A New Year's Tradition: Photo Craft

New Year's has totally passed, and I was just too busy to get to the craft that I had been saving for that particular holiday.   Oh well.  Better late than never.

Half way through December, in the midst of the holiday rush, it hit me that I would love to have some photos highlighting the best parts of the year to use as decor.  

But then it struck me that Christmas already has a million decorations ideas, why not use New Year's Day as a reason to look back at all the good times we had during the year?

 "And while I'm at it," I thought, "I'll do last year too (the first year of our marriage) so that eventually we will have New Year's decor that will chronicle our lives together."

 I wanted to do a top 10, but I just couldn't narrow down all the amazingness we've experienced in the past two years.  Too many foreign countries, new friends, weddings, and holidays to fit into just 10 photos.  So I added a few extra. 

 I printed them all in timeless black and white, and wallet size, so that even after 10 years we'll be able to store this decoration in a shoe box.

 And I bought teeny tiny clothes pins to attach them to twine.

 On the back I wrote the date and the event so that when we're 100 and senile we might know what we're looking at.

 And I added an appropriate quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. "Write it on your heart that each day is the best day of the year."

Then one of my most sarcastic but lovable friends came over... And was inspired to make her own sarcasti-craft.

 Jokes on her:  I actually like it.  

She insisted that I write down the best thing from every day to add to the bowl.  That's too much pressure, but I'll definitely add weekly at least.

 Thanks, Di.

Week 46: Christmas Cards

Hmmm... I'm doing some math, and realizing that I'm still way behind on my 52 weeks of crafting. Bummer.  AND  I'm struggling with how to post some of the crafts that I am making, because right now, they are all Christmas presents, and they're mostly going to blog followers.  So... looks like I'll complete my goal (duh) but do it retroactively.

My anxiety level tells me that we got a late start on this, but today Alan and I did some DIY Christmas Card photo shoots.  I wont share the ones we ended up using, but I'll show some of the rejects. 

So... our it's-raining-too-hard-to-go-outside idea was supposed to be and artsy version of the tree trimming picture.  Our tree is super tiny, which is perfect for our apartment, but we figured that would be fine. I had a vision of the camera focused on ornaments, with us blurry in the background.  Alan tried a few options...

Christmas balls...

 Adorable reindeer...

 And we trimmed the tree in the background...

Luckily it stopped raining, because we were not impressed with this idea. 

So we strapped our tree and a poinsettia to our bikes, and  took them to the bike bridge we ride across every day and started again. 

Photo shoots with Alan always start with a bunch of test pictures because he's so professional.  They usually end up with me doing something ridiculous in them because... well... I'm a jack ass.

 This is me riding my pretend bike.  Great form. 

Alan mounted the camera to the rail, put it on a ten second delay, and set it to take a million pictures at once. The first few involved us struggling to get going fast enough, and Alan yelling at me to quit blocking him.  (Attention whore.)

Then he crashed into the side of the bridge.  Ha. 

So I gave him some room on the next try...

And ended up out of the shot all together.  Looks like that was his plan all along, doesn't it?

 In this photo, you can see my poinsettia is attempting to commit suicide. It was real windy, and two of the branches blew off right after this shot.

So I used one as a prop in the next photo.  Unfortunately, it looks like I just fell asleep in it. 

I really loved most of the pictures we took, and it was a fun adventure riding around town carrying all of that festivity. Our Christmas cards are ordered, and should be here this week so my anxiety level should drop.  

Phew! Merry December!

Wall Week: Worldly Wall

 For a super small space, our living room sure has a lot of empty wall space.  Well not so much anymore.  In a fit of frustration and exasperation, I slapped a bunch of nails into the wall and threw up everything travel related I could find.  I was SUPER over the blank walls, but also I was over the collection of crap on our floor.  

