Cool, I got props from the Guru.

This week I felt pretty proud of this: http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/2008/11/gratitude.html

I received a private message from Ali Edwards asking if she could post my layout on her blog. She was doing a post on translation in the creative language and how people translated her templates into their own creation. And my Gratitute page of Gillian was chosen among 6 others to illustrate her point. (for those of you who don't know who Ali Edwards is, she is a guru in the scrapbooking world - so to get props from her is pretty cool!).

Now its the weekend, I hope to pull out the camera and take lots of pics of the girls. I'd like to set up a little studio in our living room, since it's the best place to take indoor photos. We have 2 stories of windows (great for light, bad for heating bills!) which is perfect, I just have to figure out how to rig a backdrop. I tried nailing a black sheet to the ceiling once before:

Here is the black sheet.. worked ok, but not perfect.
But you can see how great the light is, especially for catch lights.

I found the sheet too small, it picked up the dust like crazy (it was basically black felt) and it fell down easily. I think I've come up with a plan to be able to put up whatever backdrop I want, and it be relatively secure (as secure as it's going to get with two little girls running around!). I'll work on it tomorrow, if I get a chance to do some shopping, but it essentially is going to be a small curtain rod fastened to the end of the ceiling with fabric hanging from it. I wonder what Eric will think of my plan!! :)

**update**
It's funny, just before I went to post this I took a peek at Jen's blog and she also wrote about her home studio today!! Too funny!! Great minds think alike! (Jen I'm off to get me a G&T!!)

Just a page to post today...

Just a regular work day today, so nothing exciting to write. Instead I'll post this page I started last night and just finished... isn't she beautiful! :)

Abigail - Future Olympic Skating Champion

I was watching TV this weekend giving Gillian her bottle of milk when Abigail came walking downstairs after her nap. She sat up on the couch where she usually sits, beside Bender and started watching with us. I happen to find a skating show, you know, one of those tacky pro-skating shows where the skaters skate to cheesy music and sometimes to live bands. It's all just so contrived, I don't like them! Anyway, enough about my thoughts, Abby just took one look at the girl skating and she was mesmerized!! She immediately said "I want to do that!" followed by "I want to learn how to spin, like that", she was in awe. It really helped that the woman skating had on a pink/white sparkly outfit - which of course Abby had to comment on also. Then the next set of skaters came on, a pair, and she said "Look Mommy, the man is helping the girl." I asked her if she wanted to learn how to skate like that and she said YES, and she needed a pink dress like the girl...of course!

Tried a few photos with the flash I got, and I loved it! I still have to read up on how it works, but got a couple cute ones after throwing it on and clicking away!

Update on the Septic job...

I realized I hadn't posted about the progress of the septic work. Well I'm happy to report that they are all done! I've never experienced such a smooth job as this one was. All the guys working on the place were nice, and competent, and got it all done with no hiccups! Amazing eh... I guess when you pay as much as we are for this, then they would serve us breakfast before getting started each morning and still get it done in time!!

Here is what our back lawn looks like now:

It's higher by about 3 feet, and much bigger because we cut down a bunch of trees. So all in all it's good. So when we though that maybe the main problem in the first place was that the septic field was shot, it turns out that there was no real field in the first place!! Whoever had installed the thing 34 years ago, put in the wrong pipes. So this was actually a good thing, because they had lots of room to lay the new field, a proper field in the limited amount of space we had.

Photo of the day:

Can someone recommend a child friendly restraint for this one??

50D

I have a new toy! And I'm so frigg'in excited I can't even tell you! Well, to me it's more than a toy, it's a piece of art to produce art and it's a privilege to be able to own such a special machine. Yes, that sounds weird, but I really feel lucky to have been given this as a gift and can't thank the giver enough, other than give them the art I produce with it... and what am I talking about... well the title says it all: the 50D. Here is a photo:

It's big, it's bad and it's fast! It's a world above the camera I was using - the Canon S5IS - which was a great camera, but I was reaching it's limitations with it, and needed to upgrade. So I went to the Henry's Digital Imaging and Photography show that was on here in Ottawa this weekend with my dad, and we went from booth to booth, asking questions trying out different things, and I found that the 50D was for me - I'd go into the reasons why, but it may just be boring for you!

So I'll just show you:




I could have never taken photos like this with my S5IS! (now they aren't the best pics, but hey I've only taken about 20 photos with it so far!! I'm still trying to figure out all the settings)

Anyway, needless to say, I'm happy!!

