Kayla and Jesse - Maternity

This post is an interesting one... These maternity pictures were taken 3 weeks ago when Kayla was just over 37 weeks pregnant.

 

Well, since then I have gotten to do the birth story of their precious baby boy Huck and a newborn session! Needless to say a lot has happened since this muggy Thursday afternoon! Here are just a couple of the great shots we captured and I can't wait to share all of the other sweet moments from the past few weeks.

-Melissa-

Justine, Kasey and Chloe

Hi there! Some of you may know that photography is something I truly enjoy and have dabbled in some here and there, but while I'm pregnant I have really been taking it slow and not committing to much... But every now and then someone will ask and I can't 'just say no'. :) Especially when it's such close family friends!

Justine is my best friends younger sister and she has the most adorable little girl named Chloe. Chloe has such a cute and spunky personality for being just shy of 3 and I think these photos definitely portray that. Justine's boyfriend Kasey was sweet enough to gift her a session for her birthday so when she asked I knew it would be so much fun and had to say yes!!

Here is a sneak peak of some of the shots we got during their session. With every session my goal is to capture my subjects just as they are and I hope you can feel the love and hear all of the giggles that were shared in these sweet moments.

Aren't they the cutest?!? Catching Chloe on the trampoline was hysterical! So glad I got to spend an evening with these three and capture some of their funny, sweet and precious moments.

Until next time,

Melissa

DIY Twine wrapped sconce

Hey there! It's been a while since I posted, I've been so busy with trying to get all of my projects done I haven't made the time to post any of them! 6 months ago we lucked up on a great rental property that we just couldn't pass up. We would love to build, but Tim and I both agree that right now is not the time... so we found the next best thing. We are renting a house that was built in 1917... that's right, just 4 years shy of being 100 years old! I love old houses and the charm that they hold and this one is no exception! The house was remodeled in the 70's and has been a rental since the late 90's. Our land lord is so trusting and nice to let us pretty much do whatever we want to the place to upgrade it, which is amazing! The only thing we can't touch, unfortunately, is the wood paneling that was installed in the 70's... and still holds true to it's era. But I shouldn't complain... we're getting to have so much fun redoing and decorating and it's perfect practice for when we do build :).

Trying to upgrade and change things in a rental can be tricky sometimes because of not wanting to spend large amounts of money, when in the end it's not going to be our home. Keeping that in mind we have tried to prioritize what is most important and what can be tolerated. But to spruce things up a little I have really tried repurposing some of the decor items that we have collected over the past 4 years to save some pennies. I actually have 2 of these sconces that I changed to hang on either side of our bed and I love them! They were definitely unplanned and something I just sat down on the couch one night and started not knowing what the finished product was going to look like.

Because these were so unplanned I don't have a great before picture, but hopefully this gives you an idea of what they looked like before-

I just happened to find this picture of Tim and Gabe just a couple of days after he was born with the sconce in the background... not terrible, but definitely not the style in which we're going for in our new space.

hopefully you can see I really just grabbed the twine and started wrapping as tightly as possible and just decided as I went where to wrap and not to wrap. You see in the before picture that the pair was a pewter color, which was fine, but after I wrapped the twine I knew it was going to have to change. I grabbed some white paint and literally rubbed it on all of the exposed metal with my finger. No precise method or needing to get it completely covered, I just painted until I was pleased with the way it looked.

I love our "new" wall decor and they go perfectly in our "new" room. I can't wait to reveal the whole thing at once but I couldn't stand not to share these upcycled babies. I'm in love with them and so glad I didn't chunk them... because it definitely crossed my mind :)

What do you think of the sconce? Do you have something tucked away that could be turned into something new? What have you used twine for recently?

Until Next Time

Melissa

A little bit of background

So now that I have given you my "why" I'm blogging I'm going to give you a little background about me and some of the people you may hear about...

First off, I would not be where I am today or possibly even alive if it weren't for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It took me a long time to realize that every single thing I do is to honor him and that is exactly why we were put on the earth. I'm going to tell you about two of the most important people in my life in just a moment but I couldn't start without giving some praise to the one who has given me those two joys. I'm so undeserving and he continues to poor out his redeeming grace and mercy on me and I am forever thankful and amazed.

Next we have this guy... This is my oh so wonderful husband Tim. I am still shocked he chose me to be his wife one extremely hot Saturday afternoon in September of 2009. He is the one person on this earth that just might understand my wacky brain. He gets me better than anyone and he is beyond supportive. Not only does he go to work (and hard work I might add) every day, while I get to stay home with our sweet little boy, he comes home with a smile and is so eager to see us. He loves me unconditionally and unlike some men I know he is happy to see me start a new hobby and have something to do. He loves to see me happy and that is something I cherish more than he could ever know.


  

And then there is this little guy, this is our sweet little boy, Gabe. He captured our hearts in late August of 2011 and I can't believe he will be 2 in just two short months.  Can words even express the amount of love that gets poured out on this kid?? I think not. To Mine and Tim's advantage and disadvantage all at the same time he was the first grandchild on both sides.... Oh. My. Gracious is he spoiled. But I have to take some of the responsibility for that one, I mean do you see that face?? I never thought I could be a full time stay at home mom because I thought I would get bored... yea right! He keeps me on my toes at all times and I wouldn't have it any other way! I just pray that the Lord will bless Tim and I with the wisdom to raise this precious gift that he has given us because you can't help second guess yourself when you think about the fact that every decision you make will effect the person he will become. Whoever says parenting is easy I would like to pick their brain!!!

The last person I'm going to mention is the newest addition to our little family! We found out late January that we were expecting baby number two and found out in April that it's a GIRL! I am beyond excited! Don't get me wrong... I love digging in the dirt, playing with trains and rough housing with our boy, but I am looking forward to bows, frills and lace! Tim on the other hand is more scared than anything, he knows that he will be wrapped twice as tight with not just one but TWO of the cutest kids in the world around :) Our sweet Ayda Jean will hopefully be arriving sometime early October unless she decides to follow suit after her brother and waits over a week after her due date...

Now that you've gotten a small background on my little family I hope you can enjoy and appreciate some of the things that I will be posting a little more. Like I hope you all are ready for Ayda's Nursery reveal!! So many exciting things going on in the McNeal household right now I won't know where to begin!

Until next time,

Melissa

And it starts...

So I'm not going to lie... this is about the 5th time I've said "I'm going to try blogging." But I think I always wanted to do it before because I thought it was a cool thing to do or I thought it was going to make me become a "crafty" person... I have realized that I'm going to start this thing for me. I need a place to put my thoughts, share my inner crafty person, brag on my guys (more about them later) and maybe along the way I can help some others. Whether it be with a tutorial on my latest craft or an inspirational thought that someone just happened to need to see. I know this probably sounds crazy and makes me seem a little scatter brained (somewhat true) but this is just a gist as to why I'm starting this thing and I hope some of you will enjoy it along the way!