Oh Snap! New Photos and Outer Space Audrey…

Kate and I took pictures again today.  It will be the last time for awhile until one of us buys a sweet camera because we have to give Maggie (Kate’s Mom) her rig back.  😦  She misses her camera!  This time we did it in my kitchen so that nothing weird would happen… luckily left to our own devices weird things will always happen anyways:

At which point, Cash decides it's time for her to get out of the kitchen.

Sidenote:  I have an insatiable desire to put cooking implements on my head and/or use them like drums and drumsticks.  For the record, yes, I did do enough of this as a child…just really enjoyed it and don’t plan on stopping any time soon.  Dinner party at my house, anyone?

So big big plans for listing on Etsy this week and being a productive person.  (Sidenote again:  the following paragraph will be distracted because Cash (pictured above) is licking Yuna’s toes while he sleeps…)

Uhhh…hmm.  Ok they’re done.  My favorite picture from the shoot will NOT be listed on Etsy but you CAN go buy these earrings at Find now, because that’s where Kate and I went after the photo shoot.

Favorite. Go to Find.

Vintage Photographs from a school photo sheet Kate gave me.

I got sweet pants that I will just need to lose 5 pounds to fit in to, an awesome ring, and Kate got a jacket with removable arms from Kenya.  Which makes me think of this awesome jacket from L.L. Bean’s Signature line that costs way more than the coat Kate got, and is just as versatile and wonderful.

Black Point Parka. Those arms zip RIGHT off.

My second favorite picture will be listed on Etsy soon, but here’s a sneak-preview of the Bubba’s Sulky Lounge Dance Floor Necklace and Barrette Set on Neil Young’s Trans Am.  Long title!

This is the album where Neil Young stole Peter Frampton's Vocoder for awhile.

It also happens to be Halloween, grocery shopping and leg-shaving day.  All simultaneously.  So I better get off the computer and get started on those things.  Shaw’s had dollar-doublers in their flyer this week!  Momma’s buying a new razor…

How Come Every Time Kate and I Take Pictures Something Weird Happens?

Ok, granted, Kate and I shot Tara and Brian’s wedding last weekend and the only thing weird that happened is that a friend of ours had a really real wedding, got married in front of everyone and then GAVE us alcohol, champagne even, for FREE.  If you haven’t been caught up to date with the history of this phenomena, read this awesome entry and then come back for more.

Bachelorette Party pre-free champagne wedding. Photo by Mandy Wheeler.

Two Sundays ago Kate and I met up again because we had so much fun using up batteries and chowing on moldy samosas the previous week that we just HAD to do it again.  We packed little purses full of jewelry and found ourselves on Mellen St., one of the nicer roads that intersects with infamous Grant St.  Really — Mellen has a church-looking thing, some nice Victorian but kind of artsy houses and, well, you can see Deering Oaks Park from there and on a good day there’s no homeless guy peeing against a tree in your direct line of sight.

Deering Oaks Park is an awesome place to pretend your bra is a bathing suit, Kate.

We set up shop on the church-looking-place steps and whipped out the camera, the jewelry, and had it.  A good chunk of the way through our wares we noticed this guy had just appeared, at the foot of the steps, silently and had is back facing to us.  I looked at Kate, Kate looked at me.

We did get some work done, pre-Creeper.

See, we BOTH have worked on Congress St. in coffee shops and pharmacies, so this second sense for weirdness detection has developed in both of us.  Also maybe a magnetism for weird stuff to happen developed, too.  One time a guy peed at my job.  And has anyone carrying a huge cross ever returned a Snuggy to you?  Ok, so now you understand where we’re coming from.

So this guy, we call him Creeper, is standing there, maybe ten steps down.  We’re on the top step sitting, camera between us, organizing jewelry.  After our first acknowledgment we continue quietly about our work.  But then Creeper walks up four steps, so now he’s super close to us, and still says nothing.  I look straight at him, right in the eye, and nothing.  Second acknowledgment:  Kate and Audrey simultaneously throw their jewelry in to their pockets/bags, grab the camera and… GO.

Kate's perfect outfit!

