Camera Questions

I answered in the Comments section of a previous post, but I'll post here too so folks don't have to go looking. =)

1. I shoot with a Nikon D70 digital SLR
2. All the shots posted in the past few days were shot with my new 50mm lens with maximum aperture 1.8.
3. I'm not even close to being a "pro". Up until 4-5 weeks ago, I relied on intuition and trying to shoot the pictures I saw in my head. Being a scrapbooker really helped with that as well, but I wanted to know how to use my camera.
4. I'm currently taking Karen Russell's "Snapshots of a Good Life" online photography course - and highly recommend it. At this point the waiting list for the course extends into the fall of 2008 - but it really is worth the wait.

Let me know if there are more questions!

=) Nona

The Seaside Aquarium

We went to the Seaside Aquarium yesterday. As far as aquariums go, it wasn't the greatest - espeically compared to the Seattle Aquarium. This one was small, with only a few interesting fish. But the important thing was that we had fun as a family. =)

It was also a great opportunity for me to try out some newly learned photography skills - mainly adjusting elements in the exposure triangle (ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed) to take nice shots in an EXTREMELY low light environment. For the most part, I kept my aperture at 1.8 for these shots, my ISO between 800-1200 and my shutter speed between 1/500-1/2500 of a second. I was shooting in Aperture Priority mode so I selected the ISO and aperture, and my camera automatically chose shutter speed.

I hope you enjoy!

Vacation Pics

We're having a blast here in Cannon Beach. We've played on the beach, done a campfire and s'mores, had pizza lunch and ice cream, gone to the Seaside Aquarium, and more! Dave's done a bit of "fun" reading (a nice break from the school books) and I've finished a few knitting projects.

Here are a few pics of our trip so far!

New "Classy Crafts" Video

Here's the latest in my "Classy Crafts" video tutorials. I meant to post before Father's day, but time wasn't on my side. =) Hopefully you will enjoy it anyway.

A new class

I'm taking a new fun class that begins on Monday. It's from bigpicturescrapbooking.com and it's called 52 Card Pick Up. We'll be learning 52 fresh and fun techniques to use on cards and scrapbook layouts.

My friends Kristi and Laurie (who are also in the class) came over last night and we built our decks together. This is mine! Colors are Close To My Heart - Ocean, Hollyhock, Goldrush, and Cranberry Cardstock.

I can't wait to get started! This will give me some great blogging material for the next 10 weeks or so. Sorry about the lacking of good artwork lately. I've finished one top secret project (and will start showing snippets of it on or around July 1. I'm still working on top secret project 2, and won't be able to share those things until early August. :( But I promise both items are worth the wait!

Cleaning House

I'm clearing out. YUP - this weekend I'm going in with my SU! friend and her CM friend, and we're doing an ultimate crafters garage sale. If you live in the Lynnwood area and want more details just email me.

This is just a start of the things I'm selling off. The picture of the plastic bags is just to show how much paper I'm selling off. Each one of those bags was stuffed with paper before. Today I'll be going through my stamps to sell as well.

I just am so excited to have more space! You know what more space means, right? You got it! Room for new stuff! Yippee!!!

;) Have a great weekend everyone!

Card Swap Card

This is the card I ended up doing for my "tilt" card swap. The alligator wobbles when you gently shake the card. I'm not incredibly happy with it, but it had to do for this round. I was already over a week late getting my cards out. =( Things have just been crazy with gearing up for our trips, prepping for classes, and getting my goodies ready to teach at Convention. I'm swamped! So, this guy is what I ended with.



supplies: Boom-Di-Ada Creative Basics pp, Olive, Hollyhock, Buttercup CS, July SOTM - Life's a Jungle, Cooca Ink, Topiary and Sweetleaf Reinker, Waterbrush, Cuttlebug reptile skin folder, 1 1/2" circle punch, 2 pennies, 3d foam.

A new family member

We have a new birdie in the house. Our friends needed to find a new home for her, and we thought Oscar might want some company as well.

We named her Maya. It was Dave's idea - Oscar and Maya - Oscar Maya - get it? Say it out loud if you don't and think of famous lunch meat. ;)

Here she is. She was moving all around getting used to her new environment, and trying to find a way into Oscar's cage, so it was tough to get a good shot.

Here's our boy Oscar.

Here's Maya trying to find a way over to Oskie's cage. I think they will grow to love eachother soon. Then we can move them into one cage. After that we have to try and break both of their nasty seed habit and on to eating "healthy, nourishing food" (as Sammie likes to quote from her Berenstein Bears book Too Much Junk Food).

Happy Father's Day - to me?

My incredible hubby will be getting an awesome new shirt and electronic bbq gadget tomorrow for father's day. He deserves to be spoiled like crazy, but not just because he's an amazing dad and the best husband in the world.

Why will he be spoiled, you ask? Because yesterday he bought me a new lens for my camera! YIPPEE!!!! I think we are both making out like bandits this father's day. ;)

My new lens is the Nikon 50mm, 1.8 fixed lens. Oooooh I just *love* it soooo much! I've had some fun playing today. Take a look!

I'm crazy about you! Happy Father's Day, honey!

Picture Friday

For those that don't know, I'm currently taking Karen Russell's 8 week online photography class, "Snapshots of a Good Life". It is an amazing class, and I'm learning SOOOOO much!

