12 | 28...12/28

Birthday blog (12 | 28 is an art project I started working on a couple of months ago.  I wanted to do a monthly project and since my birthday is December 28, I decided to call the project 12 | 28. On the 28th of each month, I document the day through photographs. Why? Mostly because the days are really busy and this way, I make myself take notice of the interesting things and people around me. It's too easy to let the days slip by. 

12/28
This year's birthday was incredible. One of the best! I enjoyed 3 birthday cakes, visiting with my parents, in-laws, siblings and oldest friends. I saw a live performance of The Last Waltz. I love The Last Waltz!! If I could snap my fingers and be anywhere at any time, it would be "The Last Waltz" on November 25, 1976 at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. Since I can't do that, seeing the Last Waltz performed at Strathesbay Place in Mabou did the trick. Words can't describe the performance. The crowd loved every moment. Pure happiness. It was cool to be in an audience filled with family, neighbours, and friends. My uncle was randomly sitting next to my husband. One of my best friends, 2 rows ahead. My brother and his girlfriend, 3 rows ahead. It was awesome and one of those events that we talked about for the whole night. As soon as we got home, we put the DVD on and watched/listened to it again. Then...4 parties! Wow, what a day! I can only hope the year ahead will be as magical. I love Cape Breton...

I love having a birthday close to Christmas in Cape Breton. There's always decorations, lots of people around and ready to celebrate, I can see my parents on my day of birth - and sometimes, there's a little birthday beer under the tree...hahaha.

3 birthday cakes! The first was at my parents-in-law where my 2 god daughters were visiting. A ticket to The Last Waltz - awesome birthday gift. Impromptu birthday song on guitar. Homemade cake at my dad's. Ice-cream cake. Happy Smurfday! Still love the smurfs (thanks Jen & Brian : )

Some of the fabulous people I hung out with on my birthday (unfortunately, not everyone is shown).

The Last Waltz! I started the day watching the documentary. I like Bob Dylan's "look" in The Last Waltz. Cast and crew, some of the performers and some people got dressed up 70s style. There was a standing ovation for the last song with the entire cast.

Playing with Jerry, visiting Glenora Falls (and getting the mail the old fashioned way), Inverness Beach, the girls, 3:30am and still dancing, Bran, some Loretta Lynn, Deepdale...

The Sunday Sessions...

Chocolate truffles...YUM!

A little Tom Petty, seasonally warm autumn weather, coffees in hand and boxes and boxes of Jill's Chocolates, stickers, and packaging. After 6 years, Jill is fast approaching her goal of opening her first shop in March 2012 and almost as exciting, launching her website for the 2011 holiday season. But, before the website could launch for the busy Christmas season, we needed to do a photo shoot. Jill and I have almost completely opposite schedules so we did the shoot in 2 Sunday Sessions.

Jill and I have a great working relationship – similar sense of humour, work ethic,
complete honesty and we have a lot of fun! Also, she's a fellow Cape Bretoner.

Jill and I met while teaching English as a Second Language at East Coast School of Languages in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2006.  

A year later I decided to study graphic design and Jill fell in love with chocolate making. We have had so many fun brainstorming sessions over the years - from packaging, to ideas for the shop, to which chocolates to include in which collection, to taste testing. Excitingly, it's all coming together because Jill is opening her first shop in the Trillium Building on South Park Street, Halifax in March 2012. 

Currently, Jill is making chocolates in a rented kitchen space while working at the Old Triangle, meeting with contractors and business folks for the new shop, and spending time with her husband and little girl Ellie. 

Some shots from our Sunday sessions...

We both coincidentally wore purple.

The result: 12 piece nuts and caramel. Front and centre is the Glen Breton dark chocolate. Decadent!

Chocolate tubes

I love these because they remind me of the icy cups I bought as a youth at the Inverness Arena - figure skating and hockey energy! They are toasted coconut cups - think Pot of Gold (but better ; )

Combo packs - NEW this holiday season.
The 4-box and chocolate tubes are also new.

30-Piece assorted with chocolate map.

30-Piece Nuts and Caramels

So pretty. The perfect LOCAL GIFT for the sexy chocolate lover on your list : )
My favourite? The sesame caramel in the front. WOW...

Jill Franklin – Chocolatier



www.jillschocolates.com will go live the first weekend of December. 
All of the chocolates above will be available on her website.

www.missbrenna.ca

12 | 28 ... 10/28

I started taking photos for the 12 | 28 project in October 2011. I hadn't gotten around to posting these photos until now (February 2012). It was a busy Friday finished off with a Halloween party!

 

How cute is that pumpkin? Everyone should have a magic wand.

 

Same place...different time...

As a rule, I almost always have a camera with me. The reasons are plentiful - the light may be perfect, the sunset colours are saturated and vibrant, old friends getting together, etc, etc. More than anything though, I love capturing a time and place - what it looked like, how it felt... I wanted to show a couple of photos from twentythree and how those places look since I originally shot them.

