U is for .... Utopian (way to show your talent)

No, I didn't have to use a thesaurus to find an apt word for today's post. -shifty eyes-


Sorry that, once again, I have been more than slightly MIA. I was excited (very excited, actually) that it was summer and I would a.) have time to furiously scour the internet to find b.) interesting things to share with you all.

And theeeeen, the unfortunate, the disastrous, the terrible, the terrifying thing happened and....my laptop died. So, until I end up getting to the city to take it to the 'Mac Doc', I'm using the family's computer. Which means less time for scouring and posts. I know, it's a sad, sad thing. :(

But! Enough sadness! I come bearing a post! And fun things! Artsy things!

While doing my obligatory Tumblr check I stumbled across The Sketchbook Project.

Essentially what the project is is this: a global community of people filling personal sketchbooks that will then be put on tour to the places indicated on the map. Afterward, the sketchbooks will be placed in the Brooklyn Art Library for anyone to view.

At the site, you can pick one of forty themes and your sketchbook is to follow that theme to wherever it takes you. As well, there is the option to have them send you a random theme, which will arrive with your sketchbook.



Honestly, it sounds like so much fun and I'm seriously contemplating doing it, if only because I'd love to start getting back into doing things like this (I used to all the time before I started going to college) and I think it would be the kick to get back into it.

I hope some of you decide to do this project, and if you do, let me know and how it goes for you!

U is for ... Unusual (Cameras)

While boredly going through my Twitter feed this morning, I saw that @NylonMag had a link to some 'interesting' cameras. And because I'm a devourer of cameras, I clicked the link. (Bet you didn't see that coming, did ya?)

The slideshow is composed of 8 different cameras of various prices (from $18 - $180). They're all adorable and sound like they work really, really well. At least, any of the sam

ples shown had quality pictures. :) Taken with a grain of salt, I'm sure.

My favourite is this adorable $25 Juice Box Camera.

Isn't it so adorable and look like so much fun? The pictures look like they turned out really well, and the price is something I'd be able to pay.

Which one would you get your hands on if you could?

Things I Love - Post #5

This last week has been super crazy, so no other posts. Hopefully that'll change and my pace will be a bit slower this coming up week.

1. What You Can Do to Make a Better World
- 51 simple ways in categories such as: Personal Life, Community, Environment, and others. A lot of them are just some fun ways to enjoy life. There's also a few there that just make you stop and think a bit, as well.
2. Superman: The Animated Series - My brother got this for his birthday in March, and we've been watching it non-stop. I've found myself addicted to reporters/journalists* and their portrayals in pop culture and what's more pop than Superman?!
3. Photosensitive: Energy - Is a project that had photographers take pictures of what they thought of when 'energy' was said. As part of my course, I had to take a picture for it, but it's not on the school's link. This is the photograph that I submitted:
4. Liz On Top of the World - One of my favourite songs. Ever.
   
   
5. Film Cameras - I got five new film cameras (and a roll of b&w film!!!!) from my sisters' high school because they're clearing stuff out. Four of them are 50mm and the last one is an 80mm-200mm, so I'll give a few of the 50mm away and then go hunting through my boxes in the garage for the film I stashed away. :)
6. Avalonne Hall - I don't remember how or when it was that I stumbled onto this blog, but I absolutely adore it. Her posts are always filled with fun images, links, things she loves. And they're put together in such a way that makes you want her posts (and her blog) to never end.

And it's time for me to head off. I start my second job this afternoon and have to go get ready! Have a wonderful week.

* There'll be an upcoming post with some of pop culture's favourite reporters/journalists, the clothes they wear, stories they covered, etc., and then compare it to what reporters/journalists actually do/wear/cover. I'm excited!

