eleven.

I've always been fond of eleven.  It is truly a great number to spell out!  It's so much fun.  It has a v.

So I almost made it ten days in a row.  Then I almost made it eleven days in a row... Almost is the key word here.  Or... totally... not almost.

This Saturday was a very successful shoot with beautiful Hilary Barrett and Rachael Strawn.  I don't purposefully become friends with beautiful charismatic people.  I don't choose my friends with my photography career in the back of my mind.  I swear.  That is one thing that does not happen.  Promise.

So we had a fun twist on the totally sexy 50's housewife.  And not to make it an objectifying theme (as a feminist on the inside, I have opinions on these matters) we've truly made this shoot a homage to totally sexy newly-wed women (next week we'll have a shoot of men, run ragged from their new responsibility, possibly being fed brownies by their gorgeous wives).

ten.

another lighting assignment.

Yeah.

Lexicon.

Sometimes I just feel like I need to write.  It feels good just to type, and to see the volume of my vocabulary and understanding of basic sentence structure fill a page.  I find it interesting that even though I used to thrive on creative writing, the happier I become with my life, the harder it is to spend time in an imaginary one.  I wonder how many writers find themselves in a similar predicament?

As I've become sucked into the popular crime show Bones I enjoy the way that Dr. Brennan speaks through mouthfuls of vocabulary.  I know that there are so many words that exist in the English language, and somehow I have even attained a degree, without even having to know or understand a great majority of them.  I can read Shakespeare and at least have an understanding enough to laugh at about every fourth joke, but there really are so many great words that I am not taking advantage of.

When I was in middle school and high school I found that my wider vocabulary often set me apart from my peers.  Even in college, some of my favorite phrases drew uncomfortable looks from those around me.  Not to say that my favorite phrases were in any way inappropriate or uncouth, but simply unpopular.  I can't stand the way it has become unpopular to be smart, although I certainly understand the vexation caused by those who enjoy putting their wits on display.  It is a difficult line to walk, to use your knowledge, but not flaunt it.

Nine.

SO I promise I had a wonderfully full and eventful weekend, and that's why I totally ignored my new commitment to myself.  Sometimes it just feels good to ignore a commitment to yourself.  Especially when hormones are raging.  It especially feels good to ignore a commitment to yourself while hormones are raging, and there is no end in sight, and no victory to be won.  Until there's ice cream or nachos in sight, that's pretty much how it goes down.  To be fair, I ditched my yoga class in conjunction with ditching out on my blog.

BUT I did take my crazy, out of control Friday, and ran around with my camera.  Or rather, Eryn Chiu Neff ran around, and I photographed her.  Here's just one image, that comes from my inspirational idea of where I've been, and where I am now.  Granted, I don't run around in high heels, but boy do I love making my friends feel the pain for my own glory!

This idea originated from my assignment in film class (notice how I went digital instead) that is all about studying motion.  The fun part about this shoot with Eryn, is that I was able to take many of the photographs sequentially, leading Eryn to say, as she flipped through these fabulous images, "It's amazing what the human body can do."  I think that's just another testament to the genius ideas of Eadweard Muybridge, who photographed the first action photographs!  Check out this awesome study of human movement!

Eadweard Muybridge

This incredible wonder, the ability to stop motion took photographers to amazing places!  It lead me straight to this wonderfully girly and inspirational photograph by fashion photographer Richard Avedon. It's a little bit girly... but a little bit more "Wonder Woman Goes Shopping."  Gotta love that!

Richard Avedon

Photography; I like it.

Eight.

For my photos of the day I have to show off some of the super fun interior design I've been creating in my new house!  These first two images are of my "Super sweet, New York loft art," as Brittney Vega put it.  After three grueling (but wonderful) hours of shopping at Ikea, I found myself with two and a half yards of this incredible dandelion fabric, and not much of a clue of what I was going to do with it.  It just so happened that my mother in law had a frame she had made during her art studies at the U of A.  So I stole it.  I used a staple gun, and in about an hour I had this clean, beautiful, modern piece of art.  But what use is a piece of art if there's no matching accents around the room?  So I chopped up the left over yard of fabric into rectangles, sewed up the edges, and after two bags of stuffing, I had a super cute (and comfy) accent!

My other super fun project in in our bedroom (please ignore the junk on the tables, and the messy bed!).  I bought these various different picture frames at Dollar Tree.  I ripped out the back board and glass, and spray painted them red!  The right shade of red took a couple of tries to find, but thanks to the many choices at Lowe's I was able to find one that gave the perfect pop of color.  I love the way the picture frames all together look like an art installation, rather than separate pieces, and up close they are pretty interesting to look at!

 To decorate in an inexpensive way, when I have an inspiration, I make it a point to stop at Ross often.  It a very good place to find exactly what a room needs.  I found the wall clock for $13.99, and the white vase for $7.99.  I'm still looking for the perfectly red flower to put a pop of color in the vase.

As for the artsy fartsy photography bit, I thought these two photos were sloppily composed, but still fun! This room may have photographic potential very soon.

Seven.

Film is fun.  This photograph is part of my project, to show my past, and my current interests, or the girl who was, and the woman who is.  This photograph is my depiction of the girl who grew up, or in other words, the Toy Story perspective.

Six.

Day six!  Today I got to spend a wonderfully long time in the dark room, smelling all of those perfectly mixed chemicals for a time much longer than I really want to admit to myself.  So I take a deep breath (or two or three) and forget the smell of chemicals, and confess that I could have stayed in that darkroom all day.  Were it not for the bane of my existence, my appetite, I would have gone through my entire package of Ilford pearl paper without a hint of a break.  So here's what I did.

Love.