Burford Designs

My Day in Photos

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Family Photos

For Christmas I purchased a new scanner as a present for myself.  I’ve needed a new one for years and just never went ahead and purchased it.  In December I received a little extra in my pay (there have been major cuts to our funding and some funds that were being held up were released and we got a little extra because of that) so I figured that I would finally get the scanner.

 

One of my main objectives for purchasing a scanner was to start a project I’ve wanted to do for a few years now, get all of my family photos (ones from my childhood and some from my parents’ childhood) scanned and organized.  There are a multitude of reasons I wanted to do this this, one is to get the pictures digital so I can clean them up and another is so that I can share them with other family members.  Naturally, the main reason is simply to keep them safe.

When the scanner arrived I instantly hooked it up and began scanning photos.  The first were those of my parents’ wedding, they were married forty years ago this past December, and Mommy really wanted a few of the photos to have at her disposal.

 

I then scanned a few photos of Baby Boy. 

Of course, I haven’t even skimmed the surface with the amount of pictures I have and want to scan, but as with any large project I just need to take it one bit at a time. 

 

I’ll continue to share my progress with you and share the photos as I get more scanned.

 

Happy Thursday!

Holiday Windows 2009

Although the holidays are over and my holiday television viewing had very few gaps in it, I was saddened that HGTV did not have their Holiday Windows special this year.  It is one program that I look forward to every year, will watch just about every time it shows and will tell everyone I know (and even a few I don’t) to watch.  Luckily, with a quick Internet search, I have found many sites that allow me to view a variety of holiday windows and even though I don’t get to see the behind the scenes of it all, I’m happy to simply see these spectacular displays.

The New York Post has a mini guide to the holiday windows complete with store name and address, theme, an explanation of the theme/ description of theme/ windows under “draws” and finally a “don’t miss” section to let you know what to be look for during your viewing escapades.  I appreciated this list because when I first saw one of the windows at Barney’s I did not understand why I was looking at the Coneheads from Saturday Night Live.

 

1stdibs.com is a fabulous source of inspiration for me and I really enjoyed that they showed the different holiday windows in Manhattan in this full screen slideshow.

 

Bergdorf Goodman had my favorite windows by far (this and almost every year) and they were designed by the man in charge David Hoey.  The theme this year was “A Compendium of Curiosities” which was inspired by Lewis Carroll and his works Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

 

Rudy Pospisil over at anothernormal.com has so many wonderful photos of various store windows including Bergdorf Goodman’s.  What’s great about this is the fact that he has archives that include more that just the holiday season but also the various seasonal windows.

(Photo by Rudy Pospisil)

 

I Want – I Got, a blog about fashion and Toronto, showed the holiday windows from Holt Renfrew.  Too see the different windows just click and scroll the thumbnails at the bottom of the post.  There’s also a short video of the festivities there too.  My favorites are the windows with the birds especially the penguins.

 

Many of these windows will still be up for at least a couple of more days and some until the end of January, I’m just happy I got to see them.  Thanks to all who share these lovelies for the rest of us to see.

Santa Baby

Chewie (the Pomeranian pup) has gotten really good at playing photo shoot.  He now knows that if I get the camera out then he will get a treat for sitting there and allowing me to put him through dress up and sitting still while I snap shots.  Until the other night, I wasn’t able to get pictures of Bella and Chewie together.  I got them to sit on the stairs together and at first they were side by side but Chewie had to move down a step (he really tried to take off but I got him to sit on the lower step and allow me to take some photos of the two of them).

After a few pictures I gave them each a treat and they were good to go.  With our first successful shoot under our belts (well, my belt) I got Chewie to sit on a stool under the Christmas tree with a  Santa hat on his adorable little head… he was even okay with that since he knew he would get a treat.  Then I tried to get Bella to sit under the tree, I called her over and told her “up” and as soon as she jumped up on the stool Chewie ran over and knocked her off and sat down posing for another pictures.  I was almost in tears laughing.  I moved him off of the bench and got Bella up there once more and yet again Chewie bumped her off the stool.