For last week's assignment we had to do a little "outing" and take shots that followed rules of composition. Here are a few of my favorite shots...

Leading Lines - the bars of the bridge lead your eye up the photo to the subject -Sammie. Also a good use of balance, and I filled the frame with the story (playing at the park) vs. just the subject.

Framing - I framed my subject with the big toy beams. Also a good example of the rule-of-thirds - Samantha's eyes are in the upper left intersection (If you were to separate the photo into thirds vertically and horizontally, the point where those lines meet are called intersections. A photo with good use of the rule-of-thirds will have the focal point -the subject's eyes, or other key element - at an intersection.)

My Favorite shot of the day...

This uses active space well. Sam and Dave were looking off to the right at birds, and there is space in the photo for their eyes to move. It is also a good example of off-center orientation which in photograpy is typically more visually pleasing than perfectly centered photos.

All in all - I'm *loving* this class. We are learning about ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed this week, and what I've discovered is that I need a new lens if I want to start getting the artistic shots I see in my head. My lens' maximum Aperture is 3.5 and my ideal is more like 1.2-1.8. So I'm going to try and scrape together some CTMH money and go lens shopping this weekend.

If you want to help me out - place on order on my website for some cool scrapbooking stuff! Don't forget that June is buy 2, get 1 free on all stamp sets!

something cute

You know that lame pick up line "hey baby, you must be tired, cuz you've been running through my head all day"?

Well, the idea for this card has been running through my head all day. And I *finally* got a minute to sit down and make it.

Hope you like... it got rave reviews from my husband. "Wow honey - did you think of that all by yourself". Ummm... why yes I did. Because I'm smart like that. ;)

Supplies: CTMH stuff: Indian Corn Blue CS, Goldrush CS, Autumn Terracotta Textured CS, White Daisy CS, Outdoor Denim ink, Goldrush ink, July SOTM - "Life's a Jungle", Sans Alphabet, paper piercer, waxy flax in white and blue, Blue Ribbon patterned paper.

Non-CTMH: felt flowers by Creative Cafe, white button from ??

Next Month's Kit - Masculine Version

Here are the masculine cards for my 25 card workshop for July. They were "a-oked" by my hubby as being "manish" enough. ;)

Attendees will make 5 of each pattern for $30.

I am also considering allowing customers to make a few cards from both sets (masculine and feminine).

So they would pick their favorite set and make 3 of each pattern (15 cards) and then make just 2 of each pattern in the alternate set.

Anyhooo....


Supplies: All CTMH except buttons. (I really wish we sold brown buttons).
Free Spirit Level 2 Paper
Legendary Moments Stamps
Cocoa and Indian Corn Blue Ink
Colonial White Waxy Flax
Brown Buttons - Creative Cafe

just so darn cute...

All I've been doing the past 3 days is prepping kits and for this weekend's card class. So I don't have any spiffy new things to show off.

I did, however, get this cute pic of Sammie praying for dinner... (notice the bite already taken out of the sandwhich! lol)

Next Month's Kit/Workshop - Sneak Peek

Yay for productivity! I actually got something done today while Sammie had her quiet time.

Since my last 6 months worth of workshops/kits have all been scrapbook related, it's waaaaaay overdue time for cards.

I designed these 5 cards based on the CTMH Originals program - and you can get 50 cards from 1 paper packet! That's 10 each of the 5 designs. However, I think the workshop will be for 25 cards - 5 of each design.

Also, for a change, I think I'm going to leave these blank and let my customers stamp their own sentiments.

I'll do a masculine set as well, so customers can choose between the two. I would have done that today, but I'm all out of masculine paper. Some is arriving tomorrow though - hooray!

Hmm...what else to say...

Oh - the papers are CTMH Boom-Di-Ada and the stamps are all from "Cottage Floral" (don't forget that June is buy 2, get 1 free on all stamp sets!). Click here to place an order!

For the love of knitting...

I've been doing a lot of knitting lately, and am going to be starting a "Knitting Nite" for my customers who love crafts other than paper. I was browsing for a good picture to add to the first "KN" invite, and found this. I just love ads from the 60s.

New Knits

I've been knitting again. =) I found a great pattern for ruffled scarves, and have knit up 2 now. I experimented with this one and realized why they say to CO 90 and not the 45 that I tried. It has to do with end length. So... this little pink scarf now belongs to Sammie, because it is far too short to sell at my next craft fair - even for a little one.

Of course Sammie loves it.

Here's a shot of the scarf hanging down so you can see all the lovely ruffles...

I made this scarf first. It is the same ruffle pattern, just longer for an adult size, and using an eyelash yarn. It is a gift for Dave's grandma, whose birthday is tomorrow. She lost the one Dave's Aunt Sue made her, and so I offered to make her a new one. Isn't my daughter lovely. She kept rolling her eyes at me when I asked her to model.
I had to wait until she started laughing at me after rolling the eyes to snap a shot of her smiling. Tricky mommy...

here's a terrible shot of the scarf, but you can get a better idea of the colors. Maybe I should invest in a mannequin?

Winner!

Since all three cards were ever so lovely, I'm going to send a goodie to all three ladies!

Thanks for playing ladies. Please email me with your address and I'll mail you a little something special. (nonapearl@myctmh.com).

=) Nona