Hunting again

This week we're looking for five more prompts! Go me for getting back on this train. I took a break from photo challenges after Top 11 of '11& Memories, Dreams& Reflections! I am now sitting here watching a Lakers game& editing the photos for this post. Don't forget to check out the other entries! Now, let's move on to the prompts.

1. Stacked Up- Okay. I had to use chocolates because I couldn't think of anything else worth stacking. Cue that giant bag of gold coins Mom got at Costco just last week. Turns out they are good for something more than just making us pleasantly plump! I love this photo in black& white way more than color ..mainly because the color of the shelf clashed with the coins.

2. Winter Wonderland- I am doing a self-portrait a week for the entire year. My game plan is to have 52 really fun& creative portraits of myself so I'm really pushing to get creative. Yesterday, I built a snowman& dressed like it was summer outside. Then I set up the tripod, kicked off my shoes& took some photos. This is, hands down, one of my favorite photos I've ever taken. Not even just of myself but of anyone. Best part? I never would have convinced anyone else to do this.

Also linked to Show Off Your Shot :)

3. Sweet- I love, love, love candy canes. When I saw this prompt I just knew that I had to use them. The key question was how to make it look creative& fun? Yeah. I'm really striving towards being a more creative person this year. I like to think it's even working out for me two weeks in. Final result? Makes me smile ..I can't decide if it is because I like candy canes or I like the actual photo ;)

4. Hole- I'm going to be honest. I had no idea what to do for this one. I tried a few creative photos with the pup but he didn't want to play along& I'm really tired. Instead I'm going to use another photo from my Project 366. Don't worry though, I just took it today when we out for supper so I'm still totally playing by the rules! Does this count ..these lights have holes in them?

5. Frozen- Where I live, everything is frozen. Welcome to winter on an ice-olated island (I'm so clever). It really sucks when you're someone who hates the cold weather. I'm trying to really embrace it by dressing very warmly& still being active. The boyfriend even managed to get me to go for a walk the other day. During that walk, I took some photos because I actually remembered this prompt. Wow! Apparently I'm even breaking my awful habits of procrastination. Some frozen apples ..I also used these as a photo of the day. Just call me a pansy when it comes to reusing photos. I won't mind.

Anyone else participating in the Scavenger Hunt? Is anyone else doing a Project 366& just recycling photos from the last week of that for this particular challenge?! In my defense, I did take two new photos just for this. And the apple photo was taken with this challenge in mind ..okay, I can't justify my laziness. I promise to be better next week! I hope you guys all had a delightful weekend. Mine was completely lovely. Now, I'm curling up with the last half of the Lakers game!

In the midst

In the midst of a winter storm that is! We have all kinds of snow down& now it's a snow/ freezing rain mix. Life on the island is lovely ..if you like being snowed/ frozen in! We used to have a man who plowed our driveway for us every storm, but he moved away. Thankfully, the boyfriend has graciously agreed to step in to fill that position. So instead of shoveling tomorrow, I'll watch him do all the work. Sounds like a much better plan to me!

Thanks to the snow, I did manage to get an evening off from the pool because they closed due to the weather. Downer for the missed time but perk for my poor body. Seeing as I'm laying here with a heating pad rotating between my two shoulders& lower back, I think I really need a few R&R days to focus on pain removal. I currently have so much pain medicine flowing through my veins. It isn't helping. Even a little. I can't get comfortable so I can't sleep. Instead, I'm laying here watching American Horror Story for the first time (definitely need to download this) while listening to the wind outside. I hope all you Americans are not stormed stayed for your Thanksgiving weekend!

