It's True, I'm Now a Mrs.

November 29, 2011 4 Comments

You may have noticed that I’ve been a bit absent for the last few weeks. That’s because on November 12th I got married! It was the absolute best day of my life. I was, and still am, so unbelievably happy and feel so lucky to have found someone as sweet and kind, and thoughtful and generous and fun as my new hubby. Oh, and as handsome.  He’s a hottie!

In all seriousness, it was a fantastic party and we were both so thrilled to be able to share this very special day with our wonderful family and friends.  We followed our wedding with an incredible two week honeymoon – stay tuned for more posts on that.  I’ll post more pics of the wedding in a few weeks, but for now, here’s a few quick ones!

My awesome dad walking me down the aisle:

This next one is from our photographer, Lisa Marie of Sweet Tea Photography. Isn’t it so cute? It’s taken on the block where we live.

This shot was also by Lisa Marie of Sweet Tea. It’s Manhattan in the background, and the Hyatt, where we had our reception, on the left.

Our cake, made by Carl’s, the Cake Boss bakery!

I wore a lei for my dance with my dad – my florist, Bloomers from Chatham, NJ made it fresh! I was born in Hawaii, and my dad and I danced to a song we used to listen to when I was growing up called “Honolulu City Lights.”  The lei was just BEAUTIFUL.

And here’s a shot with some of my best friends, including my fabulous Maid of honor!

And another with a few other friends:

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Views from My Side of the World

October 6, 2011 1 Comment

This post is not crafting nor cooking related.  As many of you know, I live in Jersey right across the water from the World Trade Center.  Sometimes, I forget that not everyone gets to see the progress of the Freedom Tower day by day, as I do. Every week a floor is added, every week it gets taller.  Here’s a snapshot from earlier this week.  Me, looking up at the Freedom Tower. It’s pretty amazing to watch something so historic being built!

And here’s the view from my side of the river.  It’s crazy that its already so much taller than everything, and I think it still has quite a ways to go!

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Snow Days in Jersey City

December 28, 2010 6 Comments

I’m sure that all of you heard about the crazy snow storm we got on the East Coast on Sunday.  Right now I’m sitting in our family room, looking at the feet of snow in the backyard, which hasn’t even begun to melt.  I have to admit, I absolutely LOVE snow.  While I was annoyed that the snow forced me to leave Pennsylvania a day early, I am utterly content sitting in my house sipping hot toddies and staring at it.  Yesterday after the snow had stopped, we ventured around Jersey City, checking out the beautiful scenery and searching for some breakfast. (Which was procured at Wonder Bagels in Jersey City, the next best bagel to The Bagel Store in Williamsburg.) Here are a few shots I snapped around the neighborhood:

locals trying to get their cars out in the Grove Street neighborhood:

We ventured down to the water, it was a clear day and the view of Manhattan was amazing:

More photos after the jump, including one of the sweet BF’s breakfast sandwich! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Miscellaneous, Photography

Love, Lurve, Need to Learn Right Now: Tilt-Shift Photography

September 29, 2010 Leave a Comment

In trying to learn how to be a better/hipper photographer, I’ve been taking a gander at a number of photography sites lately and came across a few images that seemed too good to be true – real life people and objects that looked like they were at miniature scale. Like this:

Tennis match (via Smashing Magazine)

Airplanes (via Smashing Magazine)

As it turns out, this is a technique known as “tilt-shift photography” in which the angle and perspective of the photo are quite literally, tilted and shifted.  It works best when the photo is taken from an elevated point, so that you get the depth that allows for the image to be manipulated.  Don’t you love it? Imagine how fun this would be with vacation photos?! Or photos of your kids playing as you look out the window from above (get ready, future kids!). I’m having visions of taking photos and then shipping them out and getting posters in return!  Decorations for days!

What I also really love are some beautiful examples used on famous van Gogh paintings. Check out how cool these are:

Starry Night:

Starry Night Over The Rhone:

Some good resources after the jump. [Read more...]

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Faux-Casso: Easy Art Using Picasa

September 22, 2010 1 Comment

Turn regular Google images into old-timey photos with Picasa.

Recently, I was in New York’s Central Bar, where I noticed wonderful old-timey photographs of well-known authors with some of their most famous quotes superimposed in the background. It looked adorable in the bar – giving it a real quirky feel. I thought about how cute it could be in the home – for example, how fun to have some photos of your favorite authors over your bookshelf? Or in a more unexpected place, like the bathroom or office?

Then, the lightbulb: you can do this using Picasa!  I recently discovered this great, simple photo editing program from Google. Picasa is great for people who want to eventually learn to use Photoshop but can only find the patience to learn it in little bits. After the jump, a short tutorial for the above project!

[Read more...]

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The View from New Jersey

September 20, 2010 1 Comment

I moved to New Jersey. I normally don’t like to talk about it, because, well, its New Jersey.  Obviously you understand, right?  A few days ago, on Setpember 11th, I had a few minutes alone at night, after a long run, to spend some time thinking and reflecting.  It’s a day to do that, you know?  In that time, I did find something amazing about New Jersey: the view.  So I took my camera, and my amazing new lens that my brother brought me down to the Hudson river, 2 blocks away from our apartment, where I had a perfect view of the September 11th lights.  My photos didn’t all turn out as I had hoped; I clearly need to practice more.  But here’s the best of what I got.  The view from New Jersey:

 

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