Hotel Europe

Ghosts?

Photos taken and manipulated in phone camera.  Stairs and lobby photographed at the old Hotel Europe in Gastown.  A very cool building - it's called a Flat Iron building with the whole building shaped like a wedge or flat iron.  It was built in 1909 and it used to be a hotel.  Now it's low income housing.  The lobby still has all the original marble stair and brass railings.  The tile mosaic work on the floor was absolutely gorgeous!  Apparently, rumour has it that these may be the haunts of two ghosts!

Brick wall was a photo of a really cool brick wall I saw in Chinatown.  

August 2014

August 2014 desktop calendar 

It's August and the year is more than halfway over. Hubby has another two months to his retirement and I have another two years to go.

As a kid, August was a time of laziness for me. It was ok to lie on the cool grass for hours at a time and do nothing but watch the clouds go by. August was endless.

As an adult, August goes by way too fast. August is the other side of the year. The days feel shorter now.  There always seems to be so much to do and so very little time to do everything. A two week vacation is gone in a blink of an eye. I feel like I'm running out of time.

August 2014 was done in Procreate, filters created in Glaze, with everything imported to Sketchclub to combine and final editing. Calendar insert is from here.

Scary blank pages

Why are blank pages so intimidating?

I've been trying to break the curse of the blank pages but not having any luck. I have no problem picking up my iPad and doodling away but staring at a white page is so intimidating. Tomorrow, I will face my fears.

Doodled on my iPad using Sketchclub.

July 2014 desktop calendar

July 2014 

I skipped June. No real reason other than I was busy and didn't make a calendar. So much was happening in June. Work was insane with our annual recruitment, new members coming into our team, and old members leaving. I've been doing more knitting and spinning lately. Less computer stuff and more real life stuff.

I admit I'm a hoarder.

I think I've crossed that fine line between stash and hoard. I admit I have a problem with craft stuff. When I say I've tried pretty much any craft out there and have all the stuff to go with it, I'm not joking. This week is my annual clean the workroom week. It used to take a couple of hours, a day at the most but now it's taking almost a whole week. Mind you, it is a very thorough clean. Each box is opened and the contents inspected carefully, box washed out with a solution of vinegar and water and then repacked. Books are taken off the shelves, shelves are moved to vacumn behind them, washed with water and vinegar, and then books are sorted and put back.

This year I've been a bit more ruthless. WIPs that I know I'll never get around to finishing were ripped out and rewound. Odd balls of yarn that I'll never use went into a bin to go out. Luckily, all the natural fibres can be composted so that's a good thing.

Tossed out are all the pretty boxes that I've collected that I might someday use in a craft. I found a ziplock bag full of pretty shiny foil that I had no idea I had.

The hardest thing is not to get sidetracked. As I go through the boxes, I find stuff that I've forgotten and it's like seeing old friends. You want to stop and visit. I have 12 large paper bags of fleece...all washed and some are picked.  These bags are the big garden recycling paper bags and not your wimpy grocery bags. Yeah. I have a lot of stuff. I'm pretty sure I've stashed beyond my life expectancy.

Waiting...

Waiting

This is my Jenkins Lark Turkish spindle. I've had this for a while now and have not touched it since the first spin. Life and other projects came between us. It's light and beautiful and spins like a dream. The fibre is Falkland Islands organic merino/polworth blend. Very soft.

You don't spin on a spindle because you're in a hurry.  Output on a tiny spindle is much slower than output on a spinning wheel.  If you want fast and immediate results, you spin on the electric spinner.

I've forgotten how to slow down.  To wait for the results one inch at a time.  I'm still impatient when I see how long it's taken just to spin this little bit of yarn but I'm working on it. 

Columbines in Gold

Columbines in gold 

It started with a new cellphone and a thought of what I could do with a then unheard of cellphone camera of 5 whole megapixels. It was a personal challenge to see if I can take decent pictures with a cellphone camera. I've upgraded my cellphone camera a couple of times and now 41 megapixels later, I'm hooked again on photography and all that it offered in digital manipulations. The best part now is seeing what I can do on my iPad and phone. Instant editing and so very portable. Apps are getting so good and so sophisticated that the line between computer editing and editing on the go has almost disappeared. When I see an effect done with Photoshop, I think of how I can duplicate the same effect on just the iPad or phone.

The picture above was editing directly using an editing app in the Lumia 1020. The textured overlay was another photo edited in the phone and blended with the columbines. 

May 2014 Calendar

2014 May calendar

April showers brought May flowers. Lots of May flowers. We had a few days of sunshine and was able to enjoy the full magnificence of the magnolia blooms before they fell and rotted.

Photo taken on the Nokia Lumia 1020 and edited on the iPad.

May is also EDiM (Every Day in May) where you challenge yourself to do a quick sketch a day. I've decided this year to actually draw something in a real sketchbook. So far so good.

I'm also going to keep going with the photo a day as well. I'm pretty impressed with myself that this will be the third month. Commit one month at a time.

Something I learned...

Gastown alley

...through the eyes of a camera to find beauty in my surroundings, no matter where.  I learned this from my dad.

Good together...

Good together...

