Bamboo

I don't quite remember how I ended up at "Inspire me Thursday" last week. But the thing is, I already love that site and the weekly challenge!
Last week's word of inspiration was "moon" and I submitted my moon pictures from a while ago. I couldn't wait to find out what this week's word would be... Bamboo, as it turned out. With just a bamboo fruit bowl, there wasn't much I could think of. That is until I remembered my bamboo knitting needles. I haven't used them in a while. The last time I used them they also made it to my blog - in my very first post ever!

And now again. I believe they also do great in a light studio...











More pictures can be found in my Flickr pool.

Perfect day

Today was just a perfect day. The last day of February - the first day of Spring. That's what it felt like, here in Paris. Sun all day. The four of us went to our favorite park just a couple of blocks away. The kids ran and played, rode their scooters, K. relaxed in the sun - and I was watching Spring unfold through my lens...












Just a perfect day...

March 2009 Calendar!

I can hardly believe it, but we have only a couple more days to go before it's March! Spring! Maybe, hopefully... We are so much in need of a little bit of sunshine. The days are getting longer already, which is really nice.
Anyway, here is the download-able March calendar. The February one, I made completely from scratch, and it took me quite a while to get it right (well, sort of right). Things got a lot easier this time as I ran into the Flickrtoys calendar templates (desktop and monthly calendar sheet). So much easier!! So, feel free to download this calendar here or go over to Flickrtoys to make one of your own, using your favorite pictures. You'll see there's plenty more you can do with your favorite photographs. Maybe, something fun to do on those still long winter evenings...
And before you'll know it Spring will be there!

Birds of a feather...

We're back from our little trip to the seaside! And apart from one of our girls ending up having a gastro (which luckily didn't last too long and from which she recovered really well), it was great! We had only one day of rain, otherwise the weather was really nice, sunny even! I promised my girls I would take my camera with me only once...which I did on Wednesday, the sunniest day of the week as it turned out. We went for a long walk, had the beach to ourselves, and spotted all kind of things... like feathers. I got really inspired by these tiny, soft, perfectly white, seagull feathers, some of them having droplets of water sitting on them, every single one totally different, the gentle movement of the little hairs with the wind... I thought they were simply beautiful!



And shells! Lots of them. We collected some to take home as little H. wants to show them in class. And although Valentine's Day has past already, we thought these looked like Valentine's Day hearts...



But there was more on the beach... like art (and I mean real Art), of which I'll show you some pictures later...
The kids have one more week off from school and it looks like it will be another busy week, but I'm sure I'll be able to check in from time to time and hope you'll do the same!

Cheers!
P.

Moon

one moon...



two moons... (digital collage) - "The expression two moons (or sometimes, two heads) was often used in Chinese Buddhism to indicate a state of divided consciousness. The state when we are thinking about something while we are doing something else is one example of this. But the Buddhist state is oneness in action – a state in which there is no second moon..." - extract from Wisdom Books

A gift...

... from me to you. A downloadable calendar for February!
I need to admit this wasn't entirely my idea. I had been thinking of making one for a while now, and then I stumbled upon this post at Chocolate and Zucchini - a great blog, with great recipes, and great pictures! You should check it out - yes, Mom, I have the feeling you'll just love it! I'd love to try making my own vanilla extract - among all the other yummy things there! A good resource to boost my culinary performances a bit, as I haven't been doing great in the kitchen lately... You should ask my kids about it!



Now, a little more about the calendar. I've made two versions: a desktop version (shown at the very top of this post) as well as a printable version (right above here) which provides space to write in. Both will be available from the sidebar, as off tonight or tomorrow morning, under the label "February 2009 calendar". Let me know what you think of it! It's a try-out. If you like it I'll make one available every month. I'd better start making pictures, then... When I look outside now and see the snow that's coming down, I can't actually believe I took this picture with the clear blue sky yesterday!

I hope you'll have a wonderful weekend, snow or no snow!

The light studio

I've referred to it several times now (here and here and here and finally here): my homemade light studio. I'm still all excited about it! Making pictures of small and not so small objects has become a lot easier for me. I still need to work on getting the camera settings right, but being able to work in a controlled environment has made a huge difference already. I can highly recommend it to everyone!

So, this is what it looks like:

See the mess in and around it? That was in the excitement of the first time I put it into use. I grabbed everything within reach and photographed it...

On the internet you can find many different ways to make one of these - all more or less inexpensive.

A first method makes use of a simple cardboard box, where you make cut-outs on the sides and at the top, which you then cover with paper. A very good description of this method can be found here and here.

