Project 52, Week 13, Hat!

I have had a hard time with this week's picture. I didn't have much to choose from, making it hard to have a great picture to use. I got an external flash (which I am super excited about, but more on that another time), so I have been learning how to use it. Which is great, but I'm still learning, and that does not equal good pictures. These were shot in the evening but before sunset. The picture I chose combines two things Carter loves: looking at himself on the computer slideshow, and hats. At any given point during the day, if I can't find Carter, he is probably in the office watching the screensaver slideshow of pictures. He could sit in there for hours and just watch the pictures. It has been a great tool to teach him family member's names. He recognizes most of his immediate family, which is so cute to watch. He always recognizes his Great Grandad, who passed away last summer. I think this is amazing; Carter was 13 months at the time. But yet, everytime a picture of Great Grandad rolls around, Carter shouts "Grandad!!" I know it means a lot to Trevor to carry on his Grandad's memory. Which brings us to the hat. Considering what an integral part of Grandad's life Sonic was, it's only fitting that we have a Sonic Drive In hat!. It's been in the office for a while now, but Carter just found it. So now, when he goes in to watch himself, he also yells "hat!" But of course, when I wanted a picture of Carter wearing the hat, he did NOT want it on. I had to be quick on the shot. As soon as Trevor put the hat on, I snapped quickly. As you'll see, it didn't last long. Usually he leaves it on, just not if I want him to wear it. Oh the mind of a 22 month old...



Putting the had on...

And it's off!

He is in a trance watching the slideshow

This is the only time he sits still during the day!

I will post more about my new speedlite sometime, I promise! Hope everyone has a wonderful week!!

 

Project 52, Week 12

Carter has never been a mama's boy. He's been a daddy's boy, a grandma's boy, a grandmari's boy, a great grandma's boy and a cousin Taryn's boy, but never a mama's boy. Until about a month ago. He used to run to Trev when he would get home from work and never look at me again the rest of the evening. He still runs to Trev, but he is definitely forming an attachment to me (finally!!). It only took 22 months, but now I am the one he runs to. And I must say, I love it. Don't get me wrong, I love that he loves his daddy, and grandmas, and Taryn, but I'm his MOM! So this has been quite a nice change. And the picture of the week showcases it. I was tempted not to write this. I'm sure he will wake up tomorrow and revert back to daddy, but I had to document that for at least a moment, he wanted his mommy!

Carter has never been one to rest his head against me, but now it happens 10 times a day. And once again, I love it!!

I'm also including a few pictures from last weekend. It was gorgeous here, borderline hot, and Carter had so much fun outside at Grandmari and Papa's! He walked around until we thought he may pass out from heat exhaustion!! The child just wouldn't stop moving!! 

This picture doesn't do justice to how red his cheeks were! Poor guy was burning up!!

And of course, what outside post would be complete without swinging pictures??

Have a good week!!

 

Project 52, Week 11

This week brought some nice weather, but no outside pictures. We were too busy playing to take pictures! Okay actually the sun was just too bright overhead and I didn't love any of them. But the first response sounds like a fun mom, right? We did take some time to paint with watercolors. Now this was very hard for me. I am kind of a neat freak, so messy paint makes me nervous. I put the tablecloth on the table and stripped Carter down, which ended up being a very smart move on my part. When I used to paint, I did not want the colors mixing together on the palate. Obviously 21 month old boys do not care about such details. I kept trying to get him to dip his paintbrush in water before switching colors, but as you'll see, my efforts were futile. At least he had fun!!

Here's the official picture of the week

And now for the others I always seem to include in my picture (singular) post of the week :)

Here is the masterpiece in the making

Time for a color switch (more like a muddy mixture)

And a little body paint...

Poor dirty watercolors (deep sigh)

This is his ornery grin, thinking he is doing something awesome!

Who knew painting was so exciting??

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!!