Seeing as Canada had Thanksgiving weeks ago there really isn't anything special at all happening for us. Aside from the massive storm raging outside my house. My plans are completely boring. I plan on working Friday night, Saturday morning& night (but I have the afternoon off) then working Sunday night. Oh, the joys of standing on a deck for hours on end counting the swimmers. Although I'll thoroughly enjoy my 4hrs of teaching lessons. Is anyone else out there a lifeguard? Someday I should write a post about it ..but not today. Today our focus is on snow! Oh, and I have a photo session tomorrow evening so that's fun. In the meantime, please enjoy this photo of a leaf-

Linked with {snapped}, texture Thursday,
This or That,

So fun. Obviously both photos included in this post are from twenty minutes into the snowfall. We then proceeded to get pummeled. I tried to get some nighttime photos of the whole thing but sadly my dog wouldn't play along. I'm hoping tomorrow (because yes, I'm writing this post late at night ..seems to work for me) there will still be lots of the white stuff so I can try again then. If not, I'll post the photos from the photo session.

*Update now that it is the morning - we ended up with 40cm or 15.7in of snow. So yes, there is lots of snow where I live. The boyfriend is currently plowing my driveway at 7:30AM and I'm sitting here in PJs still warm. All things considered, it is a good start to the day!

Well then

Today it is no longer extremely mild out and we're getting snow tomorrow. Hello, winter. Since I didn't take any photos today, I figured I'd show my before shots. Not that that many people were impressed with my floating photo ..I actually lost a follower LOL!

Tada. Easy-peasy. I just opened them in photoshop with the bottom photo as the 'background' layer& the photo with me in it as 'Layer 1'. Then I added a mask layer to Layer 1 and masked out the stool. Then I flattened the image. Since I forgot to stand on my tippy toes (there is a lot to remember here folks!) I had to copy my leg from the knee down, add it as a new layer (which I called 'Leg' ..so creative) and then move it so it looked more like I was floating away rather than standing on thin air. I couldn't get the focus right because I was doing this completely alone with a tripod and, obviously, there was nothing to focus on where my head ended up being. That looks like a lot typed out but it really only took about ten minutes. And it was my first time ever doing it. Here is the same photo, only in black& white. Because I can't decide which version I like better& one end result is in this post, just below the one you're reading now! Which do you prefer?

Linked with Photo Story, Fabulous Friday, Photo Friday, 
snapped, SES& Favorite Friday
Also Photo Tip

Look at this

I have my day 2 photo! I'm already amazing myself. I only have 28 days left to say I've completed this challenge ;) I'm thinking the insanely crappy weather has something to do with why I've managed to get two days completed. Today, however, may be the last day for getting this accomplished!

Why? Tonight my parents get home from Vegas AND both of Garret's brothers& their wives& kiddies are coming home! Then tomorrow I'm spending all day at the barn ..soo I think it's a safe bet to say that blogging& meeting photo challenges may be closer to the bottom of the list for the next few days!  It's also supposed to snow tomorrow. No, seriously. Words can barely explain how sad that makes me. Especially considering my parents will be coming home from Vegas with slightly tanner skin (ahah. Kidding. My parents don't tan)& memories of heat. My trip to Cuba is slowly fading ..

Okay so. Day 2 was 'What I wore today'. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not a fashion blogger. I did one fashion post ..I also did a post about fashion websites. I think both of those posts are hilarious because I'm not very good at photoshop but I try anyway. Not to mention someone who loves Regretsy hated the fact I used skants from the website.. anyway, moving on. Since I am not a fashion blogger, I had no idea about a few things.

• What to wear
• How to take photos of it
• How to look hip& cool while photographing myself

The plus side? I'm not hip, stylish or anything of the sort but I am genius ;D Meaning yes, I took a few shots of myself in my clothes. Did they turn out? Ahh.... not even close. They were hilariously bad. I'd post one if I didn't already delete them (sorry, wasn't thinking ahead to writing this)! I had a good laugh at my socially awkward self. Too bad you will just have to use your imagination. So after many (two) failed attempts, I decided I needed a new plan of action. I wasn't ready to fail this photo challenge. At least not yet. What did I do? I know you're dying to find out (is anyone even still reading this?) so let me fill you in!

I took off my clothes. That's right, folks. Then I laid them down on my floor like there was a person& they were lucky enough to be raptured. I know, you're still not quite getting it since you weren't lucky enough to see any clothes post-rapture. Then I added some shoes. I cheated a bit with the shoes. You'll notice they are flats. I am not wearing flats today. There's a hurricane outside! I just didn't want to walk back upstairs to grab my boots. I'm lazy.

