Squirrels Go Like This

Wide-angle fun

A couple of months have passed since I wrote about how I want an ultra-wide angle zoom lens for our Digital Rebel XTi camera. Since then I’ve seen a whole ton more neat photos on Flickr taken with the 10-22mm Canon and 10-20mm Sigma lenses. Not to mention the neat photos taken by our wedding photographer Albert Yee of the interior of the church, who used some sort of wide-angle Nikon equivalent.

The handwriting’s on the wall… I need a wide-angle lens! But which one? Read the rest of this entry »

We’re Back…

Sorry for the long absence from our squirrelly little project. We were sidetracked by some weird little side projects, such as our wedding. But we’re back now, and will resume writing little tidbits here and there, in between writing Thank You notes!

Speaking for myself, our honeymoon alone has given me a wealth of interesting new things to write about… Should be fun!

We LOVE burgundy.

So once we had a basic idea for the invitations (burgundy, square, with a ribbon accent that would prove to be useful and small cream-colored contrasting LOVE* embossed square) we started to play.

Read the rest of this entry »

Inspirations

I love architecture and great photos of architecture. The whole gamut, from the impression that an entire building or interior space makes, to the small details. When I was a kid and I took photographs, mom would ask “where are all the people?” because I’d be taking photos of buildings and landscapes, not family or friends.

The impressionist painter Claude Monet is famous for having painted the Rouen Cathedral over and over again, but in different light. I still remember what a revelation this was to me when I first read about it (likely in my early teens). At first blush it sounded horribly boring to me, but when I saw the resulting art, I understood. Light changes and defines the mood of a space. Capturing this in your preferred media (paint, watercolor, film, charcoal…) is a worthy life-long pursuit. (Furthermore, now as an adult with more of an appreciation of our limited time on earth, I envy Monet’s ability to devote so much time on a project like this. But that’s another story…) Read the rest of this entry »

Brainstorming is better done in two.

After looking at a few pictures of invitations (you can use Flickr.com, Knot.com or WeddingChannel.com to find images that inspire you) I found one that we both liked. It was square, it had a ribbon holding the “extra” paper inserts and a pretty little contrasting-color square in the front of the invitation…beautiful, simple and practical! It was perfect!

Of course, we’d have to change everything to our liking and translate accordingly (since my family is from Mexico, I wanted to have them in Spanish) so far we just had a basic idea for the shape.

The next things to be decided were: Colors; obviously red (we like darker shades of red quite a bit, so a burgundy was our winning color) and cream.
Personalization: we were originally going the mainstream way: to use our initials in the front of the invitation and then just add the details inside…Then a light bulb lit up! We’re in Philly! Why not incorporate that? Read the rest of this entry »

The expensive world of photography

So, we bit the bullet. We went ahead and bought a Digital SLR camera.

I’ve long been interested in photography. When I was maybe 11, I took a summer camp class* on photography. We used manual SLR film cameras with black and white film, learned about exposure, aperture, and even how to develop B&W film and make prints from it. In retrospect, frankly, I was in way over my head. I know I didn’t totally grasp the concept of aperture, and why you wouldn’t just always leave the camera at the widest aperture for every shot. Not to mention with a complete lack of a dark room and equipment at home, I wasn’t terribly likely to be developing my own photos either.

Still, I’m glad I took the class all those years back. And now, with the low barrier to entry of digital photography, I’m getting creative like never before. Read the rest of this entry »

Where all the magic happens

If you’re going to be working on all kinds of weird projects, you need a place to do them. Here’s mine:

Since I live in a condo in the city, my space is at a premium. So I’ve learned to be a little creative and make do with what I’ve got. The “workshop” pictured above is really just a desk with a custom compressed fiberboard cover added to protect the cherry wood veneer. I can cut, paint and glue to my heart’s content on this thing without destroying my desk. You can see the LEDs of my network, old stereo amp and a keyboard mounted underneath the desk, to save precious space. A magnifying glass light and a couple of plastic organizers in the back hold all kinds of odds and ends: electronics, glues, wires, connectors, you name it, completes it.

Hopefully, you’ll be seeing this little work area as the backdrop to all sorts of weird projects in the future right here!

R.S.V.P. - Reserved Savings Vanish (in) Paper

So what do you do when you walk into a Center City stationary shop that shall-remain-unnamed and are given a quote of $500 for 100 wedding invitations?

If you’re me, you thank the person and walk out. Then, later that afternoon, meet your significant other and the first words you say to him are “WE are making the invitations”.

Yup, I found it insane that the basic invitations were going to be that expensive (well, I’ve found the whole wedding thing a little bit crazy; everything costs 3X of what it normally does just because it carries the word “bridal” or “wedding”…but I digress) so the first thing that came to my mind was “I so can make this”.

I knew it wasn’t going to be fun (I lie, I knew I’d enjoy it) nor easy (well, that one I agree with) but having an adventurous significant other, it would at least be fun to give it a try.

And so, that’s how this crafty tale beings…

Welcome!

Welcome to Squirrels Go Like This, Angie (craftyangie) and Thad’s (boombadeus) blog on… well, it’s not about squirrels, I can guarantee that. See our about page for a little more information about us and this wacky blog.