Orange County photographer | Tara Whitney – Orange County's Leading Photographer. Family, Pregnancy, Maternity, infant, Newborn, Baby, engagement photography in Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego

pathetic arrangement at the top of the stairs,

this pathetic attempt at something trying to be cute is failing miserably and has been like this for about two years. no one cares for you, we all walk by you a thousand times a day without even glancing at the mess you are.

well thats about to change. no more haphazard extra photos leaning around just because i dont have a better place to put them. no more super outdated five year old photos making me miss my babies. no more shelves i cant really stand anymore. and no more full drawers that are full of god knows what. time to clean you out and use you for something, well, more useful.

we will let you keep the jars though, no matter what jeff says.

after i’m done with you, you will be a hip, updated, family portrait wall that will include our extended family and maybe a few accessories while im at it.

okay for all of you following along with me, today is the day to post your before picture on your blog. if you dont have a blog, take a before picture and put it somewhere you can see it a lot. for motivation. for those with a blog, you can then post a link in the comments here if you want!

here are my before pictures:

the first one was taken obviously before the frames were even up. see them in the bottom right?

and the second was taken the night the frames were hung by my amazing brother in law jason. he did it for me since neither i nor jeff have the know how for such things like perfectly level photo frames in a perfectly spaced grid. or the laser level that jason has. or the patience. we just hand it all over to him with a smile and hope that our company and jokes are worth it.

since then, i have filled the frames with two photos. my project this month will be to finish the rest.

deets:

frames are from ikea
they are 19 3/4 X 19 3/4
i have my photos printed at my pro lab

idea to buy and hang these frames came from the lovely erin vey, a hugely talented doggie photographer in the pacific northwest.

now, go forth and OPAM!

because the before in this situation was positively shameful.

our downstairs closet has always been called the “art closet” because instead of hanging coats (which we never really need) we always stored our basic kid art supplies inside, along with their school stuff. (backpacks, etc) in various forms, such as a rolling plastic cart or an ill fitting bookshelf. the results were always a complete disaster. kids papers and backpacks and musical instruments thrown haphazardly inside, peeking out the bottom of the door even when it was shut. it drove me a little more insane each day. but, i let it sit like that for almost four years. so you can imagine how insane i really am.

i got the idea in mind to add more shelving about six months ago, and i finally had a chance to hire someone to do it two weeks ago. once the shelves were put up, the walls looked a hot mess. i realized i would have to paint the inside of the closet.

sidenote: ever since we moved here, i have wanted to paint my laundry closet a shocking, fun color, just to have a little happy surprise when i opened the doors. but i havent ever actually done that. i am too scared to move my machines. they were really hard to get in there, and even just thinking about moving them makes me feel anxiety ridden.

so, to satisfy my whole “shocking, fun color in a closet” desire, i purchased hot pink paint for the art closet.
(lowe’s : rasberry blush)

i also scurried about finding baskets and jars (target & at home) to hold all of their art supplies.

i also bought the kids all NEW art supplies. new crayons, colored pencils, markers. glue sticks, tempura paints, watercolor paper. puff balls, googly eyes, pipe cleaners. paint brushes, pencils, erasers. totally stocked them up. they needed it. we havent updated our stuff since the beginning of the the previous school year, so i didnt feel wasteful getting rid of some of the old stuff. also, after reading and being really, really inspired by this book, The Creative Family, by Amanda Blake Soule, i wanted to do as she suggested and give them good quality art supplies to create with.

i started sunday morning at 10:30, when jeff left for the gym. the kiddos were all happily occupied with club penguin (internet game) and el dorado (our favorite cartoon movie). we were all in our jammies.

they each came downstairs every so often to see what i was up to, and help. help sort things into jars. help toss out trash and recycle out the paper and plastic from the new supplies’ packaging. help fill up the shelves once i was finished painting. anna begged to help me paint, but i just couldnt quite hand it over to her, i had no tape or anything else protecting the floors, baseboards, or shelves. (but i promised her that the next painting project she could have at it. and she made me promise whatever it was, it would be pink.)

jeff came home while i was only about 1/2 way through painting. he passed and said, “pink, tara?! pink?!” and i looked at him with the eyes that mean “praise me now or lose me forever!!” and so he said, “but i like it!” and i said, “its a CLOSET man. A CLOSET. chillax!”

we finished at 4:30. we did have some breaks for lunch time and other stuff (fights, consequences, computer support), so all in all, it took me about five hours to finish. we were still in our jammies.

and here it is, in all of its care bear splendor. (thanks lisa.) :)

that green basket on the floor holds our oilcloth tablecloths that protect the table and floor from artsy messes. i bought them from a sweet woman in mexico who sells oilcloth purses out of her house and hangs them from her fence so driversby can purchase. i knocked on her front door praying she spoke at least some english so she could understand what i wanted. and she did. and she made me two in three hours, while we hung out in rosarito beach.

so if you are still reading, thank you. for some reason i really wanted to write about my process. i feel like i accomplished something huge, that has been on my to do list forever. so i feel really great today.

when i first started my blog, i did this thing called One Project A Week. (OPAW) i think once a week will be too much for me, so i am going to do one project a month. (OPAM) anyone want to join me? im going to call this project my april OPAM. and my project for may is going to be to fill the 9 20×20 frames you can barely see in the top photo with the last 7 images it needs. once i do that, i will take a photo. i could post my before on may 1st, and my after on the last day of may. you all could post on your blogs too, and link in the comments here. wouldnt that be fun? we could all goad each other into finishing.

(and guess what, i already took that before picture).