My Trip to the Netherlands!

I am so sorry for the lack of crafty posts over the last month; I am in the process of moving and ALL of my craft supplies are packed away and buried in my father-in-law’s basement! My Etsy store is also currently closed, but once we are settled I will re-open it, hopefully with the addition of some new vintage treasures. On top of all the moving chaos, we also just got home from a trip across seas to Holland! Greg and I  have some friends there who invited us over and gave us the most fantastic tour of this small, beautiful country! I thought I’d share some the pictures I took during our travels!

One of our first stops was the small village of Kinderdijk to see their historic windmills (19 to be exact); all of which were built in the mid-1700′s. They were just amazing to see against the crisp blue skies!

A small outbuilding which reminded me of a Van Gogh painting…

And then on to the Keukenhof, the world’s largest flower garden.

The gardens consisted mostly of tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths. They must have had every color and species of tulip imaginable!

Surrounding the gardens were fields full of tulips, ready to be cut and shipped around the world!

The smells were absolutely incredible!

We stayed at our friends’ daughters house, who lived one block from the school attended by Anne Frank. The building is still a functioning school, and is painted with a selection from her diary, along with her signature.

We visited the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam, which has just re-opened after 10 years of renovations. It is home to many famous pieces including Rembrandt’s famous “Nightwatch.” The building itself is a stunning work of art!

As if the week wasn’t already perfect with the tulips in bloom, we were fortunate to be in Amsterdam for a truly special and once-in-a-generation event – Queen Beatrix stepped down from the throne to named her son, Willem Alexander, and his wife Maxima, the new King and Queen of the Netherlands. We watched the ceremony on jumbo screens, along with hundreds of thousands of people from across the world, as it took place less than a half mile from where we stood!

We spent the rest of the week on the other side of the country, in Enschede, where our friends live. We visited many beautiful landmarks including this beautiful estate built in the 1600′s.

And I couldn’t leave Holland without some wooden shoes…hand carved and painted!

The farmers still wear these today. Once I get used to them, maybe I will learn to do a wooden clog dance!

Of course one of the main reasons we went was for the DOGS! Greg trains and sells police dogs, and we spent a few days watching the KNPV Trials (Dutch police dog competition). Greg bought this dog, Laser, who has traveled home with us to be a police K-9 in the states!

I met a few cute puppies, like this little guy…none of which could come home with me. Bummer.

Hope you enjoyed my pics! Unfortunately I won’t be posting any crafty stuff for a while, until we are settled in the new house and I can unpack all my supplies and get to work. I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful Spring weather and getting in some good “junkin” now that garage sales and flea markets are picking up! I am getting that “pickin” itch, and will be scouting new treasures for my booth at the co-op soon!

“Puppies In Stockings” and New Craft Supplies In my Etsy Store!

So things have been pretty busy here lately – and not in a crafty way, unfortunately. BUT, it’s been a ton of fun because Greg’s police K-9 had a litter of 9 puppies which were 3 weeks old yesterday! I thought I’d share some pictures of these cute little chunky monkeys which are sure to make you go AWWWWWW!

First, here is the very cool x-ray that was done a couple of weeks before she gave birth. I love all the little skeletons!

Here they are the day they were born. You may notice there are 10 here. She had 11 pups total, and we did lose 2. Unfortunately it is to be expected with a large litter.

Their eyes and ears do not open for at least a week or so.

A tired mama rests while babies eat…

Fast forward to this week…Christmas stocking photo shoot! Their eyes are open and they are squeaking and rolling around all over the place as they attempt to walk. After some initial chaos, I got them to cooperate and got some pretty darn cute results…

And the one going in our Christmas card this year:

I have a problem…I like to dress them up like little people. Is that so wrong? LOL!

Anyway, I wanted to share some new items, mostly craft supplies, that I have added to my Etsy store Upstate Primitives. Per some of my fellow crafters’ request, I have added some tin stars and hearts, like the ones I have used in a lot of my posts. I also added knobs, buttons, keys, and many other items you have already seen being used in some of my projects. I know there are lots of people in rural areas that don’t have access to the plethora of craft stores as I do, so I wanted to add them to my store.

Hope everyone is having a fabulous holiday season and enjoying all the small moments that make this time of year so great. Christmas lights, family and friends, holiday cookies and treats, and all that good stuff. I know I am! Have a great day and thanks so much for stoppin’ by!