This first photo was taken in Glenora Falls, through the barn window on my parents-in-law's property. It was taken in October 2007. The trees were changing colour and there's a slight blue cast to the image. The second photo was taken last weekend on a bright, sunny summer afternoon. Funnily the hay is higher in the second shot (I guess the rain is good for something).

Glenora Falls, Cape Breton Island, October 2007

Glenora Falls, Cape Breton Island, July 2011

Patience, was originally taken while I was a student in Applied Communication Arts at Nova Scotia Community College in Halifax. The photography assignment was to shoot 'space'. This parking metre was sitting in front of the Chronicle-Herald building, which no longer exists. A couple of weeks ago I quickly snapped the same scene, except the building has been demolished and is slated to become a convention centre.

Patience, Halifax, Nova Scotia

This one really amazes me because no matter how much I wanted to, I could never reshoot it. Maybe the name Patience has even more relevance in this shot.

Behind the Lens

This will be a short series describing the stories behind some of the photos in twentythree + side notes

****

Photos are wonderful in how they can evoke emotions. They show us lives, objects and stories from someone else's perspective. When I first started taking photos at age 11, my family's new kitten, Cuddles, was the subject of many rolls of film my mother paid to have developed for me. Now the photos were not very interesting or exciting but there was a story - Cuddles taking an afternoon nap, Cuddles showing off her acrobatic skills, Cuddles perched on the floral swivel chair gazing outside. It was all about Cuddles - from an 11 year old's perspective! Boring I know, but I knew at that point in time that I loved taking photos. I loved storytelling with my camera. I was always the girl with a camera and definitely that girl with piles of Superstore envelopes filled with prints (this was before digital cameras and smartphones). 

Granted, the subject matter in my photos has changed over the years, although Jerry (my brother and his girlfriend's awesome schnoodle) does make it into a lot of shots. He's hilarious and his personality really shines through in photos. See!

Jerry loving life on Inverness Beach in Cape Breton.

So, besides animals, my collection of photographs include landscapes, sunsets, vibrant colours, doors and windows, bicycles, people living life, objects with interesting lines and texture and dilapidated structures. I grew up in rural Cape Breton and I'm fascinated by barns and buildings and homes that have been abandoned and left to nature. It's a common occurrence for me to pull over to the side of the road or to even turn around because something has caught my eye. The photo below was a result of that. The setting was perfect – sun shining, blue sky, rolling green hill in behind the house, completely still.

Prince Edward Island near the ferry terminal.

Inch by inch...

Idyllic setting but I'm a bit timid to get up close – time for a telephoto lense!

In my coffee table art book – twentythree, every question is paired with a photo. When I originally designed twentythree (as a school project), I completed the entire project in 5 weeks – photos included. It was spring and I had been home in Cape Breton. My brother offered to drive so that I could take photos. It made my life so much easier and helped that he knew some pretty cool places for me to photograph. We were driving through Deepdale and took Loch Ban Road. At one point we got a little bit lost and had to turn around but once we got back on track we saw this: Wheeler House. It was magical! Honestly. I normally love looking at dilapidated houses but getting up close and personal - not my thing! This was so different. It was very calming on that piece of property. 

This photo from twentythree belongs with the question: "Describe something that someone has said or something you have read that has had an impact on you?" This photo is called Impact.

I had heard about Wheeler house from Tom Ryan, a good friend of mine. It was near his family home and he played on the property as a child. In addition, I had seen whimsical paintings of the front of this house done by Virginia McCoy. This house and property are actually in Frank MacDonald's children's book: T.R.'s Adventure at Angus the Wheeler's.

These photos are so full of history. Perhaps that's why I like photographing dilapidated structures. They make me curious about the lives that were lived there and what led to its state of destruction. And, there's a natural beauty, yet sadness, in seeing a man-made structure left to nature.

The front of Wheeler House.

These photos were taken in spring 2006. I have no idea if this house is still standing or not.

To market, to market

The sun rise over the Halifax Harbour on the way to the Seaport Market.

I've been going to the Farmer's Market in Halifax since 1999 and I LOVE it. Fresh produce, colourful flowers, fragrant soaps, meats & cheese, local wine, unique crafts & gifts and the buzz of people. When I lived downtown, I was a regular at the Historic Farmer's Market, which still exists in the Brewery building on Lower Water Street in Halifax. The new market - The Seaport Market - is located on the waterfront a little further away. I honestly had never thought about myself as being a vendor at the market but, at the new Seaport Market, there's an entire aisle of crafts and gifts, in addition to the upstairs area of the market. I decided to take a chance and fill out an application to become a vendor at some of the Saturday markets. It was accepted!! 

missbrenna table at the Halifax Seaport Market

I'm not sure how often I'll be a vendor because of space availability, but my first experience - on Saturday, May 7 - was wonderful. Okay, I'll admit that for about 10 minutes, in the early morning, I was struck with panic thinking, "Oh no, I may not sell anything!" It was the first moment it had crossed my mind. Thank the lord (and the lovely vendor down the way who brought her friend over) not even 20 minutes later, I made my first sale! 2 books and 2 cards. Whew - my table was paid for!! So exciting!

