Leprechaun Fun | Personal | Fayetteville, N.C. Photographer

So … if you haven't guessed … Saint Patrick's Day is a pretty big deal in the Wells' household. We are Irish, my mother's birthday is on St. Paddys, and uh … we are IRISH! ;-)

I started a lil' tradition with my eldest for our favorite holiday. A leprechaun visits him and leave a lil' mischief … along with his pot of golf (or at least something valuable to my son). ;-) The night before, i stayed up past 1 a.m. getting everything ready 1) because we had just got home from a Carolina Hurricane's game in Ralieigh and 2) because I had NOTHING ready. LOL I was slacking this year.

As much as I wish the boy had the day off from school due to this awesome holiday … he did not. He had to go to school. So I packed him a nifty lunch. I used cookie cutters to make his sandwich and cheesy extra "lucky" and dyed his milk green. I also found print outs and lunchbox jokes to put inside as well. I also made a telescope with the help of THIS blog and found a lucky penny printout. And of course, I HAD to have the leprechaun "pee" in the toilet.  I made green foot prints using washable paint and my hand from THIS idea and used green food dye to turn the water green. My son gets a kick out of this every time. You should follow my Pinterest board on Saint Patrick's Day. :-)

The "loot" is simply Skittles and Rolos. I tried to find gold coins … but like I said, I waited till the last minute and Walmart (during my 10 p.m. mad dash) didn't have them.

The leprechaun left a little message to describe what my eldest had to do with the telescope. (I later added a name, so it was more personal. The leprechaun's name is Lucky) ;-)

 In the morning, once I woke him up. My son ran to the bathroom to see if the leprechaun used his bathroom again … "Yup, he sure did," my son said to me walking out into the living room.

He found the goodies and the note. And he was sooooo cute looking for his pot of gold. I hope he never loses this innocence and imagination! <3

 Jackpot! He found it too easy … I forget he's getting older and I have to find better hiding places … hmmm… the Easter Bunny may just hide his basket this year …

He was super happy about the candy and his shamrock glow wand thingy. He couldn't wait to light it up later that night.

After school, we did a few projects (more photos with my iPhone -- don't be ashamed, you need to live in the moment and not be behind that camera every moment of the day)

First we did the project Lucky left behind. Then we did the project that we got for Gramma's birthday … we just never sent it out. SO, she'll be in town soon, and we will give to her then.

THEN it was dinner time … uh, my husband's awesome corned beef shepherd's pie and soda bread. I CANNOT tell you how awesome it is! He slow cooks the corned beef over night in Guinness (10 hours!) and then puts together the pie .. OMG. Amazing. The soda bread is merely flour (I used wheat), buttermilk, salt and baking soda. We put parmesan cheese on top. YUM!

And what's an Irish meal without the Guinness?!

Dessert was a mint shake. Double yum!

Next year, I plan to follow on with the tradition but bought a book called  "The Naughty Leprechaun Story." It's cute and tells the story of two leprechauns, a good one and a naughty one. It comes with a two sided coin and the child reads the book and then gets to pick which leprechaun will get to visit and either leave goodies or mischief. I cannot wait to try it out on the boys!

Hope y'all had as much fun as we did this Saint Patrick's Day! And may the Irish Luck Be Sent Your Way!

*** Please remember that all images are copyrighted to Sharilyn Wells Photography, LLC. Please do not copy or alter any images without SWP, LLC consent. *** 

Letter Art | Pinterest Thursday | iPhoneography

A couple months ago … Before I found I was pregnant, I finally mounted my family pictures in a Pinterest Thursday special you can find HERE.  Well, low and behold, I got pregnant and my "up-to-date" portraits were now out of date. So I ordered a newborn pic of my littlest and added him to the family wall. My gallery was complete… or was it? I STILL hadn't done anything with my ugly "W." It was the same ugly brown papery thing that it was when I bought it years (I'm sure it was that long ago) ago. I got passed step one, hanging the darn thing. But it still had it's craft sticker on it. People would ask about it every time they'd visit. Then cam step two, take off the sticker, pictured here. Two months later, I finally did something about the ugliness.

See, the hard part was figuring out what I wanted to do with it. Every time I came across an idea on Pinterest, my vision changed. When I bought the thing THIS is what I had in mind. Then I saw THIS. Then THIS. Then, of course THIS.  Eventually, I just stopped pinning ideas. Then, a few days ago I got fed up with the ugliness. I remembered seeing a pin with yarn, thread, SOMETHING wrapped around the letter and I thought to myself, "I'm doing that."  So, I did.

