Life In Color

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's????

I need to catch you up on everything, but first, let's take a minuet to see what Bj and I saw on our drive up to the Tri-Cities to visit his parent's. I didn't get the first shots of it since I had to reach for my camera, but basically it looked like the weird smoke monster from Lost. It was crazy. This sequence is about 20-30 seconds.

a cloud?

smoke?

it's birds!!!

um, what?

And it wasn't even windy. I mean maybe a little up there, but not enough to drive the birds this nuts.

I asked Bj, "What were they doing?"

Bj, "I think they were prepping for nationals."

edited to add: Erin's dad (a bird lover) says: "The only birds here that flock and swirl in such large numbers are Starlings (with a few Brewers Blackbirds mixed in).  Not sure why they swirl in groups, but suspect a social aspect."

The Pence Family

Last night was a little get together for my dad's side of the family at my aunt and uncles, low key, dinner and games. The thing is we get serious with our games:

I love that picture. Here we're playing electronic catchphrase (boys versus girls). So the guys try to get the other guys to say what is on the screen, and the gals do the same thing, thus the alternate seating. My family is very loud and if you want to be heard at all you best keep up with the shouting.

Bj's low dose yelling, hehehe. The thing I love about our family the most is our story telling. I think we have a great tradition of oral stories. And on these types of nights everyone brings one out. Usually it's an accident, or near accident told in a funny way. You can poke fun at others as long as you say something about yourself first, like the time an electric hand sander leapt up into your hair (my aunt cindi), or the time you tried to teach your son to boogy-board and ended up getting "pile-drived" into the sand, walking around the rest of the trip with a patch of skin missing on your forehead and being called Gorbachev (my uncle Brad).  I mostly sat around and listened/laughed so hard I cried.

(My second cousin "Reno") So yes, we're crazy. But I love it. And I love that we yell at games and laugh at each other, and tell stories. Now it is Christmas Eve and I really am going to go finish all those gifts, swear!

Christmas Crafting - Crunch time

Oh my goodness look how close it's getting to Christmas:

Card garland getting very full, lots of Christmas love from everyone, happy, happy! Last night was my grandma's "famous" (in our circles) Christmas party. Grandma has a tiny little house but she always hosts this thing and dozens and dozens of people come. I told Tex about it and since I think she's secretly doing a field study on my family (we are a very interesting lot to watch I'm sure), she agreed to pop in with Martin. Too fun:

See my dress/coat thing? My mom made that for me my freshman year of high school a whole 12 years ago. It's fully lined and has these fabulous buttons. I should really find some pictures of me in it from back then, I wore it with weird boots I think, and buttoned all the way up. I put a fun skirt under it this time with silver sparkly shoes and left the bottom half open. Yeah for re-purposing old clothes! Bj's not a huge fan, but he can pretend:

I gave him a haircut yesterday while he was joking with me and making me giggle, I'm surprised he has any hair left, dork. I was all, "dude, I have clippers in my hand are you insane?" The host of the hour:

My grandma with my mom and aunt Dyann, aren't they cute together. And tiny, we're all pretty short, it's like a special club. Seeing Bj give my grandma a hug is so so funny and cute, he's about a foot and a half taller than her!  More Christmas cheer, this time from across the pond:

Kay sent me Christmas goodies, yeah! But boo because I should have opened the packet before I left for the party. The scarf she sent me (did you make it Kay?)  would have gone perfectly with my dress. I guess it's going to have to make another appearance this season Beeg. Lots of fun little bits to play with, thank you so much Kay! The quilter's pins I need to go use right now as I still have major crafting to do. I keep saying that and it keeps being true. But I've taken the nessesery steps to ensure I can continue at crazy Amber pace; a balanced breakfast (Juanita's, jalopeno artichoke dip, beef jerky, golden oreos, Newman's Own pink lemonade, and Diet Coke), Christmas music (well okay Timbaland's Apologize on repeat), and a little bit of my family's favorite Christmas movie, Christmas Vacation:

Todd: "Well something obviously had to break the window, something had to hit the stereo."

Margo: "And why is the carpet all wet Todd?"

Todd: "I don't know Margo!"

LOLOLOLOL That last line might be one of my favorite ever! (oh I found it on YouTube here) That reminds me, remember last year when a Todd lookalike came over to fix my Mac? Good times.   

Christmas Crafting - Violet's Dress

I showed bits of Violet's dress in my last Ribbon Jar newsletter, but I finally got to see her in it, and it is just as cute as I thought it would be!

And the back with the Violet tag I made from Herringbone ribbon.

This is a vintage pattern, Simplicity 8047 size 2 toddler. Copy write 1977. I wish I could find this pattern in the next size up, I love it. I would change things a little bit next time, I think it would be really easy to make this a reversible jumper. Oh also the pattern includes an overall option. I left off the pocket, and stuffed toy that goes in the pocket. If anyone has any great toddler patterns that are available today in stores let me know what they are, I can't seem to find any that I like. I love vintage patterns!

