Pierce Point

Recently, I talked to my mom, and she agreed to take me out on photo walks in nature more often. We put a couple days on the calendar, and the first one was on December 1st. When December first finally came, my mom took me out to Pierce Point in Point Reyes. There is a herd of tule elk that live there, and they are very photogenic; there is also a hike along the shore and the drive is amazingly gorgeous. We were driving along a very long country road and the sky was bright blue with pink tinted clouds on the horizon, the grass was amazingly green, and off in the distance you could see the shore line. The sun was shining on the water, so it looked like fog in the distance and you felt like you were going to drive into the sky. On the drive, we ran into many picturesque animals, scenes, and landscapes. The drive soon turned into the road that leads into Pierce Point. When we got there, there were elk, amazing landscapes, and lots of good pictures to be taken. I photographed the elk for a while and then we moved on to take a hike. The hike is along the cliff overlooking the ocean, I took many photos of the view. On the hike back, it was sunset and the horizon was turning orange. When we got back to out car it was dusk and on the drive home an owl flew in fornt of out car and then landed on a fence post, it stayed still just long enough for me to take a silhouetted photo. I love owls and this was a perfect end to the perfect first photo walk of many...






hours finished: 8
hours to go: 9,992

my adventures with Olivia the pig.

This past week, my neighbor Isabella had her 6th birthday party. I wanted to make her something special because we are such good friends. Isabella loves the Olivia books, so I got her the new the new book called Olivia Goes to Venice. I wanted to knit something to go with it, but I couldn't decide what. Then my mom had the idea to make a knitted Olivia doll. In the books Olivia almost always wear a red and white striped jumpsuit, so I got red, white, and pink yarn and went home to knit. I had never knit a toy of any sort before and they take a lot of work, I only had three days to make this one in order to give it to her at her party. I was under a pretty tight deadline, but I still managed to get it done. As soon as I finished it I took some pictures so the everybody could see. Oh my gosh, this thing was adorable. I gave it to Bella at her party and she loved it. Her mom told be she fell asleep with it that night! Pictures below.




hours finished: 3
hours to go: 9,997 :)

10,000 hour project

Hey,

Last Saturday my parents dragged me a little unwillingly to an 8 hour long unschooling seminar! I admit I got a few things from it, one of them was that you have to have 10,000 hours of practice in any field that you want to make into a career. For me that field is photography. I decided that I would keep track of all of the time I spend photographing until I reach 10,000 hours and as I do that, I would blog about it. At the end of each post to my blog from now on I will put up how many hours I have spent photographing and how many hours I have left. The morning after the seminar my parents and I got up at 6:00 AM and went to Point Reyes to see the tule elk. We saw 6 deer, 4 hawks, 2 rabbits, tons of quail, some ravens, lots of other birds, and then finally, we saw some elk! There was two males resting very close to the road, I didn't even have to get out of the car. They had very large antlers and they were very peaceful mostly just grooming themselves, I was so excited to see them so close to us and have such a good photography opportunity. It was an insanely foggy day out there, so most of the pictures are misty, but it gives them a nice gentle quality. After watching the two males for a while, we continued up the road were we saw a few females on the side of a hill. We stopped and hiked up to where they had been. When we got to the top of the hill, we saw a small group of 4 females and 2 juveniles who quickly ran away from us so we went back to the car and drove on. After a little ways, I saw that the small group was running down the hill to cross the road, we watched them, we went a little further, and then all of a sudden about 30 feet in front of us, this huge heard of elk ran across the road! After they were across, they settled in a field next to the road, but it was so foggy that you couldn't see any of them, then the fog would clear for a little bit and you could see all of them! This was such an amazing experience to be able to see them and then they would just disappear! After watching the elk graze for a while we moved on and walked around the Pierce Point Ranch buildings then took a short hike and then went home! All in all it was an amazing first day of my 10,000 hour project!

hours finished: 3
hours to go: 9,997

MY SUMMER!

