New blog!

Hi there!  I'm switching my blog over to:

http://dorisaurus.com

Posts have been migrated, but I'll be posting to there from now on.  Thanks for reading! :)

Seminar: Storytelling and Compositing

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a seminar taught by Brooke Shaden.  I always love going to these seminars to pick up on tips and tricks, especially from successful artists (as Brooke Shaden is successfully making a living off of her art - that's a lot of street cred she has with me.)  I wasn't aware of her work much before the seminar was brought to my attention, but her imagery really strikes a chord with me; and I think my work might develop along similar lines.

The topic was storytelling and compositing - the art of taking multiple photos and blending them together to create a new whole.  Personally I'm still deciding what level of Photoshop I feel OK with before I don't want to call the end work a "photograph" verses a "digital painting".  Still, can't argue that when one hasn't got a budget of thousands to get sets and props, a judicious use of Photoshop to get the image you want has its place.  And I really love the term "self portrait artist", because I often end up using myself as a model in my photos - so, I'm going to have to start using that term for my photography!

This is the image I walked away with at the end of the day.  We had done another group shot with a model with a levitation shot, but due to the size of the class I wasn't really able to get a good angle and shots to work with.  This one actually IS a composite of 3 different images, although if I had more setup time I know I could have gotten it in 1 or 2.  There's nothing about it (such as including thing in motion, supports that really needed to be erased, etc) that couldn't have been done with one shot...well, maybe some support.  But we had 30 free minutes to ourselves and a bunch of props in this gorgeous old library room and I was inspired to do a mysterious wrapped figure, like a library gargoyle!  A patron gargoyle of learning, as it were.

One of the most important techniques of the day was taking a blank setup shot, or plate, of the setting without any of the models or action.  This works to your advantage down the line, particularly in a levitation shot where you will be masking out a visible means of support, but it is good practice to do for any shot you know you will composite. And of course, this works best when all your shots will be take from the same angle/height/lighting conditions, so for this kind of work a tripod is necessary and a remote control trigger very handy. 

I have 3 basic layers of the shot - I do love layer masks as just about the best thing ever in Photoshop. 

 Here's the 3 shots I started with.  One is the background, and I admit I didn't do this in the best way - in the end I liked a slightly different framing of the background, so you see all the subsequent images of the figure had to be scaled down to fit in the new frame.  Not a big deal, but if I'd gotten it right I would have saved myself some post processing work.  The second was chosen for the upper body.  The shelf I sat on was actually quite narrow, so I was in danger of tipping completely forward and falling off.  I wouldn't have been able to lean forward without Wayne' support.  The third shot was of the lower body with no support - I had Wayne draw back for just a few seconds while the shot was snapped.

thanks for the support, wayne!

I liked this shot quite a bit for something I only had a short amount of time to work on.  In retrospect, the image would have been more evocative with more story (perhaps another figure to interact with the gargoyle?)  But I do love red, and drapery.

And here's a quick shot of the demo of how to do a levitation shot.  It was pretty neat - I've started messing around with them a little bit, so stay tuned for more. :)

A Quiet Night for Tea

While I was making that cheongsam the other week I watched "In the Mood for Love", a movie I had heard about for a long time but never got around to actually seeing.  It seemed fitting, as the supernaturally beautiful Maggie Cheung walks seductively around in a series of simply amazing cheongsams and backgrounds.  I absolutely loved the cinematography of this movie and it inspired me to do a little photoshoot with the dress I had just made.  I wasn't intending to mimic an exact scene of the movie, but just a bit of the same feeling. 

Putting the shot together:

I did a lighting test with a single desk lamp instead to study how the light might fall in the photo.  You can see it ended up being similar but not too much like the lighting I used in the end photograph.  Single light source, but it's reflected fairly well off the light table surface and I'm sitting pretty close to it.  I liked the  feel of that light, but knew I would end up with a different table lamp that fit the scene a bit better.  I liked how the light simply trailed off around the edges of the photo due to the single light source and wanted to replicate that - with two light sources visible in the end photo.

 Here's what my final setup looked like.  Kind of ghetto when you take a step back and see that this is just the far side of my bedroom (which by the way, is quite large so there's room for this kind of thing).  Cost breakdown, and set contents.

1) background - a curtain panel with fun texture from Goodwill - $5
2) Hanging lamp shade from Daiso: $1.50
    2a) already had hanging cord lamp, but did see them for sale for about $15.
3) tiger poster  from Daiso, $1.50
4) desk lamp - the bulb light is filtered though a piece of white paper I put inside the glass shade. already owned
5) teapot, tea cup, table, chair, already owned
6) fake wall trim - found some crown moulding pieces in my garage, so free.  I think you could get some cheap pieces for hm, $10 at home depot?
7) Background stand: $40 off ebay.  This isn't something I think anyone who really wants to claim they are being uber cheap would get, but I was ready to buy and own one.  It's a lightweight one, probably not for holding up heavy backdrops.
8) duct tape - $6. Wow this stuff is amazing.

