Product Spotlight: The Hanging Lantern Company

It's getting to that time of the year again and I'm excited! Christmas is just a month away. It's such a festive time and each year I can't wait to get the decorations out. Decorating for Christmas always takes me back to my childhood and those memories include the sights and smells of that special time of year. I remember going out to gather holly and cedar to decorate the mantel and how that cedar smell to this day reminds me of Christmas. There were lights and a variety of ornaments on the tree that made it all so special. The traditions that surround Christmas are what I love. As an adult, I've carried the traditions of my upbringing with me as I've created my own traditions in my home now.

I have a variety of decorations that I spread throughout the house and it's always wonderful when I find something new to add to my decorating traditions. I've recently been introduced to a wonderful way to decorate using products from The Hanging Lantern Company.  They have all kinds of hanging pendants and table decorations that are just gorgeous! They glow from their internal lighting and cast beautiful shadows around the room and create a wonderful atmosphere.

Photo courtesy of The Hanging Lantern Company

These beautiful decorations will make your home look so festive and magical. The added feature of the illumination makes them extra special and sets just the right mood. The LED buttonlites help to create that lovely warm glow. I love the rich, warm colors of each piece and the laser cut detail is just fantastic.

The glow that's been created in my home

The decorations arrive packed flat and all you have to do is fold them at the pre-scored markings and put the various tabs through the pre-cut slots. It was simple! And I'll tell you, getting the chance to do this little bit of assembly made the experience feel like I had a hand in the creative process, in a way. It made me remember the fun of assembling the various parts of our Christmas decorations as a child so it was so satisfying. Even if you're not particularly into the assembling of things like I am, you'll still have no problem with these lovely products. There are simple instructions that guide you along the way and as I said, it's simple to do.

 Gingerbread house, Rosso Christmas tree, and favour box

Christmas Tree favour box

I'm going to love having these beautiful decorations from The Hanging Lantern Company around my house for years to come. Here's to adding new traditions to my Christmas decorating!

You can find out more about The Hanging Lantern Company here and you can see their full range of Christmas decorations here.

*Disclosure: Decoration samples were sent to me for review. All opinions are mine.

Spooky and Blurry Photos

Today is another photo day. As you know if you've been here before, I love snapping a pic from time to time. I used to mostly take photos on my point and shoot, but lately because of the convenience, I've been taking photos on the fly with my phone. I'm kinda retro in some ways so I held out on having a smart phone for a while. My camera on my "vintage" cell phone was a joke and everything and everybody came out looking kinda strange. It wasn't my questionable photo skills....ha ha...in that instance it was the phone. I still take some blurry photos...don't we all. Lol. But sometimes they come out pretty good.

The photo above is from my Instagram account. One of my new favorite hobbies is to lift photos off of my Instagram account and share them here after I've played with them a bit. I didn't do much with the one above though except add a retro frame to it like I remember from back in the 70's as a kid.

This photo is one that I took a few days ago as it was getting darker and darker. It gets dark really early here in the colder months. It's like somebody drops a big shade on things at 4:30 pm. Anyway, I was looking out and I wondered if I could snap a photo of the bottle on the windowsill in the dark. The bottle is actually blue, but because I took the photo with the bottle lined up with the street light, it turned this golden brown color. It glowed. The photo is kinda blurry, but in this case I think it adds to the picture. A friend told me that she liked it because it looked spooky. Ha ha! I'll take a compliment any way that I can get one ;-)

I hope that you enjoy looking at my retro-esque, spooky photo. Have a good day!

Really-Random-Playing With Photoshop-Badly-Friday

Hello :-)

So this is my really-random-playing with Photoshop badly-Friday photo ;-)

I've been working on my book a lot lately so I decided to take a break and let my mind wander and man did it wander. LOL. This is a picture that I took a few days ago. It turned out quite blurry and it was originally a black and white photo. Since it was blurry already I decided to play around with it a bit. I think it kinda looks like the world turned blue and you're looking through a screen door or a window screen. When I was growing up we had screens on the windows and screen doors that kept the bugs out but let the breeze in. So this is giving me a kinda trippy nostalgic memory of my childhood years of peering out the screens...and this time I'm looking out at a blue world ;-)

It's weird and I know it's not anything brilliant, but sometimes I just like to play. Play is good.

This visit into my Friday wandering mind is brought to you by me.....LOL!

Happy Friday!!!

Trees In Every Season

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago-ish and I just thought that I would share it here. 

As I've mentioned before, I love fall/autumn.

 I love trees a lot and I think that they're beautiful during every season. 