Things I Love - Post #4

It's been so long since I've posted, and for that I'm so sorry. Though, I'm not entirely and utterly sorry because I was off having family time and loads of fun with them, which was what I needed. However, I'm now back, have caught up with most of the blogs/people/messages/e-mails/etc that have piled up in my departure and now I get to post! (Which was the part I was really looking forward to doing. :D)

1. Poor Michael's Bookshop - In the small, tourist-y town of Onanole, Manitoba there's this jewel of a book store. Second hand books in the front and cafe/fair trade shop in the back, music plays while the locals chat over their favourite cups of coffee. I got the green bracelet while my dad got the dancing frog candle holder (he has this thing for frogs, IDEK), my sisters got bracelets and earrings, and my mother a ring. Then there was the ridiculously cute finger puppets. :) All in all: any time possible, I will be haunting this delightful treasure. The best part? We caught it on it's one open time during the off season for Easter weekend!
2. Scott Caan Photography - Okay, okay, okay. I know I've done nothing but talk about him (okay, this is only my third post with him included), but! For very good reason: this man is ridiculously, brilliantly, mind blowingly talented (and needs to shoot in colour more often). In that way where I actually want to go shooting with the man other than drool all over him because he takes beautiful pictures. And not just of things I actually expected. For the most part, his pictures have depth to them, which is something I'm always looking for in a fellow photographer, so I was more than pleasantly surprised. Some of my favourites:





3. Homemade Nutella - Found via Anthology, they posted about this (surprisingly!) simple recipe for homemade nutella. The ingredients, instructions, and images (see what I did there?;D) make it seem like a wonderfully fun and tasty thing to try out.
4. Voting in my first Federal election! Even though the party I voted for didn't get into power, it was still kind of exciting. :) (And that's all you'll hear on the matter.)


6. 
   
7. 

Hope you found something you liked, and I am off to bed. It's late, I've been sleepy for the past....I don't even know how long anymore, and I have a busy, busy week ahead of me.

L is for ... (Things I) Love (Part III)

I'm a little late this Sunday. Mostly because my roommates and I spent the majority of the day cleaning our dorm. All of it, every nook and cranny and cupboardwas cleaned and washed and dusted. So, as a reward, my roommate and I made bacon and watched several episodes of Hawaii Five-0 (yes, I have converted her. ;] )

1. I know that everyone and their dog has seen this picture/shirt, but I just found where do order it. ♥ (and now obviously want to own it)
2. 
   
   Fujifilm Instax 210. I've owned one for almost a year, but somewhere in my travels over Christmas, it broke. So I'm now weighing buying a new one (and scouring Amazon for one) and trying to see if I can get it fixed. It's such an addicting camera to have! (And so much fun!!)
3. This. GIF. ♥ Basically: it was in last week's episode of Hawaii Five-0 and is adorable and beautiful and asfljlkj! It makes me very, very happy. :)
4. Jennilee Marigomen - is a photographer who does some beautiful work. I've been following her for about a month and have fallen head over heels for the work she produces. This is my favourite of projects so far.
6. The May issue of Nylon Guys (yes, I've started buying both. IDEK, you guys. But I love it.)

What were some of your favourite things this week? And I hope you all have a fantastic week coming up. :) I know mine's going to be fairly lovely because, well, I get to go home on Wednesday. Which means I really have to buckle down tomorrow and Tuesday to have everything packed and ready to move to my new place. Gack! So exciting!

L is for ... (Things I) Love (Part II)

I'm a bit late for this week's TIL, which I can blame on my friend Carlee who decided to have me dragged to the bar last night. No, it wasn't the one drink I had that did me in: it was the pit stop at Denny's that lasted til 4 am that did me in and kept me in bed til past one.

ANYWAYS! Enough of those excuses. Onwards towards things I am loving this week :D

1. Hour long conversations on the phone with my sister. :)
2. This Hawaii Five-0 tumblr
3. Reading Eat Pray Love
4. The sound of the rain falling down outside. (it sounds like someone tapdancing. :D)
5. I love the fact that this was a.) shot in Vancouver and b.) is Claire de Lune.♥
   
6. This song is so ridiculously relaxing it's not even funny.
7. Moleskine Artist Marketplace is a place were people can design their own Moleskines and then sell them. Here a few of my favourites: Manu Propia, Blue Garden, ich hab nen koffer in berlin, A Story in the Jungle, The Boy Who Lived, and O livro da Moa com Marionete. Which one's do you love?
8. Brian of The Blue Hour (a wonderful blog filled to the brim with beautiful photographs of his every day life) took some shots for the Ralph Lauren Rugby line. The pictures and the clothing work so well together to show more than just a product. Lovely work.

