Inspiration Monday

If you dig Christine Middlecamp's Doily tutorial, then you might be interested to know she has another one up her sleeve. See her announcement here. I am so excited! I'm sure it will be another fabulous one. The little sneak peak is enough to leave me in eager anticipation. I followed her doily tutorial and I was floored by her creativity. Really inspiring! Granted that I didn't make any doily (I did buy a set - and it's still gathering dust somewhere - in my kitchen maybe?) embellishment, her tutorial inspired some of my projects, the latest of which was my last post Best of Cambodia. The layered embellishment on the upper right and lower left corners were my attempts to channel Christine Middlecamp.

 I also follow Lucy Abrams' blog. I found her through Jennifer McGuire and she is also a Hero Arts designer and a very creative cardmaker, and she's from the UK. She has a giveaway and I joined for the first time! How can I not? Lots of yummy Hero Arts goodness there. I figured if I win, I can have the prize sent to my brother in law in Scotland. He and his wife are are coming home for a vacation later this year. I can wait. If you're interested, as much as I don't want to decrease my chance of winning, click here.

Another card-maker that I love is Kathy Racoosin. She is a designer for Penny Black and SRM Stickers, and she is a very talented colorer (is that a word?). Well, she uses Copic markers to color her stampe dimages in many of her projects, and she sometimes shares step by step tutorials like in this post. What an enabler! Reading through her post now makes me want to grab my Copics and color away. Except that I  decided to leave my markers in Cavite thinking that I won't have the opportunity to color. Oh well.

Karen Russel - I am a huge fan! Stalker level. I don't know how she manages to take such amazing photos!  Taking one of her classes remains to be one of my top personal goals. A bit steep at US$400 but if it will bring me closer to taking photos as good as she does, it's definitely worth it! I love how she shares her life stories through photos. So beautiful.

I want to do this. I will do it for free, just so I can try it. I know I'll cry buckets of tears (I'm such a softie) but I also know I'll take very good photos. I need volunteers!!! Here's another great example. I want to capture real life, raw emotion, unguarded moments - things you cannot manufacture in a studio.

I also want to do travel photography like this. I want to see the beautiful world that God gave us and share it with everyone else.

I hope this inspires you all.

Sewing Machine or Lens?

In less than a month, I will celebrate my birthday. It will be a different celebration this time since I'm spending a couple of days with my entire family in Singapore, instead of just with Ariel which has been the case for the past 8 years.

Anyway, I've been thinking of my "wish list" for quite some time now. At some point, I was considering an iPhone.

I have an iPod touch and I love it. So I thought my next phone should be an iPhone. Later I thought it to be impractical considering that we have "free" phone with Ariel's corporate plan. And even if I ended up adding a few thousand bucks for the Nokia N97 model that I opted for, it's still tons cheaper than if I got the iPhone. After all, I've always had Nokia from the very first analog phone. And I still have my iPod Touch, which I now use as a portable movie payer. I'm not much of a music person anyway.

Then I went on a weekend crop with some friends in Tagaytay.

I grew up with two dressmakers for grandmothers. I've learned to sew at an early age and my Barbie doll matched my own outfits. It was only natural that I use stitching in my scrapbooks. In fact, I've already bought 2 sewing machines - an old heavy duty one which survived the Milenyo flooding but is no longer working at optimal levels, and a small portable one that can't handle cardstock. So I went on a hunt for the perfect sewing machine. And I found this.

I showed this to Ariel in one of our visits to Anson's. I told him I am considering this as a possible birthday gift from him to me. Anyway, when we went on a weekend crop in Tagaytay, Mia brought her Singer baby and let me use it. In fact, I made a couple of layouts and cards with machine stitching. I got to use ALL of the stitches available in this baby. Needless to say, when I got back home, I told Ariel that this is what I want for my birthday.

That is until August 15th when I attended the food photography workshop by Mr. Ricky Ladia. I went home thinking "I've got to have a macro lens!"

I am still researching but this is what I have in mind, so far.

Of course, an L lens is out of the question unless I plan to make money out of it so this is the next best thing. Since we are going to Singapore, I thought we'll check out the prices there first before actually making the purchase.

Any reco from my photography friends? I really have to make a good decision here. I can't afford to buy new lenses every now and then so this has to be THE macro lens I will be committing with for the rest of my life, probably. Is there a cheaper option? :D

My fave photographer in the whole wide world...

...just switched to Nikon after shooting with Canon for the last 10 years. She rented a Nikon camera a few weeks ago and that led to her decision to sell her entire Canon gear and jump ship. I felt so betrayed! I must admit that she had been a big part of my decision to get a Canon. She also influenced me to get a 50mm f1.8 lens (well, she has f1.4 and f1.2 lenses but I couldn't afford them) - although my photos were nowhere near her always perfect shots (well, probably not always 100% perfect, but definitely very gorgeous). And it was through her blog that I learned about Totally Rad Actions and why that is the gift I am asking from Ariel for our anniversary (check out the sample before and after shots - click on "Samples"). It would be totally insane for me to use my own money to purchase the actions since my photos are totally unworthy. This is the kind of stuff I can only hope to receive as a gift. And this is a type of gift that I can only get from someone who truly loves me and doesn't care if my photos are worthy of spending so much for, but only cares of making me really happy. So honey, there. I'll make it easy for you. I won't give you a long list of anniversary wishes. I just want one.

But I still love Karen Russell. And I will still always stalk her blog and her wonderful photos of her everyday life. That's why I like her. She photographs life as it happens.

And I will still dream of taking one of her online photography classes, despite the the long waiting list and the expensive rate ($$$). A girl can dream. :D

I still love my Canon, too!