I like stuff and bacon and megs

Lasers

2012-01-26T17:37:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, I have really weird idea's that I just cannot seem to get out of my head.

The other day I was thinking about the really awesome laser background from school photo's in the late 80's/early 90's, and how awesome it was, and I thought it could be a great idea to try to find one and start a laser background portrait studio. It would be even better if it involved dressing up and could possibly be like the anti-glamour shots.

Now the real question is: Would anyone really want to get a laser background photo taken in 2012?

I can imagine my age group thinking its awesome (everyone likes a throw back to childhood) but im sure no one else thinks its cool.

So I looked online and not surprisingly people do not seem to sell laser backdrops and there are not any on ebay.

Clearly I am not the only person who has thought of this....

Jordie suggested I paint one but I have not painted in a long time.

I found a similar backdrop online but the cheapest one was $200.

I just cant stop thinking about laser photo's though so I will have to think of something.

now bask in the wonderful laser glow....

Cheddar Ale Soup

2012-01-22T09:43:00.001-05:00

Today I made cheddar ale soup for dinner and it was so yummy!

Jordie and I ate the entire pot of it for dinner.

I love all things cheese related.

So I thought I would share the recipe.

Cheddar Ale Soup

Ingredients

1 Stick of butter (8 Tbsp's, 4 ounces or 1/2 cup)

2 small onions, peeled and diced

1 carrot, peeled and diced

2 celery stalks, diced

1/4 cup flour

1 1/2 cups dark beer

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

1 cup 35% cream

2 cups grated cheddar

sea salt and black pepper to taste

few dashes of Worchestershire sauce

Directions

Melt the butter in a saucepot. Add the onions and saute until golden brown. Add the carrot and celery and continue to saute for a few minutes more. Stir in the flour and continue cooking for a few minutes more. Add the beer, stock and cream and simmer until the soup has thickened, about 5 minutes more. Add the grated cheddar, salt and pepper and Worcestershire sauce and stir until smooth.

(I did not have dark beer or cream. I used skim milk and lager beer. I also did not dice my veggies. I just sliced them. )

The recipe is from the Food Network

Inspector Carl

2012-01-21T16:41:00.000-05:00

This is Inspector Carl.

She likes to inspect things.

Punch Brothers

2012-01-20T21:57:00.000-05:00

I am so excited because we got tickets to see the Punch Brothers in Toronto in February

Yay!

My boyfriend's band was supposed to play a show that night but he got it rescheduled so we could go.

Im so excited.

London is about a 2 hour drive from Toronto, so it is a slight pain to drive to shows especially during the week when the next day is a work day but it is definitely worth it to see awesome bands.

London does not get a tonne of awesome bands coming to play here so we try to make it to Toronto at least every couple of months.

Anyways, this is the Punch Brothers covering Reptilia. I think its better than the Strokes version even though I do like them both.

Let's all go to the hospital...

2012-01-14T08:56:00.001-05:00

I had this "ordeal" with lomography earlier this year.

They came out with a new camera and I got one for my birthday.

It was faulty and then the next 2 they sent me also broke.

I realize they are cheap plastic and crappy but what an annoyance.

My boyfriend finally figured out how to fix the problem and now I have 2.

While this "ordeal" was happening, I started a roll and then stopped a few pictures in as i thought it was not working. I then reloaded the film again later and shot more pictures.

These are the result of that.

They are pictures of my garden mixed with the south side hospital.

I think they turned out pretty cool.

Maybe I will start double shooting film more often.

The whole "ordeal" made me never want another lomography camera again.

They are not worth their price tags. They did replace my broken camera's but it took 3 months to get a working one.

I have come to realize that lomography is a hipster cult. Just say no.

Pentax A3000

2012-01-08T13:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday on a trip to the village of value we found this camera bag with a $9.99 price tag.

It felt pretty heavy, so we opened it up to find...

My first reaction was "this has been priced wrong"

I love value village but they are known to over charge on pretty much everything.

So I put it in my cart and continued browsing.

When I brought it to the cash, the lady working said "this must have been priced wrong"

She then called someone to the cash to verify the price.

We stood there for several minutes and the line behind us grew longer and longer.

She got fed up and said "Well, I guess this is the real price" and rang us through.

I think its a pretty good $10 score.

Everything so far appears to be working.

Fields of Sunflowers

2011-09-05T15:23:00.000-04:00

I love sunflowers and was so excited to see this sunflower farm while driving home from a recent camping trip!

