The Life Pursuit: San Smith

Video blog #3! An ode to summer

Happy Friday!!

Well, we are officially in October - which is my faaaavorite time of the year! Yay! I love fall, halloween, pumpkin flavored things (and pumpkins in general!), spooky decorations, costumes, cool weather... I'm pretty excited to say the least. I already went and scoped out all the cute Halloween decorations in my area, and cracked open my first bottle of Pumpkin Spice beer last night. (thanks to my sweet boyfriend!)

I figured in honor of the seasonal change, I'd make a new video blog to wrap up some of my favorite clips I filmed this summer! So, here it is: Video Blog #3, an ode to summer!

Video blog #3! from San Smith on Vimeo.

A few of my friends in this video have sites:
Stephan: Brunks on Dikes  |  V1ct0r  | and my boyfriend, Ckdake <3

Hope you enjoyed it! I've really liked making video blogs so far - I always take little blips of video but never know what to do with them... well now I have a way to put them to good use! :D Is there anything you'd like me to make a video of? I figured so far I've made lots of weird random videos, so it might be nice to try to tackle a subject on the next video I upload.

Also - for those who have been asking about my postcard project... That was put off due to commission work and my workload at my day job :( It is still going to happen, and I'm hoping this month will be a good time! I'll keep you guys posted! hehe, post posted! I'm a dork :B

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

Video of me and my bike!

Gary Fisher Simple City 3W bicycle tour! from San Smith on Vimeo.

So watching all these make up video tutorials on youtube has really been getting me excited about video and the possibilities... I've been kinda exploring it since my last video - and I ended up making two new ones this past week.

One of them is a in-depth discussion/video capture of a painting I just completed. I'll be sharing that on Thursday! <3

The other is the ridiculousness above. A friend asked me if I would do a video showing her my bicycle... I got really excited, ran outside with my bicycle and just began filming! And in all the excitement - I locked myself outside of my house!:( in 50 degree weather! brrrr. I almost went out with no shoes on too - so dumb. (Luckily my boyfriend came home within an hour.) Atleast I had fun!

So enjoy! Let me know if you have any ideas of things I should video tape - I'm really having fun with this and want to get better at it!

Bicycle ride with the dog!

zooom! Pika and I on a little bicycle ride today!
I'll be sad to take the holiday decorations off my bike.

Local art, bicycle rides and rambling

This week has been long, hard, tiring, but intensely good. I apologize for not posting in a while (or replying to comments! still haven't figured out how to properly do that on here) - Life really scooped me up this past weekend and ever since then has taken me on a little adventure. Chris went to California for the week to work - and ever since its been a little lonely but every moment filled with experiences. There has been pumpkin carving, cold weather rolling in, Halloween parades, scary trips to Buckhead for Halloween fabric, pouring all of my energy into projects, getting very little sleep but making lots of progress, creating fantastic soup with a good pal, lots of chattering with friends I feel so lucky to have, and much much more.

Tonight was the first night where I didn't have anywhere to be or anything to do. I warmed up some of the leftover homemade soup, and then went on an evening ride to go check out some local art I saw in my neighborhood. When I stopped to take pictures, the artist happened to be outside and she invited me in to see more of her work. Her name is Karen Tauches, and she has put together a series of artwork where she is slowly removing the people/objects from the images. She has a very large piece outside of people, and inside the house with the rest of the art is a neon sign that says, "Everything disappears" shining brightly through a window. I'm glad I rode out there this evening, because she said she was leaving on a trip tomorrow and would be taking the neon sign with her. What ironic timing!

The evolution of my bicycle riding

I have been so so happy since my new bicycle arrived and I've been riding it all over town. Taking my time, riding to and from to places, sometimes just riding no where for fun, etc. I am extremely giddy and feeling good about bicycles again - and its reminding me of when I first started riding two years ago. Before I got caught up in all the fixed gear fun that has somewhat eaten up a lot of young people in cities...

I started thinking about it, and wanted to share some photos of the bicycles I've had over the past two years! I had been riding my mother's hot pink cruiser around in 2006 for a little while since I couldn't afford a bicycle, but then the Bianchi bike in the above photo was gifted to me by friends for my birthday. I was ECSTATIC! They kept it for me downtown and thus began my adventures of cycling in the city.

Clockwise: 1. Mom's hot pink cruiser I was "borrowing", 2. Birthday Bianchi,
3. Vintage Fuji Road bicycle (first bike I purchased myself!), 4. Surley Steamroller Fixed Gear

Photo by ckdake.com

 

In case you are wondering how I ended up going from casual, goofy up right bicycles, to a fixed gear... Let me explain. I chalk it up to two things - Peer pressure (haha its true! Everyone kept telling me how wonderful they are!) and the Red Fuji putting me in many near death situations. I don't know a whole lot about maintaining bikes, and the brakes kept crapping out on that little cutie. Finally enough was enough - I had gotten my first job out of college, saved up money and decided to buy my first brand new bicycle - and went with a simple fixed gear. I really did enjoy it at first - I went so fast!! - but slowly I missed coasting and feeling comfortable while I rode. I eventually started riding my bicycle a little less every month, because it was no longer fun anymore.

 

After our trip to Amsterdam and Paris this summer (beauuuutiful bicycles - what a dream!), and doing a lot of thinking about the lack of bicycles in my life anymore, it sort of dawned on me. Why was I forcing myself to ride in the manner of sport! When clearly, I enjoyed more just riding in normal clothes, taking my time, and doing my own thing. I did some research on new upright bicycles with baskets, and ended up going with my little Simple City.

Well worth my money, and I'm finally riding again with a smile like the above photo!
Hooray for bicycles, and finding out what works best for you.

I'm going to make a post later on this week about little tips and tricks I've discovered to making commuting rides more comfortable girls in normal clothes, so check it out! Ride your bicycle, and have an awesome day! :)