Our Humble Abode and the Holidays

I'm always inspired by Kelle Hampton and her ability to just write about the most simple things in life but make them sound like the most beautiful events in the world. She has a really beautiful life that I have to admit I envy sometimes. I wanted to try and follow in her footsteps as much as possible and capture every day things and write about them. Who knows, something beautiful might happen that I just might miss.


Today I cleaned and it was therapeutic. I think I get this from my mother and that's not really a bad thing. I start cleaning up one little area and it begins to spread all over the place. I watched my mom do this while I grew up. She'd start to wash the dishes and then notice the pile of mail next to the sink. She'd take the pile of mail into the living room and notice that there was a stain on the coffee table. Then she'd start cleaning the coffee table and notice that there was a stray pair of shoes tucked underneath. The shoes would then make their way to a bedroom where the bed was unkempt and next the bed was being made. Then she'd walk back into the kitchen and look at me and say "What was I doing in the first place?".

I did that exact same thing today and now the apartment I was dreading cleaning looks pretty damn good. As I was cleaning I was thinking about how concerned people get about others seeing the state of their living space. When we have people over I get really stressed about how things look because I don't want it to reflect poorly on my image.

Well ladee-fricken-dah to that. I will be the first to admit I am no June Cleaver. My apartment is in a constant state of disarray and many times I am shameful of it but way too lazy to do anything about it. When I first moved in right before we were married this place was pristine. I treasured our new humble abode and cleaned off every little spill that would happen right away. That didn't last for very long.

All of this to say, if I'm going to try and capture more of everyday life...all y'all gonna see my dirty apartment. Deal with it.

Most days, the kitchen will look like this:

 

Not like this:

And now, onto the holiday decorations. I married a Scrooge. But we made a deal. The decorations go up if I put them up. And boy do I love to put up Christmas decorations! I was super excited this year because I got to add another piece of decor to the collection, the countdown calendar!

 

When my brother and I were little my parents would put little pieces of candy in each slot on the Calendar and we would wake up every morning and run downstairs and take the candy and move the mouse over one day. It's one of my favorite childhood memories and now I can continue the tradition because last year for Christmas my mom gave this to me for Christmas. Now I just need to purchase some candy to fill up the calendar.

 

 

 

 

And our fun photography experiment of the day? BOKEH FUN!

I still have some tweaking to do with this to get the right shape, but I'm in love with bokeh and Christmas lights are perfect for bokeh...so I created some heart bokeh with my camera and some black construction paper. WALLA!

Tomorrow is the big photoshoot. The forecast is predicting rain. A 90% chance. Boo. Oh well, as Tim Gunn would say...MAKE IT WORK!

The Photo Bug

The poor hubs is sick today and I fear it might be spreading to me also. I'm hoping it's just all in my head.

Besides my adventures in light painting, I haven't really gotten out with the camera much. It's been kind of cold and dreary a few days and with the Thanksgiving buzz and Black Friday hubbub, I wasn't really interested in driving around to places and fighting traffic.

Monday I have my photoshoot with my beautiful friend Lisamarie. I'm really excited about working with her because she's done some modeling before. She's a natural in front of the camera. See how pretty she is?

The photoshoot is for my final project and I was inspired by images that had a vintage fun flair to them. I also want to incorporate some pretty pastel balloons and that awesome suitcase I got from the Antique Mall. The weather isn't looking too promising for the outdoor places I wanted to go so I might have to get a little more creative than I had planned on. Or maybe the clouds will part just in time and we can get a totally awesome outdoor shoot in. ::crosses fingers for a baller sunset::

Here are some of the images I was inspired by.

I'm really excited to do this shoot no matter what the weather will be like. I've been trying to research some new techniques and styles so that my images come out great. I'm also itchin to start editing them. Can't wait for everyone to see the final product.

Until then, here's some pictures I took with my Hipstamatic app on my iPhone that I love. There's a new package that I just bought that has new canvas film and then the lens is called Salvador 84 and creates a duplicate image. I'm pretty impressed with the little camera app on my phone.

Check back Wednesday for some updated pictures!

Water and Light

Today was a very fun and successful photography day. It was completely experimental. I wanted to try my hand at capturing splashing water and also do some painting with light. The water shots turned out pretty great in my opinion but they would be even more amazing if I had a macro lens. (some day)

Now the painting with light...well I'm addicted. It is now 12:10 pm and I don't want to quit. I have a few more ideas before I call it a night but my camera battery needs some charging so I thought I'd stop and post some of what I've done today. Now that I know what I'm doing I would really love to incorporate some of this into my final project. I'll definitely be playing around with it more.

Here's some shots from the day!

Sometimes it all falls down

Forgive me if this post isn't necessarily picture intensive. It will most likely be more word intensive.

I had a meltdown tonight in the shower. I miss Great Nana a lot and I really wish that I could have spent more time with her and learned more from her.

This morning we had our critique in our photography class and I had no clue that it would be so emotional. My presentation that I had of course was emotional for me because it represented something very near and dear to me that I recently lost. But through everyone's journeys through their own photographs I was reminded very much that humans experience grief and loss and that everyone needs something stable in life to get them through.

One classmate took us through a series of images where she was sitting in a chair at a table with an empty chair next to her and all these props representing the things that she and this missing person shared together. Within the first few images you knew that she had lost someone very important to her. It was very hard for her to even explain most of the images because the emotion was still so strong from losing her friend.

Another classmate had felt as if her childhood was robbed from her and then later on in life her fiance passed away.

Another classmate recently lost her grandfather who was like a father figure to her and since then her life has been spiraling downwards.

It was a tough realization that so many people have been through so much hurt.

But even through all of the crap these people represented their life in such a beautiful way, which in turn made them even more beautiful.

It was strange. I wasn't expecting that kind of intensity from a photography critique.

This post might all be a jumbled mess of words and nonsense, but I needed to release.

Even though it was difficult it was all the more inspiring for me to see that photography can tell such emotional and poignant stories and it makes me want to tell more stories with my images.

This next image isn't from my DSLR but I think it is still beautiful. Gotta love my iPhone and the Hipstamatic app.

Full of Grace

When I heard that she had passed I knew I wanted to change my focus for my current photography assignment. The assignment was to do "Self Portraits" but the challenge was to not have your face in any of the images. The goal was to capture something in a series of 8 cohesive images that represented a part of who you are or something that is important to you.

The day after I heard Great Nana had passed I went to the store and bought a single rose. This rose was going to be in every image that I shot and would represent Great Nana's presence in my life or influence in my life. Besides the compassion that she had for her very own family her greatest impression that she left in my life was her dedication and commitment to Great Papa. 71 years of marriage is such a beautiful thing when you think about it. Josh and I have only really known each other for 5 years but we've created so many beautiful memories together. What could happen in 71 years? Myriads of memories.

These images represent memories that Great Nana has given to me in my life or lessons to live by that she's exemplified. She is my beautiful rose and she always will be. Always full of grace.

  

I wanted the image with my wedding dress because it was so meaningful to me to have Great Nana and Great Papa at my wedding.

 

I have very fond memories of the old player piano at the house on Raintree that Great Nana and Great Papa had in their basement.

 

She was just so beautiful. Always so beautiful.

Saying Goodbye

This is the letter that I wrote to my Great Nana last night and left with her today.

Dear Great Nana,

I cannot even begin to thank you for the example of beauty and grace that you've been in my life. Looking around the room today I was reminded again of how many people you have impacted in your life. Your love, commitment and loyalty to your husband are the very reason that so many of us are here today. As I was talking to Great Papa he was joking about how Josh and I are novices at the whole marriage thing, and with only 2 1/2 years under our belt compared to your 71 years, I'd have to agree. If Josh and I with our marriage could impact half of the people that you and Great Papa did, I'd consider myself blessed. It's really hard saying goodbye. Even after 90 years of life, you were taken too soon. One thing that resounded today about you that really struck me is that you lived life to the fullest. You loved life and wanted to drink every last sip of this beautiful life. And that you did, and you fought to the very end. I want to take that mentality and attitude about life and run with it. You will be missed so very very much. Just know that we all love you so very much and your place in our life will always be so prominent. You've really done a great thing, Nan. We'll take good care of each other, I promise. Until we see each other again...

Much love,

Audrey

Today was a difficult day, but with my family around we all made it through. My family is such a precious gem to me. I really am blessed to have so many great people in my family. Even though it was sad it was still a beautiful day.

My dad's cousin Gina spoke beautifully of Great Nana and Great Papa and their life together. Definitely a very touching moment that was a reminder of how precious life and love is.

 a flower from the arrangement on her casket

After the funeral the whole family gathered for lunch and I'm so glad we did. I feel like through Great Nana's death we were all brought closer. 

We all had a Manhattan in honor of her. She drank one almost every day. It was something simple we could do but it was still very beautiful. 

Great Nana, thank you for everything you have been and will be in my life. I really want to live my life like you did. To the fullest.

Cheers to you and the beautiful life you've lived.