Selfie catch up

Clearly I was so over the selfie project in the last 8 days. I missed two days after 156 straight days. Blame it on overcast weather, being broody about Father's Day, ruminations on selfies after realizing how easily a fake profile can be created for online scams ... this is a mixed bag, of times when I put effort into it and times I did not.

Day 157 - dressed up for a Victorian murder mystery party. I had ringlets!

Read More

Selfie catch up!

Day 151 - road trip! Taken while parked at a rest stop outside of Bowden.

Read More

Day 150 and donating blood

I picked up my new glasses today.

I learned my lesson - I didn't ask for a copy of my prescription until after I'd ordered and paid for a pair from my optometrist. So they didn't try to talk me out of Clearly Contacts, just printed it off.

I donated platelets today, for a man in a Calgary hospital who recently had a bone marrow transplant. The needle wasn't sitting quite right and kept setting off warning alarms. The nurse didn't want to fiddle with the needle too much, and I didn't want her to - usually, fiddling means the needle goes right through the vein and the donation has to end. So, since it didn't hurt, we just put up with it. The new machines have cut down the donation time drastically, and it was to save a life.

Read More

Day 149

I noticed I'm in a rut of closed mouth smile selfies. So I improvised.

Read More

Pictures catch up post!

They don't often nap together, but when they do, it's ADORABLE.

Read More

Day 143

Read More

Day 142

Things that don't need to be photographed - hair removal cream on my upper lip.

Read More

Day 141

I woke up feeling blah and wanting to vomit. So I took a sick day. And I look like crap, so no fancy well-lit selfie tonight.

Read More

Day 140

"OMG you guys!"

"The lilac bush I planted two years ago?"

"It's going to bloom this year!"

Also, I'm never going to eat mini-peanut butter cups before taking a selfie again. :-D

Read More

Selfie catch-up

Day 138 - I got a baby gryphon puppet at the Calgary Expo last month.


Day 139 - I coloured my hair, covering the grey hair in advance of my job interview on Friday.

Read More

Day 137

Read More

Day 136

Read More

Day 135

I braced myself for the Grey's Anatomy season finale (and Sandra Oh's departure) with Irish cream liqueur. Good call.

Read More

Quick update

Day 132


I would've posted yesterday's selfie last night, except that a cat was giving birth on the Internet and I couldn't not watch. Even after the first was stillborn (he had a birth defect). I stayed up to see a healthy girl be born, but couldn't stay awake for babies 3-7. That's right, six healthy kittens.

Day 133


I went for a walk this evening. I'm not used to this sunny weather stuff.



Sooooo happy it isn't snow.

Read More

Day 132 and photography musings

The days are warming up enough that I can go sit in the backyard again, or do yardwork or transplant seedlings. Today it was seedlings, which I put into my mini-greenhouse. I also let Charlie have some fresh air in his play pen.

One of my coworkers sat down today to talk about Northern Lights photos. Tucker talked about Chris Ratzlaff's photos - Chris is a former coworker of ours who has inspired and encouraged this whole fascination with photographing the aurora thing I have now. And Tucker talked about my photos and how he likes the ones where I have a tree or myself as a silhouette in them, and I should continue in that vein to develop my style.

I really appreciated that, because I have been thinking myself that I should do silhouettes more often. Getting specific comments about what I'm doing right is very encouraging.

Chris' photos are amazing and he is more willing than I to put in long hours of waiting. Also, I'm pretty sure he has a wide-angle lens or two, and I don't. I love the vibrancy and colours of his photos, but I want my own style.

Read More

Weekend catch-up - deer, chasing aurora, bathtub selfie!

Lately, I've been going to Carburn Park after my knitting group. It's still looking rough after the floods of last June. And it was raining.

The park is a hidden gem in Calgary. One reason is that it's fairly easy to see deer there.

That evening, the space weather reports began to show a good possibility of viewing Northern Lights. My friend and I drove out. The sky was clear, the night was beautiful ... but the solar activity dropped and we didn't see any aurora. My friend the tree-hugger asked me to take a photo of this tree and it was my great shot of the night.

Sunday, I went to an arts and crafts show with a knitting buddy. I'm proud to say that I stuck to my $20 spending budget. Outside, a group of young people were practising on drums. They sounded great!

I spent some time in the garden clearing up from last year. And then I took a selfie in a well-deserved bath (Day 131).

Read More

Day 129

Read More

Day 128 - Northern Lights!

The aurora alerts went off. C, the woman I'd partnered up with before, was up for an excursion. I waited until after midnight to set the self-timer and jump in front of my camera and try to keep still for 10 seconds. We were blessed with a clear sky, but the abundance of moonlight really presented a challenge for me. I still have much to learn about aurora photography - but I am very happy with some of my pictures last night. We tried a couple of locations. The second one distinctly smelled of farm and there were loud cows nearby, plus a few coyotes at one point. And there was a chilly wind. But it was much more interesting because of the ponds and the trees and we stuck it out. And warmed up in her BMW on the way home. I love her heated seats. There is another aurora alert for tonight, plus a slight cloud cover. I'm exhausted and am going to stay home. Today was long and I am really too beat to go driving tonight.

Read More

Day 127

Read More

Day 126

I had a challenging day, but then I came home to something nice - my first letter from the girl I am sponsoring through Because I Am A Girl/Plan Canada. I felt squishy. :-)

(Plan Canada is non-denominational and I'm sponsoring a girl in Nicaragua).

(I also signed up for kiva.org and lent $25 to a group of craftswomen in Guatemala. I'm on a roll.)

Read More