Tag Archives: design

Once Upon a Time… on the way to lunch with the Acorn Queen (A Treasury)

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"Meet Same The Smallest Squirrel" by doodlebirdie on Etsy

Sam has a busy day.

He needs to get to The Acorn Queen’s 3rd floor walk up for lunch (yes, she lives in a one bedroom, one bath walk up in the city… these are difficult times).

He overslept and along the way has to say hi to his besties, dodge owls and wires like a game of Frogger, pick up his nutcracker at the shop AND collect as many acorns as possible along the way.

He may be tiny but he’s quick and he’s industrious…Don’t worry about Sam- he rocks at multi-tasking.

My latest treasury was inspired by the word of two in particular, marisolspoon and doodlebirdie, both found on Etsy. I love the teeny little Sam the Squirrel and adore the colors in “The Acorn Queen.” Be sure to check out the treasury and all of the shops included as you won’t be disappointed!

Enjoy!

*tracey*

Baked Figs and Creme Fraiche… A Treasury

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Fresh Figs- a photograph by honeyandjamphoto on Etsy

The only childhood memories I have of anything, “fig related” are of Fig Newtons. I’ll admit it… they weren’t my favorite. I would have much preferred a ooeygooey (yes,  as far as I’m concerned, that’s a word) chocolate chip cookie over a Newton any day. Looking back, I didn’t  appreciate the beauty and delicate flavor of the fig.  As an adult I look forward, with much anticipation, to Autumn and the markets carrying fresh figs. Use them in salads, grill them, or preserve them, they’re healthy and tasty and, dare I say it, one of the most beautiful fruits around. You can find a host of fantastic recipes for figs as well as tips on how to store them on the California Fig Advisory Board’s website found here.

Today’s treasury is inspired by the beautiful shades of green and aubergine of the fig and even includes a special treat… one of my favorite recipes for Baked Figs and Creme Fraiche.  Looking for a simple, yet elegant dessert for a holiday dinner party? Try it… you won’t be disappointed.

Be sure to check out the treasury by clicking on the photo below and search each of the Etsy shops included in the treasury for some great inspiration for the holidays and beyond… Enjoy!

*tracey*

Silver Needle, White Tea… a Treasury

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antique parcel post scale by lacklusterco

My latest treasury takes it’s name from a rare tea, also known as Yin Zhen, a tea famous for its subtle taste, pale infusion, and extraordinary purity. It was a well guarded secret of the Chinese emperors and a rare delicacy in the West. It was reserved for the imperial family until only a few decades ago when it became available to the public. The sweet, pale buds of the Silver Needle tea are picked less than one month during the year, some time between late March and early April.

While I didn’t build the treasury around the name, I thought the description of the tea could also describe the finds: subtle, pale, extraordinary. Please take a peek at each of the stores… you won’t be sorry.

Enjoy!

*tracey*

Home Sweet Home…The Mantle

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If you know my work well enough, you know I love a good mix of old and new. Most of my architectural shots are of old, yet still very beautiful, buildings. I love photographing old cars (take a peek at “The Sunday Drive” and you’ll get an idea what I mean) and I absolutely love old neon signs like the one in “Love Lost.” I appreciate that there is history behind these finds and, in the absence of knowing the actual history, a great imagination goes a long way.

That said, it’s not a stretch that, when decorating my new place, I’d immediately try to incorporate some old, vintage finds in with more contemporary furniture. I’m not someone who likes to overpower a room with kitsch but I definitely like pulling in items I’ve either found while traveling or while at a great flea market or antique shop. Over the next couple of months, with the hopes of being finished in time for the holidays (fingers crossed), I’ll be working on my apartment, one room at a time. In the end, I hope to merge a balanced mix of old and new to create a warm, inviting environment.  I’ll be taking photos of the progress along the way and sharing some of my favorite finds with everyone as I go along. First up… the open-area living room/dining room/kitchen.

This morning I had the great pleasure of going to the Kane County Flea Market in St. Charles, Illinois. It’s the largest flea market in the state and I can honestly tell you, that’s no exaggeration. The place is huge; I can’t even begin to guess how many vendors are there. Now, just like any flea market, some stuff is junk, but look hard enough and you’ll find some real gems. My suggestion, when going to a flea market looking for design inspiration, is to go with an open mind. You might have ideas as to what you want and they might help inspire some purchases but be open to everything and don’t be afraid to repurpose things for other uses.

