Today was an UCK day. It was hot...and work was just a headache. Must be Monday. Oh well, only 14 work days left! But who's counting.
Me! I am counting!
Anyway, I have one announcement and two fun links for you today.
Announcement: I am a fake auntie! That's right, Kait popped out a baby. Who we will call Kitten here as so as to avoid baby stalkage. Kitten was born at 9:14 pm on July 27th. She is 7 lbs. 10 oz, and is 21″ long. Aslo she is apparently beautiful with lots of hair. I say apparently because Kitten's mommy is YET TO POST PICTURES!!! Honestly Kait. Honestly.
I want a baby!
Links:
Blackle
Blackle is google, only black. The idea is that a black screen takes less energy to produce than a white one. Thus you are helping the environment by using blackle instead. A tiny bit. A very tiny bit to compensate for aaaaall the energy it takes to use your computer. They figure that if everyone who uses google used blackle it would make a bit of a difference, but it's also a good daily reminder to try and conserve energy. So next time you have a question, blackle it! Unless you are my mother who probably won't be able to read it.
Blurb
I'm so excited about Blurb! It's a book publishing site that I found through Flickr (moo cards are a flickr affiliate too so I was curious who else they were teamed up with.). So the idea is, you download this little program called Booksmart which contains a bunch of templates that you use to create a book. It's very intuitive, mostly just drag and drop with text boxes and the style is clean and modern. They're geared towards photographers but you can do text books as well. I'm currently working on a 10X8 40 page soft cover photo book of our trip to Chile. Which I've always been too lazy to scrapbook. And honestly, at $18.95 plus shipping, it's cheaper than printing off my photos! I'm soooo excited, if this goes well I will be making a wedding album, a cook book...oh the possibilities are endless.
Also, I have a new flickr account for my art and craftyness. Mostly because I want to do moo card trades. It's [here]
Monday, July 30, 2007
Saturday, July 28, 2007
A late Friday Five
We have company this weekend so I was busy last night...I'll post the pics of dinner after...sooo yummy.
1)Cool ceramics from Blask Nada
2)Sarah Cihat gets old dishes from thrift stores and glazes designs on them and refires them...very amusing version of recycling.
3)Type the Sky by Lisa Rienermann. It's the alphabet spelled out in photos of the sky from the city streets. :)
4) Moo makes stickers! By a sticker book with 90 high quality vinyl stickers of your art or photos! Um, so I'm ordering these as soon as I move. $10!
5)Tub lights!
1)Cool ceramics from Blask Nada
2)Sarah Cihat gets old dishes from thrift stores and glazes designs on them and refires them...very amusing version of recycling.
3)Type the Sky by Lisa Rienermann. It's the alphabet spelled out in photos of the sky from the city streets. :)
4) Moo makes stickers! By a sticker book with 90 high quality vinyl stickers of your art or photos! Um, so I'm ordering these as soon as I move. $10!
5)Tub lights!
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Weather you like it or not
Hmm, life life. I was a little stressy today about moving and work and whatnot. Luckily for me at least the one stress will solve the other, I'm really looking forward to a couple weeks between jobs to clear my head a little. Not that I have my new job yet, but I remain peacefully confident that I will get it :P. Too much drama at work these days, I hope my new job will have more guys and less teenagers. I hope. My meltdown point hit at lunchtime when I decided that the best cure for stress would be a small chocolate silk pie blizzard (no whip). By the time I got it back to work (1.5 minutes) it was apparently melty because when I took the lid off it glooped all over my hand/shorts/leg/desk. This did not help my stress. Perhaps God was trying to tell me that chocolate is actually not the answer to aaall my problems.
Anyway, I'm better now, I've gotten my phone line set to be switched to the new house the day we move and a much better phone plan out of the bargain. I guess it's true with Telus, you just have to ask them. I knew I didn't just love them for the baby hedgehog in the commercial. Now I just have to worry about the power, bank, health care, drivers licences, insurance, mail forwarding....*deep breaths* I'll let Craig do the insurance :P
So we had some pretty crazy clouds this evening, we had a two minute storm, complete with a spit of rain. Didn't drop the temperature at all but I appreciated the effort.
Anyway, I'm better now, I've gotten my phone line set to be switched to the new house the day we move and a much better phone plan out of the bargain. I guess it's true with Telus, you just have to ask them. I knew I didn't just love them for the baby hedgehog in the commercial. Now I just have to worry about the power, bank, health care, drivers licences, insurance, mail forwarding....*deep breaths* I'll let Craig do the insurance :P
So we had some pretty crazy clouds this evening, we had a two minute storm, complete with a spit of rain. Didn't drop the temperature at all but I appreciated the effort.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Blog Tour: Fearless, Day Three
So today's topic (and I hope some of you blog tourers are still out and about this late in the day) is the cover design and why it doesn't really work for me, despite red being my favourite colour.
