{ island adventures }

Last weekend Andrew + I finally made it up to the boundary waters for some camping.  We had great weather, zero bugs, access to a kayak, lots of fire wood, and great opportunities for some photos. Afterwards we talked about how peaceful and relaxing it was.  We might just make Bear Head Lake an annual travel destination for us.  All the photos from the lake and our day trip around the lake are here on my flickr page. 

{ Sneak Peek }

 

 This is Einstein.  He had a girlfriend Greta.  They were very friendly and bold.  I fed them gram-crackers, marshmallows and some water.  Einstein tried to carry away an entire gram-cracker at once, it was pretty hilarious watching him drag something twice as big as him through the leaves.

 

This was the view from our picnic on an island.

{meow... kitty kat?}

These are Pat's kitten's Gizmo and Gadget.  I really wanted the grey one because it reminded me of Tucker.  Soon enough I will pick out my own kitten.

project {dream catcher}

Oh me - Oh my - time does fly...

Over Memorial weekend I wanted to make some dream catcher earrings during Rendezvous <camping but during the time period of 1830's>.  I went to Joann's to get all my supplies before the weekend came.  I wanted them to be somewhat time period correct, but also practical enough for me to enjoy them on a day to day period at work or something.  The Rendezvous got cancelled due to the weather but I decided to make them anyway, in the spirit of my first vacation holiday after starting work.

It turned out the making of the earrings actually took about a day longer than expected and I only finished one hoop.  Mostly because they were turning out so big I couldn't see me being able to wear them as earrings.  I started out wanting to make the webbing out of thin gauge wire, which became a nightmare, and then I changed to embroidery string.  I'm glad I finished my project, but I won't be making anymore dream catchers in the future.  I did go back to Joann's to get some earring hardware to make beaded earrings for future rendezvous and to use up some of the hundreds of glass beads I bought.

Memorial weekend turned out to be full of severe thunderstorms, but I did get a few pictures of some grape smelling iris's.  {flickr}

I was going to make some cute earrings to go with my new prized possession this past week/weekend too, but got too busy.  This week Andrew and I booked two camping trips.  The first one is next weekend.  We are going to Crow Wing State Park, and the second is up in the boundary waters at Bear Head Lake State Park over Labor Day weekend.  We are also cracking down to get in contact with apartments about availability of August tenants.  The more we look at apartments the more we want to live in a house or duplex.  For the same amount of money we can get a lot more space and features, like a garage and laundry unit.

Next weekend is our first camping trip so this weekend we got all of our stuff together and planned.  I'm super excited.  This will be our first camping trip we take just the two of us.  After 4 years, it's about time!

{instagram}

I've been seeing a lot of instagram photos the last few months, and have been starting to feel left out.  I recently downloaded the app onto my ipad.  Unfortuantly my ipad never leaves the house, and I realized the only thing I have to take pictures of are the cute things tucker is doing.

So for the blog I decided to take a photo of my knitting progress on the hemlock doily

inspiration {photo to paint color}

How fun is this!  With Sherwin-Williams new Chip It! button you can take any photo online and find out what paint colors they are.  This is a great source for creating a theme for your home or room.

http://letschipit.com

From this website you can put in the photo image location <URL> or use a toolbar button  just like the <Pin it> buttons.

This is what it looks like when you go to chip a photo.  I used a photo from my flickr set.  You can select to have 5 colors or 10 colors.  I think the only downside is not being able to select which colors you want from the photo.  This app automatically chooses the colors for you.

Once you have saved the chip board you can click on each color and it will give you a lot of information about it.  I chose
< Golden Rule >

From this screen you can click on Color Visualizer.  Here you can upload a photo of an interior or exterior room and paint it using saved colors you have chosen. 

https://www.sherwin-williams.com/visualizer/#

Here is there Informational Video on how to do it.  It's very in-depth, but the introduction part gives a general description of what it does.

