Easy Changes for Better Photos

As a blogger, taking better photos is a skill I am constantly working on. If you’re like me and still working on those photography skills, there are a few simple things you can do in your environment to improve your photos.

Create a photo studio!

I get it, that sounds completely over the top pretentious, but bear with me. Think about the last time you had professional photos taken. There were lights, there was a back drop and there were props and the pictures were great. Now if I can make all of that happen in my tiny little house most likely anyone can.

Designate a space

The first step is to set aside a space for taking photos. This is so important for bloggers because we are working in our homes where daily life continues to happen. Who wants to scramble around hiding that load of laundry waiting to be folded or the dishes you haven’t yet got to so you can take that picture you need for your next post?

This was one of the biggest driving forces behind my closet to craft space makeover, and it has been awesome to have an area that is ‘photo shoot’ ready. Life happens, and it happens a lot at my house so having this one space for taking pictures removes tons of frustration from my blogging life.

Improve your lighting

This is probably one of the biggest things you can do to improve your photos – add more lighting.

If I lived in the US this would be my first choice for lighting (affiliate link), but this same item is nearly 3 times as much in Canada.

So I did the next best thing with two of these clamp on lights*. and LED bulbs equal to 75 watt flood lights. (*affiliate link)

Here are a series of photos that clearly show the difference these two floodlights make.

Notice that the photos with flash are never as nice as the ones without? And that is during the day! Because I work during the day, I take most pictures for my blog at night and without the extra lighting they always have a yellow cast to them.

Get some Props!

My house is a work in progress, so a lot of my rooms have horrible flooring or worse, painted plywood. I have two placemats that simulate the look of wood flooring. I also have a panel that looks like tile for ‘kitchen’ shots. The boxwood ‘hedge’ in the background is plastic greenery tiles that I picked up at the dollar store.

One last thing…

Probably the number one thing you can do to improve your photos is get a tripod. I am assuming you already have a decent camera, but even if you’re still using your phone for pictures, get a tripod. I found the one I use at a thrift store but I’m sure there are newer ones with more bells and whistles.

If you are looking for more photography tips, consider following me on Pinterest where I pin the very best I find on my Images and Graphics board. Bloggers are usually helpful people, and a lot of them have published tools, tips and hints on this very topic so you can be sure I’ll have more to pin.

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5 on Friday, Best of the Week

It’s Friday! Every week I come across awesome DIY’s and crafts, this week I’m sharing my favorites of the week.

Floating shelves that are secret drawers!

My house is tiny so I’ve got shelves in nearly every room so we have places to put our stuff. How handy would it be to have drawers in all of them? Sure it’s a shallow drawer but it would still be useful – gift cards, important files, kids artwork (I had boys, they each gave me one single piece of artwork in all of their school years), jewelry, the list is endless. Not Just a Housewife has a full DIY on her Reclaimed Wood Floating Shelves – with secret drawers.

Tin Can Fairy Houses

Fairy houses have been all the rage in garden centers for a few years now, with the accessories getting more and more elaborate. So seeing two cute little fairy houses that looked as if they were straight from a ‘Borrowers’ book is cool. The little houses are darling too. Dazzled While Frazzled has a tutorial on how to turn tin cans into fairy garden houses here.

Decorative Ribbon Easter Egg

Usually instructions to make ribbon flowers involve some form of tedious hand-sewing but not this tutorial! Not a single sewing needle in sight and still there are pretty ribbon flowers to make. Purple Hues and Me has the tutorial for you – Decorative Ribbon Easter Egg DIY.

Kitty Rice Heating Pack

I have a Magic Bag and that thing is amazing for stiff necks, back aches and cold feet, but after a few years it’s looking pretty disgusting! A Beautiful Mess has a tutorial so you make a Kitty shaped one! For the full DIY click here.

DIY MCM Plant Stands – with Printables!

This was my absolute favorite of the week. I am a huge MCM geek and so are Angie and Joe of Ambient Wares. Joe created two amazing Atomic Patterns that you can download, but he didn’t stop there. He also made two plant stands in the classic boomerang shape and then, because that wasn’t enough awesome, he made hairpin legs for them out of hangers! Clearly if you love MCM you must head over to Ambient Wares and check out their darling plant stands for yourself!

For more great craft and garden DIY’s check my Pinterest boards, Facebook, or now – Twitter!

Happy Friday – make it a great one!

If you enjoyed this post, don’t forget to share it with your friends! For more just like it follow me on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter or sign up for regular updates by email.

If you have ever thought about starting a garden or craft blog of your own see how easy it is >>here<<.

