October, 2011
Friday, October 28th, 2011
Ah, Hallowe’en. The time of the year when I get to have a little fun with costumes. This year Monkeyboy Junior decided he wanted to go as a “creeper” from the game “Minecraft”. Um… okay? I have never actually played the game, but was informed that they look a little something like this…
Except maybe without the top hat. Oh, and that they hisssss. Hmm…
Well, we found an army costume at the Walmart that the boys thought would work for the body, and then we got around to constructing a head this week. First, I used my design program to cut and paste a bunch of greenish boxes together at random. I tried to match the army costume colours instead of the game colours, though I am informed that this makes it look like he’s made of gravel (whatever THAT means…)
Then we found a box that fit his head, cut out the face, and then started taping the pages we’d made onto it using scrapbooking squares and Scotch tape.
He seemed to really enjoy those sticky squares for some reason. o.O
When it was done, he was really pleased with how it turned out.
I stuffed some quilt batting into the corners so that the box would stay centered on his head, and voila – a hissing creeper.
His buddies at the dance last night seemed to really enjoy the costume too (woohoo!!!), although I have no proof of this as my stuffy head prevented me from remembering to take a memory card for the camera. *le sigh* I hate it when that happens!
Meanwhile, Monkeyboy Junior Jr. was apparently designing his own Hallowe’en costume…
Though, I’m still not too clear on what he’s supposed to be. 
Well, we’re off for a sleep away camp for Beavers this weekend, so there will be no more costume fun for us until Monday. Hope you all have a safe and fun Hallowe’en weekend! BOO!
Tags: army costume, box, creeper, creeper costume, DIY, Hallowe'en, minecraft, Scotch tape, scrapbooking squares, Walmart
Posted in DIY, Family | 4 Comments »
Thursday, October 27th, 2011
A few of days ago, The Charm Lady (Lori) posted the following quote on her Facebook page…
The universe likes speed. Don’t delay. Don’t second guess. Don’t doubt. When the opportunity is there, when the impulse is there, when the intuitive nudge from within is there, act. That’s your job. And that’s all you have to do. ~ Dr. Joe Vitale
It got me thinking about how often I ignore those impulses. How often I’m on my way somewhere else, or in the middle of doing something else, and don’t feel like I can act on my “intuitive nudges”. So on Monday, as I was driving Monkeyboy Junior Jr. to his dayhome, I was awestruck by the autumn colours. I didn’t have my camera with me, and I was (am) fighting off yet another germ invasion. (One thing chronic sleep deprivation does is thoroughly trounce on your immune system…) But. I didn’t have anything pressing that I needed to be doing, or anywhere I absolutely needed to BE. So. I went home, grabbed my camera, and went back out to take some snaps. Of course, I couldn’t get to editing/posting them until today, thanks to those lovely germs… But, hey. That’s life.
Well, that felt good. Yeah, it’s a small action. But it’s a start.
Tags: act, action, autumn, colours, do, impulse, intuition, job, just do it, nudge, opportunity, speed, universe, urge
Posted in Musings, Photography | 9 Comments »
Monday, October 24th, 2011
After a Friday of Monkeyboy Junior Jr. whining, he finally collapsed in front of the computer…
… and we snuck out for date night.
Which consisted of Mongolian grill…
… and quiet shopping. At Costco (for my hubby), and Michael’s (for me), and Chapter’s (for us both). Now, here’s an odd little something I found in my puttering.
Vampire Knits?!?! Um… okay…
I spent Saturday morning knitting (in a very non-vampire way, I might add) and trying to relax… because I spent the afternoon getting prepared for my first crown.
While watching The Wolf Man (1941) was somewhat distracting during the procedure, two days later and I still feel like I got punched in the face. Hard. Blech.
But I came home to find this, and that made it a little better.
His wee hands look so much like my own…
That night, my husband went off to do a show and I hung out with the boys. They were pretty darn cute playing and reading just before bed.
On Sunday, I woke up grumpy. I pretty much kept to myself for the morning, and was grateful that the boys decided to put up the Halloween decorations without me. That put me in a better mood.
That afternoon, Daddy took Monkeyboy Junior out on a “boys date” to see some movie about boxing robots and have dinner. Monkeyboy Junior Jr. and I puttered in the back yard.
I decided to harvest a few more veggies – beets, chard, and carrots this time.
Though the carrots, as you can see, were a little disappointing. I’m still not sure whether it was the weather, aphids, or just the different variety of seeds I got this year. *le sigh*
I tried to cheer myself up with the last of the lavender…
… and apologized for disrupting all the poor little ladybugs hiding in the leaves.
Then the littlest and I shared some Vietnamese bun for dinner and called it a night. Put it all together, and it looks kind of like this…
Hope your weekend was more enjoyable than a crown at the dentist!
