I was looking through my stats on Flickr to see what’s going on with my photos. I was surprised to see some references to Double Bass message boards linking to my Flickr pictures. Hmmm…
Ahh, filters. Apparently, it’s a slightly controversial topic among photographers (touched on somewhat in this thread). The con side seems to view them as gimmicky and something that gets in the way of capturing an image. Essentially, more junk for hobbyists to buy and distract them. The pro side views them as a tool for creating the image they are looking to get; that they can add some artistry or interest to some otherwise flat shots.
In addition to our Canon Rebel XTi, we’ve got an old school Pentax K1000 35mm SLR camera. This is THE classic student film camera: a basic, fully manual 35mm SLR with basic controls that does what you tell it to; nothing more and nothing less. It was manufactured basically unchanged from 1975 through 1997– over twenty years! Production changes over the years amounted to substituting metal parts for plastic and moving manufacturing from Japan to Hong Kong; to elsewhere in China. Our copy is an earlier one. It’s difficult to pinpoint an exact year, but it was made before 1980. Read the rest of this entry »
Today was a cool day. I managed to hit an incredible combination of my favorite subjects. Craftyangie needed to buy some clothes at the Macys in the former Wanamaker building in Center City, so we grabbed our cameras and went on a little excursion…
Ciclos: Cycles in Spanish.
That’s what having a garden is like. Cycles of beautiful lush gardens, flowers and outdoors; cycles of harvesting the produce you’ve raised from seed and cycles of cold that are enjoyed indoors, baking cookies and getting ready for the next year.
Well, the newest cycle has begun. Our windowsills are being taken over by seedlings…and I can’t wait for it to get slightly warmer out!
*for some reason the word cycles doesn’t really have even half of the impact that ciclos has in me. Must have been a childhood full of those seasonal trucks coming down the dirt streets in Mexico with the guy in the back screaming “tomateeees” (tomatoes) or “sandiaaaa“(watermelon) that made me race to my parent’s side screaming “the -insert fruit name here- man is here!” while thinking of the treats that would be eaten later that day. Or it might just be a psychological, mother-tongue, sort of thing…like when I swear… 
Well, not really, but this household has been taken over garden planning. This will be our third year at The Spring Gardens and I can’t wait!
Last week I ordered from Amazon the book You Grow Girl! by Gayla Trail. I’ve followed Gayla’s blog for over a year now, and her handy “Lazy Gardener’s Automatic Seed Starting Chart” came in handy last year…
Our first year at the garden I started the tomato seedlings too late. I grew up surrounded by fruit trees in warmer, closer to the equator weather, so I didn’t know much about this “plant by” and “frost free” dates. Our second year I was more organized and the tomato crop was plentiful that we were able to share. Read the rest of this entry »
I saw this outside of Foster’s on Tuesday, while exploring the city with Boombadeus’ mom:
Can you see who the guests of this week are? Lemme help you:
That’s right! If you’re in Philly tomorrow, head on over to 4th and Market around 2pm…you’ll be entertained, get a chance to enjoy some free food after perhaps learn a few things about…macaroni and cheese! Yup, that’s tomorrow’s theme!
If you can’t make it, don’t worry, the podcast will be on sometime next week at www.forkyou.tv!
February has been a busy birthday celebration month. It might be the shortest month of the year, but we’ve already celebrated two friend’s birthday and there is another celebration this weekend.
Days before R’s birthday, I was looking at PurlBee’s sewing project section trying to find more ideas of what to do with some fat quarters from other projects (…okay, maybe I was also making a purchase 
you might never know! Oh, wait, I think you might). While looking I found this Chinese New Year Good Luck bag.
It suddenly hit me. R likes yoga. Yoga not only has a position called “lotus “, but lotus flowers (the main pattern of PurlBee shows a lotus flower) represent purity; as the blossom grows and opens after rising from the dark waters (i’ve also read that it represents life, and the struggle to attain purity)…so, why not make one for her? Read the rest of this entry »
The honeymoon, Luna de Miel in Spanish, is defined as “a holiday taken by a newly married couple” never did I think it would involve buying fabric!
It was a crisp, beautiful October morning in Madrid and we were heading to one of the many things Loren -a friend and coworker from my old job who happens to be a Madrileño- had recommended to visit while in his city. Our hotel happened to be on Calle Atocha…well, so did this Ribes & Casals fabric store!
Boombadeus, probably jokingly, pointed out the windows of the fabric store we were about to pass on our left. I soon noticed a sale sign. We just HAD to stop and check it out.
Ten minutes, plenty of Parisina childhood memories and about 20 Euros later, we came out with four metros (a little over 4 yards) of tweed; two of a red one -on sale- and a beautiful white and black one (pictured). Read the rest of this entry »
Craftyangie and I have been helping out Scotty and Marisa create Fork You!, an online video cooking show, for well over a year now. And now, the latest show is up! Mmmm, quick and easy mousse… Just in time for Valentine’s Day!
Check it out…