Well, this Monday is particularly mad - I AM NOT A CITY GIRL (and neither is Tessa)! I get totally stressed out being here and I swear Tessa is going to hold on going to the bathroom until we get back to Virginia.  I think she's a bit lost without some grass in sight. Poor baby girl. At least she has her new pink coat she got for Christmas to play the part of a city girl. 

I'm happy to announce on this Monday that

Turquoise Lollipops

is having its first giveaway! Who's excited?!  Here are the details...

1)

A name (well, three names) will be drawn from a hat (yes old school style) Sunday at 7 pm. 

2)

No names will be looked at, but placed in Tessa's (the dog) new Christmas toy.  The way it works is that there are little compartments that hold treats, and Tessa has to basically slide a door over in order to get the treat.  Each name will be placed with one treat in each compartment - the first Tessa gets to is the winner. 

How to enter?

There are many ways!

The point is to get your name in as many times as you can.  The way you get a name in the hat is by any (or all) of the following:

1)

Start following my blog (either through

Blogger

or

Bloglovin'

or both!)

2)

Comment (anything you want) on a post (only one comment per post, but can comment on different posts up until the deadline to get your name in the hat more than once)

3)

Start following me on

Twitter

4)

Tweet about the giveaway!

5)

 Add my

Etsy

store to your favorites!

6)

Like my

Facebook

page!

7)

Follow me on

Pinterest!

Got it?! 

What's the pri

ze? 

Good question!

The winner will receive a metallic print of each of the

Yes, I Swim

paintings up to date. 

That includes:

1.

8x10 Metallic

Yes, I Can Swim (Tiger)

Print

2.

8x10 Metallic

Yes, I Can Swim (Pig)

Print

3

. 5x7 Metallic

Yes, I Can Swim (Polar Bear)

Print

4.

5x7 Metallic

Yes, I Can Swim (Polar Bear 2)

Print

5.

8x10 Metallic

Yes, I Can Swim (Elephant)

Print

6.

8x10 Metallic

Yes, I Can Swim (Horse)

Print

7.

8x10 Metallic

Yes, I Can Swim (Japanese Macaque)

Print

Got it? Any questions, feel free to email me at lauratanis@gmail.com! And don't forget the deadline is

Sunday, January 15th by 7 pm.

Good luck and Happy Monday!!

Happy, happy Monday everyone! Anyone else have off today? It's so nice to be home with my man on a Monday after two full days of relaxation with him before.  Ahh, 2012 is going to be a good year.  

I have lots and lots to share from my week at home and my few days back here and most are gifts (lucky me!). 

Going home is always great because I get to see my Moo Moo.  Seriously, how cute is that nose!?

My cute little family :)

My boyfriend and I decided to do one big gift Christmas morning and save the rest for New Years morning when we got back to our own place.  When I woke up Christmas morning, I was so happy to get an IPad from him! Can't you tell from my Instagram pictures I can now do! I love any excuse to take more pictures.  Anyway, right outside the window of the room we were staying in at my father's house, we saw this Christmas morning...

I'm pretty sure Santa forgot something! Seriously this buck was so big and beautiful and it was so unreal staring at it so close to us.  It was such a nice Christmas surprise. 

Now for the good part - the gifts!

Here are some selects of my gifts. This was seriously the best Christmas EVER! Hope it was for everyone else too :)

1. My man got me way too many things, one of which are my new lovely Hunter boots. I am one for loving rain and loving rain boots and my old pair leaked water (ironic, no?), so now I have a beautiful pair that will definitely not leak.  

2. He also got me this amazingly soft hoodie from Anthropologie.  It is sooooo cozy and the hood is like one big teddy bear. I am seriously obsessed with it.  Love the color and the comfort!

3. My father got me and my boyfriend the cutest gift.  I opened mine first, which was the frog, because of how much time I spent at the frog pond at my home in New Jersey growing up and especially during school with some of my photo projects (Remember my book?