Sorry that most of these are links and not so many images you guys. Hopefully you found something interesting (and could afford. Those Moleskine prices can be more than a bit ridiculous!)

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and will have a wonderful week.

L is for ... Lighting

If there's one thing that I've learned this year, it's that having a camera either draws people to you in a moth to flame sort of way, or else it repels them from you in a mouse to snake type of way. For the most part, mine's been the former over the latter, which I've been quite grateful for.

Last week, I had a lighting - effects assignment due. Of course, it was left slightly to last minute and I had to find something, anything to take pictures. And then, I remembered: the night before it was due, the school was hosting its last pub of the year. So I made my way over, crossed my fingers that security would let me go in with my camera (since it's not a point and shoot, they normally don't), and tried a new trick I had learned two weeks before:

This was the one I handed in. I love the look on his face. :)

This last one was my favourite, but he's not looking at me, which makes me really, really sad. Because otherwise? It's just....I love it. ♥

You guys, I go home in 11 days. ELEVEN! Which I'm really excited for, I am. I get to see my crazy as anything family and whatnot, but, on the other hand, I'm going to miss living on my own and the many things (both good and bad) that come with that. Not only that, I'll miss all the things I'm constantly learning/doing.

HOWEVER, we will save the melancholy-ness for closer to my leave date because I still have four assignments + my portfolio review next week. THE PRESSURE! D:

michelle: Cutting off hair is just so...freeing, I've found. Emma Watson was actually a huge inspiration for my cut, though I obviously didn't go as short as she did. :)Thank you for your lovely compliment. I really do adore having it short.

avalonne hall: Thank you. :) I've really been enjoying reading/commenting on your blog. Roman Holiday was such a good look hair wise for Audrey Hepburn. Not that she couldn't pull of anything she wanted to, but *g* the short hair suited her so well. It was really interesting, because after my cut, I got a list of people that others were reminded of: Agnes Deyn, Emma Watson, Rihanna, and Natalie Portman were on the list. All of which I'm really okay with reminding people of. :) I was really close to enough length, but I didn't feel like waiting. No patience, apparently. :P

This fall I actually had dyed my hair blue (!!!) and got it fixed over Christmas. The colour right now is the browny red I had to dye it. My hair's naturally red, so think I'm just going to dye the tips of it something wild (cherry red/platinum blonde/blue/etc)

L is for ... Lopping (It Off) & Locks of Love

Last Tuesday I went with my friends JJ and Danni to do something I've been aching to do for ages: cut off all my hair. I originally had shoulder length hair:

and cut it to this:

While I didn't have enough hair to donate any after it'd been cut off, my friend JJ cut off 10 inches (about 25.4cm) to donate to Locks of Love. There's a list here of other places you can donate hair to, as well, if you're looking into donating hair.

As well, while doing some quick research, I found out that April is the Canadian Cancer Society's to Fight Back, otherwise known as Daffodil Month. If you can, think about buying a daffodil from the CCS, to help both those fighting cancer and the beginning of spring. As soon as I arrive home, I'll be buying one to help out.

For those of you out there with short hair: suggestions for styling? Your favourite ladies with short hair? Your favourite accessories? Do's and don't's of the short hair. Send 'em all my way (well, our way, Khyri's a sporter of the short hair deal, too.)

Also: have any of you lovely people out there cut your hair for cancer before? If so, who did you donate to? What was your experience like? Would you do it again? Did you enjoy the switch from long to short hair?

L is for ... (Things I) Love

I wasn't going to post anything today, and then ran into a few things in the last few hours that I wanted to share. I'm thinking this may turn into a weekly thing. We'll see. :)


1.) This video updated by @TrekMovie. It feels/sounds so happy and lively, very spring like.

2.)

I don't know what it is about this commercial, but I adore it. I think it's ever since I got short hair, I've been loving girls with short hair. And York Peppermint Patties are total ♥.

3.)
Today celebrates the 119th birthday of the first recorded Ice Cream Sunday. SHOULD ALWAYS BE CELEBRATED! :)

4.) MajoBajo: another short haired girl I love seeing pop up. An adorable sense of fashion and lovely photographs to accompany all of her posts.

5.) Sandra Juto: A favourite blogger of mine. Her photographs show her daily life in Berlin, and she talks about the small things she enjoys in life, which is something we can all take with us.