For Your Viewing Pleasure: Some Interesting Eyeball Photos

Sure I’ve been doing a lot of “crafting by night” lately…however, the “eyeballs by day”  (i.e. my REAL job) has been keeping me rather busy as well! Photographing eyeballs, that is. So, I thought I’d share some of my favorite images from the last few months. Day in and day out, eyeball after eyeball, the beauty and complexity of the human body never ceases to amaze me.

I’ll start with a series of images during an iris fluorescein angiogram.  This patient has neovascularization of the iris. Note the fan-like formation of blood vessels on the lower portion of the iris.

Here’s a close up of the iris neovascularization.

And here is a different external image, where the cornea has been stained with fluorescein topically, causing it to illuminate. You can see 5 small sutures on the top part of the cornea. Kind of looks like a creepy, zombie eyeball…which is why I love it…hehe…

Below is an early frame during a fluorescein angiogram – around 20 seconds after fluorescein dye was injected into the patients arm. You can see the retinal blood vessels are only partially filled. This patient has patches of atrophy in the pigmented layer of the retina, thus allowing you to see the blood vessel layer beneath, the choroid.

Here are two frames from this same angiogram, around 1 minutes time; the right eye and left eye respectively.

Next is a super highly magnified image of the foveal avascular zone, or central vision area, in a diabetic patient. There are areas where the small capillaries have died off, referred to as “capillary dropout.” This is due to poorly controlled blood sugars.

And another similar magnified image…I love the bizarre formation of those microscopic blood vessels. Again, the jagged looking vessels and lack of capillaries are from poorly controlled diabetes.

Below, color fundus images of the right eye and left eye respectively. This patient is a young boy who stared at the sun during the recent transit of Venus in early June. A photochemical reaction has essentially burned the retinal tissue, particularly the central vision area, or macula, of each eye.

Here is an image from the same patient, magnified and photographed with a green filter. Lesson learned: do not stare at the sun! Even on a triple dog dare!

Lastly, this series shows a macroaneurysm surrounded by a hemorrhage. It is a large bulge in one of the blood vessels. In the late frame of the angiogram (last photo), you can see the “light bulb effect” where the macroaneurysm is lit up and defined by the dye. This picture acts as a road map for the physician, showing him exactly where the source of the leak is!

I hope you find these images as fascinating as I do. I am lucky to have such an interesting career. In other photography news, I have been working on photographing a bunch of items for my new Etsy store. This whole Etsy thing is a lot of work! So far it’s been a lot of fun.

Have a great week! Til next time…

Creating a Simple “Studio” for Photographing Your Crafts

So, my big announcement…I am finally going to open an Etsy store!

It’s been on my to-do list for a long time, and I think I’m ready to make the plunge! I think my small crafts and many un-used craft supplies have potential to sell better in a venue like Etsy, whereas I will continue to sell my antiques and larger pieces at the co-op. I have been doing some preparation in getting this baby up and running, the first being a small “studio” area to properly photograph my items!

While my photographic skills excel in photographing retinas, they are not quite as proficient in studio work. I have never had any interest in portraits or studio photography that require traditional lighting methods, studio lights and back drops, lighting ratios, etc, etc. One thing I do know is that natural light is ideal in photographing almost anything. I wanted to be able to use natural light to photograph my products, but also not have to wait until the sun comes out and the weather is bearable to be able to shoot. I do live in Western New York after all! My solution: artificial natural light.

These 7.5 watt bulbs from Lowes emanate “natural light”, or an artificial full spectrum of light. They measure at 5000K, which is comparable to noon daylight. I bought two bulbs and two of these clamping work lights:

…and set up a small area on a table in my basement. I have some white foam core boards to use as reflectors as needed. I am using a large crate bottom as my background, because you know I love that rustic look. Here is my basic set up:

And a picture snapped with hardly any adjusting of the lights. I think this is going to work just fine!

Not too shabby for a studio that took 10 minutes to set up and cost about $35.

Here it is with the lights on so you can see. I am using the slatted crates on either side, as they work well with the lights’ clamps. Also, I’d like to mention that I used my digital SLR camera for my photography; my trusty Nikon D80. It’s slightly outdated but works very well for the work I want/need to do. I would recommend an SLR over a point-and-shoot camera if you are able.

