French Blogger: Inspiration

Showing posts with label Inspiration. Show all posts

Monday, March 26, 2012

Focal B&W Photos

One of the things I love to do is take photographs.
Of my kids, my rooms, flowers ;), nature, vignettes, etc...
When I am inspired ~ I love to capture that inspiration with pictures.
I am often asked how I get my photos to have the color in just one little spot

and the rest of it in black and white.
I know a lot of you already know all about this fun tool-it's right there
in the photo editing software but when I discovered it-
I was trying it on all kinds of photos!

I am by no means a photography expert-I am learning as I go.

I actually have had a few conversations recently with two absolutely

AMAZING accomplished photographers who have given me some huge tips
and even walked me through setting my camera for the best setting.

Thank you so much to you both! I can't thank you enough for your help!

One of them told me that when she first started taking photos-
she would ask for help from established photographers and they would not share any tips
or help her at all and she remembered how frustrating it was for her to try and learn everything on her own.

So she made it a point to help people learn when someone asks how to do something.
I love that attitude of giving back and helping others.

I am super appreciative of the help they have given me

So... though I am just learning more about taking great photographs and editing-
I can share how to use some of the editing tools in picasa

I add a watermark and then do any basic tools that I want to apply
and then I send them over to my computer and use my Iphoto software.

I have found that as simple as Iphoto is-

some of the tools are much better than what I have used at Picasa.

So here are a few examples of some of the focal photos I have done recently.

This one was taken in the Petite Cottage Bathroom Makeover.

The flowers were so vibrant and such a pop of color- they were gorgeous.

The stood out even more with the rest of colors muted.

This one- the background is actually a more taupey brown color- and the chair is weathered silver.

This one kind of looked like it already had a focal edit- but I did edit to color just the roses.

Just the peonies...
love them.

Okay- so here's a photo before focal b&w editing

I actually really like how the lighting and the room looks in full color.

But for fun- I wanted to make those roses pop even more.

Here it is after the B&W photo editing tool did it's work.

The roses also came out a bit softer- I did not use the glow tool on this one.

Here's another example.

This photo has NO editing. Yikes... it's bad! Sooo dark!!

(I have since learned a bit more about those camera settings! ;)

This was an early evening photo~ notice the blue cast coming in the window.

I ran out to grab just a few more pictures before settling in to edit and create a post.

Here it is after adjusting

Ahhh... Soooo much better!!

So to find this tool in Picasa-

When you are there- click on one of your photos which will bring it up larger.

There will be 3 tabs you can work with:

Basic fixes

Tuning

Effects

In EFFECTS

there is the B&W Focal tool.

Just click on it and the tool will show up on your photo

Move it to hover over the area you would like to show color and adjust the size if you would like

to show more or less of the photo colorized.

That's it!
:)

Hope that helps answer some questions!!
Happy Editing!!
:)

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

A Passion for Purple~ Inspirations

via pinterest

Deep plums,
sparkling grapes and elegant eggplants and aubergines...

via waturary

Soft sweet shades of lavenders, pale lilacs and old world regal amethyst tones...

How do you feel about purple in your rooms?

Do you love the bold tones or the soft subtle shades?

Do you like it as an accent or as a focal point?

Purple can be inspiring.
Quietly complimenting.
Or boldly making a statement.
It is a passionate color either way for sure.

It can move you and excite you with it's rich deep, dark shades covering the walls.
Accented by silver, white and black- it's elegant and so gorgeous.

via pinterest

Or purple can calm you and relax you- wrapping it's warmth around you like it does in this

lavender room filled with irresistible pale shades and detailed patterns...

(I just have to say that I love that settee in so. many. ways... *sigh*)

via pinterest

What about on a chair, window covering or pillows?
Paired with other bold colors- it gives a space a lot of wow factor.

via perlorapittsburgh

Or paired with pale creamy whites and grays

just a drop of it's dazzling color speaks for itself.

This antique chair speaks to me- LOUDLY.

I love the elegant fabric and frame and with the cream- delightful.

via eclectic revisited

google images

I love light walls with purple drapery and accents

google image

As much as purple is not my first choice for decorating my spaces with
I have to admit this dining room is knocking my socks off with it's bold dark color
on the walls and white accents.
Wow!

via punch of color

My daughter loves purple.

LOVES it like she wants it covering every surface in her room Loves it.

I have been itching to get into her room and make it over for awhile now

and in my attempt to start getting those projects wrapped up-

her room makeover is now on deck.

via room envy

She has morphed from a little girl to a bit more of a glam girl this past year

and she will be heading off to high school next year.. *GULP*
so she wants something more grown up than those PB flower drapes and little girl colors.

She finally agreed to let me do a mini- (mind you- just a mini)

makeover in her room but ONLY if it was purple and only if she LIKED what I was doing.

Sigh ...

teenagers.

via Horchow

Purple is definitely not one of my usual colors to decorate with but I am game to play

with her favorite color and her style.

