Life and Olive the Above

First off I need to say thank you to Marichelle at Heart Handmade blog for featuring my products in an article about product photography earlier this week! If your love handmade and all things Etsy, check out her blog for interviews and how-to instructions.

After many years of slogging I have finally completed my Degree in Fine Arts! It has been great to have completed it and I’m thankful to say that I have time, once again to enjoy the greater things in life like friends and party planning and touring around between Vancouver, Victoria and the northern parts of Washington state on last minute trips for Ice Cream at Ed and Aileens!

Photography is one of my passions, one that conveniently gets tucked away when I get too busy but lately I’m gearing up for a new camera so I’ve been trying to clean up my skills so I don’t appear so rusty!

So here are a few moments from our time in Victoria…

Since returning home I have once again been baking bread, which is one of my favourites! My naturopath would be horrified I’m sure but it’s true, I love bread. This past week I followed along with the Apartment Therapy Kitchen blog and made their recipe for Sourdough and it was amazing! I changed it around a bit and made the starter out of a equal blend of rye and white flour which I think was the secret of its success! I tastes magnificent! Last night I dealt with another craving so I’ve also got an image of my Mojito!

Last but not least on the way to pick up our ice cream as we drive through the country I couldn’t help but enjoy this simple landscape.

Well for me winter has always been a season of hot drinks and plenty of projects. School hasn’t always allowed for the former luxury but I have always managed regardless.

I occasionally go through some of my favourite websites seeing if any updates have occurred since my last visit (yes, I know about RSS feeds…) and this one always strikes me because of the beautiful mug and although I’m not a huge fan of Chai, I have always enjoyed brewing my own blend of spices to create a tasty cup. It’s been a long while since I did this last and I feel inspired!

(Inspired by Cookbook Catchall)

Another project I’ve got my eye on is a clutch. I’ve always had a thing for accessories and all the better if I can make it myself. I’ve got a load of great fabric just waiting to be used and this may well be one of those. I found it on Craftster.org a great place to get a little life back in the sewing room or wherever it is you create.

Today, April 17th, 2008, I ran my sewing machine needle over a metal portion of a zipper. In so doing, I have significantly altered its precious timing and it will no longer join fabric in a way that sewing machines should. Although this is likely quite fixable, I’m still lamenting that I cannot finish my weekender bag today and thus, will not be able to take it with me to Victoria tonight. I fear it will cost me a lot to get it fixed because it’s so old and I can only see that as a salesmens perfect opportunity to jack up the price. Oh Singer, I love you.

Photographed is someone else’s Singer 15-91. I couldn’t get myself to go into the back room to photograph mine as I’d probably end up sulking and feeling oh so sad and that just wouldn’t help the problem.

Well it’s been smooth sailing since last Friday when I had my first day of Summer holidays after classes commenced Thursday evening. It was a wonderful sigh of relief to know that the worst is over with (at least thus far.) But then as the days continue on I realize there’s the anxiety of what comes next, and where the heck should I be applying for jobs? I’d really like something stable from 9-5 Monday to Friday, as boring as that sounds, but it’s closer to the schedules everyone around me has.

Tomorrow evening Steve and I are heading to Victoria to celebrate Robyn’s birthday. I’m so excited. Last summer when we went there we indulged in something we’d wanted to do for quite some time. Scoot around the city!

Here’s hoping for some more adventure when we arrive tomorrow night!

I swear I take on too many projects, but you’d have a difficult time to try and stop me! Soap making, photography and even sewing, they’re all in my repertoire and here are some photos Steve took for me one day of people using my slings. One day we’ll set up a studio and get official looking photos but until then, I’m focusing more on the bath and body care products and slings are mainly just for those who know me and know how much I adore them for all the benefits the kids enjoy but also how fashionable they are.

The temperature went to a very comfortable 21 degrees yesterday and so it was no surprise that outside was the place to be.

Steve, Holly and I went to an art show at a local University and then proceeded to enjoy the lazy day on the grass, and in the trees of the campus.

I’m an avid “do-it-yourselfer” (sure selfer isn’t a word, but so it goes.) Whenever possible I will find a way to do it myself, even if it costs a bit more initially just to know it’ll save me over time and give me the satisfaction of finding an effective solution that I made with my own two hands!

This week was no exception. On Friday, being my first day of freedom since finishing classes I set off to hunt down all the products I would need to keep the business running, while also allowing me to flex my muscles to create a natural all purpose cleaner. After much milling about at the shop I had everything I needed. I headed home to create my masterpiece…. first attempt… a flop. I ended up with a gelatinous lump that was less than desirable. The second one was a go so I filled up a spray bottle and off I went to clean off the counter-tops. They looked lovely and smelled of fresh oranges then I came to the stove and looked at the drip trays and thought about every past attempt at cleaning this blackened miseries. I decided even a little cleaning wouldn’t hurt and the smell they’d been giving off every time I made tea wasn’t the most pleasant so I set off into rough waters and to my absolute amazement they came TOTALLY clean.

I was pumped! It’s as though I get this adrenalin surge when the house is clean and it’s something that I didn’t even expect to get results with. So next I thought about the grout around the bathtub that since we moved in two and a half years ago I haven’t been able to overcome. What happened to it? It came off!

Unfortunately I’d cleaned the dirtiest parts were clean by the time Steve entered the bathroom to check on my progress, but he still wanted a before and after shot.

Before:

After:

When it comes to photography, most of us think of portraits and landscapes, vacations and documentation.

Lets just say this is a whole other world of photography. It all started about two years ago…

Having wracked my brain about a group project a few friends and I finally stumbled upon the idea of memory and how it might play into the project. Each of us created a structure to depict a memory that stood out. I was so fascinated by what came of it that two years later I’ve come back full circle and have started crafting these strange looking things as a way of re-experiencing things that stood out from years past.

I take a somewhat childlike approach and make a fun project and here are what some of them came out like (the actual photos in the flesh are much more fascinating but they’ll make it up another day, these are my test shots as I determined what to do with them and some are not fully completed yet.)

I picked up a camera at an early age, probably before the age of ten and because I was sitting in the aisle at my cousins wedding, I was given the privilege of taking photographs. To everyones amazement the photos turned out to be great and it was then, my parents bought my my first point and shoot camera so I could take photos of my own.

Sure I went through the teenage phase of taking ridiculous photos because my friends thought they’d make a great compositions for me. They thought wrong, and I think I knew it all along but being young and impressionable… well… it happens.

So here I am, I now have a degree in fine arts from a reputable school and I became so busy with life and projects I forgot my first love of photography so I’m trying to bring it all back (well I have been for a while now but it’s baby steps).

Recently I started my own business so I got to take on a whole new type of photography that had been entirely foreign to me. Product photography. It was a matter of a tiny bit of Internet research and a little ingenuity and I made my first light box. At first it was a poor rendition of what I had seen on line but as I continued on I worked out the kinks and now, I’m well on my way to better photographs.

It’s been so long it’s spring already and my wheat grass grows ridiculous amounts every day and I haven’t even had a chance to use it for lack of frozen fruits to make yummy smoothies!

It’s been a rather crazy weekend of photo-shoots. Plenty of great times hamming it up in front of the camera. Having been behind the camera most of my years, Saturday was a great night to let loose and get on the other side. What started out as simply figuring out lighting for the photoshoot tomorrow turned into a full fledged party with wardrobe changes, hair and makeup and everything in between!

Sunday was host to a whole different situation of lighting and photographic tableaus. It has been a whirlwind of band photos for a local group called Dawntreader. Although it started with lighting and location issues everything turned out and we had enough photos to start creating press packs which will be sent out before the release of their coming album in May.