 In the springtime, they're bursting out with new bright green leaves...

In the summer, they're in full greenery and offering shade from the hot sun...

In the fall, they put on a show of various colors and shed their leaves...

And in the winter, they stand leafless, but they're still so beautiful.

I often think that trees without their leaves look like beautiful, stark sculptures. They're so dramatic as their prickly branches pierce the grey skies. 

What's not to love? :-) 

Introducing GUILD, an Exclusive Photography Networking Platform from FotoVisura

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

FotoVisura - an international networking platform for photography, 

is pleased to announce an open call for photographers to join GUILD
 

FotoVisura's Invitation Only Annual Membership

GUILD is an invitation-only annual membership on FotoVisura.com for photographers, editors, curators and organizations worldwide. A photographer’s GUILD membership includes a hosted website with access to an exclusive networking platform and resources to further a photographer’s work and career.

GUILD provides access to an exclusive networking platform for photographers, editors, and institutions to connect, share work, and promote news. Eligible applicants are photographers who are not exclusively represented by an agency and are working in media, editorial, advertising, fashion, entertainment, music, fne art, book publishing, online/mobile media, public and private engagements, as well as NGOs and corporate companies.

Judged by Whitney Johnson, Director of Photography at The New Yorker and Adriana Teresa Letorney, Co-founder of FotoVisura, the open call is free and does not require a FotoVisura account. The deadline for submissions is December 1, 2014 at 11:59PM EST. FotoVisura will announce the results on January 15, 2015.

A group of awarded applicants will be invited to join for 2015. Five photographers will be selected as winners and receive a one-year sponsored membership to GUILD, as well as professional advice and guidance from the FotoVisura team.

For an annual fee of $295.00, photographer members will receive resources that include:

• A hosted website with templates and customization tools;

• Access to the FotoVisura international networking community and its resources, including the public archive, local motion news feed, and the industry index;

• Access to a file drop box with 100GB of storage;

• Access to submit to the FotoVisura GUILD Grant;

• Full Scholarships to attend the FotoVisura Photo Editing Workshop, if accepted.

FotoVisura has collaborated with leading  fgures from companies including news organizations such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, National Geographic, NPR, CNN, Bloomberg Businessweek, Huffington Post and Stern; book publishers Thames & Hudson, Aperture,   powerHouse Books and Daylight  Books; galleries including United Photo Industries, Brisbane PowerHouse Gallery and the Center for Photography at Woodstock; international photo festivals   including, MOPLA, GUATEPHOTO, Photoville, and the New York Photo Festival.

To apply, please visit http://www.fotovisura.com/about/guild 

About FotoVisura Inc.:
Founded by Adriana Teresa and Graham Letorney in Brooklyn, NY, in 2008, FotoVisura Inc. is a creative frm specializing in technology and production initiatives. FotoVisura Inc. is based in Stowe, Vermont.

About FotoVisura.com:
An international networking platform and resource for photography, FotoVisura.com provides hosted websites with access to resources, including photo-editing workshops with leading editors, residencies, exhibition opportunities, and a news feed to promote work. FotoVisura.com has more than 5,000 members worldwide, with dozens of notable discoveries including Sebastian Liste, Justin Maxon, Katie Orlinsky, and Erin Trieb.

FotoVisura.com * Twitter * Facebook

*Press release text used by permission of FotoVisura.

Flowers

Hello :-)

I wanted to share a photo of my bouquet that's been blooming out over the weekend. They are gladiolus. Aren't they just gorgeous? I picked them up at the store the other day and they're just blooming like crazy now. 

Have a great day!

Product Spotlight: Sugru

I love fixing things! If something is broken, I'm always willing to give fixing it a try, just to see if I can. So when I find something new to help me patch things up, I'm always excited! Recently I've tried out this cool product called Sugru. I really love it!

Sugru is this really great play dough-like substance that you can mould into various shapes to fix things. It's like a magic putty and is similar to a superglue in a way! It comes in little pouches and there are all of these great colors. It's great to fix broken toys, so it'll surely come in handy as we go towards Christmas and beyond. It'll make a great stocking filler too!

There are so many great uses for Sugru from protecting phones to creating things to fixing a variety of things. I patched up an ipod charging cord and I'm loving the results.

One use that I'm definitely going to try is patching up my winter walking shoes. They're always springing a leak especially during the cold, wet winter, so I think it'll be great to have a way to block out the elements a bit.

Check out this fun video to see some of the cool uses for Sugru.




To learn more about Sugru, please visit their website here.