We shuffled up the block then broke in to a little jog and found a cute patch of grass outside an awesome wall where Kate danced around with her crafts on her excellent jacket.  But then who should come slinking up the street?  Creeper!!

This time all bets are off:  politeness be damned, we start bolting up Mellen and back to Congress St. where at least there will be a bunch of witnesses when this guy steals our camera, maybe stabs us a couple times, God, who even knows what?  Luckily at the corner we ran in to Mike who, not totally convinced of Creeper’s creepiness, invited us to the State Theater to hear Brenda play.

Enhanced 100 creepy times

The good news is it’s another good story AND we got blurry pictures of Creeper.  The bad news is we didn’t shoot as long as planned so my Etsy posting has dried up this week which should be no problem next week since I just made a billion pairs of beerings for your drinking and accessorizing pleasure.

Stay vigilant, Portland!

RETURN OF BEERINGS.

Vendor Spotlight: Find

Beautiful Logo, Beautiful Vintage

If you haven’t been to Arabica in the last year you are going to be SO PSYCHED to discover that its exposed-brick interior and warm lighting now house Find, a clothing exchange shop new to Free St. where you don’t have to wait 6 weeks to get dollars for your gently used collars (and shoes, and pants, and oh heck, you know).  And because I’m such a huge fan of instant gratification, you can imagine my delight when I learned that Laura had moved in and would give 30% of appx. value to you in cash or, get ready for this shoppers, 50% of appx. value in store credit!  Wowowow.

Costume Idea: Brightly Colored Photographer Lady

Find’s been on the brain lately because with Halloween coming up I’m planning a little costume reconnaissance before the weekend comes.  A lot of girls use Halloween as an excuse to show some skin one day before November but me?  It’s my excuse to buy some new clothes.  Besides – how different is a costume from an outfit?  Last week when I was getting ready for Tara and Brian’s wedding J. goes “You’re wearing that, it looks like a Halloween costume!”  Yes, oh yes, that’s because I planned it that way!

Find is also great because it supports local artists – lots of jewelry can be found there from Rusty Petals, to Kate Sullivan-Jones to… Little Eye Designs!  Aww yeah.

Visit find online here or at 16 Free St. 7 days a week.  If you’re looking to get rid of threads, check their website at the bottom to see if they’re buying before you lug 10 boxes all the way downtown.  🙂

Warm Colors, Cold Days

My “Reaching Apple Tree” bottle cap necklace made it in to a VERY well done treasury today.  Take a look!  Click on the image of the necklace to get you there.

Reach for the sky!

The treasury was put together by ArtsyAsh101, click on her name to visit her Etsy shop.

In other Autumn news – tomorrow is Tara and Brian’s WEDDING DAY and Kate and I get to be team photographers.  We will also be thoroughly drunk by the end of the night so those two better get the posed/family/pretty shots in before I forget how a flash works. We’ll be sharing Kate’s Mom’s digital Rebel (whoa whoa fancy digital camera!) and both be sporting film outfits too.  My trusty Mamiya C330 will be doing double duty as a camera and a centering weight to keep me from toppling over after one too many PBRs.  Yes yes yes!

Holds Water

There are some things in this world that are iconic and undeniable – usually perched high above the world and offer some function of survival.  Windmills might be an example of this, the pretty kind in Holland (although the new ones on the coastline are pretty remarkable, too).  Power lines connect most every one of us and energize our homes.  But today I’m talkin’ about water towers.

This lovely lady from BK put together a water tower treasury featuring my Water Tower Bottle Cap Necklace which is on sale in my shop for $10.  Click on the image of my necklace to be taken to the treasury!

Click me for watery goodness!

Part of the Team

Wellity, wellity, wellity!  I’ve never been one for team sports…but team crafts are a totally different thing.  Marking the reinvention and invigoration of my ol’ Etsy site, I decided once I had 20 or so items in there that belonging to the Etsy Maine Team was not an ‘if’ but a ‘when.’  So throwing caution to the wind I said ‘now’ and this is turning out to be really, really fun!

