self portrait saturday: winter.

Welcome to your third edition of Self Portrait Saturday! That sounds so official doesn't it?!  If you watched my little video I posted on Thursday, I mentioned wanting to start doing themes for these link-ups.  I had no idea what to start with, until I looked outside and noticed a blizzard. 

What gives, mother nature?  Thursday was beautiful and sunny... as you can see clearly from the outfit pics I took in the afternoon. Friday rolls around and it's winter all over again!  Though I wasn't happy about this, it made for the perfect theme of today's photos.  So, if you wanna participate this weekend, why not try out this first theme?  You don't have to, but it will be fun!  How can you give a sense of winter in your photos, or how can you represent winter where you're from?  I consider mine a farewell to the snow (hopefully) and a welcoming of spring! (hurry up already though please.).  I'll start posting themes for future weekend's linkups throughout the week so you have more time to prepare!

Here are my shots:

hat: forever 21 | gloves: bysweetmom | scarf: seams to be | jacket: juicy couture

Quite a change in weather from the other day, right?! 

It was snowing, so I made sure to cover my camera in a plastic bag before trekking outside.  I love how the trees in the background look like a foggy, mysterious place.  Now show me what you got!!

Things I learned:

- Always cover your camera if there will be any hint of wetness.

- If you'll be standing in the same spot and want some free hands, an easy way to get yourself into focus is to use a remote and set your camera to "auto" for the first shot. It will focus on you and snap a pic. Changing the focus to "manual" immediately afterwards, setting the timer, and returning to the same spot ensures your hands will be remote-free and you'll still be in focus. It helps to mark your spot on the ground... in my case, footprints in the snow worked well.

Now one of my favs from last week:

Ashley looks so serene in her desaturated photos! Love it!

Grab a button and join in by linking up your post below!!!

<a href="http://www.thewonderforest.com/search/label/self portrait saturdays" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k-kHFDxwcSk/TzV24cefVnI/AAAAAAAACgM/St8PkRcUlSY/s1600/selfsats.jpg" /></a>

picnic in the snow

Taking photos of myself is a task sometimes. Especially when I have the urge to get outside in the natural sunlight in 2°C weather with ugly snow boots on, which are conveniently not shown. It's even more special when you step in dog poop and discover that there's a giant animal living in your backyard (seriously, dog feet aren't that big are they?!). Let's just say I made this photo session a quick one.

I was dying to share this dress with you though, because honestly I am obsessed with it and it is my most favourite thing right now. So much fun and I can't wait until I can wear it sans-sweater/jeans/pasty skin while having a summer picnic.

dress: poor pitiful pearl

sweater: sweet romeo

tank: forever 21

jeans: 7 for all mankind roxanne in dear coco

headband: just.lovely.things

P.S. I've decided that this weekend's Self Portrait Saturday theme will be:
WINTER
Considering Spring seems to have backed off for a little while longer, I thought it would be fun to pay a tribute to the (hopeful) ending of this season. You don't HAVE to contribute using this theme, but if you can, try! How can you represent winter in your area?

live and in colour. a vlog.

Random Thursday night video update. It actually took me all evening to get this darn video up. So, enjoy? haha.

Maybe one day I'll put up a back drop so it doesn't look like I'm on a green screen type thing (?). Have a good night friends!

party with me! (sponsor call?)

Well, yesterday seemed to be better than the day before, which is always nice.  Despite the fact that I got a huge lot of packages returned to me, it was a productive day. 

Anyways, it's that time of month when I reach out to see who would like to be my friend. Haha, in a way I suppose.  If you want to advertise your blog or shop on my blog for the month of March, check out my sponsor page now! By the way, March just happens to be this gal's (thumbs to chest) birthday month... just sayin'. I plan on bringing the party to the Wonder Forest every day I possibly can. So, celebrate with me...?

Check out your options here!  I only offer a limited number of Large spaces so grab one before they're gone!

In the meantime, how do old people like me celebrate their birthdays now-a-days? 

let's talk about yesterday.

Yesterday was one of the most redonkulous days. You know, those days that just don't seem to get any better?  Everything I was trying to do was going wrong. I had big plans to finally attempt to finish up a client's web project and half way through, their server decides to block my IP address for too much activity on the site (duh, I'm re-doing the site, there's going to be a ton of activity from me). For you non-techy nerds, that means that I can't access anything on the website until someone decides to unblock it.

Alright, great... so can't finish that project, I'll move onto the next.  I decided to take some new product shots of my Wonder Forest donuts to list. Got those done, went to list. Storenvy wouldn't let me into my admin area for some unknown reason. After about ten failed attempts and some chats with the awesome people over there, it was a mystery. Great, can't finish that task either.

I then decided to pack up some Fawn & Flora orders. I have this handy new postage meter/scale thing that lets me print out lettermail labels in an instant.  I normally do all my parcel mailings through Paypal or the Canada Post website, but I wanted to get this meter hooked up for parcel mailings so that I could pay for shipping directly with funds on my meter. Are you still with me?  Anyways, I follow my postal rep's instructions on paying for parcels with my meter and it doesn't work. There is no option for me to pay with my meter anywhere.  I spend about an hour messing around with their online tools and a shipping program with no luck. Finally I contact a rep again. "Oh," she says, "You need to get Canada Post to change your contract to allow meter billing and then after 24 hours you will be able to use it." Why couldn't you have just told me this in the first place? Alright so I call and after waiting on hold for half an hour I get frustrated and hang up. I have no patience.

