Movin' on up

Big announcement people! Elfini (the blog) is moving!

That's right, after much soul searching (read: Help Forums), I've finally made the move from Blogger to WordPress.org. Please go to:

www.elfini.dawnblanchfield.com/

or www.dawnblanchfield.com/elfini if that's how you like to roll. They will each get you there.

Bookmark the new site and enjoy! And if you have included this site in your blogroll - thank you! I'm sorry to put you to the trouble of having to change the url, but after all I've just been through, well, suck it up eh?! Updating a link is a walk in the park. While I've been cruisin' around the lower levels of hell! Go to the new site and read all about it!

So, bu-bye Blogger. We've had some good times, but we've grown apart. It's not you, it's me... Let's stay in touch - we'll do lunch!

Shit-kickers. A wedding story...

Ah yes, the cow-pie wedding. You’re intrigued, I can tell.

Cayle and Holly from Dolphin Divers got married last Saturday. And we were honored to have been invited! But before we could attend this event, logistics needed to be addressed. First up we needed a babysitter. But even more important to me was – what am I going to wear?! The wedding was in Napa at 5:00pm. But the note in the invitation said to arrive at 4:30 for a leisurely walk to the wedding site (cars available for those who do not wish to walk). Ok. I had questions. I gave Chris the job of calling and finding out exactly what the deal was (i.e. what should I wear?). At this point I’m starting to fret a bit. My closet is severely lacking in potential spring wedding wear. I have several skirts, but no tops to go with them. And what about shoes?

Chris finally gets back to me with the specifics: the wedding was not being held in a vineyard as you might assume. It’s in a cow pasture. And the wedding site is on a hill, up a gravel path. And the last pitch of that path is steep! Ok. Now my eye is twitching. I have to scale a small mountain during the hottest part of the day in nice clothes?! Do I need to bedazzle my Keens?! And what about the cows?! It was obvious I was going to have to go shopping.

So, I headed to the mall. Bought several tops to go with my several skirts – I like to have options. I figured I would wear my Keens or pink tennies (depending on which skirt I wore) for the hike and then change into nice sandals for the reception. And then it started to rain. And rain changes everything. Silk skirts? I don’t think so. Open toe sandals? Not so much. Fuck. Back to the mall. Were I found these:


Sharon did not believe I was going to wear these to a wedding. Even a wedding in a cow pasture. But I did! And they were a hit. Not only that, they were a necessity! I’m pretty sure that wasn’t just wet dirt we were truckin’ along in.

Here’s how things ended up- Due to the rain, the ceremony and reception were moved inside the barn. This was a working cattle ranch and the cows were in the next barn over. I waved and then plugged my nose. It poured on the drive there, but stopped when we arrived. Nice. So I ended up wearing the long silk wrap skirt over my jeans - because it was cold. I never took my jacket off so the worries over the top were for naught. And we had a great time! They had draped fabric and twinkle lights over the steer-showing pen and hung lights from the ceiling. There was a wooden dance floor in the middle of the barn surrounded by hay. The tables were around the perimeter in the hay. And it was actually quite lovely. Weddings are just happy ya know? Even if the ‘facilities’ only consisted of his and her port-a-johns.

There were only two things wrong with the evening: #1 – I got to shoot with Holger’s Nikon D200 {swoon} and #2 – we had to leave before they cut the cake!

Sure, we stopped and got shakes on the drive home to satisfy our missed dessert cravings, but how will I assuage the camera lust I now have? Cause oh baby, that camera felt good…

Voter apathy

Well, the public has spoken. I was going to give you a month to vote – like India’s rolling elections, but I guess 6 votes is all I’m gonna get. So without further ado, an updated photo of the painting*:

That was the work I did on the background, way back on Sat April 18th.
And on the 19th I worked on the jeans and jacket:

It's coming along nicely. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to work on it since that weekend. The 25th was the day Kyle and I attended a photo class at the California Automobile Museum**. Then I promptly got sick for several days. This past Saturday was the cow patty wedding. And yesterday... well, I don't really remember yesterday. But I didn't get a chance to paint. And I won't be painting next weekend either since it seems we're going coastal again. So, I'm feeling kinda twitchy about the whole thing. I hate losing my momentum. Especially when I'm faced with painting the hair. I'm dreading the hair.