250 Million

).  My boyfriend opened his and it was a frog playing guitar (I met my boyfriend because my father set him up as my guitar teacher since he knew his father).  How cute is that? I can't even believe he was able to find a frog playing guitar!

4. My sister got met his awesome sweatshirt with a panda and a camera that says, "Oh Snap." It's the perfect shirt for my pinboard

Cute Camera, Cute Animal

, don't you think? It's by

Steppie Clothing

. I haven't had a chance to check out the site yet, but I am sure it's outrageously adorable!

5. I already mentioned this, but my lovely man who spoils me got me an IPad! Wahooo wahoo.

6. He also got me the point and shoot I've been trying to save for (not too successfully) for months since my old one broke.  I've just started playing with it, but I LOVE it. I'll write much more about it for Fabulous Photo Friday. My first pictures from it were of course of Tessa, though. 

(yes this one is fish eye)

7. My handsome honey got me this beautiful necklace.  He did so good! I've been wanting a big, funky necklace for awhile now, and this one is PERFECT!

8. My sister got me the

Sharon Montrose

book, which I didn't know existed, but I am quite excited to sit down for an afternoon and look at. 

9.  She also got me this adorable elephant ring holder from

Urban Outfitters

. 

Couldn't be happier this holiday season! And that was only some of my gifts. My man seriously spoiled me :)

Enjoy your Monday (hopefully off of work)!

And..I'm back! Happy New Year everyone! I have lots and lots to share this week, but in lieu of Sunday Sketches, today I just have a sketch.  

Hope everyone had a great start to the new year.  Here are some of my favorite animals wishing you a happy and healthy year.  Happy 2012! Hope you enjoy :)

(yes Tessa's 2 is upside down - she confuses easily)

Enjoy this first day of January!

The countdown officially begins...

6 Days Till Christmas! 

I am so excited for Christmas this year for so many reasons, but mostly because I get to spend it with my new little family for the first time (me, my man, the pup, and the pig - and of course the rest of the family)!

The presents keep piling up under the tree, but pretty soon we'll be packing them up and making the drive (yet again) to New Jersey. 

Let the Christmas festivities continue..

I did a new painting (well, three paintings) and I can't decide if I should sell them on Etsy or not since it was just a fun little thing, but you let me know what you think! Here are some oh, soo pretty fish. 

I thought they weren't looking too festive, so I had to get some Christmas in there somehow. I actually love the way the neon colors pop on Christmas decor. Don't you?!

I had to get some pictures of the tree and all the gifts (and Tess and her adorable pjs) before it was time to pack everything up. I still can't believe Christmas is this coming weekend!

I also did one more vellum layered drawing - a simple Christmas tree - three different layers. 

Hope everyone else is counting down too!

Happy Monday and good luck getting through the week.  I know I'll most definitely be needing inspiration to get me through this one ;)

The cold finally seems to be diminishing, but there's still so much to do before Christmas.  Who else is super excited? 

This week is going to be all about Christmas, so today to kick off the week I bring you...

A polar bear celebrating in the water! Wahoo. Enjoy Everyone! And happy, happy Sunday!

Enjoy the rest of the afternoon and Merry (almost) Christmas!

Happy, happy Monday! I am so very happy to be back to the normal schedule of things I am used to.  I've been pretty nonstop, but it's been great.  Before I get to my new Etsy listing, I have some cute Puggle moments to share with you! Love that dog :)

How cute is it when dogs not only sunbathe, but they play in and out of the blinds? I love it.  Seriously gets me every time.  Look at my little angel. 

Tessa really hates when I am working in the office and especially when both of us are working in the office, but it never occurred to get a bed for her in there.  There have been so many times when I am doing computer work with a little Puggle passed out on my lap, which is quite challenging when she uses your arm has her pillow. Good thing my man is always thinking -- picked up a bed for her this weekend and I think she's quite happy now when we work. What do you think? 

