PhotoFANatic Friday featuring Love Me Do!

Today, I'm really excited to bring to you Love Me Do Photography as our PhotoFANatic Friday feature! Love Me Do is the brainchild of Nadine and Carina, two exceptional photographers based out of Philidelphia. I found these two amazing photographers on Joanna Goddard's blog, A Cup of Jo, and she featured a tattoo'd wedding. The pics were earthy, raw, and really beautiful, so you know what this blog stalker HAD to do...hop on over and see everything else they've got going on. What I learned is that Love Me Do Photography is a killer team with amazing vision and storytelling abilities!

Meet Nadine and Carina:

1. Your background is in fine art. How does that make your wedding photography aesthetic different than others? We didn't start out as wedding photographers. We each attained a BFA in Photography and actually started out and still currently work as commercial and fine art photographers. We use the technical experience and concepts we've learned to strengthen our wedding photography. We are very much inspired by fine art photographers and look at a lot editorial work to create unique and sophisticated compositions. Our first approach to a wedding is to look at the beautiful lighting, the compositions of the space, and the many details rather than a strict photojournailistic approach. We are also very conscious of our equipment and what lenses we use and the depth of field, to create a specific look to an image. For example, we will frequently use a tilt-shift lens to mimic the selective focus look of an old 4x5 camera. We want to take photographs that narrate a story of the entire day, while portraying our subjects as genuine as possible in a fine art sensibility.

2. Love Me Do is comprised of two teams. How does this partnership work and how do you push each other to produce better images? Each of us have spent years working on our own in photography, while sharing resources with other photographers. Since we have a common field and interest, we thought, "why not bring our businesses together, and proceed as a team?" Thus, Love Me Do was formed! Not knowing what the outcome would be like, we dove into a joint business, and we've really seen some great benefits come out of it. For starters, we inspire each other! We are able to share ideas and techniques, and are continually helping each other out when one of us comes across something new we want to try. It is also great when one of us needs extra hands on some of the more extravagant weddings or when one of us is already booked for a date, we can refer one another. It helps that we have a deep respect for one another's work, for we each represent Love Me Do Photography and have to trust each other's abilities. And lastly, we've discovered that we are able to reach more eyes and ears by spreading the workload of marketing. The more mouths we have talking about our photography, the easier it is to get heard!

3. Are there any shoots in your portfolio that have stood out as one of your favorites of all time? Nadine: Well, every new wedding is exciting, but I just did a really fun shoot at the Union League in Philadelphia for Carolyn and Chris's wedding (found on our blog). I think I had so much fun beacuse I shot their rehearsal dinner, the wedding, and the brunch the next day, so I really got to know the family. The groom was awesome, and loved having his picture taken, which doesnt happen to often. The kids wore fairy wings and the centerpieces were all different version off mystical tree stumps and flowers. There was this amazing gypsy drum band that came to play and everyone loved it. There was just a lot of genuine love with this couple and it was also very sweet how they also included their 2 year old son in the wedding. One of my favorite pitcures is the three of them walking down the isle after the cermony and the look on Carolyn's face is priceless.

Carina: Woah this is a hard one. I think that every week we do a new wedding, I find myself in love with a new picture. So naturally I love the most recent wedding we just photographed of Bess and Matt (on our blog). They are just a great fun loving couple that we worked with really well and they looked amazing! But if I were to look back on certain images... there's one shot of a bride, Kristen (also on the blog), that I took while we were waiting for the groom to round up his family for a group portrait. I noticed that I had a minute to spare, and thought, "why not take a few shots of the bride right now?" And boy am I glad I did! Everything was just right, the composition, the light, Kristen looking beautiful, and right as I was taking the shot, the wind blew ever so slightly to give some movement in her dress for the picture. I couldn't have dreamed of a better shot of that day. In one click of a shutter, I was able to remove all the busyness, chatter, and natural stress of a wedding day. You wouldn't think that there was a crowd of people right behind me waiting to get their photos taken just as I took this breath-of-fresh-air of a shot.

4. When you're shooting, what's your first priority? Lighting, emotion, natural moments, etc? With our backgrounds, we both would say lighting and composition are the must-have foundation for each photograph. If you have the technical experience down, the natural moments just come to you. We both are very big on how we pose and not-pose people. When it comes to dealing with the bride and groom's pictures, we very much want the couple to look natural, at ease, as if they were alone and being themselves together. We will make suggestion of standing and hand placements and kindly tell people to move into the beautiful light. For most people, having their picture taken this much is a new thing, and we like to do things like make them laugh and tell them to wisper something in the others ear, to just to make look at ease and relaxed. It often creates that "natural moment."

