Origami Envelopes: In Rainbows

After almost 5 months in the works, here are the wedding thank-you notes in their final form – signed, sealed and now in the hands of the Postal Service:

Since I can’t seem to manage to do anything simply (or in a timely fashion for that matter *ahem*), I decided I would make the thank-you notes from scratch, including envelopes, much like we did with our party invites.

When we sent our invitations out last autumn we also included an origami paper crane in each envelope:

to tie-in with the origami boxes we made to hold our favors:

As a means to bring this whole endeavor full-circle, now that the party is over, I also used origami paper to create the envelopes for the thank-you notes.

And it was pretty simple to do!

Watch… I’ll show you.

First, you’ll want to select a large (9 3/4″) square piece of paper (color side down):

Next, fold your paper into a triangle:

Take the top layer of the triangle and fold down to meet the center of the base:

Fold the right corner approximately 1/3 over to the left (it’s really hard to make them perfectly uniform so this part is somewhat inexact):

Then do the same with the left corner:

Fold the corner of your last fold (left flap) back onto itself so its edge continues the straight line made from the top right edge of the envelope:

Here’s where it gets a little tricky…

Now, take the point of the flap you just made and fold it toward the top corner of the flap:

Unfold this last fold, exposing the crease, as it is there to guide you through the next step:

Open the creased fold so it looks hollow inside and then “squash” the folds until you have a “sideways” square:

Fold the top point of the envelope down so that it meets about 3/4 of the way down your “sideways” square:

Then tuck that point into the sideways square; flatten the envelope by pressing gently on all the creased areas and PRESTO! – origami envelope:

I found that I needed to add some strategically placed tape around the bottom as well as over the tucked square in order to secure the envelope for USPS transit but if you just plan on using these for hand delivery or table cards or WHATEVER else, then your origami envelope is good to go!

A Brothers’ Diptych

Right before Xmas this past year, the bee came up with a great gift idea for his mom. The previous year he had given her, along with his 3 older brothers, a framed copy of a photograph taken of the boys sometime around 1984. In the picture, all the brothers at that time (the youngest wouldn’t turn up until 1991) posed for a picture in front of the fireplace in the family’s living room.

As with most kids, it’s usually a chore to get them to sit still for a minute, let alone the time needed to organize a proper photo but his mom managed to get a group shot where at least half of them are actually looking at the camera. Two outta four ain’t bad, right?

So this past holiday season, bee decided it might be cool to recreate the scene, some 26 years later, in much the same fashion. The original fireplace was unavailable since they had moved from that house in the early 90’s but we were lucky enough to find a suitable replacement to hold the photo shoot.

With myself behind the camera and some 80 or so shutter clicks later, I was pretty sure we had found a great match-up to the original. The framing and tone of the second picture doesn’t perfectly mimic the original but I think, as a collective effort, we did pretty darn good.

top photo: circa 1984, bottom photo: December 2010

A lot can change in a quarter century but I find it quite refreshing that a lot manages to stay so much the same.

Flickr Friday: Illuminated Star-Gazers

light painting the star watchers
Originally uploaded by bee3six5

For this week’s edition I’ve chosen a favorite of mine taken by the bee from our recent camping/cabin trip to Western PA. The stars were brilliant and plentiful out there even if the cell reception was anything but. Guess you can’t win ’em all…
A group of us went up the mountain to a popular elk viewing post that was all but deserted at nighttime. The air was cold and full of allergens which is why you will see me rocking the bandit look in the background. While the star-gazers stared heaven bound, the bee used a flashlight to paint our persons during a long exposure shot.
The result (as you can see for yourself) is quite cool, giving the black night setting a glowing illumination so each of us can be seen in the image. A job well done, I say…

For more from our amazing (as usual) trip to rural Pennsylvania check out the bee’s photo set on Flickr.

Flickr Friday: Good Morning

morning
Originally uploaded by bee3six5

I’ve decided to mix it up a bit and kick-off my inaugural Flickr Friday with a photo taken by the bee last weekend while visiting friends in Montreal. There were MANY pictures taken, most of mine on the Holga so I will have to wait (probably a while) before I get those negatives developed so I can share them. In the meantime, here is one of my favorite images from our trip.

For more from our mini Montreal get-away check out the bee’s photo set on Flickr.

Introducing… (dun dun da duuuuuuuuuuuuun) KITTEN!!!

