Fern stamps available in smaller quantities!

FINALLY! I have info for those of you who want to order SMALLER amounts of my fern stamp series from the USPS.

Call this number: 800-STAMP-24 (wade through the prompts until you get to the point where you can say “OTHER”). You can order the following:

Strip of 25 stamps: $12.25 (order # 790003)

Strip of 100 stamps: $49.00 (order # 790005)

Orders under $50 have a $1.30 shipping/handling fee.
Orders over $50 have a $1.85 shipping/handling fee.

First day cancels/covers aren’t available yet (from what the agent told me).

The agent will set you up with a free account and will mail a copy of their free Philatelic catalog as well!

Published: My first series of stamps with the USPS!

Yesterday, after more than a year in the making, my series of USPS-licensed fern photographs were released as 49 cent stamps in large coil format for business use. Special thanks to art director Phil Jordan for being so great to work with on the series! I’ll be back with more details on how we can POSSIBLY get a smaller amount than the issued 3,000 and 10,000 quantity rolls!

Read more about the stamps here: http://uspsstamps.com/stamps/ferns

Order a first-day-of-issue set within 60 days here:

http://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2014/pb22381/html/info_013.htm

Re-post: The (not so) Orphaned Images Project: Kindergarten graduation day

From kindergarten through fourth grade I lived in San Antonio on 155 Farrell Drive in a little white ranch style house. My dad closed in our tiny carport to make a den (and did the same thing in the next house) so we would have more room. Our front porch was long and narrow, flanked by a low brick flower bed full of deep purple Wandering Jew plants.

Directly across the street lived “Aunt Opal.” I’m not sure why we called her “Aunt,” because she wasn’t a relative to any of us in the class or on Farrell Drive. She operated a kindergarten out of her home and had 11 kids enrolled when I attended. She, along with my father, were the first two people to encourage me to draw when they saw my creative potential. I remember one of my first drawing assignments was to draw a rose using colored pencils. Aunt Opal showed us how to draw the petals with a series of crescent moon shapes grouped together. I think I still have that drawing somewhere—temporarily misplaced in a safe place completely unknown to even me, of that I’m sure.

Above is my class graduation photo. I’m in the front row, second from the left, with my mouth hanging open. I certainly don’t look like the brightest of her students, but I’d truly like to believe I was. (Girls in front—as it should be!)

Aunt Opal wore June Cleaver-like, flowered dresses in polished cotton, accessorized with a single strand of pearls, big pearl button earrings, and dark cat-eye glasses. She had perfectly coiffed hair, sparkling blue eyes and looked a bit like the TV character Hazel. She always drank Tab after school was let out for the day. I know this because I shared one with her on more than one occasion while waiting for my mother to come home from work to walk me from school across the street to our house. Ah, my first diet cola—let’s blame Aunt Opal for our affinity for them now, shall we?

After driving by that house a few years ago, I blogged about 155 Farrell Drive in “Pressed between the pages of my mind,” here. You can read about how my younger sister and I staged pool parties in our back yard, sold lemonade to neighbor children and how I didn’t learn to ride a bike until I was eight years old. That same plant-filled brick flower bed was where one Valentine’s Day, my classmate Darren dropped off a box of chocolate for me, rang the doorbell, then ran away. I’ve been scaring boys away ever since!

I was taken back to that time again recently when I came across the two photos below in a dresser drawer in my parent’s guest room. Now you get to see that Aunt Opal was just as I had described her—perfect coif, polished pearls, sensible pumps and all. Below that photo, I’m on our front porch in front of the flower box, proudly holding my first diploma.

Want to learn more about The Orphaned Images Project? Learn about the origin of the project here. Visit the site at  http://orphanedimages.wordpress.com/

On Assignment: Bathroom remodel by Cross Construction (his)

Bathroom remodel by Cross Construction, San Antonio, Texas

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

On Assignment: Bathroom remodel by Cross Construction (hers)

Remodel by Cross Construction, San Antonio, Texas

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio: Elise

Elise is the youngest daughter of my friends James and Irma Williams. She is as equally sweet, funny, and smart as she is beautiful!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio: William

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

In the studio: William

My main light was a Westcott Ice Light (love this new gadget!); supplemental lighting was the Nikon Speedlight SB-900 on-camera firing an SB-700 remotely (in softbox). Raw shots converted in Photoshop using “Awesome B&W,” one of my Totally RadLab b&w filters (with a bit of tweaking).

© Cindy Dyer. All right reserved.

