One other thing…while in Palm Springs we made it a habit of welcoming all the folks coming into our double wide modular 55+ home with an “It’s a Small World” serenade. Notice the girl from Holland holding the flowers and the rest of us are from Africa or something with headwraps and fruit baskets on our heads (although I’m holding a Russian nut cracker doll who helped us keep the beat). We are either from Africa or Afghanistan…I’m not really sure…whatever the mind of 6 year old was dreaming up.
Blog
I’ve been out of it
I’ve been out of the blogging/e-mail world a bit, sorry about that. I guess I’ve just been enjoying life in the double-wide modular 55+ community in Palm Springs, playing Uno, sitting pool side and taking occasional jaunts to the bocce court or putting green. (Parents are attempting the snow bird life and I guess I am too). The biggest take away from my time in PS is that I’m pretty darn good at being an 80 year old. Pretty darn good indeed. A few highlights:
A trip to The Bruery. Our good college friends started The Bruery and if I have not said it enough before I’ll say it again, I’m the biggest, proudest soccer mom. Pat and Rachel are AMAZING with everything they’ve touched…from the incredible beer, to their tasting room, to their branding, to their staff (lots of good looking folks, ha!), to their incredible/professional warehouse, to their Provisions store, to the decor in all of the above, to their sweet little girl, to their amazing home…these guys are genuinely good, solid, smart, generous folks. I don’t know if we can EVER repay them all that they have done to enrich our lives and I’m not just saying that to be nice.
Then there is breakfast in bed. Or at least pampering two little girls as they watch their toons. Pretty cute. Side note: notice the retired person’s decor. Solid.
And on the last day it is now tradition to jump in the cold pool with our pajamas on. At first the girls thought it would take the flowers off their clothes or ruin their unds but when I showed them that it would all be ok they wanted to jump in all the time with their clothes on…because really…when you swim 8 out of your 24 hour day it takes a lot of effort to put your suit on, take it off, put clothes on, take them off, put your suit in, take it off, put clothes on, etc.
How to Narrow Down Your Photos – A Blurb Guest Post
In case you missed it, a friend who works at Blurb.com asked me to do a guest post on their blog sharing my process for narrowing down 2985928375938 photos to just your favorites. This is not an easy process especially since the nature of the digital world breeds trigger happy fingers. The easiest way to slim down your selection is to be a more thoughtful photographer and waiting for the perfect moment (i.e. pretend like you are shooting film and each click is $3.00!) but since people are not quite there yet I gave my words of wisdom on how to be selective. It isn’t easy, let me tell ya. When I first started and had to narrow down 1,000 photos I was lucky if I’d get it down to 650. Now I can say I have mastered the art of being choosy and can get 1,000 down to under a hundred…but this all depends on the type of shoot/story. A very big thank you to Maggie and Blurb for giving me the opportunity to share my process. If you have more thoughts or a better workflow/tactic I’d LOVE to hear!
did you hear about the new Apple release?
I’m sure you heard about the new iPad but did you hear about the other new Apple release? We were lucky enough to get to try it out for some time before the launch…it is the iStove. All old school and shit, this stove is where it is at. Great user functionality, sleek retro design and it makes cooking SO enjoyable. I love that Apple is now delving into the home appliances line…
***disclaimer: all this info is fictional. The above stove is not actually an Apple product. Simmer down Apple fanatics, no need to start camping outside the Apple store. We just put an apple sticker on our po-dunk stove to make it look a wee bit hip.
gettin’ crafty up in here
This past weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to crafternoon. 7 ladies sitting around a table all doing a little artsy crafty project while eating treats and drinking bubbly. Some knitted, some worked on needlepoint projects, some felted balls, and some made fabric bangles. I was a little “out of the box” and painted little scenes on blocks of wood but boy did it feel good to get the creative spirit flowing in me! Not only did I dig out my paints and dust off my skills but I was totally inspired by the women around me. Yes to crafternoons. Double woot!
Disneyland!
Last time I went to Disneyland was probably about 20 years ago so going with two kiddos who have never been and who think Disneyland means going to a movie is quite the event.
The little folks agreed with me that It’s a Small World is something else. So little has changed to the ride in all these years (except it kind of smells now) and in taking a photo of the ride via instagram it looks just like it did in the 80’s. Yes, this was the ride we rode more than once.
I actually barely paid any attention to all the dolls singing at me/ brainwashing me … I was so focused on the expressions of delight, awe and wonder on the faces of the little gals!
this is the story about a sweater that gives me guilt
This is the story about sweater that gives me guilt. Not guilt as in it was so expensive and I never wear it but more so guilt in being selfish.
Here is the scene: I’m at a shop perusing the wares for 10 minutes until my man/ride rings for me and I spot this sweater on a rack but there are no other sweaters like it anywhere around. It is cute, bright and has a bow on it. But it looks a little too big and I’m not sure which is the front and which is the back and maybe it is too bright. So me thinks I’ll just hold it for a bit. Then a girl comes up to me and in very broken English she says “Um, excuse me, that is very beautiful. May I ask where you found it?” I explained that it was on a rack but without any other similar items around it so I wasn’t sure but if I found others I’d let her know. Not sure what came over me but I clung to this sweater with a vengeance! That isn’t me at all! My man rings that he is outside waiting for me. What to do? Buy a sweater I don’t need that I haven’t tried on and that I can’t return unless I get store credit (which I don’t like doing) or give the sweater to the nice girl? Selfish Ali bought the sweater. Then I get home and it doesn’t fit right and is kind of scratchy and I can’t return it (lost the receipt). So because of my selfishness I make myself wear it even though it scratches me and I look like a clown. I’m trying to teach myself a lesson. Even Ctron said “Maybe it could be a sweater to just wear at home?” Yeah it is that bad. Next time, Ali, just give it to the kind person. You don’t need a bright pink scratchy sweater with a bow on it that is three sizes too big for you.
Seriously.
so we went to Nicaragua
So we went to Nicaragua to photograph a beautiful wedding with really nice people. Yes, I took thousands of photos with professional gear but the ones I’m going to share are the two iphone photos I took. Why share the “crap photos” you may ask? Well, for one the “good photos” have not yet been edited and it really isn’t my job/business to share Ctrons wedding photos. But I will say that Morgans Rock is a spectacular place to stay if you are ever looking for luxury jungle camping. Think open air bungalows with an eco-friendly twist. Here is our bungalow:
The food is good/safe, the beach is private, the people are nice, the 3/4 mile uphill hike to your bungalow includes a suspension bridge and monkeys yelling at you all while you tone your butt (especially when carrying 20 lbs of camera gear), and the road to get in is long and windy and dirt filled and bumpy so you never want to leave.
Here is the view from breakfast:
While we didn’t really “do” Nicaragua the trip was great and safe and all our gear is home with us and we didn’t have bugs crawl under our skin and start laying eggs like in Costa Rica (which happened to my ma and little bro about 15 years ago…yes, that was gross and bad news). At least I don’t **think** we have bugs crawling under our skin and laying eggs. I’ll get back to you on that.
feng shui-ing it up in here
The past two weekends we’ve slowly been moving things around in our loft. Since everything (or virtually everything) in our place is on wheels it makes it a wee bit easier to move things around and see how it works. Perhaps I’ll take more photos once we get things in total order but for now here is our wall o’ shelving (tilt shifted to make it all trippy and dollhouse looking).
And if you are curious about the shelving the C-dawg made it a few years ago. Here is a tutorial.
since the world is covered in snow, here is some sand
Since the world seems to be covered in snow (all except for California and the warm southern states), here is some sand…and an upside down owl:
