How I Got Amazing Engagement Photos

Plan, Practice & Go With The Damn Flow. 

Natural lighting is your best friend when it comes to photos. 

All the edits done with these were done on my IPhone 6 in the basic edits. 

There are so many apps you can use but I kept things simple because 

I didn't want the edited look, plus the natural lighting worked well. 

Knowing the people you are photographing 

does amazing things for you photos. At least I think so. 

I had a rough idea of how Tori would react and that 

my brother would look at the camera and smile...

I just didn't know when. I was prepared and 

kept an eye for hidden details. Basically, I was a hawk. 

Ryan is not as artsy fartsy as I am... so we balance (get different views/angles) each other well. He is logical, matte of fact and 

his photos show that. He got great shots (like the one above). 

He was down in the tiny bush capturing the angle 

where you could see Tori's facial reaction where 

I was on the flip capturing more of Timmy's. 

Meet my brother, Timmy & the love of his life, Tori. 

They meet in high school when they were great friends. 

Timmy has been in love with Tori since, well, forever. 

He told us (the family) that he loved her right from the start. 

He was young, she was young so we said hmmm yup, of course you do. 

All while thinking, young love, it will pass. Yet it didn't! They only got freakin' 

cuter together! Who does that (in real life!)?

In 2015 they hit their time together where it was like okay already, get engaged! 

Little did everyone know Timmy was working his butt off on 

designing a ring perfectly for Tori. 

He would call Ryan & I daily on his long track home from work. 

Timmy & I would basically stalk Tori's Pinterest...but she made it tough! 

She has like no boards, only like Pins. Really Tori!!

After months of this, Timmy finally finished the ring & got it! 

It is BEAUTIFUL! Dainty just like sweet little Tori. 

Now the engagement. 

He filtered through ideas like crazy! 

From NYC near the giant tree around the holidays, 

to Boston where Ryan & I are currently, to an island or

 something where it was just them. 

Timmy had asked Ryan & I to be there a while ago to 

take document it for them (aka Tori). We are not photographers but 

like to pretend we are. Hobby by choice.

As the day got closer, Timmy had the perfect idea for the engagement.

 He now planned to re-do one of their dates was rather significant. 

I have no clue how this man is so damn romantic? My mom and 

step dad have hugged like all of 3 times that I have ever seen 

(even though they had 3 kids together). My dad, I don't know? 

Dad are you like this?? 

Anyways, Timmy is a total mushy, lovey, dovey guy... & Tori totally loves him! 

When Ryan & I arrived to Venice, FL 

Timmy took us to where he wanted to have it all go down. 

THE GATE WAS LOCKED! 

So I guess, was this private property? 

We found another way... 

we got there and scoped out the layout, the angles of the 

photos and all that jazz. We arrived at the same time that 

he would be doing it on the following night to make sure the 

natural lighting was just right. 

The night of. This entire time planning this Tori & her family

 thought that we were hosting an ugly sweater party. 

Which we did have but really it was a little celebration from 

Tim & Tori and a way from them to announce it to the family 

and celebrate all together! 

The boys helped to get the angles good to go! Thanks guys.

Okay, we were all set. The sun was going down fast & they were here yet. What happens, two people come and park their chairs right next to us!!!!!! Really! You see two people with rather large cameras around their necks, a blanket, and all things romantic & you choose right next to us...when there is an entire beach! 

 Alex (in the orange) went over and used his charm explaining to the lady what we were doing...thanks Alex for doing that! 

This might be the moment were Alex saw dam ants were started to come after the food! Luckily, we caught it in time. 

They are here! Ryan & I had to get to work.

THEY ARE HERE! Timmy had Tori bling folded...just like he did with the date. 

To the right (opposite side of the bench) there were people grilling out. A lady that was there decided it would be a good idea to start saying "she is blind folded" over and over and over! Louder each time. I am the one taking these photos at the moment. I am giving this lady and dam "mom eyes" like SHUT THE beep UP! 

