Bee's Knees Industries

Like a Polaroid Picture

At Roofus' behest, Tony and I have driven around our new town exploring rivers and lakes. He enjoys himself immensely, but the depression of going back into the car may be more than he can bear. The little nose pressed against the window just kills me. (Of course, I had to Photoshop out the rest of the nose smears from drives past.)

Hip Hop

I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of my family: Enid the bunny. I got a call at work a few weeks ago from Tony saying that a friend of a friend of a friend had a rabbit he could no longer care for and asking if we could take her in. I thought about it long and hard (for about three seconds), and I had a rabbit by the time I was home from the office.

Enid is the sweetest and sassiest rabbit I've ever met, and I fell in love with her immediately. She loves to hop in little circles, eat dandelions, and bully dogs.

When Enid came into our home, we were also dogsitting a friend's pitbull, who just adored the rabbit. Our dog, Roofus, is a bit more unsure. Enid loves to chase him off his dog bed to take it over, but I'm sure they'll be friends soon. And she and the cat have been bonding over their mutual love of cardboard boxes.

Project Life Printable

By show of hands, how many other folks are fully smitten by Project Life? I found this scrapbooking method late last year and have been enjoying it ever since. I love how laid back it is, like a simple photo album, but I still get to collect all sorts of papers and tapes and stamps and tools for it. As Tony puts it, it turns documenting your life into a trading card game. (With as much of my youth as I spent at comic book shops, that certainly resonates with me.)

When I was picking out an album for this year, I knew I wanted to have a fun opening page, but I couldn't find any papers or cards that captured what I was going for. Instead, I decided to make my own. What with trying to close on my house and moving and general busyness, it took me a little while to finish the project, but better late than never, right?

And, I thought, perhaps there are some other folks who are a tad behind on their scrapbooking, too, so I decided to share this card set as a free printable here on my blog.  Download your own printable PDF here!

The photos for the front page are from a little photobooth I set up for New Year's Eve. Tony and I spent the evening at home, just the two of us. We made a fancy dinner and enjoyed the heck out of one another's company. I even managed to explode champagne all over myself and the sofa. (And if that's not the sign of a fun night, I don't know what is.) I love having these photos to remind me of the evening.

These photos have been re-edited using the A Beautiful Mess actions. I love them so much I think I'll reprint a set for my scrapbook!

Me & U(kulele)

Every tax season, I struggle with a lack of time for creative projects. I usually only find an hour or two here and there for artistic endeavors, which doesn't work well with many of the projects I like to work on. By the time I get out my supplies and tools, it's time to do some chores or go to the office or get to bed.

I find that music is a great alternative creative outlet for these times. I can just sit down with an instrument and practice whenever I have a free moment. I started out this tax season playing my guitar, but I had an urge to try something new, so I stopped by Artichoke Music on my way home from work one day to pick up a new buddy.

I've also had it in my head for a while that I'd like to work on more self-portraits. I bought a great timer shutter release for my camera a few weeks ago and just had to dig it out to play. (I bought mine from Ebay, though, and it came with a clip to attach it to my tripod. I didn't have any luck finding a link for an identical item, but I'd recommend shopping around a bit.)

In addition, I just had to snag the A Beautiful Mess action set to help me with photo editing. As I mentioned in my last post, I've been trying to learn more about editing digital photos, and these actions have been wonderful for that. Since you can see every step that the actions do to your photo, it's easy to pick up some new tricks for altering your images. I've already learned about quite a few Photoshop tools I didn't even know existed.

I had a lot of fun working on these self-portraits, and I already have so many ideas for more. It's wonderful having a willing model at my disposal!

I tried involving a less-than-willing model in this photo set, but it devolved quickly. I guess I'll just have to practice more!

November on Instagram

Well, I thought to myself, why not try to bridge this gap with a little game of catchup. Would anyone like to see what I've been up to? Here's my November, as seen by Instagram:

Going on lovely walks with my two favorite sweeties. And finding mushrooms!

And finding tiny mushrooms!

On the topic of tiny, starting a new Tiny Owl Knits project.

Going on fun car rides with another sweetie. Safety first!

Unfinished pointless projects just for fun.

Learning to process wool with a friend. Not sure we're doing it right...

Want more? You can find me on Instagram as @BeesKneesIndustries.

A Reason for Film

Yesterday, I needed to order a hole punch in a specific size and shape, and the only place I could find it was Amazon. Of course, I can never see fit to buy only what I need on Amazon and not take advantage of their free shipping, so I went on a quest to find something else that I "needed," when I stumbled upon a delightfully cheap Holga.

I remember when Holgas were expensive, usually upwards of $150. What happened? I've wanted one of these cameras for many years, so I added it to my cart immediately.

Excited about the idea of a film camera, I rushed home to find all that film that I know is just somewhere in my apartment. Turns out, I could only find one roll, which was probably a decade old, that was sitting in a cheap waterproof point and shoot I bought and had never used. With a renewed vigor and lust for film, I quickly shot the whole role and dashed off to Walgreens.

Turns out, I love the look of ten-year-old film.

I have a question for fellow film-lovers. Where do you get your rolls processed? The only place remotely near me is Walgreens, and they don't have many options for prints or scans. Are there any places in Portland that you folks would recommend? What about online processors? I'm curious to see how other folks deal with the impending death of one of my favorite media.

Ta ta for now!

An Inspiring Color Combination

Thanks, Nature!

This lovely post brought to you by the fact that I feel generally crummy. My kitty cat, Lydia, is rather sick and will have to spend some time at the vet over the next week or so, and I came down with a stomach bug. Not too fun, but sometimes I appreciate the reminder to take time to care for myself.

I hope to be back to my regular programming soon.

Does anyone recognize these mushrooms?

To me, they look like the ghosts of bluebells.

Kamikaze!

I stumbled upon a bit of a territorial dispute near my apartment. Now I'm running late for everything I needed to do today because I couldn't tear myself away from the dive-bombing crows. I used to have a cat that the neighborhood crows would dive bomb, but I've never seen a bird of prey on the receiving end of the attack.

Another Amanita? Sheer Craziness!

Now With 25% More Elf!

There must have been some sort of delayed reaction on the digital chip in my camera. When I woke up this morning, this little beastie was staring at me from this photo I took earlier. How odd!

Zoo Time

Red-eared slider pile. We have one of these in our kitchen. Well, we have one turtle, not one pile.

New yeti exhibit at the zoo. Every time you get out your camera, all you can capture is a little bit of him so he winds up looking like a polar bear. But he's a yeti. Take my word for it.

I Just Love Multi-Post Days

I went over to my dad's house tonight, and we took pictures of the moon. I have a few more images on my Flickr page, and Dad promised to put some up on his, but I think he went to bed too early to finish messing with them. Hopefully they'll be up soon.

Things In My Grandparents' House no. 3

I think it's made of real fur. It belonged to my uncle and somehow fit in a room with the Civil War wallpaper behind it.

This is my favorite piece of art in the whole house.

Both of my grandparents are compulsive collectors, so at least I come by that trait honestly. This is a small fraction of my grandmother's dollhouse furniture stash.

A very old mirror at the foot of my bed.

These make me want to pronounce binoculars like the British guys in Snatch.

Things In My Grandparents' House no. 2

This thing's eyes have always terrified me.

By now, this is really just about book plates, old and older. Luckily for me, as the family's only artist, I am slowly getting all of my grandfather's old art books. They are all incredible.

"Genuine photos," you say? I'll take it!

My dad's side of the family is Lithuanian. I should really read some of my grandfather's books about the country. I know almost nothing about it.

An old photo album filled with used stamps.