So there it is!  I shot the thing in low light, and slow shutter speed so I was holding myself pretty still.  As you can tell, I'm quite a fan of the way light wraps itself softly around objects when you have a nice long exposure.  This was a very fun little shoot, I will definitely be doing more in the future.

Cotton Cheongsam

Cotton Cheongsam #1
Overall difficulty: medium
Techniques used: French seams, pinked edges, blind hem, invisible zipper installation, bias tape

Lessons learned for next time: I should definitely leave more seam allowance as this dress barely fits around my hips.  When I know I plan to use French seams, I would cut it more generously because I'm rather bad about making sure that seam stays at its proper size and it's good for me to have extra. Also, blind hem stitch sure took a lot of finagling from me to get the right stitch width to make it work.
Would I make it again? Totally! With a few alterations I mention below.  And it'd be fun to try this in a fabric with some stretch to it.

A short while ago I was obsessed with border prints.  I ordered this butterfly one off of fabric.com, but when it arrived I discovered the pattern tiles vertically, not along the border.  I was at a loss of what to do with this fabric until I read an article showing borders used as a wonderful accent on necklines and waistlines.  Brilliant!   After that I just had to hunt down a dress pattern made of long, thin panels and I remembered that I had also been interesting in trying my hand at making a cotton cheongsam - such as the ones pictured in vintage Shanghai posters.   

I found this cheongsam pattern off a site FULL OF FREE PATTERNS  You download and print out a pdf file which tiles out the pattern pieces, and you tape them all together.  I wasn't expecting that much from this pattern because 1) I just found it randomly on the internet, 2) it was free, 3) there's no reviews or anything to let you know how well put together the pattern is.  But, it's free so it wasn't like I was risking much!  

With this dress I really tried to apply myself and work on some better construction techniques, particularly on all the seams.  I don't have a serger, but there's ways of finishing seams so they don't all fray away into nothing when you wash it.  So overall for me this dress was a level up even as I see many things to correct for the NEXT one I make.  Yup, I liked this so much I created a more durable pattern for myself even though already I know there's alterations for that next one - I'd really make this a few inches longer, make it less of a racerback cut around the arms, and remember that I DO know how to put in a lining or construct an armhole with facing for a much more attractive opening.

The internet was a wonderful resource for all the techniques I wanted to learn and us e this time.  The following list has the particularly helpful tutorials I used.  There's lots of them out there for each technique, but I found the pictures for these the best.

How to Make French Seams
Blind Hem - what that heck is it and how does it work?
How to Make Your Own Bias Tape
Invisible Zippers - YOU Can Install One Too, Today!

And to finish off the post, another dance inspired photo.  Till next time!

New bento box!

I'm always on the lookout for a fun new lunch container.  I'm trying not to get any new bento boxes unless there's something different about it than I've already got, but it's true that I'm always on the lookout. Most of my "real" bento boxes are the cheap ones from Daiso; they're really cute but not something you want to be microwaving in due to plastic, potential BPAs, etc and death.  I've noticed that there's a trend in new hip lunchboxes to go back to older-style food containers.  Things like stainless steel boxes, tiffins, that is, metal lunchboxes such as are commonly used in other countries.  They're durable, food safe, and reheatable...in a toaster over.

Well, that is pretty good, aside from the fact that I don't have a toaster oven at work after the Crumb Fire of Negligence back in 2008 or so.  (Not my crumb fire, by the way.)  But, all the metal lunch boxes I found were SO EXPENSIVE! I was really considering paying $20 or more for a lunch box but I just couldn't pull the trigger.  Which turned out to be a really good thing, because while I was on vacation in New York, my friend introduced me to a wonderland called Pearl River Mart.  All my favorite Chinatown things at reasonable prices, and THEY HAVE A WEBSITE YOU CAN ORDER FROM.  Wow.  It's like my kryptonite!


