lately

Happy Friday!!

And Happy Easter weekend! It looks like we might break 50 DEGREES in Chicago ahhhh so excited. Ben's spring break starts tonight, and next week we're off to Arizona to soak up some much needed sun and also to start clearing out his grandparents' house now that his 96 year old grandpa is in an assisted living center. I'm not certain about the internet situation so this blog might be quiet all next week, but I'll try to sneak in an Easter post before we leave. 

This week has been an emotional roller coaster for me. The gloomy weather, spending every day at home by myself, plus major job insecurities were really getting me down, but I started taking Vitamin D, the sun has returned, and I got some amazing news that I had given up hope of ever hearing (more details to come) so everything is on the up and up! Oh, and I also got a new shipment of gorgeous lace appliques, and who wouldn't be happy after unpacking that. Can't wait to add them to new scarves!

Here's what I've been up to lately: 

 

Mailing: Tons of pretty packages, to everywhere in the US, Canada, and even one to Singapore! I think the shop is finally starting to take off!

Listening to: OneRepublic's new album Native, addictive give-me-energy music that I've definitely been needing lately.

Eating: Lots of delicious recipes! Caramelized banana bread, gingerbread granola, rotini with tuna, olives, and capers, orange balsamic glazed chicken with lemon risotto.

Sewing: Pretty new lace infinity scarves in fun patterns and colors for spring (and summer!).

Working out: With my current fave YouTube fitness channels, Fitness Blender and LionsGate BeFit. I really need to get outside and run more though...

Reading: Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City, a documentary-style crime thriller about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the serial killer who stalked young women there. It's very interesting to read more about the history of Chicago and the architects who made the city what it is today.

Watching: White Collar (Ben and I have been working through all the seasons on Netflix and we only have one episode left!!! What should we watch next?), and Mad Men Season 5 which is now on Netflix too! It took me a couple seasons to get into Mad Men but I'm a huge fan. It's a great portrayal of the social, class, and gender issues of the 60's, and the sets and even film quality feels so authentic, like they found a way to time travel and film in the actual past. I've loved watching the clothes and interior decor change styles through the "years". I'm definitely glad to be a woman in this day and age!

What have you been up to this week?

my trader joe's staples

Since I grew up in what Chicagoans refer to as the boondocks of "downstate" Illinois, I was deprived for most of my life of the staple amenities that my suburb-raised friends always took for granted. This includes outlet malls, Caribou Coffee, IKEA, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's. How did I survive? I don't even know.

Luckily I now live in Chicago and am consumeristically saved. I do love Caribou, IKEA, and Trader Joe's. Whole Foods is tempting, but a bit too Lululemony for me, especially after living in Oregon where they have genuine health food stores and co-ops that are lower middle class accessible.

Trader Joe's actually reminds me of a cross between a co-op and a small European grocery store, and it's definitely a fun place to buy specialty food items for decent prices. I'll go to TJ's every two or three weeks to supplement our regular grocery haul. Here are some of the things I buy every single time!

 

• Chocolate yogurt. SO GOOD. They also have mocha, which is also good. It feels like eating dessert but is healthy(er)!

•  European Style Plain Yogurt. I am phasing out of my Greek yogurt obsession and am loving this thinner and smoother textured kind. There aren't any weird additives like gelatin and it tastes delicious, even without the added sugar!
• Any kind of hummus. They have awesome flavors, but I usually stick with the basic garlic.
• Multigrain Pita Bite Crackers. These are crunchy and delicious with hummus or goat cheese!
• (Not pictured) Goat Cheese...the spreadable kind is extremely inexpensive here, and the one with honey is delicious.
• Bread of any kind. I love the "take and bake" mini ciabatta rolls, and will keep them in the freezer and bake them one at a time to go with a salad for lunch. I also love the Golden Hearth Healthy Multi-Grain bread for sandwich bread. It's baked in Chicago so it might be a regional item.

