Christmas comes early...

Over the weekend I was asked about a Christmas list, and I have to say It's usually pretty easy for me to come up with ideas of what someone can buy me on a moments notice. One of the things I've been looking for secondhand and coming up empty handed is a photo light.

I've been kind of working in the basement to have a small space to photograph items for craigslist or ebay, and of coarse the lighting in the basement is awful. So the first thing on my wish list was a tripod, but the second thing was a light. I've tried clamp lights galore and a three bulb overhead, but still I was lacking in the lighting department.

So, when discussing my wish list, my father-in-law jumps up goes outside and comes back in moments later with a cute little metal carrying case with a vintage photo light. I think my mother-in-law was maybe trying to signal him to wait and possibly wrap it and gift it for Christmas, Thankfully he was oblivious to her signals, and he plugged in a burn your retains, metal bar with 4 of the brights lights I've ever seen.

I just started messing around with the light today, and here are a few shots I took in a totally dark room with just the light bar and no flash or tripod.

I am so happy that Christmas came early, I have such a hard time waiting for things.

Camera exercise #2....

These were all taken today, in low light with no flash or tripod. I asked Santa for a tripod, so we'll see if I've been good or not. I think a tripod will bring a little more clarity to my interior shots,but so far I've been very happy with the results.

Camera exercise....

Someone got to do a little Black Friday camera shopping and for security reasons I'm not telling who.

But here are a few snaps of what our house would look like if someone was trying to get use to a new camera.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and we all found plenty of things to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a wonder Thanksgiving!
This image was borrowed from The Westchester magazine.

It might be quite around here for a while...

I will not be able to post and haven't been able to post on the blog due to my home being burglarized recently. This being more of a home and decorating type of blog, I assume that just about everyone that reads this loves their home as much I do.
We came home from a little thrifting afternoon out, to find our world upside down. It was about 3:30 in the afternoon, and my husband was unable to push our front door open, when he finally did, he noticed one of our chairs had been lodged up against it. The fridge door was wide open and the house was destroyed. From examination at the front door, we thought that there were two dogs about to be in big trouble.
My husband took one more step into the house, and found our TVs and his guitars laying in the kitchen floor. And then he turned to me and said we'd be robbed. We ran to the neighbors and then dialed 911 from my cell. The arrived in what seemed like 30 seconds, 6 cop cars, not even taking the time to park, police jumped out and pulled guns and began to walk around the house. We didn't even think about the fact that we may have just walked in on them.
To shorten up the story some, after a couple of hours, when me and my son were aloud back into the house, I felt so sad and then so mad. This has been going on since the burglary.
I wanted to start cleaning right away, and remove every reminder of the awful incident, from my home, but I just couldn't believe the mess. It was mostly food that they cleared from the fridge and pantry, to throw out for our dogs. And If you weren't aware we have a 95lb. Pit Bull and a chihuahua with a pretty big bark. We believe they pulled a drape from the basement to throw over the dogs until they could empty the fridge out on my cowhide rug for them.(orange juice? really? you took the time to empty a gallon of orange juice out on the floor so that after the dogs ate the 5lbs of leftover pasta con broccoli and three bags of cereal and the cheese and salsa you also through out for them, if they got thirsty they could just lick up the puddle of juice?) Anyway, back to the point, I went for my camera, to capture the mess that was my house, and of course my camera was stolen. Our computers, gone. At this point I really don't have much to update the blog with, besides this story. All of my photos are gone, personal and blog inspiration.
So, it might be awhile, before blog post resume. I will try to stay caught up on others'blogs, and maybe a little c-list here and there. But for now I will be a little disconnected, until we can pick up the pieces.

If anyone ever asks I always say,"Go neutral."

I am a firm believer in keeping your large pieces neutral. Your couches, chairs, window treatments, and rugs, will be staples and everything else can be switched out easily and inexpensively.

Then I brought home a very long purple couch. I thought well, I can make it work, purple can be a neutral(?) Its a solid, I've got that going for me.

I've carved out a space in my home and have embraced the purple couch, and we will see if it withstands the test of time.

So, I thought I was done with the stand-out furniture pieces.Every other large piece in my house is either black, gray, brown, white or cream(a little army green). I try to stick to my own rules. Whenever I get or see a new/old piece of furniture I always immediately try to picture it in a beautiful gray, of any shade, but gray is always the way I picture things, trying to decide if the shape is still something I'm in love with.

They say rules are made to be broken.

The first photo is taken from Style by Emily Henderson, and the neutral backdrop with the floral is still simply beautiful. I'm not sure of where the next photo was pulled from, but the graphic wallpaper in such an acid color is really a statement,(not sure how long I would be able to live with such a statement,but that's why I always say neutral.) The third photo is from Sfgirlbybay,Victoria Smith's new home. Her new dining room is all neutral with a floral pop from the cushions on her pedestal chairs. The forth photo is from Simplygrove, a new floral chair amongst her neutral. Last but not least is the new vintage set that I brought home from a appointment only estate sale.

Sweet little set made by Selig, a mister and misses chair and ottoman. I couldn't resist. I fell in love with the shape and the color and pattern.

I've crowded them into my family room at this point, I may have to separate the pair into different parts of the house, but for now they are living side by side in a sea of neutral.

(*by the way the new purple couch was just used in a photoshoot with my vintage Arco style lamp, hopefully I will have pictures soon to share)