Alicia Istanbul

I've been following the blog of a jewelry designer named Alicia Istanbul and found out that she's doing a jewelry giveaway via her blog. She makes some really amazing pieces mainly using sterling silver, stones, and acid etched designs. If you'd like to enter to win a wonderful summery necklace check out her most recent blog post!


If the necklace isn't your thing, Alicia has a store on Etsy.com... Hey guys, Valentine's Day is coming up!

Hugs,
Cait

Joy - in the itty bitty

Okay... it's itty bitty, but I think it's pretty awesome... I get e-mails from Borders with coupon codes and updates about my Borders Bucks... Well, I just orders a food photography book online and I added another book to go along with it. I used a super handy coupon code and my $5 Border's Bucks that I had in my account and wow - I got the second book for free. Not only that, but technically I got a free book and $2 off the book I was originally buying. To make it even more fun Borders.com gave me free shipping.

So yes, I'm smiling right now... I got a book I needed along with one I wanted and didn't have to pay for the wanted book.

Come on, you'd smile too.

Hugs,
Cait

Books That Have Their Own Feet

The past few days I've been searching high and low for my Dreamweaver CS4 book. I got it with the idea of teaching myself how to build websites and recently got inspired to actually sit down with the book and go over the lessons. Well, the thing has got itself some feet and ran off on me. I've looked everywhere I thought it could be and still haven't found it. I've been looking for at least an hour a day for the last few days. Crazy, right? I have a nasty feeling I'm going to take the house apart, clean it up, still have no idea where it is... and then find it in some really random place - like in the garage.

I went to the local library for the first time in a long long time tonight to try and pick up a copy of the Dreamweaver book and see if they had anything else that would be helpful. Well, they didn't have the book for CS4, the CS3 one was already out and I didn't really see anything else that would be as useful. I checked out their digital photography section and found a book on lighting that seemed to have a bit of everything in it. There's a section for food photography, one for fashion and jewelry, one for around the house, one for cars, etc. I ended up checking it out with my brand new library card (the card I had since I was super little - maybe 4 - wasn't in the system anymore so I got to get a new shiny one). I'll have to let you know how the book is...

I started talking to a semi-local photographer on Model Mayhem about what she'd recommend for starting out studio lighting and she was really helpful... When I asked her about food photography and if she knew much about it or knew someone who did she recommened a website that lists TONS of photographers by area... I found several different photographers that do food photography on the American Society of Media Photographers website, but none were very local. One of the photographers I looked into learned from a man named Lou Manna - a major food photographer in NYC who wrote a book about food photography. I'm now on a search for his book, which according to his website is available at Borders - but it was too late after the library trip to check out tonight.

Hugs,
Cait

P.S. There's a pink line down the left side of my laptop screen... My boyfriend has informed me that it probably means that my screen is dying. Oh, joy. Well - it could be if a MacBook Pro lands in my lap as a replacement. Although the MacBook Air is pretty cool since it's oh so light.

Model Mayhem

My Model Mayhem portfolio was approved so you can check out my model photography if you're interested. If you have an account on there, feel free to add me as a friend!


hugs,
Cait

Photo Shoot in Philadelphia

My boyfriend surprised me right before Christmas asking if I'd like to go to a photo shoot in Philadelphia with him. There was a holiday shoot being held at a place called Fortress of the Arts with a bunch of holiday sets and models and he thought I'd enjoy going. Well, it snowed a great big snow and the shoot was moved to the Sunday after Christmas.

I'm finally getting around to loading the pictures onto an external hard drive (right this second) and it's taking forever because I shot in RAW and JPEG. I think I got some really nice shots of the models and can't wait to get at them in Photoshop. I know my boyfriend was tempted to pretend a few of them were his since he has them loaded on his computer... I'm going to make a profile on Model Mayhem after I pick some pictures I like best.

I'd really like to get some studio lights to play around with. I really enjoyed using a PocketWizard with the studio lights. Has anyone else played around with one of those? My boyfriend has been talking about me going into photography a lot lately. Not exactly about giving up jewelry but moving my artistic focus to something else I enjoy because he thinks it may be easier for me to "get into".

I do like photography, I'm just not sure if I'd enjoy the aspects of it that would be the "bread and butter" so to speak (standard portraits/family portraits, staged wedding photography). I did speak to a girl today about wedding photography and she was saying how it's moved from staged photographs to more candid shots that really capture the whole day. I wonder if I can turn food photography into my "bread and butter" and I wonder if that means I get to enjoy all the yummies... (Yes, I've thought about trying to become a restaurant reviewer/food photographer combo many times!)

Click goes the shutter...
Cait

Christmas Eve Dinner

This is a bit late, but at least I didn't forget what I made! I've always wanted to make a tradional standing rib roast, and finally got to make one. I kind of did a bit of a take on a "surf and turf" since I made shrimp along with the beef. There was a roast I saw the recipe for on Food Network that was wrapped in prosciutto and roasted with black mission figs. I couldn't find figs at the grocery store and figured a plain roast was going to be good as is.

Roast Beast with Rosemary and Thyme
(standing rib roast)

Old Bay Sweet Shrimp with Garlic Butter

Herb Roasted Baby Red Potatoes with Rosemary and Garlic

Sauteed Haricot Vert with Butter and Cracked Pepper
(thin french green beans)

Roasted Simple Root Vegetables (carrots and parsnips)

Dinner was good, though the meat wasn't cooked to my sister and mother's liking (they like it WELL DONE). At least the chef got to enjoy the meal. : )

Hugs,
Cait

P.S. I have a photograph of the roast beast that I need to edit and add to this post. It looks scrumptious in the photo.

Holidays

I've been busy doing all kinds of holiday things since Thanksgiving. I've cooked up some awesome food and had plenty of laughs - right now I'm watching my boyfriend play the PS3 he randomly got the other night. We've been playing Little Big Planet - the characters are cute and I love the layered backgrounds and cardboard cut-outs. Later I'll be making roasted pork tenderloin among other things for dinner. Hopefully I'll get around to baking some more cookies as well.

I have plenty to share and tons of photographs and what I made for holiday meals, but right now I want to hang out and play with my sackperson.

Hope everyone has a great New Years Day...

Hugs,
Cait