Encounters with nature.

This week you get to hear all about some crafting projects I've been working on, as well as a thrilling adventure I had with a surprise guest in my garden!

Lately, circumstances have been such that I have taken hardly any photographs. I'm still going through a wide variety of adjustments and settling in, and the hobby has simply slipped to the side. I've been trying to go strong on my phone though so that I have at least a slight documentation of my goings-on! Most of my energy lately has been dedicated to blog endeavors and ideas (exciting things in the works!), as well as crafting! I've always enjoyed minor crafting, sewing and the like, but lately I've decided to really kick it into higher gear.

I know I've mentioned Weird Little Monsters, which has been inspiring and fun and is largely responsible for my diving headfirst into more creative projects. I've taken my interest in sewing to a new level by working freehand and confidently to great, successful effect! For instance, Andrew and I are huge Harry Potter fans and wouldn't object to owning some awesome cloaks. So, I decided to make a tiny practice cloak for one of the Monsters.

A button closure and everything!

My next step is continued practice via making cloaks for my niece and nephew! They'll make excellent Christmas gifts. Before too long Andrew and I should be sweeping about the city in our own cloaks, and maybe even one day I'll make actual clothing. So many things to look forward to.

In other exciting sewing news, I decided to make a Koopa shell for my nephew. The little cutie (soon to be four years old!) is a big Mario fan (just like his auntie! haha) and is going to be Mario for Halloween. I immediately thought of how great it would be to make something to go with his costume. I miss him a bunch and want to gift him thoughtful items that will remind him of me. We've bonded over Mario a few times before, so this seemed like a great idea. My first thought was to make a 1-up mushroom, but Andrew suggested a Koopa shell.

It proved to be more complicated than I anticipated (and I wish I had taken in-progress photos!) but ultimately it came together very well and I'm really proud of it.

A video of me showing off all aspects of the shell's construction.
Also, I'm watching Friends in the background :D

The newest addition to my crafting interests rests in working with paper. Unfortunately, everything that I've done so far have been gifts and so I can't post them here! Once the recipients have received the items then I will gladly post the photos for your viewing pleasure! I'm feeling really good about what I've made so I am very anxious to share them with everyone.

And now it is time for the real meat of today's post! Lizard encounters in the garden!!

'Sup, ladies?

It all started innocently enough, like any other day really. I ventured out to the back patio and into the sun, urged by Andrew to take a break from inside things and to tend to my garden. I observed my cucumber plant with a sigh and a frown. What was once a full, lush and bountiful plant had been reduced to shrivels and brown leaves, positively ravished to near death by ferocious aphids. For a few weeks I've been attempting to keep the beasts at bay, but to not avail. The black spots continue to take over.

I haven't seen any new cucumbers since the last harvest that is currently being converted to pickles. It's disappointing, but I'm trying to stay positive at Andrew's reminders that we did yield a fair amount of veggies. I'm not ready to give up on the plant. I was so psyched when it started to grow, I have a sentimental attachment to it now!

A few weeks ago that thin, weak looking cucumber arm

was a flourishing plant that covered every inch of the

square of garden plot. So sad.

Anywho, I set to deadheading the plant, hoping that the one burst of aphid-free leaves left on the plant might thrive. I started to pull weeds and turn the dirt, being ever vigilant for spiders and horrifying centipedes. There are so many more bugs in California than Washington. It is not cool.

I worked my way toward the mystery three foot tall flowers near the corner. Actually, they're no longer a mystery thanks to Andrew's aunt! I sent her photos and she directed me toward a website that revealed they are amaranthus, specifically the "love lies bleeding" kind. Kind of an emo-tastic name for a plant if you ask me, but once they're done blooming they're going to look rather amazing!

The tufty pink thing at the top of the plant is going to get 

super long and drape down toward the ground soon!

At the base of the amaranthus there lives another flower plant. They're kind of like tulips and they're white. Very pretty! They're done blooming for now though. When I started the garden initially it was filled with rocks and broken bits of brick (in addition to the weeds and grass) and I piled all of these stone-type-things near the base of this white flowering plant. Many weeds and grass clumps have thrust up, so I began to pull at them. Suddenly something largeish and hyper fast jumped out and landed on the bricks next to me. I let out a shriek before realizing what it was.

Where I was when I was accosted by the mystery wildlife.

Turns out it was a lizard! And what a cute one as well. Just a tiny, itty-bitty thing.

See?! Tiny!

I called out for Andrew, who came to investigate. We marveled at how small and cute it was before he decided he was going to try and catch it. He chased it around the back patio for a bit, attempting to trap it so we could look at it for longer. The lizard proved to be a formidable opponent and ultimately evaded capture. I followed it around the patio, attempting to keep a safe distance so it wouldn't dart away too quickly for me to be able to follow. Andrew went into the house to get the camera while I continued to inspect the little fellow.

