Fun with Bokeh

A while back I read about bokeh, a blurring effect that's especially interesting when it takes on a particular shape (at least that's how I understand it, though, specifically it might be more involved). I think this is a fun photography 101 sort of experiment--it's easy and very satisfying. I had seen some flickr images of the effect a while back but wasn't sure exactly how to achieve it.  Andrew sent me a link this week with instructions on how to create this cool effect. You can read them here. It was so easy!  Basically, you just create a filter with a shape in the center that covers your lens.  Once you place it over the lens, you open the aperture all the way, as far as you can (setting it to the lowest f number), point your camera at some nice lights (Christmas lights are especially great), and that's about it!  Well, I think it's important, too, to put your lens on manual focus so you can adjust the blurring effect as you look through the lens.  I made 4 filters: one star, one heart, one angel, and one tree, which I cut out with an x-acto knife.  I have some fun shape punches, but they wouldn't reach to the center.  Cutting them out by hand just took a few minutes though.  It was really fun.  Here are a some of my favorites!  And here again are the instructions. Wee!

My Little Elf

Lois, the helpful elf, designed our wrapping paper this year. It's a good thing, too, because I've been a little behind this year and wasn't sure what I'd do for my wrapping. I always like something fun and creative, so I got out a few rolls of kraft paper and some crayons, and with some scribbles here and there, me and Lois made our wrapping paper. We tied the packages with gold raffia ribbon adorned with mismatched buttons, and wrote gift tags using scraps of vintage wrapping paper. Most of our packages are on their way to loved ones, so now I have to get back to wrapping so our little tree doesn't look so lonely!

Peaceful Thinking

The countdown is on!  I still have sooo much to do before Christmas. I'm not the type of person who shops throughout the year to be finished by Halloween, or has all her shopping done before Thanksgiving, with gifts wrapped and waiting in the closet.  Not me.  I wait till 2 weeks before to shop!  Well, this year we did.  I've also been making a lot of sweater pillows for all the little people in our family, and I'm a bit under the wool here.  My determination to finish these, and lack of much time to do so (just spent 15 minutes cleaning squished banana out of a sisal rug), has made me feel behind in other things, like shopping for presents!  The pillows are presents, but just little ones for the kids so everyone else needs presents.  Our families are small, so gift buying really isn't that overwhelming or crazy expensive, so I'm not complaining here about gifts, etc.  I like Christmas and gift-giving.  But sometimes I need a reminder to chill.  We went for a walk around the neighborhood the other night, and I saw this little entryway that I loved. An otherwise inconspicuous entry, calling for attention with its festive, bright lights and red ornaments.  It's so pretty and simple and peaceful. I'll keep it in mind today as I wrap the first of our gifts.

Looks a lot like Christmas

This year we have our very first real Christmas tree as a little family! In the past we've put up 2 very small synthetic trees, in part because we're usually away from home for Christmas, and because we don't have a whole lot of ornaments.  The little trees have always been nice, but I was hoping for a real tree this year.  About two weeks ago, though, I pulled out the ornament box, and well, it didn't have many ornaments in it.  It was a very small box, much smaller than I was expecting.  I've been collecting ornaments here and there the last few years to build up an amount that might fill a tree, but I still didn't have very many (I swear some are missing because I feel pretty certain we have a lot more).  So I told Andrew that maybe we'd wait till next year to have a tree. I like to pick ornaments one at a time, or a few at a time at the flea market, or get them on sale at Anthropologie after Christmas. So I decorated the two little trees and called it a day. I packed up the rest of the cute ornaments and put them back in their box to be stored until next year, which made me a little sad because we're staying home this year.  I was sad, that is, until Andrew walked in door with a Christmas tree!!

He was wearing a big o'l smile, ear to ear, a smile so big and one I've only seen on him a few times.  He smiles a lot, but I'm talking Joker big.  He was so excited to bring home a tree.  He said we have to have a tree for Lois's first Christmas (well technically her second, but she was just tiny last year, and we weren't here for Christmas anyway).  We put the tree in the stand, and I got out our little ornament box and decorated the tree.  It looks so beautiful.  I love it!  It doesn't even really matter that the ornaments are a little sparse--with some tinsel, candy canes, and christmas cards stuffed in the tree (a family tradition), it looks just right.  And I think I'll go to the flea market this weekend to see if I can find a few more vintage ornaments.

I took these pictures with our new camera and lens, not my iPhone for a change.  The camera is awesome!  Initally I took a few pictures and thought they were pretty good.  I put them on my computer and made some adjustments in Lightroom.  Later, though, I checked out Greg Miller's blog when I was doing a few minutes of blog reading.  He's one of my favorite photographers, and I'm always so impressed with his pictures.  I saw on his blog that he just posted about decorating his tree. I love the pictures, and decided I should have another go at mine. My post inspiration pictures are much better, I think, than my first attempt.

We don't have many Christmas presents yet, but the best thing under the tree yesterday was a cutie named Lois, all wrapped up in her Christmas dress. As usual it was hard getting pictures of her, but this one turned out pretty well and is one of my favorites.  I love how her arm is showing and still looks really chubby.

After all that work, some hot chocolate with whipped cream was in order.  It was a festive afternoon.

New Treasures

My mom added a few great things to her etsy shop last night, including a convex glass frame, a sterling silver spoon, and a set of decorative tin hot plates.  Head over to see what else she has in store.  She's really excited about her shop, and I'm so happy she finally has it going.  I've been wanting her to open up shop for a while now.  Since I closed my vintage etsy shops (primarily due to lack of space for anything), I'll be giving you updates to hers every now and then instead.  You might like what she has in store. I do. I always want to go shopping in her garage when I visit! It's like being at a flea market.