New lens!

Since the girls are going with the ex for Christmas we decided to have our Christmas this weekend. Santa visited last night and brought me an awesome new present... The Canon F/1.4 50mm prime lens...oh squee! Of course I had to do something silly and trite with the snowflake bokeh, but also a little bit of real photography. The bokeh is super fun, this was made by taking a piece of cardstock, using a snowflake punch and holding it in front of the lens. This was of our Christmas tree! I'm in love. I now know what I was longing for now, that sharpness that comes from fast glass and wide apertures. I was looking at my two older 35mm SLR Minoltas the other day. Wow, the quality of the lenses were amazing back then. With this new lens I'm starting to fall a little more in love with digital photography. Here are some pictures from our early Christmas... Kyle and Boss Taylor joins in... Boss I have this same picture from when she was a puppy somewhere... Pouty face didn't want to take a picture... Opening presents I've also been doing post processing in Lightroom after making the switch to RAW and I'm loving the presets! I also found a great photoshop action for web sharpening and made a brush for watermarking :)

Law school and some fun with Photoshop

Well my first midterm is tomorrow and I guess that means I'm halfway through my first semester of hell, although by the time I publish this it will be past midterms I'm sure. Law school has been interesting so far.I'm still wondering who I hoodwinked into letting me in. They said on our first day that some time during or first year we would wonder if we were smart enough to be in law school. Well that time came about the first day. Glad we got that out of the way. Actually it's not a new feeling, I spent much if three first year of my PhD thinking the same thing. Then I switched to my masters. Hmmm. I hope that isn't a sign of things to come. The good news is that I'm not the only one who feels this way. In fact many of the other 1L students have expressed the same feeling of inadequacy.
Law school has an interesting effect on you're periphery as well. I now "think like a lawyer" and I've devised ways to sue everyone I've ever met, friend and foe alike. I've also learned new cool Latin terms like Res ipsa loquitor and slip them into conversation quite regularly. The best part is that no one else has any clue what you just said so context is inconsequential.
Well anyway back to creativity. I spend most off my class periods on Pinterest lately searching for new fun projects, inspiration to steal and stalking those that I've blocked on face book. I came across a really cool idea the other day to merge text and a picture, but when I decided to try it the site wouldn't load the photo and I couldn't use a large file..

Well I don't have a pirated copy of Photoshop CS3 for nothing (and when I say pirated I mean I stole it from my mom until such time when she might actually want to use it). So here is a quick tutorial on how to do it.I should also point out that I'm not one for calling things by proper names so there will be a lot of "click this thingy" followed by screen shots and arrows. Ok, I'm writing this while I should be paying attention to public easements in property and I don't want the people behind me looking at me taking screen shots, so those may be added later. I would also do an action for it but I'm not that sophisticated.

Well I played around and this is what I came up with at first...

I tried converted this to black and white, but I was unimpressed by the amount of detail I got. But I think that it looks pretty decent in color. Also, this looks better when viewed smaller or from father away.So I tried another one that has less detail for sepia.

How to choose a picture

• choose a picture without much detail, it will get lost in the text and you won't be able to tell what it is.
• Use a large file, you want to be able to have options for the size of your text as well as wanting to keep the image crisp.
• Close ups of faces work well, get creative with cropping!

Now that you have a file picked out, open it in Photoshop and create a new layer.  I find that for this part it is easiest if you hide the back ground layer. In the new layer create a text box the size of the photo and enter your text. Make sure that you go to the paragraph tab and click "justify last left" so the text fills the box completely. Here are some tips for the text.

• You can use any font that you want, but keep in mind that you want your text to almost "meld" so some of the more flowery fonts will be unreadable by the time you edit the text. 
• For a clearer picture, use a smaller font.  Large fonts wash out the photograph
• Put only one space between sentences
• If you can't come up with enough text to fill the whole picture repeat it until you do.
• Consider all caps as in the black and white photo to achieve higher density.

Now lets edit the text to make sure that the text is dense enough to see the photo underneath. Under the character tab in right side bar set the "leading" and "tracking" smaller than the font size until you reach a density where the letters are almost touching, but not quite. You may also want to play with anti-aliasing until it looks pleasing to you.  I used sharp. Next choose the magic wand selection tool and select the text and press delete. I have no idea how to rasterize text from the menu, but if you choose the fill tool and try to fill, it will ask you if you would like to rasterize.  Click okay and switch back to the magic wand tool.  Right click on the image and click on "select inverse." Select the fill tool and fill the area without text with white. Deselect all, unhide the background and viola! How easy was that?  By playing with settings you might be able to make the picture look better.  I found that when converting to black and white it helped to have more white.

Just go with the professionals...

