oh shoot

Oh Snap! Summer Photo Challenge

“ Nothing happens when you sit at home. I always make it a point to carry a camera with me at all times…I just shoot at what interests me at that moment. – Elliott Erwitt

Summer is almost here and as you know I am super excited. I really loved the spring photo challenge (recap post coming soon) and I wanted to have one for summertime.

This would be a great challenge to take part in because it goes hand and hand with documenting your summer.

The Challenge: 

Take a photo everyday for the whole summer

The rules are simple:

1. Camera only! NO cell phone photos! The point of this challenge is to use your camera more.

2. Must take 1 photo everyday for the whole summer.  

Starts May 28, 2012 Ends September 23, 2012

3. Challenge yourself to step outside your comfort zone. 

Every where you look there is a photograph waiting to be taken. You simply need to learn to see it.

10 Things to take photos of:

1. The clouds

2. People flying Kite's

3. Beach days

4. Friends jumping off a cliff into the water

5. Parked bikes

6. Baseball game

7. Backyard bonfires

8. Your favorite place to eat

9. Water balloon fight

10. Twirling around in a dress

 

3 photo Adventure:

1. Photo Walk--Elise has a wonderful photo series call photo walk.

2. Your City-- Spend a day walking around your city and taking photos of everything you see. Walk on a new street or stop a new cafe. This is a great way to use your camera and get to know your city.

3. Early morning-- get up early and get on your bike to ride somewhere to photograph the sun raising.

 

Fun photo projects to try this summer:

Wearable Photos: A DIY Guide

How to turn your photo into pop art

How to create coloring book using your own photos 

How to make a journal with photo as pages

Make your own photo journal or note book

 

Also check out my other Summer blog posts

My Summertime Goals

Documenting Your Summer

CAL's Hat

Over the weekend I fished CAL's hat. I was almost done when I realized that I did something wrong halfway through so I pulled it back and redid it. It only set me back about 2 hours, but its better to be perfect...right? 

Pattern: Graham by: Jennifer Adams

Yarn: Rowan lima

21 Days of GREAT Hair// Update

This Project was kind of a BUST.

One thing that I learned about about hair from this project was is my hair hates San Francisco weather. Most people don't know this but, I have really curly hair and ever since I moved to San Francisco my curls don't like to come out. I hate this because then my hair just looks like I need to brush it and that is why I am always pulling my hair back. 

During this project I have tried to curl my hair and the curls last about 10 min and this was getting really frustrating. Last weekend I just decided to get my hair cut. I am still trying to grow it out, but I trimmed my hair and got new bangs. 

Here are a few photos of my hair nothing exciting because I basically gave up. I am going to keep trying to do my hair and come up with something that works for me. 

My First Handmade Dress

Over my holiday break (my office is closed from Christmas Eve to the day after New Years). I wanted to sew myself a dress, but there was one problem... I don't know how to sew. I started talking with my Tia Winona about wanting to sew a dress and I asked her if she would help me. She said YES!

My Tia Winona is an AMAZING seamstress and has been sewing for a long time. I was excited to take this opportunity and have her show me a few things about getting started with sewing.  One thing that I learned about my Tia is that she went to FIT in New York City!

Since much of my family have some sort of craft that they are really good at--we thought that it would be great to have a craft day. A few days before our craft day my Tia, little cousin and sister in-law went to Joann's for fabric and yarn. One thing that I learned about shopping for fabric is... I LOVE SHOPPING FOR FABRIC! I think I had the cart full of fabric within 5 minutes of being there. I asked my Tia many questions about fabric, patterns and anything else that I could think to ask her. 

This dress is an original pattern from a little sketch my cousin Lando made for me. 

I wanted a dress that I would be able to wear when riding my bike and one that is comfortable to wear all day at work. I am not much of a dress person (yet) and some of the dress that I have, I don’t feel that comfortable wearing at work or even walking down the street because the fabric clings to my tights (I know that I need a slip). 

Once we knew what kind of dress I wanted, we started cutting the fabric. My Tia is a little OCD about cutting pattern fabric and I think I will be too--since I am learning from her. 

I took an online sewing class last year and I learned a few basic stuff like...threading my sewing machine, making a bobbin, and a few other little things. 

I watched and took notes of every thing that my Tia was doing. Then she had me sit down and sew part of the bottom of the dress. I was not very good--I could not sew in a straight line. 

My Tia ended up sewing most of the dress because there was a lot of things that I just could not do. We had to make a few alterations and things started to overwhelm me. 

Things that I learned making my first dress

How to cut pattern fabric 

How to add darts to a dress

How to add a zipper to a dress 

How to add a hidden hem 

Thank you Tia for all your help! I turly had the BEST time and I am so thankful that you are in my life. I could not ask for a better family. I love you!