So, I have taken (almost) a total of 4 rolls of 120 film with my most fun and creativity-inspiring Christmas gift to myself: a Holga 120N plastic lens camera. I say "almost" because, upon receiving the link to my most recently uploaded pictures (I haven't even received the negatives yet), and after suspecting such even before I'd sent the film off, I took about half of one black and white roll with the lens cap on. I'm an idiot. What can I say. But, the other half of the pictures turned out pretty well!
Here are some samples from the first roll:
Shelby plays a tune
The twins arrive at the bonfire festivities!
Drunk bitches
Liddell's a badass.
The theme of the new year
Playin with fire
Sparkler phenomena
Split image.
Pyromaniac
Uncle Seth and Shelby
Pre-fire dancing.
These were all taken at our New Years Day bonfire, after drunkenly trying to figure out how to get film in and how to set everything up, etc. Well, I unknowingly set the exposure number to 16 whilst leaving in the larger frame guard, thereby creating the strange overlap scenario I got in a lot of the pictures. This is one thing I learned from my first Holga shoot. I also got to see what sort of capabilities the Holga hot-shoe flash had. Not the most sophisticated machinery, but that's the joy of the Holga. The beauty is in the imperfection.
My second roll of film is still yet to be digitized. Also, I was taking the pictures by another bonfire with my parents, and the back fell off for a minute or two until I actually noticed, messing up several images. Luckily, it was REAL dark, so I didn't lose the entire roll of film. Whenever I figure out how to get the film scanned (either by buying a scanner or sending it off or something), I'll show the few that are good enough to do so.
The third roll was my second black and white, and the roll during which I had my lens closed. The images I do have were taken on my bike route in Summerland. Pretty nice scenery, if I do say so myself...
Hay bales and creepy cross
Cattle crossing
A home made of branches
Cow + Water tank
Yard art
That last one was actually taken at Hand's nursery... I messed up on the focus, but again with the imperfections.
Final roll: taken around the house, playing with Fanny, etc.
Failed attempt at self-portraiture
Dad's tools + woodshed
House at night + attempted "HOME" in flashlight
Daffodil and something...
Lattice and ladder
Fanny in the water
Beaver dam (long exposure)
Probably an attempt at yet another multiple exposure gone sour
I had some trouble with this roll. Maybe because I was trying to use my bulb setting and the shutter release kept getting stuck. Just a theory... Boo on shutter release malfunctions! But I think I have the seemingly simple apparatus figured out a little better now. We shall see.
So that's it for the toy camera pics. In other news, I just found out I was accepted into MSU's College of Veterinary Medicine! Woohoo! Yes, I'm excited, but yes, I am also combating the nightmares I've been having associated with enduring (at least) 4 more years of school. Seriously. I had a dream that I tried to ultrasound a dog's abdomen and all I saw was Kanye West singing some depraved song with a bunch of Russian dancers all around him. But, I'll make it through the dreams AND the schooling. And I'll be a vet when I get done! THAT's exciting.
Maybe I'm too young to be looking for peace like I do, but maybe it's never too early... At any rate, Joni Mitchell is right on with these lyrics* from this song:
In the midst of my year (hopefully) in between undergraduate and professional school, I've really gotten in touch with methods of relaxation. For me, it's good company (almost always including a mixture of species), good food, good music, exercise, and, last but not least, getting in touch with nature a little. Loving my job and my "roommates" (otherwise known as Mom and Dad) doesn't hurt either... Anyway, nature is the main theme here. And so it goes.
My mom is an avid gardener. I've taken her skills for granted most of my life, as most young people do most things, but lately I've really started understanding the importance of getting your hands in the dirt. Granted, I still haven't done a lot of it myself, but I am getting anxious to get started in a spot of my own. So last Saturday, when Mom asked me to go with her to the nursery to get some apple trees, I didn't hesitate.
Hand's Nursery in Magee, MS was one of the first magical experiences of my childhood memory. These particular images don't even begin to encompass it, mind you. I remember being 4 foot nothing, tagging along with Mom in this botanical wonderland. And the way she navigates the space; seeing what the sad-looking shrubs, flowers, ground cover, trees could become with the proper care and planning. And we're not talking what they could become in a few days or weeks. No, we're talking many months, even many years. I only hope I can one day understand that type of devotion. Anyway, I digress...
