Week 40: Photo Safari

Posted on October 30, 2011 by elizabeth

A few months ago, I spotted a groupon for New York City Photo Safari, and it seemed way too cool to pass up. I was able to convince my friend Irma to sign up with me, and we picked a Saturday in October for our safari on the High Line. I was pretty concerned when I saw the forecast for Saturday, though, and with good reason, because as it turned out? We were walking the High Line with our cameras during Snowtober. We met for brunch first, and thought we were bundled pretty well (me in my rain boots and gortex nerd raincoat, and Irma in her winter coat and boots) until it started snowing in addition to the wind. We stopped for extra scarves, gloves, and hats before meeting with the Photo Safari group. I spent most of the days leading up to the safari worrying about how to keep my non-water resistant camera safe during torrential rain/snow. I ended up bringing a gallon ziploc bag and felt like a tool, but during the parts of our afternoon that weren’t under cover, I was really glad to have it.

I’m not really sure what I expected out of the experience, and I think part of that was that worry about the weather took over my brain before Saturday. Our guide explained a few rules, and we introduced ourselves, and then got down to business. We started out in a covered part of the High Line park, and focused on abstract concepts – first lines, and then curves. It was difficult at first, because getting feedback like “yes, but what’s interesting about that?” and “we’re not looking for STRAIGHT lines” was a bit strange. I wasn’t ever sure I understood what the goal was, just that I wasn’t quite getting it. After the abstract shots, we were instructed to put them together and keep composition in mind. Again, I got some that seemed good, and some that weren’t quite there. We then walked to a different part of the park, but it was so windy and our hands were sooo frozen and crampy, so we ended up heading to the Chelsea Market to shoot for a while indoors and out of the snow. Talk about a relief to be inside! At first I was just over it, the being told that I wasn’t there yet… (not that I think I’m perfect or anything) but I kept shooting and eventually everything just clicked. It’s hard to describe. I took a ton of photos of the same things over and over, and the guide was really complimentary about my progress from the beginning to the end.

I was disappointed that the weather impacted the day so much, just because we were limited to such a small portion of the High Line and our focus was so abstract that I still don’t feel like I saw it at all. Plus, it would have been so interesting to have more subjects to focus on during the projects. I do think, though, that I learned some things about composition and maybe even something so simple as taking different angles, because I often find myself focusing primarily on light. So I definitely got a lot out of it and am glad I went. Despite being freezing and soggy and super exhausted by the time I got back to Penn Station to get home. It was an Experience, that’s for sure!

Week 39: Halloween Wreath

Posted on October 23, 2011 by elizabeth

So uh… it’s been a while since I have made or cooked anything, that much is obvious. I have made peace with the fact that this 52 week project may take longer than a calendar year, and I suppose that’s okay, even if it kills me a little inside. And I can’t promise I won’t come up with a lot of quick holiday crafts as the year draws to a close to try to get as close as I can. I never said I wasn’t a little crazy in my attempts to avoid breaking my own rules.

I think the mini books I should be making (the long-overdue 30 before 30 book, and the fall book, neither of which I have started, although I have made meaningful piles on my craft table) are hanging over my head in a way that has so far prevented me from starting anything else. I subscribe to a few yarn branded newsletters, and often save them in my inbox because the free patterns they offer look SO good. I rarely follow through, but when my newsletter included a photo of this Halloween wreath from Lion Brand Yarn? I absolutely could not resist. I didn’t even need to buy yarn, just a wreath form and some glue.

I made this over the course of a few afternoons, since the glue needed to dry in between, and since wrapping yarn around a wreath is more painstaking and annoying than I expected. Not that it’ll prevent me from doing this again, all the time. The crocheted roses are without a doubt my favorite part, and I definitely will be making more in pretty colors to turn into pins and little barrettes for my hair. Or to give to other people.

I hung this on the inside of our front door, and I love having something so pretty-yet-spooky to get things feeling a little more Halloweeny around here.

Green, as requested

Posted on October 2, 2011 by elizabeth

You probably thought I forgot about how way back in March, I put up a poll about what color Converse I should buy next. And I promised to buy the color that won the poll.

