Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Let There Be Light

I've been in desperate search of light lately--well, mostly I've been in desperate search of over-the-counter and breastfeeding-safe pain relievers, but I've also been in search of light.

Our house is in a great neighborhood and is in good condition and is a good walk to most places we like to go, but it has basically no natural light. The windows are teeny-tiny little things stuck on odd walls in all the numerous teeny-tiny little rooms, and none of them face south. But I have this absolutely terrific assignment to write and photograph a craft project tutorial for Craft magazine (Make's little cousin), and I am desperate for good light in which to photograph.

So I'm limping around the house this afternoon, and all of a sudden I'm all, "Hey! That one window, now that the leaves are off the silver maple, actually gets pretty good light. If only there was a table next to it." I have numerous traumatic injuries, y'all, and yet many heaves and ho's and curses and whimpers later......there's a table next to the one window in the house that lets in terrific natural light. Never mind that it's shoved up against our old dorm couch on one side and the wall on the other, and that the entire bare wall that the table used to be shoved up against is all gross now from being next to the table. Just...never mind.

And the table? Looks like this: I barely even deserve to have furniture.

So I had myself a happy little time trying to figure out some ways to photograph my piece.

Straight above?Looking down at an angle?Definitely not straight on:My digital color enhancements are also pretty off because I have terrible eyesight, even with glasses. I may have to whip out my 500-page camera manual for this project.

But all afternoon I have been obsessed with photographing the light at this window. For our afternoon snack I set the girls up with some cut-up bananas, a couple of handfuls of dark chocolate chips melted in our new crockpot, and a little bowl of crushed pistashios--dip, roll, munch--and I insisted that we do all this at the table by the window, even though the crockpot cord wouldn't really reach and nobody could therefore sit comfortably:
But ah, the light.

Wow, though, I really need to wash the window now.

p.S. Check out my tutorial for aromatic herb ornaments over at Crafting a Green World.

6 comments:

Kimberly said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kimberly said...

Deleted to edit typo:

That is great light! And the yummy treat? It's 7:50a and you have me craving chocolate already. *sigh*

our house has great light in the day, but at night, it's like living in a dungeon when you're downstairs. There's virtually no light in the living room at all. And with a 10 month old on the verge of walking (6 steps before he gets tired, falls back into a sit, and starts to crawl) lamps just aren't an option yet.

Totally off-topic: Do you plan on doing any more cloth diapering workshops at Barefoot in the not- so distant future? The hubby and I were discussing this on Saturday night, and I'm not making a switch without talking to you first!

julie said...

So I've been sitting here trying to figure out the typo that would result in you deleting a post and redoing it--has to be something awesome: "yummy teat?" "falls back into a shit?"

It seems like all the high-end blogging moms I read (SouleMama, Angry Chicken, etc.) have these houses with tons of natural light inside and then they're all beautifully landscaped outside, so all their shots end up looking totally romantic and pastoral--I get jealous and contemplate knocking out walls in my house. That's something someone could do all by themselves, right?

Ooh, and I am doing a cloth diapering workshop at Barefoot on December 6, 4-6:30. If possible, Scott wants you to sign up ahead of time and prepay, on account of loads of people have been signing up and then ditching class, but you can also just show up, too.

10 months to a year is actually a really good time to switch to cloth, because unless you do a one-size your kid would need to size up around then, anyway.

Kimberly said...

I wish that it was something so awesome like unintentional profanity, but alas, instead of *sigh* it said *sight*. I had no idea it would show, "post removed by author" or I would've just left it up there. haha!

The mental image of you swinging a sledge hammer (the girls would have their own tiny versions, of course!) to get more natural light and Matt walking in catching all three of you is practically sending me into a giggling fit!

Sweet, I'll put the 6th on my google calendar which is like PENNING something in! I have no problem stopping by Barefoot to pre-register and pre-pay. Lex has been in size 3 diapers for about 3 months now (he weighs about 23lbs). I'll stop by the store sometime this weekend and get signed up!

cake said...

i think the table has a lovely patina. the kind that can only be created by artists at work.

julie said...

I do love my table. Unfortunately, the things I love, I love HARD.

Just ask Matt.

Ahem.