I’ll keep you posted on how it works and what tweaks I might make as I start in on this new adventure! In the mean time I have been working on lots of marble magnets of varying themes to sell on Etsy. I can’t wait to start photographing them.

Phew…I don’t know why I keep myself so damn busy these days. I figure it’s going to take at least a month or so to get the store “live” and running. I have lots of items to photograph and some other prepping to do. Anyone out there with their own Etsy store…do you have any advice for this rookie? Any tips/advice you have to offer would be appreciated!

Have a great week!

Post Full O’ Pictures! Arizona & My Booth!

So this is where I spent all of last week…

HEAVEN!! We were in Arizona visiting family and got the pleasure of enjoying this lovely pool and perfect weather the whole week!!! Nothing but blue skies and sunshine! Here are just a few of my favorite pictures from the week!

Wheels and I on the sky ride over the zoo! Awwwww….

“Hey, you lookin’ at me?” LOL…

Giraffe kisses! Yuck!

Me, Greg and Uncle Eugene

Aiden and I on the log ride!

And my very own stud muffin getting his tan on…hehehe….sorry Greg, I had to!!!

Anyway, I’m back home and getting back into the groove of things and trying to gather up some new stuff for my booth since I sold a ton while I was gone! Wooohooo! A good problem to have!

One piece I wanted to share is this thrift store mason jar lamp that I paired with a shade from Dollar General! Mason jar lamps are so popular because you can “customize” them to hold whatever you want. Who knew Dollar General would have shades; let alone such CUTE ones!

I left the jar empty this time…people can use their imaginations!

And here are some updated booth pictures! And by updated, I mean just before I left…it already looks so different!

I’m loving this trend of stacking vintage suitcases as little side tables or decorative stands! Picked these up over the last few weeks at estate sales!

I found this awesome green desk/hutch on Craigslist and it wasn’t in the shop a week…SOLD! I am trying to get a few small furniture pieces here and there, and they seem to be selling quite well.

Decorated my shutter with a bunch of hanging spoons…

And an old card table and small green end table…both from Craigslist!!!

One of my new favorite pieces is this old chair missing its seat, which has been replaced with a large basin and pitcher. Such a cute way to display. It would even look great with a big enamel bowl. These items are courtesy of my friend June’s barn that she let me go PICKIN’ in!!!

Got a bag full of vintage pins at an estate sale; a mix of political buttons and many Paul McCartney ones! I like having fun little chotchkies like these!

And I learned something interesting about this stoneware jug from some regulars that come into the shop that are stoneware experts! See that little green spot?

At first I thought it was a blemish and would affect the value of the piece. And in fact it does affect the value, but in a positive way! It is called a “turkey eye” and is actually a drip from the top of the kiln from when the jug was made. Apparently it is rare and desirable among collectors!

Well guess that’s all for now. I have so many to-do’s on my list. Can’t wait for the Spring weather to officially get here so I can break out the paint brush and make-over some pieces, including a HUGE, beautiful $20 roll top desk I picked up off the side of the road! It’s in great structural condition but needs a coat of paint to freshen it up.

Have a great week my picker pals!

Vintage Inspired Craft Supplies & Other Randomness

I rarely feature the “eyeballs by day” part and tend to focus more on the “crafts by night.” So I thought I’d share one of my favorite images that, over the weekend,  won 3rd place at the annual Ophthalmic Photographer’s Society international photography contest! This patient had some major blood vessel abnormalities in their retina. Here, the vessels are illuminated with fluorescein dye that was injected about 30 seconds prior to this shot being taken, bringing out the fine detail of these microscopic vessels.

Kind of a creepy, eh? A little creepiness just in time for Halloween! And speaking of photography…I snapped these pics of the sun hitting the trees in the back yard after a quick thunderstorm just now.  Damn I love Fall! It was suddenly a gorgeous sight out my back door and I had to grab the camera and capture it…

Anyway, the real reason for this post is to share some wonderful, vintage-inspired craft supplies my friend Christine and I found at Michael’s over the weekend! The best part is…they were only $1 a piece! Yep, a dollar!!! If you have a Michael’s near you…go get ‘em now before they disappear!!!

First, we found these porcelain knobs, that are very reminiscent of knobs from Hobby Lobby and/or Anthropologie (but for a quarter of the price)!!!

Imagine a cute cabinet made-over with these knobs?…And how about a skeleton key stamp, and dinner & drink themed marble magnets! Not too long ago, I paid a LOT more for a stamp just like this!!

