Just popping in...

Hello all! Just popping in to do a micro blog featuring some snippets of my family's lovely Fathers Day this year. To be honest, we were too busy enjoying time with one another to bother taking pictures of every moment.

Sometimes even photographers want to put down the camera and take it all in like everyone else, you know? ;)

Any-who I captured just a couple images to capture a bit of Andrew's dad day. The key things for any daddy in my opinion.

Enjoy and keep coming back because I literally have 7 blog posts in the works right now! AHHH!

We are so blessed to have amazing daycare providers for both of our girls. My oldest brought this present home from daycare for daddy.  You know her babysitter is awesome due to the KU tie on the flower pot! ;)

 What man wouldn't enjoy his Father's Day breakfast, if it didn't involve some greasy delicious BACON??!!

Nothing say's "MERICA" quite like bacon. I digress.

In case you were curious, we now avoid the chaos and mess of cooking bacon in a skillet by baking in the oven. It changed my life. Soooo much easier. Just line a baking sheet with tin foil, place your bacon on the pan, DO NOT PREHEAT, put the bacon in the oven cold and then turn it on to 400ºF. 17-20 minutes later...BOOM you've got a delicious bacon-feast ready to eat.

Maybe I'm getting a little over the top. Meh...oh well. Stick around for more blogs coming soon!

-Shelby

Where I began...

Where I'm at now. 2013 Portfolio Spread

In the mood for a little back story as to how I began? Don't mind if I do...

I started dabbling in graphic design in high school when I was sixteen. We didn't have a very good program for the work that I wanted to do back then, and lets just say my art class/teacher did not feed my inner artist. To be quite honest they damn near put the flame out completely. When I asked if I could design things on the computer instead of drawing plants, the response I received was along the lines of..."Ummm, why? I guess so for the last 10 minutes of class." I took what I could get. This was the same art class that I asked if I could be a part of the high school photography group (because my small town school didn't have an actual class, the art teacher just chose students that got the privilage learning some photography and taking photos at the athletic events and such)...anywho, that question was met with:

Teacher: "Do you have a camera?"
Me:"Yea, I guess but its just a little pocket camera..."
Teacher: "Well, there you go...teach yourself with that. It's the same."

Cue depressing sound effect.

Yep, my ART teacher had zero impact on my passion for graphic design and photography. But before you start thinking to yourself that my high school was crappy, think again. I wouldn't trade my small town upbringing for the world, and I give a ton of credit to my experiences through FFA that got me where I am now. Sure they didn't teach me how to use photoshop or a camera, but I got some tremendous building blocks through my Ag classes and FFA competitions that I know I wouldn't have been able to get anywhere else. Seriously folks, never underestimate the power of a former FFA Member.

Anywho...despite my artistic flame just about being put out I still knew that I was meant to be in graphic design. My senior year I was blessed to have been dating this crazy guy (my now husband) that had a mother running a sign shop through the local Anhueser-Busch Distributor. It was refreshing to have someone that encouraged my need to learn more about graphic design and better yet I got a job during my senior year in the work study program working right there with her as an assistant.

Thanks mother-in-law! I probably sucked then but you encouraged me anyway ;)

Following my graduation I moved to Pittsburg,KS to attend one of the best tech departments in the country at Pittsburg State University... and it was all pure awesomeness from there! I knew right off the bat that I was in the right place. Not many students can say they take such great joy in their major, but I did. The photography aspect came in as an extra with my course work and it ended up sticking with me enough for me to continue teaching myself quite a bit. I loved it and some day's I will miss the challenges. But I couldn't be happier with my decision to stick it out at PSU regardless of how hard it seemed at the time. And when I say hard, I mean get pregnant twice, move five times, commute the last two and a half years and over 100 miles a day hard. Yea I did that...don't ask me how because I don't have a clue. I survived and so did my amazing family!