I would love to have a yard that looks like this.

knitting

2011-08-12T17:29:00.000-04:00

Today I taught myself how to knit

Well my mom tried to teach me when I was younger but that turned out very terribly.

I bought some knitting needles at value village awhile back and decided I should finally put them to good use

Thanks to the internet, it actually was not that hard to get everything figured out.

Im making a big scarf with some yarn i also got at value village.

front page

2011-08-09T18:35:00.001-04:00

Check out my photo was on the front page!

Thanks mom for calling me to let me know!

Melt-Banana!

2011-08-03T19:57:00.004-04:00

I love music of all varieties

I am super stoked to have just got tickets to see Melt-Banana at the Wrongbar in Toronto in October

They are not a band for everyone but I have been waiting to see them since I was in highschool.

So now to share my excitement of seeing them live and hopefully getting a tshirt or some vinyl

enjoy this melt-banana song

sunburn part 2

2011-08-03T19:47:00.001-04:00

So I chickened out of putting apple cider vinegar on my scalp sunburn.

I am a total baby.

I tried out some green tea (thanks for roommates who had some in stock)

I cannot really comment on its effectiveness.

I poured it on my head and it still felt terrible.

Today it felt ok though.

I am wondering if it feels ok because I did not brush my hair today.

This experiment was inconclusive and I am not willing to try the other methods.

sunburn

2011-08-02T21:41:00.001-04:00

I love going to the beach in the summer.

Its so fantastic, however, my pale skin does not like it so much.

We went this weekend and despite reapplying my sunblock, I got a sunburn

Its not a major sunburn, just some splotches here and there

or so I thought

dun dun dun

I showered tonight and now have this horrible burning sensation on my scalp

I am assuming it must also be sunburned.

So I looked online to see what people recommend for scalp sunburn relief

I found 3 solutions

Green Tea (I dont think I have any)

Cider Vinegar (i do have some)

and Aloe Vera (which I also do not have)

I am a little fearful of putting vinegar on a sunburn but...

I am also fearful of what a peeling sunburnt scalp will look like at the office

I am going to go downstairs in search of green tea and I will keep you posted

Point Farms Provincial Park

2011-07-28T18:34:00.002-04:00

One of my favourite summertime activities is camping.

We normally try to go at least once a summer.

This summer we have/had 3 camping trips planned to 3 different parks

We are trying to eventually trying to stay at all the different provincial parks in ontario.

This trip was to point farms provincial park.

We waited until last minute to book the site so we did not have a lot of choices

but the site turned out to be pretty nice

Lots of poison ivy though all around the site and some was almost on the site so that was a downfall

My favourite parts of camping are campfires and the beach.

Point farms does not sell firewood in the park but you can buy it at a store right outside

It wasn't the greatest wood but it did the trick

It was really hot and humid so sitting beside the fire was not an option.

We do not have a camp stove so we rely on the fire to cook our food.

Corn on the cob is my favourite campfire food

we wrap the corn cobs in foil and put some butter in before sealing the foil up into a neat little packet

you can either put it in the coal or on the grill

I find it burns less on the grill

At Point Farms, the beach is down this really long staircase.

I walk a lot and thought I was in ok shape

but this staircase proved me wrong.

I was so winded walking up it, I felt embarrassed

We stayed in the Huron campground. The staircase brings you down to a pebble beach.

If you want to check out the actual sand beach you can just walk down the pebble beach and its the next beach over

We hung out on the pebble beach to check out the sunset.

All in all, I enjoyed Point Farms Provincial Park

I did not take any pictures of the sand beach but it is ok.

The water was cold though.

The site was really nice. Privacy was good.

We did have to listen to annoying drunk people but thats a possibility anywhere

There is a lot of poison ivy which is a downfall but its ok as long as you stay out of the bushes.

My only real negative comment about the park is that the huron campground only has 1 bathroom.

There are plenty of stalls but only 2 sinks.

It was so crowded at night and in the morning

So if you find yourself near Goderich ON and feel like camping

I think Point Farms is a good choice!

Macro Holga

2011-07-11T16:41:00.000-04:00

I ordered the macro lens set for my Holga a little while ago

I love macro photography but cannot afford a macro lens for my nikon

So when i saw the Holga macro lens set for only $16, I thought I would give them a try

When the lenses arrived. I stuck them on my Holga 135 TLR and started shooting

These are the results

(disclaimer - apparently they only focus if your subject is either exactly 30mm away or 60mm away depending on which lens you are using)

All of mine turned out blurry but i like them.

They were all taken in my garden.

