Thursday, September 27, 2012

Sites around Durham

On a casual drive home from school one day I decided to pull out my camera which happened to be in the car and take some snap shots around Durham. There is some fun architecture in this city and lots of old brick buildings and older homes. So let's pretend you're in the car with me driving around Durham. Here is a glimpse of what you'd see.

Nomadic Trading Company store front:

Green Horizon store front:

Side of a building showing a cool black painted cityscape:

Kings burger joint:

Manbites Dog Theater:

Old dilapidated store near my son's school:

Claymakers:

Not sure what's in here, but I liked the rounded facade of the brick:

Liggett & Meyers Tobacco Company billboard:

Cool old house:

This was probably once a house, but is now a law firm:

Old white Southern house:

Very cool Red painted craftsman style house:

Wonder when this dates back to?

Another one story typical looking Durham home:

These were once military houses, turned into quaint rentals:

I think this is a dental office:


Another brick law firm:

The old tobacco warehouses in downtown Durham. #24:

This was taken at night. The Peabody Place, which includes Parker and Otis and Isley Hawkins Architecture firm:

A night time shot of Brightleaf Sqaure, a fun downtown area surrounded by old Tobacco Warehouses turned into Restaurants and stores. That night they had a band playing in the center with lots of people enjoying the night life:

There you have it, fun photography while driving around Durham. Hope you enjoyed this little tour of our town!
xo
Cathleen

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Week 4 of photography

Week 4's assignment for Photography was this: 

Take 2 almost identical pictures of a row of subjects (ex. cars in parking lot). Set camera to 80mm. Focus on the closest subject about 5-10 feet away. Go to Aperture Priority and set the aperture to the widest opening then do the same pic at the smallest opening.  

So below I have two sets of photos showing the assignment.  I went to one of my favorite hang outs, the fabric store. LOL.

This photo was shot at 55m on AV (aperature priority setting) and F stop 36.


This one shot at 55mm, AV F stop 5.6. You can see that the depth of field opens up and focuses on things in the distance.


Here are some colorful spools of thread. This was taken at 55m, AV at F stop 36.


This is at 55m, AV with F stop 5.6.


This coming Saturday is our location shoot at Duke Gardens, so I should I have some pretty good photos for next week to share with you.

xo
Cathleen

Monday, September 24, 2012

Buh Bye Bifolds

We've been having a problem here at Peahen Pad ever since we installed our new floors.  Since the floors became a different height it threw off our bifold doors in our washing machine area. They literally have not been able to shut correctly and were really misaligned.   And if you see here in this pic, they really stick out when they are opened and cause a "flow" problem from the laundry area to the outdoors.


Here's the other view and you can also see how they impose on the back door and make it impossible to put the deadbolt on.  I am always doing laundry, so this became a huge problem to me, plus they literally didn't close correctly.  So off them came!



When they came down they left this little line at the top of the molding that needed to be sanded, holes needed repair, and it needed to be painted.  So guess what I did? Yep, all three of those things.


But it only took me about an hour to make it look like this.  You can still see a little line, but it will be hidden when I cover it with a shower curtain. So yeah, I decided that a shower curtain rod would be the best way for me to hang curtains because I can use the tension rod instead of drilling holes.


I had these Linen curtains with grommet holes already on hand, yay!  They were perfect for the job. The rod came from TJ Maxx for just $14. It's a nice oil rubbed bronze color.


Ah, I just love the way it looks now and so much less imposing than those opened bifold doors. They are puddling on the floor just a tad now, but thankfully when I find some cute tie backs, it won't be a problem at all.

And another view from the living room.  It really makes a difference to me having these pretty curtains that I can totally shut when I want them to be or open when I'm doing laundry, which is most of the time, but now I can lock the back door and walk through with no problems. Oh and no more pinched baby fingers in those bifold doors. :)


Have you tried hanging curtains in your laundry room instead of doors?  What did you think?  Did it work for the long haul? Happy Monday and happy laundry day for me!

xo
Cathleen



Friday, September 21, 2012

1st birthday at Park

A birthday party for a One year old is a big event, but also can be stress-free and simple to put together. For my oldest son's 1st birthday we celebrated with some great friends at a park just across the street. We were living in La Jolla at the time in San Diego, CA.   This was 5 years ago, boy where has the time gone?

Here we have our mantel in our old apartment. He was lavished with gifts from our family! I think this was pre-birthday in the park since none of the festivities took place at home.


Some nice person brought him blue birthday balloons with a teddy bear mylar balloon.


Here is our small family just before festivities kicked off. Our birthday boy was so big! He could walk by his 1st birthday and say quite a few words by then.


And he loved to suck his thumb. :)


We set up a few of the picnic tables with blue paper table clothes and brought the balloons from home.


Our friend Josh wrote "Happy Birthday Charlie" on the cement behind him with sidewalk chalk. What a great idea that was. We hauled Charlie's high chair to the park so he could sit safely and eat his birthday lunch and cake.  I think we just wanted our hands free so we could enjoy ourselves too!


We used streamers to adorn the columns. And here I was attending to my little man.


For lunch we served little sandwiches and fruit. The party favors included sand pails with little shovels and some treats for the kids to take home.


Here is Charlie with his friend Gemma at the time playing with his sand toys. Gosh we still have these sand toys in our back yard today. They have stood the test of time for sure!







Look at that silly face! My mom found the birthday boy crown and shirt for him.


The cake was purchased at a local bakery.  I'm telling you, back then it was low-key and was really stress-free. Those are the best kinds of birthdays!


Charlie sat in my lap while opening his gifts. He had so much fun opening up those presents I still remember his excitement as everyone watched.


Can't believe 5 years have passed since this party.  My little guy is now in 1st grade! Love you Charlie!

xo
Cathleen

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