Photo Ready

The month of June has flown by and the blogging class I have been taking is coming to a close. 

I have once again found Holly Becker of Decor8 blog's class so enlightening.  I have been instructed by Holly and other fabulous guest teachers such as Jeanette Lunde of Fryd and Design.  Without her inspiration, I probably would never have considered and e-magazine (which I now am!).  Also, I was already a huge fan of Nicole Bach of Making It Lovely, who showed me how to find balance in work and life and how to grow your blog and possibly make income from it (I hope to one day, thank to my supportive readers!).  Katrina Tan of the Pugly Pixel showed so many creative ways to feature photos in more interesting formats.  I will definitely start to practice these tips and integrate them into my blog.

Since my blog is largely visually based, I found a great benefit from these photo teachings.  I especially enjoyed Holly sharing some of her favorite photo apps for my iPhone that I have already started to use.  One of these apps is instagram, which I have been using for a while but not really for my blog.  I love the effects that you can do to the photos right off your phone to enhance them.

Photo I took at a Sacramento River Cats Baseball game

I added a few apps to my repertoire on Holly's recommendation such as Pic Stich. This app will combine two or three photos in various configurations:

Progress photos of a recent installation

I also like Labelbox, which will allow you to add fun labels to any photo:

My cat having a crazy moment

I also picked up a photo booth app.  I chose a free one called photoautomat, which is a lot of fun!

My sister and I being goofy

Bottom line, I loved this class and would recommend it to anyone wanting to blog.  It has a great support community as well and I look forword t contiuing to get to know the other bloggers in the class.  I will soon be sharing a few new favorite blogs of mine that have come out of the class.


Photos by Rebecca Ward

miFrame: A Marriage of Tech and Decor

The average house of today contains many gadgets and gizmos.  We, and especially our kids, are becoming more tech savvy and reliant.  These fabulous tech items usually start piling up on coffee tables, vunerable to kids, dogs, coffee spills.  There is never a plug available for your charger. As designers, we have to start becoming creative on ways to incorporate tech into our designs, rather than leave it to an after thought.

I had the privilege recently of getting to see first hand a wonderful peice of tech that will fit perfectly into any interior space.  If you own an ipad, you need this item and your room will thank you.  The miFrame is a charging station that doubles as a digital display and photoframe. While charging, your ipad can play a slideshow of your photos. When you are using your ipad, the frame will shadowbox whatever fabulous 8x10 picture you've slipped into the back.  It fits seemlessly as a decor item in your house or office whether you are charging your ipad or viewing a great photo.  It's well disguised tech for modern living.

The frame comes in a brushed aluminum or black finish and you can display your ipad horizontally or vertically.  So versatile!

You can find out more information about the miFrame here on Striped Sail's website.  I'm looking forward to incorporating this item into my client's designs.  What a great idea for a Christmas present too!

Photos courtesy of Striped Sail

Photos Galore

I'm so excited to finally get some of my recent projects photographed!  It is the week of photos for me.  In addition to having the bathroom professionally photographed the other day, I photographed another project this evening and will photograph yet another project tomorrow.  This means I have to spend some time editing photos to get them portfolio ready and also match up my Before and After comparisons, which is really what everyone loves and wants to see!  For now I will just leave you with this teaser shot from my Anatolia Remodel:

I love these branches!

Look forward to some great project "reveals" over the next few weeks!

Photos in the Works

I am finishing up several projects right now, getting a few more accessories and then come the fabulous photos!  Soon enough we will have some before and after spectacular photos to share with you.  Here is a quick shot I took earlier this week of one project.  Sometimes I take photos so I can see what I still need to get and remember what ideas I had for accessorizing.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Photo by Rebecca Ward

Weekend Color

My favorite time to look at the color of nature is in right after a storm.  Everything has been freshly washed and the light is filtered through gray clouds, the darkened sky lending a nice canvas to the colors on the ground.  I grabbed my camera this weekend to capture a few colors that stood out to me:

 

The palest pink of a flowering plum tree

 

The bright purple and yellow of potted pansies

The zesty orange of fresh picked oranges

The contrast of green ivy on red brick

The white begonias in their green bed of leaves

A freshly washed terracotta pot

I hope you are having a great Monday!  I'm looking forward to meeting with new clients this week.

Photos by Rebecca Ward

I Could Get Used To This

I had a great time this weekend discovering my new camera!  We celebrated my dad's 65th birthday so it gave me a great opportunity to try it out. It takes great pictures without me even trying.  Take a look:

I'm just barely scratching the surface.  Can't wait to use it on my next job!

Photos by Rebecca Ward

Stepping It Up

 I made a great purchase today for my business.  I took advantage of some rebates going on and got the Canon T2i SLR to take photos with instead of my little Nikon coolpix.  The kit came with a 18-135 lens.  It will be great to have a decent camera for at least the before pictures of my clients' projects.  I plan to get professional pictures done for the "after" photos but this camera will at least keep me satisfied in the meantime.  It will also be a big benefit to you readers since I will also be using it for my blog photos.

I'm not saying that I'll never use my Nikon, (I used it to take the above photo and it is tiny and fits in my purse easily) but I desperately needed to improve the quality of my photos.  Looking forward to getting to know my new camera this weekend!  Happy Friday!

Photo by Rebecca Ward

Before and After: Exterior of the Scott Residence

I know you all love a good before and after post!  While we are waiting for the interior shots of the Scott Residence to arrive, I will show you the exterior before and after.  This house is cute and cottage style but upon purchasing it, my client agreed that there were a few things that the exterior needed to improve on.  The ladscaping was overgrown and we later discovered a rotting tree!  The house got a nice paint job, I added the black shutters to complete the cottage look and gutters were added where missing or replaced.  We also added House numbers, a new porch light and mailbox.  The bench and railings also got a fresh coat of paint.

 Before

After

The paint colors used on the exterior are from Dunn Edwards.  The body color of the house it Inside Passage with trim in Swiss Coffee.  The front door is Black Bean, although it is usually covered by the screen door.  Black Bean has hints of plum which are carried into the interior, as you will see later on.

It's best when colors on the outside of a house are an introduction to what you will see inside.  Do you agree?

Peek-a-boo!

This weekend I had a photo shoot at one of my projects.  I won't get the photos back for a few weeks but I thought I would give you a little sneak peek with a few shots that I took while I was there.

As you can see, I'm still tweaking my blog template and header and I have added one of these photos to my latest version of my header. Stay tuned for more to come!

Photos by Rebecca Ward

Before and After

Who doesn't love a good before and after? Here is the Neely Residence Family Room.

Before

After

Before
After

Neely Residence

I took some portfolio pictures of one of my projects, the Neely Residence today to add to my website. It's something I've put off for a while but quite necessary!For this project, we worked with the client's budget, incorporating existing finished with new furniture and existing furniture. Accessories always add that final touch!
More photos coming soon to my website!