The view from my table!!!

People taking a look at twentythree.

It was a neat experience to have exposure to so many people who had no idea about missbrenna and twentythree. I wasn't expecting to have as many conversations as I did but it was a chatty day. I met an 85-year-old retired photographer. We talked for almost 10 minutes about photography. He was such a sweet man. I also had a long conversation with a familiar looking gentleman who it turns out was one of my public relations professors at Mount Saint Vincent University. Overall, I had a positive and optimistic response from people. Lots of smiles and that makes it all worthwhile - especially after a 5 am wakeup call : )


Visit my online shop if you're interested or send me an email: missbrenna23@gmail.com.

What is twentythree anyway?

In its simplest form twentythree is a coffee table art book. It was originally designed and printed while I was a student at Nova Scotia Community College in the spring of 2006. I printed 2 copies of the book at $50 a book - whoa, expensive!! I even tried getting publishing advice when I was invited to Word on the Street's Atlantic Publisher’s Pitch the Publisher that fall. Word on the Street is a literary festival held in Halifax every September. That didn't go anywhere for me. So, I left twentythree on my bookshelf and other people's bookshelves but I continued writing new questions in my moleskin and shooting lots of photos.

In June 2010, I found myself looking for a new job in graphic design. I decided to do more freelance design work and my own missbrenna projects while working two part-time jobs. It was a busy, balancing act.

It seemed like the perfect time to start working on twentythree and so it became my first missbrenna project. I started with a list of 42 questions and sent them to lots and lots of people - many of whom sent them on to other people. I started receiving responses the day I sent the questions!! As you can imagine - I was thrilled! 

twentythree preparations...questions, spreads, post-its, answers, photos...

I spent most of the fall receiving questions, taking photos and laying out the book. A LOT of time laying out the book. Deciding which questions, responses and photos (I had a folder of 226 images) to include in the book was a bit of a struggle but SO fun. I honestly have never had so much fun working on a project! While working, I listened to all kinds of great music via Grooveshark - Tegan & Sara, Wintersleep, Joel Plaskett, Sarah Harmer, Metric, Girl Talk, Ray LaMontagne, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, as well as CBC Radio 1 & 2...

Finalizing the date of the book launch - Feb 25, 2011 - was great motivation to finish twentythree. The cover of twentythree was decided about 3 weeks before sending it to print! I had talked to a group of friends for their advice on all things twentythree and all of them felt strongly about changing the cover as the original was a bit dark. 

Original copy of twentythree

I completely agreed. But the cover - which photo was going to work? The decision came after creating a going away card for my friends Rebecca & Kent. They were getting ready to travel to South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. I wanted an image that showed life, adventure and fun! 

Card I designed for Kent & Rebecca's 56 Adventures trip

I chose the Hula Girl photo for their card. It made perfect sense since the photo was originally taken in their car on our way to Evolve Festival two years earlier. When I got home from their dinner party I sat myself down at the computer and started playing with some cover ideas. I knew as soon as I placed the image of Hula Girl in the cover spread that it was definitely the cover of twentythree! (Kent & Rebecca were delighted).

Cover of twentythree, published February 2011

The last photo I shot for twentythree was for the question: What would be the name of your how-to book? A red toolbox, some nice light. Whew! I sent the book to print 3 days later!! 

twentythree is a self-published book. The book never, ever would have been possible without its fantastic contributors. 

The funny, heartwarming, sad, unique and kinda crazy responses let all of us, for just a moment, step into someone else's shoes. 

Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia. Extremely hot day at the end of August  |  oncoming Hurricane  |  huge waves. Felt like a kid again.

Responses to the above question:
What is your favourite (non-sexual) physical sensation?

In addition to lots of anonymous answers, there are lots of colourful photos. The majority of photos were taken in Nova Scotia, a couple in Prince Edward Island and one in Toronto - it's the only black and white photo in the book. Almost all of the photos in twentythree are available as greeting cards, giclee prints and metallic prints.

twentythree book launch at The Hub, Halifax, Nova Scotia (February 25, 2011)

The first 100 copies of twentythree sold out in 2 weeks (exciting!!) but I have 150 more arriving around April 13 - just in time for Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduation, spring/summer birthdays... Because I'm self-publishing, limited quantities of twentythree are available. 

Visit my online shop if you're interested or send me an email: missbrenna23@gmail.com.