Drawings In Motion

Now in technicolor

2011-07-19T23:16:00.002-04:00

A very clever artist friend of mine suggested that I add a splash of color to these pen and marker butterfly prints. I do love the butterflies in black and white, but is a completely different feel. I think I'm digging this colored take as well. I did a quick color test with marker and I do like the look of it, but I think I'd like to experiment with some water color washes and some more painterly techniques. Any thoughts? I'm listing this one on my Etsy site and will custom color the butterflies any color requested. Just drop me a note and I'll color and add the item to my shop!

Part 2 of the Wishful Thinking Collection

2011-06-07T10:32:00.004-04:00

Last night I finished up the last piece for this weekend's IHE event! Everything has been sent to the printer so fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong with the printing. I don't like cutting things so close, but sometimes life just works out that way. I have been distracted by my daughter's cleft palate surgery and recovery among other important life things, but now she's doing fabulously and I'm kicking this last week into high gear! I'm getting really excited about the event. Can't wait to see how it all goes, not to mention browse all of the other great art that will be there.

If you can swing by this Sat. June 11 between noon to 8:00pm we would love to see you there. With great art, Sun King beer, and fantastic musicians it's guaranteed to be a good time. After browsing the booths you can always head over to Italian Fest or the Talbot Street Art Fair in the area as well. It's going to be a great weekend for food, music, and arts in Indy.

Pen and Marker Butterflies

2011-05-02T21:25:00.006-04:00

As the days count down to the handicraft exchange I've been busy bulking up my inventory. My goal is to create tiny collections of sorts based around some of the art that I already have for sale in my Etsy shop.

I have been feeling concerned that my body of work may come across as a jumbled, disconnected hodge podge because I enjoy playing with so many different styles and mediums. I have pen and ink, linocut prints, and even the styles of my digital work vary. Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time cutting anything out because each style seems to generate an interest. How to pick?

Well, I don't know if my little 'collections' plan will work or not. When it's all said and done my work may still come across as a jumbled mess at the exchange. We will just have to give it a try and see how it turns out. This will be a great learning experience for sure.

So that said, this is a piece I intend to pair with the Wishful Thinking print. It was originally done in pen and ink and shaded with gray marker. I think I'll also offer each butterfly as an individual print. Well it's late and I've got more work to do before bed. Goodnight!

Let's Roll Some Ink

2011-04-20T22:23:00.004-04:00

The victorian house linocut I carved has been whispering my name from the inside of a drawer for the past few weeks.

"Ink me." it said. "I know the suspense is killing you. Don't you care to see if I can print at all? Is orange the color for me, or maybe a pretty light blue? What about a little fun with pen, or watercolor backgrounds? How would I look on a colored paper, or the page of an old book? Come on, just take a moment and check me out. There are so many possibilities, and I know you're just dying to play."

But I had too much going on. You know how it gets. And as a result of a busy life, fun little projects that I barely make time for in the first place get pushed back, back, back, unfinished, but never quite forgotten. It just sits in the back of my mind on this limbo land to-do list taking up space in my brain. Truth be told, if it wasn't for my lunch hour it never would have been carved in the first place, so I knew it would take an effort to make the time to print it. There was a tiny play kitchen to be made and a first birthday party to plan, though, which seemed to spend every spare moment I could make.

Then finally came the day that I decided, the effort must be made. A Wednesday night when the day was less than ideal and I just needed a win. I needed something personal and just for fun. It was 10 before I could get to it, but I had finished all that needed to be done and was finally able to say to that whisper in the drawer, "Ok, ok, you win. It's time. This moment has been made for you, and for me. Let's roll some ink".

INDIEana Handicraft Exchange Acceptance

2011-03-23T16:04:00.003-04:00

I am so excited to announce that Ashley Lee of InkHouse and I (under my shop name of La Grisette) will be sharing a booth at the INDIEana Handicraft Exchange this June! We got our acceptance letter yesterday and are officially on the vendor list! Competition was stiff this year, we are told that they had to turn away over 50% of the applicants so we feel incredibly fortunate to have made the cut. Now that we've got the green light there is LOTS of work to be done. I am in search of a new, quality printer for my digital art prints. I would love to know if anyone has any recommendations!

This summer's event should be a great time. Lots of quality artists, musicians, and delicious local Sun King beer! Here are some specifics:

Date: Saturday, June 11
Time: 12:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Admission: Free!
Location: The Harrison Center for the Arts
1505 North Delaware Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Parking: on neighborhood streets around the venue

You can visit this site for additional info about vendors etc.

Even if we weren't participating in the event we had definitely planned to attend. It's a great time! Hope to see you there!

Guest blogging today over at Beantown Baker

2011-02-10T16:46:00.004-05:00

The crazy talented food blogger, Jen, over at Beantown Baker was kind enough to invite me to join in on the Friday Favs portion of her blog this week. I thought long and hard about what I could possibly contribute to her savvy food blogging audience when finally I decided that I could share a few of the things I've learned about food photography over the years. I'm by no means an expert food photographer but there are various things that I've learned through experimentation that have helped refine my photos. Check out the Top Ten things I've learned about food photography here.

Scanner in action

2011-02-10T15:31:00.006-05:00

Here's a video of the scanner in action. This video is nothing fancy, but it does the trick. :) Enjoy!

Dora and Diego's Animal Rescue Center at the Children's Museum!

2011-02-09T16:03:00.010-05:00

For the past month we've been collaborating with the Children's Museum of Indianapolis on some fun stuff and I've been really loving the job. We helped them out with their new Dora & Diego interactive exhibit for toddlers. It was pretty magical to see the hustle of the museum on the final day of construction when everything came together. You can always count on the Children's Museum to put together top notch stuff, but I was giddy to see the tiny little hut where our contribution was going to live. For our part we created a screen animation that sits in the Animal Rescue Center portion of the exhibit. The animation features Scan the Scanner who identifies and diagnoses little stuffed animals that are placed on the scanner. This project was so exciting to me because it combined my love of cutie design and animation with a fun, tangible experience for little ones. Let's just say that I am really excited about any new opportunities where we can do more stuff like this with RFID tags or other interactive trigger systems.

The entire exhibit is full of great interactives for toddlers. I would absolutely recommend stopping by if you get the chance to visit the museum between now and Aug 14th.

Here's the hut. I dont think it could be an cuter. Between the two scanners is a first aid station with bandages, ice packs, stethoscopes, and magnifying glasses then on the table there is a tiny little bathtub with two pedal operated dryers so you can clean the animals.

Here are some cubbies where you set the animals to rest and get food and water.

Scanning... Scanning... Here we go!

Eric, Taha, and I installing our portion into the hut. As we tested, Taha was such a rock star making little tweaks and updates on the fly. Great job to everyone who worked on this interactive! Kevin Marshall at the Children's Museum, Eric, Taha, Kyle, and Dan all did such a great job.

Custom Beer Tap Handle

2011-02-08T09:25:00.007-05:00

Good friends of ours turned 30 this past weekend and my husband and I were searching for something out of the ordinary to give them. They recently started brewing their own beer and installed a tap in their basement wall. We decided that a special handle for their tap was the right gift so we began the search for a good custom shop. We ended up finding a REALLY great shop out of Seattle. Will Bass of Bass Custom was super nice, helpful, and fast! He got our tap engraved, inked, and shipped in under a week. I'm sure that depending on his work load that quick turn around is not always possible, but it was such a nice surprise to get it several days before we were expecting it! The quality of the engraving was fantastic and he managed to capture all of the fine detail that we drew into our illustration. I know this probably sounds like I'm getting paid to say all of this, but I was just that pleased with the process and quality.

So why a garden gnome you ask?

In older posts you may have seen photos from an event we threw with our friends called Lebfest, where the two main team mascots were the Garden Gnomes and the Porch Geese. Our friends were the captains of the Garden Gnome team so we decided to create a gnome brew master character holding a beer, designed in woodcut style. It looks great engraved in the tap. I love the setup that our friends have for their bar! They were so creative with the ski's for shelves and the chalkboard paint for the brew name. It was great to see the tap fit into their awesome setup. Can't wait to try more of their awesome home brew and thanks to Will Bass, there is now a sweet custom tap handle we can pull to fill our glass!

Sneak Peek

2011-02-04T11:45:00.004-05:00

We've been busy at work finishing up something special for a fun client. Here's a big hint:

(Photo taken using the ClassicINSTA app. on my phone)

The project launches tomorrow and will be open to the public until Aug. 11! I'll post more details after the launch.

In other news, my IMPOSSIBLE Project film came in today! I can't wait to do some experiments this weekend! Expect a post about my instant film fun as well. Happy Friday!

How To: Six Point Paper Snowflake

2010-12-21T13:26:00.005-05:00

Below is a how to slide show for making pretty little 6 point paper snowflakes. If you have any trouble at all understanding what's going on, just click on a photo and it should take you to my flickr set where I've added detailed descriptive text to help clear up any confusion. Hope you enjoy!

Baby Bruiser - Roller Derby Girl

2010-10-31T22:11:00.008-04:00

Hot glue was my friend for this costume. At the last minute I added a bit of black fabric to the top of one of her bibs because, lets face it, the girl can drool. I wish I had have thought of it sooner so I could paint a little something on it. As for the rest of the costume, I snipped the helmet out of foam pads and covered them in black fabric, glued together some elbow pads and tied them on with ribbon, glued some spray painted wine corks to her tennies, tied a bunch of toule to a ribbon to make the tutu, and ironed on her derby name. The attitude she provided.

30 Years

2010-10-27T15:12:00.009-04:00

Well this weekend marked 30 years on Earth. This past year has been a whirlwind of huge events in my life and in the lives of the people I love. There were a significant number of awesome items on my 29 for 29 list that I didn't end up getting to this past year. I did end up doing several things I had no clue I would end up doing, though. (Like celebrating the engagement and marriage of my best friend and being a featured artist in a local art show) I also underestimated the time that I would spend preparing for the little one, being a matron of honor in two weddings, throwing a big anniversary party for my parents, and adjusting to my role as a new mom. To be honest, with all that filled my life I barely checked in with the list I had made. Now that things are slowing down and a new decade is beginning, it's time for a new list. Is it bad that I want to roll over a few of those items from the 29 to 29 list? I'll need to think about it. I think number 1 on the list will be to make the first homemade halloween costume for Fiona. That seems like a fine place to start.

Quick little feature from my "work blog"

2010-10-27T14:18:00.008-04:00

The last couple weeks at work I've been helping out on an animation intended to remind college females about being careful about the information they post online.

In this portion the girl is tweeting about how she's at the coffee shop and that she's bored because her roommates are out of town. In the background you can see our character, "Mr. Creeper" one of her many twitter followers, sneaking around the coffee shop up to no good. The idea is to attempt a more light hearted reminder to be safe as opposed to a more preachy off putting approach.

I just thought I'd post this little feature for those of you who wonder what it is that I mean when I say that part of my job involves animation.

Pencil Test to get timing and animation correct.

Filled animation that will later be used as footage in After Effects to create a richer looking animation.