•  Wine, of course! I think TJ's wine and beer selection is the best part of the store (and I am SO sorry if you live in PA or other states with weird alcohol laws). "3 buck Chuck" aka Charles Shaw is legendary, but obviously not the best quality. The only varieties I really like are the Sauvignon Blanc and Shiraz (pictured above). Other good wines I've tried and liked for around $6 or less are Black Mountain Pinot Noir, La Ferme Julien White Blend, and Archeo Nero D'Avola. AVOID the Blue Fin Pinot Noir, the price really is too good to be true. The tricky thing about wine is that price does not always indicate quality, so you just have to drink around to see for yourself!

• Inexpensive flowers are another great thing about Trader Joe's! These are alstroemerias, and they are the best cheap flower to buy anywhere because they will last for at least two weeks. The ones in this picture look kind of smashed and sad, but once they sucked up some water the blooms opened up and this bouquet lasted for 3 weeks before falling apart! (Yeah, I've been meaning to write this post for a while).

NOT PICTURED:

• Mandarin Orange Chicken (frozen)
• Chili Lime Chicken Burgers (frozen)
• Mini Stroopwafels (cookies)
• Goddess Dressing (same as Annie's but cheaper)
• Chocolate. Any kind.
• Nuts/Trail Mix
• Alcohol-Free Vanilla
• Orange Blossom Honey French Liquid Soap (Ben is obsessed and so am I)

Is there anything you love from Trader Joe's that I should try?

learning to shoot in manual

(Flowers in a dim bathroom with indirect natural light from one window. Unedited, shot in manual. I can't believe I took this!) 

Since moving to Chicago last August, I knew that as soon as I upgraded to a DSLR camera I would want to take a photography workshop with our talented and amazing wedding photographer Christy Tyler.

I'd been using my little Canon 7.1 megapixel Power Shot Digital Elph since 2008. While I HIGHLY recommend Power Shots if you're looking for a point and shoot (see great examples here, here, and here--its strengths are landscape shots in natural daylight), I was dying to get a "real camera" to expand my skills, although I figured it would take me another year or two to actually save up for one. Well, Ben surprised me with a Canon Rebel T3 on the morning after our wedding and let's just say that gift cemented the entire weekend as the best weekend ever!

So last Saturday I attended Christy's beginners photography workshop and in just 4 hours she'd taken us all from photography novices to shooting in manual! I'd been playing around with the semi-automatic settings (mainly Av and P) and had basically figured out depth of field, white balance, and exposure while taking millions of self portraits for my Etsy listings, but now I feel like I've unlocked a whole new level of control! With the manual setting it's easier to take the picture you want to capture, as opposed to taking a so-so shot and then editing the heck out of it (and sometimes losing detail) to make it brighter and clearer. It's also easy to take bright photos in dim, indoor settings!

Here is an extremely brief and abbrieviated summary of what I learned:

When you're in manual, the three main things you have to think about are aperture, ISO, and shutter speed.

• You set the aperture (depth of field or f/number) depending on how blurry you want the background to be. If you want to capture one object in focus with a blurry background, set a smaller f/number. If you want a landscape or group shot, set it higher. 
• The ISO controls the camera's light sensitivity. A lower ISO number is good for daylight and outdoor shots, and a higher ISO number is necessary for indoor shots or night time. 
• The shutter speed controls how much light enters the lens. A slower shutter speed makes your image brighter, and a faster shutter speed makes the image darker but allows you to shoot moving objects.

The settings you should try first are 1/125 shutter speed and ISO100 for outdoors, ISO400 for indoors. Use whatever f/stop you want depending on the depth of field of your shot (person vs. landscape) and adjust from there!

Now I'll devote the rest of the post to some of the photos I took during the workshop! I'll label them with the aperture (f/no.), ISO, and shutter speed I used for each one so you can see the difference it makes to have the correct settings to achieve the exposure or brightness level you want.
*All of the photos in this entire post were shot in manual and are unedited, straight from the camera! (Canon EOS Rebel T3 with basic kit 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 lens).

 Dark bathroom--this is what it looked like to the eye. Aperture F/4.0, ISO800, Shutter 1/60.

Dark bathroom, brighter picture! Aperture F/4.0, ISO3200, Shutter 1/60. 

