Monday, January 31, 2011

30 Days of Photos: Day Eight

It is day eight of my 30 Days of Photos challenge (feel free to join me at any time).

One of the things I love about winter? Shelby's footprints in the snow:



This is actually upside down. Toes are at the bottom. It's hard to tell but the snow is all sparkly which makes the print even prettier. Yeah, I know, I spend too much time with the animals.

Monday, January 24, 2011

30 Days of Photos: Day Seven

It is day seven of my 30 Days of Photos challenge (feel free to join me at any time).

While this isn't exactly a picture it is an image so it is only a minor cheat. Have a look at my black bean brownies. (scroll down for recipe)

Ingredients:

1 package brownie mix
1 can of black beans
2 eggs
3 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon instant coffee

Directions:

Rinse black beans and put in blender with eggs, oil, and coffee. Blend until smooth. You will still be able to see little fragments. Pour the brownie mix in a bowl then add blended beans. Mix with spoon until just blended. Pour into lightly greased 8x8 baking dish and bake at 325 for about 35 minutes. Let cool and apply icing.

Black bean brownies are firmer than regular brownies and you can't taste the beans and I haven't noticed any gas issues probably because they are sort of partially digested.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

30 Days of Photos: Day Six

It is day six of my 30 Days of Photos challenge (feel free to join me at any time).

What's really funny is that I seem to be doing more photo things (and social networking) with my iPod Touch than I do listening to music although I actually listened to some jewel while cooking yesterday.

Well, last night I downloaded a few apps before I went to bed. The Pocket Booth app turns your iPhone or iPod into a mini photo booth. I love photo booth pictures! And I love this app! So cool.

My first photo booth test today was to torture Suzie with multiple clicks (you can click on it to view larger image). Can you see her annoyance. JD, Shelby and Jeff are also annoyed but Jeff does kind of think it's cool. And for 99 cents I'm pretty thrilled.

Not only does it format the pictures but you can email them at different sizes, save them to your camera, or send them to your facebook or twitter account. Totally cool and super easy to use!

I can see me wearing out this photo app.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

30 Days of Photos: Day Five

It is day five of my 30 Days of Photos challenge (feel free to join me at any time).

Today's picture is of my African violets. I have loved African violets since I was a child. I'm not sure why but I think my favorite Aunt may have had them. I've also propagated them from an early age. I currently have eight rather large plants all but one originated from the same plant which has long since gone. I've had the current ones for as long as we have lived in the house so at least ten years.

There is a row of them above the kitchen sink where Jeff made a shelf for them and another row on a shelf on Jeff's desk. They usually flower twice a year (about every six months) but 2010 was a remarkable year for them. They would flower all bushy like above then as those blooms were dying off new ones would begin sprouting again. They were only without flowers for a few weeks last year. And as you might have guessed blue blooms are my favorite.

My care secrets? Don't water a lot, once a week to ten days. I don't abide by the water from the bottom cliche. I water from the top but just not over the leaves. They like to be warm but not hot. Bright but not scorching. And I use no special aids for propagating. If a leaf breaks off I just poke it in some African violet soil. Oh, and for some reason added fertilizer seems to kill them off. Again, not sure why I've just learned from experience not to use it.

What's your favorite house plant?

Monday, January 17, 2011

30 Days of Photos: Day Four

It is day four of my 30 Days of Photos challenge (feel free to join me at any time).

Collecting things is a common quirk humans seem to share. I'm not sure why we do this. It seems like a strange habit to get into and serves no real purpose but I think the items of choice are quite variant with the individual and perhaps gives a clue or two about our personality.

Right off the top of my head I say without a doubt that I collect books. If I could have a den of books I would (along with some one to dust them please). "Lots of people collect books," you say. True, but do they also collect tea cups?

Today's picture is of one of my favorite tea cups. It came from Jeff's mother. I love the subtle blue and how the rim of the cup is kind of shaped like a flower.

What do you collect?

Friday, January 14, 2011

30 Days of Photos: Day Three

It is day three of my 30 Days of Photos challenge (feel free to join me at any time).

Yesterday Jeff and I went to Toronto so he could see a migraine specialist. We made a day of it leaving early in the morning so we could enjoy the drive up and not be rushed. We had a muffin and milk at Sunnybrook's Starbucks before heading to Jeff's two hour appointment. Good thing I brought a book.

