Snow Kidding

I drive by this house on my way home from the gym, and every time there's a significant snowfall they make a huge snow sculpture. Last time it was a gorilla. As I was on my way home from spinning today I saw they'd made an elephant out of yesterday's accumulation. I couldn't help but stop and take a picture. You can't really tell from the picture, but this thing is massive! It has to be 6 or 7 feet tall. I wasn't the only one taking pictures of it...as I was out there a woman stopped her Jeep and was taking a picture with her camera phone, lol.

Phase One

Woo hoo! It's my 200th blog post! I apologize for slacking lately...it's really hard to concentrate/be creative/not be a stalker during a remodel! Thank God we did this now...I realize I could never get any work done if we remodeled during wedding season. Not only is it distracting to have people in and out all day, but keeping Murph from terrorizing them is a full time job in and of itself.

Anyway, I thought I'd share a picture of the bathroom vanity area. The vanity top is a 188 year-old board that was taken out of the wall to make room for the washer and dryer. We've made it a point to reuse as much of the material from the original structure as possible. We plan on installing a beam on the ceiling that came out of the kitchen wall, and we're reusing the flooring from the dining room in here as well. Later on there will be sides and a bottom shelf added to the vanity that are made out of the same boards from the wall.

I'll have better pictures of it later on, but Bob and Matt made that moulding around the doorways to match the trim in the rest of the house. Their attention to detail and enthusiasm for doing it was wonderful. They were here every day working, and are genuinely a couple of really nice guys. I highly recommend them to anyone who is considering remodeling.

The Oldest Cooks

As a way to foster some responsibility, The Husband and I asked The Oldest if he was interested in cooking dinner for the family one night a week. He was game, so the other night he picked out a recipe, Beef Bourguignonne, wrote out his grocery list, and shopped and cooked with The Husband by his side.

Junior and I documented the occasion right up until Junior's battery died. Some Photographer I am, huh? I don't have any pictures of the finished product, but it was delicious!

I couldn't finish this blog post without adding The Youngest's transformers. These were taken last week and he's very excited for Optimus Prime and Bumblebee to make it to the blog, lol.

Meet Prime:

And Bumblebee:

Some More Spring For Ya

Taken last week in our yard. I just love the colors in the first picture!

Happy Valentine's Day!

First I want to wish Hot Husband a Happy Valentine's Day. Honey, I love you with all of my heart! Thank you for putting up with me!

Now I want to petition you for help. Since we've spent sooo much money on new fixtures for the kitchen and bath remodel, we are trying to keep it simple tonight. Thelma has graciously volunteered to watch The Boys so we can go out. I want to take Hot Husband to dinner, and he wants to take me to a movie. Since we're on a tight budget, we can't do both. Anyone want to flip a coin for us?

In other news: my online photographer friends came up with the idea of doing a Vanity Fair cover shoot, with the final cover to be posted today. You've already seen a couple of images from Thelma's shoot, but here's the one I saved for the cover. I had so much fun with this, I can't wait for the next project!

Thelma, you're smokin' hot, girl! Thank you sooo much for being such a good model!

Yet Another Remodeling Post

The Contractor's, plumbers and electrician have made significant progress on the bathroom remodel this week, so I thought I'd share some pictures with those of you who aren't sick of it yet, lol. If you're so over remodeling posts, you might want to check back in May...right now my life revolves around light and faucet fixtures, burried junction boxes and Saving Old Wooden Beams. I'm pretty sure Hot Husband is tired of being dragged to home improvement stores.


This is the new view from the toilet. The sink will go right about where that trash can is. The washer and dryer will be relocated across from the toilet behind bi-fold doors. (Am I spelling correctly? Ever since I got my new computer I can't use spellcheck...)

Looking in the opposite direction.

The view from the living room looking into my office. My desk used to sit underneath the window, with the washer and dryer on my right. I can't wait to have them out of my work space!

*Disclaimer* These were taken with my fisheye lens, which causes that distorted look at the edge of the frame. It's one of my favorite lenses, but obviously not one that gets a lot of use. I used it for these pictures because of the wide viewing angle it gives. Nothing wrong with the camera!

Macro Monday!

