Sunday, September 6, 2015

#53 - State Fair Alphabet

While at the Minnesota State Fair, I challenged myself to look at the signs in a different way and make an alphabet of the fonts I liked best.  Though I came home with several varieties of most of the letters, here are my favorites.  For those people who have been to the MN State Fair, you may recognize many of the letters from buildings on the grounds or as logos from around Minnesota.





























Saturday, September 5, 2015

#59 - Bring on the rocks and waterfalls!

One of the reasons that I chose to move to northern Minnesota was that I had this fantasy that I would be able to go out hiking a lot.  Sadly, it just doesn't seem to work out that way; everyday life seems to get in the way far too often in the form of meetings that force me to do laundry on weekends, uncomfortable weather conditions, etc.  I can tell that I am so much more relaxed after spending a day in a spot where I can't hear the neighbors mowing lawn or the dog down the street barking, so I need to make it more of a priority.

Here are some of the beautiful scenes I captured while completing this goal:




















#60 - Henna

just after removing the glue
I have very little interest in ever getting a real tattoo ... I just can't think of anything that I want permanently on my skin. I even shudder at the thought of some of the things that I might have chosen as a design when I was younger.  However, I do like the idea of henna - where the design only exists for a few weeks - as a way of saying something positive (a wedding, a vacation, a fun day with friends) happened recently in my life.

I got this design at the Minnesota State Fair.  The process was a bit different at the booth than other places I've gotten henna tattoos.  This group covered the paste with a glue layer after the henna had dried for a bit.  I'm not convinced of the effectiveness of this additional step; my henna bracelet seems to be fading more quickly this time than any of the designs I've gotten in the past (and faster in the areas where the glue stayed on the longest).  Additionally, it was annoying to wait another 20 minutes for the paste to dry, so they could add the glue layer when I had already waited in line for about half an hour to get the paste applied.  However, the glue did keep the paste from flaking off when bumped by other people - a big thing when moving through a big crowd - even though it looked like my skin was molting by the end of the day.