We painted the “farm room” a few days ago this pretty color…

My little sister, Magen, is coming into town tonight and I decided to decorate the room for her so she wouldn’t feel like she was camping in our house. I am still waiting on my BED from IKEA and Josh will need to refinish the floors in this room and then WAHLAH! It will be another room complete.

I bought this 1940’s Royal typewriter off of Craigslist in Lubbock for $50 and with a few extra typewriter ribbon’s from Ebay I have been writing a letter a day on my new letterhead (see that below) and love it! There is just something about hearing a loud clunk each time you type something and I can’t get enough of it!

I really like this pouf that I bought from Pier 1 here in Stillwater the other day, it’s quirky, impractical and RED!

The bathroom is coming along nicely, Josh spray textured the walls today and will be starting the tile tomorrow.

My new letterhead, envelopes and business cards that Brent Holloman designed for me with my rooster logo from Into The Darkroom. My new blog is in production and will be done sometime soon!

Ahhh yes, this is the entire reason that we moved from Lubbock. Trees and rivers. Lubbockites, aren’t you jealous?

Here are more pictures of the house this week as requested by a lot of you! It will look much worse before it starts looking any better…

Ick, the kitchen will be the last remodel of the house since it will take the longest.

The Kitchen plan: 1) paint the cabinets white 2) New beautiful hardware from IKEA 3) Butcher block counter tops 4) HUGE farmhouse sink 5)gorgeous mosaic tile backsplash 6) new oven 7) new floor tile

The Living Room: After I saw how disgusting it looked in the last post we decided to tidy up the place for the next picture. This room hasn’t had much work other than take off the trim and rip out the green carpet.

The Farm room looks much nicer today than it did when we bought the house. Josh put a fresh coat of primer, new baseboards and soon to be refinished floors!

We are painting this a light greenish blue tomorrow.

Drum roll please! Here is the gutted bathroom, it can only look better from this day forward.

Here is the only improved picture I have for you today, my cutesy backyard.

Before…

And After! Josh has made this room absolutely BEAUTIFUL! He sanded the floors, retextured the walls, primed and painted 2 coats to seal off the old smells, put in new trim and a new light! The color in this room is just lovely and I have never painted a pink color before in any of our houses, but now I am a believer in pink. This is Valspar’s Rose Madder found at Lowe’s.

Here are the chaos rooms:

Living room, ick. At least I have one room that is finished and has no clutter.

The Master has been painted and we setup our furniture last night, but it still needs some sprucing up before I reveal the finished room!

We are working hard to get this house done in a month, and I will be back to work in the internet world off and on until the end of August when I come back full steam!

- I was offered a job this morning at Chipotle because of my “personality”

- A small frog was latched onto my window while we were painting the master bedroom

- A guy at Best Buy told Josh that his friend spent a fortune on wedding photography. That fortune was $1500. I think I might need to market to bigger cities:)

- The humidity is giving me mild acne.

- There are no turning lanes and I am bound to have an accident or two each year.

- I guess we live on the poor side of town, but for the first time this is really, really fine with me.

- Our house will be the prettiest on the street!

- I have already met a new friend! Kami was in a wedding I photographed last September in Lubbock and she was jogging down our street last night while we were getting out of the car and yelled me name when she saw us, she only lives 2 blocks away! It was neat to see a friend already.

- I bought 5 OSU T-shirts for $3 each at Wal-Mart this morning. I’ve never been a huge college football fan, but I guess I will start this year.

Well that is it for now. I will post pictures soon!

I am sad, but excited, but a little more sad this morning. Everything that is familiar and comfortable is surrounding me this morning… my mom’s house, this “big city” in the middle of nowhere, the people I run into every day and my family. I have been looking forward to getting up to my new house and see the progress on it along with my doggies who I haven’t seen in a month! Josh is going to be a nice face to see also:). I have to tie up a few loose ends in the morning and then I will head out around 8:30 with my Nissan Cube packed to the brim with computers, cameras and new decor that I picked up at the Pottery Barn outlet in San Marcos last weekend. Josh will have two rooms completely ready to decorate on Tuesday and you should be sure to know that I will post pictures as soon as I take them.

Remember our dumpy little house on Doty? Well it is about to start looking FABULOUS!

I plan on coming back to Lubbock for a few days of sessions each month so if you want me for senior, family or engagements then be sure to contact me!