While I was there I picked up this very old school "just like my parents used to have" lunchbox for $6!  They also have plenty of $20 lunchboxes that are fancier, and I'm eyeballing a stainless steel themal container....but anyhow.  I busted out this dual layer beauty to bring to work today.  For the top layer I made a breakfast bento with a nice jumbo poached egg and cake...and fruit!  Bottom layer I filled up with leftover salmon fried rice, veggies, and chicken.  I put the lunch layer into microwaveable silicone cups in case I wanted to heat anything up.  It holds a good amount of food, this was pretty good for me today but I will also mention I brought fruit and a breakfast smoothie  for snacks through the day.  If one was trying to watch portions, this could help keep track of how much you're eating. And since this is stainless steel I ought to be able to put it in the oven - can't wait to bake something in it to bring for lunch! :)

Photographer, photograph thyself

natural pose

The funny thing about taking pictures for a hobby is that I always feel so awkward about posing for photos.  Despite the fact that I often do pose for my own photos (a teacher in college was very surprised to hear me say I am camera shy, since I used myself as a model for most projects), there's a huge difference in doing something with a self timer, and posing while someone is actively looking at you through the lens.  And, most of the things I take for myself aren't the typical "fashion" look.  While I'm of course vain enough to want to look good in the photo, you'll notice my own self portraits I'm often not looking at the camera or really just not STANDING there trying to look like a model.

After the wedding, WL and I went around our fabulously appointed hotel to take some more glamor oriented photos with the dresses we had made.  We're making it an ongoing goal to feel more confident about how to compose ourselves for this kind of photo.  Hand in hand with that, I'd like to learn how to take better photos, how to direct people to pose.  What kind of lenses, what angles to put myself at?  Photography is such a strange thing where angles that look strange in real life 3D are flattened in a way that really works on camera.   Maybe I should start watching Top Model to get some more clues?  It's definitely a skill!  Models aren't just pretty people, it's work to get yourself to look good in a photo.

the "glam" pose

We took many photos but here's the two I ended up liking.  Ha!  Favorite is where I don't have to look at the camera.  The only one I liked where you can see my face is the most "natural" one, which, I guess is all right.  Having photos of myself looking vacant eyed and artificial wouldn't really look like me at all. :)

Hi from NYC!

Just a 3 hour stop for now before I head to upstate NY and Montreal. I'll swing by for a true whirlwind visit on the way back. I feel like I'm soaking up some hip history in Times Square!

*****
Hey did this thing upload a few days ago? Anyway if not it's been super fun to check a few things (Central Park, Chinatown, lots of food) off the bu key list. Two action packed days of walking everywhere and one morning left before it's off to Boston. Too short a trip for a big beautiful city!

Scalloped Heart Dress

It's been another two weeks of adventure in the realm of sewing for me.  Ages ago I had decided I would try to make a dress to wear to an upcoming wedding, and I'd found this great retro pattern that looked fairly simple.  I had made a mock up and a casual summer dress with the pattern (which...had problems with going wrong and wronger under another deadline), but I thought surely, the third time would work perfectly.  Ha!  Just goes to show nothing goes according to plan.

This is the dress I ended up with.  There's been a few late nights tearing out my hair and a ton of stitches regarding the skirt - the first draft of the dress ended up with an alarming amount of poof.  Like absolutely ridiculous amounts of poof.  With the clock ticking (I leave in 2 days and I had to leave time for actual packing and prepping to go) to a deadline of Sunday, I frantically thumbed through my patterns to find an alternative skirt.  So, in the end the dress looks not very much like my original pattern, but woohoo! - I have something to wear to the wedding.

These are the two patterns I based the dress off of.  It was a bit of  hack and slash to put those things together after the Poof Incident, though not to bad since the waistline is about the same area.  It wasn't as hard as I thought to tackle the pencil skirt, actually, though next time I'll know better about how to adjust the pattern to fit my hips better.  The hardest part I think was that the dress is now PRETTY SNUG right at the waist after I added in the zipper - it just took up a lot of the seam on the side.  Sadly I won't be able to gorge myself in the week leading up to the wedding, when I'm visiting New York - oh no!

I found a good scalloped edge tutorial which helped me out for the neckline.  This is the second attempt at a heart cutout for the back.  I totally forgot to attach a stiffer material to the back of the dress so it only really holds its shape if I'm not moving my arms around.  Seems like that heart cutouts are a pretty popular thing, judging from Etsy. :).


I'm very relieved it's finally done, so I took a dancing pic to celebrate.  The dance pose was inspired by the Chinese Dai ethnic group, which is very well known for their peacock dance.  The traditional costume includes a long narrow  sarong-style skirt, so the dance moves don't feature a lot of open flexibility in the hips.  My hands aren't so perfect but, eh. :)  Taken using the timer off my Canon 7D, lit with natural daylight and a ring flash.  Note to self to use a more powerful flash and/or ought to have used faster shutter speed to catch movement without blurring.

