Possible Crochet-Along . . . you interested?

Every time I post a crochet project, without fail I get a few versions of this comment: "I wish I could crochet! It looks too hard for me," or "I'm just learning to crochet and could use some advice . . . ". The general spirit of your comments is that you might be interested in learning to crochet but you either don't know where to begin, or are nervous to tackle a new craft on your own, or you've hit a roadblock that made you want to give up altogether.

from my pinterest

So I have an idea. And at this point, it really is just an idea, and I want to see if people are interested before I get ahead of myself and plan every detail . . . because really, if there are only like 2 people who want do it, it's not gonna happen . . . so I want to know:

Would you like to participate in a crochet-along with me?

Here's what I'm thinking . . . fall and winter are headed our way, so this is the perfect time to pick up those hooks, get cozy in your favorite chair, and learn how to crochet. We could pick out a cute, simple pattern (something to help keep you warm through the winter!) and learn all this crochet business as a group--I'll show you how to do the stitches, help you figure out how to read the pattern (they're written in secret code), we'll have goals to meet by certain days, and we'll all finish our project together in time for the chilly weather. And I'm thinking we'll have a link-up at the end so we can all see each others' projects (and maybe even vote on our favorites and have prizes for the winners!). It could be a great way to learn to crochet (if you're a true newbie), or hone your skills (if you already know the basics), or just motivate you to keep crocheting (if you're already a hardcore hooker). 

Here are a few ideas that look like they could fit the bill quite nicely:

This cowl looks quick to make, and would be so cozy for fall:

via

I know, don't tell me--you're printing out this picture and booking an appointment with your hair stylist right now to get this look. Try to see past the awkward haircut and focus on that cute ruffly scarf:

via

Mmmm, I'd love to have a comfy, cozy shawl like this to wrap up in with a mug of hot chocolate:

via

And I love wide headbands like this to keep your ears warm in the chilly weather without messing up your hair:

via

So please please pretty please, leave a comment on this post if you would like to see a crochet-along happen! Believe me, I will not be offended if you don't want to take part, but if you want to learn to crochet together and make something fun while you're at it, let me know!

Photography 101 :: I think I'm making progress!

(We have a winner for the giveaway from Amanda's Beans, and it is [drumroll] Mrs. Danielle Warren! Yay! Danielle, I've sent you an email, so if you're reading this and didn't get it, write to me, please! And remember, you can get free shipping on your order from Amanda's Beans with coupon code ZEROSHIPPING.)

I'll just warn you right off the bat, this post is going to contain a lot of pictures of children you probably don't know or care about, so if you don't want to watch me try to muddle my way through my camera's manual settings with various adorable children, you might want to skip this post.

If you read that previous sentence and still feel like reading this post, yay! You may or may not recall that I'm trying to figure out this whole photography thing, and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it! (You can see some previous photography posts here.)

This is one of my sweet little nieces, who very graciously let me snap a billion photos of her while she was visiting us earlier this month. I really owe a thank you to the Pioneer Woman's aperture series for making sense of what I find to be a kind of confusing concept (smaller numbers mean a bigger opening? huh?), as well as this post from I Heart Faces that discusses creating a blurry background with your kit lens (as much as I'd love a fancy-pants lens, I guess I should figure out how to work with what I've got before upgrading . . . but it kind of makes me sad that, in the picture below, that was the absolute best my lens could do with aperture).

I'm also learning to adjust the ISO for bright outdoor shots (like the one above, which had an ISO of 100) as well as dimmer indoor ones, like the one below, which used an ISO of 800 (I found this post from Shabby Blogs to be the most helpful to me in explaining ISO).

(do you recognize this girly from this post?)
So now for my questions to all you photography geniuses out there . . . I've mostly worked on shooting either in full manual or aperture priority mode--what mode do you use? I'm sure that working in full manual is probably the best choice for really getting the shot you want, but I feel like it takes me soooooo loooooong to get everything set up just so, that by the time I'm ready to actually take the picture, the moment I wanted to capture has long since passed. I'm sure speed comes with practice, but any tips on getting to be a little faster in manual mode would be appreciated!

And I also want to work on . . .

 editing!
I wanted this adorable photo of my niece and nephew to have sort of soft, vintage-y coloring, which I obviously could not achieve. Now, I don't have Photoshop . . . I've generally used the oh-so-fancy Picasa to edit photos, and I just downloaded gimp (the so-called "free photoshop"), which I'm sure is fantastic, but is also kind of confusing. Do any of you use gimp? Do you have any tips or tricks? There are so many free photoshop action set downloads out there on the interwebs (like these and these) . . . are there gimp versions? Because you know I'd rather just download something to fix my pictures than learn how to use the program myself, and my googling isn't getting me very far.