This one is a pink daisy

This one is one of the little flowers on my lavender plant.

I just finished taking another roll, attempting to roughly measure the distance of the subject from the camera

we will see if those turned out any better when I get them developed.

Best Coast

2011-06-16T18:32:00.002-04:00

This was one of my last.fm recommendations

I love this band

they are amazing

Look mom I have a garden!

2011-06-06T19:31:00.000-04:00

We moved into a new house

Im super excited that it has a front flower bed

I have mostly planted seeds in it but did buy a few plants

the space is limited

I think this one is cool.

I dont remember what it is called

Marigolds!

I only bought one of each thing as the seeds will take up most of the room

I was afraid nothing would grow but there are sprouts now

I am so excited that things are growing.

I love that these seedlings look like brains while opening up

I have no idea what they are.

I planted two things in the section and can only remember one of them

so it could be a moonflower or a mystery flower

Zucchini Plant

I think i picked a bad spot for the chives.

they arent growing at all

Tomato Sprouts

Lavender!

It smells so good!

I want to make lavender lemonade

bird garden

2011-05-28T18:00:00.000-04:00

I have really wanted to try diorama photography for awhile

so this morning, I made a simple one kind of

its not really a diorama

its just magazine clippings and my needle felted bird

i did not have proper lighting but i like it

Spring

2011-04-23T11:48:00.000-04:00

2011-04-22T09:52:00.000-04:00

Some more of my photo's from another roll of film shot with my holga

I love kittens more then almost everything on the planet

So this year I was lucky when a friends cat had kittens and I got to take some photo's

This Halloween cat pose is the typical pose it makes when it saw the dog

In this photo, it was a little bit braver.

This one is not in focus but i love that you can see his thumbs.

My friends cat is a polydactyl and so was its kitten

Photo's

2011-04-16T09:06:00.005-04:00

I have this terrible habit of being lazy and not getting films developed

The film lab is out of my way and so i generally wait until I have about 10 rolls before going

well in the winter at least

I brought in 9 rolls last week

I have only scanned 2 thus far

but these are my favourites of the two

This winter was a very icy winter. This photo was taken between my house and my neighbours.

I like the winter icicles

This is Spacecat enjoying the winter scenery

My juicebox cam has no flash so i used the natural light for this one

Icicles on the back of the house

there was also about a foot of ice with snow on top on the roof

we were afraid it was going to collapse the roof.

Inspector Carl playing with some branches of a shrub/tree

This picture was taken on a walk to work

I liked the way the light was hitting the buildings

This tree is just down the street from my house

I like the colours in this photo

I also like how my juicebox cam now produces these red streaks in the bottom of photo's

it adds some character

Birds!

2011-04-12T17:47:00.003-04:00

I love needle felting.

I guess its a way for me to make the creatures in my imagination

I made this bird on the weekend instead of studying for my personal taxation exam

I think most people would make the same choice when faced with the decision of making a bird or studying

I originally was making an octopus but it started to look more like a bird

I love his little feet

Value Village Lamp

2011-04-09T16:33:00.002-04:00

I am a big fan of value village well all thrift stores in general

however value village has the best selection

I go there far to often and buy probably way too much

I went the other day and found this lamp

I really like it

Its a spacey kind of day

2011-03-26T11:43:00.001-04:00

Spacecat enjoying a wonderful sunny day.

Fuuvi Juicebox

2011-02-06T14:47:00.005-05:00

I got this Fuuvi Juicebox 35mm camera for Christmas

They have a bunch of different "juice" types you can choose from.

I like cows so I am glad I got this "milk" one.

I love that it fits in my coat pocket and I can bring it everywhere with me

Most people dont even realize its a camera

they just think I am some kind of weirdo with a japanese milk box.

I think the only downfall is the lack of flash but its great otherwise

It does not have the sharpest focus but the colours are great

This is the Terrace Bay beach

The top of this picture is really distorted but its kind of cool

2010-11-13T12:32:00.001-05:00

So 2 months and $100 worth of paint later

and my tanker desk is finally finished

I love the final product.

tanker desk update

2010-09-06T14:53:00.002-04:00

Due to way too much rain, this is the slowest project I have ever commited to

I have some of the surfaces painted

This is the main colour

a sparkly brown

First coat of the top colour

I am so excited for this to be finished

However, it has been raining 6 out of 7 days of the week

I did get some painting done yesterday

until I ran out of paint

Luckily this week its only supposed to rain like 4 days

so hopefully I can get a big chunk of the painting done

my "Tanker" desk

2010-08-18T21:04:00.006-04:00

I recently bought a metal desk on Kijiji for $25 with the intentions of repainting it

I already have one metal desk that i repainted but it is too small to hold a computer, printer and scanner

I use it as a sewing desk

Anyways I bought this other desk which I have learned is a tanker desk

which apparently are worth more then $25

I think thats pretty neat.