So the only change I made was increasing the ISO from 800 to 3200.

Close up of the flowers in the dark bathroom. F/4.5, ISO3200, Shutter 1/100.

I made the flowers just a little brighter by lowering the shutter speed. F/4.5, ISO3200, Shutter 1/60.

Objects in front of a bright backlit window, very over-exposed i.e. too bright!! F/4.0, ISO 800, Shutter 1/80.

 Better exposure by increasing shutter speed! F/4.0, ISO 800, Shutter 1/250.

This is what the camera "thought" the exposure should be with an even faster shutter speed, but Christy said that if you have a bright backlight such as a window, you do have to overexpose the shot in order to make the subject bright enough. I think this is a bit too dark. F/4.0, ISO800, Shutter 1/500.

I lowered the ISO because the light was brighter for this close up, but it was too dark. F/4.0, ISO 400, Shutter 1/320.

Raised the ISO back up. Much better! F/4.0, ISO800, Shutter 1/320

 Even a bit brighter by slowing down the shutter. F/4.0, ISO400, Shutter 1/125.

Here's the room in front of the window. Way too dark! F/4.0, ISO400, Shutter 1/160. 

 I raised the ISO and lowered the shutter speed. Yay brightness! To get a sharper picture, I should have left the shutter speed higher (to protect against accidentally moving the camera while the shutter is open) raised the ISO even more to compensate for the higher/darker shutter speed, and maybe raised the f/number to lengthen the depth of field. F/4.0, ISO800, Shutter 1/30

 Christy let me play with her awesome and huge 100 mm macro lens! (Ben calls the "ring in flowers or nature" a classic Christy shot, haha). I was also focusing manually with this lens. A little too dark for my taste but I love the moodiness. F/4.0, ISO400, Shutter 1/125.

I brightened the shot by lowering the shutter speed since I was bracing my arms on the table and wasn't worried about camera shake. If I was holding the camera up, I would have tried raising the ISO too so I didn't have to make the shutter so slow. Gorgeous! I can't believe this is straight from the camera. I obviously need this lens.... F/4.0, ISO400, Shutter 1/25.

Christy turned the tables and let us practice photographing her for a change. Note the lower ISO number for outdoors, although I think I would have raised it a tiny bit to brighten the photo since we were in the shade: F/4.5, ISO100, Shutter 1/80.

Once I got home I had to keep testing out my new skills to make sure it wasn't just photography magic inside Christy's apartment that made us all so suddenly and mysteriously good with our cameras! Our apartment is extremely dim all the time since we only have one south facing window in a tiny breakfast nook, which is where I take all my Etsy photographs.

Here's what it actually looked like at 4 pm, minimal light left. Piles of magazines and fabric are typical.

F/4.0, ISO400, Shutter 1/125.

I like taking super bright and over-exposed product pictures for my shop, so I quadrupled the ISO. F/4.0, ISO1600, Shutter 1/100.

And here's a quick selfie I took for the shop! (Get the scarf here). F/4.0, ISO1600, Shutter 1/100.

Usually I have to edit the brightness and highlights on my product photos to get them as bright as I want, but I didn't have to adjust the exposure in this one at all! (This photo is straight from the camera, but for the listing photo I did minor touch ups and warmed the color temperature up to make the colors more true to life since the indirect late afternoon light here was blue-ish).

So there you have it! This is definitely not a "how to shoot in manual" guide since I am NOT professing to be even close to a photography expert, but if you've been attempting to play with manual I hope that I've helped you out a little bit! 

And if you're an amateur or professional photographer in the Chicago area looking to expand your knowledge and camera skills I definitely recommend registering for one of Christy's workshops!

lately

Lately I've been:

-Enjoying the sun we're getting! Despite still-freezing temperatures. Only one little corner of our apartment gets direct light, my sewing room/art studio/photography corner/kitchen table.

-Obsessed with lace. Adding lace trimmed floaty infinity scarves to the shop, keep an eye out for more colors and patterns this week!

-Baking this caramelized banana bread.

-Doing this workout, the best/hardest full body routine I've found on YouTube.

