Sparkly trees = Engagement Picture Time

A few weeks ago we had some pretty frosty trees that sparkled, it was a Friday.  I was at work and got a text from Monica.  I think we should do engagement pictures today.  Of course I was up for that but our daylight or lack of daylight changed those plans.  I told her there would be another pretty day.  

It was this Saturday morning.  My eyes opened, I looked out the window like I do every morning and I jumped up and couldn't get to my phone fast enough.  

Picture day?

Yep!!

Adam has always loved one spot, Jason's trees.  These trees were planted when Adam was 5, and he helped.

They weren't as frosty as some of the other spots but Adam wanted some photos taken here.  

This is where Adam and Monica will walk when they say I do.

The morning light was pretty amazing.

This is the tree that Adam stood by for his graduation pictures.  They have both grown a bit since then.  

Of course taking pictures of Adam is always challenging, he's a goofball... ask him to snuggle and he smashes Monica's nose.

After a bit of clowning around he relaxes and since I was using my long lens I was pretty far away and they seemed to be able to have a moment enjoying this little bit of quiet time.

Since the trees weren't sparkly by the hunting cabin we went to the neighbors.

The frosty trees, the blue skies and the sunshine.... perfect

This is so them, they are in their element when they are outside, stocking hats on and enjoying the snow.  

The sky was bluer to the north and the trees looked whiter but them looking to the south wasn't good for the bright sun in their eyes so I placed them in the shadow of the trees....... but they were lost 

So I brought them out into the sunshine and told them not to look at me.  Perfect!!

Then the tall trees were pretty fun

and perfect for dancing.

Which creates natural smiles and natural poses.

A little pop of red within the white forest.

Exciting times for them and us......... 

Painted Bathroom

How many times can you paint your bathroom?  

Painting rooms never gets old but the styles do..... and my bathroom's style was old, overused, overdue and ugly.  When John and I bought this house there was a bathroom in the kitchen.  Yep in the kitchen, it was a little room they made with a plastic folding door that was big enough for a shower stall, very small sink and a toilet that you had to sit sideways on.  

After a looooooong 5 years we finally remolded the downstairs bedroom into a bathroom and laundry room.  Way back then John did the work and the last couple years I've been complaining how I would like to re-do the entire room..... John agrees but he wants to hire it all out, I want us to do it... and with only 1 bathroom that could get pretty painful.     So it's been a standstill and I've refused to update it, who sees your bathroom anyway.  Duh, just about everyone who comes over...

 I can't take it anymore I had to paint and make it look pretty again.   

Left - UGLY and I didn't even realize it was that bad until I took this picture)

Middle - Old ceiling light fixture

Right - Walls are painted but deciding on vanity color

There was a window that looked to the west and when we added on our garage we didn't take the window out.  John put a mirror in the opening and then framed it out with shelves.  Which was perfect for lots of years.  Then one day John was hanging a coat rack in the garage and "POP" 

Oh yeah there is a mirror there behind this very thin board.  Screw came right through it.

Remember the mirror was put in first and then the shelves so replacing it meant tearing it all apart.  So being the creative type I found a piece of mirror and leaned it in front of the bad section and you could hardly notice.  

Left - Broken mirror (mirror is getting very dirty since cleaning this is very dangerous)

Right - Fixed with 3 boards painted white and cut to cover each opening

Walls are gray and the old outdated trim got a coat of white.  Haven't found a shower curtain yet so it's just the white liner for now which kinda works anyway.  

The color I decided to go with was an aqua blue (surprise).  I painted the vanity and mirror and then wanted to start pulling in the color a bit more.  All my hair products have been moved to a basket inside the vanity that I can pull out every morning and stash it away when I'm done.  Now my bins are pretty empty but I'm hoping to fill the little bottles in them with fresh flowers this summer.  There is something about fresh flowers in the bathroom.

Here are the before shots of the misc. items.  

And their after look. 

I had picked up this painting at a second hand store just because of the chunky frame.  People pay lots of money to have these framed in their day and then you can pick them up for under $10, it's crazy so I snatch them up no matter what happens to be inside the frame.  

John loved this painting and I kinda liked it to for some reason so I just painted the frame and kept the painting as is.  

I had a chippy painted box in the bathroom that I loved the colors that were popping through.  It was white with blue and yellow so that was my inspiration color.  I don't want much yellow in the room but just a bit here and there

A little closer view of that inspiration chippy paint.

This garbage can is amazing, I bought it for our family reunion this summer.  It was going to be one of the raffle items with fun stuff in it but I couldn't find the perfect things to put in it so it's been sitting in the garage.  

The color is Amy Howard Vintage Affliction with clear and dark wax.  I love it.  Some of these pictures make it look more blue and some more green.  Some were taken with the daylight and some were taken without..... in real life it's more blue.  

A few vintage canning jars in clear and white, if you don't have any white painted canning jars you're missing out.  

A white painted mirror

That's my bathroom update..... now onto the next room.

2016 Up North

For New Years we went up north for a long weekend.  It was a beautiful weekend so we spent a lot of time outside by the campfire and watching the river close up.  If you look close you'll see my bloody mary keeping cool in the snow.  

The river is still open but not for long.  Gayle and I wanted to go kayaking in the worst way and we probably would have if our husbands weren't so level headed and refused to let us.  Oh we pouted really bad and tried to talk them into living on the edge....... (Then when we get home John tells me a story of how a couple people went canoeing, they flipped and drowned over the weekend)...... okay thank you level headed husbands, good thing us daredevil sisters have you to keep us safe.

My favorite little nest.

The river was higher when it first started to freeze so when you walk down the path it breaks under your feet and drops you about a foot.  Kinda fun since I knew the water was all gone under it and I wasn't going to get wet feet.  

Sunday morning we are having hot chocolate and coffee as I spy something out the patio door.... It's an eagle over there.  John thinks I'm seeing snow on a branch and I know it's an eagle so I get out the long lens and take his picture so I could zoom him in so John would believe me.  I can't see as far as I used to but even with blurry far vision I was right.  Can you see him?  This is with my long lens all the way zoomed out so he was really far away.

Then he flew so I tried to track him but shooting that far away and through a child smeared glass door it wasn't very clear.

He landed again long enough for us to watch him.  At one point there were 4 eagles out there flying up and down the river.  

Of course then we got this visitor who was a bit hungry.

Then I seen the eagle land in a tree closer to us.  I went out side to see if I could sneak up and get his picture.  I told John there were two out there and once again he didn't believe me.  Here is the one closest to the cottage.

Then the other one took off and I got a glimpse of him through the trees.

And then the other one took off and I tried to get him but thought I failed until I uploaded the pictures on my computer.  Getting them in flight is nearly impossible with all the trees that your camera focus point hits when you don't want it to.  So let's just call this one LUCK.

I showed this picture to John on the computer and he couldn't even see this eagle.  I have to admit I almost missed him myself on my first look through.

Great weekend and hated to come home, winter is so peaceful up there.  It snowed a few times and as the big snowflakes fall outside all the windows it's like you're sitting in the middle of a snow globe as you're all cozy warm sipping on a drink relaxing on the couch.  Okay so John relaxes on the couch I take boxes of stuff and quarts of paint to keep me busy.