So I’ve been pretty busy on the cupcake front. A few weeks ago I did some fun peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes.

More recently trying a new lemon-cranberry recipe (using fresh lemon and cranberries) which were pretty yummy I think.

I have also opened an Etsy shop, mainly because I’ve been making homemade lip balms, tote bags etc…which I want to sell but I thought I would start with a series of photographs to raise money for the relief efforts in Japan. So far I’ve raised over $100 and I’m hoping that selling more photos will bring me closer to raising much more money for the Red Cross.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/em102?ref=pr_shop_more

How do you write a love letter to a country? It’s hard to believe this beautiful country, that I visited this past November, is now being effected by this major natural disaster.

When I was in Japan I quickly fell in love with it’s beauty, the people and culture. People were friendly and helpful and the atmosphere exquisite.

I will never forget the friendly deer on Miyajima Island, fulfilling my dream of being up close to my spirit animal.

Visiting the iconic Tokyo Tower and seeing Tokyo for miles on that beautiful day. It’s hard to imagine that many of the sights we saw from the tower have been serious damaged by the earthquake.

Seeing the Golden Temple, visited by thousands every year. I met many fabulous people there and really enjoyed the beauty of the surrounding parks and learning about their spiritual practices.

Seeing children dressed in their traditional clothing celebrating the 7-5-3 festival.

So thank you Japan for what was a life changing experience for me and giving me 3 weeks of happiness and joy – taking photos, meeting people and experiencing the food, culture and traditions.

Please consider support the relief efforts for the Japan earthquake and Asia Pacific tsunami. Currently I’m aware of the Red Cross’ work in Japan but if I discover other good charities I will post them. You can give to the Red Cross here.

I think blackberry and iphone/pod users a like are enjoying the many options available for toying around with your camera. I’ve got 3 that are my favorites.

First up, Hipstamatic – probably one of the most popular apps I’ve come across. With many lens options, most must be purchased separately, this camera app is pretty fun. It gives your photos a unique look and old brownie style charm.

I really like the softness of the images and the great slightly off color quality. This is definitely high on my list of favorite apps.

The next app is called Pocketbooth which functions like an old photobooth. This takes 4 shots just like a photobooth and then brings that up to admire. It’s a pretty fun app, especially to use with friends or at a party. I do find the images are sometimes dark when the light quality is poor but it’s still lots of fun.

I love the texture of the images – it’s a really fun app.

Finally, I am a huge Hello Kitty fan and this next app was right up my ally. Kitty Camera is a Hello Kitty app that let’s you add random Hello Kitty-ness to new or already taken photos. Definitely more of a novelty app – I do have a lot of fun decorating my images.

So those are my top favorite photo apps – happy ids of March!

When people think of Japan they often have the iconic image of the cherry trees in full bloom. I know that I have always wanted to go to Japan in May to be showered with cherry blossom petals as they fall to the ground. What a lot of people don’t know is that there is a second blossoming in November and we were fortunate enough to be there to see it. Not all the trees will blossom this second time but the ones that did were beautiful.

By far one of the most moving parts of our trip was our visit to Hiroshima and the Peace Park. Miyajima island is only a 45 minute train ride to Hiroshima so one morning we hopped the train to go and visit the Peace Park. I had no idea what to expect but one of the first things we saw when we arrived was a building that survived the bombing. The A Bomb Dome was shocking to see but I can appreciate that it is a reminder of what took place in Hiroshima.

I was really looking forward to seeing the Children’s Peace monument as I love the story of Sadako and the 1000 paper cranes. (Since returning from Japan I have finally finished stringing my own 1000 paper cranes.) The monument is beautiful and I enjoyed looking at all the paper cranes that surround the monument.

While we were there many students were having short ceremonies to present thie own paper cranes.

Several students stopped us to ask if we would write messages of peace or would ask us questions. I loved that they gave us little tokens like origami they had made or bookmarks.

Before my trip my friend’s from work gave me some gifties to take with me on my trip to Japan. One of them included a small Hammie which traveled with me and I photographed in several places. Here is the results of this project.

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Shorting and editing my photos has been an on going process – mostly because I’ve got over 1200 still that I am considering to print but I really need to cut that down to about 500.

All that to say here are a few photos for your viewing pleasure…I have an idea that I’m working on about my trip to Japan and of course, some of my toy camera images will be in the next issue of Light Leaks magazine.

The Nagoya Aquarium was really nice our host, A, took us around. It was very interesting and had sea life from Japan and the artificial surroundings they’ve create for the sea life in the aquarium.

So I’ve been saying for weeks that I’ve been organizing my photos and it’s true. I have been whittled away and have gotten them down to my top “2000″ so I’m working on it. But I have finished sorting my toy camera images. While I was away I did take many rolls of photos and using a golden half meant that a roll of 36 – 35mm film was getting 72 images!

I am in love with my Golden Half! The camera was really reliable and I was able to slip it in my pocket when I wanted to use a different camera.

Hopefully over the next few weeks I will be posting photos and some information about the various cities and sites we visited. I will also be writing an article for the next issue of Light Leaks about Japan and there you will be able to see more of my toy camera images.  Until then…

I can’t think of someone I’d like to trade places with for a day but I would love to be a travel writer and photographer and go to someplace really cool. I’d love that, even for a day!

My wonderful Holga 135BC joined me in Vienna this year. It has quickly become my favorite 35mm toy camera and has been accompanying me on my project 24 days 24 photos over at toy camera dot com. (All are welcome to join this collaborative project – all you need is a film camera and the will to take one photo every day for 24 days.)

I had fun testing it out in the city where (arguably) Holga first gained popularity.

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