My littlest sat in his Bumbo, and I worked for about 30 mins… I got interrupted by a very bored littlest. ;-) Bsaically, I found left over string in my craft closet, grabbed my glue gun and scissors, and had at it. I wrapped a while, place a small line of glue then wrap some more. This is yet another craft that didn't cost me anything extra. I mean shoot, I have aTON of supplies hiding around the house. I just have to find them!

A "W" is tricky, and if you look REAL close, you'll see some screw ups. But all in all the wrapped piece was pretty easy and came out great. Once it was wrapped, I felt it looked blah, so I added the flowers. I clipped a few from a bouquet I have in the family room and glued them on.

And, viola! My gallery is complete! And if I do say so myself, it's looking pretty good! Now I have to update the family portrait to show all four of us!

Don't forget to:

All my  photos were taken with an iPhone and copyrighted by SWP.

*** Please remember that all images are copyrighted to Sharilyn Wells Photography, LLC. Please do not copy or alter any images without SWP, LLC consent. ***

Toy Storage on a Dime | Pinterest Thursday | iPhoneography

Here it is again folks! My Pinterest Thursday! I know right? It's been like FOREVER. I know. But it's a new year, it's a new me … it's a new… blah blah blah… basically I'm doing a Pinterest Thursday because I ACTUALLY did something! ;-)

I present to you, the Toy Storage Bin:

I want to say I saw how to do these on Pinterest … but I can't find the pin on any of my boards. So I'm thinking, I made this up all by myself … ;-) No, probably not. But I do like to say that I did it my way, and it's probably not the preferred method … but it's a method.

So here are the supplies I used. I've got A LOT of diaper boxes floating around now that I've had my littlest. I also had left over fabric from when I made STUFF in his nursery which you can see HERE. Basically, this project was at no extra cost to me … which I am TOTALLY okay with.

First, I measured off the fabric for the inside  I then stapled the fabric onto the box. It's a lil' tricky, though my eldest did help me out so, it's not that difficult. It's a little sloppy as I really don't have patience to make it perfect… and it's a toy bin that I will be using. I'm not selling it to the highest bidder. ;-)

This is one of the issues I ran into .. as one will always run into when trying something out for the first time. The staples come out on the other side. And since there's nothing hard to hit on the other side when stapling, the ends stick straight out. I took my scissors and used them (closed) to bend the ends to look like a staple going through paper. (If that makes any sense.) Before doing that, the staple fell right out when I moved the fabric to tighten it as there was nothing holding it in place. Once I bent the ends, it was magic. The fabric stayed. 

  I then put the outside fabric around it … which happened to be a lil' short, but It didn't bother me. I just covered up with another sheet of the same fabric. The first time, I did the inside first and the second box I tried the outside first. Here are examples of what the inside looks like on each:

As you can see, when I did the inside first, I had to fold

under the outside … looked kinda messy. The second time, I did the outside first and folded over the inside fabric. Looked much cleaner. The staples aren't very noticeable on the outside. I was even able to bend the staples over INSIDE the outside fabric and you can't even tell the staple is there. But I also think because my outside fabric is gray, the staples blend well.

And viola! Toy box on a dime. Do I think the staples will uphold a toddler? No. Probably not. But I'll have to teach him to treat his stuff with respect and maybe, just maybe it'll last. 

One last tip: make sure all staples are bent in. You don't want any sharp ends prodding out poking lil' hands when they reach for their favorite toy. I ran my fingers around the boxes to make sure there were no hazards. 

Enjoy!

Don't forget to:

All my  photos were taken with an iPhone and copyrighted by SWP.

*** Please remember that all images are copyrighted to Sharilyn Wells Photography, LLC. Please do not copy or alter any images without SWP, LLC consent. ***

"Framing" Cheap | Pinterest Thursday | iPhoneography

Phew! I haven't done a Pinterest Thursday and like ... EVER! But I'm feeling pretty proud of my latest craft project AND it's photography related!