Please put your hands together for: 

If the whole name thing is confusing to you I have a feeling you’re probably not alone. We named him after the red-haired co-lead of our favorite band; Scott McMicken of Dr. Dog. 

the force is strong with these two...

Teh kitten? He is awesome. 

From the looks of him I think it’s safe to say he’s a ginger tabby but I think there’s also a good chance he’s part dog. 

He likes to follow me around the house and he’s taken a liking to licking me on the mouth. 

He seems to spend most of his time sleeping, looking like he’s sleeping, playing and just generally being cute. 

How-ever… 

There is an entirely different, much DARKER, side to lil’ ol’ Scotty Mc’s… 

You see, on the one end of the spectrum we have Dr. Scott: sweet, docile and lazy…

Allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the way at the other end we have… 

Mr. HOBBES!!! 

Hobbes isn’t bad per say. He’s just a little high-strung, wound-up, crazed, energetic, hyper and CRAZED. 

After his first day alone in the house while (me) and the bee were out to work, Scott must have been just a tad bit lonely. So he made us pay for it later that evening. 

He spent the majority of the night attempting to ferociously mount/mutilate any and all exposed body parts of ours. For being a neutered guy I must say I was quite impressed at his unwillingness to be emasculated by his “situation”. 

Hobbes scales the couch like a a professional tree climber, wrapping his legs around the backrest for support and then proceeds to hoist himself upwards with a few vertical thrusts and the assistance of some HELLA sharp little talons. 

It’s then that he usually decides to dart recklessly from one end of the sofa to the next, attempting to break his own record for speediness each time. Hobbes also enjoys relentlessly tackling his own shadow and I’m fairly certain that the growls (good lord the GROWLS!) that come out of his tiny body when he’s on the chase of fresh prey would rival that of a dwarf tiger.

If there were such a thing… 

 

*** 

Enough cat talk. Let’s talk dog.

Dr. Dog

(me) and the bee have tickets to see them TWICE next week. Once in Philly on Thursday and then again Saturday night in NYC. If they were playing a show on Friday night, we’d be at that shit too. 

ALSO… 

Next Wednesday we’re going to see Ricky Gervais at Madison Square Garden so, needless to say, next week is going to be reDONKulous schedule-wise. I did a shit job this week keeping up with normal posting and my only excuse was I was too lazy because I got a cat so I have a feeling next week things might be even worse. 

I really hope I haven’t ruined your entire life with the notion that you might be lacking in meandthebee material in the near future but I PROMISE my absence will be worth it because, no doubt, all these adventures will bring with it some crazy-azz shenanigans that I will love nothing more than to share with ya’ll. 

Until then, the Hobbes’ will dance you outta here…

Secret’s In The Sauce

Before we start, there’s just something I need to get off my chest. 

(me) and the bee.  

That is just teeming with grammatical incorrectitude. 

I don’t care. 

As much as I’ve always loved reading and writing and the like I have never enjoyed the nitty gritty of appropriate grammar and usage. I just wing it and hope for the best. 

That being said… 

Yesterday, (me) and the bee attended an annual chili cook-off at a local restaurant to support Adele (bee’s ma) who had entered the contest. We brought the Nikon, along with the Zumi, in order to better capture the hullabaloo surrounding this event. Also, the Zumi can’t really be trusted as of late, which really is a whole ‘nother story and a sore subject at that so just forget I said anything… 

I really had no IDEA how worked up people could get over free food. There must have been at least 200 people who waited throughout the day in an enormous line just to sample from 17 different crock pots. 

chili love train

 And what an assortment it was… 

 

Folks cooked up all sorts of stuff to use as the main component in their recipe. From buffalo and venison to veal and (one of my favorites) sweet potatoes. The man who made it was even nice enough to give me a container full to take home! 

 

We also got yelled at. 

The owner of the place came by and started yelling because we moved a power strip to underneath the table. You know, so it wouldn’t look tacky. 

Like it did. 

Adele's "Dear Chili," aka "The Chili That SHOULD Have Won"

Obviously that wasn’t his concern because that move blew the circuit for a whole row of tables and guess whose fault it was? 

So I took some pictures. 

Here is Mr. Owner Man having a conniption fit. Note the frantic speed at which his hand is moving. 

you can't see it, but the shit is hitting the fan...

 Super fast hands = HELLA pissed. 

I was getting kind of nervous with all this pre-official start of the contest controversy. Luckily, The Bee made it out from behind the table unscathed. 