So first off, when I opened my book package and saw the cover for the first time, my initial reaction was "Oh look, a boring book." I would never in a million years pick this book up in the store. It doesn't look like the kind of book I like. And you know what? It is the kind of book I like. It's pretty important to give the right cues with your cover. This cover screams "suspense" maybe "thriller/mystery/suspense". Though it's a relatively gripping book, that's not the genre, and readers of that genre will pick it up and not get what they were looking for, while it is overlooked by it's real audience. Your audience needs to know that it's their book. I mean it's not a hard fast rule, but that's how marketing works. What kind of cover would I have given it? Hmmm...maybe something more along the lines of:
Just my opinion, but I think that would find me/the audience a bit more clearly. And they're prettier. Oh wait that's my next point.
I would like to stop seeing quick photo manipulations as covers. Running a photoshop filter over a stock photo or two is not art. I know it's not something that non artists/designers usually notice, just like most of you probably don't shudder every time you see a poster using Comic Sans as the font. But it makes me twitchy. The cover looks extremely low-budget to me. Which again makes me sad because I think Fearless deserves more. Especially as the publishers appear to pushing it decently. It baffles me honestly. I looked up the cover designer's portfolio (brandnavigation.com) and it seems to be a pretty decent design company with quite a few good covers under their belt. Fearless is not shown in their portfolio though, so perhaps that's telling.
Every time a poor photo manipulation gets made into a cover a chance for beautiful art is lost, and the illustration community loses another job. And maybe a kitten somewhere dies. Let's stop the tragedy!
So first off, when I opened my book package and saw the cover for the first time, my initial reaction was "Oh look, a boring book." I would never in a million years pick this book up in the store. It doesn't look like the kind of book I like. And you know what? It is the kind of book I like. It's pretty important to give the right cues with your cover. This cover screams "suspense" maybe "thriller/mystery/suspense". Though it's a relatively gripping book, that's not the genre, and readers of that genre will pick it up and not get what they were looking for, while it is overlooked by it's real audience. Your audience needs to know that it's their book. I mean it's not a hard fast rule, but that's how marketing works. What kind of cover would I have given it? Hmmm...maybe something more along the lines of:
Just my opinion, but I think that would find me/the audience a bit more clearly. And they're prettier. Oh wait that's my next point.
I would like to stop seeing quick photo manipulations as covers. Running a photoshop filter over a stock photo or two is not art. I know it's not something that non artists/designers usually notice, just like most of you probably don't shudder every time you see a poster using Comic Sans as the font. But it makes me twitchy. The cover looks extremely low-budget to me. Which again makes me sad because I think Fearless deserves more. Especially as the publishers appear to pushing it decently. It baffles me honestly. I looked up the cover designer's portfolio (brandnavigation.com) and it seems to be a pretty decent design company with quite a few good covers under their belt. Fearless is not shown in their portfolio though, so perhaps that's telling.
Every time a poor photo manipulation gets made into a cover a chance for beautiful art is lost, and the illustration community loses another job. And maybe a kitten somewhere dies. Let's stop the tragedy!
Blog Tour: Fearless, Day Two
So the topic of tonight's conversation: What makes Christian fiction Christian? If you've read Fearless and/or Relentless you'll know why I'm bringing this up; nowhere in this series so far have we had even a mention of God or...well anything religious at all really. But it's published by a Christian Publisher and sitting about in Christian bookstores. So...what makes it a Christian book?
Now, I of course have a rather strange view on the world...being an artist and all. Defining Christian art is almost impossible (but people like to try! Angels? Throw a bible verse on it somewhere? Jesus?). Christian music is a little easier, as it has words, but even there we get bands that are so poetic or vague that the lyrics can be taken in a secular manner. Most Christian literature is so black and white on this issue that I've never really given it that much thought but I believe that the same ideas apply. Art is art is art, no matter what the art form.
My opinion: What makes Christian art/music/literature Christian is not the words, not the lyrics, not the painting of the little Amish girl and her kitten. It's the intent. I truly believe that if someone is creating with the intent to glorify God, and that they are deliberately and prayerfully seeking to accomplish His will with their work, then it is Christian. And God will use it.
Thus I believe that if I can draw something that makes someone smile, God has used me to touch others in the way that I do best. Even without the bible verse across it. On a lesser scale that means that I believe God works through everyone who creates, whether they like it or not, we're made in his image and what we make still carries the echoes. But it's intent that makes it powerful.
And really? I'll have to read the rest of the series to see what Robin Parrish's intent is, and I've very interested to find out!
Thoughts?