Character design and look/feel credit goes to Brian Phillips.

Local Jazz and Art Show

2010-10-27T12:17:00.016-04:00

Well, I realize this post is WAY overdue (like by a couple months) but I figured I'd post it anyway. The jazz concert/art show that I participated in at the courthouse was a fun little experience. Mostly it was worthwhile just to have a reason to get stuff printed and presentable, not to mention I've really been wanting to participate in arts events in my community. Our community is small and just getting things started with the arts. It was nice to have some support from the locals that attended the show.

One bonus of the night was that a few of my prints sold which helped support the printing costs. Sweet!

Another bonus was that I was able to enjoy the free jazz concert in the courthouse rotunda. It was great to listen to the evolution of jazz. There were some very talented musicians there that night and the rotunda acoustics were really cool.

Hanging a show in a courthouse was an interesting challenge. The arts council was nice enough to provide a table and a couple easels but I needed an additional way to display the rest of the work. After brainstorming some ideas with my dad I ended up rigging up a couple light stands and a thin piece of wood to hang the pieces. I thought it did the trick pretty well.

The old cameras set seemed to get some attention, and I got a couple questions about the San Francisco set which was nice. It's always a little nerve wracking to put your art and yourself out there, especially when you're around to see and hear the response. Its also fun to guess how particular communities will respond to certain types of work.

The illustrations are the prints that sold, but they were also the pieces that got a remark about how they didn't make any sense. haha. At first I thought she was confused about the concept of how digital illustrations came to be, but then I realized she was talking about the content. Like I said, fun to guess about how certain people in the community will respond.

I would still like to add one more piece to the snowy woods illustration series to make it more complete. I was really hoping to have a finished set of three for the show, but oh well. I got to see the reaction to the two illustrations so that was good.

I think my next step will be to put them up on my etsy site for sale. And I've got a little more confidence about doing another show or possibly the INDIEana Handicraft Exchange if they'll have me. These would make pretty sweet little prints for a nursery!

The best part about this experience was how supportive my family was. It's not like it was this epic show or anything, but it was just so sweet that they all came anyway, supported me when I was putting it all together, and cared about what I was doing. That's pretty awesome. Thanks family, and thanks to the arts council for asking me to be part.

Underwater water fight revisited digitally

2010-07-27T11:46:00.005-04:00

Decided to revisit this old sketch and recreate it digitally. It will also be making an appearance at the courthouse show.

San Fran Series

2010-07-26T13:57:00.010-04:00

These are the 5 pieces that will make up my San Fran series for the courthouse show in Aug. The photos will be printed 11x14.

and I can't fight this feeling aaaany moooore!......

2010-07-23T14:47:00.009-04:00

Part 2 of the series. I think raccoons probably dig Journey. Right?

Sweet, crispy, gooey, delicious marshmallows

2010-07-22T11:05:00.009-04:00

Here's a piece I just finished for the 'digital art' show at the courthouse. It's part 1 of 3 of a childrens' room print series. On Aug. 21st at 7:00p there will be a free jazz concert downtown in the courthouse here in Lebanon. During intermission there will be works from local digital artists on display for people to browse and purchase. It's part of a new program that the Lebanon Community Arts Council has started to try and encourage arts in our community. I am happy to be one of the featured artists for this show as we work together to re-build the downtown square as a center for culture and entertainment in Lebanon.

Fiona's Room Before and After

2010-06-15T16:26:00.004-04:00

Nursery Before

Nursery After

Well Fiona has been here for two months now and we still haven't hung art or shelves on the walls. I guess after all the effort we went through to get the nursery looking the way it does, there's a part of me that doesn't want to put holes in the walls til I'm certain where I want things to go, and we just needed to live with the room for a bit before committing. Originally I intended to share the room once it was 'finished' but hey, who knows when that will be so here's our room as is.

We had SO much help from family and friends to get this all finished before our little one arrived. It was a lot of work but it is such a happy space to be in now. I just love spending time in there with Fiona.

Presenting...

2010-05-03T19:31:00.003-04:00

After 9 months of cooking, as promised, I would like to share the most amazing thing we've ever made, little Fiona Isabel.

Glow in the dark planet mobile for Fiona

2010-04-09T17:46:00.004-04:00

Well, we've been busy around here preparing for our little one to arrive. Yesterday as I was about to go crazy with anticipation (it being 2 days past her due date) my dad offered to come over and help me put together a mobile to display the glow in the dark planets that my mother-in-law gave to us. Having a visitor and a little creative project was the perfect thing to get my mind off thinking about IF and WHEN she will ever show up.

We sketched up a couple of ideas and ended up choosing a nice simple design that we could put together with wire and fishing line. I liked the idea of a slight curve to the cross bars as opposed to straight to give it a little extra style.

To do that we just cut some 18 gauge aluminum wire to the length we wanted and holding one end with pinched fingers, straightened the wire by running a cloth repeatedly from the pinched hand to the end of the wire, molding and curving it little by little. We then bent the ends under with pliers to create a loop for the fishing line. The rest just involved tying fishing line to the planets and balancing the mobile.

It was a nice quick little project that was very simple to put together. We sure hope Fiona likes it!

35th Wedding Anniversary Party Invitation

2010-03-28T22:15:00.004-04:00

This is a big year for my family. We have a new birth, a wedding, and a landmark anniversary all to celebrate. In April my parents will have been married for 35 years! My sister and I wanted to throw them a fun to-do this year since we were unable to help them usher in the big 25 in style.

Now, we had planned to have it in April, but with the new baby's arrival set for April 6th we all decided to move it to early June. I just finished up the invitation tonight and figured I would share. It was a lot of fun to make. We wanted it to have a bit of a retro feel, come across as fun and casual like the party we're planning, and include personal touches about my parents and their wedding. Back in 1975 when they were married my parents did a lot of dirt bike riding on their Triumph and their wedding flower was the daisy.

Sis and I are really looking forward to hosting a special day for our parents. Yay for 35 years!

In memory of my grandma June Amelia Robertson

2010-02-26T11:25:00.015-05:00

the lady had trained wild squirrels to come to her when she called them by name. i wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. there she sat completely serious in her motorized wheelchair in the front yard and yelled at the top of her lungs, "SQUINOOOOOO". as we waited, i would be lying if i said i wasn't skeptical and feeling a little bit silly standing there in the driveway while she yelled out into the open air of the neighborhood. after tossing a dried corncob on the ground in front of her, she waited and yelled again in her scratchy english accent. not one minute later sure enough, I saw him, a grayish brown speck bounding across the neighborhood yards toward grandma's house, clearly well fed. he scurried fearlessly to the corncob, barely noticing us as we stood less than 3 feet away. then he sat upright on his hind haunches and started to eat the corn. eyes wide, asked him disbelievingly, "squinoo?" he stopped eating and looked up at me as if to say, "yes dear?" then, realizing i had nothing more to say, he went back to his afternoon snack. without a sound other than the high pitched zoom of the wheelchair motor, grandma whipped around speedily to head back inside, no doubt grinning and satisfied with my reaction to her hard work as neighborhood squirrel trainer.

I feel blessed to have such happy and funny memories of my grandma. I can't wait to share stories with my daughter about her spirit, spunk, and quirky sense of humor.

She will be missed and remembered fondly.

34 weeks down, somewhere around 6 more weeks to go

2010-02-21T18:35:00.002-05:00

You know a while back when I said I was workin on something kinda big that should be finished around the beginning of April? Well here's an update on the progress. One thing I can say is that what I'm making has demanded an increased amount of midnight cereal runs to the kitchen and has spawned about 20 other little projects around the house. Here shortly I'll be sharing some of those projects as well.

Just a peek at a happy time...

2010-02-17T21:40:00.002-05:00

I was browsing through photos this evening and ran across a set from our summer San Francisco trip. This photo was snagged while exploring the countryside north of San Fran in a mini cooper with two amazing people. Happy summer times. I didn't grab too many photos on that trip despite the plethora of amazing opportunities in that city, but there are a few I've posted up on my flickr site.

for lovers

2010-02-08T11:39:00.001-05:00

Sebastien Tellier - La Ritournelle from Lucky Number Music on Vimeo.

Impactist. Inspiring.

2010-01-27T12:38:00.008-05:00

Films. Photography. Music. Design. Just discovered a duo who pairs up to create all four. It's inspiring (especially the film and music). And gray wintertime in Indiana, lets face it, we could all use inspiration whenever we can get it.

I was enjoying this complimentary ear candy while I worked today and for a moment it felt like the sun peeked out again. It was nice. Here's a link for your listening pleasure.

Impactist - Hello Neighbor EP (2010) Free Download

I'd highly recommend checking out the 'films' and 'about' section of the site as well for further inspiration.

29 for 29

2010-01-08T00:47:00.015-05:00

This list is late in coming. I meant to post around my birthday in October as I wrapped up what I could of the 28 for 28 list, but alas, I fell behind. The new year, however, has inspired me to get this up finally. This is going to be a big year! The last year of my 20's, the first year as a parent, and my 5th year as a wife. This year will see my parents married for 35 years and this year my little sister and my best friend will both begin that journey themselves. I'm ecstatic to be a part of it all. Lotta big things coming up, yup, lotta big things, and a lot of amazing little things too I just know it.

29 for 29

1. Bring a beautiful baby girl into the world and name her Fiona Isabel Done!
2. Pick blueberries fresh off the bushes and freeze 1/2 the batch for later
3. Get together with friends and make indian food from scratch
4. Learn to read music and play a real life song on the new piano Done!
5. Read works from 5 new authors 2 of 5 Done! (Tom Robbins - Jitterbug Perfume, Stephen King - The Gunslinger)
6. Throw an anniversary party for my parents, who sincerely deserve it Done!
7. Create a work of art especially for Fiona to have in her room Done!
8. Design invitations, host a bridal shower, throw a bachelorette party, then stand up beside my beautiful little sister at her wedding Bridal Shower Done!
9. Get all dolled up and experience the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Done!
10. Go to Vegas! Done! (photo)
11. Make a home made ornament for the Christmas tree Done!
12. Create GIANT bubbles Done!
13. Bake a new fruit pie that I haven't yet attempted (apple and blueberry are out)
14. Re-visit the tiki-torch-lit, fire pit warmed, blanket covered backyard wonderland *sigh* and discover a new constellation (Orion) Done!
15. Hunt for the perfect Christmas Tree at Dull's Tree Farm Done! (photo)
16. Learn how to crochet a granny square (hoping that mom can share her stellar crocheting knowledge with me) Done!
17. Collaborate with dad on a photo project
18. Picnic and feed ducks at a state park Done!
19. Sketch a still life
20. Check out a 3D IMAX movie
21. Learn how to make homemade gelato
22. Write a poem
23. Gaze at garden filled with butterflies
24. Celebrate 5 years of marriage Done!
25. Go fishing
26. Learn to identify 5 new trees
27. Grow flowers from seed Done!
28. Surprise a friend Done!
29. Spend an afternoon at the canal

Save The Dates, Finessed

2010-01-07T15:13:00.004-05:00

Since the sister and brother-in-law-to-be were both happy with the look and feel, I added a bit of finesse to the design. I think that little things like building out the rest of the illustration, adding some extra oomph to the purple space, and creating a bit of interest with the overlapping leaves in the bottom left corner pulled it together more. We're gonna give Overnight Prints a try. I'll let you know how the prints turn out!

fabulous.

2010-01-04T22:47:00.005-05:00

I haven't taken time to fully recount and soak in all that the past year has provided (that's coming soon) but right now as the buzz of Christmas and the whirlwind of New Years Eve in Vegas wears down and things start to settle back into place I think I can say that overall this year has been pretty darn fabulous.

Sparkling Cranberries

2009-12-27T22:57:00.005-05:00

Earlier this month I was searching for something festive to bring to my in-law's Christmas gathering. More specifically, I was on the look out for something that I hadn't had before and for something that would be fun and quick to put together so as not to add a bunch of extra stress to an already busy week. When I ran across these Sparkling Cranberries on the 101 Cookbooks blog they looked just perfect.

They were quick and easy to put together and look very pretty. They would be great as a dessert topping, but we enjoyed them along side a cheese and crackers spread.

One berry packs a LOT of flavor. I loved how the tangy, juicy little burst of cranberry were offset by the crunchy sweetness of the sugar. Everyone else seemed to enjoy them as well. Below is the recipe, I highly recommend.

Sparkling Cranberries Recipe

2 cups cranberries (be sure to pick the mushy and bruised ones out of the bunch)
Simple Syrup to cook, marinade, and coat the berries
2 cups water
2 cups sugar

Medium grained organic sugar to coat the berries

Pick through the cranberries and place them in a medium glass bowl.

Make a simple syrup to cook, marinade, and coat the berries. To do this, bring the 2 c water and 2 c sugar to a simmer. Allow the syrup to cool for a couple minutes before pouring over the cranberries otherwise you may overcook and burst the berries. Pour syrup over the berries, cover the bowl and set in the fridge overnight.

The next day, pour the simple syrup off the cranberries. Toss a handful of berries into a bag and throw a generous scoop of the medium grained sugar in. Shake the bag lightly to coat the berries then scoop the berries out with your fingers lightly and place onto a cookie sheet to dry for a few hours.

The 101 Cookbooks recipe called for a second toss in finer granulated sugar, but I found that mine were plenty coated already and didn't need the extra sugar.

Once the berries have dried long enough that you can pick them up without smearing the sugar off of them they're ready to be placed in a bowl and enjoyed.

Makes 2 cups of sparkling cranberries.

In the process of making something real big

2009-11-13T10:42:00.005-05:00

Since this space is a place I use to share things that I make, I figured at some point I should mention that I'm in the process of making something real big. It wont be done til sometime in March or April, it takes some time to create. Roughly 9 months worth of work. I'm happy to say we're about 1/2 way into the process. I'm practically bursting with excitement and there are a million other things to finish in the mean time. For now, here's a hint of what's to come. Can't wait to share more in the future!

19 Weeks in!

Tees for the nieces

2009-11-12T15:09:00.004-05:00

Here's a work in progress, an idea for a couple of tee shirts for my niece's for Christmas (ages 5 and 2). I'm not completely sold on this design.... luckily there's still time for more ideas. Thought I'd share attempt #1!

New Work Blog

2009-11-12T14:02:00.003-05:00

After much thought and deliberation I have finally come to the conclusion that it's high time my blog was split in two. Now instead of one blog containing all things that I make, I will keep up one for more 'work' related posts and another for my various other past times. Of course since my hobbies and my work tend to overlap in many areas, there will be some crossover, but for the most part if someone in the industry is interested in my work I wanted to make it so they didn't have to wade through recipes and random arty projects.

That being said, if you're more interested in the 'work' related stuff than everything else I post here you may want to follow amykingman.blogspot.com instead of this blog.

I intend to keep a feed of work related stuff on the right hand side of this blog in case anyone is curious about my work life. Thanks for all your comments and support as this little space on the web has continued to grow!

Today's Rainy Day Songs

2009-10-06T11:22:00.002-04:00

Scatteredtrees

Photo Challenge: Composition

2009-08-06T08:57:00.008-04:00

Last week I chose to work on improving my photos by focusing on specific compositional elements. The two elements I focused on most were light and point of interest. I tried to emphasize the point of interest by using depth of field mostly, but lighting played a big role as well. Lens flares, sun spots, and rim lighting, are all things I played with to highlight my point of interest. As I looked through my camera, it was a fun to force myself to think of what I could do compositionally to push my point of interest. My shots became more thoughtful. An obvious point of interest, I realized lately, is something that is missing from many of my compositions. There's still work to be done, but it's a start to get my mind thinking that way.

(Time of day: noon)

(Time of day: just before sunset)

(Time of day: late morning)

(Time of day: just before sunset)

(Time of day: early morning)

In addition to these photos, the photo of the forgotten painting, the flower in the abandoned lot, and the wind chimes were also taken. You can see the complete set on my flickr site.

This week I was joined by Steph and my dad. They both took some awesome photos. Thanks for joining in you two!

Steph chose to focus on mostly lines and negative space.
My dad chose to focus on contrast.

Untitled

2009-07-31T15:19:00.005-04:00

Forgotten artwork in my small town's alley way.

Beauty in an abandoned lot.

Chimes

2009-07-31T12:03:00.003-04:00

Happy Friday from my back yard.

Photo Week Challenge

2009-07-27T12:04:00.007-04:00

I am in the mood for another photo week challenge, and I'd like to invite anyone out there to join me. Over lunch today I was reading over a few principles of photographic composition and I thought I would pick one to focus on this week. This challenge is WIDE open to interpretation. Pick ONE area to focus on this week, keep your camera with you wherever you go, and post your top 3 shots by next Monday.

Comment to this post with a link to your flickr page, blog, picassa account, or wherever you've posted your images online along with the principle you focused on and I'll compile the list of participants with my post next monday. Choose from any of the principles of photographic composition from the list below and have fun!

balance, of elements & color (symmetrical/asymmetrical)
light
point of interest
perspective
harmony
contrast
movement
rhythm
line and curve
positive/negative shapes
patterns

PS: this isn't an official list of photographic composition, it's just a collection of things I found interesting as I searched around for information. If someone has a nice comprehensive list, I'd love to see the link!)

Summer

2009-07-26T22:55:00.003-04:00

#16

2009-07-26T21:23:00.009-04:00

I decided it was time to take action and start chipping away at 'the list' this week. I've definitely been keeping busy this year, but I haven't made much of a dent into the list of things I set out to accomplish and there are only a few months left. It makes sense. Most of the items on the list are things that I really want to do, but for one reason or another I find an excuse to put off doing them. When I wrote this list in the first place I figured that if I include a few of my challenges and see them over and over again throughout the year as I check on my list, it might be the extra incentive I need to actually tackle them. I guess now I'm starting to feel the pressure of time to tackle everything, which seems to be the missing ingredient that I've needed to get these items accomplished.

Yesterday Alex helped me out with #16 on my list and it made for an amazing evening!

We tackled 4 different tapas recipes and spent around 2 hrs total chopping and prepping, running to the store for missing ingredients, and of course sampling a delicious bottle of Spanish wine. One can't be expected to make tapas without sharing wine, in our case it was a Tempranillo generously given to us by my coworker and wine blogger extraordinaire Jeff L efevere. Thanks Jeff! It was delicious!
Amazingly, everything timed out right so that all 4 tapas meals finished cooking at the same time and we ate like kings, with food to spare (even after halving all the recipes).

I am so happy to be one item closer to completing my list, but even more so, I'm so happy that the list required that we make time to spend an evening together experimenting in the kitchen and learning about some amazing foods.

So now for the menu. After looking through recipes here we decided to make the following:

Ceviche using salmon - Fish 'cooked' by the action of acidic lime juice
Patatas Bravas - Crisp Spiced potatoes

Bread with Mushrooms and Alioli
and Prawn and Bacon Brochettes
All of the recipes were delicious, and so different. The shrimp and bacon was by far the easiest, but it was incredibly flavorful, it felt just as special as the other recipes. The bread with mushrooms and alioli tasted so refined, and I loved the garlic and mushroom combination. Next time we'll add more mushrooms per bread slice. The patatas bravas were amazingly seasoned and pure comfort food. We decided that we could probably lessen the ketchup/mayo taste a little by adding more of the seasoning and it would feel a little more gormet. The light fresh flavors of the ceviche was a nice compliment to all of the other rich foods. It was amazing to see how the lime juice 'cooked' the outside of the fish. It's basically raw inside though, so if you dont like raw fish/sushi, this may not be the thing for you. The bed of avacado and tomato with the peppers were a fantastic combination with the fish.

If there are any Spanish readers out there that could share information about tapas in Spain, I would love to learn more or hear your thoughts!

100% Freshness

2009-07-23T19:19:00.006-04:00

As I'm typing this my fingertips are sending up tiny little scent packets of basil left over from my harvest tonight, and it makes me incredibly happy. I'm a beginner when it comes to growing things. I dont have a giant garden, but I do have a couple of small pots growing little vegetable plants and herbs on my back deck.

Tonight, I came home to three bright red tomatoes peeking out at me from the middle of the plant. They're just little guys, but they sure taste delicious. To accompany the tomatoes, I also harvested some basil, oregano, rosemary, tomatoes, chili peppers, and peas. What a satisfying feeling!

Here are a few shots of the produce photo study I did of my humble harvest this evening.

Train Graveyard

2009-07-12T19:25:00.012-04:00

So Saturday night I went with Steph to this train graveyard. I have no idea how long it's been there, but the tracks were overgrown, it was covered in rust, and the interior was rotting and stinky. I wasn't creeped out at first, not until I climbed inside.

(Photo courtesy of Stephanie)

Once inside I saw that I definitely wasn't the first person to venture inside the train, nor was I alone. I stepped carefully, making sure that the floor could support me and as I moved I stirred the smell of rotting wood, urine, and birds.

I kept hearing muffled rustling sounds inside the train, then I noticed that the overhead luggage compartments were lined with bird nests. I didn't go past the first car. We were pretty far away from any civilization, and I figured if all I encountered were birds in the train, that was enough. I had a feeling they weren't the only ones living there.

Before we left we managed to snap a few shots in the evening sun. You can see the entire set here.

Hazy Summer

2009-07-12T17:28:00.006-04:00

This weekend 3 of my sweet friends and I got together for an afternoon to play around with our cameras and attempt to take some editorial style photos. Of course, before we got started, we had to enjoy some fantastic home-made cheese filled crepes, zuccini bars, and bloody marys. Not only can these girls shoot, they can cook too!

The idea for taking editorial style photos came out of the fact that most of the photography I do is more still life. It's hard to set up a time to organize a shoot where you're more in control of the way the set and subject matter looks that also involves people in some way. This was a fun challenge for me to take photos of people without taking portraits per se. We grabbed a couple props for some extra color, but didn't really have a theme of any kind. The main things I tried to focus on during this shoot was composition and color, playing with soft focus, lens flares, and movement. We tried to use props that could demonstrate movement in the photos like the dresses, hair, balloons, bubbles, and a scarf. We were lucky to have a nice breeze most of the day. It was definitely fun to put time aside to do a shoot like this. I know that I personally learned a lot. Especially after looking through the other girl's photos and critiquing what I liked about them. They're all so talented (and pretty too, aren't they)! I put a sampling of the photos we all took together up on my flickr site.

Thanks so much for an awesome afternoon girls! It was a great time on a muggy summer day.

Just playing around with the alphabet.

2009-07-10T17:29:00.005-04:00

Here's a work in progress. Once I find something I'm happy with, this might be good subject matter for another gocco run.

Dug up some old stuff...

2009-07-10T15:49:00.005-04:00

Here's a Lichtenstein-esque version of my sis-in-law that I did a few years back. It was long forgotten, but somehow came into conversation recently so I dug it up and decided to throw it up on a post. I think she may end up using it as a facebook profile pic instead of an actual photo of herself if she decides to part ways with the stock icon they provide. We'll see. :) Well, happy Friday everyone!

July Desktop

2009-07-07T10:20:00.004-04:00

Time for me to switch up the 'ol desktop background. I tossed a few different sizes up on my flickr site for anyone who wants it. Viva July!

Download the size you need here: 1024X768 | 1280X960 | 1920X1200

the carnival is in town!

2009-07-06T21:47:00.012-04:00

I'll tell you something, Lebanon does it's patriotic duty when it comes to celebrating the 4th of July. The entire town comes alive for a week long festival. Live music plays at the bandstand every night, teams of family relay race participants make their way to the park in matching brightly colored t-shirts, red white and blue decorated golf carts put along the streets, and from the open window of our 2nd story office we can hear the muffled sound of the carnival til late into the night. Compared to the usual quietness of our small town, the sound causes an excitement and kind of haunting all at the same time. The wind brings the sound in waves of silence, then screams, unintelligible shouts of carnival workers, and bursts of music as the rides begin, followed by more silence as the wind carries it away. I'd been aware of the carnival for an entire week without visiting. I'd seen the employee's campers from the road outside the park, and the tops of the tallest rides over the trees. But I hadn't gone in for an up close look until the 4th had come and gone. We rode our bikes down to the park on the 5th to see what we could see up close, and here are a few of the things we saw.

Timeline Animations In Flash are Fun!

2009-06-08T16:58:00.005-04:00

I love putting together a fun timeline animation in flash to add some bells and whistles to slick interface animation. You wouldn't want me animating the entire site, but I like to think of what I do as like the sprinkles on top of the cup cake. Tiny bits of amusement here and there to add a little fun. Here's a sneak peek at our new Basement website. We knew that we wanted the buttons in the 'who we are' section to have some personality so we came up with the concept of these pipes building a sign of sorts. I sketched the thought, drew it up in illustrator, then animated it in flash. This is a type of task that makes my day go by quickly because I have fun doing it. I'll be sure to post when we've got the site up and running! Until then!

Long Exposure Light Writing

2009-04-12T22:02:00.005-04:00

Lots of fun this weekend experimenting with long exposure light writing. Steph had been wanting to play around with this technique, so Sat night we busted out the flashlights and colored tissue paper. Phase 1 was playing with different light sources and techniques for writing, phase 2 we plan on heading out to the park and stage some more shots. Can't wait!

Sweet nieces and egg fun

2009-04-07T12:33:00.002-04:00

This weekend my sweet niece, Margot, and I spent a couple hours making eggs pretty. We did a couple 'blow out' eggs and dyed the rest. Good times!

by hand

2009-04-01T23:00:00.008-04:00

Designers, I'm sure you've scoured dafont.com for the perfect handwritten font at SOME point or another. Some designs just call for something less structured and more alive. Not to mention the whole DIY look has been super trendy for a while now. I guess it's the charm of something created by hand and the flexibility of the digital world. It's nice.

These handwritten fonts are nothing new. If you can't find something that you like on dafont, or you don't want to risk seeing the font you use on another design, there are hundreds of different ways to do create your own. I've known this was a possibility, but it wasn't until today that I finally took a moment to give it a try.

I can't believe I hadn't done this before. It literally took 15 min. I created mine with the online font generator at www.yourfonts.com.

Let me sum up:

1. Go to www.yourfonts.com and print out the character template
2. Fill out the template in a thin black sharpie (or thick if that's your bag)
3. Scan the template you just filled in at 300 dpi
4. Upload it
5. Get custom handwritten font to install on your computer!

Here's what my character template looked like all filled in:

In my haste, I did not pay as much attention to the hashmark guidelines as I should have, and as a result a couple characters (the lower case u and the . ) are either a little too high, or a little too low, but for the most part it worked out flawlessly.

Even if you're not a designer, this could be a cool thing to play with. I can see scrapbookers getting some good use out of this, and maybe cooks who want to preserve recipes in their mom's handwriting but are a bit too much of a search junky/technophile to rely totally on recipe cards. I realize this is cheating, and it's no where near as close as a scan of the card or the real thing, but it could be better than straight up Arial. Just an idea.

Any other ideas for how a custom handwritten font could be used?

(The above photo was taken through the viewfinder of my kodak duaflex II camera with my Digital Canon Rebel. I processed the colors in photoshop and used my fancy new handwritten font to label it. Talk about combining the digital with the DIY. Alex's grandfather worked at Peerless for nearly his entire life. This building has a special place in the hearts of his family. It feels nice to have a picture of it.)

Girl's Weekend: Tropical Mimosas, Artie Fun, and Mexican Food

2009-03-31T12:28:00.006-04:00

These girls, they are such amazing, creative, talented girls.

Winter can suck it, we say! Finally, we fight back against the cold! Pump up the heat! Break out the mango juice and champagne, rock the pajama pants, and grab that stinkin list of projects we've been meaning to do all winter long if only we could crawl out from under the blanket and find the motivation.

Sometimes you just need a little help from your friends to kick the winter blues.

This day, was awesome.

You can see the entire set with finished projects on my flickr stream. More photos of my necklace yet to come.

Aperture Priority

2009-02-08T21:39:00.006-05:00

In honor of Jen's continuing photo week series exploring camera settings, here's my aperture priority shoot. This weekend we journeyed to Bloomington, IL and did some rock climbing in the silos at Upper Limits. It was a lot of fun, but super tough to get a decent shot in the low light conditions without using a flash.

Looking back I can't believe that I didn't have the presence of thought to increase my ISO. I probably would have ended up with a very different shoot. Oh well, as it stands I ended up with some pretty dramatic looking photos because it forced me to wait for my subject to enter the harsh yellow ring of light that was cast on the side of the silo or else deal with some wicked motion blur. I didn't mind the motion blur in all of the shots, though, it added a bit of excitement.

I used my 50 1.8 lens primarily because my adjustable lens simply wasn't fast enough. I would have really liked to use a wider angle, but again, it forced me to consider the best composition I could get within the limitations of my view. Thanks for hosting another photo week challenge, Jen! It was fun!

Wednesday Desktop Background Freebie

2009-02-04T14:39:00.002-05:00

Select your screen resolution: 1920 X 1200 | 1280 X 960 | 1024 X 768

Who doesn't love free things!? I personally like to change my desktop backgrounds often. Sometimes I make my own, other times I really like having another artists work to look at.

A week or so ago, I was playing around with the photo that I used in the processing tutorial and created a simple desktop background with it. I got to thinking that if I love free high-quality desktop backgrounds made by other artists, maybe I should contribute one of my own to the community. So here it is! Take it if you want it! Totally on the house.

Sue's Series Photo Weekend Challenge

2009-02-03T13:38:00.006-05:00

I know that sledding is total copycat of Steph and Scott, but this series was too fun not to share. :D Thanks for heading up the photo challenge this weekend Sue!

(Click the 'All Sizes' button above the photo on my Flickr page to see it big)

Vintage Ribbon Camera Strap

2009-02-01T23:57:00.005-05:00

It's been a long time coming! I posted about this pretty ribbon and my desire to add it to my camera strap months ago, but with my sewing machine on the fritz, and Christmas presents to make I hadn't gotten around to it. This weekend, though, Steph was kind enough to allow me to borrow some pieces of black fabric for the sleeve and her sewing machine to finally put this together. I'm so thrilled to finally have my custom strap complete! Thanks Steph, you make dreams come true!!!

Now I just need to figure out what I've done to make my sewing machine behave so badly and I can finish up other 1/2 done sewing projects. :) (see #1 on the list, sewing bag, you're next!)

Twinkle Soft and Chunky Yarn Rocks!

2009-01-29T23:30:00.004-05:00

This yarn is SO soft and really, really warm. I was surprised at how warm it was for being such a airy scarf pattern. This scarf is way better than any scarf I own as far as keeping out the cold, that's for sure.

I just finished this scarf tonight while we watched LOST. A co-worker of mine commissioned it as a gift for his wife. (I hope she likes it!) I really am a big fan of this yarn, it's definitely NOT cheap, but it makes all the difference in the way these scarves turn out. I made one for my best friend for Christmas with this same yarn, but I didn't get any decent pictures of it so I thought I'd post a couple of this one. I wanted to share what a difference having the right yarn makes. If you're interested in getting some of your own, check out Yarn Market they have a ton of beautiful colors to choose from. Happy Friday Everyone!

Playing with the mood of a photo

2009-01-28T20:14:00.009-05:00

After looking through the images I took during my antique camera photo shoot, I thought it might be fun to pick one and try to play with the tone of the image. I wanted to keep the effect subtle, but still give it a bit of a mood. For this tone I chose to draw from the look of film developed in the 70's. Here's a tutorial of the techniques I used to achieve these results.

Here's the original photo

New 50 mm Prime Lens

2009-01-25T15:43:00.004-05:00

I can't believe what a HUGE difference this new 50 mm prime lens makes! I did a photo shoot of a couple antique cameras we have in the house today and was really excited to see the results. The cameras are so beautiful! I think I'm going to have to print out the series and hang them all together somewhere. It might even be cool to see if there's a coffee shop or something that would be interested in the series as part of a local artist gallery of some sort. I'll have to look around. Thanks for the extra inspiration to make the purchase, Steph! I love it!

Red Velvet Birthday Cupcakes

2009-01-18T21:05:00.006-05:00

This weekend we had a birthday party for my little sister who's favorite cupcake is the ever so popular red velvet cupcake. I asked the most knowledgeable baker I know for a recipe recommendation and she referred me to a red velvet layer cake recipe posted on Smitten Kitchen. Since they were cupcakes, and not cakes, I baked them at 350 for only 25 min.

I have to admit there was a fiasco involving red food coloring and my favorite jeans, and I was a little nervous about the whole buttermilk portion of the recipe as well as the vinegar and baking soda you add at the end. I thought for sure I'd get something off balance and my poor sister would end up with red bricks instead of cupcakes for her birthday. I'm totally new to the whole baking thing and haven't quite accumulated any confidence for it. Fortunately for her, they actually turned out fluffy and not at all like bricks. Yay!

I made a cream cheese icing and topped them off with stemmed maraschino cherries for maximum cuteness. I was worried about the cherries bleeding on the icing, so I rinsed them off and let them dry out on paper towels.

My sis said that she really like the cupcakes, so to me that is a success! Here's to happy birthdays to very much loved little sisters!

Honored to be a guest blogger

2009-01-16T15:33:00.002-05:00

Today I'm very honored for the opportunity to be guest blogging over at Shutter Sisters as a Friday Featured Resource. Thank you for allowing me to contribute a thought to such an inspirational and talented community of women, Tracey. Happy Friday everyone!

It makes me happy

2009-01-14T21:26:00.005-05:00

I love this stocking stuffer. Every Christmas my mom-in-law drops a hyacinth bulb in my stocking as a little reminder to hang in there til spring. As soon as I get home I place it in a bud vase so that the water reaches just the tips of the root sprouts at the base of the bulb. Within a couple of days the roots begin to grow happily down and before I know it there's a little green sprout. Then there it is, new life right there in my kitchen when everything outside is still sleeping. This makes me happy.

See here for more information on stimulating bulbs to grow out of season, AKA forcing bulbs. Don't let all the various instructions scare you too bad. For the hyacinth bulbs, we've had lots of luck just making sure to properly package the bulb in the refrigerator for 4-6 weeks so that it's conditioned. That's the only special treatment that I know of. After that it's just making sure the water level is good in the bud vase and we watch it grow.

Shutter Sisters Inspiration

2009-01-10T11:08:00.017-05:00

I enjoy the daily bits of inspiration from Shutter Sisters. Today's bit revolved around the clean slate of the new year.

Sometimes it's tough for me to follow through with various creative assignments depending on what's going on in my life and whatnot but I just really liked this one so I thought I'd give it a shot. With all the chilly gray brown and white around us these days I felt like this would be a great opportunity to look a little closer for the colorful, the cheery, and the cozy. Here's the assignment:
January Homework Assignment (Starting Monday):

1) Take one photo everyday until Jan. 31st that is colorful, cozy, cheerful or just makes you smile.

2) Do something creative with your hands 5 days a week. It could be drawing, painting, origami, scribbling, doodling, writing, or anything else. But it may not involve a camera or a computer.

I've decided that I'm going to count culinary exploits as 'something creative with my hands' as well. I'll be keeping a log of my photos, and photos of the things I make by hand up on my flickr page. Let me know if you decide to join. I'd love to see your photos.

PS: The diptych above is of some awesome eggnog cupcakes. I got the recipe from Annie's Eats. The cupcakes had a great flavor, were super moist and the icing was REALLY sweet. I don't prefer the sugar icings as much as cream cheese variety, so I think next time I'll experiment with a different icing.

New Lights and Some Color

2009-01-08T21:22:00.007-05:00

Here is my new and improved light box photo. I found that my little desk lights weren't quite bright enough to show off my subject matter, so I got some clip lights and put in a daylight bulb so that all the colors were as true as could be. I also made sure to white balance my camera before shooting my subject and I added a nice patterned fabric beneath to make it pop.

The angle wasn't quite right when I clipped my lights to the sides of the box, but I didn't have any special light stands to fasten my lights to. To serve as stands, I tried clipping the lights to a couple bookends and it worked perfectly. They were easy to maneuver to get the lighting just right.

What a wonderful tale

2009-01-04T22:34:00.009-05:00

This morning I finished the last chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring, thus drawing me 66% closer to completing #10 on the list.

It's a slow process for me, reading. Usually I do my reading just before bed where I only last about a chapter or so before I nod off, or first thing in the morning to ease into my day. So, there's quite a sense of accomplishment when I finally make it through a book, especially a long one. Even more so when I finish a book that I've been meaning to read for so long. This one in particular has been a long time coming.

Over the summer I was out for a walk around the square and discovered what is now my favorite shop in town, Mason's Rare and Used Books. After a long time exploring the shop I stumbled upon a set of 3 hardbacks containing The Lord of the Rings books for a great price. I was very excited to find the set because I had been wanting to read them for some time and planned on spending my remaining afternoon perched on the back deck with a new book. Unfortunately I didn't have cash on me, so I resolved to leave empty handed and return another day and purchase the set.

Sensing my disappointment, the shop owner took my name and phone number, then handed me the books and an IOU with the amount written on it so that I could get started right away. What a guy right?! Course, I didn't get started right away. I had to do things right and read The Hobbit first, I decided on my walk home that day with my books in arms.

So yes, I read the Hobbit, which I loved, then a couple other books, and finally just before my birthday I began The Fellowship. And this morning I finished it, the first of the 3 Lord of the Rings books. Yay!

He's truly a wonderful teller of tales that Tolkien, and I had to share my enthusiasm. But there's much more of the story to read, much more of the journey ahead, so I'm off to begin part 2, Two Towers! Goodnight!

The Making of a Light box

2009-01-03T19:31:00.011-05:00

A light box is something I've been meaning to construct for some time now. I get so frustrated when trying to take photos of things that I make in the winter time because of the lack of natural light. Everything looks dark and blah.

After a conversation today with miss Jen the Beantown Baker about techniques to improve her delicious food photography I decided to take on the challenge of creating an affordable, collapsible light box for people who may be short on space as well as cash. The problem I found with many of the affordable foam core light boxes is that every time you want to take it down you risk having the tape rip the walls apart. That in combination with the potentially frustrating assembly as one fumbles with the foam core like a house of cards lead me to the idea of a dove-tail like joint for the box.

This light box design cost about $4 for the foam core and another $1 for the poster board that I use to create a seamless background. It's quick and easy to assemble, tear down, and store away. I still need to find brighter lighting, I used two dim desk lamps to test, but it definitely has potential!

First I cut the foam core into 20"X20" panels. I then labeled each panel according to it's location on the box to keep myself from getting confused.
After I labeled my 4 sides I measured a 1" thick margin where each joint connected. Then I laid out the panels according to where they connected to the 'back' panel. Imagine the sides and top folding up at each joint and you can visualize how the box will connect.

With the joints touching I measured out 3" notches and drew my line across both panels to ensure that everything would fit together nicely. For someone who is less than precise when it comes to measuring, this is a great technique to ensure a good fit. I then shaded in the notches that I wanted to cut out with my exacto knife. I did this to keep from cutting out the wrong notch accidentally.

By tilting your panel up you can see where the notches fit into each other. The white ones, or tabs will fit into the shaded ones, the ones I cut out.

Once you cut out the shaded boxes to create your notches, you should be able to easily assemble the light box.

Here's the light box assembled. This will create 3 nice white surfaces to bounce light off of to create a nice even light source for product photography. The final step is adding a strip of poster board to create a seamless backdrop for the product. Since the light box is 20" wide with a 1" margin on each side I needed to cut my poster board to be 18" wide.

Again, I did not want to use tape which could tear the box and the poster board, so I cut notches into the poster that fit into the tabs on the 'back' panel. I set the poster's notches into the 'back' panels, then laid the 'top' panel on top of it to hold it in place. It worked out great.

Here are the 2 dim desk lamps I used to test the setup. I'd recommend getting a couple of those silver dome lamps with daylight bulbs to give brighter, better light. Here's a comparison of the light box set up vs. the flash on my camera.

(For tips on making this shot more appealing see updated post on lighting and color)

As you can see, the flash blows out the subject when you try to get close to it and creates a harsh shadow. It also flattens the image because the light source is only coming from one location straight on. The light box feels nice and soft and helps show off the contours of the subject by providing light from multiple angles.

Once I finished with the light box you simply pulled it apart and all of the panels lay nice and flat so that you can store it easily til the next use!

For other takes on the light box hack, check out:

Steph's light box which is made out of an old box, cloth, and poster board. This one diffuses light instead of bouncing it off the walls

and

Sara's mini photo studio which is made out of pvc pipe, white sheets, and poster board.

both turned out GREAT! Nice job ladies. :D

Winter Windowboxes

2008-12-20T18:11:00.007-05:00

This summer Alex and I put window boxes on the front of the house and planted them with sweet smelling flowers. I miss having fresh flowers on the house, but this is the next best thing! Over Thanksgiving when I was visiting Alex's family, his mom let me steal a bunch of greenery from the bushes around their house.

We cut out branches of boxwood and evergreen as well as some hearty ivy that was growing up a tree. For some extra color and texture we cut a few of the dried snowballs off of the hydrangea bushes as well. I felt it still needed a bit more color so I added some red berries. They're the only part of it that isn't real.

To assemble I just poked everything down into the soil in a fan shape then wove white Christmas lights through the window boxes. You don't need to worry about watering the greenery, it should last through most of the winter just the way it is.

I had some supplies left over from filling the window boxes so I decided to take one of my flower pots and fill it the same way for the front porch. It makes me happy to drive home and see the lights and the green. Our house is a big white box, so it's nice to see some extra color.

Does anyone else have window boxes? I'd love to see your winter ideas!

Quick Centerpiece with Spare Pine Needles

2008-12-20T17:53:00.005-05:00

We had a few spare pine needles left over from clearing out the scraggly parts of our Christmas tree this year and I was looking for some way to put them to use.

I decided to try putting together a simple centerpiece of some sort. To do this I grabbed 3 vases I had on hand, filled them at different levels with water, stuffed in the pine needles and topped it off with some cranberries. It was really quick and easy, but I thought it turned out nice. It would look pretty in any shape vase, with really any greenery, alone or in groups.

If you're looking for a quick centerpiece idea, this might work out nicely. Send me photos if you end up trying it!

Candy Making!

2008-12-17T17:05:00.012-05:00

Last weekend, as is our yearly tradition, my Mom, Sis, and I braved the cold and gathered together in Grandma's kitchen. By the time I arrived, all bundled up, my arms filled with trays of peanut butter balls and turtles assembled the night before, chocolate was already melting in the double boilers. The smell of grandma's house and the sound of my family made it finally feel like Christmas time. I love candy making day. I thought I'd share a "taste" (no pun intended) of our candy making process with some photos I took of the day. If you click on any of the photos, you can view the entire set of candy photos on my flickr account.

To break down the 6 hrs of candy fun into a manageable post, here are the 3 candy making techniques we use to make our chocolates.

1. Coating (Pretzels, Peanut Butter Balls, Coconut Balls, Maple Walnut Balls, Peanut Brittle, Ritz Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Brazil Nuts, Turtles)
2. Dipping into cups (Mixed nuts, Macademia nuts, Haystacks, Yogurt Coated Raisins, Crushed Heath)

3. Pouring as a sheet and breaking (White Peppermint, Colored Peppermint, Crushed Oreo)
Melting the Chocolate
Of course all three start with the melting of the chocolate in a double boiler. Melting the chocolate in a double boiler as opposed to a pan keeps it from scalding and sticking to the pan. Keeping the pot of melted chocolate over the warm water while you work also helps to keep it from cooling too quickly as you coat your treats. We toss in 1 tb of parawax per every pound of chocolate that we melt. This helps firm up the chocolate and makes it look pretty and shiny when it cools.
Coating
Some of the treats that we coat don't require assembly before we coat them, examples being pretzels, ritz sandwiches, and brazil nuts. Things like peanut butter balls, though, should be rolled up and laid out in rows onto wax paper before you begin to melt your chocolate. If you don't have them rolled and ready, your chocolate will be cooled and hardened before you get them coated. We generally take care of this the night before and that gives them a chance to set up a bit and cool before we dunk em in the chocolate.

We cover the entire table with wax paper because all the coated chocolates need to dry before they can be put into the pretty little candy cups.

Once the wax paper is laid out and the chocolate melted, we bring the entire double boiler over to the table and set it on a hot pad to begin coating. Generally we toss a handful of pretzels in at a time, stir them gently, then fish them out with the fork.

A swirly tipped utensil is helpful for fishing out ritz sandwiches and the loop is what we use for the balls. You can use whatever works for you, of course, anything that gets the job done. Once you get all of your treats coated, let them cool completely on the wax paper so the chocolate can harden before you attempt to place them into the cups.

Dipping into cups
It's a good idea to lay out your candy cups into rows before you begin to melt your chocolate. This way you're sure to fill the cups before the chocolate cools. Mostly for dipping, we do a variety of chopped nuts in different types of chocolates. Once your chocolate is completely melted on the stove, toss in the nuts and stir it up. The nuts to chocolate ratio is completely personal preference. Just add what you like!

Once you're satisfied with the mix bring your double boiler over to the wax paper, set it on a hot pad, then use a spoon to fill the cups. Once the cups cool completely and harden, it's easy to peel the cup away and munch on the hardened hunk of chocolate and nuts.

Pouring a sheet and breaking
Make sure you have a nice large space of wax paper laid out. Then, just like you did with the cups, melt your chocolate on the stove completely and toss in the crushed peppermint or oreos. Once everything is mixed up nicely, carry just the pot holding the melted chocolate over to the wax paper. You can turn off the burner and leave the pot filled with water on the stove. Pour the mixed up chocolate slowly out onto the wax paper. Let it cool completely and harden, then peel it up off of the wax paper and break it apart into bite size chunks that fit into your candy cups.

Once we finish coating, dipping, and pouring our chocolates we usually take a lunch break and chat a bit while everything cools. Mom brings home made soup and bread and grandpa joins us for a bite.

Once all the chocolate has hardened we place them into cups, trimming off excess chocolate so that everything fits nicely. Grandma begins to assemble the boxes while we do this job.

After that we just move in a circle around the table grabbing one or two of each chocolate, filling up the bottom layer of the box. Once we fill it as packed as it can get, we lay a paper down and do it again. By the time we're done each box is filled with two delicious layers of chocolates. Oh, they look so pretty all stacked together in their colorful candy cups.

As pretty as this is, and as much as I love candy day, I have to admit, by the time it comes to boxing the candy I'm completely ready to be done. We make a large volume and variety of chocolates so the entire process takes us a while. It's totally worth it, though, to keep our family tradition going and to see happy faces when we give away the candy.

And that's my family's Christmas candy tradition.

***Side Note: Thanks to Rachel at One Pretty Thing for featuring me on her Christmas Roundup.***

Photo Week: 'Tis the season

2008-12-14T22:59:00.005-05:00

Steph, had the lovely idea to invite us to join her on a photo 'weekend' to boost her holiday spirit. Saturday was 'Sparkle and Spirit' and Sunday was 'Traditional Red and Green'. This was an easy photo weekend for me to participate in because I was taking SO many photos as it was! This weekend was PACKED with holiday fun. Saturday I joined my grandma, mom, and sister to make our Christmas chocolates then Sunday we went up to Dull's Tree Farm to get our tree! I'll be sure to throw up a big post soon about the candymaking and possibly a quick post about a couple holiday decorations I put together.

Without further ado, here are my contributions to the holly jolly photo weekend! Thanks for hosting a great photo week, Steph!

Saturday: Sparkle and Spirit

Sunday: Traditional Red and Green

I can't help myself

2008-12-09T21:39:00.004-05:00

This isn't a forum I generally use to discuss or share music, but in this case I can't help myself.

I am completely hooked on this ridiculously happy and wonderful album. It's been sort of a staple at our house lately, always on in the background when we want a little something to pick us up and get us moving. I seriously CAN NOT stop smiling and bopping around while I listen. And when I say bopping, I mean literally bopping. It's just something you have to do.

The album: The Way I See It, and well, it's just fantastic. It's Raphael Saadiq bein all motowny and awesome.

It's like a summer breeze, full of energy and happiness, cutting right through the dark that comes WAY too early during this winter time. It's perfect for getting the inspiration flowing. (That's right, this post just became a little more appropriate for this blog, we're talkin inspiration now)

If the clips on Amazon aren't enough to hook you, and you need more of a test drive before you commit to the music purchase, you can check out the entire album streaming on deezer.com. That's how we discovered the album in fact, it's featured on the homepage. Sometimes on weekdays you may have trouble getting it to play. I think it has something to do with the cost of rights to streaming music, but nights and weekends generally seem to be trouble free.

All I can say is if you're a motown fan, you'll love the album. I do, it's my MUCH needed bit of sunshine on these cold and cloudy days. Just had to share.

Adding To The Shop

2008-12-08T22:25:00.005-05:00

After a bit of research on archival quality printing, I've decided to add a couple more items to my shop today. I chose to go with a few of the more interesting Ttv photos and an unframed print of the Wishful Thinking illustration.

I wanted to make sure that any prints that were purchased from me would resist fading and look nice and sharp. I'm looking mostly for prints that are guaranteed for 70+ years. From the bit that I've read, it's important to print on acid free paper to prevent yellowing, and use pigmented/archival ink to resist fading. I found a few online options that look promising. It took me a bit of time to sniff out these printers, so I thought I'd share them here to save anyone conducting a similar search some time. Here are my findings:

http://www.mpix.com/
http://www.iprintfromhome.com/
http://www.imagekind.com/
http://finerworks.com/
http://www.giclee-factory.com

I have yet to use any of these printers so I can't vouch for them. If you have used any of these printers, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I would really love to find a local printer to work with, I just am not sure where to start, especially if I'm not printing in bulk. If you're in the Indianapolis area, and you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

I'll be sure to post any findings and reviews once I've discovered a printer I like! Yay for learning about print! It's a wide wide world and it's SO not dead.

The Results Are In!

2008-12-06T21:56:00.018-05:00

My first attempt at printing with the gocco DEFINITELY didn't turn out as perfectly as I'd imagined it would, but isn't that the way with most first attempts? I set out to produce a set of prints to send out as Christmas cards and the experiment was full of lessons learned and questions I need to ask. Even though the prints didn't turn out as beautifully as I'd hoped they would, it was still fun to make. Here's a quick look at my process and my result.

First, I sketched up the initial design, scanned it in, then cleaned it up and played with colors in the computer. After a bit of playing, I finally ended up with this.I wish we had one of those little guys to take care of our shoveling for us! Least he has friends to make the work more fun.

Next I split the colors into 3 separate black and white compositions to use to burn the screens for the 3 different colors I wanted to print. I needed to take the compositions and have them printed on the laserjet printers at Kinkos because I needed carbon in the ink. Laserjet prints contain carbon, but my home inkjet printer does not. The first printout is what I used to burn the screen for the light blue color, the second for the light green, and the third to burn the screen for the dark green. I wasn't sure if there was too much detail in my illustration or not, so I was very curious to see if the detail of the shingles and the texture on the wall of the house would show up. I was pretty impressed by the results.

Insert blue filter then screen. The blue filter keeps the print from fusing to the screen when you burn it.Screw bulbs into housing then fit into top of the unit.Press down firmly on the front of the unit which will cause bulbs to flash and burn the screen. (I added a little flare to this photo for fun, cheesy I know, but hey this photo just didn't do the flash bulbing step justice)Here's a closeup of the middle screen. Check out the detail of the thin windowpanes and the ironwork. Pretty cool that the mesh is fine enough to pick all that up.

Once the screens were all burned it was time to print. I didn't have the color blue that I wanted, so I decided to mix my own. First lesson, I should have started with white, then added the blue. It was impossible to get it light enough once I had all that blue on my screen. Even after I printed all of my papers I still had TONS of ink left on the screen. All the ink was good for a nice even print though.Once you ink the screen, you lower the plastic sheet attached to the screen and fit the screen back into the unit facing the same way as when you burned it originally. Next step, place your paper on the rubber base, lower the lid and press. Then just lift the lid, the paper will stick to the screen, then you just peel it down gently and admire your print!
So, the colors couldn't really be further from what I'd originally envisioned. I decided to just roll with it though and deal with the brightness. Honestly, I dont mind the saturation, that crazy fluorescent green is kinda fun. I think if the blue was just a bit lighter and the dark green just a bit darker I would have been more ok with the overall look of the print.

I also learned that registering 3 colors with this model gocco is super difficult. Lots of mess-ups for sure.

The final point of frustration I had was knowing how much ink to flood the screen with. It seems to vary from color to color. I dont know if maybe the inks I have are different ages or if it has something to do with the pigment, but the dark green gave me ALL SORTS of agitation. Whenever I'd peel it off the screen I'd end up with certain areas with a heavier ink buildup than others. I was running low on the dark green ink, so I wasn't quite as generous with it as I was with the other two colors, and I wonder if that might be the culprit? If anyone has had similar experience with this kind of trouble, please share! Once I ran out I threw some black ink on the screen and it didn't give me that trouble... or maybe it did, but wasn't as noticeable because black is more opaque.

Does anyone have any tips on cleaning the screens? It seems impossible!

Overall, the experience was fun, and I cant WAIT to get more supplies for another project. I'm still unsure if I want to send these prints out as Christmas cards, or if I should just get the original illustration printed at kinkos or something to send out. I feel like the quality of this first run isn't necessarily what I want it to be to share with others, but then again is part of the charm in it's flaws? You can CERTAINLY tell they're hand-made. I'll have to live with them a bit longer to make my final decision.

So that's my first gocco experience in a nutshell! Hopefully there will be more to come.PS: I'd also recommend having furry helpers near by to give second opinions on the prints. Mylo was super helpful, especially when he laid on my feet to keep them extra warm.

Printing with the Gocco!!!

2008-12-06T01:08:00.005-05:00

Oh Gocco! I knew we'd be a good fit together. Why did I discover you so late?!!!

I've been having so much fun playing with my new toy! After finally finishing a 3 color print design for our Christmas cards this year I've begun the printing process. I don't want to give too much away til it's finished. I just wanted to share a quick progress shot that Alex took.

This thing the Gocco and I have, it's love. So simple, such quality. I'm desperate to continue our love affair! Why has Riso stopped making supplies?! If anyone out there knows of alternative gocco supplies PLEASE let me know. If not, maybe you knows of a similar printing setup that ISN'T going extinct. That would be great too.

I guess the only thing to do, for now, is just to enjoy the time I have left with my beloved Gocco.

I cant wait to see how this first print project turns out with all 3 inks! I'll post when they're finished.

My Etsy shop, La Grisette, is up and running!

2008-12-04T23:28:00.009-05:00

I'm trying a little experiment. I've purchased many a hand crafted item off Etsy over the past couple of years, and I always thought to myself, "Someday, I should post a couple items for sale and see if there's any interest". Well, today was that someday. I've opened an Etsy shop online and listed my first item for sale. Sure it needs finesse (the look, the wording, the information), sure I need to add more items to sell (photography prints, illustrations, gocco prints, tshirts), but for now, it's a start. So without further ado, I present 'La Grisette' my little shop on the web. Just one framed illustration for sale now. More items to come.

New Basement Tees

2008-12-03T15:29:00.003-05:00

The design and motion company I work for, The Basement, is in need of some company tees, so I put together this 3 color design. We wanted something other than just our logo slapped on a shirt, so I tried to integrate a bit of movement in the design to associate with all the motion work that we do. The plan is to print them on Alternative Apparel shirts (the perfect crew for men and organic scoop neck for women). We're hoping to get these printed and sent out to clients as holiday gifts, as well as for ourselves of course. I can't wait to see them finished, hopefully we can get them printed soon. Happy Wednesday!

More Warmth!

2008-12-02T23:19:00.002-05:00

Tonight my little sister Shelly came over and we worked on our no-knit scarves. I saw the idea on MarthaStewart.com via One Pretty Thing, got some yarn at Jo-Anne Etc., and made a small adjustment. I couldn't find any yarn as big and fluffy as they used, so I added two extra strands to thicken it up (6 bundles of 3 instead of 4 bundles). I also learned that I needed to double the length of the yarn because the extra knots made the scarf too short.

Here's my result! It was easy to do while watching tv, pretty quick and mindless. I think I'll make two!

:::UPDATE:::

Someone recently commented on the project at MarthaStewart.com and shared that the yarn used in her scarf is Twinkle Soft Chunky pure merino wool yarn.

You can purchase the yarn online from her store or if they don't have the color you're looking for you can also find a wider color selection online at the Yarn Market Looks like it will run you right around $19 for 83 yds.

If you're not picky about the color, Yarnzilla has a couple colors left in stock for a discounted price of around $14.

Be sure to let me know if you find of other affordable online options! I can see using a lot more of this yarn in the future!

The Exciting World of Split Toning!

2008-11-24T18:39:00.017-05:00

Ok, so I took this photo of my little niece, Margot, playing on the swing set earlier this fall. It wasn't the worst photo I took, but it was a gray, yucky day, so none of the colors really popped, and it didn't seem to evoke much emotion. I guess my eye never settles on one particular spot in the photo, so it's not super interesting. I wanted to try and do something to bring a bit more focus to the shot. She was in a very dreamy sort of mood that day, closing her eyes and just swinging and swinging, and I thought that the right kind of processing would allow me to bring out that mood more in the photo. Here's the original photo for you to compare.

I tried turning the photo black and white to see if it helped at all, but it still didn't help to draw the focus anywhere, if anything it made it worse by taking away her bright red sweatshirt. It just felt even more flat. I love the richer look of split toning so I thought I'd give it a try on this photo.

Here's a tutorial on how I achieved the look above.

Step 1: Add an adjustment layer that turns the image black and white

Step 2: Add a Color Balance adjustment layer, select highlights, and move the dials towards the red, magenta, and yellow. This will warm up the bright areas of the photo.

Step 3: With the Color Balance window still open, select shadows, and move the dials towards the cyan, green, and blue. This will cool down the dark areas of the photo.

Step 4: To get the soft, dreamy look and punch up the contrast a bit. Duplicate the layer that your photo is on. Go to Filter > Blur > Lens blur then play with the threshold and radius to get nice bright spots that will highlight the sunny spots of your photo.

Step 5: Select the layer you've just blurred and change it's blending mode to "Soft Light"

Step 6: Now lower the opacity on the image so that the "dreaminess" isn't overpowering. (Unless that's what you're going for) In this case, I just wanted a subtle hint of it.

And now you should have a nice split tone dreamy effect on your image. I'd love to hear thoughts or other tips that you may have concerning this photo or tutorial.

Adventures In Canning

2008-11-23T20:31:00.005-05:00

As part of the home made Christmas gifts that Alex and I will be giving this year, we decided to try to make and can our own salsa.

I'd never canned before, so didn't realize how much is actually involved! In all honesty it felt a bit like a science experiment. It was a fun thing to learn, though, canning. It was probably all the sterilizing and making sure everything was the right temperature that made it feel like a science experiment. Well, that and the giant odd shaped tongs and magnet wand that were involved.

I suppose the extreme attention given to sterilizing is a good thing. Nobody wants to give, or get, botulism for Christmas.

Alex and I had the jars, and my parents let me borrow all their little canning tools which made things much easier. They gave me a run down of the process and I headed home with all my stuff ready to cook and can the afternoon away.

As most first time attempts go, it probably took us 3 times as long to do the sterilizing and canning bits than it probably should have. But hey, 100% success rate on the vaccum seals was worth the extra time to get it right!

My friend Erin came over and said she would be more than happy to be a little salsa slave for the afternoon, so we did all the chopping and cooking, and sterilizing of equipment in boiling water. (She totally earned herself a jar of salsa) Then she headed home for the evening and Alex helped me fill the jars with the salsa and prep them for the vacuum sealing.

I'll put together a little how-to with lessons learned later. For now, here's wishing everyone a happy Sunday.

So what's wrong with being granola?

2008-11-13T21:38:00.006-05:00

I find granola delicious, and I don't care what you say. This was my first attempt to make my own, and it was ridiculously easy. Not to mention it was a heck of a lot cheaper than what you can buy at the store. Here's the recipe I used. I got the recipe from Ellie Krieger. Side note, I don't know if it was just my oven or what, but I needed to take it out closer to 25 min. It got a little too brown for my liking at 30 min.

Ingredients
Cooking Spray
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup chopped raw, unsalted walnuts
1/2 cup chopped unsalted almonds
1/2 cup chopped unsalted pecans
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins, optional

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl combine the oats, nuts, maple syrup, salt, cinnamon and the raisins, if using. Spread the mixture onto the baking sheet and bake until golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Transfer the sheet to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Something to warm me

2008-11-13T20:55:00.009-05:00

I've been getting the bug to bake lately. It's not hard to understand where the bug is coming from. It gets dark so early it's hard not to feel like a prisoner being kept from the sun. I guess to keep from letting myself get too frustrated with the arrival of the winter and the dark, I've been trying to compensate with other things that make my senses happy. In this case, that thing was cinnamon-y, sweet smelling carrot cake-like muffins. The thought of having something home made, fast, and warm is a little extra motivation for me to leave my cozy covers in the morning as well.

I got this recipe from the Joy of Baking website. It's awesome.

Ingredients
1/2 cup (50 grams) pecans or walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
2 cups (270 grams) grated raw carrot (about 2-3 peeled carrots)
1 large apple, peeled and grated
2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups (250 grams) granulated white sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3.5 grams) salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
3 large eggs
3/4 cup (180 ml) safflower or canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Place paper liners in 18 muffin cups.

Toast the pecans or walnuts for about 8 minutes or until lightly browned and fragrant. Let cool and then chop coarsely.

Peel and finely grate the carrots and apple. Set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon. Stir in the nuts and coconut. Set aside.

In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, oil, and vanilla extract. Fold the wet ingredients, along with the grated carrot and apple, into the flour mixture, stirring just until moistened. Evenly divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups and bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. After about 10 minutes remove the muffins from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

Makes 18 standard-sized muffins.

Photo Week: Song Titles

2008-10-28T12:16:00.005-04:00

This week's brilliant theme courtesy of Sue! Send her a comment and a link if you'd like to join in on photo week. :)

Monday (10/27) - Of Angels and Angles, The Decemberists
coming soon...

Tuesday (10/28) - Torn and Frayed, The Rolling Stones
coming soon...

Wednesday (10/29) - Slippery People, Talking Heads
coming soon...

Thursday (10/30) - Too Much of Nothing, Bob Dylan
coming soon...

Friday (10/31) - Photographers choice. What song title comes to mind?
coming soon...

Calm

2008-10-14T20:53:00.003-04:00

Photo Week: The Five Senses

2008-10-05T16:36:00.014-04:00

This Photo Week is hosted by miss Jen who had the fabulous idea to explore our five senses through photography. I love this challenge.

Be sure to let her know if you're participating so that we can check out your shots!

Monday (10/6) - Sight
(see the rest of my photos on my 'sight' flickr set)

I thought a lot about how to explore sight through photography in a way that might separate it from any other photo I took. The goal was to take a photo that made me consider my own sight when I viewed it. I played a bit with various shutter speeds and little shakes of the camera to see if I could get anything with a feel similar to an impressionist painting. This photo was taken as the sun was getting low and red. The sharp orange rays that peaked through the cracks between houses gave me nice little pockets of light to play with. I liked the movement and the colors that resulted from this little experiment.

Tuesday (10/7) - Taste
(see the rest of my photos on my 'taste' flickr set)

Today was one of those days. You know the days when you want nothing more than to be home, to split a bottle of wine, and and to make something delicious with someone you love to be around. Today Alex and I split a bottle of Chilean wine and cooked up way too much food for a Tuesday. The menu consisted of:

Chicken Salad with Piquillo Peppers
Linguine Carbonara
Toms Crab Cakes

I would totally recommend all of these recipes. The over-abundance of food was delicious, and just the pep that this gray and rainy day needed.

Wednesday (10/8) - Sound
coming soon...

Thursday (10/9) - Smell
(see the rest of my photos on my 'smell' flickr set)

I took a nice walk around Lawton's Loop here at the fort over lunch. The sky is incredibly blue today. It smells like fall.

Friday (10/10) - Touch
coming soon...

#4 - Butternut Squash Soup

2008-10-01T10:12:00.011-04:00

Starting on the list, the search for the Tavern On The Green quality butternut squash soup begins.

Attempt 1: Oct 1 - Super Simple Butternut Squash Soup
Ashley came over last night, the first really chilly night of the fall. Home made soup and paninis were created for nights like this. As we chatted about life, fall, poetry exercises, 52 Projects, On The Road, etc. etc. we attempted the simplest butternut squash soup recipe we could find. This soup was extremely easy to make, and actually really tasty. The hardest part was peeling the butternut squash. I didn't have a carrot peeler, so we just peeled it like a potato with a knife. It seemed to take forever, the skin was so tough. Aside from that there was nothing to it. Just simple, tasty, sweet. It wasn't what we were searching for, though. We're wondering if what we had was more of a bisque. We seem to remember something a little thicker and creamier. The search continues!

Attempt 2: ??? ? - Sweet Butternut Squash Soup
Attempt 3: ??? ? - Butternut Squash Bisque

Year number 28, it's time!

2008-10-01T09:25:00.009-04:00

Yes, it's finally time to make these little thoughts and wishes a reality. Over 1/2 of these items I had very good intentions for last year, but couldn't quite make them a reality. This year, though, this 28th year is the perfect year for all of these things.

1. Finish assembling my 1/2 constructed sewing bag.
2. Own and use a Gocco.
3. Make a custom camera strap with vintage ribbon.
4. Attempt to make a batch of butternut squash soup that rivals Tavern on the Green's recipe.
5. Complete a Project Moleskine.
6. Build a shelf for the kitchen.
7. Throw a birthday party and make red velvet cupcakes.
8. Continue to participate in Photo Week.
9. Visit another city outside of Indiana.
10. Finish reading the Lord of the Rings.
11. Explore the 2nd floor of the IMA.
12. Throw a Mix CD party with Amy Sedaris inspired touches.
13. Make home made Limoncello.
14. Use the postal system to send at least 28 surprises.
15. Go to at least one 1st Friday.
16. Spend an afternoon/evening making tapas with Alex.
17. Sell an item on Etsy.
18. Participate in another endurance event over a 5K.
19. Perfect home made ravioli.
20. Go rock climbing.
21. Get all dolled up and see a ballet, symphony, or musical in style.
22. Go sledding.
23. Begin printing out photos and writing on the back like my grandmother did.
24. Paint and plant window boxes for the back of the house.
25. Organize a girl's weekend for making things.
26. Make a no-knit scarf.
27. Teach Mylo to balance a treat on his nose.
28. Create a piece of custom jewelry.

I loved Andrea's idea of using a birthday as an excuse to plan must dos for the coming year. Thanks for the inspiration Girl Hula!

(I know, I know, it's not my birthday til Oct. 22, but seems like I should be able to get started on some of this stuff as long as it's my birth-MONTH, right? Right? It's just so hard to wait!)

Super Sweet Camera Straps

2008-09-29T13:05:00.010-04:00

I tell you what, there are some crafty ladies out there in the internet world. Just recently I joined the Shutter Sisters flickr pool. I never really read all the posts on those flickr pool pages, but I saw a title for camera straps and my curiosity clicked the link. The author of the post shared this great Etsy shop with beautiful decorative ribbon sewn into camera straps.

I love the straps that the etsy shop creates, but I've got my eye on a couple ribbons that I found during a recent vintage ribbon search. I may finally have to order some ribbon, whip out my sewing machine and create one of my own.Photo I grabbed off the website from which I'm ordering the ribbon

it finally feels like fall

2008-09-23T10:43:00.008-04:00

Good-bye summer, hello beautiful, beautiful fall. I know I should be mourning the end of summer fun, and I suppose there's a small part of me that is, but the greater part of me is bursting with excitement for fall, and always has. Fall has some how for me, always been what the New Year should be. It's a time for beginning new projects, planning again for the year ahead, and trying on fresh new ideas and ways to look at the world. I am wide open and breathing in all that the fall has to offer as deeply as I can. I was made for fall.

To me, the sun in this photo really feels like summer saying good-bye.

I think it's a sign

2008-09-20T01:53:00.013-04:00

Here is a quick glimpse in to a neighborhood on the east side. The thing about this neighborhood that caught my eye the most was the signage. The style of the signs seemed to suggest that the town must have boomed in the 50's but now they've all experienced a sort of urban decay. Perfect for a little TtV photo shoot.

Photo Week: Auto-Settings

2008-09-17T21:28:00.034-04:00

This week Photo Week is inspired by our camera's Auto-Settings

Share your work with Steph as she hosts this week's challenge.

Monday - LandscapeIt's a secret little landscape.

Tuesday - Macro

Alex was driving me around Lebanon to shoot some photos of our small TtV style and when I got back in the car this little guy was sitting on my door. He flew off onto a fence where I shot the rest of the photos.

Wednesday - Portrait

My sweet niece Sylvia Q.

Thursday - Action

My other sweet niece Margot being pushed on the swing by Uncle Alex.

Friday - Nighttime

Mustang Sally, through the viewfinder

2008-09-17T21:28:00.028-04:00

Somehow this TtV thing seems to capture the late summer warmth on a cherry red mustang far more eloquently than my dslr on its own. Working in a field where everything is post produced, there's something really freeing about creating a whole mood in an image before it ever reaches my photo editing software. No grunge masks, no massive exposure or color corrections, just a slight tweak of the curves to pop the darks and viola, an unsightly used car lot in a small town can feel completely warm and nostalgic. I posted more small town USA, TtV style, on my Flickr site.

Oh Gocco!

2008-09-17T10:16:00.003-04:00

This little device is the raddest thing I've seen in a long time! I've been lusting after it lately and imagining all the cool stuff I could do with it. It's not sold here in the US anymore, so it's become a rare-ish sort of item in these parts. How sad that something THIS fun should be largely unavailable to the general art loving public here in the US. Some day, hopefully, some lucky owner of a Gocco will tire of it's charms, or perhaps upgrade to one of the larger units leaving it available and in search of a new loving home. Some day...

TtV Experiment

2008-09-13T12:27:00.003-04:00

Last night I grabbed an old piece of cardboard and some electrical tape to construct my glare blocking tunnel for the TtV experiment. It didn't take long, I suppose I could have tried a little harder to make it look nice, but I was so anxious to get to using it I really didn't care about the aesthetics of the tube.

My contraption, though strange and ugly, worked great!

I took a couple test photos in the living room last night to test it out, then a couple more outside this morning. I can see some definite potential for cool photos. I'm curious if the length of the tube has anything to do with the way the edges of the photo will bubble. (why didn't I pay more attention in optical physics) Well, I'm off, I've got lots of experimenting to do!

The top of the camera flips up and you look down through the viewfinder

Here's my ugly little cardboard tube on the camera. I just stick the lens of my DSLR in the top of the tube and snap away.

Hello Beautiful!

2008-09-12T15:25:00.003-04:00

A week or so ago I won an old twin lens Kodak Duaflex camera on ebay. I just think they're super cool looking and I thought it would be something interesting to have on a shelf in the living room. Aside from it's aesthetic value, I of course thought that it would be fun to load it up with film and shoot some photos with it from time to time.

As soon as the package arrived, I opened the box, pulled out my new (old) toy and began to wander around the house. As I gazed down through the top of the camera through the viewfinder there was something really cool about what I saw. The same things I see EVERY day somehow looked different and a little more interesting. I thought little more about actually using the camera other than to show Alex the Duaflex when he got home. Just as I did, he held the camera at mid torso level and looked down through the top of the camera and commented on how neat things looked through the viewfinder.

Apparently we're not the only ones who think that a little magic happens when you look down through the veiwfinder of these old cameras. I recently found a post about TtV (Through the Viewfinder) Apparently there's a whole community of people who rig up their digital SLR cameras to take photos down through cameras like my duaflex. Here's a great how-to article that explains the process. I can't wait til tomorrow when I will rig up my own duaflex for some TtV fun!

Viva la Photo Week!!!

2008-09-12T13:54:00.003-04:00

As many of you know, I'm a girl who LOVES a good project. I generally need one to inspire me to get up off the couch and force me do something creative. Otherwise, I feel like like there's always something more productive I could be doing, like laundry, or one of the billion home improvement projects we need to complete. Or I feel like I'm sick of doing productive things and I just sit around and watch Hulu. Then of course when I look back at my week and think about what I've done I always feel a little sad if I didn't manage to slip in anything creative (outside of work stuff). I mean, there are soooo many creative things that I want to do and try and learn about, and it's just sad when I look back at my week and see that I've done nothing to work towards those creative goals and interests. And it's sad when I would like to think of myself as a photography hobbiest, yet I only take snapshots every now and again during a vacation or a get together. I've got so much to learn and so many experiments to try which is why I LOVE a good project.

So, I say, "VIVA LA PHOTO WEEK!!!"

I am so excited to continue with the week long photo projects as next week, Sept. 15th, Photo Week is hosted by Steph Wagner. She hasn't announced her theme yet, she's keeping us all waiting with baited breath.

But once she posts her theme, anyone is welcome to join in and flex your creative muscles. Just comment on her Sept. 15th post with a link to the site where you've posted your photos and she'll list it with the others.

I look forward to being inspired by the great photos that will come out of the project that is Photo Week.

Blue Friday

2008-08-29T20:22:00.005-04:00

Happy Blue Friday Everyone!!! I decided to play with my idea of Friday in addition to the color blue for this post. The long weekend is here which means time to put my feet up, enjoy a cold one, and spend some time in the lovely outdoors! Hooray for Fridays!

I had so much fun sharing photos with everyone during color week. I loved seeing all of the daily photo posts and reading all of the comments. Everyone really seemed to enjoy the project as well. I think that the color topic was a fun, easy way to get us back in the habit of carrying our cameras around with us. Nice work everyone, I was most impressed.

For our next task, I had an idea. What if we use the entire week to complete our exercise. This way, you can post photos as you take them throughout the week, but if you would like to spend more time on a photograph, there's not the investment of spending that kind of time every day. By the end of the week we should have a set of photos that reflect the theme, but whether you decide to take them each day or all in one day doesn't matter.

I'm going to 'tag' Steph as our next Photo Project host. See her blog for info on the next project and the list of participants.

Check out Steph's Blog for the next Photo Project

Alex
Ashley
Beth
Cambrie
Eric
Greg
Jen
Justin
Mindy
Nicole
Sara
Scott
Shelly
Steph
Sue

Thursday - Green

2008-08-28T22:32:00.003-04:00

The rest of my greens are up here on my flickr site.

Well, I only got a few greens before our battery died! booo! I was so excited, Alex and I were gonna go on a bike ride and capture some of the green country around us. Oh well, the ride was still nice, even if we don't have any photos from it. Luckily we got a few in the back yard.

Tomorrow is our last exercise for color week!

Blue will be a nice color to end on. I'm super impressed with how everyone has kept with this challenge this week. It's kind of a lot to do every day! Kudos to all who've participated. I really have enjoyed seeing everyone's awesome photos and reading all of the comments.

Alex
Ashley
Beth
Cambrie
Greg
Jen
Justin
Mindy
Nicole
Sara
Scott
Shelly
Steph
Sue

Wednesday - Yellow

2008-08-28T00:26:00.003-04:00

The rest of my yellow photos are posted here on my flickr site.

I loved seeing the honey bee's legs up close once I looked through my photos. It was such a brief moment that he was buzzing around the sunflower that I hardly noticed it at first. As you can see, my day involved a bit of laundry out to dry and some pretty yellow flowers. Photo project proves to be the most relaxing part of my day yet again. :)

Again, lovely photos everyone! I just adore the insight into the individual personal lives of everyone participating. The different perspectives, the various subject matter, wonderful all around! Tomorrow Greeeeeeeeeeeen!

Alex
Ashley
Beth
Cambrie
Greg
Jen
Justin
Mindy
Nicole
Sara
Scott
Shelly
Steph
Sue