Learning Spanish at 41: 12/01/2008

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Featured: DIY City Mag

I have some exciting news to share, friends. I received an Etsy convo from the folks over at DIY City Mag, asking for permission to feature one of my photos in their issue for February 2009! What a surprise, what a flattering proposal, and of course, I told them, YES. They will feature the photo along with credit and a link to our Etsy shop. Published...ah, yes, there is a nice ring to that.

Mid-Century Modern by Tina - Pfeiffer Photos 2008

This photo is currently for sale in our shop as a print (your choice of size), or as a handmade blank note card. Most of our prints come with a black mat and can be framed at your request. As always, the mailing is free on non-framed orders to addresses within the USA 48. If you're loving it just visit the shop and you can grab it up to compliment your home, office, studio, wherever you think it would look great!

copyright pfeiffer photos 2008.

Monday, December 29, 2008

A Winter's Night Dream Treasury on Etsy

Thanks go to Kristina of Kristina Myers Crafts for selecting my Garibaldi Pier image for her gorgeous, "a winter's night dream"... a summer inspired treasury in black and white. So film noir...click the photo grid for a larger view.

Garibaldi Pier by Tina - Pfeiffer Photos 2008

Kristina, a crafter who dabbles in many mediums, lives in Maine and offers handmade jewelry, magnets and other fun items in her Etsy shop...my favorite example is shown here.

Bottle cap Magnets - Photo Fruit Theme by Kristina Myers Crafts

copyright pfeiffer photos 2008.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas!

We just uploaded a handful of our photos of the Arctic Blast 2008 in Portland (aka snow pics), and some of our Christmas tree to our Flickr stream. Visit the link below if you would like to view these photos!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!!

Chris & Tina

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pfeifferphotos

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Tagged by Kim

Well, I got tagged again...this time by Kim! It was only last week but I'm just now catching up with posting my seven random things so here goes.

Random Thing One:

Before I was into photography, I used to do collage. Before that, I was a rubber stamp artist. I read the magazines, went to conventions, shopped, swapped, joined online groups and yes, I made plenty of art with rubber stamps. For 15 years I shared this hobby with my Mom, who now houses almost all of the collection we amassed. We stopped counting how many we had when we passed the 20,000 mark...and that was only the wood-mounted stamps (we also had unmounted rubber stored in binders).

Random Thing Two:

One of my favorite things to eat is sour cream. Besides potatoes, I like it on all sorts of cooked veggies, in recipes and as a base for a fruit salad from my Mom's recipe--so good!

Random Thing Three:

I have yet to visit The Grand Canyon. This is one place I would like to see, and it is on my short list along with any other of the National Parks in the USA of places I would love to photograph.

Random Thing Four:

I enjoy short stories. I am amazed at the ability some writers possess to create a coheasive story with well-developed characters--start, middle and finish--in such a limited format. Only drawback is I always want the stories to keep on going...which rather misses the point.

Random Thing Five:

I used to write poetry. Mostly in my high school days and I kept it in albums. I wrote over 200 poems, sometimes two or three per day. I still have the albums in a box in my garage.

Random Thing Six:

I love Paris! The city, not the celebrity. From the time I was old enough to know where it was, I've harbored a desire to experience Paris and perhaps even live there for awhile. I am sure that I, like many, may over-romanticize it but I feel an affinity to The City of Lights--even more so since I've been studying Art History as my major in college.

Random Thing Seven:

I have a fear of deep water. For some it's spiders, others it's heights. For me, it's deep water. The ocean is inspiring and beautiful but I have no desire to be out on (or in) it. Give me a river, lake or pond anytime and as long as I can see land on at least one side of it, I am good to go.

So, there's my seven. Here are the folks I have chosen to tag to share their seven:

Cheryl at Al Ain Notebook
Dennice, author of fringe

Pam of housemartin
Chelsey over at Paper Lady Invites
Lupe of Art Garden

Char who posts her Ramblins...
Emmy Lou aka the Pointless Nostalgic

The Tagging Game "Official" Rules:

1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog; some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their name and a link to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

The photos displayed in this post are from sellers of handmade goods and art on Etsy. Visit their shops at the links listed below and enjoy!

Camera Buttons by Barrel of Monkeys

Simply Scrumptious Sour Cream Coffee Cake from Retro Art Chick

Angel's Landing fine art print by Lee Everett Robinson Photography

Plain Spoke, vol 1, no 1 by Life on Europa

Obsolete by The La La Theory

Burgandy Paris Blues beeswax collage from Jack & Cat Curio

Surf by Tina of Pfeiffer Photos

Friday, December 19, 2008

Recipe: Big Batch Vegetable Soup

I love soup. No, I mean I really LOVE soup. Lately, with the arrival of colder weather, I've been wanting soup even more than normal. Soup with a sandwich, soup with crackers, soup with bread. Warm, hearty, satisfying. Here is a soup recipe that I have made a few times and it is delicious. I hope you will try it because I know you will love it, too!

