New on Kern This Studio: Engagement photos of Meghan and Joel

You might have seen before that I'm designing wedding invitations and save-the-dates for my friends Meghan and Joel. Well, they've also asked me to be their wedding photographer and I'm super excited because it's my first wedding as a photographer!

So this weekend we braved the 15-degree breezy day for an engagement shoot in Westchester Park. It was short and sweet due to the weather, but they were super-fun to photograph. There are a more/larger pictures from the shoot on my professional website KernThisStudio.com. Please take a moment to check it out and let me know what you think!


[Self-promo alert.] Need family, baby, special event photography or design? Talk to me. I would love to help!

Media Monday: Rocky Mountain News staff - Where are they now?

John Temple, former editor/publisher/owner of the Rocky Mountain News, has compiled a series of stories on his blog on where the staff is now, two years after the paper's closure. It's an interesting read and fantastic collection of veiw points, reflections and thoughts on how the media industry has changed since the start of the Great Recession. He surveyed the former newsroom and compiled several statistics based on the reponses showing how many have remained in journalism, how many are making more or less than they did two years ago and how many think their quality of life overall is better or worse than before the newspaper shut it's doors on Feb. 27, 2009.

In his main post he wrote:

Perhaps the most surprising finding was that despite the general decline in income, roughly the same amount of people reported that their life was better today than that it was worse. In fact, of those who responded to the question, more said it was much better (12) than much worse (5).

The Rocky Mountain News website is still online, and looks the way it does they day the newspaper closed it's doors.

I don't want to take up much more of you time, because today you might just want to head on over to Temple's blog Temple Talk and immerse yourself in his stories and findings.

Happy weekend!

Happy weekend! It's going to be a busy one. I'm working on two freelance design projects at the moment: wedding invitations for my friend Meghan and campaign materials for a local assembly member up for re-election.

I'm also doing an engagement shoot with my friends Meghan and Joel in Westchester Park, which happens to be where Josh and I had OUR engagement photos done. I'm crossing my fingers to great Alaska-in-February weather and beautiful skies. Knock. On. Wood.

Look for updates from these projects on my portfolio site, KernThisStudio.com soon.

Davin will be prepping for the state spelling bee, which is right around the corner on Thursday.

Also, my dad arrives for a week-long business trip Sunday night. It will be our first out-of-town visitor in the new duplex. Fur Rondy kicks off this weekend, so we'll probably be hitting up some of the Alaskan festivities during his stay.

Friday Fun: It's all downhill from here

The darkest quarter of the year is over and the sun is making longer and longer appearances. The sun prepares to rise from behind the Chugach Mountains during my morning drive to work giving me pink-and-orange splashes on aqua blue skies to help me get motivated for the day. A nice change after months of driving to work in darkness.

A little more than a week ago it was broad daylight on my drive home and it struck me: this is new. A few days before I was driving home in twilight and I wasn't sure when the switch happened. But I'm not complaining. It's just a reminder that winter is downhill from here, my third since moving to Alaska.

Meeting the Anchorage assembly candidates

We were invited to an event at supporting the Democratic assembly candidates in Anchorage at Sen. Mark Begich's home last night. Assemblywoman Harriet Drummond's campaign falls in Josh's advertising sales region and our home neighborhood as well. Both are West Anchorage. It was fun to see such a group of blues gathered in a red state last night. We were honored to be invited.

The finished project: Pottery studio follow-up

I picked up the bowl I glazed from Color Me Mine last night. Here's the final result. I'm very happy with how the speckled glaze turned out. Now I just have to decide where to keep it.

We had another great girls night out with apps, wine and a second trip to the pottery studio tonight. We might have to make girls night a weekly event. Although we'll need some other projects, classes and places to try out. Any suggestions?

Media Monday: Anchorage Borders store among about 200 closing

The line extended from the front of the store to the back and began to curl around the other direction at Borders on Sunday. Tables next to the line were littered with books that people changed their minds on buying and discarded on the nearest surface. Everything is on sale at the Anchorage Borders bookstore, one of nearly 200 that are closing after the announcement last week that the company is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Borders is in financial turmoil between the pressures of slow consumer spending and expanding e-reader competition such as the Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook. A friend of mine posted on Facebook Saturday that Borders was closing, everything was on sale and "it's crazy here."