Next stop - mad amount of laundry, cleaning the house, and packing for the trip! :D

Farmer McDoris

Greetings from the garden! It's that time of year when all those seeds and little sprouts that looked so unhopeful and small weeks ago are starting to come into their own. My previous garden posts were about the boxes I made for trees, but today's garden vegetable plot actually came into existence shortly before those boxes were made.

Last winter I saw a Frame-it-All kit at Home Depot on sale (about $100 on the off season) and I just had to get it.  It comes with plastic brackets and  composite timbers that allow you to build a modular garden.  I went for a 4' x 8' plot.  The particular kit is meant to do a 2-level plot but I wanted to just go ahead and make everything 12" tall, so I had to get 2 extra pieces of 2"x6" redwood cut to 4 foot lengths to make up for it.  The plastic brackets make this thing super easy to construct, you just need a drill to attach the pieces and it just stacks together!

After that I did lay a piece of landscaping fabric down although I don't know that it was necessary.  I threw in a couple inches of bark nuggets to help with the drainage (since this will sit forever on concrete,  I don't want it to be sopping wet 24/7, though I think having it be damp when I water it is OK), and then hauled bag after bag after bag into it.  THAT took a couple of weekends because I would only want to buy/haul a few at a time!  I mixed all kinds of brands of dirt, compost, and some pearlite, figuring the type of dirt will all average out in the end.

After that I put in some seeds and seedlings and now 3 months later I have a ton of lettuce, chard, radishes (wait. there IS a slight problem where I don't actually eat nearly enough leafy greens), my tomatoes are starting to fruit and I have some green bean plants and peppers getting more optimistic looking.  I would like to put in a drip watering system for this bed, but the size of the plot, mulch,  and the shade from the leaves means it doesn't dry out TOO fast.  I still have to water it daily on very hot days, but last year I had plants wilt from heat if I didn't get to give them some water twice a day.  This is doing all right and if it gets too hot I can set up a little open shade to cool it down.

Next step: make myself eat tons and tons of leafy greens!!

Hello Kitty Dress Refashion

I really have a terrible habit of seeing something a friend has and then wanting it.  Maybe it's just good marketing by association?  A few weeks ago I saw AJ wearing an adorable Hello Kitty top and I instantly had to have one for myself!  And what better way to break in a new (to me) used sewing machine that I had just bought from AJ? 

It's been a long time since I have tried refashioning anything (a whole year according to this blog!).  I had the perfect dress I wanted to cut up.  It was another old Forever21 purchase and as you see here it was sort of cute but at the same time not very inspired.  Also, the one and only time I wore it was on a day years and years ago where I had a very, very off, breaking up kind of day with an on-off again relationship.  My biggest regret was being slightly unfashionable during said encounter and I could never bring myself to wear the dress again.  A very good reason to cut it up, don't you think?  I had some scraps of white knit jersey from a friend, enough to make a tube top.




Basically I sliced off the skirt segment, and sewed on the tube top portion.   The white tube is double layered.  I ended up having to cut the fabric so that the outward facing panel has the grain running horizontally but the inside layer the grain is vertical.  Overall there's less stretch since I have layered the fabric this way but it actually feels more secure and supportive.  The Hello Kitty face I cut from pieces of crafting felt and tacked onto the top layer of the tube top.  Her bow I made from scraps of lycra and stuffed with cotton balls since I didn't have any batting around. 

I'm quite pleased with it!  I already have a bit of a Hello Kitty reputation at work so I'd probably only wear it on the weekends or very, very casual days at work.

And bringing it all together in addition to pointing out the dangers of giving me a camera with a self-timer function and to show off the reason why my house has large amounts of blank walls - and that a new dress makes me so happy I just have to dance -->

I may have to take more dancing photos of all my clothes I make!  Just because.

Space Cat Mural

A few weeks ago a girl I knew from high school contacted me about doing a mural for a children's clinic, Valley Medical Center.  Her service organization was arranging to have volunteers come paint murals in the exam rooms, to make them more cheerful for the kids coming through.  I've never actually painted a mural before - I mean, I've painted my house walls a single, flat color, and a long time ago I did some paintings on bigger canvases for school.  Since them though it's mostly been just a few watercolors here and there.  I was a little bit intimidated at the thought of designing a whole mural, but I guess this was the perfect opportunity to go big or go home.  And, when faced with an army of volunteers to lead, random paint, and brushes there really is nothing to but just to go at it.

Of course, this was another opportunity to have Space Cat appear.  (And other animals that kids would normally have as pets.  Gotta say the kitties are the easiest to draw.)  I am always a sucker for retro-futurism and cute animals. After doing this, I really think I need to write a story or two about my little Space Cat and his adventures!

