Blog | Sara Lynn Paige Photography

Jan

26

Mansions of Madness

Mansions of Madness was probably the craziest game that we played when our guests were here for Christmas and the New Year. It took us quite a while to get set up, and if I’m totally honest, I have a really hard time sitting and listening (and or reading) instruction manuals of any kind. I’m more of a learn as I go, hands on kind of lady. When I build those do-it-yourself tables/chairs/cabinetry, I always look at the pictures and have to tell myself to read the instructions too. I rarely do, but haven’t ever had a problem so far. Once we fumbled our way through an initial play through of the game, we had so much fun that we played it three more times. (It’s a 3-4 hour game!) It’s set in the 1930s, and you start off as a team of detectives and you is to run through the mansion collecting clues to discover the objective to win. (It changes each time!) One time we had to escape the mansion alive (we failed), another time it was to defeat the hardest monsters, and you can change the layout of the mansion every time too so it was really a new experience every time! And each character is extremely different so you really have to work together to win. And the best part is that one player is the game master (much like D&D) and his objective is different every time too, but it’s always against yours. Now I don’t want to bore your head off talking about games, so I’ll leave you with some photos (of course).
Mansions of Madness

Photos 7, 8, & 10 were taken by my sister Kait.

Jan

23

Grapes, Agave, and More Cats

Spurred Posted by Sara / 9 comments

Happy Monday, everyone, and Happy Chinese New Year to those that celebrate! 新年快乐! This year is the year of the Dragon. (I’m an Ox!) What zodiac sign do you fall into?

One of our favorite restaurants here serves vegan Japanese, Korean, and Chinese food and to celebrate the New Year they were hosting tea ceremonies, and Tom and I attended one. We both loved it! It was extremely relaxing and I enjoyed how rhythmic everything was. Taking time to really enjoy the flavor of the tea and be grateful was quite therapeutic from a stressful week. And then we visited a local Asian market yesterday that just opened up in our area and everyone was buzzing with excitement for their new year celebrations. After being surrounded by it all weekend it seemed silly not to mention it.

And now we flash back to the middle of August while I catch up with you on the Spurred project. (Atlas. Was. So. TINY!)

“Group” August 16th (Day 228)

“Open” August 17th (Day 229)

“Waiting” August 18th (Day 230)

After two and a half weeks and three vet visits, he was released from quarantine! (Look at how TINY HE WAS!)

“Recommend” August 19th (Day 231)

This is Morn’s favorite Purr Yoga pose.

“Tea” August 20th (Day 232)

Well, there’s tea in the background, but this photo was too good to pass up. Turns out Atlas is quite the wordsmith.

“Foreign” August 21st (Day 233)

Making vegetarian dashi (which is Japanese soup stock!).

“Pain” August 22nd (Day 234)

The good kind of burning.

“Cozy” August 23rd (Day 235)

Pumpkin doesn’t seem too pleased, does he?

“Nest” August 24th (Day 236)

“Around” August 25th (Day 237)

Atlas likes to be lifted in this basket and carried around the house so he can see everything. We pretend he’s in his own hot air balloon traveling around the world. I used to pretend the same when I was young. Only I was too big to be carried around in a basket.

PS: I almost forgot the obligatory weather update. =P
We had a snow storm and it stayed for maybe two days but it’s all melted and there’s no snow. I cannot believe it! =(

Jan

21

Face Rubbers Morn & Pumpkin

the cats Posted by Sara / 5 comments

Happy Caturday, friends. =)
I hope your weekend is a good one.

Jan

16

Belated Birthday Lunch & How To Replicate Film

actions / birthdays / photography tools & tips Posted by Sara / 8 comments

On Saturday we visited Tom’s mom and her husband for a little belated birthday gathering, and she spoiled us with some fabulous vegan food and deserts (cinnamon infused cherry cobbler, oh my gosh) and we spent all day talking about life and visiting. (We always spend several hours over there talking before realizing that it’s been as long as it has.) And aside from spilling water on my desk and spending fifteen minutes airing out my wallet, keyboard, and random papers with a hair dryer- my Sunday was fairly uneventful, but in a good way. It left me feeling rested and excited to start the work week! I hope yours was just as delightful.

On a different note, many of you have been emailing me asking me if it’s possible to “truly replicate” the look of film using the Reminisce action set, and so I thought I would process these photos to kind of show you the potential. Whether your film habit is too expensive, conflicts with your vegan values, or you just want to experiment- it’s definitely possible. While every type of film is different, and there are lots of different types of looks you may want to accomplish, it is possible to get fairly close to so many using what is provided in the set. I tried to keep it simple for this example and used only “Sage” (the “Reminisce” layer was between 80-100 opacity for each photo), sometimes with “Reminisce” added on top. After that I dropped this handy film style dust & particles layer [download full res] on top (set it to screen, 50-80% opacity) and voilà, film craving satisfied. Enjoy!

film style actions
how to replicate film in photoshop