Dawn of a New Age

It has been a while since I’ve made a collage (I think the last one was my Deer Chicago piece) so I was excited to make these collages earlier this week during an art night with some friends.

The following piece is my boyfriend’s favorite. He likes the kid jumping off of the diving board into the pool of space. I think my favorite is the one of the man and the woman with the galaxy behind them. I love how excited the woman is. She is so INTO that galaxy.

I’m curious–do you have a favorite? Which one?

Night Photography

I tried my hand at night photography and discovered something I already knew–that I LOVE night photography. I ended up getting these amazing photos of stars, and sure there is some noise from the high ISO and they’re a little bit fuzzy, but I am incredibly pleased with them as a start.

I can’t wait to learn more and get good at taking pictures of the stars!

Mono Lake

A few weeks ago, we drove over to Mono Lake, a massive salty lake on the eastern border of Yosemite. I had seen the lake from afar before, and I knew it would be pretty, but I was still surprised by the beauty of this place. Around sunset, the sky was a bright hazy glow and the water had become a milky white. It was a stunning sight paired with the distant mountains and the dramatic tufa towers on the shores of the lake.

According to the Mono Lake Committee website:

Tufa is essentially common limestone. What is uncommon about this limestone is the way it forms. Typically, underwater springs rich in calcium (the stuff in your bones) mix with lakewater rich in carbonates (the stuff in baking soda). As the calcium comes in contact with carbonates in the lake, a chemical reaction occurs resulting in calcium carbonate–limestone. The calcium carbonate precipitates (settles out of solution as a solid) around the spring, and over the course of decades to centuries, a tufa tower will grow. Tufa towers grow exclusively underwater, and some grow to heights of over 30 feet. The reason visitors see so much tufa around Mono Lake today is because the lake level fell dramatically after water diversions began in 1941.

Interesting!

Yosemite Super Moon

It’s been ages since I’ve posted because I made the crazy decision to move to California and spend the summer living and working in Yosemite National Park.

That said, I figure it’s time to start sharing photos from my time here.

These are a few of the photos I took during the brilliant super moon last night in Yosemite. It was beautiful! 

Day 360: Christmas Day

We always spend Christmas day at my parents. Around 11 a.m., my sister and her family shows up, and we all get to open presents together. Wahoo! Lately, we’ve developed the tradition of going in age order, with the youngest starting first. My poor mother always has to go last!

My parents’ dogs were both remarkably good about these ridiculous hats. They kept them on for quite a while!

Smokey Jones was not nearly excited about opening presents as I was. My oldest sister couldn’t be at Christmas this year so she Skyped in for opening presents. It was fun to have her there “via satellite,” as I kept saying. It was also hilarious because she kept changing into various hats while she was Skyping with us. At one point, she was wearing a sombrero. Hehe!

Day 353: Telephone Pole

Last Tuesday, I played around with a picture of the telephone pole in my back alley. Turned out pretty cool.

Day 347: Parmesan and Black Pepper Biscotti

Last Wednesday, I made the parmesan and black pepper biscotti from Smitten Kitchen for my bake sale.  Sooooo good!

Day 324: Year in Review Video

So my 365 project is not quite over, but I decided the other day to make a video on it now, just for the heck of it. The video took me four days, which is kind of a lot compared to other projects, but it definitely shows the breadth of what I’ve done this year and, I must admit, makes me feel rather proud.

Day 274: Bibimbop with Seitan Bulgogi

Back on Sunday, September 30,  I made some absolutely delicious bibimbop using roughly this recipe from Maangchi, and accompanied it with seitan bulgogi. For the bulgogi, we bought the Upton’s brand seitan and then used this recipe from the Vegetarian Times for the bulgogi sauce.

I highly recommend this! So good!

Day 273: Kimchi

Jim and I made kimchi together! We used a recipe from maangchi.com, and it turned out delicious, although I have never smelled a more…odorific food.