Sew baby Sew!

Sew. Well the actual stitching part hasn't happened yet. But I am getting somewhere. Since it has been rainy and stressful I not only finished the book I was reading and I REALLY worked on costumes for Halloween.

I bought my fabric a few weeks ago online to a few problems. 1 the wool I ordered was SUIT wool not wool for making a cape, so instead I went to the store and actually bought a black wool/polyester blend for only about $9/yard, I got less than recommended for my pattern, but I knew I didn't want it way long on me, and too much wool becomes really heavy really fast. Especially on all the other layers I will be wearing.

black felt for cape

I also was not super fond of the color of linen I ordered, I wanted it to have a little more GREEN in it, so I bought a packet of forest green Dylon fabric dye to alter the color slightly, which I let my linen sit in for about an hour and got some great results.

Dylon

dye job- use the sick for easy clean up and rubber mixer so as not to stain

LEFT: original color                            RIGHT: after dying

Other than that my white fabric for my chemise is perfect, white and a good sort of wrinkly, I'm excited about the results of that as well, but slightly concerned over if the sleeves will be long enough.

Gauzy white

I'm using these patterns, with slight revisions:

Ryan's costume is SO simple. If you want to do a GREAT KILT for Halloween, buy 10 yards of fabric, look up a tutorial and GO. That's it. Granted Ryan already has a shirt from when we did the Princess Bride and we ordered some simply boots he can wear with socks and voila.

NOTE ON WIDTH: I couldn't find 60" wide plaid material ANYWHERE unless I wanted to buy a kilt, the cheapest was $220. So I went to Joann, bought 44" wide cotton flannel (like for shirts) and made sure to get something close to a traditional tartan (Stuart Hunting) , which as far as I trust should be just fine. NOTE ON YARDS: you may not need 5 yards, less may work just fine, it all depends on how much you want to spent and how big your kilt wearer is.

This tutorial was very helpful for me.

When done I hope to look as awesome as this!

Back to the Basics

When I was 9 my dad was going to swap meets, gun shows, antique stores etc. Same as he does today, same as he always will. Yet at one of these events he found something that would change my life forever. At one of these little meets he found a Canon 1980 AE-1 35mm camera. The body was in pristine shape, and the basic lens was also functional, it even had a cap that alluded to the sponsorship of the 1980 Olympics by Canon. My dad bought this camera with its hideous rad and yellow strap, and sentimental lens cap; he took it home, he dusted it off, he bought a camera bag and presented me this for my 10th birthday.

What my baby looks like

I was ecstatic at this gift, and to this day I think it was the best present I ever got as a child. This meant I would no longer waste film and energy with my grandma's ole and clunky point and shoot and that I too could have an SLR, just like my dad's Pentax and take photos. Lots of photos.

Yet it was not just taking photos it was everything that came with the responsibility of owning and using an SLR. It meant that my first roll of film was ruined when I tried to wind it up because I didn't understand the method of pushing one little black button on the bottom of the camera, shredding my work. It meant that I had to learn how to patiently adjust lighting, shutter speed, focus etc. It meant walking around outside and in my house with a piece of cardboard with a square cut out of it to see what framed well or not. It meant months of waiting to save up money to develop film. It meant being the weird kid in middle school always taking pictures on her SLR or a throw away. This was before smart phones, and the time when it was cool to be shutter happy.

So why bring this up?

Well in Italy this summer another student at my school, a professional photographer that owns his own business and has since he was a teenager (now 24) was going back to basics. He was going to art school for photography to get an actual degree. Granted it seemed that he knew about 95% of what he was relearning, but he felt happy learning it all over again.

So, here I am, back at Colorado State, 22 years old, meaning I have about 12 years of experience, I've shot two weddings, I have another on the way. I have a decent portfolio and I believe a lot of talent and experience but I am taking a bare-bones basic photography class, where I am relearning most of what I know or instinctively do when I am taking photos.