A second method - and this is the one I eventually chose for - makes use of foam boards. The reason I ended up making this one is because you can take it apart when done and store it away (not that I ever do this - mine has been sitting around in our living room (even) when not in use...). I found the link to the very clear and step-by-step instructions through One Pretty Thing.
The only alteration I've made is that I've made a cut-out in the top as described in the above box-method and next taped white tissue paper over it. I did this as I intended to use a light source coming from above.
This light studio will take you a little longer to assemble and involves precise cutting and measuring. Hence, don't try to make this one if you're not well-rested or with small children running around! But again, the main advantage of this one is that you can store it away, which comes in handy when you live in a (small) apartment as I do.
I might do a few more changes, like making a slit in the back over the entire length to be able to slide through the back-drop, which would be nice when using fabric as a background. Also, I've been considering to cut additional (interchangeable) side-boards with cut-outs like in the top one. This would allow me to use different light sources (from the top or the sides, or both) depending on what I want to photograph. Since this box is made like a puzzle, this is totally feasible. I'll keep you posted!

I'd like to mention a third method also, which makes use of simple household items like a laundry bin, which I'm sure everyone has sitting around, and which is described here. I stumbled on this one through Bricolagelife's blog after I finished mine already. This method is by far the simplest, as there is no cutting or precise measuring involved.

There are probably more ways to make one of these. Feel free to let me know! I'd be happy to add them.

A little bit of everything

First of all I want to share something with you that made me really happy. Remember the Valentine's Day garland from a couple of days ago? Well, it made it into the Valentine's Day Round-up at One Pretty Thing! If you don't know One pretty thing yet - which I doubt - go check it out! It's the place to be if you're looking for inspiration, tutorials, seasonal crafts or crafts and pretty things in general. And I'm not just telling you that because my Valentine's hearts showed up there! The light-box I made last week: found the instructions through One Pretty Thing! The Obamicon-posters (here and here)? Found them through - yes! - One Pretty Thing! So, go over there and take a look!



As you might have noticed, I changed the // Between the lines // heading again. This time, it's a detail of a woven basket I bought earlier this week (I actually bought two...). At the Monoprix of all places! They're made of rolled-up newspaper strips - a nice way of recycling newspaper! I intend to use these baskets to organize some of my craft supplies. I really love them and so did the girls, who actually tried to claim them... These baskets made me think again about trying to weave, something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I got a nice book with weaving projects for kids a while ago - time to take a look at it! And as I was thinking about all this, I found these cute little Valentine's heart shaped baskets at Maya*Made ( maya*made: woven hearts: modernizing a classic). I've tried to make one yesterday and it looks like this technique might work well for making party hats, too. To be further investigated!



Also today, I started taking pictures of spices - make use of the light studio, of course! About ten years ago, on a short city trip to London with some friends, we ended up at Soho Spice for dinner, a (at that time) trendy Indian restaurant. I can't remember what we had for dinner, but I do remember their colorful walls and the place mats which were essentially pictures of spices on colorful backgrounds. I fell for these place mats and got a set from the waiter to take home. I framed them and had them up on our kitchen walls until we moved. They're probably still in a box somewhere on my in laws' attic. I definitely want to check next time we go. Anyway, when photographing the vegetables last weekend, I thought of those place mats and hence the spice-pictures. Work in progress...

Up and running :: Veggies

Some of today's pictures made in the light studio...

Up and running!!

I finally finished the light studio this morning and I'm all excited about it!
Details about how exactly I made it, will follow later, but here's already one picture I'm really happy with!

My MOO cards arrived...

... and I just love them! I ordered postcard prints of some of my very own beach pictures and I was very pleased with how they came out. I got a little excited, even. Nice print quality on glossy, heavy weight postcard paper. Same quality as the postcards you buy, if not better. I can highly recommend MOO for your picture projects. It was the first time I ordered through them and I will definitely do it again.
And now comes the best part: they sent me a promotional code to share with my friends. If you've never ordered with MOO you'll get 20% off on any one MOO product. But hurry up! The code expires on January 31st.
This is the code you should use: Q29RN8.

With Valentine's day just around the corner, this might be exactly what you need! Good luck!

A piece of white paper...

...and a little sun in my room is all I needed to take these pictures, all thanks to this post which I happened to run into yesterday! Next thing I'll try is to built my own light box set-up (as in this post and this one), though I'd like to come up with something I can store away easily. We don't have that much room in our small apartment to have boxes sitting around... I think this post might be a good starting point.

The above pictures show some of my needle felting projects (except for the flower brooch in the top right hand corner, which is just embroidered felt). The orange baskets in the middle are the ones I mentioned in an earlier post.