Stay tuned for tomorrows discussion on why I don't like the cover design as much as the rest of you :P
Now, I of course have a rather strange view on the world...being an artist and all. Defining Christian art is almost impossible (but people like to try! Angels? Throw a bible verse on it somewhere? Jesus?). Christian music is a little easier, as it has words, but even there we get bands that are so poetic or vague that the lyrics can be taken in a secular manner. Most Christian literature is so black and white on this issue that I've never really given it that much thought but I believe that the same ideas apply. Art is art is art, no matter what the art form.
My opinion: What makes Christian art/music/literature Christian is not the words, not the lyrics, not the painting of the little Amish girl and her kitten. It's the intent. I truly believe that if someone is creating with the intent to glorify God, and that they are deliberately and prayerfully seeking to accomplish His will with their work, then it is Christian. And God will use it.
Thus I believe that if I can draw something that makes someone smile, God has used me to touch others in the way that I do best. Even without the bible verse across it. On a lesser scale that means that I believe God works through everyone who creates, whether they like it or not, we're made in his image and what we make still carries the echoes. But it's intent that makes it powerful.
And really? I'll have to read the rest of the series to see what Robin Parrish's intent is, and I've very interested to find out!
Thoughts?
Stay tuned for tomorrows discussion on why I don't like the cover design as much as the rest of you :P
Monday, July 23, 2007
Commissions
So my monitor is getting darker and darker...something of a problem...I mean I could swap it with my secondary monitor but that one has an anti-glare coating which is sooo annoying. Bad timing for me as we will shortly be broke with Craig going back to school and all. Soooo, I'm hoping you guys can help me out by commissioning me! hmmm? please?
$40. Paypal. And I'll do either a realistic portrait:
Or a full body simple background illustration:
I'll even chuck in a pet if you want. That's pretty cheap considering the time I put into it, and I will make it good!
The images will be 8x10, and I'll send you the 300dpi file so you can print it. For an additional $5, I'll print it and mail it to you signed. I can draw guys by the way :p
Comment here with your email or email me at hannasandvig(at)gmail.com if you're interested!
$40. Paypal. And I'll do either a realistic portrait:
Or a full body simple background illustration:
I'll even chuck in a pet if you want. That's pretty cheap considering the time I put into it, and I will make it good!
The images will be 8x10, and I'll send you the 300dpi file so you can print it. For an additional $5, I'll print it and mail it to you signed. I can draw guys by the way :p
Comment here with your email or email me at hannasandvig(at)gmail.com if you're interested!
Blog Tour: Fearless, Day One
Fearless is the second book in The Dominion Trilogy by Robin Parrish. Relentless is the first which I have not read but my Mom did, so check over there if you're curious. While it probably would have helped to read the first book, I had no trouble picking up and following along in book two.
The premise of Fearless is that certain individuals (the Loci) have been given rings that give them various superpowerish abilities. Grant Barrows is the strongest and that's no coincidence. A group of people known as the Secretum of Six believe he is the Prophesied "Bringer" but he's not sure what exactly he's supposed to be bringing and he's not overly interested in following their plans to find out. Oh, and the rings? They don't come off.
I enjoyed the book, it was interesting and fast paced. The characters were interesting and had some depth. It wasn't unputdownable but I did finish it off in under a week. And I'm definitely going to read the first book and keep my eyes peeled for the third!
So tomorrow I will be discussing what makes Christian Literature...Christian. And then on Wednesday I will be giving you my thoughts on the cover design. Because really, I just have to!
In the meantime, check out Robin's blog: Here
As well as these other fine blogs on our tour:
Trish Anderson Brandon Barr Wayne Thomas Batson Jim Black Justin Boyer Grace Bridges Amy Browning Jackie Castle Valerie Comer Karri Compton Frank Creed Lisa Cromwell CSFF Blog Tour Gene Curtis D. G. D. Davidson Merrie Destefano Jeff Draper April Erwin Linda Gilmore Beth Goddard Marcus Goodyear Andrea Graham Russell Griffith Jill Hart Katie Hart Sherrie Hibbs Christopher Hopper Jason Joyner Karen Dawn King Tina Kulesa Lost Genre Guild Rachel Marks Rebecca LuElla Miller Eve Nielsen John W. Otte John Ottinger Robin Parrish Lyn Perry Rachelle Cheryl Russel Hanna Sandvig Chawna Schroeder Mirtika Schultz James Somers Steve Trower Speculative Faith Jason Waguespac Daniel I. Weaver
Sunday, July 22, 2007
I'm sticking to my chair :(
So yesterday Craig and I both had the day off, a rare and wonderous event. Craig decided that in celebration we should go see both Ratatouille and Harry Potter as we've wanted to see them both for a little while.
So first we went to Yo-yo's for lunch. Yo-yo's is my all-time favourite place to have lunch, they have crepes, paninis and gelato. We each had a spinach feta crepe with mango vinagrette. I love it, they make the crepes right there, so yummy. Craig had Dulce la Leche gelato (naturally as it's a south american flavour) and I had hedgehog. Mmmmm I'm going to miss Yo-yo's a lot. More than some of my friends (if you're reading this you know I don't mean you!)
