Project 52: A bookshelf re-do and a glimpse into our living room

I suppose I should change the name of this project to project 48 since I’ve skipped more than a few weeks?  Eh, never mind we’ll keep it at 52 since I like the way that sounds.

Today I wanted to share a little project with you that I worked on last summer/fall. If you know me at all, you know that I love antiques, vintage nicknacks and repurposing furniture.  I get it honest.  My Momma is an antique dealer and she’s been known to completely transform furniture that most would take straight to the dump into something vintage enthusiasts would fist fight over.

I tag along to the auction with her as often as my schedule allows.  Unlike the day I purchased our $30 dining room table, the day we found this I wasn’t really looking for anything at all.

We didn’t bid on it, because I didn’t know if it would fit in our living room.  Instead, it was sold in a lot with a few other pieces of furniture for $20.  The woman that purchased it wanted the other pieces in the lot and not this piece… so we bargained with her for a few minutes and finally settled on a price.  $7… yep.  I still didn’t know if the piece would fit in our living room, but if it didn’t for the price of a super fancy latte, I didn’t care.  We loaded it up and took it home to the farm to begin it’s transformation.

BEFORE (please excuse the iPhone quality photo)

After sanding, painting, replacing the backing (a job for Dad… bribed with a bottle of wine) and replacing the feet… then having some fun distressing it with the sander and a hammer, I was satisfied.  I knew I wanted to distress it before I even painted it, because it was hardwood and a pretty heavy, sturdy piece.

The moment we brought the final product into the house I knew it would become one of my favorite spots in the house… and it has.

The main wall in the living room went from this (sorry again for the quality… when I took these I had no intentions of blogging about this!) :

To this:

I absolutely love how it transformed the room.  It’s so much brighter, more open… and generally more polished.

When we returned from our Italy vacation I knew I needed somewhere to display a few of the thousands (literally) of pictures we took while we were away.  And now I have the perfect spot.  I absolutely love how the gallery wall turned out… it’s not perfectly balanced, which I love.  I imagine that someday we will get tired of these pictures, but for now I love looking at these pictures and reminiscing about our trip.

The photo that hangs directly above the TV is one of my favorite images ever snapped of us.  My Sister-in-law snapped it during our gondola ride in Venice. Doctor by day, photog by night… her composition was absolutely perfect.

There you have it, folks… a little project that transformed our living room for a mere $24. Here’s the breakdown:

Bookshelf: $7

New Feet: $12 ($2 per foot)

Primer: free (already had it)

Paint: free (already had it)

New Backing: $5

Total: $24

Project 52: Days with friends

This time of year is so rejuvenating for wedding and portrait photographers.  We have down time, and time to really live life in ways we can’t during our busy season!  I’m trying to take full advantage of this years down time by spending time with friends, shooting for me, assisting other photographers and spending time with my family and husband!

Yesterday I spent the day time with two of my amazing girlfriends. They are the kind of friends you can share your life with, the good and the bad.  The kind of friends you can ugly cry with, laugh with and cry happy tears with. I love these girls so much and cannot wait to watch our friendship grow as we grow old.

You’ve seen Aliya on this blog many times before… and photos of her beautiful babies probably take up half of the disk space on my hard drive.  I can’t get enough of them!  Aliya is a full time Mama, a blogger and a small business owner!

Pam and her hubby are expecting their first little bundle of joy in July.  I cannot wait to watch them grow into amazing parents.  I’m sure you will be seeing a lot of them in the coming years as they grow their family! Pam is a blogger and social media marketing consultant!

I’m so grateful to have such driven and amazing women in my life! Love you girls!

PROJECT 52: WHAT’S NEXT

This week was a great week.

A week where I dug into the depths and worked on me. What I want this year.

Part of that process included attending Justin and Mary’s What’s Next tour in Silver spring with 125 of my closest colleagues.  This industry is truly incredible. Mary encouraged us to not sit idle – to not just be content with the way things are – to ever evolve as a person, a business owner, and as a photographer.

Justin and Mary are touring the country right now and sharing their hearts, their struggles – and encouraging others to conquer their fears.  They’re such an inspiration and amazing mentors.  I’ve been following their work for about 5 years and they’re the real deal.  SO talented. I’m blessed to have been part of their tour this year.  I had the opportunity to attend their lighting intensive last year and I left with a boatload of information and new techniques.  If you’re a photographer, businessperson or just plain lover of classic imagery and haven’t heard of them start following their blog immediately.

