Oh how they grow

I’m revisiting an old knit project today. Probably a good thing since I haven’t finished a new one in months! I’ve been so busy with photography that I haven’t had a chance to go to my favorite local shop and pick up the needles. So do you remember this?

That was taken in August of 2009. 2009!!! She was a wee 8 months old. I wanted to blog about it again because we are still loving this 18 months later!

Peekaboo! Now she wears it more of tunic.

You can get an idea of the length here. Sometimes I put it over jeans. Of course being wool it is nice and warm, but the lack of sleeves make it super easy to play in. And check out how Socks that Rock yarn is wearing! The dress has stayed so nice, hardly any pilling. And I’ll admit it, I machine wash it… and not even on delicate! I always do lay it flat to dry though, I love sock yarn for baby knits! I have another one on the needles now. It’s going to be just a bit wider, and longer (the one above is the 6 month size). Details are on my Ravelry page (it’s a free pattern).
And since who knows when I might bring up knitting again I want to tell you about an another awesome free download. This booklet is one I own a paper copy of and I have made quite a few things out of (this sweater twice, and this one once).

The Basement – the other side

The “other side” of my basement is really my work side. I don’t shoot down here but this is where I meet with clients and show them their images (with a fancy new projector). I love the space!

This was that same view before:

Besides the couch the biggest change is the skirt around my drafting table (which I use for cutting fabric/displaying photographs and albums).

This was my mom’s idea and it makes such a huge difference! This way I can actually store stuff under there as well. I had hoped to make it detachable, but I couldn’t get the velcro to stay as straight as I wanted, so it got stapled on.

Behind it you can see my scrap bin, a big basket of projects, a little train case full of notions and a table I repurposed to keep some sewing stuff nearby (the machine is a dehumidifier). What you can’t see is a laundry basket I keep ready to go for newborns, it makes it easy to grab the blankets and heaters and things. If you turn around behind this area you see this:

A built in full of my fabric stash that I try to keep neat (key word is try). The small closet to the left of this has a sump pump for the washing machine and utility sink on the other side of it. I’ve managed to cram an ironing board in there as well.

Of course the real reason I did this all was to have a place to show photographs. I love the in person experience, most of all so I can see my client’s reactions! I have a little command center by the couch that controls everything.

You can see it in this picture (I blogged about the “play” side of things here). That little mobile laptop stand is from Ikea, as are the table and chairs. The table is actually a cheap wooden dining room table. Bj cut it down for me and I spray painted it. I left it semi tall because it’s also a project table for Tuesday. And even though this is a basement it still gets a lot of light in the afternoon.

This is without any lights on. Tuesday and I can still play down here and it’s so nice and calm.

Of course we were lucky to get some afternoon light this day, it has been raining a ton over here!
Not much new stuff to list here.
The couch, lampshade, table and chairs, and fabric for table skirt all from Ikea.
The rolling bin is a set of Community Playthings unit blocks.
Lamp is a vintage estate sale find and the drafting table was my grandfathers. My brother had it revamped for me.
I’m envisioning cutting fabric at this table and Tuesday happily coloring at the table, or brewing up some tea. Right now she’s pretty obsessed with the swing, so until she figures out how to move it on her own I’m on pushing duty, which is just fine with me.

The basement: the play side

Ok, I still have  a project for the back wall, but I want to share this side of the basement as it stands now:

And here is the before:

(from a little further back). If only you could see the sweat and tears in those flor tiles, they look exactly the same!

Because I am bringing clients down here I wanted to keep this space clean and open (I meet with clients on the other side). I also wanted something low to divide the space so I could still see Tuesday playing from the other side, where I also cut fabric and craft.

We decided to invest in some Community Playthings furniture and I love it! It’s meant for pre-schools so I’m sure it can take whatever we dish out. On this side we have “fancy” blocks, baby toys (for our littlest friends), mini unit blocks, and a toy vehicles. Above that a puzzle, some felt scraps for a board, and old type letter. The top baskets have play silks, bristle blocks, and dress up stuff (she’s not really that into it yet though).