Then we went to Ratatouille. As it was a matinee it was of course filled with a lot of little kids. It was pretty funny because before the movie, Pixar always does a little animated short movie. This one was about an alien abduction and starts with a big bright light and a loud noise. A little girl across from us (maybe 2 or 3) yelled "I scared!". Soo cute. The movie was excellent, great animation and a wonderful style. It honestly felt french to me. Other than that french rats apparently have no accent, only people. ? It wasn't as funny as other Pixar movies, a little more heartwarming. Usually I hate heartwarming kids movies, but I have to admit, my heart was warmed. Also the end credits are fantastic, possibly my favourite part.
Then we came home, lazed about and ate curry vermicelli salad. I only make salads these days. It's been over 30 every day for over two weeks and the BBQ is broken. I can't bring myself to cook and Craig can't bring himself to spend money on a new BBQ so salads it is. And the occasional sandwich. Actually it's been great, lots of fun. Today I am making bulgar carrot salad and I am quite excited to eat it.
Then we went to Harry Potter. It was soooo loud. It made me want to cry a bit it was so loud. Otherwise excellent movie. They did quite a good job of the climax I thought. Of course it wasn't as good as the book, but honestly, that's why people should read. My only beef was that I thought they were a bit harsh to Cho Chang, and she didn't get much of a role. Also when Harry was packing up to go home at the end another little girl (or maybe the same one?) said loudly "where is Harry Potter going Mommy, where?"
She was too young for that movie in my opinion.
That was yesterday. Exciting hmmm?
So first we went to Yo-yo's for lunch. Yo-yo's is my all-time favourite place to have lunch, they have crepes, paninis and gelato. We each had a spinach feta crepe with mango vinagrette. I love it, they make the crepes right there, so yummy. Craig had Dulce la Leche gelato (naturally as it's a south american flavour) and I had hedgehog. Mmmmm I'm going to miss Yo-yo's a lot. More than some of my friends (if you're reading this you know I don't mean you!)
Then we went to Ratatouille. As it was a matinee it was of course filled with a lot of little kids. It was pretty funny because before the movie, Pixar always does a little animated short movie. This one was about an alien abduction and starts with a big bright light and a loud noise. A little girl across from us (maybe 2 or 3) yelled "I scared!". Soo cute. The movie was excellent, great animation and a wonderful style. It honestly felt french to me. Other than that french rats apparently have no accent, only people. ? It wasn't as funny as other Pixar movies, a little more heartwarming. Usually I hate heartwarming kids movies, but I have to admit, my heart was warmed. Also the end credits are fantastic, possibly my favourite part.
Then we came home, lazed about and ate curry vermicelli salad. I only make salads these days. It's been over 30 every day for over two weeks and the BBQ is broken. I can't bring myself to cook and Craig can't bring himself to spend money on a new BBQ so salads it is. And the occasional sandwich. Actually it's been great, lots of fun. Today I am making bulgar carrot salad and I am quite excited to eat it.
Then we went to Harry Potter. It was soooo loud. It made me want to cry a bit it was so loud. Otherwise excellent movie. They did quite a good job of the climax I thought. Of course it wasn't as good as the book, but honestly, that's why people should read. My only beef was that I thought they were a bit harsh to Cho Chang, and she didn't get much of a role. Also when Harry was packing up to go home at the end another little girl (or maybe the same one?) said loudly "where is Harry Potter going Mommy, where?"
She was too young for that movie in my opinion.
That was yesterday. Exciting hmmm?
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Lotus Brick Quilt
Ahahaha, I quilted! This is my first quilt ever. And my first sewing project in years. My mother always tries to get me to sew and I was having none of it so she eventually gave up on me. Somewhat. She still tortured me by making me hem my own dress pants (and then I shrunk them! gah, so much pain for nothing). So when I told her that I thought I wanted to start sewing she said "I'm glad I'm already sitting down!" Actually first she said "hahahahaha!"
....
But I did it! Self high five! It's the Lotus Brick quilt pattern by the amazing Amy Butler (who inspired me, along with Heather Bailey and Anna Marie Horner by showing me that fabric can be oh so cute!).
This quilt would not have been possible without the time, expertise, sewing machine and endless patience of Amethyst. We love you Am!
Oh, I somehow forgot to mention that the quilt is for Kait's (and Rob) baby girl. Who will born soon. Hopefully very soon for Kait's sake :P
Friday, July 20, 2007
Friday Five
1) Cheese Plates! From Click
2)Colleen Baran, Geez, I'll never make jewelery this pretty.
3)Desk/Bed by Inova. I want one for my spare room!
4)This is pretty much the most beautiful house I've ever seen. And it's about as eco friendly as can be. By Nathan Good, check it out here!
