Wordless Wednesday

At My House: The Little Things

 

I remember reading an article once about how the measure of "happiness" in one's life is far more a product of little everyday enjoyments than of big momentous ones like getting married, going on holiday, graduating, etc. I'm glad that it doesn't take much to make me happy -- the little stuff is more than enough. I look forward to things like my morning toast, a hot shower, listening to a good podcast, or time spent reading in bed in the evening. Especially now that I'm home with my two little ones, I rely on day-to-day pleasures to keep me sane and stimulated. Here are a few of the things that made me happy this week....

 Some new reading material....

The toy library....

 Making salt-dough beads....

 A perfect day in Picton spent with visiting family.  Cousins played, grown-ups talked,
and starfish, crabs, snails, and tiny fish were found under rocks on the beach as the tide went out....

 

 Flea market finds: wooden truck,  a beautiful piece of Nelson pottery, new
Lambert merino leggings (they are the absolute best thing to sleep in.  I have one well-loved pair.
It will be good to have two) and strawberry seedlings.  Total, $12.00....

Birthday-gift train set from Ikea.  Endless combinations, endless hours of play....

These incredibly beautiful alphabet cards with illustrations by Charley Harper.
One side has letter flashcards and the other creates two stunning floor puzzles.
I bought them originally for Aya's birthday, and then held on to them for thinking that
Solomon would enjoy them more.  Finally, I thought "Nah, I love them too much to see them
chewed on or lost."  So they're mine, all mine.  (But as you can see, I share sometimes....)

By the way, if you have the time, do follow the link to see more of Charley Harper's incredible wildlife illustrations.  I'd never heard of him before I found the flashcards, but they are so so beautiful.

Hope you have had a week filled with little happinesses too.

ps  This is my first week participating with At My House...  Visit a few other homes here, on Buttons By Lou Lou. 

Wordless Wednesday

Baby, Unwrangled.

Um, taking pictures with babies (particularly mobile babies with minds of their own) is hard.  Hard!  I can see why the professionals hire baby wranglers.  I always think photos with baby products are so much more appealing with actual babies in them.  So, to better depict a new design for my line of organic baby blankets, I decided to give it a shot.  I was envisioning my babe beautifully swaddled and looking serenely adorable; the photo would of course show both the print on the body of the blanket and the one on the hood.  I made sure Aya was clean as a whistle and well-fed, and that we had a neutral background and good light.  All perfectly planned, right?   Well, you can see for yourself how things developed.

First this:

Then this:

This:

And finally.... this:

Lesson learned. 

My Creative Space: Texting

During this trip, I've become well acquainted with "text" mode on my camera.  It produces photos with deep contrasts and rich colors -- to be honest I've been using it for more than text (see all of the photos from my previous post, for instance.)  But it's also inspired me to pay attention to far more everyday fonts than I normally would.  Here are a collection of just a few from the past several weeks.

Coincidentally, I've been working on the design of a new label for Seedling Clothing and have been checking out the wealth of inspiration available (and free to download) at www.dafont.com.  Overwhelming and amazing, both.  I'll share the new label design with you when it's all completed.

Ps, don't you love "Welcome to Freshness?"  I should have that one hanging over my desk.  And my favorite of these, by far is the first -- the 1930's era furnace still going strong in the basement here.   Beautiful....

Pps, check out many more amazing creatives and their spaces over on Kootoyoo.  I'm happy to be joining in this week - - it's been a while....!

East

This post will mostly just consist of photos - - we've been traveling a lot.  A lot a lot.  In the past three weeks, we've slept in 8 different places.  Boy, are we ready to unpack and stay put.  Our family has returned to Montana now, where we'll stay for a few more weeks before finally, finally retuning home to New Zealand.  It's been a wonderful trip, and time with family has been amazing.  All the same, I imagine that settling into the quiet of our daily life will feel very peaceful and right once all of the travel has come to an end.  Reassuring to think that even when this once-in-a-lifetime trip has finished, there is still much to look forward to.

Anyway, prior to this we've spent some time in the East -- mostly on an island in the Isles of Shoals.  It is an intentionally un-techy sort of place, so we didn't bring our computer with us.  It was nice to feel a bit disconnected; but now of course, I appreciate being in touch with the wider world again.   Hello, world -- it's good to be back!

These photos are from Star Island -- the first was taken by my husband, Jake.
 

Less than a week from now my husband and I will have another wedding celebration lakeside; we were married a while back in the Abel Tasman, but now it's time to include our American family and friends.  Our celebration will be pretty laid-back:  swimming, BBQ, homemade pies, and an awesome bluegrassy band.  I imagine the next few days will feel pretty full as guests arrive, we complete some (er, all) last minute details and finally finalize our vows and the ceremony (eep!)  Wish us luck.

 PS. As soon as I can dig my camera out of my bag, I'll take a few shots of the gorgeous shawl I won over at Maehe Girl and share them with you.   It's gorgeous.  Thank you so much Cadi!

Photos: Unedited

My new thing: bare-bones photography.  I've been challenging myself to take photos and use only the settings on the camera to alter the effects.  If the picture doesn't turn out, it doesn't turn out -- no Photoshop allowed.   In some ways, it's refreshing.  In others, frustrating.  But I think making a few arbitrary rules like this will help me to become a better photographer now, when I have the time to mess around endlessly.  A few selections below -- perhaps editing could make these better, but here they are, as is:

Most of these were taken not from our house, but from the home of a family friend, where we spent yesterday evening at a fourth-of-July picnic.  The one at the very top was taken from our moving car; I desperately wanted to stop and take more photos of these beautiful, startlingly yellow fields, but impatient kids who have probably spent far too much time in the car recently made that somewhat impossible.  Maybe I'll be able to sneak away and take a few more photos at this spot some other day....

My Creative Space

 For the past week, my creative space has been primarily in my head -- lots of ideas and lots of living and soaking up experiences. However, one thing that's more concrete and creatively satisfying has been figuring out my 5+ year-old digital camera a bit more.  For the longest time I've been convinced that if I bought a new camera, all of my photography woes would be solved.  I subscribe to the Etsy newsletter (though I have yet to set up my Etsy shop....) and again and again I've read about studying one's camera (and camera manual) and learning to take better photos.  Well, through much much experimentation, I finally feel as though my old camera and I are getting to know one another a bit better.  I'm even growing rather attached.  You could say we're becoming friends. 

This evening I took a walk through the meadow behind our home here as the sun set and a thunderstorm gathered; along the walk (which ends in my great-grandfather's apple orchard) I also took a few photos.  I'm getting to the point of liking the photos my camera and I take even without any editing (aside from a little cropping.)  Huge progress!  And fun to boot.   I won't be replacing this camera anytime soon.  Isn't it satisfying to learn to work with what you've got rather than rush out and buy the latest new-fangled thing?  I feel like I get this reminder all the time: everything I need, I already have.

Check out many other creative spaces here, on Kootoyoo.  Always a pleasure.....