Thursday, April 28, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Goodbye Poly
While reading through my blog roll today I discovered that one of my favorite musicians of the last few decades passed away today. Besides loving the music, she always intrigued me and as a young girl inspired me...listening to her music still can feel empowering. X-ray Spex is punk rock at its absolute finest. Rest in peace Poly Styrene, and thank you for leaving your mark.
I couldn't find a video of my personal favorite (although it is hard to choose) "I'm a Cliche". So how about a photo of my daughter in a onesie I made for her...these were taken one year ago.
I couldn't find a video of my personal favorite (although it is hard to choose) "I'm a Cliche". So how about a photo of my daughter in a onesie I made for her...these were taken one year ago.
Poly Styrene will live on for generations.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Phonography #36
Straight cell shot and PictureShow app. I love what it did to this wall!
Story of a cabin
I liked what the textures offered this image. To me the photo tells a more intriguing story with the added edits and textures. I am still amazed by what simple layers can create. Rather than erasing a variety of textures (in case I changed my mind) I made a layer of just the cabin so that I could sharpen and edit the light of the house separately. It did give a little extra punch I think it needed. 
Below, is the final version. I feel like the frame gives the image a nice "The End". If you want to learn more about textures or pick up some beautiful free ones I recommend heading over to Kim Klassen's site!
By the way, this is a cabin that remains in the Smokey Mountains. You can walk inside the house and even go upstairs. It's nestled in a beautiful spot surrounded by woods. If you are lucky you can see deer and even a bear in this same vicinity. Although this area, Cades Cove, is almost always full of traffic there are times you can visit and have the mountains all to yourself. It's beautiful.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Sunday Morning
Saturday, April 23, 2011
ACoLab #18
The ACoLab inspiration for round #18 was whatever came on when you turned on the radio, cd player, iPod... whatever happened in that moment or you felt inspired to do, that was the inspiration. I was hoping to get a few more submissions as I thought this was one of the more open ones and music is such a great inspiration but I loved seeing and hearing what was submitted and had fun creating mine. (There is actually one more day left if you do want to submit something.) The post with all the submissions should be up on Monday.
When I turned on the iPod in the kitchen to cook the other day a song from the Carter Family came on. Although I really like the Carter Family music, I wasn't really in the mood. I fast forwarded and was awarded music by Brigitte Fontaine & Areski, Vous Et Nous, one of my favorite albums. So instead of just picking one or the other I combined both songs into my inspiration and presto, my submission. The translation in English reads, "Of Course I Can". (If any of you who do speak French see this and cringe at the translation, my apologies...I only have the internet to help me translate into French. If there is something that can be corrected I would love to know!)
The inspiration for the next round of the ACoLab, due on the 5th of May, is "Spring". That can be interpreted in any way in any medium. Hope to see you there!
When I turned on the iPod in the kitchen to cook the other day a song from the Carter Family came on. Although I really like the Carter Family music, I wasn't really in the mood. I fast forwarded and was awarded music by Brigitte Fontaine & Areski, Vous Et Nous, one of my favorite albums. So instead of just picking one or the other I combined both songs into my inspiration and presto, my submission. The translation in English reads, "Of Course I Can". (If any of you who do speak French see this and cringe at the translation, my apologies...I only have the internet to help me translate into French. If there is something that can be corrected I would love to know!)
The inspiration for the next round of the ACoLab, due on the 5th of May, is "Spring". That can be interpreted in any way in any medium. Hope to see you there!
Friday, April 22, 2011
After the rain
Linking with Macro Friday
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Shades of Gray & ACoLab note
(Your inspiration for #18 is to go to your radio, iPod, headphones and turn it on- whatever you hear or experience is your inspiration.)
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Phonography #35
I look forward to seeing where you have been this week. My shot is from house hunting. I find that I get more shots from the houses I don't like than from the ones...okay, one that I do. I do look forward to taking these shots though. Having my phone makes house hunting so much more!
Happy Tuesday to you!
Monday, April 18, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Today, a long day
6am: Baby wakes up crying. I ask her if she was scared and she says yes...may be at the stage of nightmares.
6:30 am: Doug takes one for the team and wakes up with the baby who isn't showing signs of going back to sleep.
8am: I wake up. Baby has decided that listening is something that yes, she could do but it's not really in her plans for the day. She knows she is being naughty but is overly tired to do anything but smile about it.
9:30: The roof in the baby's room starts to leak. (Blah.) At this time Twila also decides that she is only going to whine about everything. It is also at this time when I have to start talking myself down...believe I can in fact be patient.
10:00 Lose my shit (In a very calm way...but the stern voice has made itself known). Baby has "quiet time" in her crib
10:30 Cancel viewing with realtor. Feel lucky that Doug is handy and didn't ask me what to do about the roof. Thank the Heavens that he is taking care of the whole situation.
11am: Feed the baby
11:30 Create napping area in another room and try to put the overtired baby to sleep
12:15 Baby isn't napping...again. Bye bye day. Bye bye sanity.
12:51 Try to convince Doug that the baby needs a nap.
1pm: Work on projects. Ignore that I have not eaten in 6 days. Desire time to do yoga. Listen to Doug try to reason with an overtired baby. Wonder what the day will bring. Family hugs.
1:15 Neighbors tree falls down. (Sounded amazing. The sight was shocking.)
1:30 Twila escapes outside. (Time to put locks on the screen doors) and is put in time out. This ends up being nap time and she falls asleep right away, awesome.
3:30 Roofers arrive, inspect, and let us know the roof needs to be replaced. Yaaay!
3:45 I smell Doug's Margarita and it smells delicious. It's the only smell (including the smell of certain people) since beginning of my fast that doesn't make me sick to my stomach. For some reason I am having the unusual side-effect which I have never had while fasting but did have when I was pregnant of extremely heightened smell. Remind myself that will power is a great thing.
4pm Snap this photo to remind Doug that it'll be okay...at least we aren't the neighbor cutting up a huge tree. One day we'll look back on this photo and remember all the hard work it took to get were we are going or remember the place we loved and called home. We may not even remember today.
4:15 Dancing in the kitchen. The day feels like we've had a few stumbles but in this moment we are having only fun and smiles. This is what matters.
5:15 Our real estate agent called to see if we wanted to visit the house in the evening and so we went to one where the highlight was an adorable dog, a sweet matchbox car setup for Twila to play with, and a rope swing...the house was not for us.
Upon leaving that house I saw this hanging on the fridge. The whole life as a competition thing doesn't really speak to me; I don't see life as winning or losing kind of thing. It did make me think though about perspective. If crappy things happen in life we can either be bummed by them and have it ruin our day or we can just believe it's gotta get better...there has to be something ahead to make up for it. I know, pretty hippy. But I would much rather be happy than sad or mad...it's easier.
Upon leaving, Mary, our realtor called to see if we could visit the house right across the street. It was hidden but we saw it driving to the first house and it looked amazing. It was peaceful, clean, move-in ready, almost perfect. We are going to sleep on it and think if we can make it work. So, a busy day comes to an end. In retrospect I think we weathered the day well; however, I am so glad there is another day in the weekend.
6:30 am: Doug takes one for the team and wakes up with the baby who isn't showing signs of going back to sleep.
8am: I wake up. Baby has decided that listening is something that yes, she could do but it's not really in her plans for the day. She knows she is being naughty but is overly tired to do anything but smile about it.
9:30: The roof in the baby's room starts to leak. (Blah.) At this time Twila also decides that she is only going to whine about everything. It is also at this time when I have to start talking myself down...believe I can in fact be patient.
10:00 Lose my shit (In a very calm way...but the stern voice has made itself known). Baby has "quiet time" in her crib
10:30 Cancel viewing with realtor. Feel lucky that Doug is handy and didn't ask me what to do about the roof. Thank the Heavens that he is taking care of the whole situation.
11am: Feed the baby
11:30 Create napping area in another room and try to put the overtired baby to sleep
12:15 Baby isn't napping...again. Bye bye day. Bye bye sanity.
12:51 Try to convince Doug that the baby needs a nap.
1pm: Work on projects. Ignore that I have not eaten in 6 days. Desire time to do yoga. Listen to Doug try to reason with an overtired baby. Wonder what the day will bring. Family hugs.
1:15 Neighbors tree falls down. (Sounded amazing. The sight was shocking.)
1:30 Twila escapes outside. (Time to put locks on the screen doors) and is put in time out. This ends up being nap time and she falls asleep right away, awesome.
3:30 Roofers arrive, inspect, and let us know the roof needs to be replaced. Yaaay!
3:45 I smell Doug's Margarita and it smells delicious. It's the only smell (including the smell of certain people) since beginning of my fast that doesn't make me sick to my stomach. For some reason I am having the unusual side-effect which I have never had while fasting but did have when I was pregnant of extremely heightened smell. Remind myself that will power is a great thing.4pm Snap this photo to remind Doug that it'll be okay...at least we aren't the neighbor cutting up a huge tree. One day we'll look back on this photo and remember all the hard work it took to get were we are going or remember the place we loved and called home. We may not even remember today.
4:15 Dancing in the kitchen. The day feels like we've had a few stumbles but in this moment we are having only fun and smiles. This is what matters.
5:15 Our real estate agent called to see if we wanted to visit the house in the evening and so we went to one where the highlight was an adorable dog, a sweet matchbox car setup for Twila to play with, and a rope swing...the house was not for us.
Upon leaving that house I saw this hanging on the fridge. The whole life as a competition thing doesn't really speak to me; I don't see life as winning or losing kind of thing. It did make me think though about perspective. If crappy things happen in life we can either be bummed by them and have it ruin our day or we can just believe it's gotta get better...there has to be something ahead to make up for it. I know, pretty hippy. But I would much rather be happy than sad or mad...it's easier.Upon leaving, Mary, our realtor called to see if we could visit the house right across the street. It was hidden but we saw it driving to the first house and it looked amazing. It was peaceful, clean, move-in ready, almost perfect. We are going to sleep on it and think if we can make it work. So, a busy day comes to an end. In retrospect I think we weathered the day well; however, I am so glad there is another day in the weekend.
Linking up with Courtney and her cell phone link up
Thursday, April 14, 2011
FPOE Giveaway!
Link to the above treasury here
Link to the above treasury here
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Eating
I was going through some images from my mom's visit and came across this one. I don't know if you know this about me already but I looooove food. I have always loved to eat. In fact, my mother has told me that whenever she had something really important to discuss and needed all of my attention or if she wanted me in a good mood, she would take me out to eat. My memory isn't that great (that's why I take so many photos...if there's a photo, I remember) but I can remember meals from 25 years ago! I can remember what people ate, what we discussed during our meal, and even what people wore. I love eating. I'm not unhealthy about it and proudly admit to being a "foodie". But I think what it is that I love even more than the food is the act of dining with people. I love memories of visiting my relatives in Chile and going about our whole day based on what we would be eating. If we weren't cooking or eating we were shopping or thinking about what we would be eating. There is also lots of reminiscing about things we've eaten in the past. I worked in a kitchen for years and loved it, I remember my favorite meal (2005, Chile, a place called the Black Cat...there's a post around here somewhere but I couldn't find it), when I go on vacation one of the main things I research or look forward to is the food... I could go on but I will just say this - last Sunday, brunch with mom before she left for CA, was memorable. There were smiles, meltdowns (baby, pre-food), good conversation, perfect weather, great service, delicious food and these great shadows.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Phonography #34
Since I am still playing catch-up from last week I thought I would share all my current favorite apps with shots from the week.
If you would like to link up the linky will be open until midnight Friday. Not a lot of rules here but if you are new to Phonography and would like to see more you can click here. Look forward to seeing your shots!
A special thanks to Courtney for introducing me to the Tiny Planet App. She's right, it is a lot easier than creating an image in Photoshop!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Map of the Land
I have been wanting to link up with Kim Klassen's texture group for a few weeks. I love her textures and learned so much from her Skinny Mini class. If you ever want to learn about textures and different layering methods I highly recommend her class. (It's also free!) So with Kim's link-up in mind I somehow managed to only use textures from Shadowhouse Creations! So maybe next week...ohh rules. I think that when I think of making a heavier looking image I think of Shadowhouse and when I think of making something more delicate looking I think of Kim Klassen's textures.  (Roll mouse over to see original image) |
I was also inspired to try what I have learned with combining textures to combine two images I took while walking around the farm and garden. I used a shot of an antique topographical map of the entire Vanderbilt property. I combined that with an image of a yellow tulip from the gardens. So it's kind of like a before and after of the land in a way. Below are the before images I used to make this one to the left.
Linking up with
Back to Routine
So my mom left last night. It was a nice visit, two weeks! Now I feel that feeling of the party being over, things going back to normal, settling. Last night on the way to the airport just as I wondered how Twila would handle her roommate/grandmother leaving she said, "Sad". I asked her if she was said and she answered yes. Then she said "Plane. Sad." She seemed to understand what was happening and handled things very well although she did call out for her "No-No" a few times after returning home. I felt like doing the same today. It was so nice having a helping hand with the baby and hearing them laugh together. It was nice to have someone to share all the funny things the baby is doing now. Now I will go back to sharing with her and the rest of my family via this blog and Skype. It was great trip.
Switching gears now I am looking forward to getting back to preparing for my first farmer's market and to collaborating. Here are some shots from the week. We walked around a lot enjoying theSummer Spring weather (90 degrees and humid!), ate great food, played, went to NC for the afternoon, admired the growth in the garden, saw some friends...it was lovely.
I was very happy to wake up to the news that one of my photos was shown on the Mortal Muses site. Just the happy thing to bring me back into my blogging world. It's nice to be back.
Switching gears now I am looking forward to getting back to preparing for my first farmer's market and to collaborating. Here are some shots from the week. We walked around a lot enjoying the
I was very happy to wake up to the news that one of my photos was shown on the Mortal Muses site. Just the happy thing to bring me back into my blogging world. It's nice to be back.
Friday, April 08, 2011
ACoLab #17
I did however post the latest round of the ACoLab should you like to take a look. Round 17 was "Lies". I once again loved the variety...it's always great to see how we all interpret the same thing so uniquely. If you would like to join in the fun deadlines are on every 5th and 20th of the month. The next round should be fun too- Just go to your radio, turn it on, that is your inspiration. I am looking forward to seeing what that one brings! Here is my submission for Lies. It's a pieces of a little mystery filled with lies, luck, and intrigue.
Oh! Almost forgot, another very exciting thing to share!! My photo is being featured on the Lark Craft site. I had never heard of it and am loving the site. I feel very proud to be a part. Okay, have a wonderful few days and I will see you soon!
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Phonography #33
Welcome to this week's Phonography link up! The link will be open until midnight Friday (EST). You can visit the Phonography Page should you care to read more...really, no rules, just link up using the linky below and feel free to use the button or link back with a good ol-fashioned hyperlink. Look forward to seeing where you've been this week!
Oh, couple of somewhat related and exciting things- I recently read a rumor (good enough source for me to get excited by) about the next iPhone having an 8 mega pixel camera! Also, just made a new Internet friend, Jenni. I met Jenni through the Female Photographers of Etsy for a photo swap. Jenni loves all cameras but has a special affinity for Lo-fi analog cameras and for her phone. Check out her blog, Flickr and her shop. You will love seeing what she has made using her iPhone and other plastic and "toy" cameras. I'm a sucker for a Holga photo! Really, check her out! Jenni wrote the nicest write up about me I think I have ever read. It really meant a lot to me that she got where I am coming from and could convey in just a short paragraph what my whole intention for creating art is...really made me feel great. I just love how art and ideas can bring people together. So, thanks to Jenni for making my week and without further ado, this week's image. Yes, this is similar to the shot I used the other day but I did some more experimenting so...
Oh, couple of somewhat related and exciting things- I recently read a rumor (good enough source for me to get excited by) about the next iPhone having an 8 mega pixel camera! Also, just made a new Internet friend, Jenni. I met Jenni through the Female Photographers of Etsy for a photo swap. Jenni loves all cameras but has a special affinity for Lo-fi analog cameras and for her phone. Check out her blog, Flickr and her shop. You will love seeing what she has made using her iPhone and other plastic and "toy" cameras. I'm a sucker for a Holga photo! Really, check her out! Jenni wrote the nicest write up about me I think I have ever read. It really meant a lot to me that she got where I am coming from and could convey in just a short paragraph what my whole intention for creating art is...really made me feel great. I just love how art and ideas can bring people together. So, thanks to Jenni for making my week and without further ado, this week's image. Yes, this is similar to the shot I used the other day but I did some more experimenting so...
Happy Tuesday!
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