A good example are these fantastic, green cocktail glasses I came across. I was lucky enough to get a great set of ten for only $26. I don’t ever expect to have a need for ten as actual drinking glasses so I’ve opted to use three as votive holders on my mantle. The bubble glass makes for a beautiful design when lit by candles and, for $2.60 per glass, I get some really pretty, well-made vintage votive holders. (which will look even lovelier when my friends and I are sitting around the fireplace drinking some holiday cocktails out of the rest of the set…)

Another find from today were these three bottles, all of which date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s. Now, I will admit, I am not good at bargaining; actually, I should say I’m scared to death to even try it. Luckily, my friend who was with me isn’t and he was able to get me all three beautiful, colored bottles for $28.00 when they were originally going to be close to $40.  So, yes, that would be my third piece of advice when going to a flea: don’t be afraid to haggle on the price. If you’re going to haggle though, it definitely helps going having an idea of what some things are worth. This trip to the flea definitely sparked my interest in gaining a greater knowledge of vintage items, especially those I might use in my home. I plan on going back to this flea next month armed not only with some ideas of what I’d like to find but enough knowledge to give me more confidence in haggling.

All in all, the day ended well. I got two great finds and my mantle is “sorta kinda” basically done. (Need to do a little more layering…) That might sound like one very small piece of the decorating pie but, as I just haven’t been able to get that mantle right from the minute I moved in, it’s a very satisfying day indeed!

Next up… the entertainment area where I’ll be building everything around this sofa from Room and Board…

OK I admit it…

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Art Print by mincingmockingbird on Etsy

…I’ve been a bad, bad blogger, rife with procrastination.  Couldn’t be helped though; I moved, work got busy, {insert more excuses here}.

I know, I know, excuses, excuses. I took an oath to maintain my blog and I haven’t posted since what, June, July, something like that? OK, I didn’t really take an oath but  I’m back to creating regular blog posts. Thank you to those who have been checking in and stuck by me during the “Silent Months.”

For those who have been reading my blog from the beginning, you know that I had been in the habit of spotlighting three fellow Etsians each week in the “My Favorite Finds” category. I’m going to mix things up a bit and start pulling in one of my new favorite addictions…creating treasuries on Etsy. Yes, it’s an addiction, and for anyone that’s done it, you know what of I speak. You sit there, no matter where you are, thinking of themes, color schemes, trying to figure out what, exactly, is going through the minds of the folks at Etsy when coming up with the next front page. It’s okay, we’re all friends here, you can admit it… Hi, my name is Tracey and I’m addicted to…

Anyway…today’s offering is an homage to a recent article that Real Simple posted about painting and decorating with gray. Have you ever tried it? I have. It didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted it to. Admittedly though,  my home painting adventures never do; thinking back to my disastrous “Mediterranean themed” bedroom that turned out blood red and eggplant purple… yikes. I was aiming for a pale gray bathroom and somehow ended up with what can only be described as a blue steel. (not to be confused with the Ben Stiller look from “Zoolander”)

The article, with great tips from one of Apartment Therapy‘s expert painters, shed some light on how to approach painting with this ever-popular color. Add to that some amazing photos with furniture by one of my favorite stores, Room and Board, and the article paid wonderful tribute to one of my favorite colors.

I hope you enjoy the treasury. Be sure to check out the amazing shops included and remember, it’s not always black and white… sometimes it’s shades of gray (with some yellow accents thrown in for good measure)

Enjoy!

*tracey*

Introducing… the new website!

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Many thanks to web master Bryan Howell for creating my new, full service website at www.traceycaponephotography.net! View my online portfolio, get info about portrait work and check out my shop where you can order prints directly from me!  Hope you like it!

Line of Sight

*tracey*

Off to a Good Home- in Italia!!! “A Day by the Water”

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I am very pleased to be sending one of my favorite prints, “A Day by the Water,” off to one of my favorite countries, Italy! The print will be heading off to Florence, Italy, a beautiful city I’ve had the pleasure of visiting twice and can’t wait to visit again.

“A Day by the Water,” is a vintage- inspired photograph of the Tybee Island Lighthouse in Savannah, Georgia. I was immediately struck by the sharp contrast of the beautiful red of the roof against the bold greenish blue of the rest of the lighthouse and couldn’t wait to work with this photo. Aged with a vintage feel, I wanted this print to take on  dreamlike quality. Imagine a child, sitting in the back seat of his parents car, looking out at the lighthouse on a beautiful, sunny day, excitedly awaiting the visit to the beach. Printed on amazing metallic paper, this photo takes me back to my own childhood and I’m so very happy to share it with others.

This, and other prints are available at my website. Please feel free to stop by!

Ciao!

*tracey*

Photoshop Tutorial- And on the 14th day…um of March, I created an Earth…

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Happy Almost Spring! Well, today is the first full day of Daylight Savings Time here in most parts of the United States so I thought I would create a little reminder for those who, 1. forget to change their clocks every year and 2. forget which way to turn the clock. For those of you who don’t recognize Daylight Savings Time, this will be a pretty basic tutorial on how to create planets from scratch.

