I'm in love...

with my camera. 

Some of you may have seen on social media that my camera came...

annndd then I fell off the face of the earth. 

Just kidding, but I have spent some time tinkering with it, reading blogs, and scaring the crap out of my cat. Turns out it scares him when some large alien like contraption is pointed in his face, whirrs, beeps, and clicks. Although as a result of his confusion, I was able to get some great shots. 

I think I'm going to struggle with not trying to make EVERY photo super artsy, and perfect. 

That being said, I'll share some photos I took of TJ. I sent the first one to Walgreens and when I picked it up (along with an Engagement photo I had printed for a project I did) the guy asked if I had a copyright release for both of them.

New camera, FTW! 

First of all, 

thank you all who left fabulous tips on my first camera post. I've been putzing with it, looking at the manual, and looking at blog posts. So far, I can safely say the "vomit" feeling from making such a big purchase has disappeared totally. 

(also, for unknown reasons the money that had been pulled from my account for the camera, magically REAPPEARED in my checking account after I picked it up. I haven't asked any questions, and I hope it stays there. Also, this is probably why Best Buy is tanking).

Second, 

this camera has reaffirmed one thing for me: I have a VERY sexy cat. Seriously. He's so good looking.

Third, 

I'm obsessed with picmonkey.com. I'd heard the name thrown around before but figured it was enough like Picasa, so 'why bother'.. uhh WRONG. It's like Instagram for real life with bitchin' filters, and I'm in love. 

This weekend, M and I took on a few home projects. We got up and headed to IKEA first thing Saturday morning, and got a new light for the kitchen. After a few hours, some "are we going to burn in our sleep" concerns, it seems to have worked! M was super proud, he's gotten to be quite handy at house stuff but always shied away from electrical (for good reason too.. scary stuff if done wrong!) Now that he's confident, I'm taking advantage and will be getting a chandelier for upstairs in the not so near future ;-) 

also, I took zero photos of that. 

I, on the other hand, was busy makin' pretties..as I call them.

I purchased several frames at IKEA, with the idea to finally make our upstairs feel more homey. So I created a gallery wall to go up the stairs:

I used some engagement photos...

and a little "quote book" Leah got me a while ago..

I created some collages with the quotes..

aannnddd laid it all out like so: 

And this is how it looks, except, on the wall. I took these at night and the lighting up the stairs is garbage so, I knew I wouldn't get a good shot of it in action on the wall. 

I freaking love it. 

I also love that I finally have a "nice" photo of my cat. I feel like it's more socially acceptable to hang photos of pets if they look artsy. 

Lastly, M helped me complete a project I've been wanting to for ages. After seeing a Pinterest pin, I knew I had to recreate it. 

Ta da!

The frame was $8 or so at IKEA,... I printed off an 8x10 of us for $3, I had the wine bottle and fake flowers, and all that was left to purchase was this (at Home Depot):

M pre-drilled a hole, and then drilled through that little hole in the base of the hanger and into the wall. The one we have has a hinge on one side, and then the threaded screw to close it on the other side. SO, if we ever want to change out the wine bottle, all we have to do is unscrew it. 

All in all, it cost me about $13....annnnddd I love it. I'm a big advocate of hanging "different" things on the wall.. I like wall installations (like the one from the upstairs remodel) and things you may not expect to find for visual interest. 

That's all! 

Stay tuned for many more very fancy cat photos in the future. 

Just kidding. kind of.

HOME TOUR // OLD MASTER BEDROOM

We moved into our house in May of 2011. 

Truthfully, only REALLY not liking the paint in one room...that'd be the kitchen. It was a burnt orange color, so that got painted literally the night after we closed (by myself, while M was off at a dude's weekend). Then, slowly, as we lived in it, and bought furniture that didn't match the colors of other rooms (okay, so that was only the basement.. ) we have painted other rooms. 

I think it's really helped the WHOLE house feel like ours, like we've put our stamp on it, instead of just placed furniture in it. 

So, after a few of you started posting about Young House Love being at West Elm in Minnesota... I started browsing their website. I emailed Matt and told him I wanted to paint our bedroom upstairs.*

Expecting a, "why?" ... I instead got a, "okay, what color?" Apparently M was itching to hop back on the home remodel train, which I should've guessed from the number of times he'd asked me recently "is there anything we need to do around the house? any projects...? any at all?" 

So after work Friday I trugged to Target and bought some accessories (and holiday decor, which I will be bringing to you in a separate post this week!)

Let's take a little tour of the upstairs pre-paint. 

(Pro tip: if you want a REALLY dramatic before and after, take the before pics with a messy bed, and at night with poor lighting. Bonus points for a cat who won't stop photobombing)

The stairs (and a cat butt)

It was an olive green color, but dark. 

Not terribly offensive, but for a smaller space that doesn't get a ton of light, it started to be a bit much for me. I wanted something lighter, brighter, airier. (Yes, that's actually a word.. no squiggly red line!) 

 The bookshelf LOOKS all fine and dandy, but this photo doesn't accurately reflect the dings, scratches, smears of random paint colors, and the pale blue dinged up background. I have been told it's a sin to paint over wood like this, but, this wood was not pretty.

(Note: the messy bed, for dramatic effect. also, lazer eyed kitteh behind the mirror, do you see him?)

That large photo is actually made up of thousands of TEENY TINY photos of M and I (he used a computer program to make it for our 1-yr anniversary. It was our "first photo ever" together, at the St. Paul Winter Carnival in 2010).  aaanndd the table is actually a loaner from my friend Dana. We're storing some of her furniture for a year because she scored a judicial clerkship in out-state MN, and is living with her friends' parents.

SO, onto the good stuff. First, I love the look of stacked books in decor, but I don't have any vintage hard covers that fit in my color scheme. SO I took a garbage bag, and sliced it up to make a book cover (remember in middle school when we were forced to cover our books?). 

TJ supervised

aaannndddd now, the after! 

We picked a very light tan (it's a bit more yellowy, than it is actually brown, but I think these photos make it look MORE yellow than it actually is) 

The bookshelf obviously hasn't been staged yet. It needs another coat of paint (but we were both too exhausted to do it this weekend). What this photo does NOT show is aaalllll the frames and books that are on the floor, just out of this shot. Keepin it real, folks. 

I made a few burlap bow curtain ties. They're just held with safety pins in the back. I'm not sure how I feel about them yet, but they didn't take long, I had all the supplies, and they can always be switched out later. They work, for now. 

The part I'm MOST proud of, the stripey wall vignette. 

The table runner is actually one I made for the wedding, but I made 25, and we will not have 25 guest tables, so.. I borrowed it. :) 

The white branch/floral installation is from Target ($20!) and is attached with plastic pegs and double sided puffy tape. I tested it on the wall and tried pulling it off to see if it'd leave a mark, and it didn't seem to. The pieces are SUPER light, so you don't have to press them onto the wall too hard to get them to stay, either. 

See:

 

You can also see, below, the grocery bag books, the vase of flowers I borrowed from the bathroom, and the pearls/beads are necklaces of mine that I used. 

So there it is! I'm in love with the last photo here.... with that instagram filter, it reminds me of something I'd see on IG from a real home decor blog.. or something. Which my house most certainly does not usually look like. (Although, not to toot my own horn, but Dana's friend who helped move stuff to our place last week said she loved my living room and said it looked like a Pinterest board. Mission accomplished, haha)

Stay tuned for the home tour, holiday edition! 

*{edited April 2015: This is no longer our master! Click THIS for the most up to date version of the master}