Roxy Roller

My cousin got a Golden Retriever puppy a few weeks ago. So today Roxy, Amanda and Kelsey met me for a very cold photo shoot. I checked the weather, sunny, but I didn't check the temperature, -7 with the windchill. Emily came too because no one can resist this face!

I'm pretty sure I have the prettiest cousins out there. Roxy and 'mom'.

Roxy and 'Auntie Kelsey'.

 The outtake.

 The end.

Some pictures from Christmas

Last year I wanted one of Yolanda's stuffed animals, and mom tried to get one but for whatever reason, it didn't work out. When I saw Yolanda at work last week, I never thought twice about it when my mom said something about money and took a bag back to the lunch room. So when I opened my presents, this Angry Beaver was a complete surprise!  

 He's so cute! Thanks mom and Yolanda!

 We have a running joke about 'guns' and when I saw this shirt, I knew I had to get it for Shaun to give to Kerry for Christmas.

 It's a Christmas Miracle. That's been my catch phrase this year. Whether it's because a kid ate a food she normally doesn't eat or we found THE last black tree in Kelowna at Walmart today after being told by every other employee and the website that they were sold out, I have been saying "It's a Christmas Miracle!" It truly was today. Kerry asked "how much will you spend on a black tree?" after we saw them for $400 at Art Knapp, they were on for half price but still $200 for a tree? No thanks. I said "I'd be happy to spend $50 or less." We found one after being told they were long gone by Michaels, Canadian Tire, Home Outfitters, Home Sense, Home Depot and Walmart. It was just sitting there on top of all the other trees. $49, half of $99, we were pretty happy. The down side is it's 6.5 feet tall, but it's skinny. I really wanted a 4 ft. And it's covered in glitter. And so is Kerry!  And yes, it's totally frivolous, but it's our Nightmare Before Christmas tree. It's beautiful!

The good, the bad and the ugly

I have kids, I really do. But they don't co-operate and are almost never home at the same time in the daylight. And so my Christmas picture always consists of two semi-willing subjects.  The fur kids.

Seeing as how I sold my Tamron, thank you, Marg, and woke up realizing I would not have a proper lens to document Christmas with Grandpa and other holiday gatherings, a fast trip was made to Lens and Shutter before 10 am. No Christmas presents for me or Kerry for 3 years now. (Kerry got a new bike a few weeks ago.)

 We tried different poses this year. None of which were perfect. I'm really regretting my blue colour choice for the living room, even at almost noon, it too dark for natural light photography.

We went outside afterwards and got a few shots, I'm noticing a trend. I need to use a higher f-stop for long dog noses.

I do believe I have the cutest dogs ever! 

Well, if not the cutest, then at least the most photographed.

Baited Breath

It's taken me a couple days to even look at the computer. It's been almost a month of calling the tech every other day to see what the prognosis was. And in the mean time I have missed a few things. Like sharing my photos of the first snow. The following photos are unedited. Linus and Sally have a new cousin, Roxy, she's adorable, and my cousin's baby golden retriever. She came over for a few hours and every one fell in love with her, except Sally.

 We took Emily to the Taste of Japan. There was Taiko drumming, judo, origami, food, a bake sale, mochi (I have learned my lesson, I do not like it, I should not buy it) and there was a young, very shy girl  sitting at a table with her anime drawings. Ken, he owns Komatsu, the Japanese market, approached her after the screening of my cousin's movie and asked her to be a part of the Taste of Japan. I'm glad she did it, she's not so sure, she's so darn shy.

 I got 1000 pictures printed by Shutterfly. They are nice, but shipping was expensive and it took weeks to get them and when I did, they were damaged. HUGE let down.

 About 200 of them were scrunched on the corners, not a huge deal but that's not what I paid $50 in shipping for. So I called and complained and ended up getting all 1000 re-printed. Not what I needed but  it works. The rep said they would be shipped priority or expedited, which ever is supposed to be faster. Well, they came 5 days after their shipping said they would, which was a very long time. So long I had forgotten about them. I still have about 500 I want to print.

 We went to Big White to see the rally. It wasn't that great.

 Kerry's highlight of the trip...