Thank you in advance for your advice--you guys always have such fantastic ideas for me--and I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Five Favorites 5/21

First of all, thank you all for your tips and encouragement on my photo frustration post! It seems I'm in good company . . . many of you, too, seem to have hoped that a nice camera = amazing pictures, and are kind of annoyed that it doesn't work that way. I got some great suggestions of places to start learning, so I'll be compiling those into a post for next week so those of you who are interested in learning with me can figure out where to begin. I've been doing a little playing around with the manual settings on my camera, and it's not quite as scary as I thought it would be. Sigh of relief!

And it seemed like a lot of you were hoping this would turn into a bit of a photography series . . . is that right? I could probably make that happen. Let me know if you'd be interested in a Photo 101-type series on this here bloggy, and if it seems like something a lot of you would like, I'll see what I can do. I know some people. It could happen. It might be awesome.

On to the main event! I loved these five projects from some amazingly-talented ladies this week: 

Coral Reef Dress @ Blooms and Bugs

This little dress is so sweet--I want one for me! It's sewn using a cozy knit material, and depending on the size you're making, I bet you could make this out of an adult top that you don't plan to wear anymore. I love repurposing old stuff!

Nailhead Bulletin Board @ Libbie Grove Design

These bulletin boards are so cool! (I think every time I've typed the word "bulletin" in my life, I've spelled it "bulleting" . . . it's just too hard to resist adding a "g" to any word that ends with an "in". Same deal when I talk about my cousings or baking pumpking bread.) When I saw these, I misread the title and thought it was nailhead headboards . . . and now Kristy has me itching to transform her great bulletin(g) board idea into a headboard for my ugly bed!

Button Necklace @ Sara vs. Sarah

Hey, I know some earrings this necklace would look awfully cute with . . . isn't that a fun necklace? I sure like it.

{Want to hear a button story that's (hopefully) kind of funny? My freshman year of college, I was so fortunate to end up as roommates with a wonderful girl who is now my baby's godmother (I'm LDS and we actually don't do the whole godparent thing . . . but I've always liked it, so Forrest has one. You pick and choose your favorite parts of various religions, too, right?) and one of my very best friends . . . but she's just one of these sweet, kindhearted, innocent girls who is so fun to play tricks on. She had a favorite button that she hung onto forever, waiting to use it on the perfect project because she just loved this silly button. If I remember right, I think it was actually used on a few cards, but she would always ask to have it back later. Anyway, another roommate and I thought it would be funny to kidnap her beloved button and ask a ransom for it. To make it really authentic, we took a few pictures of her button tied up and being held at knife-point and emailed them to her. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm kind of surprised she's still my friend after I put her precious button through such a traumatic experience. But no buttons were harmed that day.}

Thrifty Collage @ The Goodey Knot

What a cool piece of artwork! Kaitlin (who has a bunch of really neat projects on her blog) created this using little thrifty finds and leftovers from around the house, including pieces from her wedding bouquet and early sewing projects. I think that's a really amazing way to hang onto those sentimental little pieces you can't bring yourself to toss out, but would otherwise just be cluttering up a closet somewhere.

Prep School Skirt @ Emilie Handmade

I just stumbled across Emilie's blog this week, and I'm so glad I did! It's full of really clever ideas and tutorials for sewing, home decor, and fun parties. She created this skirt from . . . wait for it . . . a thrifted men's blazer that she picked up for $1.50 and turned into this adorable prep school skirt! I love it, and she wrote up a tutorial so we can make one, too. Smart lady! I love it!

If you were featured, feel free to grab yourself a little trophy:

<center><a  href="http://www.maybematilda.com"><img border="0"  src="http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n628/rfield3890/mmlovesme.jpg"  border="0" alt="Photobucket"  /></a></center>

And leave a comment letting me know if you'd be interested in a photo boot camp series!

Enroll me in Photo 101!

I'm going to take you back--way back--to before this little nugget was born:

In fact, in the point I'm taking you to, he really was a little nugget . . . I believe I was just a few weeks pregnant with a baby the size of, like, a pinto bean when I decided that I needed to have great photos of the soon-to-be nugget as he grew up. 

So I treated myself to this little nugget:

Oooooh, welcome to the family, First Child!

