Mookie Moo

This has nothing to do with craft or photography, and it’s not really funny. But I figure if you can help the world through the internet and it’s easy, free and even fun, then there is no excuse for not doing it. I heard about this site on the radio the other day. It’s a vocab game, each time you guess the correct definition of a word, 20 grains of rice are donated through the United Nations’ World Food Program. So far almost 5 million grains of rice have been donated! So, if you want to do something nice for the holiday season, test your vocabulary at freerice.com

 

Yesterday I trekked all over the city (of Portland) looking for some good shots to try out this HDR technique I’ve been hearing about. If you haven’t checked it out, there is a great Flickr slideshow here. It didn’t turn out to be the best day for it, as the light was a little flat, even in the later afternoon. But it was fun to head out with a tripod, a couple lenses, and a new eye for my city. So, I’m posting my first attempt, even though it definitely didn’t turn out how I was expecting. Upon returning home, I found out that my camera has a special feature where I can take bracketed shots. I’ll try that next time. If you’d like to learn more about HDR, you can check it out here. Let me know if you have tried (or mastered) this technique–I’d love to see your results!

Anyone starting to catch the theme of my titles in the last two posts? Spice girl, Salt n’ Peppa? Get it. Ha. It’s okay, don’t worry, I’m putting a stop to this theme right here, right now. No more. But want to see something equally as tacky as my pop star-themed blog posts? It appears that I have started a salt and pepper shaker collection. Not intentionally. While I am very satisfied with my current supply of salt and pepper shakers, I think the ‘collection’ is also going to stop right here and right now. Collecting is a scary thing. I’ve watched too many relatives perish under avalanches of glass birds, cocktail stirrers, and macrame plant hangers. That being said, Thank you Ingrid, I LOVE the wiener dog s+p. Especially because of this…

Two years ago I made spice boxes for my friends as Christmas gifts. (Two years ago i didn’t have a craft blog, so I’ve got some catching up to do.) I had seen something similar in a fancy catalog somewhere and thought it looked pretty easy to re-create. So I called up Nerdberg Scientific, or some such appropriately named chemistry supply company, and bought a bunch of vials with corks. The Nerdberg guys acted slightly bothered with my request, but I think they were secretly pleased to get a break from the usual client. A good way to customize this gift is to pick a spice theme. For example my boyfriend likes to make chili, so I printed out a bunch of chili powder recipes and filled the vials with spices that the recipes called for.

Inspired by…