Hello all, thanks for the kind comments on this morning’s post on better home photography!  I have a great guest today, one I’ve had the pleasure to work with and observe create magic in front of and behind the lens.

Please welcome back Matthew Mead, the incredible stylist, writer, author, and photographer behind Holiday Magazine.  I invited him to share a few of his best tips for improving your photography, especially those detailed close ups he’s so brilliant at, and that desirable bokeh backdrop created with twinkle lights that we all love so much during the holidays. 

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”When it comes to taking beautiful images with your camera it truly is a “practice makes perfect” proposition.  But there certainly are some tricks of the trade that I have found repeatedly useful in photographing food and still life imagery.

I own a Canon Rebel XTI camera which is truly my right arm when it comes to my work.  I have several different lens which I use for things like room shots and up close imagery like miniature items or tight details but the magic for me resides in the 50 mm 1.4 lens.  This lens allows me to select a sharp focal point with everything else in the frame falling off softly in a very palatable “out of focus” style.  I use multiple F-stops between 1.4 and 3.0 in order to achieve the desired degree of focus depending on the subject.

To begin, set your camera to manual. This will give you the most control over the image and allow you to manipulate the light to the best possible outcome.  I am a huge fan of auto focus and find it most helpful when shooting food to allow me to work quickly and select multiple focal points in just a few minutes.  The benefit of a manual shot also allows you to shoot RAW files which are the largest format file that you can create and will allow you the ability to manipulate your image in many different types of photo programs.

I shoot all daylight imagery so make sure you set yourself up in a situation that allows for plenty of light.  A shear curtain or “scrim” is useful in cutting the light if it’s too bright or harsh.  Remember that subjects that are light or white are best on the opposite side of the light source as they will become over lit or “blow out” in too much light.

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Are you feeling the frenzy that tends to creep up around this time of year?  I think we all start out with the desire to stay on top of it all, but sometimes we get derailed with all of those requests for our attention. One of the quickest ways stress creeps in is the lack of organization that comes from not having an actual plan in place for everything from wrapping the gifts to entertaining a small crowd. 

I asked my friend Jen, the the super momma blogger behind I Heart Organizing to offer up some advice for those of us who get that anxious feeling during these busy times ~ Jen has so many great ideas for everyday storage solutions around the home, I thought she’d be the perfect guest to offer some encouraging suggestions for staying organized through the holidays and beyond.

Please welcome Jen and her advice for staying organized during this season! 

“Hi everyone! Jen from IHeart Organizing here today to share a couple of my favorite holiday organizing tips and tricks!  Let’s face it, the holidays can be an extremely chaotic and busy time!  From activities to decorating to entertaining, it seems as though there is always something going on. I am a big believer that with a little organization; you can make it through all of the craziness with a smile on your face.

Have your gotten your first holiday card in the mail yet? They are sure to start coming in daily, so now is the time to start thinking up fun ways to keep them on display to enjoy them throughout the entire course of the season.

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A few festive ideas are to clip the cards to decorative ribbon, pin them to a pretty memo board, string them from twinkling strands of lights or create a Christmas tree collage right on your favorite focal wall.  When the holidays wind down, whether you choose to hold onto the cards or recycle them is always a personal choice, however, a great way to preserve all of those family photos you received is to create a dedicated holiday album that can be added to year after year.

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G’day friends!  That greeting rolls a little easier off the tongue today since I have a wonderful friend visiting from Australia. I think it’s so fascinating to read how different people in different countries celebrate Christmas around the globe, so earlier this year I asked my friend Sarah of A Beach Cottage to share how she celebrates the season with her family, Aussie style. 

Sarah’s story is fantastic, she was born and raised in England, but now spends her days with her husband and three children on the sunny beaches of Sydney, Australia. I’ve followed her blog for two years now and secretly wish we could trade lives for a few weeks! I adore her cheerful approach to life and ideas for living simply and we share a love of old furniture and an affection for white paint.        

Sarah’s table is a great example of how it just takes a bit of sparkle and a dash of color to create an effortless table for your holiday home. Please welcome Sarah from Sydney and enjoy the tour of her beach cottage tablescape and Christmas traditions!     

“I love styling for the holidays . . . it sure is one of my favourite times of the year, I get to play around with one of my fave hobbies, decorating and making things look pretty but all wrapped up in sparkly bits too. . . bliss!  