Onward and upward with this more scary than usual journey of mine.

Oh, also, I have taken up tennis in the last two weeks. That is all that is new with me for now. I will have my office set up by the end of the week and hopefully will be online so be watching for new photos of the house and more “me” posts than normal since it will take a while to start doing sessions up in Oklahoma!

Leah and Hannah (twins, can you believe it!?)

Rachel

I have known these girls since they were born. That is hard to believe since they are 15 years old! I would have to say that this is the longest friendship with anyone I have ever had, and I make myself feel old saying ” I knew them when they were just babies”. These three girls are so special to me and I was so glad to spend my birthday night at their house in the TINY town of Chatfield, Texas before heading to Wimberley for my wedding the next day. Their family is who I met my husband through and for this I am eternally grateful. Hannah wanted me to take some “model” head shots for them while I was there so we went out into the barn for some good light on that cloudy day. Their dad is the preacher at the Ennis Cowboy Church and let me tell you, if you are in the area you have got to stop and see what God is doing in this church, seriously.

Josh met me in Dallas for 2 nights last week to celebrate our 5 year anniversary and my 25th birthday. He didn’t tell me the location of our hotel because he said it would give away the surprise destination he was taking me on our anniversary… he did tell me to bring walking shoes though, and this gave it away. You see, we have already been to all of the zoos and aquariums in the metro area and the only reason I would need shoes would be to go to SIX FLAGS!  I know that this might not be the prime spot for your 5 year anniversary getaway, but it was for me! I squeeled with excitement like a kid when he did tell me that the address on “six flags road”.

When I got in we went to watch Eclipse (the third time for me) and then headed to my first Texas Rangers game! It was so much more fun than I ever imagined, you see, I’m not a big sports fan and the last baseball game I went to was in the middle of the summer in St. Louis when I was 6. I remember sitting there bored stiff watching everyone around me eat cotton candy while I sat there sweating it up with no allowance left to buy any goodies. This time it was much more fun, especially since Josh talked my ears off the entire night (it was his first time to see me in more than 2 weeks!).

The next morning we got up and went to Six Flags bought the Flash Pass gold (spent a hefty $210 on our tickets and the passes) and started running around and riding every ride we could get on. I had a blast and screamed more than a normal scared person would on every loopty-loop ride.

When we finally tired of sweating and pulling a few G’s (I had to fight to not blackout on the Titan!) we decided to go to my favorite restaurant in the DFW area, Tillman’s Roadhouse. I went to Tillman’s with the Love Affair girls last time we were in Dallas and it was the neatest experience with amazing food and beautiful decorations. This is how I would decorate a restaurant if I could. I had the best 25th birthday and 5th anniversary ever and I love my husband more than I have my entire life. He is perfect.

I also found out that I am part Seminole Indian this week and thought that was very cool since Josh is part Choctaw!

Nausea. Pure, nausea.

You see, since we have been married the only houses that we have lived in were brand new, and I had never experienced a junked out smelly house before. The smell was the worst. I think I could have handled the holes in the wall, the dark green carpet and the linoleum during the first impression, but the musty, hot, cat poo, smoke and mold smell just would not go out of my nostrils no matter how long I stayed in the house!

So here is my new house. My lovely husband, Josh, is living in this little house remodeling it for me until I move up there in 3 weeks and it will look completely different by August! His mom and dad have been helping him so much and I really, really appreciate them. Thank Ya’ll!

Enter my “Before” house tour…

I do love this large window in the living room. Josh has already ripped out the green carpet and refinished the beautiful wood floors underneath in the last week.

The doors will be replaced along with new 3 inch thick white trim around the wood floors.

The kitchen was quite a gunky surprise since it looked tidy in the realtor photos. It was after I saw this room that we upped the reno budget a few thousand dollars. Josh will paint the cabinets, put in new tile, new backsplash, new hardware and new sink! Needless to say… a new oven has been ordered also.

What the? I’m not so sure what these changing mats were doing on the dining room walls. In this room: new paint, new tile, new trim, new light fixture.

Can you see the sweat dripping down my face? This is INDOORS my dear friends, Stillwater’s humidity might just get the best of me.

This is the “farm”  room, and it will be my favorite room of the house because I get to decorate it however I want (plaster white deer head and all). New trim, new paint, new windows and new light will grace this lovely room.