Today’s post is actually going to be a multi-step tutorial where, with the end product, you’ll have created an Earth, a moon (well a, “moon like thingy”),  a point of light and wrapped text all in Photoshop.

A note- this is a pretty basic tutorial but it does require a working knowledge of Photoshop. I’ll try to be as detailed as possible but it definitely helps to understand where everything is and have a basic understanding of layering and what functions each of the tools perform.

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Pixel Bender and the Droste Effect

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Droste Clock

Well, I apologize, it’s been a few weeks since I posted. I appreciate everyone’s patience while I attended to some family matters (and of course surviving the biggest snowfall in Philadelphia’s history…brrr). All is well and I’m excited to get back to the blogging!

For those who have been following along, you know of my recent obsession with all things Photoshop. I have even gone so far as to go through a very extensive training program (three phases, about 20 hours each) to get certified and I can honestly say, it was well worth it! I learned so much that I can’t wait to share with all of you!

Today’s post is going to be spotlighting a wonderful tutorial on The Droste Effect, along with one of the filters which can be used in Pixel Bender plug-in within Photoshop (as well as other products in the CS suite).

There are a number of examples out on Flickr of the Droste effect, some a little creepy but cool all the same,  found here.  First though, a few definitions…

What is the Droste Effect?

The term refers to a specific type of recursive picture…well, wait, recursive? What’s that? There’s an a long and completely confusing definition, used in both computer science and mathematics, regarding functions and components. Long story short, it’s a broad term used to describe objects self-duplicating themselves repeatedly, seemingly infinitum.

Example please!!  Ever been to a Hall of Mirrors? I don’t know about you but, as a kid,  I had fun making the Millions of Tracey’s dance and jump and, well act silly all in unison. Because the mirrors were set at particular angles to one another, the image would repeat over and over, and the reflection got smaller and smaller for what seemed like forever.

The Droste Effect is the same concept, meaning a picture depicting a smaller version of its self and, within that a smaller version, and so on and so on. While, to the eye, this duplication appears to continue on forever, it will only truly continue until the resolution of the picture will no longer allow it.

What is Pixel Bender?

I won’t even begin to boggle everyone’s minds with the exact definition of what Pixel Bender does, especially as I’m only on my first cup of coffee. I have, however, attached a link to Adobe Labs definition of how it works. In laments terms though, it’s a pretty cool plug in for several Adobe products, including Photoshop, which very quickly processes a bunch of complex algorithms to apply filters or effects to your photo or illustration, in this case, the Droste Effect.

First things first, in order to use Pixel Bender, you have to download the actual Pixel Bender plug in- found here. (check the very bottom) Now, once that’s downloaded, if you have a mind to, you can code your own image processing algos (the filters and effects) or, you can take advantage of the wealth of shared knowledge on the dedicated Pixel Bender Exchange site within Adobe. (Yes, it’s just that amazing that it has its own site.)

Now, as I don’t claim to be a computer genius, to achieve the Droste Effect, I am using the best (at least in my opinion) filter out there, created by a developer by the name of Tom Beddard. Tom, also known as “subblue,” has created a number of amazing Pixel Bender downloads that he offers up for free (oh did I mention the actual Pixel Bender plug in is free as well?? Thank you Adobe!) His graphic design work, blog and downloads  can be found here on his site.

Tom also provides a wonderful tutorial on how to use his Droste Effect filter, along with the filter  download, here. I’ve attached a couple of my own initial attempts and plan on providing many more down the road. I won’t dare to repeat everything Tom provided in his tutorial but I’ll offer up one suggestion… don’t be afraid to play around with the tool on a copy of your photo. (I’ve said it before and will say it again, if you’re going to play, especially when messing with pixels, save an original copy somewhere else as you never know what can happen.) The more you tweak the settings, using Tom’s basic tutorial as a guide, the more interesting the results and guaranteed you’ll end up with something different each time.

If you decide to play around with the Droste Effect, I would love to see what you’ve done with it. Please feel free to comment and post!

Enjoy!

*tracey*

"Droste Lotus"

New Project- Starbursts

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It’s Martin Luther King Day here in the States which, for me, as well as many others, means a day off. (That is, of course, in addition to the historical importance of the man we’re remembering…)

As I’m in a bit of a lazy mood today, and it’s too cold to break out the bike, I’ve decided to play around in Photoshop a little and share some of my creations, along with a little tutorial I happened upon. The other day I created planets, today we’re creating what I’m going to call starbursts.

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