Blah,Blah,Blahg

SHE'S CRAFTY...

Oh hello.  I can't believe you are back, aren't you sick of me already?  No? Good, because I've got some more hyperbole for ya.  I found my new favoritest, favoritest  DIY blog. Okay, not more favorite than Martha (and you know I love I DiY) but after Martha this is right up there for my beatin' heart.  So many crafty good ideas, so little time.  Look at that font, the same as my beloved Blueprint, oh how I miss that magazine.  Yes, even more than Domino, I am sorry Domino, I have always had a soft spot for the new kid on the block/under dog and again I am obsessed with MS.  I am.

So Miss CraftyNest is none other than Monica Ewing, she's worked for some relatively tiny publications such as O., Real Simple and Sunset magazine amongst others.  You know those bitty mags? She posts every Wednesday, which makes me believe she is a genius as well. Just saying.  Anyways, I'll stop my blabbing to show you some of her projects (this one actually made me squeal with delight):

{get rad hemp lamp pendant tute here}

This tutorial was from a 'guest nester' that she knew someone that did this project and was willing to share the DIY on her blog, this makes CraftyNester rule (in my book). Oh you need to see proof of her crafty goodness? Okay, I've got more up my sleeve...

Salvaged from the dumpster, I exaggerate but it definitely looks like some Chinioiserie treasure.  Enough already go on over bring bake goods and smiles, I am sure Monica will be more than happy to welcome you into her nest (just click on her banner above to get there).

BTW, if you have any amazing D.I.Y. projects and feel like sharing, I so will post. Totally.  They have to be incredible mind you, but if they are, TOTALLY will post, you will have a GLOBAL audience of about a dozen but 'sharing is caring' so who cares if you only reach my family members?

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY--WITH YOUR HELP...

We have one of my ALL time favorite contributors on the BSP this week Jennifer Renninger and she has less than 40 answers. In 3 days. We are boggled. We are bummed, well I am I shouldn't speak for Miss K. Jen's a blog darling/blog superstar let alone general superstar, why the low answers?  My only thought is the question is too hard for people(in my humble opninion the only reasonable explanation).  I want to help her because we love her so.  Any witty questions you think might be a better alternative for Miss Jen's feature?  Certainly it's not because of her work which we all collectively seem to agree is OUTSTANDING...Please leave any alternate questions ideas in the comments...Merci!

HAPPY MONDAY!

I think all Monday's should start like this.  I wish I could give the photgrapher credit but it was something from 'Stumble!' upon and there was no info but the photo.  I like that Stumble upon 'knows' me well enough (in that sort of cyber way) to include hugging koala's as 'things you might like'.  That would be correct.

MISS B'S PHOTO SCHOOL

Okay, so not a photo school, sorry. I don't really know what the heck I am doing but I always fancied myself the teacher type.  I have opened up 'Souvenir Foto' our new Flickr group!  Why Souvenir?  It's from the French word for memory and I liked the idea that we were capturing memories and of course I love anything Frenchie.  The group is to help combat photo block and my seemingly endless pretty procrastination spree.  I figure if I was doing this by myself, well I wouldn't do it. So here I am in the position of 'teacher' and have my syllabus ready to dole out our lesson plan.  We should all be shooting our lil' heads off soon.

::OUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT::
05.15.09 DUE 05.22.09

Beginners: I want one image submitted to the group that you took this weekend or coming week that represents the word 'sunshine'.  It does not have to be literal, nope, anything that tickles your fancy that conjures that word for you. Disclaimer: Don't, I repeat, don't shoot the sun, focus in on it at high noon, get a big 'ol glare and burning sensation in your eyeball and than blame me when you burn your retina or whatever.

More advanced (I use this term loosely, advanced beginners, is that better?) I want you to do the above PLUS use one of the composition tips from our guest blogger's either Rachel or Jennifer.

Advance advanced-Please do all of the above and then some and feel free to show off. It is welcome.

please no cheating and uploading something rad from last year...

You can join the Souvenir Foto group for NADA, RIEN, ZIP here.

BTW, the prompts and plans are going to vary (I think I have a very fun one next week) but I am open to hearing any suggestions for future assignments. 

