Whiten your teeth in one minute

My colleague has the whitest teeth of anyone I have ever met, but not in a blinding, peroxide, it-must-hurt-when-you-eat-ice-cream kind of way. They are just natural, clean pearly whites that are always sparking.

So of course, I asked her what her secret was. She said, “I keep a jar of vinegar and a jar with a mixture of baking soda and salt in my medicine cabinet, and brush my teeth first with the vinegar, then with the baking soda twice weekly.”

I ran home, tried it, and am now the proud owner of a set of 28 gleaming Chicklets. It worked better than any white strip and without the sensitivity even after I overdid it on the vinegar (brushed for a full five minutes). Try it and tell me that your teeth aren’t the brightest they have ever been. (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i[‘GoogleAnalyticsObject’]=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,’script’,’//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js’,’ga’); ga(‘create’, ‘UA-46889504-1’, ‘thestyleheist.blogspot.com’); ga(‘send’, ‘pageview’);

Five ways to take better photos on your DSLR camera, immediately

This is a topic I am fairly passionate about, and trust me, I am not a photographer. (In fact, if you look closely at the picture above, you’ll notice a small dent on the border of the lens which I created THE DAY I BOUGHT THIS CAMERA because I took it out of the case and promptly dropped it on the ground). So when I say it doesn’t come naturally, that’s putting it lightly. Not only was I scared of my camera, I was so bad at using it that I actually needed tips like ‘use your lens cap’ or ‘it’s telling you that the background is too dark because you still have your lens cap on’ in the early days of using my Nikon D3000. The word ‘f-stop’ intimidated me, and I wasn’t sure my small little brain could soak up all that I needed to know about the numbers and lens opening and milliseconds so I just avoided learning about it at all costs.

Because I am so bad at photography, there is no one more interesting to me than a really good photographer – it’s an interest, an eye, and a talent all rolled up into one person that is fascinating. I’ve had the good fortune of working with some truly excellent photographers who have helped to point me in the right direction, and their advice has helped my skills go from the basics of camera use and care (starting with ‘read the guide’) to actually taking some decent* photos. None of them have tried to force me to learn about f-stops but they have made themselves available should I want to take it to the next level. I’m not quite there yet, but I wanted to share the best tips that I’ve been given in case you, too, are as scared of your DSLR camera as you were of your scientific calculator in high school. (You know, an intelligently designed, powerful, capable tool that can be dangerous in the wrong hands. Like a helicopter).

1. Buy Scott Kelby’s The Digital Photography Book, read it, re-read it, reference it. It covers the basics of photography in a very simple way that even I could understand it and glean some useful information from it about what buttons to press on my camera. It is a must-read, and Kelby has a whole series of these books that you can read as you start to get better.
2. Take photos incessantly. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve gotten is that there is no such thing as wasting film in digital photography, and if you want to be good at it, you shouldn’t have space on your memory card. Carry an extra memory card. Take so many pictures that your index finger cramps up. Snap, snap, snap. Review, delete, snap more. Notice what works, and what doesn’t. Recreate what works, and avoid what doesn’t. I did this on the automatic setting when I first got my camera because I wanted to get the basics down in terms of observation, perspective, rule of thirds, etc.
3. Start a file of great photos that you find, and do everything you can to plagiarize them. Not by using the photos without permission, but trying to copy everything about how the photographer got the shot. I have a file on my hard drive with images that I save for reference, and I look at them, consider what I like about it, why it is unusual, and think about how the photographer got it. Then I try to recreate it on my own, Googling my way through the technical details of what settings to use on my Nikon to get the light, focus, blur, etc.
4. No matter what you do, keep the strap around your neck, wrist, etc., use a camera bag, clean the lens, don’t let it get wet, charge the battery. This should probably be tip number one. Taking care of your camera is something that should be obvious, especially after you dropped a few (or several) hundred dollars on it. However, I needed to be instructed on how to do this properly after getting it wrong on day one. There are lots of creative ways to keep it protected. I wear my camera around my neck when I fly, and wrap it in a pashmina when I don’t have my camera bag. My friend Val keeps her extra lenses in a tube sock to protect them.
5. Set your camera on manual, and start experimenting with all your settings. This means that you have to get over your fear and remember that trial and error is a great (free) way to learn. My first, oh, forty photos on manual were a bleached out, fuzzy, blurred mess. I deleted them all, and kept making adjustments to the settings until they (slowly) started to come in clear. Whenever Wes is playing video games I use him as my subject for my manual setting practice, and I have a few where his thumbs are just two big blurs. So artsy!

*In my opinion, anyway.

The old photo is by my friend (and great photographer) Andrew Sheppard! (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i[‘GoogleAnalyticsObject’]=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,’script’,’//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js’,’ga’); ga(‘create’, ‘UA-46889504-1’, ‘thestyleheist.blogspot.com’); ga(‘send’, ‘pageview’);

Paint your nails hot pink, be the talk of the office

Rachel is the administrative assistant in my office, and these are her nails. Every other week she comes in with a perfect manicure and beautiful rings, makes me ashamed of my dry cuticles and unadorned fingers. She is my go-to source for nail tips n’ tricks and routinely inspires me to buy new nail polish and fine jewelry.

Last week, she came in with the perfect pink color paired with a monogrammed ring. I went to Rite Aid and lunch to buy her pink polish and spent the night filing, trimming, and painting to come in with nails that looked almost exactly like Rachel’s.

To get her look, I picked up OPI ‘Kiss Me on My Tulips’ and I found a lookalike gold signet ring here.

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How to make a drab little dining room cool

When we first moved in to this rental house, the dining room was the worst part. It was small and dreary and dark with dirty, damaged mini blinds and had a wall separating it from the kitchen that I wanted to knock down (and still do). It was a pretty depressing place for someone like me who takes hours to drink my coffee on Sunday  mornings and loves to throw dinner parties. It needed light, color, and fun to make it a relaxing place to work, eat, paint, sew, etc. 

It’s been a ‘work-in-progress’ for months now, meaning that I’ve had the below to-do list that I just never did. I finally took the time to knock out some of the items on my list of improvements for this room:

• Replace the ugly light fixture
• Take down the mini blinds
• Install white roman shades
• Add a colorful rug
• Hang bright, fun artwork
• Add kitchen storage
• Add colorful placemats
• Add colorful dishware
• Paint wood barstools (white?)
• Hang black-and-white striped wallpaper
• Replace fold-up butcher block on the island

Actually, now I am second-guessing the wallpaper because I like the light and airy feel so much. Maybe it just needs a couple of coats of a pale gray paint to add some dimension, but that can wait.

Anyway, I have officially moved my coffee-and-Kindle tradition from my couch to the dining room, and finally had my first real dinner party on NYE – I took some pictures with the place settings because finding the right colors was half the battle.

 

The whole room was inspired by the elephant painting in the photo below – Wes and I bought this from a street artist in Thailand on our honeymoon and carried it through multiple countries to get it home. Our last transfer was at O’Hare airport and I left it behind at a Chilis Too! Miraculously, the foodservice folks in Chicago found it, answered my frantic voicemails, and airmailed it back to us where I DIY-stretched it onto a canvas frame, hung it on the wall of the dining room to get it out of the way, and ended up designing the entire room around it.

 



 

 

P.S. The cards dangling from the ceiling in the picture above are attached to this amazing card chandelier that I found at Crate & Barrel. When I went to take down my Christmas decorations, I decided to leave it up and add in some fun pictures of friends and family to make it season-less. The mirrored star below is also a holiday decoration that just might be left up year-round.

 

 

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What to do with that weird nook in your hallway

 

We moved into a rental house that was built in the ’30s and has all the charm that money can buy (think arched doorways, worn-in hardwoods, antique moldings) and included a whole set of strange nooks and crannies that took up valuable square footage. Exhibit A above is a 3′ x 4′ alcove in our hallway that was the resting place for old gym shoes, a discarded wooden chair that Wes picked up off the curb, and useless boxes of ‘important documents’ that everyone feels obliged to keep but never needs (or opens to begin with, in my case).

 

My natural inclination was to add shelves so at least it could be organized storage instead of a pile of junk. I measured the nook, went to Home Depot and got them to cut some plywood that was sized to fit and picked up a set of L brackets to hold them in place. I bought a power sander and some white paint and went to town but couldn’t make it past the first shelf. Instead, I decided to make it into a writing desk by installing it at table-height. I love how it has become a natural home for that salvaged old chair and some of our souvenirs, brass hooks, picture frames, and my new Jonathon Adler bookends (that I wrote about here).

 

Side note: how amazing is the lion’s head doorknocker? I found it for $12 but don’t have a door for it so I nailed it to the wall for the time being. 

 

 

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DIY Picture Wall

 

My collection of pictures and frames have followed me from my childhood bedroom to college dorms and every single one of my apartments. Whenever I move in to a new place, the first thing I do is start hanging frames on the walls – there’s something comforting about being surrounded by familiar images when you are in an unfamiliar place. I have no regard for symmetry and truly hate when everything matches, so my little collection of pictures and frames fit in just right no matter where I live. But I do put a little thought into the arrangement and thought I’d share some tips I’ve learned after making hundreds (no, really, hundreds) of holes in my walls:

 

1) Find frames anywhere and everywhere – the obvious Pottery Barn and Target work, but Goodwill and Homegoods are great sources, and I pick them up at flea markets, garage sales

2) Buy many different sizes – itty bitty and ginormous, it works best when there is variety

3) Pick a color theme – I stuck to neutral tones (black, white, gold, silver, cream, wood)

4)  Use your floor to test your layouts

5) Start with a bold focal piece – I chose a large stretched black and white canvas to be the center of my wall

6) Arrange medium and small frames around the focal piece, any which way that you please

7) To tie everything together and make it look cohesive, use a measuring tape to space everything evenly – I did 1.5″ spaces between my frames, top, bottom, and both sides
8) Start hanging – go with the centerpiece first, and use your spacing measurements as a guide



 



Last but not least, don’t be afraid to make holes in your walls! I rearrange my pictures all the time and there is no hole that a little spackle and a makeup brush of touchup paint can’t fix. FYI, I think my disrespect of drywall stems from my dad. He would wait YEARS to hang pictures, and left beautiful paintings, photographs, prints, and amazing frames leaning against the walls in his study collecting dust. Lesson learned – commitment phobia is not for drywall.

Vintage Chair Makeover

The chair above is the “After” – I love the dark wood, antique carving, and storage space beneath the chair for my magazines and books! This chair had lots of potential but badly needed a shower and a new seat. Below are the “Before” pictures and the easy (and inexpensive) process to recover these chairs from ugliness.

One of my dirty secrets is how much I love Goodwill. Sometimes I mean to go to Safeway and end up walking around looking at used furniture. On Saturday, I found this pair of old, distressed folding chairs with great wooden bones and terrible outfits. I bartered them down to $10 apiece and lugged them home.

Recovering basic wooden chairs is relatively easy – these seats were held into place with 5 screws each. After I detached the seats, I flipped them over and used needlenose pliers to pull out the staples, removed the old fabric, and and washed down the wood.



A half yard of scrap fabric from JoAnn cost me about $3 and was enough for both chairs – I loved the houndstooth pattern in baby blue and cream. Instead of bothering with a staple gun, I picked up some Fabri-Tac to glue the edges of the fabric to the seat, waited for it to dry, and then screwed the seats back to the chair frames. Voila, new chairs – and they cost me $26 and 45 minutes.

Marimekko For Your Walls

I discovered Old Town Alexandria-based interior designer Barbara Franceski after reading about her home on Apartment Therapy, and called her to see if she’d let me write a profile about her for Refinery29. She’s giving us a tour of her home for a story in November and I asked her for DIY ideas to include. She sent me this picture of a marimekko fabric stretched over a canvas that I fell in love with! Even though we aren’t doing the DIY feature for her story, I wanted to share this genius (and simple) idea.

This can work with any fabric – choose a large piece you love (find swaths at Joann, the flea market, Etsy, or eBay), and pick up an artist’s stretched canvas at Michael’s (or Amazon.com). Stretch the fabric over the canvas, staple in place, hang on your wall. Beautiful! I love it above the lucite table with simple frames and the tufted ottoman.

Photo by Angie Seckinger, courtesy of Barbara Franceski

DIY: Wedding Invitations

My sister asked me to help her design her wedding invitations last April, and here’s my final result (and a little bit about the materials I used and the process to create them).

After all of the research, trial and error (and lots of time at the Utrecht Art Store in McPherson Square), these were actually pretty easy and inexpensive to make. Below is the list of materials, and the steps to create these.

1) For the invitation (and dinner menus), I used Gartner Studios Flat White 8.5 x 11″ Panel Cards ($11 for a pack of 50 cards & envelopes) 

2) For the response and events cards, I used Gartner Studios Flat White Postcards ($15 for a pack of 100) an purchased the response envelopes separately

3) I used Avery Gold Mailing Seals, which were around $7 for 400

4) For the wedding mass programs, I used Gartner Studios Flat White Trifold ($15 for 100)

Gartner Studios is wonderful – this company has high quality card stock at very reasonable prices, quick shipping, and templates for every product that you can download and use for free!

For the flower design, I resurrected my drawing skills and drew this hibiscus flower in Wasserlack 4H pencil and a Pigma Micron pen in 05 weight; and then painted the leaves and seeds with Reeves watercolor and overlaid the design with a sheer silver acrylic (the Utrecht Artist’s Colors in Iridescent Silver).

After designing and painting the flower, I scanned the image, saved it as a PDF and cropped it to size, then inserted it into the template and printed.

I also made my sister’s wedding mass programs using the same flower image and a Gartner Flat White Trifold ($15 for a pack of 100)

Antlers are not just for deer

One plaque and lots of wood glue later, my little deer antlers are hanging from my wall, as proudly as if I caught that lil’ guy myself. Voila!

For some reason I feel guilty about loving how great this dead animal head looks hanging from my wall, but have no problem with my vast collection of leather shoes, bags, and jackets.