When I Was Little...

When I was little, I wanted to be an artist when I grew up.  As an adult, I've tapped into my artistic side by engaging in various hobbies: 

•  Photography -- I've been fascinated by cameras since I was about 7 years old.  I'd steal borrow my parents Polaroid camera to take photos.  My Dad gave me that same camera which he purchased when he was in the military before I was born.  For my 13th Christmas, my Mom bought me my first camera.  I've had one ever since.

•  Cross Stitch -- My first project in 1984 was a birth sampler I designed myself using motifs from an old women's magazine my Mom had.  It's now stained, but I still have it. I've been stitching ever since.

•  Watercolor Painting -- Hard to believe it's been three years since I started learning how to paint with what a lot of people call "a difficult medium".  I still consider myself a newbie, but I really enjoy it.  I'd like to think I've gotten better since my first painting.  I've taken some classes and learned about Chinese Brush Painting, Etegami, and watercolor painting by two local artists.

Recently, I did a watercolor painting for Vikki in FL.  One of her favorite things is coffee, so I did a coffee cup.  This one was so fun, I'm contemplating doing another one for my sketchbook.

Until Next Time...

Did Ya Know?

Did you know today is National Thread the Needle Day?  Me either!  What better reason to thread that needle and get a few stitches in?

I challenged my followers on facebook to post a photo of their threaded needle.  How about posting on your blog, your threaded needle.  Here's mine:

THEATRE
Braving lightning, wind, and sheets of torrential rain, I made the trek to community threatre to see Sugar.   Based on the film “Some Like It Hot” (starring Marilyn Monroe), SUGAR chronicles the zany lives of two musicians, of the prohibition era, who witness a gangster slaying. In an effort to hide from the gangsters, they disguise themselves as women and join an all-female orchestra. Comedy unfolds as they try to integrate with the women and avoid "dirty old men".  Memorable musical numbers include Penniless Bums, The Beauty That Drives Men Mad, We Could Be Close, Doin’ It for Sugar, What Do You Give (To a Man Who Has Everything?), Beautiful Through and Through and November Song. 

For the most part, the play was entertaining, but it wasn't one of the better ones I've seen.  I didn't particularly care for the over-exaggerated gangster scenes.  In an attempt to make it seem humorous, it was over done and I didn't think it was that funny.  On the upside, it was impressive that most of the cast were from an area high school.

PHOTOGRAPHY
Long time readers know my other hobby is photography.  Recently, I found a new way to "display" my photographic talents.  I've shared the following scenic views in my past blogs:

Do any of them look famlliar?

 

Okay, okay... so what's the big deal?  (Yes, I can hear you tap-tap-tapping your fingers on the desk as I prolong the suspense, LOL)  Well... two years ago I opened a new bank account and just recently I *finally* used up all the starter checks and had to order new ones.  I searched and searched and searched for a company that sold checks at a reasonable cost with no shipping costs.  Gotta love coupon codes!  Just so happened that the company I chose not only had a big variety of check designs to choose from, they also allowed you to upload YOUR OWN photos to be printed on the checks.  How cool is that?!!

 

Behold....

my photos above turned into check designs!

I only ordered a box of 200, but I'm sure that will hold me over for years...  All for $6.95!  I was so excited to get my checks... Who knew?!!

STITCHY STUFF
Needle flying, I whipped up the Snow Foxy Sled Ornament. These sled ornaments are so fun (and quick!) to stitch up.  This makes three finishes in July!

Linked to Stitching Lotus Smalls SAL

Snow Foxy is a freebie chart I received with the purchase of the Snow Friends chart when I was at the PALS retreat in 2013. The design is stitched on 14ct brown perforated paper with DMC threads and attached to the sled with tacky glue.

As I contemplated what stitch project to do next, I realized I hadn't worked on Eight Immortals since 2014! ::hangs head in shame:: Hard to believe that I'm down to three... whoops... four WIPs.

• Japanese Garden

• Eight Immortals

• Balloon Glow

• Elegance of the Orient

Decisions, decisions... What to work on? Since I really do like Eight Immortals (lovely colors, easy-to-stitch), I pulled it out and made some progress. Look... She has an entire face and more hair!

Linked to SuperMom Stitchery Party #68

Until next time....
 

Special Gifts

Thirteen years ago, I did a series of black and white hand-tinted photographs of my my nieces and nephew. At the time, I had four nieces and one nephew.  I matted and framed 11x14 prints to hang as artwork for my townhouse apartment. I matted and framed 8x10's of two nieces and gave them to my brother as gifts.

The above photos have hung in both the homes my brother has lived in. At Thanksgiving last year, he nodded toward the photos and said to me, "Ya know, I have another one now." Then he told me how those photos would be the first things he would grab if his house ever caught on fire. Awwww!

So what's a sister to do? I took a bunch of candid shots of his youngest daughter. I turned this one....

 

into a companion piece to the ones I did of her sisters:

 

I hope he likes it!

 

Until next time,

 



 

 

Kodak Ektralite 10 = One Happy Girl

In my early teens, I was one happy girl when I received my very own camera and three rolls of film as a Christmas present.  My mother always had us kids write out Christmas lists and our presents came off those lists so I'm assuming I had "camera" on the list that year.  This is what I received:

(Not this one specifically because I don't have it anymore)

 

Details
• Manufactured by Kodak from 1978-1994
• Film Type: 110mm Cartridges
• Original selling price was $38.00
Focusing distance: from 1,50m to infinity
• Shutter speed: The manual says the camera can figure out what type is loaded and changes the speed accordingly... 1/210 sec for ISO 200 and more, 1/125 sec for ISO lower than 125
• Flash requires two AA batteries and has a range of 4.5meters 1/1000sec. Recovery time takes 7seconds.

The 110 film was discontinued for a while. However, it's made a slight resurgeance. Believe it or not, film is now available again and it can be processed!



I was so thrilled to receive a camera for Christmas that year.  I remember going through a roll of film in no time.  My parents cautioned me about using it all up and then I wouldn't have any left.  Gotta remember they were still using the Polaroid 210 with only 10 photo ops. 

I still didn't know much about photography back then, but I sure did enjoy snapping photographs.  I still have the photographs I took during those years.

My First Car - '73 Grand Prix

 

My Sister - 1983

(Don't ask me what she was doing!)

My Dad - 1984

(He could sleep through anything.

Even his kids adding props to the photo... Hee Hee)

Grandpa and Grandkids - 1982

This is one of my favorite photos.

Obviously, someone else took it with my 110

because I am in the pic.

Sadly, most of the photos taken with my 110 are darkening and seem to be in various stages of deterioration despite being kept in archival quality photo pages.

It ALL Started Here

Let me tell you about a story about a little girl’s fascination.  “What fascination?” you ask.  My fascination with cameras and photography. 

As far back as I can remember I’ve always been intrigued and interested in photography.  When my Dad was in the military, he bought a Polaroid 210 Land Camera.  When I was around seven or eight years old, it was that very camera I’d “steal” when my parents were out of the house.  I’d take a couple of photographs and then put the camera back.  (Oh how I wish I still had some of those photographs)  Since my parents didn’t use the camera very often, they never noticed one or two missing.  At least, they never let on if they did.

Here’s my first camera:

Technically, it wasn’t “mine” but it was my first experience with one.  It was manufactured by Polaroid between 1967 and 1969.  Retailing at that time for $49.99, it was the first color-capable Polaroid Land Camera to sell for under $50.  Over 1.5 million of these were sold.  Polaroid flooded the market with land cameras starting with Model 100 and ending with the 450.  Doing so gave Polaroid a strong footing in the photography market at the time.  Not so today.

The Polaroid 210 uses series 100/660-series pack film which is still available through Fujifilm, and The Impossible Project.  The film is approximately 4.25 x 3.5” and comes 10 to a pack.  The battery is still available also.