My friend, Jeanette, finally talked me into getting gel nails. I did it as a special treat for Christmas. They are gorgeous. But they are so not me. Right now, they are much shorter, I'm a filing maniac. I can't properly scratch, or papercraft so I won't be keeping them.

 And my free book from Shutterfly. It's pretty nice, although I don't like the cover at all, it's glossy and shows finger prints and scratches.

I am almost ready for Christmas. Baking is done. Pounds have been put on. I'm planning on smoking a turkey and maybe a brisket. 

The new tv is awesome. I've keep the ickies at bay with Cold FX. All the parcels that needed to be sent have been sent, and then more gifts were found in the hiding spot, and so more parcels were sent. The hiding spot is too good, my memory is not so good. 

And finally, I leave you with my Christmas photo.... if I had one. Instead, here's our new ornaments for this Christmas. The last one is what we made in our Stamper's Group this month. On the back side it has a pocket for a gift card.

Mickey has friends that didn't show up for the photoshoot, and Dwight talks when you push his button.

One WEEK

I'm not ready. But I'm trying.
As I type this, know that I am multi-tasking. I have my second batch of nuts and bolts in the oven. I used a new recipe this year and it went over too well. I'm doing dishes also. And making Velveeta Fudge. It's not even 8 am.
The wonderful thing is that after a trip to Costco, a surprise bonus, and a gift card, we made a decision to get a larger, flatter, from this century television. It's a family Christmas present so my wrapping/shopping chores just decreased. I can't believe the difference. Everything is bigger!

 I got a big box of SU goodies this week and played with them. I used up almost all of this line of paper. It's called Springtime Vintage.

 I made a couple cute little note book holders.

 And then I made some of these decorated Pearson's mints for my Stamper's Group.

I'm hoping today is the day the tech says I can bring the computer home. I'm also hoping that the scritch in my throat is just a spider I swallowed in my sleep. If you know me and my dislike of spiders, then you will know that I am serious when I say I don't want to get sick this week.

Giveaway

Callista - Down the Rabbit Hole has an awesome Winter Wonderland giveaway. Check it out!

Still, again, whatever

After the computer's hard drive was replaced, it decided not to let me view my photos. A very big deal in this house so back it went to get fixed. The odds of it being the hard drive again are slim so now it might be a logic board or a cable. Both will be replaced this week. Thank goodness for warranties!  But it won't be back home until the weekend, if all goes well.
Kerry's Christmas party was at the Cove in West Kelowna this past weekend. We had a blast. It's gorgeous there, I did take pictures but the lack of my own computer means I can't share yet. We had a 2 bedroom suite to ourselves, a 6 course meal and tonnes of fun. But of course, this meant we missed UFC. I had Michelle and April texting me all night keeping me up to date on the pummeling of Koschek.
Kerry left me out there the next day so I could go to Michelle's Christmas gathering, had a great time chatting and eating. Last night was Bunco(I was not a winner), cookie exchange and Christmas sweater night. I made my sweater after having no luck finding one. Emily said it's both ugly and tacky. Mission accomplished.
Back at Michelle's Wednesday for Christmas tag making. Stamper's here on Thursday, Scrapper's on Friday and then Kerry is on holidays.
Whew... I might need a holiday too.

For Sale

If you shoot Canon, keep reading.

I decided to part with my Tamron lens. I'll be upgrading. There's nothing wrong with the lens, it's one of those "it's not you, it's me" situations.

For Sale:
Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di aspherical macro lens (this is one that Karen Russell recommends if you can't get the Canon version, it's got great reviews)
Purchased new in June 2010 for $522.
Comes with both caps, hood, box, receipt.
Great all around lens. Perfect for Christmas family shots, indoor shots, etc.

Asking $425 but I will entertain all reasonable offers.

It might be me

Maybe I have some kind of weird electromagnetic charge. In one year, 2 hard drives have crashed. And my new phone needed to be replaced because the battery didn't hold a charge for very long and then I got an error message.
So I spend half my day at London Drugs.
I've also been sorting the 1000 pictures I got from Shutterfly.com. Sadly this is only about half of my haul from our trip. I got too tired of uploading the pictures at that point. When they came, 200 were damaged so I called and now I am getting all 1000 re-printed and sent priority. Great customer service. Huge waste of paper.