My favorite are these Victorian-style skeleton keys!!! I totally would have missed these if Christine hadn’t dug them out from one of the bottom bins. We scooped them ALL up, and I plan on going back soon to look for more! I have so many ideas for these!

There was also a nice selection of stationary, like these cards with cute country tea cups. They are blank inside – and it never hurts to have some cute cards handy to jot a hello to a friend or a quick thank you note!

Along with these great finds, I picked up a few more Halloween cupcake accessories. I am so excited…this week is time for Melanie & I’s annual HALLOWEEN CUPCAKE SPOOKTACULAR! Here is some of the fun stuff I have picked up over the last few weeks! My favorite would have to be the blood spattered cupcake holders…

Pictures surely to follow!!! We can’t wait to try the “broken glass” cupcakes, as featured this year by Martha Stewart!

Well, have a great week…I’ll be back Friday night with lots of cupcake pix! And since this post has been incredibly random, here is the other thing I bought this weekend! LOVE all the EYEBALL stuff out this time of year! Yes, they are salt & pepper shakers…and yes…I might have to leave em out all year ’round!

Do you get the feeling you’re being WATCHED? Muah ha ha ha!!!

Fall in WNY!

The view of the hills back home over the weekend was awesome. The Fall foliage is at it’s “peak” in Western New York. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves!

While I was home, I also scored a few primitive pieces out of my step-grandfather’s barn, that I can’t wait to clean up a bit and get into my booth. To start, I thought this rickety old stool could be very cool with a little TLC!

This piece is an old mailbox with lots of little cubbies – perfect for displaying all kinds of little knickknacks! The holes are for poking your fingers through to lift your mail, so it’s easier to grab. I may have to slide in a little piece of wood or heavy card stock in the slots that I plan to display stuff, so they aren’t falling through the holes! I gotta clean it up a bit, but I am going to leave the worn, chipping paint as is!

The other really cool piece is this antique seed bag mover. Love the rusty hardware! Would make a great garden piece!

So Sunday night I finished up the pumpkin patch for our “Pick a Pumpkin Out of the Patch Discount” at The Carriage Place! Can you tell I used “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” for my inspiration? LOL! I added the little tree for a scary factor. Picked it out of the weeds in the field behind my house!

We are going to fill up the pumpkins with slips of paper that indicate a prize, discount, free appraisal, etc. for customers at the co-op to “pick” on Halloween weekend!!! I can’t wait!

Hope everyone is having a great week so far. Can’t wait for my best friend Teeny to come down this weekend and do a little craftin’ with me. It’s always more fun to do that stuff with a friend. We are going to try out a few NEW projects that I’ve never attempted before. I’ll letcha know how they come out!

Later gators!

ITALIA!

Bonjourno! I’m back! Italy was AMAZING; the most beautiful place I have ever seen! The art, the culture, the architecture, the rolling hills, the food, the wine, the weather…everything was wonderful and was just as I had imagined! My Mom and I took a 10 day guided tour through Rome, Florence, Pisa, and Venice, traveling from one city to another by train. I took hundreds of pictures and have edited them down to a gallery of my favorite ones! My two favorite parts of the tour were the Sistine Chapel and the Statue of David, both of which we were not allowed to take pictures of. Oh well…I’ve got plenty others to share! (If the slide show pace is too slow, use the arrows at the bottom of the pictures to scroll through! )

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Since I got back I haven’t had time to do any crafting or thrift-store shopping. I’ve got lots to do before June 4th, the day of the big Cruise-In at the co-op -  it’s one of the busiest days of the year and I want my booth to be stocked up!!! Can’t wait to get started…I have so many ideas for new projects! Check back soon, hope you enjoyed the photos!

Ciao!

A Spring Time Walk

Has everyone been enjoying these sunny spring days as much as I have? I love the fresh air, the colors becoming more vibrant, and the flowers poking their pretty little heads up! Greg and I took a walk the other night and I was feeling inspired by all of the new life starting to show through the mud and the weeds. I broke out my camera and started snapping away.  I decided it was a good summary of our Spring time here in upstate New York! Thought I’d share!

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

Fine Tuning of the Marble Magnets With a Mini Photoshop Lesson!