Usually she'd be hanging off the very tip of the couch just to get a peek of us in the office.  

Remember last week I was saying my next painting was slightly inspired by Yago Hortal and the Baltimore Aquarium, well, here it is. 

I Believe in a Shark's Smile

If you love the shark's smile as much as I do, give him some loving

here

. 

Shall we give him a name? Suggestions always welcomed :)

Hope everyone has a fun and productive Monday! Try and stay warm -- this cold certainly isn't sitting right with me!

And here it is, another crazy Monday.  Oh how I would love to not have to go to work today, but a long weekend trip to Baltimore is making it happen so I suppose that's more than okay ;)

I finally got to doing another painting in the Yes, I Swim series.  Ready for this one? Here it is....

Yes,  I Swim (Tiger)

If you're just completely smitten by this wet and cuddly kitty, buy him

here

.

I have so many Christmas projects I want to finish and order for tonight after work.  It will definitely be a mad Monday.  Anyone else feel like they have to take advantage of Cyber Monday??

Happy Monday Everyone!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! Mine was exhausting, especially now with a cold, BUT I had and have lots and lots to be thankful for :) 

Fabulous Photo Friday is not so fabulous today (on my half).  I can't wait to get back in my schedule of things after the holidays (even though I love the holidays) because there is just too much to do these days! Anyway, I had some great formal imagery of leaves to post, but unfortunately they got deleted in the chaos recently.  I decided for this Friday to do some overexposed self-portraits with the idea of doing multiple exposures with them.  I've discovered that it seems lighter backgrounds work the best with multiple exposures.  Of course, though, since I actually tried on these, they are not cool at all! Not even close to what I had in mind.  Oh well! Better luck next time, right? 

My sister helped me yet again with some inspiration by helping me choose the photographer of the week this week - Pauline Otylie Surys.  Her images are beautiful with lots and lots of experimenting in the dark room.  I love, love, love them.  Romantic and beautiful - my favorite. 

Pauline Otylie Surys

I figured since I fell in love with her images, maybe my over exposed self portraits would be fun to digitally mess with like she does in the darkroom.  Man -- it's hard to make images look like hers.  Boo hoo.  Another disappointment this week!

That's all I have for today! Hope everyone has a nice relaxing weekend and is enjoying some family time.  Happy belated Turkey Day, Happy Friday and Happy, Happy Weekend!!

I am tired, tired, tired on this Monday, but working today and tomorrow and then a nice trip home to New Jersey for Thanksgiving.  I can't wait for Tuesday afternoon :) Hope you all have nice plans for the holidays! 

I accidentally got to buying myself a few presents while doing the Christmas shopping for other people.  Ha! Sounds like me! But I am thoroughly in love with my three new purchases:

-a lovely

infinity scarf

from the lovely target (isn't the color fabulous?!)-

-a beautiful turquoise (eek!)  Lauren Conrad (actually love her line!)

ring

-

-the perfect

feather earrings

I've been searching for forever from Target-

Anyway, I have something to share with you all that I am very excited about because it's something I pinned a long time ago and have been meaning to try -- yep, I finally tried :) 

This was the initial

pin

that I had come across.  It's a drawing on different layers of vellum.  Cool, right? I just bought a pack of metallic markers and I was excited to try them out, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity.  I knew too that with my scanner (double lens scanner for film) that I could do some pretty cool things.  I of course did an ocean scene!  Let me know what you think.  This is definitely going to be something I'll be experimenting with more. 

Hope everyone has a fantastic Monday! 

Man, I'm tired. 

It's only Monday and I am already ready for some mid-week inspiration.  Anyone else? It's been a crazy few days and trying to balance everything is getting to be quite a challenge.  But so it is, another Monday, and some wonderful things to share.  Hope everyone had a great weekend. 