A strange shade of green called “cilantro green” ended up winning the poll, and I was actually surprised, because green isn’t ever a color that I gravitate toward. And I was all set to buy them, except … they were sold out in my size. And so were the second and third place colors, pink and turquoise. I wasn’t sure what to do, and I tried to find cilantro green in other stores, but it was only available at Delia’s. I figured it would eventually come back in stock, and have been checking probably once a week since, well, March. It just never happened.

Since I obviously overthink this addiction, I contemplated re-polling to see if I should just buy green chucks, or wait and see if cilantro green came back in stock. And asked Dan waaaay too often if I should just buy green, and he’d say “Sure” and then I’d say “yeah but the internet voted for CILANTRO green.”

I was headed to the Converse outlet on Saturday afternoon to replace my black chucks, which have long passed the stinky phase and really needed to be replaced. And just bought the green ones before I could overthink it for any more months. So now I have seven different colors, and while that probably makes me a bit crazy, I am pretty damn happy about it.

Week 38: The Craft Room!

Posted on September 28, 2011 by elizabeth

Confession time: this is what the second bedroom has looked like since we moved in two and a half months ago. This was arguably the part of our new place that I was most excited about (other than finally living with Dan, I guess), but somehow, with moving, and then our birthdays, and then a trip to Cape Cod, and then changing jobs, and then being so busy I don’t have time to text at my new job, I just couldn’t ever muster up the energy to do this the right way.

See, for my 30th birthday, my parents bought me an amazing piece of furniture, namely a wooden cart with EIGHT drawers in which to organize my crafty stuff. It didn’t arrive until a few weeks after my birthday, so ostensibly I was delaying setting up the craft room because of that, and then delaying because I wanted to come up with the MOST PERFECT way to allocate the drawers, and MOST PERFECT is kind of overwhelming sometimes.

Anyway! It was getting hard to do any crafts at all with the room looking like that, not to mention kind of hazardous to get anything from there. Dan’s parents were coming over this past weekend to see the new place, so I finally unpacked and got everything put away just so a few hours before they arrived.

And it is SO GREAT in there now. I have light, space to work, and everything is organized in a way that I can rifle through it without making a giant mess that’s overwhelming to clean up. I can even wheel the whole cart over to the table if I want. I’m jazzed. I know I say that every week of Handmade 52, but this? This is what it’s all about, dudes.

this may have been the kitchen table once a long time ago, but it’s the perfect craft desk.

the super coolest piece of furniture EVER.

crochet/knitting magazines, minibooks, and composition books and blank notebooks

washi tape, embellishments, binder rings

glue and things that stick things

scissors and things that cut

stamps and ink pads

paper scraps

paint and paint brushes

cards and blank paper already cut small

bigger things, crayons, buttons, etc.

Week 37: Geometric Paintings

Posted on September 26, 2011 by elizabeth

One of the things I wanted to get right in our new place was decorating, in the living room, especially. I had a lot of posters and things that I liked in my old place, and I wanted to keep them, but not necessarily in the same configuration, just so the new place felt like “our place” instead of just everything from my old place but with Dan now.

So I knew I wanted to hang my Keep Calm and Carry On poster above the couch, but I had a lot of trouble figuring out what to hang with it. At first I thought I’d buy prints from etsy or somewhere, but that got overwhelming really fast. I have a bunch of frames that I like but never knew how to use, including two worn-in white frames from my parents’ old bathroom. And then I realized that I could just make something to put in those frames, duh, and that I could then make sure the colors coordinated but didn’t match too twee-lee.

I bought a bunch of craft paint at AC Moore, and just used some extra white cardstock, cut down to 8×10 to fit into the frames. This was my first major hurricane project, done sitting on the floor next to the big glass doors out to our patio. Dan helped me pick the designs and the colors, so that made it feel much more “us” instead of just me.

I painstakingly cut painters tape into strips, the chevron being WAY TOO FUSSY I should have just used washi tape instead of paint why did I think this would be so easy and straightforward? Ugh.

