Crystal Madrilejos

Design & Creative

Qviews

I haven’t posted any of Q’s photos in awhile. Here are some he took earlier in the year, when it was still snowing and we had the taps in the maple trees.

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Qviews

More photos from Q. Thankfully, the Endless Winter of 2013-2014 looks like it’s finally coming to an end. As I type this, I can hear the birds outside and it’s 6:45am and the sky is light, all the tell-tale sign of spring. These pictures pretty much sum up our winter. Runny noses and cabin fever.

If you’re coming here for the first time – Q is our 4-year-old son who likes to take photos. See past photos here and here.

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Quil started showing some interest in using a camera a little while back. (Sorry for the blurry iPhone photo above. He’s a photographer on the move!) Most of his baby photos were taken with this very camera he is using in that photo, but unfortunately, we don’t break it out that often now that I have an iPhone. But we’ve been bringing it out more so that he can explore with it. Neither Andrew and I are photographers, so we don’t have a ton of knowledge to pass on in that area, but right now he’s still really young and couldn’t grasp the concepts of shutter speed and aperture (I still struggle with this too). If he’s still interested in the future, it would be a fun thing to learn together. Right now, he’s just content to take photos of things that he sees.  (more…)

treasures

Buckeyes + Black Walnuts + dried Tomatillo husk + broken robin’s egg + deer antler

I honestly think there is nothing more wondrous, beautiful, and inspiring than the natural world. Rereading that sentence, I realized I probably just ripped off a line from David Attenborough from the Planet Earth documentary series. But it’s true! Whenever we go on walks, Andrew, Quil and I are aways on the lookout for “treasures.” Whether, it’s rocks or feathers or interesting seed pods, we like to collect these little things and display them at home. 
For awhile now, I’ve been meaning to photograph our growing collection in hopes that they can become a regular feature on our blog, since it seems that we’re always finding something new. So, today I finally got around to photographing the first installment of our “Found Treasures.” Hope you enjoy them!

Feathers (collected between 2008 – 2012)
I don’t know what kinds of feathers these are. If anyone has any idea, I would love to know! Aren’t they beautiful?
This Calvin & Hobbes comic pretty much sums up my feelings exactly whenever we find something neat. 
Recently, a family friend and I were laughing about how she went on vacation one year and came home with a suitcase full of rocks. Andrew is slightly concerned about our upcoming vacation to the beach and the amount of shells that may find their way home with us! I’ll do my best to keep it under control.
xo,
c.

On Being, On Family

Busy Week

Hey! Sorry I’ve been MIA. Been super busy, but will be back soon with updates and some other cool stuff to share. I’ll leave you with this photo series I like to call “Hiding From Papa”:

He’s saying “HIDE!!! He’s coming!!”

-c.

I totally forgot that I never posted about this! Most likely because it happened during the worst drought of blogging that we’ve had yet. Slowly, things from that period are coming back to me that I wanted to post about but never got to.

Around Thanksgiving of last year my family decided that we wanted to start taking yearly photos of all the Grandkids. We figured Thanksgiving is really the most reliable time to take the portraits since we are all together. My brother, Tom, was the one who had the idea of taking the portraits and how they should be shot (he also handled the color correcting of the pictures.) Between my brother and I we tag teamed taking the photos and making sure the lighting was sufficient. With the help of sisters and husbands and grandparents we were able to wrangle this gang long enough to get decent shots.

I think they turned out really beautiful (though I am bias) and really show the personality of each kid. Falcon with his boyish, yet silly attitude (top row, far right). Arwen with a bruise on her chin (middle row, far left). Q looking like a deer in headlights with a cut on his nose. This year we’ll be adding another portrait of my sister’s new baby, Sofie, who was born in April.

Hooray for growing!

-c.

Uncategorized

Clouds


[Image via The Cloud Appreciation Society]

A few years back I was living in a loft space in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn. The building had a really neat rooftop with an incredible view. I went through this phase where I would get up super early and run up to the roof and take pictures of the sunrise. I got some amazing photos and got to see some great cloud formation. So I was thrilled when our friend Natalie posted a link on Facebook to The Cloud Appreciation Society! There are so many cool photos on this site and I highly recommend taking a minute to check it out.

-c.

P.S. Just an FYI, the navigation of the photo gallery is a little strange and the images a little slow to load.

Uncategorized

Yellow

The trees in our yard have been bare for a few weeks now but before all the leaves fell I was able to get a few shots of them in their full autumn glory! I can’t believe Thanksgiving is next week. Where did the time go?

p.s. The glass circle hanging from the tree is a beautiful bird feeder by Eva Solo that we got for our wedding from our friend Iliana. We used to have it hanging on our porch but the birds loved it so much that they made such a mess all the time!

–c.