Flash Backs

Please excuse the poor quality of these photos, but I was finally able to move them from my cell phone to my computer thanks to my littlest Sister. And They are all taking me back, way back. Two years to be exact. This first photo is from the U2 concert November 25, 2005. What do you mean you can't see Bono? I waited so long to see them in concert that it was indeed the best concert ever.
This second photo is a sleeping J. Most likely one of the first times he fell asleep on his own at my Mom's house. He is cuddling my Sister's bear, all wrapped up in her blankets because I forgot his. That was the last time I did that.

This is J May 2006. Isn't he such a preppy boy? This year was the first year he would not wear a hat like that one (and yes his ears got burned from it as did his neck). We were at Costco and I cannot remember why I took a photo but his baby cousin is asleep in the bucket behind him.
And the whole reason I even thought of trying to unload these photos was to post one from our fabulous walk the other day. That is Apple in her puppy jacket her "Auntie" otherwise known as my Best Girlfriend bought for her. It is a little big, but oh so snuggly. It is complete with puppy ears and spots. I will take a proper photo another day. You can see the sunlight streaming through the trees, it was truly a wonderfully gorgeous day.

Otherwise, today was rather boring. I went to the dentist for a cleaning. My teeth hurt, nothing much else to report. Apple was woken up from her naps all day long, so here it is almost her bedtime and she has been asleep for two and a half hours. I guess I should go and wake her up. Oh there she is I can hear her now.

A is for Apple and other fun things

I have so much to blog about and not enough time. Time and that I could post twice a day for the next two weeks and probobly still have lots to say. Now watch, next week I won't be able to think of one fun or interesting thing to blog about.

Let's get on with the show. Last week I was tagged by a grrls wrrld with a meme to list seven random things about me. I know I have done similar ones to this one, but let's give it a go shall we.

1. I have a toe ring. I have had one since 1986. The particular one I am wearing is 15 years old and was made out of beads by my youngest sister. The ones before that were all rubber rings that would only last so long then break. This one is going on strong.

2. I used to drive a motorcycle. And if I can remember to bring the photo to my sister's house and scan it in, one day you will all get to see me on my former ride. I sold it to buy a convertible, still only had two seats, but it was much more convenient in the rain and while wearing skirts.

3. I lived in England for a year. February 1977 - February 1978. I still remember all the castles and Brighton Beach and our little house in Sutton, Surrey. I remember my best friend Liana (who still sends cards, along with her Mom for birthdays and holidays) and our school Devonshire Public school. My younger sister was born there, but has never been back.

4. I play a cello. Not very well anymore, I could use a little practice to get up to snuff again.

5. I also play a flute. I taught myself and then gave my sister my flute and haven't seen it since.

6. I worked at Cineplex Odeon for two months shy of 10 years. It was the longest ten years of my life.

7. One person (and only one,ever) told me I would make a terrible mother and should never have kids. I never knew why he said that and wish I knew where he was today, so I could go over and smack him in the face. And of course brag about my kids.


You are probobly all wondering why A is for Apple?

Because I have the best Hubby in the whole entire world. You see, my trusty Dell laptop is starting to give me trouble. I love it to peices and it is our second Dell laptop, my fourth if you count the two I used at work. I also used Dell desktops at work and loved them too. But, now that my photography passion is taking over again in my life, I wanted my next laptop to be an Apple. I was waiting until I had a complete handle on my camera and learned all the ins and outs of Photoshop Elements.

But Hubby was tired of me getting frustrated with my Dell, although he tried to convince me that a new Dell was all I needed and even the professionals aren't using Apples for photography anymore. I stood fast and declared, "I will buy my own next year when I can start earning some money again". So, Hubby did some research and visited a few shops. His research identified the fact that I was right. Can we hear that again folks. I WAS RIGHT. Apples are awesome for what I want to do.

Hubby decided that I should have one. You see tomorrow is my birthday so for my birthday this year I got my Apple. I have no idea yet how to use it entirely, but I am learning. And for now I cannot do a full post, complete with links from Safari. I will need to keep posting from my Dell until my migration. So far so good, I love it to peices, I just uploaded all my photos, so we are off and running.

Here's to Apples.

PHOTOS!

Gotta start the trip off right...
J being Mr.Cool. Funny we were dressed for Fall, but we were a litte over dressed, we should have been in shorts.

Apple. Sleeping oh so soundly, until right after this photo was taken. Later at home, the kids were being silly.
J took a photo of us girls, thank goodness he takes pretty good photos or there would never be any of me!
For more photos, check out my flickr badge at the side, I was able to upload to there yesterday.

Through the Eyes of our Kids

What a great and fabulous weekend!! The weather was back to normal, not a cloud in the sky. And my Sister-in-Law made her first visit here from Vancouver in almost 5 years! We did see her in Vancouver 3.5 years ago but that was the last time. Hubby was quite happy that his Sister finally came this way and we had a great day yesterday catching up and watching the kids playing (and yes, kids includes Hubby).

A took the first two photos. He loves photography and wanted to try out the new lens on my camera. He has an SLR of his own, but it was at his Mom's house and it uses film, so he doesn't feel as free to goof around. When I downloaded the photos this morning I had to laugh at the 20 or so photos of the airplanes flying overhead. We live near the airport and he was trying to get cool shots of the planes landing. But truly he just got shots of the planes with a deep blue sky behind them.