Yet, there is something thrilling about relearning these little things, or reminding yourself about all the little functions of a camera or the importance of aperture. As frustrated as I was in my first two weeks of a game of repetition all the sudden today I feel refreshed. It is not as if I am learning something new, or having a major life change as a result, I just feel excited again.

Not only am I going to be shooting some neat things for the class, which is a minor challenge and mentally stimulating, something I need in a course, but I am getting to slowly sink into a pool of photography. I don't have to explain to people, I can just do photos, I don't have to be perfect for a client, I can just do photos and once again I am tasting what it was to be 10 years old taking photos of plastic dinosaurs.

I can breath in the smell of equipment, and though the gelatin plastic sweetness of film is tucked in the back of my closet, there is so much with digital that I can be excited about.

Which brings me to my point. Maybe we can all use to go back to basics. Maybe just baking sugar cookies until they're perfect, or doodling, or sewing draw string bags. Because I am finding a thrill in relearning, in being more present, in going slowly. I am also learning to not look down on "the simple" because there is some chunk in there for us to gain something from. So experts and professionals, where did you start? What could you go back to to reclaim part of you?

~Rebecca Lee Robinson

Steam Punk Wedding

This happened a few weeks ago but with the start of school and what not I did not get to post anything, but better late than never.

A few weeks ago some friends from high school for married in Woodland Park, where we all went to high school together. Town of maybe 7,000 mountainous, pretty and a good chance to catch up with people.

They had the wedding at the local golf club, and with only minor problems the day was a success, the couple was happy and I got some great images for themselves and myself to enjoy.

Book-page flowers for centerpieces

The officiants

Grooms party

Such beautiful landscape

The groom

Happy couple!

Bridal Party

Bridal Party

Beautiful Bride

Happy Couple shot.

Getting things in focus

So I have this thing where I do photos. I take them for weddings, engagements, maternity, and for fun such as wen I was travelling this summer. But being an artist of any type is usually expensive, time consuming, exhausting, and you get paid very little money, if anything at all.

Therefore I am doing a few new things to bring in extra cash. Not only did I re-open my Etsy store, but I am working on updating it and getting new items into that store and two other ones. The easiest one has been on Pixie Set, where I can quickly add albums and then sell prints instantly that way. The other one which gives me more versatility is through Fine Art America where I can do a HUGE variety of prints, cards etc. They do all the dirty work of shipping and printing, and I get a check for what I have sold every month.

Those are a few new changes. I also updated prices, packages, and printing which can all be seen on my website. I'm also doing a wedding in a couple weeks in Kentucky, doing school projects for a class, and maybe even some other odd jobs here and there.

As always comment below! Or e-mail me with photo inquiries, jobs, and general questions.

I'm going to be BRAVE

Well beyond the emotional courage aspect...

I'm going to be MERIDA!

For Halloween and Ryan is going to be a man in a kilt.





















I also just thought of putting GIFs in my posts.....so expect a lot more of these!

But anyway I plan on going full out! I plan on my hair being just as crazy as this!

The only thing that will be missing is THIS

See they don't accept draft horses where I live.

BACK to the costumes!

This is what Ryan hopes to dress up as:

This is what is actually going to happen:

Love you Ryan, I promise!

My costumes is going to be your basic Merida.

Blue dress, white chemise, big red hair, black boots. I even have a long bow! 

I'm going to be bad ass.

REAL photos to come tomorrow! 

~Rebecca Lee Robinson

Gluten Free and Prices Extreme

Many college kids can live off of $5 a day in food. Meaning you have an inexpensive breakfast, mac and cheese for lunch and say a sandwich for dinner. $5 a day. That’s pretty reasonable considering if you go an entire semester just at that cost you spend roughly $600 a semester, that is if the student goes home on winter break and has no food costs after that. And the MOST frugal of college students can maybe get that number down to $3 or maybe even $2 a day on food. Which is great, I think if one can be more frugal, then do it.