Everyone knows people from Maine have great taste.  If you search the keyword “maineteam” on Etsy this will become very obvious to you, too.

Here are some picks from my first week of connecting across the counties to my brothers and sisters in craftiness (P.S. This was hard choosing just a few, and I plan on doing this often so stay tuned!):

JudyB.

Uhhh…how long have these earrings been on my wish list?!  (1 month, I’m such a miser!)  Uhhh how many times have I told my Dad I want these for my birthday?  (2 times).  If the weekend is up without this gift wrapped from him, Judy, you can plan on wrapping those up because they’re mine!

 

JudyB

 

Long Winter Farm.

Believe me, when it comes to impulses I am one tough cookie.  But when I read the description for the Midnight Lotus Skin Cream the cookie crumbled and I gave in.  “This particular 4.5oz jar is scented with midnight lotus fragrance oil, which is a super clean, sexy scent. Think of a brand of dryer sheets that’s only for use on little black dresses.” Plus, this fabulous stuff comes from a yurt!  Wallet spontaneously opened last week.  Tonight I smell like fresh cotton and a little (woah!) like the soap from my pediatrician’s office when I was a kid.  The doctor’s office was in a barn.  These are all great things.

 

Long Winter Farms

 

urbanknitfit.

Alert!  Lucky lady is preggers so if you need to take advantage of her awesome prices you need to do it before October 20th.  You have a couple days to peruse the lush colors and honest knits that she has in her shop until Mama takes a break.  The headband below is my favorite.

 

urbanknitfit

 

In Other News:  Holiday Craft Fairs are COMING!!

What are everyone’s favorites to attend and why?  I’m putting my joint application with Kate to PICNIC on the top of the pile (because of local awesome easyness, excellent jurying, and monies potential!!), and then a sweet little temptation from a start up called Creatorium is enticing me, too, but I need to find the link again on Roots and Tendrils‘ Facebook page.  Oh, P.S. PICNIC is two days this year.  Yes!

What fairs will you be applying to?

Wistful Wedding News

Has anyone ever accidentally stumbled on the best wedding website ever?  OnceWed is a tasteful, aesthetic dream come true when it comes to wedding planning, inspiration and easy-to-execute craft ideas.  Click here for a circus-themed wedding that I find the cutest.  The only slightly troubling thing is when you go to the “Vendor Guide” tab at the top there is no search option in Maine.  C’mon guys!  We have some of the best backdrops, flora and fauna in the country.  New mission:  get on OnceWed, take Portland’s camera, floral and crafting talent with me.

Tara’s Gorgeous. Photo credit Kate Sullivan-Jones.

On a more personal note, Brian and Tara from the Rattlesnakes are getting married in a couple of weeks.  I’m pretty sure this is going to be the rockingest wedding I’ve been to ever.  It’s at One Longfellow in downtown Portland and Kate and I (honorary volunteer photographers) have been given explicit instructions to get drunk while we’re shooting.  Yes!

 

Photo by Audrey Hotchkiss

 

Lastly, I’m about to start putting together an album for Amanda and Dan, whose wedding I shot in August at the Regency Hotel in the Old Port.  Great space!  Outdoor ceremony and swanky indoor reception.  These two were really wonderful to work with, made me really realize why I embrace the massive undertaking that is wedding photography.  Hopefully will have some “product shots” of the album to share with you in a couple of weeks!

 

Photo by Audrey Hotchkiss

 

And here is a little vignette from Mike and Rebecca’s wedding way back in July.  Oh, Summer…see you again in 10 months or so.

 

photo credit EllanaCouture

 

As for dressing one’s self for the event, I found one endless-night-searching-for-random-things-on-Etsy successful when I found these sweet, traditional wedding dresses at EllanaCouture.  I might just sell enough necklaces to get one of these for myself and go as a debutante for Halloween.

 

Instead of a Chicken this could be Your Husband! Hmm? Hm?!