She didn't get the hint... how do I know? Oh, well she GOT UP & FOLLOWED US entire way. She also decided to elevate her thoughts out loud from "she is blindfolded", "It is a surprise", "Is this and engagement?"...If Ryan would ever smack someone, she might has been it. 

 We kept things going. Ryan did his best to keep the lady back near him so Tori wouldn't hear anything she was (rudely) saying. 

WE made it to the beach! No one fell and as of right now that annoying sight seer is back aways. 

Nothing like a volleyball net to maneuver around...just to keep her guessing. 

Thanks Alex for lifting it. I would have totally failed there. 

Timmy had to tell her where to stand..she wasn't making this easy.

Tori kept trying to take off her blind fold so Timmy got it to before she just did it anyways. 

Are you ready for this?

Well, are you???

too late, you took too long...

Here is my fav...well one of them

I LOVE this photo! 

If you my brother, you will love this photo too. 

This is so Timmy. 

When we were getting ready, testing photos I knew exactly where I wanted to be. The angle, the background and the little bits of grass. We had a problem though...too much grass! The boys got to work to make it just right for me...again THANK YOU! 

All that work lead us to have this perfect photo below. 

This is my actually fav

Aw, would ya just look at these two. 

Oh my gosh! I almost forgot. The lady I mentioned early, you know, that one that follow us and keep saying (dumb) stuff out loud. Well, guess who was the first person to congratulate these two. Yup, you guess it. The beach lady was. Geez the weeze. Here were were trying to be all sneaky with photos and hurrying to get out of there and that lady comes walking up to those two. 

I won't even tell you the advice she gave them! Although, I will let you know they are not taking it. :) 

Love you both heaps! 

So happy for you and your journey to continue down a different path. 

Opps....

My videos are not working and I am clueless on how to fix them. I uploaded the video and in my head, they should just work...but they don't. 

So for now, no videos but hopefully I can get them up soon. 

Anyone know how to fix this? ;( (extreme sad face)

Well, that it is that. Hope you were inspired by these photos! 

Later Loves. 

Renting our Home Created This DIY Home Makeover Wish List

Oh Hello! Hope that you are having a damn good #MOTIVATIONMONDAY. 

It has been awhile since I have done any new & amazing DIY projects. I am hunkering down and focusing on my biz skills. You can see what I have been up here right here: How I figured Out My Target Audience

Ryan & I have not been in Boston form more than 2 weeks so far this year! We did end the year back here, but for less than 24 hours! New Years Eve was thrilling- us sprawled out in our oh so comfy bed, jamming 3 hours of sleep in before we took off on another flight,.

Quick Recap: In 2015 we did 10 countries, ending the year here in US, but in FL celebrating the holidays with my family. You might have seen the DIY project we did there? The DIY Closet Makeover? We were thrilled with the turn out. So far the kids have not wrecked it so we are in good shape.

Jan. 1, 2016, we headed back to MN to see our home & handle some shitty things with it. Long story short we had a rough experience with renting out our home (super sad face...like someone spit in your food and you didn't see it until you went to take the last bite kind of sad-disgusted face). I have so many blogs drafted to post about this experience, one day I will do it but I need to proof read those and probably edit the enormous amount of cuss words out and endless opinions about the poor rental company we "worked" with.
So, we went back and saw our home...or what was once out home. It could be so much worse but hot damn were we totally grossed out, angry, sad, confused and just let down after seeing OUR home in person. We have so much to do with it that you will have plenty of DIY posts coming your way in the next few months.

So with the surprise renovations* our tenant was oh so nice to do in our home(* also known as damages) we have created a HOME MAKEOVER WISH LIST, or at least I have.

