Star Wars Fine Art

I love Worth1000’s Star Wars Photoshop contest because it merges my slightly geeky sci fi side with my love of fine art. I can’t pick a favorite- maybe the Yoda Bouguereau or the little girl holding the AT-AT, and the Adam & Eve with Chewbacca is pretty funny. I’m so impressed with the Photoshopping skills (well, in most of the entries)!! Check it out!

Cute Chicks

This is totally me:

You might not be able to read the caption, but it says “Jenny spent many a pregnant night dreaming of breast-feeding, washing hemp diapers, and handcrafting education toys from pieces of twine. And then she had the baby.”

I was one of those people who said my kid won’t watch TV until she’s much older, and even then in moderation. Then I had the baby. And if 5 minutes of Noggin will snap her out of a fussy time and allow me to regain my sanity, then let’s watch Oswald, baby! I’m still on the fence about cloth diapers. I swear my child poops more than I thought possible. I should have started back when it was all breastmilk poop and not as offensive as real food poop. Yucko. Oh yeah, I also wanted her to play with handmade, organic toys, not loud obnoxious plastic stuff. Unfortunately she only likes loud, plastic stuff that requires batteries. She doesn’t even touch her stuffed animals.

I love Sloane Tanen’s work. She is so funny and I love those little chickens. A few years ago I had one of her calendars in my office, but my boss at the time was a little offended by the lesbian reference in Paige, so I took it down. Recently, I put her Hatched book on my Amazon wishlist without seeing any of the images and now that I’ve looked at a few of the prints I realize I must have this book. In Placenta, the chicken is babywearing!! (There’s a phrase you probably don’t see often, “the chicken is babywearing”) Only my fellow babywearing mamas probably find that as hilarious as I do. And Ned’s bedtime,
Goodnight Moon and Polygamist are pretty funny too. I think the book would make a really cute gift for a new mom.

Fireworks Photography

Just a few links with tips on getting great fireworks shots:

Photojojo: 11 Tips for Sparkling Fireworks Photos

Scott Kelby’s Photoshop Insider: How to shoot fireworks

NYIP Fireworks Photos

Digital Photography School’s How to Photograph Fireworks

Custom Photo M&Ms

What a cute idea! You can now put a small image on your custom M&Ms. I did the regular customs for our 10th anniversary, but with my complete inability to keep a secret Chris managed to find out about them weeks before our trip. I need to do all my shopping for him about 5 minutes before I need to give him a gift.

Good Deals

Just a few good deals on baby stuff to pass along:

Attached to Baby Spring Cleaning Sale. Lots of carriers on sale, including BabyHawk and some solarveil/water slings.

MamaBargains.com, kind of like Woot, but for baby stuff.

Janie and Jack’s Season Finale sale starts tomorrow, but some SF prices are already online.

Listen At Your Own Risk

I get songs stuck in my head all the time, usually really annoying ones. Last week after reading a music flashback post on another blog I had Electric Blue by Icehouse stuck on continuous play for at least two days. Lord help me. Although I think the worst song to get stuck in your head is Manfred Mann’s Blinded By The Light. Seriously, watch the following video clip at your own risk. I will not be liable for you being wrecked up like a douche (Can you believe the actual lyrics are revved up like a deuce? And Bruce Springsteen wrote it?).

Now that I have a child and am becoming more familiar with children’s programming there is a whole new world of crap songs to get stuck in my head. For example, the theme songs for Franklin (the whiny ass turtle), Wow!Wow!Wubbzy!, and anything from that obnoxious show Lazytown. And Ni Hao, Kai-Lan has a pretty obnoxious theme song (She’s the Chinese Dora for those of you not watching Nick Jr.). And I freaking hate The Wonder Pets. That stupid duck, Ming Ming, with the speech impediment needs a one way ticket out of the classroom. “There’s an animal in TWOUBLE.” On today’s show they were climbing the “PYWAMIDS.”

There are a few shows that I do enjoy, like Jack’s Big Music Show. That’s a cute show and the music doesn’t make your ears bleed. Maybe I’m just a sucker for puppets. And I like Oswald. It has Fred Savage from The Wonder Years and the guy that played Squiggy in Laverne & Shirley. So there you go, a new Mom’s perspective on Noggin/Nick Jr. I should be in a focus group.

Lynda.com

As I was viewing the video tutorial for Photoshop Portrait Retouching Essentials today on Lynda.com, I noticed on Chris Orwig’s website there is a link for a free weeks trial. I’ve mentioned before that we really enjoy our subscription to Lynda.com and it’s not just limited to Adobe products or photography. They have almost 30,000 different tutorials on over 400 subjects. Check it out!

Flip Clips

Saw this site today and thought it was a cute idea, especially as we get more of Daphne’s milestones (crawling, walking) on tape. You can upload your short video clips and have them turned into a flip book. Check it out: flipclips.com

Is your lip gloss killing you??

Did you see the recent news story about the lip gloss/skin cancer link? Supposedly wearing lip gloss can make it easier for UV rays to penetrate the skin, plus the moisture helps break down your skin’s natural defense in the outer layer. Oh, please. What if it has shiny reflective glitter? Does that block UV? Just kidding.

But what doesn’t cause cancer these days? If I do get skin cancer (which is certainly a possibility with my family history) it will be because of my uber-pale skin. I always have to pick the lightest foundation shade, and sometimes that still isn’t light enough. Urban Decay used to have a Surreal Skin foundation named Apparition that worked well for me. That’s just sad. I guess I truly am as white as a ghost.

For the most part I embrace the pale, but I do miss tanning. I started to tan before we went to the Bahamas two years ago and stopped once I found out I was pregnant. Didn’t want to cook Daphne or run the risk of any neural tube defects. Now I completely understand how people get addicted to tanning. It was so relaxing and tanning just makes all those little skin imperfections disappear. Maybe I need to break out the self-tanning lotion.  At least until the next news story about self tanners causing cancer.

Hairdos

When I was in elementary school I wanted to wear my hair in two French braids like the girls in Toni Basil’s Mickey video. In hindsight, it’s not a great look. But my best friend Jane wore her hair in French braids as well as most of the girls my class. The problem? My mom couldn’t French braid. I was outta luck until I got older and learned how to braid my own hair.

So when I saw Girly Do’s blog & Hair Today I bookmarked them for future Daphne reference.  Yep, I think Daphne & I are going to have years of hairdo fun.   And for older girls, I’m loving Heather Bailey’s Trash Ties (she also designed the Fresh Cut fabric line).  I’ll never have hair long enough for something like that, but I love the different looks you can achieve, like the Tara bun.  Cute!