Playing with Light: Photography

Good Mornin'

Over the past few weeks I have had the chance to practice a bit with the camera and different lenses and lighting. Most of my models are family members but I did get a chance to photograph Search and Rescue with Big Brothers and Big Sisters together as well. I also had the honour to be part of a wedding about a week and a half ago so I took advantage of some of the details to practice with.

Here is some of my work over the past few weeks.

It was great to try out all the different kinds of lighting and I am definitely still figuring out all the settings on the camera but it's been a lot of fun!

Hope everyone has an awesome day!

Love, B

2nd Anniversary with a special guest!

Happy 2nd Wedding Anniversary to my husband, Steve!

Vanessa Voth Photography

Last weekend we spent our second anniversary in beautiful Whistler, BC! We met my family up there and they joined us for an afternoon bike ride around Lost and Alta Lake, a trip to an Irish pub and practiced our golfing skills at the driving range behind our hotel. It was a wonderful weekend and we can't wait to head back up there in a few months for ski season. :)

Here are some pictures from our weekend trip!

Driving Range!

Olympic Rings

 

View from Aava Hotel Suite

2

Love, B

                                                                                                                              

Guest Post! 

Hello internet, its Beth's husband Steve. Being our second anniversary I figured it would be a good time to post something. It's my first post today and I hope to do more in the future featuring cool things that I love, and projects that I will work on. But today my post is about us. 

Over the past few years Beth has been working on projects around the home, and recently started blogging to you lucky readers. To be perfectly honest with all of you I haven't always been a supportive husband in regards to her work. Furniture and Decor and Blogging and Photography??? What's all this?

I grew up believing that old saying " If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Why move the couch across the room? Why put photos up all over the walls? In fact why paint the walls unless they've been marked up by kids with crayons? Our first week living in our new home, and the living room, dining room and kitchen had already been painted. Boy, was I in for a surprise! 

This is where the love part comes in. Beth has always been there supporting me in my endeavors even when I wasn't there supporting her own. In the last few years she has brought me into the world of Home Decor and Design, and you might even find me flipping through a Kitchen and Bath magazine....  She is the smartest, cutest and most genuine woman that I know. But most importantly she is brave. Brave enough to follow a passion. Brave enough to follow a dream. Brave enough to show me what she loves to do, and immerse me in it. 

These past few years have been the best years of my life, and I'm so happy she's been by my side, as I now by hers. She is the most interesting and attractive person I've ever had in my life and no one even comes a close second.  

Steven 

Ps. Love you hun

Teen dresser Makeover!

 Heyo! 

Hope everyone had an excellent weekend! We celebrated our 2nd anniversary (actually on Sept.17th) in Whistler, BC this weekend and it was an amazing time. More about that and our anniversary tomorrow on the blog. :)

Well, this dresser makeover was a lot of fun!

A couple weeks back I took on refinishing this dresser for a sweet family. The dresser was being refinished for a teen's bedroom and they had an idea of what they wanted, so I got to work right away!

This is the dresser beforehand.

Lucky for me they had already sanded most of it but I checked it over to make sure there weren't any rough patches. Then I got out my handy paint brush, roller, tray and primer and got right down to business.

Ahhh! Looks so much better already!

Originally the dresser had handles with two screws each, but they wanted to add crystal handles that only have one so I filled the holes with wood filler and made new holes with my drill.

The picture above is between coats 2 and 3 of the off white colour called Lookout from General Paints. 

After one coat of primer, 3 coats of paint, 1 coat of varathane and 7 crystal handles added, this is the final look of the dresser. Gorgeous!

Thanks for checking out my Teen dresser makeover! Tomorrow I will be back with a more personal blog about Steve and I's 2nd Anniversary with a few throwbacks from our big day a couple years ago.

Happy Monday!

Love, B

Fall Wedding!

Fall is coming.

I will miss Summer and all the amazing adventures it had to offer but I'm also excited for sweaters, boots, scarves, pumpkin spice lattes, and colourful leaves that come with the cooler season.

Fall can be an amazing time to have a wedding especially if it offers us the same weather it has for the past few years. Generally most venues lower their prices in the Fall season, so that is something to think about if you are trying to save money. Fall would also be a great season for wedding photos with all the colourful leaves and not to mention you most likely won't be sweating in your attire like in the summer.

Scrolling through Pinterest and numerous websites, here are some of my favourites for a Fall wedding.

LOVE everything about this!

Hope everyone has a great Wednesday! If you live in the Fraser Valley, man is it beautiful and HOT!