Once I got it home,

I sanded it down

first by hand which turned out to be a terrible idea

so then I invested in a palm sander

I am still in the priming stages

It is taking much longer then I had wanted

as I have to paint in the backyard and it has been raining so much

I also had chosen to use a spray primer

which turned out to for some reason hurt my arms

I guess I do not usually use those muscles

Here are my pictures so far

I have some sanding ones

and some from after some of the priming was done

I had originally decided to paint it a dark metallic bronze (the can calls it oil rubbed bronze)

I had also bought a brown hammered spray paint for the top part

However once I did some research into tanker desks, I found some pretty cool looking ones online

so I might change the colour

I have not decided yet

The desk before I started sanding.

There was red spray paint on the other side

the guy who had it before was using it as a work bench

Sanding by hand

You can see the red spray paint

The first attempt at priming

it looks funny because I accidentally bought 2 different shades of grey primer

the paint colour is really dark though so as long as i do not change the colour

it should be ok

First day of priming, the weather forecast was sunny

as soon as I finished priming, the forecast changed to rain

so I rigged up a tarp so it was ok in the rain

2010-07-10T11:46:00.001-04:00

My oh so delicious first strawberry from my strawberry plants!

One of my little watermelons

One of the yard creatures has been munching on it

My tomato's are growing

polaroid 103

2010-06-29T17:36:00.003-04:00

I am so excited that I found this old polaroid camera for $3 at a thrift store

little did I know that you still buy film for them

so exciting

I will have to convert the battery spot to take newer batteries

but that should not be too hard

thanks to video's on youtube

Its a little dirty but in good condition

Im super excited to test it out

Pinback - "Fortress"

2010-06-26T17:26:00.000-04:00

This is my favourite band I think of all time

I love all of their albums and songs which I cannot say about most bands

Saturday Afternoon

2010-06-26T17:03:00.005-04:00

Today was a gorgeous day to hang out outside and take pictures

I am not completely sure what kind of tree this is but I found it to be rather curious looking

Inspector Carl in the bushes.

Spacecat came outside to chill as well

Part of my watermelon plant.

It has grown so big I think it will out grow its pot

I live in a rental, so this year I am experimenting with a container garden

My green onions are getting big

I did not follow the planting instructions for anything so everything is close together

Its an experiment so if things do not grow then oh well

Little green strawberries

Our garage is overrun with these wonderful vines and flowers

We will have to trim them soon as they are starting to choke the cedar tree

I put my camera on the wrong setting

but I like the way it turned out

saturday garage sale finds

2010-06-13T17:22:00.002-04:00

I love garage sales

but rarely ever go to them

this weekend there was a multiple house garage sale in my neighbourhood

so I had to go

I love vintage camera's

This is a Balda Super Baldina from the 1950's i think

I do not own any 35mm camera's

so this is a welcome addition to my budding camera collection

When you press a button on the front the lens pops out

I spent my entire garage sale budget on it

but i think it will be worth it

now I just have to figure out how to take pictures manually

Holga 4

2010-06-10T20:30:00.004-04:00

While I was shooting this roll, the foam from inside my holga came out and rolled up into the roll

the pictures have a kinda neat dreamy effect

I did not have to pay for the roll though which was cool

they thought it was ruined

I like the pictures so that was just a bonus

This is one of the hospitals in London. Its really run down and creepy

This one is looking up at a train bridge

These next ones are just a few of my other favourites

I have some issues with getting whole things in my pictures

and knowing how far away to be from things

I like how this one is cut off and crooked

I used one of the filters that came with it for this one

it had a prism that made triple pictures

This is another one from the Manitoulin

This concludes my favourite holga pics.

well for now

I currently have some rolls being developed

2010-06-08T21:59:00.001-04:00

I love this song

Holga 3

2010-06-08T21:23:00.003-04:00

More of my favourite Holga shots

Jordie on the Manitoulin Island

Inspector Carl investigating the Holga

Double exposed flower from the backyard

This was a triple exposure of my E.T. doll.

I used a different colour of flash each time.

I love light leaks.

Everytime I get a roll back with light leaks

There is a note on the package about the light leaks

Like I will be disappointed to know my film got light leaks

One time I did not even have to pay for the roll

Like like leaks are a bad thing...