 

With that fiasco averted, the judges proceeded to eat their way through the competition: 

getting down to business

At this time The Bee snuck back into the judging area to take these behind the scenes pictures. That’s around the time he took my favorite picture of the day. When he showed me, I was lol-ing all over the place. 

Presenting: 

 

This might be the world’s most blatant photo bomb. I couldn’t tell you who this guy is, except that The Bee mentioned that mere moments before he clicked the shutter, dude stepped into frame and gave the camera this big smarmy smile. 

Some nerve. 

You should also note the cans of Sterno located below the table. Now, I’m preeeeeeetty sure the use of Sterno was prohibited in the competition but obviously that didn’t stop them from winning. Because they did. 

I call shenanigans.

***

All awesome photography by The Bee.

All other junk, I’ll take responsibility for.

BlogHer Bound?

I’ve only got 3 more days to make my move on early bird registration for this year’s BlogHer conference in NYC. The Bee has been on my case to sign-up for a while now but, as usual, I’ve decided my best bet is to wait until the last minute and then stress over the impending deadline. I am not even entirely sure that I belong at a place like that but here’s to finding out!

The crap side to this story is that this year’s conference falls ever so inconveniently on The Bee’s birthday and that means I’ll be there and he’ll be, well wherever he wants I guess. It’s his birthday. Maybe a full day away from me is the best birthday gift I could give him….

Needless to say, I’m torn

and chicken shit.

I’m just scared that it’s going to be me, alone, walking into a convention hall full of seasoned and sought-after bloggers only to end up sitting alone in a corner wishing I was just a speck of dirt on the carpet hoping some vacuum would come by and suck me up already.

Nobody likes to feel like a friendless loser but I suppose the only way to “make friends” is to just be present and try for chrissake.

*quick sidenote*

My gramm likes to embarrass me by telling everyone that I’m “shy” when the truth is I generally like to sit back and observe my surroundings before jumping into anything headfirst. Being called shy generally drives me crazy, 1. because I don’t think I am and 2. because for whatever reason, when you are being referred to as such it just comes off negatively, like being that way is a major defect to one’s character.

That being said, I could use some feedback:

What would you do?

Will YOU be attending BlogHer ’10?

If yes, will you be my friend?

Any past BlogHer experiences/tips/suggestions you would like to share?

Am I freaking out unnecessarily or is it totally appropriate to feel like throwing up about something that’s still 6 months away?

HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP!

Oh yeah, and THIS is the view from outside my window:

yet again.

Pretty and all but, really, nature?

REALLY?

I think it’s high time to QUIT. IT.

Blaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgh…

I’m tired. and lazy. and I complain a lot.

WELCOME!

I’m sick of the snow. I’m sick of my car getting stuck in it, and walking through it so my pants get wet up to the knees, and needing to carry the shoes I’m wearing that day in a bag because I have to wear boots outside but I can’t wear them in the office, and just the way snow looks all cold and white and how it mocks me with its refusal to melt even a little and just go away already so we can just get Spring started because seriously?

(me) and Winter are done.

FIN-ISHED

That, and my mind has decided to take a last-minute, unscheduled vacation.

So…

Here are some pictures involving, you guessed it, SNOW!!!

Funny story: Last night I was uploading these pics to the blog and I was pretty punchy because it was almost midnight and I had wanted to post before today but I ate a giant bowl of taco salad instead followed by a Klondike bar (White House Cherry, no less) and then I started to feel kind of sick so that plan went right to hell.

AN-Y-WAY I was looking at the picture below and the first thing that pops into my head is “Hey, look at that. The hat I’m wearing matches that bulldozer in the background!”

Okay, that wasn’t very funny. What IS funny is that I referred to the thing in the background as a bulldozer, which The Bee was quick to correct me on, because that big yellow, clearly dozer-ish, object actually has a very specific name and that name, my friends, is “backhoe”.

I swear. Look it up.

Back. HOE.

Guess what?

I’m 12 and that thing will always be a bull-dozer to me.

NATURE!

ICE!

Lots and lots of ice.

gah.

I’m not sure why this skull wears an eyepatch other than it wants to establish itself as a pirate through and through, even in death, but it’s quite probably the coolest prize found in a cereal box EVER. It strobes red when you tap it and I like to think it gives people a scare who are driving ahead of me, like the 5-0 is after them.

Told ya.

Coolest. Prize. EVER.