May Desktop Background - Lilac

I'm pretty sure my favorite thing about spring is the smell. Everything comes back to life after its long winter nap, and the air is filled with all the new smells that were dormant under the cold and snow. When I close my eyes and conjure up the smells of spring, the first thing I think of is the smell of lilac blossoms. Their bright, sweet smell fills the air around my house, and its the first thing I smell when I leave in the morning. Now that May is here, they're already starting to fade away, so I took some snapshots of them to tide me over until next year. Here's my favorite shot for you to use as a desktop background if you'd like. Enjoy!

Click here to download the original version to use as your desktop wallpaper!

The Impossile is now Possible - the comeback of Instant Film.

I'm in a great mood today, and not because I found five dollars in my coat pocket (although that didn't hurt matters). No, no...this is in response to something really spectacular. This morning on my drive in to work, during my ritual morning intake of other smart stuff on NPR, I heard what I've been waiting to hear.

Instant Film is back. That's right, dust off the Polaroid camera you've been using as a paper weight. Thanks to the team at The Impossible Project, today marks the reemergence of instant film. Starting on March 25th, monochrome instant film (compatible with Polaroid 600 cameras) is available on their website. A new color version of the old classic will be available sometime this summer.

I'm beyond psyched. No more searching for barely expired film on ebay. While the new film supposedly has a much sharper image quality, which won't give quite the same nostalgic quality as the old film, I'm happy to have it. A big Kudos! to the Impossible Project!

Check out the whole story from NPR here. Check out The Impossible Project's journey here.

Wedding Video Fun

Want an alternative to the same old wedding video? Take a page from Eileen & Brian's wedding. This is way better than the Processional Dance video that caught the internet on fire last year.

Brian & Eileen's Wedding Music Video. from LOCKDOWN projects on Vimeo.

Let Google Plan Your Wedding

Just when I thought Google couldn't make my life much easier, they win my heart all over again. Google Documents now has a Wedding Template Collection to help you plan your big day. I'm a bit of a geek, so this serves as some very exciting news to me... and I'm not even planning a wedding. Now you can get help for everything from picking a photographer (may I suggest Olive Juice Photography?), organizing your guest list and their addresses, tracking RSVP's...all the way to writing your dang vowels...look out!

Some of my favorites:

• Wedding Address Book (pictured above) - allows you to request updated address information from your friends and families... so much better than getting that handwritten list from your mother-in-law to be.
• Wedding Seating Chart - automatically calculates the number of guests at each table for you and makes moving people as easy as Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V !!
• Wedding Day Schedule - put your mind at ease knowing you've accounted for everything, includes a sample timeline to get you started.
• Wedding Album - after your big day, you can arrange some of your favorite memories of the day in a cool online album to share with friends and family.

While it seems like Google is becoming the Walmart of the interwebs world, I'm okay with it, because they are so much cooler than Walmart. Google - you can plan my wedding any time!