April 2017 - Page 2 of 2 - Farm Fresh Style

8 In Makeover

One Room Challenge – The Studio – Week 1

I’m so excited!!! I’ve been wanting to do some up-dates to the studio and this is the perfect reason to check it off my list! But, first, let me back up a little…

I had heard about the One Room Challenge before, but I honestly couldn’t tell you if it was a blog post I came across, a FB post or on Instagram. It certianly made me a little curious but not enough to actually take part. But when Erin of DIY Passion put it out there in our blogging group, my first thought was of the studio! When I read more about it, I thought that this would be a great challenge for me to focus on getting something done for me and make my studio suit my style a little better and hopefully function better for me at the same time. { Read: clean it up and move some stuff along }

Now, let’s review a little about where we’ve been with the studio over the past almsot 3 years. You can check out my first post about the space HERE. And then it transitioned into THIS and THIS. I would sometimes post pictures like the below picture, in Black & White so it masks what a huge mess it currently is in! See? You can even hide a kid in there!

So when I started thinking about what I wanted to do out in the studio, a few thoughts were immediate – white wash the walls and paint the floor. Hands down, no question. There’s a catch with doing those projects. A rather large catch….that involves moving things out of the studio and the only place to put things is in the loft or the garage. But here’s the rub…somethings won’t fit through the door and up the stairs to the studio so they need go to the garage, which sounds simple enough except we seem to be caught in a never-ending winter so I need the garage space for the car – you know, what the garage is actually for! 😉

The other problem is that I hoard projects. Hi, my name is Lori and I’m addicted to chairs and future projects. I know I”m not alone in this, right? Everybody raise your hand! So, the studio is filled with things I’m working on and getting ready for the Homegrown Vintage Market in August { I never prepare this early! } and thankfully just a few client projects which I need to wrap up and move along.

Here’s a rough list, in no particular order, of what I hope to accomplish over the next 6 weeks:

Sew curtains for the prep table

Paint the floor

Whitewash the walls

Frame the chalkboard

Paint the sewing desk

Paint and hang the corner cabinet

Paint the doors

So pull up a chair and I’ll show you exactly what I’m dealing with….lol, see??? This is exactly why I need to focus some attaention on my work space!

Ugh – when I look at these pictures, I feel completely overwhelmed!! Will 6 weeks be enough time? I have so much work to do just to muck this space out, let alone give it a makeover!

But one has to start somewhere, right? I guess I best get out there and start sorting things out, packing things up and hauling them out of my way! I love my studio space and am so thankful that it was here for me when we moved in. Now, I really get to freshen it up and concentrate on doing it over, making it my own.

See you next week where I’ll give you a progress report, complete with pictures!

To be continued,

Lori

PS Click the logo below to return to the other ORC Guest Posts!! Have fun!

April 5, 2017 By lori@farmfreshstyle.ca

6 In Blogging

‘Sunshine’ on a Snowy Day

My blogging tribe, East Coast Mom Media, held a workshop today where we learned to arrange flowers and got some great photography tips. Holly of Dean’s Flowers on Stanley Street in Halifax, opened her doors to us, let us wander her beautiful store and then taught us to make a stunning floral arrangement! And after we all created our masterpieces, Matt Corkum of Fade to White Photography gave us a knowledge dump of basic photography and then helped us shoot our arrangements. Here’s a photo-ladened overview of the afternoon, because you know I can’t be around such beautiful flowers without taking pictures!

Here are some shots from around the store – I felt very much at home at Dean’s, these vignettes are very much my style. Except, of course, the fact that I can’t keep succulents alive! But besides all the gorgeous plants, she had a fabulous selection of giftware and home decor items, too. I’m telling you, if you’re in the area, I highly recommend dropping by!

These are some the flowers we had to work with for our arrangements. Holly had it set up so we knew how many of each type of flower we needed plus she gave us lots of options, too. It’s amazing to see a group of people start with the same selection of flowers and end up with such different arrangements!

I was happy that Jennifer made it for the workshop. I enjoy Jennifer’s company and was thrilled when she arrived with Grace, her daughter. I meet Jennifer at the first Blogjam and we really hit it off. I’ve watched her start and grow her blog, Simple Local Life, and she’s rocking it!! I’m so proud of her and all her hard work!

The following pictures are of the arrangement I made. I quite like how it turned out! I’ve never had anyone teach me how to really arrange flowers, I’ve always just done what I thought looked good. But this makes me want to do more and learn more! I love having fresh flowers around! Thanks, Holly, for making us look like experts!

Here is Matt showing us some great tips and tricks to making our photography for our blogs better. He offered some great, simple things we can do to improve the quality of our pictures. The biggest thing I took away from it was about using a piece of foamcore to even out the natural light that I’m using when I take my pictures. Sure, there is expensive equipment I could invest in but when something as easy as a solid white something or other, that I can handle.

And here is the shot I took with Matt’s guidance and the foamcore sheet:

Sigh – isn’t it pretty? And put anything on a pedestal and it looks like a cake to me! Well, that might be a stretch but you know what I mean!

So, I’d like to give a special shout out to Fuji Films and Dean’s Flowers for sponsoring this workshop. It is through all the hard work of Colleen, Laura and Erin that sponsors like them come on board and support us and what we are doing out here on the East Coast. I’m so very thankful for the amazing support, encouragement and opportunities that only come my way because of these people. And to Heather, carpooling made the day some much better! 🙂

A selfie for good measure! You know, to prove we were actually there! 😉

And to finish off this post, a little sunshine on a snowy day!

To be continued,

Lori

{ I was provided this workshop by Dean’s Flowers and Fuji Film but my take on it is exactly that 😉 }

If you’d like to see some of the posts that my blogger friends wrote, click the link box below

April 2, 2017 By lori@farmfreshstyle.ca