The Sherwin-Williams website also has a few other color tricks up their sleeves, what a great find.

inspiration {spring & color}

The end of the week has come!  This week has snuck by me.  I have been working on a new project but it is not ready for turnover yet.  I have been teaching myself color theory.

Many of you may think {what more is there to know than "Roy G. Biv"?}

There is tons more! I've been researching the basics and how to apply it to graphics.  I've learned the difference in the technical terms of color theory. I've expanded my knowledge of how to use Photoshop color picker. I've had a few new ideas of color for my blog. And to make it even more fun I am developing a few graphics as reminders for myself & to put what I learned into good use  - {Learn  Apply  Execute Critique - Execute Critique - EC...}  Say "execute critique" 5x.  This was basically our studio regiment with a little inspiration, lists of deliverables, and all-nighters thrown in there.

So next week I will be spending one more week at home and will have lots of time to finish up my own list of deliverables for color theory.  On top of that I've added another project to my list. I want to create my own handwriting font.  I've found a few websites that explain how to do it.  I'm quite excited about it.

In addition I have taken some photos of the sprouting greens outside!
Consider this my inspiration for the week {flickr set < sprouts of spring}

inspiration {singing frogs}

This week I decided to travel home for my dad's birthday.  He turned 48 but for some reason I keep thinking he's 58, since everyone I know has older parents. Well it just so happens that for his birthday this year, we have had an early spring, or summer - I'm not sure what season it is outside.  Today it was 80, along with a high string of 70's this last week. Because of the weather all the buds are starting to come out {the rose bushes, tulips, trees, chives, cherry tree, mint and the over growing ivy throughout our rock walls.}  

My parents live in a log cabin on 3 acres of wooded lot with a retention pond at the bottom.  In the summer the frogs croak at night, and it's really quite pleasant to listen to them with the cool breeze coming in the window as you sleep.  This season they seem a little confused and have non-stop croaked day and night very loudly! I still find it very refreshing to listen to at night, and it's a great change from cars and people outside in the city.  Let's not even mention the star gazing potential at home.

As the sun was setting this evening I took a little video of one off the side of our deck in the front yard + a few pictures.

 

my first attempt at HDR photos

I love the soft sunset colors

I discovered a massive spider web!

you can see it better here. it's about 20 yards from the deck and 3-4 yards wide/tall

one year in south korea

Recently Andrew + I have been talking about making a giant {and probably very expensive} book of our time in Korea.  Most of you know already Andrew + I spent the last year being English teachers in a small town called Jinyeong.  It has been 4 months since we have returned, but it literally seems like a month ago.  We miss our Korean family and friends more than anything and our lifestyle of living together {although it was very small} and some Korean food like shabu shabu, san-gi-tal, + bo-kimbop.  If your more interested Andrew + I both did blogs while in Korea depicting our way of life, travels, teaching, etc.   {My blog}    {Andrew's Blog} 

As a going away gift to our Korean family {Kang, Choi, Xavier, William, + Henry} Andrew + I put together a few of our photos to make a book of the places + things we did together.  We wrapped it up and gave it to them as we sat down for our final meal before they took us to the airport to leave the country.  Since returning we both let our final trip to Jeju Island fall to the back burner - Andrew starting a new job, me making a portfolio and trying to find one myself.  But as I mentioned there has been new talks of revamping + making a new book.  I initially got very excited and wanted to start planning.  I enjoy designing Blurb books and wish someone would just hire me to make them all the time. I started sketching layout and design ideas, then remembered I hadn't finished editing my Jeju Island photos yet.  So the last two days, I powered through them and made a little icon palette using one picture for every set I uploaded of the last year, while in Korea. 35 sets > 35 thumbnails as a tribute of all our memories.  Needless to say I am putting "make a Korea book" on my list of projects.

Here are my final flickr sets: {lava tubes} {seogwipo falls} {sunrise peak} {lava rocks} + {collection: Korea}