Wish List & Must dos:

1. Carpet & Home Cleaning - Hire cleaners to clean EVERYTHING!!!

+ Carpets included

2. Garage Door/ Garage Damage:

Sheet rock where he drove into the house

3. New car to buy
4. Water Damage in basement- across entire ceiling around air vents
5. Fix all holes in walls
6. Fix garage wall (where tenant drove into wall)
7. Paint- Re-Paint EVERYTHING/ Take ALL wall paper down
8. Fix trim around door to garage/
9. fix entry nook- all white with paneling
10. New washer/dryer in laundry room
11. Office & Bedroom Wood Flooring
12. Office-desk in closet, wall table & shelf, love seat
13. Vertical Garden in Kitchen where black and white chevron is
14. Build Dining room table/ refurbish/ new?
15. New racking in closet of the "master" closet
16. Replace doors? Or look into pudding over or a new door?

Maybe door knob wall protectors

17. Furniture- two chairs and a coffee table in kitchen
18. Industrial wall shelves downstairs
19. Hand rail to downstairs- patch and fix or remove and patch up
20. Nook bench upstairs under stairs
21. Season Porch wit deck extension 
22. Patio furniture table- redo with a wooden top?
23. Guest Room Makeover (see notes to right)
24. Front entrance: cemented patio along front windows,

paint all cement to look like stone, add patio chairs out front

25. Nook bench outside on upper deck (with storage under?)

* Did you read the post when we re did our racking in our closet? If so, 
you might be just as sad as I am...our tenant took it out, 
cut it and zip tied it up into another closet ...whaaaaa! 

You can follow us on Pinterest to see what are are pinning to our
HOME MAKEOVER WISH LIST  You can see my Office Wish List Board too! 

We have a lot of work to do. Some ideas, some must do like the 
water damage in our basement or clearing out the 
20+ bags of trash sitting in our garage. See below!!!!! 
EW, RIGHT! Worst part is that we are not even there to 
take care of it so it is just sitting there. Thank goodness it is freezing there. 

Do you have a horrible or unfortunate renting experience? 
Feel free to share it if you want. I can talk all damn day about how amazed I am to have met/experienced how a human can treat someones home. 
How someone could lie, harass & take advantage of us. 
You always hear about it happening but as always, never think it will to you. 
Now that it has, we do not want to change our thinking of most humans are good, 
most people don't mean harm, most people would help you, 
or that renting out your home is a horrible choice but man is this experience making that hard! 

Once Ryan approves of my blog post about our shitty situation and how strongly I do not recommend working with Renter's Warehouse for property management, I will share it with you all. Maybe some photos of our home too, that way you can decide how you would feel like you saw your home the way we saw ours.

Here is one to keep you hanging yet craving more! 

On a happier note, read How I Figured Out My Target Audience on the TOM & Orrow Blog 

Later Loves. 

Candid Tips On Starting An Online Business

Oh, Hello!  

I am not just a blogger here on Brushes & Bolts. I also own TOM & Orrow Boutique, a small online shop. It started from nothing, I had basically no connections, just me working from home in a new big city, knowing my passion but not a damn clue on how to make it a career, a successful business.

We aren't there yet, but we are well on the way!

I used a lot of you readers & bloggers to learn about how to turn your passion into you day to day job, how to turn your craft/hobby into a business. In return for all the useful information you gave me, I want to give what I have learned back!

In this blog you will find examples from personal experience along with some links to sources I have used or found helpful. There are many I have not included because well, that gives everything away!


First thing is first, do your research. 
Research everything about your product market, compare it-make a list of yours and all other similar & be sure to know what makes yours different. Why do people want your product vs others? Do have have something need? Why would people want your product? 

Example: At Tom & Orrow we provide you accessories that allow you to express who you are through your style. Each & every accessory is different from the next, all being handmade and one of a kind. We also support local & other small shops. We offer high quality & truly unique products that everyone can enjoy.


Get & Stay Focus:
Focus on your product and its quality. Narrow down your inventory-avoid scope creep! I had this bad! I wanted to make so many things but never stopped to focus on one product and make it great. Now, with my online shop I test out products, wear them to get feedback. After that, I make more to see what styles of the products go over well and what ones don't. I focus on different accessories per month to build a following and keep consistent postings all while staying focused on building a unique yet quality inventory .