Now I am here. Six months out of college and building my business slowly but surely and now I am about to start a new job with a local design group as an assistant designer. I'm so excited that things are panning out the way I had hoped. Although my husband was getting a little worried that I hadn't found a "real job" yet...I had faith it would fall into place. ;) My path has been a strange but blessed one so far that's for sure. Can you believe I am just now realizing after all of these years that it really is okay to call myself an artist? It feels good to be able to really think and say that after the hard start I had with "art". Take that high school art teacher!

I guess this leads me to ask you, my followers/friends/clients/artists...where did you begin and were your origins typical or expected? How many people told you along the way that you couldn't do it?

Thanks for sticking around to listen to my ramble. Hopefully my scattered brain isn't too terribly hard to follow. Until next week....maybe. ;)

-Shelby Demo

Our Backsplash DIY

So my husband Andrew got in this home improvement kick recently. Lucky me!!!

We now have a gorgeous master walk-in closet, new laundry room, rustic shelves in multiple rooms, and a B-E-A-utiful new backsplash in the kitchen. Before starting our kitchen project we both agreed that we were wanting a natural rock look rather than tile, however we were NOT up for heavy duty wet saws, grout, mortar, and the whole "9 yards" that come with it. *Light Bulb* I recalled having pinned a DIY blog post on Pinterest a few months back that talked about Airstone installation on the front of your typical bathtub. After some price comparisons between a higher end rock veneer and Airstone, we knew right away that this is what would work best for us and it was half the cost!

One trip to Lowes, clean kitchen, and we were ready to go no prep necessary. We started at about 10:30 in the morning and were finished by 5pm that night, even with our little ones running around! Unfortunately, we were just too much into the groove to stop for pictures as we went, but I did get some photos of the new and improved look of our kitchen!

We love it!

Yep there were dirty dishes. Get over it! It's to be expected after a full day of construction on the kitchen!

Close up shot of the texture.

Doesn't it look pretty with my new kitchen accessories?!

Well there you have it! It was seriously easy.

This product can be used indoor and outdoor just with different adhesives, no grout, and no wet saw. We loved it so much we've started covering our breakfast bar as well! Hopefully this DIY has inspired you to do a little home improvement too!

You can find more information on the product website here: http://airstone.com/

Goodbye May Hello June!

Well, I have been a terrible blogger lately. :(

In my defense, last week was my birthday week! Woohoo! In case you were wondering I am now 23.

Any-who, my most recent round of images that I have been working on have all been 100% for me and I love it. However, it makes for a hard decision as to which I should blog about and when, hmmm. So I will just start posting as much as you can handle for now, how does that sound?

Hopefully it sounds good...because I'm doing it anyway. Muahaha...

Oh my Ry baby! This is what happens when Ry and mommy eat supper alone. We make silly faces at each other from across the table...and mommy ends up making a dash to the camera to capture it. I love my little blondie!

No editing out Cheetoh faces here! I love my little ladies oh so much. Thanks to my husband Andrew for taking this photo on Mother's Day! I rarely get a good pic with these fast moving targets!

Don't fight my love Diem! I promise I wasn't torturing her. These edits were processed with Morgan Burks Photography's Radioactive Collection. It's so nice to play with something fun and different with these colorful images.

Aww my blue eyed girl was tired. Daddy makes for a good pillow at the end of a long day.

Meet my pretty stinkin' adorable family. Photo taken by my sister!

Look who's hubby can take a decent flower shot! I looked over between taking pictures and caught him standing all up in this bloomin' bushes business. ;)

Andrew strikes again! The horticultural paparazzi. Seriously though, I love it when he gets curious and starts taking actual photos with my camera. :)

We'll see how long it will be until the next time I get in front of my own camera! It's not an easy task, I will give my subjects some credit there. In case you missed it, all of the family images including the first flower image by Andrew, were processed with Morgan Burks Photography: Radioactive freebies. I can't wait to try them out in my upcoming engagement shoot! Until then, keep your eye out for another make-up post within the next day or so!

- Shelby Demo