Yep, save yourself some time and grief and find a reputable vendor for you wedding. When I first started planning this thing I had a friend or a friend of a friend who did everything. I had a friend who was going to do all of the bridal party's hair. He flaked out in the first month of planning. My brother in law's cousin is a florist at a grocery store and was going to do flowers on the side. Never heard back from her. My sister had a friend who does cakes, but she quit doing wedding cakes. And a friend of our officiant (also a friend) was going to do the catering. I just heard that he's possibly going to flake out too. So when it comes down to it, do yourself a favor, start looking for reviews and get someone you can trust. I now have an awesome photographer who I've seen in action even before our engagement pics. I have a cool florist who shared pics with me over pinterest to get exactly what I wanted. My cake shop comes highly recommended and sent me pics of a cake similar to ours. Found a restaurant that does catering and the price is right and I love their food. So the only service left from a friend is our officiant and he's not going anywhere. Almost planned, time to sit back and take a breather!

Why is it that every time I start to get ahead of my DIY wedding list that I find something new and interesting that I want to make for the wedding? I'm finally getting somewhere with the flowers, I even fluffed out about 100 of them a couple weeks ago and ended up with a very nice pile of pretty flowers I also decided to see how it would look as a centerpiece... Can you guess what my favorite drink is? I also decided that I really like the rufflie looking chair decor so I made a few of those. I think that I need to get some more fabric though to fill them out. And last I painted my aisle runner! My neighbor finished both of our signs That is the ceremony sign and I love it! It turned out well even after the missing "e" fiasco. I have a smaller one that points to the reception as well. Interesting how my squiggly little arrow looks like the word "love." A happy little accident, I didn't even notice until our neighbor pointed it out to me! Now that invitations are out and RSVPs are starting to come in, I'm on full on wedding mode. I think it's starting to get to me because I'm having wedding nightmares. Last night I dreamed that I couldn't get a hold of the photographer. He didn't show up til almost two hours after the ceremony and I was very upset that I didn't get all of the pre-wedding pics, ceremony pics and the family had already changed out of their wedding garb. On top of that we were in some sleazy smoke smelling banquet hall instead of the tent. I kept telling everyone that we were supposed to be outside and playing games, but they kept saying it's going to rain, don't worry about it. The whole thing just turned into a complete mess! All I could think was, "what about all the stuff I had planned? I put so much effort into this and no one cares" For the next couple of weeks to do list, program board (I started this but it turned out a complete disaster so time for plan B), vows book, menu/reception program, and signs signs sings! Till next time!

Why your girlfriends are better than a forum

I had a little frustration with something today and the one person who I talk to about every two hours every day was unavailable (Damn you!). So feeling like I had to get it out NOW, I turned to a forum that I have never posted on before. Yeah bad idea. So here is why your best friend is better than anyone on a forum.

When you call your best friend to rant, they will listen, sympathize momentarily, then tell you that you need to calm down, tell you that you are being a tad bit unreasonable, offer a suitable solution and then proceed to chat about everything else you have to get out from the last two hours that you haven't talked.

In opposition, women on a forum will call you a brat, a bitch, a snatch face, proceed to ridicule you for any and everything you've written and continue to tell you that you are the worst person alive. This is why they have no friends and must continue to post on a forum of which they should really have no valuable input for.

Lower North Fork Fire

The Lower North Fork Fire is threatening the home I grew up. We have evacuated animals and taken a lot of sentimental items out. Now we sit and wait, and hope that firefighters can contain the fire before it reaches home. Not only is this my favorite place on earth, but it's also where we are planning to have the wedding.

In an attempt to get my mind off this, I've decided to share a little bit. I'm also avoiding real work. Mostly because I've gotten about 6 hours of sleep and I don't have brain capacity to think anymore.

Talked to my future mother about the points in the last post, got a little snarky to get it out of us and decided that it's best to just go with what I want. She's such a doll! Most people I start in on the ex about and they roll their eyes. She gets up there with me. It doesn't last long, but it feels good to just get the frustration with that horrible girl out. It was also nice to find out the cake topper that they had was picked out by his mom, since I was worried that the one Mr. GL and I had picked out was too similar. He did tell me that he wasn't surprised that some of the things that we were doing were the same, after all he did pick us...I gave him a nasty look. I'm much better than her!

Well, back to the subject at hand...the wedding! The ceremony is almost done, I have the wording and it's lovely. Just waiting for Mr. GL to put some words down for when we exchange rings. After what seemed like forever, I have finished all of the Kusumada balls for the pews. I had a little help from the big girl, but mostly done by myself. I am considering making more so that I have two for each pew, but I'll have to see how ambitious I really am. I also added sparkly fun and cheap beads to the center of the flowers. I wanted pearls, but Walmart was out. And of course in Laramie, it's either order in or deal with what you have. The seem to catch the light so I'm sure it will be nice.

