Day 2 – What I wore today

Since I currently work from home, there are often days when “what I wore today” translates to yoga pants and a t-shirt. Its cool for a day or two, but after that I’m dying for an excuse to put on a fancy dress and go out – and not just to the post office. Fortunately yesterday I had evening dinner plans and thus a reason to get dolled up.  Otherwise this daily challenge shot might have turned out to be much more challenging.

Day 2 of the weight loss challenge was not as easy.  My addiction to Groupons has led to many great experiences, including last night’s prix fixe meal and beer flight at Marion Street Cheese Market. Unfortunately prix fixe meals and beer flights are not often found on the Path to Weight Loss. Considering I’ve also committed to exercising every day for the next 28 days as well, I think if I am careful the rest of the week there will still be less of me come next Wednesday’s first weigh in. Good thing its on the chillier side now, because its Veggie Barley Soup night!

30 Day Challenge(s)

Okay so I’m all about killing several birds with one stone. And I’m about to attempt to kill four over the next 30 days with White Peach Photography’s 30 Day Photography Challenge.

1.) Improve my photography skills and just get out there and actually photograph stuff. This continues to live on my perpetual “To Do” list, so I needed something to jump start me into action. And this beautiful little list was just the ticket.

2.) Teach myself how to use Photoshop. Sadly last month my old Mac desktop died after I blew a fuse when it was booting. Whats even more sad is that I’ve been using iPhoto for the past 5 years to edit all my pics, despite the fact that my boyfriend has Photoshop on his PC. Now that I’ve temporarily been left to share his laptop, I’m turning my loss into a learning gain and teaching myself, albeit slowly, to use Photoshop.

3.) Blog. Yes folks, I’m still determined to become a true blogger. At least you all know you’ll get 30 days of posts. Hopefully more, but lets take one thing at a time…

4.) Lose 13 pounds. Yes, you heard me right – I am using the 30 Day Challenge as a means of visually recording my attempt to return to the weight I was when I left Weight Watchers in 2005. Six years ago I joined WW in an attempt to lose as much weight as possible before my 10th high school reunion. I lost 55 lbs in 10 months and promised myself that if I gained more than 10 lbs back that I would return to WW.  I’ve “returned” several times over the last year, but somehow I never seem to stay very long. So the only way to hold myself accountable is to publicly record my process for all to see. And with that I present Day 1 – Self Portrait:

This is as close I’ll get to your traditional “Before” shot. I love the way the sun shines through my french door curtains in the morning and the light was perfect for this shot. The only Photoshopping I did to this one was a little cropping – I liked the way it turned out.  So far, so good. Now I only have 29 days and 13 lbs to go…

Practice Makes (Picture) Perfect

Blogging isn’t the only thing I’ve jumped into whole-heartedly, only to abandon it a short time after. I tend to do this a lot. There are just too many skills I want to learn and master for me to focus on just one! Currently I’m going through a photography phase, which was actually brought on by the desire to take better food photos for my blog. Sigh. In any event I have tried my hands twice now at the 365 project, unsuccessfully. Now I’m taking the same attitude with my photography as I am with my blogging – practice as often as I can, no pressure. And it seems to be working. Still I wouldn’t mind one day coming up with a simple, yet ingenious photography concept like these folks…

 

A self doc on Levitation from Yowayowa.

 

An inspirational (and completed) take on the 365 Project by Parker Fitzgerald.

 

 

Beautiful in its simplicity, both concept and execution, Of Recklessness and Water by Elizabeth Weinberg.

Weekly Finds 8.8.10

So many fun finds this week, like the fairytale bed brought to life by photographer Ditte Isager. Who wouldn’t want to sleep in that? Other treasures I discovered:

• Ideas/Inspirations: Bookmark templates, Capiz shell chandelier, Cupcake wrappers
• Recipes: Blueberry crisp marshmallows, Glow sno cones, Doughnut muffins
• Stuff I covet: Chicago maptote, Corezone, Palace stacking porcelain tableware, Happiness origami tea bag clock

Or for those of you who shudder at sleeping outdoors, perhaps this bed is more your style…

Weekly Finds 8.1.10

Happy to also return to sharing my weekly finds with everyone, this time on a true weekly basis. Hooray! James Hopkins’ Vanitas fall under the “how did he/she/they think of that?” category. Other finds this week include:

• New, happy blog: Creative Kismet
• After returning on Wednesday from a beautiful destination wedding in Hawaii, I was instantly smitten with these photos of an Icelandic destination wedding
• And the clear winning trend this week in my RSS starred feeds? Ice Cream. Choose your poison: PB&J ice cream cone, Homemade Magic Shell, Simple Banana Ice Cream
• Embroidery Love: Praying Mantis, Cupcake Cozy

Food, Photography and Me

At the beginning of 2009 I set out to photograph everything I cooked or ate at a restaurant. Because I am a true foodie I figured I could have some fun and maybe share my experiences with others. Then shortly after the new year started my mom surprised me by sending me my grandmother’s entire recipe file. After talking it over with some friends I decided to commit to only making grandma’s recipes. It seemed like the perfect union – a photo journal of my grandmother’s recipes.

Unfortunately I found it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. First I realized that without an outlet like a blog, there wasn’t any truly good way to share. I posted on Flickr for a while, including lengthy notes about the pictures, but I knew few people really look to Flickr for food advice. And soon I became irritated with the quality of the photos I was taking. Because like many working folks I cook most of my food after the sun goes down, thus I was left with very little natural light to work with. Photographing food is challenging enough during the day, but without a fancy camera or equipment my pictures just made the food look rather unappetizing. Plus much of what I was making wasn’t that attractive to begin with, as grandma’s recipe box was packed full of casseroles and other “one pot” concoctions. Believe me its really hard to make recipes involving creamed soups, canned vegetables and chow mein noodles/crunchy onions/peanuts look delicious. Because…well usually they’re not. (Needless to say, my commitment to grandma’s recipes was a short lived two months.)

And then I dropped my trustworthy Canon Powershot in the ocean while on vacation in Key West. I returned home thoroughly aggravated, but still continued to attempt the photo food diary with my boyfriend’s even nicer Fuju FinePix. It actually proved much better with low light situations, but even the slightest movement resulted in a blurry picture. At this point I was looking at more and more food blogs and becoming more and more envious of their beautiful photos. So I contacted several of my favorite bloggers about their camera choices and the majority of those who responded all used the same Canon Rebel SLR. So I knew what I had to do…

Now I have had a brand new Canon Rebel SLR just waiting to start recording my every action for two months…and yet I’ve been mooching my boyfriend’s Fuji. Part of the problem is that SLRs are not pocket size. I can’t just throw my Rebel in my purse and be done with it. It requires a nice camera case, which I finally purchased today. It also requires some learning on my part. Despite the fact that I did begin my undergraduate studies as a Photo Illustration major, I don’t really remember anything about manual photography. And even if I did, I’m sure its much different now than it was in 1996. So this weekend I shall begin learning my way around an SLR. Hopefully a year from now I will be taking SmittenKitchen (see below) quality photographs. Hey I can dream!