My boyfriend and I actually decorated for Christmas this weekend while drinking a bottle of local wine and it was wonderful.  I know, I know, it's EARLY to decorate, but in all honesty, we are away every weekend until December 10th, and well that's too late.  How's that for an excuse to decorate??

Check out some of the decorations.  The apartment seriously feels so warm and fuzzy.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Christmas time :)

We also attempted to start taking pictures for our Christmas card (it's so exciting doing all this with someone at your own place), but we didn't have any keepers yet.  There were a few I liked, though.  Making your own photo booth on the weekends is such a fun thing to do! Seriously, you all should do it at least once a month.  Yep, that's right.  

Last, but certainly not least on this mad Monday, I bring to you something completely unrelated to Christmas (since it is not even Thanksgiving yet) -- a painting. 

The newest painting at my

shop

!

Featuring:

"I Show My Love By Taking Pictures"

(Octopus)

If you love me, please show me 

here

!

Hope everyone has a great Monday! I'm looking forward to a night to relax with my man, eat some homemade stir fry, and just enjoy each other's company before he leaves for a conference for the rest of the week.  Hope you all have great plans this week. 

Happy Monday!

Just as I begin to get frustrated and in a rut to post this thing already after hours of making, I think about the link my sister sent me the other day -- a stop motion animation with 288,000 jelly beans that took...wait for it...2 years to complete.  Oh my.  I few hours doesn't seem so bad now.  Check out the ridiculous, but awesome, stop motion

here

.  

Hmm, maybe I shouldn't written that after my video so you wouldn't have to compare! Well, either way, I have a few hours, not a few years.  Hope you enjoy! Love, love, love the song to this one :)

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend! It's getting a bit chilly down here..hmm what to do about that. 

Happy Halloween! Ahh what a wonderful holiday.  I haven't done my normal celebrating (dressed up in some crazy costume), but I did have a lovely weekend and I did get a chance to go to a masquerade ball a few weeks ago at the gallery, so I can't complain! 

Oh and did I mention Tessa is a beautiful banana this year?!? Oh if only I were home with the piggy...

Yesterday we went to go watch the mummy run downtown, where half the runners are well, human runners and the other half are zombies.  The humans get a head start for the 5K run and the zombies try to get them.  The point is to make it to the end of the run without turning into a zombie (which of course happens if a zombie gets you!).  We were all bundled up ready for some entertainment.  Look at my cuties!

The zombies weren't as cute...

We also had lots of photobooth fun this weekend (since we didn't really get a chance to wear our masks at the masquerade party).  Just grab a mustache and who can't take a good picture, right?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!

Exactly One Week

It's exactly one week to go until the new blog and I have been working like crazy.  Be prepared for a whole new everything for Turquoise Lollipops.  I am so excited - cannot wait :)

Not much to share today (since I am going crazy trying to get everything ready) other than an amazing weekend with Tessa and Anthony at Shenandoah National Park.  Of course, lots of pictures to share of Tessa (pre hike) and us.

Enjoy.  Happy Monday and Happy Week!

 See anything?

 How about now?

Turquoise Lollipops at Firefish Gallery!

I am very, very happy to announce that some Turquoise Lollipops merchandise can now be found at

Firefish Gallery

 in downtown Charlottesville.  

Check out the pics!

I am also very happy to announce that I will be having a solo show of my

Blurred Reality

series here from April 15th to June 1st, 2012, so please mark it in your calendars! Oh and come to Charlottesville if you're not currently living here (please?)

That's all folks.  Officially two weeks until new (almost) everything for Turquoise Lollipops.  Excited? I am. 

Best Picture Ever

I have very exciting news that I have finally captured the best picture of Tessa ever.  ADKFJALSKFJS! She is too stinkin' cute.  And my new camera is a rockstar!

In other exciting news - I have picked a date for the launch of the new blog/new shop/new everything and it is.......October 24th.  Can you wait that long? So much to do, but a deadline will be good. 

