Driftwood Signs: Please Use Other Door

Bellawillow loves Green Living and doing our part to help the environment.  Located near the banks of the Ohio River, we see on a daily basis the massive amounts of driftwood that clutter the shores.  This debris is not only an eyesore but it makes it difficult for both people and animals to enjoy the river.  This natural resource can be collected and used in so many ways.  Bellawillow, in collaboration with Elwood Designs, have started some projects around the shop using the driftwood we have collected from the river.

We have multiple entrance to the shop, however, we only want customers to use one.  We found this great piece of driftwood that looked like it would be perfect for pointing people in the right direction.  A little wood burning and some sloppy writing in an attempt to dodge the knots in the wood and we have ourselves a "Please Use Other Door" sign.

Driftwood Signs: Fire Extinguisher

Bellawillow loves Green Living and doing our part to help the environment.  Located near the banks of the Ohio River, we see on a daily basis the massive amounts of driftwood that clutter the shores.  This debris is not only an eyesore but it makes it difficult for both people and animals to enjoy the river.  This natural resource can be collected and used in so many ways.  Bellawillow, in collaboration with Elwood Designs, have started some projects around the shop using the driftwood we have collected from the river.

Every business needs a fire extinguisher...just in case!  We used a wood burner tool and a piece of driftwood to identify where our fire extinguisher is located in the shop.

Driftwood Signs: Do Not Climb Fence

Bellawillow loves Green Living and doing our part to help the environment.  Located near the banks of the Ohio River, we see on a daily basis the massive amounts of driftwood that clutter the shores.  This debris is not only an eyesore but it makes it difficult for both people and animals to enjoy the river.  This natural resource can be collected and used in so many ways.  Bellawillow, in collaboration with Elwood Designs, have started some projects around the shop using the driftwood we have collected from the river.

The Driftwood Fence we are building is strictly decorative and is only being used as a pretty barrier between the yard behind the shop and the parking area.  If you build a driftwood fence we would highly recommend you also make a sign that tells other people not to climb.  Not only would they probably get hurt but all your hard work would be smashed and broken.  Here, you can see that we have used a wood burner to write on a flat piece of driftwood that we pulled from the banks of the Ohio River.  The sign also states that the fence was designed by Bellawillow and Elwood Design.

We are currently in discussions of making a fence that needs a sign reading "Do Climb Fence", but that most likely won't happen any time soon.

Driftwood Fence, Part 1

Bellawillow loves Green Living and doing our part to help the environment.  Located near the banks of the Ohio River, we see on a daily basis the massive amounts of driftwood that clutter the shores.  This debris is not only an eyesore but it makes it difficult for both people and animals to enjoy the river.  This natural resource can be collected and used in so many ways.  Bellawillow, in collaboration with Elwood Designs, have started some projects around the shop using the driftwood we have collected from the river.

One of the major projects that we are trying to complete is a Driftwood Fence.  This is a pretty major project and is taking a lot of hard work but it is already starting to look pretty awesome.  Check it out!

This is a before shot of the area we are building the fence around.  We are actually only lining one side of the yard with the fence so we can separate the parking area and the yard.

We dug holes and placed thick pieces of driftwood vertically in the holes.  These will act as post for our fence.

Next we went through and added medium size pieces of wood.  These are add for not only their look but to also make the fence a little more structurally sound.

We continued adding driftwood between the post. You can see that we are not yet finished.

Driftwood Business Card Holder

Bellawillow loves Green Living and doing our part to help the environment.  Located near the banks of the Ohio River, we see on a daily basis the massive amounts of driftwood that clutter the shores.  This debris is not only an eyesore but it makes it difficult for both people and animals to enjoy the river.  This natural resource can be collected and used in so many ways.  Bellawillow, in collaboration with Elwood Designs, have started some projects around the shop using the driftwood we have collected from the river.

Our first project was super simple: A Business Card Holder

This was so easy.  We found a piece of driftwood that had a relatively flat bottom.  Then we cut a slit a little over halfway up the wood.  Threw some business cards on there to see if they would fit and then placed it on our desk.  Very easy and so cute!

Hula Hoop Modeling

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Edit:  You can now find the photo gallery for this shoot here.  You can purchase prints here.

Father's Day Promo Shoot: A story of hiking to a giant rock

Jessica and Peyton were our models for our Mother's Day Photography Promotion, so for our Father's Day Promotion we decided to use the other half of the family.  We took James and his two sons, Logan and Peyton out to the park!  During initial discussions about the location of the shoot, James told us that there was a trail in the Charlestown State Park that went through a massive rock that looked as if it had been split apart by the trail.  I knew exactly where he was talking about since I had always thought it was the most beautiful spot in the entire state of Indiana.  It is basically right in the middle of the 2.4 mile, rugged terrains of Trail 1.

Concerns:

1. Logan and Peyton are little kids and walking a 2.4 mile trail probably isn't something that they will be very excited about.
2. It is only the first week of June but the climate in Southern Indiana has been sweltering hot with a overwhelming amount of sticky humidity.  Sweaty faces don't make for the best pictures.
3. Bugs.  The tick population has been horrid this year.

We stopped off at the playground first.  The boys immediately headed for the slides and swings and weren't very pleased when we called them back to start getting pictures taken.  Cue Peyton and his favorite word, "No!"  After a few grumpy shots we decided that it would be best to just go with the flow of what the kids would rather be doing and we had everyone climbing on the playground equipment.  Cue the imagination of two young boys, "Watch out there's an alligator!  Over there...a SHARK!"

Next, we set off to hike to the giant split rock.  We stopped several times to take pictures at other interesting spots along the trail...maybe we stopped a little two often.  When photographing kids it is best to be quick about things.  They don't really like to be still or take time out of their day to do things that they don't want to do.  We hadn't even gotten halfway to the split rock before there were complaints of being hungry, and thirsty, and tired, and "is this almost over?"

When we finally did reach the rock, it was a bit of a disappointment.  We had lugged around kids and cameras through poison ivy and a countless number of spider webs only to find that the massive rocks looked less like stone and more like gigantic mounds of moss.  Plus, we were loosing light.  We spent very little time at the rocks.  As we were leaving, one of the boys began to get very chatty.  In one breath, without any pauses, we heard, "I'm hungry I think I see a snake It is so hot Can we get food Is that a bear This trail is really long Are we going to take more pictures I'm tired I'm thirsty Can we go faster How can you walk up this hill I can't even walk up this hill This hill is really hard to walk up I can't even walk Can you walk I don't think I can even walk How can you even walk on this thing I'm hungry Is that a snake Are we going back to the truck now I'm hungry Are bears out here..."  He said all of this so fast that I was out of breath!

Nearing the end of the trail, the kids seemed to gain a burst of energy and started running between the adults (couple of us had picked up the pace just because we were tired of walking through spider webs and we just wanted to get off the trail and back to civilization).  We stopped a few times to take more pictures and then eventually got back to the truck and headed home.  The kids did much better than I thought they would considering it was such a humid hike, and they were a lot of fun.  I'm sure there is never a dull moment in a household with two small children.  This was another photo shoot that turned out to be a great learning experience.

Edit:  You can now view the picture from this shoot here.  You can order prints here, if you have an ordering pass code.