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Owl Topiary

I was pretty excited to get started on this owl topiary but now that it’s finished I don’t like it. I’m finding if it’s a more vertical topiary, they are harder to plant. The more horizontal ones – like the turtles are easier. It doesn’t help either that for some reason getting the photos to my computer and then uploaded to here did not go as usual.

When I’m working with pictures, I usually change all of my file names to more descriptive titles before uploading. I may even include their order in the file name. Unfortunately each time I attempt to do any of that, my computer freezes up, so here we are. I’ll attempt to make the best of it but this won’t be a proper tutorial.

For the base of the owl, I made a circle of wire about 7″ across. From there I attached two somewhat egg-shaped pieces of wire, crossed at the center. You can see I twisted them together and then wrapped it with finer wire to secure them. These are then attached to the base with all wire ends facing into the body of the owl.

This next piece of wire forms the beak and ear tufts.

Before wrapping the frame in mesh, I added a third wire to support the center of the beak. I’m not sure it was necessary, but I do know it made planting in that area tricky.

The chicken wire is formed into a tube again, and the bottom edge securely attached to the base of the owl form.

I’ve mentioned shaping the chicken wire in other posts. It’s surprisingly easy. If you compress the hexagons of the mesh one way, they get longer the other way. So when I want the ‘belly’ of the owl larger than the base, I shorten the hexagons and it gets wider. At the top of the owl’s head the mesh gets overlapped and wired close.

From there I started stuffing the owl. Squeeze out the moss as much as possible, and fill the owl topiary. The ear tufts took special attention to make sure they were completely filled. The entire owl took a surprising amount of moss to fill – it needs to be firmly packed in because it seems to shrink as it dries.

Planting the Owl Topiary

Until this point, I was pleased with my owl. It looked like an owl and more important, it looked like the picture in my head. Then I started planting it.

I’ve had these two rosettes set aside for a while. All along I knew they were going to be my owls eyes.

I used florist wire to secure the plants, they can be taken out once everything roots into the moss.

At this point, I left the owl over night. Sometimes ideas need to simmer.

Eventually I added more Sempervivum (hens & chicks), thinking that would improve the look of the owl.

It did not.

I’m going to set him in a sunny window for now, we’ll see if time and plants growing improves him a bit but I honestly prefer the look of the mini turtle from last week.

If you want to see how I eventually used this owl click here for an update – The Owl Herb Planter

What do you think? Which is your favorite? Click >>here<< to see what I eventually did with this topiary.

If you enjoyed this post, don’t forget to share it with your friends! For more just like it follow me on Pinterest, and Facebook or sign up for regular updates by email.

If you have ever thought about starting a garden or craft blog of your own see how easy it is >>here<<.

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Topiary Mini Turtle – Tutorial

I decided it was time for a topiary mini turtle. Fred, my other turtle, is adorable, but just a little to big for the house. And what better project to launch my new craft space? Let me tell you, having a designated spot to work on my projects is a dream! I was able to take my time with this little guy, knowing I wouldn’t have to tidy up part way through so I could use my kitchen table as a table.

If you’re reading this, I hope you won’t think making topiary is hard. It’s mainly just twisting wire, and anyone can do that! That said, just a couple of cautions. Chicken wire is stabby, in fact all wire is. When you are forming your topiary, twist all of your sharp ends towards the inside where the moss will cover them. Be sure to clean up all the little bits of wire after, nobody enjoys pulling a piece of wire out of their foot. Never place your finished topiary directly on furnishing. His feet are scratchy, sometimes they’re wet too.

Please note, some of the links below are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, this site earns a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Mini Turtle – what you’ll need.

Snips, Pliers and wire cutters. I’ve been using my snips to cut the wire, they are easier to use and less flying bits to worry about.
A basin or pail of water to soak your moss.
Chicken wire.
Galvanized wire in a heavy enough gauge to hold its shape but still bend.
Florist wire.
Sphagnum moss. Look for one used for growing orchids.
Plants. I used succulents again, but I would love to make one of these and use mini Hosta. Ivy would work too.

Let’s get started!

Place your moss in a bucket of water to soak.

For the shell:

From the heavier wire, cut a piece long enough to make a circle 7″ across with a bit of overlap. This will be the rim of your turtle’s shell.

Fold back each end to make a hook, join together and twist tightly.

To make the dome of the shell, you will need 3 half circles of the heavier wire. Form a hook in each end.

Use the hook to attach the half circle to your rim.

Repeat with the other two, arranging them around your rim so they intersect.

Where the wires of the shell intersect, tie them with some florist wire.

Lay a double layer of chicken wire over your frame. I used an inverted bowl to avoid flattening my shell.

