Happy 2012

I am pretty sure I did not have a single blog post in 2011. I am not making any promises that 2012 will be much better, but here I am today with some photos of vintage dresses that I took for my mother-in-law. She wanted pictures before she turned them into a new Communion dress for my niece. My niece will get a dress that is made from her mother and two grandmother's dresses, which brings reduce, reuse, recycle to a whole other level of meaningfulness.

First Frost

My New Etsy Store!

I decided to try my hand at another shop. PinholePix is now open for business! As you can tell from the name, I will focus on my pinhole photos. I may expand to include some Holga photos too, but I am not sure. Stop by and let me know what you think!

Fall Pinhole Photos

A while back, when we were at Carter Hill Orchard, I took a lot of pinhole photos. It has been rainy and cloudy for a few days and seeing the blue skies and bright sun makes me wish we weren't just starting to get into the cold, winter weather, and that spring was just around the corner.

Yikes, it's going to be a long winter. At least we have a cozy place and a cozy kitty to help us survive the long winter days. Anyway, here are a few pinhole photos from the orchard, you can see the rest on flickr.

Season of Donuts

In my absence I have been very busy. Eating donuts. We went to Wilson Farms for fresh cider donuts, not once, not twice, but weekly for about 6 weeks. Lucky for me, the craving has largely passed (or at least I can occasionally say no when we are there for produce). Here are a few photos of the glorious donuts and other fall ephemera there. Mmmm, donuts...

Apple Picking Heaven

Saturday was the most gorgeous day for our annual trip to the orchard. There were so many apples! I have never seen such an amazing crop. It even looked like some trees/branches broke under the weight of the apples. We also came across two beautiful plum trees.

My husband and I roamed around the grounds and I took a lot of pinhole photos. I ended up taking 6 rolls this weekend and you will see some of them in the next week or so.

Anyway, here are some regular photos from the day. I wish every day could be like Saturday - sunny, breezy, and rounded out with giant homemade peanut butter cookies...

Seattle: Market

Pike Place Market was crowded and touristy, but like everyone else there I fell in love with the stalls filled with fresh produce and gorgeous flowers. The market also ended up being one of my go to places for lunch, but more on that later. I don't know if peonies always grow in the Northwest, or if it was their season, but there were millions at the market when I was there in June.

Here are some photos that I took. There are more on flickr.

Long Lost Summer

After a hiatus of, oh 3 months, I have returned. I told myself that I would keep up with the blog during my move and everything else the summer threw at me, but alas, I did not. So picking up where I left off, I wanted to share some pinhole photos I took in the spring of the flowering trees before the fall completely takes over. You can see more on my flickr account.

Then, while kids everywhere go back to school, I will join them in their first essay assignment and over the next few days I will share with you what I did over my summer "vacation."

Through the Pinhole

Over the long weekend we were in Pennsylvania visiting family and I took advantage of the time and weather and took some pinhole photos of our environs. Here are a few of my favorites, you can see more here.

La Vie en Rose - Yvette Inufio

I can't get over how gorgeous Yvette Inufio's photostream is. The above mosaic is just one of her amazing sets, called La Vie en Rose. I also love her set of Still Lifes at Home. Best of all - she also has an Etsy shop. This is my absolute favorite photo. If all goes well, we will be moving in a few months (more on that later). I might need to get a print as a house warming present for myself!

Pinhole Happy

These are a couple pinhole pictures I took last weekend. It has been a while since I used my pinhole camera. I broke it out because I have been in a card funk and haven't liked any of my designs lately so I thought doing something different might help.

It was fun walking around my mom's house taking pictures. Sometimes the snow was up to my knees if I fell through all the way. Now most of it must be gone, thankfully. For years all I did was take photos, and then I got to a point where I was so critical of myself, such a perfectionist, and put so much pressure on myself that I couldn't take pictures anymore. It became so cerebral it wasn't fun. It was like I strangled the creativity out of me when it came to photography.

What is that anyway? I am better now about creative stuff now and take it easy on myself, but I am just now getting back to photography a bit. It is fun again, which is nice. Have any of you ever done that? Over thought your art and/or craft so you just had to walk away for a while?

Anyway, you can see more pinhole photos at my flickr photostream. I will be working on some wedding photos to match the save the dates I did recently, and I am excited about them. That will also help get me out of my card funk. That and spring!

Tilt Your Shift

I learned about tiltshiftmaker.com on Modish yesterday and had to try it with some of my photos. So fun! Don't they look like miniatures? The boats kill me. You have to try it.



OK, I'm messing with you, the third photo is actually of a miniature room. All this talk of miniatures reminded me how awesome the Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago are. My mom took this photo there when she was visiting me once. Check out these other tiny rooms. Another thing I will go see when we finally get to go back to Chicago. Hopefully soon!

Natural Fit

I finally made it to the Harvard Museum of Natural History over the weekend. I was really looking forward to seeing the glass flowers and the sea creatures in glass and wasn't disappointed.

The above is a photo I took of a snail shell. The funny thing is I was so excited to see as much as possible I forgot to check and see if it was real or if it was glass. You wouldn't think it would be so hard to distinguish between the two, but the amazing thing about these pieces of art/science is that it is truly impossible to tell. The flowers are botanically accurate beyond comprehension. You can only wonder at the mind and creative focus that could create them.

Here are some photos that in no way do them justice. For a real close look (if you can't make it to Cambridge to see them) I recommend The Glass Flowers at Harvard.



And here is one of the glass jellyfish:
You have to go see them all yourself if you are ever in town. Sunday mornings are free for MA residents, but be prepared for a crowd. You can see some more photos in my photostream.

Friday Find - Miniature Chicago

I have not posted much this week. It was one of those weeks at work that's completely draining. I haven't had much going on upstairs except "get through this week," "I'm tired," "uhg" and I knew you didn't want to read 5 posts about that. The other thing on me and my husband's mind lately is going back to Chicago for a mini vacation. That is where we met and we have been swept up in nostalgia lately.

Since we won't be going anytime soon, and I needed to escape right now, I was thrilled to find James Spicer's alluring Miniature Chicago Neighborhood Scenes. These are three photos from his set of 5. Check out all his other great, tiny worlds.




I want to be there now. Oh well, at least it's Friday.

Pretty Polaroids

I love these gorgeous polaroids from kristiana parn's photostream.

Chambers Street, NYC

Autumn Flowers

Finally on Flickr

OK, so it took me a while, but now I have a photostream on Flickr. I spent the day uploading older photos, and I am pretty much caught up now. From here on out you'll see new photos of my Etsy stuff and my other adventures. Visit me at flickr.com/photos/paperwren.

This is a photo of my Remington (pre cleaning) that you will see on Flickr along with some other shots of it.