Cemetery Quick Stop

Emilie and I stopped at the old pioneer cemetery on our way to mail packages today. Just a quick 15 minuets to shoot. I'm teaching her some basics, she did great. Later we edited them in Lightroom, which I am liking more and more. I still use photoshop when needed, or wanted, but for basic editing/photo organization it rocks. Anyway some shots:

Emilie's skin tone looks so good in dusk light.

I think she has that classic look.

That's looking back up into the modern cemetery, the two are sandwiched next to each other. I have a bunch of relatives in there. Weird to think about really. And some of Emilie's shots:

I edited that one, and she played around with the software to create this:

I think I'm going to make up some basic lessons for her for our Tuesday's in the new year.

Photo shoot - B

On Friday I did my first non-family photo shoot (counting V as family of course). I was excited and a bit nervous as I hadn't been to the house in years (they are a family friend) and I was curious if I could just go into a house I wasn't familiar with and a baby I didn't really know and get some good images with out scouting out the location. I was hoping to walk away with 25 images or so to put on a disc for B's parent's. I just finished going through and editing and I have 50 images that I love (a couple are multiples in black and white). Here are some of my favorites:

The old bathtub trick never lets you down!

I think the whole outfit was from Target, at least I know the tights were, I asked because I thought they were so cute!

I just carried her around and plopped her here and there, so fun.

That's without processing on those eyes, they are to die for no? Swoon I love them.

Here mom wanted some of her eating fishies, and I'm so glad because she made the funniest faces.

I created my own action in photoshop to make the watermark but I don't know why it stretched itself out in horizontal photos. Boo, I'll have to figure that out.

Mini fishies! And Violet also has this high chair. I'm not sure where it's from but it is ten times better than those new plastic monstrosities they make now with like pastel fabric (barf). Although if you do have one, check out what Heather Bailey did to hers here. Now that's an upgrade.

She can stand only with help, cute wobbly baby legs.

So honestly what do you think? I didn't charge them, they hired me to do her birthday party in a couple of months so I wanted to get some experience in before I took money from anyone.  I don't really know where I'm going photography wise, I love it and it's always been a great hobby for me. As part of my studio art major I took traditional (black and white film) photography classes and found that to be a great creative outlet.  Um, and the playing with cute little kids thing? That is a definite plus!

Crafty Day + Tree Skirt

Yesterday I had another craft day in the "lower level." It was so fun having people pop in and out from 9-9. Sciarrino brought muffins to start off the day, then Sarah joined us with a couple of her friends from Corvallis, one of them it turned out Sciarrino and I knew from crew (small world). Tex popped in, as did my mom, my neighbor Tracy, her daughter, then her daughter's friends, and a new friend of mine who works with my brother. So much fun!

And I did manage to snap at least one photo. The not so fun part was me deciding I would whip out a tree skirt before I started on other projects. Let me save you some hassle right now: buy one. I don't say this often but UGH it was crazy annoying to make. Tons of fabric, wrong size, and um, a circle! I did finish though (12 hours later):

I guess I also pieced another quilt top and bottom, but when you see how easy that is you won't be thinking I'm so very fabulous. I did have fun tying the tree skirt around myself and making Sciarrino laugh by plopping myself on the floor, raising my arms and making like a tree. I think you had to be there, I was so tired and not quite thinking correctly.

Anyway see up there how I have my hair cut? And I have it tucked behind my ears? Well Bj loves it when I don't do the ear tucking thing, like blow dry it and let it be next to my face, the only thing is it goes in front of my face, like in my eyes all day. If you have my length hair how do you wear it not tucked behind your ears? I've seen tons of people do this, but my left eye just ends up covered all day long or I find myself shaking my hair back like I've got a rare seizure (I couldn't think of that word so I had to just go lay on the floor pretending to have one and ask Bj what that's called, LOL) disorder. So ya, ideas? Products?

Sneek Peek

There has been lots of Christmas crafting going on over here, and much that I can't show. But after spending days stitching binding a quilt I had to brag about it a little. So I had Bj curl up with the project to give you a little taste:

Mmmm yummy right? I want to keep it. Sciarrino asked me last night if I ever get gifts and then keep them for myself. Well I try not to, but somethings this year I really, really want to keep! But I won't have time to craft for myself as some how there is only 10 days left to Christmas and I have no less than 8 handmade projects to finish. Oh my!

And solution

(bare with me while I figure out how to develop in light room). I love all your ideas! So many good ones. I read a few before I set out for the day, and Sarah's stuck in my head. I of course have a ton of ribbon, including this green satin that was accidentally cut wrong before my wedding. I simply knotted it and stuck red pins in the crack of my pew to hold it up. I found some metallic green paper clips at Target today to hold the cards to the ribbon. Easy, done and done. Although I do thing I might do the one suggested by Nikki for everyday correspondence in my craft studio. And from other corners of the room:

Hello.

Christmas Cards!

Okay so I just sent out a big stack of cards today, still waiting on a few addresses, but most are out. And I got my first three as well (one featuring a photo I took - I feel so special!). So now I need some cute way to display them. I've never gotten more than a few, but as I'm married and all grown up now I think I might get a fair sized stack. So comment with link or ideas on how to display them, pretty please!