Ahem. The stripes were easier, but I still cut the painters tape into narrow strips, trying to paint in a not-too perfect pattern.

The cardstock became clearly the wrong paper for the painters tape (washi tape would probably have been better, even for the same purpose) as it ripped the paper in some spots when I pulled it up. I tried not to be too much of a perfectionist about it, trying to convince myself that the sort of fuzzy lines go with the weathered frames just fine.

I finally hung them up this past weekend, in preparation for Dan’s parents coming over to see the new apartment for the first time, and added my old beer bottle cap wreath to balance it out. I’m so happy with how it looks now, and it’s such a nice sight to see as I come in to the apartment, and the colors obviously are super matchy with the afghan that I assume I’ll finish one day, and I couldn’t be happier. Except if the painters tape hadn’t torn the paper but… we’re not talking about that.

Week 36: Baby Shower Gifts

Posted on September 20, 2011 by elizabeth

We found out a few months ago that Dan’s youngest sister was pregnant, expecting their parents’ first grandchild. (A momentous occasion that I’m sure makes my own parents jealous.) Anyway, I knew that I wanted to make something for this future baby, just because it’s also going to be Dan’s first niece or nephew. I waited until we found out she was expecting a boy to plan my craft, and decided to make a small stroller-size blanket and hat to match.

Jeanette’s baby shower was this past weekend, and I finally got around to starting this project during the hurricane, and finished it over Labor Day weekend.

The hat is one I’ve now made a few times, and it always goes over so well that it’s hard to stop making it. I was hoping this one would end up more newborn-sized, but it’s probably going to fit Future Baby D when he’s a few months old. I added in the blue to the tassels to make it more of a set.

The braided tassels were mirrored in the blanket’s border. The blanket is from the Happy Hooker book and was simple and easy, but I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

And giving a handmade gift at a party where they make a big fuss out of the present-opening? Is pretty enjoyable. But mostly, I’m excited for Dan’s soon-to-arrive nephew and have already volunteered him to babysit, just so I can snuggle as often as I can.

Week 35: Fajita Chicken

Posted on September 5, 2011 by elizabeth

Dan and I haven’t cooked anything at home in a while, and when we were writing our grocery list on Saturday morning, we figured that we might as well make a nice dinner since we were making a big trip to the store to replace all of the food we lost during the power outage anyway. We had this amazing marinated chicken at our friends’ place last month, and Dan loved it so much that he’s been asking if we can make it ourselves ever since, so that seemed like the best thing to try.

The marinade (I’m not sure where Jess got it, but it might have been a Moosewood cookbook?) consisted of a jalapeno, garlic, lime juice, cilantro, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce and a few other things, and wasn’t too difficult to put together. The chicken marinated for about 15 minutes before we cooked it in a pan on the stove (note to self: get a grill pan, asap!). Confession: I haven’t ever cooked chicken this way, and we were trying really hard not to call my mom to ask for advice, just because we really need to start figuring this shit out for ourselves. I got a bit snippy at Dan during the process, just because I feel like I should know this already, and not be so grossed out by raw chicken at the age of thirty.

It worked out fine, and we worked well as a team cooking and cleaning as we went. We cooked three bell peppers in the same pan, and then rolled them into fajitas. It was SO TASTY I can’t even tell you. We couldn’t resist second helpings and didn’t end up with any leftovers at all. All in all? This wasn’t a difficult dinner, and one that we both really enjoyed. Plus? It wasn’t unhealthy, which is pretty huge, too.

Week 34: Pompoms

Posted on September 1, 2011 by elizabeth

When we first looked at our new apartment, it was hard to get past one thing: the awful, ugly mint green walls in the dining room. Because the space is so open, you can see it from wherever you sit in the living room, and I knew that it was something I wasn’t going to be able to get past. Not that I really wanted to paint… but luckily, my mom convinced me that painting was not as much of a hassle as I was making it out to be. We took the easy way out, and asked the landlord if we could paint the walls white. (As much as I love color, I also ADORE crisp white walls. And furniture. And actually? If I could have a totally white canvas then all of my too-brightly colored items would look even better!) So the weekend before we moved, my parents came up and the four of us painted the dining room walls white. And it made SUCH a huge difference; I only wish I had taken a before picture so you could see how awful it was before.