It travelled far and wide to find a new hiding spot.

I had a blast photographing the tiny thing. I really wanted to use the 50mm so I could get some up close, super detailed shots of him, but there was no way I'd be able to get that close to him. I opted for the zoom lens so I could keep a safe distance and began to snap-snap away. He darted around a little bit, and a spider even came into play a bit. I found myself feeling pleasantly annoyed at the spider's presence, as opposed to terrified, because it was interfering with my picture taking opportunity!

At one point the lizard ducked down under a ledge of the garden and I poked him with a blade of grass to get him visible again. After I grabbed myself a few good photos he decided he was done with being famous and took a quick dive down the wall. With that, he was gone. I wasn't yet done taking his photo so I felt a little sad. Andrew suggested I bring the camera out with me whenever I garden because, as I said, there are a lot more wild things out in California!

These are cropped in super tight, which means I can't print them large,

but they reveal all of his beautiful, scaly detailing! 

I'll end this post with a little story from my childhood.

As a young girl of around ten years old I desperately wanted a pet gecko. When I was nine my mom, sister and I went on a vacation to Hawaii where we visited some family. While there I saw many-a wild gecko and found them fascinating and fun. This is where the interest started. I pestered my mom, who took me to the pet store to get acquainted with them in person before committing to the "unusual" pet. The woman working there took a gecko out of the terrarium and I held it, comfortably letting it skitter around and enjoying its presence. We took this as a sign to proceed, and I received a gecko as a gift.

I was excited beyond belief, and the gecko was soon set up and living in my room with me. I was anxious to take it out and hold it, play with it. My ten year old self was certain, ready and determined. The lid of the terrarium was opened.

And then.

I screamed. In the comfort of my own home the gecko terrified me. I tried to touch it, but as it ran wildly around the terrarium I just shrieked more. The lighting fast reptile darted out of its glass home and into the depths of my bedroom. I jumped and danced and continued to wail while my mom exasperatedly and angrily barricaded my bedroom door and we set out on the great gecko hunt of the decade. 

This happened on more than one occasion and I only grew to be more terrified of the innocent little thing. Feeding it crickets once a week became an anxiety ridden, gut-clenching, dread filled day for me.  The gecko, who I named Sam, always made mad breaks for the opened lid. On one such occasion of his great escape my mom had had just about enough of my terror and tears over this creature that I begged and begged her for. We had cornered the lizard; it sat green and quivering, ready to run. My mom yelled at me to pick it up. I hesitated, irrationally terrified, and my mom yelled again for me to pick it up. I reach down and snatched it up by the tail.

Now, I'm sure that anyone reading this entry is perfectly aware of what will happen to a lizard when it is picked up by its tail. You don't know? Well let me tell you: the tail will fall the fuck off.  

As a ten year old with minimal knowledge and interaction with lizards, I did not know this. Upon holding the lizard up in the air, it promptly shed its tail and dropped to the ground, leaving little me to stare in absolute horror at the still moving tail in my hand. My tiny mind snapped, confused and afraid, and I began to scream. Repeatedly. Loudly. Unstopping.

My mother very nearly had to slap me in order to get me to stop shrieking. Sam was returned to his tank, and I learned a very valuable lesson about lizards. Over time his stump of a tail grew back, a constant reminder of that fateful day. After a few months Sam grew ill and passed away to the great lizard beyond, forever scarring my psyche. 

-MJ

Photos everywhere! So much excitement to share.

I am taking a break from my busy schedule of cleaning and organizing the house to bring you this blog entry.

This is Hermy. Andrew made him from a munny and gave

him to me for our six month anniversary :3

This week has seen one photo session, which is great! I finally made the time to wander and take photos with intention. I did another circuit around the house seeing as there are some new things to look at! Most of the new things are related to the fact that I live here now. My bookshelf is now loaded down with many of my favorite belongings, which makes me very happy! That may seem a little silly, but I can't help but smile when I look at my shelves covered in Nintendo and Harry Potter items.

Fun detailing such as his head ridges and eyebrows. I also really like

the curves at the edges of his excellently large smile.

 Dat ass.

In other news, I'm sad to report that of all the cucumber, onion and wild flower seeds that I planted, I have only one cucumber plant to show for it. I've never been much of a gardener, and I usually kill any plant that is left in my care (which reminds me I have to water the plant that my mom gave me!), but I still had high hopes for more than one plant to grow! I suppose the upside of this is that the one plant that grew appears to be extremely fertile, seeing as there are a lot of yellow flowers sprouting. At least three of them already have a chubby, tiny cucumber growing! So very exciting.

