Overheard

I overheard this conversation:
-Do you think Latoya Jackson is Michael Jackson?
-She must be, they look so much alike.
Me yelling from the kitchen: Some people would argue they are the same person, google it. I don't believe it.

What was really said:
-Do you think Latoya Jackson is Michael Jackson's sister?

I guess sticking the q-tip that far into my ear isn't really helping matters.

FroKnowsPhoto Song - A photography Theme Song for all Photographers

I love that they shot this in the kitchen! Jared from Froknowsphotos is very informative!

Fiddling Around

I have been wanting to make fabric flowers for awhile. 

I used my Stampin' Up fabric that I have been hoarding. Is it really hoarding if I only bought it in December? 

 Baby Bear is modelling the fabric flowers, which are on clips.

 I thought I'd try my hand at making rolled fabric flowers. It's harder than it looks and there are many things I am good at and using the glue gun is not one of them. I used more hoarded fabric, this stuff has been around longer than December. Since taking the picture, I have added tulle and am going to find some headbands to attach them too.

 I found an older magazine while I was purging my magazines, and it had a cute framed heart thing. I had this cupboard door already painted so I stamped a bunch of loves, hand cut the heart, and stuck this together.

I've had a very productive day making things that really have no purpose.  Pretty good if I do say so myself. 

From Linus

Mom's been working on her Project Life album. I'm too short to see what is happening on the table but I can tell you that anything that hangs over the edge of the table is fair game. I've had some tasty treats from that table. I really like the taste and chewiness of the Stampin' Up cardstock. The assorted colours do taste different. The paper that mom uses to cover the table tastes good too. I trim the overhang down for her so that it looks nice and neat. I ate an origami flower the other day, mom wasn't happy but she said it would pass. I'm not checking to see if it did, but when it does, I bet it won't be as pretty.

 Mom's friend, Heather, left a pile of paper doilies behind. And this month's challenge was Glitter(Y), mom has terrible handwriting so no one knows why there was a Y at the end of glitter.  Mom decided to M Boss the doilies. I don't know what that means but I think it has something to do with dust, and heat. She was very happy when she was done so I think she got to eat some dust too.

 Mom held the Project Life album up for me to see. It's not very bright. She's using "New Tralls" and adding some bits of colour here and there. Not sure I like that.

 The most exciting part was when she lifted the Monthly Divider. She said she stamped the hearts using some Stazon ink. I looked pretty neat to me but what do I know? It didn't have dog hair on it, so it was only okay.

 Mom said her favourite part of the album would be the assorted page protectors. Meh...pockets for pictures, whatever.

 None of it makes up for the fact the humans made me walk to Grandpa's house. And then he wasn't even home. So I peed in his back yard. Here's some pictures of when we got home. Geez, I wish mom would wait till I open my eyes. Look, you can see my breath, it's that cold.

 I like this one, I'm such a handsome fellow. Mom says the sun flare is a nice touch. All I know is the sun is warming my back side, my bum is frozen to the ground.

 Then I told mom to get closer so everyone could see the snot!

 After the long, forever walk, I had a nap but my sister, Sally, kept bugging me. She decided she needed the sun spot more than I did.

I'm scared here. Very scared. She's touching me. Can you see the fear in my eyes? I'm thinking if I just lay still, she might get bored and leave.
Overall, mom says I had a good weekend. I know I got fed, not enough, and had a bunch of naps. I even watched some motocross and Daytona car racing with dad so I guess it was a good weekend.

Yesterday

I had to work. Same as every Monday. The order hadn't come in yet. So when Heather called and asked if I wanted help, I jumped on it. I had a head ache too, I think my back is out from having to move the zipper cabinet last Monday. We finished up, went to the scrapbook store, where I spent $0. Then for lunch at Taco Del Mar. We had the flour taco combo, each. It was so good. Reminded me of the meal we ate at Cocina Cucamonga, only this was about 8x messier.

We forgot to take a camera, and so I used my phone to take a picture. We forgot to take it before we ate, so this is my super messy tray.

Afterwards, we went to Michaels, where I spent less than $4. I'm really sticking to my 'no more spending on things I don't need' rule. (Read Investment blog post from a few weeks ago.)

I was so full, there was no way I was making dinner for Kerry and Emily so I called them and told them to get ready. I took them to Costco where they ate pizza while I shopped. We watched Harry's Law when we got home, I like it, it's a bit far fetched, but Cathy Bates is likeable. 

My head was killing me and so I had to take 3 extra strength Tylenols. I didn't take the all at once, I took 2 at about 6 pm. and at 8 when my head still felt like someone was sticking an icepick in my eye, I took another one. Then I ate a Cara Cara orange from Costo and felt much better. They are the best oranges I've ever had. 

It's 8 am. and I have chicken teriyaki marinading for dinner tonight. I'm using the Eat, Shrink, and Be Merry cookbook. We are going to eat a bit lighter if it kills us. 

I'm planning on scrapbooking up a storm today. Providing the niggling headache stays away. Another trip to the chiropractor is in order, but it's so cold out, I don't want to leave the house.

Hanging

We had bunco at Patti's last night. It was my night to host, but she offered to have it in her home. It worked out better for her and baby K and I was okay with that.  I got to snuggle him and he smiled at me. The only downside is that my house didn't get cleaned. It was humbling/weird to get there to find Patti hanging up her newly framed photos from baby K's new born photo shoot. I love the frames she chose and she got them done at Michaels.  My poor personal photos are in cheap Ikea frames. Makes me want to redo them!

We had a great night. We needed a spare, so I asked Kelly-Next-Door if she could come. Just my luck, she won a prize. Darn beginner's luck.

I felt like baby K in this photo. 

Speaking of Kelly's and K names, Kerry's co-worker just called. I had to take a message and couldn't remember his name, I could tell from the call display that it stated with a K. It took me a minute, and then I remembered! It's Kelly. 

Our next Project Life meeting is tomorrow. I'm doing a decent job of catching up. Maybe now that daylight hangs around a bit longer, I might get more shots of the family in the album. 

Kerry has a cold. It's in his head. It makes his voice sound terrible. I've asked him to stop talking to me because his voice freaks me out. I can't even explain the way it sounds. He says other than the coughing, he feels fine. Maybe it's because he doesn't have to talk to me.

Coasting

Years ago, Nancy gave me a kit for making photo coasters. It came with all the stuff you needed to transfer photos to ceramic tiles.  I used it up right away making tiles for Christmas gifts, and for this guy's owners.

They were a huge hit. I got requests for more. But sadly, the art supply store stopped carrying the product. I went in and asked and was looked at like I was crazy. I asked one last employee and she said they did have the stuff and it was in the discontinued bin. I found one tub of transfer gel and one pack of transfer paper, at 50%! Which made the 10 pack of paper a reasonable $25. Ouch.  So now I'm pretty stingy about giving out photo coasters. And you should have seen me today when the girl running the laser printer was saying that every other sheet of paper in the order before mine was getting jammed in the machine. I was about to tell her to find someone else to run the darn machine because she obviously didn't know how. She did have problems, she was so unprofessional (I thought she said the f-word at one point), and she finally did the copying on the self-serve machine for me. Everything worked out but I was on pins and needles waiting. At $2.50 a sheet, I can't afford to have her mess up!
So after all that, I came home, made my tiles, took the picture of them and will be giving them as a thank you gift for tomorrow night's bunco! 2 out of 3 of the tiles, the big dog is going across the street. I love that photo.

 Speaking of photos, that brings me to my new acquisition. A vintage Kodak Duaflex. I bid on it for a silent auction and amazingly(oddly) won. I thought for sure it would go for more than I bid, but then I realized that the auction wasn't well publicized. Maybe I bid too much. It was for a good cause.

The dogs love it. It gives them treats, they love how they can see me in it while I'm taking their picture.

