Entirely Emily

Monday, January 21, 2013

Second Shooting a wedding Part Duex

Remember how I second shot a wedding last year? I was super lucky enough back in the fall of 2012 to get hired on as a Second Shooter for Karen at Karen Hendrix Photography. My sister happened to know someone that used her and she posted on her Facebook page that she was looking for a second shooter for 4 fall weddings that she would be shooting. I met with her, found out I could get paid ( woo hoo), and get experience from a pro. How great is that? She interviewed a few other people but I got the position.

I really learned alot from Karen about how shooting a wedding works: how to balance your time, the clients needs, and still be creative at the same time. Of the 4 weddings, the first was down at the Four Seasons on the Landing in Downtown Saint Louis. It was quite a first wedding to do with her.... huge wedding party and almost all indoors. Indoor shots are still more of a challenge than the outside shots for me.

Here's a little peak and if you want to see more head over to my photoblog.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Photo Wall Collage

You've heard it before from me.. I have a problem with empty spaces. I can never decide what to put on or in them most of the time. There was the mantel situation, the front door situation, and now it's the giant-empty-space-on-the-wall-behind- the- couch situation.

The one thing I did know was that I wanted seamless frames. I saw it on a Pinterest pin and I loved the way it looked. Clean and simple. Your pictures really stand out. And let's face it, they are WAY cheaper than canvases. I knew Micheals had them so I went and wrote down the sizes that they had that would work for the giant wall behind my couch. And since their frames are on sale almost every week, it was very affordable.

I was lucky enough to have a roll of white paper here at the house that the girls usually draw on so I took that roll of paper and cut out the exact sizes of the frames and taped them up to the wall to arrange and see what set up we wanted to have.

We decided on 3-16"x20"s and 3-12"x 16"s. I went through the past winter's images and being that we had hardly any snow I had to go back another year beyond that. I wanted to stay current but you gotta do what ya gotta do. There are alot of guides/ images on Pinterest and some photographers websites that can give you an idea on configurations.

I have an issue with symmetry... I LOVE IT!!! My teachers tried to beat it out of me in art school but the OCD-ness in me can't help it. It calms me. I like when things match or there are two of something. Ahh.....the serenity.

When we first started thinking about this space it was fall and since I couldn't decide on the pictures soon enough it has quickly become winter and the holidays so on to the winter pictures we go.

My hubby had to help me with eye-balling where I should have the nails. But it looks so nice to finally have something up there. We plan on switching them out with the seasons. I took a ton of cool pictures last spring, summer and just this fall. I can't wait to get them all up next year.

So what do you think? Do you need any ideas on how to arrange pictures at your house? I'd love to help you out.

Monday
What is the Gunny Sack -Making the world Cuter -Debbie Doo -DIY Show Off
-I should be mopping the Floor

Tuesday
Tip Junkie - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia -
Sugar Bee - Romance On A Dime -The Winthrop Chronicles

Wednesday
Someday Crafts - Sew Much Ado
-SNAP

Thursday
Beyond the Picket Fence - Somewhat Simple - Live Laugh Rowe
- The Shabby Cottage The Taylor House- House of Hepworths
Two In Diapers-Mommy Brain Mixer

Friday
Naptime Crafters - Stay At Home Nation
Young and Crafty - My Turn(ForUs)
Delicate Construction
Serenity Now

Saturday

Six Sister's Stuff

Cheerios and Lattes

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

My Super Hero Family

I think all of us have super powers of some sort or another. Other people might not see them but we know they are there. I started thinking about this more and more as I looked at the artwork of an old high school friend.

Matt has always been a talented illustrator having a comic book in our high school and always drawing all the time but lately he had been posting some super cool stuff on his Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Recently he had shown a drawing of his family that looked like a cover of a comic book. It was "super " cool. I knew that Matt did commissions so it seemed like a great gift for my husband for Christmas. Now J isn't a big super hero or comic book guy but who wouldn't want to have a really cool drawing done of themselves?

I first approached Matt with my idea... a family of super heroes from Saint Louis with their own unique interests and skills:

Me
-Photographer
J
-Blues and Cardinals Fan
K
-princesses
-Green
-Elephants
S
-Blue
- her "oh puppy"

And of course we had to include Louie and Frankie!

Matt and I settled on a size and he went to work sketching and giving me some previews along the way. I love the creative process! He really got what I wanted it to look like.

Keep in mind we did all of this over email and it was super easy. I did go pick my finals up in person since we live in the same city but I'm sure he'll mail/ship it any where it needs to go.

His original Pencil sketch ( already cool)

created by http://drawsumthincool.blogspot.com/

The next step: penciled version

Created by http://drawsumthincool.blogspot.com/

The pen /start to color version:

Created by: http://drawsumthincool.blogspot.com/

And the totally awesome final version that now will hang up at my husband's office:

Created by : http://drawsumthincool.blogspot.com/

Aren't we cool looking? Even the dogs look bad-ass. I couldn't have been any happier with how it turned out. This is something so unique that you just can't buy in a store. We'll always have this little picture of our lives and our likes right now.

Matt gave me a computer printed colorized version, the original pencil sketch, and a DVD with a PDF, Jpeg and the Photoshop file. He can draw any size you want. This happened to be a 8x10.

I'm not usually all YOU NEED THIS on my blog but it is SO COOL that I think you should. Did I mention he can draw anything character, movie actor, or just any old thing? You could get your son's favorite bockugon character for his wall or Transformer.

