My New Photography Blog!!

I have been getting more and more into photography, and I love it more and more everyday!

For my birthday, my wonderful husband bought me a new DSLR Camera!!! A Nikon D3000 to be exact.

Before this camera, I was using a point and shoot.

So this camera is awesome! Its a great started DSLR!

So because I am getting more and more into photography, and I am getting more and more clients..

I made a new blog to showcase my photography.

That way I can blog about Photography threre, and reserve this blog for everything else!

So please go visit my new photography blog, if you like it tell me! If you dont tell me!!!! lol

here is the link !

Show us your life - Kitchen & Dining room!

One of my favorite blogs is doing a "Show us your life" where you live edition!

She did it last year too, and I got so many great ideas!

Last year we were living in an apartment waiting to move into our house.

I didnt post much last year, but I am super excited she is doing it again!!!!

Ok so I missed out last week, so this week I am showing my kitchen and Dining room!

This is the fireplace in our dining room, its functional, but we havent had the chimney sweeped yet, so until we are able to have roaring fires, i think this party lite piece works just great for ambiance.

This is my present center piece, fake apples, and a mulled cider gold canyon candle! yum! Nothing says fall like apples and apple cinnomon scented candles!!

This is looking into the dining room from the front entrance.

Looking in from the kitchen

My dining room table actually came from the Yellowknife, NWT city dump!!

I kid you not!

My mom and dad lived up there for 3 years ( My dad is RCMP)

anyway the city dump is not your ordinary dump.....

because YK is so isolated, it is hard for people that are moving out of there to move their belongings. 

Unless they are Goverment, ( and it is an all expense paid move) it is very very expensive.

So people just throw out their stuff ( but chances are if they moved there with nothing, they either acquired stuff at yard sales, from other people moving that were selling everyting, or the dump)

Anyway, my dad (who is the king of other people junk is someone elses treasure...lol) would go to the dump on a weekly basis ( sunday mornings- he called it shopping cart sundays...lol because the people that had yardsales on saturday would take all the stuff they didnt sell to the dump!)

Ok I know it sounds like my dad is some kind of dumpster diving street person....lol but No! everyone goes to the dump on sundays!!! lol!

anyway, this one sunday my dad spotted a dining room table all set up just sitting there!

He very quickly loaded in the truck, as many others were eyeing it...lol and took it home to my mom!

It was upholstered with very ugly and stained green fabric, but my dad figured my mom could recover it! The table and wood in the chairs was in mint condition!!

My mom was so amazed at my fathers find!!!

In further investigation my mom found that there was another fabric under the ugly green stuff....so she ripped all the green fabric off and under neath was a fabric that was in mint condition! ( and it is the fabric that is on it today!!)

Anyway my dad was transfered to PEI (home for us) and when they got back here, they built a house and bought all new furniture.

My mom gave me the dump table, and I love it!!!!

She also gave me new upholstry fabric to someday cover it, but i kinda like it the way it is for now!

Oh and also! a very funny twist to the story!

After my mom had cleaned the table and it was ready for use ( in YK) my moms good friend Toots came over to see the amazing dump find!

She took one look at it and said.....that was my table......15 years ago!!!!

Toots had been married to a man, and they divorced and sold the house with all its contents, and this table was one of its contents!

She had been the one that had the underneath fabric custom done after purchasing the table.

Isnt that an amazing story!!! lol

My mom also gave me the china cabinent, and all her china!

 My kitchen!

Our house is a 1950's rancher, and the kitchen is almost original.

We painted the cupboards( which were almost the same yellow as the walls)

and the counter top ( which was originally orange!)

We are planning on gutting the entire kitchen in the next few years

This hallway leads to our laundry room, my daughter Raven's room and the kids bathroom

Thanks for stopping by!

I have been super busy the past few weeks!

My cousin Jodi got married, and my gift to her was I would do her wedding photos!

I was super nervous, it was my first wedding!

She is a cousin, but she is more like a sister ( to all 5 of us sisters), so we were all pretty much involved.

On friday my mom, 2 of my sisters ( Peggy(who is the maid of honor) & Lexi), myself and Jodi (bride to be) all went and got mani- pedis. It was a lot of fun.

