Chartreuse

Driving home from picking up Fletch from daycare yesterday, I had a revelation.  Nothing major. I realized why I love the color Chartreuse so much.

All the trees are starting to show signs of life around here. As beautiful as all the pink blossoming trees are, I absolutely love the little bright green leaves that first appear on all the bare trees. As much as I love the cool air and changing leaves of fall, spring always lifts my spirits and makes me feel renewed.

Here is what spring looks like around here:

I will definitely miss all the blossoming trees when we move back to Texas. But I'm sure I will love spring in Austin just as much!

My New Camera Bag

I decided to try and make myself a camera bag purse. You know, one I could carry my usual purse contents, plus my DSLR.  I knew it had to be a decent size and had to have a good amount of padding for protection. What I ended up with is a little too big for an everyday purse, but it is working quite well for my full size camera bag that holds all my lenses, flash, gorilla tripod and odds n' ends. I ended up using it for carrying all my gear to Texas for my sister's wedding and it worked well.

I looked at a few bags online to get an idea of the basic shape and dimensions. I ended up with a bag that is 15"L x 10"H x 6"W. In reality, looking at those dimensions now, I should have realized it was going to be too big to be a purse. I think I just threw that idea out and wanted something to hold all my stuff.  I used 1/2" foam along the bottom and sides of the bag. The lining is a brown liner material and I added a few layers of cotton batting to the interior pockets. That keeps everything from knocking around.

Right now I have a velcro closure hand-sewn in place. I haven't decided if I want to keep it or maybe add some straps with clasps. I had to blind stitch the lining to the bag. I would have rather sewn it in with the machine, but the foam was going to make that difficult.

I love the fabric and the orange vinyl that I found at G-street. I have quite a bit of the vinyl left over, which I have some fun ideas for. It does not scream camera bag, which I prefer, since there is expensive equipment in there. I still have my small Lowepro bag that holds my camera and a lens, which is good for short excursions when I know what lens I want to use. I am still desiring a camera purse, but I think I'm just going to save up for an Epiphanie bag.

I still love my new bag and enjoyed making it from scratch without a pattern. It feels great to make something off the top of my head and see it work out. I think I'm going to make a matching camera strap for my camera to go with my bag next!

What do you think? Too wild for your taste? Most people know I have a serious love of the color orange, so this color combo makes my heart flutter. Does anyone have any suggestions for other types of closures?

My Spring Break

Involved flying solo with Fletch to Texas for my sister Donna's wedding, a week of family time, good food and some quality time with a few friends.

I came home on Thursday, just to leave the very next day for the Church Mom's trip to Rehoboth. I thought it would be a vacation from my vacation to Texas. Little did I know how these moms party.

After some yummy pizza Friday night, we headed to the Blue Moon for a drag show. Here is the highlight of the show:

Don't ask.

After the drag show they opened the floor for dancing, which we did until 1 am. Dancing at a gay club is a guaranteed good time. 

The next day involved tax-free shopping at the outlets in the area. I took no pictures of this, I was too busy spending money.  I got some clothes for Fletch and myself, as well as a new Fossil purse. Apparently orange is going to be a HOT spring color this year. I am totally stoked about that! A few of us went to see Hall Pass at the movie theater for a shopping break. 

For dinner, we headed to Stingray's. It is mainly sushi, but they had food for those who are not excited about sushi. They had some delicious specialty martinis. I got the karaoke zombie. I have no idea why they named it that, it was basically all kinds of citrusy goodness. We all had yummy food and filled our bellies to the max.

After dinner we headed to the Purple Parrot for some dancing and karaoke. I said I wasn't going to sing, but I ended up doing it anyway after downing some liquid courage. I sang The Joker by the Steve Miller Band. I always choose songs with the wrong range for my voice. Oh well. No one really cared and we all had a good time. 

We did manage to walk to the beach for a few minutes, just to say we went to the beach. Then we did some last minute shopping and headed home. It was a whirlwind week! Now I need another week to recuperate! 

My First Production

OK...here goes. This is my first true video production for my video production class. It is supposed to be an eco-comedy. I chose to focus my topic on reusable shopping bags in place of plastic bags. Luckily I have good friends and an awesome husband who agreed to be my actors and guinea pigs. Every time I import video, my video looks like crap. So pardon the video noise.

Can I just say..."DANG THAT BARKING DOG!!!" I filmed that part in the lobby of our condo and the lady who lives on that floor has a dog that barks at any tiny sound it hears. Good thing it's fluffy and cute!