Here's what the mural looked like in the end; one shorter wall panel and one long one. It's a bit cropped down but amazingly, taking 3 shots with my iphone (too lazy right now to take it off the memory card of my other camera) and photomerged in Photoshop worked quite well for a panorama!

I am STILL on my Southeast Asian ish kick because when you buy those packs of herbs for pho or springrolls, you get so many!  I've sort of accepted that I'm going to use what I can and then the rest will go bad, but I'm attempting to make it through more of what I bought.  I'm down to the mint, and my pot of homegrown lettuce desperately needed a thinning, so a salad inspired bento it was.

1. Base of rice noodles.  I love rice noodles because they cook so fast!  Bring a pot of water to boil, add in your rice noodles (also called rice sticks.)  They only need a few minutes (4ish for these pho style ones), drain and rinse under cold water.

2. I've been using hot pot sliced pork for a quick and easy protein.   For this, I drizzled the slices with sesame oil, soy sauce, mirin, and a tsp of sugar (raw cane, in this case) in a small bowl. Add enough liquid to partially cover the meat, let it marinate for a few minutes.  Cook it in a pan until the meat is done and has absorbed the cooking liquid.  Set aside to cool.

3.  Here I've used sliced lettuce mixed with mint, and slice radishes (also needed eating from the garden) in lieu of bean sprouts. 

4. If you would like a poached egg on top, bring a pot of water to a simmer.  Oil a silicon baking cup and crack an egg into it.  Gently drop it into the water (it will float) and simmer for 7 minutes.  Remove from water and let cool, then pop that egg out.

5. Garnish as you like.  Can't go wrong with lime!  I also had a light vinigrette, the original recipe was 1/2 fish sauce 1/2 cider vinegar, but I find the fishy taste too strong.  So it's probably more like 1/3 fish sauce, 2/3 vinegar. 

Light, fresh, and healthy!    This salad is a good one to bring to work because it's tasty cold. 

Bento: Sliders and oven baked fries

Nothing says cute like the itsy bitsy version of something.  My local Fresh and Easy had a sale on slider patties which don't turn out to be all that cheap when you think about how little meat you're actually getting.  But they're pre-shaped, and cute, and hey.  Why not try them?  (Perhaps I will make my own in the future.)
The first time I made this bento I used mini ciabatta  buns.  This time I cut rounds from a loaf of wheat bread I made earlier this week and am still working through.  I included the cute cheese cutouts just because it makes me happier to know my sliders have a heart of cuteness.  Leftover cheese was consumed at a separate meal, and I think I'll make a bread pudding with the crusts.

1. Pan cook slider patties on both sides until they're cooked through.  Set aside to cool.

2. Slice up a potato into fries, toss with salt, olive oil and pepper.  Pop into the toaster over for 20 minutes at 350 and check for doneness.  Add another 5 minutes if they're not cooked through.  I like soggy fries so it doesn't bother me that they're pretty soft. :)  You could bake them for longer to get them more golden, though.

3. Use your favorite cookie cutter to get a cute cheese shape. 

4. I used a cookie cutter to cut out rounds of bread the same size as the patties.

5. Wait for everything to cool before packing together.

6. Enjoy!

Bento: banh mi(ish) sandwich

Last Christmas my sister got me a bento cookbook written by a very popular blogger (writer of justbento.com and its companion blog justhungry.com).  We've been trading emails and ideas for bentos for awhile, although her oldest son is only just getting to be old enough to bring lunches to school and my sister is really busy as a professor so I don't know how much time she has to prepare cute lunches.  I started making some of these to fancy up the lunchtime because lately, I've been so busy at work I eat at my desk too often.  A cute or fancily-packed lunch makes me feel a bit better.

And then Wei-Ling said, "Why are you not blogging about your lunches?"

So here goes!  All recipes approximate and taken from other sources. 
Today is inspired by justbento's deconstructed banh mi:

Meat: pan fry a skinless, boneless chicken thigh until done.  set aside.  mix about 1/2 tablespoon sugar, 1 tablespoon soy, 1 tablespoon mirin and pour into the still hot pan.  when it starts to bubble, swirl the chicken thigh in the sauce until it is nicely glazed.

pickles: shred (I used a mandolin grater, cutting to small pieces would work too but don't use a cheese grater, too small) carrots daikon, apple into a bowl.  sprinkle salt (1 tsp), sugar (1 tsp) and massage for 2-3 minutes until the veggies wilt and give up some water.  rinse thoroughly.  Put into a jar with brine (1 c warm water, 1/4 C sugar, 1 C vinegar, you can adjust sugar levels to taste) and let sit for at least an hour. 

bread: traditional banh mi are served on mini baguettes, but I just put it between two slices of wheat bread.  It kind of turned into a monster sandwich.  Yum!