Tags: before bed, carrots, cat, Chapters, computer, Costco, crown, dandelion, decorations, dentist, driving, eating, Hallowe'en, ladybugs, lavender, Michael's, Monday Mosaic, Mongolie grill, playing, pumpkin lights, reading, shopping, skull, sleeping, The Wolf Man, Vampire Knits?!?!
Posted in Family | 6 Comments »
Friday, October 21st, 2011
Have you been to Pixlr-o-matic lately? (For those of you relatively new to this blog, it’s an online photo editing site that is, well… seventeen shades of awesome.) A little while back, they added a whole bunch of new features – effects, overlays, and borders – that you can alter your photos with (just click the “+” at the end of each feature to get to the extra options, or click on the film roll at the bottom left and it will take you to the extras page too). PLUS, now there’s a swap arrow at the bottom left that will automatically randomly select features for you. It’s rather addictive. Especially if you’re not sold on the changes you’ve made…
To illustrate, here is a self-portrait I took last year, when I was feeling a bit less frazzled…
And now here it is with my chosen online editing…
And here it is with a few of my favourite randomizations…
Pretty cool, non? Hope you have some fun playing with Pixlr-o-matic too. Oh, and have a great weekend, y’all.
Tags: borders, effects, overlays, Pixlr-o-matic, randomization, self-portraits
Posted in Photography | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
Well. This week’s prompt from the These Moments (challenge) group was “self portrait”. So I started thinking about all the manymanymany different kinds of photos I could take of myself for this challenge… And it struck me that any one of those ideas just wouldn’t suffice. Ever since I became a stay-at-home mom, I’ve felt that there’s just never enough of me to go around. There is just soooo much to do – for my kids, for my husband, for my home, for my garden, for my friends, for my hobbies, for my dog… and occasionally for me. If only I could clone all of my different selves… Then I remembered that I have PSE9 – and I realized that I totally could! Wheee!
I also remembered seeing an image of a multi-armed Hindu goddess in my travels, which I tried to find online. Let me just say right now that the whole Hindu gods and goddesses thing is VERY confusing! There are several different multi-armed goddesses, so I decided to just pick one – Maa Durga, the invincible. “One who can redeem in situations of utmost distress”. Yeah, that sounds about right. She was totally a mother… Reading about her inspired this. (If you click on the image here, it will take you to Flickr where you can see it up closer. Click on it in Flickr, then click “view all sizes” when it shows up in the black lightbox…)
She is usually depicted riding a lion or tiger, but I decided to forgo that – it was already going to be challenging enough as it was. And as I didn’t have a lotus handy, in lieu of the 18th arm in which she would hold it, I decided to have her standing on one. I elaborated on a photo from the Creative Commons (thanks to “spaceppl” on Flickr for sharing this image) for this.
So. Here I am. Journalist. Photographer. Home Maker. Accountant. Gardener. Friend. Artisan. Chauffeur. Fix-it Lady. Chef. Tea Drinker. Cleaner. Playmate. Dog Walker. Health Care Provider. Social Planner. Student. And so much more…
And for all you other mothers out there who are multi-tasking goddesses in your own right, let me just say, “Well done!!!”
Tags: accountant, artisan, chauffeur, chef, cleaner, dog walker, fix-it lady, friend, gardener, goddess, health care provider, Hindu, home maker, journalist, lotus, Maa Durga, multi-armed, multi-tasking, photographer, playmate, social planner, stay-at-home-mom, student, tea drinker, These Moments
Posted in Musings, Photography, PSE | 14 Comments »
Monday, October 17th, 2011
As well as enjoying a lovely camera-testing nature walk (see previous post), the weekend was also otherwise fun-filled. Friday was spent running errands – like buying new knitting needles, so I could start on a new and colourful sweater. (I’ve always wanted a more “playful” sweater, and they only seem to make them for children… so, I’m making my own!)
Then, I spent some time fixing up my husband’s Batman costume so that his “crotchal area” isn’t as… tight? Prominent? Uncomfortable? (In any case, I spent far too much time staring at it… )
(Ha! Made you look… didn’t I??? Double ha!!!)
That night, I was supposed to accompany my hubby to the theatre to watch him and his buddy Rob perform improv as “The Dynamic Duo”… but by the time the sitter showed up, I was kinda pooped. So, I had her take the kids to the mall for a couple of hours, got a few little things crossed off my “to do” list, and then hit the tub with Oprah!
By the time I was done, the kids were tucked in bed and all I had to do was pay the sitter and hit the hay as well. It. Was. AWESOME!