I’m so blessed to be a part of this industry.  Sitting in that room with 150 of my colleagues and talking about our ‘next’ and our fears and realizing that it takes HARD WORK to make it in this industry is not for the faint of heart.  But we support each other – and help each other through the process of change and evolution.

Sitting in that room I realized my ‘next’. I’m not quite ready to share it with you just yet, but I’ll get there. Promise.

I met Natalie for lunch before the event and she brought me this adorable little notebook to jot down notes during the talk – and boy did it come in handy. 

One thing that struck me during Mary’s talk was her way with words. I wrote down about 38 quotes (not exaggerating) from her talk and took the time to go back through them today.  She hit the nail on the head SO many times yesterday but the one I’d like to talk about is the one above.

We compare our behind the scenes to everyone else’s highlight reel…

Yes.

We sure do. Every single one of us.

With the evolution of social media – pinterest, facebook, blogging, insagram, twitter… I could go on and on but the point is – with all of these forms of social media and showing our lives to the world we can’t help but let the comparison monster take over every once in a while.  We compare our lives, our work, our homes, our love – every aspect of our lives to others through social media.  

But guess what – we’re not comparing their real lives with our own – we’re comparing their highlight reel.  Most people won’t post about the bad days, the house a wreck, their to-do list overflowing.  No, they’ll post about their empty email inbox, new designer handbag, clean house – and their best work.  

And we’re all guilty of it – showcasing our highlight reel.

But the point of this post isn’t to make you stop posting the good things, the clean houses, beautiful work, new lenses – but to make you not let the comparison monster hit you like it normally would when you see these things.  

Don’t compare your behind the scenes to everyone else’s highlight reel.  Because the truth is – their behind the scenes is probably just as busy, crazy, ugly and messy as yours.

Project 52 : Personal – The Why

I had a plan.  I knew what I was going to blog about for today’s project 52 blog post and it fell right through the cracks.

So, here we are.  I was up late last night trying to figure out what I would blog about with my cup of coffee this morning.  And it hit me.  I’ve been digging – and here’s what I’ve found.

As part of the re-branding process I’m going through right now (as part of my 2013 goals!) I’m being forced to dig deep.  I’m forced to dig into my heart and really think about the reason I’m here.  The reason I’m working as a full time photographer.  The reason I’ve been pouring my soul into this business for 4 years.

I didn’t set out on this path as a child.  I wasn’t one of those genius’ that knew exactly what I wanted to do when I was 6 years old.  If you had asked me at 6? I probably would have said I wanted to be a ballerina or a gymnast – I’m pretty sure that was what I was into at that age.  If there’s anything in this world that I know is true – my lack of dance skills would have left me a starving dancer/gymnast at the ripe age of 21.

When I sat down earlier this week and dug deep and asked myself – Why?  Why do I do this?  What’s my purpose in this business?  The answer was simple.

Eternalizing memories.  Capturing moments.

That’s it.

A few short months ago I was working on a slideshow for my brother’s wedding and sorting through all of the photos from our childhood.  My parents were photo fanatics.  There are photos of everything from the first time my big brother met me to the time my friends and I dressed up in my Mom’s old prom gowns and danced around the house.  Oh and the pancake eating contest my girlfriends had on my 5th birthday.  It’s all there – all the memories – preserved like a time capsule.

I can’t really say how well I would remember those moments if my parents hadn’t grabbed the camera and clicked the shutter to preserve them.  But, now? Looking back at the pictures I can see exactly what was happening.  How I was feeling.  We had a great childhood – and there’s proof.  There are thousands of pictures of our adventures.

That’s it. That’s why I do this. Capturing moments that would otherwise be a fleeting memory. That’s why I’m here.

I don’t want my clients to think: “oh man, Melissa was so much fun – she was such a great person to work with – she is so talented”

No.  That’s not what it’s all about.  That’s not why I do what I do.  I’m not in it for the fame, definitely not in it for the fortune.  I’m in it for you.

I want my clients to think: “wow, look how daddy was looking at me when I walked down the aisle”, “look how much fun we had dancing all night”, “remember those first couple of weeks as parents? look at my dark circles.  It was so challenging but so rewarding”

Photos aren’t about perfection.  Yes, a perfect focus point and the perfect lighting makes a capture that much better… but it’s about the moment – and the preservation of that moment in history.  Your history.