T is for Torture

I was determined yesterday to take a "milk and cookies" shot for my SFS picture. I even baked cookies from scratch and had my milk bottle styled just so. But it was cloudy all day and I had basically no indoor light. I had to move my setup right next to the back door and poor Sugar was tormented. This actually turned out to be my favorite shot of the day. And judging from the reactions from my classmates (and teacher) it's the happy accidents that often turn out the best, right?

Hopefully I'll get to try the milk and cookies shot again when the sun cooperates (and sans puppy).

D is for Droplets

It was such a dreary day yesterday, but I was determined to get outside for my SFS shot, even in the rain. Green pine needles and water droplets made for a nice subject.

N is for Newel Posts, New and Old

On Friday I toured the historic home of a coworker that he's renovating in downtown Durham. It was very impressive and inspiring and I'm hoping to share more pictures with you this week. I fell in love with these newel posts (the original and two replicas) and decided to use this shot for my Souvenir Foto School Day 3 picture.

L is for Lucky Strike

I walk by this tower every single day on the way to and from work and have never once stopped to take a picture. This was taken from the top of the parking deck at sunset.

While it doesn't exactly fit my self-imposed "love" theme (I definitely do not love Lucky Strikes), I do love where I work and am lucky to have this view every day.

S is for Sugar

There are few things in this world I love more than this dog, and few things she loves more than attention from her Daddy and playing fetch with her ball (both of which she's eyeing longingly in this photo).

P.S. - I was so nervous to share this with the class, but I got tons of positive feedback which was so encouraging. Or maybe it's just my dog is so darn cute?

Souvenir Foto School

So I've done terrible on my resolution to blog more. But today is February 1st and that changes today! Why? Because I HAVE been doing well on my resolution to try and improve my photography.

First, I took an intermediate photography workshop in downtown Raleigh this weekend. It was short and sweet (just 2 hours) and honestly wasn't life-changing. But I did learn a thing or two I didn't know before (or had forgotten) and I did take this pretty cool picture of the instructor.



Second, I bit the bullet and signed up for Miss B's Souvenir Foto School. This session of Foto School is centered around the theme A-Z, and you commit to taking one photo a day for 30 days, each relating to a letter of the alphabet. You upload you photo each day to a private Flickr group and get feedback from the instructors and the class.

I've been thinking about signing up for the past year or so, but could never get the nerve. I just now submitted my first picture and even though some participants are solely shooting with iPhones or point-and-shoot cameras, I'm already feeling out of my league! There are some seriously creative people in the group! (And one of my blog idols, Jules from Pancakes and French Fries, is even in the class. Yikes!)

But I signed up because I want to practice and improve, and that's what I intend to do. And if we're being honest, I also signed up because I knew this would provide blog content for the entire month!

We were encouraged to pick a theme for our alphabet series, to narrow down our subjects and give us some guidance. Since it's February, I decided to choose Love. It could be things I love, photography techniques I love (wide aperture!) or straight up Valentine's candy.

So tomorrow I'll show you day 1. We have until midnight each day to post our pictures, so I'll post my photo here the following day. And I'll still be popping in with regular blog content here and there.

Here goes nothing!

Impulse Buy

If you follow me on Facebook, you know that last weekend we stumbled upon our local Restoration Hardware going out of business. While I'm not a fan of the dark, depressing look they've got going on in their stores these days, I still really like their bedding and furnishings.

Everything was 60% off original prices and we ended up walking out with a new king bedding set.



Now, you might be thinking "but you don't have a king bed!" And you would be right. But allow me to explain.

When we did our bedroom makeover two years ago, we decided to stick with the furniture we already had. Namely, the queen bed and mattress I had bought for my first "grown up" apartment. "We don't need a king bed!" we said. "We sleep fine in a queen bed, and it's more cozy!" we said. Plus, we didn't want to spend the money.

Fast forward two years. I'm not sure what has changed, but we just don't sleep as good in our bed any more. Elbows are knocking and every toss and turn wakes the other person up. And then there was that one time that Lee smacked me in the face in the middle of the night -- so hard that I cried -- because he said he was dreaming he was catching a baseball.

So we've been scheming on a king bed for a while now. But the main thing holding me back? I invested a lot of money in our queen bedding (also from Restoration Hardware) and couldn't stomach the thought of doing that again.

Cue the going out of business sale! Sucks for them, good for us.

We just couldn't pass up the opportunity to score a king duvet and shams at 60% off. WAY less than we'd paid for our queen bedding, and probably even less than what we'd pay for a lesser-quality, don't-love-it-as-much set from Bed Bath & Beyond or a department store. Plus, we got the coverlet as well, which I'd always wanted for our current bed but couldn't justify the price. At 60% off, I could!

The bedding is not the exact same as what we have now, but it's similar. I'm good with that because a.) I love our current bedding (it's good quality and I love how it looks in our room) and b.) I'm just looking to upgrade the bed, not have to redecorate the room (the current paint and curtains will work nicely, as well as the bathroom).

Our plan is to tuck our finds away for now and slowly build up all the other items we still need (king sheets, comforter to go in the duvet, king pillows, etc.). And eventually pull the trigger on a mattress set and bed.

The one thing that's always bothered me about our bedroom is that the furniture is so matchy-matchy. So I definitely want to take this opportunity to go a different route with the bed. I've fallen in love with this headboard from Pottery Barn:





It's even named the Raleigh and is made in NC! But with a mattress purchase coming up, I doubt I can justify the price. There are lots of upholstered headboard DIYs floating around out there, so we might try our hand at that.

I'll be sure to keep you updated as things progress!