'm kind of picture happy and well, I have a lot of pics of my kids that I love.

Stay tuned in the next couple of weeks for more on the school room redo. (Bought fabric for curtains this week) Also, we made a random purchase tonight that is going to be one of those fixer-uppers, DIY, hopefully not too expensive make-overs that you hope turns out the way you planned.  More on that later.  For now, it is off to bed so I can hit the ground running in the morning.  So until next time...

Have a blessed day,

maggie jane

What I've been up to lately and a sneak peak at...

Hello Everyone!

I promise I've been working on my chairs so I can show the whole school room done.  I still have the curtains and a few signs but that may have to come later.  Anyway, I have 2 out of 4 chairs complete and the others are almost there.  Hopefully, tomorrow (or is that today?  I think it is after midnight as I type this. Yikes!) I will finish the other two.  But, I have one niece that has bugged  asked me to show the chairs so here you go.

One green and one red that have been slightly distressed.  The green one has been a little more distressed than the red.  Red tends to turn pink if you sand it down too much so I just hit the edges on the red one.  And, I guess I'll go ahead and tell the colors of the other two, sigh, even though I really want to surprise you, sigh.  Just kidding.  The other two are yellow and turquoise.  I warned you they would be colorful.  

I have also been working on gathering up some ideas, frames and such for a gallery wall up my stairs.  I was able to find a few frames at the local Salvation Army.  All they needed was a little black spray paint.

I had two more in the house that I sprayed later so they didn't get in on this picture.  Anyway, they turned out nice and I'm anxious to start working on my wall.  I will share all that when I get it done.  Hopefully, I will be able to work on it some this weekend or next week.

Next, I did a little revamping of a bulletin board that was given to me.  It was really ugly.  I have to confess, I was in a bit of a rush to get this done.  I was putting it in a JBF children's consignment sale and had put it off until the last minute.  I say all that to say that I didn't get a good before picture.  However, through my first coat of brown paint, you can see how ugly it was.

It had stripes and triangles in not very pretty colors.  I actually ended up painting this white but I wanted a darker color underneath to kind of hide all the previous colorfulness. ( Is that a word?)

So then the white paint went on and then some distressing.

I finished up with a coat of Feddes & Sons light colored wax to seal it.

The cork part had a couple of minor scuffs that I would not have worried about if I was going to keep it myself but since it was for sale, something had to be done.

So, I added this really cute polka dot material from Michael Miller.  The dark dots are brown so that kind of picked up the brown from under the distressed spots on the frame.  However, my cutting job wasn't as perfect as I was hoping for.  Remember, I was in a hurry.  

So, I looked around my sewing room for something to use on the edges.  Brown seemed to be the color of the day.  I found this brown ribbon that was just the right width to cover but not "take over" the bulletin board.

There you have it; a revamped bulletin board perfect for a baby boys room, a laundry room, school room or just anywhere you want it to go.  If it does not sell at JBF, it will be available in my Etsy Shop.  Also for JBF, I have been making headbands for little girls, infant & toddler sizes.  I only had time to make 3 so if they don't sell, they will also go to the Etsy shop.  Once again, I forgot to take pics before I bagged them for the sale so you will have to excuse the pics.  I think you can get a general idea though.

So, that is just a little of what has been going on around here.  Besides the two chairs to finish, I have a dresser that I'm repainting, a little cabinet that is almost done, and a bridesmaid dress to finish.  It has been a busy week but nothing compared to last week with the whole hot water heater episode.  Next week is looking even better.  Tuesday I have scheduled to take pics of my sister-in-law and her family.  This is the one whose daughter is getting married on the 15th.  I am super excited to do this.  I have been stalking researching many photo blogs to get ideas and technical advice.  I am not a professional but I have always had a love for photography and have taken many portraits for friends and family.  I took some classes in high school and college but that was eons ago.  So many, in fact, that digital wasn't even an option.  Ok, I don't want to age myself that much.  Digital was just around the corner from my college days.  I really didn't get "into" digital until about 6 or 7 years ago.  I was a steadfast believer in 35mm film.  Now, I'm digital all the way.  So I say all that, to say I'm hoping for some really great shots next week.  I have some fun ideas up my sleeve.  We'll see how well they translate from my sleeve to the camera. ;)  Well, I guess that is it for now.  Stay tuned for more furniture redos, completed school room and maybe a few from the photo session.  Until next time...

Have a blessed day,

maggie jane