Amy J. Bennett

Thrifty Updates Around the House

August 29, 2013 by Amy 16 Comments

Alright, we’ve made a few tiny changes around the house the past few weeks and they are making me so happy. If we were in a room right now, you’d see me clapping my hands in glee. I just clapped a little in between typing this just for feeling.

The great part is all of these are thrifty changes.

First, in our foyer, we picked up a key wall ornament at an antique shop in Summerville, SC last weekend (near Charleston). They had it marked for $14 but a part of it was starting to come apart so I got Scott to ask for a better deal and we got it for $12.

We hung it by the front door and while it seems kind of random in the picture, it’s like a hidden little treasure you see right as you walk out the door and it’s fun.

Next, in our guest bathroom, I made two small changes. First, I bought a hanging soap dish at a shop in Summerville. They have the CUTEST little downtown shopping area. I actually don’t think the dispenser is antique, it’s just made to look like it. I don’t care though, it’s the cutest little thing and it makes me happy to see it. However, it’s probably the least thrifty items of the bunch at $10.

Also in there, I bought a shelf for 25 cents at a yard sale. Previously, just the picture was above the toilet. I lowered the picture and added the shelf with some items I had on the bathroom counter and in the living room. Often shelves are hung below a picture but I think it works like this. It’s sort of like crown molding for the picture.

In our bedroom, I added the wall art on the side wall of our fireplace. These pieces were hanging in our living room/kitchen where we tore the wall down and made a bar. The black balances out the darker furniture on the right side of the room and it really gives the room another layer that I love. Still not done in there but I liked this step, especially since it was free!

In the toilet room of our master bathroom, I added this wall art that my friend passed on to me at a yard sale for free. I’ve had them for a year and we just now got around to hanging them.

So, all of those changes for just $22.25! Not bad!

And while we’re at it, we finished the stairs on the treehouse in Lexi’s room. It really finishes it off and we’re loving it!

Challenge: find something in your house you can reuse in another room!

WFMW: Where Do I Store My Measuring Cups?

August 28, 2013 by Amy 4 Comments

Today’s tip is one of those things where it feels absolutely absurd to share but it’s such a small thing that has made such a big difference that I can’t not tell you.

OK. Are you ready?

Store your measuring cups in a cupboard and not a drawer.

Here’s the deal.

For years—YEARS–I stored my measuring cups in a drawer. The drawer we have now is one of those double tall drawers that we throw all of our kitchen gadgets into. Every single time I needed a measuring cup—sometimes 2-3 times a recipe—I had to dig through the drawer to find the right cup. Sure, I tried to stack them neatly but when we’d go to dig for other gadgets, they’d come undone and all get lost again. No wonder I didn’t like cooking!

On a whim a few months ago when I got so frustrated, I got them all out, stacked them and set them in the cupboard next to the stove. Some small part of me flinched at not having the measuring cups with the rest of the kitchen gadgets but let me tell you, it has COMPLETELY CHANGED my cooking life!

They’re already stacked in order so I don’t have a lot of guess work where the 1/4 cup one is. I don’t have to bend down to look in a drawer. In fact, I rarely go in that drawer anymore. I don’t have to wrestle anything else to get it out of the cupboard. It’s the best thing ever!

So see? The smallest change ever but it’s truly revolutionized my cooking experience.

Works for me!

Before and After Photos—of Photos

August 27, 2013 by Amy 6 Comments

I love looking at before and after photos. Design blogs are full of them. I actually follow one blog Better After that is an aggregate of everyone else’s before and after photos of room designs. You can lose some major time browsing that site!

I don’t do a ton of redesign around here of anything except one thing–photos.

I try to add in at least one photo with each post and as the years have gone by, I’ve slowly learned some techniques. While I’m not nearly a pro I do find the before and after photos fascinating.

While taking ShootFlyShoot’s Photography 101 class seemed to be the key to understanding how to shoot in manual mode, Photography 102 seemed to really be the key to understanding editing. (Don’t worry, this isn’t a sponsored post, although it does include affiliate links).

While I could never do that class justice, I will say learning to shoot in raw and then edit it in Photoshop has made the biggest difference.

I thought I’d show you some before and after photos—of photos—so you could see what a difference editing makes. I also want you to see some “behind the scenes” of some of the pictures around here.

