design inspiration

This is the lime I mentioned yesterday. I felt the need to photograph it, since it was a bit intriguing, visually, to be looking at a black colored lime. It's paired along side some discarded cuttings from a handful of gladiolas I bought at the farmer's market two weekends ago. The urge to document them meant I was hovering over the kitchen sink with a tripod, turning on and off various lights, splashing water on the stems, manually combining droplets all in the name of getting just the right composition.

There are times that I think if one were to watch me set up a shot,
he or she would deem me quite silly in all my efforts.

card designs

With the addition of my wonderful new rotary paper trimmer (it's awesome), I was inspired to work on some card designs over the weekend. It took me a bit to get my stamping impressions just right. I used a lime, painted black, as my stamp. But the first few tries were a bit too "juicy." The more I used it, the more it dried out, and subsequently, the better the image was that it left on the paper. Here's a little glimpse of how they turned out.






The inside of each envelope is lined with coordinating paper, thanks to these lovely templates at PaperSource!

peaches

I have found some wonderful peaches at our local farmer's market. My luck with peaches at the grocery store has never been great, always hit or miss. But these peaches have been a delight every time! You know a peach is good and ripe when the skin peels off in one piece and you have juice running down your hands while you cut it into delectable slices.

lancaster city : three

I just really enjoyed the typeface of this "30" as well as the lettering to the lower left corner. Cities can have some great typeface when you take the time to look around. One of these weekends I'm going to take a day and photograph favorites in Chicago.

lancaster city : two

lancaster city : one

coffee

Even though I don't drink it, I could use some of this today. I awoke with a headache for which my husband kindly offered me ibuprofen and some water, before I drifted off to sleep again. My next waking was brought on by sawing or drilling or pounding or something of the construction persuasion. I tried in vain to cover my head with a pillow, but it did nothing to muffle the noise. Defeated, I got out of bed and started my day.

My only consolation is that the construction happening behind our apartment is for a new building that will house a Trader Joe's. I cannot wait. Trader Joe's is a natural/organic food store with very reasonable prices and a great wine selection! And in a few months (let's hope it doesn't take much longer) I will have one at my backdoor! So, I forgive them for rousting me out of bed, I needed to start work anyways.

7 things for friday

Since it's Friday and I feel like taking it easy, I'm going to take a hint from CFHusband and share with you 7 things you may not know about me.

1. I love lists, so this tasks suits me wonderfully. (I will put things on my list, just so I can cross them off!)

2. I like to eat salt. Yes, sometimes, just plain salt. But I also enjoy "snow capping" things as well. (Don't worry I'm not going to die of hypertension because my salt intake can never be too high)

3. For 4 months, 7 years ago, I lived in a convent (yes, with real nuns).

4. My favorite piece in the Art Institute of Chicago is Brancusi's "Suffering." For Art 101 we had to pick a piece and sit with it for a few hours, then write about it. I was totally taken by this sculpture.

5. On one of the columns at the top of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome I wrote the initials of my husband and me, before we were married. They're probably long covered over by now with new initials of fresh love birds.

6. If I have one vanity, it is my hair. I wouldn't trade my hair for anyone's, except maybe Julia Ormond's when she played Guinevere in First Knight. Now other parts of me... that's another matter!

7. I married the first boy I kissed.

it's late...

I really should probably be in bed...
and I just realized I have laundry that needs done, whoops!

So quickly, here's something I was working on tonight.


You get a great view of the city when you ride in the front train car of the el!

neck : second in series

I guess this should really be more like "shoulder" or "clavicle." oh well.

a study of the neck

I need a model for practice.

It's quite hard to get yourself at just the right position, focused on just the right spot, framed the way you want, using manual focus and a remote. So many times I get the photos back to Lightroom and realize that the focus was just slightly off or there's a door jam in the way, or my angle of lighting could have been better. It would be SO much easier if I could be the one looking through the viewfinder instead of being the model.

Anyone want to volunteer?
(So long as you don't mind having hundreds of pictures taken of yourself...)

PS: Somehow I lost my line spacing in my paragraphs. Weird.

self in paint : part two

I actually did these two pieces in college as part of an Art 101 assignment.
I was digging around yesterday and found them.
They were done with acrylics on corrugated cardboard from an old box.
I was attempting to show two seasons of life.

self in paint : part one

italia

Seven years ago today I was living in Orvieto, Italy.

That seems a bit odd to say even though it's true. There's part of that semester abroad that will always feel a little like a dream from which I'm slowly waking.

It was the one year anniversary of 9-11 and one of the local churches had a memorial service. Here's this little ancient Italian town, across the ocean, willing to take a few hours to remember those who were lost on another country's soil. The village's firefighters and policemen came in uniform and we sat quietly in the pews. In all honesty, I have no idea what was said, as the whole service was in Italian (and at that point I was only a few weeks in on my studying) but I remember being very touched by the sentiment of it all. As we walked around town that day, shop keepers had candles lit in their windows and little American flags hung nearby. It seemed a very fitting way to remember. I think they're better at these things than we are. We seem to be too busy, pulled in too many directions to allow ourselves ample time to feel things and sit back to remember. The pace is much slower over there and much more conducive to days of remembrance.

This was my town for 4 months.
Picture thanks to Tuscia Garden B&B.

dinner in the city

We had dinner spontaneously (okay, prompted by our friends' invitation to join them) in the city last night. It's one of the beauties of living near the green line, we can ride into downtown whenever we want! So of course, I took my camera. Without a tripod, things get a little abstract...

On a side note: Late dinners in the city should really be all about appetizers.
I think my eyes were a bit bigger than my stomach had room for last night!

central market

This is where my love of cheese comes from... just look at all those options!

In case anyone is wondering,
Long John: A long, almost rectangular, filled doughnut, often iced.
=DELICIOUS!

home sweet home

Vacation always goes a bit faster than I'd like, but it's enjoyable nonetheless. I also never seem to take as many pictures as I had hoped to at the beginning of the week. Luckily I took enough to give you a little glimpse of life in PA.

I had the realization the other night that the reason I feel like we never get to see everything or do everything is because I'm taking 20+ years of memories and trying to fit them into one week for my husband to experience. That doesn't really work. I have to share it in bits and pieces, over time. Thankfully, he's very good at indulging me and listening to stories that give the things and places I show him relevance.

This is a chalkboard outside a restaurant called Carr's, that sits on a corner right across from Central Market (see previous post). I did a good deal of shooting in downtown Lancaster, right around Heritage Square and I'll be sharing those throughout the week.

The more I look at this I'm not so sure it's actually FOR Carr's. But I know I took it somewhere around there. Hmmm...I'll do some investigating and get back to you!