Happy birthday Mara Gwen Welch!
I'm so excited to have a new little niece! So happy she arrived safely and healthy. And I'm so excited to go see her in 2 weeks! Yes, I bought plane tickets last night to go see the newly expanded Welch family April 7-10. I can't wait to see what she looks like and to hold a brand new infant again. Ben asked me today if I thought I'd come back from St. Louis wanting another baby. Well, I'm not sure about that, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to fall in love with Mara.
The other big news of the week, ok, maybe not quite so momentous as the birth of a baby, but pretty momentous for me anyway, is the arrival of my new camera!!!!!!
I'm not sure I told you guys of this thing I had going, because if it didn't end up working out I'd be pretty embarassed. But it did, so I'll tell the story now. A few months ago, as I was researching cameras and searching different internet sites to try and find the best price for the camera I wanted (a Canon EOS 20D digital SLR for anyone who cares), I came across a website with a button that said, "Click here to get this camera free!" So I clicked on it to see what it was, sure there was some kind of massive catch. Well, of course there was a massive catch, but it ended up being worth it to me. The camera was being offered by this internet company that is hired by all kinds of other companies to drive people to their websites. So anyway I had to fill out and complete 18 "offers" from this website, and after they were completed, they would send me this camera free. It took me 3 months to successfully complete all 18 offers, and it wasn't exactly free since some of the offers involved buying stuff. But all-in-all I think I spent around $250-$300 and I ended up with a $1400 camera and lens! And it was the exact camera I wanted.
Some of the offers were to apply for a credit card, and if accepted make a purchase and pay the first bill. I signed up for a Disney movie-of-the-month type thing. Ordered 30 day trials of 3 different herbal supplements. Signed up for a dental discount program (which is actually good since I don't think Ben's work offers Dental). Signed up for a whole bunch of internet stuff-- getting weekly emails about buying foreclosed houses, etc. I created a whole new email address for all of this so I wouldn't get flooded with junk email.
So the long story short is that I finished all of that, and got my camera! Now I'm ready to roll. I took a bunch of pictures this past weekend trying to get the hang of the camera, and I definitely still have a lot to learn but so far I love, love, love, love it!
I'm also building a little studio in our garage. I was thinking about trying to convert Brigham's bedroom into a studio, but actually he's been sleeping there a lot, and the garage will work just as well. I bought a humongous piece of MDF and I'm making a platform (just putting the MDF on double-stacked cinder blocks). I bought 2 boxes of laminate wood flooring and I'm going to make a faux-wood floor on the platform. I can then pull my backdrop down (I use a roll of white vinyl but I eventually will get various colors of seamless backdrop paper), clamp the bottom corners to a length of baseboard that I will attach to my platform, and voila! A beautiful wood floor and pretty wall to take pictures against. I've seen lots of pictures with this set up and you'd never guess it was all fake. I have my backdrop hanging from hooks I have inserted into the pegboard on the east wall of the garage. I got some gorgeous round chinese lanterns (one 32" diameter which is huge-- I'll use this as my key light, and another 12" diameter that I'll use either as fill or as a hair light). I am going to install this metal bracket thing on the garage ceiling and put in a bunch of S-hooks so I can adjust the positioning of the lanterns. I also have an old closet door that I have set up on one side where I can lean my reflectors (really just foam core board from Office Depot).
So, that is my studio-on-a-budget, or at least what it eventually will be. I'll take a picture of my set up when I'm done.
Oh my, this entire email has been completely about me. I'll have to tell some kid-stories tomorrow. For now I'll leave you with some pictures from my new camera.