P is the meanest girl letter

Hey!

My daughter has synaesthesia too! And yes, she got it from me. It's incurable and we wouldn't have it any other way.

I discovered this from the discussion that we had in the car en route to (what else) synchro practice recently. Gave me the shivers... so cool that she and I have this in common!

So we started comparing: for me A is red, and for her: navy blue, B is brown (me) and yellow (her), C is yellow/green. And so on. 

But then she went further and listed their personalities and genders: A is (definitely) a boy - and an irritating one at that, B is a (tom)girl, C is a boy, but a nice one.

I started to compare, and realized that - when pressed - my letters had genders too. No personalities though... maybe I've outgrown that aspect.

When we got down to P:

"oh..."
she said, shaking her head a bit

"P is a mean letter. A girl: P is the meanest girl letter."

freezing rain today on the burning bush seeds

how I stay amused*, happy appy style

Last week I was sitting inside at the pool and saw this stand of burning bushes just outside:

original, taken with iPad3

The sun was just setting behind the building so I wasn't sure if I had enough light but I knew that if I waited for better conditions during next week's swim practice there was a good chance the leaves would be down and I'd have missed a creative opportunity. I love colour, and the fall display this year on my part of the globe has been unsurpassed. So I hussled outside to capture some shots with my iPad3 and iPhone4.

original, taken with iPhone4

original, untouched, taken with iPhone4

Hipstamatic app taken on iPhone4
(John S. lens, no flash)

Percolator of Hipstamatic

I really like the Percolator app; ones of my favourites. I processed the above image using my iPad3, sitting on the couch beside my husband during the evening news. There's three dials on the app, and each of those has multiple choices. The combinations for end image are too numerous to keep track of... so I'm not entirely sure how the above image came to be. I just noodle around until I think 'ooo, purtee' and save. 

original, taken by iPad3

ShakeItPhoto app

The ShakeItPhoto mimics a Polaroid, and even goes through the whole click, whirr and develop in front of your eyes. You can shake your iPhone/iPad to speed it up, but you don't need to. (and: you're not supposed to shake it like a Polaroid either I've since learned... but that's another blogpost when I reveal that I've purchased a secondhand SX-70 Land camera and film from The Impossible Project)

Goes without saying that I really like my iPhone and iPad for photography. They both take fantastic photos, and the retina screen on the iPad3 is phenomenal. I still use both my Sony CyberShot and Pentax DSLR (my CyberShot is in my purse at all times)... but for ease of use, and the fact that I've always got my iPhone with me I love my iPhone. And my photo apps.   

screenshot

photography icon in the upper left corner includes: Darkroom, Phototreats, Labelbox, Black's uploader app, Diptic, LEGO Photo, Percolator, Flickr, Actioncam, PhotoToaster

not included in screenshot: ShakeItPhoto, MarbleCam, ActionShot, SloPro, ProCam, Fisheye Pro, Bokehful, Squaready, Hueless, 

hunh, that's about 30 photo apps... just about what I thought I had...

Most of the time I just snap a pic, it saves to Camera Roll and then I can import it later into whichever app I feel like. However you can't do this with Hipstamatic, it requires you to take the photo within the app.

I've aquired many of my photo apps after seeing docpop's on instagram. Other photomuses: Daily Dose of Imagery, Blurb.

I suspect this blog post will be continued in further installments...

*(Alternate Blog Post Titles: How the Laundry Piles Up, Why My Dust Bunnies Have Formed a Union, How I Trained My Dog to Self-Walk, Sleep is for Wusses, Why No One Gifts Me Houseplants Anymore)

why I don't colour my hair (anymore)

There's talk in my circle of authenticity, living life whole-hearted... and yet I don't understand why everyone (everyfemaleone) is not being their authentic self...? how can one be themselves if they have fake hair colour...

wow, that's simplistic huh? (ok, and a bit judge-y)


For me: I was fed up. The kicker was when I read online how one woman kept mascara with her at all times so she could fix her roots in the washroom. Much like I quit a popular diet -- >ahem< lifestyle management -- company when they advocated counting each stick of sugarless gum (5cal), that was what did it for me. No way was I about to start getting that persnicketedy.

oh, come on! it was 1989...

