Balboa Island

Happy 2011!
A new year already?!  I haven't even found the time to make any New Year's resolutions yet. However, I do want to reorganize this blog.  I'd like to try some new layouts and add a tutorial page with all of my tutorials nicely organized into categories.  So just a heads up that things may look a little weird around here for a wee bit or at least until I figure out what the heck I'm doing.

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During the Christmas break my family and I went to Balboa Island.  It was a beautiful day to say the least.

Yep that guy is trunkin it while paddle boarding in December.

An artist painting.

A house ready for Santa.

A ferry ride to the other side of the Island.  Ferry rides make me nervous due to a horrible experience I had on a water taxi in Lofland once.  Long story short it almost tipped over into the water.  It doesn't sound that scary, but at the time it was dark and stormy on the river.  Not cool!

Hooray we made it to the other side!

What is it about Ferris wheels that make them so interesting?

Newport Pier at sunset.

Then we had to go back onto the ferry.  OH NO!

Thankfully we made it back to land and continued to tour the brightly lit homes for Christmas.  I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

Cheers,

Jamie

Daydreaming at work

At Phat Fabric, we... haaave....

ooh...

aaaw...

Oh yeah. What was I saying? Fabric. That's right. I get so side tracked with my litter of flowers. They just grow up so quickly. *sniff* It seems like yesterday, when I took this picture of my runt as a baby...

and now she has blossomed into a full fledged sunflower. Actually, it was Monday when I took the pic. See! Oh how I wish sunflowers had a longer life span. *sniff* sniff* Alright. Alright. I'll move on =)

Yes, Phat Fabric has added 2 new Chelsea Echino fabrics. Both are the Leaf print, but in black and mint green. Also, I have had quite a few inquiries on when I will be re-stocking the Bird to Hang (natural), Leaf (gray), and the Bird and Berry, which I am happy to say are now in stock.

Lastly, over at Everyday Learning an online craft magazine, Rachel wrote a piece on finger knitting which she interviewed me about the topic (link). In the article, she links to several YouTube videos, which can be very helpful when learning to finger knit.

Hmm! It appears someone else likes my sunflowers. Hopefully he is a friend and not a foe.

Happy Friday!

Jamie

Rise and shine

This past Sunday morning, as I was doing the breakfast dishes, I looked out my window and saw a dash of yellow. "My sunflower has bloomed" I yelled. Within 3 minutes I grabbed my camera, changed out lenses for my zoom lens (because it was the really tall sunflower that had bloomed) and ran outside to catch the beginings of her bloom. While in the process of changing lenses I also yelled for the kids to get their shoes on and meet me outside. I'm not really a "yeller," this was good yelling =) The kids were just as excited as I was to see our new flower.

(They take direction well)

As you can see, not only is the sunflower (that bloomed) really tall, but it also bloomed in the direction of my neighbors backyard =( This presented quite a challenge for taking pics. I had to squish myself between the fence and sunflower in order to get a peak. If I could have had it my way, I would have shot the flower looking directly at the face and with my 50mm lens rather than my zoom. However, oddly enough, in the end I really like the angle of the pics. I may have sharpened a few, but for the most part they are straight out of the camera. Had it been easier for me to take the pictures, I may not have been as creative with the angles.
After reflecting on the awkwardness of this shoot, a thought came to me. Sometimes when we are forced to approach a situation from a different and uncomfortable angle it draws out our creativity, which in turn helps it turn out to be better than we had hoped for.

Here is the second tallest of the three. She still hasn't opened her eyes, but boy is she beautiful even as she sleeps.

Jamie

Happy Easter

I've been a computer geek this last week, which is why I haven't had any crafty things to share here in Prettydittyville. However, my knowledge of vector paths has increased to the point of full capacity! I'm sure my rear end has expanded due to the number of hours I have spent sitting at my dinner table, while working on the apron illustrations. Darn Earth's gravitational pull!

I am looking forward to sewing again. All of this time spent away from my sweet sewing machine has left my mind flooded with ideas. Specifically, sun dress and tank top ideas. In the mean time, I was very excited to get an email from Schmap Guides informing that they have chosen the above photo to be included in their seventh addition of The San Diego Neighborhood Guide. Here is the link. When your mouse hovers over the Mission Bay link, my pic pops up on the right. They had contacted me a couple of weeks ago asking if I would submit it in a group of photos to be considered for their neighborhood guide. I did, however I didn't hear back from them until today! Hooray! I love photography and I love San Diego scenery, so I'm thrilled to have my pic in their Schmap guide.

Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Easter.
He is risen!

Jamie

Old Town and a giveaway

This past Saturday, my husband and I went to Old Town San Diego for his birthday. We are both from San Diego (from 6th grade and on for me) and though we haven't lived there for the past 7 years, we still call it home.

I love historical buildings. You could almost say I crave them! Maybe it's because I'm a native Californian, which unlike New England, California doesn't have that many relatively old buildings in comparison. I remember when my husband and I were going to move to Boston, a property manager was showing us several rentals. We were puzzled and concerned as to why the floors of a second story apartment were sloping and warped. The manager said "It was an old Captains quarters built in the 1700's. It's a piece of history." With big half dollar sized eyes we were like "WOW! The 1700's." As far as we knew, we'd never been in a building older than the 1950's. From that point on we started taking pictures of everything as though we were sight seeing and not apartment hunting. Everything is "history" there. However, if I am going to pay that high of a rent, I don't want to have to hold a rope when I cross from one side of the living room to another =)

La Casa de Estudillo 1827

And....

the birthday man. He is lovely to look at =)

I never thought I'd write this, but doesn't that snail look cute hiding in the flower?

A succulent? Whatever it is... I like it.
And that concludes my Saturday in Old Town.

On a completely different note. My friend Gloria who has an Etsy store called Goya Designs, is having her first blog giveaway (link). She is giving away a set of beautifully handmade beads. If you like birds then you'll love these beads. Good luck!

Jamie

Spring....

My favorite season is Spring - fresh new beginnings full of jubilant color. These pictures are of my Japanese Plum tree, which I took yesterday morning. My tree looked so beautiful in the morning sun, I just had to take some pics. However, every time I framed a shot, a brown blur would walk behind the lens and stop! "Hanna, get away" I'd say. Her response?......

A smile. I would then reposition myself to take the picture again and sure enough she would come mozing along into the shot and lick a blade of grass. Casually, she would glance up at me and flash another big smile.
I think she just wanted her picture taken =)

Jamie

Photoshop actions

I thought I'd have the painted peg dolls up in the shop, but it's taking a bit longer then I had planned. Painting little faces and sewing little dresses is certainly a process I shouldn't rush. Plus, I want to list a couple of finished dolls all at once rather than 1 doll at a time. Options are a good thing.

I do, however, want to share with you a few photos. Have you ever heard of The Pioneer Woman blog by Ree Drummond? Likely so. Pretty much everyone has or will eventually stumble upon her web site in their blogging adventures. I am particularly fond of her photography section where I've found free actions that can be used in photoshop.
Below are a couple of my favorite photos that I've applied Ree's actions to. I have written what actions were used underneath each photo.



Action: Lovely and Ethereal
My brother and my little guy.

Action: Seventies



Action: Colorized
Little girls love their daddies.



Action: Seventies



Action: PW Black and White beauty
Oh how I love this pic. To me, it's metaphoric of what the future holds for my little girl. As she grows older she will become more independent, running through life on her chosen path. The two girls to me represent friendships and how I hope she will find a special kindred spirit to connect with. The old man reminds me of how we eventually do slow down and take notice of the things we overlooked when we were young and running.



Actions: Quick edge burn and boost.
I love that man!



Actions: Define and sharpen, Quick edge burn, Seventies

And this is me at my favorite place with my favorite people. What more can a woman ask for!

Have a pleasant weekend my friends.

Jamie

My first hiccup of 2009

I love this picture. . It all goes back to Monday morning and the "Life Hiccup" post. Shortly after that positive thinking post, my 2 year old became very sick with the flu. (I should have known something like that would happen after writing that post.) Anyways, it was a bad flu, full of high fevers, vomiting, and eventually a double ear infection. He is now on antibiotics and is getting much better.  However, my oldest son now has the flu =(  This morning I was awoken by a very hungry and grumpy toddler who hasn't eaten in days and doesn't understand the phrase "just a minute." All the while, my seven year old woke up and unfortunately didn't make it to the restroom in time. (Don't worry, I'll spare you the details.) I love them both very much, and to be quite honest, if this is as bad as it gets, then retrospectively it's not  bad at all. However, at 6:30 in the morning with NO COFFEE running through the veins, I felt like I was having a big life hiccup.

Eventually, I was able to feed my famished toddler and clean up after the oldest. When all was calm, and as I was sipping my much needed coffee, a sweet little humming bird swooped in and perched itself right on a tree in front of my window. I'm pretty sure this is the same humming bird I see every so often perched on the same tree. I'd like to think that maybe she had a rough morning too and just needed some quiet time before returning to her nest full of hungry little birds.  Anyways, I grabbed my camera and began to shoot away. She was a natural model and didn't seem to mind. Below are some more pics from our photo shoot.

After several more pictures were taken, she decided to end the shoot and flew off.

It was beautiful.

I hope you have a blessed weekend.

Jamie

The Getty

This past Saturday I went to The Getty Museum. I was already expecting to be impressed with the art work exhibited at the museum but what caught me by surprise was the breathtaking views and beautiful botanical life.

Don't these berries look poisonous?

I found it interesting how a painting changes in regards to the distance you view it from. For example Van Gogh's painting Irises, when I viewed it from a couple of feet back, the scene was fluid with increasing motion similar to the crescendo of a melody. In contrast, when I got within a couple of inches from it, the work reveals the different consistency of oil paint used in each choppy brush stroke as if to have no correlation. Fascinating!

There was one particular painting of a sailboat being tossed to and fro in the rough waters of a violent sea. From a distance the painting provoked feelings of despair and nervousness, but when I went up close to view it I saw the fishermen had happy faces painted on them, and what I mean by happy faces is two dots for the eyes and a concave line for the mouth like this :) Interesting!

All in all, it was a pleasant, inspiring, and humbling experience. If you are ever in Los Angeles I recommend a trip to The Getty. Admission is free! The price of gas it took to get there is what gets you. Somebody stop the madness!

...and lastly, a new apron for the shop.

Jamie