So, for example, here is a before and after of one of my WIWW photos.

Since taking 102, I’ve started taking most of my WIWW posts on a tripod with a timer on manual mode and with RAW output. You can see, I usually get a wide shot so I don’t miss myself.

After I crop it, I usually have to adjust three settings. I ensure the exposure looks right. Then, I make sure the white balance is correct. And finally, kick up the black to make sure the shadows look good. I still don’t have an eagle eye for all this yet but just learning what I even need to look for has been invaluable.

Here’s one more where I think the before is nice, but the after really pops.

Here’s the same thing I did to a photo of Emma recently:

I love how her skin looks creamy white and her freckles and hair pop out. It almost looks like someone cleaned the photo.

Here’s one of a watermelon we did for the girls’ end of school party:

You can see the color just pops. I feel like I could reach through and pick up one of those Swedish fish!

Here’s another of me and the girls at the river:

It almost doesn’t look like it’s the same day! I was able to crop out the boat where Scott was sitting and really concentrate on the people. The trees and bushes in the background look so much brighter and healthier!

I’m also able to adjust the color to take out the awful yellowing I get in my house from the lighting:

In this one, the difference is subtle. The white board looks whiter and the wall color looks true to it’s actual color.

And finally, here’s a really funny one where cropping made all the difference:

Hm, can you imagine that Scott’s the photographer?!? And no, I had no idea Tucker was doing that! I think you can see a little bit of confused look on my face about why Scott was laughing!

Well, I hope you see the real point—the photos really go through a transformation from straight out of the camera.

And really, there are so many more bloggers and photographers that are sooo much better than I am at editing. Maybe one day I’ll learn to make some real “enhancements” if yaknowwhatImean.

I hope as you read your favorite blogs you keep that in mind. Things aren’t always picture perfect as they might be presented.

But, I know as a blogger, I want you to enjoy the time you take to read and part of that is it being aesthetically pleasing. Just as I try to fix my grammar mistakes, I try to fix my photography mistakes as well.

Also, I hope you’re inspired to take both Photography 101 and 102. It’s all online, all recorded and all accessible for the rest of your life. And I’m telling you—easy as pie to understand.

I really regret all the years I spent on automatic with a flash when the kids were little. I had my nice DSLR and didn’t use even a fraction of its power!

ShootFlyShoot also just launched a new class called Room Makeover where Layla teaches you how to do those virtual room designs in Photoshop. I’m so excited to take it soon! Again, not sponsored here—I’m just really excited about it!

Let me know if you’ve taken them, or any others and what you thought! Do you have another resource to improve your photography skills? Share them in the comments!

On Community

August 26, 2013 by Amy 4 Comments

The last few weeks, months even, have held a lot of talk about community. It’s certainly a buzz word around Christian circles. More specifically, a lot is being talked about community around the table. Shauna Niequiest certainly opened the door wide with her book Bread & Wine. Anyone who has read can tell you it strikes a cord in you. You know there is community when people sit around a table eat together.

During our small group this week, we talked about the difference between the American church and the church at large. We are lucky enough to have a missionary in our group who is able to compare and contrast the church at large and insists that the American church culture is a very small subculture of the Christian church.

He described how community is much different in other parts of the world. Members stay and talk with each other after services. It’s not a race for home or the buffet. Visitors are often invited to meals at homes. Meals are shared throughout the week. His wife told us at one time, at least one meal was shared per day with another family.

When they asked if we often ate with our friends, or even acquaintances, I had to say no. Sure, we have people over sometimes but it’s certainly not regular and it’s always planned in advance. We’re all so busy. There’s no concept of meeting someone new at church and saying, “Come to my house for dinner today.” And that’s sad to me because it sounds just like something Jesus would do.

Two of our friends that moved this year to Charleston invited us down this past weekend. When we arrived, they had a meal waiting for us. They joyfully dragged us around Saturday to antique shops and the farmer’s market and art galleries and peanut shops and the beach and back to their house for another meal. We woke up Sunday and enjoyed a wonderful breakfast before we left.

My heart left full, thinking about this idea of community and sharing the table. I was challenged to stay later and invite in and buy extra. I’m already a believer but when someone sacrifices and shares their table there is something that rings true in my spirit.