The next day started with the usual goofiness – like the boys playing in an upside-down tent…
… and it ended up at the theatre for a wonderful kids presentation of “Sleeping Beauty”.
Meet the good fairy Rrrosemarrry. I think the spy-cam did pretty well for 5th row seating. Sadly, Monkeyboy Junior Jr. did not do as well – he wigged out as soon as the lights came down, necessitating daddy to hang with him in the lobby for the first half of the show, and mommy for the second. At least there were books to read.
Then it was home for some chillaxin’ – and a nature walk before dinner.
On Sunday, I knit some… and then did some sewing for a friend. When Monkeyboy Junior first arrived, I was gifted a giant, square receiving blanket. I loved it so much, that in spite of my sleep deprivation, I had to make myself some more. They were awesome!!! Soooo much handier than the regular ones you get in the stores… So, I’ve been gifting them to friends who’ve had babies. And one of those friends wanted me to make some for someone she knows, who is now expecting. They even come with coordinating square wipes. =)
We wrapped Sunday up with a delicious fall roast…
(Here it is post-browning but pre-baking, as I seem to have a really hard time remembering to take photos of food after it’s done cooking.) Dinner was not only tasty, but interesting too, as Daddy tried to explain scientific concepts such as displacement, heat transfer, and weight to the seven-year-old. “No, buddy, 5 pounds of bricks do not weigh more than 5 pounds of feathers…” Put it all together and you get:
Ta-dah! Yeah. It was a good one – hurrah! (And can I just say again just how much I love the new Coolpix?!) Anyhow. Hope you had an amazing weekend yourselves. =)
Tags: baby, bath, books, cooking, costume, improv, knitting, letters, Monday Mosaic, nature walk, Oprah, Pixlr-o-matic, receiving blankets, roast, Sleeping Beauty, sweater, tent, theatre
Posted in Family | No Comments »
Friday, October 14th, 2011
It finally arrived – my replacement Nikon Coolpix S10!!! And I couldn’t be more thrilled! It even came with it’s very own family photos (note to all sellers of digital devices – you might want to make sure your memory is cleared before you ship things off )…
(Tee hee hee. The camera is living up to it’s “spy-cam” name, I see. At least I know it comes from a happy past…)
Anyhow. The new camera is a vast improvement over my old one. As you can see, the old one (right) has taken a bit of a beating over the years…
While the new screen is a little bit more scuffed up on the new one, you can see the old one (right) has been handled waaay more – the paint has been rubbed off a lot of the buttons, and the original handstrap broke off years ago.
See the giant ding in the old one (on the right)? And the complete lack of a lens cap (I broke the second one months ago…)? Which, naturally, resulted in…
… some wicked chips on the exterior the lens, and multiple micro-cracks on the interior. Which of course, has led to serious problems with my images lately…
Like an overall inability to focus well, and a “soft spot” in the middle of images, caused by all the refracted light bouncing off those micro-cracks.
And far too many missing pixels! (Though they are difficult to see at this small size, they are really noticeable at higher resolutions – like on Flickr.) I’m not AT ALL going to miss having to touch up photos this much any more…
So, there it is. Woohoo! Welcome to your new home, little buddy! I’m hoping to get a chance to take it out for some fun this weekend. Wish me luck! And have a great weekend y’all. =)
Tags: clear your memory, dents, digital devices, dings, dropped pixels, Flickr, higher resolutions, inability to focus, micro-cracks, new, Nikon Coolpix S10, old, replacement, soft-spot, spy cam
Posted in Photography | No Comments »
Thursday, October 13th, 2011
So, this fall I rounded up some of my artsy-craftsy friends and had them over for a night of playing. There was painting and stitching and much wine drinking (on my part, at least). And we all had so much fun that we decided to make it a monthly event. We even came up with a name for ourselves – although I’m not at liberty to print it here (it’s a little too naughty for public consumption…) Anyhow. We got together a couple of nights ago and this time I stayed sober and managed to create something worth sharing…
I’ve got to say, I’m really enjoying working with embroidery floss! I figure I’ll keep things easy for now – with felt ornaments like these – and work my way up to more intricate fabric arts. I also have plans to start embellishing some clothing… when I get some time, that is. Anyhow. Just thought I’d share. =)
Tags: artsy-craftsy group, embroidery floss, felt ornaments, stitching
Posted in Crafty | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
Not that I’m not grateful for my life – I totally am – but there are some days when I’ve really got to question my luck… Fighting off yet another cold? Oh, goody. *le sigh* For these times (and the many eye-roll-inducing others), here’s another mini-sampler I threw together.
Frick my luck, indeed. <ahem> Feel free to use more forceful words at your convenience.
Tags: embroidery, fml, luck, mini, sampler
Posted in Crafty | 2 Comments »
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