 

One thing I’ve been bouncing around in my head for some months now is the idea of making custom wedding favors for guests or members of the bridal party.  Could you see it now?  A unique little magnet stuck to every metal napkin ring…a set of 6 magnets featuring all the members of the bridal party as a post-wedding ‘thank you’ gift…a necklace with a special photograph in it as an inexpensive way to tell the bridesmaid how you appreciated her hard work and stripper-hiring.  OK depends on the wedding.  😉  Still — any feedback you want to send my way please leave a comment below!  Would love some guinea pigs to try this out on…

Photo Shoot SNAFU for the ages!

Ok, ok, ok.  Quick story, this was great today.

 

GREAT afternoon. Good job, guys.

 

Kate Sullivan-Jones and I had made plans to use her mother’s AMAZING digital camera (amazing to us because we don’t have to then scan our negatives in order to get digital files to) to make new listings on Etsy.  About halfway through, Kate said “Oh my god, we’re out of frames!”

Because neither of us had made the leap to digital yet, there were no extra cards lying around so we flipped through the images (deleting the “bad” ones) to make room.  Finally we’d gone through the whole batch and got back to set.  On the first frame the camera then says “Check battery pack.”  Again – no back ups for us, we’re new at this.  So then Kate goes to plug the charger in the wall and almost simultaneously…

THE POWER GOES OUT.  Awesome!

 

Kate, modeling, before the power went out!

 

We waited for a minute or two to see if it would come back.  Right before she had plugged the charger in she was also talking about making us pasta.  Oops again, no power to do this.  So we decided to go up to the gas station to see if they had some power and samosas.

 

photo credit D.S.Lobley

 

Cool!  They had samosas, well just one actually, sitting atop the counter in the middle of a store with no power.  I bought the usual fare of Doritos, A&W Root Beer and a Snickers bar.  I can’t help myself.  Kate just went for the samosa.  The guy tallies our items in his head (no register!) and we leave.  About halfway across the parking lot Kate has taken a BITE out of the SAMOSA which instead was a doughy pocket full of rancid meat and moldy fur!  Ahhh!  No, Kate, no!!

After she spit it out I said we had to go get something different for her.  She felt really bad for some reason, although if I just had taken a mouthful of furry meat I would definitely be more angry than sorry.  I told the guy we needed to exchange it and he said he was making more samosas (grease was still hot, so it was still cooking!) and Kate was brave and wanted a new, fresh samosa that had just been cooked.

So we waited outside on the stoop.  Portland is so quiet and peaceful without power.  No usual hum and buzz of unnecessary electronics.  As we’re sitting out there I’m like “Ugh, what is that burny smell?!” and Kate’s like “I don’t know!”  Then the guy came out a couple minutes later and pointed off to the right, and ran over and started kicking this little thing in the parking lot that was on fire.  “What is it?” and he yells back  “It’s a sock full of tobacco!”  True as truth, that’s what I had smelled a couple minutes earlier.

Everything after that was pretty normal.  We went back to Kate’s with a fresh samosa, got things set up for a couple days from now when had more time, more daylight and more power being on!  Not too bad for a Sunday afternoon.

Check soon with my Etsy site:  http://littleeyedesigns.etsy.com for the work we did today!

Art Show Euphoria

In case you happen to be strolling down Congress St. in the month of October, in case you happen to luck up and see a big picture window with lush gray walls and a crystal chandelier, and finally in case you happen to see a neat little row of perfectly square photographs hanging on said wall, well why not go up there?

here's something you might see through that window

Because those are MY photographs hanging at the gallery above Harmon’s & Barton’s (at 584 Congress St., across from Paul’s) and you should definitely pop up and see.  Accompanying these 35-ish prints (all for sale, all affordable) is a selection of pins, magnets and jewelry by yours truly. No, I can never let anything be simple.  🙂  H&B will be selling both forms of artwork through the month of October.  Wow wow!  I am a lucky girl.

and here's something that will go around your neck!

I can’t say enough goodness about my experience planning, hanging and showing here.  The staff is amazing, accommodating and the night of the opening they designed floral arrangements to show alongside the work!  So even if you’re not in the market for a photograph or a necklace, why not just give those lovely people something to do and buy a bunch of mums for the porch or a bouquet of greens for someone you think is cute.  Flower artists, these people.  I am in awe.