And last but not least, it was the boyfriend's birthday this weekend.  Check out all the awesomeness, including custom Tessa wrapping brought to you by 

Stubblefield Photo Lab

Happy Wednesday!

Happy Camera Day!

And it has arrived...the beautiful Canon 5D.  

I scurried around the apartment with the box when it finally came in - I was so happy.  Unfortunately, it came in rather late in the day, so I only had a little bit to play around with it.  But, I of course have some first pictures and of course they are of Tess.  

And the beautiful flowers the wonderful man got me just because. 

And introducing the new fish!

Be prepared for many, many more pictures and better pictures.  These are literally just picking the camera up for the first time.  I can't wait to keep shooting.  

Oh and one thing I really love about the camera is that it allows me to shoot in black and white and manually expose.  It's just like the old days :)

Introducing Sugar, a dalmatian Molly

Introducing Poopy, Caca (Sp?), Flaming and Wok, all Neon Tetras

That's all for now.  Have a productive Tuesday!

Earthquake Tuesday

Yes, earthquake.  What a day..

As you might be able to tell, less and less time being spent blogging because I GOT A JOB.  A part time job, but one that is exactly what I am looking for, so I am grateful.  Still looking for full time, but hey, I'll take what I can get.  

I am currently working as an assistant for one of the best known photographer's in Charlottesville Jen Fariello.  Her work is absolutely beautiful and I feel very fortunate to get a chance to work with her.  I've already learned so much that can help me out with my next job/future, etc. 

Check out her work/blog :)

http://www.jenfariello.com/

This weekend was spent rearranging the bedroom in the apartment (I knew the itch would come soon enough even though I have only been here a few months) and it looks absolutely beautiful.  Just a few more finishing touches before this apartment is finished! (Ugh who wants to think about moving somewhere new in a year?! I love this apartment).  I've been working on a project for the bedroom wall incorporating a lot of artwork I have seen recently on top old dictionary pages and sheet music -- something I've been wanted to try.  I wanted to do a gallery/collage style framing and this is what I came up with. These frames aren't exactly what we picked out, but all I could find that is similar.  Ours are a bit more dramatic and more gold.  I cannot wait for this to be finished.  All drawings done by me and all the sheet music I scanned in and 'vintaged' up.  

bigger view of just the layered images

I also just started working on another collage decoration piece for the living room after we bought a huge clock that is surprisingly too small to be on a wall by itself.  Pictures within the frames consist of pictures I have taken during my travels.  

Let me know what you guys think! Both projects will be finished/hung when we get back from our trip to Jersey for Labor Day Weekend.  

Now, back to the earthquake.  I had just gotten back from food shopping today and just finished my lunch when my entire apartment started violently shaking and Tessa started going crazy.  I have never witnessed an earthquake before, never really thought about what to expect, never really thought that if I ever felt one I'd question what I was feeling, BUT I was totally confused.  I thought maybe the people on top of us had their washing machine going crazy, or perhaps below us because my butt was rumbling too.  I literally had Tessa in my arms just staring at our balcony shaking.  I thought for sure any minute the apartment was going to crumble and the earth was going to crack in half. 

Well, I guess I experienced my first earthquake and I must admit that I do not scare easily, and it really did frighten me.  My heart dropped and it took quite awhile for it to get back in place.  Thank God there was no damage and everyone was fine.  A few things falling and that is all.  And our newly bloomed sunflower did survive yet another natural disaster.  

The epicenter was just thirty miles away from us. Check out the map:

www.weather.com

Here are some pictures of the damage around our area:

www.weather.com

I am so happy I was in the apartment when it happened and not still food shopping! I would have been even more of a nervous wreck!

And just when I thought the world ending had come to an end, the hurricane is heading straight for us.

www.weather.com

I'm telling you, I have a bad feeling we are getting a terribly storm coming our way.  I just hope there isn't too much damage.  Every time we have a 'normal' thunder and lightening storm, we get an incredible amount of damage.  I've never seen storms like I've seen here.  Who would have thought?

