New Places

I've started posting most of my stuff over at my new blog-- HERE. Come see what's going on there. (Lots of photography, for one thing.)

Sophia

So I decided to start this quilt. I've been working on it for a few weeks now. It was supposed to be given to my friend in time for the birth of her baby girl, but baby girl came early. So now I'm behind schedule. But I'm still excited about it and hope that it is a loved quilt for years to come. Is that too much to hope for? I'm not sure.

I have wanted to do something with triangles for ages, and found some ideas for quilts in a few of the books I have at home. And then I went to the internet and looked for ideas and just knew I had to do a zig-zag quilt. This is seriously such an easy quilt pattern and it looks modern and fun. There are so many ways you can run with it, too. I made mine all pinks and white since it is going to a baby girl, but there are so many color options for this. Once I got going, I thought of other ways that I could incorporate the zig-zag (like mirroring it, or having it run long-ways down the quilt...).



A couple of shots of it in pieces--

 

And now a couple of views of the completed top:

A little detail shot: 

My little helper:

For those of you that want a tutorial, I found my inspiration HERE and then just did my own thing, but THIS one is also pretty cool. I wanted the freedom to make mine in the proportions of my choosing, so I just got the general idea from these sites and ran with that. Thank you for the inspiration, fellow quilters! 

Now all I have left is to finish the back, quilt it up, and thow in some binding. Should be a piece of cake, right? Wish me luck!

An innocent addiction

My pen collection--
Fountain pens: 7 (one didn't make it into the picture).
Gel ink pens: 16.
Highlighters: 2.
Mechanical pencils: 2.
Other pens: 11.

Why am I bringing this up now? Oh, maybe because as much as I love my Lamy Safari fountain pen, I felt the need to buy a new nib for it. The Fine nib wasn't cutting it for me, so I just purchased an Extra Fine nib. (As wonderful as the ink flow is, I just felt like I had to write bigger than I like to with the Fine nib.) As it turns out, in order to get free shipping from JetPens, you need to have $25 of merchandise in your basket, and the one nib didn't quite cut it. So I may have bought a few more pens and a few ink cartridges. My excuse? I journal several times a week, and I've started writing real life letters again. I also sketch from time to time in ink. (Which I feel like I need to do more.) So I need a bunch of different pens for my different uses. Like I have one pen exclusively for writing on envelopes. (I bought it to address thank you notes.) I'm really excited to get my package in the mail, and can't wait to try out a few more ink colors.
My favorite ink colors? Thus far they are Noodler's Heart of Darkness (because it is SUPER black), the gray of my Zebra Sarasa (it almost looks like pencil lead on certain papers), various browns, and blue-black inks. However, I've also been won over by my Uni-ball Signo's Lavender Black ink. I usually shy away from overly darling colors, but this is not middle school purple. It is grown up and sophisticated.
So there you have it. I'll probably share which of my inks and pens are my favorites and why at some later date. Consider yourself warned. 

In the air

So, I've decided to change things up a bit. From here on out, most of my artsy photography will be going to The Desert Loves You. My more professional photos can be found HERE. Feel free to find me there.

For now the plan is still to post on this blog, just less photos, and more of my other stuff. We'll see how that goes. I've got some sewing projects lines up and have been making crochet hats left and right, so that's something I could share here... I've just been really feeling like a change was what I needed to get better focus, etc, and this is what I've come up with so far.

PS: I did take some pinhole photos for Worldwide Pinhole Photography day, but they just aren't developed yet. Soon, people, soon. 

Who else is excited for this?

Worldwide Pinhole Day is April 24th this year. Easter, I know. Its kind of a hard holiday to go running about setting up pinhole photos, but this year there is some leniency--the pinhole day website is allowing photos to be taken between April 23rd and May 1st. Still, a few Easter shots might be nice.
I'll be dusting off my home-made pinhole cameras and getting my Diana F+ all ready for that time frame as well.

It finds you in the smallest details of life

"I still believe in paradise. But now at least I know it's not some place you can look for...

     it finds you in the smallest details of life." 

It finds you in the smallest details of life, originally uploaded by Janelka.

Thanks to this lovely young lady, of For the Easily Distracted (someone else with camera crushes!) I found out about a little friendly competition going on here. (The above image is my current entry, although I may add another one before the end of the day.)

The rules are posted here by our lovely competition hostess. Her blog, "See me everywhere" is pretty and a fun read.

While I would sure enjoy a Sprocket Rocket camera, I'm happy to just see everyone else's take on the theme. So many wonderfully lovely images to drool over. 

Back from a while away

I've been traveling and thinking and planning and house and garden fixing, and all of those things have kept me busy and away from my blogs. I want to consolidate things, but for now, I have to admit that I am having the hardest time whittling down my blogs. So, for now, this one continues. I want to keep a fun experimental blog going, and for now this one is my best answer to that desire.
So the good news is that I had a lovely holiday to my childhood homeland. The bad news is that my Polaroid 350 decided to rebel and I didn't get one shot out of it. The other goodness (because I hate to end on bad news) is that my other cameras cooperated, and I have a few scanned and ready to start sharing, and others that I have yet to get developed.
Lots and lots to share from beautiful Texas coming up.
For now, here's a Polaroid:

A rare day

A rare day, originally uploaded by Janelka.

Pine Valley, UT. First it snowed a bit, and then it was just this lovely, dreamy, quiet. This was only about 45 min away from my house (driving), but it felt like a different world. And so different from my last visit there.
Polaroid Spectra (first edition), Image Softtone film. 

Kauai through a plastic lens

A few photos taken around Kauai. I brought along my trusty Holga and snapped quite a few shots. 

