spring is finally here! we’re excited about the warm weather and spring blooms. here are some photos of the japanese magnolia in our front lawn. it was a valentine’s day gift from gub a few years ago.

– ryan & gub

i recently found some time-lapse projects i thought were lost in one of our robberies. here is the hand.craft.it festival that i curated with gub and our friend kristen. i filmed the event from start to finish to try and portray the amount of work involved in a one-day craft festival.

– ryan

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i filmed the snow melting on our back deck after the recent snow storm. the camera went for 3 days and i put together this time-lapse piece from the footage.

– ryan

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if you’ve ever lived or travelled on the east coast, you’re sure to have come across south of the border, or at least seen it’s wacky billboards on i-95 from florida to new jersey. it’s this strange bright tourist attraction on the border of north and south carolina that’s been open since 1949, predating disneyland by 6 years and disney world by 22 years. originally, south of border was just a bar which catered to the dry north carolina counties bordering to the north. over time it expanded into a thriving town full of hotels, roller coasters, and crazy tourist shops.

as a child growing up in virginia, south of the border was this sort of mini disney world our family stopped by on the way to visit relatives in florida. there were roller coasters, shops with game rooms and toys, and these bright concrete animals all over the place. what child wouldn’t have fun there? later in high school, i remember stopping there on numerous band trips. we would try and impress each other by drinking spicy blenheim ginger ale.

as campy and touristy as south of the border seems, it is still a unique and interesting part of american roadside history. the fact that it’s captivated children and travelers and stayed in business for over 60 years is quite impressive.

we like to tease gub’s mom because as a child she dreamed of having her honeymoon at south of the border! check out this link for some amazing vintage south of the border photos. you can picture how her honeymoon might have gone.

– ryan

ryan and i are beginning to plan our very first vegetable and herb garden. we’ve been composting for over a year and have planted a few vegetables here and there, but this summer we’ve got big plans. we carved out a sunny 16′ by 10′ spot in the middle of our backyard, found some helpful info on the uga center for urban agriculture website, and we’re off!

we need to do a bit more research, come up with a planting schedule, and finalize our vegetable and herb list based on our garden space; but here’s our wish list:

we took some before photos and will post updates as the summer progresses. the garden will be under the blue tarp you see in the photos.

– gub & ryan

we had another snow day in atlanta! twice in a month is quite crazy for the south. gub and i tried to stay warm while enjoying the beautiful scenery. i ended up taking a ton of photos and filmed a time lapse of the snow storm.

– words & photos/video by ryan

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inspired by gob from arrested development, i got ryan a gift certificate to go on a segway tour of atlanta for valentines day in 2008. with the certificate expiring soon, we went ahead and booked our 10 am tour during the winter blast of 2010. we bundled ourselves up and headed out on a three hour tour…

after the initial awkwardness, the segways were pretty easy to operate and really fun! the smirk, smile or laugh on people’s faces as you whizzed by was pretty hilarious. we felt futuristic! although we wish it hadn’t been soooo cold, it was pretty fun to spend the morning exploring our own city on a weird motorized personal transporter.

– words by gub & photos by ryan

we recently discovered these beautiful old harness and shoe factory buildings in buford, ga. now known as tannery row, the buildings have been re-adapted and are currently home to many businesses and an artist colony.

– words by gub & photos by ryan

i’m a person who enjoys keeping lists, although i think i mostly like scratching items off my lists. generally they are for errands and what not, but i have an ongoing list i like to call “things i should know.” it’s basically a list of random things i feel like i should know by this point in my life. it covers basic trivia, for instance what is a harvest moon? or interesting facts i’ve learned and forgotten, i.e. what are the different types of clouds? or intriguing childhood stuff i want to read about as an adult, like what really went down at the bermuda triangle?

when i have free time i try to look up and research the various items on my list. in this new category of the blog i will write about the interesting things i learn.

– ryan

types of full moon:
what exactly is a harvest moon? and i’m not talking about the neil young record. a harvest moon is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox, whether before or after. it normally happens in late september or early october. during this lunar period, the time between a sunset and moonrise is the shortest of the year. this short period of darkness allowed farmers to work late farming at the peak of harvest under an early bright moon, hence the name.

a hunter’s moon, or blood moon, is the first full moon after the harvest moon. it normally occurs in late october or early november. hunter’s used to take advantage of this early full moon to hunt late, especially migrating birds. they would stock up for the winter ahead. similar to the harvest moon, the hunter’s moon has a short time between sunset and moonrise.

you know the phrase, “once in a blue moon“? well, it actually gets its name from a lunar event that happens every 2 or 3 years. most lunar years have 12 full moons, which occur about once every month. the solar calendar has roughly 11 days more than the lunar year though. these days add up and every two or three years there is an extra full moon, or blue moon. the next blue moon is november 21, 2010. be sure to enjoy it, the next one won’t be for a couple of years.

for more reading on harvest, hunter’s, or blue moon:
harvest moon wiki page
hunter’s moon wiki page
blue moon wiki page

i learned how to colorize black & white photos with photoshop tonight. i thought the process looked really cool and wanted to post the results. the photos were taken by our friend miguel martinez. he is a really amazing photographer who works for the mundo hispánico. we were lucky enough to have him take our wedding photos!

-ryan

original black & white and colorized version: