Photos Galore!

I'm up to my ears in developed film right now. Remember my word for this year? Simplify? Well I had about 5 rolls of film on my desk that were waiting to get developed. Now its down to just one. Woot! I think the biggest thing I miss in digital photography is that anticipation. Waiting to see what your photos look like and what the heck was on that roll. I developed a roll of Black & White medium format film last night in class. It was from Yosemite. I had completely forgotten that I had taken any film then. I blame my Europe travel preparations on that one.

So here is slide film developed like color film. The colors come out all crazy when you screw with the chemicals. This was our view from our cabin this past August (Yosemite).
And here is a photo of the bar at my cousin's grad party last summer:I finished this roll on a walk with my grandma in Walnut Creek on Tuesday. Check out the patterns the leaves make on the sidewalk! You can see more photos on my flickr account.
I worked on retouching photos this week as well. Here is a before and after of one photo choice. I still have a few little things to work on, but I think it looks pretty good. I finished reading Breaking Dawn, the fourth book in the Twilight Saga. Let me just say, WOW, I never would have expected anything that happened in that book. Go read it if you haven't!

Inspiration

Just stopping by to say hi. I had a pretty laid back weekend and I definitely enjoyed that. Since I finished reading Eclipse on Thursday night, I picked up the fourth book in the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn on Friday afternoon. I was hoping it would arrive at the library before the weekend, but I was not so lucky. I spent a decent amount of this weekend reading. I still have about 200 pages to go.

I gladly took BART to Danville (more reading!) and hung out with Dan's father's family. I was really happy to talk with Dan's siblings about their reactions to the book. They kept coming in and asking what part of the book I was at. So cute!

I will admit, I have this weird craving for waffles all the time now. Yesterday on my lunch break, I went to Safeway and bought chocolate chip frozen waffles. Normally I would think they are nasty, but it was cold and raining outside. I really enjoy them as comfort food. It made me crack up when I watched the movie Alvin & The Chipmunks last night because they were obsessed with frozen waffles too! We also watched the hilarious movie Evan Almighty. Silly me, I didn't realize it was a sequel to Bruce Almighty until Dan mentioned it at dinner. We cracked up a lot and I really enjoyed that. I could laugh for hours easily. I adore Steve Carell.A bunch of my friends went to CHA yesterday and I want to thank them for including me in their experiences! I really enjoyed getting all sorts of text & picture messages about your time in Anaheim!

Sorry this post lacks pictures, but the weather was just not fun at all. The sun is out today so maybe I'll get some photography in at some point today. We'll see if I can manage that between photo editing, reading, and doing homework for my flash class. With that, I leave you with a link to incredibly beautiful and inspiring photos that I found through the Strobist blog. Happy Monday!

Scrap Mojo Challenge #29

Scrap Mojo's newest challenge is to scrap about Super Hero powers. I can't help scrapping silly stuff. I've got the pictures for it! Due January 30th!
I am really excited about taking an online Flash course through my local community college this semester. I have been putting off the completion of my animation I started in my Senior year at SFSU due to the fact that I really was lost in the program. I'm also hoping it will really motivate me to finish my film. I've seen more job listings for flash animators in this area so that is another plus.

Speaking of classes, I've signed up for my Black & White photo class plus the lab for the spring semester. I am looking forward to getting back into shooting film and experimenting a lot. Now I just need to locate my favorite tripod!

Speaking of photos, I shot some fun photos for another agent this week. It was a beautiful day at the Pulgas Water Temple. I'm really hoping that the rain will stop so it will look like this again.I finished reading New Moon yesterday. I stalked the library hoping that Eclipse would arrived right as I finished. It did not. I got Dan to go with me and pick it up at the closest book store to us. My mom is hoping I'll do nothing but read tomorrow so she can have it by Friday. Ha! I am hopelessly obsessed with a fictional vampire and I don't see it ending any time soon. I'm excited to get it on audio book next. Don't you just love abusing the library and all their greatness?

I've been borrowing a lot of movies from them as well. Last night I had Dan watch Casablanca. I really think everyone must be required to watch such an incredible piece of art. Its so romantic. We counted 4 "Here's Looking at you Kid" in the movie. Catch & Release was way cute but caught me totally off guard. I really thought it was a fishing movie. Must read the back in the future! Also loved seeing The Duchess, Emma, and As Good As It Gets. I can watch some movies over and over again without a problem. I'm a huge film buff, I can't help it!