So in the midst of all the hoopla getting the booth set up, I haven’t had time to work on a lot of craft projects. I have however, been slowly perfecting my marble magnet technique. I know there are 1000 tutorials online on how to make them, but I have found that your technique and materials can make all the difference between okay magnets and awesome ones! By awesome, I mean clean, clear, and durable.

Here is the latest set! I made them for my friend with pictures of her little girl, Melanie!

For custom sets like this one, I have found it’s easiest to print out the pictures at the size I need them, by bringing them into Photoshop for quick and easy size adjustment.  Start by opening up a new document sized at 8.5 x 11, with a resolution of 300 dpi.

Tip: Remember, if you are going to print an image, the ideal resolution is 300 dpi (dots per inch, or ppi, pixels per inch). Anything less than that, in terms of resolution, will come out pixellated and unclear. For web viewing only, (images for use on your blog, website, etc.) you can get away with 72 dpi.

Then, open up all the images you want to use for your magnets. Select the crop tool. Set your crop settings to 20 mm for the width and height, and the resolution. See the screen capture below. I use 20 mm because that’s the size of the marbles I am using…so obviously size according to your materials!

Crop all of your images and drag them onto your new document one by one. They should look like this:

You can see I did two of each. I selected them (one at a time) in the layer palette, right clicked to make a duplicate of that layer, and re-sized them a little smaller using edit > transform > scale. Sometimes 20 mm is slightly too big, depending on the content of the picture. I like having options.

I suppose instead of all this, you could just eyeball it and use your magnet to test and see if the images are small enough. I am just slightly obsessive-compulsive and  I’ll use any excuse to play around in Photoshop!

I used this technique with other images I found online. Here are a few sets that I plan to make!

 

 

Supplies to get if you plan on mass producing these things:

A 20 mm hole punch, found in the scrap booking section of the craft store. Saves a ton of time and makes a nice, clean cut.

A bulk order of clear, “cabochons”. They are flat backed, perfectly clear, acrylic little marbles. They come individually wrapped like this:

I hate that it’s such a waste of packaging…it’s not very “green.” BUT, it does mean your marbles are perfectly clean and clear and have virtually no defects. I would never go back to using the marbles from the craft store….they aren’t clear enough for my liking.

I bought mine in bulk here! The rest of the supplies/technique can be found in my old marble magnet tutorials; this post was just about tweaking them.

I would love to see your magnets if you try these! Check out The Graphics Fairy for AWESOME, free vintage art, which would be great for this project!!!!

HAPPY ALMOST SPRING!!! Talk to ya’ll later!

 

Ophthalmic Photography: Part II

I have been dying to get down and dirty with some crafting and getting some new projects posted on here, but work has been so freakin busy lately! By the time I get home, I am too tired to craft! So I figured…since work has been consuming me lately, why not share a few of the interesting cases I have been photographing!

These diagnostic images are interesting displays of how complex our bodies are, and become a sort of “abstract art.”  Some of these are quite rare conditions and make for very “eye-catching” images (pun totally intended).

This is a very complex case of a patient who, according to our MD, has wet macular degeneration along with an arterial macroaneurysm. There is blood both above and below the retina. The images are a color photograph complimented by an OCT scan. OCT stands for optical coherence tomography, and is a type of high magnification, cross-sectional imaging. The orientation of the OCT can be seen in the lower left corner of the inset. I love how the cyst of half fluid and half blood looks on the scan!

Shown here is some kind of crazy blood vessel abnormality…obviously!! I can’t find the dude’s chart or else I’d give a little more information on how the MD described this pathology. I think it’s just plain COOL! Super sharp, tortuous veins and arteries always make for interesting photos!

This patient has a very large tumor in his eye, seen on the right. This image is a mosaic, made up of multiple images shot on multiple planes of focus. The top of the tumor seen here is actually about 8-9 millimeters elevated from the retina…which is a lot in terms of tiny eyeballs. Unfortunately, this eye will most likely have to be removed.

This is a 9 mm OCT scan of a patient with a very rare disease called Vogt Koyanagi Harada Syndrome. It is typically seen in Hispanic, Asian, and Middle Eastern patients. It is an inflammatory disease which causes severe swelling and detaching of the retina. In a normal retina, the scan would be flat, without all of the gaps between the layers.

Here are two images, the right and left eye, respectively. The patient has what is known as “Bulls Eye Maculopathy.” It can result from hereditary conditions and also from drug toxicity, as seen with this patient (or so the MD suspects). It’s symmetry and similar appearance in each eye, when put back to back, is really neat!

