Blue Window Creative » About

An Airstream in California

admin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 03:45:34 +0000

For three years, we’d dreamt of an aluminum, labor of love. Long nights filled with rewiring, replacing rotten flooring, and Googling how to find and replace 40+ year-old axles. All to fix up an old Airstream that would serve as our work-pod. The DIY DNA that flowed through our veins yearned to put on ventilation masks, slap on at least two pairs of gloves, and play with some ancient insulation.

However, we found this guy that was everything we’d wanted to do – already done. (We literally emailed the Craigslist ad for this Airstream, and a rat-infested Bambi in the same time around 3am one morning. Wasn’t a hard choice.) Before we adopted and brought the 3,000 lb baby up to Oregon, it was a mobile wine tasting room down near Napa, California. We recently decided that it would be best used as a work retreat/sunny home-base, and proceeded to drag it back down to California and settle it atop a mountain near Santa Cruz.

The aluminum saga continues on twitter via @an_airstream
Follow along via a tumblr at anairstream.com
Or via instagram sometimes as maryandthejoel

Mary and The Joel

admin — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 02:22:24 +0000

We’re bad at cleaning out coolers right after a camping trip.
We’re just over 10 years married and 6 years vegetarian. Sometimes we tell people, “We’re vegetarian, except for endangered animals; we’ll eat them.”
Sometimes, we fantasize about living in a Tiny Home/trailer farm with a bunch of friends. They’re a happy place.
We’re not into fake, unless for amusement. (Like wigs, plastic hats, or music parodies.)
We live in less than 400 sq ft and love the way it makes us appreciate. Over the summer, we lived in 150 sq. ft. and miss the functionality.
Our nickname for each other after donating blood is “Pint Low”
Sometimes, we live out of an airstream, on a mountain, overlooking Monterey Bay. The showering outside part of this is under-rated.
We wave and take delight in the people dressed up in costumes, waving signs/doing enthusiastic dances on the side of the road. (Pre-Tax time is the best for these.)
We don’t have TV, so when in hotel rooms we generally find the trashiest thing on. Sometimes we put it on mute and do voice-overs.
We’re not afraid to sleep in a car for an adventure.
A personal project we are working on right now is #giftsforstrangers on Instagram. We invite you to do this with us.
We have an on-again, off-again relationship with Bikram yoga. (Mary even did two consecutive classes once…after she had two beers the night before; the beer part is not recommended.)
On long road-trips, Mary tries to learn lyrics to karaoke songs.
When driving in summer, we prefer windows down and a foot perched on the side mirror.
We’re amateur juicers and impromptu fast/cleanse experimenters.
We have cats and spoon with them, although Joel is allergic.
Some of our fave Pandora stations include: Phantogram, TV On The Radio, Kid Koala, DeVotchKa, Modeselektor, Lemon Jelly, and Led Zeppelin
Although we gave up most Pandora and replaced it with Songza.
This is the last record that we bought new. Mostly because it was beautiful, but it’s also a good listen.

We’ve been photographers for ten years, full-time for over two, and push ourselves relentlessly (probably unhealthily so at times) to make tomorrow our best.

Things we like, in no particular order or consistency:

Stumptown Coffee
Strongbad, Wedding Videographer
Marcel The Shell (With Shoes On)
Pretty sure we’ve absorbed all of the Demetri Martin we can get our eyeballs and earholes on.
The Kleptones (Free to download-Uptime, Downtime, and 24 Hours are some faves)
We’re endlessly inspired by the simple concepts behind Ok Go videos. (This Too Shall Pass, Here it Goes Again, White Knuckles, and End Love)
Arrested Development, Modern Family, Dexter, Pushing Daisies, Childrens Hospital, Party Down, and Archer
Joel is on his third pair of Sambas and enjoys a vodka we found through a wedding called “Russian Standard”
This video sums up a lot of what we love about Oregon
This intro sums up a lot of what we love about Portland
If you’re coming to Portland to visit, The Ace Hotel is a unique place to stay
One of our favorite places to camp along the coast is in Nehalem, OR
We like to play the game Werewolf (similar to Mafia), Dominion, Pandemic, Bananagrams, and Settlers. These are all varying levels of nerd-dom.
Mary enjoys good Porters and Stouts; Joel likes hoppy IPA’s
Favorite Cheap Eats in Portland: Bombay Chaat House Food Cart, Vita Cafe, Sushi Ichiban, Los Gorditos, Jam on Hawthorne

Current Audio/Video Faves:

Dumb Ways to Die PSA
Thrift Shop by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Aristophanes Story by RadioLab (first heard at a wedding, read by “George Bluth Sr.”)

Awards & High Fives

admin — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 10:56:47 +0000

Places on the interwebs we can be found:

yelp (we find where to get good chinese on here, why not photogs?)
Wedding Wire (Reviews that make us blush.)
Mary & Joel are members of Fearless Photographers.
Both are members of WPJA (Joel’s and Mary’s International, Award-Winning Images)
{AG}WPJA (Mary’s International, Award-Winning Images)
Founding Member of The Wedding Hive (2008-2010)

Let us know if you see some work that you’d like to feature; much of it is new. Here are a few lovely blogs, magazines, and sites where our work has been featured:

Ace Hotel, Portland (Alison and Trevor under weddings)
Portrait of Maggie Harrison in Food & Wine Magazine (Antica Terra Winery)
Corley + Tristan on Wedding Chicks
Sarah + Trent on Ruffled Blog
Products + Portraits + Environmentals for Brooklyn Art Library, Sketchbook Project, and Art House
Shanti + Chris on Ruffled Blog
Alison + Trevor on Green Wedding Shoes
Cathleen + Tyler on Grey Likes
Song + Dony on Rock N’ Roll Bride
Michelle + Doug on Ruffled Blog
Katia +Marc Featured on Forget Me Knot (Part One) (Part Deux)
Chelsea + Adam Featured on Grey Likes
Palm Springs Feature on The Loveliest Day
Katie + Jesse Featured on Green Wedding Shoes
Tiffany + Brandon Featured on Style Me Pretty
Sarah + Justin Featured on Forget Me Knot
Sarah + Reed on Ruffled Blog
Tiffany + Brandon Featured on Wedding Chicks
Megan + Ajay in KC Weddings Magazine