And as much as I adore the white walls, the longer we lived here, the more it seemed too empty. Too white. The fact that the table and chairs are white too didn’t really help. I have some ideas for how to decorate other spaces, and while I don’t want to NOT decorate, I also don’t want to go too crazy because I don’t know how long we’re going to be here and I’d like to avoid making extra holes/doing anything that might get us in trouble down the line.

And then it hit me. Tissue paper pompoms! I put them on my 30 Before 30 list last summer because I have absolutely adored them since I started seeing them everywhere on the internet way more than a year ago, but I never got around to it. (At just over a month into 30? This is TOTALLY counting.) Party decorations? How about all the TIME decorations? I wasn’t really sure I could convince Dan to let me make some to hang in the dining room, but I made a hard sell, because they are temporary, easy to make and hang, and most importantly, a simple way to add some color to such a big blank canvas.

(the tissue paper is from Target. I’m sure you’re shocked.)

(the first one definitely wasn’t the best, but I don’t think anyone other than me would be able to tell.)

Dan surprised me by agreeing to the idea, as long as I didn’t make pink ones. I’ve had the supplies for a while, and once I heard that the hurricane was coming, I knew the universe had aligned to make it happen. After we ate our power outage pb&js, I sat on the floor next to a window and used one of our trusty Lack end tables as work space. It was the perfect power outage craft, and I cranked out six of them before I realized it was probably time to stop. (I even made a pink one). I used Holly’s tutorial, which was super easy to follow.

(working with the wire is a pain, but it does the job so easily.)

(power outage snack: baby goldfish crackers!)

I even hung them up in the semi-darkness during the hurricane power outage, because once they were done I was WAY TOO excited to wait. (Dan actually never commented on the pink one.) I hung them using fishing line and the tiny Command hooks I buy every year to hang Christmas lights, and you can’t even see the fishing wire or little hooks from a distance.

(one day I won’t be too lazy to tidy up before taking pictures like this)

Overall, I don’t think I could be happier with this project. It’s fun, bright, and cheery, and if I get sick of them? No big deal. (But I really don’t think I’ll get sick of them.)

Week 33: Wide Angle Love

Posted on August 30, 2011 by elizabeth

I sometimes forget that I built an escape clause into this whole Handmade52 project, namely that photos could count if I needed them to. (Yes, again, that old refrain about how my own rules are too strict and I promise I can stop this project any time really I mean it blah blah.)

But a few weeks ago, I asked my friend Pete if I could borrow his wide angle camera lens, just for something different. I knew I wanted to get some good shots of our new apartment, and I figured it would come in handy during my brief trip up to Cape Cod, too.

I didn’t expect to love it so much that I kept “forgetting” to give it back. I guess I know what’s now at the top of my Camera Lenses I Would Buy Assuming I Had An Extra $700 Anyway list.

The lens is the Tokina 11-16mm, which is great indoors and just all around fantastic. I rarely took it off of my camera during the three weeks I had it, and I think I could do a lot of damage with a wide angle and the 50mm. Here are some of my favorite shots with the wide angle lens.

Week 32: Getting Settled

Posted on August 19, 2011 by elizabeth

I’m sure it’s nothing but obvious that at this point, I’m struggling with this Handmade52 project. Once the move was over and I finally had a moment to breathe, I just couldn’t muster much creative energy. I have a few ideas but following through on them… just hasn’t been happening. I’ve been so TIRED.

And as I was using my borrowed wide angle lens to take some photos of what our new apartment looks like, now that it’s almost at a point where I want to show it off to people, I realized that settling in, unpacking, arranging furniture and tchotkes is creative and handmade, too. It’s a bit of a stretch, but it’s not like I haven’t been doing things since I stopped counting them for this project. So. For week 32 of Handmade52, I’m counting getting settled into our new place, because I think we’re really close to being where we want to be, minus a few wall decorations. And that’s super good stuff.