He took a few of Hubby and J in the pool (I didn't go in because my SIL didn't want to and A didn't go in because it isn't cool). They were riding around the pool in circles which was rather cute.

The second photo is of one of our dogs, Cosmo. Cosmo is eleven and still such a good looking dog. He isn't as fast as used to be and he is a little jaded by our adding to the family, first with Mickey (our other Dog) and next with J. Just wait until this baby arrives he will really feel put out.

Next we have J's photos . J loves taking photos, I tried to give him my old point and shoot, but he prefers Mommy's good camera. So I put the strap around his neck and hold tight to the back of the strap. He wanted a photo of the slide and the grass, not sure why, but that is what he wanted.

First the slide. Just the end tip as the zoom lens was on and that is as far away as he could get.And second is the grass. Despite my complaining of the rain, it has been a stellar year for our grass. We went from dry brown grass this past spring (normal after winter) to lush full green grass. Probably the lushest we have ever had. We are attributing it to our weed n'feed and the fact that I was still watering even when there was no rain (back in June when it was actually hot and sunny every single day). And yes, the camera was set on auto-focus, but it is fun to see what J comes up with when he takes photos. They are getting more and more creative the more he takes (he just took one of the fireplace a few minutes ago). Maybe we will have a professional photographer in the house yet!

Finding my creativity

Here is our cottage. There are two levels, both exactly the same with different furniture. I know it doesn't look like much, but it is wonderful. Last year we stayed downstairs where the porch has a front door, a little nerve wracking when you have toddlers that can reach the lock on the door. This year we stayed upstairs where you can only exit through the kitchen at the back. We found things with both that we liked. We prefer upstairs because you can sit up on the stools at the table and watch the world go by. We enjoyed downstairs because it had much nicer furntiure and no stairs. We booked in for upstairs again next year because, well, the porch won out.

This is one of the views I had from the porch. There are actually two houses here, the white one on the left and a dark brown one hidden in the trees on the right. As I sat with my coffee the first morning all of a sudden I could see my characters in my novel living in these cottages. I started working on the rewrite of my novel back in March but, I just couldn't get unstuck from where my characters were and how fast I wrote it. I needed inspiration, but was getting nothing sitting here in suburbia. Within a day, I had a whole rewrite going in my head. And since Hubby decided we didn't need to bring out laptop because wireless was scarce last year. I had nothing but paper towel to write on. So off I went to the bookstore to purchase a journal. For three mornings I saw my characters and their stories intertwining. Some of the novel has changed a bit, but that is good because it wasn't working for me the way it was.

Not only did my writing get inspired but so did my photography. I didn't take as many photos as I wanted to, because carrying around my camera bag with my belly was a little more difficult than I first thought it was going to be. And Hubby was so inspired by my inspiration that he bought me another lens for my camera. I feel so blessed because our trip was gift enough, but he knows how much I love taking photos and how often I use my camera that he figured it would be best to make the purchase down there where our dollar was almost the same, there is no sales tax and the actual merchandise is a third less than up here. It may just become an annual event. And Bob at the photo studio was fantastic. Nobody sells DSLR's and accessories anywhere near the beach. Everyone told us to go to NYC, which would have been great if we hadn't been at the beach for a week. But, Bob has a supplier that could UPS me a lens overnight. It ended up that I missed the first truck, but got to extend our beach time on Saturday while we waited for the lens to come in. I didn't get to take any photos with it at the beach, but I have been playing with it since we got home and am in love with it.

All that inspiration has already led me back to my sewing here at home. I just didn't feel any creativity prior to vacation but it is back and I am so thankful. I don't like feeling like I have lost everything all at once. I knew our trip was going to be tough, travelling at eight months pregnant is not ideal, but it was so worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

A First

For me anyway to officially enlarge, print and frame one of my own photographs. As artwork.


Sure I have printed of photos of the kids and family and put them in frames, but this is different. I needed something beachy to bring the beach back to my kitchen after the paint job. I looked everywhere and saw a few photos I liked, then I realized. Duh. I have tons of photos of the beach that I actually took myself. Why should I pay for someone elses photos?


So I did it.
My first intention was to blow it up to poster size. I was ordering some prints from Costco and the largest size they had was 12x18 for $2.50, so I thought I would try it out before spending $30 to make a poster. And it turned out great! I found a beachy type wood frame at Michael's and picked up some mat and glass and a mat cutter (this was all cheaper than paying them $160 to frame it) and here it is. Tada.

I took the photo last summer during Tropical Storm Ernesto and the dot to the right in the distance is actually Hubby and A standing by the shoreline watching the crazy water and waves. It is funny that I would choose a photo from a tropical storm, but the colour of the dark sky matches the paint exactly and the sand matches the cabinets, so it was the perfect one to choose.

This second shot shows how it goes with the colours in the kitchen. I must say I am quite happy with my peice of artwork and will be doing much more of this in the future. Especially because I bought a mat cutter and have lots of mat left over so I can frame up a whole whack of photos and decorate the rooms upstairs. This may be the beginning of a new thing for me.