Macro Monday used to be the first thing I thought about on Monday morning (besides coffee), but since the remodeling started my thoughts have shifted to wondering what's going to be accomplished at the end of the day. I didn't even think about a macro shot until late this morning.

Here it is, better late than never!

Makin' Progress

Matt & Bob have been workin' hard all week, and it's soooo exciting to see our plan come together. With a few changes. And some changin' back, lol. Thank God they're patient with me!

On Monday, while we were up picking out our slab for the counters, they removed the rough hewn logs that were holding up the wall and framed out the new opening. When I got home fromg the gym on Tuesday they'd removed the outside door that was across from where The Husband is standing in this picture.

Now, the original plan was to put a small piece of granite off the end of the counter (where that chair is sitting). Monday afternoon (before the door was gone) I'd decided that we should scrap that plan for space reasons and yesterday, after picturing that long wall with nothing on it, I added it back in again. Hey, I'm allowed to change my mind!

Oh, I think we're going with bamboo flooring in the kitchen/dining and family rooms. While I've been trying as much as possible to keep things "the way they would've been when the house was built", I'm always down with saving a tree. I like them in my landscape shots. :)

Moving on to the half bath/office/laundry room...

The Husband is (again) in charge of a good portion of the demo. I took these on Sunday and wrote all over them to aid in the visual. Isn't that sink ugly? And how 'bout those jelly jars over the light bulbs? Yuck.

On the other side of that wall (where that hole is) was my coat and shoe closet. I'm a little sad to loose it, but the closet in the master bedroom is seriously a room unto itself. I'll adjust.

Here's a view from the foyer. This was the closet and will now be the bathroom. You will see the cool new sink on that wall when you open the door. If you hang a left you will see a pair of doors on your right (the washer and dryer will be behind them) and the antique toilet that was here will be in it's original spot on the left under the stairs.

My Hot Husband...

This is what I love about an old house. Those beams are holding up the wall between the bathroom and my office. (Well, half of them are now, anyway). I have big plans for one of them and the rest will be saved for future projects.

Spring?

It's been raining here since last night. I can't remember the last time we had a significant snowfall...I think it was the middle of December? Late last week we had a bunch of ice, but it warmed up yesterday and most of it melted. There are puddles all over the Country Club, and if I didn't know better I'd say spring was coming.

This is one of the trees right outside of the Morning Area, as The Youngest refers to it. The rain drops on the branch's caught my eye this morning so I ran out in my slippers and took this picture.

One Hot Mama!

I just love my photo sessions with Thelma! I wish we could do them every week so I could dedicate a day to her...like Thelma Thursday or something. (I know, I need to stop making up nicknames for the days of the week).

Thelma's not only incredebily good looking, willing to try just about anything, and available on short notice, she's also extremely patient with me when I try out new things. These are two of my favorties from last week's session on dramatic lighting.

Macro Monday!

Parent Visitation Day, picking out granite, first offical day of construction...tomorrow is a busy day! I didn't want to take the chance that I wouldn't have time to blog, so I'm posting this as we watch the superbowl. (I'm now in my office/living room, lol).

Amy correctly pegged the last image as a wodden massage roller. (Way to go, Amy)!! I don't think you're going to have a hard time with this one, but I found it interesting this week. :)

Is it me or were the commercials not that funny this year?

Oswego

One of my pictures from last weekend in Oswego. Taken from the shores of Lake Ontario.

50mm Friday

Ah, I'm so thankful to my online photographer friends for these assignments, lol! I've been watching these tulips wither up for the past few days, and yesterday I decided they were going to be my subject. Again.

I've been playing around with lighting for the past couple of weeks and today I wanted to try a technique I read about on Strobist. If you're a photographer and you haven't heard of this blog you've clearly been living under a rock. If you're not a photographer, well, you may find it about as exciting as, um, watching me learn the technique.

Anyway, the technique I'm referring to allows you to light a subject in a way that will turn even a white wall behind it black. Or vise versa. If I can master this one technique I'll never have to buy white and black paper backdrops again...muahaha....muahaha.

The tulips in this shot were sitting on top of our kitchen island, with the rest of the house in the background. I was able to get it almost completely black following the guidelines they laid out. I love learning new things!