Liquid Paper

making bunnies + taking photos

I told you I was obsessing over those bunnies. Instead of using store bought pom poms I decided to make my own. Not that I have anything against the store bought ones, I love 'em, I just didn't have any on hand and didn't feel like leaving the apartment to get them. (Laziness wins again!) I do have cotton balls on hand, which I may use for the tails or I might make my own from white yarn. Not sure about that yet.

I need some advice... the yarn I'm using for the pom pom bodies is linting like crazy. Do you think it would make them all sticky if I used a little bit of hairspray on them? Any other suggestions?

Last night I tried to take a self portrait for my sidebar, etc. With Spring approaching I'm in the mood for pastels, so I played around a bit with the color and light balance in Photoshop. The image is also flipped so that you're seeing me as I am and not my mirror image. That was Mark's idea. I actually prefer it the other way -- but that's probably because I never see myself the way others do. Funny thing images.

bunnies + bedding

I think I need to make some of these pom pom bunnies (from the April MSL), or at least I need to say that I need to make them. I'm not quite as good with the follow through as I am with the obsessing about it part. I was also thinking I should turn the idea into a really small softie or maybe a bunny version of the elves I made last Christmas. And don't even get me started on the cute thread wrapped carrots. Here I go again with the words without actions thing. I've got to make something soon. All of this cleaning and organizing and DVDing is making me cranky from creative withdrawl syndrome. Must. Make. Bunnies.

I'm not just obsessing over the things that I want to make. I kind of fell in love with the larch bedding from cb2. It's so great -- I love the color. I was thinking about how I'd like to have the pattern on a canvas for the wall. Maybe I could buy the pillow cases, cut them up and cover some small canvases with the fabric. Or I could leave them as is and use them with our white Summer bedding. Oh, I like that idea. Of course, I still need something for the wall. Am I boring you? Must. Stop. Obsessing.

11 years and counting...

It's our wedding anniversary! If you've been around here for a while, you may notice that this version of us isn't quite as elegnt as the one I did last year.

You can make a South Park version of yourself here.

an ill-fated conversation

Remember in my last post when I said that I used a certain new lens that I got for Christmas to take my macro shots? Yeah, well I gave you the wrong link and I feel terrible about it. I accidentially looked at my zoom lens instead of my macro to get the correct (which now turns out to be incorrect) style + maker. In my panicked state I even tried to blame Mark for my error. Here's (sort of) how the conversation went down. Please take careful note of how it fatefully started out with me feeling way too good about my photography abilities and then took a very sudden and sharp turn for the worse.

An Ill-Fated Conversation

I always feel bad when people ask me for photography advice because I'm terrible when it comes to understanding my equipment. I just seem to be able to take good photos.

Yes. That's because it isn't ncessarily the equipment, it's the eye of the photographer.

Yeah. I guess that's why I get good photographs even though I'm far from being an expert. I mentioned my new Tamron macro lens in my last post but I really can't answer the question I just got about it. You know?

Um, your macro lens isn't a Tamron. It's a Canon.

Huh?

The Tamron is your telephoto lens.

What! But I told everyone in my last post that it was a Tamron. I linked to the Tamron. I looked at the lens that I had on my camera and it says "macro" and Tamron. Arrrrgh!

(laughing from Mark)

Why didn't you tell me I was putting the wrong link? I was talking to you while I wrote the post and I asked you what lens the macro was and you said, "I don't know. Look at it." So I did and I know that I said out loud that it was a Tamron.

(more laughing and perhaps a small shrug from Mark)

the end

Now back to the real reason for this post. I hope I didn't cause too much trouble. Here are the lenses with proper (and double-checked by Mark) links + names + images.

Macro Lens
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

Zoom Lens
Tamron Autofocus 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di II Macro Lens for Canon Digital SLR Cameras

p.s. I owe the lovely Jen (of MonkeyKnits) a big huge thank you. She unknowingly triggered the above conversation and helped me catch my error. I owe you big time Jen, how about lunch on me? (Yes people, we live in the same northern town but we sadly haven't met yet -- all my fault!) Anyway, now I've got a very good excuse for getting together at long last. What do you say Jen?

springishness + a survey

I don't think that I ever mentioned that I got one of these for Christmas. Well, I did and I'm so happy with it. It's not only a great macro lens, it is the perfect portrait lens because it allows you to get a super sharp focus on your subject + that lovely blurry effect in the backgroud. Hey, why am I wasting your precious time blabbering when I can share some photos?

Is anyone else feeling particularly springy this weekend, what with the lovely warm weather and all? I thought you might be under it's spell too. As you can see, it's spilled over into my current photos:

Cute apple trim from superbuzzy.

More cuteness in the form of bird trim from superbuzzy.

A few Erzgebirge deer I won off of ebay.

I'm still hard at work in my studio, lots of spring cleaning and organizing going on. So far I'm mid-project on the bookshelves. It's taking a little bit longer than I thought it would to re-organize them because I figured that as long as I was sorting + stacking my fabric by color I'd do the books too. I love it but it takes me a long time to get things just so -- what with me being a perfectionist and all. Still... it makes me happy. I've found that I can't walk by the room with out going in there just to look at how cute it is, even in its half-completed state.

a little survey
I was thinking that I might swap the fabric with the magazines. That way the colorful fabrics would be on the shelves right below the books and the magazines just below that. What do you think? Should I swap them or no?

p.s. Anyone else remember the Child Craft books (far left on the second shelf from the top)? I found this complete set at the thrift store for eight bucks.

nesting

I'm finally starting to feel at home in my new studio. I spent a couple of days rearranging things and Mark helped me fit a big project table into the room -- it's something that I really needed. I also re-did my inspiration board. It was the wonderful package that I received from Maditi that pushed me to undertake the entire project. (Thank you so much!) Have you been to her etsy shop? You should go. I'm also expecting a print of this painting from my friend Lauren's etsy shop -- which I can't wait to add to my new board. The only thing I wish I could still do is paint the walls that lovely shade of brown that I used to have in my old studio. Que sera sera!

You can check out these images on flickr where I've added notes about all of the things you see on my desk + inspiration board. And in case you were wondering, I don't actually put the pins through the paper of the images on my inspiration board. I have a thing about that so I just place them strategically to hold things in place. Another weird item to add to my list I guess.