This is the master bedroom and the last room of the house to have the lovely green carpet, which has already been disposed of along with the cat poo that was all over it (yuck).

This will be my new office, and Josh is going to paint it a bright coral for me.

The bathroom will be completely gutted and I finally get to have beautiful mosaic tile in our house! We have already found the perfect tile on tileclearance.com

The backyard is so green and has a ton of trees and a small hill, I will love growing my garden back here.

The dogs just love it!

Here is the latest photo of our land! Josh had a white rock road built from the country road to our future home site.

This is our huge burn pile right where our house will be!

I think it’s fun, quirky and country!!!

I am still working on the galleries and text (run-ons and spelling included:) on the website, but wanted to show you how pretty it looks!!

Go and see the NEW Laurenclarkphotography.com!

Click HERE

Thank you to Into The Darkroom for making my new logo! They are getting started on my new custom blog this week and I can’t wait to see it!

I will be out of the office for one week and then will get caught up on all of the albums orders, regular orders, and emails! Please be patient with me this week since it will be the biggest transition time all year! I will be moving in with my mom for 3 weeks here in Lubbock to finish off most of my Lubbock weddings and sessions and will be a workaholic trying to get everything in order for my move in July.

Josh will be remodeling the house in Stillwater for those three weeks and I can’t wait to see what he will do!

Thanks for your prayers and support!

- Photograph old pictures that you would like to display with a macro lens in bright shade at f/5.6.

- Open them in photoshop and make them an old timey b/w and then print.

- Search garage sales for old frames of any color, but mainly focus on their size and texture. Spray paint them a flat white or any color you choose.

- Get 60 sand paper and rough them up on the edges.

- Put your prints in them and hang them all together!

I have only started on my side of the family and still have about 15 frames to fill. They will be displayed in my farm room at the new house in Stillwater and you can guarantee that I will show you the end result!

From the top left going clockwise… 1) My great Nana, Dorothea Macomber 2) The Gannoway Family, my great grandmother is on the bottom right 3) my mom’s baby picture 4) My Nana and great Nana 5) my dad’s baby picture 6) Mom’s senior pictures (sorry mom! Had to post it) 7) Granddad getting his hair pulled by his brother 8 ) Dad and his brothers making a newspaper 9) In the center is grandma and granddad.

I guess in this day and age buying a small, inexpensive house is like trying to cross the border down in El Paso! We planned on closing tomorrow, but things have taken longer and we won’t be closing until next Monday on our little fixer-upper. This week is all about de-cluttering and packing! We will be moving all of our things in a U-haul Sunday and taking my sweet doggies to their new home in Stillwater, Oklahoma. I can’t believe that the time has already come to move! We have been planning this move since last October and I would always tell mom and Magen to not think about it because it was still over half a year away. Well, it is soon, really, really SOON!

During my transition I may not have many photos of other people for you, it might turn into a reality show blog about Josh, the dogs and I until I get my business up and running, but I will keep you entertained:). Just think of me as the Pioneer Woman’s apprentice!

I am considering taking about 1 wedding a month in January-May next year to keep me busy during the nice weather… the key word is considering:). I actually turned down 2 weddings for the first time in 7 years this month and it felt marvelous! For the first time I felt in control of my life and business and didn’t just accept any wedding on any weekend. It was a small victory.

We are having a garage sale with a ton of NICE furniture this Saturday at 8 AM! I will announce more details soon.

My new logo and colors are marvelous and extremely different than what I have now. I can’t wait to show you my ITDR blog when it is ready.

Josh and I have been watching the first season of 24 and I do say it was very addicting and very stressful. I’m not sure if I want to put myself through that again, I mean, how many times can I handle people getting kidnapped and escaping their death in 1 day? Hardly more than once I would have to say.

I have just watched a half way creepy movie and can’t go to sleep and my typing and spelling are getting worse as the minutes go by, and so this would be a good time to quit writing.

I bought a 1940’s typewriter today. I am very glad.

Aimee just came over (we happened to be wearing the same outfit colors, thought that was funny) and I remembered that my dad gave me a packet of mud from the Dead Sea last night, and being the spontaneous duo that we are we went into the bathroom and put it on. Her son, Ethan, was so scared and he kept saying, “I don’t want to die!” I feel like we are on the set of LOST in this pictures (except the smell of dog poo in this area).