Hey guys, another week down and spring is still not officially here. I am please that Mr. Weatherman has predicted a warm and sunny day, but we’ll see if he keeps his word this time around. I’ve found these Sunday portraits to be a lot of fun and the perfect opportunity to play with different photoshop effects/techniques. I’m going to try a bunch out until I land on the perfect one. The image above was done with a modified cross process technique mixed with a subtle pin hole love. That sounds fancy, but it really wasn’t all that tricky.

1^ I’m almost done with my current freelance project and I’m looking forward to having a little extra free time on the weekends.
2^ I’ve almost finished the first book in the Hunger Games series and I’m really liking it so far. I must say the first half of the book wasn’t holding my attention, but now things are intriguing. Moving onto Water for Elephants next!
3^ The boy and I decided we are in desperate need for a little vacation with hopes to travel out west. Trying to pinpoint the perfect location and currently thinking about places like San Francisco, Portland, Austin, Denver or somewhere in Arizona. We’ll see!
4^ I donated to the Japan relief on Friday and it felt really good to help out just a little bit. Check out how much money has been raised. Amazing!
5^ The boy is actually starting to show a little more interest in taking pictures with my new camera and I’m super excited. This means that you might see me more in pictures, since I’m usually the one behind the camera. Oh..and I think we are doing a Vlog tomorrow, together! hahaha
6^ My hair looks really stringy in the above picture. I really need to do something about that. I hate having super fine hair!

Happy Sunday and stay tuned for our video blog tomorrow!

I’m not really a true hoarder, in that I don’t keep trash and I don’t keep stacks of old newspapers, but I do collect little pocket-sized treasures that are probably only “cool” and important to me. If I catch anyone trying to throw them out, you’re life will be over…just kidding.

I stumbled upon miss Quiet Violet’s post about her little treasures and found it really fun. Here’s some of my little treasures and don’t forget to stop over at her blog!

The Eiffel Tower Notebook: this keeps a very in depth documentation of our two week back packing trip though France and Italy a couple summers ago. I wrote about everything we did and now I can relive every moment.

Photobooth photo of my mom: this is a series of photos of my mom and her friend back in her school aged days. I love how goofy she’s being. ( my mom’s on the right )

Photo of my grandfather: I believe the story is told that he bought this car down in one of the southern states and was traveling back up north to pick up my grandmother. Prince Charming.

Strength stone: this metal stone was given to me by my aunt in one of my first years of college. I remember getting it in a time when being strong was the perfect message.

Paper Crane: I keep this crane in my house, but he’s always changing locations. I adore paper cranes and they remind me of a dear friend from college. We’d make cranes every second of downtown we had, usually out of the university newspaper (suduko section)

Cup for tea: The boy picked this set out for me at a local thrift store the first summer we were in St. Louis. We didn’t have a lot of kitchen stuff with us at the time and I was desperate for ‘chai drinking’ cups. They are the perfect size!

Fabric swatch: This is the fabric swatch of my first couch. This was my first ‘real’ piece of furniture and a graduation gift from my parents.

Buttons: The whitespace button reminds me of my years in art school during college. The gymnastics button is a symbol of the 19 years of gymnastics.

I could of pictured a bunch of things, but then you’d call me a hoarder. haha.

Do you collect things? Have little treasures packed with memories?

*All photos taken with Canon Rebel T2i, 50mm 1.4 lens

Practice makes perfect, right? I’ve been trying to get out each weekend and do little photo shoots with my new camera. It’s going to take some time for me to explore all the ins and outs of this fancy pants camera, but I’m really enjoying it so far. I’m definitely not a pro and could always use some tips/suggestions if you have any to share.

This past weekend, the boy, the pup and I went to our favorite park here in St. Louis to walk some of that puppy energy out of Porter James. He’s a wild child and I’m not even sure our 2-hour adventure pooped him out in any way. O’well.

The walk wasn’t overly exciting, no drama decided to come along. (Thank Golly) The sky was gray and the wind was blowing. The ground was wet and muddy, but you could see little signs of spring trying to poke their heads out. The pine tree forests smelled like Pine-Sol®, the pup was oddly scared of rocks, and clouds hovered above.

Spring, we’re waiting for you!

This is my very first “What I Wore” post and being in front of the camera is something I just DON’T do. But, I’m in love with this cape, so I tried to be brave so I could show it to you. The cape was bought from TwitchVintage shop on Ebay. Robyn updates her vintage clothing shop every Thursday night with amazing stuff, and once I saw the cape, I bidding on it like a hawk and WON! ( cost me $10 baby! ).

I’ve never worn a cape before, nor do I know how to wear a cape, so It’s been sitting in my closet for some time now. So here’s the cape…worn with jeans and my new platform shoes. Capes are cozy and kinda like blankets, so they are pretty much perfection.

*Photos taken with Canon Rebel T2i, 50mm 1.4 lens

Cape: TwitchVintage Ebay Shop
Jeans: Gap (pretty much the only brand I can find to fit)
Shoes: Platform sandals from Target

I’ve been thinking that it might be nice to find out how people search through their blog rolls. I use Bloglovin’ and I love the look and simplicity of it.  If you could asker the question below and view the results it might give you insight into how to share your blog content better.

Remember: You can subscribe to my blog by scrolling down to the end of my side bar and subscribing with Feedburner, or you can click on the Bloglovin’ link in the sidebar to subscribe that way.

[polldaddy poll=”4687939″]

If you chose “OTHER” could you please specify which service you use. Thanks dearies!

Happy blog sharing!