The majority of the shelf. You can't see the bottom

shelf, which contains all photo albums.

So many lovely Nintendo items to surround myself with!

There are a lot of tiny sprouts in random spots in the garden plot, and it's hard to tell if they're late bloomers or just errant weeds. I'm afraid to pull anything because I can't tell what's what! The most I can do is keep watering and loving. Another positive spot is that one of the two flower plants that already lived in the plot is blooming like crazy. I don't know what they are, but they resemble smaller pink lilies, which makes me happy since those are my favorites! Not necessarily the pink ones, but just lilies in general.

One of the many bunches of pink flowers that have been blossoming

large and proud. Also one of my sprouts that was savagely attacked 

by one of the cats that revels in pooping in my garden plot!

Look at all those potential cucumbers!!

Andrew and I have been making some exciting headway with the Weird Little Monsters (keep that site bookmarked!)! More sites, more designs and so much more in the works. Among all the hullabaloo of moving I've managed to finish my third monster and start on a fourth of Andrew's design. Things in the sewing department are going a bit slower than I'd prefer, but they're still moving forward which is a positive thing.

Monster number two, Rohmer.

I've been reading a really great book on sewing and there are so many useful tips for putting together really great monsters. As a result my sewing has slowed down because I'm trying new techniques. My stitch work is feeling a little shoddy, but I know that things will improve. It's thrilling to be trying and making new things. I've always wanted to be better at sewing! And it's incredibly satisfying to have a physical manifestation of my imagination.

Monster number one, who has yet to be named.

 Monster number three, who we've been calling Frenchie. That's 

probably not going to be his permanent name. 

There's finished Frenchie on the left with his hat and side pouch.

Pictured on the right is one of Andrew's designs that I started on.

And now for a completely unrelated segue!

The purging of all Nikon related items has begun. Andrew has a very handy network via his job, so he's handling getting the word out. It is greatly appreciated because I don't want to deal with ebay or craigslist. I have a lot of mixed feelings, of course. I'm glad that the items are being sold because the money will be very useful for a lot of things! I'm sad for the items to go though, seeing as I have loved them for so long and they carried me this far. But, I'm in a new stage! And I already have almost everything that I had previously, just for Canon instead.

And speaking of Canon, here are just a few more photos from Andrew's brother's wedding, which was an amazing and fun opportunity to further familiarize myself with the camera and gain speed and accuracy with the controls.

The bride and groom with their brothers :)

Some more photos of the property. The lanterns were a wonderful

and beautiful touch. The sky couldn't have been bluer that day.

Andrew's friend Alex there on the left, and then a snap of Andrew and me.

I'll go ahead and close with some information about the fashion/product shoot that I tagged along on last week! It was incredible, and a really fantastic time! I went as assistant to Brittany, makeup artist extraordinaire! She ended up not needing me much (but damn am I a pro at handing out bobbi pins!), but that's OK because that left me a little more time than expected to really take in everything else that was going on.

 This is a moon sculpture that Andrew's uncle Michael made (fb fan page).

It's really very beautiful and detailed, it is next to the bathroom. You can view

more of his work here!

The shoot was for Watto, an Arizona based company run by a very lovely husband and wife duo. They started off with only making belt buckles but have branched off into a variety of jewelry types. Their work is really amazing and interesting. It's all very chunky and loud and large. The shoot was in a garage space and the style was all very rockabilly. The models were so so so super nice, as were the designers and the photographer! The whole experience was incredibly positive and I'm really thankful that Brittany ended up needing someone to go with her.

 A teeny tiny fraction of the books that Andrew has. There are so

many amazing and interesting ones in his collection, and this 

section of Disney books really stands out to me. On the right is 

the sun streaming in through the front door.

I spent most of my time inside with Brittany watching her do hair and makeup for the models. I wish I had their contact pages so I could link you all to their work. They were very talented and professional. It was a real treat interacting with them in a relaxed and goofy manner and then watching them transform into serious, focused workers while the camera was on them.

Everyone that assisted/worked on the Watto shoot was given

$100 in credit to shop from their store. They had many items on

hand, and I am now the happy owner of this very cool belt buckle!

The shoot lasted about six hours and was fun the entire time. The last session circulated around a series of story photos with an old fashioned car. It all had a classic, traveling, definite rockabilly feel to it. Everyone did such a great job. I wish I had any photos at all to share with you all, but I have none! Not even a cellphone photo! I didn't feel comfortable intruding with my phone. Of course, if you keep checking back to the Watto website you'll see the photos before too long! Here is a sneak peek that Brittany linked on her facebook fan page (go be a fan, she's very skilled and has beautiful photos up from the shoots that she participates in!). I can't wait to see the rest of them.

