Jenna Lou Loves You

Hello Self

This morning when I woke up I wanted to take a self portrait. I don't really know why... I just needed to capture me in this day. 

 

So I went to the room in our house I try to hide. It is full of storage boxes, dusty workout equipment, and my treasured vintage couch that I'm planning to get recovered. This is the room I tell guest not to go in. I barricade the door and say "oh that room? ... nothing to see there!". I have high hopes for this room one day. It needs a new ceiling , hardware, light fixtures and paint... it really needs paint! But there is something about this room that tells me great things will happen here. I cannot wait to see what they are.

New Camera Accessory - Nikon Wireless Remote

I got my hands on a new toy. A very inexpensive, yet very powerful tool: Nikons wireless remote. So far I've used it to help me take photos of bags for the shop. The remote has sped up the photo process so much for me. Before I was running back and forth to my camera to reset the self timer and it really was more like a time waster. Now it's just click click click and I'm done.

I'm thinking more self portraits will be in my future.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. The weather was amazing here in MN and I'm off now to enjoy my last afternoon of the weekend with a walk around town. See you soon.

Photoshop Action Fun! - FREE CoffeeShop actions

Before


After (click to see bigger!)

As I'm trying to advance my skills in photography, learning Photoshop has become a key component. Editing each photo manually can be a lot of work, well worth it, but still a lot of work. To make things run smoother and faster some brilliant people have made Actions which basically do all the hard work for you.

Today I just wanted to share this really fun action I found over at the CoffeeShop blog. It's called Teeny Tiny World. It makes your photos turn into little scale models. This action is a total novelty, but I absolutely LOVE it. Here is a demonstration from a photo I took on a walk last week. How cute!

If you enjoyed this, you have to check out the CoffeeShop Blog and Flickr page. There are SO many great and usefull actions and all for FREE to boot.

He Loves Me

I was greeted yesterday with a bouquet of fresh lilacs. My house is filled with their fragrance. To me nothing says spring more than this smell.

He loves me... yes he does.

Amping Up the Skills

Lately I've been immersing myself in photography. I'm learning as much as I can as fast as I can. There are TONS of awesome sites all over the internet with amazing information.

Here are a couple of my favs.

Go For Pro: A great blog with turn ons to the latest trends and tips for going pro. I'm not planning on going pro anytime soon, but most everything shared can be applied to improving everyday photography.

Heather Ward: Amazing inspiration... I've been following for months and am constantly impressed by the beauty she finds and captures.

Wandering

I love spring. Don't get me wrong.... fall is great too, but there is just something magical about spring. It renews my love of being outside and reminds me why I put up with winter. John and I spend a lot of time outside in the spring. Sometimes on foot... sometimes on bike. But all this time outside also reminds me of why I love this little town. There is so much beauty to see in my "backyard". And so today I just wanted to share some images from one hand-holding, sneaker wearing, sunset watching, evening walk.

Spring Sunlight

Sunlight captured on a crystal knob in the evening.

I for one enjoy spring day light saving. If you are like me and don't get out of bed most days until 7:30 or  8, then you don't find any bother in skipping an hour of light in the morning. And OH how good it feels to enjoy an extra hour at night. I can already feel the difference in my mood and mind. The day feels like it has more to offer me. More time to squeeze in one last project. And most of all a strong reminder that just around the corner is spring. The time of year when I can peel of the layers of blankets that drape around my neck from October through April. I can finally take my socks off for months at a time. I can open the windows to air out the house and spend afternoons taking sheets off the drying lines. Oh spring how I do miss you. Please come soon and strong this year.

Beauty is Pain

You gals were totally right... I DID want the 50mm lens for my camera. And a couple weeks ago I got it. Talk about an awesome and AFFORDABLE lens. I've had lots of fun playing around with it. Unfortunately most of those photos are of Zoey and K-K because while I'm home all day long there isn't much else to focus on... and I just don't want to bore you with post after post of their cute little faces over and over and over. After all... this is supposed to be a crafting-lifestyle blog.

So onto the topic at hand. When my new 50mm lens isn't attached to my camera I wanted a better way to protect it. I have a Crumpler for my camera and extra stuff (which I LOVE by the way), but I just wanted a little extra protection on my investment, so I made up a lens bag from things I already had in my stash.


It's a simple bag, fully lined and interfaced with some leftover quilt batting. The top closes with a draw string and the button actually keeps it tight so I don't have to tie the stings in a knot. I used french seams to keep it easy and quick. The worst part was the top. I ended up hand stitching the top because it wouldn't fit threw my machine. And let me tell you: I'm not a hand stitching type of girl! I don't mind the job if it's for embroidery or some other form of embellishment, but when it's actually part of the functionality of the item I get a little freaked out. So I spent half an hour hand stitching about 5 inches worth of material. My hands were raw and my finger tips hurt for about two days, but in the end I loved the case so much I decided to make another for my kit lens. Beauty is pain they say!

A Walk In The Park

I think I've mentioned it before that we live near several parks (lucky me!). Last weekend we took a stroll down a couple blocks to the park just to get out of the house. It was a bit cold yet, but the sun was out and the lake was beautifully covered with the past weeks snowfall. In the summer this lake is home to many geese and you'll always find a few walkers on the trails surrounding, but in the winter you pretty much have the pace to yourself.

Here are some of the photographs I took:

He Popped The Question!

And I said YES!!
02.06.09

We went to Minneopa Park to take photos of the frozen waterfalls. While standing on the bridge overlooking the falls, with the warmth of the winter sun raining down and the sounds of water slowly moving below feet of frozen cascades, he asked me to marry him. It was the most beautiful day a girl could ask for.