Kim Schmidt Photography LLC |  Northern Virgina Family Photographer bio picture
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album spotlight | west windsor photographer

I’ve been dying to share these photos with all of you! I figure I’m finally safe to share as it’s a gift for my mom/my nephews and she’s on the plane to come visit us! I wanted to see her reaction in person so I’ve been holding on until she came out here.

This is a new product I am currently offering – it’s an 8×8 custom coffee table album. It is GORGEOUS in person with the custom cover, thick pages, full page spread with no cut in the middle. The perfect heirloom gift for your children!

Past clients, if you are interested in one from a previous session, contact me for all the details! It’s never too late.

Some of my favorite pages of our nephews!

Up close of the full-page bleed

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Jaidean - April 13, 2011 - 11:18 am

That is awesome! I’m sure your mom will love that too – great gift!

kelly g - April 13, 2011 - 1:04 pm

LOVE THIS!!!!! What is the cover like? Smooth? Matte? Looks absolutely beautiful! I bet she will love it!

becky - April 19, 2011 - 6:10 pm

I love the look of this album – great job kim!

beau | central jersey senior photographer

As a birthday present to his mom, Beau agreed to meet Sunday afternoon on the Lawrenceville School campus when he could have been sleeping! It’s great to know that no matter the location, high school boys just pick up whatever “looks” clean for a photo session.

RUTHIE HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY!!!!

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kelly g - April 12, 2011 - 10:29 am

These look great, Kim! What a great gift for him to give his mom! Maybe one of the sweetest things I have ever heard!!! Wonderful shots!

Melanie - April 12, 2011 - 1:01 pm

Great shots of a good lookin’ young man!

another five on friday | west windsor family photographer

It’s been a little quiet around the blog but life has been CRAZY!!!

1. I got my wisdom teeth out two weeks ago yesterday and I’ve had some insane pain starting last Thursday. Come to find out I have a dry socket! So strange that it happened 7 days later but I believe we’ve gotten the pain under control with packing (I believe that’s what it’s called – I just hope it doesn’t come out again as I’ve been to the oral surgeon twice this week!!). Here’s to hoping I don’t have to visit Dr. Levine anytime soon!

2. We have started on our community garden. It will be the first year we’ve attempted to garden and I’ve been reading up a storm about the best ways to start seeds indoors to compost (luckily the community started the pile last year, but it’s nice to know when to actually use compost!) to what will grow best. We are going to do square foot gardening which essentially you block off square feet and this allows a more effective planting pattern if you are limited on space. We are actually splitting the plot with our neighbors which meant that space is definitely an issue.

3. Anthony has been on my tail about watching Dexter since Christmas and I finally caved in! We just finished season 1 last night and oh my goodness! I totally get the hype now. Although it’s not a scary show, I always think something awful is about to happen at every turn. Dexter is one messed up individual (or shall we say the writers are!). Moving on to season 2 very soon.

4. My mom is coming to visit for the annual birthday celebration on Wednesday! Last year it didn’t happen since my parents had gotten custody of my nephews only a few short weeks beforehand, so it’s a real treat that she has great support and help to come hang out with Anthony and I (and do some birthday shopping – looks like I’ll be getting several pieces of All-Clad cookware which I’ve been dreaming about for forever!)

5. The 2011 Spring Happenings Newsletter went out last week. If you want to be the first to know about specials and events, email me! Over the coming days, I will be posting photos of some incredible products including a large canvas a client ordered along with a beautiful album! Come back soon!!!

6. (extra!!!) Last week I went into NYC for a Zumba event and got to hang out with my friend Becky and her girls. They have a great apartment on the Upper East Side and before I left for the train, the girls were doing an “I Spy” book while I was finishing breakfast and Becky was showering. It was the sweetest moment that I just had to snap a few!!

 

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becky - April 8, 2011 - 9:50 am

awww…I love it! And a big boo on the dry socket – that is really no fun at all. I remember.

Marla - April 14, 2011 - 12:27 pm

This b&w series of pictures is so cute of these girls!

spring 2011 happenings

is about to hit your inbox! If you want to be in the know, send me an email! There are several goodies that only subscribers will have access including a spring booking special, a what to wear and product spotlight!

It’s been a little quite around here as I just got two wisdom teeth extracted last week. Overall it was a simple process and I haven’t had to take much pain medication. Thanks for all the well wishes on facebook!

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more sewing projects!!!

This past weekend I spent most of my time sewing!! I’m totally addicted. I’m constantly thinking about my next project! I’m over halfway done with the projects from my class and have lots of ideas floating in my head that I want to do when I’ve completed everything. Although I haven’t done the class projects in order, my goal has been to finish them all no matter what even if that means going back to project 4!!!

The reason I hadn’t worked on project 4 was a loss of what to actually put on my round bunting! I went the quick route and did love. This is hanging in our bedroom above my closet.

This was a pain in my side to make – probably because I was catching up on a Glee episode and it was nearing midnight Saturday. I should have waited for Sunday but I’m stubborn! It’s 6×6 square cube that holds my scrap fabric!