First off, this summer was amazing! For the first part of summer, well lets see, I took a natural dying class with Mimi Leuberman. Then I helped a neighbor run a small summer camp at her house. After that, I thought things would relax a little bit, but I was wrong! I ended up going to Monterey with my family, we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Point Lobos, the Seventeen Mile Drive (twice), etc. After getting home I had a musical performance and then after that things calmed down.
Before we went to Monterey I went to the beach with some friends, when we got there we noticed that there were a lot of washed up jellyfish. They were very large and pinkish and had very long tentacles. I took some pictures and when I got home I found out that they were sea nettles, the type of jellyfish that you typically see in aquariums. They were so unusual and cool that my mom and I went back the next day to take some more photos.
Then about two weeks later was the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco. This is a craft fair that is soo amazing and soo huge that it is one of the highlights of my year! I got some supplies for some craft projects, I will post pics when I finish them.
While we were in Monterey at Point Lobos we had an encounter with a sea otter in the wild, it came close enough for me to get some decent shots. This was pretty much my first encounter with actual wildlife photography, which is what I want to do for a living, so this was very very exciting for me!
A few weeks ago my parents and I went to the same beach that had the jellyfish and took the same half a mile hike. On the hike back my dad spotted a small grey fox nestled into a small indent in a fallen tree. I fortunately, had my camera out already, I took some pictures, and then, when I tried to get closer he got scared and ran off. When I looked at the photos late I realized that there was a branch that I had not noticed through the lens, that was running straight across the foxes face! Fortunately I got a couple really good shots!
This week my mom and I went to Bodega Bay to watch the whales! We saw quite a few whales, but it was SO unbelievably windy that we couldn't stay for too long! On the way back home we stopped at a little beach and I trued to take a picture of a small shore bird and it played hard to get after a while I gave up and we started home again. Then on the other side of the bay there was another small beach that was covered in the same birds! Oh well, Murphy's law I guess. The next day we went back and saw some friends at the beach, I went down to the water and saw some small clear little spheres rolling around in the surf I picked one up I guessed that they were either some kind of larvae or comb jellyfish. I researched them when I got home and they were indeed a type of comb jellyfish called sea gooseberries! after spending some time at the beach we went back to watch the whales again, and this time we saw some of the whales tails! They weren't too close, but I got a couple of pics anyways.
And that was my summer! I am now posting most of pics that go with my blog posts on my flickr page I will post a couple pics on my blog each time I post but most of the photos will be on flickr! There will always be a link at the bottom of the post.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed,

-Lily




for more photos go to flickr.com and search under members ladybuglily I am not able to post a link right now

Hello

Hello,

I HAVE NOT POSTED IN FOREVER! I am sorry! I will be refurbishing my flickr page and all the photos from my blog will be on flickr now! When I post I will post 2 pictures and then the rest will be on flickr.

I promise there will be a post soon,

-Lily

sorry

Hey all,

Well I am sorry that I haven't posted in forever I have been soo crazy busy! I will be posting within the next couple weeks about my whole summer. Be prepared for a LONG story!

-Lily

hello,

I just wanted to say that my laptop is broken right now and, when it is fixed I will post a new post about natural dyes! :)

-Lily

a special connection that I just had to share!

Hi,

I have recently made a special connection with a little friend of mine and I just had to share it with you! I live across the street from a very nice family: Kenny and Eden parents, Isabella 5 year old daughter, Oliver 2 1/2 year old son, 2 dogs, 3 chickens, 1 cat, and some fish. I have always liked hanging out with Isabella and, whenever she was out in her front yard playing I would walk across the street and play with her for a little while. A couple of weeks ago, I was over at Isabella's house, and she was trying to catch a bug of some sort then, when she couldn't find any she decided to look for snails and slugs, when we couldn't find any of those either I told her that snails usually came out at night when it was cooler. After that we gave up our search and she went inside to have dinner. The next night I was out in my backyard with a flashlight and I saw some snails, I decided that I would put some in a container and drop it off for Isabella to find in the morning, with the snails I wrote a note asking her to write letters to me and I would write back. I wrote a couple letters to her to initiate the correspondence and then I got my first letter! We had been trying to set up a date to get together when she could come over to my house as she wanted to learn how to knit and also she wanted to learn how to take pictures. When she came over my mom let her use her camera and I took her out in the back yard. I set the camera on auto and followed her along and helped her when she had a question. When we were done I made a CD of the photos and sent her home with it. The next time I saw her I went up to the park with her and her brother and her dad, when we were just about to leave I asked Kenny if it would be alright if I took some photos of the kids on the slide together, he said "sure," I got some really cute ones and have posted a couple below. I have also posted some photos of her letters.