5. What was the best piece of advice you were given when you were just starting out? Nadine: Thats a tough one because I cant think of one single piece of advice I was given, other than shoot, shoot, and keep shooting. I think the single most important thing is creating your personal style. It's great to look at websites, blogs, and magazines for inspiration, but you really have to shoot A LOT to understand your own taste and aesthetic. This is really what is going to set you apart from other photographers, and people want to hire you for "your unique look." Another thing is, take a breathe. It can be extremely overwhelming starting your own business, but the thing I always remind myself is that its a process. You're going to start off small, and that's okay. Slowly you will build your amount of equipment and lenses and your clients. Like Carina says below, I also only buy what I can afford at the moment. I have found weddings are a very "word of mouth business", so its good to have great relationships with your clients and other vendors so they reccommend you. In terms of marketing, you should look like a cohesive package from your website to your stationary to your presentations. Its number one to have an easy and clean navigating website, and having a blog has been a real asset to our business as well.

Carina: My first photo teacher said to me, "Don't ever buy your own photography equipment... have other people buy it for you." When asked by other students what he meant by this. He elaborated on how we should look for jobs in photography, get paid to do a good job, then use the money we just made to buy better equipment. So far this has worked really well for me because I started searching for anything and anyone that would hire me as a photographer. I just put myself out there and started getting jobs in which I had no experience in, such as movie set photography, head-shots, architecture, and events. I learned so much from these experiences having to figure things out as each new opportunity came my way, creating a pretty good background for myself. If I never tried to do something new, I would have never succeeded in creating a name for myself. Plus I never put myself in debt by buying extremely expensive equipment. Hello to no credit card payments!

I LOVED this interview and feel like Nadine and Carina really gave us amazing insight into their business and art. Thanks SO MUCH to you both for opening up and sharing!!! I love your work and am so excited to show it off!!!

All gorgeous images property of Love Me Do Photography.

My Gardening Secret

My gardening secret...is that I forgot I had one.

Let me back up. During the big remodel the deck project, I decided to get a bunch of potted plants and flowers in order to bring color and femininity to my outdoor living space. I had my wine club girls over for the big reveal and a bbq and then I didn't really go out there much for a while. And guess what?! I TOTALLY forgot I had any living items out there. It's so bad that I don't even recognize what kind of plants and flowers were in those pots!

Yep, I'm lame.

How do YOU remember your garden/potted plants? Have any ideas on how to keep plants blooming in the summer heat? I'm BEGGING you here...PLEASE help me out! I promise not to do this again and will heed all your advice!

I'm adding this post to Hooked on Fridays, because let's face it, if I could garden, I'd be hooked on it. But alas, I've got a problem. I'm hoping that the Hooked on Fridays bloggers might be able to help a sister out with some fab advice!!!

Mad Men Yourself!

Have you Mad Men'd yourself, yet? I'm not sure this really looks like me, but I like to think that if I were living in the 60s, I'd be dressed to the 9s at all times and would naturally never leave the house without a martini in my hand! Check it out!

By the way, does anyone watch the show? I haven't seen it yet, but I think John Slattery is a SILVER FOX, so maybe I should start watching!!!

High School Memories

I'm joining in Kara Noel's (@ElisLids) high school link carnival today, because a) she's a pal o' mine from childhood; 2) this subject is just too funny; and III) I know you're all dying to see pics of me as a blond.

When I hear people say that they'd redo high school all over again in a heart beat, I start to get hives. I would NEVER go back again to all the drama, raging emotions, and stress. Having said that, I do have a ton of fun memories interspersed throughout those four years at Bayside High - of Mr. Belding, my best pals AC, Zack, Kelly, and Lisa, and all the hijinks that ensued. PSYCH.

I graduated from El Dorado High School in 1995 - yes, that makes me 32 (how the heck did THAT happen???). I drove a red truck, then a convertible white Celica, which was my DREAM car!!! I was involved in my church youth group, spent my summers waterskiing, shuttling my little brother and little sister around, but the bulk of my time was devoted to DANCE DANCE and more DANCE!