Tonight Eric and I got to go out for my birthday (not that I really needed any more feteing). We decided to actually go to a movie. Now this is something very rare for us. We just do not go to movie theaters. The last one we saw in the theater was - Lord of The Rings, Return of The King. Crazy isn't it, I think that was about 3 years ago?? or more? So we decided to go to the early show at 6:30 and we saw the new James Bond film - Quantum of Solace. I enjoyed it, however I felt the chase/fight scenes were too busy and fast for me. Eric and I both agreed that they were geared towards the younger, video gaming crowd (I think we are getting old if we say that) so they were too rushed and you couldn't really see what was going on. But overall it was a good movie. I think if you plan on going, re-watch Casino Royale, because they tie in very closely to oneanother. After the movie we went to The Works for dinner (an Ottawa burger joint), which was yummy as always.

Have a good night - I'm off to dream about shutter speed and aperture!

Talk'in to India

So, our TV (satellite) has been out of commission for 4 days now - GASP I know, how are we surviving?!!?% In order to resolve the problem, I've been on the phone to our providers technical assistance (coughBELLcough) for the past 4 days. And that has been even more painful that being without TV. As you all know calling these places you are in fact phoning the wonderful country of India, a place that I have always wanted to visit and not "TALK" to while trying to make our TV work! It's the same everytime and I'm getting to know their script very well. How it works is that you call the 1-888 # you enter your phone number with which the account is assiciated (and this is my first point of confusion - why bother when they ask you two more times anyway). Then you select 2 for Techincal assistance, which is in fact not the technical assistance, it is the "screener layer" which I call it where they once again ask you for your phone number, what the problem is and your security pin (which I can NEVER remember). And then they pass you on to Technical assistance, where they once again ask you your phone number, your name and what the problem is again. This is of course all speaking with the call center located in India so along with all of this speaking comes the international phone line delay, where you say something and a couple seconds pass, then they say something and there is more delay... you know how it goes. Now comes the "Script" they first ask if they can call you by your first name, which for me is "Miss Christine" (not sure why they do that since I'm not a Miss anymore) , then they ask you the issue, which they try to resolve, and during the "dead air time" they always say "Other than the problem with your TV, so may I ask you how your day is going?" followed by "How is the weather" and they are all so good at acting interested in my responses to those questions. I actually asked one technician how the weather was where he was located and he said "Well you know I'm in India - and it's 20 degrees" (That surprised me because they rarely disclose their locations - not that the accents give it away or anything... :) ) Then they start into the sales pitch - "OH, I see you've been a customer with us for 5 years, that puts you into our preferred customer category....blah blah blah". Then the call ends with "What did you think about my service today, can you rate me from 1 -10, 10 being high". I always give them 10 since I don't have the heart to say 2...

Hopefully I don't have to call India again any time soon. I'd rather visit in person!

On another note here is the challenege that lays before me now:


This is a photo of Eric's Dad on the Santa Paula in May 1946 on is way from war torn England to start a new life in Canada (well his second time - but that is a story for later). The photo has a lot of damage: scratches, folds, cracks and rips... so it will take me a while. But stay tuned for the before and after... Can't wait to get started!

Chatty Gillian

When Abby was still a baby she used to chat away, babbling non-stop in her own language, and as she grew older she started making more and more sense. Today she is a "good talker" as she likes to say, and wants to say so much at once she is actually starting to stutter.
Well, it's starting to look like Gillian is growing to be just like her big sister. She just talks and talks and talks, non-stop at times (in her own language of course) saying some pretty important things - I'm sure. She will grab a book and start to "read" from it, pointing to the pictures and babbling. This evening, I was reading her a book before bedtime and I realized that she was starting to make a little bit of sense. Well, only to her mother, I'm sure. But I was able to pick up what she was trying to say on two occasions. She would see a picture of a dog and amongst all the babbling, I'd hear "woof, woof" and when I pointed out the banana out came "nana". Everything else that has to do with food is "num-num" and when she sees her bottle of milk there she will start saying "menum-menum" while practically smacking her lips. I just find it so amazing to watch this little person growing and developing and I keep thinking about how we ALL went through that, and that the whole world was such a mystery at one point. And how we got such pleasure from doing such little things like...... STANDING ON TABLES!!!