Build a structured daily routine. This will help you, your business and your customers. Having a start up means you will be working- always. Remember to pencil in some time for yourself or if you are anything like me (a passionate crafty workaholic) you will keeping beading or knitting instead of going for a jog or hitting hot yoga*.

*I like to combine them. I will hit the treadmill or elliptical while I knit, crochet, draft blogs and edit photos. 

There are so many sources for bloggers out there. Almost every blogger offers a Blogger Planner.  

Example: I first has an Etsy shop- was not successful! I was all over the place with my products, when I worked and my blog posts. I never set a target audience so my sales were not consistent. Basically, I was a mess. 

Make your Brand:
Your brand is what drives people to you and your products. Establish your brand to make it clear to your audience what your bring to their life.

Be Consistent:
Be frigging consistent! This is something I am still working on. I have no business background and my mind is like a damn craft store with an endless amount of products all while on a carousel! Just round and round my thoughts and ideas go-seriously.

Get social:
Join blogger groups, entrepreneur associations and other support systems. I still believe that if you know the right people and have the drive within your passion you will make your dream job happen.


I use these wooden icons throughout my website because they go perfect with my brand. 

 

 

See more icons at Icons- My Site My Way

Make use of all those social media platforms. You don't need to b on everyone all day everyday but the ones you are on, be active! Like, comment, share, re-post, tag, hashtag & track them with Google Analytics or another free tracking tool. 

Some Facebook Groups I have joined that I am happy with are:

1. Boston Bloggers  Look up your city to see if there is a blogging community
2. For Love + Money with Caitlin Bacher 
3. Savvy Business Owners
4. Personal Fav: Female Entrepreneur Association 

Number 2 & 4 both offer wonderful emails and online courses! 



Don't take things personal:
You are a business, or on your way to becoming one. Do not take things personal. Some people will not like your products, pricing or, you. Just be you & be true to yourself along with your brand. I am not saying be rude or mean if things go south. Take feedback & reviews and apply them to better your business. Remember that as long as you believe in yourself and you are true to yourself and your brand, some negative thoughts & comments might happen but do not let them hold you back!

Photography:
Good quality photos go along way. Your photos should flow with your brand. You want people to see your photo & think of YOU! There are many apps you can use to help you with photos. Personally, I stick with After Photo & Layout, which is attached to Instagram. They work well for me. If you have a friend that does photography maybe collaborate. If you have a budget set for photography-great, use it but be sure to find a photography that will get your brand jumping out of your photos. 

I do all of my photos but I enjoy it! I am not against collaborating at all...actually hopefully doing it soon! Just have not had the budget yet. 

Follow our BUSINESS TIPS 

Pinterest Board for some 

links to business tips. 

Want some great sources? You should! You can get the links to some great sources to help you build your passion into a business over at my shop blog: TOM & Orrow Boutique Blog 



This by know means is me telling you what to do or that is is guarantee to make you successful. This is me sharing some personal experience and offering you to take what you want from it. I wish you all the best in your journey. 

Always feel free to contact me about anything and I promise to answer candidly. 

Happy Monday Loves. 

DIY Closet Makeover

Happy New Year!

This year has been a heck of a year! We moved from MN to MA, traveled to 10 countries including a 7 day cruise to start of 2015 with my family in FL, had a rather stressful adventure renting out home back in MN and ending there year with 2 weeks in FL doing a closet makeover. I know you came here for the closet makeover so I will just get right to it.

Being the oldest of 6, our house gets pretty crazy at times. My mom has wanted a "mud room", cubby area for some time now. Lucky for her, Ryan & I really love to do DIY projects and are getting pretty damn good at them. This year we decided to turn their entry way from the garage into the house into what she has been talking about for years! Of course, we planned this before everything really went down with the renting of our home…that is another story, book really- I'll have a nice long post on that coming soon. Okay, back to the closet. So the entry space is the main entry used. The kids are always running in and out with all sorts of gear, friends and other crap. There is a large 2 bi-fold closet on one side and the other a single bi fold closet- both have always been filled with junk! As my brother & I moved out, that became the closet of everything we left :)

When were weren't working on the closet, I spent time with my mom and sister drinking way too much Starbucks! 

