{Love That Shot} Favorite Shot This Week

This week on Love That Shot, they wanted to see your favorite shot for the week. Mine are of my little one!

{I Heart Faces} Fix It Friday #76

Here are my edits for this week's Fix It Friday hosted by IHeartFaces.com

Original Photo - not mine - only used for editing

Edit #1 - adjusted color balance, levels and sharpened a bit

Edit #2 - same as #1 and then I ran PW's Seventies Action

{Field Trip Fridays} PhotoPlus NYC

This week in NY there's a big expo going on called Photoplus. It's being held at the Javits Center from 10/28 to 10/30. If you're into photography, you definitely need to check it out!

I cleared my schedule yesterday so I could spend the day there. There were lots of smaller events around the city that were all tied into the Photoplus event.

I started out at a place on 28th & 11th called Shoot NYC

where I went to hear Lindsay Adler, a NY fashion and portrait photographer speak about advanced blogging techniques for photographers. I've been to a few of her seminars already at B&H and really like her. We also have the same crazy hair - just different colors!

Then I headed on over to the Javits Center for the main expo.

All I can say is WOW!!! It was so exciting and intimidating all at the same time. Lots going on!

They had a whole schedule of seminars throughout the day that were a separate fee but there were also plenty of free speaking events as well. My favorite part!!

All of the major camera companies were represented. Nikon had a big presence because they provided the free shopping bags for the attendees. Smart marketing! Everywhere you looked you saw bright yellow bags with "Nikon" written on it.

Canon (my favorite) was there as well.

I was swooning over all of their equipment. Check out these babies...

Jumbo!

They had an 800mm lens set up for everyone to try. (there's that NIKON bag!)

I HAD to take a look! It's unbelievable how far you can see! Without the lens I was trying to find what I was looking at just so I can see how far it actually was and I couldn't even find it!

Some of the companies got really creative with their displays like this company called Hoodman - they make camera accessories.

Maybe this guy will have his own comic book one day.

Sony also had a fun setup - a ramp with a biker and cameras set up around the perimeter so you can photograph the biker making his way around the ramp.

There were also a lot of printers and photo book companies. Check out these cards from MPIX

Love them! You know my brain is already spinning with "how can I make those?!?"

B&H (my favorite store) had a BIG presence as well. They were even providing free shuttle buses back to their store! I just love all of these creative marketing ideas. Genius!

I also went to my first tweetup! That was interesting. Everyone had to put their twitter handle on the name badge. There were vendors set up there as well. I got to check out Lensbaby. Cool lenses that you can actually move in different directions!

So, if you're in NY and you love photography, get your butt on over to the Javits Center. If you're not in NY, plan on coming next year!

Have a great weekend!

{Party} Justin Bieber / Lady Gaga - Part 2

Yesterday I told you about the food and decorations at the Justin Bieber / Lady Gaga party so today I thought I'd finish up with the rest of the details - activities and goodie bags!

I have to admit, planning the activities for a party is my least favorite part of an event. I absolutely LOVE the design details like food, decorations and party favors, but when it comes to activities, it completely stresses me out.

So, I did some research online and came up with some ideas.

First off we had a "Gaga Glam Shop" set up with eye shadow, lip gloss, nail polish, hair ties, face painting pencils and of course dress up clothes.

Some of the girls REALLY got into this activity!

Of course I have to have a craft activity! I got plain white masks and a bunch of enhancements like feathers and sequins so the girls could really express their personalities. Some were pretty conservative while others really went all out!

This took care of the Lady Gaga side of things. For Justin, we played a version of "pin the tail on the donkey" but instead "Plant A Kiss On Justin" Each girl had to put lipstick on and was blindfolded, then had to kiss a poster of Justin that was hanging on the wall. Whoever got closest to his lips won! This was hysterical because the girls were screaming with giddiness after each kiss.

Another JB inspired game we played was a modified version of Hot Potato but in this version we passed around a play microphone and whenever the music stopped, the person holding the mic had to finish singing part of the JB song that was playing during the game.

For the goodie bags I got solid color gift bags matching the color scheme of the party and designed Lady Gaga gift tags with each girl's name on it.

We had tattoos, candy lipsticks, lip gloss rings, funky glittery diva sunglasses, acrylic light up microphones and glow sticks.

At the end of the party, each girl got a pink Chinese takeout box and was able to load up on whatever was left on the candy table. These girls went to town! There was nothing left - not even a single jelly bean!

This is a great way to get all that candy out of your house!

My little one's birthday isn't until April so I still have plenty of time to think of that one!

What's your favorite part of party planning?

{Party} Justin Bieber / Lady Gaga - Part 1

Just realized I never posted the rest of the details from my daughter's Justin Bieber / Lady Gaga party. I left you off with the cake wreck.