This middle island is actually four units so I chose to have this side have larger openings. We have musical instruments (in a basket given to us by our favorite musicians!), a doggie from her aunt and uncle, some more puzzles (where did that blue bead go?!?!). The mini ironing board I scored at an estate sale and it’s just a board meant for sleeves and stuff. Then some wooden food.

My friend Kristen’s husband scored me these big drawers. My brother made me a top for Christmas and I stained it recently to match the desk (I still had the stain from refinishing that, I was surprised it lasted so long). They hold studio samples, framing supplies (I just frame my personal stuff myself), cardboard and big pieces of paper for art projects, and fat quarters of fabric.I’m sewing over here too, my laptop (for hooking to the projector) is hidden away unless I have clients. The lamp I’ve had stashed for a while (I feel like I should paint it?) and the Ikea lampshade is held on with sticky tack and wire. The only thing I’m not crazy about is the chair.

Tuesday is not the only one in love with this space. I love that I can have her friends over and we can be loud down here (it’s tough when Bj has calls during the day to keep the volume at an appropriate level, you know how toddlers like to squeal with joy). The castle silk did get pulled down after the first time I put it up. Man tying fishing line is hard. Bj got some super tough stuff and did a tricky knot. He told me I could hang from it now, but I’m just going to take his word for it.
I want to say that I was super inspired by Meg from Sew Liberated. She recently did a playroom for her boys that you should really look at.
Sources:
-kitchen and fridge: Camden Rose from Palumba We relocated this from upstairs.
-shopping cart: garage sale find by my brother and Kat ($1!!) Her little friend in there is a Bamboletta named Apple (appie)
-for details on the silk see this post
-rug is from Ikea, as is the rocking moose (a shower gift from my Canadian friends) and baskets in the shelves
-my “office” area was all thrifted or gifts
-library book rack, and Montessori shelving from Community Playthings. This is also where we got our unit blocks (not pictured) and mini unit blocks.
I am so happy and thankful for this space. For space to display my work (the largest canvas in that grouping is a 30×40 and so awesome!). I’m thankful that I have a brother with great ideas, like the wooden top, and spray painting the dimpled plastic (what a difference). I love that Bj noticed the little things, like the fact that our one vent was all beat up and brown, and then went right out to fix it (even though it involved more tools and swearing than he thought it would). I’m thankful for friends that find me good deals and give me cool stuff. And friends and family who like to hang out with Tuesday while I repaint everything.
Basements rule.

Late (productive) nights

Bj and I have a standing deal: we get one glorious morning each weekend day to sleep in. It’s beautiful and I love it oh so much. Of course I tend to go a bit crazy the night before I know I get to sleep in and this last weekend was no exception. In fact, factoring in daylight savings time changing, I stayed up until after three AM, oops! But I was on a creative roll and it felt so good. Spurring me on was some filing I was able to do (and thus de-cluttering) because I’m actually able to organize the basement now (hooray!).

Wanted to get my thoughts down about my dear friend Taro. I finally heard from him (he lives in Japan) almost a day after the quake. He happened to be 100 miles from home and waiting in a long line for water but he was fine. His wife was fine, as was his whole family. I was so glad. I didn’t let myself look at any footage until I heard that. I have since and my thoughts just keep going there, so much sadness. These pictures are from when he visited in November. I like the library of memories system for easy finding of photos not based on date (these were under People we Love -> Friends -> Taro). I used my Silhouette (but of course) and a cool alphabet stamp set I scored for $5 at Michael’s.

Here I was trying to set up a little scene like some people do when they snap photos of their layouts. I don’t think grabbing random figurines really added anything though. I might have gone a little embellishment crazy on the bottom left corner of this one. When it comes to brads I have a hard time stopping (I LOVE BRADS!).

I think I paid $10 for this broken toy horse. Totally crazy I know but I still love it. I think it’s worn to perfection. Wait, where was I?

I love these photos of Tuesday eating. She always gets to sit at the head of the table since it has the best light 🙂

Now it might be hard for the untrained eye to see but the brad I used here just wasn’t quite right enough and it spurred a late night internet shopping spree (CAN YOU HAVE TOO MANY BRADS?!?!) Note to self: buy some more brad storage.

I scanned the bunch of photo strips from my annual portrait this last year (30 baby!) and printed them as one 8×10. It worked pretty well. The sides of two were chopped so I tried to work that in to the layout a bit.