 

Mommy had this little Santa hats and I was able to get a few really good shots of both pups.

 

I also learned that both dogs were a lot better with the hats when I began with the hat over their eyes then moved it higher up on their heads. 

 

This picture was my favorite because Chewie looks like a statue.

 

So cute…

Photos with Santa

Does your family have a tradition of having photos taken with Santa?

When the three of us were little, older brother, Baby Boy and I, used to have our pictures taken with Santa.  Baby Boy was the worst, normally screaming and crying and fighting the entire time.  This picture is probably the best since he is pretty much conked out...circa 1978.

No matter if kids are happy or sad, smiling or crying; I really enjoy looking through pictures with Santa.  Some of my favorites are the older sepia toned ones.  There are a few websites that I found that show some of these treasures.

Boston.com has a special gallery in their lifestyle section for your photos with Santa.  SFGate had a callout for “The holidays are here! Send us your crying Santa photos” (there are some real gems there) and Ellen Degeneres even has “Bad Santa Photo” on her show’s website.

For those that don’t want the meltdowns and are looking for some tips for any upcoming photography sessions with your kids and Santa then check out suite101.com for their article “Getting the Best Santa Photos - Tips and Tricks: Help Make the Most of A Child's Visit With Santa”.

 

Happy Photo Snapping!

Opal Petit Clothier

As I was perusing Kathleen Dougherty’s Grosgrain Fabulous blog, specifically the outside giveaway area on her site, I found this other marvelous blog and website from Tammi Swanson. 

Tammi is a children's clothing designer, a photographer and an amazing stylist.  I love her pictorials and how she styles not only the photo itself but also the hair, make-up and of course the clothing using her own children as well as other friends and family members.  Having been a former model in addition to a hair and make-up artist it is easy to see where her eye for a great shoot comes from.

 

One of the gorgeous items Tammi makes is a tulle skirt she calls the Mia skirt, and that is the subject of her giveaway.  This is the information directly from Tammi’s Opal Petit Clothier blog:

"Mia" tulle skirt giveaway!

Add yourself as a follower and automatically enter yourself to win the "Mia" tulle skirt! The drawing will be held November first and you will be able to choose your color and size of skirt. This is a $178.00 silk and tulle skirt with a silk underskirt or, for the smaller sizes, silk bloomers. Perfect for a special photo shoot or a wedding or family portraits or the holidays!

 

After viewing and admiring all of the various photo sessions between Tammi and Kathleen’s sites they only make me long for children of my own so that I can make clothing for them and have fun photo sessions. 

Photography – Food

I haven’t been cooking as much as I would like but here are some things that I’ve made and a dinner that Mommy and I made together. 

 

The first dinner was a delicious green salad with apples, avocado, broccoli, cherries, cranberries, green leaf lettuce, and sunflower seeds.  I prefer not to have salad dressing while Mommy likes Ranch.  With this we made some salmon patties – cooked salmon - flaked, onions, garlic, ground oatmeal, egg (for binding), salt and pepper.  Just mix it up, make it into patties and fry.  We just put a little olive oil in a pan to coat the bottom and then put the patties in the pan to cook. 

 

Another dish I made, since Mommy loves eggplant, is this eggplant dish – Eggplant and Artichoke alla Napoletana - from Vegan with a Vengeance. 

 

It’s a breaded eggplant that I baked (less fattening) and then layer with a sauce of tomatoes, artichokes, and onions.  Mommy said that she would love to have this every week.  I altered the sauce from the cookbook and made it into my own, but that’s just what I do.  I’m not a huge eggplant fan but this is a keeper.

 

And then I made a Roasted Butternut Squash Soup, also from Vegan with a Vengeance and a vegan sour cream topper.  It was yummy but did remind me of baby food (which I didn’t mind).

 

The great thing about all of this is Mommy just got her blood work done again and things have greatly improved for her, so I’m sure the same will be true for Daddy.

Fabulous Friday Finds

Here I am with another installment of my Fabulous Friday Finds.  Since it’s been so icy lately Mommy and I haven’t really been out thrifting too much.  And the last couple of times we have gone out it was solely for recreation and not purchasing.  So for this round up I didn’t look much further than my own house. 