I. am. awesome.
Just kidding. What are YOU wearing today?!

Eventful Monday!

America is rejoicing because Osama is dead. Read my mom's blog for some thoughts on that.

Today is the official day to get out there& vote Canada! Your vote matters and you are an important part of our country. May as well make yourself count& participate :)

Also, Lakers have made it to the second round! GO LAKERS GO! I know what I'm spending doing from 11.30 - 2AM. DO YOU?

Barn trip perhaps later if it warms up. If it does, I will have some photos of Dewey for people reading! He's very cute .. too bad our weather sucks WAY too much for outside riding / photo taking. Ugh.

What is on the agenda for YOUR Monday?! Are you celebrating the fact that Bin Laden is swimming in the sea? Are you voting? How is your weather?
Enjoy the first day of the week!

Lots of things!

Today is an exciting day for so many reasons. First off, my blog has exceed 4,000 views ..that means it took less than 1 week to get 1,000 page views. Thank you, people who either find me mildly entertaining or something. I appreciate the follows and the comments :) So, now it's time to discuss the things that are occurring today!

April Fool's Day
Ahh .. I love this day. I don't know why, seeing as I never do anything April Fool-ish or anything. I mostly just cross my fingers& hope that either someone will pull a prank on me or I'll get to witness an amazing prank being pulled on someone else. Or, that someday I will be clever enough& think ahead to pull my very own practical joke on someone! Will this year be the year? No, it won't. Since I will have absolutely no stories of malarkey to tell about, I will appease the readers (you) with this clever card instead (because I love when things are funny AND match my website. Thank you, someecards!):

Contest
Today is officially your last chance to get an entry into my contest in some way, shape or form. You can tweet, blog, comment or facebook it! The prizes are great (if you ask me!) and who doesn't want free stuff?! I can think of no one. Most people will take junk they'll never use under the ruse of 'It was free!'. Let's make this work for my blog .. you have until 11.49PM to get your entry in and I'll be drawing for it tomorrow! On the plus side, if you're sick of seeing me constantly posting about the contest and have no plans of ever entering, at least it will be over soon :)

Exercise
In the last 3 weeks, if you looked up the word slacker in the dictionary, I would have been there. Eating bad food and laying on the couch. I have exercised some .. it just hasn't been nearly as consistent as it was prior to that. It is time for me to get my lazy arse up off my couch and back into my Nike Frees and start running and doing Insanity. I am going to restart Insanity for the full 60 days on Monday and actually hang up the schedule as constant motivation to start .. finish .. and stick to the diet. Why have I fallen off the exercise train after so long? I tore a ligament in the top of my foot / big toe. It hurt for a LONG time and is starting to get better. I cannot wait! The other answer lies beneath this post .. which you'll be reading in about 5 seconds!

Weather
Yes. I am going to blame the weather for this. Cape Breton weather has been sucking majorly. It is constantly cold, windy and either snowing or raining. Yesterday it was gorgeous out and I took Boots for a walk. Today started out promising, the sun was shining .. I heard birds chirping .. I was strongly optimistic. Ahh, optimism. You have foiled me once again. My mom had to go to Halifax today to get the Mini from her appointment with the car doctor, so I looked up the weather for her drive home. 5 - 10cm of snow .. freezing rain .. then rain. I love when we get the full spectrum of precipitation. It brings a smile to my heart and warmth to my limbs. It also makes me wonder why people would ever want to live here? Great place to vacation in summer& autumn. Which is 2 months. The other 10 really make me think this place is unfit for human living.

Photos of the Day
Ahh the joys of trying to take a photo a day for 365 days. I should have tried counting to 365 out loud before committing to such an extremely long project. Especially this whole concept of 'variety' ..I need help. My creative juices are NEVER flowing. This leads to a constant battle between what I can easily take photos of (my dog) versus things that will challenge me / not bore you guys (anything besides my dog). I promise to post later with them ..forgive me?