Walked around at lunch today, trying to find things that would fit today's photo prompt - good together.  There were so many things. Rain and umbrellas. Moms and strollers. Muffins and coffee.

But the best good together combo was raw fish and rice, all wrapped up in bits of seaweed.  I've said before and I'll say it again - sushi is the best lunch food.

In my hand...

In my hand...

In my hand I hold endless possibilities.

I'm my own worse critic. I need to stop worrying that something is not good enough.

With knitting, I look at the yarn and I see possibilities of what I can create with he yarn. The possibilities are multiplied when I look at the fibre that I can spin into the yarn. Every step of the creative process gives me more possibilities. It really is endless.

Picture of my hand taken with the iPad camera, edited and painted effects on Sketchclub.

April photo a day

Faux...

I think calling this "Faux" was a bit of a stretch. It's a colour photo edited on the iPad to resemble an old faded photo.  This is the March 31st prompt for A Photo A Day.

I had a lot of fun doing March but I wasn't sure if I wanted to commit for April but decided to go for it.

Purple...

The first photo for April is Purple. A million purple flowers in the city and I do this for purple. What was I thinking?!

April 2014 desktop calendar

April 2014

To me, April is Spring. April is the month everything wakes up again. Flowers and buds are showing up on all my garden plants. The magnolia tree is covered with fuzzy green and pink buds and you know that in a few weeks, the tree will be covered with soft pink blossoms. Tiny green buds are appearing on the apple tree in the back yard.

The snowdrops photo was taken in my backyard, using the Nokia Lumia 1020. Calendar bit was done in Sketchclub app on the iPad.

The last week of February and the beginning of March was a couple of rough weeks. I just did not feel up to making a desktop calendar. I think this is probably my favourite picture taken so far on the 1020.  I love snowdrops. 

Chinatown, Vancouver

Chinatown

Chinatown has always been one of my favourite places in Vancouver. I remember walking around looking at storefronts that you never see open and wondering what kind of business they do, how do they survive and pay rent? Lately, there has been a quiet revitalization of the area. New stores and interesting business have been popping up here and there.  The old rundown storefronts were always interesting but I'm glad to see this area improve. Definitely an area in transition. 

Picture was taken on Nokia Lumia 1020, edited on the iPad using a variety of apps. 

I am here...

I am here...I am here to make a difference 

I am here...I am here to make a difference.

Photo taken on the Nokia lumia 1020, edited with Fantasia Painter app in cellphone. It's a fun app but I like the editing apps on the iPad for better range.

Letter A

Letter...

...Letter A, the letter we strive for in school, A for Achievements, A for Awesome, A for Annoying.

I've been doing the March Photo a Day challenge from Fatmumslim's blog.  Some days it's a real challenge coming up with something that suits, other days it seems like the perfect opportunity is just sitting right in front of  your face. 

Having a word or phrase in mind forces me to think outside the box and to go beyond the obvious.  In this case, thinking inside the box worked best.  By the time I saw this, I had taken a good many pictures but none of them seem to work for me.  Sometimes the best solution is the obvious solution. 

Taken on the Lumia 1020, and lightly edited with the camera app. 

...in a corner.

...in a corner.

...in a corner brings to mind the old saying "painting yourself into a corner." Getting yourself into situation with no or very limited options. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and walk out onto the wet floor and hope for the best.

For this picture, this was meant to be a twist on the saying. The photo was taken of a favourite corner of our house. The photo was then edited on the iPad using several filter apps.  I wanted the painted effect and the splatters to say yes, I painted that corner...I'm in control...good or bad.

Fly

Fly

I'm not sure if this collage will make any sense. It's a head, lying on the walkway, looking wistfully up through the trees at the sky. This was for a Photo a Day challenge.

No real heads were harmed in the making of this picture. The head was cropped from another photo with the photo of trees overlaid on top then put through several filters.  The photo of the walkway was put through an app called Glaze, then through iColorama to highlight the colours and set as the background. All the pieces and the drop shadow effects were put together in Sketchclub.

A little lost...

A little lost...

I was feeling a little lost yesterday...dealing with a relatively new boss, new ideas, changes.  Different style of management - not in a bad way but just different.  It's been over six months now and I thought I would "get with the program" but I'm not finding it easy to understand.  I don't know why I should care so much...work is not my life.  Or at least, it shouldn't be...

Life is treating me well and I have a lot to be thankful for.  It's just that I get a little lost sometimes.

 Apps used - Paper by 53 then Glaze.

Lynn

For Lynn

A good friend and colleague passed away unexpectedly two weeks ago. I'm just going to ramble here a bit so feel free not to read any of this. Her memorial service was today. I've known her for almost fourteen years. She was one of those people who quietly and wonderfully touched many lives.

Today at the funeral, I couldn't help but noticed over half the people were from work. It wasn't that she didn't have friends but I think it was a true testament to her that so many of us are friends as well as coworkers. I think I've finally understand why we're there, despite the stress and all our grumblings. The relationship I have with these people is more than just someone I work with but they are people I care about as friends.

I'll miss you, Lynn. You always had a way of putting things in perspective.  As bad as I feel, I can't imagine what her family is feeling. They were all very close.