Basket Fence

Two years ago I had tried to make a hanging strawberry basket after I'd seen a few articles about how you can get this really cute arrangement by putting the strawberry plants out the sides as well as the top.  My first attempted two years ago didn't do very well.  I suspect it was because the baskets either didn't get enough sun or because they simply didn't retain water very well.  Plants would get alternatively drowned and then die of thirst.  Never did get many berries off of them; and supposedly you ought to be able to get your basket to last a few years if you do it right.

I'm ready to try it again  since my local Daiso had very inexpensive wire half-rounds for sale and now I have a whole sunny fence to decorate.  Here I've used wool (scooped up from a seamstress friend who was giving away fabric) as the liner.  It actually works way better than those coconut fiber baskets.  There's gaps in the wool towards the bottom where the odd-shaped pieces I cut left gaps that lets the excess water drain out, but the outside of the fabric is almost never soggy; the wool is a pretty good insulation from excess evaporation from the sides of the basket.  This year, I went ahead and used the moisture control soil AND I put in little watering globe things (the mushroom in the pic) that will slowly release water as the soil dries out.


Basically I cut slits into the wool and gently put in the plants (trying not to damage the roots) BEFORE filling up the basket with dirt and the plants on the top.  I let it sit for a week or two to let the plants settle, then hung them up on the fence.  Here I've got 3 strawberry baskets and 2 pea baskets (in the coco fiber lined ones.  not sure They're doing ok..not that that great. Hohonestly I don't think you're supposed to grow peas this way.)  But I've got a few green berries to keep an eye on!  I'm crossing my fingers for some cheery red berries come June! Enough for a couple of shortcakes? :D

Backyard Progress #2

Garden boxes galore!  Last time I checked in it was about the planter boxes for where the trees will go.  After I got the tree boxes done we had a spate of rain/I got lazy about the yard.  Then one day last week I stopped off at Orchard Supply Hardware and saw they had a whole new selection of spring veggies out and no wonder - it's April!  So I really had to get my butt gear if I was going to be able to plant things on time!

I had planned for low boxes to fit in between the trees.  Ideally I would love for some vines to go up a trellis against the back wall, although the spot is not ideal - it's in open shade instead of full sun for most of the day, but I have an idea to fix that.  And, it would be OK I think for the cooler weather vegetables.  The fully full sun spots are too hot for the leafy greens to really flourish.

I built the boxes the same was as the previous ones, open on the bottom.  For one of the two boxes I made this weekend I had to build a little guard around an existing, painted column to minimize the contact it will have with dirt and water (as I intend to grow some food plants...ha...I'll be lucky if they produce significant fruit but hey, positive).  Then I put down some weed blocker material, then shoveled in a few inches of bark nuggets for drainage.  I really ought to be using river rocks, but bringing bags of that home turned out to be impractical (read: impossible as I can't lift them by myself) ,then topped up with a mix of dirt, compost, and perlite to help keep the soil aerated.

And BAM!  Instant-o garden box.  In the back there's butternut squash and cantaloupe, since they're bitty I have a bit of time before the trellis needs to go in.  I transplanted some chard from elsewhere into this box because I think they were getting a bit fried from the sun.  (The problem could also be the way I was watering them.  Oh plants!  Why do under and over watering lead to the same result?)

Whew, so the yard is getting there. These boxes are 12" high, verses the 24" of the tree boxes, and 2'x4" large.  It's a significant amount of dirt to haul.  I think perhaps just one more small box of about 2'x2' for an herb corner and that side of the yard will in business.

 I hope the vines will come in!  I think they'll look nice against that cream wall.  All the more funny if they produce any melons/squash.  I hope the trees will do well where they are too...they do look a bit spindly at the moment, don't they?  Sadly this last picture looks just about the same as my last one, but this time the boxes are out together and one has dirt in it.  And itty bitty plants.   Grow, grow!

Inque Photoshoot

Inque Photoshoot
Model and Stylist: AJ Wu
Photographer: Doris Cheung

Last month I had the chance to do a photo shoot with AJ, who had just completed a new costume.  Both of us are big fans of Batman Beyond, and she had cosplayed the character Inque for a "Spies and Mercenaries" themed party.  She wanted a few pics of her costume, although she told me it was not one she had spent serious time on.  (Um. Really?! You can't tell it's a "throwaway" costume.) 

