Photoshoppery

I'll be the first to admit that my photoshop skills are still in the development stage. For some reason I felt the need to spend my college years writing papers and studying for freaking slide ID exams instead of learning how to manipulate images. Whatever. I can always teach, right?! Heh.

The University called me last week asking for money. Since they only bother me once a year, and because I actually didn't owe any money upon graduating, I sent them $50, which my employer matched. So, $100. Hear that? I'm paying for some kid to fall asleep in class right now.

Oh. Back to my original point. I'm not great at photoshop, and it drives me crazy to polish something that's just for illustration purposes, anyway. I bring you...

Captain Laura's newest Fantasy Realty masturbation technique...

10243 Julius Northway, Sunset Hills. Priced right, huuge fireplace, hellishly dated. What I could do if I got my hands on this place, though!

Typography!

Design kind of drives me crazy, but I do it when I have to. Last names have been blurred to protect the innocent.

Procrastinatrix

As evidenced by my last post, I'm procrastinating on my projects by starting new ones. To be fair, my container garden was looking rather wimpy and the porch needed to be cleared anyway. I started a whole gang of seeds in April; sadly, none of them lived long enough to be planted outside. I did some cleaning and organizing outside yesterday, including getting rid of some stuff and consolidating what I had. I'm trying to cut down on my non-consumable purchases, so I planned to buy plants only for the containers I had.

This is the first time I've gone plant shopping with a map. In the past, I've just kind of wandered around and picked up things that I liked, or bought based on what kind of bargain I could get. That method generally ended in disappointment, badly composed container plantings, and an excess of marigolds.

It was actually kind of awesome to choose plants with intent. I don't spend a lot of time pre-planning my purchases for any kind of shopping, and I'm getting totally sick of coming home with a whole pile of stuff that doesn't go together in the least.


I wasn't really planning on buying any perennials, but when I stopped to get a closer look at this one, I couldn't resist:


I also picked up this one, which seems to be called "Tickseed." I'm mostly posting here in hopes of remembering the name next year, if this happens to come back.


I also spent some time washing the sliding door yesterday. This isn't the best picture, but I'm really happy to have wiped off all the dachshund nose art. Frank and Rita are working on a new masterpiece, though, so don't worry.


The dogs have been really groan-y today. I'm not sure if it's the heat, or what, but all Rita wants to do is make frog legs and lay around. Franklin harassed a toad yesterday and got a foamy mouth for it. Poor guy...it kind of serves him right.

Scavenger

Modernica Noguchi replica dining table in Dogtown for $100. I'd buy it myself but no where to put it...

And now...for some shirts!

Bobbi called me the other day because she couldn't stop laughing...about something that happened like 5 years ago. We were playing CatchPhrase in her bedroom and something funny happened...and I fell backwards right off the bed!

I made some shirts and onesies for the nieces and nephews...here are a matching pair that I did with iron-on inkjet transfers. Notice the 1337-ness of these!


The rest I did with freezer paper stencils. Which are, to say the least, the shit. I had good luck finding images on stock photo sites to base my designs off of. While this takes some skill with an x-acto knife, the designs come out crisp, clear, and soft (if you use fabric paint, which I highly recommend.)

I washed all the shirts inside-out in cold water and nothing came off. The best part? Rob and Ally seemed to like everything a lot.



I made the four kids a coordinating set of shirts. Dorky, but cute...


I'm currently working on my portion of the twins' baby quilts, a surprise quilt for an ADL member, and designing a birth announcement. Uh, and studying for the GMAT. And trying to find a house with Jeremy that we both want to buy. And, you know, working and stuff ;)

Gratuitous nephew pictures:
Robbie looks nearly identical to Rob did when he was a newborn...

Charlie chillaxin'...with a Grammie-knit blanket!

Here you can really see the differences and similarities in their features. Also: holy cow, there are two of them!

As an aside, I seem to have lost my break-the-baby fear in the years since Brianna was born. Must've been from working at the Portrait Studio. I had absolutely no fear about scooping 'em up. Weird.