I was co-captain of the dance team at good ole EDHS and my teammates and I spent about every waking minute together...which is probably why those years were filled with angst. We competed frequently, won many awards, and didn't have to worry about our figures due to all the practice! A wild night out for us was toilet papering someone's house!

In the early 90s, I was a huge fan of Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson, Wilson Phillips, and Sir Mixalot. Yes, I just said Sir Mixalot. I'll have you know that I can still sing every word of Buttermilk Biscuits. Sad, but true.

I was over at my mom and dad's house today to find some pics and my mother (the keeper of ALL things) even had my accounting text book. Ya, I took accounting in HS for one semester. Not sure if I ever really learned how to balance my checkbook.

I turned 16 at the beginning of my sophomore year, which means, I was the driver for all events. And for my brother and sister's random activities. At times, it felt like I was a taxi, but then again, I drove my red truck over a dip on Rose going 50 miles an hour at least six times a day with all my friends...naturally, we wore no seatbelts so we could fly in the air and hit our heads on the ceiling.

And...the real confession...I may or may not have been a contestant in the Miss Orange County Pageant. Don't judge the hair helmet. I danced (shocker), wore my first suit for the dreaded interview, and pranced my little hiney around in my classy one piece swimsuit and four-inch heals.

Bubbles!!!

I'm entering the following photo in the iHeartFaces Challenge this week...because this week is all about bubbles...and because I really just love the pic!

Hope you enjoy the pic and the many others over at the challenge. May the rest of your summer be filled with the excitement this little guy is showing!

PhotoFANatic Friday featuring Betsy King

This week's feature for PhotoFANatic Friday is all about Betsy King from Fort Wayne, Indiana. She's got a ton of talent and also has a great brand combined with beautiful storytelling. I feel like seeing the images on her blog are only part of her skill...the way she opens up and let's the reader in is totally awesome! I can tell that she's going to be very successful in this business because photography is all about selling yourself and therefore your work (this I know from meeting many wonderful photographers and reading Dane Sanders awesome book Fast Track Photographer!).

Betsy's products run the gamut for families. She shoots maternity, babies, children, seniors, and families. Her work is crisp and clean and filled with emotion. She also has the same name as my cousin. ; )

Okay, enough of my thoughts...let's get down to business!

1. How long have you been shooting and what kind of training do you have? I have always loved art and photography and even though I had experience with dark room and playing with pinhole cameras growing up, I didn't have the confidence in myself to pursue it in college. As a matter of fact, I started out in an art program, but chickened out. Yep, I'm a late bloomer. BIG TIME. For years I ignored the artistic part of me and tried doing other avenues until I could no longer ignore it. (You'll read more about that below when I talk about my brand.) I picked up my first dslr camera when I was pregnant with my son in 2006 and once he was born, I photographed him every day and absorbed as much information as I could through practice, books and information on the internet. My husband taught me about ISO, aperture and shutterspeed, which he knew from just being the smarty pants he is. (God bless him for explaining it to me 85 times.) I had a good friend, Bobbi Sheridan of Bobbi + Mike Photography who was very supportive of me as I grew and would help me along the way. I never dreamed of doing it professionally, but people saw my personal blog I kept of my life with my son and the calls for portrait sessions came rolling in. (I was seriously that mom with a dslr that I'm sure totally annoyed "real photographers" like crazy.) However, the photography community (both online and locally in Fort Wayne, Indiana) has been amazingly supportive of me and kind. (For that I am eternally grateful!) I quickly threw together a business the fall of 2007 and worked insanely hard to keep up with everything that first year. I ran the first year of my business with my husband under the name "Betsy & John Photography." My husband is a composer with his own business so as my business grew, he struggled to have time for both. So I changed my business to just me, "Betsy King Photography", this past January, 2009.

I feel like I have had my own personal workshop whenever I need it as some of my closest friends are amazing photographers and I can go to them for help and inspiration. I have been very blessed to be surrounded by very giving talented people. However, I have gone to the David Jay Free to Succeed tour seminar and I did attend the Brianna Graham workshop in Michigan this past spring. My post processing has grown a lot since that workshop. (Though I spend more time on it now.)

