{self portraits}

proof that my husband can figure anything out. 

we had the camera for a day when he took these pictures of me.

 

We got a camera!

I am starting to see a pattern that I am a once or twice a month blogger. cool.

Life has been good. Many of our weekends are busy with visitors and this house is getting lots of love. The biggest update of all is that we have made a big investment and purchase this month that looks like this. 

Holy moly. we are excited.

(I'm sure everyone else  (cough cough...Hi Holly!) is as well. my lazy camera phone pictures could scare anyone away!)

What is cool/funny about the whole DSLR thing is that I have dreamed of having one since high school but the opportunity never came up. I did my best with my point and shoot and honestly it worked for me just fine. But over the past year my husband has been drooling over this camera and its videography performance. 

Seth is our worship and arts director at our church and incredibly artistic and talented. He researches like a boss and has the ability to pick up any instrument or electronic and just figure it out.  He seriously turns into a pro by the time I get off work. It is ridiculous!

So we both win with this camera.

 Since no one reads this (but Holly...holla!) I might as well be honest and put it out there that I am starting a process to try out this whole photography thing. It will be awhile before anything comes from this and I'm totally riding the learning curve right now. My goal is to try to get something up and running around this time next year. We will see. 

And if all else fails I will just be able to take super cute pictures of our own kids. 

For now I'm practicing with Tina.

thrifting and refinishing

I have always loved thrifting and looking for good deals. Our first year of marriage our budget was tight so I was forced to be creative in how I would decorate our apartment. 

Decorating a large house takes time and I'm learning to take things slowly and to buy things that speak to me. I have a list of things that I look for when I shop and in these past few weeks I have landed some amazing finds. 

First is this painting:

 

I landed this original painting for $28 at a local antique loft. I had seen it weeks prior and eyed it but couldn't get myself to pay for it with a $120 price tag without consulting my husband first. So when I saw the layers of stickers and scratched out prices I snagged it and knew it needed to be mine! I am thinking about reframing it or simply staining the current frame. 

Then, the day after I came home with the painting, I came home with this in my backseat:

This one was marked down from $48 to $24.99 at my local family thrift store. I have been looking all over for an antique vanity in my price range and I knew that this was the one. 

I also got this piece for our master bathroom for $20.00 at a garage sale

 (I didn't get a good picture before taking it apart)

 

 

So with my collection of furniture adding up in my garage I decided to make last Saturday a painting day and get these pieces refinished. I had never refinished furniture before but there are some amazing tutorials on pinterest. My good friend, Jen, came and helped me for the day while our husbands recorded and wrote music. 

Here are some of the pictures of the process:

and the final looks: