This is the beginning of my husband’s long anticipated birthday canoe trip.  I shot this with my Iphone, it’s the only shot I got as shortly after this was taken, we were heading fast to the middle of the lake instead of staying toward the outer banks (as suggested), this guys wife accidentally tipped the canoe over. She was dressed in what she assumed was a proper canoeing outfit–cute straw hat to ward off evil UV rays on her delicate visage, a navy and white striped shirt, chambray shorts, her new leather sandals and her ever present aviator sunglasses. For the record, not the best outfit to wear for a first time ‘canoe-er.’ Dripping wet to the core and the Iphone nowhere in sight she slumped out of the lake. In her defense the wind was at full throttle which wouldn’t have made for a relaxing canoe trip anyway. We opted on trying the canoeing another day. The husband was duly disappointed, but the hero that he is, he found the wifey’s Iphone and saved the day. To make up for the loss the wifey suggested berry picking, because as everyone knows picking berries is as relaxing and as exhilarating as floating on a canoe in the middle of an idyllic setting. The husband, always one to try to be agreeable quickly chirped, “Awesome, I’ve always wanted to do manual labor on my birthday.” So off to pick berries they went.

In typical husband fashion, he took to picking berries like it was an Olympic sport. It’s obvious that he was a natural at berry picking, how was it obvious? The picking bounty came to roughly 7 pounds. Wifey had no idea what she would ever be able to do with 7 pounds of strawberries, but it was an experience indeed. To be continued…

I finally developed a few rolls of film from the vintage Canon film camera I bought at a yard sale in L.A. ($20 w/lenses and lots of film!) I don’t know why it took me so long, okay, I think it was one part laziness, two parts brokeness and a good old fashioned dollop of procrastination–the normal reasons for my not doing something.  I had read in Jonathan Canlas book ‘Film is not dead’ to develop your first rolls of film at Walgreen’s until you get the hang of it.  I ordered CD’s not prints it was $7/each roll but I also had $5 coupons (score) they came with miniature contact sheets and real negatives! Here’s some things I learned– 1) Ask the photo person to allow you to write the type of film you used on the envelope. I had a few rolls of film, all different (they came with my yard sale purchase). I say to do this so if you loved the results of one of the films you developed you can remember what you shot with and use that type of film again.  I liked a lot of the results and have no clue what I used. 2)  Request that they can scan at a higher resolution and larger size.  All my photos were scanned for 3″ x 5″ prints which is not great.  These images above are pretty much straight out of camera. I took them into Photoshop so I could view them larger and a lot of them had a line across them which I am assuming was where the Walgreen’s machine had scratched my negatives–gasp.  Good thing these were test shots and good thing Photoshop has a clone tool to remove rouge scratches. I am really thrilled with the images, they have an authentic nostalgic feel to them with a ton of grainy goodness. I can not believe how many had good exposure. I almost always either over or under expose (even with a proper exposure reading) with my digital camera.  I will pipe up next week about how to expose for film (it’s easier than you might think).  

I need to run, that handsome fella in the photo above is having a birthday tomorrow and I am trying to figure out a good, not too expensive gift for him.  We are going on a canoe ride in the morning which should be both thrilling and terrifying.  I have never been on a lake before, let alone in a canoe! Have a great weekend and thank you to everyone that has been playing along with my contest I am so excited to start ordering the live samples.

P.S. These photos are from our backyard! 

I have finally taken almost all of my maniacal sketches I created these past couple months and turned them into artwork for some new custom stationery stamps for the shop.  I am really excited to show you how you can incorporate these into your wedding, personal / family stationery or general gift giving. I never ever put anything in the shop without making an actual live sample prior, I am all about quality control and I like to be confident that my designs can translate well and make a proper impression. The thing is, I have about 8 billion stamps with my and my husbands names or initials emblazoned on them; I need to branch out–that is where you come in!  This is but a small sampling of some of the new designs I have to make samples for so I am going to need to find a lot of names, dates, friends/family names, etc. There is a catch, (tiny one mind you), if you win I am going to need to test and photograph your stamp prior to it’s arrival to you, so if you are getting married this weekend and need to win your custom stamp like yesterday, it’s not going to happen. That being said if you get married this weekend (congrats!) you can still use these on your thank you stationery. If you have been married for 20 years or know someone that has, this makes a mighty sweet gift.  Heck, you can adjust this to be for you and only you the possibilities are endless!

Yes, another storm. I had no idea that it would be so rainy here, neither did my little Frenchie. Bella is not keen on this whole sky suddenly spilling buckets of rain scenario. I had grand plans to do an awesome giveaway today, but with the storm here I lost my !@#*&%! post I  so laboriously put together, gah! I have every intention of re-creating it and posting it later this afternoon and I do hope you come back to play. Until then Bella and I will be shaking our fist/paw at the sky, uttering a phew choice swear words and getting back to business as usual.