I called Sunday before we headed out to check on the deals and the sales associate who answered said the store would be operating for up to eight more weeks, depending on a variety of factors.

When we arrived, giant red, yellow and black signs screamed sale prices in all caps. Tables piled high with sale books, while some shelves had gaping openings and looked downright empty. The popular stuff seemed to be selling out fast. I'm sure the sales will get better, but it might be down to quirky, oddball stuff by then.  Go-back racks were stacked high and the staff was too busy to keep up with the high traffic filing through the store. It was harder than usual to find specific books since so many hands had dug through shelves and put books back in the wrong place, but we still found plenty of gems.

We purchased seven books, a calendar and a magazine for less than $60. Our wait to check out lasted nearly an hour. We saw friends walk in as we neared the front of the line and advised one to get in line while the other browsed and then switch.

The Washington Post reports the company is getting ready to jump on the e-reader bus:

"It hopes to emerge from Chapter 11 with new focus on e-books and products other than books. A $505 million dollar loan from GE Capital will fund its operations - with 17,500 employees - while it reorganizes."

We own Kindles at our house. So we mostly shopped for books high on visuals. A coffee table book on U.S. presidents for Josh, a photography book for me and a guitar instruction book with fret charts for Davin. Perhaps bookstores need to focus on the novelty, specialty and highly graphic if they want to weather the changing technology and consumer spending crisis.

Font crush: Wes Anderson's use of Futura

I've been on a Wes Anderson movie kick this past week, watching The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic and I'm loving his use of the font Futura throughout the movies. I knew he used a lot of Futura in his movies, but the more I see it, the more I love it. Futura is a geometric font created in the 20s by Paul Renner. Anderson uses the font not only in captions and scene markers, but also on the actual set in the form of signs and props.

Look closely. The labels on Margo's library shelves are also in Futura.

One of these things is not like the others: Can you spot which one isn't in Futura?

Friday fun: Anrgy Birds

Fighting a bit of a winter bug this week, I have discovered the joy of iPhone's biggest selling app: Angry Birds. It's a game for iPhone and iPad where the mission is to slingshot birds at little green pigs. Probably the most entertaining 99 cents I've spent in some time. It's kind of a strategy game that I find reminiscent of a mid-90s Macintosh computer game where you set the angle and speed of a cannon to attack the enemy's castle. I remember playing it during free time in 7th grade computer class.

Does anyone remember that game? What's your favorite iPhone apps?

Happy Friday and have a wonderful weekend!

A celebration in a new place

We had some friends over Saturday to celebrate finally getting settled in our new duplex. And to thank the folks that helped us lug the heavy stuff across town. Thanks to everyone who came to help us celebrate.

The kids had a dance party.

Media Monday: Send your Valentine a custom Google map

I love the modern art Google logo on the site's homepage today.

Show your Valentine some love the 21st Century way with a Google map Valentine. Simply click on the link on the Google homepage that says:

Remind your Valentine of a special place you’ve shared.

It will take you to a page that allows you to make a heart-shaped Google map with a message about that special place you've shared with your sweetheart. You can even choose street view for a picture instead of a map. Add your darling's e-mail, preview and send!


We have a zero-dollar Valentine's gift rule at our house to keep things simple and sweet. So that means getting creative, and you can bet my Valentine will have one of these in his inbox today.


How do you celebrate Valentine's Day?

Simple and fun Valentine's breakfast

 

Have you ever had eggs in a basket? Where you cut a round or square hole in toast and fry the eggs and toast the toast all in one pan? I saw a fun idea to use a heart shaped cookie cutter to make Valentine's themed eggs in a basket and made them yesterday morning.

INGREDIENTS:

1. Eggs
2. Bread
3. Butter
4. Salt and Pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

• Use your cookie cutter to cut hearts our of the bread slices.
• Grease a fry pan and heat to medium.
• Place bread in pan.
• Crack egg into center of bread.
• Butter center cutout of bread and place in pan to toast lightly.
• Flip with spatula to finish eggs and toast other side. Flip center piece at this time too.
• Salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Moose in the neighborhood

Davin and I were prying the frozen-shut trash can open this morning when we spotted this: a moose in our neighbor's yard. We ran back inside for the camera and quietly crept up to the fence for a couple photos. We went back inside to tell Josh about the moose and by the time we returned, our furry friend had moved on.