Have a happy weekend!

xx,

Miss B

COMPOSING YOUR PHOTO'S LIKE A PRO

GUEST POST::PHOTOGRAPHER JENNIFER SQUIRES

Hi!  I'm Jennifer, and I'm very pleased to meet you!  I'm honoured that I've been asked to write a post here; this is my first time blogging away from home so please be gentle.  Shall we get down to business?  I get a lot of questions about tips and tricks to improve the overall look of photographs and there are so many things you can play with to spruce up your images that this post is going to be the first of two from me about composition.

{photo by jennifer squires}

Check the edges.  Get into the habit of checking the edges of your photographs before you take them.  This is one of the simplest things you can do and has the potential to give you the biggest bang for your buck.  Are you cutting off half of Aunt Ann's face?  Are you leaving too much room next to Aunt Mary?  Is some stranger's weird tattooed elbow sneaking into the edge of the photo?  To remedy these situations all you need to do is reposition your camera.

Clear the clutter.  One of the biggest differences between photography and many other art forms is that you need to decide what not to include in your image.  The background and the area surrounding the main focus of your photograph are very important areas so try to keep them simple and free of distracting elements that may draw attention away from your subject.  There are a few things that you can do to help the situation; Take a minute and carefully move distracting items away from the area that you will be photographing; Move your subject to an area with less clutter; Adjust your camera angle so that the clutter is less evident.

{photo by jennifer squires}

Move in close.  Many times when people are taking photographs they get so excited and so focused on what they're photographing that they don't see that they are leaving way too much space around the edges.  Try taking two steps closer to your subject before you take the picture next time.  This will focus attention on the more important, interesting areas of the image - such as a person's eyes or the centre of a flower.

Take vertical photographs.  Cameras are designed to easily and comfortably take horizontal photographs, but that doesn't mean that all images must be created this way.  Many subjects lend themselves nicely to vertical photographs such as a person or two, tall buildings, trees, and waterfalls.  Not sure if something should be a horizontal or a vertical?  Take one of each, the more you do it the easier it will be to quickly determine which works best in many situations.
Stay tuned for my next post where I talk more about composition and camera positioning and I'll try to answer any reader's questions.

jennifer squires productionsfresh photography for hip homeswww.jennifersquires.ca

P.S. Miss B here, please, please, please don't be shy about asking questions in the comments.  Jennifer and the other lovely photographers have so generously offered to answer your questions no matter how lame you may think they are.  I was so happy to find out what a 'fast lens' was from Alex and she didn't balk or laugh at me once, nope she didn't. I will be back later today to let all you pretties know about our new Flickr group, and when I write 'our' I mean me and you and you and you!  It's going to be fun for the whole family!

P.P.S. Thank you Jennifer!!!

DO WHAT YOU LOVE. LOVE WHAT YOU DO.

Yesterday as I was ogling food blogs as I am known to do, I came across the amazing and inspirational Beatrice Peltre. She is a a renown food writer, stylist and photographer.  That's not so special right?  Those peeps are a dime a dozen.  She also writes a blog.  Yawn.  But what if I told you she started her blog, not knowing really what a blog was or where she was going but she put fingers to keyboard because she was excited by an article she read about food photography.  It moved her.  Here's the article.  The photo below was Beatrice's first photo, for her first post.  She cooked,styled and photographed. Are you still with me?

{photo by Beatrice Peltre}

That was in late 2005.  What if I told you that Beatrice is now a full-time food writer, stylist and photographer?  She just got a deal for her own cookbook, her clients include Chronicle Books and the Boston Globe, amongst many others.  Her blog gets over 250k visitors a month. You see, Beatrice just needed that one little spark of inspiration and then she committed herself to her passion, the next photo was something she shot for the Boston Globe.  The Boston Globe!

{photo by Beatrice Peltre}

As you can see from the very first image, Beatrice was not a prodigy.  She didn't snap her first blog post photo with perfect lighting nor styled it flawlessly.  What Beatrice did have was the desire. Here's some more of her images to show you how far she's come...

{photo's by Beatrice Peltre}

As I read her blog, it didn't note that Beatrice went off to the Cordon Bleu, enrolled in photography school or interned for a food stylist.  These may be all excuses you give yourself to not get started on whatever it is you think you need to get started--X, Y, Z before you begin your dream.  The journey of a million miles starts with one step.  I hope this inspires you to take yours...I have to get ready for my 9-to-5'er but I will be thinking of Beatrice.

