sheets and shooting

meet ellie! i know, not a very original name for an elephant, but she is so cute, i thought ellie suited her perfectly.

as a christmas gift, i received the sewing book "one-yard wonders" and as i came across the pattern for this elephant stuffie, i knew this was the gift i needed to make for a baby shower i am going to on sunday. i used 2 different vintage sheets as fabric, then embellished her with some felt flowers. the one on her neck is to hide some stitching which came apart during the stuffing process (oops) and the one near her leg was added to balance out the first. just goes to show you that hiding mess-ups sometimes makes for a sweeter finished project.

on the photography front, i recently read this post from the lettered cottage and i think it has completely changed my life! remember when i posted here how daunting photographing products was for me? i really didn't think there was anything i could do about my poor lighting besides buying expensive studio quality lights. well, i was wrong. with a few setting adjustments, a tripod which was stuffed away in an upstairs closet, i now have tools to get much better shots. for years, people have tried to tell me what aperture and iso settings are, but my eyes always glaze over. it all was just a foreign language to me that i had no hope of ever learning. with these few tips, i got exactly what i wanted. specific settings without all the explaning. this photo has had no photoshop work done to it and i couldn't be happier with it. the depth and brightness of the shot is exactly what i was hoping for. i am realistic enough to know that not everything will turn out exactly how i want it to, but i do know that i will be steps closer to the finished product with these tips. woohoo!