Work Update

 

Since I started my new job shortly after my last post I've been so busy I haven't been adding to my blog as I should. I'm currently working for Nancy's Notions as their staff photographer and loving it.  I started almost a year and time has flown by.  Here I'm working on a recent cover of an appliqued walling hanging where a bird is sitting on cattails in the water.  I love the contrast of the blues and oranges and found some cattails along the side of the road on my way home one day and added them silhouetted between the wall hanging and background.  To make sure no light hit my cattails my setup was several yards long, taking up my entire studio, I then lit each part of the setup separately. One of my favorite covers to date.  I feel very lucky to be where I am and work with creative people everyday.

With Allison

So my youngest sibling has finally graduated from high school and will be off to college in the fall. I still, and probably always will, think of her as my baby sister but I am so proud of the beautiful person that she is, inside and out. We'd been talking about doing a photo shoot out on our dad's land pretty much since he moved out there and finally got a chance on a cloudy spring day last month. It was great to hang out with her and dad and I had so much fun photographing. Here are some images from that day and a couple Allison shot of me too.

my new header

me and lu: so funny

Twelve-Two Sign

I've always admired beautiful old fashioned signs with their peeling painting and rustic appeal.  Usually the ones I like are crazy expensive which seems to be the way with most things I like.  So after looking at a few tutorials I decided to try to make my own rustic vintage sign.

I found some beautiful 12"x 5' pieces of wood at Menard's for less than $5 a piece.  So basically, depending on supplies you already have at home, you could do this project for less than $10.  Now that is my kind of project.

 Instead of covering the wood grain with a couple layers of paint I decided to let the natural wood grain show through by just using a wash of paint in a bright gorgeous blue.  I just love the knots and patterns of this wood.  The color gets muted down once you distress it a bit with sandpaper.

After deciding what I wanted my sign to say, in this case twelve-two, I created a new image the size of my wood in photoshop.  You could also easily create a word document or print out each letter individually the size you want to fit on the wood.  Being a photographer type person I like to use photoshop for most everything, I even used it to write my resume.  Once I got the wording sized the way I wanted it, in the text I liked best, I traced the words on paper.  My printer died a few months ago, but it is a technique I've used many times before to get something the right size without printing it multiple times.

 

I taped the pieces together and transfered the letters on the the board with transfer paper.  Next I painted the words in with white and orange and outlined them with black while I watched tv.  Until I find the perfect spot, the sign rests on the curtain rod above my bedroom window.  I have two more pieces of wood and I'm thinking about one for my dad that has something to do with hunting or fishing to fit in with his deer head motif. 

Lulu and Nina 6 months

Lulu

I've been trying to photograph Lulu and Nina as they grow to see how much they've changed since I first photographed them.  They are almost 6 months old now and kind of have that gawky adolescent look to them.  Their ears can't quite decide if they want to stay up or go down and in the past week they've started losing their baby teeth.  For this shoot I decided to just use natural light and a reflector and I love the look of the painted wood on the porch. 

Lulu

Nina

Nina mimicking a groundhog

Funny Face Collage

Created from 45 different images I made this collage for my family of each of us making all kinds of different faces.  It was pretty hilarious and each time I see this collage it makes me smile.  Putting this collage together was pretty simple. Since we were having a birthday party for my brother and his wife I set up a black backdrop and a stool in the garage and photographed everybody over the course of a couple hours. Using natural light I set the stool at the front edge of the garage.  This allowed the person to be well lit but the backdrop to stay dark.  Then using lightroom I edited the images, created a template and dropped in the images I wanted.  Printed and framed I think it turned out a pretty unique gift for my family. 

Doggie Bandanas

Feeling the winter blues lately I decided to make something summery for Lulu, Nina, and my brother's dogs Perry (Lulu and Nina's dad) and Luna.  While visiting my brother Tony a couple weeks ago my mom and I found a wonderful set of fat quarters in dog themed fabric at Joann's Fabric.  I love to make things that do double duty and decided to make double-sided bandanas for all the dogs in my family.  For some odd reason when I decide to make something I have to make fifty of them.  There were five different fabrics in the set so I made Lulu two bandanas that were double-sided and one solid bandana.

Doesn't Lulu look cute modeling her bandana.  It even looks great with her winter fleece shirt on.
This fabric reminds me of sherbert. Sigh.. I can't wait for warmer weather.

The kind that I decided to make fits over that collar so that it doesn't fall off.  When worn you only see one side of the fabric which gives you a variety of style options for your pup.    Start by measuring the length of your dog's collar.  I measured from the metal loop that you put the dog tag on around to about an inch before the clasp on the other side.  This measurement was 7" for Lulu and for my brother's pit mix Luna it was 15".  Since Lulu, Nina, and Perry are all about the same size I used the same measurement for all of them.  I added half an inch for seam allowance and cut out a 7 1/2" square from a piece of paper for my template.  You can either work with one square of fabric to make one bandana or two squares if you want it double-sided (makes two bandanas). 

Using your template cut your squares from your fabric. If you want a double-sided bandana cut your squares in half corner to corner making two equal triangles.  Take two of your triangles from different fabrics place them right sides together and sew along the top edge (the longest side).  Flatten out and iron down the seam as you see above.  Next measure the width of your dog's collar.  Lulu's is 1/2" wide.  I added 1/2" for seam allowance and room for the collar to fit through.  Using a ruler measure 2" across the corner of your square where the seam meets and mark with a pencil.  Do the same on the opposite side and cut off these two corners, use the photo above as a reference.  Fold the two cut corners in about 1/4", pin and sew.  I used a zigzag stich for reinforcement since that will be the opening for the collar. 

Once you've done this fold right sides together again, pin and sew along the edge.  Make sure not to sew over your openings where you did the zigzag stitches or you won't have a place to put your collar through or be able to turn it right sides out.  After you've sewn the edges turn the bandana right sides out and iron.  Now you're just about done. 

These 2 images are the front and back of one bandana

 The last step is to do a stitch on the outside to finish off the bandana and make a tube for the collar to slide through.  You're basically going to stitch a triangle as you see above, this leaves a 1" tube for the collar to slide through.  You can use a decorative stitch or a straight stich depending on what you like. If you want to do a bandana out of one kind of fabric skip straight to cutting off the corners.  Now your pup will look smashing for the spring and summer months.   

Multi-Layer Bracelets

I love to make presents for my family and friends for holidays, besides the paintings, I made each of my close friends a multi-layered bracelet in their favorite color.  It's a fun and easy project that only takes a couple of hours to complete and when you're done you have a beautiful bracelet that doesn't look homemade.  I used memory wire that comes in pre-cut or one long piece that you can cut to the size you want.  I figured out how long I wanted each bracelet to be and cut the wire.   At the end make a loop with needle nose pliers so that your beads don't fall off.  The first time I tried this I made my loop going in which would be against your wrist, not so comfortable.  Make sure to make your loop going out, away from the inside of the bracelet.  As you can see above I have six different colors of green, one for each circle of wire.  This makes it look like you have several different bracelets on, even though it's just one long spiral.  You can use different shades of the same color or all different colors, either way it turns out awesome. 

Thread your beads onto the wire until you come around to where you started from, then start your next color.  Repeat this until you get to the end of your wire and finish off with another loop.  If you choose you can add a little bead charm to the beginning and ending loop to give your bracelet and pretty, finished look.  Thread one bead onto a head or eye pin, finish off with a loop, and add to your bracelet.