I have curly hair, so I don't have a part and thus no skunkline of regrowth, but I have been going gray since my teens so after 18 years of colouring the gray away I was starting to see more gray regrowth than I felt comfy with. But fussing that much? nuh uh. I find having to reapply lipstick too tedious sometimes...

So six years ago I let it go au naturelle. Telling myself that I knew where my fake hair colour formula was and could return to it if I wanted. No biggie.

Except I haven't looked back, and I am more comfy now than I ever was. I've never been a primper, so I have a fairly basic routine. And I follow the Curly Girl approach to taking care of the tresses: cleansing my hair usually only once a week with mostly just conditioner (aka the No Poo approach to hair maintenance). Blow dry on occasion, always with just the diffuser and never completely dry. Very often I just clip my hair up wet, sleep on it and in the morning remove the clips and I'm off! And I haven't used a brush or comb on my hair in years. I just use my own two hands.

ps :: I'm not dissing authenticity 'n stuff, I'm in complete and total agreement with Brene Brown and her work... sometimes it just seems strange for people to wander around declaring "this is the real me!" when it's not, completely, y'know? and yeah, I guess the same could be said for makeup (yes, I wear makeup) but somehow that doesn't seem quite the same.

What do you think? Could you go gray...?


edits and further thoughts:

[my husband just read this and admitted that a fellow dogwalker asked him last week where his Mum was since she hadn't seen me out walking our dog in a while...]  8D

[which then reminded me of when we were car shopping 16 years ago and the car salesman asked if I was planning on buying the car for my son, gesturing to my husband nearby]

[which goes to show that it wasn't due to my hair colour, but due to the fact that my husband looks far younger than his years... see photo below... he's actually older than me!]

he's 27 here!

Sunset Wraparound Epiphany

I'm planning on frogging a sweater. And I'm looking forward to it! I belong to a loose-knit (HA! ha ha ha....) group of Fabric Artists - there are knitters & crocheters, weavers, spinners and quilters that show up at the monthly meetings. We started out years ago in a coffee shop but the group grew, and so we've expanded to a more permanent space. (a church hall)

Sunset Wraparound, in progress

I started this particular sweater in 2007. I knit fast and furious for about 8 months, got about 80% done and then couldn't stand its insulative properties during the summer and put it aside. It was almost full size, and that much Alpaca on your lap will make you sweat no matter what.

And since then it's lagged. Last year I made a decision to not feed my yarn habit anymore, and use what I have in my stash to create. Pulled the Sunset Wraparound out and kicked my butt in gear.

While I was trying it on a couple of months ago to measure some things I had a passing thought

"wow, this is kinda itchy against my bare skin"
"but that's OK, I'll just wear a tshirt underneath"
...

"wow, this is kinda warm"
"hunh, and with a tshirt underneath I'll be hot a lot... and"

 ~~ here come's the epiphany ~~

"... I'll probably never wear it"

???!!!

What is it with epiphanies? one minute I'm happily planning how to finish off the sweater, and then bam out of nowhere am hit with a realization. Where was that thought in 2007??

So, it's coming apart. I'm bringing it to my next Fabric Artists night and am going to share the destructive joy.

ghost sign

G.A. Snider
Photographer

from a plaque attached to the building (132-138 Bank St):

"The corner building, designated as a heritage building by the City of Ottawa, is a good example of late 19th century commercial architecture. Built in 1891 by William Cousens, its first tenants included a grocer, a shoe store, a florist, and a photographer, G.A. Snider, whose advertising sign is still visible. The Facade illustrates the importance of a corner site through the use of high quality masonry construction and decorative brick, stone and terra cotta. Its exuberant mix of Queen Anne and Italianate styles typifies the expansionary mood of the 1890s."

day lily