This photo was literally taken while wandering around the island. It was taken on my first full day there. Jon and I just took off walking up the coast, and it ended up being quite a long hike. 

If you click on this photo to see it larger, you'll see that there's a local fishing right in the line up of palm trees. This was taken near sunset and just after eating dinner. 

This was taken on one of the stretches of road that we traveled on quite a bit. I couldn't get enough of the tree-line street, so I had to stop once and snap this. 

Hanakpi`ai Falls, on the NaPali Coast hike. This was as far as we made it on our hike that day. The white haze at the top of the photo is the waterfall's mist refracting light. As gorgeous as the day was, being right by the falls felt like standing in front of an open refrigerator. 

Queen's Bath. A beautiful and deadly place. On the hike in, there was a sign warning of the deaths that have taken place here. This photo was taken as the tide was going out. On that day we got to swim with a sea turtle. 

Queen's Bath as the tide was coming in. If you click on the image to see it bigger, you can tell that water is rolling off of the cliff at the right of the image. Within an hour, the cove (where people in the foreground are hanging out) was completely submerged and the water looked like it was boiling. 

This image as well as the photo below were taken on my last day in Hawaii.We did our best to squeeze every last bit of Hawaiian sunshine into our day before getting on a plane for 11 hours. 

So much snorkeling went on this day. 

Cedar Mountain

A day of snowy wonder. I took loads of photos. And I carried a massive camera bag around in snow. Dangerous? Maybe. But I didn't fall too far into the snow as I walked about. In all, I used 6 cameras that day. Five are analog. 

These are the shots I took on my Polaroid sx70 using px70 PUSH! film from The Impossible Project:

The trick to shooting the above film in the snow was to place it in a dark, sturdy, warm place to allow it to develop to its full potential. I found that using an old cold clip from a land camera worked quite well for the px70 PUSH! film. 

The shot below was captured on my Keystone 60 Second Everflash camera, using vintage Polaroid 669 film that expired in 1999. 

As you can see, the chemicals have started to get all weird, hence the color cast and "off" edges. But it still works. And by that I mean that it can still capture images. I think that my favorite use for this film is landscape photography, although photographing people and animals in blue green tones can be fun, too. 

I'll be sharing more shots from this day soon. 

Camera love

A few of my cameras, clockwise from the top left: Polaroid sx70, Diana mini, Polaroid 350 land camera, Canon Canonet QL17, Holga 120N, Holga 120 GN. The camera taking the photo? Its pretty new (to me): a Polaroid sx70 SONAR OneStep. I received it from an amazing woman/friend of mine as a gift out of the blue. How wonderful is that? The film is from The Impossible Project, the px70 PUSH! variety.

I'm loving how this photo turned out, how the center is the sharpest spot, and how the colors all turned out dreamy. (My Holga 120N is in real life black and pistachio.) And aren't the crackles so lovely? You can see it cropped and more up and personal by clicking here.

All of the cameras pictured above have been getting a lot of love lately, with the Diana mini being the exception. Not because of anything she's done. She's just brand new. As in, I got her in the post today and barely loaded her up with her inaugural roll of film. A fresh batch of Lucky brand film, 200 iso. I'm so looking forward to snapping away. If you don't yet know about the Diana mini, she's a special kind of camera that can take either square format photos or half frames. That means that if I wanted, I could get 72 photos out of one 36 exposure roll of film. I can also switch between square and half frame during one roll of film, and still do double exposures like I can with my regular-sized Diana (or Holga). Besides, she's ridiculously tiny and cute. And my only white camera. What's not to love about this camera? I'm taking her out of a test drive this weekend. I'll let you know how that all goes real soon. By the way, I bought this baby on clearance, which always feels nice.

Lawai International Center

As photographed with my Holga 120N camera.

Last August I spent a good portion of my afternoon wandering around this place. There is so much history attached to this tiny plot of land. So many memories, dreams, hopes, and prayers are attached to this location. My husband and I were the only two people on the tour so it was very peaceful and somewhat mysterious. (I called to schedule a tour only to find that they were closed for the remainder of my stay on Kauai. They graciously offered to give us a tour, anyway. Amazing people there at the Center.) This place has been a sacred ground for many generations and cultures, and you can feel it as you climb up and down the hill that's dotted with Japanese shrines.

The Gift of Spring

Thank you for bursting into life in my absence, for being so abundant, and for being so fragrant and happy in the face of the duration of winter.

lots of developing

So, since moving to southern Utah, I have found it quite difficult to get my medium format film developed and to get my 35mm film developed well. No one around here seems to be into film anymore. So I can get my frames cut in half at Walgreens, or just sit on my film and wait for the day I can get them developed.
Well, after two unsuccessful ventures to Walgreens for my 35mm film, I decided to just hold onto all of my film and develop it when I have the chance.
My first opportunity in a while came this past week. I was visiting the Cincinnati area with my hubby, and we went to a place in town that still develops film of all sorts. Hurray! I dropped off about 10 rolls of film to get developed and scanned. Yikes! I normally like developing my film as I go, so that I'm only paying for a roll or two at a time. But I'm in a tough spot what with no one around me doing a decent job developing. I'm so excited to get my film back. And I'm a bit nervous. I'm not a fan of mailing stuff as precious as my negatives. But I'm hopeful that they'll do a good job and I'm glad that they choose to send stuff UPS. (Tracking packages gives me peace of mind.)
What a wonderful Christmas present, and one that I can share with Jon and friends. There are lots of photos that I'm looking forward to seeing how they turned out, and still others that I'm sure will be a surprise.

Also, changes are a comin'-- consider yourself warned.