I have a wonderful neighbor whose dad bought a routing machine for wood! I've asked him to make me a few signs for the wedding...I can't wait to see how they will turn out.

The reception decoration is going well. I ordered some very cute and very cheap glass photo coasters. I had considered giving only one per person, but they are so cheap we are giving out a set of two. We put a picture of us in one coaster and then a little printed "thank you" in the other and then put them back in the plastic box they came in. Originally I wrapped them with the purple and green raffia and put a paper rose around each bow. They ended up like this...

Well that's nice, but I decided that I would rather actually wrap them with kraft paper. The result was very nice,

I plan on adding a tag of some sort and those will be all done!

I've also been working on getting the table decorations done. It turns out that my original idea of vases with orchids in water with a floating candle on top would be entirely to expensive, but I found this on pinterest. Oh yeah, cheap and very pretty. So I'm now most of the way through making them! There will be a mix of purple and green on the tables. All the big flowers are made, time for the small flowers. All for about $75. I also found very cute square vases at IKEA for very cheap (about $130 for all) that will go in the center with sand and a candle. In lieu of the fire though, we will be going for flameless candles.



Invitations are ready to be sent out as soon as I buy stamps!
I started off with printing envelopes, but decided to call upon my calligraphy skills in the end and hand address the rest of the envelopes.



I will have to take a picture of the inserts, they are pretty cool. I already gave my dearest neighbor who helped inspire the design her invite and she refused to give me the RSVP card back because she wanted to keep it. Mission accomplished!

Jewelry is also done, here is what I ended up making for mine.


Well that's about all the crappy cell phone pics I have for now. I really should get the big camera out to take pics, but I've been entirely to lazy when the cell is so easy to get pictures online with!

As I update, the fire doesn't seem to be moving any closer to home. Let's pray that the wonderful firefighters can get containment soon and no one else loses their homes or lives!

Second time epiphany

Well the wedding crafting is in full force. I spent a  good portion of the weekend putting together the favors with a little break to go ride the sled and drink some beer.

Thursday night I decided that I didn't want to do anything that Mr. Get lucky did in his first wedding so I convinced him that I needed full access to the pictures and files from his first wedding which we will call from here on out the practice wedding.  Being the guy he is, he gave them to me. I spent a good portion of the evening and Friday looking through them and making snarky remarks. Bad idea. I was starting to feel crappy about the whole thing.

That was nothing though. This morning I decided to tackle the ceremony wording. I picked a few readings including one from a favorite book, The Prophet. Since I like to be original we have decided on a hand fasting ceremony as well. I opened the practice wedding ceremony wording to make sure she never read The Prophet and it wasn't included. Well, good news there. As I read a little further my heart sank. Some of the wording that I had found for the hand fasting ceremony was repeated very closely. Well crap. I had to notice that what I found and I liked so much was about partnership while her rendition was all about how wonderful she was. Typical.
I showed it to Mr. Get Lucky and he shrugged, "well the context is different." Thanks honey. After calling all of my friends and whining I got some of the best advice I've heard. Don't worry about her and do what makes you happy. I've been so concerned about bot repeating anything that was in the practice wedding and avoiding asking Mr. Get Lucky as to avoid him thinking about it as well as having my ideas rejected without a reason why. But they are right. This is our wedding and we can't avoid everything. While I don't want to remind him of the past it might happen. While I don't want to repeat what she did it might be inevitable.

What I have to remind myself is that this is the real wedding. I won't ever tell him that I want a divorce in a pathetic attempt to....uh, "save the relationship." I refuse to be that stuck on myself. I will do everything in my power to stay together forever.

Ok, time for a little snark though. I will be the bride with a beer pong table but I won't take pictures of us kissing half in the portal potties as a posed picture. I don't think my photographer would even agree to that. I will not have "artistic" pictures that involve my deodorant or me making a fishy face.
I will not make the same pose forehead to forehead to every member of my wedding party. My pictures won't have my acne scars visible, oh wait I don't have acne scars. My photos won't have red eye. My bridesmaids will not be in prom dresses. I will not force Mr. Get Lucky to read a full page of vows I've written for him about how much he loves me. My wedding will not look like Toucan Sam threw up. I will not have cupcakes that look like they came from Walmart. I will not make my future sister in law be my personal attendant and treat her like a slave. I will not hire a bartender to get my future in laws drunk so they will look like asses in front of our friends and family (especially when they paid for the wedding).  I will not make it all about me, but I will make it all about us. I will be unique and the wedding will be visually stunning.

Most importantly I will never take my future husband for granted and I WILL love him for all that he is.