I’ve done this two ways before, you can either fill the shell with moss and fold over the wire to hold it in, or you can attach the mesh to the rim and use a second piece to hold your moss in. I get a tidier look with the second method, so trim away your excess.

Fill the bowl of the shell with moss, squeezing out the water as you go. Use another piece of chicken wire to shape a lid – the belly of your shell.

Use florist wire to ‘sew’ everything together.

For the head, tail and feet:

To make the head and neck, make a tube from chicken wire and close on end.

Test it against your turtle and adjust until you are happy with how it looks.

Fill the head with moss and set aside.

Shape and fill the tail. Everything is just chicken wire tubes with one end closed.

Shape the 4 feet. Stuff them firmly with the moss so they don’t collapse with the weight of the turtle. When you are positioning the feet, imagine the head is 12 o’clock, the tail pointing at 6. The front feet are at 10:30 and 1:30. The back feet are 5 & 6. Use florist wire to firmly attach the feet.

For the head, I like to have more than the chicken wire to attach it too. Here I chose a spot where the frame of the shell crosses.

Attach the tail and the head with more florist wire. Make sure the head is well secured and not wobbly.

Your topiary frame is complete!

Planting your topiary.

I learned my lesson planting my bunny topiary. These small guys look best with just a few plants.

After removing as much of the soil as possible without damaging the roots, work out a pleasing arrangement.

I used snips to remove a small section of the chicken wire so it would be easier to plant.

Use your fingers to make a hole in the moss.

As you plant, use your fingers or a pencil to push the roots into the moss.

Sticking with my less is more mantra, this turtle is finished.

Photo shoot!

One of the best parts about my new crafting space is the lighting for pictures is so much better!

The two clamp on lights of the shelf above with the LED floods are perfect for getting well-lit pictures in my house.

The greenery underneath is fake boxwood ’tiles’ from the dollar store! Perfect for a mini turtle’s début!

If you enjoyed this project, please share it on Pinterest. Let me know in the comments if you make or plan to make one of your own!

If you enjoyed this post, don’t forget to share it with your friends!

For more just like it follow me on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter or sign up for regular updates by email.

If you have ever thought about starting a garden or craft blog of your own see how easy it is >>here<<.

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Finally, Creative Space for Me!

I’ve been desperately needing a creative space for myself, but with 3 adult sized people in less than 1,000 square feet where to find it?

In my closet!

Walk in closets are nice, unless you’re crying for space to fit everyone in a tiny house. So Friday, I pulled everything out of my closet.

Here’s the left side before.

The middle before. FYI that stack of vinyl floor tiles is the worst flooring ever.

Closet right side – before. I painted it white 18 years ago and hadn’t touched it since. Gross.

Believe me or not, but this closet was a bathroom. Tub, toilet and sink, it was the only bathroom in the house. You could rest your head on the sink while sitting on the toilet, which overflowed if you tried to flush while the washing machine was draining. Fun times!

I took everything off the walls, all the shelving and the closet rods. Then I patched holes and painted it all white.

Because there is a bedroom on the other side of the right hand wall, I used that wall for hanging clothing. The person who lives in that bedroom is a very light sleeper.

It’s a double rod but I really don’t have a lot of clothing. I used a thrift store basket for all of my flip-flops and sandals. The sky-scraper heels to the donation bin.

So the right side is all closety business and does its job. Big boring yawn! The fun stuff is on the other side.

Creativity to the left!

Ta-da! Pure creative space! No more hunting all over the place to find my supplies. No more taking over the kitchen table for crafts and having to clean up before finishing.

I am so happy I could sing and dance! But not really, because I don’t know how to do either.

Nearly all my crafting supplies fit on these two shelves. I can’t believe how much the tidier the rest of the house is now that all of this is gathered up in one place!

The top shelf is all about sewing and fabric.

The bottom shelf holds my crafting stuff.

And some topiary supplies!

Tucked into the corner, photo props and my rolls of chicken wire. I almost threw out the little accordion file until I realized it was perfect for patterns.

A thrift store lazy-susan is going to be so handy when I’m making topiaries! And it’s bright, thanks to the two LED floodlights on the shelf above.

Brushes, sculpting tools, and Sharpies all have a home.

Acrylic craft paint and some hand tools for cutting and shaping wire.

The work bench is a 16″ wide pine shelf that I stained at the same time as I was working on my ‘pegboard’. I love that pegboard! I can see everything I use the most often right there. You can see how I made it here – DIY Pegboard for Craft Room Storage. Other than the materials for the pegboard and the lights, I used supplies I already had on hand. I shopped my house for bins. So all told I spent $150-$200. Not too shabby.

So what do you think? Would you sacrifice closet space to gain creative space?

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