2. What equipment do you use? Favorite lens? My camera is a Canon 5D with a battery pack, prime lenses and natural light. My favorite lens is my workhorse 50 1.4. I'm pretty barebones with my equipment, but honestly, I'm ok with that right now. I'm getting the job done. My goal is to obtain the 50 1.2 eventually. I sometimes grab my 28 when I need something wider. My 85 has been collecting dust all year. I need to rediscover that lens. If I'm in a wooded area I'll grab my reflector, and I always have it with me, but these days, I keep things simple, using natural reflectors like buildings or concrete.

3. What has been the biggest factor in taking your images to the next level? This one is really hard, because I feel like I'm still learning and growing so much. Looking back through, I think as my post processing knowledge has grown, so has the look of my work. Also, I think once I focused on the light more (and the setting less) and my connection with the person I'm photographing, my images went to the next level as well.

4. Your brand is very unique. Tell us a little bit more about how you came up with it! As I pondered what I wanted my new new look to be, I ended up needing to go back and look at where I have come from. I was making a logo that will symbolize my photography work, but I was also branding myself as the artist of the images I create. I really wanted it to have deep meaning to me. Through out my life I have allowed myself to feel trapped by what I thought other people wanted me to be. The child in me once said, “I want to be an artist.” However, the voice I listened to was the that of the people who said, “Be a teacher.” When I realized that wasn’t the path I was meant to do, I listened to another voice that said, “Sell this stuff that you’re not passionate about.” Though that path lead me to learn many things and meet so many wonderful people, I still felt very trapped. I was stuck in a cage of what I thought I was supposed to be doing, not what my heart truly wanted to do. Then I experienced the deepest loss I have ever felt. I lost my husband to cancer. He was full of passion and talent, but as hard as he fought to live, he had to leave all of that behind. From that point on, I knew that I needed to fill the days I have left with what my heart is meant to do. The times in my life when I felt trapped is where the cage in my logo came from. It’s not a big ugly cage; because that cage, or those experiences where I felt trapped, taught me many things about the world and myself. So it’s not a bad thing at all, considering how much I learned from those experiences. The bird? Yep, I’m that bird, who is free from the cage and ready to fly.

What else does the cage and the bird mean? Well, I suppose it’s up for anyone’s translation but I also wanted it to portray the idea that my photography is outside of the box. (Too bad “thinking outside of the cage” isn’t a popular phrase…) My clients are that happy little bird and I’m photographing them, not just in front of the confinements of a backdrop, but out in the world, flying free.

I came up with the idea of the bird and the cage, but my amazzzzzing graphic designer, Ryan Hunley of Second Street Creative put it all together for me. I wanted the look to be quirky, imperfect and approachable. Like how I (hopefully) come across. I knew I liked yellow, but he put the color pallete together, my blogsite background and my marketing materials. Handing all of that over to a graphic designer was the BEST decision I have ever made.

5. What was the best piece of advice you were given when you were just starting out? I recall my friend Bobbi telling me to just shoot what I love, and I'll keep attracting that. To this day, I remind myself to focus on what I love and It's so true. For example, I truly love photographing high school seniors. I spend the majority of my energy communicating with them and I feel like my love of photography really shows when I shoot them, so they are starting to be the bulk of my business. (Yippee!!!) What can I say? I'm still 17 deep inside.

Some technical words of advice I recall getting? Don't let your shutter speed slip below 160. Don't shoot women from below. Use Lightroom to expedite the processing process and don't get too caught up in Photoshop. (Those words of advice were promptly negated when I went to the Brianna Graham workshop...)

Ok, now for advice that I learned from mistakes I made early on: A photography business can (and will!) take over your life if aren't careful. Set boundaries early for yourself and for others. Block days off in the week and during the month you won't shoot. Only shoot what you love and let the rest slide. My first year of business I photographed everything and anything that came along and gave up a lot of family time to shoot and edit. I know photographers need to do that to get their feet wet, but I think I could have handled my time better. Here's where the harsh life lesson comes in: The first holiday season I shot like an idiot. I took on EVERYBODY who needed christmas cards that year and had no cut off date. I didn't know I had the right to say no to people. When it came time for me to host my family Christmas gathering amongst all the craziness, I was in the worst mood, totally stressed out and wasn't really present for my family. Oh, and it was also my baby's first Christmas too. January came and I was obsessively shooting as much as I could and on the high of creating my business. At the end of that month, my sister succumbed to depression and took her own life. Everything fell away and I saw myself focused on everything except my own family. The last time I saw my sister was at that Christmas gathering and I wasn't even fully myself. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't change what had happened, but I could change how I lived my own life. I knew then that I would never (ok, I would try very hard) to not let my photography business stress me out or take over my life so much that I can't be present for my family. I only shoot 4-5 sessions a month and I don't shoot in December anymore. So my advice is to put your family first, if that is really important to you. If I don't have a strong family life, I can't do my job as a photographer well.

