I’m feeling Moth-y. Also: Audrey went couponing, again.

Moths are attracted to light.  So are photographers – so it stands to reason that sometimes I just feel more moth-y than other times.  When I left Shaw’s today (after a raucous bout of couponing) the sky was all heavy from a recent downpour, but the clouds were thin enough that you could see the sunset.  It was bright magenta and royal purple.  I could stand in light like that in a parking lot all day, if I could.  I think about other planets and suns and how different their light must be.  Maybe, to them, bright, high-noon sunlight is their ‘magic hour’ and they wish they could live on a planet like ours.

Two things:  I’ve been watching Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” obsessively again.  I really like outer space.  Also, I just hung a show at India St.’s Coffee By Design today, I hope to take pictures soon, and put them up on this blog.  The show is called “Holiday” and it features photographs from Daytona Beach, Kennedy Space Center, and the 4th of July fireworks in Portland a couple weeks ago.  Don’t worry — they don’t ‘look like’ fireworks, although you’d have to be an idiot to not know they’re fire works.  The show was directly inspired by how in love with Carl Sagan I am.

Now on to more important, money-grubbing things.  I went to Shaw’s again tonight, on the last night of their weekly sale, to ‘get mine.’  I grew up in a Hannaford family, mind you, with a cumulative 17 years worked for the company among multiple family members, and I go to Hannaford for my regular shop.  I’m also newly in love with Trader Joe’s, mostly because they help me eat samosas.  Anyways — but SHAW’S seems to psychotically want to give people thing for free, or nearly free, on a weekly basis.  Every week they want me to get something new for free.  Here’s what I got this week:

SPARKLY WATER KICKS PLAIN WATER'S ASS ALL DAY

Click on that picture to get the big version, …if you like looking at pictures of groceries, that is.  Otherwise, here’s the rundown:

The total of this hoarder’s paradise was $30.61.  After $11.09 in Shaw’s savings (their sales) coupled with my coupons ($5.26) I only paid $13.52 after tax and deposits on my plethora of sparkling waters.

The method:

Don’t cut (or buy) coupons for things you don’t normally love, or wouldn’t like to try.  Let’s start with the obvious:  the Polar seltzers.  I bought some $1 off/4 liters coupons from www.thecouponclippers.com for about 5 cents or something each.  What’s that you say?  PAY for coupons?  Silly!  Not actually silly considering this happened:  Shaw’s was offering “Buy One, Get One Free” on Polar Liters this week (they are f—ing nuts, what is this, Payless Shoes??) and I had the $1 off/4.  So if I BOGO’d twice (they cost $1.29 at Shaw’s) then I was at $2.60 (ish) for the 4 liters.  $1 off of that (with the coupon) and it was $1.60 for four liters.  And then I did that three times so now my fridge is full of refreshing things to take to the beach.

Couponing for sauces is always a good idea.  I love sauces.  Plus, they’re usually pretty cheap and if you can get ’em on sale then you’re looking at most likely free sauce.  Free Sauce!!  That Frank’s Red Hot was $2.49 with $.80 off on sale.  Plus I had a $.75 off/1 coupon for it (which Shaw’s doubles — they double anything under $1… again, crazy) so that was $1.50 so that big ol’ jar of fiery deliciousness was only $.19.  If they taught us stuff like this in math class in high school maybe I wouldn’t have failed miserably and ended up only taking art and English my senior year.

My bill would’ve been about $2 less had I not needed toilet paper and a box of pasta to get me through the weekend… (I’m low maintenance).  Then I got some salad dressing although that was kind of dumb, since people should just make their own salad dressing.  I normally do — but we’re out of olive oil.  Talk about treating the symptom and not the disease!

So, savings just over 44% on groceries that I’ll definitely use is not a bad thing.  Since I don’t qualify for EBT (stupid salary and health benefits!) but am still, somehow, a poor lady in her late 20s, this kind of thing makes me leave the grocery store with an ear to ear smile on my face.

