May 31 - June 3 - Life is Pretty Good

June 3 - Feel the Rain

"Reaching for something in the distance, so close you can almost taste it,
Release your inhibitions - Feel the rain on your skin,
no one else can feel it for you.
Only you can let it in" - Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten

June 2 - Life is a bowl full of cherries...

Yup, and at $10.00 a bag enjoy them to the fullest, before they rot.

June 1 - Welcome to the Jungle

When I was taking this picture of the boy's toy story Lego I couldn't help thinking of Ernie from Sesame Street, looking down into his flower box at the Doodle Bugs.

May 31 - Peony

The worker ants did their job and ate away at the outer part of the peony bud, now the flower is free to bloom. I would love to cut these and put them on my table, but every time I do, I end up with a house full of ants. I will just enjoy the image.

My 365's this week look pretty optimistic - kinda a mirror to how I am feeling. I am taking care of the crapped out knee and going to physio, planning a birthday party for the little man ( arrgh, a pirate theme! ) and I finished planting the vegetable garden. This weekend brings a return to the Saturday morning coffee date, and some much needed house keeping. Looking forward to some nesting.

365's From Camping

May 29 - New Friends May 30- Day vs. Night - (okay not quite May 30th, more like afternoon/evening May 29th. I didn't get a 365 for May 30th with rushing around to get camp closed up, and when we got home we invited Gramma up for dinner. These are fun anyways and I am happy I did not have to cut them.)

First Camping Trip Of 2010

us

the Kid and her Daddy

The boys found some caterpillars

Papa Skadoodle and his puppy Freddie came along

The spring weather in our area has been so unseasonably hot, that we were able to go on our first camping trip of the year almost 3 weeks earlier than we have before. I have to say, that all the running around, the packing, the extra laundry was well worth it. Camping forces us to slow down, unplug and connect in a way that we don't do at home.

best brothers ever

the Kid with Freddie, in a quiet moment

Tug of war with the little men.

Home sweet home - counting this one as my 365.

Ugh, still more catching up to do

May 25 - didn't get around to my 365 today, this is a picture from Mother's Day @ the zoo. Self Portrait Thursday - May 27

May 26- Worker Ants -

May 24 - a great end to the long weekend.

Mom invited us to her place for a BBQ on the Monday of the long weekend. Mom's friend Paul was the chef cooking up burgers, onion rings and fries. Hubby had pulled out a steak for the night before, but got "called out" just before dinner. He brought it to Mom's and finally got to eat his steak that he had been dreaming of for days. This is a picture of Mom and her cousin Pat. I really like cousin Pat, she is warm, interesting, and interested. The kind of person who doesn't pass judgement on anyone she comes across. Great Lady. I had a very relaxing time. A nice way to top off a busy weekend. My sweet boys- best of buds, fresh out of the hot tub.
I love the contrast of the hydro lines and the weeds in this one.

One of the things that The Kid always likes to do at Gramma's place, is go for a walk in the field.

This picture of the poppy and the iris is one of my new favorite pictures.

Has It Been That Long?

Wow, has it been that long? I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted. Here are some recent 365's.


May 23 - Fireworks
May 21 - Sassy self portrait

May 20 - Contemplation

May 19 - Legacy

365 Project - may 16-19

May 18 - Apples and Oranges May 17 - Make a Wish

May 16 - Papa's New Puppy

May 15 - First Campfire of the Year

Hubby was on call this weekend, and my brother in law was on a boy's fishing trip, so my sister in law and I decided to have a slumber party with the kids. Such a good time. We had movies, campfire, pancakes for breakfast and just plain silliness. I think we have a new tradition.

May 14- Stuck in the Dungeon

Every home has a spot, where the junk collects. Ours is the laundry room, probably because it is the room that has access to the crawl space. Which if you are wondering, is a mess too. I've been wanting to clean house, so to speak and get rid of what we don't need or love and organize/ pare down on what we have, so today I had a "free day" to spend in the Dungeon slaving away. One of the items that I have decided I don't need is my smiley face balloon I bought for myself as a birthday present. He is not looking so happy now, in fact rather deflated. He should go. But he brought me such joy....and you see the problem. In the end, I did get rid of a HUGE pile of stuff, but Mr. Smiley is going to stay - just for awhile longer.

