Getting Caught Up!

130/365 - August 18, 2009, originally uploaded by HarmonyHilderbrand.

Today was my first week of school and it was overall pretty good!

Monday I spent the morning editing a number of backlogged 365 pics. Then I had an IS (information system) class which was ridiculously hard and so I spent my 15 minute break before french class running to two other possible classes that I could switch into. Long story short.. I need more 300+ level classes in order to graduate. And unfortunately those are hard to get into because most of them you need some prereqs for. I have the IS prereqs so it was one of only a few classes I could get into. But I was the only non IS or Accounting major in the entire class. I quickly learned it was going to be a hard class.. way harder than I need it to be for just needed misc upper level courses.

I spent the rest of my afternoon evening fretting about which class to try to switch into (and wondering if I'd even be able to get in.. they were all full!) My options were try to get into Listening (com 300 something), Human communication (com 400), or bookarts (art 414). But the two com classes would fit perfectly with my schedule, while the bookarts was another late class (M/W 4-6:45).

I finally decided Tuesday night to switch into the bookarts class. I heard from some photog friends that it was a fun class and figured I'd rather put my time and effort into an art class I would at least enjoy rather than some communications course or is class that would be hard and a little bit pointless.

Wednesday I had photography (kind of nervous, but excited about shooting 4x5 film... which reminds me I need to buy my film soon!).
Then I had a 2.5 hr break that I was going to spend doing more catchup on 365 in the library.. but I ended up chatting with some friends and getting almost nothing productive done. Then I went to french (its slowly coming back to me - summer was a long timeperiod to not study). And finally I went to the bookarts class. I was so nervous. And I really don't know why. I guess I'm just a big nerd and I thought that missing one class would put me so far behind. But it was a so fun! and the teacher and other students filled me in on everything that I missed. I am really really glad I switched classes and I think I'm really going to enjoy this class! [it made me laugh sitting in the class... I realized I really am an artist at heart... I love being crafty and creative and artistic]

Friday I spent the morning catching up on more 365 pics [ check out flickr as there are a number of new uploads!] Then I had a business finance course that should be interesting and not too difficult.

Tues/Thurs I worked and my days went by pretty quickly because there was so much to do!

But I had an overall really good week. I carpooled with Jaime [yay for a carpool, and not only that but a super fun carpool friend!] I'm excited about my art classes and I'm hoping I'll learn something useful in my business course. And I was able to start getting caught up! I'd be hopeless without the amazingly fast computers at the school.

I hope anyone else going back to school had as good a week as I did! ;]

Gbye Summer...

115/365 - August 3, 2009, originally uploaded by HarmonyHilderbrand.

Today is the last thursday of summer. I spent it working and cleaning.
Tomorrow is the last friday of summer. I'm hosting bunko [and it is going to ROCK!]

I am exhausted.
Last summer was over way too quick and I distinctly remember at the beginning of this summer thinking to myself, "I am not going to let this summer go by as fast as the last one." Well I failed, miserably. It went by even faster.

I've been working full time (which is draining!) and it makes the days and weeks just fly by. I'm worn out to the point of needing a break and so I'm actually excited to go back to school.

School gives me a balance between home/chores, work, and me-time. Driving to/from class gives me time to pray, relax, think, and brainstorm. Some of my best photography ideas are created while driving. I've come to realize that the driving time I originally hated and complained about has become my personal wind up and unwind time. It only took 3 years and a quick summer full of work to help me recognize it.

Monday I'll enter my final year of college (Lord willing). I start my honors thesis and finish my final classes! I can't believe I'm already so close and though it feels like it is going to take forever to complete the year, I know it will fly by just like the last few have. And then I'll be done.

But for tonight... its off to sleep to work a half day and get ready for Bunko night.

[and yes I'm practically 2 weeks behind on my 365... I'll catch up eventually]

San Fran -part deux!

We had such a blast today!

We got to Vallejo and just caught the ferry around 8:30. We spent the majority of the ride out on the railing watching the water and other boats and bridges. It was so windy and humid that my hair went from smooth to fluffy frizzy in an instant! Thank goodness for ponytails.