So, in the way of apple trees, we ended up getting a Fuji and an Anna. Not to mention a ton of $1 and give-away stuff stacked up by the nursery worker (on a first name basis with my mother, of course) that they together envisioned into different nooks and crannies... And, last but not least, I purchased two of my very own sweet olive trees! If you don't know about this particular plant, you must never have been downwind of one on a particularly beautiful, and breezy, spring day. But, oh, I have, and the smell is something to die for! Not particularly beautiful, but I find that the olfactory sense is greatly important, to me at least, trumping beauty from time to time. So, I decided planting these trees would be my first task in the way of gardening on the hill that I hope to one day build my home. The hill where my late Uncle Lew used to live, and, most recently, where my Godfather Tom has grown his delicious greens. This hill, in fact:
Old Hickory Hill. Such a beautiful spot. And here are my 2 sweet olives, now even more neatly nestled in after a week of rain:
Ok, so it's a mother's love, but it is love none-the-less. I'm excited to continue my gardening endeavors on this hill throughout the years, filling it with fruit trees and bushes and other strategically placed botanical wonders. I can only strive to be a fraction of the gardener my mother is, so that's what I'll do.
So. There are the trees. Wanna see the dog?
Again, with the mother's love... But damn, she's a goody.
All these photos, and I still haven't given my Holga report! Well, I've gotten two rolls developed, a color and a black/white, and things went fairly well for the first run. I've only got the color files on my computer, so I'll wait til I've scanned the black and white before I run through them. But my, I am having fun playing with my plastic lens...
Also, in the way of crafts, I've recently found two particularly adorable and amazing artists, via Mr. X Stitch (See favorites), on Etsy:
I've discussed, previously, my love for Erykah Badu and the culmination of that love in cross stitch. Well, I've recently purchased her record, New Amerykah, Part Two: Return of the Ankh, on vinyl, and inside is this ridiculous introduction that I just fell in love with tonight:
It says:
Introduction:
I am a rather plain girl. I've always been a rather plain girl. Now even today, I have the upper body of a long armed twelve year old boy and can go unnoticed or get lost in a crowd when my 'light' isn't on (I have the controls set to manuel). My face is unique. Everyone's is, I guess. My eyes are set far apart with puffy eye lids and natural under bags. My nose is missing it's bridge and resembles a rabbit's. I have a large top lip that is broad and flat from the front view. My bottom lip is smaller and pink and often chape from biting it. That may be hereditary. I think my mouth is upside down. I am awkward. Still, I am amazing. At least in a drawing I am. It's good I consider myself a spiritual being first, man or woman second, Black or White 3rd, Jew or Gentile. 4th, and pretty or ugly 5th. I'm just rooting for the Good in us all, basically. I don't know much for sure, but I think it is safe to say that I am an artist. You could say my religion was art if I had to choose just one. It's hard tho because they're all so nice. That's my tongue and cheek kind of satirical way of saying, though I live the 'laws', I am no judge.
My tale is a simple one. It starts off like all the rest... There once was a beautiful prisoner, I mean princess. She longed for a brave knight, a gentleman. One with courage and honor and decency. But in a cruel world such as this, men like these were scarce indeed. She had a lot more than most, this princess. She had hope. The ability to see things the way she dreamed them. She could invision the exact moment she would be delivered from her _____ (fill in the blank). She set out like the alchemist to go and meet her destiny but got bored, and decided to plant a garden along the way. It was an amazing garden... purple and black and white and golden. There was one particular tall pink flower that stuck out in the weeds of this garden. She noticed it there, but didn't realize how much taller and bigger than everything else it had become. It was beautiful and mysterious in it's freedom, but everything growing around it seemed to be struggling to survive. It was as if that flower was drinking up all the water; sucking up all the sun. It was allowing nothing else to grow. I even think she (the flower) was unaware of her surroundings in her attempt to merely survive. And If she could indeed think, I doubt she would wish harm on anything or anyone or even know what harm was. She probably knew even nothing of her own fate. I imagine that she, like many things in nature, was just living for her own purpose and knew nothing of severity NOR humility. The princess named her IMPATIENCE and just passed her off as another beautiful thing that grew up out of some careful, dedicated hard laborious act of her own careful planning. But in fact, it was just the opposite. IMPATIENCE had grown tall as a result of... well, simply out of neglect and poor management. She (the princess) had no control. The End. See, in this story I am the princess, the flower and the prisoner. For the sake of understanding this twisted tale, I guess I could just call her (the princess), AMERYKAH. After all I am a product of it's thinking and understanding.
Over time I have become comfortably numb; purposely dumb. I have been programmed to move on command, to long for animated fairy tales that resemble nothing familiar to my experiences. I think I've always lived in my head, more than out here in the 'real' world. It's been the lab where much of my anxiety was first created (what to think, how to think, what to believe, what to be happy about, what to be sad about, what is appropriate, what is not accepted by the group, how to speak, what is proper, how to love, how to dream and so forth). Yet and still, (one of my grand mama's terms) I am a bundle of light energy looking out of myself from the top, hovering over myself with the compassion of a good mother for a child learning a thing for the first time. This is where it gets good. I have somehow managed to stay woke even in the warm womb of complacency. I am here. This is now. I am evolving.
