It’s a long story, but the short version is I couldn’t do exactly what I wanted to do with this blog using the current host. SO I’ve decided to host it myself and move to my new web address:

www.paperpony.net

There you will find everything I’ve posted up until now and more.

Click on the link above to mosey on over. See you soon!

I love good mail days. I often check the mail before leaving the house, that way if there’s something good I can look at it in the car. I know it’s not safe, but I do it anyway. Today was an especially good mail day because I received a mix tape (well CD, really) from the BFF and the new GQ mag with Christian Bale on the cover.

Remember him in Newsies? That is where this 15 year old crush originated. So for over 1/2 my life I have adored Christian – don’t worry, Forest knows. As for my CD, I drove the long way to the grocery store just so I could listen to more of it. Thank you Faith and thank you Christian Bale.

“..It’s like a cow’s opinion…It’s moo.”
- Joey, from Friends

Oh how I love Friends. Anyway, I know everyone is talking about their Moo cards from flickr, but I have some too and I wanna be in the club.

I ordered a batch of cards from our wedding photos and they are just good old fashion fun. With the panoramic crop its like a whole new set of images. People ask me what I plan to do with them. Um, I don’t know…I haven’t thought that far ahead. I just knew I had to have some.

Than 1 Golden Retriever, 1 Yellow Lab, 1 Blue Lacy and 1 Pug in the back of a classic Land Cruiser?

Not much.

Now only one of these is ours (the dark one). The other three belong to our friends Kasey and Tarah, and this is from our wine tasting trip last weekend. Santa Barbara has some amazing wines, and it was a treat to make a day of tasting a few of them. If you ever make it to this area, you must visit the tasting rooms in Los Olivos and Solvang. Call me up, I’ll give you some recommendations.

I look at home magazines often and sometimes wonder if our home will ever be pretty enough to be photographed.

Before we moved, I had this vision of accomplishing everything on our list in the first week of ownership. People laughed, and quickly I learned that no – that is not going to happen. And here were are over a year later with baseboards uncaulked, crown molding unfinished, and a list of “to dos” longer than when we started. However, this is all to say that I’ve acquired some new inspiration for photographing my home despite its “unfinished” state.

After looking at this blog, I’ve realized that the smaller pieces of your home can make really interesting images. I had some fun with this yesterday, and I if you are so inclined I encourage you to try this yourself. Even if you have a point-and-shoot camera, find some good light (usually early morning or afternoon. Indirect light from a window makes for very nice photos) and an interesting composition. I now have my camera out all day and if something catches my eye around the house I take a picture of it.

I’m looking forward to creating this series of vignettes around our home, and if you try this I’d love to see what you come up with as well : )

I flickr’d these not too long ago, but thought I would show you another little piece of my home. These are paper collage on canvas that I made to fill this area of empty wall in our kitchen.

I used all types of paper – vintage wrapping paper, tissue, vellum, magazine cutouts…I love making art, especially when inspiration comes quickly and the thing turns out exactly as I imagined – which was the case with these. The skull in the bottom one is probably my favorite part – I found that in a design magazine and the cross bones are actually Exacto knives. awesome.

Photos from a quick photo session with up-and-coming music artist Brett Young. He just finished his first EP, produced by our friend Jim, and while they were up here at the studio we did these new promotional shots. These are just a few of my favorites, but click on Brett’s name to see more photos and hear his new songs.

I have been having fun at the antique and thrift stores in my town lately, and thought I would show you a few of my favorite finds – a little Friday Show and Tell:

These paint-by-number horses caught my eye out of a stack of other paintings. I love the colors and the quality about them.

Only like my favorite movie ever!! I was so excited to find this record for only .99 at a thrift store in Burbank. Faith was jealous, until she found another one at different store – for only .50.  Faith:1 Raya:0

Serving plate from England. Love the colors.

This pewter heart was at one of the many antique shops on Main St. in Ventura. I have a few pieces of jewelry that I wear daily (wedding rings, a necklace) that I don’t like to wear while I’m sleeping, so this is a perfect bedside table jewelry box.

It is safe to say that I’m all thrifted/antiqued out for this month…It’s kind of become an addiction. Last night I dreamt that I was in a thrift store that was pretty much empty, save for an entire shelf of vintage wallpaper books. I was in heaven!!! Seriously, I did not want to wake up it was that good.  I often have dreams that are so good, I don’t want to wake up because somehow in my dream I know that I’m dreaming and if I wake up it will all go away. On the other hand, if its a bad dream I can make myself wake up and get out of whatever horrible situation I’ve dreamt myself into.  Anyone else do that?

Oh well, we’ll save the dream analysis for later. Have a wonderful weekend!

Last weekend we were very fortunate to have some of the coolest people at our house for the weekend: Our good friends Dan & Megan with their sweet boys, and Faith & Ryan. Here’s a glimpse of what we did:

Taped pennies to the train tracks and waited for the trains to smash them. Out of 11 we found 2. Not bad.

Gave Maisy A LOT of love. A lot a lot a lot.

Walked on the windy beach:

Dan & Megan

Faith & Ryan

Us girls also snuck away to shop in Santa Barbara, and hit the antique stores in downtown Ventura. Meg also gave me the cutest apron from Anthropologie, then when we were shopping on Saturday I found the mini version – It was too perfect, I had to have it. So hopefully I’ll have a little girl someday and we can bake in our matching aprons. Aw……..

We also barbecued delicious carne asada (thanks Ryan) and ate really yummy food the entire weekend. I wanted to take more photos, but I’m quickly learning that it’s difficult to be full time hostess and full time photographer simultaneously. I have this thing where I want every event in my life to look like it belongs in House & Garden or Martha Stewart. Makes things a little stressful, but I just need to let go and enjoy the time more. And someday I’ll hire a photographer to follow us around all weekend for our magazine spread : )

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here is one of the Valentine Postcards I made for a swap on flickr. These are 1960’s – candy conversation heart – inspired. The banners are love song titles from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Check out this group on flickr to see what everyone else made!