See what I mean about her opening up and sharing herself? I'm certain her clients love her all the more for it and refer her left and right!!!

Thank you Betsy, SO MUCH, for sharing with us and letting us in!!!

Oh, How I Love Ceiling Medallions!

I'm totally in love with ceiling medallions. I love how classy they can make any light fixture look! I initially like clean medallions with little embellishment, but have since seen the error of my ways!

I mean look at some of these clever ideas:

Using a frame and sheets of music.

Via BHG

Using plaster to design your own.
David Prussen Via Victoria Larsen

Bling! Nuff said. Via I Lite 4 U

A sassy medallian with feathers and beads for a little girl's room!
Via Purple Cactus Studios

And I freaking LOVE this one!!! Using medallions as wall art! What an easy DIY project that I think I'll need to do if I ever get more space (i.e. bigger house!).
Via DIY Magazine

What do you think? Are you with me on this one??? Do you love ceiling medallions, too?

Easy Way to Dry a Bouquet

Over the years, my bridesmaid duties have taught me some funny lessons...such as how not to let your dress go up in flames while you're wearing it (learned that one the hard way - SERIOUSLY), how to give a toast that doesn't embarass the bride, how to decorate the honeymoon suite, how to make mimosas, how to create a sexy CD for the bride and groom...the list goes on.

But perhaps the most personally valuable thing I've learned (aside from the mimosas) is how to preserve and dry out a beautiful bouquet!

I was searching for a way to hang my bouquet upside down while in my closet one day and I saw an old drycleaning hanger for pants and had a thought...and that thought worked out PERFECTLY! Wanna know how I did it???

First, grab a drycleaners hanger for pants.

Carefully, without damaging the ends, pull the bar off the hanger, and bend the arms down.

Then, utilizing the "s" shape, affix it inside the stems of the flowers by hooking it into the florist's wires or the ribbon.

Hang your bouquet for about a week and you'll have a beautifully preserved bouquet to display for friends to see...and to cherish the memory of standing up as a bridesmaid with your closest friends!

So easy, but so effective! I hope this funny little tip works for you, because it sure works for me. Check out some more clever tips, by visiting Works for Me Wednesday!

Vote for Me! Purty Please!

My funny little blog was nominated for an award! Please be a doll and vote for me in the Creative Category. I guess my random recipes, DIY projects, and photography make me creative...or people just like reading Tool Talk Tuesday and PhotoFANatic Friday. Or maybe my sassiness makes me creative. Or maybe someone felt sorry for me and nominated me. ; )

Regardless, it's a huge honor that even one person out in the blogosphere reads the BLAH BLAH BLAHger's Rants and Raves, let alone 91 of you (and all you RSS subscribers)! I promise that I DO visit your blogs and that I'm having so much fun learning new things through your work, too!

Soooooo, please vote for me, when you get a chance. I'd love being among the creative bloggers in OC and hope that I get more than one vote (my own!).

Tool Talk Tuesday: Sock It To Me!

Boys and Girls, today we're going to talk about yup, you guessed it, SOCKETS! They come in SO HANDY when you're trying to mount a flat screen TV on a wall...as I just found out!

Occasionally, you'll be working on a project and you'll need to ratchet in a metric fastener...in laymen's terms, that would be a six-point or even a twelve-point socket. They come in VERY helpful on heavy items and things that you've drilled directly into studs.

Even if you're not sure when you'll need them, I recommend having a starter set in your tool box. They'll be necessary at some point. And the good news is, most beginner tool sets come with them!

Visual learner, are ya? Here are some pics!

The socket attachments can be used with your drill, or a hand wrench. There are ALL sorts of price points!

When you mount heavy items, a regular screw just won't work. But a socket wrench will make your project a snap.

And then you won't have to crane your neck when watching The Millionaire Matchmaker. So glad you're back, Patti!