And I thought to myself as I got out my wallet, "9 months is a really long time! I'll learn this camera inside and out, and by the time he's born, I'll practically be a professional photographer!" And then my hormone-riddled mind would swim with images of the perfect blue-eyed baby boy (check!), his life perfectly documented in crisp, artistic, frame-worthy photos.

ERRRRNT! Wrong! Flash forward 18 months and although I have the pretty baby, I still have no idea how to do much of anything with this camera. A year and a half I've owned it, and it still lives on Auto mode. It kind of makes me depressed to think that I bought this amazing camera that is living out its existence with me instead of someone who will give it the chance to shine.

So while I occasionally get lucky on Auto and end up with a picture like this:

  

I end up taking duds like this one far more often:

 And I'm brought back to reality: my fancy camera did not magically transform me into an artsy photographer. But every time I start to try and learn, I get overwhelmed and give up--aperture? Shutter speed? F-stop? No, you stop.

I really do want to learn how to use this camera to its full potential, and I'd love your help and suggestions. For those of you who take gorgeous photos (you know who you are--I've seen your blogs!), how did you get there? What helped you to learn? (And please don't say reading the manual. That thing might as well be written in Chinese.) Anyone else out there want to try and learn how to use their fancy camera, too?

I'm hoping that by writing about it here, I'll feel committed to actually stick with it this time around and really learn something instead of giving up in despair and switching back to Auto. So feel free to offer your suggestions, point me in the right direction, and occasionally harass me to make sure I follow through. Mild, friendly harassment only, please.

This is me!

It seems my readership here at this little bloggy has expanded past my mom and husband (which is awesome, by the way, and thank you all for reading my blather!), so I thought an introduction might be in order . . . just in case you care to know anything about me.

Here's my little family:

Me, baby Forrest, and husband Jeff.

I'm from New York, which everyone is really impressed with until they realize that "being from New York" is not synonymous with "being from New York City," and my town was mostly populated by cows.

We're in Iowa right now where my husband is attending chiropractic school (only 2 more months in the Midwest?! Seriously, where did the last few years go?). I've really come to love it here, but sorry, Iowa, I will not be missing your horrific Arctic winters and having to chip my way into my ice-coated car every morning from September-May.

I was an English major at Brigham Young University, and definitely miss it.

I worked as a massage therapist for a few years before Forrest was born (because that's a totally natural career path for an English major, right?).

And now I stay home with this little fella!

I'm thanking my lucky stars that I was one of the last customers ever to eat at Flavor Flav's Fried Chicken here in Iowa (that is not a joke . . . it's a real restaurant. I had my doubts, too). We went there last Saturday and it has now closed down. Isn't that how everybody celebrates Easter? Making a pilgrimage to visit washed-up rappers' restaurants?

(Those are our gangsta faces . . . they felt appropriate for the picture until we realized later that Flavor himself is not even making a thug face in the mural. Now we just look like idiots.)

I love (love! looooove!) black licorice, which is the best favorite candy to have because nobody else likes it. More for me! And I always get the black jelly beans on Easter when no one else wants them!

I type 103 words per minute. I just did an online typing test to confirm this. My mom and I used to compete at those online tests to see who could type faster, so I have her to thank for that talent. I don't mean to slap you in the face with this next tidbit, but if you didn't figure it out with the word-per-minute thing, I was really, really, really cool and popular as a kid.

Let's see, I covered our gangsta faces and random useless skill set . . . I do believe you now know everything important there is to know about me! Anything else you'd like to learn?

(If you want to read a little about me crafting and selling on etsy, check out my shop feature over at Flex Family Arts!)

Opinions, please!

Do you remember this dress? It started out as a truly heinous 90s jumper and ended up being a real cute little almost-Modcloth-ish-if-you-squint-and-tilt-your-head summer piece:

I was happy with it riiiiiight up until I got my latest Delia's catalog in the mail and saw this dress:

I want it. I want it bad. 

I was starting to plan out a knockoff dress and realized I'm only a crochet neckline away from making a really similar version out of my 90s jumper dress. And when I made this top the other day for my etsy shop, I couldn't stop thinking about adding this same neckline to my dress:

But my husband flipped through the Delia's catalog and insisted that I had found  

the ugliest dress in it to add to my wish list.(But the man leaves the house regularly in mismatched sweatclothes, so I'm not sure I should really listen to his opinion on fashion.)

So I need your opinions . . . Am I crazy? Do you like the Delia's dress, too? And most importantly--should I try it out on my black dress? 

 (I would lower the dress's existing neckline first so it has more of a scoop neck, so if it doesn't look cute, I'm not sure the dress will look that great even if I take the crochet part off again!)

MJ58W8Q647PJ