january in review

* celebrated my 25th birthday.
* wired the dollhouse for electricity. (25 Things)
* picked up jewelry-making again.
* made awesome jewelry hanger/organizer.
* toured preschool at ECA and brainstormed for adding a preschool to Creekside.
* babysat betty, the cutest little toddler (under 2).
* was asked to perform heather's wedding in july.
* had french food at cafe de paris, in edmonds. (25 Things)
* ate a cupcake named kate. (25 Things)

25 Things: 7. Wire the dollhouse for electricity.

(originally posted on my blog at the original groupee.com social networking site.)

this was quite the little adventure... quite simple, just tedious.
flat wire tape, engineered specifically for dollhouses, is run through the house, connected at joints by little brass nails, which conduct the electricity into the intersecting wire. pretty neat. the hardest part (aside from handling the teeeeeny tiny brads) was deciding where all my lighting would go and wiring accordingly. it all felt so permanent (even though it's not, really).

the photo shows the initial test of the first run of wire - just to make sure the junction splice is properly set. the real trick is in testing each additional run after you connect it, to make sure that you set the nails properly, and that electricity is still flowing. there was some serious cheering going on when i tested the final run in the attic with success! Smiler

(now i just have to buy and install lighting. eek.)

a new fascination

(originally posted on my blog at the original groupee.com social networking site.)

i've discovered a new fascination: pinhole photography.

possibly the least complicated form of photography there is: a simple "camera" - usually a homemade box - with no lens and only a tiny hole in the front (hence the name) exposes one frame of film for several seconds, resulting in a dreamily soft image.

i always liked the look, but it's hard to find a lab that will process single frames of film, so i've never tried it. recently, i heard of a method for the dslr: drill a hole in the body cap, put the cap on the camera (no lens, of course), do some math to figure out the exposure time (or skip the math and just mess with the shutter speed until you like it, like i did), and shoot!

here are my two favorite takes from last night's experiment - can't decide which i like best. darned cat kept moving in the middle of each 30 second exposure... both have been minimally processed - noise filter to smooth some excessive noise, and a vignetting to add to that old-timey look. next, i'm venturing outside to try it in better light. Smiler

birthday in review

(originally posted on my blog at the original groupee.com social networking site.)

with a little forethought, i managed to celebrate my birthday every day from sunday - 1/6 through friday - 1/11 (albeit lightly, on some days). pretty clever, if i do say so myself. unfortunately, it seems old age has set in, because i can't for the life of me remember what i did monday or wednesday of that week... ah well - here's the rest of it for posterity's sake.

thursday, 3rd:
perhaps we started a little early, but it was all that would work with our schedules. visited matt's mom & sister for dinner & cake. discovered that my age no longer fits into 1 box of birthday candles, as my mother-in-law rummaged to find the 25th birthday candle.

sunday, 6th:
part 1: determined to locate the highly-sought-after cupkate, allie and i ventured into ballard to ruin our appetites and a do a little window shopping. no cupkates, had lavendar instead. bought a really fabulous hat.

part 2: dinner with family at a fabulous new thai place. we celebrated three birthdays - mom, aunt jodee and i. first time that's happened, i think. opened our presents together, blew out candles together, oohed and aahed over eachother's gifts. savoring a few of the last hours of jodee's visit, enjoying her company.

tuesday, 8th:
part 1: day off from work. met denise at the delicious new papersource in bellevue. went home and played in my studio. resisted the urge to straighten, tidy or clean anything.

part 2: picked matt up from work, who greeted me with starbucks and dark pink roses. yum. went to dinner at the melting pot, which is an event in itself. so fun.

thursday, 10th:
gift from dad arrived, for which i had been practically stalking the fedex guy. i was elated to find a new mobile hard drive, which will allow me to download photos directly from my memory cards for storage, without the use of my computer. great for traveling, which it seems i'll be doing a bit of this year.

