My New Baby... Pentax Spotmatic F!!

This is my new baby!  A Pentax Spotmatic F with a Takumar 55mm 1.8 lens!  I LOVE it!  I ran my first roll of film through it (Fujifilm Superia X-tra 800) and the pictures are gorgeous!  These are my very first film photos and I am just thrilled to bits that I actually got the exposures right!  They aren't the look I'm going for, but I know now that I can properly expose the pictures with the settings I was using.  I'm so proud of myself! I was totally expecting for a lot of extremely over and under exposed images.  

Here is the very first photo I took with the Pentax. This is my sister helping cook Christmas dinner at my mom's.  The colors are dead on to what it really looked like.  

A close up of the Christmas tree...

Here is my african violet.  I've had it for almost a year now and it is finally blooming!  

A heart I drew in the snow on our driveway.  I tried to overexpose this one a little so the snow wouldn't be so grey.  

 Same with this one...

Here is the aftermath of Christmas morning.  No more presents and pine needles everywhere!  I love how this picture was exposed.

Same here....

So, in summary, I'm in love with my new camera!  I can't wait to develop some more rolls of film!  Now I have to do some research and hunting around to find the best photo lab with the lowest prices.  :)  I'm still trying to figure out how to best scan these into the computer.  The originals are better, but you get the idea.

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas!  Mine was, well, not so good due to the whole family getting the flu just in time for Christmas day.  I think the worst day was actually Christmas day.  Uggghh.  Hopefully next year will be better.  I don't want to complain but I you can't imagine how depressing it was.  I didn't get sick because I was the only one who got the flu shot.  I can guarantee that EVERYONE will be getting the flu shot this year and every year from now on.  

Enjoy the rest of the holiday season and have a Happy New Year!!  Next up will be my OTHER new camera!!  Didn't know I had another one, did you?  I've lost count of how many cameras I have now, but that's a good problem, right?  :)

My New Toys...

I know it's not Christmas yet, but I already bought myself some early Christmas presents!  Introducing my three new babies:  Yashica-635, Duaflex III, and LifeTime 120.  Aren't they adorable?!  I have been interested in vintage cameras for a while now and I've finally starting collecting some of them!  I am so excited!

I got this lovely Duaflex set on Ebay for $12!  It was a bargain.  I'll admit that the only reason I got a bargain on it was because the person who listed it misspelled the name of the camera and I don't think very many people even knew that it was there.  The only reason I found this misspelled listing is because I misspelled it in the search bar.  Ha!  I don't plan on actually running film through it, but I do plan on practicing TTV or "through the viewfinder" photography with it.  Google it sometime.  It's amazing!   

Here's my first TTV!  It's a very bad one because I haven't built the holder for it to block out the light that puts the glare on the glass.  But it's still pretty cool!  In case you didn't know, it's supposed to have all those flecks and spots.  That it what makes TTV photography so cool!  

Here is my prized Yashica-365!  I LOVE it!  It was made sometime around 1958.  I got it from a guy off of Craigslist for $39!  Score!  I haven't taken any pictures with it yet, but I will very, very soon.  It takes 120, or wide format, film that is about four times the size of 35mm.  You can make HUGE prints of these pictures.  But aside from that, this camera is supposed to take very crisp and clear photos.  I can't wait to see what it can do!  There is also a way to run 35mm through this, but you have to have the adapter.  I'll probably try to find one sometime to cut the cost.  120 film is expensive to buy and develop.  It is built like a tank and weighs a ton!  No wonder they still work over 50 years later!

Here's what it looks like when you look into the viewfinder. 

This little cutie is just a box camera from the 40s, I think.  I won't be running film through it.  She's just a collectible.  It's not in too great of shape and everything seems a little wobbly, but I got her for free!

Can't wait to show you the pictures they take!  

Betsy McCall Paper Dolls...

I had the idea yesterday to look online for some paper dolls I could cut out for Katie.  I just wanted free printouts because I didn't want to spend money on something she wouldn't enjoy.  Anyway, I looked online for about two hours and I found these!  Betsy McCall paper dolls!  They are so CUTE!  They were printed monthly in McCall's Magazine from 1951 through the 1990s.  There are literally hundreds of dresses and dolls to cut out.  The design changed several times but I am in love with the first designs from the 50s.  On the website above you can print them all out for free!

I printed the first one out for my daughter, Katie, yesterday and she just loves it!  I am so excited she does!  She wants me to make her a bed and a closet to hang all of her clothes in.  I'm not sure about the closet but I might make a "dresser" out of shoe box for her.  

She has never heard of or seen paper dolls before as far as I know and she couldn't believe there was such a thing!  I love introducing her to new things.  All the searching online was worth finding these!

My New Obsession... glitterhouses!

Ok, so I know that Christmas is two months away, but I can't help myself.  I am completely obsessed with glitter houses!  I actually just discovered them.  Apparently, they are a once common vintage Christmas decoration originally called putz houses, I think.  Here is a link if you would like to read more about them.  I found an awesome blog this week called A Field Journal and I love the glitter house village she made last Christmas.  So, so, so pretty!  I love the pinks and aquas and creams!  So romantic and dreamy.  Anyway, I am totally copying her.  I am not going to beat around the bush about that. She just did a perfect job and can't change anything about it.  I don't know, maybe I'll change a couple things but my village is going to be very similar.  I might play up the aquas a little more and soften the pinks a little.  My projects never turn out the way I originally invision them.  Sometimes they come out better and sometimes they come out worse.  Like, a month ago I decided to make big fabric pumpkins out of different textured whitish fabrics and put them on my mantel along with some tall glass candlesticks I have.  Horrible.  It looked horrible.  So I wasted two hours of time (but not much money I'm relieved to say) and was left with an undecorated mantel.  In the end I just threw up a fake fall leaf garland with my glass candlesticks and a few faux mercury glass votive holders and it looks great!  Who knew?  Oh, well.  At least it was an easy fix.  Ok, back to the glitter houses...  Here is a picture of the original glitter house village I fell in love with (blogged here).  Isn't it just lovely?

...and here is a picture of my first glitter house although it's unadorned right now.  I LOVE it!  I decided to start with the church and I used the pattern on Martha Stewart's website here.  The chipboard (which is dang hard to find) is a little rough due to my putting on too much glue on the template.  But it will be covered by many layers of prettiness, so I'm not worried about it.

I'll post more pics as my village undergoes construction.  I'm hoping to have it all finished by the end of November so I can put it up on the mantel just in time for the Christmas season.  So excited!  I can't stop holding it, it's so cute!  My oldest daughter, Katie, loves it too.  She keeps asking me when she can paint it.  I think I might have to make her one of her own.  :)