Spring for it

Ready for something new, changes big and small are here.

First, a new camera---and this time, it's right! After lots and lots of research, I discovered compact DSLR cameras, cameras designed to be small and light and fit in my hand, while offering me lots of creative potential and options. I am still getting to know my new friend, but I already feel quite comfortable. It felt right from the start. It helps that it's by Sony, the same as my old friend!

So here's me, playing. Look at that twinkle!

We are getting ready to put our house on the market, this dear sweet house which has been so much for us and that we have given so much to. Thanks to a good family work team, our garden beds are spruced up and ready to go: weeded, mulched, and with sweet pansies. Inside, we have been painting and purging and majorly de-cluttering (yard sale, piles for friends, and just plain old dump).

And taking pictures, getting ready to list it! It looks pretty swell around here! But whew, what a lot of hard work and long days. In line with our external space-clearing, we are also modifying our diets around here and cleaning out the insides too. It's been school vacation week with gorgeous weather for working indoors and out...bonus is that the blackflies only barely awakened before our outdoor chores were mostly done! 

I think I'm ready for a break from vacation. But it's felt really great to do this work.

~Making and Mending~

We had a mild conflagration last weekend. During a filmmaking session a halogen light was leaned up against the big puffy pillow that goes inside of Sylvan's Huggle Pod. It was noticed pretty quickly, but not before a hole had been burned.

So I thought: what would Kim do? Make a mushroom patch for all that green, of course!

I have not very gracefully been learning and playing with the New Camera. I am not very patient with myself and easily frustrated. But I still feel lost sometimes and annoyed with myself that I am not wildly overjoyed every minute I am using it.

The light outside this time of year is less than inspiring, mostly gray. Occasionally there are beautiful moments that I see on my way to or from work, but I don't always have the camera, or if I do I am usually rushing. I am taking the New Camera with me more often and trying (trying!) to leave a little early in the mornings---already early enough at 7 am!

The Lacy Baktus is coming along well. I am adoring the Good Karma Yarn: a delight to handle and the colorway is gorgeous. And for all of you knot-haters out there, I can tell you that I haven't had a single one in this whole skein. I have decided to keep on knitting, past the 23" the pattern specifies (before beginning the decreasing), because I want it long enough to be drapey and wrappy.

Oh and this bag? Adorable, yes? From dear Joanie, purchased at Nest, which looks like a must-visit destination. The fabric is light, like a pillowcase, with these sweet embroidered birdies on it. Perfect knitting bag because I can sling it over my shoulder and knit on the go, or sling it over the arm of my chair by the fire.

Like right now. At home, on my very first snow day as a teacher!

~Playing~

Wishing you a peaceful New Year.

(Someone put an ice pack on top of our new Peace Ice Cube tray and they got stuck together.)
A little peak at the lovely Rockport Harbor on a gray wintery day. Snow: Please come here now.

Lots of inside, windowsill shots because it has been cold and unappealing outside lately.

We had a small visitor who likes to snuggle with Mr. Crafty. I am learning my new camera, still feeling a little tentative. But playing and learning is good---and I have time to do it! We have also been falling down the Youtube hole, and we discovered Bobbie and Tony singing Tell Me Why. Cutest. Couple. Ever!

More sewing! Can you believe my luck? A whole stretch of days spent at home, sewing more little clutches for more friends. Can you guess who the one with the birdie head and the laundry line fabric interior is for? (ME!)

~Holiday 2: Did it~

Take note of the army guy, at lower right that has been vanquished just in time from a sneak attack on the manger. Way to go, Ox! Baby Jesus has survived!

Twinkling Juggler, Robot PJs, AND roller skates?! Seriously. For realz.

Beautiful tables set, loving family, and just the right kind of company with a lower case "c." The kind of company that brings their own instruments and makes music! Beatles sing alongs should be part of every Christmas henceforth.

We had a crazy gift swap and I ended up with a DVD from Goodwill: Yoga Booty Ballet Abs! Booty Ballet---can you believe it?! Also on the floor were a hula skirt, felt jester hat, truffles, a Chia Obama (not ours), a 1990 Jack Russell Terrier Calendar, a collection of used cookbooks and odd kitchen implements, a yogurt-maker, and much more silliness. I am sure we will see some of it again next year!

But the best is that I am a blogger with a new camera. A real deal digital SLR camera of my dreams! Thanks to my husband for organizing some family support towards this amazing gift. And for choosing a camera over an iPad because he wanted to support me as an artist, not just a consumer of technology. I am batting my eyelashes now and my heart goes pitter pat.

photography and me

Mary Nanna keeps asking about how I learned to take photos, and I wasn't being cagey in not answering, but I have been thinking about how I would answer.

Well, OK, here it comes. I was a professional transfer student during my undergrad years. I have plotted my five various schools on a Google Map, which took me to both coasts and in the middle too. Along the way I studied Russian language and literature (but I never actually really wanted to go there) and also art. I did two years at the #3 spot on my map (Greenfield Community College), which had a lovely and small and really good art department, and got all my foundation courses out of the way. During this time, I took some photography classes and liked telling visual stories. But I really loved woodblock printmaking.

After this wonderful start, I went on to School of the Art Institute of Chicago to continue with my printmaking interests. Art school (at both schools) was great---so amazing to be surrounded by all that talent! But during the year I was there, I took a 3-D design class and a performance art class that sort of cemented what I already knew from the previous two years of art school: that words were always part of my best work. My work was always narrative and incorporated words.

(And then, the best surprise: In the spring, I became pregnant with Jonas and DIDN'T HAVE TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL IN THE FALL. It was what I had always wanted all along.)

Much as I was happy to learn things (officially and about myself) along the way, I always knew that really, I needed to be a mom before I would know my direction. This was not really in the program for me (white, middle class, daughter of educated parents) though and I felt a little pushed to just go someplace and study anything. Which I did. But I always tell my story to parents because I think it's important that they encourage their children to consider other options like travel or internships or just plain old work, before college.

So back to Mary Anna's question: Where did I learn how to take pictures?

Part of it is all that art training. Part of it is that I am observant to the world around me. And inspired by beauty and good light. Part of it is that I read your blogs that have photos that inspire me and give me ideas for composition and lighting. And part of it is that I am taking many more photos now, with this blog, and through practice there are necesarily more pictures that are good ones. So this blog has, without me realizing it, become a place for me to express myself through the photographic medium as well.

My camera is a Sony Cybershot H-10, if you care. I like it a lot, especially the "action" setting (good for boys who are fast-moving) and the macro setting (good for close-ups).

(Um, if you're wondering about these photos: I took them in the reflection of the window through the winterizing plastic that was covering it.)