Just for the heck of it...

Aaaahhh, the weekend is finally here!

I've just been so unmotivated as of late... unmotivated and uninspired for both taking photographs and blogging. Coming back home, leaving G behind in the US, and going back to work not just full force but overdoing it sounds like a good excuse, but still, what time off I've had this past weeks I've dedicated to reading (or to be more accurate, devouring books, this week I've read 3 books, one per day, I think Charlaine Harris' style makes for a really fast read for me!).

So today, after the morning bath after work to relax all the tensions from the rather bad night and a lil morning nap (and failing at trying to work on this week's self-portrait), I'm sitting here in my sofa, chillin' at last and thinking that I will update my blog with mindless babbling and a reminder of what this blog is about.

G suggested this while we were on holiday, given the amount of reviews and how all of them are such glowing and positive ones, I just again remind all the followers (and occasional readers) of my blog (75 of them, WOW! I'm so flattered! Thank you guys for thinking I'm worth following) that this is NOT a reviews blog, what is this blog, then? Aside from the weekly place where I post our lil ongoing photographic learning challenge, is a place where I share my love of the handmade products that I purchase, which means, everything that is featured in this blog has been bought by yours truly, I don't get things sent to be reviewed.

The process here is simple, I buy something handmade, I get it, I love it, and I want to rave about it! So I take some pics and write a blog here about it! Of course all the reviews are positive ravings, cause I write about what I love, that's why the title of the blog is "In Love With Handmade"!

One of the things that buying handmade includes is a more personal touch in the whole process, where you talk more with the person you are buying things from, so that also translates with a more friendly relationship with the sellers, and after a positive experience, I usually keep in touch with sellers via twitter, etsy convos or the blogsphere itself, and being a repeat customer can mean access to discounts or special promotions, and let's face it, I'm so damned nice, sellers love me to bits! ;-)

The bottom line of this blog is just this: this is my little corner to voice my opinion, and that's just it, MY OPINION, I'm not being paid to say things one way or the other, and if I get something and feel blah about it, or didn't have a wholly positive experience about it, I won't blog about it, cause it won't be worth my time.

So, that's that, outta my system. Now I can go get me a cuppa and think about what to do about my damned self-portrait for this week...

See you tomorrow (hopefully)!!

Sunday Shots: Week 30 & 31

*dusts off blog*

It's been a while since I last posted, but coming back home, the jet lag, leaving G behind and going back to work full force has kept me both busy and uninspired to work on the blog.


We've also been quite uninspired to work on our weekly self-portraits, but we finally managed to get our arses in gear a bit, so here I give you both our shots for week 30 & 31.


Week 30:





Week 31:





Hopefully this next week I'll update the blog more often, since I have a few days off, so I'll have time to rest, and my inspiration will come back. Wish me luck!

Sunday Shots: Week 29

Sunday Shots is back, and right on schedule again! (at least in US time, in Spain is already past 2 am... my goodness, the jet lag is gonna be sooooo bad for me!).


This week Gaurav managed to take his self-shot on Thursday itself, a total first for him, I slacked a bit more, but managed to take mine on Friday itself.


Gaurav is showing off is "new" 30 year old prime lens.




And I'm showing off the colours that come straight off the camera using the "Pop Art" filter.




Have a great rest of the weekend, and next time I'll be posting it'll be in all probably from Spain, since I'm going back on Tuesday *sniffle*.

Happy Halloween!!

Hey guys! Happy Halloween!!


I hope you all lot are/have had a very fun Halloween! This was my first time to really celebrate Halloween since it's not celebrated in Spain, so though I've seen it many times in movies and all sort of TV shows, this was the first time I did have a Trick-or-Treat & dress up Halloween.


Me & G are house sitting right now for his sister, so we were in charge of handing out candy this year. We didn't have the foresight to plan much costume wise, so I managed to come up with a home-made witch costume, and Gaurav decided to skip it.