In order to take a photograph, there’s series of steps to go through. Luckily, the buttons and knobs are marked 1-4 as an aid.  First, the cover has to be opened.  Then a metal latch is pulled so that the bellows can be unfolded in order to put the lens in its proper position.  Then the white shutter lever is pressed down to cock the shutter.  Once the shutter is released, one might expect the film come popping out.  Not exactly.  After the photo is taken, there’s a strip of white paper sticking out on the side of the camera.  It has to be pulled and in doing so, the tab of the film pops out.  That tab needs to be pulled slowly out so the film goes through a set of rollers that squeezes developer over the frame and out the side of the camera.  After waiting a minute or so, it’s peeled apart.  It was/is truly the original Instagram.

I think it was this process that amazed me:  the little gray box, pulling the paper and film out and all of us standing around waiting expectantly for a picture to appear.

More details about this camera:

•  The plastic gray front cover is detachable and the camera comes with a black nylon strap.

•  Aperture:  f/8, f/42

•  Shutterspeed:  1/1200 to 10 seconds

•  Built with an imagesizer viewfinder that presents a parallax corrected viewfinder along with an arrow that points to the number of feet the lens is focused to.  The photographer needs to estimate the distance from the subject and focus the camera until the arrow in the viewfinder points to the number of feet.

•  Battery:  No. 532 3.0v (PX24)

•  Exposure can be controlled somewhat by manually turning the lens between the lighten and darken settings.

•  It has a plastic two-element 114mm focal length lens which doesn’t offer crystal clear images but is capable of decent results with a steady hand.

My "Baby" Bro - Circa 1976

Me - 1972

My 9th Birthday - 1977

Me playing Atari - 1985

•  It has two speed positions:  75ASA for color film, 3000 for black and white film.

•  With the optional flash accessory, it uses M3 flash bulbs.  They can only be used once and need to be changed after each bulb is expended.  There’s an ejection button that pops the flash out.  One has to be very careful, though, because the bulbs are hot right after use.  The flash unit requires one AA battery.  Flash bulbs are no longer manufacturered, but vintage boxes of them can be found online and sometimes at yard sales or swap meets.  I haven't tried, but perhaps camera stores may still have them, but you’d probably have ask for them specifically.

•  No tripod socket or timer.

There you have it…. Everything you ever wanted to know about the Polaroid 210 Land Camera.

Several years ago, my Dad gave me that camera he bought before I was even born… The very same camera that whet my passion toward photography.  Writing about it makes me want to buy pack film!

 

Marvelous Monday Update 10/10/2011

SCHOOL
Woo Hoo!! The latest semester is done and I'm on the home stretch now. Woo Hoo!! A lot of happy dancin' going on here. *big grins* Even though the instructor is two weeks behind on grading our weekly assignments, posting, AND term paper, I took the final and it's automatically graded. I got a 92%!! Woo Hoo! Can you tell I'm happy?? LOL

I'm already enrolled for the next semester and received my textbook for Auditing I. In talking with my performance coach at work, he suggested that I go out on an audit to see what it's like in real life. He's going to run it by the head honchos, so we'll see what they say. It was kinda cool that he offered to get me going on that, though.

PHOTO SHOOT
Last week, a couple of commenters asked about why their photos get blurry when trying to take close up pics.

My guess is that you're getting too close to the subject is why it gets blurry. Every camera has a certain distance it has to be from the subject to remain in focus. Usually, it's around 20 inches for a point-n-shoot camera, but you'd have to look in the manual for the exact length. My 300mm lens requires about 36inches. Some of the point-n-shoot cameras have a macro setting that allows close-up photos.

STITCHY STUFF
Two readers asked about my confetti stitches. Normally, I don't carry my thread from one to the next. There were a few on Blossom that I did. If you look on my sidebar under How-To, there's an explanation on how I've done confetti sitches. I used Method #2. An "anonymous" commenter didn't leave his/her name and asked to see the confetti stitches on the backside of Blossom. Here goes:


Over the past several months, I've been watching a SAL called Le Jardín Pourpre (Purple Garden). The German group has a limited membership so I couldn't get in until now. So, I've started a new project! Here's the fabric and floss toss:


Check out the progress these gals have made: Sharmila and Karen
I was able to finish Part One over the weekend. I really like how the colors pop off the fabric I chose.


I received Part 6 for iStitch SAL and stitched it up in one evening. Who sent the frogs???