Visit Beatrice's beautiful bloggity blog here...

HEALTHY + CESAR SALAD IS NOT ONLY OXYMORONIC BUT MORONIC

I eat very poorly.  Not the food I do eat, the food I don’t eat.  I am like a camel with water, I fill up and go long stretches of time without the next fill up.  How do I function?  Why caffeine of course. I am going to be wed to a health nut.  Opposites attract? When the Fancy and I have our shared meal at night it’s usually healthy and deliciso but to hear him flappin’ his gums on the way I eat, oy! My bestie Jules is eating like a champ these days and it has me really inspired to start eating like a “normal” person as well. If only to stop the noise in my skull when I do eat each night from Mister Universe, sheesh.

Last night highly motivated and feeling like not all my energy was sapped from my being I decided to make us healthy chicken Caesar salads. Ace helped me unpack the bags when I came home from the grocery and asked concerned, “Where’s the dressing?”  I puffed my chest and announced, “I am going to make it from scratch.”  He looked skeptical, “You know how?” “Well, not technically but I can read.” Famous last words…

First off, with the added word healthy you should know your salad is going to taste like cardboard or something just as palatable.  The dressing was a flop (I should have known better when the Cesar salad dressing ingredients did not include Parmesan (or any cheese for that matter). I tried to save it, it just got worse and worse until I couldn’t look at it without wanting to commit homicide to my salad dressing. So sad. I hate wasting food (and time) (and losing my reputation as a chef extraordinaire in our household).  What I did find out though was I have savant like abilities when it comes to croutons.  Go figure? They were by far the best, flippin’ croutons I had—ever!  Yes, I made croutons from scratch, I was feeling ambitious. They were crunchy on the outside and a little softer on the inside and they just tasted like little bites of heaven AND no one chipped a tooth to boot!  I highly recommend making your own croutons, it’s a bajillion times better than store bought (yes even better than the gourmet variety) and a heck of a lot less expensive and very hard to mess up. I promise when I have a sec I will add my soon to be world famous crouton recipe to this post.

I decided it might be fun to photograph the process of our meal.  Bad idea.  Kudo’s to the food bloggers that do this on a regular basis.  They must eat (or drink) before each session.  I was both tired and hungry which made setting up shots a chore.  It was messy AND my model was so not cooperating and kept eating the ‘props’.

The key to the world's greatest croutons is beautiful bread.  Do not listen to anyone that says use stale bread, they just want to make sure people don't go starving in Africa.  They are better than I am.

It's harder to cut bread into cubes than you would think.  I think fat croutons are better than little croutons but that might be because I could only cut fat cubes.

This was  my 'model's' idea.  If he wouldn't have moved so much this could have been a really cool pic. I will go over capturing action shots soon but maybe I should get a little better at it before I start doling out advice, no? So that my dears concludes my escapades into domesticity.  Conclusion? Leave the food photography to the professionals such these two, or her, or her....or at the very least don't shoot on an empty stomach and especially don't drink a glass of wine on an empty stomach and try to shoot, I think it's illegal in some states...

MY BLAHG IS MY BLANKEY AND OTHER REVELATIONS...

I was considering skipping a day from the Blahg, but that to me is a slippery slope.  One skipped day becomes two, two becomes a week and then I just pack my blahg bags and am gone.  Nope.  I need this daily discipline for some odd reason.  The blahg has become my 'blankey', it's the one thing I can say I accomplished out of the day, my creative outlet whilst I toil for 'the man'.  Okay, some days are certainly more creative than others but if I just add a lil' bit, I feel like the day wasn't all corporate rigmarole.

I am going to move the photography series to Friday because I think it might be more fun to actually try some of the things we are learning over the weekend and if I post it on Tuesday by Saturday I have lost all my creative reserve and forgotten my brill new tips.  What a lazy one I have become in my advancing age.  I wouldn't mind starting a Flickr group to go with the series, just because like I said, sometimes I have a serious case of photo block and it sucks.  If I had some prompts I might, maybe (don't hold your breath) be able to take some pics on a regular basis.  You see I want to and I really think it would be a GREAT idea for me to get away from the computer for a few hours on the weekend so I am thinking this might be a not so bad idea.  Are you all Flickr'd out or would you be up for a non-committal type of Flickr group? This Friday we have an amazing guest post from photographer Jennifer Squires, I am in such admiration of her work and I think you will really like the tips she has for you.