Friday Fun: Painting of General Knowledge

For Friday, something fun.

This is a picture of general knowledge. There are more that 100 know personalities in this image. It is said that if you recognize 25 or more you are considered a well informed person and if you can identify more than 40 you are considered very knowledgable.

How many can you identify?

NOTE: I actually recieved this in an e-mail forward and spent a significant amount of time Googling it to see if I could identify the original source and have yet to do so. Please let me know if you know where this peice originates. I would like to give the artist credit.

Thanks and have a wonderful weekend!

Ladies Night at the pottery studio

Monday nights are Ladies Night at Color Me Mine for the month of February with half-price studio fees for ladies. So a couple girlfriends and I went last night to glaze our own pottery at the studio by the ice rink in Dimond Center Mall. 

In case you've never tried it, you select a pre-made piece of unfinished pottery and glaze it yourself. Then the studio fires it in a kiln and calls 8-10 days later when it's ready to pick up. Semi-handmade ceramics.

There is a small session fee, $8 for adults here before the ladies night discount, and for the piece of pottery itself. The larger the piece, the more expensive. The session fee helps cover the cost of glaze and the staff members who help you with technique, pouring glaze and generally running around cleaning up after everyone. The girl on duty Monday night was working her booty off to assist and guide a packed studio. She said it was unusually busy.

There are tutorial books, stencils, stamps and sponges to help achieve desired results. The whole experience reminded me a lot of ceramics class in high school, minus the clay mess and worry that your pot would blow up in the kiln and ruin everyone's teenage masterpieces.

I had only been to a potter glazing studio like this once before on a day-of-fun planned by my best friend when I turned 19.

My shell-shaped bowl, glazed and ready to be fired. The colors should be a dark plum and midnight blue. The inside is a speckled plum glaze.

A cupcake cookie jar my friend Tristan is making for her nearly year-old daughter's room to store.

This girl was amazing running the show Monday night. She could multitask like nobody's business.

Glaze selection.

A glimpse at the pottery selection.

Tiled sign on the wall showcasing a few of the glaze techniques.

It was a fun night and I'm excited to see how our projects turn out. I didn't get any pictures of it, but my friend Kim is working on a tile series. Last night she worked on a "Z" tile for their last name initial and she plans to come back to make hand print tiles of her four kids. Amazing idea.

It was a fun wintertime diversion and great creative release.

Pottery could make great home decor, custom gifts and, gentlemen, my friends and I decided you could definately wow a girl by taking her to a pottery session date. Check Color Me Mine's website for theme nights and events. Also, ask about their military discount.

Have you ever done a pottery studio session?

Into the fog

We drove through a dense patch of fog on the way back from Wasilla yesterday ... and ended up behind this hearse. Seemed strange and pretty in a way, so I snapped a couple fog shots on the point-and-shoot. Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

Battle of the Books

Davin and his teammate confer on their team's answer.

We went to see Davin compete with his class in the Battle of the Books today. This is a nationwide reading program where kids are challenged to read a selection of books and know them well enough to answer trivia questions that essentially begin with: "In which book ..." The teams have to identify the book and authors from the reading selection to which the question refers. The questions were really hard and I was amazed at how well the kids could recall such specific details. The list for next year comes out this spring, and we'll definitely be adding those books to the Kindle for summer reading.

First taste of food photography

So I've done quite a few wine pictures for the wine blog I co-author with my husband, but this week I did my first professional food photo session. I took photos at Tempura Kitchen in the Spenard neighborhood for their advertising and promotional materials. 

It was so much fun. I think I love food photography, because the food don't mind holding the same pose while I adjust my camera ... The folks who own the place were delightful, and the food was delicious as we found out when we grabbed a quick bite after the session.

I've posted a longer cut of the shoot at my professional site, KernThisStudio.com.

What do you think? 

 

Newest issue of First Alaskans out this week

The February-March issue of First Alaskans, the magazine I design at Alaska Newspapers comes out this week. We had some really awesome stories and alternative storytelling pieces that were super fun to design. Maps, timelines, food step-by-step and artist bios from our fabulous writers and photographers. Pick up a copy or read it online.