I don't know exactly what I'm trying to say but there is a story deep inside these words, to which there is a happy ending, of course. But not without happy mistakes first (I heard that somewhere). She grows. Welcome to the mind of Amerykah. (keep up)
I admit, I have enough cynicism in me to find this sort of proety (prose + poetry. if that's not real, well, it is now, to me.) more than a little cheesy from time to time. But I find that Erykah can say most anything and I believe it. Like she's straight-up and sincere in a way that most mainstream artists really aren't these days. She's a quirky little thing, and I love her!
So I share this with you all for just that purpose: to share something I find uplifting and beautiful. And, well, I would LOVE to try to embroider Erykah with an afro of a plant like the one growing out of that crazy robot brain, maybe with an extra special excerpt stitched in.. We'll see in time if this dream ever passes into reality.
So, I'm finally getting back into the grind after my Super-vacation. Blargh.
The Bay area was fabulous! I could even see myself living in San Francisco at some point in my life, if I ever felt like hitting up a large metropolis... I mean, they DO love their dogs. And all those parks, ahh! Our week was full of sight-seeing, record shopping, wine tasting, Scotty loving and even a few Buffy episodes!
Hey, there's a good segway into my most current craftiness:
Here's my girl Leggy's BFF gift, if I ever finish it... I even have a badass frame that it's made to fit! It's a quote from a Buffy episode. Actually, the whole quote goes like this:
"I like my evil like I like my men: Evil. You know, straight up, black hat, 'tied to the train tracks,' 'soon my electro-ray will destroy Metropolis' - bad." - Buffy
But I think the first line sums it up quite nicely, without having to stitch up a ridiculously large piece of material. I made the design on this PCStitch software that I heard about on some blog and got the free version of, to keep myself from making as many spacing mistakes with my designs. The problem with the free version is that you can't save or print your designs, so you basically just use it as a guide instead of ironing it on as an actual template.
SO, I've transferred the design to the material and started stitching it up, and I should have it finished before my visit to Dallas to see Allegra and our mutual love:
I hope your holidays were as amazing as mine were! I've been on vacation since Christmas Eve, spending a week on the beach with my wonderful family, and coming home to throw a bonfire-inclusive New Years' Day party. Needless to say, it's been a blast. And I'm not even done! I have to say, going back to work after 2 and a half weeks of vacation is going to be -- weird. Maybe even in a good, "get my shit together for the new calendar year" and "get back into my boring routine" way.
In the meantime, I'm off to Berkeley, California this Wednesday to see my lovely Scotty:
Scott drinking his Joose in a NOLA hotel room
I cannot WAIT!
In the way of crafts and such, I am nearing the finish of my scarf, with some serious troubles in the making, but it will serve as a token at least when it's finally done... Also, I haven't even started on poor Fern's sweater, although I did get the yarn the other day.
I also gave one of my best friends her birthday/Christmas/life-long-friendship present this weekend, so I can finally show you guys another of my embroidery ventures:
Cassandre's photo embroidery
I was inspired, as I continue to be, by Jenny Hart's project ideas, AND I even gave the Lazy Lotus a try around the photo border! Now all I need is to refill the ink and I'll be set for many another embroidered photograph.
Speaking of photographs, I bought myself a little photographic Christmas present this year:
The Holga Night Owl Kit! I bought the kit due to its inclusion of the Gorillapod (that's the crazy tripod you see in the photo) and the hot-shoe flash, plus it came with a cable release and 2 rolls of film! Not to mention the box contained a Swan Lab mailer for sending in film for processing, prints, and a cd. I'll be sending in my first roll tomorrow, perhaps? We'll see how things look when they come back. There may be some need for gaffers tape when it's all said and done...
Now, just for my own personal enjoyment, I'm going to show you all my adorable family, which just gained two members in 2010:
Peyton Danielle Jordan (named partially after my mother, otherwise lovingly known by the Jordan kids as "Grandma Nazi")
John Garrison Elrod (there's another namesake! can't lose the Garrison name forever...)
The family watching the dolphins playing in the Gulf
Me with 3 out of 4 of the babies
For your entertainment, here is my attempt to knit in a poorly lit living room.
Shelby Lynn and Peyton building (and destroying) sand castles
Peyton and her Daddy
My Daddy, cool as a cucumber
Kara and Lilah Maryanne - just wait til you see that baby's booty!
Lilah's first time on the beach!
Lilah and Aunt Leah - there's a good booty shot!
Seth and Leah, brothers from another mother
Dad and Adrian fly a kite!
Leah and Shelby playing in the waves
Shelby getting Peyton warmed up
Peyton and her Mommy watching the kite debacle
Our house was the one on the far right
Seth and Lilah
Lilah and her Daddy
Fat babies seriously are the cutest thing in the world...
John and his Daddy!
Shelby's shoes fit the firework festivities
The boys play with fireworks on the beach
Peyton and Jen and Mom
Leah and Seth striking poses
Oh me oh my, how I love a family vacation!
Stay tuned for more ramblings from my neck of the woods...