Big Batch Vegetable Soup

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 8 - with generous portions

Nutrition Info - Per Serving
Calories: 188 kcal Carbs: 33 g Fiber: 8 g Protein: 6 g Sugar: 5 g

Ingredients
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups chopped or thinly sliced onions or leeks
1 cup thinly sliced celery
2 tsp Italian seasoning
Coarse salt and ground pepper
44 oz reduced-sodium vegetable or chicken broth
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 Tbsp tomato paste
8 cups mixed fresh or frozen vegetables, such as carrots, corn, green beans, Lima beans, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, potatoes, and zucchini (cut larger vegetables into smaller pieces).

My Notes
I have used a jar of prepared spaghetti sauce in place of the canned tomatoes. Add a dash of wine (white or red) in the broth for a little extra zip. Add an entire large-size, frozen prepared vegetable lasagna (from Costco) which has almost all of the ingredients already in it--just add the seasonings and liquids as per the regular recipe. The mozzarella cheese on the frozen lasagna adds an extra element of smokiness to the soup...yum.

Cooking Directions
1. Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add onions or leeks, celery, and Italian seasoning; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent, 5 to 8 minutes.

2. Add broth, tomatoes and their juice, tomato paste, and 3 cups water to pot; bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, and cook, uncovered, 20 minutes.

3. Add vegetables to pot, and return to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, until vegetables are tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, as desired. Let cool before storing.

Serve with bread, crackers, or any other side-kind-of-food that you like with your soup.

Recipe is from Martha Stewart and, yes, it is a GOOD thing.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Good Things: Happy Anniversary to Us!

One week and one day ago marked the second year of our marriage. Happy Anniversary to us!

Our story is simple. We met in 2000 at work. Chris was working for a legal services company, and I was hired to work in another department in the same office. We became friends at work and after awhile both thought about becoming more but at that time it wasn't meant to be. Two years later, we had both moved on in our lives and had new jobs, we connected again as friends and started spending most of our free time together. A year later we were officially a couple, two more years and we got engaged, then we married on 12.10.06. Phew!

Weddings are always a happy time; ours was no exception. The photos in this post offer you a glimpse of the festivities of our day.

We had a short list of priorities: #1 - Superb Photography, #2 - Memorable Music, #3 - Delish Cake, #4 - Great Locale. Note that my dress was not on the list. I love my dress (what bride doesn't?) but I knew I didn't need to fork over a fortune to look and feel divine!

I am thankful that we both married in the middle of our lives (I at 37, he at 42), and that we were friends for plenty of time before we were anything more. We're a classic case of opposites attract. If we were a movie, we'd be filed under "screwball comedy".

Sometimes other people know you a bit better than you know yourself. Our friend, Aaron, summed it up early in our acquaintance by stating, "With you two it's not so much a matter of IF, but more a matter of WHEN".

We are happy that our WHEN is NOW.

P.S. If you have a Facebook account you can view more of our wedding photos on my page. Click Photos, then C&T-The Wedding Album. Go ahead, add me as your friend and I will return the favor.

all photos in this post copyright Nicole Wickens Photography 2006. Visit her studio blog to see more of her work...you'll be glad you did!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Good People: Give and receive

We're done with our Christmas shopping for this year. Just finished it up last weekend and received a few items this week that we had ordered from online vendors--including fellow Etsy sellers.

I am the official present wrapper in our house. I also held this role for a handful of years when I was younger and still lived with my folks. That's what happens when you have a past job of "professional gift wrapper" on your resume!

Chris' Grandmother is my favorite person to shop for in our family because she insists that we shouldn't buy her a thing. That just makes it a challenge for our creativity each year and usually we look for something handmade or we make it ourselves. I don't know if any of the family are reading the blog lately so I can't give anything away here except some photos of my completed wrapping endeavors.

A happy surprise...Chris' cousin was married last summer and became a daddy and now they will welcome another son in April. We keep in touch with Ben, Lauren and Asher through Facebook, and received a festive package from them this week via UPS!

In the spirit of handmade Christmas goodness, they sent us a tasty trio of Ball jars filled with ingredients to make a hearty lentil and bean soup and Texas cornbread to go with...YUM. Edible gifts are super creative...and very much appreciated so thanks, Pickthorn family--we love you!

t 2 b: Pickthorn Family in Birmingham, AL, handmade gifty goodness from same

It's fun to give and to receive--hope you're enjoying both this season!

