Cozy Bed

After a lifetime of cheap mattresses and bedding, I rejoice in my adult bed that I absolutely love.  The quilt was a handmade wedding gift from my husband's aunt; the duvet and shams are from Anthropologie, on extreme clearance; the mattress is tempurpedic.  

I rarely make my bed, but there's really no need.  Messy = cosy.  

Another one of the simple things in life that makes me happy.

{photos: nikon fm2 and kodak ektar 100 film}

A Late Night, A Quiet Morning

I awoke this morning to the remnants of a small dinner party with excellent company that I hosted last night: tablecloth, partially burned candle, roses cut from my balcony garden.  Luckily, my husband and I had the presence of mind to clean up at 1 a.m. before bed.  Few things are better than waking up after a late night well-spent to a fresh home, the day set to unfurl slowly and quietly.  Despite a considerable amount of gin and Campari, I feel refreshed, sipping coffee and listening to Kate Bush on vinyl with a stack of periodicals by my side, ready to be enjoyed.  Any to-do's I have can wait until tomorrow - the beauty of a holiday weekend.

I captured the images above this morning with my brand new (very old) Polaroid Land Camera 250 and Fuji pack film.  The gorgeous photographs of the sweet light inspired me to hunt down this beauty on eBay.  I can already tell that Ms. 250 and I will have a lot of fun together. 

My Gallery Wall

I believe in the power of surrounding myself with personal and tangible objects, in film and prints and freeing photography from the constraints of a computer screen.  

Yet I realized a few months ago that, while my flickr and tumblr are filled with photographs from hundreds of rolls of film, my home had none of my photographic prints on display.  

Shameful.  

I set out to remedy the problem and - viola - I now have a gallery wall of my own prints in my hallway.  This is only the beginning; I plan to continue adding on until the entire wall is filled.    

These are all photographs featuring my travels and the people I love, taken with my film cameras, mostly my Rollei TLR and Nikon FM2, plus a couple Mamiya 645 and Holga.  I printed several of the B&W photographs myself in the darkroom and the rest I ordered through Richard Photo Lab (beautiful work!) using scanned negatives.

Acquiring the frames was expensive: one archival quality matted frame is not much, but multiply that number by fifteen and the costs add up.  I had to accept this as a longterm investment in my home and my art.  The best quality and value combination I found was American Frame kits, assembly required.

Designing the wall layout was such a challenge for me that I left the frames stacked on the floor for three months.  My heartfelt thanks to my dear friend Trisha who, while visiting from Nashville, created the pattern and helped me hang all the frames in one morning.

In summary, here is what you need to create your own gallery: wall space, prints, frames (preferably archival and matted), a design, a Trisha, frame hangers, wire, a hammer, and a free morning.  :)

Free those photographs.

The Unique Beauty of Aging Bouquets

Keeping vases of flowers in my house is a new habit of mine.  In the past, I did not see the point of buying flowers, only to have them die so soon.  Now I am beginning to appreciate the unique beauty of the lifecycle - perhaps due to my own aging.  While I love the luxurious scent and vitality of fresh blossoms, I enjoy flowers more once they start to crinkle and fade, creating a more interesting visual than bright perfection.   For a prime example, see my masthead above, an aging tulip. For another example, below:

These photographs, which I took last night with my Nikon FM2 and Kodak Portra 400 film, show pink carnations that my friend brought when I had her over for dinner...two weeks ago.  Go carnations, go.