Greetings everyone and happy weekend!  Today I’m so excited to have a special guest sharing some simple techniques for decorative gilding with an inspiring Easter craft.  Please welcome Matthew Mead, the stylist and photographer behind Holiday with Matthew Mead, and author of his most recent publication: Flea Market Finds.

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Here’s Matthew with some fantastic tips on gilding!

“I have always collected vintage gilded items. There is a warmth and glimmer about accessories with a touch of gold that make an interior feel a bit more sophisticated and special.  In my new book Flea Market Finds we celebrate classical decorating with a story titled “Greek Revival” which highlights items that have been embellished with gold to feel like relics of the past.

 

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I discover new blogs in all sorts of ways and recently a reader left a very kind comment so I hopped over to visit her blog.  I was delighted to discover Jen of Migonis Home who together with her husband AJ and young son Drew, is renovating a Cape Cod style cottage in Massachusetts. 

I loved her whole approach to the transformation of their home, and the fact they’re renovating it slowly while along the way making due with what they have.  Jen and AJ are making changes to their new abode to make the home suit their lifestyle.  I invited Jen to share her story and offer a few tips for living large in small space. 

Please welcome Jen!

Hi! I’m Jen Migonis from Migonis Home and I am thrilled to be joining you here today!  My husband and I bought a 75 year old Cape Cod in the seaside town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts two years ago and boy, did it need a lot of work! There was about four layers of wallpaper on every wall and zero insulation under that (not a big deal if you live in California but if you live in Massachusetts and you can see your breath in your bedroom in the winter then it’s a different story).

Our house is tiny, so when we found out we had a baby on the way four months after we moved in we realized we need to make this house work hard for us.  Our house is far from perfect, and we are working on a project in almost every room, so bear with our “in progress” photos. 

When Kate asked me to be her guest I knew almost immediately what I wanted to talk about: living large in a small space. Today I’m going to focus on four ways to maximize your space in a small home.

Let it Flow.  House flow is essential for entertaining so when we renovated we knocked down the wall between the kitchen and dining room; if you are looking at the photo the location of the wall was on the left side of the hutch. Fellow Cape dwellers have mentioned to us how large our downstairs appears because it’s so open.

Now, we have a circular flow to our entire downstairs and if you are standing at either the front or the back door you can now see the opposite corners of our house. My son loved this when he was in his walker and sprinting around non-stop.

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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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