My first photo shoot....as the photographer!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking engagement pictures for my brother-in-law, Morgan, and his fiance Laura. I went to bed early, because I knew we were getting up early and wanted to be rested. I dreamt about taking pictures of them...and work up at 4:30..so much for being rested. I was so excited, and very nervous. Engagement pictures are a big deal..if they are good, I'm safe, if they are horrible, I'm gonna feel really bad! Any of you who know me, know that my Dad is an AMAZING photographer, so I have some big shoes to fill and high expectations to live up to. 

We started at the beach in Carlsbad, I started snapping away because I figure the more pictures I take the better chance I have of getting at least one good one. After about 20 minutes they started to relax, as did I and I think the pictures started getting a lot better. A quick change of clothes and short drive to location #2 the railroad track! Once we got here I think the pictures got a lot better...whether it was the lighting, the scene, the clothes, or the previous 2 hours of practice I just had I finally got some really good pictures! 

I was so excited, and I had SO much fun! I hope they like the pictures, and I hope day 2 (next sunday) goes even better! Check some pics out...hope you like them!

First day of school

Yesterday was the first day of school for me this year. For the past 26 years I've been Whitney Holstun; Miss H for the last 4 of being a teacher. Yesterday was the first time I was called "Mrs. Castellanos" and "Mrs. C" officially by my kids. Walking around and hearing "Hi Miss H!" and correcting them "No, remember I got married so its Mrs. C now" was fun and we all giggled...however when by the end of the day I had students coming up to me and saying "Mrs. C where should I put this?" it was strange. The matter-of-fact way the kids said my new name still made me smile inside because its so new to me. I love being Whitney Castellanos now, I wonder how long it will take to feel as though Mrs. Castellanos is just normal...guess we shall see! :-) I love my job! Can't wait to start PE next week!

I love Lamp.

My dad Had a lamp that he'd had for a LONG time and was going to throw it away. Since my hubby and I are HGTV addicts I asked him for the lamp. Then it was makeover time... First I sanded the lamp down. This is what it looked like:

I got some Martha Stewart pearl paint from Michael's for less than $2 and painted it....and painted it again...and got a bit worried when painting it again. After 4-5 coats...it looked awesome! It looks like a pearl turquoise color that was perfect for our living room. I lucked out and found a clean white lamp shade at Target on sale for $4. This is the finished project !

Chalkboard Bench

My wonderful Husband and I had a garage sale this past weekend. Our goal was to clean out our garage enough to fit in the cabinets my Step Dad wanted to get rid of. The garage sale was a Saturday success and we picked up the cabinets on Sunday! The first thing we had to do was move the one old ugly white cabinet that we had in the corner out of the garage. My hubby lacks a bit of the creative vision I'm trying to develop so he suggested we throw the cabinet away...I suggested we make it a bench. He said I was crazy but "go ahead and try." And thus was created the chalkboard bench. My thought was that kiddos (even though the only kids we have are furry and have four legs for now), would think it was cool to draw on some furniture! This cabinet was an inherited treasure from our first house. It is SOOO heavy, and thus it is strong enough to be a bench. So rather than standing it up I laid it flat.

**Sorry I didn't take pictures of each step :-( **

First, I bought a can of chalkboard paint ($15 at Lowes) as well as an unclaimed, discounted sample ($0.50 at Lowes). 

Second, I unscrewed the hinges from the back of the cabinet so that I could take the door off to paint it. I used the paint sample to paint the front of the door ( there wasn't enough to do 2 coats on the front AND the back, and the front NEEDED 2 coats) 

Then, I painted the cabinet with the chalkboard paint (2 coats).

After it was all dry, I placed the cabinet where I wanted it to be; reattached the hinges to the back of the cabinet and voila, a much more attractive, fun bench for our courtyard! I added the pillows to match the green top of the bench. They are Sunbrella outdoor pillows so they should last pretty well. (each set was $10 at Costco) Our plan is to store the pillows inside the cabinet on rainy days/when we aren't going to be using the bench.

So for a grand total (which would be less if I'd already had chalkboard paint) of $45.50 I got a new bench!

P.S. When my hubby got home he said it looked so good that he wanted to move it to the other side so that it was the first thing people see when they walk in! So we switched it to the left and moved the bistro table to the right. I call that a success for something he wanted to throw away!