May 13 - Thursday Self Portrait

Okay, so maybe I'm more of a Roseanne than a June Cleaver, or maybe I'm neither. Maybe I am me and I need to stop comparing myself to the TV moms. Life is so much more complicated than a 30 minute sitcom, or even 1 hour drama for that matter. Maybe I need to just work on being me - warts and all.

May 12 - Morning Mist

May 11 - Goodbye Bling!

Today The Kid got her braces off! I convinced her to do a before and after. I think this may be one of maybe three pictures of her with her braces.
and TaDa!

(growing up too fast, where does the time go?)

May 10 - Communication Breakdown

May 9 - My Mothers Day @ the Zoo

When Hubby asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day, I knew right away what I wanted. I wanted to spend time with my family having fun, and creating memories. So instead of a plant, jewellery, perfume, or chocolates, we went to the zoo. We haven't been for a few years, and with The Kid now a teenager, I doubt that she will want to go on many more of these family outings. It was a wonderful day.
Along with the zoo trip, my kids made me a scrapbook, and each of them made me a card. The words inside made me cry - (something I don't do too often ) My 12 year old son thanked me for helping him with "the blues". The Kid told me that I am an everyday hero to her, and that one day she hopes to be as good of mom to her kids as I am to her. The Little Man's card was cute too, he used pink ( my favorite colour) and blue ( his favorite colour), and he was sure to point out the lipstick that he had drawn on his mother day picture of me. My funny, strong middle son.

love em!

me and the big kids

the boys and I

me and the bunch.

May 8 - My Mother's Day with My Mom

It's not until you become a mother

that your judgement slowly turns

into compassion and understanding.

- Erma Bombeck

I spent Saturday night celebrating mother's day with mom. We had roast beef for dinner, complete with gravy to make any mother proud, mashed potatoes, and Grandma's salad. After dinner we headed down stairs to play Beatles Rock Band. Yup, my mom's a rock star, she did amazing! I can't remember the last time that I had so much fun with my mom. It was an awesome night, one that I will hold close to my heart forever.

May 7

Have a look at the two pictures below. Notice how the first image has a slightly yellow or warm cast to it, while the second photo is cooler - and a better likeness of the pure white jug. The only change that I made was to the white balance setting on my camera.

The white balance setting on your camera is there to ensure that you do not have an incorrect colour cast; so that any object that is white in person is also rendered white in the photo. In the old days of film, this was done with different filters that attached on the lens of the camera.

With the first image, the white balance was set to shade On the day this was taken, the sky was overcast, not very bright outside, so the shade setting wasn't a horrible choice. But because I was not happy with the colour of the picture, I changed the setting to cloudy. I feel that it makes a much better image, because the colours in the image are truer to the objects in person.

To change the white balance on my camera, a Nikon, I need to go into the tools menu, but every camera is different. If you are unhappy with the colour of your photo, reread your manual, it will point you in the right direction.

* white balance set to shade

*white balance set to cloudy

DIY Canvas Wall Hanging

I was feeling creative so I decided to create some art out of the gift bag that my anniversary present came in.

Supplies:

• canvas ( I got mine for $2.00 at Dollarama )
• gift bag
• paint ( dark for edge, and a base coat )
• white school glue
• photo

Here we go....
Step 1,
I cut out the saying from the gift bag. If you don't have access to a pretty gift bag, you could use a computer print out.

Step 2,
I base coated the front of the canvas with acrylic paint.
I used a darker colour to paint the edge of the canvas, but I thought that using ribbon would look nice too.


Step 3
I spread the glue in a thin layer on the canvas, and another thin layer on the back of the gift bag . I carefully positioned the gift bag onto the canvas, and brushed on another layer of glue. Working out any air bubbles.

Step 4 ( not shown )
I printed out a picture of my hubby and I on card stock, cut it out and, glued it to the canvas in the same manner as I did the gift bag.
(Just a warning, the computer ink ran when it came in contact with the white glue, in the future I would either test, or apply the glue only to the back of the picture.)



and ta da, the finished masterpiece,