It’s a plethora of dimples!

Yannick is in the Canadian Forces and has been posted back to Quebec in the fall, so they wanted an “Alberta” picture with cowboy hats and cattle!

We went into the studio for some natural light photos as well …

Baby Billie is not a baby anymore!

The “original” Franklins

Andrew and Leanne. Andrew has the best smile! Men, take note! I first met these two at the Slim Thorpe Gala when they were pitching in with the bartending, and I liked them immediately. They’re just good people!

My favorite, favorite family ever – Brendan, Kaylie, Holden and Billie. LOVE THEM. Kaylie and I plan the Lloydminster bridal show together, among other projects and of course weddings, so her family is just an extension of my own!

Krista, Casin and Kobie – Kaylie’s twin sister and her two kids! I’d never met Krista before, but of course, I now love her too.

Kobie started playing peek-a-boo. So cute!

Wild children!

Nana, Papa and the grandchildren … and a dog!

Cowpeople and kids!

A fun one – Andrew and Kobie were trying to rope Krista!

Handsome Holden!

Buckaroo Billie!

Cowgirl Kobie!

Krista and Kobie

All the ladies

I love this one – but we’re missing a few people!

The whole crew again!

What a cool mom to ride a dirt bike with him!

GORGESSITY.

I love little moments like these!

How can anyone resist that face?!

A farmer already!

With Jordan

Proud daddy!

Mom’s beautiful, too!

Sibling moment!

Mark gave Teasha this ring as a grad gift. Awww!

Krista’s escort, Kyle, was all smiles and laughter – so fun!

Beautiful blue skies!

This was totally their idea – but it was funny!

After the provincial park, we decided to hit the playground across from the Alliance church for a few more photos.

With Krista’s sweet ride

I am also planning a fall portrait marathon in Vermilion for September 18! Same price, same location, same contact information.

Some photos from this weekend …

This is my mom, and my little girl, wallpapering. I had this theory that paintable textured wallpaper would be an awesome solution for the old walls in the meeting room. That theory, unfortunately, didn’t work out. So, I can report that if you’re thinking about purchasing the SuperFresco paintable textured wallpaper, made by Graham & Brown and sold at Home Depot – YOU SHOULD NOT DO IT.
Issues:
1.) The wallpaper, when wet, stretched up to 1/4″. So, when it dried on the wall, it left huge gaps between each sheet.
2.) The wallpaper, when dry, began to peel off the walls.
3.) The wallpaper, when wet, was very difficult to trim. It bunched up and tore and ripped. That made it very difficult to trim around outlets, molding, etc.
All in all, it was a terrible product. We spent about 5 hours wallpapering, only to have to rip it down the next day. So, don’t purchase it!

While we were wallpapering, my wonderful dad worked on some electrical for me. He added a 220V outlet, so the guy I have coming in to refinish the floors can run his machine, and two new 110V outlets. I consider myself very handy, but electrical (and plumbing, and gas fitting) makes me a little nervous, so dad is my go-to guy for anything more complicated than replacing an outlet.

This is my lovely, and hilarious, sister in law Candice, helping with the tearing down of the stupid wallpaper.

My mom tearing down wallpaper.

If you remember the broken joist issue from previous blog posts, you’ll be happy to know the problem has been fixed! This is my wonderful brother and husband repairing the joists. The room is SOLID now. Wicked awesome!

While the men were repairing structure, the ladies were in charge of beautifying. Here’s Candice rolling a seam in the dressing room.

The feature wall in the dressing room. Clearly, the paper still needed to be trimmed top and bottom at this point. This wallpaper is by The Wallpaper Company and available at Home Depot. I’m happy to report it went better than the paintable textured stuff. The shrinkage was about .5 mm, which I can totally live with and as you can see, isn’t noticeable in photos!

Another view of the dressing room’s feature wall.

On Sunday, the men also installed the new chimney liner. The original brick chimney is still in place, but I don’t think you can trust an 82 year old chimney, so I did some research and found a chimney liner kit from Home Hardware. Also, it should make my insurance agent happy! This is my dad and my brother. My husband was up on the roof.

My brother … clearly, he got the tall and skinny genes in the family. I like him anyway.

Yes, they played telephone. Just a bit.

Chris on the roof.

Dad supervising.

Taking it back indoors, us ladies put up the wallpaper in the boudoir room! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this wallpaper. It’s so pretty and feminine without being too crazy. It was also great to work with! I was a little worried about working with this wallpaper. It was NOT the pre-pasted kind, which I had zero experience with. But I now prefer it to the pre-pasted kind! It is a little bit more work initially to brush the glue on to the back of the paper, but it was so beautiful to work with after that, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s thick and sturdy, is so easy to trim on the wall, just amazing! This wallpaper is by british design talent (actually a division of Graham & Brown, the same company as the disastrous textured stuff from above), and it’s eco-friendly – printed on paper from well managed timber sources (100% FSC), uses 100% waterbased inks (no VOC’s solvent free), and each roll is packaged in compostable materials made from corn. It was a special order through Home Depot.

The guys finished working on the floor and completed the new planking in both the broken joist area and the rotted subfloor area.

Here’s Scott again, putting the finishing touches on the chimney liner.

Monday night, Chris and I replaced the skirting (bottom board) on the front of the studio, so that I could finally paint the outside this week! I’ve also done some more work around the outside, replacing boards in some of the problem areas. I probably won’t be able to finish painting the entire studio until spring, but I want to get the south side done, anyway.

Today, I completed the painting in the meeting room. It looks AMAZING!! It still needs a chair rail above the wainscotting.

All of the paint I am using on the studio is by Sico; I’ve used a LOT of different brands of paint over the past 10 years, but Sico is the best of them all. Easy to work with, flawless finishes, great coverage and amazing colors. Most of the inside of the studio is painted a flat white, but for the brown paint shown here, I went with the Platinum Finish. It has a bit of shine to it, and it looks and feels really cool.

My mom also did a little drywall repair in the dressing room; some cracks re-developed after I mudded and painted, so she taped and mudded them on Sunday & Monday. I still have a little bit of work to do to finish the patching, but it was great to have some help. Drywall repair is not my favorite job!

And that brings you up to what the studio looks like right now! I will continue working on the studio this week and weekend, so stay tuned!