We got to pier 39 just before 10 and most of the small stores were still closed. We walked around and through the stores that were open. One gallery was of stunning nature photography done with a large format camera - gorgeous photos! Next we got some salt water taffy and watched a street performer's juggling act.

By noon the pier was starting to fill with people and as we browsed a few shops we were invited to participate in a market research survey & taste test for a new coffee product. In exchange for our time, they promised $20 bill per person. We figured why not... We had time. And it was an adventure.. They have us three different "coffee" drinks to give our opinion about. I say "coffee" because it wasn't. It was supposed to be a refreshing coffee-fruit drink. All I have to say is disgusting! I seriously wonder who came up with the idea. All three versions were horrid. Imagine taking a pot of week old coffee, mixing it with a smoothie, adding flour & fake sugar, and then leaving it in the fridge for a month. Would you drink it or try to get anyone else to? But we each got $20 and had fun together.

We'd seen pretty much all of pier 39 at this point and decided to try to find a musuem or something to go see. Eddy mentioned king tut was on exhibit. We found a park it was by on a map and decided to walk there.. We thought it'd take like 30 mins... But it turns out none of us are good at estimating distance on a map and it took almost 2 hrs!!!

Then we discovered we weren't even at the right park/museum for the king tut exhibit. It was on the clear other side of town!!!!
We were all exhausted and decided to get some good and pick what to do next. We ate at Chevys (I wanted to eat at a local resrurant, but Chevys was within view and so we settled). Lunch was yummy and replenishing.

Turned out the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art was right where we thought the other one was going to be and I'd seen some ads for Richard Avedon's exhibit that was showing there and so we decided to go there instead. I'm so glad we did!!

We used our coffee taste test money to pay for the museum tickets. I am so bummed that I forgot my student id- I would have saved like $6. But essentially it was still free.

There were some very modern and strange pieces of art on the few floors and Jeff and Eddy were so confused and not thrilled to be there. "Is this really art?!?" was plastered across their expressions. I began to doubt that spending my $20 coffee money was a bust.

But as we moved through mote rooms and floors it was so neat! I saw work by lots of photographers and painters I learned about in my art history and photo classes these past years, but instead of seeing a mediocre slide or tiny 1" print in a book... I was seeing original art! Beautiful full size paintings and photographs!

I was thrilled when I turned a corner and there was a huge piece by Mark Rothko! I love his work, but I've only ever seen it in books or online. He was influencial in my color space emotion pieces last year. I think I spent at least 10-15 minutes just standing there. So incredible!!!

Then around a few more corners were three pieces from Josef Albers' homage to squares! He was another artist that I referenced in my colorspace photographs.

The majority of the next floor was devoted to Robert Frank and his series The Americans. Over and over it was so neat and shocking to recognize various photographs I've seen multiple times, but never in person and up close! There were so many images and it really gave me a better appreciatarion for his work. It was fun having Kirsten there with me. I'd point out some of my favorites and she'd do the same and we'd discuss them. :)

Then it was up another floor to Richard Avedon's exhibit of work throughout his entire life. I've always loved his work, but books and ppts do not do his work justice. Seeing the prints made me love his work even more. His focus and lighting and detail and tonal range are exquisite! And his rendering of pure human emotion and variety is inspiring. Many of his prints were around 8x10in to 11x14in... But in the last room they were at least 4 feet wide!!! These were my favorites. The focus and tonal Edition:3rd on these were perfect! The subject's eyes were striking and every detail of their skin and clothing stood out. Wish I'd had more time to spend in this room. If you ever have a chance to go see this exhibit, you should.

It was getting close to when we needed to leave and so we rushed through an exhibit focused on select work of Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keefe. There were also some images from Paul Strand, Edward Weston and others mixed in with their exhibit.

There were so many other recognizable artists throughout the musuem! Andre Kertez, Rene Magritte, Frieda calloigh(sp?), Henri Matisse, Georgeann Braque, & Picasso to name a few...

Needless to say I had a blast at the museum. I am so glad we went to the wrong spot!!!

We were not about to walk the 3 miles back to the pier and ferry, so we caught the city bus. It was relatively boring - except for the crazy driving, Chinatown, a woman nearby getting her hand smashed in the door of the taxi, and a cute little old woman witnessing to the man sitting beside her.