5)And because Eco-friendly architecture is so much fun, you get two. This is Dwight Way, a reclaimed grocery store that's now a apartment complex. So pretty inside too, check the page out. Seriously, it's super cute.
Oh, and if your name is Jen Comer, you should add Apartment Therapy: Green to your blogroll.
2)Colleen Baran, Geez, I'll never make jewelery this pretty.
3)Desk/Bed by Inova. I want one for my spare room!
4)This is pretty much the most beautiful house I've ever seen. And it's about as eco friendly as can be. By Nathan Good, check it out here!
5)And because Eco-friendly architecture is so much fun, you get two. This is Dwight Way, a reclaimed grocery store that's now a apartment complex. So pretty inside too, check the page out. Seriously, it's super cute.
Oh, and if your name is Jen Comer, you should add Apartment Therapy: Green to your blogroll.
A week in my life...continued
Oh life.
Wednesday:
So Wednesday morning was all well and good. Oh wait, Wednesday morning was when we learned that the heat had still been on since winter! The worst heat wave of the year in the muggiest building ever...and the heat was one. No wonder I was soaked with sweat every day!
Gah, then we had a fecal incident (of course). Baby managed to smear aaaall over the floaty baby seat. So mommy brought it all over to show us. Because we wouldn't have believed her otherwise... Yeah so then I got to disinfect the seat, the entire section of deck she dripped across, and go fishing for brown squishy treasures with the mat. As I was putting the hose back away it tapped against the wall and half a tile broke off and fell to the ground. Of course.
Then instructor #1 (the one who swears all the time) lost her cell phone. Her $400 (or $500...it varied) cell phone went missing. She alternated between yelling at us for stealing it and crying hysterically. She had me go through my purse with her watching. Way to win friends. She was very upset with us for not being more sympathetic. Then instructor #2 came in with fever shakes. She was freezing but burning up, awesome. She couldn't find coverage until after her lessons so she just sat on the edge shaking while she taught. Then instructor #3 complained that she was woozy and nauseous. I blame the fact that the heat was on!
Wednesday was a fun day.
Thursday:
Thursday afternoon I saw a fully clothed mother watching her little boy clutch a pool noodle in water over his head. Naturally I was curious.
Me: So....how old is he?
Mom: Five.
Me: You really should be in the water with him.
Mom: Hmmm...yeah he doesn't swim very well even with the life jacket, and I forgot it at home.
Me: You really should be in the water with him!
Mom: Well I can't you see.
Me: ?
Mom whispers: It's that time of the month! You understand.
Me: Actually I swim all the time.
Mom: Really?
No. No I just stand on the edge and yell "Sorry, can't rescue you! It's that time of the month!"
Friday:
Today was pretty good actually. Turns out the heat was indeed on and now it's much nicer! Time for my Friday Five!
Wednesday:
So Wednesday morning was all well and good. Oh wait, Wednesday morning was when we learned that the heat had still been on since winter! The worst heat wave of the year in the muggiest building ever...and the heat was one. No wonder I was soaked with sweat every day!
Gah, then we had a fecal incident (of course). Baby managed to smear aaaall over the floaty baby seat. So mommy brought it all over to show us. Because we wouldn't have believed her otherwise... Yeah so then I got to disinfect the seat, the entire section of deck she dripped across, and go fishing for brown squishy treasures with the mat. As I was putting the hose back away it tapped against the wall and half a tile broke off and fell to the ground. Of course.
Then instructor #1 (the one who swears all the time) lost her cell phone. Her $400 (or $500...it varied) cell phone went missing. She alternated between yelling at us for stealing it and crying hysterically. She had me go through my purse with her watching. Way to win friends. She was very upset with us for not being more sympathetic. Then instructor #2 came in with fever shakes. She was freezing but burning up, awesome. She couldn't find coverage until after her lessons so she just sat on the edge shaking while she taught. Then instructor #3 complained that she was woozy and nauseous. I blame the fact that the heat was on!
Wednesday was a fun day.
Thursday:
Thursday afternoon I saw a fully clothed mother watching her little boy clutch a pool noodle in water over his head. Naturally I was curious.
Me: So....how old is he?
Mom: Five.
Me: You really should be in the water with him.
Mom: Hmmm...yeah he doesn't swim very well even with the life jacket, and I forgot it at home.
Me: You really should be in the water with him!
Mom: Well I can't you see.
Me: ?
Mom whispers: It's that time of the month! You understand.
Me: Actually I swim all the time.
Mom: Really?
No. No I just stand on the edge and yell "Sorry, can't rescue you! It's that time of the month!"
Friday:
Today was pretty good actually. Turns out the heat was indeed on and now it's much nicer! Time for my Friday Five!
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Down with German Accountants!
Here's my week so far:
Sunday:
Church was air conditioned. Otherwise I just laid around whining about the heat.