This patient has “Solar Retinopathy.” This is essentially a small hole in the retina which results from staring at the sun! So, in summary, DON’T stare a the sun!!! You can really see the definition of the fine retinal layers with this black and white image.

Another interesting OCT scan shows a patient with “Foveoschisis,” which can occur in myopic eyes. It is essentially a shallow retinal detachment. I particularly like the positive/negative space effects in this scan.

This pathology is called a “Macular Star” for obvious reasons. The little yellow spots are little deposits of lipids, or fatty molecules that are in the blood. They can often create a star pattern, radiating out from the macula, which is the area of the retina responsible for central vision.

Spider webs? Nope! This is a high-mag image of a diabetic eye with tons of blood vessel abnormalities. There are even spots where the capillaries have closed off. This is the result of a diabetic patient who doesn’t take care of themselves or watch their blood sugars!

Well, I hope you have enjoyed these images as much as I have enjoyed sharing them. I am so blessed to have a job that I love, that directly helps the patients. I may take a million photos a day, but I never get sick of this stuff!!!

Whimsical Hand-Drawn Illustrations and A Unique Antique Collection

As some of you may know, I do web design as a hobby. Mostly friends and family, along with a few professional business sites. I’d like to take a minute to share some of my recent websites; not to promote myself, but more to show off the great content of these sites! These include my friend Barb’s wonderful books and my co-worker’s amazing vintage baseball collection. I feel they relate to MY blog in the sense that these sites contain beautiful art, photography, and antiques; all of which I am very passionate about!

Snarly Sally:  www.snarlysally.com

This website is devoted to a wonderful series of children’s books about Snarly Sally,“The Little Girl Who Doesn’t Like to Have Her Hair Brushed” by author/illustrator Barbara Briggs Ward. There are 3 books in the series: The Really REALLY Hairy Flight of Snarly Sally, Snarly Sally’s Garden of ABC’s, and the recently released The Really Hairy Scary Butterfly Rescue. They are the most charming children’s books with great colorful, whimsical illustrations!

 

Snarly Sally and her dog Tangles

 

Illustration from “The Really Hairy Scary Butterfly Rescue.” (I absolutely adore the detailed illustrations of all the little bugs!)

The cover of “Snarly Sally’s Garden of ABC’s”

Lil ducks in a basket…

 

One of my personal favorites, a moon sprinkling stars in the sky!

 

And one of Sally’s many cute little poems!

Barbara has also just released a heart-warming Christmas story for adults, called The Reindeer Keeper, which is sure to get you “believing again.” Hand-drawn illustrations, by award-winning artist Suzanne Langelier-Lebeda, introduce each chapter . See more at www.thereindeerkeeper.com!

 

Pencil illustations from the Reindeer Keeper

 

The next website I’d like to share is Bullpen Artifacts: www.bullpenartifacts.com

 

“This website is dedicated to preserving, documenting, and researching items from baseballs past.” Bullpenartifacts.com contains a high-quality photo gallery of all kinds of turn-of-the-century baseball artifacts. Joe is a professional eyeball photographer like me (my partner) but this still-life work is just awesome!

 

Hand Sewn Baseball – Circa 1890′s

 

Flat Bat

 

Antique Baseball Uniform – Circa late 19th century, early 20th century

 

Apron Style Catchers Chest Protector – Circa 1880

 

Birdcage Mask – Circa 1880′s

 

Early 1st Basemen’s Mit

I think both sports enthusiasts and photography buffs will find this website really interesting! Joe and I are still working on this website, so check back soon for lots more images and descriptions of these unique pieces.

Well that’s all for now. Hope you enjoy these sites as much as I do. To all my fellow crafters out there, I promise I’ll have some new stuff to show you soon! I am planning a trip to the thrift store this weekend…I hope I find some goodies! Hope everyone has a great day…THINK SPRING!

An Invasion of Personal Space: The Giraffe Edition!

…You’ll see what I mean when you see the pictures below!

We just got home from a wonderful, sunny week in Phoenix, Arizona visiting Greg’s Mom and family. High 70′s and low 80′s all week…it was absolute bliss! The gorgeous mountains, cacti, sunshine were all refreshing and beautiful sights. One of the highlights of the trip was an African style safari ride through the desert where we had some up close and personal encounters with some giraffes, zebras, camels, and other African wildlife. It was unlike any zoo I have been to, as we were able to feed the giraffes and camels right out of our hands, and be within 10 feet of a heard of zebras! It was absolutely amazing!

