Wooden Growth Charts

Happy fall to everyone! I decided to treat myself today with a little winter boot shopping :) No purchases were made but I definitely have some ideas of what I "need" this winter.

As summer was wrapping up, a cousin of mine had her first baby! I was more than happy for her and couldn't wait to start spoiling her little one. During our discussion, it was brought up that they didn’t have a permanent residence yet and that their fate would be decided by the fluctuating housing market in the months or years to come. In that moment, I was reminded of my own childhood, moving quite frequently, and knew the perfect gift for the whole family.

These wooded growth charts would have made my mother's life a lot easier while trying to track our height growing up! She took the door off the hinges of one of the first apartments we lived in and propped it up in the laundry room or inside the coat closet, basically anywhere it would fit, in order to keep a consistent measurement for us. I didn't want my cousin doing the same! And once the first one was made- the idea took off!

The yellow one is inspired from traditional ruler color. The black and white is my personal favorite with its cleaner, modern look. The red (scarlet) and gray one was meant to represent the Ohio State Buckeyes since we are huge fans around here!! I didn't add any specific OSU details on purpose so it is also just fire truck red for any little boy or girl who may like the colors. A Cleveland Browns (brown and orange) inspired growth chart is almost finished and will be added to the shop within days. I'm thinking purple is next but we will see :) They can all be purchased/customized in the Ashley Nicolle Design etsy shop. If your local- shipping is free, just let me know before you purchase and we can arrange a local pickup!

 

Photo-a-day Challenge (June)

I am extremely pleased with the amount of time I have been able to allot to developing my photography skills this summer. During late spring, I attended a 2-day seminar at Robert Morris University taught by photographers with resumes miles long, and positions I didn’t even know I had dreamt of. It was eye opening to say the least. The most surprising moments were the direct parallels from film photography (where nearly all of my schooling came from) to current digital photography. I had assumed the “kids” today were far more advanced than me and it would take years to be considered serious about the subject again. The overjoyed, cheesy grin on my face when I realized otherwise might have been the picture perfect moment of my life.

So what does this have to do with an iPhone and a photo-a-day challenge… Creativity. I can assure you, I’m not one of those people who get a cool camera app, change the effect, and instantly think their pictures are equal to that of a professional photographer. For me, the photo-a-day challenge is about forcing you to see the world in a more creative way; it offers a daily challenge that allows me to appreciate the little parts of my day that I would have otherwise overlooked.  

My goals when starting the project were to take each picture on the given day for its task. I did not want to use old photos or even look ahead at the list and take convenient photos for future use. More importantly, I wanted to make my pictures creatively my own for the day; I hoped not to click #empty and see hundreds of other pictures that looked just like mine. Of course I always try to keep composition, lighting, etc. in mind and do the best I can with my cell phone. Some pictures turn out so well that I wish I actually had my camera with me while others are clearly just meant for on the go phone capture. Either way, I love it and have already continued into July. For the day by day shots you can follow my Instagram's at twitter.com/TheInspiredLens. Let me know what you think! I love feedback!