I've been wanting to test out shooting on a reflective surface for awhile and figured this would be the perfect time for a little experimentation.  At the moment I didn't have the resources to rent out a studio, strobe lights, and a floor made of black plexiglass (gives a GREAT reflection), so we had to settle for ghetto-macgyvering something together in my bedroom.  We ended up using natural light with some borrowed Canon EX-500 flash, sheets for the background, and a 4'x4' piece of mylar.  It worked worked out pretty well to capture some of what makes Inque so cool as a villain - the ability to melt herself into a black inky killer/thief.

What do you think? Personally, I think AJ is maybe a little TOO good at costuming because I was getting seriously freaked out editing her photos.  Doesn't she look scary?!

Of course even villains have their mellow moments.  They can't be in a murderous rage all the time, you know.

Favorite photos from the shoot here.  We ended up having to do many poses lying down and curled up to get the best effect out of the mylar.  Since it is so soft, it doesn't give a perfect reflection, and I only had a small piece to work with.  If I'd had a full studio lighting set and done maybe 12' x 12' on the ground we could have done more dynamic action and full body poses.  However, for a shoot that was on the very ghetto side in terms of materials, I'm very happy with the results.  A little goes a long way!

Next up: A little bit about how I set up the shoot.

Space Cat

Space Cat

An homage to a favorite childhood book, and because sometimes my cat jumps up in the middle of the night and runs around at top speed.  Where is he going?  What is he doing?  I don't know!

Backyard Progress Report #1

It's February and thanks to our gorgeous California climate gardening season is getting underway. I had plans to get my backyard ready for bare root trees back in December; but between the holidays and not having any time or the money to drop on tons of materials this didn't get going until January through now.  I wasn't too sure about how to go about what I wanted to do either; essentially, to build up a retaining wall big enough for dwarf fruit trees along my back wall.  After some thought I decided - I REALLY don't want to haul that much dirt to make this idea feasible!  It would probably take me a whole year, at the rate I was going.  Planters seemed like a much better idea.  Just build up enough dirt around the tree to get the necessary depth...and I could make it all modular! 

no fancy construction here!

Modular also seemed like a good idea because I really had no idea what I was doing.  If I messed up, it wouldn't ruin everything.  :)  I decided to make the planters open at the bottom and line them with landscaping fabric so they would drain freely and to construct these as simply as possible because I'm not so sure about my carpentry skills.

structure and order starting to appear

I went with 4 planks on each side, held together by brackets and nails.  Wood was bought and cut at Home Depot, common redwood.  Cost for each planter is coming to about $60, $40 for the wood and $20 for the brackets.

Progress!  Three planters made and housing a peach, orange (or maybe lemon which is in the foreground), and avocado tree, and loose planks to mark where the rest of the planter boxes will go. Trees will stay in the pots for this year to see how they'll do in the part-sun location. Next year or the year after when they're big enough I'll put them into the planters directly.

The longer planks are only laying out the probably position so far, and are not set in place yet.

Don't quite know what I'll do with the corners of the yard after that!  On the right side there's my compost heap (and a big pot of blueberry plants) - and not sure how to make a graceful end to the row I have going on here.  Maybe just low beds to complete the retaining wall?  I do need a good spot for herbs!

in the the land of pickles, the clear topped jar is king.

 Monkey see, monkey do.  I went over the a food event at the SF Ferry building last weekend and tasted some delicious pickled goods from Happy Girl Kitchen, and in addition to serious pantry envy (even though theirs is a store display), I was inspired to get pickling on my own.  And, also at the ferry building I found the the jam jars I didn't even know I needed to have, but now my life feels a little more complete: Weck jars.  These seriously beautiful glass jars feature glass tops with a rubber gasket and clips to keep it all together.  A little research reveals that these are actually the types of jars used previous to the more common pop top lid jars we have today.  Probably for good reason; they're trickier to use and to get a good seal which is so important for food safety.  But, you can deny that these are just more pretty.

While googling around on how to even use these things I came across some wonderful looking pickle (both processed and refrigerator) recipes that looked so temping I had to use my jars the very next day.  It's really cool seeing your item through the tops of the lids! 

 I've got some dill and garlic pickles, and red onion pickles.  The red onion looks a bit crazy due to there being red wine vinegar in with the red onions and I think that purple red is sort of leaching out.  I can't wait to try the onions on burgers this week.  Not sure how long I can wait before popping open the dill pickles - I think I need to let them age to get to the proper level of pickledness but it will be hard!

I had to process the pickles twice.  The second time the gasket tab did the proper "stick your tongue out down" look that indicates a good seal.

flump

Sometimes, I just join him on the floor.

