Low, the winter is past...

...or at least all the crocuses think so.

Today is almost preposterously balmy.  There were thunderstorms last night (thunderstorms! in February!) and more thunderstorms are predicted for this afternoon.  However, sandwiched in between the tumultuous weather, is this little slice of spring bliss more suited to May 1st than Leap Day.

I simply had to capture the loveliness and share it with you.

The crocuses are little colonies of woodsy color in amongst the weathered seed pods and stalks of last year.  They are so small that they just add grace notes to all the browns and dull greens without displacing them.

There are signs of new growth, too.  My sedum is sending up its first little clusters.  It will be a verdant, hanging green carpet come April.

 Mom puts plastic cutlery in some of her planters and beds to keep the stray cats out of it.  It works, but it always look as if teenagers had been playing pranks on us.

The daffodil buds are already blushing yellow.  They might start blooming as early as next week.  Below are some of my favorite tulips.  They bloom a variegated pink, but they have such fun leaves!

Isn't the striping at the base of this crocus delicious?

I germinated some bachelor's buttons seeds that were at least 3 years old, expecting about a third of them to sprout.  Instead, they ALL did.  I'll just have to be extra careful when I transplant them outside, teasing them apart so I can space them properly.

 they're so twisty and cute!

I've been growing bare-root plants in hanging containers (mostly glass soda bottles).  Their vibrant green has cheered me through the long winter months.  I love the sinuous curves they make.
They seem to really like their glass vessels.  They have grown and thrived.

Last, but not least, are my bonsai seedlings.  I only got two of them to sprout effectively, but I look forward very much to nurturing them into adult bonsais.

Grace notes.

I took a photo walk today around my neighborhood.
It was and was not pleasant.  The day was beautiful, for February, but my neighborhood is not.  There are so many well-built houses, but many of them are abandoned and actively decomposing.  There is litter everywhere.  The houses that are lived in and kept up look pretty good, though a lot of them are obviously maintained on very little money.  The decomposition is rampant, with as many as three condemned houses in a row, or half the houses on a block.

These houses used to shelter families.  They each had character and were quietly proud of themselves.  Now...

Anyway, the pictures make me too angry, so I'm not showing them to you yet.  It was hard enough just photographing them.  Instead, I'm showing the beauty I found, even among the wreckage.

It's a somber, melancholy beauty, mostly because the only thing that's looking rich and luxuriant right now are mosses clinging to gnarled tree roots or shady bits of lawns.  It's the end of february, and the bare stalks of winter are slowly disintegrating into incoherent muddiness in preparation for the new growth of March and April.
The damp and gray matched the neighborhood, and my mood.

editing wedding pictures

I've been finishing the final edits for my sister's wedding photography.

It's been an interesting time.  I learn more and more about the nuances of color correcting as I go.  It's a cold sort of task, all sliding bars and numbers, rebounding numbingly off of my visual intuition.
It's frequently frustrating, because of the way each color is intertwined with the next, and the way the color casts of light sources interact with each other.

However, there are moments of obscure triumph.  They are moments that no one else is impressed with, because the best result is an ordinary photograph, but a perfectly exposed one.

Then, there are the exceptions.  While I'm processing away, there are a few photos where I spontaneously try something, just to see what would happen.
I should explain: I don't much believe in digital editing "tricks" like sepia toned vignetting, fuzzing out the edges, only saturating a single color, or randomly turning things black and white because it looks more "arty." For me, if one of my pictures needs a "trick" to look interesting, then it's probably not a very strong picture.

However, some pictures cry out to be black and white.  Others go from ordinary/distracting, to stunning with selective saturation.  I'm still not sold on random sepia tones.

These pictures are the exceptions, and incidentally, were the most fun to edit.

In the original, the background of this is all bright greenery.  I feel the desaturation lets you focus on his face.

I like these pictures so much better cropped.  Without the crop, they're just snapshots.

 there was a picture hanging on the wall. I felt it distracted from the subject.

 It's a subtle edit, but I crowed aloud when I got the color balance of the people and the yellow lit ceiling agreeing with one another.

 I can't decide which version I prefer.  I like them both for different reasons.

I loved recovering the blue of the sky, with the streaming clouds. Such lovely weather, for November.

This one is edited too, but I won't tell you how. ; )

Look what I made!

There are items that have been lurking on my crafting to-do list for far too long.  Well, no more!
I've been kicking butt and taking names, busting out project after project.

These pictures represent a sampling of what I've been up to.

The doily is a project for a friend.  My favorite parts are the yellow french knots making "petals" on the small daisy, and the whipped running stitch border, neither of which were in the original printed design.
It's interesting to me how much leeway is left once the design has been determined.  Not only are the color choices completely up to the sewer, but choice of stitch as well, which means the same design can have a very different look and texture, depending on what stitches are used.


I made this pint-sized dress for my niece that's on the way, using this pattern and tutorial from Sew Much Ado.  She has great tutorials and tips.  The pattern worked great.  I had no problem sewing it, even though I've never inserted elastic before.

I added the ruffle to the design. The ruffle means that it'll go down to her ankles.  Can't you just imagine her little toes kicking out of it!

I carefully trimmed it with the tiniest lace imaginable, a gift from my aunt.

This dress is a modification of Made By Rae's itty-bitty baby dress.
Instead of finishing the shoulder straps with ties, I converted them to a button closure, so the straps would fit better under sweaters and jackets.

Then I trimmed the bottom edge with a ruffle salvaged off of an old blouse, and added a whipped running stitch border to the front bodice edge and around the hem.

These are some headbands I made for my niece.  Her school's uniform guidelines specify that she can't wear hair accessories unless they match the uniform.  So, her mother kindly saved me some uniform bits she'd outgrown, and I recovered and accessorized some headbands for her.

Here she is, happily modeling one for me.

Doesn't she look like she's going to turn 14 any minute, even though she's 9.  She's grown at least 3 inches in the past 8 months.  I yi yi.

The last project isn't finished, but I thought I'd give you a sneak peak anyway.  I've been working on printable wedding suites that brides could download and print themselves.  This way, they could save money, but also have gorgeous invitations. This suite is based on traditional Mehndi designs.

I love having a project going that encourages me to draw.

Baby bumps

Yesterday, we threw a baby shower for my sister.  She was besieged by presents and love.

Afterwards, I grabbed my sister and we went out to her backyard for the quickest photo shoot ever, before she headed off to a late mass.  The light was soft and golden, and I finally got the baby bump photos I've been searching for.

You can tell how much she's looking forward to this little girl.

The baby shower went well.
We hung the house with garlands.  They're the same ones we used to decorate her May wedding, almost 9 months ago.

I have to confess something:

Sometimes, I feel like showers are just polite packaging around a gift giving ceremony.  I respect that, because people need the gifts and their loved ones want to give them good things, but that doesn't make the party very enjoyable.  However, this one was actually fun.

We played a couple games, but my runaway favorite was one where we split into teams and made fake baby bellies. The teams were instructed to pick a model, and using saran wrap and a pillow, make a baby bump.  The team who's baby bump most closely matched Sarah's won.  Much hilarity ensued.

Annie got extra into her role, putting the pillow underneath her shirt and tucking it into her pants to get the right shape.  She also did an uncannily good pregnancy waddle, hand propped on her hip to support her "aching back."