6.) Scott Caan: my newest celebrity crush. Part of the Hawaii Five-O crew, I've been fangirling over him with my friend, Zed. This picture is my favourite that I've found this week. It combines two of my favourite things: Caan and photography. Doesn't get much better than that. ♥



So concludes my post of favourite things of the week. What did you have this week that you're loving?

L is for ... Lunch

Grilled cheese sandwiches are one of my roommates' and my favourite things to make/eat. Not only are they super easy/cheap, but, hello! cheesy and delicious to boot. As college students, we really can't ask for much more.

A few weeks ago, I had some vegetables that I wanted to get rid of, but didn't know what to make, so I incorporated them into the classic grilled cheese. While it may sound/look a bit odd, don't disregard it right away. It's actually surprisingly delicious and adds an interestingly quirky twist on a cheesy classic. :)

After the tomatoes, I also put another layer of cheese on top.

Then in the oven for a few minutes on Broil - Low. Keep an eye on it and pull it out
when the cheese starts to melt/the bread starts to brown.

My lunch time set up. :)

And then for dessert....

Just needs a little bit of cream & sugar, and voila!
The perfect Saturday lunch.

W is for ... What [I've Found]

While doing my daily blog check, I stumbled across North Wind Shore's newest blog post. It contained a lovely set of pictures by photographer Lieke Romeijn. Here are a few of my favourite from the set.






The rest of the set can be found here. There's 32 other small groups of photos that he's taken, all of them breathtaking to look through. I just happen to be quite partial to redheads. :) (I could be biased, really. :p) Which one's your favourite?

W is for ... What I've Been Up To

I can't believe that it's been a week since I've updated! I guess that's what happens when you're busy, eh?

And boy, have I been busy! Shooting, shooting, thinking, thinking, shooting, thinking, as my teacher would put it. (With possibly a little more thinking and sleeping tossed in there... :D). Here's a few of the things that I've been busy with this past week (it probably would be a LOT more interesting if I had done separate posts for each of these, but, alas, time and not enough of it.)

Monday was Advisory Board where the committee comes down to view our portfolio, take names, see what we're doing, give us advice. I got to see four members (out of the ten) and got some pretty good advice. That was considering that some of them could be fairly rude, from waht I was hearing. Yikes!

Tuesday

We went to where I'm shooting my Multimedia assignment (at the store below), as well as try on clothes to rent for the fashion shoot I needed to do for Lighting class. Basically: Marina (the owner) is fantastic and I adore her to bits and pieces. Plus: her store is what I wish my closet was like (except where the clothes FIT me on a more regular basis. D:)

The jacket that I hope to, one day, own. Next time I'll get more detailed pictures. :)

You can't see the details really well, but that blue romper will be in my closet before I go home!

Thursday

Was a ridiculously busy day, without a doubt. My Multiple Pictures assignment Thursday morning, during which time I had a Writing assignment due. Then, Sarah and I did my Lighting fashion shoot, and met up with Dan, Sam, and Cassie at the Red Lion. And PhotoJs don't stop taking pictures, ever. Not even inside the bar. :)



I seriously wanted her to get this skirt, but because it had a leotard type deal that went with it (which was ridiculously pretty, I might ad!) she said no. If I have the $20 before I leave, I will buy it myself!


And then this reminded me of my new favourite TV show Hawaii Five-O and ship: Steve/Danno.:)♥

Crazzzy things happen at the bar. Actually: Dan was complaining because of the dodgeball injury he had acquired that afternoon.



I (am on the left) do not look like I'm too impressed with having my picture taken. Not at all. :p

Us. With cameras. All. The. Time. :)

Friday I was around the PhotoJ lab for several hours for class and thenworking on handing in said Lighting assignment. Didn't get everything finished like I wanted to, but by about five:thirty, it was definitely time for me to call it a day. Saturday I went back out with my Multiple Pictures lady and went to look at more clothes. She didn't find anything she liked, sadly. Though, I found several things I would have bought! :)

Wow. This post got crazy long real quick. I still have the pictures from Thursdays fashion shoot that I'll upload, but I'll save those for another day and/or my photography blog.

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and are freshened up for a (hopefully!) spring filled week.