 My lovely friends D&B are my "Gallery Wall" idols.  I will in no way ever get close to their wall beautifying talents, but I have MUCH less patience for organization that she has, and MUCH less level-hammering skills than he has.  That being said, I love that they have a wall dedicated to travel pictures, and items they had picked up in foreign countries.  So I copied.  Sloppily.

 The silver Evil Eye decor came as a gift from our wonderful former coworkers. It is supposed to watch over us and protect our lives, home, and marriage from evil.  It definitely adds Turkish flare.

I KNOW I asked Alan to save the key from our first home together. He KNOWS he did.  NEITHER OF US know where that key is at the moment, but there's a place for it when we find it...

We ended up with lots of coinage from our trips over the past few years.  I straight up hot glued them to some fabric, and hot clued the fabric to the back of the frame.  It'll peel off if we ever want to spend it. 

I wish I had collected old maps wherever we went.  Or even just tourist maps.  That being said, I probably would have tossed them all when we were packing to come home.  So I Google mapped all the places we've been and lived in the past few years, cut them out in heart shapes, and glued them to burlap.  

Pictures are of us, and the things we say in Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, and Turkey.  

The paintings are a Map of Turkey, and Alanya Scenery. 

I have more things to add some day, (a HUGE map of the world to chart our adventures, Turkish tea and coffee saucers and spoons, the missing key...) but for now, this is it.  It's not perfect, but it's not on the floor, and the wall no longer looms like a gigantic space of boring.

Rocks, Rings, and Jumpy Things- Focus on Photos

We're spending this weekend in the absolutely GORGEOUS, peaceful and relaxing Adrasan.  Tonight we will hike to the top of "fire mountain," so my mom can stop asking if we've seen it yet.  I couldn't be more pleased with our little get away.  Real pictures of that will be posted soon on the Turkey Blog.

But today I took another foray into the world of photography.  I've been inspired by a series of mini photography lessons on my favourite crafty blog deliacreates.blogspot.com. And decided to play around with close-ups.

Beautiful beach pebbles...

Wet and shiny...

 I was in charge of the rings while Alan swam...

So I decided to play wedding photographer. 

Then I met this guy.

And this guy.

And their friend.

This one is pretty blurry, but I had to add it for so many reasons.  First of all: I DO NOT LIKE JUMPY BUGS, and this is the closest I've ever purposefully put my face to a bug. All in the name of photography. You're welcome.   Secondly: I noticed as I was focusing, that he was pooping as I was taking the picture. Shame on you, bug. Thirdly: he wasn't too happy with me for taking a picture of him in the act.  Right as I pushed the button he jumped, aiming FOR MY FACE. He missed because I screamed and ducked, but he did land on the back of my neck.  Which caused more screaming.  Thank God Sonya came to my rescue.  

And last, the cutest little frogs EVER. I love frogs. 

 

Week 17: Castle Flowers

I'm struggling to keep up on my crafting goals while still playing hostess and tour-guide to Alan's family.  So today on an absolutely stunning walk on our castle hill, (possibly one of my all time favourite places) I stole Alan's fancy camera and tried to capture the rainbow of flowers around me. 

Though I am not a photographer, professionals would certainly say that photography is a craft. I'm sure they would also look at the photos below and say that I'm doing it wrong.  That's OK, I'm a firm believer in learning by doing, and that no craft has to be perfect. 

I'm a weed lover.  All of my favourite flowers are weeds, and will probably be banned from Alan's  immaculately planned garden.  I have no patience for gardening, so for now the guy who tends it gets to make the rules, and he says "No weeds."  Boo.   

So all of my pictures are of gorgeous weeds.  I dare you to look through them and not fall in love yourself.

Red Poppies...

Orange Poker...

Yellow... Clover?...

Something else yellow and tall...

Green climbing fern...

Green succulent...

Blue Iris (OK, not a weed, but growing like one)...

Deep purple centers...

Dark purple shamrocks...

Something bright pink...

Pink Hollyhock...

Neon pink succulents...

The most beautiful white weed EVER...

And a dandelion the size of an apple.