kathy thompson photography

Good morning! Where does the time seem to go this time of year?  Mid December already.

I wanted to share this shoot, it was for a wonderful friend/co-worker.  She's had quite a year, but when you look at those 2 handsome, dapper little guys, how can you not help but smile?

We started with a traditional portrait, the only thing her mother in law requested for Christmas, the elusive 'family shot'.  Long live the garage shoot!

Then H1 posed for me alone:

But boy was he excited when his 'girlfriend' showed up:

We then headed outdoors, with the big red wagon and got these:

(I love a 'birds eye view' shot).

No lack of cuteness, this little guy:

Ready for H2?  Quite possibly the cutest almost 1 year old on the planet:

Lots of energy from these two; for instance:

Love that one.

And this one.  I had to work hard to get - and keep! - his attention when he knew his mama was behind him:

but he clearly found me pretty amusing, because he started to climb out of the wagon and almost gave me a heart attack!

He found the whole thing quite entertaining :)

T, so glad this worked out, and that you like the shots - and so glad to finally have you back at work too!

Have a good Thursday, everyone!

Good morning!  How was your weekend?

I have long been obsessed with Pottery Barn and their current yet timeless style.  I am partcularly obsessed with their slightly distressed totally perfect black finish, but not obsessed at all with their prices and the fact that the closest Pottery Barn is in Ontario!

So, what to do, what to do. . .  turn to the www of course, specifically Pinterest!  I had been noticing that this tutorial kept popping up, so I watched it a few dozen times and thought what the heck, looks do-able.

And you know what??

It was!

My table went from this:

to this:

(not a great after pic, but you get the idea).

I am in love with it!

I followed the steps in the video.

It was lightly sanded, primed with this stuff:

(here's a little tip also courtesy of Pinterest; line your paint tray with foil - makes clean up a snap!)

Make sure you use a decent quality foam roller:

That was then lightly sanded:

It was then wiped down and dried, and then it was time for the the first coat! I was so excited to get that on, but wait, we ran into a slight glitch.  Notice anything (besides the fact that it's a grainy cell phone pic)??

That's right - it's not black, it's blue! Long story short, I chose a colour called "Jet" as in black.  When it was mixed, it didn't look right to me but the paint guy convinced me that it would dry black. Well, it didn't.  Back to the store I went. . . twice!  Moral of the story: stand your ground with the paint guy.

Once that was corrected, it was really fun painting and sanding and painting and sanding and painting and sanding!

And then the really neat part began - the distressing.  The right angles were very easy to distress, but the rounded edges were a little more challenging.

I skipped the step with the stain pen, I tried it but didn't feel like this piece needed it:

It was then wiped down thoroughly and given two coats of this, with cheesecloth:

A little of this goes a long way, but the finish is wonderful - satin-y without being shiny?

I highly recommend the video if you are going for this look - it's easy to follow and I just love the end result!

I also painted some furniture for Emma, not quite as subtle, which I'll share in another post!

Also, do you know that registration for Crop and Create Winnipeg opens tonight?? I am beyond excited to be teaching again, and I hope you'll come join me for a class or two:

Class descriptions can be found here!  Can you believe the talent I'm teaching with?? Can't wait!

Have a great Monday everyone :)

Good morning!  I am so glad it's Friday, it's been a very long week.

Guess what goes live today??

Check it out here!  My article starts on page 28 and I also have another layout in this issue - can you find it??

Have a great weekend everyone!

Good Monday morning. 

Took a lot of pictures this weekend, love being behind the camera.  Love sorting through pictures and coming across a gem.  Not because it's technically perfect (far from it), not because it's well executed (even further from it) , just because it captured a fleeting moment, a happy moment, with someone who means the world to me, and because it made me smile on this dark Monday morning.

Have a wonderful day :)

lovely lauren

I think I posted a sneak of Lauren awhile ago; her mom has been beyond patient waiting for these pics.  Hopefully they were worth the wait! What a little doll :)

I personally love soft black and whites for newborns, so timeless:

love capturing unexpected expressions at this age:

and here she is all snuggled up back in her sleeper. As much as I love the black and whites, of course I also love colour!

fighting so hard to stay awake. . .

and gone!

So beautiful!

What do you prefer for newborns? Black and white, or colour?

Have a great Wednesday!

As I struggle to keep my computer alive long enough to get everything I need off of it, I have been spending some time going through my thousands and thousands of photos (yes, they are all safely backed up!).  Photography makes me  happy.  That is all :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Good Morning! How was your weekend?

I really enjoyed some self-imposed down-time, it was so nice to have a 3 day weekend, coming off of a stressful week to begin with.

Here's my weekly whatever, that I started last week but just didn't happen:

1. Started and finished our new book club book and really enjoyed it, quick easy read:

2. As some of you guessed, yes! I will be teaching at Crop and Create, both the Winnipeg event and the Moncton event.  I am sooooooo excited to be teaching again!!  Class details will be posted soon, but I know for sure that I will be teaching both photograhy and scrapbooking.  I have never been to Winnipeg, so I'm really looking forward to that!

3.  I don't think grown women should ever use the word 'dude' when addressing another grown woman.  Seriously? Is it just me?

4.  Halloween:  Rebecca Kate Middleton  changed her mind at the last minute and would have nothing to do with  the camera.  Emma KathyPerry, on the other hand, rocked it and had a great time.  I don't know too many people who could pull off a blue wig, do you??

5. The cars are all ready for winter with fluids checked and snow tires on.  Always a relief.  Thankfully though the long term forecast for November looks lovely!

6. Loving The New Girl, it completely cracks me up!

7. This puts a smile on my face every single time I watch it.  I love the song by Niki Minaj but with this little spitfire singing it with all that swag, it's just too much.  And how about Rosie, her 'hype' girl??  Good gig if you can get it!

 

I just said to Emma, "Oh my gosh Emma, if you ever have little girls please make them rap!".  lol!

On that happy note I'll wrap this up.  Have a lovely Monday and thanks for stopping by :)

Good Morning!

All the details on the next two Crop and Create events will be shared today on the SCT blog and I for one and very excited about it . . .

I'll be back tomorrow with my 'weekly whatever' post and to chat about Crop and Create a bit!

Blogging here today and Wednesday, head on over, we'll be discussing low light photography, a timely subject considering it's now dark by 5:30!

Hello!  Just squeaking in here under the wire with my weekly whatever post!

1.  My good friend Penny forwarded me this email yesterday full of hilarious autocorrects.  For some reason, they just slay me.  Here are some that made me lol at work, to the point that I had to get up and leave my desk because I was starting to lose it:

There were others but they're just not blog-friendly,  if you know what i mean! Here is to technology gone wrong and good friends who know when you need to laugh.

2. I am sooooooooooo excited to announce that I will be teaching in 2012, it's a sure thing.  At least one brand new location for me and somewhere very close to home.  I will share all the details when the announcement is made.  I am still open to class suggestions if you have any.

3.  Rebecca and I have been watching the "Scream" movies - we took in the original and 4 this week and plan to watch 2 and 3 this weekend.  For what they are, they're entertaining.

4. I have some furniture painting on my agenda this weekend, can't wait.

5. I will close with a shot of Rebecca and her friends Marlise and Robyn.  These girls bring new meaning to the word "girl power" as they travel the Fundy biosphere testing different water sources - more on that in another post:

Have a great weekend!