Ryan & I drew up some plans and discussed our ides based off what my mom wanted, what we could do with minimum tools and a rather low budget now that our tenant was oh so kind to our home and payment (total sarcasm).

Here are photos of the process of our closet makeover. I am a lazy blogger and do not really ever share detailed step by step instructions. If that is something you want or have questions- just comment below :) I would be happy to share more with you!

Simple scrubbing did wonderful things to this space! Once everything was all cleaned up the patching of holes took place. There was this awesome product I found at Lowes that was a 4-in-1 tool for dry wall patching. Has too much fun with it.

As the patches were drying, some measurements were taken for double checking before purchasing wood along with the taping before painting. Taping was annoying as taping it but it got done! I also covered their wood floors with just rolls of paper for protection…mainly because the kids were still using the door and of course managed to step in paint!

After a few hours of allowing the patch word to dry, using the same tool, the holes were simply sanded sanded down. I didn’t really need to use the scraper besides once or twice which you would do before you sand.

SCENTED PAINT!!!! 

Painting time! The paint I picked out was Mountain Smoke by Valspar. 

I used Satin…I think…to help for easy clean up since it is a busy area of the house. 2 coats and some touch ups later, the walls were set to go! I jumped the gun as I normally do and hang up some pictures and signs my mom loves on one blank wall. The pantry closet in the kitchen was a bit…wrecked, so I painted that with chalkboard paint and drew on a calendar along with their Wi-Fi information and a little note bin.

A few days into this, Ryan arrived and that is when we really got to work! We borrowed some tools and hit Lowes up one rainy morning. 

We knew that it shouldn't take that long but we have also learned that when we think that, our projects always end up taking 3 times as long as planned. We couldn’t let that happen this time. One, it was for to her people, it was their Christmas present and lastly…because we knew the "ugly sweater" party we were having on Dec. 23rd was actually a surprise get together for Tim (my brother) & Tori as we knew he was popping the question! She said yes so no worries! Ryan & I took the photos and I am happy to say they are beautiful!

Here is a few favorites:

Okay for it is Dec. 20 and we have 2 days…but really 1 because Dec 21 is my sister Joeli's birthday….

We got our the materials and had to have boards cut in order to fit them into my mom's small Mercedes…challenge accepted & succeeded.  As Ryan measure and cut the boards, I out my sister and mom to work! We worked on sanding all the boards and staining them. Of course we had dinner plans with my grandma's and my dad that early evening so we didn't even get to the building. The next day, Joeli's birthday, Ryan I got to work while having some coffee. Joeli helped here and there. We were on a roll. Everything was actually working! We took a lunch break and surprised Joeli to some lunch and sweets at her top places. Sooner than later, we got right back to work! We finished it all up that night!

Did I mention Ryan also fixed the front door handle as it hasn’t worked in like 5 or 6 years. Apparently they had a "door guy" come to fix it but he couldn’t? Anyways, Ryan got it done! Along with a new sink faucet that they have had for 3 years in the box - haha he took care of that too!

All while this madness is happening. My brother, Joey took a good fall off a skateboard leading to a fractured wrist. My sister Ellie spent my birthday in the ER super sick…& they got a puppy for Christmas :)

Back to the closet area. The smaller closet we planned to add a cute little gate to for a dog kennel area..but they for a Dogue de Bordeaux puppy…which will group up to be rather massive. We choose to not do the gate and just make it a dog food/ toy/ storage area. Turned out cute!

Here are the photos: 

Comparisons: 

Dog Area Photos coming as soon as my mom sends them :) 


We ending our FL vacation with best friends in Orlando, FL. They took us to explore St. Augustine and we feel in love! New pla, vacation home there! 
 

Well, feel free to comment, ask questions and share your thoughts!

See my new scarf on my TOM & Orrow TRENDS BLOG HERE

SPECIAL EXTENDED

50% off for my blog readers today ONLY!

Happy New Year!