We have to paint what? Part III - Bats and other fun things...

After various interruptions in painting the house, we got another afternoon under our belt.  One thing that was holding us up is the availability of a safe tall ladder.  We got one and proceeded...

 

Here is Brian painting a window.

 

Get that corner Brian!

 

I thought this was a neat perspective.

 

Ahhh here is the ladder... At first I didn't like being up on it, but I got used to it... I love the orange against the white...

 

Here is my scraping and painting perspective...

 

Here are the electrical wires that lead into our house... Hmm, I want to stay away from those!

 

Nothing is complete until you have painted yourself.

 

Gotta watch out for that hand...

 

One and a half side slowly primed and much more to go!

Little Blessings: Bedtime Stories and Prayers

Little Blessings: Bedtime Stories and Prayers
 Dandi Daley Mackall
Kathleen Long Bostrom
Elena Kucharik
Tyndale Kids

Open up this medium sized hardbound book to discover cute little rhymes /prayers.  It is geared towards bedtime as the title suggests and emphasizes how "God made nighttime too" in the first section,  "Thank you, God!" in the second section, and "Blessings Everywhere" in the third section.
The book is geared towards preschool age children, but I think even kindergarten aged would love this book too.

The illustrations are wonderful watercolor images that are engaging.  I loved the diversity of children presented, and the cute little animals catch my kids' attention.  The basic concepts of God creating, and God blessing are covered in this book.  As I flipped to the end of the book and saw the list of other titles in this series, I was glad to see the various titles such as :  Who is Jesus?, What About Heaven? Why Is There A Cross? and more.  I'm glad to see them teaching these basic concepts.

The little poem on page 74 caught my eye - "Knowing God    forgives my sin - blessings everywhere!"  I like that this subject is mention, even little kids can understand it.  Oh and the illustration next to it... well you'll just have to see.

Overall I recommend this book to moms of preschoolers or anyone who enjoys children's books and illustration.

I received this book from Tyndale for review, and all opinions are my own.

Cute Little Parker :)

This weekend I had the privilege to take Parker's 6 mo.'s portraits.  I was able to use my two new backgrounds, and  I think they turned out great.  Parker was such a happy little guy, he made the session almost too easy!

 

Here is a cute one of Parker and his brother.  I put my flokati rug outside (that thing is sooo heavy) under a cedar tree and shot this...  and I love it.  These ages together can be difficult at time, and this worked very well.

 

Here is a fun  shot that I took as the family was walking back to the studio at the end of our session.  :)  Sometimes fun  shots .... just happen!

 

 

We have to apint what? and Why? Part 2 Getting started.

The weather here in Nebraska is unpredictable to some extent, but it wouldn't be Nebraska if that weren't true.    We bought the paint a week and a half ago, and lo and behold, snow came.  Lot's of wet snow piled down on us.  The wind blew, as it seems to always do, and we were delayed in getting started, but this week we have started.  It will take a while to get it done, between work, cattle tanks and well in need of repair, we are getting a but done here and there.  We plan on two coats of primer and then light green and cream.  So here we go.  Here are a few shots to show our meager start!

I think that light needs a cover.  I think it would look great with a mason jar over it.

 

We started at the bottom, due to it being windy and our ladder... well.. our ladder isn't the safest one.  I think we need to get a new one - a safer one.  But I have to say that it is a start to a good thing.  It's looking brighter already!  Now to get it finished... I can't wait.

Cute as a Button

I had the opportunity to take a second newborn boy's first portraits this week.  This little cutie fell asleep in decent time, and then he was as flexible as any photographer could dream.  I took these portraits at the client's house.  I prefer to take newborn portraits in the family's home, because my studio(being an old uninsulated house) is hard to keep warm enough for such a little one.

I love this plane background from Portrait Pizzaz.  It is so cute.  I ordered an aviator hat from an Etsy site, but it hadn't come in time.  Oh well.... that'll have to wait for  the little boy at the end of the month.

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Here is one of my favorite poses.  I love the baby in dad's arms... just love it.

 

Little Cutie!

I had the privelege  to photograph this cute little guy's  first portraits! He was wide awake at first, and we were able to get some great shots with the flag, but it took a long while to get him to sleep, but it was worth it. 

We have to paint what? and Why? Part 1

If anyone has been to my house, they know it needs work.  It needs new flooring, a bathroom renovation, the attic upgraded, and if possible a little updating of the kitchen.... and it really needs to be painted.  I know these things.  Overall the house is structurally sound.  We have an awesome new metal roof, and a beautiful setting.  But.... the other day the insurance man that we buy insurance through, found out that our insurance co. was going to cancel our policy.  He wondered why and contacted them.  I guess the are going over their things, and they are canceling our whole farm policy because our house isn't what?  Painted!  Now they could just take off the house, but they are cancelling the whole policy.  Now, we have our opinions on why, but I'll keep those to ourselves as they are just supposition.  But  the deal is, if we can show that the house is painted, they will not cancel it according to our insurance man, so we are painting.

I thought all day about how I was going to break the news to my husband.  He's stingy with his money, and with possible droughts this summer, he's even more so.   I finally did, things went as assumed, and the plan is that we are going to paint it.  Now we are looking at every one's house to see if we like that color.  What color should we paint it?  Some suggested pink or gray.  The house has always been white, which is pretty typical of the area, but I want to change that.  So we are  going to go with some form of light green, and an eggshell or ivory trim, maybe a little darker than that but close.

Our first order of business is to scrape all of the old white peeling paint off of the house. By hand. Top to bottom or bottom to top.   I have no desire to have lumps of paint under a nice new coat of paint that will have to last forever, or at least my lifetime.  That looks really tacky.  So at Bomgaars yesterday, we bought a scraper, and now to work....

Here is the side of the house that leads into the kitchen.  This part was added in 1968.  They added a bathroom and washroom and kitchen.  Previously, the house did not have an indoor bathroom.  It was the outhouse for everybody!  (PS this is after we started stripping the paint.)

Here is the front side of the house... below is the oldest part built by Edward for his wife Margretha, when they were first married in 1939 I believe.  The roof is about 2 years old.

 

The front door was pretty drafty, so Brian sealed the storm door shut.  If we want to paint that door, we'll have to go through the living room.  But I think it should be done....

The windows were new about 6-8 years ago... through a Gov. program... it was tough even getting that done, but those old storm windows were a bear to put on and off.

 

 

Here is Kaleb trying his hand at stripping paint.  It didn't last long, but at least he tried.  It's a big job.

 

 

 

 

Here is a really poor rendition of painting our house...  The colors are inaacurate, but my idea is to take the trim color and paint two of the siding boards  as seen below to create the illusion of something.  I don't know if it will work, but we'll see.