Dustin comes home from work with the mail. I have a notice saying my orders I sent out are being held at the post office. Great. I know what this means... not enough postage or something. I was afraid of this when I got this silly meter.  Not just that, but they decided to hold the mail at a post office that isn't our resident one. One that opens later and closes earlier. Which means that I have no way of picking the stuff up because I only have the car when D comes home, which is after they close.

x

Overall, yesterday was a plain joke. Does life throw these days at us on purpose?  To see how we deal with them? If that's the case, then I'm still learning. But I do know this...

Despite all of the bad days, all of the trials we're faced, I am still hopeful that everything will work itself out. It will work out because it has to work out. This is life and it keeps on moving. Sometimes you have those days like my yesterday, where it feels like you're running backwards on a conveyer belt.  Sometimes it takes a fall to encourage you to pick yourself back up, grab your sneakers, and get moving in the right direction.  

I've got my sneakers, I'm just waiting for this broken conveyer belt to be fixed.

giveaway time :)

My sponsors this month are just too awesome. Some of them wanted to share some love with you guys and donated a few things for this sweet giveaway!!  If you're interested in sponsoring Wonder Forest next month, see your options here. Check out what you can win from these ladies and scroll down to enter!!

Blog | Shop

 Blog | Shop | Facebook

Shop | Website | Facebook | Twitter

Etsy | Society6 | Blog | Facebook | Twitter

  Blog | Facebook

Shop | Website | Facebook | Twitter

*You must be a follower of my blog to enter my giveaways*

If you are not, head on over to the left column on my page and click the Google Friend Connect "Join This Site" button!

TO ENTER:  

"Like" or Follow each sponsor's Facebook or Blog and tell them I sent you! Their links are below their prize photos! Please use your personal Facebook page to "Like" since fan/business pages are not tracked. Leave ONE comment below telling me you did this. *1 Mandatory entry

Extra entries! You can do one, two, or ALL of them!

EXTRA ENTRY!  Share this giveaway post on your Facebook profile, Twitter, or Blog then leave another comment telling me you did so! Please mention @thewonderforest on twitter or tag @Wonder Forest on Facebook. - 1 entry

EXTRA ENTRY #2 - Leave a comment and tell me what your fav item is from any of the shops! - 1 entry

EXTRA ENTRY #3 - Follow Wonder Forest on Bloglovin', Hello Cotton and Facebook! Leave another comment telling me you did all three!- 1 entry

EXTRA ENTRY #4 - Pin this blog post!  Leave another comment telling me you so (there is a Pin button in my post footer)!- 1 entry

Good luck!!!  

Say hello to my little friend...

I hope you all had a great weekend!  I spent mine feeling a little under the weather on Saturday, making little things for Fawn & Flora, and visiting with my momma yesterday! 

I wanted to introduce you to someone today. Her name is Caitlin and she owns Spare Bedroom Studio!  She is an origami queen and makes the sweetest paper crane mobiles in her shop!

"Hi, I'm Caitlin of Spare Bedroom Studio. Paper craft addict. Wife. Avid bookworm. Baker of all things yummy. Lover of all things beautiful. I lose myself easily while sitting at my craft table, lassoing the creative ideas flying around in my head and turning them into something tangible. I love every moment of it!"

Where did you learn the art of origami?

When I was little I was huge Reading Rainbow fan. There was an episode that they played a lot featuring the book The Paper Crane by Molly Bang and I fell in love with the idea of learning to fold an origami crane. So I went to the library, took out a book on origami and taught myself. To me, it was magic!

How did the idea to turn paper cranes into mobiles come into play?

I was at a fair once as a teenager and saw strings of paper cranes on display in a vendor's booth. I went home and immediately started making them for family and friends. I even went through a phase where every time I babysat, I'd make them with the kids and hang them all over the house for the parents to come home to. Every time someone had a birthday, they received fun strings of cranes with their gifts. Eventually my enthusiasm dwindled and I stopped making them for a few years. Then my friend told me about Etsy and I just had to get in on the handmade fun! I played around with a few ideas of what to sell and settled on redirecting my old passion for stringing cranes into making them into mobiles. Voila!

Does the paper you use have an effect on the overall outcome of the origami?

Absolutely! I like my origami to be very precise and perfectly folded, so using just the right weight of paper is very important. Too thin and delicate, it crinkles and may not last the test of time. Too thick and it either splits when folded or looks sloppy.

Any tips for Etsy sellers?

Network and make friends with other sellers. Especially those with similar taste. It helps to bounce ideas off of each other and be there to support and promote one another. Also, work hard at distinguishing yourself. Even if you sell something similar to someone else, remember that this is YOUR art and try to come up with something that sets you apart from everyone else just enough and makes your work/shop unique.

What are some of your other hobbies?

I'm a HUGE bookworm and love to read! I also enjoy needlepoint, knitting and crocheting. I'm big on baking too. I can't cook, but I can whip up a killer batch of cookies. Oh, and hiking. I LOVE hiking!

If you want to see more of Caitlin and her work, check her out here:

Shop | Twitter | Pinterest

She is also offering 15% off anything in her shop with code WONDERFORESTFRIENDS!

Shopping for Spring Sunday

Just getting in a little late night shop browsing. I am totally in spring shopping mode lately. I love it when new colours start appearing in stores, and floral print becomes a necessity.  I'm completely lusting over apricot, coral, and mint right now. What are you lusting over for spring?

1. BB Dakota Kaley Pleated Crinkle Skirt in Powder Puff
2. Knitted 'FADE' Print Sweat
3. Current/Elliott The Stiletto Jeans in Red Rose
4. VIBRANT Mint Ballet Pumps
5. FP New Romantics Message In The Sand Tunic
6. La Fee Verte French Lace Trim Short
7. Lauren Moshi Taylor Lucky Canvas Tote Bag in Natural
8. Wildfox Gold Owl Ring