This is what 28 looks like...

 ...after only 4 cocktails.

Happy birthday babe.

Holiday Gumdrop Wreath.

What you'll need:

• a 12" styrofoam wreath
• wire for hanging
• ribbon
• toothpicks
• gumdrops

Helpful suggestions: this wreath is heavy, so thicker gauged wire works best. (I was a few gumdrops shy of using five 1 lb., 2 oz. bags). I was concerned the wire would tear through the styrofoam, so I wrapped some masking tape around a bit of the wreath before I attached the wire. Also, get a second box of toothpicks, as if you really cram the gumdrops close together like I did, you'll run out. I hope you have as much making this wreath as I did and here's hoping your family doesn't keep sneaking gumdrops out of the bowl like someone did at my house. Ahem, Dave.

Happy Friday!

Monterey Bay Aquarium / September 2011 / Polaroid 600 film

Tintype Portraits.

There were only a few places in San Francisco that we really wanted to visit while we were there. One of those places was Photobooth. Featuring all things analog, it's pretty much the coolest space on the West Coast. A gallery space, analog photo shop (they sell Impossible Project film!) and portrait studio all in one, they specialize in making tintype and polaroid portraits. The tintype process still escapes us a bit, so to learn more about it click here. Our tintypes were taken on our last evening in San Francisco. From start to finish, the entire process only took about half an hour, but we were having so much fun talking shop with owners Vince and Michael, that we ended up staying a couple hours. If you find yourself in San Francisco soon, be sure to go get tintyped. You won't regret it.

Boo!

Happy Halloween! Photo taken with PZ 600 UV+ Black Frame  film by the Impossible Project.

San Francisco.

 

 

San Francisco, Rules of Attraction style:
Ultimately, we arrived in San Francisco. We marveled at the views overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, walked through Chinatown where we inexplicably heard a lot of 80s power ballads, went to a speak easy with friends where the password to get in was "boner torpedo", ate burritos at El Farolito and were serenaded by mariachi, got Tintype portraits taken at Photobooth (more on that in another post), left a debit card in an ATM (Dave), received a bit of a sunburn walking from SoMa to Fisherman's Wharf and back, subsequently got blistered feet (Whitney), pressed pennies any chance we could, had breakfast at Brenda's French Soul Food complete with watermelon sweet tea and crayfish beignets, Picasso and mean security guards at the De Young Museum, Whitney got motion sickness inside the planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences and then fell asleep during the hour long program, randomly came upon the Legion of Honor with the Dutch Masters and "The Mourners" exhibits, enjoyed a perfect evening dinner of pizza and wine at a sidewalk cafe, the infamous Bi-Rite Creamery for ice cream gluttony, we watched tourists traveling on Segways (seriously what's with all the Segways?), spent a drunken afternoon at La Mar that resulted in Whitney shopping at Madewell (hello, new chartreuse silk blouse), enjoyed coffee, cappuccinos and artisan donuts at Sight Glass Coffee, and came across two dozen dogs at China Beach going crazy in the surf and sand. Thank you, San Francisco.