Well everyone, Happy Tuesday.  And happy first earthquake to me and the pup - glad we made out safe and sound. 

As promised...

Another post.  Wahoo - maybe I am back on track.  So before I start I just got exciting news that I have to share.  My book is up as a finalist for the student competition on blurb! Vote for me! Please?! I would really appreciate it.  

Check it out 

here

.

There is a little button underneath where you can vote if you want to! Thank you, thank you, thank you.  So excited about this. 

Okay, next task to cross off.  I know I uploaded no stop motion animation on Friday, but nature was not working with me.  I actually started it on Tuesday (anticipating our first sunflower to bloom) but it takes a long, long time (even after it looks ready to burst).   Who knew?! So in spite of it, I did a first preview movie.  The tripod is up, yet again, waiting for this thing.  I would have lost a ton of money had I bet on the bloom date for the sunflower.  

Me and the man went to Shenandoah National Park this weekend for the first time and it was BEAUTIFUL.  So happy we bought the annual pass.  Can't wait to get there in the fall :)

I know you all our jealous of our adorable hats/hiking outfits.  

So I witnessed the worst storm since I've been here and possibly the worst storm I have ever seen the other night.  I swear at one point, while we were looking out our sliding glass door leading out to the balcony, you could not see anything with all the wind/hail.  We are lucky we didn't get any damage (though Anthony felt a bit of a buzz in his hand from the door - we're guessing from the nearby tree getting struck by lightening).  When the rain lightened up a bit, we finally went to walk Tessa and it really did look like the end of the world with all the trees down.  I think Tessa was quite confused. I of course continued shooting my sunflower during the storm and as strange as it is (keep in mind we had hundreds of trees/branches down) our sunflower had a growth spurt overnight, with only one cracked lead stem, because of the storm! Check out the picture before the storm, during, and after (where it is just about our of the frame). Crazy.

We finally had our first bloom on our balcony (and no, not the sunflower).  It's not much, but it's exciting :)

Now send the sunflower some good vibes to finally bloom.  Let's go people!

MIA

I know I have been MIA, but I have been diligently trying to finish up my website/edit my pictures/and all the lovely stuff that goes along with that.  I've been so excited/immersed in that, I've had little time to do anything else/think about anything else, but it's getting there and I'm very excited!

Just wanted to give you a sneak peak of a new series I've been working on.  Let me know what you think. 

And check out the new website (don't forget it's still getting worked on)!

www.lauraedriatanis.com

All above images copyright Laura Edria Tanis (part of 

Blurred Reality

series

)

And now just one bit of love from pinterest:

Happy almost Friday everyone!!

Great Weekend, Blah Monday

This weekend was great and filled with new adventures.  Friday night we went to public night at the observatory in town.  Now I don't know about you guys, but I (and I know Anthony too) was expecting some telescopes to look through and some people who knew some stuff.  It was so far from that it's not even funny.  

The observatory was beautiful and filled with lots of little tidbits (almost like a museum).  

click for credit

When we got inside, there was only one telescope and it was gigantic, and no, you don't put your eyes up to it - that's how big it was.  After listening to some lectures, we found out that when this telescope was donated to this observatory (1885 I believe) it was the largest telescope in the United States and second largest in the world.  Pretty cool.  Here's an old picture of it (looks exactly the same now). 

click for credit

Our second awesome adventure for the weekend was a Polo match! A winery near us does a polo match every Sunday where you can buy a bottle of wine, pull up your car, lawn chairs, bring your pup, and just watch the game.  It was really cool (though Tessa was a bit hot) and I got to practice my panning technique with photography. Enjoy! We sure did.  Oh, and the wine was delicious. 

all photos Laura Edria Tanis

So now it's Monday and I'm blah blah blah as my bank account dwindles.  Here are some much needed inspirational words for the day.  Enjoy :) 

www.pinterest.com