I lost my sharpie.

So I had to make do with some thread.

And then I found my sharpie. After I pricked my finger a sufficient amount of times.

Titles (in case you were wondering)

l) thisshouldshutherup
r) itneededaspoon

Fun with the self timer

Another little thing I'm working on.

The cutest teapot ever

The only problem is that it doesn't hold tea. It is still the cutest teapot ever. I bought it in Paris at a tea/candy/chocolate shop by our apartment.

This is just a yellow bowl

But you probably figured that out. It kind of felt like a little sun to me. I give you the sun in return for all of the wonderful comments and emails about my Defaced project. It's great to know I am on the right path with these, otherwise I'd be screwed. I mean I am essentially destroying polaroids . . . how dare me.

I forgot to mention that I am over here this week.

Also, Jen updated the For the Love of Light site.

And, I thought this was really nice. But then again, who wouldn't?

And this shot by maditi inspired my brief foray into color today. She's so good.

Defaced

It started very innocently. I was just trying to take a self portrait, and when I saw what my face looked like I said to myself (out loud) "I don't like my face today." So I grabbed a sharpie and scribbled it out. "There, much better. Hmmmmm. This feels kind of good." Ok, let me stop you right there. I don't hate myself, or my face for that matter, I just didn't like it yesterday. It happens, right? Then I remembered that I had another photo of myself where I didn't like the way my mouth looked, so I scribbled on that one, too. And then it hit me. Finally, something to do with all those "reject" polaroids I've been holding onto for years. The ones that got jammed in the camera, or yellowed in certain places, or the ones where I just didn't like my face. So I dug them up and just started writing the first thing that came to my mind. As if I was explaining the photo to someone else. Well, I couldn't stop. I even dipped into a couple of non-rejects. And, since I wasn't liking my face, I took some more self portraits and scribbled on them. Defacing is fun, and it brings some emotion to photos that weren't very, well, emotional. I hope you like what I have done so far.

When Andrew came home last night and saw what I was doing he said,
"Why did you draw all over your face?"
I said,
"I didn't like, uh, you wouldn't understand."
He probably would understand, but I think he likes my face everyday (as husbands should), so maybe he wouldn't.

My friend Chris emailed me. I think he thought I might be suicidal because of how blue I have been feeling. I told him that wasn't the case, I was just inspired. He's a good friend.

You can decide for yourself.









There are more here. And there will be more after that. I can't stop. Really, I can't. I'll keep you posted.

On Tuesdays

I tap dance with my friends Carin and Lisa. We've been tapping for over a year and we are getting good. I even have a solo moonwalk in our next recital. This has nothing to do with Paris, but I thought I would share it with you.

oh, also, we like to dress in funny outfits, because it makes tapping more enjoyable. come to think of it, funny outfits make everything more enjoyable. more funny outfits, please.

and one more thing . . . if you want to read about my paris trip, go here.

3 Things

that I love about Paris . . .

big blue doors
people watching
and
babette.

i really miss babette.

I'm giving it another shot

Thank you all so much for your kind words. Apparently I am not the only one who suffers this kind of horrible post vacation depression. I think the fog is lifting . . . finally. I even took a couple of polaroids this weekend. Things are looking up. For now, I want to finish telling you about Paris, so that's what I'll do.

Notre Dame was beautiful, don't get me wrong. It's just history, as a whole, is lost on me. I finally came to terms with that while in Paris. Especially when I realized that I was 10 times more excited about this cute little bunny outside of Notre Dame, than Notre Dame itself. What do you think?

Inspiration

Wow. This has been so much worse than I could have ever imagined. I just can't seem to get back into the swing of things. I decided to force myself to try today (since up until this point I have been on the couch wallowing in it and watching a lot . . . i mean A LOT of tv). So I dragged myself out to the old prop barn (you know, the one that should have been finished over a month ago) and tried to make sense of it. That proved to be a bit too difficult so I did something a little more fun. I worked on my inspiration board. It's a big one. I had Andrew put cork on both of the barn doors. I only have a portion of one of the doors done, but I can tell it is already helping. These inspiration boards really do work. I had my first creative idea in over a week. It had been so long in fact that it was hard to find my little "creative ideas" notebook. I found it and scribbled away. I'll keep you posted on my progress. I really hope the fog is finally lifting, so I can get back to blogging and taking photos. Fingers crossed.

I'm still here.

I'm not neglecting you, I promise. Paris just knocked me for a loop. As soon as I can get my thoughts together I will continue to share the stories of my trip.

Pere Lachaise

I really couldn't be bothered going to Pere Lachaise. What do I care about Jim Morrison's grave? I did like the doors, but only after the movie, so i don't think that counts. BUT, Andrew really wanted to go, so it was only fair. When we got there I almost just had him go to Jim's grave without me while I waited at the entrance. Andrew insisted I join him and I am so glad I did. I forgot how much I really love cemeteries (that is so sick). I forgot that some of my favorite photos are from cemeteries (evidence here and here).
I promise I did not walk on any graves to get these photos. I may have walked very close, but not on top. Jim Morrison's grave was kind of a bust (well actually it was supposed to be a bust of Jim, but apparently it got stolen). The people standing there (and there were lots) were much more interesting than the grave itself.

Chopin's grave was much more beautiful. Andrew asked me if I knew who Chopin was.
"Excuse me? Yes, I know who Chopin is. Gaaaaahhhhhhd! How rude. He plays music, right?"

We spent about an hour just wandering through the crowded aisles of graves, taking lots of pictures.

Then it started to rain (it rained quite a bit while we were there). Then it started to rain even harder. So we headed out to a cafe around the corner to have cafe au laits and a croque monsieur.


ps. i had to do them smaller, because the i couldn't deal with them not being square, plus i noticed the others were cropped. damn you blogger.

The Louvre

So we waited until the very last minute to go to the Louvre. My ADD prevents me from spending long periods of time in museums, so we knew we wouldn't be there for long (Andrew suffers from the same affliction). Lucky for us the museum stays open until 10pm on Friday nights, so around 6:00 we headed over (After making a pit stop at Laduree for macarons). The nice thing about going to the Louvre at 6pm is that the line is quite bearable. Although once inside it was bustling.

Now here comes the best part. The part that excited me more than seeing the Mona Lisa (it's smaller than I expected) . . . you can TAKE PICTURES inside the museum. I literally jumped for joy, since I am much more interested in people looking at art than at the art itself (I know, I know, I probably shouldn't admit that, but the charade can go on no longer. That's just how I feel). So I was able to take this

and this

and this

and when we finally got to the Mona Lisa (did I already tell you that it was small--and behind some sort of bullet proof glass?), I forgot to take a polaroid of it because I was more interested in this

I'm pretty sure Andrew thought I was crazy for being so giddy, but I just couldn't help it. We did still look at some really beautiful art, but for me, it's these photos that satisfied me the most.

p.s. For some reason blogger is doing something weird to these photos. They don't look square, but i promise, they are. If you don't believe me (which would be very rude seeing as I have always been honest with you) check here.

i'm back!

And I've got a lot of polaroids with me (and about 10 extra pounds). I figured I would dedicate the week to paris. Although I think I could probably give it a month or even a year. Here are a few of the shots I took and there are more here (and I am adding to it). Stay tuned.