phone photo fun

This photo was taken on a recent rainy morning using the basic iPhone camera. I opened the image in Photoshop Express to create the blurred effect. I opened the image again in Instagram and shared it there and on Facebook.

Note: Our darling little hen, Nelly, would like you to know that the housekeeper cleaned her messy house since this photo was taken, so please don’t judge.

The iPhone came into my life five years ago, and it’s totally rocked my world ever since. It changed the way I work. It changed the way I think. It changed the way I live. Seriously!

There are several iPhone apps that also add joy to my life. Hipstamatic, Instagram, PSExpress, TurboCollage, and CameraBag are just a few I use regularly.

Do you Instagram? It’s one of my new favorite ways to share snapshots with friends. If you don’t know Instagram, let me introduce you. Instagram is a photo program with a social network all to itself. It has a few fun filters you can use on photos shot in Instagram, but you can also shoot photos with Hipstamatic, CameraBag, or with the straight iPhone camera and then tweak them in another photo program and share them through Instagram.

Since I already carry my iPhone wherever I go, now with all the cool photo programs, it’s become a perfect way to quickly feed my creative habit.

I can’t remember exactly which apps I combined to get these images, but I like the colors in each.
The best thing to do is just experiment to see what effects you can achieve.

Recently I searched the App Store for a way to keep organized, and found Wunderlist.

If, like me, you have 5,000 details in your life on any given day, and often forget what it is you need to accomplish, Wunderlist is for you. Wunderlist is a great task manager without being an annoying task master. It’s waaay better than a bunch of sticky notes, yellow pads, or my memory. And it’s free. I can create little to-do lists and set it to gently remind me via email each morning of the things on the list. It also tells me what I failed to get done the day before.

Yikes! I had no idea my phone was so dirty until I shot these!
I’d better add that task to my list.

Now that the week is winding down, many things have come off the list. As you can see, I’ve completed most tasks for today, and have no overdue items. Yeah!

dance photo shoot

Thought I’d share a few of my favorite images from the dance performance I photographed a couple weeks ago.

I’ve photographed this dance group for several years now, and it’s so much fun to see so many kids blossoming into great dancers... including my own daughter. All the hours of classes, practice, practice, practice are beginning to really show, and it’s so great to see her shine!...

...and sparkle.

She’s still dancing after everyone else has gone home.

Such devotion!

mmmmmm... honey...

One of the best things about my job... samples. This week I’m designing a honey label. Yum!

As some of you know, in my day job I’m a graphic designer.

“What exactly do I do?”

I’m a print designer. I design logos, catalogs, annual reports, brochures, corporate newsletters and such. But that doesn’t mean I don’t design for the web on occasion too, although I’m not a web designer. Confused yet?

I have a degree in art and science. I think they go together, don’t you? I learned how to design before computers existed, on paper. Specifically, art boards with tech pens that needed professional cleaning once a week. Creating artwork with tech pens, t-squares, circle templates, and flexible rulers gives you a great understanding and sense of the craftsmanship of design. I prided myself on inking perfect corners. Graphic designing in the 80's required a steady hand, lots of patience, and nerves of steel.

Before computers rocked my world, I designed entire publications on mechanical boards creating overlays for each color. The layers were attached to the boards and sheets of film using hot wax. On hot summer days, I would drive mechanicals to the printer and hear objects pop off the page when the wax melted in the heat.

Jeez, I’m sounding so old!      ... and I had to walk five miles to school in the snow, uphill!

Today the tools I use are built into my Mac with programs that help streamline the process of getting my work into printed form. Even though the production process of design has drastically changed, the design process itself, not so much.

This week, I am designing a label for a small honey business. One of the perks is the fact that the client sent me several jars of their delicious homemade honey.

This is where I currently am with the label design. I’m not quite at the showing the client stage yet.

Feel free to provide feedback.

buh bye 2011

A few memorable moments ~

Traveled to the south (Georgia) to visit friends

Took a family vacation to Camp Sherman on the Metolius River

Isabel’s room redo

The jacket project

Cuddled newborn baby lambs

Sold my Dad’s 1936 Packard (heartbreaking)

Enjoyed Isabel’s winter dance performance

Finished knitting a long awaited hat

Baked. Baked. Cooked. Cooked. Cooked.