St. Patricks Day 2018

 This year we decided to do a Tolkien themed party. Celtic and Hobbits just seem to fit together nicely. To make a long story short, my plan was to host the party outside, but it all of a sudden turned VERY cold the weekend we were having the party. So we moved our pallet floor table we made inside to the living room.

 We moved all of the furniture out of the living room and placed the table in the center of the floor on my wool rug. It worked out so well and no one froze. I used some tartan fabric scarves as runners down the center of the pallet table to add more texture and color to the table. I had also purchased several random candle sticks at various thrift and antique stores, gave them a coal of black chalk paint with a gray wash to add age and scattered them down the center of the table among the scarves and pallet boxes my husband made me that I keep for random things like this.

My mom helped me with food prep. She made the savory I made the sweet. I made my yummy and boozy Irish cupcakes which consist of a Guinness Stout chocolate cupcake, filled with a Jameson Irish Whisky custard filling, topped with a Baileys Irish Cream buttercream icing. Hobbit seed cakes, vegan Lembas bread, baked brie with apricot preserves, blackberry tarts, and mini berry cakes with whipped cream icing.

Fresh fruit and bread for the herbed butters and honey butters.

The baked brie and the berry cakes.

The extra seed cakes and berry cakes that wouldn't fit on the main table.

Irish Cabbage Rolls my mom made.

Fresh veggies and fruit, with several varieties of cheese.

The berry cakes.

Lembas bread

Hobbit seed cakes.

Irish cupcakes.

Blackberry tarts.

The making of the cupcakes. They are baked with beer and then brushed with it.

The "family size" whiskey bottle.

 Every year we always do a party favor. And every year I outdo myself. This year was no different. I designed a logo based on the pub sign I made several years ago and had real, professional pint glasses made. Everyone was able to take one home to remember the evening.

Every year my husband brews a couple of different craft beers for everyone as well. I get to design the labels! I don't really like beer but I sure do like to make stuff. This year he did an American Brown Ale and a Cream Ale. They were all gone by the end of the night so I guess they were good.

All in all it was another successful St. Patrick's Day party at The Griffin House. Éirinn go Brách!

Autumn Water Photo Shoot

Well, I think this is a record for me. I actually made it less than a year between blog posts, lol!

Not that I haven't been doing anything. As a matter of fact I have been SUPER busy. Too busy actually. So much so that I have decided to drop a few things. But more on that later. I wanted to get these images out there from my first in water photo shoot.

My goal with this shoot was 3 fold. 1. I wanted to do a shoot with sisters. 2. I wanted to do my version of a milk bath shoot and 3. I had new fairy crowns and necklaces I needed to photograph for my Etsy shop. I feel like I accomplished that.

I had done some research on milk baths and water shoots. Even though I like milk bath images, they are very popular which is not my thing. If it is trendy, I don't want to do it.
The first thing I did was purchased a kiddy pool, one that would fit 3 kids at the least. Then I had to figure out what I wanted to use to color the water. Since I knew I wanted a sort of Medieval, Lady of the Lake vibe, I wanted the water to look dark, like lake water. Since I do a lot of paper crafting and coffee/tea dying of paper and fabric, I figured, why not use coffee to tint the water. So, off to the grocery store I went to buy a couple of jars of instant coffee. I collected my coffee, my greenery and my grapevine from my stash and headed to the back yard.

I used stools and chairs, and whatever else I could find to hold the sides of the pool up until it was full of water since it wasn't a blowup pool.
Even though it was fall and the weather was warm, I figured the water would be cold. The girls weren't sure about doing this.

I set everything up the day before the shoot. I covered the water with a black tarp to keep bugs and junk out as well as hopefully warm the water some.

The water was freezing and the middle sister just couldn't do it. So I only got shots of the oldest and the youngest in the water. I did manage to get a shot of the 3 of them out of the water that turned out pretty good.

Here are the rest of the final images as well as some of the product shots. The behind the scenes images and product shots are shot with my iPhone.

Blue Jeweled Fairy Crown

Handmade Fairy Crown

Butterfly Fairy Crown

Fairy Necklace can be found here

Concept, all makeup, costumes, accessories, crowns and photography all done by me. I was fortunate to have my son and my mom helping me with the set up and actual shoot.

Childlike Empress Cosplay Photo Shoot

I have been wanting to do some cosplay photo shoots and this one was at the top of my list. I had the perfect model for the shoot so I just needed to make her gown and head piece. I also had to figure out the back ground.  I looked for weeks for a digital background but alas, couldn't find anything so I resorted to making my own. Here are the final images:

 

 

These images were for my own personal fan art and no monies were made from these images. I was considering doing some with the character Bastion and the Empress together. Maybe after I finish up the next 2 shoots, The Secret of the Kells and Labyrinth.

"Bastion, Call... my... name!"

Let me know what you think! Follow my blog to keep up with the latest photo sessions and behind the scenes looks at how I do my craft and create my images.

Family Movie Night

It is the end of the school year and we wanted to give our kids someplace to celebrate this joyous occasion. Plus we wanted them to be able to keep up with their friends through the summer, and meeting the parents and getting to know them was the best way to do that, so family movie night was born.

We had intended to use our projector outside and have everyone lay out on lawn to watch the movie. We were serving, organic, non-gmo popcorn and drinks. Everything was planned. And then we got rained out. There was a chance of rain but it wasn't high enough to make us change the date or move it to indoors. That is until the ominous dark clouds rolled in 15 minutes before people were due to arrive.
 

The ominous clouds that rolled in at the last minute.

With the help of our kids and a few of their friends that arrived early, we packed everything us and moved into the living room. Fortunately, we got all of the electronics and paper goods inside before it started to down poor.

We went with plan B, piling in the living room. Most of the families just dropped their kids off, which ended up being a good thing as there would have been standing room only. Though, we didn't get to know any of the parents. The kids all had a great time anyway and that's what counts! (I am not posting most of the pictures as there are children in them and I want to maintain their privacy).

Next up, The Never Ending Story photo session AND the Secret of the Kells photo session.

Fairy Angst

I am in the process of finishing up a cosplay photo shoot for The Never Ending Story. In the mean time here is a garden fairy costume I created using scraps of vintage fabrics. Every bit of the costume was handmade and it is fully lined. It will be available in my Etsy shop soon.

Here are the final images from the photo shoot of this fairy costume: