Awesome Guest Blogger – Coming soon

I’m so excited to announce that the talented author (and an all-around amazing person) Skyla Dawn Cameron is going to do a guest post on my blog November 1st. Awesomesauce! Amazeballs! Fanfrackingtastic!

OK, but seriously. I’m so happy to be an even a small part of her bold new journey with an amazing series. Recently, Cameron has switched publishers and to get things going she decided to do a Blog Book Tour. You know, like a regular book tour, only without the long hours, groping TSA, terrible hotels, crying babies and the weirdly inappropriate dude waiting in line. All of the good stuff, none of the bad stuff.

I volunteered my blog as a “locale” for book tour, and she accepted. The tour is going to last a week, and since she writes mostly paranormal urban fantasy the week of Halloween is perfect. More to come, but first things first:

About the Author

Award-winning author Skyla Dawn Cameron has been writing approximately forever.

Her early storytelling days were spent acting out strange horror/fairy tales with the help of her many dolls, and little has changed except that she now keeps those stories on paper. She signed her first book contract at age twenty-one for River, a unique werewolf tale, which was released to critical and reader praise alike and won her the 2007 EPPIE Award for Best Fantasy. She now has multiple series on the go to keep her busy, which is great for her attention deficit disorder.

Skyla is a fifth generation crazy cat lady who lives in southern Ontario, where she dabbles in art, is an avid gamer, and watches Buffy reruns. If she ever becomes a grownup, she wants to run her own pub, as well as become world dictator.

You can visit her on the web at www.skyladawncameron.com. When she’s not writing or being glared at by cats, she’s probably on Twitter. You should ping @skyladawn and tell her to get back to work.

• Website: www.skyladawncameron.com
• Blog: www.skyladawncameron.com/blog
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/skyladawn
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/SkylaDawnCameron
• GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/skyladawncameron
• Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/skyladawnc/

Reflection

 

Another shot, Click for a slightly larger version:

 

 

Colorado

This might be the longest I’ve gone without blogging since I started 8-9 years ago. Life has been busy and stressful, so my hobbies have taken a backseat. I make no apologies, but I’m happy to have some images to share at last.

My brother, Will, and I went on a hike through Colorado. We did Aspen to Crested Butte and back, in three days and three nights. Despite the long time frame, it was actually very challenging for both of us. I’ve come to the conclusion that because of the infrequency with which I am able to hike, I’ll never be a strong or fast hiker. I’m OK with that, because I still always have fun.

I rented a lens. I’ll be purchasing this lens ASAP because I fell in love. It’s the 17-55mm for use with crop bodies. It’s so tack sharp that it’s nearly impossible to take a bad shot, even in low lights. With a very good polarizing filter on it, the photos needed almost no editing. I took quite a few HDR’s, so those are obviously edited, but even still… Aside from combining exposures, I needed to do very little to them.

It was cloudy every night we were out, which was unfortunate. I had intended to take some night shots of the Milky Way and it’s my only real disappointment in the trip that I wasn’t able to.

Without further ado, some favorites:

Crater Lake

Looking Down on Crater Lake

View from the Top of Mt. Evans

Clinton Gulch

Will at the Top of the World

Cabin with a View

Flamingo Gardens

The peacocks were trying to get busy. It was pretty awesome. I love the sound they make when they call the ladies.

She Poses

Who’s a pretty baby? You are! Yes, you are.

Meet Dylan – three months new. She was completely fascinated by the odd black thing that the crazy lady kept lifting up to her face every two seconds.

She was also highly entertained:

I’ve felt so little inspiration to write, shoot, or design for a few months now, but I’ve missed it, that creative spark. Taking pictures of this chunk of cuteness was so much fun. In fact, I think that’s why she started smiling – because she could feel how much fun I was having. We all win!

Queen Anne Nightstand

I’ve lost Photoshop. I had no idea how crippling it would be for me. I haven’t posted because at the very least I wanted to put my watermark on the images. I can’t afford it yet, but I’m saving for the latest version. I know there are other photo editors I can get, but I’ve been working with Photoshop in one way or another for about a decade. I can’t imagine using anything else at this point. I’m even reluctant to use Lightroom, although I’ll get over that as soon as I can afford it.

In the meantime, I decided to go ahead and post. This nightstand took me forever, not because it was difficult but because I don’t have a space for it right now. When I picked it up I did need it, but soon after our neighbors gave us their old nightstands and suddenly I had an extra. I think it turned out well, so I’m saving it for a third bedroom, if we ever have one.

Here’s the before:

Before

Can you see the dirty corners and the chipped paint. The top looked more horrible than the photo shows. Sanding down that nasty yellow lacquer took forever, but it was well worth it.

Here’s the after:

After

I got rid of the weird lips on the top, so it’s a flat surface. I also filled in a lot of the detail. Before it all added up to too much and I think the shape of the legs and beveled edges are very nice without the rest. It’s a crisp clean white now. Since I already had most of the supplies, it cost little more than the hardware and the basket. I’m less than $30 out for the piece, so I think I got a bargain.

My next project will most likely be pretty big. I’m designing a bed for the master bedroom, so that I can move the current headboard into the guest bedroom. I thought I would use a plan from Ana White, but it’s turned into a brand new design. I’ve laid the whole thing out in AutoCAD just to make sure I’m getting the dimensions right. I wish I knew Google SketchUp better. Do any of you know SketchUp? Was it easy to learn?

Portrait

Almost a month since I posted and this isn’t even a difficult post to do. I’m having a hard time juggling life right now. Sometimes the hobbies get put on hold when the important stuff like paying bills and building futures get in the way. No fun.
Here’s a portrait of my sister-in-law. Isn’t she pretty? We had a lot of fun shooting these in the garden of my husband’s family home in Mumbai. I’ve got quite a few, but this one is, hands down, my favorite.