…One day, I will talk more about art.  Sorry to bore you with my groceries stories tonight!

Racy Photo Shoot and Storm Watch Skies

Hi, hi.

Let’s start off with the really fun bits first.  I’ve always been an advocate of self-portraiture.  Photography, painting, drawing, songwriting, what the hell, whatever — internal introspection can sometimes lead to growth and development but actually having a physical image, product, sound as a result of the process is really motivating.

This month I’m going to restart shooting myself which has gone undone for wayyyyy too long.  Sure, there have been a plethora of PhotoBooth captures but those aren’t much work at all, are they?

3/4 Portrait

A good place to start is photographing just your face.  I like to see all the angles of what I look like and I like to see what the expressions I make look like to others and not just how they feel showing up on my mug!

Go adventuring to outside locations and set up a tripod, focus on the ground near where you think you’d like to stand, and set the timer on the camera to 10 seconds or so, however long it takes you to get over there.  Be sure to turn auto-focus off if you have a DSLR.  What locations move you?  What places reflect your personality?

Photograph yourself in your home doing something normal, but style it like you see yourself in your imagination.  Are you doing the dishes?  No one says you can’t do ’em in high heels and a cocktail dress.  This is your fantasy.

Now comes my favorite… which I can’t actually share any images of because I have a strict no-showing-my-ta-tas-on-the-internet rule.  But really — photograph yourself completely naked.  The advent of digital photography makes it so that you can shoot and print your very own boudoir photos without involving the creepy guy with the ratstache at the Photo Center in Walgreens.  You don’t have to show them to anyone, and they might be COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS but why live this life without trying every ding dong thing there is to do in this world?  Trust me, it’s fun.

~~~

Now on to the skies…

Yesterday the sunset cast a gorgeous hue on East Bayside.  It’s doing it again now, too.  I’m very afraid of tornadoes, but the one thing I live for in this world is gorgeous light.  Why can’t the skies be like sunset all the time?  It’d get old, you say?  No, no it wouldn’t.

Here are a few captures:

Looking up Oxford St (Up Munjoy Hill)

Out the Attic Window towards Bayside

Vendor Spotlight: Photo Market

Hey y’all, just getting rejoining the internets here.  Seems I’ve taken the month of September (originally intended for relaxation and learning new craft skills) and turned it in to the month of being insanely busy getting ready for an art show, making jewelry to match, going on location at work and thinking far ahead in to the future (i.e. December) and figuring just how many little bottle caps I’ll be squirting epoxy resin in to for the next 60 days.

nice purple grey vines, PM!

Considering my recurrent need for them over the last several days, I want to take a minute to give all credit where its due to the folks at Photo Market at 945 Forest Ave. in Portland.

perfect September sunset gradation

I use these guys for everything.  And no matter how busy they are whenever I go in someone is bound to be good for a laugh.  Which works for me because my internal laugh-o-meter gauges how endearing others are.

this one prints perfect every time

Most importantly, the staff there has embraced (albeit reluctantly, I mean, who wouldn’t) my fickle process of shooting in film and printing digitally.  It’s born out of necessity (no darkroom access and…no time!) but they stopped making fun of me and trying to sell me digital cameras long ago.  Thanks guys.  🙂

art show at a flower shop ooh la la

So if you’re curious to see the handywork of their printers maybe you might like to stop at the gallery above Harmon’s & Barton’s on First Friday for a peek at my solo art show “Orchards and Atmospheres.”  Not only did they print the photographs but they printed the images I use in bottle cap jewelry, magnets and pins.  On Friday you’ll see these little versions alongside the large photographs…a more portable, affordable version of the real thing!

the perfect set for your friend molly

P.S.  What else is new?  I’m going to Find tomorrow to drop off some wares!  Paper Moon in Westbrook gets a visit later this week.  Meanwhile I’m plug-plug-plugging away at getting my Etsy site full of interesting listings.