enJOY it by Elise Blaha Cripe

layout, comin' atcha.

Created for the most recent Effer Dare.

Challenge was to be inspired by this image/quote.

I am going to frame this and hang it over my scrapbook desk. 

As soon as I get a scrapbook desk.

And also, thank you so much for the kind words on the photo project.  Blogland, you rock.

you asked, i answer.

The "joy" stamp featured a couple posts below is from the $1 bin at Michael's.  The brand listed on it is Village Arts Press, but I googled and found nothing.  I also got a cosmo glass stamp in the same bin.  Which, to be honest, makes a lot of sense.  And no, I did not model my handwriting off of the stamp.  I am just very lucky/JOYful that it matches.

My Starbucks drink is a Coffee Light Frappuccino in the summer and a Sugar-Free Cinnamon Dolce Latte with non-fat milk in the winter.  I obviously try to conserve my calorie intake for more important things, like Cupcakes and Peanut M&Ms.  Both drinks are fantastic though, I highly recommend.

I must also add that you do not need to be concerned about my Starbucks obsession.  If you want to worry, please focus on my blogging addiction that causes me to carry around empty coffee cups and then photograph them.  And while you stress over that, I will be panicking about my website project/the tickle in my throat that is slowly becoming painful.

score:

When they called out the name they actually said "ELS-C" instead of "UH-LEASE" but it is all about progress, my friends.

Happy Saturday!

the great american photo project.

Whew.

12 prints.  I posed for them, light-metered them, framed them, focused them, clicked them, developed them, printed them and mounted them. 

And each step was a subtle reminder to view myself as art.

Very powerful stuff.

The photos are technically not fantastic.  They would be clearer and from more interesting angles if I had allowed someone else to be in the room and snap them.  Or if I had used another body to get the focus and lighting exactly right.

But that was not my point.  This was a solo project.  For myself, by myself.

What was so interesting about setting up the shots and then using the timer while jumping in front of the frame is that I never saw exactly what I was capturing until I processed my film.  And even then I never really knew what I was getting until I blew up the negative and printed.  This provided some very interesting images.  Some photos I would never have purposely taken, but am very pleased with.

Originally, the project was going to depict me being content with me.  Me being comfortable in my own skin.  And it does that.  But a byproduct of this whole adventure was the pride.  The pride that I felt when I saw myself as a work of art.

Thanks for looking, thanks for reading.

tricks to making bad days better.

Today was one of those blah days.  Where nothing and everything was wrong at the same time.

So I stamped.  And I yoga-ed for 20 minutes.

Neither was a cure all.  But both made improvements.

background frames: Great Impressions; dotted circle and square: Paper Salon; "e": Paper Source;  little square: Stamp Oasis; wings: Art Impressions; "joy": Village Arts Press