I'm getting back into watercolor - I used to paint quite often but it's been about a decade and I need to remind myself on how to do it.  Turns out that digitizing a watercolor isn't that easy either.  The colors didn't turn out as clear as the actual, physical original; it could be the type of pigment of the paint (there's fun violet and light blue washes in some of these frames that are lost).  I like the way the middle frame came out the best. :)

Jack Frost is an unwelcome house guest.

Brrrr.  My house is cold!

Heh, first winter in the new house and I'm reminded again that older California houses don't have the best insulation by a long shot.  The house was built in 1980 so it's not really OLD old, but not as well protected from the winter chill as something built in 2005 would be; the single pane windows have a lot to do with it.  I'm kind of used to it since the house I grew up in was exactly like that until the folks replaced everything with double pane windows; but since I'm probably many years from having the money to do that I needed to find a way to help seal out the cold at least a little bit.  (And after the first heating bill, it was a top priority.) 

Those blackout/insulating curtains are supposed to be helpful for this kind of thing, but they're pretty expensive.  I got them for my tenants' room but I didn't feel like spending a few hundred bucks doing it for the rest of the house.  (Especially because it took a lot longer after the tenant's room to get curtains for my OWN room.)  I've seen something like saran wrap taped over a window to seal it, but that wasn't quite the look I was going for either.  I was looking for something thick, something insulative - and relatively inexpensive.

My solution - fleece blankets!!   A couple of searches later on the almighty Google on similar themes had entries on things like "window quilts", especially for very old homes in non-urban areas that really ARE not insulated, and this isn't a new idea at all.  Kind of like those tapestries in medieval times to warm up stone walls!  I was all set to run out and buy fleece until I saw the suggestion to try using fleece blankets from discount stores.  BRILLIANT.  It was the beginning of cold season so all the store were bringing out their sale blankets.  That night I ran over to the local discount store and bought cheap tension rods and blankets.

My existing curtains are made for just screening out a little summer light and are 4" away from the actual window.  I put the fleece as close as I could to the actual window and it actually helps!  It's not as though my house was magically toasty warm, but there is a noticeable difference when you put your hand on one side of the blanket verses the other.  At least now I don't feel any benefit from the having the heat on leaks out 5 seconds later through the window.  Maybe 10 minutes! ha. Every little bit counts.

can i keep him if he follows me home?

One of the activities (and highlights!) during the Florida trip was the airboat ride while we were in the Everglades which was downright awesome.  Our guide would drive the boat pretty fast and do turns so we were "drifting" (Everglades Drifting?) to one side and the other.  There's no seatbelts on these things so the wind is in your face and it feels really fast!

swamp chicken

This is probably the only time I've ever seen wild animals on a tour so close.  I really thought that the animals we saw right off the dock were fake, stuffed animals so the tourists could see those if none of the wild ones made an appearance!  Surprisingly in this 20 minute boat ride we saw at least 3 gators and plenty of birds.  The cutest was probably the "swamp chicken", I forget its real name, but runs across the lily pads.  I wonder if natives eat them, and that's why they call them chickens?  I bet they're kind of tough.  (You know what the first thing my dad asked me after I told him I saw alligators?  "Did you eat any?"  The answer is yes, but I feel like extra warm and cheerful that it's the FIRST thing my dad thinks of.  Cuz it was my first thought too, when it was available to try.  Kind of like chicken...though maybe more like pork in its texture.)

Larry the Gator

who doesn't like scratches behind the ear?

I've always thought that reptiles are pretty cute.  Baby alligators are in fact ADORABLE because they don't have the knobbly skin all over them yet. After the ride where we did see plenty of gators right up close from the boat, the park had a bit of a safari-animal show about the animals of the area.  The best part was at the end when you could take a picture with a juvenile gator.  Yup, that's me.  Totally cheesy and TOTALLY AWESOME.


Larry's been raised in captivity, I think, so while you can't mess with him, he's pretty used to people.  He's about 3 or 4 and I really like how his handler (some teenaged fellow) said that Larry really likes it when you scratch behind his ears.  Look at that face!! He totally is loving the attention. :)  He closed his in bliss.

bringing a friend home from the everglades...maybe.

On another note, I'm pondering doing another blog/comic blog about me and the kitty, only of course, fantastically and highly fictionalized.  (Yes, I know I have too many hobbies. )  I'm practicing the drawing now (using the style pictured above), and testing materials. Any opinions? 

Ok, this didn't exactly happen this way, but kinda close! 

Into the wild green limes

I'm testing out the blogger app while I'm in Key Largo! instead of sleeping like I should...

After a whirlwind of activity for this very brief Florida trip I will be concluding my adventures with a day in the Florida Keys before heading back tomorrow night. I feel like I've really accomplished something by eating key lime pie from where key limes actually come from.

See you on the flip side!!