And the love love love the flash and bulbs it came with, all of which fit in the faux leather case that it also came with.

Check it out, no snow in that part of the yard! Tomorrow, I'm sure there will be, that's they way it's been going lately.

More Disney Stuff

With the computer being down, I never did blog all my photos from Disneyland! All 1500 of them! 

Lately, I have been putting them in albums and doing a tiny bit of journaling. It's almost like going all over again. I haven't processed/photoshopped or done any sharpening for web for the Disney photos. They are as is, sooc.

 Except we don't get to eat Wetzel's Pretzels every day. I am pretty sure Emily would have eaten them for every meal. We joke now that at some point on the trip, aliens abducted her and left us with a kid that eats more varieties of foods. It's really weird. She's eating oatmeal, enchiladas, sometimes stir-fries, and she'll try more things, even if she doesn't end up eating them all.

 I love this series of photos. There's the bubble gun guy. Doing his best to get kids hooked!

 She hasn't seen him yet but I know she will.

 And she will turn and say "I have to have a bubble gun!" "I need to have one!" and the bubble guy will sell her one and give her an additional bottle of bubbles. Which is good because for the rest of the day, she made bubbles every where she went.

 Kerry liked them too. For the first 15 minutes.

 Bubbles. Everywhere.

The other neat thing she did was to video tape as she went on rides.  She took some great photos with her little Fuji camera, dropping it twice didn't hurt the camera one bit. And the videos she took are a great thing to have. Except for when I hear my own voice. I may be sitting behind her. I may scream. She went on this ride a few times by herself. We were quite surprised at how many rides she went on this time compared to last time.

Loves!

We decided to have a family dinner for Valentine's. Well, me, Kerry and Emily decided. I asked what everyone's favourite meal was. Kerry said burgers, Emily said ribs, I want tator tots. When Kerry heard Emily wanted ribs, he decided he wanted ribs too!  So ribs, tots and salad for Valentine's dinner. I'm 3 steps ahead of the game, I had rub leftover from the last time I made ribs (the ones pictured above) and I am not making  bbq sauce from scratch this time. I have wood chips soaking for later. Now I just need ribs.
I can't wait! I love the way I smell after smoking meat! What a perfect Valentine's day! Too bad I have to go to work.

winner!

33, that's how many packs of Making Memories tiny alphabet stickers I have. And when you think that there are 2 sheets in each pack, that's a lot of tiny alphabets!
Shannon was the closest guess.

Love is in the air!

I totally cased this design from Angie. I loved how she wrapped the ribbon around the spools and added buttons to the card. I got the colour inspiration from my Shootsac cover. I didn't realize this was the same fabric that Fabricland carries, I keep looking at it and thinking how much I like it, but have no use for more fabric, and then it dawned on me as to why I am attracted to it and it's matching fabrics.

 I was still feeling grey so I made a red and grey birthday card, while snacking on the cinnamon heart popcorn I made this morning. 

We have gotten my dad addicted to Pakora Palace, the local East Indian Restaurant. I love it! Last weekend he picked up Tandoori chicken and it was so good. So tonight, that's what I am making, it's marinading, and has been all day! I used this Tandoori mix. We have the Butter Chicken mix too and it's good too!

And I'm loving my 24-70mm f/2.8. It's dang heavy, almost 3 lbs., but it's awesome. I keep it on my camera all the time now. 

What are you loving right now?  

A little blog candy

 I did a little scrapbooking for myself today. I found I have a healthy supply of those little Making Memories Tiny Alphabet stickers.  I have so many letters that never get used, B,C, H, J, Q, etc. so I used them to make the wavy background lines. That hardly made a dent in the number of stickers I have. I printed the photo on some non-Canon photo paper. It's awful, so I'll be reprinting it.

 I even used the stickers to make the little flower.

So I thought as a special treat for you, I'd do a little give-away. You just have to do the following 3 things...
1. Follow my blog
2. Comment that you follow
3. Take a guess at how many packages of these tiny alphabet stickers I have
I'll pick a winner at the end of the week, friday.

