Archive for July, 2007

we are all handmade
Originally uploaded by calobee

I’ve decided that if I can’t photograph an idea for the time being, I can at least make an attempt to doodle it, so this is a photo-idea-turned-doodle. Eventually I’d love to make it into a photograph, provided I can find an antique sewing machine that won’t break the bank. That’s one of the many things on my “random photography props” wish list, right up there with finding a beautiful abandoned home in the middle of the woods that a) won’t cave in on me mid-shoot and b) doesn’t mind if I trespass a bit.

My last photography professor insisted that we sketch our photo ideas out in a notebook before we attempted photographs, but there is no such thing as a “sketch” to a perfectionist. If I can’t illustrate the concept in detail, I’d rather not bother. That’s why I use a camera, after all!

The one thing I can draw to my satisfaction are cartoons. Realism evades me, but if you need a goofy, bug-eyed chicken with stick legs and a fat head, I’m there.

So here are these two girls who got a little carried away in their crafting one day, and you’d do well not to mention it, but yes, their heads might be a little fat. At least they’re a far cry from chickens.

wandering
Originally uploaded by calobee

I have this thing about roots. Not so much the bad hair color variety, but the belonging, feeling-at-home variety.

I hate for my routines to be disrupted. I hate to be uprooted. I’ve told the S.O. on a number of occasions that we could win the lottery and move to our dream home and it would still be just as traumatic as your everyday, run-of-the-mill move to suburbia. You could tell me my new bedroom would be lined in fleece and diamonds, and I would say, “Yay! OhgodIdon’twannamooooove.”

I’ve come to understand this about myself, so it’s not a surprise that I’ve been a bit weird lately. Crying for no reason. Wandering aimlessly around our house, convinced I need to pack something, even though most of the packing is done. Thinking I should really clean, but why bother?

I know I should be excited, and I am. But as I told my friend when we moved to our current place a couple years ago, “I’ll be most happy when it’s over.”

It’s also frustrating in that the strange, discombobulated way of things is not conducive to making art. I know, I know - I should “use” my discomfort to fuel a veritable creating spree, but I’ve never been good at channeling negative energy into anything more than the bottom of a pint - a pint of Ben n’ Jerry’s, that is.

(In my defense, I haven’t tried eating my way into a diabetic coma yet, and that’s a feat, considering we’ve been in this uncomfortable in-between stage for several weeks now. Yesterday I damned near fell over when I opened my cupboard and found a whole bag of those Hershey’s chocolate toffee nuggets - unopened. I vaguely remember buying them at the grocery store on a whim over two weeks ago. I’m pretty sure Moses never witnessed a miracle the likes of chocolate surviving more than three days in my house. But I digress.)

Yesterday evening, in an effort to distract myself from that itchy, restless gnawing at my insides, I opened Illustrator and started doodling, and this little girl wandered out of the woods. I don’t think I intended for the result to be so… ominous? Foreboding? Why do the trees look like claws? Why do the red fruits look like drops of blood? And why doesn’t she seem to notice, or care?

Freaky.

ThisNext goodies!
Originally uploaded by calobee

Oh, I am stoked. Why am I stoked? Just look at what showed up on my doorstep yesterday and you’ll know why I abuse the word “stoked.”

As you may or may not remember, back in May I won a neat wine gift set for participating in a contest on ThisNext.com, my favorite social shopping site.

Last week I realized that I hadn’t seen the wine set come through yet, and it’s been over a month, so I sent an e-mail to one awesome ThisNexter to ask about it. She looked into the issue and sure enough, the wine set shipped much later than expected. This was actually a relief, as we’ve had disappearing-package issues at our place recently (very frustrating), and I imagined that somewhere in my neighborhood roamed a very full, very drunk guy with a pink wine backpack slung over his shoulder.

Thankfully this was not the case (although the mental picture kept me amused for a good five minutes), and the awesome ThisNexter said that they’d also send along a second prize to make up for the delay. I thought it might be a gift certificate, or maybe some stickers or promo materials, which is why I was really surprised to find a sizable box on my step yesterday evening. I was even more surprised to open it and find all sorts of wonderful kitchen goodies from Tovolo! Eee!

I’d never heard of Tovolo until now (read: I’ve only shopped for kitchen stuff at Wal-Mart) and the design is really something else. Our current setup is basic - we have the essentials, but none of it is very pretty to look at, and most of it is well-loved (read: old, and from Wal-Mart). But the Tovolo stuff - I want to frame it and hang it on my wall. It’s solid and sturdy, too - I can tell these pieces will be with us for a long time. So thanks, ThisNext, for giving me the opportunity to ditch the old Wal-Mart spatulas and mixing spoons for something more chic.

Oh, and the S.O. thinks I should win things for him more often, so maybe ya’ll could hook me up with an iPhone in the near future. Just sayin’.

Etsy Poster Contest Submission
Originally uploaded by calobee

Tim, on my (lack of) height.

Tim: “Yay, we’re homeowners! Congrats, honey - now we’re up to our necks in debt! Oh, wait: I’m up to my neck in debt… you’re up to your forehead.”

Me, on parenting.

Tim: “You know, you’re really going to have to give up the guilt trip stuff if we have kids.”

Me: “Pfffft. If we have kids, I will pass on the guilt like it’s an Olympic torch. That’s what parents do.”

So… yay! We bought a house today! The entire process went much more smoothly than I’d expected, and I’m really glad we decided to do this. But not to fear: the actual move doesn’t start until mid-August, so I still have plenty of time to worry myself into a coma!

Your visual for the evening is my submission to the Etsy Treasury Poster Challlenge. Speaking of which, the sale’s still on at my Etsy shop! Purchase a print and call it a housewarming present.

sixhours
Originally uploaded by calobee

I spent a few evenings this week working on a new design for sixhours.net. It used to be that I’d change Web site layouts “as often as I changed underwear” (according to a former college classmate), but now that I do Web development for a living, the magic is mostly gone. However, once in a while I still enjoy sitting down with Photoshop and Dreamweaver and giving the site a makeover. Or I get sick of looking at whatever I’ve had up there for the last few months and bang something out out of disgust… whichever comes first!

Thankfully, this was a case of the former. This is actually my first foray into building a layout that is almost entirely based in CSS, as opposed to straight HTML. I’d been stuck in the Web design dark ages and figured it was time for a change. Dreamweaver CS3 made the conversion easier. I will never be able to remember all the six-billion different style properties you can apply to a single block of text - just give me drop-down menus with all my options, please.

To give credit where credit is due, the title font I used is “Chelsea’s Handwriting” from fontgarden.com, and the color palette is a tweaked version of “i like to read” by legs at my favoritest design site ever, colourlovers.com. I’m not color blind, but I’m a bit color stupid… colourlovers helps with that problem.

Oh! And you may notice some new work in this year’s portfolio - that’s not a fluke, I swear! There are three shots from some through-the-viewfinder experiments with the lovely Hannah, taken at the same time as the teapot stalker shot. I’m definitely going to use that technique more in the future.

Speaking of which, I had a lovely photo shoot with my friend Kathe and her hubby Dan last weekend. They asked me to take some portraits of them together, so they’d have something for family and friends. I’m not usually very good with these things, but they were so comfortable and natural in front of the camera that they made it really easy. I forgot to ask permission to post one or two of their photos in the blog, though.

And finally, we’re closing on the new place next Tuesday. Wish us luck!