Hola Espania!

This summer Nabil and I were able to take the trip of a lifetime. I mean really, the trip of a lifetime. I may have mentioned a time or two, that Nabil's brother Yacine currently lives in a little town called Jolly Ol' London. You may also know that there was a little event there this summer called... the OLYMPICS! Yes we got to go to London 2012! It was absolutely incredible, but more on that later.

We figured that since we were making the trip all the way across the pond, we might as well hit up a few other countries while we were there. I mean, it's so easy to get around, we couldn't really say no. Enter, Espania!

We first stopped in to stay with a friend for a few days. They live in a little town called Benicassim. I don't think this town could be any cuter. It was right on the beach and every morning, our good friends Laura and Raul would make us an amazing breakfast. We would eat on their balcony, and yeah, check out that view!

The food was so good! One of my favorite parts of eating out was that most of the outdoor seating was on the street inbetween the restaurants and houses. Laura and Raul would make fun of me because I kept saying "This is SO European". But seriously, it was! Like in a movie. You don't really see that in the states. It was pretty awesome. And just look at that handsome hubby. So cute.

And there he is again, just chillin' by the Benicassim sign.

Pretty sweet huh? The second day we were there, Laura and Raul took us on a little jaunt to Vilafames, Spain. It's about half and hour inland from Benicassim. This town is the definition charming. If I ever become a multi-millionnaire, I am going to buy a little house in this town and stay there every spring or summer. The town was so amazing, I don't even know where to start.

Look at those cute little Spanish, soon to be parents. Such great hosts.

There was a tiny shop in the town where we bought jam, honey, olive oil, and wine. Check out the wine. Apparently, in Spain each vineyard has a quota that they are not allowed to sell over. If they make over that amount, they leave them unlabled, give them to small vendors (usually friends) who sell them for like $3 a bottle. It's like a fun, wine, grab bag. A surprise in every bottle.

The other great thing about this town, is that it is thousands of years old. Many of the houses were built into the side of red rock, which is the primary foundation of the whole town. One of the stores we went into had the red rock as the back wall. No drywall or finishes, just red rock. Pretty sweet.

We kept walking up and down the streets, and guess what we saw?! I real CASTLE!! That's right. Those things us Americans only learn about from text books, and battle movies.

Okay, it's a run down castle. But, for something built in the 16th century, it looks pretty good. Spectacular view too.

This is inside the main tower.

Since the castle was mainly used as a fortress, there are windows that surround all of the exterior walls. They are wider on the inside and narrow on the outside to allow archers room to shoot out, but narrow to keep the arrows from entering. See, history can be fun!

Those are the highlights. Up next, Barcelona! (Update: check out our trip through Barcelona here)

Until next time...

Frame it up!

We are slowly decorating our new crib and with that comes new projects. This time, sprucing up that blah of a hallway. So here we go again. Remember my last frame project? Don't worry, this one was quite a bit easier. I didn't make anything from scratch. I used some old frames and painted, sanded and placed them to fit our style and location.

I'm mad at myself for not taking a picture of the frames before I painted them so that you all could get a true sense of the difference from start to finish, but alas, I didn't think about it until it was too late. Anywho, I started with a box set of about 10 frames. I think that I bought them for $5 at a garage sale. They were sitting in the hall closet at our old place for about a year until I could figure out what to do with them. Turns out, they were just waiting to be painted.

I bought a few spray cans of flat, white paint/prime. The hallway where I wanted to put them is pretty dark. The space needs as light much light as it can get, so bright white frames are the way to go.

One of the things that I hate most about spray painting, is that you have to be patient. That's not my strong suit. I want to spray a layer, and then spray the next one right after that. I feel like it take so LONG if I do it the right way. Turns out, people tell you to be patient for a reason. I found out that painting too fast can sometimes cause the paint to bubble up. It could have had something to do with the material I was painting on (cheap plastic), but nonetheless, when I was "almost" done with painting all the frames, I noticed a few splotches bubbling up and when I waited for it to dry, the bubbling flaked right off. Not a good look. You can kind of see one of the flake chunks that came off in the photo above (on the LOVE).

In order to salvage my project, I decided to sand down all the letters and "shabby chic" (as my sister calls it) them all. I used some gritty sandpaper that we had in our tool box to wear off the corners.

Here is the after effect:

In my humble experience, the worst part of sanding to "shabby-chic" is trying to decide wear to stop. I like the sanded look, but I needed to keep the frames mostly white so it would still brighten up the hallway. After a long process of sanding, sanding, and more sanding, I was finally ready to sort and hang.

You may notice in the "before" picture below, our hallway is pretty long. Because of that, I had to spread out the frames quite a bit. I think it will actually be better because then I can add other white frames through the years.

And there you have it. I brighter, slightly more decorated hallway. It's starting to feel more and more like home with each project.

Until next time...

Cody and Stephanie's Backyard Wedding

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to work as a second shooter for Margaret Jacobson. She is a great photographer here in Portland, and I was so thankful to have the opportunity to work with such a talented seasoned vet. It was a beautiful wedding and a beautiful couple.

It's so fun to watch the girls getting ready. ...and really I couldn't have asked for a more photogenic bride. Barely any makeup yet, and still so gorgeous.

A close up on the dress:

...and the handsome groom. I had to make him get ready twice, because he did it without me there the first time. Boys, don't they know they have to wait for the photographer to get ready?! He was a trooper though. I think he was just too excited and couldn't wait to see his girl.

Groomsmen. If this isn't bromance, I don't know what is.

The best man fine tuning his speech

The happy couple... 's feet

I told you, crazy photogenic, right?!

Love this one

I'm pretty sure I have never been in a more gorgeous backyard. Cody and Stephanie probably got sick of me telling them how gorgeous it was, but I couldn't help myself. It was stunning. I'm talking like backyard of my dreams kind of stunning.

Not only was the venue amazing, but the bride's mom added these great details all over. She hand painted/wrote about 8 of these chalkboards for the wedding. Far better than I could ever do.

And onto the ceremony

And the after party. Who doesn't love a photo of the guests having a great time? I know I do.

First dance

Right before sunset, down by the river

I know I don't usually post this many photos for one wedding, but I couldn't help myself. Great light, great couple, great party = great photos. Thanks Stephanie, Cody, and Margaret for letting me tag along and be a part of your beautiful day