Isabella's family owns a horse and they keep it at a ranch I went to the ranch with eden and Isabella and I let isabella use my camera and here is on of the pictures that she took.



as for projects:

oy! I am about 1/3 of the way done with my dad's sweater vest (better get working!) I am making a very nice pink and grey lace-ish scarf that by the looks of it is never going to get done! I have finished one neck scarf and one self fringing shawl though! I am going to be opening an etsy shop sometime in the next couple months so stay posted and I will let you know when it is up and running!

-Lily : )
sweater vest blob!
the never ending pink and grey scarf!
neck scarf this is one item that will be on my etsy
self fringing shawl
one big blob of sweater vest knitting!

Well Hello,

I am sorry I have not posted in a while, it is mostly due to sickness. On monday morning the manager of Petaluma Bounty farm (a local organic farm that me and my mom volunteer at) asked us to come out to the farm because, they were going to plow the cover crop under and, she wanted us to photograph the event. Unfortunatly it was somewhat rainy and the man with the tractor did not come. So my mom and I wandered around in the cover crop for a while. The cover crop was 7 feet tall at places! Since it was early morning and misting everything was covered in dew. I got plenty of good shots and have posted them here.

On Tuesday, my mom and I got together with a friend of ours for our living arts day which we have been doing for about 6 months now. Living arts is getting together and learning to can, make cheese, garden, ETC. But most of all our friend is an urban homesteader,so she produces most of what she needs at home in her back yard. She has been teaching us to be more sustainable. This week we made out first ever batch of mozzarella! When we were done, we put it on toast with green garlic pesto and sundried tomatoes. Everything except the toast was homemade. IT WAS SOO YUMMY!!!

Well, yesterday I made candles with my mom. We made dipped tapers, tea lights, and 3 molded candles. In the process of this we made a royal waxy mess! While we were making the dipped candles I really got a feel for how much easier electricity is! I mean, they used to only have dipped candles, and each one takes like atleast 1 hour! As I said "it's a pretty process," We used 100% beeswax with a tiny bit of green dye in it. After we did the tapers, we poured all the other candles and made a big mess. After we made candles we made another batch of mozzarella because my grandmother wanted to tase it and, whe was coming over today. there was none of the first batch left because it was sooo good, she loved it! (it WAS delicious).

And last but not least, EASTER IS COMING and hopefully we are going to make ukranian eggs this week! I will post if and when it happens!

-Lily : )

Candle making photos

Mozzarella making photos

Petaluma bounty photos

This past Christmas I gave my parents each a certificate for a hand knit sweater. I told them that Knitterly, our local yarn shop, was having a sale in February and they could come pick out yarn and a pattern then, and I would make it for them. So this past Saturday I took them into Knitterly and showed them a couple of options. My dad wanted a sweater vest so I showed him the store's only sweater vest sample (I had actually thought of making it for him) and he loved it! The vest is made of three different brown wools. The yarn is made of 100% undyed british sheeps wool. After we had finished picking out the yarn and figuring out the yardage etc., it was time for my mom to pick hers. My mom actually picked the same yarn in a different color for a sweater, we figured out the yardage, and got 14 skeins out of the bin. That afternoon I started my dad’s vest, as my mom had not picked a pattern and I couldn’t start hers. I casted on 216 stitches, “SNORE” that was boring. By the next morning the ribbed border was done, but unfortunately I had forgotten to write down the stripe pattern for the body of the vest, and could not continue until I had gone back to Knitterly and written it down. My parents were working on the house and did not want to stop and take me there, so I took my best friend with me, we walked downtown by ourselves and made a fun outing of it. After I had gotten home and continued knitting on the body a little, I switched to 40 inch long needles and tried the vest on my dad and --- IT FIT! Now I have my work cut out for me!

Pictures below!

Thanksy,

-Lily