I've got a pile of un-used frames, and no pictures for them. LOL. So I thought I'd spruce them up for Christmas. The picture is horrible, you can't see the glitter and cand hardly make out the ghost snowflakes on the blue at the top. I think I will do this to all our frames in the living room.

I'm doing an on-line photography class. It's great but I'm having issues not being on my own computer. I've  watched all the first weeks videos, printed 2 weeks worth of lessons and finished 1 lesson. So not like me. I like to keep up. I like to be active on the boards, and I'm just not doing it. Although deciding not to decorate until mid-December hasn't helped either. Lots of the lessons are based on advent, decorating, shopping, wrapping, etc. Maybe I will start earlier than I had planned.

Life after imac death

It's a bit of a struggle, but I know there could be worse things then not having our computer. I'm using mom's macbook in the interim. I'm not used to a laptop so everything is a little bit harder. 

I started a little photography class on Friday but of course without the comfort of my own computer, it's been hard to get into it. 

I'm documenting how we count down to Christmas, our advent. This year I decided to forgo the inexpensive licensed boxes of waxy 'chocolate' and make my own advent calendar.

 It took a lot longer than I had hoped. Cutting the boxes was a bit time consuming even with the Cricut doing the majority of the work. Adding the ribbon was piddly and Kerry helped with that.
They are full of Hershey's kisses, and Reese's Peanut Butter mini cups. 3 of each. Kerry needs his daily chocolate too.
I have them hanging from twill tape tied to bull dog clips on our Ikea shelves. I'm sure I will come home one day and find them dangling from one clip, with dog slobber on them. But then again, I have faith in my dogs. I believe they never get on that couch, but always on the other so they can look out the window. I believe they won't even notice that the boxes are within their reach.

It's Christmas time, time for believing!
I also believe the mac guy at London Drugs will find and save Emily's Disneyland pictures and videos!

Public service notice of the week: BACK IT UP, Baby! All the time. Don't wait and do it later. Do it now. No one ever said "I wish I hadn't backed up today!"

21st Century Phones

My new toy.
It's pink but it has a black protective colour so you really can't tell that it's pink. Now Kerry can use it, but he doesn't have to because, drum roll please... He has his own phone too. With his own phone number.
We've always just had a basic phone. For emergencies like calling home to ask what is on the grocery list, or to find out when someone is coming home. So that's what Kerry has now, a basic phone. And I have this one that needs a 894 page instruction manual to tell you how to answer it. Might just be me.  Now I can text (which I've done with Dad and Shaun), instant message, get messages, and access the internet. It's way more than I need. But I have to tell you that even though my scrap room is off the computer room, I'm pretty stoked about having the phone right beside me so I can see whatever it is that I'm looking at on the internet. And I can facebook while standing in line at the grocery store. That is what everyone needs!


Update: Our 8 month old iMac kicked the bucket today. I am not a happy camper.

Thanks to Michelle for helping me pick out phones!  If you need help in the camera/phone department, go see her at London Drugs.

Trip Continued.

Life is doing a very good job in interrupting with my trip blogging.

 I long for the days when we could roll up to a sign in our van and after telling that sign what we wanted to eat, a woman on roller skates would bring our food.

 It came in my favourite shape! Tot shape! And the cherry limeade chiller was so yummy.

 I long for the days when you could wear your costume to Disneyland and see people like Asian Baby Elvis. He was so cute, it's hard to tell but he was bustin' a move for us.

 I also long for the days when we cold ride Big Thunder Mountain anytime we wanted with Dorothy and the Tin Man.

A Nightmare Before Christmas wedding

I love that Amy and David went with their hearts and did their own thing when it came to picking a theme for their wedding.  Not many people do that.

I took these pictures as a guest, not as their photographer.

Every detail was planned out by Amy. She's a wedding planner.

 Every detail except the fire engine driving by at this time with sirens blaring.

 Check out the officiant. He's their friend, he's the local Jack Sparrow impersonator. He's bang on!

 First dance, awwww.....

 We had such a nice time and were so honoured to be invited to share their special day.

And speaking of special...

It was totally by accident that I caught this moment between brothers.

I'm in the process of adding a bazillion photos to my smugmug gallery, the link is on the right side, near the top of this page. There's trip photos, wedding photos and M family's photos.