Stock Shots: Karen & Gina

My friends Karen and Gina modeled for me for the Hearing Loss Magazine last month. Karen owns Karen Wyatt Skin Care, a skin care salon in Burke, VA.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Seen & Heard: Chelle George

Chelle George is our Seen & Heard profile in the January/February 2014 issue of Hearing Loss Magazine, published bimonthly by the Hearing Loss Association of America. I  photographed Chelle at HLAA’s Convention 2012 in Providence, R.I.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

CHELLE GEORGE

Salt Lake City, UT / Born 2.6.1968, in Redlands, CA

MY HEARING LOSS… I was talking to my mom on the phone, answering questions wrong when she said loud and clear, “For God’s sake, get some hearing aids!” I was 23 years old and 22 years later, I’m still wearing hearing aids.  My current pair are translucent red and I love to show them off.

SAGE ADVICE… In the beginning, have the audiologist adjust the hearing aids to a lower volume to get used to noise again.

FUNNY HEARING LOSS MOMENT… Getting lyrics wrong. Some years ago, my kids popped a new Eminem CD into the stereo while we were driving. A ballad came on and I just knew a big bad rapper wouldn’t be singing about that. I turned the music off with a smile and asked the kids, ‘Is he singing about being queen of his carpet?’ When their laughter died down, they told me he was singing, “I’m cleaning out my closet.” We never could sing the right lyrics after that.

FAVORITE CHILDHOOD MEMORY… Watching thunderstorms with my family in the middle of the night. We would get up and gather in front of the sliding glass door to watch.

PETS? Squeaker, my 19 lb. cat. He’s my buddy. The reason I named him Squeaker was I thought his meow was ‘broken.’ Only later did my family tell me his meow is fine and it was my hearing that was broken! At least Squeaker meows a lot, so the name still fits.

WORKING NINE TO FIVE… hairdresser, day care, hairdresser again, worked with people with intellectual disabilities (loved working with them) and back to hairdresser again.

I LOVE THE SOUND OF… I love it when it’s quiet enough I can hear the clock tick (only possible with my hearing aids in). Big wind chimes charm me. I love my grandson’s laughter and listening to drums.

IN MY SPARE TIME, I… write about hearing loss trying to get hearing people to understand what it’s like. There are so many misconceptions and I want to set them straight as much as I can.

I COLLECT… butterflies. Butterflies are about transformation, metamorphosis, a process of becoming which I identify with. A friend once told me, ‘Butterflies are Free’, and proceeded to tell me about the movie. I like that too. “There is nothing in the caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.” —R. Buckminster Fuller

I AM… dependable, honest and easy going.

BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD… Digital hearing aids. When I switched from analog to digital, I was amazed at the difference. There are so many options to chose from now and I’m glad I live in the technology age.

I AM DEFINITELY NOT… stuck up as many people assume. I just can’t hear them until they have my attention first.

PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED THAT I… attended the Burning Man event for years. I still go to the regional events and find that all the people are patient and accepting of hearing loss.

MY THREE FAVORITE THINGS ARE… My computer, my smartphone and my car. They keep me independent.

GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT… Helping to pull together Salt Lake City’s first Walk4Hearing in 2010. It was the first big event I ever organized and it was all done by volunteers.

I HAVE A WEAKNESS FOR… homemade cookies!

FIVE PLACES I HAVE LIVED… Blythe, CA; Twentynine Palms, CA; Albany, GA; Bullhead City, AZ; Salt Lake City, UT

I CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT… my hearing aids, a book in my hand and laughter.

FAVORITE QUOTE… From Auntie Mame—“Live! Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.”

I like reading people’s personal stories in Hearing Loss Magazine.

 

On exhibit at the Art-Center in Saint-Petersburg, Russia

A few months ago I was contacted by Asia Ershova, curator at the Art-Center in St. Petersburg, Russia, asking if I would participate in their annual International Photo Festival, “100 Wonders of the World.” This year the show runs from January 1 through March 2 (in case any of you just happen to be in Russia during this time). It was visited by more than 4,000 people in the first two weeks. They requested five of my images, which I’ll share in the next posting. Below are photos of the exhibition that show two of the pieces (koi fish pond with statue and a Buttonbush plant). Visit their site at www.artcenter.su. (You will have to ask my friend and fellow photographer Michael Powell to translate the site—he’s fluent in Russian!) Thank you to Andrey Bazanov, General Producer of the Art-Center, for providing these images from the festival.

2013: A Visual Recap

I’ve picked one photo from each month of blogging in 2013 to recap the year visually (starting with December 2013 and working my way back to January). Now here’s to 2014—hoping it is a year of immense creativity, staying connected to family, nurturing friendships both near and far and old and new, growing my graphic design and photography business in fresh and challenging directions, continuing to dust off my rusty sketching and painting skills, hosting soirees, decluttering my physical space, communing with nature, photographing more flowers and bugs, updating my garden with quirky and photogenic new plants, hitting the road in search of adventure (and fresh photographs), honing my writing craft, acquiring new skills and learning something new every day.

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.