This is my new friend “Pilgrim” the giraffe, walking along in front of a beautiful blue mountain scape…

Well HELLO Pilgrim, nice to meet you!

You want this carrot, you say?

Woah! Back it up Pilgrim! This lens isn’t for licking!

Pilgrim making himself at home on the safari bus…

And giving the tour guide a great, big, sloppy, SMOOCH!

A mama zebra scoops up the cookies we threw to her, and shows off her gorgeous stripes!

Isn’t Mother Nature incredible?

Ever seen a zebra smile? Me either! “CHEESE!”

Me hand feeding him a yummy carrot…how freakin’ cool!

Well, that’s all for now. I just had to share the up-the-nostril-giraffe-shots…you don’t get that view everyday!

As far as crafting goes, I have little to share. I wanna get my hands dirty this week though for sure! I’ll be back soon! Stay WARM!

 

 

Potential Photography Print Donations…Which One Do You Like?

Well it’s official…we are phasing out of Fall and heading into winter. We have had two days of light snow so far, and many, many more to come! Christmas stuff is out in full force at all my favorite stores, and it’s hard to resist getting a little excited for Christmas already. When it comes to crafts and decorating, I tend to skip right over Thanksgiving…I love the food and family and all, but the decor is kinda BLAH if you ask me.

That’s a real snowflake photographed under a microscope in my professor’s garage on one cold snowy day back while I was attending RIT. I discovered that snowflakes are absolutely BEAUTIFUL microscopic works of art, and I will probably never get a chance to photograph them again. Out of the trillions and gazillions of snowflakes that have ever fallen, this one is mine forever!

So anyway, I have just learned about the upcoming Holiday Auction at the Rochester Institute of Technology, which is being organized this year by the Biomedical Photographic Students Association a student association in my former program, Biomedical Photographic Communications. It is an auction of donated services, products, etc., to raise money for a chosen charity. This years charity is “The Jimmy Fund,” which supports the fight against cancer at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. I am donating a photographic print and am thinking about one (or all) of the following…whatdaya think?

This is an image of some weeds out back of my house taken about this same time last year at dusk. I picked this image because I like it’s simplicity, yet the weeds are all tangles and chaotic. I also like the silhouette.

This is one of my favorite high magnification images taken through a microscope when I was a student at RIT. It is a photograph of the edge of a microcircuit and those yellow spots are glue holding the circuit on a little board. It is illuminated with a complex microscopy technique called Differential Interference Contrast (DIC). I always found the most interesting images to be of things that were not intended to be the specimen, like the glue on the microcircuit or the designs made by the glass of a broken slide! The abstract nature of these otherwise boring objects are really interesting when photographed at such a high mag!

Finally, this is my other favorite image of some kind of chemical that was dried on a glass slide (I forget the exact chemical, I think it was urea?) using polarized light. What I love about this image is the monotone background phasing into the brilliant colors of the foreground.

Which one should I submit? I am leaning towards the last one. I supposed I could just submit all 3…it is for charity after all.

Well, I hope everyone has a fabulous Saturday, even if it IS rainy and dreary out!!!

Truely From Trash to Treasure: A Vintage Suitcase With A Little Surprise Inside…

While I was home, I scored big time with this great vintage suitcase! My step-dad found it laying near a dumpster outside of his work, and it was obviously going to be thrown out. He’s a picker like me, and we pickers could never let a gem like this go to waste! He brought it home for me, and I instantly fell in love.  It is quite beat up, which adds to it’s charm and character. I love everything about it.

Even though it is old and worn, the handle and latches are quite sturdy. Things were a lot more well made back then.

The best part about this old suitcase is what we found inside…

This old photo shows a little boy carrying this very suitcase! I am assuming that is the same little boy in the picture on the right, by the round, chubby little face. Who would ever throw away such a treasure?? I feel like I would be doing that little boy a disservice to let his little suitcase go to the dump; it looked like one of his prized possessions.

I wonder who the boy is? Where was he going, and what was he carrying around in there? Perhaps that is his dad is sledding with him? I guess we’ll never know, but for now I will cherish this little suitcase and probably display it somewhere in my house, with the photos inside of course. There’s just something about that little boy and his suitcase that makes me smile.