Jesus talks about his kingdom being like a marriage feast. He offers an invitation. Some will make excuses and not come but others will accept. And so I realize that when friends invite us in and offer a meal, it is nothing less than them being Jesus to us.

When we say yes and indeed sacrifice our own time, money and efforts to sit and commune, we are a picture of the sinner saying yes to Jesus again. Certainly I don’t mean this literally but just like a baptism moves me to tears every time, this sitting down to a meal with friends nearly breaks me as well. It moves me because it reminds me of Jesus.

Yesterday after church I didn’t run for the car. I introduced myself to the couple in front of us and invited them to our small group. It just happened that they lived a few miles from us. I introduced myself to our new pastors. I stayed and made small talk with a new friend. My heart was again full when I left.

May I challenge us all to buy into the hype and intentionally chase this community? Because this thing called community—it is nothing less than an invitation from Jesus to know him more. For others to know him through you.

A Few Things You Should Know About Me

August 23, 2013 by Amy 20 Comments

Come October, I’ll be headed back to the Allume conference. This year, I’m excited to travel with my friend Becky!

Allume is being held in Greenville, SC which apparently is super busy the weekend of the conference so all the rooms got booked. Several attendees had to pair up in rooms. Becky and I got paired with a pair of ladies we don’t know but I’m excited to meet. It’ll be like summer camp!

Today we’re all sharing a few things our roommates should know—but I hope everyone can learn something new today.

Mary, me, Amanda at Allume 2012

First, y’all should know we’re partying in my home state! I live less than 2 hours away, just south of Charlotte, NC. But my home is in South Carolina. I know, it’s a little confusing. I never know whether to say I’m from Charlotte since that’s what everyone would know but it’s not even in the same state I actually live in. Anywhoo, I’m super proud to live here. Greenville is one of our lovely cities and I think everyone will fall in love!

This is my second year at Allume. Last year was both wonderful and overwhelming. I roomed with Mary, Amanda and Mandy. Mary and Mandy won’t be there this year since Mary is pregnant and Mandy just had a baby. Amanda is speaking this year!

I’m an introvert. That means a lot of things. Here’s a list of 23. That might mean you’ll come in the room during the day and find me crying. While I LOVE conferences, I get overwhelmed. It’s ok. I just need a minute to get it out and then I’ll be fine.

On the flip side, I do well in small groups so I might be a chatter box in the room. Especially at night. I love late night girl talks and if I know me and Becky like I think I do, it will be tough to get me to be quiet before sleeping.

However, I’m on East Coast time and I’m usually zonked by 10pm. You probably won’t find me out late at the parties and even if I’m talking, I’ll like the lights out earlier than later.

I love chocolate and coffee. If you can’t find me, look near the dessert tables first.

But I am gluten-free, so I can’t eat most of the goodies. I’ll be scouring for M&Ms.

When I travel, I’m a neat-freak so you won’t find my stuff scattered over the room. But, it won’t bother me if yours is. I have two kids and messes don’t scare me.

Speaking of my kids, I have two girls that are 8 and 10 so you might find me Facetiming them in the afternoons. I also like my husband pretty well. We just celebrated our 15th anniversary this month.

I rub my feet together before I go to sleep. Sorry if that’s weird.

I don’t care whether I shower in the morning or evening.

But I’ll need some breakfast before I can communicate well.

I do this What I Wore Wednesday post every week so I might ask you to take my picture.

I’m a social media addict so I’ll probably be Instagramming my food. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram so we can connect before the conference.

I love writing but my favorite thing about blogging is the connections with people. That means I’m super excited to meet everyone and I just know we’ll have a great time!

You can meet more attendees here!

Stitch Fix #7

August 22, 2013 by Amy 35 Comments

Wow, how did we get to fix #7? Yes, yes, by getting 6 other shipments, thank you. But seriously, it doesn’t seem like I’ve had that many.

If you’re not familiar with Stitch Fix, it’s a personal styling service. You pay a $20 styling fee for a stylist to choose 5 items for you. You get to keep whatever you want, deducting the $20 fee from your total or use a postage-paid return envelope to return the rest.

As soon as I went through the fix, I was pretty convinced I wasn’t going to keep anything. I even threw it out on the Facebook page to see if anyone even wanted to see the fix. With a resounding yes, I started trying them on. And really, it was better than I thought.