My witchy costume was pieced together with a brown dress G's sister had around, a witch hat, a pair of stripped longstockings I got from PoppysWickedGarden, two Halloween-y hair flowers I got from Mizu's Garden, a necklace from Headless Tess and my make up, base & veil by Pink Quartz Minerals & eye shadows by Orglamix.













I have to say I enjoyed giving out the candy and seeing the costumes the kids wore (I loved that some many kids had SW related costumes!) and even more the ones the parents wore! The weather was pretty cold though, so we didn't get as many trick or treaters as we were expecting, which leaves us with LOADS of candy left... even if we were giving handfuls of candy to every kid...




Halloween really IS my favourite holiday!

Sunday Shots: Week 28

Hello there!

Can you believe it? It's Sunday and I'm here writing a blog entry for the Sunday Shots! It's been quite a while since I managed to write on a Sunday, and it's been quite even longer since both G and me had our self-portraits done by Saturday!

I'm guessing that the gorgeous fall weather has been pretty inspiring for us both!


So here they go!:





Hopefully next week I'll post a pair of new blog entries (aside from the photography ones).

Enjoy your Sunday!

My Funky Camera

Happy gloomy Tuesday!


Surprised that I'm writing a new blog entry today while being on holiday?


Today is a gloomy, cloudy Tuesday and though I got my Riona cardigan in the mail from Argentina today (which cheered me up considerably), it's one of those days that don't really make you feel like going out anywhere, and since almost everyone over here is napping, I'm gonna use my time to catch up on at least a blog entry.


Since I got my new camera, and with it the neck strap, I've been thinking that I'm really not a neck strap person, and even less a regular (read as boring) Olympus strap... I obviously have nothing against Olympus (I do love my E-620 and lenses) but I guess I don't like having their name written in HUGE letters around my neck... And besides, I don't find neck straps to give me the kind of flexibility for shooting that I want.


That's how the quest for a wrist strap began. As usual I started by looking on Etsy, and I found that though not very numerous, there were a few shops that made camera straps, but unfortunately most of them only made neck straps, or strap covers (which I have considered to hide the huge Olympus letters on my neck strap), and the wrist straps that were available were so for point & shoot cameras, not DSLRs.


So, I was again left with a neck strap option... until my photography all-knowing bf came upon My Funky Camera's website that offered wrist straps in very fun and quirky fabrics, exactly just what I was looking for! After looking around and loving a lot of the cute fabrics she uses on her straps, I decided that the one I loved the most was the Andalucia Blue Birds fabric (which as it happens, has a Spanish name!) and that's the one Gaurav got me as one of my b-day presents!






Once I arrived here in WI, I got to get the neck strap out and instead start using the wristlet from My Funky Camera, and I have to say that not only I think the size is perfect and the strap is very well made, but also, THIS is how I love to play around with my camera, making sure I won't drop it by accident (it'll always be hanging from my wrist, so I only have to avoid banging it against walls & the like) but not having a limiting strap either!






And also, my camera looks so cool with her new accessory!




I will now return to my Apple Cinnamon Green Tea and wait for the bf to get up... If there's a general nap time tomorrow, I might write another blog entry! Till then... Ciao!

Sunday Shots: Week 27 (Monday Edition)

Hey there!


No, I haven't been snowed in without an internet connection, but I have been very entertained (a good mix of busy and lazy) and truth be told, I only managed to take my own self-shot Sunday at 11:50 pm.


This past week we went onto a pair of shootings around, G, his bro-in-law and me, since we three are huge photography fans, we went to Wollersheim Winery for some picture taking & wine buying (and tasting, they had this new Iced Wine that is lovely!).


And also, which made me very happy... I got my NEW Olympus 50mm f2 macro lens! And that was the lens that both me and G used to take our shots for the week, and here they go!:






Hopefully, I'll be able to write a pair of new blog entries more this week, even more since I already have the photos edited for one of them!