The Conservatory Overcoat GIVEAWAY!!!! CLOSED.

How did you spend your Valentine's Day. As you can see Brian and I spent ours at the Longwood Gardens conservatory. Not that we intended to go on Valentine's Day to take the photos. That was just the way things played out. Unfortunately for us, about 1,000 other people thought a romantic day at Longwood was a good idea too.




I'm an easily embarrassed person. So, posing in front of many passing strangers with clunky camera equipment wasn't exactly what I had envisioned when I suggested that we take Valentine's Day themed photos. I'm fairly certain it wasn't Brian's either.

HOWEVER, after getting past the first 20 minutes of uncomfortable stares we started actually enjoying ourselves. And in the end I left with a sense of satisfaction about the day, albeit with very sore feet and one lost lens cap. Unfortunately for us, we over spent our stay by about an hour and missed our Valentine's reservation at a nearby bed and breakfast we had visited six years ago.

Little did we know that this grave oversight would cost us dearly. On our way back to Lancaster we thought to have dinner at one of the many eating establishments on route 30 in the heart of Amish Country's tourist trap.

As with the gardens, about 50,000 other people had the same idea. To make things worse the only thing I had ate was a packet of cheese and chives crackers. I swear, even the Chinese buffet had a 45 minute wait.


We ended up at a Thai restaurant called Lemongrass and I don't think food has ever tasted so good. I was of course, delirious from starvation but I'll concede that the chef had something to do with it.

In case you might be wondering, the tulip in the photo wasn't pilfered. It was a part of the bouquet Brian sent to me by delivery service on Friday. Sentimentally sweet!

The overcoat is made with a soft linen-like material with a muslin quilted liner sewn into the inside. The front of the jacket bears a heart shaped neckline with a gathered collar on either side. Three-quarter sleeves make this overcoat appropriate for springtime and a pleated empire waisted skirt make it equally feminine.

These photos were the first I've taken with my new 50mm f/1.8 lens. It takes the best, blurriest, most glamorous photos! Speaking of Valentine's day and cameras. While dining at Lemongrass Brian let me open my Valentine's Day gift. I'll give you a clue, it was something that I can share with you!

I let out a happy gasp as I saw the numerical prefix for a speedlite that I have been keeping an eye one for many months. If you haven't heard of a speedlite, it's basically the coolest little accessory any fashionable camera 'must have'.

With my new speedlite I can bounce the flash on the ceiling or the wall and make all my flash photography look so natural and soft. UGH! I can't tell you how much I LOVE IT! I feel like such a professional:)

Brian received a special gift too. You can see it in our photos. Aptly named, the Diana Dreamer camera. It's a reproduction and you can only get it at Urban Outfitters. So retro. So analog. It's been known to take dreamy, etherial photos. It has quite an underground following but you have to use special film and get it developed online.


I haven't gotten film developed film since the 90s. But a part of me is looking forward to opening that package after waiting for a week to send it to the lab.

I bought him two types of film, color and infrared. It's the infrared one I'm especially excited to see him use. It's b&w and supposed to make skies dark and whites glow. Surreal.


Let me end by mentioning that along with the camera, I received another Valentine's day gift that Brian didn't have to spend a dime on and that was the memorable photos we took together. I'm sure it wouldn't have been the first thing he wanted to do, but for me, he did. And it's been so
long since we did something like this, I was quietly grateful.

Last day for posts is Friday 2/27/09. Winner will be announced Sunday!

As usual, if you would like a chance to win this overcoat just link back to this post. If you have any questions see the "questions and answers" link to the right. If you use blogger just use the "create a link" link at the bottom of this post. If you don't use blogger, that's fine too. Just create a link on your page as you normally would and I will see it using Technorati.

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