Yet constantly I can’t. While my boyfriend can make and eat a $1 box of macaroni and cheese for dinner, the same box of me, at the cheapest I have seen is $3. Three times the price for macaroni and cheese. Again and again this is the story. Many people can buy a loaf of bread for about $2, I usually face between $4.50 and often it is in the $6 range. One can buy a pound of pasta for $1, and I am faced with the cheapest, all rice at $2 to $5. When we look at everything else there is a massive gap. And it is not just avoiding grains, if one is sensitive enough to gluten then they have to make sure everything they buy off the store shelf is GLUTEN FREE, meaning that the processing and testing indicates that is has no, or in many cases VERY LITTLE gluten in it. So that means that a jar of jelly can go from $1.50 to $5 or that cereal, even just oatmeal can double in price.

So when I look at my grocery bills I want to cringe, because the reality is that I eat at home most the time and that I am still spending more than college kids that eat out once a day. My biggest problem comes from the financial crunch I face. While in theory most people can budget between $150-200/month in groceries, even if I just ate macaroni and cheese for two meals a day at $3/box I’m looking at $180/month in my macaroni bill. While everyone else can get away with $60/month.

So where does that leave me? I am in college, and the pell grant and other things pay for my tuition fees, and sometimes my books. Then I am left with loans for my living expenses per semester, I also work a part time job just to get by. Which with a semester, (I don’t go home for breaks) I get about $5000 and with my job I get another $1500-2000 over a five month period, until the next semester’s money comes in. so let’s say I have $7000 to work with from late August to late January.  I have to pay Sep.-Jan. in rent, which with most apartments in Fort Collins for a two bedroom with a room mate are around $1200/month that means I would be paying about $600/month times five that makes it $3000 gone. Leaving me with $4000. Utilities at another $100 (internet/television, electric, water, trash etc) leaves us at $3500. Let’s take off another $100/month for cell phone and car insurance so we’re at $3000/month. Which is not too bad unless we’re paying for student health insurance which at $1300/semester leaves us at $1700. Take off another $50/month for personal things like tampons, toothpaste etc and we’re at $1450. Which divided by 5 is $290 a month for groceries and other misc. expenses.

$290 a month.

That’s roughly what I am left with every semester to get by, if say I don’t have to buy a new laptop to do school work, or have to leave town in case of a family emergency etc.

The problem is that I do spend almost that much EVERY month to make sure I can eat well. Of course I could cut more expenses here and there, but the point is that when everything is two to three times more expensive for me to eat it becomes a struggle for myself and everyone else in my shoes to get by. 

It's not that there needs to be MORE price cuts for food workers to make it cheaper for me, but maybe us with celiac and other allergies (mine include soy, but also upsets to dairy, beans, nuts etc.) need more "income". It makes it really hard to get by and eat everything I need to to stay healthy. I wish I could go buy Burger King Veggie Burgers for $3 when I want something to eat, but instead I spend at leat $6 a meal if not closer to $10 just to eat somewhere where I won't get sick.  

So the point is that I feel CSU is really failing people with allergies and extra health related expenses in the way that they have things set up. I imagine even other people without allergies have a hard time getting through the semester,  say you without the ability or time to work part time, or you with a sick granny in New York that you fly home regularly to see. I feel you. Also who else has noticed the amount that rent has increased in the last year? When I started CSU most 2-bedroom places I looked into cost about $800/month, now most people are looking at $1200 or more, I have even heard of up to $1300 for studios by campus. That's more expensive than when I lived by downtown denver!

Not that the University has any control over housing prices, but they can adjust their "cost of living" and they could adjust their student housing to be better and more affordable, and they could work locally to establush more reasonably priced homes. Just some ideas, because when a city has only about a 1% vacancy rate it's really hard to fight for something affordable.

Who has thoughts on this? Also, do any of you know about getting tax breaks through the government for celiacs? I plan on saving all my receipts from this month to get a more accurate price count, and I’ll update in October! Thanks for reading. 

Want more iformation?

http://glutenfreecooking.about.com/od/glutenfreecookingbasics/a/highgffoodcosts.htm

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18783640

http://www.city-data.com/city/Fort-Collins-Colorado.html