what are you into right now?

I AM:

-having fun playing with PicMonkey.  So much fun!  I don't have a clue when it comes to photo editing.  I usually just try to get things right with the actual photo, but there's not much time these days for perfect lighting and people who know how to sit still.  Sooo... this is a fun and easy way to make my crummy photos look a bit fancier, or just plain ridiculous.

-enjoying this series of interviews on the AV Club with Paul Feig about Freaks and Geeks.  There are two more to go (it's a 5 parter, with a new one each day) and we've really  been enjoying reading each one in the morning with breakfast!  I will never EVER get enough Freaks and Geeks, even though it only lasted 18 episodes.  Best series ever made, hands down.  (Yes, even more perfect than Arrested Development!)  Paul Feig is a heartbreak.  If you've seen F&G and love the cringe-worthy humor about adolescence, you should read his book Kick Me.  Everything embarrassing in that show happened to him in real life, except usually in a much worse way.

-SO IN LOVE WITH SWEET POTATOES.  I can't even begin to tell you.

-really looking forward to reading this book, Hungry Monkey.  Robert stumbled onto the author's blog, I was hooked by the sample, and we're already ordered a copy!  It's about a food writer figuring out how to feed his baby good stuff.  It looks hilarious, adorable, and informative!  Menu planning and cooking are pretty much the main activities in this house, so we're psyched to involve Audrey in the near future...  

What's everyone else into these days?

happy friday!

I'm keeping busy over here! Just wanted to share this pretty butterfly I saw yesterday morning. Doesn't it look magical? Hazy soft-focus achieved by shooting through the window screen - for some reason it just dawned on me that it's the same thing which made these photos so fuzzy but dreamlike. I like it!

Tomorrow (April 17th) is Record Store Day! Record stores all over the world will be having neat sales and also free shows. Check to see if you have a participating store nearby! We're definitely going to hit up Grimey's early on -- wanted to go last year, but I was too scared of the parking situation. Seems I'm getting more confident in my navigating-Nashville skills!

film scans

Anyone remember when I mentioned getting out my "real camera" and shooting a roll of film last month? Here are some of the photos! I was really disappointed to discover that the shutter on my Minolta XG-1 sticks [most likely from disuse]... and therefore most of my pictures were way overexposed. That's something I would like to fix before using any more film up, because charming as some of the mistakes were, they were completely unpredictable! That might be the fun of a toy camera, but this was once a dependably accurate machine and I'd like to restore it.

I recently acquired a scanner from freecycle - so exciting! Now, on with the prints! Here are the couple that came out the way I wanted them:

I gathered up some little friends for a group portrait. That's a mogwai in the back! I made the heart pillow guys.

Real gingerbread man (from dozen) with glass gingerbread person (vintage Avon)

This isn't quite right, but I like it anyway. Reminds me of the old food blog!

Now, onto the overexposed prints... These are the few that came out kind of nice even though I was going for something completely different. All of the other prints looked horrible! [And yes, I swear it's the shutter's fault. I made notes of the settings I used for each exposure; I have back-to-back photos using the same settings at the same time where one frame is perfect and the next over-exposed. Not my fault!] Oh, despite all my whining I'm really fond of the below pictures.

Franklin had this NOEL sign up downtown for all of December. Have I mentioned how cute this town is?

Crummy print, but look at that gigantic brussels sprout stalk! Is it not impressive?

I can't throw away light bulbs when they go out, so I collect them. Really like the shape.

There's that gingerbread man again, resting atop a stack of presents!

Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement on the last post! I'm doing fine: the person who died was a good-friend-of-some-of-my-good-friends, and the difficulty for me has been in comforting those who were closer to him. But thank you all, nonetheless! I'm incredibly appreciative of your support (in all ways).

my sister's wedding

At long last, here are those wedding photos I've been talking about! Apologies for taking so long to post them, but I wanted to make some improvements to my blog format and how I share pictures. How do you like the new format, by the way? Thank you all for the tips on larger pictures!



Sarah and Timothy were married on January 9, 2010 at t'afia in Houston. It's an adorable little restaurant that serves amazing food made with local ingredients -- they even host a farmer's market on Saturdays that Robert and I attended regularly in the past!



Many of my shots from the ceremony are a little grainy and blurred because I was also hopping around making a video of the whole thing and couldn't mess with camera settings at the time.



However, there was a little sunlight left when we went upstairs for dinner, so I was able to grab some good shots! Below is one of my favorites.



We had a delicious three-course meal and it was really fun to sit around talking to everyone. I was able to see some of my family that I haven't seen since I moved away, and it was just an exciting time in general!



The name cards for the table settings (below) were penned by Betsy Dunlap Calligraphy.



After the dinner was over and we'd said goodbye to family, all of us "young people" headed over to a party for other friends who hadn't attended the wedding. It was held at a community center, and we had a blast just exploring that place. We found one room that was decorated with someone's old furniture, and that became everyone's favorite portrait spot.



There was also a ping pong table, a piano, and a skateboard we found in a closet... Haha, it was a really SILLY night. I was wearing a dress from the 40s and came home to realize I had ripped both armpits. Unfortunate! That is what happens when one parties in dainty old clothing.

It was a really beautiful wedding and such a fun party we had afterward! Best wishes to Sarah and Tim!

hello there

hippo!

My digital camera just arrived back home from being repaired!! I've tested it out and everything is in perfect working order. It had been freezing up and generally being annoying, so this is very nice! I'm so glad that my family purchased a warranty when they bought this camera for me a couple of years ago for Christmas. And luckily the whole repair process went really smoothly and quickly. I would totally recommend getting a SquareTrade warranty if you're in the market for something to cover an expensive electronic purchase!

That is all for now. I'm just excited about having my camera back. Still haven't finished up that roll of film I started, though I'm getting near the end! A couple of times the shutter seemed to get stuck while I was taking photos, so I'm crossing my fingers that my SLR camera is still in good shape and that the photos come out okay!

One last note: I recently spent a couple of days doing a really neat embroidery project as a gift for someone, but I didn't photograph it before wrapping it up and sending it away in the mail! Can't say what it is yet, but I'll have to force the recipient to take photos of it for me! (Isn't that sweet?)

help-portrait

Since I'm without any pictures to share this week, I thought it might be nice to share something else. A Nashville photographer started a project called Help-Portrait that has gone worldwide. The mission is for photographers to share their skills and give back to the community by taking portraits of needy families for free. It may not sound so significant, but when you think of how many of us take cameras for granted and how many people there are who have never had their photo taken... It's one way to make people feel special and beautiful! I will let this video speak for itself. This was actually a test run they did in October -- the real project started a couple of days ago (Dec. 12th), and I'm not sure if it's going to be a yearly event, but it's definitely worth watching! Be sure to visit their website if it's something that interests you - it made me a little teary eyed!

recent projects

Happy Friday, everyone! Do you realize that Christmas is exactly 2 weeks from today? I just noticed. There are so many things I need to do: self-imposed assignments like finishing up little creative projects and sending out cards! I still haven't finished those stockings that I mentioned making... but here's a peek:


Yeah, those are green strawberries. I like doing crafts with whatever I have on hand, and this seemed to be the only white-ish material that looked festive enough for the top of the stockings! It's an old feedsack print, so it gets historical points as well. Boy, I guess it's lucky that I also happened to have normal fabric for the rest of the project, or these might look particularly silly.

Hello, real camera.

In the sad news department, I sent my digital camera off to be repaired this week. I had a hard time boxing it up- I had to stop and take a few last pictures with it and then take pictures of it with my other camera... all sorts of parental things like that! Hopefully it will come back soon working better than ever.

The upside to all this is that I finally pulled out my regular old 35mm camera! I was slow to start taking pictures with it; all of the manual settings made me quite nervous. A few years ago I had the f/stops memorized and knew exactly what settings to use for certain lighting conditions, but I've had to relearn a lot of that this week. I've also had to relearn how to use the giant, external flash. It's so much fun to play with! I think with digital photography the main satisfaction is being able to automatically see your pictures and retake them if you're not happy. You can't do that with film, but you get the satisfaction of learning and understanding exactly what each component of the camera does*. It's a neat feeling!

*Not that you can't do that with a digital camera.. but digital makes it easier to go all-automatic and not worry about apertures and shutter speeds!

ebay'd

I really despise Ebay from a seller's point of view. However, there is some appeal to an auction that ends in a few days. I got an email from Ebay this morning about half price seller's fees and decided to list some things! These are all items which have expired from my Etsy shop that I've had trouble letting go of (attachment issues). I decided to start everything at $5 and see what happens! Please visit the listings if you're interested in anything. Each listing only has one picture because there's NO WAY I was going to pay 15 cents per extra picture! [Again: I do not like you, Ebay.] But I'll gladly provide extra pictures if anyone asks! Sorry for the lack of excitement in the item descriptions - these are just sort of quick and dirty listings! I have too much stuff laying around that needs to find a new home!

Handmade Vintage Dress - Size Small

Pussybow Blouse - Size 6

Plaid Shorts - Size 9/10

Handmade Vintage Checkerboard Skirt

Bert Yelin Bed Jacket

Chainlink Sweater - Size Medium

Striped Drop Waist Dress - Size 12

Again, if you're interested in anything here and need more details, just let me know! If you're not interested, just move along.

I have a few projects going on right now, and I suppose I better start taking some pictures (though it's rainy and gray here and the lighting is terrible): I'm sending my camera in to be repaired! I've been having problems with the zoom on my digital camera and it's still under warranty so I'm getting that taken care of. I really hope it will be fixed and back in my hands by Christmas. If not, I've got a backup plan! I bought a bunch of film yesterday and got out my Minolta XG-1. Hopefully I'll get a chance to start playing with that soon.

small town

This past weekend, Robert and I took a very short roadtrip. Really it was just about a 20 minute drive to a nearby town... But it was very scenic and many *pictures were taken along the way there and back! In case anyone is getting tired of my "small town" pictures, I decided to run them through TiltShift maker to spice them up-- now they look like pictures from a miniature town. I hope you're happy!






The above picture wasn't the right type for tilt shift, but I still wanted to share it! I will never get tired of barns and silos. I think they're so exciting to have in the scenery.

*All photos by Robert, since I was the one driving!

weekend flowers

I don't consider myself much of a flower person-- at least not the typical kind, who finds roses beautiful and enjoys bouquets made by florists; I don't even own a proper vase!-- but lately I've enjoyed bringing fresh flowers into our house every week or so. This morning I came home with a zinnia and a sunflower from our CSA pickup. The couple who runs our CSA is adorable; their son, Ira, was selling sunflowers for $1 each this morning. I had to have one!




For some reason, using the macro settings on my camera to take closeups of flowers is irresistible to me. There are so many neat textures to explore!



And of course, I'm getting pollen everywhere. I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!

faux tilt shift

As always, I turned in this week's assignment for Souvenir Foto on the last day. I'm such a bad student! This past week's assignment was to try either forced perspective or faux tilt shift. Both techniques are ways to make some really fun pictures where things look either really large or really small, or both at the same time. I took one of my pictures from Monday and used TiltShiftMaker to get the above effect. Try it out - it's pretty neat!

expiring listings & pizza crust

I know I haven't been doing much with my Etsy shop lately, but there are a couple of neat items up for grabs which are going to expire either today or tomorrow. I'll be happy to keep these things for myself if they don't sell, but I thought I'd give everyone else a fair chance! If you like any of these things, head on over to the listings for full details.

an adorable children's book from 1949

this blouse

and this one!

Now! Moving on to other business...


We've just posted a recipe for Margherita Pizza (plus the basics of making a pizza crust) over at the hungry lemur! I'm experimenting with color/contrast on the in-kitchen photos, because they're usually so dimly lit. Let me know if you can tell a difference! Obviously, the vivid photos are all taken by a window - those always turn out fine. I love you, natural light!

gloomy monday

Today started out fairly interesting, but it's not going at all as I'd planned. This morning I hopped out of bed extra early so I could take Robert to work. Actually, he was driving so I had the chance to take some pictures.

It's a really lovely drive! But today is so foggy.

Robert is all business.

A big red barn! An American barn!

Once Robert was safely at work, I took the car to be repaired - see this if you don't know why! For some reason we had the idea that this would just be a 1 day repair, and I was hoping to be able to pick Robert up from work this evening. Now I realize how silly that was. Of course, it's going to take 2 days. How inconvenient! I had to get a ride home from someone at the shop, and then we had to brainstorm about how Robert will get to and from work (15 miles away) this evening and tomorrow morning. Luckily we have a pretty good friend in the area who has agreed to bring him home to me tonight. Thank you, Chandrika! You will be rewarded!

So anyway, I'm home again and not feeling so great about the whole situation. But now you get to see an outfit post! Sort of. Here's the kind of thing I put on when I get up at 6:15 in the morning. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Top: Etsy trade, Skirt: vintage from Etsy (via my sister)

And this is my Cinnamoroll apron - I bought it on Ebay a few years ago for absolutely no reason. I wear it every day when I'm doing the dishes; I'm a splashy dishwasher. Putting on a ridiculous apron can cheer you up 100%!