Jodi, and all her bridesmaids, and even the mother of the groom got ready at my moms house....so it was beyond hectic! lol

Imagine..... a bride, 3 bridesmaids, a jr bridesmaid, a flower girl, mother of the groom and mother of the bride.....

and then my mom, 2 more of my sisters and a 13 month old baby all getting ready for a wedding in one house!!!! 

It was quite the experience.....lol

I was there to photograph the whole thing! lol

This week end we have my dads, mothers side of the family reunion!

My part in this was helping input the family tree.

We have been working on it every thursday night for months......

I am now on express mode, and am trying to fix the little glitches that happened along the way.

We are using Family Tree Builder by myheritage.com

Its a neat little program that helps you input all your family tree info and organizes it for you.

You can publish online so other people researching their family tree can find you, or your ancestors.

And amongst all this, I have been trying to get Raven & River ready for back to school!

I havent been home a whole lot the past 2 weeks or so, with all the errands for the wedding, or family tree.

My children, husband and my house have all been neglected by me! ha!

I will be glad when everything is over and school is back in.......

I have so many fall projects I cant wait to start ( and blog about..Ha!)

Here is a sneak peak of the wedding....

My next diy project, I have decided will be tackling my kitchen countertops and backsplash.....

Its just not in the budget right now, to replace the counter top.

But I really need to get rid of the ugly green melamine paint!

It chips alot and shows the even uglier original orange counter top.

It has a few bumps and bruises and I need something more forgiving than light green melamine.

I have been searching high and low for a cheap ( and easy) solution.

First I checked out a product called Stone Effects by Rustoleum. It is a 3 step process that unless you do it right, can turn out to be a huge mess and having to replace the countertops anyway.

The end result looks really really nice, but I am scared I will mess it up! and this stuff could still run me a couple hundred bucks...

Also, I wouldnt be able to use my kitchen for 5 days!!!

Secondly, I came across this forum  and I think I have a winner!

I have to sand and then prime my counter top, then I have to pick 4 or 5 acrylic paint colors out.

Sponge paint the colors, and then when all is dried apply at least 3 coats of polyurathane.

Sounds easy and pretty cheap!

The lady in the forum also suggested going to a store that sells counter top and picking out one I like, and matching my paint colors to it.

I also have a pretty neat diy idea for my backsplash......

its one I stole from a friend.....

she used paintable wallpaper, and painted it silver.

The first time I saw it I thought she had a metal backsplash!

It is so nice! and really looks like the real thing!

I will post pics as soon as I get all this finished!!

Does anyone have any other ideas, comments, or helpful hints for me before I begin this?

Family Pictures!

Something I realized a few weeeks ago may shock you but.....

We have never had family photos taken before!!!

Blaine, Raven and I had out family picture taken when Raven was 3 months old, but thats it!

I have taken ones of the 3 girls, and even ones of my 4 sisters and our brother and I, but never Blaine, myself and our three girls!

So here is our first family photo!!! ( that's sad i know, seeing as our baby is 4.5!)

Okay I went a little gung ho, and uploaded a bunch of the photos from our family photo shoot.....

My 3 beauties...River, Raven & Keilee

Hubby

Myself & hubby

Smoochy- Smoochy! lol!

....and of course a self portrait! lol

Raven

River

Keilee

Drum roll Please.......

lol this is my least fav...

this one is ok....

I Heart this one!!!

After I was done "taking" pics, they said to me....can we go in the water now?

My response....."fill your boots!!"

So they did! haha!

I woke up to my 4 year old at my bed side saying " Mommy, Mommy!! Wake up it's 9:40 and its sunday! We are gonna be late for church!!!!"

How awesome is that!!

1. She knew what day it was!

2. She knows how to tell time!

and 3. She LOVES Jesus! (and going to church!)

Last sunday I spent half the day thinking it was Saturday! We missed church, the kids were upset, especially Keilee ( the 4 yr old).

She made sure she wasn't missing it this week! Ha!

We got a phone call today from my grandmother ( who lives in Corner Brook, Newfoundland)

She told us that our Minister (and her husband) from when we lived in Corner Brook, were killed in a car crash yesterday.

Rev. Patrica "Rev. Pat" Melindy was an amazing woman. She was sweet and compasionate.

I loved talking to her, she always had such good wisdom and advice.

She married my husband and I seven years (and three days) ago.

She has always had a special place in my heart.....

My heart goes out to her children and grandchildren.