Just possibly though....
maybe just possibly could I convince her that something

quiet, soft, and shabby would be perfect in her little cottage bedroom?

Something,

oh I don't know ...

White?

Pink?

Pale sage or soft buttery yellow?

via houzz.com

Yeah..

well with that look she gave me with raised eyebrows and disgust at the thought of that

I'm thinking it's not likely.

So I am off to create a vision board with some purple inspirations for her room

and I'll share more about my plans for her space soon

You can also follow my Glam Bedroom board on Pinterest as well

if you would like.

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO ENTER THE OLIVE-ROUTE LETTERPRESS GIVEAWAY!!

Go HERE to enter to win!

See you tomorrow for Feathered Nest Friday!!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Petite Cottage Bathroom Makeover

Crisp clean white bead board.
Soft gray accents and maybe a pop of pink mixed with

a little bit of elegant gilding and a lot of cottage charm.

Those are some of my inspirations for the petite cottage bathroom makeover
that we have been working away on for the past week.
It's a small room and is part of the little cottage on our property.

It was basic with just the essentials & there was water damage from a leak
which resulted in damage to the walls and floor in one area.

The before shows the replaced sheetrock area and work starting on the ceiling -

We pretty much looked at this project as starting from scratch with the damage that had already been repaired.

It was more than ready to get a new look and be made over into a beautiful space!

(Apologies for the dark photo)

Lowes gave each of their Creative Ideas bloggers $500 to head to Lowes

& find the elements to do a bathroom makeover

I love all of the design and decorating projects that I always find at Lowes while the Mr. shops
for lumber so I knew I would find the perfect elements to make the bathroom amazing.

It was supposed to be a quick trip in to grab supplies but truth be told...
I wandered and dreamed and drooled for several hours.

I even used their free in store wi-fi with my ipad to search a couple products online as well.
All I was missing was a cup of coffee and a little lunch in the garden department.

On my makeover want list:

New Lighting, different ceiling & wall coverings, flooring, trim and a new sink and faucet

Everything I found was already priced fantastically and even better- on sale!
I also found a couple amazing clearance deals
As a big time bargain shopper
I LOVE that!

My first stop at Lowes was the lighting department.
I knew exactly what type of sconce I wanted for the space.

Something with a vintage feel and lots of charm AND since I had a lot of things
I was planning on doing in the bathroom they had to be priced well too.

I found these beautiful sconces and fell in love.
Shabby, french cottage and so sweet and just $49 each-

yep, they are perfect.

(I already had the chandelier)

We had great bones with the angled ceiling - but it was just plain old sheetrock originally.
We found thin grooved knotty pine planks from Lowes to finish the ceiling with

These pieces come in packs of single pieces that you groove together and then finish as you like

I painted them with Valspar right off the shelf white paint watered down a bit.

Love the character they add to the room with their knot holes and rough texture
and they are priced at $8.99 for 14 square feet.
Awesome.

Next was a drop-in bathroom sink.
We found a perfect white rimmed sink on clearance for just a few dollars

I thought about a pedestal sink-and Lowes had some gorgeous ones for sure
(already thinking about replacing the sinks in my master bathroom with a pair I found)
but I had the perfect shabby old sideboard stored just waiting for a new life as a vanity.

It was A LOT of work to clean it up as it had several issues but it is so charming for the space.

I love the chrome and white faucet- another sale priced find at just $37.

(I'll share the how to on turning this sideboard into a vanity in another post.)

Being a big time bead board girl -of course that was on my list.

I wasn't sure if I would go with bead board wallpaper or bead board panels.

I found both of them at Lowes- but when I saw the panels,
I absolutely loved how detailed their wall board was.

It has a different rounded type groove instead of the more flat ones
and it really makes a difference in how it looks on the wall in person.
Being that this is a pretty small room- we didn't need too many sheets-
they were priced around $18.00 each.

These shelves are made with crown moulding pieces that are actually foam trim boards
I love them because they are fantastic for moist areas like a bathroom and their architectural detail.
They are placed high up on the wall- at 8' to cover the seam where the bead board panels
came together in this 10' tall room.
Some of this trim was leftover from a previous project so we didn't need much more.

I am a big believer in re-using what you can, finding elements that you already have
and re-imagining them and also in mixing old and new.
The old bathroom door is original to our house - just a new coat of paint was all it needed.

The transom type window was a flea market find from a couple years ago~

perfect other than it has one pane of glass that needs to be replaced

(oops...)

The floor was replaced with a creamy sand colored tile that was a Lowes Special Purchase
and just .78 cents each so the whole new floor was around $45

The work was all done by my husband and I

After we worked on the beadboard & the Mr got the bulk of the heavy lifting done-

I came in and finished up the trim & finish work, built the shelves and wrapped it up.

I am so impressed by the design and room elements I found and used for this makeover at Lowes

and how incredibly far $500 went! Working with some of what I already had and mixing vintage finds in-
we were able to makeover the bathroom on a budget.