And Then IT Happened!

And then it happened. Three years of photo's wiped clean of my computer and external hard drive!!!

Just when I was ready to get back at blogging. Right......I never printed any photos. I cried, and now we start again.  This photo is the garden I am working towards, on a much smaller scale. Love it!

Catching up - April 2011

We have had a News Paper route! Three girls, three routes. We lasted 5 months. It was very time consuming, more after school activities were added to our schedule, in the end I delivered to all three routes! On the plus side - We repainted all the white trim work in our house due to black news print finger marks Everywhere!

What the HECK!

Snow - again!

I was hoping to start taking photo of my spring garden, not a winter garden.

Even the poor garden fairy looks exhausted holding that snow.

 This photo (below) was under exposed when I took it, so I quickly beefed it up but I think I went too far too fast - right now SNOW is not my favorite subject - I will now delete this photo from my files.

JoAnna

Kensington Market

Hey Guys, 

I spend today in the city with some photography friends. The 4 of us drove to China town and then walked the streets to Kensington Market. We had a great lunch in a Mexican Restaurant named El Trompo at 277 Augusta Avenue . I tried a drink called "Horcahta (made from rice, vanilla, cinnamon and a bit of milk) ohh it was soo good. Any who here are just a few of the photos I took - I am always learning and my friends were nice enough to try to teach more about taking photos.......so much to learn.

I love all the colours in this small space.

 These bricks are a great back drop

 I love the shadow here.

 Sweet skirts

I can't wait til the next outing.

JoAnna

Am I Crazy?

 Am I Crazy?

This couch is sitting on the neighbour's front porch and....... I love it! 

I love it - I see soo much potential.

Its a beautiful red velvet with wonderful wood detail. Can you imagine it re-upholstered in linen and the wood painted white. It has 4 cushions so I would re-design it to be 3 but keep the the same puckered back (proper terminology ???). I bet it would be a pretty penny to have re-upholstered.

 It looks super long ~ I took the photos from the sidewalk so I haven't had the up close and personal look yet.

 

 I think it could look something like this.

 

Am I crazy?

JoAnna.

Cake

Let them eat cake.

Looky looky what the girls made, they made their first fondant cake.

It's much like playing with play-doh - so much fun.  

For the first attempt I think it turned out great, a little thick but non the less it's a show stopper.

Lane's 13th Birthday

TV

I have been meaning to post these photos for a awhile now. 

I bought this stereo cabinet from the thrift store, I refinished it, took off the wooden yin and yang symbols from the middle door, took the legs off and had Mr. attache it to the wall.

 I forgot to take a photo of the BEST part.......the original working light bulb inside, when you slide the left hand door open the light comes on! Brilliant.

 I like to take random photos of some of the rooms in the house - it give me a chance to see whats working in terms of colour and space. As you probably noticed  I photoshopped the BLACK iron heat register from the base board under the cabinet on the right hand side - now I know it will look better painted the same colour as the base board - Yup, add it to my list of things to do.

We both like a clean and modern look in home decor but sometimes in my photos I think the room looks stark. I'll take a full room photo and you can be the judge. 

Happy Tuesday..... JoAnna

Ellicottville Year 5

Back from vacation! 

We are back from our annual ski/board vacation - and man was it awesome! The runs were great, lots of snow and extreme cold temperatures. We skied 4 days morning til night. I love our winter vacation, lots of exercise outside and then back to relax in the hot tub, but mostly I love hanging out with our family & friends for the week.

I didn't take many photos of the vacation this year, I let the girls take video instead, I hope to have some funny movies.

Below is a photo of my NEW favorite socks, given to me and made by Nanny. I was given them on the trip and I swear to you I wore them everyday after we returned from the hill. They are so warm and fun. I took the photo and sent it to Nanny as a Thank you.

Thanks again Nanny.

JoAnna

my artwork

 

Had my appointment with  the oral surgeon yesterday - 3 more weeks of blender food!

JoAnna

winter display

blender with a capitol B

I was in bed last week for the majority of the week. I had some oral surgery done (details are gross) but I am on the mend, swelling has decreased, off my pain killers but still blending all my food. 

This photo is a reminder of how much time I spend in bed. 

