This is Halloween!

Happy Halloween all! I hope the ghouls don't get you this evening!

from pinterest

Scavenger Hunt

It has been several weeks since I participated in a scavenger hunt. I missed it one week, and kept on forgetting. But this week I took several images that match the prompts without having even seen the list until a few minutes ago. I think that means it is time for me to participate again!

1) Macro/Close-Up

 
2) Found Texture

3) Home

4) Cover

5) The Tree

Quotography & more

I've fallen off the photo challenge bandwagon. However, after a recent photographic experience that had me feeling pretty awesome, I've decided to start participating again! Without further ado- the pictures!

Today at work was rough, but watching my pup 'swim' through the grass upside down made me grin!

I used this tutorial (and btw- she has TONS of great tutorials on her blog!!) to get this shot. I just downloaded a random bokeh shot from deviantart and used it as the background texture. The SOOC (below) was boring, but I LOVE the final product!

Swag

This has been a good week, photographic accessorarily speaking {what? Its a word!}.

I now have this for cleaning-

buy it

 this for inspiring-

buy it

and I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of this for carrying-

buy it

I'm excited to play with all my new toys!!!!

I also updated my Project 365- she was sadly out of date, but things are up to speed again! Please stop by for a daily dose of me!

Perspective

Someone I follow on facebook posted this recently, and I think the visual comparison is amazing. I know it doesn't work for everyone, but I bike to work most of the time and it makes me feel pretty awesome- I don't have to go to the gym, I don't have to spend as much on gas or car maintenance, and the commute honestly takes only a few minutes longer than it would take me to drive and sit in traffic. Win-win for me!

Branching out: a tutorial

I've recently developed an addiction to Pinterest (I know, I jumped on the bandwagon rather late), and for the first little bit, I wasn't sure if I was doing more than just looking at the great ideas of others but losing my own productivity.

Then I saw her.

source

I wasn't happy with how I was dealing with my necklaces. I'll spare you the 'before' shot because a) I forgot to take one and b) it was ugly. You are welcome.

In either case, I decided that this couldn't be all that hard to do, so I spent a few hours wandering antique and second hand shops. I'm sure you could find something at a frame shop, but it seems silly to buy something brand new just to paint it.

By the way- wandering antique shops is a great way to find all sorts of projects and items that you didn't even realize you needed! Mr. Pony doesn't even know how much he appreciates me holding back from buying all the inspirations! But I digress.

Good old J.T. I knew I could count on him.

So I found a frame for all of $8, bought some craft paint {Spicy Mustard- my current color obsession}, and went to work!

Of course, that wasn't the color I wanted. As always, I put a coat of primer on first. This helped cover up the old frame color, and filled in some of the beat up parts so they wouldn't soak in so much of my pretty paint color. {I recommend always having a can of primer on hand. I bought a gallon of the Lowe's cheap stuff for ~$10 and have so far used it on this and this and this. Well worth it!} Then I followed up with 2 coats of my mustard paint. Yay!


I liked how my inspiration used branches, but I didn't want to have to deal with actual branches {shedding bark and bugs all over the place}, so I pulled out a pencil and some 1/4" plywood and sketched out some branches. I cut those puppies out with my handy dandy jigsaw, then sanded them down a bit.


Definitely do a dry run of the branches before you paint anything- I ended up playing around with mine to make sure I had them fitting in the frame like I wanted. It took some playing with, but not much time.

For the branches I used a pearly white craft paint that I had left over from my owl project. Once everything was dry, I  used wood glue to put the branches in place and clamped everything down. I just left it overnight, but check how long the glue you use asks for. 

My next step was going to be screwing dozens of little eye hooks into the branches to hang necklaces on, but I liked Mr. Pony's idea of just hanging the necklaces around the branches. Not only was it WAY faster, but it would give a prettier finished result!

Of course, right when I thought I was done, Mr. Pony said "How are you hanging it?". DOH! I didn't want to put it up as a normal frame since I'd need to be able to reach the back of the branches to hang stuff. I ended up cutting for 3/4"x3/4"x1" wood blocks, painting them yellow and gluing them to the back with wood glue. Add a couple of hooks to the top two blocks, some wire, and you are set!

What do you think of that?!

Also- Mom, I'm sorry for my new addiction to yellow. I will do my best to become addicted to something less... yellow... soon:)

 

Shades of Autumn: Yellow

I'm not sure why it took me so long to join up with this photo challenge! Maybe it is because we don't really have fall where I live...

But a recent trip to Minneapolis (to visit my parents:) gave me a chance to soak in some fall colors. Oh yeah, and photograph them too:) I'll be working through other shots from our mini vacation, and I'm hoping to share those with you as the week progresses!

For now- join me over at Bumbles and Light for the Shades of Autumn challenge!

Disclaimer- Mr. Pony took this photo. I do not have magic powers {sad}

Chowder Up Close- the last!

I believe that if Chowder became people, he'd end up as a hobbit. Look at those toes! All that fuzz between them is really unnecessary! When he is flopped down, you can see that he has hair that grows down from between his toes... and it is an inch long at least! He has warm wee tootsies!