New in shop: Winter Trees Series

Just shot these today when the snow started to fall again. I am considering offering them as a set of prints and blank cards in our Etsy shop.

Like the grids I've been using on our photos lately? You can create collages of your photos using the software at Picnik (partner of Flickr). The pro account is loaded with fun effects and helpful editing features worth every penny of the annual fee!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Design Inspiration: Keep It Cozy

Home is the most important place in the world. So sayeth IKEA, so sayeth I, so sayeth we all*.

our street, front steps, urn on porch

In many of the blogs I follow I enjoy looking into other people's lives. A big part of many people's lives is where they live...in their homes. Many of the bloggers I follow are at some point along their journey of home building, remodeling, decorating and designing.

entry hall, festive front door, dining area

For example, Fiona, of Cafe Cartolina, shares daily photos of home decor inspiration. A woman with wonderful taste (so similar to my own..*eh hem*). I always leave her a comment because I always see something I like. Liz, over at Mabel's House, frequently shares photos of her home. Simple and cozy with a slightly cottage style...plus her writing is engaging and full of amusing stories of life.

living room and office

So, today, for anyone that might have wondered, I am posting a few photos of OUR home. Like many of yours, it's always work in progress. We're very big on the cozy factor and try to incorporate as much of it into our 900 SF as we can. We used to be all beach-cottage style but are now slowly morphing into a modern-traditional look. Or, more simply translated = Pottery Barn on an IKEA budget.

snippets of kitchen, bedroom and bath

So, if you're following along and writing your own blog, be brave and show me where you live. Leave a comment to let me know when you've posted so I can come take a peek!

*Kudos to anyone who caught the BSG reference! ;-)

Monday, December 15, 2008

Etsy Treasury: Forest Green

It's our second time to be included in an Etsy treasury that features the shades of glorious piney foresty green! Thanks to Carol of Designing It for choosing our Bridal Veil Falls image for this collection.

Click the grid for a larger view of this and visit HERE to view the shops containing these items.

Bridal Veil Falls by Tina - Pfeiffer Photos 2008.

This image is available in my Etsy shop as a print (various sizes), or a blank note card. Shipping to addresses within the US 48 is free, matting is included and framing is available upon request.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

My Backyard: Arctic Blast '08 in Portland, OR USA

The Official name is now The Arctic Blast. Oh, the weather outside is frightful and overnight we dropped from mid-40s to low 20s with a forecast of up to eight inches by tonight!

Yes, I realize that for you folks who live in mountainous places or frigid-weather-famous cities like Chicago and NYC, eight inches is just a flurry in the scheme of things. In the Pacific Northwest, at least in the Willamette Valley of Portland and the outlying smaller cities, two inches is cause for real excitement, so you can imagine what that means with a forecast of eight! The news weather folk around here get pretty amped up at even the prospect of heavy wind gusts in our normally mild (read: LOTS of rain) winter season.

The view from our windows on 12.13.08:

...and again on 12.14.08:

Photo #1 shows part of our front stairs (aka: "The Vertigo Stairs"--and that's in good weather!) and front sidewalk.

Photo #2 is the view from my kitchen window facing north.

Photo #3 is the remnants of our container garden on the deck.

What you don't see in these photos is the steadily falling snowflakes and the chilly wind gusts of up to 30 MPH. We're hunkered down for the duration of the storm. Our pantry is stocked, the kettle's on the stove and we've got movies to enjoy.

Stay warm, everyone!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Series: Blogging - The Low Cost, High Return Business Marketing Tool: Part 7: Trackbacks and why they are important

In October 2008, Part Six of this marketing series covered the cons for businesses without a blog--a list of reasons why not blogging could affect your bottom line. This addition to the series will cover the importance of using Trackbacks.

l 2 r: Away fine art photo - aral33 photography, Doc Holiday hat - Moe Sew Co., Delicate Furry Necklace - Sara Lagace Original Designs, Gold Spalding dress - Makool Loves You.

Trackbacks are a tool used by bloggers for linking to other blogs. For example, if the author of a blog finds a great blog post on another person or company’s blog they might want to link it back to their company blog. The old-fashioned way to link would be to manually insert a link on the authors’ site to the discovered blog of interest, but the person whose blog is being linked to would not know you had linked to them unless they were informed. “A trackback program will notify the original blogger when one of their posts is linked to another blog by setting up a link at the bottom of every blog post.”[1]

t 2 b: Large Green Bowl - sirius.fnord, Montana fine art photo - Kerri Bastin, Origami Ornaments - Paper Red Shoes, Slate Bottle Trio - Sara Paloma Pottery.