And now, I leave you with a picture of what our Taco Bell looked like on Monday, on a sunny holiday. And for those of you who are wondering, I didn't stay in line.

Finished

Happy Monday!

This is the week of finishing things. I finished reading Twilight, which meant that I had to go see the movie. Kelly, Jenna, and & Logan were kind enough to join me last night. I can easily say I was disappointed. By the way they changed the story, by the special FX, and by the acting. I thought that Bella, Edward, Alice, Matt, Billy, and Jakob's characters were cast really well. At one point it was so bad, Jenna asked if we were watching the Disney channel. I loved the book, so much that I've picked up New Moon and I'm nearly halfway through it already.I finished my first scarf and its with its new owner. I didn't get to take photos of it in nice lighting, so I decided a goofy photo in the movie theater would work just fine. I think this scarf took me a little over three weeks to make.I met up with Cindy at In & Out for lunch the other day. It was great to see her. She is hoping to intern at San Jose State University. We took this photo to make Lisa jealous. ;D We went to Kristi's on Saturday for Crop/Guitar Hero/Breakfast night. She fit 1o people into her apartment and I was impressed! She's such a great hostess. Kristi took this picture of us playing Catch Phrase. I managed to scrap at least a page! Of course I can thank my speed to the January Challenge over at Scrap Gal. Here is my take on it:And finally, I figured I should share a fun photo from my shoot last week. I had a lot of fun incorporating Gabby the dog into a few shots. I've got plans for another shoot this week and hopefully I'll get my business cards printed!

Lately

 I just finished reading Jane Austen's book Emma and I truly enjoyed it. I purchased it at a used book store in Ireland and I definitely got my euro's worth! I have some new stuff to show but I can only do sneaks since the new Mojo challenge won't be posted until Tuesday. I also did a fun portrait shoot at a beautiful house in Burlingame yesterday. So I've got plenty to keep me busy until the rest of the books from the Twilight Saga arrive at my library.

How much do you love that our friend Kelly e-mailed Jenna an article about a couple getting married in taco bell? Jenna was upset that someone beat her to the punch. At least our taco bell is at the beach! You can read more about the wedding here. Hope everyone enjoys the weekend. Its positively beautiful here.

Europe Prints!

I just finished listing a few color 8x10 prints that I took in Europe. Be sure to check them out in my etsy shop. I'm really excited about how great they turned out.
Last Sunday we celebrated Helen's 93rd Birthday (Dan's grandma) at the Van's Restaurant.
I adore how beautifully they decorate it for the holidays.We spent Friday night at Kelly's apartment watching The Office and making cutesy things with perler beads. I have so many funny quotes from that night.
I made the mushrooms and Dan made the star & square. Sorry for the harsh shadows. We had Natalie and Mark over on Saturday night for Wii. We love playing it because its a fun night & its free.They introduced us to a game called Raving Rabbids. Its a great party game, but let me warn you, its really odd. To the extreme. Rent it and see!
So last night I got a little crazy and decided to try the Hula Hoop challenge on the 10 minute version. And I spun 3177 times!

Thank you for all your warm wishes for my Grandmother. Each day she is getting stronger. My Grandfather (on my Dad's side) had an incident with his heart last week, so we are hoping that everyone gets back to their normal health asap.

I'm off to work on that to do list. I've been enjoying this blog a lot lately since I'm trying to simplify.

Christmas and the fun after

I fell way behind on blogging so here goes...
Christmas morning felt like it was fast forward due to these two... They were off to Nebraska by 11am. I did finish my photo project in time for showing after they left. For the past couple years, Dan & I have been scanning old slides of my grandparents to help preserve them. This Christmas, I went through the first of many slideshows they had created and cleaned up the dust and color corrected them. Everyone was pretty happy with it. I still have to put it on a DVD for my family members. Oh how the to do list is never ending. :D

My cousins, Dan, and I played Wii for hours and then realized we had to get ready for Christmas dinner. We went to Novato for our evening festivities. My cousin always decorates her house so lovely. I could spend hours taking photos in her house.
Unfortunately, they had just renovated and removed all of their carpeting, which made it really difficult to see the step down into their sunken living room. My grandma Launa (my mom's mom) took a pretty bad fall as soon as she arrived. She spent the rest of the evening in ER with my parents & my aunt & Uncle. She fractured her upper right arm in two places. The family has been taking turns helping her get around and we are hoping for a speedy recovery. She is quite lucky that she won't have to have any corrective surgery.