But then…

My friend Katrina suggested I use the opportunity to be super silly and ham it up. And there’s a sweater with a flamingo in this fix and I just really could not get it out of my head. Plus, I’m supposed to be having FUN.

So.

I’m sorry, lovely people at Stitch Fix and all the rest of the Internet, here is a silly photo shoot taken under the careful direction of my 8 and 10 year old girls. Katrina, I’m very sure this isn’t what you had in mind, but the kids thought it was grand.

This cardigan is actually doable. Just not sure about the color.

This is the one I’d consider keeping.

I don’t know, I just, yeah. I don’t like this pattern and whatever was going on at the neckline.

I realize it’s a thing to wear sweaters with animals on it, but I can not wear this sweater with a straight face after this. Also, I think I’m an Egyptian flamingo.

I could not even zip the back of this it was so small.

What say you, friends? You are still my friends, right? Can you see through all the silly to see if I am misjudging the fix or should I send it all back? I have $25 credit and all these are $50-60. I lose my styling fee if I send it back.

If you want to see the previous, very normal, fixes go here:

What I Wore Wednesday 8.21.2013

August 21, 2013 by Amy 3 Comments

It’s Wednesday when I share my outfits from the week.

I pair my outfits with inspirational photos. Read more about that here.

Email and RSS readers need to click over to the site to see the inspirational photos.

First, I must show a first day picture of the girls! They started 3rd and 5th grades today! They had a great morning and I’m so stinkin’ proud of them!

Let’s connect! Like AmyJBennett.com on Facebook. Follow me on Pinterest,Instagram or Twitter.

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The Pleated Poppy’s What I Wore Wednesday

Treehouse Bed for Kids

August 20, 2013 by Amy 13 Comments

First, I must say yesterday’s post was so much fun! I blogged about all my favorite couples and then several of them commented and shared the post and it was like bloggy heaven for me.

Alright, on to today.

We are finally feeling like we’re getting the kids settled after redecorating because of our water leak. Today, I want to show you Lexi’s treehouse bed.

The inspiration for her room is this treehouse bed we found on Pinterest.

And here is what Scott built:

Obviously we still need a set of stairs but to date we’ve been using a step stool.

You can see how cool her view is from inside. The top is completely open and she has 3 other openings so it’s not stuffy at all.

One of the best things we did was utilize underneath for some storage. My mom had those baskets and they each hold her stuffed animals organized into types.

On the left there you’ll see I picked up a used shelving rack and put all her knick-knacks in it. Lexi loves collections of tiny things and previously, it was EVERYWHERE. That little shelf has been a lifesaver for her room.

I wanted to post a tutorial of how he built it but can you believe in all the years of having my camera, my computer deleted all those pictures in a bad transfer batch?

I can tell you he used two 2×4’s for each corner (so we didn’t use treated 4×4’s) and then used nice cabinet quality 4×8 sheets for the sides. He used a regular sheet of plywood for the bottom and more 2×4’s to secure it.

And finally, he used a bunch of 1/4” trim pieces to trim it all out.

We wanted to do whimsical cut wood pieces like in the inspiration photo but Scott’s OCD went into complete overdrive and frankly, I just didn’t have the patience to figure it out.

We stained it with Miniwax English Chestnut since Lexi wanted a dark color instead of the orangey look. If you know our house (you can see in the picture above), you’ll know it fits right in with all our dark wood.

In the rest of the room, we’re not done but I did get her bookcase stained this past weekend.

The bookcase is actually a shoe rack Scott made me when we first got married. It was turned on it’s side with long shelves. He took out the shelves, turned the bookcase upright and then cut the wood down to make the shorter shelving pieces. He’s so handy!

As for the drums, these are (I hope) temporary in the room. Scott was a drummer in the high school band and someone gave him a full set of drums years ago. They usually stay in the attic but the girls wanted a few down to play on.

As for the final wall, we reused the dresser we had in the guest room which is from our original bedroom set when we got married. We stained that ourselves 15 years ago.

I’m looking for a cool mirror for above the dresser and a good place for her jewelry stand and cork board.

So, this is how her guest room turned temporary room looked back in June:

And now, she’s got a cool treehouse bed!

treehouse_kids_bed

Update:

Here is the treehouse updated with the stairs:

treehouse_bed