Monday:
So Monday morning I got to work and unlocked the doors as I always do (I arrive 10 minutes before the pool opens, so it works out). It was an aquafit morning and there were three new ladies waiting to get in. Eagerly waiting. Angrily eagerly waiting. The one lady yelled at me about how they only had 2 minutes to get changed and I thought "gee I hope I'm not that late!". But when I got in I realized that it was only ten to and politely mentioned that perhaps her watch was wrong? She didn't think so.
When I went to let the patrons out onto the pool deck I found that the "No admittance, Pool unsupervised" chain that blocks the door was removed and the ladies had admitted themselves to the unsupervised pool. This makes me aaaangry, by the way. The other ladies said "we told them!" And then one of them (a pleasant mid-sixties lady) muttered "b****es like that don't need to come here" Oh, so the change room was fun too! The men stayed in their change room, because the chain was there! See my regulars are better trained.
Then the vocal lady yelled about where was the instructor (in the pool!) was she going to do anything (oh please Katy, do something!). It was good fun, especially as I was still a bit loopy from sleeping pills and couldn't formulate an adequate reply. She was wearing a bikini and goggles. An odd combination, and neither are really aquafit wear. So long story shorter she (and her two friends) grumbled and complained and made super good friends with Katy and the regulars.
Then while doing a series of tuck jumps her entire nipple popped out of the top of her suit.
I thought "I could tell her, but she'll just yell at me again!"
Katy thought "I could tell her, but she's mean!"
The regulars thought "ha! b**ch shouldn't wear a bikini to aquafit!"
And so she remaind doing tuck jumps with her nipple hanging out for a good five minutes until she noticed on her own (her friends were at the other end of the pool).
This story has two morals:
1) be nice, you never know when you will need a friend.
2) Wear a sport suit when doing aquafit.
Tuesday:
Tuesday I had a conversation with a swimming lesson mom that went like this:
me: So how are lessons going?
slm: Well I have a concern about my son's instructor.
me: oh?
slm: We were driving home last night and I asked him how his lesson was and he said "Mommy my teacher swears all the time"
me: awesome
So I guess there was a whole lot of "Oh My God!"'s thrown around by said teacher and they are a nice Christian family so it was quite upsetting to the little boy. Good times. So I got to write said instructor a letter about professional and child friendly language. Good times.
Geeze, that's only Tuesday, I'll fill you in on the rest tomorrow.
Sunday:
Church was air conditioned. Otherwise I just laid around whining about the heat.
Monday:
So Monday morning I got to work and unlocked the doors as I always do (I arrive 10 minutes before the pool opens, so it works out). It was an aquafit morning and there were three new ladies waiting to get in. Eagerly waiting. Angrily eagerly waiting. The one lady yelled at me about how they only had 2 minutes to get changed and I thought "gee I hope I'm not that late!". But when I got in I realized that it was only ten to and politely mentioned that perhaps her watch was wrong? She didn't think so.
When I went to let the patrons out onto the pool deck I found that the "No admittance, Pool unsupervised" chain that blocks the door was removed and the ladies had admitted themselves to the unsupervised pool. This makes me aaaangry, by the way. The other ladies said "we told them!" And then one of them (a pleasant mid-sixties lady) muttered "b****es like that don't need to come here" Oh, so the change room was fun too! The men stayed in their change room, because the chain was there! See my regulars are better trained.
Then the vocal lady yelled about where was the instructor (in the pool!) was she going to do anything (oh please Katy, do something!). It was good fun, especially as I was still a bit loopy from sleeping pills and couldn't formulate an adequate reply. She was wearing a bikini and goggles. An odd combination, and neither are really aquafit wear. So long story shorter she (and her two friends) grumbled and complained and made super good friends with Katy and the regulars.
Then while doing a series of tuck jumps her entire nipple popped out of the top of her suit.
I thought "I could tell her, but she'll just yell at me again!"
Katy thought "I could tell her, but she's mean!"
The regulars thought "ha! b**ch shouldn't wear a bikini to aquafit!"
And so she remaind doing tuck jumps with her nipple hanging out for a good five minutes until she noticed on her own (her friends were at the other end of the pool).
This story has two morals:
1) be nice, you never know when you will need a friend.
2) Wear a sport suit when doing aquafit.
Tuesday:
Tuesday I had a conversation with a swimming lesson mom that went like this:
me: So how are lessons going?
slm: Well I have a concern about my son's instructor.
me: oh?
slm: We were driving home last night and I asked him how his lesson was and he said "Mommy my teacher swears all the time"
me: awesome
So I guess there was a whole lot of "Oh My God!"'s thrown around by said teacher and they are a nice Christian family so it was quite upsetting to the little boy. Good times. So I got to write said instructor a letter about professional and child friendly language. Good times.