Since our sea change to Australia from London, Christmas and celebrating nowadays for our little family, means lovely long warm summer days and Christmas Day starts off on the beach.

 

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G’day all, I’m finally back from my trip!  We spent six days traveling up and down the California coast, visiting friends and family along the way, making stops in several quaint and coastal towns.  We enjoyed plenty of sun, sand, and I even made good on a trip to Legoland that I promised my kids for their birthdays months ago.  It’s good to be back, but I’ve a lot of catching up to do!  I’ll be taking the day to do just that, meanwhile, I’d like to introduce one final special guest.

Today, Stacy of Not JUST A Housewife is here.  I’ve been enjoying Stacy’s blog since I discovered her a few months ago.  Stacy is mom of four boys who loves to cook, create, and decorate.  She’s a gal who knows how to work a miter saw (check out her scrap wood lamp) and she’s a huge fan of spray paint too (holla!).  I have long loved checkered floors, but Stacy puts a new twist on the idea by turning her attention upwards.   Please welcome Stacy and her step by step on how to paint a checkered ceiling! 

“Hi, I’m Stacy and I am so excited to be guest posting here today! 

I’d like to share with you my painted checkered pattern on my ceiling in my dining room and my kitchen.

The first thing you need to do is measure your ceiling. Once you have your measurements you can sit down and figure out how big each square needs to be. Uggg.  This was the least fun part of the whole process but probably the most important. Measure, measure, measure!

Then get a laser level that will stick to your ceiling. Mine uses adhesive strips. This whole projects is easier if you have a helper so grab a willing assistant too :) After you make marks along the perimeter, then use the laser level to line up the marks on either end. My husband and I use a long piece of molding as our straight edge to trace the laser line across the ceiling. Once you trace all the lines going one direction, then trace them going the opposite way to create your squares. I guess it depends on the size of your ceiling but this really didn’t take as much time as it sounds like it would.

I marked every other square with an X to show which ones would be painted the darker green.

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Wow, so excited to be browsing 170+ links from the Favorite Destinations Party that began yesterday, with bloggers showing off their amazing getaways.  I thought my “Need to Travel Here” list was long, now it’s so much longer.  You’ve simply got to visit some of these links, filled with inspiring stories of places as exotic as Fiji and Greece, to fun adventures found in our Fifty States.  There’s still time to link up a favorite travel destination of yours as well.   

Today I have a very special guest, Kristi of Addicted to Decorating.  I spied Kristi’s amazing rustic coffee table a few weeks ago on her blog, and asked her to share her step by step with all of you while I’m away.  Enjoy this project, it’s fantastic!  

“Hello, all of you Centsational people!  I’m just thrilled to be here today while Kate is still off on vacation!  Allow me to introduce myself:  I’m Kristi, and by day, I’m a self employed interior decorator here in the big bustling metropolis of Waco, Texas. 

But in the evenings and on the weekends, I’m a D.I.Y. fanatic and a slightly obsessed blogger.  My own little virtual home is called Addicted 2 Decorating.

Hands-on D.I.Y. projects are what I love the most.  In my free time, I’ve been slowly but surely putting my touch on my own little home, an 834-square-foot condo that I share with my husband, Matt, and our three furry kiddos.

Several months ago, my day job as an interior decorator and my evening/weekend passion for all things D.I.Y. began to merge when I met a very brave couple who agreed to let me use several rooms in their newly-purchased home as my D.I.Y. playground.  So far, I’ve finished their master bedroom and master bathroom. 

These rooms have been harder work than any other client work I’ve ever done (where I generally hire the work out to painters, tile installers, window treatment fabricators, etc.), but I’ve had an absolute ball doing the work myself, getting my hands dirty, and seeing just how little money I can spend while making huge changes to the rooms. 

I’m currently finishing up the last two rooms that I’ll be tackling in their home:  the kitchen and family room.  And just like the other two rooms, I’m looking for any way to decorate these rooms on the cheap, which of course means DIY projects!  Here’s how they started out…

For the family room, I had originally intended to make a diamond-tufted upholstered ottoman by altering my diamond-tufted upholstered headboard plans just a bit.  At least, that was the original plan, right up until the day I pulled up at their house, and saw that they were having their fence replaced. 

OH.MY.GOODNESS! 

There were piles of beautiful old cedar, weathered to perfection with the most gorgeous grayed patina.  It pained me to see that amazing wood headed for the landfill, so I snagged about 15 boards and put them aside.

 

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