Pickle what?

Amy's mom, Debbie, works at a Pennypickles . She has sent us some delicious dill pickle chips and mentioned Pickle Pops. It wasn't until we finally met in person that we got some Pickle Pops. We brought them home and froze them to try later.

They are totally weird. They are indeed pickle flavoured and they are exactly like a Freezie. Only with pickle chunks. We split one, just incase we didn't like it. Surprisingly enough, Kerry liked it the most. 

They are an acquired taste. But if you ever get the chance, try it. You might like it.

7 months ago

Now that everything is back and up and running on the new Mac, we are finding some little surprises. Like Emily's California trip photos and videos, which were on the PC side, but are now loaded to the Mac side, as are hundreds of other photos I had forgotten about. Like the following...it's nice to see what we were doing 7 months ago. 

 Things like rolling on the grass.

 Relaxing in the pool.

Chewing logs.

 Running around with buckets on our head.

 Sneaking through the jungle to find our bucket.

 And giving our bucket a dip in the pool to cool off.

 The stuff we are doing today...practicing with that macro reversing ring. A steady hand, I don't have.

This was yesterday, notice the sunshine, the dry ground, and the little bit of snow. Well, that's all covered in a lot of wet snow today. This is dad on his new toy. Good thing he got a ride in yesterday.

An investment in the form of a retreat

How often do you invest in yourself?

I can't say I really do, unless you include camera equipment and scrapbooking supplies, does that even count? I haven't invested in my own post secondary education since Shaun was 3-4 yrs. old. I could have had a career in computerize accounting, glorified book-keeping, but at the time after I finished the coures, we chose not to do the daycare route. And we haven't looked back. I also hate doing taxes and don't balance my cheque book. I've turned that part of my brain off.

Last year, there was some talk about me going back to school. Some research was done and I decided I didn't want to do it. Not for business, not for photography, not for anything.

But we did decide that if I wanted to take courses here and there, we'd make it work. So that's what I've been doing. Karen Russell still does add on classes for her Photographers' Workshop, called Making the Shot. I plan on purchasing them all as she puts them out. Erin Cobb put out a work flow DVD, and it's been a huge eye opener. I also have Zack Arias's One Light DVD that is really nicely done but it's more for studio lighting and I'm not into that, yet. But the biggest investment was just made. And from all reviews, it could be a life changer.  It should be the push I need.

What is it? Well, if you looked closely at the Project Life post, you would have seen a layout and some journalling about it. It's such a big thing for me that I wasn't sure I wanted to share it yet. But today, I feel like sharing... I am enrolled to attend a 3 day photography retreat put on by Barb Uil of Jinky Art Photography of Australia. It's not until the summer. I'm very excited and a bit scared. She only takes 12 in each retreat. Her retreats are always held some place beautiful, and this time, it's on an island off of Bowen Island. This in itself is scary. 3 days with people I don't know is scary. A 'water taxi' is scary. But the chance to learn a fraction of what Barb knows will be worth it.

Coming Clean!

Back in the days before our trip to Disneyland, Erin Cobb was putting out a dvd/tutorial on her Clean Color Workflow. I wanted it so bad. And the release date was the day we would be crossing the California border, so I was without internet and out of luck or so I thought. I contacted Erin and was told that I could not pre-purchase, but as luck would have it, the dvd was not ready until the New Year. Which was much better timing for me. And that's what it's all about! 

I've been playing around with her settings and work flow. I don't have it down pat, I'm not sure about where I want the skin tones and how to smoothly do the steps. 

Here is a before photo that I thought was okay, although her face it darker than I'd like. 

 And here is the after, and as I type this I realize I should have done the 'save for web' steps. I can see her hair is kind of weird. I still think her face had a tad bit of green to it. And I wold have loved to crop the lattice straight, but then that ugly blue swing chain would have been wonky, I could remove it, but that seems like work.