COOKING
There were several requests for the recipe I used for pretzels last week, so in the next post I've share it along with my notes. Enjoy!

Marvelous Monday Update 9/21/09 - Part Three

NIGHT AT THE THEATRE
On Saturday night, I saw a play called "Escanba in Love", written by Jeff Daniels. The small community theatre was *really* hot and stuffy. Apparently someone turned on the heat instead of the air, LOL.

The setting was Soady deer camp in the midst of World War II (40 years prior to Escanaba in da Moonlight). This is where we meet the love of young Albert Soady Jr.’s life (who has a "past") and a whole cast of madcap Yoopers. Albert wins Big Betty Balloo in a barroom kissing contest, weds her on the spot, and brings her to deer camp for their honeymoon. She is the first woman ever to set foot in the Soady deer camp, and Albert's father and grandfather are not happy! The men meet their biggest challenge to date, their first female visitor, Big Betty Ballou. To become a "real" Soady, the men put her to "tests" which create a lot of folly, hilarious dialogue and events.

Needless to say, it was quite entertaining!


TWO ALREADY???
It was 2 years ago last Sunday, that I nervously waiting to hear the news on whether my offer on the homestead would be accepted. Then came the sick-to-my-stomach feeling as I drove to the closing. It was a big leap for this single girl to purchase a home on her own! After that moving and unpacking. Soon The Homestead Chronicles was born. Now here it is two years later! (Embarassed to say that I *still* have boxes that aren't unpacked. Pics of The Homestead can be seen HERE.


ANOTHER SENIOR MOMENT!
It seems like it was only yesterday that I received the call from my oldest brother that his first baby girl was born.


My sister was a bit peturbed at my SIL because she was up walking around right after the baby was born (lol). My sister, who gave birth only months before, had about two weeks recovery before she felt "good". I digress...

My brother asked me to take my niece's senior pics. Hard to believe she's a senior in high school already! What a beautiful young woman she grew up to be. These are some of my favorites:

Copyrighted Material

Yesterday, I mentioned how my tutorial was mentioned on CraftGossip Blog Network. I emailed Denise, the needlework editor and asked her to correct my name. She responded back that she'd do so, and in my second email to her I reminded her that "like needlework charts, photographs are also copyrighted" and to give photo credit to my name also. After all, they did "lift" my photo.

Today, when I went to CraftGossip to see if my name was corrected, I found the post to be gone. So I emailed Denise asking about it. She said she removed the entire post!

I wonder how many other photos they've lifted from other sites without asking the owner's permission? Wouldn't one expect higher ethics from a craft site?

Charity Golf Tournament

For the past 8 years or so, I’ve been the “official” photographer of the annual golf tournament that raises money for the local catholic school system. No, I’m not an alumni catholic schoolgirl. My boss is an alumni and since I’m a photographer, I participate via association. This one day event usually brings in $20,000+. Mostly the golfers consist of alumni from the schools, some of them have been golfing in this tournament for 21 years!

It’s sort of a “men’s club” kind of tournament as the only females on the course are me and a couple of country club women. I was told many years ago that women are allowed to play, but they’re not encouraged to. *hmpf*

With that said, it’s usually a fun day. I get a golf cart that I can zip around the course on photographing the sponsor signs and the four-somes. The morning started off just peachy… I jump off the cart, slip on the wet grass (pretty wet at 7am!), and promptly fall on my butt. I look around quick to see if anyone saw me, LOL. Of course, there were two guys on a golf cart coming toward me so I’m sure they saw. I felt something twinge in my knee, but I’m hoping it’s nothing. Shortly after that, I’m photographing another sponsor sign and... the sprinkler system pops on! Ack! I wondered why the leaves of the trees were dripping when it hadn’t rained! Luckily, my cart was parked far enough away that it didn’t get wet. I didn’t either thanks to my lightning speed (LOL) actions to get out of the way. The rest of the morning session went pretty good... and fast.