Anyway, afterward we planned on a dinner out. We drove around for a while int Toronto before we decided on Wimpy's Diner in Ajax. It was one of those drive by, "this looks interesting" decisions. It's a retro looking diner with lots of memorabilia on the walls to look at. There is a mixture of regular tables / booths and giant booths. Here is the booth we sat in:

We both ordered the Wimpy Special burger which was seriously larger than life and really tasty. The service was very quick and very friendly. The only downside was the seriously scary washrooms.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

30 Days of Photos: Day Two

It is day two of my 30 Days of Photos challenge (feel free to join me at any time).

Over the holidays Jeff took me to see the new Tron movie. I thought it was cool for the first fifteen minutes then was bored senseless. Jeff loved it it. The funny thing is I wanted to go because I had seen the first movie. Jeff wanted to go because of the special effects (he never saw the first movie). How weird is that?

Anyhooo, the movie is in REAL 3D and here I am modeling the take home glasses:


I think I look pretty cool if I do say so myself. These are going to make excellent Halloween glasses for some costume I'm sure. Jeff seems to think we'll need them for another 3D movie. I'm hoping the whole 3D craze will die out again.

Friday, January 07, 2011

30 Days of Photos: Day One

It is day one of my 30 Days of Photos challenge (feel free to join me at any time).

Over the holidays I bought eleven black frames from Micheal's during their 40% off sale. I have been wanting to do this for literally two years. I got the idea from my friend Lana who has picture stories throughout her house using black frames. I just like the look.

My plan was to frame all the photos which I had taken off the book shelves in the living room and put them on the wall so the book shelves / tv unit wouldn't look so crowded. Unfortunately the frames sat in a pile in the corner of my office for the whole two years being moved a few time to be dusted.

I took the opportunity of my in-laws coming to force myself to finally get the photos up. My plan was to use a large sheet of paper to mark the frames position and where to put the nails then tape it up on the wall and put in the nails. I thought it was a fool proof plan that even I could accomplish and I had every intention on doing this all by myself. I swear!



Some where between me taping the paper to the wall and Jeff getting up it turned into a team project of me being the assistant with veto power and Jeff doing as he says, "the grunt work". In all honestly, who knows what it would have looked like had I did it. Jeff had out his tape measure, ruler, and level to make sure everything looked right (I would not have done that). And after an hour or so (I kind of lost tract it was probably longer) the pictures were in their new home. In case you didn't know already I think he pretty much rocks the husband department.

30 Days of Pictures

Last Friday I was excited that I had finished off the 30 Days of Me meme and could move on to something new and exciting. I also hinted about continuing with the 30 day theme possibly in pictures. Well, I've decided to go ahead with the 30 Days of Pictures theme. And I invite you to do it along with me.

Some background. From an early age, like preteen, I had a fascination with cameras and pictures. Probably because I had virtually none of myself. I literally have one baby picture of me and even with that I have a full head of hair and am probably more toddlerish.

In high-school I was introduced to black and white photography and developing my own negatives and printing. I absolutely loved it and dreamed of having my own dark room. I bought many magazines that featured some of the worlds best photographers of people and still life. Shortly after this I got a job at Japan Camera in their printing department. Again, I loved it, but the customer service aspect made it incredibly stressful. It was because of this job I was able to buy my first SLR camera which I still have but almost never use and it is where I met a cute guy with a mustache.

Jeff was equally into cameras and took a course in university. He got a job at Japan Camera, we dated, we took lots of pictures of pretty much everything.

Then we got married and the picture taking was replaced by the other things in life... um, like the internet, paying the mortgage, etc. Then digital cameras got really big and we began taking digital pictures and movie making but not really from the artistic view that we both started with. More from a memory capture kind of view.

So with all that in mind, don't expect to see any shots that should appear in coffee table books. Let the fun begin!

Day One: Speaking of photos
Day Two: 3D Me
Day Three: Wimpy, Wimpy, Wimpy
Day Four: Tea for Two (or Three or...)
Day Five: African Violets
Day Six: The Photo Booth
Day Seven: Black Bean Brownies
Day Eight: Animal Snow Prints
Day Nine: The Toaster Oven that Almost Was
Day Ten: Tender Tootsies
Day Eleven: Chocolate Cake in a Mug
Day Twelve: Blooming Tea
Day Thirteen: Warm Feet
Day Fourteen: Doodling Oodles
Day Fifteen: Wee Me
Day Sixteen: My Door Greeter
Day Seventeen: Lola and Hair Tinsel
Day Eighteen: Striped Sox
Day Nineteen: Cute Chicks
Day Twenty: Couch Potatoes
Day Twenty-One: Pancakes and Maple Sausage
Day Twenty-Two: Springing to Life
Day Twenty-Three: Storm Front
Day Twenty-Four: Curbside Composting