Music
I will leave you with something though, just not a photo. Some music! YAY you must so excited to get another musical pick from me, right? Well .. I will admit, it rocks. You've probably never even heard of this band before, either. Which makes my pick that much sweeter. Enjoy! And check back in a little bit for my post containing some sweet treats (ones you can't win, sorry folks)!



*April Fools ;)

Happy March!

I meant to post last night .. and then I had to watch Easy A (ps, everyone should also watch this. So brilliantly funny and relevant ahahaha) with Mom. After that, I had to make myself supper and shower in order to get to the boyfriend's house to eat treats and watch people lose weight (Heavy) and get over addictions (Intervention). It was delightful .. but it left me forgetting to update the world on my life!! I know, the disappointment was almost unbearable. The drive over was sooo long ..I hate, hate, hate SNOW. Bright side?!

I GOT TO PLOW THIS MORNING! We got in the Jeep and really, Garret did most of the driving. I, however, moved the plow up and down via the switch! It was really fun .. and then we got tea. And also went to my house to pick up my gym clothes so that I could go to the gym with Margy after my lab. The lab consisted of going to the Pit to check VOC (volatile organic compound) levels .. wearing some PPE (personal protective equipment) .. and checking out what PPE is needed when working with certain chemicals. It was actually kind of fun. Except the part where my head was too tiny to fit any of the masks. We got to spray this delicious tasting mist into our faces to see if we could taste it .. if we could, it meant ill fitting equipment. We could. It was delicious though so we didn't really mind. Had it of been disgusting, I would have been a sadder / grosser experience.

At the gym, I pounded out 4 miles and did an ab workout. After surviving that, I headed to Orange Julius with Marg. They made my smoothie wrong AND I forgot my wallet so I had to scrounge money from Marg. Sorry, promise to pay you back tomorrow when I find my wallet! You're a real doll :) At home, I enjoyed some corn, sweet& sour chicken &mashed potatoes. Delicious. Then a chocolate chip cookie .. some Ritz with cheese .. and a milk and now water. Yum. I may have to break out the popcorn in a little bit, I'm craving snacks!

Basically, today nothing overly exciting has happened and mostly I'm exhausted and still have to pound out QPM and foodborne assignments. Wah wah wah. I am truly wishing I could nap and magically have them done when I wake up. Dream big. I'm currently watching Big Bang and being giddy because some people have randomly picked up my blog and started posting it on their pages (I can now be found in some tumblr sites .. LinkedIn .. etc etc). Thanks for finding me funny / relevant / entertaining / whatever. My boyfriend is floating around on random sites with a dinosaur ahahaha

Now, some topics of choice:
1. Joel Plaskett - let's be real. This guy rocks and has been a staple in my music for many many years. I've seen him in concert SO many times ..sheer genius. He is my favorite cruising music :) When you get to the end of my post, I may just have included a favorite song for you to listen to!

2. Charlie Sheen - Just because Mom mentioned his life isn't nearly as crazy as hers is. I'd like to do a comparison list but 2 problems: 1. I don't know anything about Sheen. 2. I don't know how to make a chart on here :( Perhaps I'll google him and photoshop one up!

3. Winter - we're getting ANOTHER storm on Thursday. This is quickly getting old. Seriously. IT IS MARCH. IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE ALMOST SUMMER. Why lord, why? Snow? Where are you global warming? We should all joins forces with my mom and spray some hairspray in an effort to hurry it up and make us warm!! So, on the other hand they say March either comes in like a lion and out like a lamb or the opposite. So I guess that means we can look forward to a spectacular ending .. along with a beautiful April?!

4. Horses - I miss them SO much. If anyone reading this has a horse they want to lend me, please. Let me know?! Once the spring really arrives, I will desperately require some equine interaction back into my life. Weekly, at least. Preferably? Daily. Or, puppies. If anyone has a puppy I can love, I will be glad to take on the role of crazy dog lady. Has a better ring to it than crazy cat lady anyway!