friday, 11th:
there was this great restaurant in seattle - where i'd never had anything other than dessert, because it was served in the form of a 27 foot dessert buffet. i hadn't been there in a couple of years, but i drove by it a few months ago and thought "we should do that sometime". so i decided to have a birthday party with my friends there. made the invitations, had a 100% rsvp rate, and i was totally excited. due to a long day, i forgot to make a reservation for the 11 of us, so i was scrambling at 7:15 to find the phone number. our friends had just arrived to carpool down there, and we were still scarfing dinner. they called the make the reservation - but the line was disconnected. a little more research showed that this restaurant had closed, and was replaced by a restaurant that definitely did *not* have a 27 foot dessert buffet. bummer.

it took a few minutes to formulate the backup plan. my house was not clean enough for serious company, so we bumped the start time to 8:30, and called the guestlist. matt & mike were sent to hunt & gather (dessert) while allie, lani and i tidied, cleaned and decorated. white christmas lights were hung, miscellaneous ribbons were hung, candles were lit, coffee was made. we pulled it off. the rest of the party arrived just as the mighty hunters returned. the boys went out of their way to bring a true dessert buffet - fruit tart, 2 flavors of ice cream, frosted brownies, cheesecake sampler, tiramisu, a box of cupkates (at last!) from cupcake royale, and a special little chocolate "coffee cup" filled with mousse and decorated to look like a cappucino. our friends showed up with yet more dessert, and even after all 11 of us had had our fill, each went home with a box of leftovers. we were up late playing games, talking, laughing, taking pictures. in all honesty, plan B was better than plan A would've been, and my friends made me feel truly special.

25 Things: 15. Eat a cupcake named Kate.

(originally posted on my blog at the original groupee.com social networking site.)

A small vignette in a rather eventful evening celebrating my birthday with our friends last night (more later)... I have officially checked my first item of my list! Last night, I had a rematch with the cupcake named Kate ... aka, cupkate.

25 Things in my 25th Year

tomorrow marks my 25th birthday, and i think a quarter of a century is a pretty big milestone. if i were a car, i'd be an antique!

since my birthday falls so close to new years, i decided to skip resolutions and go for something a little different this year. with a little help from my family at my birthday dinner last night, i've compiled a list of 25 things i want to accomplish in this coming year... so, here we go:

[deep breath]

1. Read a classic novel.
2. Scrapbook our honeymoon.
3. Organize my music room.
4. Participate in Project 30: a photo a day for 30 days.
5. Finish my last year of Bible School.
6. See Seattle exhibit at MOHAI.
7. Wire the dollhouse for electricity.
8. Scrapbook my 2003 cruise to Mexico.
9. Upgrade my camera.
10. See Allie graduate in Boston.
11. Sew an article of clothing.
12. Grow two new herbs in my herb garden (total of 5).
13. Cook a new dish for each new herb.
14. Frame 6 of my favorite photographs.
15. Eat a cupcake named Kate.
16. Finish the interior of the dollhouse.
17. Watch 5 movies for AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list.
18. Reinvest our stocks.
19. Celebrate Lent.
20. Learn to swim properly.
21. Create my family tree on canvas.
22. Vote.
23. Grow peonies.
24. Eat at the Space Needle.
25. Try three new foreign cuisines.

so there it is. lots of thought and discussion went into this, and i'm excited to get started.

mini-renovations: ready for christmas

i wanted to post this *before* christmas, but in all honesty, the ...ahem... fresh-fallen snow on the roof-line just ...well... fell. Wink

so here we are - a little fun in time for christmas. everything is handmade, but the fencing and the kitten. the garland is made from green tinsel pipe-cleaners. the snow in the yard and on the fence-line is glittery white felt. the pink retro wreaths are pink pipe-cleaners, decorated with pearly beads and silver cord (they don't exactly "go", but they'll be replaced before next year anyway). i wish i'd put the christmas tree in the window, but i didn't get that far.

compared to the last album, we've come a long way (baby). new coat of paint, finished the trim. i have a few flaws to cover, and i think i'm going to add some more trim above the doorway/front windows. and figure out what to do about a front door, since none of the manufactured doors will fit the doorway (beaded curtains perhaps?)

oh, and to put it into perspective - the wreaths are about the size of a quarter.