 

Black and White Wednesday/You Capture

Since You Capture's theme this week is black and white (emotion) I am doubling up the post with Black and White Wednesday's over at The Long Road to China! Here are some cute photos from Carter and Trev's latest lego building experience. It was quite the tower. I am including one in color because I love the color of the legos!

Concentration (is that an emotion? Hmmm, not so sure...)

Perseverance (again a stretch on the emotion, but I love him reaching to put the lego on the tower!)

Had to include one building legos in his yellow construction hat

Excitement/happiness. He noticed the camera and is running from the giant tower to see himself. 

And here it is in color

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

 

Project 52, Week 10

I have found the secret to getting Carter to smile: have his cousin, Cohen, over! I have 10 pictures of Carter laughing so hard at Cohen. The boys generally play well together, but they have their moments. They are three months apart, so naturally whenever one has a toy, it becomes the coolest toy ever. Then the other one wants that toy. But other than that, they are best friends :). So this is the picture I chose because it is the smile from laughing I see most often.

And why was he laughing and smiling so much? Here is a pullback of the setup:

One boy on either side of the kitchen table, just cracking up at one another (well not in this picture). But they were, and it was hilarious to watch!

Here are some others I loved of Carter's various expressions.

I love the reflection of his hands on the kitchen table. It makes me feel like it's clean! I know it's just a semi reflective surface with good light, but it also looks clean!!!

And Cohen's parents agreed to let me share these adorable pictures of their adorable sweet boy!

Can you believe those eyes? Is it okay to say a boy has beautiful eyes? Well I just did; my apologies to Cohen's dad!!

Hope everyone is getting a taste of spring this week! We will most certainly be enjoying some hopefully wonderful weather!!

 

Top Ten!

The wingback chair I blogged about last week made it into the top 10 over at The CSI Project!! There were lots of very cool projects posted this week, and I'm honored to be chosen! Now if I could only get the motivation to work on the other one...

Have a good week!

Reupholstered Chair- A CSI Project!

This blog has served as a scrapbook for my family and as documentation of my progression into photography. But now I'm going to use it to showcase another hobby: creative projects with old furniture! I have several items I have redone, but am showcasing the hardest so far today, a wingback chair. I love the look of wingback chairs but am not going to shell out the money for new ones. So I decided (and by I, I mean me and my husband. This isn't a project to tackle solo) to reupholster so used ones. We found two chairs in excellent condition on craigslist. It was a bit hard to rip them apart because they didn't look like they had been sat in before. But these just weren't my look. Here's the before:

Not awful, but it could be so much better! I am not going to do a step by step tutorial for this. The Creative Maven has an excellent tutorial that we followed here. In short, a chair is put together like an onion, one layer on top of another. So the layers must be peeled off and labeled, one at a time. Once all layers are removed, and about 1000 staples later, it's time to cut pieces for the new fabric. We laid out 6 yards of our new fabric and placed the old pieces on it. We traced them and cut each piece out, making sure the fabric was going the correct direction. Then the pieces go back on, but in the opposite order. Like I said, it is much more complicated than this. Definitely check out The Creative Maven's tutorial if you're interested! It was mostly stapling back together, but it did require some sewing. I have never sewed in my life, so I was happy with my maiden voyage. The cushion had to be sewn as well as the wings and the piece the cushion sits on. So here is the after.

I had a hard time choosing the fabric. We have a red table that I redid next to the chair. And yes, only one chair has been done. We were a bit burned out from reupholstering but are going to start the other one soon. Because of the bright red table we were somewhat limited in fabric choices. Then I found this one on red tag sale at Hancock Fabrics and knew it was the one! They only had enough in store to do one chair, but luckily they had more online and the colors were identical!

And because I can't post without a picture of Carter, here he is sitting in the lovely chair!

It was definitely a labor of love, but I'm so happy to have it. I love it! And I'm linking this up with The CSI project since the theme for this week is reupholstering along with Thrifty Decor Chick and Miss Mustard Seed! 

Thanks for stopping by!