One of my favorite things to do recently is walk around our beautiful neighborhood with the pup, snapping photos of the dream houses in the area. Our historic neighborhood has so much charm and character, that every time I go out I see something picture perfect that I didn’t see before. Here’s some snap shots from our stroll.

The boy and I are going thrifting today and I’m super excited. The last time I went was around Christmas, so I am dying to get my hands on a bunch of dusty goodies.

I know this is random, but this is one of my favorite songs of all time, so I thought I’d share.

How did you spend your Saturday?

Once a patient features a diagnosis that medical marijuana can provide benefit, subsequent step is to pick the variability of marijuana suited to supply the acceptable symptom relief. If one goes to grow his or her own marijuana, there’ll also got to be a consideration of whether the marijuana is being grown inside or outside. Online dispensaries like Weed Delivery Toronto offer a range of marijuana strains that can be delivered directly to your door, making it convenient for those who prefer not to grow their own.

Marijuana plants will differ with regards to size and growing habits, temperature preferences, and lightweight needs, or whether or not they had best indoors or outdoors. the foremost predominant marijuana that a lot of the top purple strains are bred from is Grand Daddy Purple. it’s calming, sedating, and works well for pain relief. it’s a sweet grape taste and aroma. It also has good effects on relieving spasticity, insomnia, and helping with improving appetite.

OG Kush is another popular variety that’s common in dispensaries, but there are also great options such as cannabis terpenes that you can find at terpenebeltfarms.com. It smells musky and earthy and sometimes has an odor of sage. It provides a mind-opening, thought-provoking sort of high which works well for anxiety, depression, and appetite stimulation. New research shows that it’s not just the cannabinoids in marijuana that contribute to a patient’s psychoactive experience. it’s also terpenes, which are the aroma molecules contained within the marijuana plant. These terpenes help define the way patients feel within the different varieties, so it’s important to understand how the varied strains smell which defines the eventual effects on the body and should help with varying disease symptoms.

Purple Kush maintains immediate pain-relieving effects. It provides deep psychoactive effects for anxiety, depression, stomach problems, and chronic pain along side insomnia. For some chronic pain relief options, you can visit Joint Pain Clinic in Hardy Oak called Hardy Oak QC Kinetix for help. The smell may be a tropical fruit and it contains numerous terpenes like myrcene and caryophyllene, so this can be a depression therapy and treatment.

Sour Diesel maintains combination qualities. It smells a touch like sour grapefruit and provides a “psychedelic” high. it’s recommended for social anxiety, MS , neuropathic pain, and problems with focusing. Interestingly, it assists with clarity while also providing an intensely psychoactive experience.

There is only a few pure Indica or Sativa marijuana on the market. Most are a spread of combination strains. With varying genetics and now that it’s known terpenes assist with the varied psychoactive effects, the eventual result should be specific strains that hone in on a patient’s debilitating condition with low side effects. The research is ongoing, although with marijuana being federally illegal it’s difficult to perform research appropriately like traditional FDA cleared medications.

Hi guys, I’ve been tagged by Brooke of Bright Wishes. It’s a little “chain game” where you answer the questions below on a piece of paper so everyone can see your hand writing. I thought this idea was kind of fun since we never get to see hand writing in the blog world. See if you’ve been tagged by me below!

Questions:
1. What’s your name / blogger name? 2. What’s your blogs URL? 3. Write, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. 4. Favorite quote? 5. Your favorite band / singers? 6. Anything else you want to say? 7. Tag 3 bloggers to participate.

* if you like this photo effect, hope over to Sydney’s blog (The Daybook) and read the excellent tutorial.

Your turn!!

This freelance project happens to be for some family members who have written a book together. The boy’s grandmother kept journals leading up to and after the death of her husband and now those journals have been turned into a book. The boy’s mother is a writer and has spent the last few years crafting this book into what it is today. Now, years later this story of grief is ready to be published and they’ve asked me to design the cover. I’m pretty excited about the whole deal, but the pressure is on to match the quality of the written material inside. I would suggest you to check oceannenvironment for guide on book cover design.

I’m on the hunt to be inspired, to find the perfect graphic treatment to bring this book to life. Let’s be honest…most people judge a book by it’s cover and in this case, that’s my cover design that is going to be judged.

Here’s a great resource for anyone else who may have a book cover design on their hands. The Book Cover Archive is lovely. I’ve pulled some covers from that site that I feel are particularly interesting and relatable to the current project I’m working on. I need something that is slightly vague but full of emotions. The first time I read the rough draft of the book I balled my eyes out in sections. The second time I read the revised rough draft, I did the same. I feel like I am getting to know my boyfriends family through this book and I am honored they want me to be a part of the process.

Here are some little nuggets of gold pulled from the book. The book is uniquely written from three peoples perspectives, the boy’s grandmother, mother and ill grandfather. It’s written in a way that brings his grandmother’s journal entries, his mother’s recollections, and his grandfather’s little love notes to life. I love it and can’t wait to see it published and shared with the world.

“I look for his obituary in the paper. How strange to see his life portrayed as a paragraph collection of facts. These vitals are as limiting as his body became. They don’t describe what a treasure he was. They don’t explain how special he was. I am thankful to have known him. I am thankful that I shared his life.”
–Jan, November 2010 (excerpt from book)

” It catches m eye from across the room- a small picture with bright colors against a dark background. As I get closer, I see a clothesline strung between bandaged trees with men’s and women’s laundry being tossed chaotically by a frenzied wind. It is only because I stand staring for so long that I finally notice the words around the frame, written in a color that is barely perceptible: “An individual doesn’t get cancer, a family does.”
–Cammie, Winter 2000 (excerpt from book)