Shug & SweetP's Bedroom - Making Home {photo project} 11

I was feeling really uninspired to shoot the Making Home pics last week. I've been so out of the loop with our home... Sam and the children (well, at least SweetP) have done such a fantastic job of keeping things tidy & running pretty well while I heal. Such a blessing. But, despite valiant efforts on their parts, the house was still needing a lot of attention. I have about twelve loads of laundry to do. I'm not exagerating, either.

So, I took all five of these pics within about 5 minutes. I just wasn't feeling like going from room to room... and I haven't picked up my camera much at other times this week. Maybe burnout from the class?

I got my five, though. But, I should probably first give you just a little back story...

When we first started this blog, it was almost exclusively a "house blog". Most of my posts were about the work we were doing on the house or about trying to define my style or inspiration photos to give me ideas, etc. Slowly... I got bored with that. I wanted it to be more of a "home blog". Less house. More home. More real life. But, we're still very much living in a home that is partly torn up and getting built up again. We don't often really tear something down to the studs, but sometimes we do. And projects like that take forever.

This room is a case in point. Sam completely reconfigured the closet wall and made two closets out of one strangely loooooong one. There's a post explaining more of that here.

I also cannot remember if I ever shared photos of the two older girls painting their IKEA Rast dressers last October. I let them do pretty much whatever they wanted since the dressers were going inside the closets, anyway.

These girls are certainly not afraid of color. I'm sure you fellow moms of 10 & 11 year old girls are nodding your heads in understanding right about now.

So, with that little bit of a background, I think the MH photos for this week will make a little more sense... and maybe the wee bit of progress will mean more. This is the room that I expect to get the most attention in the next few months now that Baby's room is wrapping up...

SweetP's finished dresser :) She loves it. She painted her name running vertically down both sides of the drawer fronts, so I had to be sneaky in getting this photo. And her name is painted in big, multi-colored bubble letters on the very top. Makes me remember sixth grade.

Their comforters & the heart pillowcase are from IKEA. I can't remember where we got the polka dots. We've had them for a while.

This is one of Shug's most treasured possessions. Seems she has an affinity for rascals. Hmm... maybe we need to keep an eye on that...

SweetP is the most orderly member of our family. In my past life, I may have rivaled her, but age and five chilluns have mellowed me to my current gypsy status.

That's it! The bunkbed and the dressers in the closets are the only furniture in this room right now. It's pretty simple. But, we have plans. And the girls definitely know what they want.

Now, I'm going to take a nap. Right after I put in another load of laundry.

Peace.

a nursery peek & MH 8

Well, this is kind of goosey.

Because, usually, I would have around five Making Home photos to share and add to the collage page. BUT, this week was a 10 on 10... and I really want to use a couple of those photos... and one of the bird kissie pics... but you've already seen those, so...

What do I do? Post TWO whole pictures?

Dorky.

Especially when these are the two I have for this past week (last week)...

A new tablecloth and a birdfeeder.

Rockin' your socks!

Now what?

Hmmm....

?

Let's take a peek at the nursery! Why not? I'm taking forever to finish it (as usual). So, let's just take a little sneakity peek. Baby and SweetP were playing in there together the other day, and I took advantage of the pretty light. You can peep in corners and scope out the background. I'm really hoping to get a true "reveal" up soon!

A couple of smallish painting projects and a few hours at the sewing machine and I'm done. It's just finding the time for those last bits, you know? I'll be sure to share real deal photos when I wrap it up in here, though!

If you're interested in seeing which photos I added to the Making Home project, remember you can always get there via the sidebar button or just click here.

Thanks so much for the encouraging words, lately, guys. They mean a lot :)

making home {photo project} 7

Oopsie daisy. I guess time got away from me this week! I had several posts I had intended on sharing, but they never saw the light of day.

We started back to school on the 2nd and have been gradually getting used to being responsible again after a long Christmas break. This week, we've had a little bit of the sickies. Nothing dramatic... fever... congestion.

Have I mentioned that I'm taking a photography class? It's through The Define School and it's taught by Kristin Rogers. Kristin's style is very different from my own, but I'm already learning a lot about manipulating the available light... which is big!

I'll share some of my homework images when the first lesson wraps up.

For now, I have another set of Making Home pics for you. These were taken before the start of the class, but I was already starting to think about using light differently. These are darker than my norm. I don't normally shoot much at night... if at all... but I wanted to try to capture some cozy, homey, wintertime images, and what's cozier than candles or a fire at night?

Here we go. Week 7 already!

I'm finally starting to get some photos printed out and put up around the house. That scrunchy nosed one of Baby cracks me up. I had it printed at Mpix and mounted on a kind of cardboard backing. That way the steam from the shower doesn't make the edges curl up or anything.

I probably will post a little less this month. The class takes some time that I would normally use for posting. But, I'll still be popping in to share my Making Home photos and some of the shots from the class.

Hope you're having a great start to the year!

See ya!

making home {photo project} 7

Did you all have a great Christmas?!

We had a wonderful time with all kinds of family. It was really so precious to be able to be with so many we love!

I had intended on putting up Christmas photos before posting the Making Home pics for this week. But, when I downloaded all my photos, it became overwhelming pretty quickly. I took a lot of pictures! And I just wasn't down with editing a zillion photos tonight. I'll get to them soon, but for tonight... just a few.

Making Home... Christmas week... 2012 :)

The first couple of photos were Sam reading Advent devotions with the 4 older children. At the end of each night's reading, one of the children would hang an ornament that had to do with the reading on the tree.

And the last photo... Biebs... he was a prank. Dude came running downstairs on Christmas morning and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the stocking. He yelled to his sister, "Justin Bieber's on your stocking!" And she didn't believe him... until she saw it, too. I think, secretly, at least one of our girls might think JB is cute, but no one would ever actually admit that. Dude calls him Justin Pooper.

Maybe he should get the stocking next year!

making home {photo project} 6

Sam's sister and her family arrived this afternoon, and we are really enjoying having them with us. Their little boy, Max, is just a few days younger than our Baby. They are a hoot together. It's almost like having twins in the house!

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This week's Making Home... Merry Christmas!

making home {photo project} 5

I can see how, as time goes on, it's going to get a lot tougher to find "encouraging" shots for my Making Home project. I wonder if I'm going to run out of lovely spots to capture. What then? Will it just be extra incentive to create more lovely in our home... something new to photograph, but also something new to bless my home and family?

I wandered around for a moment before I got the photos I wanted for this week. As I walked from room to room, I began to doubt... everything needed dusted. Half a dozen things were left unfinished. Could I find enough? I really wasn't sure at first, but they eventually came. Often made extra beautiful by the children.

All but one were taken on the same day... slacker.

Here's where I found beauty quietly waiting around me.

In the end, this turned out to be one of my favorite weeks of the project so far. Funny how that happens, isn't it?


"Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye." - Shakespeare

making home {photo project} 4

I didn't get last week's Making Home photos up last Friday, but here they are! I've been working on Baby's nursery quite a bit. We're getting down to the last finishing touches :)

So, here are a few peeks from around the house at the beginning of December...

You can see the rest of the project so far here.