Thursday, August 26, 2010

Say Cheese!

I love photo booths.

For as long as these things have been around, they still manage to entice people to climb inside and press their faces together to make a silly statement in 4 frames or less.  What I particularly like about them is they have just one purpose to serve: Silliness. There aren't many things you can task with that one, single objective. 

Ok silly string, but that requires clean up.  A photo booth is just good clean fun.

We frequent another DIY blog of two twenty-somethings who like us, (this is the last year I can say that, so better get it in while I can) have decided to re-hab an older home.  The only difference between them and us is--- they are wildly successful with their blog, have attracted media attention and now write for DIY magazine, have a stint on HGTV and are supported by numerous big name advertisers.

So....

We're basically the same.

Anyway, I mention them because I was inspired by their equal love of photo booth-ery.  They even had one at their backyard wedding.  Two important points need to be made here: 

1. I LOVE backyard weddings
2. I LOVE the idea of a photo booth at a party/wedding/celebration
3. (ok...3 points) They cost about $1200 to rent for 4 hours! Say what?!

And that's where my love of them ends.

Evan and I have never actually been in photo booth together.  And in an equally as horrible example of terribleness, I have never done one with Alex either. 

Until now....



The aforementioned bloggers would place this on their sofa table in a tall goblet/jar/thingy where they keep and display all their adorable film strips. 



An adorable idea.  But with this being our very first photo booth experience, we are not ones to be outdone by amateurs--what with their incredibly easy to follow step-by-steps, fancy site features and money making advertisers-- we decided it was best to: Go Big or Go Home.


We went really BIG!

Okay...so in the end, we still haven't actually been to a photo booth.  But that's ok.  With a small (and finally complete!) first floor half-bathroom, a little imagination and Google Picasa, just about anything is possible. Even 3.5 foot photo strips. 

The best part: it didn't cost $1200 to rent a booth. And yes, we realize for a mere $4.50 we could have actually gone to the mall and started our very own mini-strip collection (which we may still do), but to make them life-sized would have easily set us back a few hundred dollars. So, we opted for the bigger and better DIY version, by making a relatively small investment ($28 including frames!) we saved some cheddar and just said cheese!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

I Have A Kindergartener

This little girl and her little piggy tails went to kindergarten today...


My baby girl, who has grown into this little person with an enormous imagination, began her very first day of schooling today.  Maybe it's cliche, but really I wonder where the time has gone!?  It's true---they really do grow up so fast.

She looked absolutely adorable in her "French Toast Plaid" jumper, posing after bagels, right before heading to her French Immersion school---complete with matching hair bows for said pigtails, white socks and Mary Jane's. 





Clearly the only thing missing was a catwalk.

Getting to school was a breeze.  She did the summer enrichment program for 6 weeks and walking into school, seeing several of her friends from that, was super exciting for her.  And it made me feel pretty great too. 

Last night we hung out for a while before bedtime, awaiting the return of our hot water ....more on this later......and we watched Homeward Bound.  I lose it at the end of this movie, I'll admit it. Nearly 20 years after seeing it for the first time, it brought massive tears to my eyes.

Apparently me crying is "so weird and embarrassing" for Alex, and she didn't miss the opportunity to tell me so.  I told her there was a good chance I would also cry dropping her off in the morning...so just to be prepared. 

She made sure to tell me, I "better not embarrass" her on her "very first big day."

Ah...it starts. :)

And I have to say, we've done the preschool thing before.  And as a working mom, I'm used to dropping her off in the mornings somewhere.  But there is just something about Kindergarten. 

 So while I held it together pretty well, while dropping her off....

I did however cry "Oui Oui Oui" all the way home. :)

And luckily for her, her reputation was spared.

******************************************

My Darling Alex,
My dreams for you are bigger than I could ever type, write or say.  We've been through so much together in 5 short years and I look with hope, anticipation and excitement at all we're sure to experience in the years to come.  You are incredibly talented and amazingly beautiful and I just love you so stinkin' much. I have been a fortunate witness to all of your firsts...and today is no different.  As you begin your first year of school remember always how proud of you I am and how much I love and adore you. You are a gift.

Your future is wide open, your dreams are always within reach and your mom is always by your side.


xoxo

Monday, August 2, 2010

Getting Crafty

I know what you're thinking...where have we been!?!? Right? Well, we've been pretty busy with lots of end-of-summer things, some celebrations and projects galore! But we're back to update on a few things we have been working on and some projects currently in progress.

When we last left you Evan was detailing the half-bath renovation.  Well, its still in progress but we should be ready for a reveal in a week or so, and all I can say is I'm really excited about how it's coming together and can't wait to put the finishing touches on it.  More on that later....

So.... we'll begin with our favorite used furniture website and the official deal of the month.  Good deals are always exciting, and we're still in awe of our super-duper mother of all scores from a few weeks back, but we love being thrifty and we love breathing new life into old or not-so-great furniture, so when we find a good deal, we can't wait to share!

Now I'll be the first to admit, we have found more exciting things on CraigsList, but at $5, this was pretty sweet!


Ok, so "kinda ugly" is more fitting....but wait for it....

Now normally I would jump at the chance to sand, prime and paint a piece, but it just so happens that Evan is the master spraypainter of the house!  I actually never knew what a huge difference a can of spray paint could make until I let him loose on a few projects, and he rocks! The finish always turns out fantastic and I definitly prefer it to the brush.  So I picked out a few replacements knobs from Anthropologie, and after a nights sleep, we had a new addition to the entryway and a great place to showcase a few items including all the wonderful congratulatory cards we received on our engagement!





Voila!

Not bad for 5 bucks eh?

Moving on.... after Evan surprised me with the mother of all chandeliers back in May, I became a big CB2 fan.  We recieved a catalogue in the mail a couple weeks back and another light fixture really caught my eye.  And when this one came with step-by-step instructions via the CB2 blog, and incorporated tea light candles into the design, I couldn't have been more excited.  Super cool, super affordable and super DIY----doesn't get any better than that.  So here is the advertised "after" shot via cb2.com...


Pretty cool huh?


And the Step-by-step shots:



And here is my box 'o CB2 globes...and our Meatball taking a nap. 

He loves CB2 too.

And a sneak peak at this work in progress....



And the rest...well you'll have to stay tuned for that. We're anxious to see if it actually turns out as cool as the advertised look and we're pretty excited to have a lighting option where there currently isn't an easy option for one. 

AND!!!! we have yet another really awesome project in the works; this one is happening in the kitchen and in the basement....simultaneously. Intrigued? We will definitely be raising our glasses to this one.

To be continued....
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