The afternoon session was wrought with its own “excitement”. As I was on my way to the lab to pick up my CF card, I heard on the radio: Beeeeep, Beeeeeep, Beeeepppp... “We interrupt this program…” (OK, they didn’t say that last part, but it sounded good!) The national weather service had spotted a storm headed our way and had a watch until 1:15pm. The storm was capable of producing 60mph winds. The golfers were set to tee off at the same time. It was 85F and sunny out! By the time I got to the country club, the skies were clouding up and during dark. It didn’t take long and the winds picked up and things were being blown everywhere. The caddies were rushing to set golf clubs against the building and tables were being dismantled. Imagine 100+ men congregated at the 19th hole while the storm subsided! It was soooo hot in there and NOISY! Tee off was postponed for about an hour. Again, I zipped around the course photographing the afternoon four-somes. I witnessed one large tree down, and lots of branches all over the course. I also witnessed three men relieving themselves against the nearest tree... must’ve been the free-flowing beer! I had one very appreciative older “gentlemen” thank me for taking his photo with the other guys who volunteered to run the brat stand. I thought “Awww... Ain’t that sweet?” Another older guy (most of the men who golf this tournament are “older”), told me how charming I was... LOL, hardly anyone uses that term these days. I’ve never thought of myself as charming, but hey... if he wants to think that, I’ll let him!

For the past 2 years, this group had decided they don’t want the “traditional” golf poses. So each year, they’ve come up with their own creative posing. I just make sure their faces show. Last year, they laid on their stomachs with their hands propping their heads up, LOL.

Winter Wonderland

Yesterday, my area received 6-8" of snow while I was at work. Is winter over yet? No? It's just starting?? Yes, it's beautiful... if you don't have to drive in it.

Today, I spent a couple hours walking through the new powder and captured the beauty of it all. Here's "Bob". He greets you as you enter the nature preserve.

Doesn't he look pleased with all the snowy whiteness?



More pics can be seen HERE.

Friday Update 10/19/07

~Pampering~
One day last week, I spent an hour over my lunch hour getting a bit of pampering from the local cosmotology school. First, was a facial. Ahhhh... Depending on the student giving them, I could fall asleep right on the table. They are so relaxing. Then some maintenance on the bushy brows... a brow wax. There were some strays coming in so I decided to get them done. After all, it's an ongoing 2-for-1 deal they have. So how much did this pampering cost me? A whopping $6 TOTAL. If only there was a local massage school!

And look what was waiting for me when I got home from work last Friday:


A giant Mum made into an ice cream sundae!
Isn't it the cutest thing?

It was from S and in addition, he bought me some really nice tulip bulbs as a little housewarming present.


~More Flowers~
Several months back, I sent Cherie in UT a bunch of cuttings from my Maternity Plant. This week, I received a bunch of iris bulbs from her garden! Knowing it was going to rain, I dug a patch and put the tulips and the irs into the ground so they will (hopefully!) bloom next year. Once I get my garden beds in order next year, I'll move them to a better home. :)


Stitchy Stuff
I had four hours to kill while waiting for my Dad to have a test done at the hospital. In addition to listening to my Mom jabber on about everything under the sun, I sewed on 3/4 of the beads for Pink Carnations. I told my Dad that I needed another 1/2 hour so I could get the rest sewed on. Couldn't he do something about it? LOL

After getting back into town, I stopped at a local consignment shop. You never know what you'll find! Among other things (for the house), I came home with these:

Floss wound on plastic bobbins, several pieces of evenweave, wood tray

A little enabling: Hobby Lobby has all their cross stitch fabric (packaged and on-the-bolt) on sale for 40% off. This also includes bookmarks, bibs, towels, etc.

In their clearance section, I found this:


What is it?? I almost walked by it... It's an Elan Lap Stand! Quite compact, isn't it? These stands cost anywhere from $70-95. I got mine for less than $15!!! Not only that, they had a chart holder for less than $15. Holders run anywhere from $40-$60.



~Freecycle~
Are you sick of hearing about it? LOL I have yet another Freecycle find! It's a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash Kit. The kit came with the original box, flash cover, and user's manual. The flashbulbs came from rummage sale where I bought the Baby Brownie. These were made from 1950-61. Another nice addition to my camera collection! :)