So I’m addicted to Polyvore now. Honestly, I think the appeal is because its like virtual paper dolls. Mix and match your vision kind of thing. Ultimately, it is a breading ground for inspiration. I’ve begun to look at the contents of my closet in an entirely new light. Some of the basic items that I just get tired of wearing I can now visualize on Polyvore with a fresh look. It’s all in how you work it.

Here are a few of my sets.

The last thing I need is another diversion, but I’m hooked. Toodles.

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I’m on a roll. Two for two. This is the second give-away I have entered lately and this time I won a Lightscoop! I have long coveted the ability to take better pictures and because I was too much of a slacker to read the instructions that came with my Canon Rebel XS, I was relegated to the mercy of my lack of knowledge.

Fastforward, I have since begun to read up on photography and scooped up a great easy read on my camera when Borders shut its doors. I’ve also begun to follow a few blogs and one of my favs is Tech4moms. Now it’s not a photography blog per se, but its a good stop to view relevant daily-life tech stuff. Natalie was super cool and responded to email right away and they offer blog help too. So the toy I won is a Lightscoop which basically minimizes the effects of harsh flash light by diffusing it. Here’s an example.

First pic with that harshness that the flash light produces. In the second you can see the welcome change.

Yummies with that harsh flash light.

Yummies with the softer diffused light.

Now we’re talking. This looks worthy of posting. Mind you I haven’t done any tinkering in photoshop and honestly if you want to post with any efficiency, you don’t always have time. Thanks Natalie…muwah. Toodles.

Christmas buffet

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Holy Cow. Who knew it was so ridiculously easy! If you’re like me, I love fresh cut flowers, love ‘em in the garden as well, but a bouquet makes me smile. So needless to say, I like the portable ones too…aka corsages.

Well, I worked with a group of the most wonderful ladies on a large holiday event. As a “thank you” I wanted to provide each of the 16 jewels on my committee with a wrist corsage. Since this is a non-profit group, this would come out of my pocket.

So I headed to my local grocery store and began to price corsages. Hmm, let’s just say that my intentions were good, but the pocket-book wasn’t willing. I figured, “Hey you’re a creative kind of gal, why not make them. How hard can it be.” Usually when people sputter such drivel, you know that what seems simple ends up being an ungodly task. Well, the Glue-Gun gods smiled upon this wee human because..ta-da, it really IS that simple. Now mind you, I set the bar fairly low so the fall wouldn’t be to far.

I purchased the absolute least expensive flowers, red and white carnations and baby’s breath, along with 24 gauge floral wire, green floral tape and pearl head pins. I used this basic tutorial, “How to Make a Corsage” and peaked at a YouTube video for reference.

STEP 1 Trim flower stem. Leave a small portion of the stem to anchor and hold the floral tape.

STEP 2 Take a length of floral wire and thread through the base of the flower. You will have to give it a decent push to feed it through. Once through, bend in half.

STEP 3 Floral tape doesn’t have adhesive per se, it adheres to itself when stretched. Therefore wrap the floral tape, while stretching the tape, around the base of the flower. At this point you can add additional flowers, here I added the baby’s breath. Continue wrapping the flowers together and down the length of the wire.

STEP 4 Here I wrapped the combination of red and white carnations along with the baby’s breath so that there is just one long wired-wrapped stem joining all of the flowers. I also “petted” the white carnation to slightly open the tight bud.

STEP 5 I created a ribbon using both a wired red and lime green ribbon, wiring together and leaving a stem. This in turn was wrapped to the gathered bunch again leaving one long wrapped stem.

STEP 6 Here you can see the back of the corsage and the wrapped base. Take a pencil and coil the long stem around it to create a spiral.

STEP 7 Here you can more clearly see the grouping of flowers and how they are wrapped. I also added a pearl head pin.

STEP 8 And the grand finale…the completed corsage! Once I got the hang of it, I could make a corsage fairly quickly, but there was a learning curve.

So from now on, when the mood strikes me, I’ll be wearing a corsage. Toodles.

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