-Reading The Art of Fielding for book club. Highly recommend.

-Waiting to hear back about a job interview...eeep.

-Pinning lush bouquets, ambitious sewing projects, and bright, white living spaces.

-Looking forward to Ben's spring break in two weeks! I've barely seen him lately. Teachers work way too much.

What have you been up to this week?

DIY lace trimmed veil

(photo by Christy Tyler Photography)

As you can see by the colors of the leaves in that photo, this week's crafty tutorial is looooong overdue: my DIY lace trimmed veil!

Veils are ridiculously overpriced at bridal boutiques considering that tulle is less than $2 a yard, so I knew from the beginning of wedding planning that I wanted to make my own. After doing a bit of research, I discovered that it's easier than it looks!

Here are the three tutorials that I found most useful (thanks to my friend Laurie for sharing):

• Make your own wedding veil - good diagrams for tulle measurements
• Veil tutorial - good tutorial for sewing on a wide lace trim
• How To: DIY a Wedding Veil - good basic step by step

The first thing you need to do is choose a style and length. I knew I wanted a single layer (no "blusher" aka the part that goes over your face), fingertip length, and minimal poof-factor.

Supplies I used:

• 2 yards of 108" wide ivory tulle from JoAnn's (I bought way more than that and it ended up trying to eat me when I unrolled it...you actually don't need that much tulle!)
• wide metal bridal comb from JoAnn's (use a coupon)
• needle and white thread
• rotary cutter and cutting board, or fabric scissors
• approx. 3-4 yards of wide Alencon lace trim from Etsy 

Here's a close up of the gorgeous lace I got. I lucked out with an amazing per-yard deal, so of course I bought the entire roll. Still deciding what to do with the leftovers...

Sidenote: I was afraid the lace would clash with my dress since the lace is extremely yellowed ivory, my dress was a different ivory, and the lace trim on the dress was white, but it looked fine! You don't have to matchy-match everything.
(That may have sounded type-A but just wait until you're planning a wedding. The subtle differences between white and ivory take on SUCH MEANING and it's scary.)

Step 1: Cut your tulle in the size and shape you want. 

This was the most difficult step for me, because I accidentally bought WAY too much tulle.

I ended up with a half circle shape, 60" along the straight edge by 45" to the widest point (the dimensions are labeled in white in the picture, kind of camouflaged by my floral rug). To cut the shape, the tulle was folded along the 45" line and I cut an arc through the double layers to make sure both sides were even. Then I shaped the top and sides until the curves lay the way I wanted when I draped the tulle from my head.

-If you want a double layered veil, you'll cut a circle or oval shape and sew your comb in the center.

-Refer to the links I shared above to see the lengths you need to reach a certain look. Fintertip veils are 40-45" long.

-Tulle is cheap, so don't be afraid to do some trial-and-error guessing! Cut a shape, drape it over your head, trim if it's not laying in the right way. This one was my second attempt!

Step 2: With your tulle laying on a flat surface such as a clean floor, pin your lace around the edges.
You might have to cut slits or darts in the lace to curve it around the corners.

Step 3: Thread your needle and sew the lace on!
In the above picture you can see that I lined the lace up so that the edge of the tulle came almost to the bottom of the lace trim. I didn't use any fancy stitch, just loosely tacked the lace on. And yes, it takes a long time...turn on a movie! Originally I was going to sew on the top AND bottom of the trim for extra stability but let's face it, that would have been way too much effort. You can apparently buy clear thread so your stitches don't show at all, but I was sick of buying just "one more thing" for the wedding. White thread isn't noticeable, even on ivory lace.

Step 4: Gather the top of your veil by sewing a strip of large straight stitches in the middle of the flat edge
(see awesome illustrated diagram above Step 1 for where the comb goes)
I gathered about a 10" strip because I wanted my veil to lay flat. If you want a poofy veil, gather more of the edge and you can even cut it wider than 60".
You want the length of the gather to equal the width of your comb.