My Avocado Sprouts

2010-05-30T09:15:00.003-04:00

Last summer I decided I wanted to try and grow an avocado plant

I took two seeds, poked them with toothpicks

and suspended them in glasses with water

One sprouted within a few months

but the other just sprouted in April

these pictures show the difference in the two plants

This is the one that just sprouted recently.

Its still very small but finally has some leaves.

This one has been growing for almost a year

well a few months short of a year

It got too big for all my glasses so I transplanted it to soil

Unfortunately my house is not the sunniest place over the winter so the leaves started to get brown

Im hoping it will make up for the lack of sun over the summer

as I have been bringing it outside a lot

Holga 2

2010-05-30T09:02:00.003-04:00

A continuation of my favourite holga photo's

This one was taken at the Pinery Provincial Park.

It was my first roll of colour film.

I love the light leaks.

The Pinery has the longest beach and it never seems really crowded.

its very nice.

Another Pinery shot.

I do not remember where this gas station was

but I do like this picture

This church is located in Toronto.

It was on the way from the ROM to kensington market

its been awhile - Holga Post 1

2010-05-29T16:08:00.005-04:00

I finally got a photo scanner and was able to upload my holga pics

I have had my holga for almost a year and it was terrible not being able to share my pictures

There is something so exciting about getting a film back from being developed

hoping that there will be some photographic treasures inside

These are some of my favourite holga pics

This was taken in Toronto last summer. I believe its one of the buildings at U of T

Im not completely sure, I do not know Toronto that well.

This one was taken outside of the ROM in Toronto also last summer.

This one was taken outside of my old apartment building. It is a double exposure of a building and trees, mixed with a shot of the sky. Holga's are wonderful for double and triple exposing.

This is one of my favourite things to photograph here in London.

Its just an abandoned delivery truck parked behind a building.

I think it photographs wonderfully though.

This one is of an apartment building.

This was from my first holga film. The apartment building used to be a factory.

Friday April 23, 2010

2010-04-23T21:12:00.001-04:00

Inspector Carl

SpaceCat digging her way through the glass

Monday April 19, 2010

2010-04-19T17:53:00.003-04:00

SpaceCat and I went for a walk in the backyard

She is a pretty good leash walker

I used to take her to the park to walk in the forest

Sunday April 18, 2010

2010-04-18T14:42:00.003-04:00

After a day of snow yesterday, it was nice to get a chance to get out of the house to take some pictures

its still pretty cold out so I did not venture out of the yard

I went this morning to get a tattoo finished

I had hoped I would be able to post some photo's

buts its a little too puffy

so photo's will have to follow some other time

Monday April 12, 2010

2010-04-12T20:01:00.001-04:00

The middle plant from my last post bloomed

and its so pretty

Saturday April 10, 2010

2010-04-10T14:11:00.002-04:00

I have no idea what any of these plants are

but i like them

They are all living in my backyard

I like spring

Friday April 9, 2010

2010-04-09T17:41:00.001-04:00

I like this song

Sunday April 4, 2010

2010-04-04T11:13:00.002-04:00

Today I started to get the garden ready to plant some sunflowers

mainly just pulling out some overgrown grass along the fence

In one of the grass clumps there were about 15 snails

They were really cute.

Friday April 2, 2010

2010-04-02T09:25:00.002-04:00

Its 9:31am and its already 17 degrees out

and everything is starting to bloom.

Its the perfect day for a bike ride.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

2010-03-23T18:35:00.003-04:00

Today I picked up an asthma inhaler for my cat SpaceCat

and while some people might not think that's what I should like most about my day

It is!

I adopted SpaceCat from the humane society several years ago

They had way too many cats at the time.

They had just got her that day, and had no idea where she came from.

someone had found her and dropped her off

They normally would not have allowed the adoption BUT

since they had so many cats

They let me adopt her as long as I signed a waiver saying I could not hold them responsible if she was sick

since they had no time to check her

As it turns out she was sick, and has feline herpes

I had no ideas cats could get herpes but they do and it weakens their immune systems.

So as a result she has chronic respiratory infections and asthma.

She takes steroids everyday for her asthma and once and awhile goes on antibiotics for her infections

We just got a new vet who is awesome and she was all aboard when we said we wanted to try an inhaler

so it has finally arrived today and thats my favourite thing from today!

SpaceCat will be 14ish this year (its totally an assumed age)

so anything that might help her live more comfortably for her remaining years makes me happy!