{photo by jennifer squires}

Speaking of tips Ree of Pioneer Woman infamy has a great, great, great post on why she is shooting in Jpeg again versus RAW.  If you are shooting in RAW now and have zero hard drive space this post may delight the heck out of you.  Read it here. If you have no idea what I just wrote no worries, I have other fodder for ya...

I found a new blog to stalk.  It's a funny read and has a lot of practical advice on becoming debt free.  Did I just write that? A funny blog that has budget advice?  Why yes and these two things can co-exist, believe it or not.  Here's a link to her wittier posts...

Okay, I can scratch this off my listy poo and take a nap now...I jest.

CANNABIS CLUBS AND MOTHER'S DAY DON'T MIX

Yesterday was Mother's day, raise your hand if your mother was high as a kite on pot brownies? Yup? Yeah, me too.  Marie has become a member of the Cannabis Club.  Ace wanted her off of traditional medications because he's some sort of health nut and his own mother was not going for it, so Marie said, why not?  There's a problem here and that is Marie has absolutely no self control, which means a regular plate of brownies are not safe but when those brownies contain something that will make you start laughing hysterically at the ringing of the telephone then we are in trouble. You see you can get your medical marijuana either as a smokable or an edible.  I don't think too many elderly folk that are on the cannabis try the smoking version since they were out of cookies and cupcakes.

Sunday I asked her where she would like to go for Brunch. Her answer? "Two plus two plus two".  Great, if only a restaurant with that name existed we would be golden. "Is that a new restaurant?" I asked.  "Nooo, joo bean there". For the record, I have never been to a restaurant by that name. "Ahsk me son-ee-law".  Ace can do no wrong in her eyes. So I asked, "Hon, she wants to eat at two plus two plus two?." His answer, "Really? That's not a really mother's day type place." "Is it new?" I prodded.  "Nope, you've eaten there a bunch, you like the sweet potato fries". Now, I am feeling like I have lost my already short on supply marbles.  "Where is this place?"  I asked.  He told me where and I told him that it was called something else.  "Yeah but that's what she always orders when she eats there so that's what she calls it," he explained.  Sure, that's what all 'normal' people do-- rename restaurants after their favorite meal there. 

Anyways, I won't bore you with more details, but here's some of the highlights.  Ace was shooting pics for his photography class--portraits.  He needed three more of me and I was feeling ugly.  He was upset because I wasn't into it. So I said, "I'm feeling ugly."  His awful answer?  "Hon,well go put on some makeup then."  My response?  "I am wearing makeup!"  Talk about World War III erupting.  According to him it never looks like I am wearing make- up which makes me wonder who he has been living with for the past 3 years since I have been known to wear false eyelashes to the grocery store, I always wear make up. Sigh, between him and Marie my weekend was uhm, interesting and yours?

This was one of the outtakes from the other day.  I personally prefer the ones he can't use because they aren't as focused. I guess the key to a great portrait is to get really sharp eyes. Oh well.  You can recreate this type of image by shooting your subject (or yourself) at a window where it is getting direct sunlight. We used the curtain to create a light diffusion and I personally really like the results, the diffusion helped smooth wrinkles and pores. 'Pores', even the word gives me the willies...

BACA CREATIVE DOWNLOAD

I LOVE lists, I want to marry them.  My life does not feel complete without my lists. Seriously. I also love that we have wonderfully creative people willing to design pretty lists to feed the addiction.  Cheaper than shoes and just as satisfying.  This list was created by Christa of Baca Creative, she has a lovely lil' blog and a great Mother's Day download here.  I especially adore the 'do one thing list', that's perfect for those days when life seems to overwhelm me like a tsunami of stress, if I can get that ONE thing accomplished, well atleast the day wasn't a total bust right? They are 3-up on two sheets, so print, cut and jot away.

do one thing list
task list

And Christa turned me on to this download which has me swooning...

{via twig + thistle}

To all the Mommies out there wishing you a very happy Sunday, you deserve it!