The rest of Christmas was made up of the younger crowd from my family. We had delicious dinner & dessert. I was really excited to have the bread pudding. I didn't take many pictures though. I know how everyone loves seeing food!
We played apples to apples and I took up crocheting. Hoping to have that scarf finished this weekend and with its new owner. I just love the color. I took some photos around the house of my mom's Christmas decor:and my favorite "wiggly" trees:We spent the majority of the 26th over at my Aunt & Uncle's house so we could have more of a family day. It was so nice and relaxed. We played Wii again and again. I played some mini golf game and beat the pants off of everyone. I managed to work on my December album a little too with the help of my cousins. Dan's friend Melanie was out from D.C. visiting her Grandparents. We went to Max's diner and had a really weird experience. I am pretty sure we were the youngest people there. After I had a craving for ice cream so we went to Dairy Queen. We were 100% aware of how old we were when everyone from the local high school showed up.
We decided to go check out the houses in San Carlos that are famous for their over decorating. It was really cold so we spent the majority of our visit in the car. Isn't this house really neat?
I had a fun time with friends at Jared's surprise 21st birthday party. It was so weird being at that house two Saturday's in a row. I can't turn down all the yummy food. Jason got engaged since last week and we all caught up with our holiday stories.
I spent a few days over in Walnut Creek with my grandma. My parents took over on New Years Eve so I could go hang out with Kristi and Ethan's gang. We had a blast playing apples to apples. We had a nice relaxing new years eve. I was in bed before the clock struck midnight and I was okay with that. We spent New years day goofing off with the Wii and hanging out in our PJ's.

I have some jobs to apply for and some errands to run before heading to work, so I'll catch you later! Hope your weekend is lovely.

My Obsession: the Wii Fit

Alright, I admit it, I have been spending my crafty time on the wii fit. I am focusing my time on balance and exercise. Its so much fun to play. I'm holding Dan's Wii hostage at my house and it has been great! I'm taking a quick break to share my newest lo for Challenge #28 over at Scrap Mojo.

We challenge you to scrap your new years tradition and incorporate buttons into your lo. Due January 15th. Check ScrapMojo for more details.

I scrapped my new years eve with Kristi and a bunch of friends playing apples to apples. Apple embellies and title work are by Michelle Clement.

I'll update more tomorrow hopefully on the events going on around here. I'm gearing up for my job hunt. I need to update my resume and finish up some projects that have been put on the back burner due to the holidays. Thanks for stopping by!

Lovely holidays

I hope everyone has recovered from eating loads of yummy food and relaxing with their families. Boy, do I have a lot of photos to share!

One Sunday morning I arrived at work to find such pretty things waiting for me. More arrived later. Everyone is always so thoughtful and generous to me.
Monday night (Dec. 22) we had a delicious dinner with our cousins. We made a date to hang out since we wouldn't see that side of the family for Christmas. They had this delicious dip waiting for us.We spent the night eating in the family room and staying warm and cozy. We played a really fun board game called Smart Ass. Dan keeps joking that he won. :D Dan didn't want to go out this year so we had dinner at my house. We had a relaxing evening with the family.I'm not sure who is more excited about this birthday present. I just love the Wii fit! Here is the mandatory goofy birthday photo. You can barely even see the birthday boy! We spent Christmas Eve day at Zena's house with some friends before heading over to Danville for Dan's father's family party. The food was oh so good! I adore seeing everyone and wish I could find more time to visit.I have a rule that I can't take photos of people eating. I take photos before or after the fact. Don't they look happy? We really enjoyed catching up with the newly weds and look forward to hanging out with them soon.
I took so many photos on Christmas, so that will be in an upcoming post. Happy Weekend!

Simplify

Happy New Year! After lots of joking around with Dan and my Mom, I have chosen simplify as my word for 2009. During my two months of travel through Europe, I really learned to simplify my possessions, my schedule, and my obligations. I hope to continue to simplify my possessions, simplify my email, simplify the amount of photos I take, and simplify all other aspects of my life. Here is an article that I will look over anytime I feel I need help remembering to simplify. Here are some of my random castaway words:

Apple
Be
Create
Crochet
Early
Fun
Learn
Harmony
Michael Jackson
Owl

I'll be back soon with lots of photos!