Alright, so now that we've caught up on my relatively boring past 2 days, I have a photo of the day from yesterday ..I need to take today's still :( Just thinking of everything I still have to do is making me tired. That is never a good sign.
Yesterdays photo was the sky. With some clouds in it. I have no idea what day I'm on .. I'm too tired to count. Numbers make me nauseous. I want to do a good photo some day soon, it requires some nice weather though so I can get outside and do something more than same old, same old! I also need to keep working with my light box.
Here are my clouds :)

C'est fantastique, non? Also, I'm STILL looking for people who want to play model for me. Garret is either going to get sick of me trying to take his photo, or you people are going to think I'm obsessed with posting photos of him!! I have refrained from more photos of him, but need portraits. I can do closeups and landscapes are out until it's nice! So, don't be shy. Just tell me how badly you wish you could be a model. I have photoshop and will only post gorgeous / handsome photos of you! LOL. Oh well.. doesn't hurt to beg a little.

Now, to make good on my promise for a video. I present you, Joel Plaskett. He's great!

PS Joel, when are you coming back to Cape Breton?! Let a girl know. Promise to purchase tickets and hit that up! The island misses you :)

Singapore slings!

So today was Tuesday and how was it different from yesterday? I had a lab, instead of 3 classes. It also wasn't Valentine's Day today.
How was it the same? It was cold and windy with snow. Can I just on record that I am incredibly sick of the cold and the snow?!

So I know you're all burning with desire to know how my Vday went, right? The boyfriend and I hit up East Side Marios and they were so busy that we had to drink our pops from plastic kid cups .. it was cute. We shared a delicious meal, followed by an even more delicious dessert and then I saw my hairdresser and her date, aka Rob aka Garret's friend who is hilarious. So, while Garret was paying the bill, I paid them a visit. I'm sure they were more than excited to have me sitting at their table for a few minutes ahaha after that we went for a drive and went home. I got chocolates and an orchid and we watched Intervention and Heavy. Because nothing says 'I love you' like drug addicts and morbidly obese people :) Then I went to sleep because I was tired and woke up at about 6AM because I don't sleep well.

So that was my love day events. It really wasn't much different from many other dates we have, aside from the flower! So then today, I got to play with radioactive rocks in Occupational Hygiene. My exposure was 1mR. I don't know what that means, but it is low. Afterward, I went out for supper AGAIN (I need to work on this, apparently ahaha) with Karli, Marg and Linds at the Black Spoon. I absolutely adore that place. It plays sirius Coffeehouse and is dimly lit and quaint. So nice. They were 30 minutes late, so instead of being my usual self and dreading being alone, what did I do? I embraced the alone time and ordered myself a Singapore Sling. It was pink and delicious and reminded me of some very important things:
1. Keep everything in perspective. Alone time is fabulous, even in a place where you are expected to be with others.
2. I actually need to take my advice and start bringing my camera everywhere I go. Would have been a fabulous photo of the day :(

So, that was my evening. It was delightful, those girls are all excellent company! We discussed a photo shoot (until then, any volunteers for portraits?! I need some work on those.) and travel plans over break. Now I am tucked into my bed for the evening with the wind howling outside while I listen to good music and, eventually, study for foodborne. Motivation is difficult because tomorrow I am going to write that test and then go to foodborne lab and then go to the gym with Marg and get a coffee& tea with the boyfriend. Then I just have to study for air quality on Friday and then? HELLO BREAK! Nice to see you! I plan on filling you with so many fun activities. Perhaps I will even ride a horse over my break. I am really suffering from horse withdrawal and missing my little mule of a pony, Shy. I am also SO excited to get back to the gym. It has been about 3 days since I did any exercise and I'm feeling crappy. Not to mention all the eating out. Ugh ..the company was good though, so not too much complaining!

Alright, with that said .. here is my suckiest installment of photo of the day so far! Today is day 12. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to bring my camera everywhere with me and I don't even care if I get strange looks from people wondering why I am lugging a dSLR around. If I did that, my current photo would be a gorgeous Singapore sling. Instead, it is dry erase markers. Just call this day a write off, please and don't hold it against me ahahah.

So now that my generally sucky photo has been uploaded for the world to see .. it's time to curl up with foodborne and my puppy and try to learn some stuff for this test tomorrow. Wish me luck.