 Step 5: Sew your comb onto the gathered edge.
Orient the veil so that the RIGHT side (side with the lace edge) is FACING the inner curved side of the comb. (So in the above picture, the right side is laying face down on the surface, spread out behind the comb). This way, you can flip the veil over the comb so the veil covers the sewn part before you stick it in your hair, and the lace will be facing outwards. Kind of confusing, but it makes sense when you're playing with it.
To sew on the comb, I just wrapped the thread around and around to make sure it was secured.

And that's it!
  

Here's the final product right after I finished it. Notice how the bottom part (45" from comb to bottom) actually goes BELOW my fingertips. Also, the lace was pretty heavy and dragged the veil down. If you're going for the poofy ethereal look you should use more layers of tulle, gather more of it, and edge it with ribbon, lighter weight lace (like Chantilly) or save yourself some effort and don't edge it at all! Tulle won't fray.

So if you're looking for ways to trim costs while wedding planning I highly recommend trying to make your own veil or headpiece. It's relatively quick as far as DIY projects go (I made mine in one afternoon) and no one will be able to tell if it's not perfect! Plus you will have created a beautiful family heirloom that can be passed down to future brides!

I'll close this post with a few more action shots of our wedding. Wearing a veil definitely made me feel like a little girl playing dress-up, it was kind of surreal and weird.

Also, looking at these photos makes me really miss seeing leaves on the trees...

(c/o Christy Tyler Photography)

(c/o Christy Tyler Photography)

(c/o Christy Tyler Photography)

Do you think you'd attempt making your own veil?

indoor spring: 2013 Chicago Flower and Garden Show

Before I share more pretty flower pictures, I'd like to do my blogger duty of acknowledging that Google Reader is going away. I've been a daily GR user since 2009 and I just can't believe them when they say that "usage is declining"! I'm usually supportive of Google's world takeover mission but I don't like how they're manipulating everyone into using Google+. 

Well, anyway, if you're a Google Reader user you've probably found an alternative by now. I've started using Feedly and I love it so far. It takes a little bit longer to load on my computer sometimes but I think it's actually better than GR in that it's easier to organize your blogs and read one at a time.

Another popular option (especially for fellow bloggers) seems to be Bloglovin'.

If you're a Bloglovin fan you can follow me by clicking the link below!

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Ok, on to the post!

This weekend Ben and I ventured downtown to check out the 2013 Chicago Flower & Garden Show at Navy Pier. My uncle's bulb company Doornbosch Bros. is responsible for the spectacular tulip displays and since we now live in the city we had to take the opportunity to visit him and my cousins at their bulb booth and experience the gorgeous colors!

 

Since it seems like we are stuck in a perpetual Narnia-style winter here in Chicago, it was SO refreshing to get to see some flowers blooming. If you've read my blog for any stretch of time you know that I love taking photographs of flowers, so I left Ben on his own to wander around the exhibition hall while I spent a good amount of time geeking out and taking tulip portraits!

Each of the 8,000 bulbs were individually planted in a little pot last fall, left in a cooler to simulate winter, "forced" to grow and bloom in a greenhouse last month, and then painstakingly planted in these raised beds!

The hundreds of fellow spring-starved people at the show were all magnetically drawn to the spectacular tulip displays. 

It was an interesting challenge to photograph flowers under harsh spotlights!

Pink tulips are my favorite, can you tell?

The tulips with feathered stripes are called Rembrandt tulips and were highly prized back in the Tulipomania days of the 1600's. Originally the color variations were caused by a virus but growers have developed a way to mimic the coloring patterns in healthy bulbs.

I like hyacinths better than tulips because they smell so good!

If you're interested in planting tulips in your yard, look for large bulbs from an authentic Dutch supplier. Planting season for tulips and other early spring flowers (daffodils, hyacinths, crocus) is in the late fall (October/early Nov) before the first frost. Plant bulbs in clusters of at least 12 for the most dramatic effect! You can plant summer flowers right now. Here are some more planting tips.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of spring! Maybe someday we'll see some flowers growing outdoors too...I say as it actually snows outside.

Do you have a favorite flower? 

(Tulips are nice but I really love big fluffy summer blooms like peonies and dahlias the best).

Have you ever tried planting bulbs?