Home on the Farm in Pictures

I love photography. You will rarely ever catch me without a camera. Outdoor photography is my passion - my indoor photography, well, it still needs some polished skills applied. I never even realized how tricky indoor photography was until I started blogging. I never really had a reason to take pictures indoors.

One day I was at my mom's and my nephew announced that he wanted to submit a photo for something at school. Could I show him how to take a picture? So after much discussion we agreed that I would show him a few things, but he had listen and be patient. Kinda hard for a 10 year old boy addicted to video games, but he pulled it off nicely. In fact, he became very interested and took to it like a pro.

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My mom still lives in the home I was raised in. I grew up on a working farm in a small town in Tennessee. It's no longer a farm, and there's barely a hint of animals ever having taken up residence there. But the property still holds the beauty it always did. On that particualr day, it was such a treat to show my young nephew how to look at his surroundings in a different way. How to look at big things and break them down into smaller vignettes.

So without further ado, here is what came out of that 10 year old boy (now almost 12) down home on the farm that day.

I AM SO PROUD OF HIM!!!!

(That is my mother's barn in the background.)

(This photo is special to me. It is the trunk of the first Christmas tree we ever had in this house. Planted in 1975 it now stands higher than the electric poles. The last time I was home my nephew showed me where the electric company marked it to be cut off. [pouting with bottom lip turned under]}

This is at the corner of the barm. I challenged him to find a spot where he could get at least 3 blocks of color

in one picture. He did pretty good with this one.

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And this is my favorite. Each time I look at it it reminds of my dad. I have an affinity for bird houses which I'm sure came from him, and there are many to be found around my mom's house. The little triangular block on the side of the pole used to hold an ear of corn for the squirrels back when the farm was still active.

(Next time I'm home Ill snap a picture of a bird house I made for him on Father's Day when I was still a teenager. It still hangs on my mom's patio.)

So what do you think? Didn't Brandon do a great job? You'd never know it was his first time out.

He has no idea I'm posting this but as soon as I get a few comments, I'm going to call him and tell him to read my blog today. He'll be so surprised!

File Sorter gets a Makeover

I'm linking up with Funky Junk's Saturday Night Special with this easy little project.
If you haven't been over there yet this weekend, you'll wanna go see all of the creative endeavors everyone has undertaken to provide you with some incredible inspiration.
The raw talent in blogland blows me away every week!
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You know the kind. Those thick smoky black plastic file sorters. Ugh.

I literally started to toss this in the trash, but then I remembered two things that a crafter should never forget:

1. I have Mod Podge

2. I have scrapbook paper

I thought I'd whip out the supplies and see if I could give this drab file sorter a new outfit. I'm sure glad I did.

I didn't take pictures of the process, but it's easy peasy.

I put mod podge on the short part in the front, and the front of the first large sorter. You won't see the rest, so they don't matter.

I then put the scrapbook paper on it and smoothed it out. Then I trimmed around the edges with a sharp blade.

I let it dry, and then stamped the words and hot glued the buttons on. (Remove the shanks before you do that so they'll lay flat.)

Here's how it looks now.

And I really do use it.

Here it is on my desk.

Another Easy Peasy project!

I think I'll try the same thing on my thick smoky black plastic wall pockets next.

Guest Posting at Funky Junk Today - Let's Make a Pillow!

H there everybody. I'm venturing away from my blog today to do a guest post over at Funky Junk Interiors.

I've only been around the blogging world for about 6 months now, so I'm still learning. Upon discovering blogs, Donna was one of the first I came across. I googled something about junk, and her blog popped up.

I made the connection with her after stalking her silently for a while, and she's been a tremendous help to me ever since. There doesn't seem to be anything she can't answer.

I love her style! She's eclectic for sure, but she has a serious rustic industrial thing going on over there that I find myself in awe of. Reading her blog, you'll see her obsession with 'all that's metal', and you'll learn how to look at a pile of rust scraps like it's a pot of gold.

She's a true DIY gal by anyone's definition.

(Can't you tell she's a fun gal?)

You'll find a wealth of helpful information on her blog. She teaches you how to turn serious trash into creative treasures. She's the host of the incredibly popular link party Saturday Night Special. I think people challenge themselves to come up with the best thing they can each week just so they can join. I've never seen such great projects in all of blogland as I have in that party. You really must check it out.

She has started her own WorkShop Series where she'll teach you anything you want to know -except for plumbing! But she'll give it her best try.

Head on over there and check out my post on how to make this:

Be sure and leave a little note and let her know I sent you.

She's announcing a great special I'm running on my aprons from Wednesday thru Saturday.

Don't miss out!