I love being able to take photos with my phone (and print them off at home) but it sometimes makes for color choice challenges. These photos all have a different color cast too them so I went a little vintage (can you believe all my use of pattern paper? I might actually use a quarter of my stash before I die!). I think these buttons really need some waxy flax or twine or something. I got rid of my waxy flax in a purge. The next week Sarah started using some again and I’ve been kicking myself ever since.

I know the title looks super light, but in person I think it works.

Sunday I made time to put away months worth of layouts. I really wish I had room for my scrapbooks somewhere else where they could be pulled out and looked at more (I know Marcy was thinking the same thing. Let’s hope she comes up with something good so I can copy her :).
Oh, I used this fun new trick for setting my white balance for these. I’ve never touched the custom Kelvin setting on my camera before so it was fun to try it out.

Newborn – baby M

This sweet little baby and his family were so fun to photograph. It was my first time using the poof, and a few other tools so Kristen was kind enough to come as my assistant. Mom found me via Google and since baby was already a week old when she called we didn’t have a chance to meet in person before the shoot (I photograph newborns 10 days old and newer). Walking in their home I knew right away our styles would work great together. And baby M stayed asleep for over an hour at the beginning (even though we were all sweating keeping him happily warm) so I got to do lots of fun poses; here are some of my favorites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had already shot in the nursery (with hand-painted murals and artwork by mom and dad) and I was looking around the house to find a spot to lay baby in the knitted cocoon thing. Mom said we could use their room and I said, “You’ve been holding out on me!” when I saw this tapestry on their wall. I knew ahead of time that mom and dad wanted skin on skin baby pictures so I had figured out some poses ahead of time, but Kristen helped pose this shot on the fly and I love it! They ordered a large print that I’m sure is going to be the star of the wall grouping they planned.
I love photographing families and new families with tiny babies are just so sweet. I love going to their homes and seeing tiny baby things everywhere!

It was a dark and stormy night…

And I went out in it to photograph! Craziness, but it was my last lighting class in Portland and I didn’t want to miss it. Besides I had Kristen to keep me company.

I forgot my tripod in the car, so until I bummed Kristen’s I was balancing my camera on anything I could find. This one is blurry, but to me that makes it more moody and I love it.

 

 

I usually don’t play with photos much after I shoot, just because I’m not a huge fan of lots of computer time, and I don’t want to date my photos with that “so 2011 post processing look”. But these lend themselves so well to it because there is no skin to mess up! I could show you a hundred versions of that one above.

Oh and did I mention it was rainy? That’s the haze you see on everything, pouring rain. We were soaked through to our underwear! Glad I went though. Kristen and I got some seriously good Mexican food (porque no so yummy!) that warmed us up. I’m glad I took this class I learned a lot about lighting and I’m not scared of my flash anymore!

A little me time

Nothing will halt online computer work like slow upload speeds and silly internet problems. I took this as a sign last Friday that I should take the afternoon off and scrapbook. I have a pile of pictures printed and not even in the simple three-up albums I keep them in. I need to clean out an old one first and I feel like I have a million stories I want to tell. Here are a few I got to:

Pictures from last summer. I went Silhouette crazy on this thing.

I’m still loving that machine. And look, I hoped on the cloud band wagon! There wasn’t any paper in my stash that fit with the soft colors I wanted so I pulled out an old atlas. I think it works though since the diapers went bye bye.

How awesome are we? My senior shoot came with a free family sitting in the studio. Looking back on this really makes me glad I do photography the way I do, not so posed and stuffy. I mean all white shirts? We never wore those. I am glad to have the photo of us together though.

My typewriter I think suffered from a lack of use and is acting up on me, but I just went with it.

On one of Tuesday’s Sciarrino days she got to make this shirt with her. Oh my goodness she loves it so much. When she catches a glimpse of it she squeals, “paint!” and insists on wearing it.

Trying to channel a little of Christine Middlecamp. That girl can layer something fierce!
I felt so much better getting to spend a few hours doing something totally for me and just for fun. I need to make more time for this sort of thing. How do you make time for your crafty pursuits? And I know Vee will tell me to get up earlier, she’s crazy!