 

I’ve written many times about the different collections Mommy and Daddy have and the ones that have them.  One of my dad’s favorite collections is that of his salt and pepper shakers.  The other day, because Mommy wanted to take pictures, Daddy got out a couple of boxes from his collection and Mommy spent the day taking them out, cleaning them up and remember where they came from.  After that she displayed them and went to bed, it was during that time I took some pictures to share with you all.

 

It’s such an eclectic mix of salt and pepper shakers.  Most luckily have their mates so we were pleased with that.  Other shakers were ones we used, some were from Nonnie’s house and many of the others were ones bought at garage sales and thrift stores over the years.

 

Here’s a grouping of some of them

 

Mommy’s favorite

 

The very plain, very retro white and red shakers

 

Aren’t these little kids adorable?

 

And this poor little guy didn’t make it…somehow Mommy dropped him and his ears are no more.  Of course that totally upsets me because I collect elephants and he was supposed to be mine. 

Too bad, so sad!

Yummy Goodness - Vegan Cooking

I’ve been cooking a lot more lately and when I cook it tends to be more along the lines of vegetarian and vegan.  No real reason, I just like to cook that way.  But I started cooking again to help out with my parents and their health.  Daddy was told that he needed to lower his cholesterol and that he had hypertension…surprise, surprise.  I mean he ate eggs and hash browns every morning with TONS of salt (even though I did get them to change to sea salt years ago, so it’s a little better for them) and had bacon cheeseburgers for dinner (or some other high fat, high salt, alternative).

Because of this, my trusted repertoire of cooking skills, recipes and cookbooks came out of hiding…and with that I get to practice my food styling and photography because I believe every meal is just as much about presentation as it is about taste.

So from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook I made BBQ Pomegranate Tofu with Coconut Rice and Roasted Brussels Sprouts.

And it was delish…one to make again (and I have made the Roasted Brussels Sprouts several times with different entrees because they are that good).

When I moved up here (northern Idaho) I was concerned with finding my usual plethora of healthful vegetarian fare (read hippie food) and was happy to find most of the ingredients I use, thank goodness for the “ethnic” sections at some of the local markets.  I thought I would have to resort to begging Baby Boy to send me supplies and get what else I needed from mail order.  The only thing I have yet to find at any store is seitan, a meat substitute made from wheat gluten, however, Isa became my go to gal for a make-it-yourself recipe for seitan.

I purchased Isa's book a couple of weeks before I moved so I didn't get too much use out of it in the interim, however now it is getting plenty of use along with her other books Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and I can hardly wait for her new book Vegan Brunch: Homestyle Recipes Worth Waking Up For-From Asparagus Omelets to Strawberry Pancakes which is set to be released in May.

 

Happy eating!

Photography - Depth of Field

One of my goals for this year is to improve my photography skills.  I have a nice point and shoot digital that I blogged about here.  One of the reasons I purchased it was because of the different features it had and it was still compact enough to have in my purse or jacket pocket. And right now on Amazon.com it’s just barely over $100!!

 

So between photography tutorials, other blogs, and Baby Boy I’m learning a lot about photography and about my camera.  One of the features I’ve always liked and wanted to learn was Depth of Field (DOF).

 

A simplified definition of DOF is where you have something in the front of the picture (closer to the camera) that is clear and the further out it goes the blurrier it gets.  Of course here is a better explanation, and although I really don’t want all of my geekiness to show, I have to admit that I totally love the “Derivation of the DOF formulas” section. 

 

So with a couple of tweaks of my camera I took this picture.  And I didn’t even alter the photo…

 

I also didn’t dust the car before I took the picture either.

 

Then I just had to take a picture of one of my Christmas presents (hopefully I’ll get around to blogging about Christmas presents soon)…Marie and her farm animals, the pig looks like he's up to something.

 

I received Marie and some of the animals as a present from Baby Boy and I had a few other animals that I thought would go well with the brood.

 

I also used DOF on the photo I took in this post.

 

Happy picture taking!