We relaxed on the pier for the las few minutes then caught the ferry back to Vallejo, and started our journey home. Eddy and Kirsten napped for a bit, then we stopped and got In 'N Out in placerville. The remainder of the trip we spent discussing the art and not-so-art from the musuem.

All in all it was an extremely long day, but I had so much fun just enjoying the company of my husband and friends and exploring the city. Definately going to have to take another trip soon!

San Francisco!!!

This morning I woke up at 3:40am and thought to myself, "Who's great idea was Otto wake up this early?!? Oh yeah.. It was mine. Am I insane?"

Jeff and I decided to take a weekend roadtrip to San Francisco as a way to celebrate our third wedding anniversay. Our good friends eddy and Kirsten are coming with us. We originally were thinking about driving down fri night, getting a hotel, spening sat exploring and stay in a hotel sat night and drive home Sunday. However after we looked up the costs of a hotel room... I convinced jeff it'd be cheaper to drive down early sat morning and then either also drive home late sat night or get a room and drive home Sunday.

So we woke up bright and early (or as jeff put it, dark and early) and started driving. It's weird that it's 7am on a Saturday and I've been awake for over 3 hrs, I'm in California and I'm blogging on my phone. :) what a way to start a day.

On a side note I've been horrible at blogging lately. I blame my iPhone. I don't spend as much time on my computer anymore because my phone has email, etc. However, the blogging app I downloaded only let's me type plain blog posts. No pictures and no editing once you've posted it. And you see,l I'm the kind if girl that types a blog, posts it, and then proofs it and realizes I made a ton of errors. So I haven't been to into that process on my phone. I'm sure there are some great blogging apps out there, but I'm cheap and want to try out the app before I buy it, and most don't let you.

Anyway- so were driving, or rather jeff is driving, I'm blogging and Kirsten and Eddy are both sleeping. I am so excited to just walk around and explore. I way over packed: my dslr+2 lenses, extra battery, flash & tripod, my point and shoot & an extra battery, my lomography super sampler and a handful of random rolls of film. I'll probably have so leave some locked in the car because I doubt I'll be able to carry them all all day.

Out plan is to take the ferry from Vallejo to pier 39 and then walk or catch a trolley around San Fran. So the car will be over an hour away, and whatever I bring I'm stuck with all day. I'm still debating whether to bring my backpack so I can stash my camera or if I should just carry my camera on it's own the entire time...
We'll see!

More to come as the day progresses, but for now, good morning!

Behind behind!

I am falling behind again!!

I'm past day 100 in my 365 project, but I'm behind on uploading. Every night I start to work on catching up something else comes up... Like needing to fix some bugs on my website.

They're fixed now and I even added a few more recent pics to the portfoilios, but it took all night. Check it out and let me know I you have any suggestions on how to improve the site. Any very helpful suggestions with be rewarded! ;]

I also haven't been blogging regularly but if you want to catch up on events in my life you can read through the mini blog posts with my 365 project on flickr.

I've been working hard at my office job. I'm taking on some new responsibilities and have been super busy as a result. Today I was on a ph conf with some directors in New York. One of them had a n accent and all I could think for the first 10-15 mins was mobster or mafia... Silly.

Jeff got a promotion today and will start his new position in a couple weeks. We went to Chilis to celebrate.

I'm exhausted and off to bed. Nighty night!

Lemony Lemon Cupcakes with Mango-Pineapple Frosting

Normally I’m not a big fan of cupcakes. That’s putting it lightly. I really don’t like them; I don’t make them, and don’t like eating them. It’s been years [no actually, to be honest I don’t even remember the last time] since I made cupcakes. They’re kind of lame, too sweet, and dry. But last night, I had some yummy vanilla cupcakes with blueberries and lemon frosting and it made me rethink my cupcake stance. They were light, fluffy and fresh. The blueberries helped to tone down the sweetness. And they inspired me to give cupcakes a second chance.

