09 Wednesday Mar 2016
Posted in Outdoors, Personal, Uncategorized
Here’s a tribute to a sweet thing who’s been in our family for over 15 years. My brother’s family owns a chihuahua named Paco. I don’t know how much longer he will be around but so far he has had a long, happy life. He goes everywhere with my brother, his wife and their two children, going shopping, going on family vacations and he even goes with them to church every week! Paco has brought so much joy to my brother’s family and to mine. I love you, little Paco!
06 Friday Nov 2015
Posted in Book Review
Thank you to DK Publishing for asking me to review this book. It it the third book we have received in the last year. I apologize for not posting the other two yet. Our 1 and a half year old son was very sick the first year of his life and we had a death in the family a year ago. I’m hopeful things will get easier and we will blog regularly again.
LEGO Star Wars: Small Scenes from a Big Galaxy
Author: Vesa Lehtimaki
Release Date: November 10, 2015
Product Details
Age Range: 9 – 12 years
Series: Lego Star Wars
Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: DK Publishing
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1465440097
ISBN-13: 978-1465440099
List Price $24.99
Contents
Introduction
Tatooine
Hoth
Endor
Behnd the Scenes
Appendix
From the back of the book:
It started with a boy and his Lego Star Wars toys. And a dad who began to photograph them for fun. The images he created were magical, mysterious, funny and unique, exploring the what-ifs of the Star Wars universe. What if snow troopers were inspired to make ice sculptures on Hoth? What if Ewoks jammed with the Cantina Band?
Inspired by the Hoth-like landscapes of his native Finland, Vesa Lehtimaki’s stunning realistic photographs became an online phenomenon and inspired the creators of THE LEGO MOVIE.
Including exclusive new images, as well as Vesa’s own commentary and behind the scenes insights, Small Scenes from a Big Galaxy will delight and enthrall fans of all ages.
Tiny S is 6 years old now. She loved the book.
Although this is Lehtimaki’s first book, I am very familiar with his work. He is known as Avanaut online and has been photographing Lego (and other things) and posting them online since 2009.
Lehtimaki stayed within the original Star Wars Trilogy but created his own scenes outside of the movie’s events. Every scene has a caption and some details from Lehtimaki on the shot. I loved this book. It’s exactly what my husband and I enjoy doing.
My favorite chapter of the book was the chapter on Hoth. The snow scenes capture the action. I’ve photographed scenes in real snow but I haven’t done it much. I’ve been inspired to try snow scenes without the use of real snow.
The last chapter is Behind the Scenes. It was eye opening seeing how much work goes into each shot. Throughout the book, he would share how he would capture motion and set up the lighting but he goes into further detail in this chapter. He is a genius with the baking powder “snow” and salt “ice.” I’ve learned quite a lot and hope to try out some of his techniques.
I recommend this book to both kids and adults who love Star Wars. It’s funny and beautiful. It would make a coffee table complete and it would be educational for anyone who likes to photograph Lego.
-Grace
03 Friday Apr 2015
Posted in Holidays
And that’s how Easter eggs are made.
Pictured: Chicken Suit Guy (with a different face) and Bunny Suit Guy
27 Friday Mar 2015
Tags
Angeli has a special reminder for you.
A rabbit is not a toy. It’s a living, breathing, ten year commitment that requires a lot of love and attention. If you want to give a child a rabbit for Easter, you can’t go wrong with a chocolate bunny or even better, a Lego bunny!
Pictured: Hula Dancer and Bunny and babies
25 Wednesday Mar 2015
Posted in Animals
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19 Tuesday Nov 2013
Posted in Personal
Hello to any of you still with us!
It’s been about 6 months since my family has moved to Oregon. There have been lots of changes and uncertainty in our lives. Change with moving to a new place is very stressful in addition to having 2 little ones to care for. Also a family members cancer has returned. We are in escrow and if all works out, we’ll be in our own home before Christmas. We also got a unexpected surprise as well, Peter and I are expecting another little Fan of Lego! Baby is coming this spring!
I’ve feel like I’ve lost my creative side and my desire for Lego. With pregnancy pain and just having almost no time for a daily shower because I’m so busy or sleep deprived, Lego has taken a back seat to everything else 😦 It is quite sad. I do have a couple ideas I’d still like to photograph for this site. Hopefully someday I’ll have some time for that and I hope to get inspired again to do more.
I know most of you AFOLS may have entered your dark ages when you were much younger than myself. What’s your Dark Age story? Or maybe you’ve never lost your love for Lego. I’d love to hear it. I have a new Lego Darth Vader flashlight key chain that I’ve had for a while but have no need for. I’ll give it to someone of my choosing….maybe randomly or whose story speaks to me the most. I’ll consider the comments made by Dec 12 and I’ll only send the items to a US mailing address (sorry to my international readers but this stay at home mom is on a budget).
GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED
05 Monday Aug 2013
Tags
I had grand plans for this photo for Shark Week. I was hoping to get him to swim but as soon as I approached the water and saw the yellow foam, I decided against putting my feet in the water! Oh well, this will have to do.
Pictured: Shark
Location: Imperial Beach, California
10 Wednesday Jul 2013
Posted in Animals
Tags
Do you remember those Taco Bell commercials in the late ’90’s? I loved them. I even bought a couple plush Taco Bell chihuahua dogs.
When series 10 came out, Trendsetter was my favorite out of them all, but only because she came with this dog. This just might be my most favorite Lego animal. What a tiny, cute, 1 stud animal! I have bought a few Trendsetters just to get more chihuahuas.
Do you have a favorite Lego animal?
Pictured: Trendsetter‘s chihuahua
12 Wednesday Jun 2013
Posted in The Lego Store
Sorry for the lack of updates. My family has just relocated to the Pacific Northwest, specifically Oregon. We are really excited about this move. But we really are going to miss our family and friends in southern California. Not to mention all the Lego stores. We left a state that has 10 Lego stores (6 Lego stores within 3 hours, and the closest one being 15 minutes away) to a state that has just one and it’s almost 5 hours away. Oh well. Thankfully the Lego Store isn’t the only store that sells Lego.
Some PortLUG creations
Ahhhh and all tax free too! One more reason to love Oregon!
Anyone reading this blog from Oregon?
01 Wednesday May 2013
Posted in Lego Game
Whenever we host or help host a party, I always like to have games. And not just games for kids, but for the adults. And I try to have good prizes too, that way, the adults want to participate and/or get crazy competitive. Also, I always try to have the games or prizes have something to do with Lego.
Last weekend we had a party and I had a Lego memory game. I saw this game recently and thought it was a good idea. I set up 33 Lego items and labeled them. I gave the participants 1 minute to look at the items before covering them up again. Then the participants had 1.5 minutes to write down everything they could remember. It was a lot of fun. The winners (it was a tie) remembered 22 things and received a Target gift card.
At previous parties, we’ve had kids build cars and race them (like Build and Test at Legoland), we’ve had people build the same small airplane and see who was the quickest, and we’ve had a Duplo tower building contest.
My favorite game was at a friend’s party. They had a huge box of minifig parts and you had to assemble as many as you could in a minute. Each minifig had to have a hat or hair piece, a head, body and legs.
Have you had any Lego games at parties you’ve hosted?
Minifig Fun 