So, what are you all going to make sure you add to your toolbox this week??? That's right...ratchet down and SOCK IT TO ME!

Genevieve's Wedding

Last night Genevieve and Geoff got married...and it was just beautiful! But more so, two wonderful people began their life together!

If you saw my tweet or FB status updates yesterday, you know that everything went perfectly, until one of the other bridesmaids overdid it and ended up puking...onto me. It was awful, but the bride never found out how bad things were and that's all that mattered!

The gift I gave the bride...she loved it and her hubby loved it even more!

Me doing what I do best...making mimosas! Hair - check, makeup - not so much.

The bride's amazing bouquet.

Sorry for the crappy quality of this shot, but I had to show off the beautiful bride. I can't wait to see the photographers sneak peak!!!

It's me...all gussied up. I loved the dress...I hope the drycleaner can work a miracle!

Our wine club/small group! I love these girls and am so happy we've been able to celebrate two weddings together this summer!

I spent the day with Genevieve and her family at the pool again. It was HEAVEN. It was almost sad to pack up the villa and leave. If that's how the other half lives, then I need to marry Mr. Other Half. Ha!

What a wonderful weekend, though. I hope you all had a terrific weekend, too!

Bridesmaid Reporting for Duty and GIVEAWAY Results!

My darling pal, Genevieve gets married tomorrow to her longtime love Geoff. I always laugh about the fact that two Gs with J sounds happened to find each other and fall in love! But they did and tomorrow the two Gs will become one. (How's THAT for cheesy? Sorry, weddings do it to me every time!!!)

If you follow me on twitter, you'll know that I've been in several weddings. I THINK this makes 14...I say think, because I ran the numbers the other night and feel like I'm missing one or two. Yes, that's a HOOPLA of weddings, but you know what? I don't mind...because every wedding I've been in has been a special part of my life. And, I love love. I love that moment when "I do" seals a person's future to another's. I love the flowers, the dress, the photography. I ESPECIALLY love a good cheesy wedding DJ. Who doesn't like the craziness of YMCA, followed by I Like Big Butts, followed by a little KC and the Sunshine Band? Ha!

Tomorrow will be a beautiful day at Pelican Hill. The wedding is all set to be gorgeous (probably the most expensive wedding I've been in...can't wait to see all the amazing details), the weather forecast is perfect, the location is insane, and the dress is just DIVINE. But even more special is being there with my pal as she gets ready to marry the love of her life!

The bride and I at her bachelorette party last month at the pool at the Standard in West Hollywood. Fun times!

Right when she arrived at the rehearsal last night, she BURST into sobs. Think a wedding is a little overwhelming??? She does!

Look at this face...think she's excited to get married? Or maybe she was just excited about the hors d'oeuvre...the tacquitos at The Cannery in Newport WERE pretty insane!!!

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In other news, I'm happy to announce the winner of the 18x24 poster printing giveaway sponsored by Digital Room!!! As you know, I'm a huge fan of their products and think their customer service is unbeatable.

Using random.org, lucky number seven, or Kristin from the Meringue Bake Shop as she's all known, is the winner of the print...she's excited about her upcoming 5-year anniversary and is considering enlarging a print from her wedding. Isn't that SO FITTING based upon this post???? Congrats Kristin on winning and on the anniversary!

Tool Talk Tuesday: Paint Brushes and Rollers with AnNicole

Tool Talk Tuesday is my way of introducing my home reno-challenged friends to ways of improving their own homes. This week, I have a special guest who never ceases to amaze me...a chick after my own heart who has been renovating her very own home. Please help me welcome her!

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Hi – AnNicole from Our Suburban Cottage here. I’m so glad that the Blah Blah Blahger asked me to do a guest post today.

First, I can’t tell you how much I want a miter saw and nail gun. The idea of cutting and nailing molding to my little hearts content just makes me plain giddy…but since I don’t have those tools, today I’ll be talking about my hands-down favorite tools that I do have.

My favorite house transforming tool by far is paint. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING can transform a room like paint can…and NOTHING can beat paint in terms of decorating bang for your buck….and that’s perfect for me because I’m one frugal chick. I’ve used paint to transform nearly every room in my house, and I’m not just talking about walls. Don’t be afraid to paint furniture to make an old piece look like it belongs in this century, take the plunge and paint that brick fireplace that makes your skin crawl or that faux wood 1970’s paneling that makes you cringe every time you look at it. I’ve even used paint to update outdated laminate countertops, which you can read about here and here. I've also used paint to transform ugly cabinets which you can read about here and here.

Seriously...it only took a little more than paint to transform this bathroom...
...into this.

So here are my favorite painting tools:

1) PAINT:
Um…yeah, that one’s kind of obvious, I know. I’ve heard amazing things about Benjamin Moore’s paint and I would buy it in a heartbeat if I weren’t so darn frugal. If you can afford it, I’d recommend trying it for sure. That being said, my favorite go-to brand of paint is Behr from Home Depot. It has great coverage and is very affordable at around $23 a gallon. I prefer an eggshell finish for walls and a satin finish for furniture and cabinets.

Also, I almost never use Behr colors (sorry Behr). I find my favorite colors from Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore and have them color matched and mixed in Behr paint. I’ve yet to have a Home Depot employee give me a hard time about this.

2) PAINT BRUSHES:
This is where I’ll splurge a little bit. You’ll never regret investing in a good brush. It won’t leave those dreaded brush strokes, and (if you wash thoroughly after each use with a mild soap…or even just water) it should last you a while.

I also like to use a 1½ to 2½ inch brush (depending on the project) with an angled tip. The angled tip makes it so much easier to get into corners…believe me.

3) ROLLERS:
Make sure you choose the right roller for your project (again…I know many of you are saying “duh”, but it is very important). If you have smooth walls, choose a roller made for smooth to semi-smooth walls. If your walls are textured, go with a roller specifically made for textured walls….I promise you’ll thank me.

And for those little projects like painting cabinets and furniture you can’t beat a small foam roller for a flawless, smooth finish.

Finally I have a few painting tips for you:

1) If you’re painting over a dark color or cabinets or furniture I HIGHLY recommend that you prime first. It will keep you from having to paint a bazillion coats of paint, and it will make the finish more durable (especially when it comes to cabinets or furniture). I prefer an oil based primer for furniture (like BIN). I also like Gripper brand primer.

2) If you’re not sure how steady your hand is at “cutting in” (or painting around the edges of walls) then go ahead and apply blue painters tape beforehand. Just make sure you put it up in a straight line and that you press down firmly enough to prevent the paint from “bleeding” underneath the tape. You can also apply a thin coat of clear polyacrylic topcoat along the edge of the tape before painting to avoid paint bleeding through the tape.

3) Dry time is very important in a good paint job. Never try to apply a second coat of paint if it’s been less than 4 hours since the first coat. And if you’re painting cabinets or furniture, use restraint and let is dry a good 12 hours between coats.

4) I like to wrap my brushes and rollers in tin foil between coats. I also cover my paint tray with tin foil so I can reuse it for the next coat.

I hope this helps some of you. Happy painting!

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Thanks SO MUCH to AnNicole!!! She's done some AMAZING things with paint...you MUST click through her links and check out her painted counters and renovations in her Suburban Cottage!

Your Readers Want to See Your Face!

When I'm really in the stalking groove and enjoying a blog, I'll jump around from story to story. I also almost ALWAYS read your profile and see if we have anything in common (like a diet coke addiction), if you've got self-depricating humor (my favorite), and where you live. Sometimes I read so much of a blog that I think we're friends and that I actually know you in real life (Melissa, Emily, Julia, Jasmine).

But the one thing that I CANNOT stand is when I don't know what you look like! It baffles me when writers put so much of their soul into their blog and yet don't let us see their faces. A blog (even if it's just your thoughts and words) is your way of selling yourself...isn't it better to do that in person rather than through a logo???

Which brings me to the NUMBER ONE offender...Deanna. Deanna is the DomesticChicky and the Apronista. She designs blogs, hosts two of her own, and is a photofiend (like me). We've had an online friendship and have even chatted while watching The Bachelorette (her fav, not mine) and yet I never knew what she looked like, until Saturday.

Deanna and I both decided to attend the OC Blogger's Ball and I suggested that before we go, we meet up...and then I persuaded her to let me take some profile pics. And she relented!!! I'm so glad she did, because the pics turned out so nicely and I'm hoping that homegirl decides to use them on her blogs!!!

So, now that we've taken care of Deanna...who else do we need to yell at??? Please bloggers, don't be afraid to show us your smiling face! I promise it will make people want to read you even more!!!