Love, B

Update: Guest Bedroom

At the beginning of the summer I posted a mood board for my guest bedroom (here) and now I have some updates! The room will be finished as soon as I find the perfect dresser or vanity to place on the furthest wall from the door and later this year I plan to replace the carpet with hardwood and a rug.
For now I have changed the colour of the walls, curtains, lighting, bedding, decor and furniture.

The pictures below are of what it looks like now. I'm looking for a few more decor pieces and some cool art.

Still needs wall art and a vanity/dresser but it's coming together!

New Ikat curtains

One piece of wall art that will be going up tomorrow.

Enjoy your Thursday evening! 

Love, B

Getting to know me a bit more!

I believe most of the people that have read my blog thus far probably know me somewhat, whether it was through high school, college, work or our family. For the people who have never met me, don't know me all that well, or want to get to know who I am more, keep on reading!

Whenever I try to write a post about myself I never know where to start so I will just give a brief summary of what may be important. This will be on the internet so Im not going to share every little detail about myself, where I live etc. because I feel like that is TMI and boring for you.



My name is Beth and at the moment I am 24 years old. I am happily married to Steve (you will hear lots about him) and we have a furry, skinny golden retriever named Jackson (Jax for short) that we love so much. We both owned a home by the age of 21 and are very hard workers! Steve has had the same job since he was 15 (his 10 years with the City is in September) and I have had a few different jobs, usually a few at the same time. When I'm not at home working on my business and home projects, I'm working as an EA with special needs children in the school district. Over the past couple of years I have started my own business (Simply Chic Decor) that includes refinished furniture, home and wedding decor. If you read my post earlier I mentioned that I enjoy photography and I hope that one day maybe I could make a business out of that too! Other than work I enjoy being outside walking, hiking, skiing, swimming etc. I also really enjoy reading, crafting (shocking, I know) and traveling a lot! I won't get into travel right now because I could go on about it forever! :)

Steve and I :) (Vanessa Voth Photography)



Here is ten random facts you may or may not know about me!

1. I'm addicted to tea, sweets and to do lists!
2. I only have two first cousins.
3. I'm a huge Game of Thrones fan! Rob was my favourite :(
4. I dream of visiting Iceland, Egypt, Germany, Bali, New Zealand and the list goes on.
5. I  have been to Disneyland 7 times! (3 times last year...)
6. I'm really tall, 5'10 to be exact.
7. I have never been to any other province or territory in Canada. 
8. I have 0 tattoos but would like a few.
9. I would love to have a cat but I'm allergic!
10. Steve asked me out with a fortune cookie over 5 years ago!

Hope everyone enjoys their day!

Love, B

Photography

Good Morning!

On Monday I had mentioned that I had some exciting personal news that I was going to share today!
No, I'm not pregnant (if Alison is reading this)!
I've spent some time thinking and debating about talking about another venture I would like to take. I have so many things that I do at home like painting furniture, painting rooms, DIY projects, crafting, organizing, setting up weddings and the list goes on. I LOVE being able to do all these things, share them with all of you, and make a bit of an extra income but I enjoy doing other things as well. 
For several years I have been very interested in photography, whether it was taking photos of friends, family, babies, pets, or nature. Over the past couple of years I have taken an introductory course, studied numerous tips/tutorials online and practiced with several friends. I mostly enjoy maternity, babies and portrait sessions over engagements and weddings because I haven't had much practice in that area but would love to someday. In the past couple of years I have done family sessions, head shots and a PROPOSAL (I was situated about two blocks away)!!
Over the past few months I have done three newborn sessions, a birth (!!!), maternity and have a few family and bridal sessions coming up! Believe me, I know I am not a professional or anything but would love to pursue this journey. 

Side note...I don't edit my photos with any software other than changing some to black and white so all of them are straight out of the camera. I would love to get photoshop to play around with eyes and different colouring.

Here is some of my recent work:

Maternity-Tonya & Colton

Baby Landon

Baby Briella

Baby Briella

Maternity-Tonya

Family-Tonya & Landon

Baby Briella

Pets-Jackson

Mom's Garden

Mom's Garden

Shot after a birth-Alison(visitor) & Landon

Currently I have some family, boudoir, portrait and a wedding session set up but need some more models!

If you or someone you know would be willing to let me take some family, newborn or maternity photos please contact me at beth@scdecor.ca or message me on facebook! I only have a limited number of spots available right now so message me right away! :)

Love, B