Happy Veterans Day from Kern This

Happy Veterans Day! A little artwork from my studio this morning as we remember Veterans and their families who have made sacrifices for our country. I make that photo of a flag flying next to the Washington Memorial in Washington, D.C., April 2012.

On my desktop: The Cordova Times

I'm a journalist at heart and design the weekly Cordova Times newspaper. I love small community newspapers because they serve readers with information they couldn't get anywhere else — hyper-local news. The centerpiece story last week "Let's talk trash" was especially compelling, but how do you make pictures of the dump look good? I pulled the multi-photo approach out of my bag o' design tricks. The repetition of smaller images to create a larger picture holds down the page without blowing up a photo of junk alone. We used this a lot at some of the larger newspapers I've worked at where alternative storytelling and unconventional newspaper design was always a goal. I love it when I can inject old favorites into new designs. What's in your work bag o' tricks?

True North: Homer and halibut

True North will feature weekly is slices from my own Alaska life. My husbands parents and grandmother were in town last week and we rented a motor home and traveled the Kenai Peninsula to Home for two days of halibut fishing and then on to Seward for a trip to the SeaLife Center. My youngest son took his first overnight out of town trip. Turns out babies love the rocking motion of boats, he was a champ on two days of halibut charters. My older son caught his first halibut. So did my husband's grandmother. She was such a kick with the reel that some out of state guys wanted their picture with her and their fish at the end of the day. We had such a wonderful time getting out of town and riding in the back of a motor home isn't a bad way to travel with a little guy.

Happy Summer Solstice

This is what 1:06 a.m. in Alaska looks like. Happy Solstice!

Whoop whoop! This blogger is back!

This little guy is excited about it and so am I! After three months of staring at this beautiful face I have finally figured out how to blog from my phone and feed a baby at the same time. I must say the blogger app for iPhone has significantly improved since I used it over a year ago. Also after migrating my blog to Wordpress for over a year I have decided to migrate back to blogger because it's so much more user friendly for this non-coder. I just want to post pics, write and go! Now if only my phone battery would keep up.  That's all for tonight. But please tune in soon for more. 

Cheers!

Annette

Fabulous Friday: Frosting

The colder it is, the more of this seems to build up. Just a couple of images to send you off into the weekend with. Happy Friday!

Cue music: Snow, snow, snow, snow

My Facebook and Twitter networks are abuzz with reports of the weather in the Pacific Northwest this week. Friends from Seattle to Portland to Boise are reporting the stuff snowballs are made of causing early release at work, school cancellations and delayed flights. We've had snow for months and dealing with it becomes second nature here. So all the commotion made me want to take my camera for a run around the neighborhood to share what our accumulation looks like this time of year.

Drive safe out there, friends. Oh, and it's minus-10 degrees here today!

 Sometimes I take these stately evergreens for granted. I'll try to be better about that.

Snow berms block sidewalks, houses and impede the width of the road by feet. It actually changes the look of the streets. We almost missed out street turn multiple times after coming back from vacation to more snow. Sad, I know.

We are lucky to have a snow service included in rent, so this little walkway along the house is courtesy those fine folks. My front yard is flush with the walkway, so this best illustrates the snow level here.

 Davin plays in the vacant lot next door.