Geeze, that's only Tuesday, I'll fill you in on the rest tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Quote of the Day
"Every time you spend money, you're casting a vote for the kind of world you want." - Anna Lappe
Sunday, July 15, 2007
And Chile is through to the Semi-Finals!
too hooooot
meeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeee
ltiiiing
*puddle*
meeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeee
ltiiiing
*puddle*
Friday, July 13, 2007
Friday Five
Arrrgh it's soooo hot. I wish I worked somewhere with air conditioning. This time of year I get tempted to quit and go work at...Booster Juice or something. Oh sweet coolness. Stupid fan just blows more warm air at me.
On a positive note, if you are ever moving and looking for boxes, Chapters is the place to go! They have tons and tons of smallish strong boxes. Tons. Way more than the liquor store, plus my new neighbours won't think we're alcoholics!
1)
Hilarious commercial, watch it!
2)I love this desk by Arwin Caljouw...look at all the little places to put things!
3)Haha, I bet this is how my bookcases feel!
4)Annette Meyer makes dresses out of paper!
5)Cutey Cup from Lux Delux
On a positive note, if you are ever moving and looking for boxes, Chapters is the place to go! They have tons and tons of smallish strong boxes. Tons. Way more than the liquor store, plus my new neighbours won't think we're alcoholics!
1)
Hilarious commercial, watch it!
2)I love this desk by Arwin Caljouw...look at all the little places to put things!
3)Haha, I bet this is how my bookcases feel!
4)Annette Meyer makes dresses out of paper!
5)Cutey Cup from Lux Delux
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
My Whirlwind Exisistence
Well firstly the most exciting thing. My illustration Koi got made a Daily Deviation on Deviantart. For those of you who are not art nerds, this means that for 24 hours my image popped up with a little blurb in the sidebar while people surfed about the site (not just mine, different medias all have DD's that circulate). Deviantart is the biggest art community in the world so that's a whole heck of a lot of exposure. For instance, I usually average about 30 pageviews a day to my gallery there and in the past day and a half I've gotten 2500. And over 800 messages. I can't reply to them all but I'm trying to reply to lots...it's a little overwhelming. Anyway, the moral of the story is that Hanna just got a whole lot more popular...ten points for me!
Also, I made another new friend yesterday. It's been pretty hot, so we've been keeping all the windows and the patio door open every evening (we've also been sleeping in the living room as it's a leeeetle bit cooler). So while I was trying to reply to as many messages as I could last night, Craig called me into the living room to meet this little guy:
Yes there was a Starling in our living room. Friend to the animals, that's us. So we got it into the kitchen and tried to send it out the door but instead it tried the window. We have the kind of windows where the bottom cranks open and the window pushes out. So the little starling flew straight into the window with a loud *thwack* and then fell down two stories to hit the cement below. Don't worry, he's fine. Maybe down a couple braincells but really, I don't think he was a mensa to start with.
So tonight was Date Night. Well it was sposed to be tomorrow but we're kinda low on food so tonight was the night. We went to Moxies and I had the halibut burger and Craig had the calamari salad. Both were wonderful. My burger had an inch thick breaded halibut steak on it. Soooo yummy. Then we watched Transformers, which was excellent. Wonderful effects, I think the people who made Spiderman should have to watch it to see what a mostly CG movie can look like. Only then they might cry a little on the inside. Go see it. The man beside me was so delighted by the movie that he could hardly sit still. Pretty funny.
Also, I made another new friend yesterday. It's been pretty hot, so we've been keeping all the windows and the patio door open every evening (we've also been sleeping in the living room as it's a leeeetle bit cooler). So while I was trying to reply to as many messages as I could last night, Craig called me into the living room to meet this little guy:
Yes there was a Starling in our living room. Friend to the animals, that's us. So we got it into the kitchen and tried to send it out the door but instead it tried the window. We have the kind of windows where the bottom cranks open and the window pushes out. So the little starling flew straight into the window with a loud *thwack* and then fell down two stories to hit the cement below. Don't worry, he's fine. Maybe down a couple braincells but really, I don't think he was a mensa to start with.
So tonight was Date Night. Well it was sposed to be tomorrow but we're kinda low on food so tonight was the night. We went to Moxies and I had the halibut burger and Craig had the calamari salad. Both were wonderful. My burger had an inch thick breaded halibut steak on it. Soooo yummy. Then we watched Transformers, which was excellent. Wonderful effects, I think the people who made Spiderman should have to watch it to see what a mostly CG movie can look like. Only then they might cry a little on the inside. Go see it. The man beside me was so delighted by the movie that he could hardly sit still. Pretty funny.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Friday Five
Because I wasn't even home yesterday.
1)Soapstone Ice Cubes. These are pretty cool, you can freeze the to use in cold drinks or warm them for hot drinks and they won't dilute the drink.