Today I set out to make some yummy cupcakes. I wanted something light and fresh, and since I’ve been on a mango craze - mango frosting sounded delicious. I figured lemon cupcakes would be a nice pairing. I found some recipes online, altered them to fit my needs and voila!

Of course I couldn’t go without taking pictures throughout the entire process. What kind of photographer/baker would I be if I didn’t take photographs of my baking creations? Then I got to thinking.. I’ve always wanted to make my own cookbook. [okay on a sidenote.. I have a list of a million things I’ve always wanted to do, or want to do someday – among them, related to this blog are: have my own photo studio, have my own gallery, own a coffee shop/smoothie shop/ sandwich shop, make my own cookbook] Anyway so I have this huge thesis I’m suppose to do over the next two semesters before I graduate, and I’ve been completely at a loss of what to do. The thesis is supposed to mainly focus on producing photographic work, but there also has to be a research component (and research paper 50-100 pages), and should (ideally) be something I’m very interested in. I’ve been racking my brain for ideas for months now, and nothing seems feasible or interesting enough to do for an entire year. Until now. How cool would it be to use my thesis to create (and possibly even publish) my own cookbook with my recipes and photography?!? Making a cookbook has always been a small dream/goal, but one I never really put much thought into because I figured I’d leave that for years down the road. But I’m beginning to think that a cookbook might be the perfect topic for my thesis. I don’t know a whole lot about food photography, so that could be one element of the research, I’d have a reason to bake and cook fun meals for the next year, and I’d have a chance to make my own book! I’m excited thinking about it, and I’m praying for clarity about the idea, and would really really appreciate your prayers too! It’s still in the idea stage, and it needs a lot of refining and focusing if I’m going to use it as my thesis project.

Even if I don’t end up using it for my thesis, I hope that since I’ve grown in my photography I can start working on a cookbook anyways and slowly build on it until I have enough recipes and photographs to complete it!

So back to the baking. I halved and then altered the cupcake recipe and something didn’t translate quite right and they sunk a little in the middle, but they were still very moist and lemony. The frosting was delicious (I think I’ll omit the few pieces of pineapple I threw into the frosting next time to try pure mango frosting). It was tart and sweet at the same time and didn’t dry and get all crusty because honey keeps it moist. My only complaint about the frosting was that it wasn’t thick enough to pipe and then hold its shape. But everyone that had them only had good things to say so I’m pretty pleased. I promised some girls from church (who saw my Twitter or Facebook postings about the cupcakes) that I’d make more for them on Sunday, so hopefully I’ll be able to perfect some of the flaws from this first round.

I’m stoked to find some more yummy recipes and start creating my own. I usually bake cookies and cakes, so I’m taking a break to try out and find the best cupcake recipes. I’m not sure whether to find some more light and delicate fruit cupcakes or go all out for a rich chocolate espresso cupcake. Any suggestions?

Ziggy & Elizabeth

Meet Ziggy!

Ziggy the adorable lab, originally uploaded by HarmonyHilderbrand.

She's a one year old lab. Sadly she has a neurological disorder and her back feet drag slightly when she walks. But she is so cute and so happy and playful! The vets aren't sure how quickly the neurological disease will spread, but hopefully it'll slow so she won't have to be put down soon! [please pray!]

Her owner, Laura, was my buddy in French class this past year. Today I did portraits of her puppy for her. ;] Elizabeth came with me and afterwards we hung out!

I love catching up with friends. Elizabeth and I got to the Sparks Marina early and so we took a walk partway around it and just caught up and talked. I love Elizabeth to death! She is such an awsome woman of God, a sweet friend, and completely adorable. Almost 3 years ago she was my maid of honor and almost a year ago I got to be a bridesmaid in her wedding! But she and her hubby live in Reno so we only get to hang out every once and a while because we all work and lining up schedules can take some time.

Our freshmen year of college I was commuting from Gardnerville and she was living in the dorms. I constantly left my house, forgetting to put on deoderant! I'd call her up and she'd meet me and let me borrow hers. ;] She also fed me numerous times in the school's lunch area because she had meal tickets and I didn't. She was in the crappiest dorm in the entire school but she made the best of it and then the next semester or year she was able to move into the nicest dorms in the school. gosh. I love her to death!