Montreal

Montreal was good, the train was a good choice for travel. Took some new photos at the Biodome and botanical gardens.

Montreal tomorrow.  Looking for a house is stressful and disappointing in so many ways.

Glass Factory

First new photos of 2012 and it's already almost March.

I'm not much of a winter person though so I find it hard to go out and shoot when it's cold.

And it was cold on Saturday.

I've waited a long time and made a lot of big mistakes in this journey of mine. Finally, everything seems to be coming together.

It's a slow process and a difficult one, no lying about that. It takes a lot of rearranging how you think, changing what you do.

Lack of confidence has held me back for far too long and it's strange that.  Because I don't think most people would think me lacking in confidence.  And in the areas where they might, they'd be wrong.  Because I'm kind of a good actor and I can make you think that everything I do is exactly as I like.

For years and years, hell, practically since I can remember, I thought I was meant to be a writer.  And I do love it.  I love coming up with a sentence that rolls out of me full of the emotion, timbre and sensory overload of a strong memory.  Yet, I don't work at it.  Not nearly enough.  If I'm being honest, maybe it just doesn't bring me the same kind of joy it once did.  I mean, if I wanted it to happen, I'd make it happen, right?

My photography is something I'm making happen.  Out of the blue this year, I made a firm decision that I would work at it, that I would promote the hell out of myself. I can actually be pretty good at that. Once I got that foot in the door, I wouldn't take it out.  And so far, it's working out great, foot is firmly in the door and propping it open.  Just got an acceptance to an exhibit in March.  So that's two shows between now and May.  That's fully two more than I've ever been in.

The house hunting continues.  I've found a house that seems more perfect than any of the others.  For that reason, I won't even say another word about it here right now.

I am definitely not writing up to my own potential on this fool sham of a blog.

Truth, I just can't be bothered right now, super busy with real life. I'll be back when I can be bothered again.

Yoga

I really like doing Yoga along with Lisa Bennett from Yoga Zone.  They have full episodes on Hulu, but I see there are a few on youtube as well.

You can also try this yoga at home and use this Finishline promotional code  to save on some gear.



Seems she is no longer with Yoga Zone and in fact has her own yoga studio now in New York here:

I'd totally go if I lived there.

Cashmere leggings and Wavy Mops

Wearing my new cashmere long johns today, this crap photo doesn't do them justice. Had them made by Sartoria, super cool concept, upcycled products, you choose the underwear, upper leg and lower leg colours and they stitch 'em together! I went very earth toned (what you can't see is that the "sock" part is actually striped, I'll take better pics later), but you can go bright and crazy if you want!

Even the underwear can be cashmere if you like, soooo comfortable and really cute too!  Look here and you'll see what I mean!!

I've been waiting for something like this. Every time I'd try a boot sock over leggings, it would make my boots super tight and felt crappy. Now I have socks and leggings all built into one, in one layer!!

(this isn't a paid/compensated review by the way, I paid full price for these)

LIZ, you could probably make these yourself!  The legs are made from upcycled sweater sleeves and the underwear part upcycled cashmere sweaters!!

Anyway, these have made me very happy and I plan to buy more brighter ones soon.

In other news, I'm practicing letting my hair just be natural which means kind of wavy. It's definitely grown out of that stupid soccer mom phase thank god.

Found a product called Devacurl courtesy of a friend of mine, it is doing wonders for the health and state of my typically unruly waves.  I've only just started using it and already it has tamed about 70% of the frizz I normally get.  I suspect it gets better and better!

Weekend Recap

Just a couple of things, the house I talked about below was horrible, practically falling in on itself, no, not practically, totally WAS falling in on itself. The greenhouse had busted out windows and clearly hadn't been used in years, sad really. Thankfully I was sort of expecting that, so not too heartbroken but you know, I WAS hopeful. On the down side, we drove for an hour in a BLIZZARD to look at this place!

There's not much for sale that suits me right now. Bummer to be sure, but maybe it will pick up come spring?

Probably going out to take some new photos tonight. Darrick came across an abandoned caboose that looks promising.

Oh also, whoever nominated me for that Canadian bloggers award thingie, thanks. Having said that, it's quite possible I will request I am removed from the nominations because I won't win anyway and I'm not particularly driven to change anything about this blog to improve my chances. But yeah, thanks again.

Maybe photos tomorrow? Yes, definitely photos tomorrow.

Snow Bound

Aloha and all that sort of thing, still just working away on my photos, don't know why exactly but feeling pretty inspired these days, have more plans than time it seems!

The funny thing is, I've been working on shots that I had previously disregarded for various reasons, most commonly my over-critical self-analysis of angle, subject etc.  Revisiting some of these shots I am now finding that I'm liking them even better than the one's I had originally selected to work with!  Always a learning process and one that I'm really appreciating.

The lovely folks at Canada Arts Connect (their link is right over there on your right!) are featuring my work today, it's been really nice for me to actually start interacting and participating with our arts community which in fact is quite large and prolific.

Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood

Really falling into a groove these days, life is good and all that sort of thing.  Super excited to look at houses on Saturday, everytime I look at the one I just feel like it is home, I really hope I'm not disappointed.  But if I am, I have learned that there is always something around the next corner.

Been settling in to working on some of my photos as well, developing my "style", you know?  Will probably start working on the pieces I select for the show pretty soon; need to print, frame (and in some cases this will be a bit of a construction project).  Hope your days are grooving along too!

Ziggy Played Guitar

Continuing to work on my photos and the painterly technique...liking how this one is coming out so far.

and it's turning into this:

Interesting that in the past couple of months I've had so many more visitors yet suddenly so few comments.  And by interesting I mean WTF?

Hi Kirk Cameron!

Another "never gets old" flashback.

Early Spring Cleaning and Always Busy

I'm so fully focused on house hunting/moving right now that everything else is sort of taking a back seat.

New chair and lamp come tomorrow (and desperately needed!)  Thank you Mastercard!

Here are a few shots of a property I'm going to look at this weekend.  I can really picture myself here.  And it has 2 acres, a greenhouse, pond and woodstove!

Besides all this, I'm still working on getting together some pieces for the photography show in May.  Thinking maybe the shots I show simply don't exist yet?

Time Machine

I'm feeling a bit irritable today, that should clear up in a few hours, days almost over.  Wasn't surprised to learn that in fact the men in my office are NOT expected to answer telephones whereas the women (there are 3 of us) are.  In fact, it's so bad that they will sit there and let the phone ring and ring and ring.....and never even think to pick it up, even if you are technically on your lunch and they've just seen you sitting and eating.  Guess it's time for me to start leaving the office at lunch time.

Hello 1965.