* Sorry P. You were out-voted 5-1. Next time do a bit of campaigning for your cause!

** That was a lot of fun! Kyle discovered the joy of using a tripod -my tripod- and got all the good shots! I've put Lightroom on Kyle's computer and now I need to show him how to use it. Photos coming to flickr soon. Well, probably in a couple weeks. You know how it is...

Prodigal Son

Due to circumstances most unfortunate, our friend Cynthia recently moved to Santa Cruz. Crapitola to be exact. Just down the road from the uber-in-laws*. How convenient. Again, the reasons for her move sucked but the end result is win/win for everyone! She has returned to the town that she loves and I now have a local friend when we go down for weekends. I’ll probably see more of her now than when she lived in Sacramento or Auburn! Coolio. Not only is Cynthia a fab painter, she recently got a Canon Rebel of her own, so camera-buddy!** She’s got Lightroom up and running and I’m looking forward to seeing her photos. (hint hint. hello?)

Speaking of painting and returning to the mother-ship… I got another two days of painting under my belt this past weekend. I’m pleased as punch with how the painting is coming along! So, the question I have for you, gentle reader, is this: do you want to see the progress photos I’m taking after each days work? Or would you rather just wait and see the finished painting? And since you people seem to be so damn reluctant to leave comments, I'm trying something new, fun, and easy - a poll! Vote now and change the world!

poll by twiigs.com

* And let's not forget what today is... Happy BEarthday P! I couldn't imagine a better mum-in-law. I left a present for you on my flickr account. Enjoy!

** Chris – don’t even begin to think this is letting you off the hook, the van is still the ultimate drive-by vehicle!

100 Proof

I was going through some photos in Lightroom and I realized that I never followed up with how that Mather Golf Course Second Saturday event went... probably because not much came of it. The morning was cold and windy, there wasn't much foot traffic besides the other vendors, and I only sold one print- a framed 5x7 I pulled off my office wall to use as an example piece on the table. Speaking of my table, here's how it turned out:

and here is a shot with my fancy new canvas print rack full of all the prints I made.

Pretty slick eh? Well, I'll be ready if I ever decide to do that again. In the meantime, I've got a lot of prints for sale. Call me!

Moving on...

Did you hear that little birdie* announce that I've started painting again? It's true. 2 weekends ago I finally started a new canvas. It has been around 2 years since I've painted! And I know you are going to jump to the easy assumption that I blame the baby**, but I don't. That was all Chris's fault!** ok ok it wasn't really Chris's fault. The painting muse was on an extented vacation, but now she's back!

Day One - put a wash on the canvas and started sketching in all those damn limbs!

Day Two - blocking in the color.

Kyle thinks it's done. Silly rabbit - not even close! I missed working on it last weekend as we were in Santa Cruz for Easter and birthdays! There was Chris's b-day on the 2nd to celebrate and Erin's on the 13th. Yep, the baby is now 2! I just got the pics off my camera. I'll post those photos "soon". I've got a couple other things to finish up first. Remember, patience is a virtue!


* Twitter baby. Keep up.

** The running joke around here is that I'm just too damn happy to paint. Tortured artist and all that...

Doh!

I miss all the fun. /frown



This is the awesome! Thanks Andrea.

a Hodge-podge, but no Brady

Damn woman - have a little patience!

The uber-in-laws called while I was cooking dinner. Over the speaker-phone I promised to post a pic of Kyle's new haircut. 20 minutes ago, while I was still helping Kyle with his homework, I received the following email:

"I rushed home (okay, there was a pizza stop in the ‘rush’ part) to see Kyle’s haircut on your blog!!! I was promised!! Oh, deceiving phone calls on speaker."

Well then. As promised! The new and improved Kyle - BEHOLD!


I had forgotten that he even had eyebrows!

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Reading list

And while I have your attention P, how is Lamb coming along? I finished Island of the Sequined Love Nun and it did not disappoint! It wasn't as laugh-out-loud as some of his other books, but the ending had me grinning like a fool. 5 Stars. Classic Moore. Yum!

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2 days ago...

Sunday afternoon, I finally scanned the negs from the roll of film I shot with the Supersampler. Today I uploaded 7 of the 12 'keepers' to Flickr. I'll post the rest tomorrow - but gee wiz, if I don't get them up right away, cut me some slack eh?!