This year I let my daughter get involved in the planning. Usually I like to do it all (it's a control thing) but this time she was so excited about it, we did it together. This turned out to be a bit difficult because her ideas were a bit all over the place. Kept trying to reel her back in which wasn't always working.

Her main requests were that the colors were pink, violet and turquoise, had to have Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Hello Kitty, gum and candy. See what I mean about all over the place?

So this is what I came up with...

Streamers, balloons, and partyware incorporated the colors she wanted.

The birthday banner is one I made years ago but it has become a tradition to hang it up every year.

For more decorations, I bought magazines and cut out pictures of Justin and Lady Gaga and decorated the walls with them.

I designed personalized chocolate bars and water bottle labels with both JB and LG.

We had lots of candy and gum (from Economy Candy) - all with the pink, violet and turquoise color scheme.

Here's a good tip to save money - either use smaller containers or if they are larger, fill the containers half way with paper and then fill the rest with your candy so it looks like it's overflowing.

This is a trick gift basket designers use when filling their baskets to make them look so full. (I should know - I was one of them!)

Besides the Hello Kitty cake, I made cupcakes with turquoise frosting, pink and purple liners and created custom JB and LG cupcake toppers.

I rounded out the food with little finger foods like pizza rolls, mini quiches and mini pigs in the blanket.

Tomorrow I'll be back with details on the activities and goodie bags!

{I Heart Faces} Fix It Friday #75

Here are my edits for this week's Fix It Friday.

Original Photo (not mine)

My edited version

CS4, cropped, adjusted saturation and levels Adjusted levels on vest and pants separately to bring out some detail. Sharpened slightly.

Check out the other edits on I Heart Faces

{Field Trip Fridays} Madison Square Market

One of the things I really love about the city is when there's an upscale outdoor market to go to featuring indie designers and artists. I'm always inspired and amazed at all of the creativity out there!

I knew there was a market going on in Madison Square Park and I was eager to check it out.

It's always a great sign when you see a flood of white tents! It's gotta be good!

There were lots of interesting things to see. And a wide variety as well

Jewelry

These from Hanami were made from real flowers!

Cool tees from Kataplin

Bags - both vegan & recycled plastic.

Even puppets!

Then I had a few favorites that really caught my eye.

This was a really cool idea. Instead of an Entertainment book that gives you coupons to different restaurants and various venues, this was a similar concept but in the form of playing cards from City Shuffle.

52 cards were in the pack and each card was valued at $10 off a specific restaurant. All for only $25! (at this location) What an amazing gift for a foodie-city girl-blogger-someone-that-needs-a-night-out-because-her-girls-make-her-crazy.

Not that I'm thinking of anyone specific but my birthday IS coming up in 17 days.

Remember when you were younger and folded gum wrappers to make a chain? Well, now they're accessories at Nahui Ollin

I've actually seen this before but they went as far as to even make keychains out of them. They also had a video going on explaining the process. I would have loved to stay and watch because I'm really curious how they get the finished product so smooth and shiny but I had to press on. My time was limited that day.

I like how they even got creative with their displays. One of the display units looked like it was decoupaged with pages from a comic book. So fun!

The colors in this next booth just blew me away! Check out Karma Living.

I honestly didn't even know where to look first. There was so much going on and I wanted to make sure I was able to take everything in The colors were amazing!

So bright and cheerful!

I also loved the creative use of displays - using actual furniture to show their other items.

They had lots of fun pillows - my favorites were the cute owl

and all of the peace signs.

Equally as beautiful, but with a completely different color palette was this next booth - Paradis Found Designs. I just loved this one! Words like precious, sweet, adorable, beautiful all came to mind as I was staring in awe.

The handmade baby/children's clothes were made in various shades of pink and blue but not in a typical way you would expect to see in mainstream stores. Each item is unique and made from vintage and collectible fabrics.

The colors and shades went so well together and all of the little details just put them over the top.

Even the hangers were adorable!

If you need a baby gift, this is the place to go!

If you guys are in the city, you need to hurry because this market ends tomorrow! With the holidays coming up just around the corner though, there will be plenty of other markets to explore. Definitely something to look forard to.

As for me, I'm going to have a table at a local Fall/Halloween festival this Sunday. I'll have lots of accordion scrapbooks for Halloween and the upcoming holidays as well as a sale on hair accessories. I'll also have samples of personalized candy bar wrappers that make great party favors. If you're in the Riverdale area, stop by to say hi. It will be at PS 81 / Riverdale Neighborhood House from 11 to 3.

Do you like to shop indie markets? Have you ever been a vendor? Any creative display ideas?

Have a great weekend!