-MJ

Monster creations, sunsets and a last minute dog photo!

How is it Monday again already? Although I think a more important question is how this week managed to both fly by and drag at the same time. Positively baffling. I should stop thinking about it though or else I'm going to get sucked into a mental vortex and I'll never complete this post.

I have had a mondo busy week so again I allowed my laziness to overcome my urge to take photos. I've been sleeping in because I can; I'm still kind of on vacation, I think? Everyday I have visited someone, driven to a few places and I believe that more days than not I was at my storage unit hacking away at the enormous task of packing all of my possessions.

The good news is that I have quite a few photography project ideas beginning to brew in my mind. Little still life things here and there that I'm excited to put into motion. Unfortunately this week won't see the progression of any of those ideas because this coming week is going to be even busier than the last! Shopping, moving, family gatherings and a wedding. I really believe that my calendar has never been more full.

Now that I've rattled off my excuses for why I have little content for the second week in a row, here's what I do have for you!

 This guy still needs a name. He was supposed to have arms, but his feet ended

up looking like flippers and Andrew liked it, so I left the arms off.

First off is a preview of some Weird Little Monsters that I've made. In a nutshell, Weird Little Monsters (trademarked name, I think? I'll have to double check with him!) is a business idea that Andrew has had for a few years and has experienced a few stop/start attempts at getting it going. He asked me if I'd be interested in helping him get the venture off the ground and I gladly said yes. I really enjoy sewing and the thought of creating and assembling original monsters is very exciting.

The first little guy came together extremely sloppily; a combination of unforgiving slippery fabric and me being severely out of practice. Also really just poor attention to detail and a total lack of measuring. I suppose I could be obnoxiously negative and continue talking about what's wrong with him, but I'm going to stop. I'm proud of the fact that he's together in one piece and doesn't look like an Ugly Doll. He even has some flipper-like limbs that are firmly attached! I'm excited to make this same monster again with some different fabric and a greater attention to detailing for the eyes.

Glamor shots of Rohmer from my new camera application. I have yet 

to take any real photos, but I plan on it!

Monster number two, my favorite (and very first original) design, came together much more smoothly. My choice in fabric really helped with the aesthetics, I believe. The muted blues look much more comfortable. I'm glad that I still have so much canvas to work with as well. His pants just feel so sturdy and I like it! The only thing missing from Rohmer (named by Andrew) is the monocle that I drew in his original sketch. I'm still brainstorming possibilities on how to best construct it. I have some ideas in my head involving internal magnets, so we'll see what happens next time I make another Monster of this style.

When I first bought my new phone I spent a good amount of time researching interesting, free camera effects applications. I found two that I like (one for a wide range of edits and one that has a tilt/shift feature. LOVE tilt/shift) and I've been working with them for the past month. Just a few days ago I decided to take another look and see if I had somehow overlooked something particularly good. To my delight I found a free application that includes a fisheye filter, as well as a rather fun polaroid filter. It's easy to accidentally overuse these sorts of things, but I think they definitely have their place in the world.

There's just something about those two photos (fisheye and polaroid of Rohmer) that I enjoy. I look forward to more opportunities to explore and experiment with my various applications. It'll be some time before I have a real tilt/shift or fisheye lens. I'll take it however I can, and free is perfect for the time being. I hope to have a lensbaby lens sometime soon, they open up the door to creative freedom in similar ways to film, but with the easy and enjoyability (for me anyway) of digital. And as far as I know they offer the most affordable tilt/shift lenses for digital SLRs.

 It looked so much better at first! Some really great rays piercing through the

trees! Also, had to zero in on the mountain there. The views here are spectacular.

On Saturday evening I arrived at Andrew's parents and was greeted by a rather wonderful sunset. They live in a highly advantageous area for sunsets, so I stood in front of the house and enjoyed it for a few moments. Then I remembered that I'm a photographer and I have a camera and I needed to move my butt into the house and get the camera. Of course by the time I got back outside (roughly 45 seconds later) the sky had shifted to something much less spectacular.

I snorted in irritation at the inconsiderate nature of the sunset, exhibiting such a lack of concern for my interest in capturing its beauty. I did what I could. It wasn't a total loss.

 Shot of her lovely engagement ring, as well as their carving.

Happy smiles all around :]

I have to apologize for not having any photos of Slinky. I'm taking them tonight, so that doesn't really line up well for this earlier entry. I wish I could promise that they'd be in next week's blog, but next week I'll be in the car with Andrew on our way to California! I anticipate blogging from the car entirely with photos that I've taken with my phone. I'd better keep that in mind while I'm snapping away with the Canon this week.

So much to look forward to!

Oh, also, I included a few more photos of Rachel and Zach. They are from their choices. I spent a lot of time coming up with some new editing ideas and styles that I'm feeling pretty proud of. As a result it took me quite a long while to complete them, but Rachel is thrilled with them and so am I. Mission accomplished, I'd say!

EDIT:

Slinky! Sweet nine year old dachshund. 

Snuck in a photo of Slinky :D He is an extremely camera shy dog, so this was an exercise in patience and creativity. I'd say probably 90% of these photos he is a blur or it's the back of his head. Harumph.

-MJ

-Miranda

Busy busy me

OK, today's entry is SUPER late in the day and for that I apologize. Truth be told (and I do try to make that as close to always as possible) I had absolutely zero content planned for today. Nothing. Not a single photo taken all week! I have been hyper busy and distracted, running around and using up far too much gasoline in the process.

Currently I sit over at Andrew's parents house in an effort to get away from my animal allergies. They're getting worse and worse, which is just horrific because I'd like to own some animals in the not too distant future. I just completed a lovely little crafting/sewing project that I've been anxious to tackle for the past two months: a candy zippered pouch! Found at this blog via Pinterest (if you'd like an invite just ask, I can give you one!).

 Supplies! Iron on vinyl, lining fabric, candy wrapper, zipper. To the right are the

two halves of the wrapper with their iron on vinyl all ironed on! I had some issues.

Unfortunately, I haven't sewn in a while and really I've never been that good at making things perfectly square and straight and all of that. So with that in mind, my finished product is a wee bit jankier than I had hoped for. However, it is fully functioning and completed and isn't that what matters in the first place?

 I've never been particularly good at sewing straight. My fabrics never ever line up!

Horrible! Fortunately, I remembered to unzip the zipper a little bit before I started

to sew. That could have been just awful.

Through the week I pondered what I could possibly take pictures of for my upcoming post. No brilliant ideas were coming to mind, and really I've spent most of my stationary time catching up with friends or neck deep in my storage unit sorting through items preparing to move in about two weeks. Yikes! Last week I mused over taking photos of Slinky, the dachshund that I have recently become acquainted with, but that idea fell through. That'll probably be in next week's blog.

It functions! Although at first the zipper kept getting caught on the fabric

(I think I sewed it too close :/) so I put a tiny stitch on the inside to hold the 

lining fabric down. Works perfectly now!

I would have liked very much to take some portraits, but right now I am completely empty for ideas. I'm tired of straightforward shots. Headshots are great to be good at, but I'd love to do something more creative. I've had a little bit of 'friending' activity on my model mayhem profile so who knows? Maybe when I'm back in California I'll be able to line up some shoots with new people and get my portfolio expanded. I could have chosen to be less lazy and shoot some of my friends, but there are times when I'd rather relax and socialize and just not focus on a camera for a while. That has been this week.

Storage unit before I start moving any boxes out.

Packed full and highly daunting to think about.

When I woke up this morning I had a stroke of brilliance, "Aha!" I said to myself, "I found my film cameras in storage and I pulled them out. I can take pictures of THEM and write about film and analogue printing!" Well, that didn't exactly come to pass. I've been on the move since 9am and I didn't get to Andrew's parents until almost 4pm where I proceeded to rest because the humidity was at 57% today, lame, and I was far too warm and uncomfortable. After that I just had to make my candy pouch because why wouldn't I want to? Now it is 7:15 and I'm still writing my blog. Horrible! Also, the cameras are in the car and darnit I don't feel like going outside.

Next week should be all about Slinky and film cameras. Andrew is very interested in film and I happen to have cameras as well as film to shoot. He's especially interested in my Holga, which I don't believe I've ever touched on here but that thing is practically the bane of my existence. I won't get into that right now. I know that our drive down to California is going to be captured digitally as well as on film, and we'll have a blast doing it and an even "better" time figuring out how to get them onto the computers. We may have to invest in a film scanner. Exciting!

These two blocks are from first grade. I would tape them together

and I thought it resembled a cat. I even drew a cat face (barely visible).

One day after play time I took the blocks with me because I liked them

so much. Another student saw and tattled on me. I got in trouble, but

for some reason I still have the blocks. Curious.

I thoroughly apologize for the short (and late!) blog today. This week my mind has been elsewhere, plain and simple. I'm going to continue to do more crafting. Even though I got a little cranky while trying to make the m&m pouch, it was ultimately very fun and rewarding.

-MJ