Trackbacks are important to bloggers because they increase awareness of blogs and improve the credibility of a blog. A post about the referenced blog accompanies a trackback on one blog, which is the equivalent of receiving free advertising for the referenced blog. Readers will follow the links, learn of the referenced company, and possibly visit that blog again if they enjoy the content presented. The result of a trackback equals more traffic for the blog and more opportunities for making new connections.

“A growing number of American CEOs rate blogs
effective as employee communication tools.

59% of CEOs polled said they find blogs useful for internal
communications.
47% of CEOs stated they see blogs as a tool for external
communications.
18% of CEOs say they plan to host a company blog over the
next two years.”[2]

l 2 r: Sample Soaps - Kelle's Kitchen, O, Christmas Tree holiday cards - Jumping Jack Designs, 6-bottle Wool Wine Holder - Etcetera Media.

This post is part SEVEN of a marketing series. Please visit my archives to read parts 1-8.

The photos featured in this post represent items sold by our uber-creative, fellow small business owners, in their online Etsy stores. Please click on the links under the photo grids to visit the artist shops on Etsy.

Handmade fine arts, crafts, jewelry, metalwork, furniture, edibles, organic, eco-friendly, toys, decor, clothing, fibers, home decor, paper goods, accessories, supplies and all kinds of retro-good vintage items are waiting to delight your shopping sensibilities for the holidays and all-year-round on Etsy from all around the globe!

[1] Detty, Terry. "Why Trackbacks are Useful For Blogs." [Weblog WebReference.com] 2008. Webreference.com. 25 May 2008 http://www.webreference.com/promotions/trackbacks/.

[2] Sharma, Dinesh C.. "Study: CEOs find blogs useful." cnet.com 7, November 2005 25 May 2008 http://news.cnet.com/Study-CEOs-find-blogs-useful/2100-1047_3-5937387.html.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Design Inspiration: Stairwell Storage

Found these photos today on the Poppytalk blog. The photos are from the Come Up to My Room 2009 exhibition. The Courtyard House as it is called was created by Peter Tan and Christine Ho Ping Kong of Studio Junction, Toronto.

Drawers built into stairs...BRILLIANT. I want that at my house, please. Someday...when I have a house that is!

Friday, December 5, 2008

Swamped

swamp (verb). 1 a: to fill with or as if with water : inundate , submerge b: to overwhelm numerically or by an excess of something : flood [1]

I am swamped. Next week is finals at school and I have projects to finish galore. Eight sculpture pieces to finish and decorate. Seven drawings to sketch, paint and ink. Two presentations to prepare and polish. Then maybe, just maybe, I can get to the business of finishing up the Christmas shopping. Wrapping. Mailing. Fulfilling orders from our Etsy shop. And sometime after that perhaps the house will get cleaned again, the laundry mountain will be scaled down, and we'll head for a weekend off at the coast in two weeks. Hot clam chowder and winter storms are calling us.

On a happy note...we received a gift basket from Harry & David filled with pears, apples, cheese, sausage and treats today from Chris' folks in (early) celebration of our second anniversary. YUM!

Two new photos are posted below from our recent journeys that took us through Carver, Oregon...enjoy.

Have a super weekend, everyone!

t 2 b: Carver Pioneer Chapel and Carver Luthern Chapel by Tina - Pfeiffer Photos 2008

[1] Mirriam Webster Online 2008.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Etsy Treasury: British Panto

Thanks to Kitty Kent for including us in this fun treasury! Click the photo grid for a larger view and click HERE to visit all the Etsy shops that are paired nicely with our Jack-and-Jill image.

Jack and Jill by Tina - Pfeiffer Photos 2008

Kitty Kent, based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in the scenic Cotswolds--which was once the center of the British Arts & Crafts Movement--concentrates mainly on fabric accessories but also likes to dabble in other mediums including paper, card, wire, metal and more!

Here's a sneak peek at items you can find in her Etsy shop right now...

t 2 b: Ella small fabric box, Cleopatra Hanging Bird Mobile

copyright pfeiffer photos 2008.

POE Blog...featuring Pfeiffer Photos

Exciting news for this morning...we are the newest featured artist(s) on the Photographers of Etsy (POE) Blog! Please visit the blog and take a peek at the photos from our Etsy shop that regular contributor, Ann Wilkinson, chose to include with our interview.

Carnation Cafe by Tina - Pfeiffer Photos 2008

But wait. You might be wondering, "What is POE?" Do allow me to explain.

In addition to offering a wide array of handmade goods such as jewelry, stationery, and clothing, Etsy is a wonderful place to buy top quality photographic prints!

The Photographers of Etsy (POE) Street Team is dedicated to getting the word out about the talented photographers selling their work on Etsy. Our aim is to inform the public about methods, styles and types of printing available, so that they will have tools to make educated buying decisions. We are a community of photographers who support one another by sharing experiences, techniques and helpful tips and tricks.