I had my family's photos taken by a local photographer a while ago and I had this huge idea of making a gallery type layout with them. So, I sat on the phone with her for hours trying to figure out the sizes and making sure they'd blend okay and blah blah blah. We came to a decision, I ordered them, she delivered them, and they sat on my coffee table for probably about 6 months. I priced around for framing but because of the unusual sizes, it was going to cost me $300+ to just get them framed with the simplest of simple frames. Now, being a custom photographer, I understand why custom anything is priced the way it is. But I just didn't wanna settle for the cheapest look just because I didn't wanna spend more money to get them matted and with a pretty frame.  Then I found this:

Pinterest Link

Yet, my photos still sat on my coffee table.

Last weekend I decided to get off my rump and do something about it. I headed to Lowes and got a sheet of plywood. Did you know that Lowes will cut anything you ask them to?! I didn't (I'm using that as the excuse as to why I didn't do this simple project earlier, didn't have the tools)! Anyway, the kind gentleman meticulously cut my plywood into the sizes I needed, I grabbed some black spray paint (as suggested by my son), some mod-podge and picture hangers and I was on my way.

First, I sanded (with the help of my son) the edges of the plywood to make it smoother. I also sanded the tops so that the glue would seep in to make it stick to the pictures better. Then I spray painted the edges and a lil' bit of the tops (just in case the sizes weren't exact). I let dry over night.

Taken with my iPhone!

The next day, I began gluing the pictures onto the wood. I started with mod-podge and spread it around. I laid the pictures on top and ensured they were straight and evenly on the wood. I used some wood glue I had laying around to glue down the corners that seemed a lil' loose. I ensured all glue bubbles were out from underneath the picture and then I let them dry overnight.

The following day, I hammered (carefully) in the hangers on the back. I had to be careful as the nails were longer than the depth of the plywood. Make sure y'all check that when you do your pictures! ;-)

And then, I hung them! And I couldn't be happier! They look good, they look professional, they are my pictures on the wall. MUCH better than in the wrapping on my coffee table! I cannot stress the importance of printing your images and displaying them! They always look better on the wall or on a desk or TV stand then on a CD in a drawer or wrapped up hidden somewhere in a closet. Do it! Whether it's framing or mounting like I did, just make sure you display them!

Don't forget to:

*** Please remember that all images are copyrighted to Sharilyn Wells Photography, LLC. Please do not copy or alter any images without SWP, LLC consent. ***

Saint Patrick's Day | Pinterest Thursday | Fayetteville, N.C. Photographer

As y'all know, St. Patty's day is a pretty big deal in the Wells' household! ;-) But this year it snuck up on us with the untimely death of a family member. So, instead of a big shindig like usual, we had a small get together at the house. We had lime marshmallow rice krispie treats (they were okay), shepherd's pie minis - yum, mozzarella sticks (cause I was craving them), and of course, we had a leperchaun visit us and take the kids on a lil' scavenger hunt to find a secret treasure. It was so much fun watching the kids run around in their superhero outfits. My son is the only one who can read, so the little ones would find the clue and my son would read the next clue. LOL They were so excited to find the "treasure" — lil' rainbow Twizzlers with golden Rolos. SOOOOOO cute. I got most of the ideas off of Pinterest ... you really should follow me! ;-)

And of course, we topped the day off with a special lime float. Caffeine free Mountain Dew with lime sherbert ice cream ... yum yum yum! (I got the clover straws from the Dollar Store!).

Pinterest Links:

Rainbow/Rolo treasure
Scavenger hunt
Rice Krispies (with out lime marshmallow twist-found in Walmart)
Sherbert Punch (with Caffeine free Mountain Dew - forgot that it called for Sprite...)
Leprechaun visit

Don't forget to :

All my  photos were taken with an iPhone and copyrighted by SWP.

 *** Please remember that all images are copyrighted to Sharilyn Wells Photography, LLC. Please do not copy or alter any images without SWP, LLC consent. ***

Valentine's Day Card | Crafts | Fayetteville NC Photographer

Just wanted to wish y'all a very happy Valentine's Day and also share with you my son's and my valentines. LOL He's is pretty awesome ... You've gotta admit... LOL! Mine ... I'm writing off Valentine's Day this year. I don't have my love with me (being deployed and all), so it "Blows" this year. ;-) Get it? Bubbles ... blows .... yeah. Lol! Hope y'alls holiday is full of love and laughter! 

*** Please remember that all images are copyrighted to Sharilyn Wells Photography, LLC. Please do not copy or alter any images without SWP, LLC consent. ***