I was in no way paid for this blog post by the way. I was a happy paying customer. And it was worth every penny. My husband loved it. The kids got a kick out of it too.

Monday
What is the Gunny Sack -Making the world Cuter -Debbie Doo -DIY Show Off
-I should be mopping the Floor

Tuesday
Tip Junkie - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia -The Kurtz Corner
Sugar Bee - Romance On A Dime -The Winthrop Chronicles

Wednesday
Someday Crafts - Sew Much Ado
-SNAP

Thursday
Beyond the Picket Fence - Somewhat Simple - Live Laugh Rowe
- The Shabby Cottage The Taylor House- House of Hepworths
Two In Diapers-Mommy Brain Mixer

Friday
Naptime Crafters - Stay At Home Nation
Young and Crafty - My Turn(ForUs)
Delicate Construction
Serenity Now

Saturday

Six Sister's Stuff

Cheerios and Lattes

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Meet our new little man, Frankie

We finally had our little boy! {hee hee} His name is Frankie.

The day we got him

K and Frankie the day we got him

He'll be around 5 months old on January 4th. He's black with a white blaze on his chest and some white on all four of his feet. He's a rescue dog that's part Basset Hound and part Lab. That's where those adorable ears come from. I hope they always look long and floppy. The doc says he'll probably be about 50 lbs of lazy, hound dog love. He has alot of skin to grow into. You can grab it and pull on it and he doesn't seem to mind. I like to think he's the long lost cousin of Charlie, Ree's dog over at Pioneer Woman. Maybe we should bring him by to visit. :)

He enjoys eating anything....

sleeping....

smelling....

chewing, playing with his brother....

playing with the kids....

peeing and pooping( not always in the correct places), squeezing through the fence, eating, peeing, pooping.... wait, Am I repeating myself? Well, he does enjoy those things alot.

He is also a dog of many emotions:

I know....don't be shocked by his intensity. It can be overwhelming at times. LOL.

He is such a sweetie and you'll be seeing alot more of him from now on.

He is one of the reasons I haven't been around here as much. I have to keep eyes on him at all times! Otherwise I'm cleaning up a mess of one kind or another. It's just like having another 2 1/2 year old in the house.

Most days I'm not sure why I did this to myself. Getting a puppy with two small kids but I did and now he's my kid too. I know it'll get better but next time , we may rescue an older, potty trained , non-chewing dog.

most recent picture, a week ago.

He already has a bunch of nicknames:
-Buster
-Pupster
-Little Man ( well, when we first got him)
-Frank
-Frank the Tank
-Puppy
-Franklin
-Stinkster
-No-No bad dog
-Piddles
-King Piddles

Don't worry I'm sure we will think of more.

And in full disclosure, we've had him for two months already and I'm just getting around to this post mostly because.....wait for it.......................................wait for it..........................................................
we couldn't decide on a name for almost that long......GASP!!

I know, bad dog mommy and daddy but this poor little guy was "Puppy" for a whole month. Geez. I know, indecisive much?

But now he's Frankie and all is good in the world. I think a post called " the world according to Frankie" sounds good. Don't you?

Monday
What is the Gunny Sack -Making the world Cuter -Debbie Doo -DIY Show Off
-I should be mopping the Floor

Tuesday
Tip Junkie - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia -The Kurtz Corner
Sugar Bee - Romance On A Dime -The Winthrop Chronicles

Wednesday
Someday Crafts - Sew Much Ado
-SNAP

Thursday
Beyond the Picket Fence - Somewhat Simple - Live Laugh Rowe
- The Shabby Cottage The Taylor House- House of Hepworths
Two In Diapers-Mommy Brain Mixer

Friday
Naptime Crafters - Stay At Home Nation
Young and Crafty - My Turn(ForUs)
Delicate Construction
Serenity Now

Saturday

Six Sister's Stuff

Cheerios and Lattes

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Fuzzy Owl Ornaments

I was so excited when Erin from over at My Very Educated Mother contacted me to be involved with her " No Ugly ornament " Series over on here blog. That started me thinking on what I wanted to make. Maybe my idea of not ugly is someone else's idea of very ugly! Hmm.... what to do?

I was surfing around the net one day when I came across this image from Lilian Vernon.

It was so cute and so simple I knew I could redo it it myself and make it more cuddly and warm for the holidays. I have a new interest in felt over the past year so I went off in search of a felt ball or something round I could cover with felt. But then I went to Target and found these sweater ball ornaments for $3 a piece. Perfect! Done and done. It wasn't felt but it was sweater material so that worked for me.

I started to sketch out what colors should go where since I knew I anted to be all Christmas colors. I bought my felt ans was ready to go.

I tried to freehand some circles but that ended in disaster. If you can do that, more power to ya. I found a pill bottle ( for the eye circles), a nickel ( for the smaller eye circle), and a princess cup ( for the wings) which I then switched out for a Ziploc container when I realized it would be too small:) I set them up on the felt and cut my circles.

Cut out your circles and make sure they look ok when they are all laying on top of each other. I did freehand the little beaks and feet. The feet on the other version were just too hard for me to pull off.

Slowly start hot gluing them ( or whatever way sounds good to you) onto your circle. I did this very slowly so I was sure where everything was going.

When I got to the wings, I wasn't sure how to approach them. I decided to take my large circle , cut it in half, and then overlap them together like a wing or feathers might look. It gave me the smooth look I was going for.