2)Kalon Studios, very lovely sustainable furniture.
3)Maui Chairs, made out of a single piece of cedar. Very cool.
4)Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker. You load it up and then keep the ball rolling for 20 minutes and you make ice cream! Seems like a good way to burn off the calories you are about to consume :P
5)And lastly is the Pepper Moms Designer Apron. Look how pretty! Go to Shak In Style to enter to win one. Ah, I hope I win.
1)Soapstone Ice Cubes. These are pretty cool, you can freeze the to use in cold drinks or warm them for hot drinks and they won't dilute the drink.
2)Kalon Studios, very lovely sustainable furniture.
3)Maui Chairs, made out of a single piece of cedar. Very cool.
4)Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker. You load it up and then keep the ball rolling for 20 minutes and you make ice cream! Seems like a good way to burn off the calories you are about to consume :P
5)And lastly is the Pepper Moms Designer Apron. Look how pretty! Go to Shak In Style to enter to win one. Ah, I hope I win.
Home sweet Home
Well, it was stupidly hot the whole time we were away, and I got a delightful burn on my window-side arm, but we were successful! We are quite happy as we were able to find a place to rent that was very cheap but still the nicest place we looked at. It's a two bedroom townhouse and happily is across the street from the library and only about a block and a half from a used bookstore. How's that for a location :P.
Here's what it looks like now (just imagine it full of my cute things...) Any suggestions on how to work with pale pink countertops?
On the downside we didn't get to see my Gramma, we drove all the way over to Nelson (about a half hour away from Castlegar, where we're moving) just to find that she had been sent to Trail for a CT scan just 45 minutes before we arrived. A bit of a bummer, also I've had a nasty headache since yesterday afternoon. I took some expired tylenol 3 I found in the cupboard as that was the only drugs I had in the house...that took the edge off but I still feel it lurking about.
Here's what it looks like now (just imagine it full of my cute things...) Any suggestions on how to work with pale pink countertops?
On the downside we didn't get to see my Gramma, we drove all the way over to Nelson (about a half hour away from Castlegar, where we're moving) just to find that she had been sent to Trail for a CT scan just 45 minutes before we arrived. A bit of a bummer, also I've had a nasty headache since yesterday afternoon. I took some expired tylenol 3 I found in the cupboard as that was the only drugs I had in the house...that took the edge off but I still feel it lurking about.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Life life life
In point form due to my own laziness:
-Barb, I killed your painting. That's right, don't try and do a gold leaf design on an oil painting in the summer. The paint was too warm and as a result the gold leaf stuck to a whole lot of paint instead of just the design. I look at it and it makes me angry. Totally unsalvagable.
-I bought a large box of Golden Grahams because they were on sale (5.00!). And now I eat them two or three times a day. This is the result of my childhood where we would only get Golden Grahams every few months (we were a healthy breakfast family) and so my brother and I would eat them in about two days because you had to eat fast before everyone else ate them all! Um, yeah, we loved our Golden Grahams.
-We are going to BC tomorrow to look for a place, so wish us luck. I need to remember to call a couple more places to set up times...
-This weekend Mike the Ghost decided to listen to the radio loudly from 6-7:30 both days. This made me Crazy because I can't sleep through radio noise at all, comes from having a radio alarm most of my life. Also kinda freaked me out the first day because I couldn't figure out where the music was coming from. Well it actually may have been the landlord, as I saw him painting trim at one point and there's still no furniture apart from a bed on the floor down there (so I peek in windows, don't judge me!). Well at least I had a nice two hour nap on Sunday. Mmmm naps.
-Barb, I killed your painting. That's right, don't try and do a gold leaf design on an oil painting in the summer. The paint was too warm and as a result the gold leaf stuck to a whole lot of paint instead of just the design. I look at it and it makes me angry. Totally unsalvagable.
-I bought a large box of Golden Grahams because they were on sale (5.00!). And now I eat them two or three times a day. This is the result of my childhood where we would only get Golden Grahams every few months (we were a healthy breakfast family) and so my brother and I would eat them in about two days because you had to eat fast before everyone else ate them all! Um, yeah, we loved our Golden Grahams.
-We are going to BC tomorrow to look for a place, so wish us luck. I need to remember to call a couple more places to set up times...
-This weekend Mike the Ghost decided to listen to the radio loudly from 6-7:30 both days. This made me Crazy because I can't sleep through radio noise at all, comes from having a radio alarm most of my life. Also kinda freaked me out the first day because I couldn't figure out where the music was coming from. Well it actually may have been the landlord, as I saw him painting trim at one point and there's still no furniture apart from a bed on the floor down there (so I peek in windows, don't judge me!). Well at least I had a nice two hour nap on Sunday. Mmmm naps.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Alice and Bella: Bugs and Flowers
My first Alice and Bella adventure. Took me only...two months to finish drawing...sad.
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