I have used this image in the past but wanted to try some textures on it. At first I loved it, the darkness, the way the star lights glow, the eery feeling...... But now that I'm looking at it again, I'm not so sure.

I guess that's how I felt last week, for the small amount of time that I was conscious. 

Like I said I am on the slow mend and I have our ski vacation next week to look forward to. So next week I will take some lovely white snowy photos, brighten them up am mak'em pretty.

Til then, take care.

JoAnna

Miss L's head board - photo by westy

I'm Here

I'm here just not as often. I started working outside the home mid November. It's great but now I have limited time for the blog and photography. I work for the city, walk to work (5minutes) and my hours are 9am - 2pm Mon to Friday. I am able to walk Miss. P to school in the morning and pick everyone up after school. 

Then the real work begins, clean up breakfast dishes to make dinner and rush out the door to an activity. We are both out with kids running in separate directions Monday to Friday! And then 3 games of hockey, 2 practices spread over the weekend. 

Love it!

Won't want it any other way.

 

I will pop in again when I can sneak a few minutes but don't hold your breath.

JoAnna

Banister

I love this!

I found this photo on the net (sorry, don't know the source) and I love it. I want to do this decoration for Christmas. It will be a lot of work but it's so great to share memories with family and friends and I think this is the perfect way. Now to set some time aside to make it happen....hmmm.

JoAnna

adidas be-dazzled

Miss P. spends a week in the summer with her Great Aunt Sharon at the cottage. Aunt Sharon is the best at everything, cake decorating, sewing, crafts, and be-dazzling! Miss P. went to the cottage with a new pair of adidas super stars this summer and came home with a be - dazzled pair of super stars! She loves them and so do all the kids at school. I finally got around to taking a photo of them and here it is. 

They really sparkle in the sun but this is the best we could capture. The little jewels are actually Swarovski Crystals, Uncle George is a wholesale jeweler - Yup, you know it, I send my Christmas Want list right Aunt Sharon and Uncle George!

JoAnna

Last of the flowers - for awhile anway.

While I'm looking at end of September photos on my camera ( still have not down loaded) - Christmas is creeping up on us. Santa Claus Parade is next weekend......a great excuse to make chili and ask my neighbor Anita to make her most excellent corn bread, hint hint. Yum.

JoAnna

Working. Really....!

The time has come.  

Dramatic eh? 

Well, for the moment anyway. 

I have taken on a part-time job with the city for next 2 months. 

The hours are great, Mon- Fri, 9am - 2pm. I am still able to run all children to and from school and even walk the dog before work. It's with the Sales and Development department. I like it. 

This little venture will make me appreciate what I had. Staying at home, my own schedule doing what I wanted when I wanted and visiting friends anytime of the day, in fact all day if I liked, 

wink* wink* ~ Miss Tina. 

I'll keep you posted on how I/we manage.

 Both photos are from the neighborhood - (Dianne - I know you're going to take a walk around the block. hee, hee.) I have juiced both photos as Karen likes to say. I'm still waiting for both Karen and Dianne to set-up their blogs  - let me know when your up and running ladies.

JoAnna

enough already - right?

 I love it - I can't get enough of the textures! 

I know they look very messy but I love them because I'm actually learning more about photoshop than ever before. Once I become comfortable with the process behind creating a textured photo (wow, lots of background work), I really think some might turn out nice!

This will come in handy when I take photos around the house and need to blur the mess in the background - genius!

Til next time, 

 

JoAnna

texture 2

Just messing with my photos.

JoAnna

texture mini lesson

Here we are. I have soo many photos that get downloaded to the computer and that's it, there they sit. Yes, I print some and make family photo books of others, very nice, but I want to do more with them.


That's when it happened - I came across another blog on the net and the owner had a few tips on how to make your photos pop with texture! She gives great direction and then homework! These 2 photos show a very WEE tiny bit of what I've learned so far. There is sooo much to learn! I know some people might see them as horrible and ugly but the amount of effort to get them to this state is mind blowing........sounds funny to have them look horrible with a lot of effort but I know it will get better. I wanted to post them to hopefully be able to come back to them as a measurement of my progress. Wish me luck.

These photo's are from the neighborhood - Mr. thinks I should do a collection of photos from the hood? Any thoughts?

JoAnna