This apron was one of the things I was most looking forward to in this class – I actually bought this fabric back in September or so. Everytime I saw it in my fabric pile I was anxious and excited to work on my apron. I had to do some alterations at the end but I’m really happy with how it turned out. Now Anthony is on my tail about making him one (not this girlie of course!)

I skipped ahead to Project 23 for the main reason I wanted to do something quick Sunday night and this seemed the perfect project. And boy was I right! It took me less than an hour. I made mine much smaller than the directions called for but it will be perfect when we host a progressive dinner with our neighbors on Saturday!

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Christy Tsiantos - March 11, 2011 - 9:22 am

I am a fellow photographer and I start sewing classes next Monday!! These projects look fun – I especially love the storage cube! And the apron!

Jaidean - April 4, 2011 - 10:04 am

These are awesome – you are so crafty! Love seeing all your projects!

Shey - April 4, 2011 - 11:55 pm

Love these projects!!! You are so talented – I always wished I could sew. Love the apron especially!

the wall

Recently a new website Pinterest was launched and it’s a huge time-suck but SO very inspirational! From their about section on their website, “Think of Pinterest as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can create collections of things you love and “follow” collections created by people with great taste.” If you’d like an invite, shoot me an email and you can start your addiction!! If you are already a member, join me so I can follow your boards! The whole reason I’m even telling you about Pinterest is because I caught the DIY bug and decided to try my hand at modern “painted wallpaper”. Several people had pinned different sites which lead me back to Emily at the Jones Design Company blog. You can see what she did in her office here and you can also download the template at the end of that post + see in the comment section other people’s walls. The downloadable template isn’t symmetrical so before you get started, fold it in half lengthwise and widthwise to trim off the excess.

Here is where I got the tip to enlarge the template which is ingenious! I think I ended up enlarging it close to 130% so I didn’t have to do it as many times. Also, both Emily and Kathryn did double templates if you will. I tried that out at the beginning and decided it was way too much work. I really do love how it turned out. The wall is roughly 6.5×8.5′ which is the perfect size to do something like this! I couldn’t imagine doing more but maybe if I had help I could have done more. I really really love how it turned out. Glidden paint was running a special in 2009 where you could get a pint of their paint for free and I chose this warm gold color. Not sure what I was thinking but hey I found a way to use it. Total cost for this project: less than $3.00!! Pint of paint (which I used about 3/4 of it with only one coat) was free, already had the painters tape, rollers and paintbrushes from other painting jobs. All I bought was a “sample” half-pint from Lowe’s for the darker yellow/orange. Total time was roughly 5 hours + drying time from the nigh before. I also stopped for lunch, laundry (when you pay for laundry, you set a timer to get the most out of your dollar, so stopping at those times were very necessary!!), a few phone calls and the like.

Wall has been painted (I did that on Tuesday night – took less than 30 minutes) and I’ve started on the stencil in the bottom righthand corner (this is looking from our doorway into the apartment towards the bedrooms/bathroom, obviously that’s the kitchen in the right-right of the photo)

I had read on another blog to make sure to keep the stencil going the same way, so if you start from right to left, keep it that way or else it won’t match up. Another tip I have, is to make sure to mark the stencil in someway so you know which is up/down and continue that throughout the process.

Trying to decide if I should go with gray or the yellow/orange + if I wanted to do the double thing.

At this point I was almost finished (upper lefthand corner still needs to be painted).

It’s complete with the photos back on the wall!!! (I know you are suppose to pull out the nails but I knew I’d be putting the frames back where I had them originally so they just got painted over too!). Looking back down the hall toward the living room/kitchen/door.

Tips I Learned:
*don’t use a #2 mechanical pencil. I spent about half the time erasing back all of my pencil marks because they were just too dark. And then I had to do two coats of the darkish yellow/orange because I could still see the markings. UGH!
*make sure your stencil is symmetrical before you start (luckily I had read this before I started or else I would have been pissed!)
*continue to use the stencil the same way (so if it’s not exactly symmetrical, at least the wall will look cohesive in a sense)
*don’t worry about it not being perfect. when you step back, it looks great. rarely will someone get up close and say you did an awful job!
*have fun! put on some tunes and rock out!

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kelly g - March 9, 2011 - 2:11 pm

WOW! That looks SO AWESOME, Kim! Great job! I am super impressed!

Bernadette - March 9, 2011 - 2:17 pm

I pinned this one too, and I LOVE it!!! I love the yellow, so happy! Great job!

Amanda - March 9, 2011 - 2:26 pm

That is SO awesome, Kim! Love it!

Christie Adams - March 9, 2011 - 2:55 pm

LOVE this Kim!! It looks fabulous!

becky - March 9, 2011 - 3:10 pm

I love it kim! It looks great!

Anna - March 9, 2011 - 3:27 pm

WOW! I don’t think I have the gene to do this, but I wish I did. AMAZING!

emily - March 9, 2011 - 10:49 pm

That looks great! Love it in color. Thanks for sharing!

Shey - March 10, 2011 - 10:27 am

oh my gosh i loooooove this!!!!! Kim you are so creative!

Emily - March 19, 2011 - 11:30 pm

Kim – you Inspired me… and I just did this in my bedroom! It look awesome… took all day but I’m so glad I did it! Miss you!

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