Life and Olive the Above

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to attend Open Source Photography West in downtown Seattle! I found out about it with only two weeks to spare, but enough time to make a commitment and plan a short working vacation in good ol’ America to spend some time shooting with other photographers from around the region.
The weekend was kicked off on Friday night with a Cocktail meet and greet hosted by Microsoft at Hotel 1000, a great venue in a very convenient location for walking around to many of the locations we shot at. Going into it, I wasn’t sure what to expect or the experience many of those attending would have but I was happy to be surrounded by some great talent and really got some valuable working knowledge from each session whether on the field or in the conference room. They were giving away some great take homes from Kiss wedding albums, OneLight, ProDPI and ShowIt among others! I was fortunate enough to come away with some album templates from Gene Higga, a fabulous destination wedding photographer.
Here are just a few images from the photoshoots I partook in.

Lately I’ve been following @ScottBourne on Twitter and more  recently he’s been hosting a bunch of contests through his website Photo Focus. He’s been giving away Ray Flashes and with my every growing love of photography I swoon over such things! Last weekend I had the priviledge to go to Seattle, WA for Open Source Photo West which was a great opportunity to get together with other photographers and models and make it happen! Hope they plan another one next year! Anyways all this to say contests = amazing!

This evening was my first time back to the Vancouver Art Gallery since I completed my degree in April of last year. My student pass no longer valid I am forced to enjoy the evening amidst the crowds on the “by donation” Tuesday evening. The show had a few pieces of interest and in the showing of abstract works, I recognized a fair number of pieces but over all the exhibition lacked a certain “gusto” as my mother would say. Sad as it may be, I still say that the Brien Jungen show in 2006 has always been my favourite at the VAG. I expected to be disappointed to some degree and yet I was completely blown away by his talent and his creative thought.  If he’s unfamiliar to you he’s widely known for creating native masks out of Air Jordan shoes. For me, it was the lawn chair dinosaur skeletons that drew me in among other things .

Upon the shows closing we had hoped to enjoy a great cappuccino from Artigianos cafe. To our dismay it closed just as we came upon the few stairs to the door. Artigianos is one of those places that reminds you of how enjoyable a drink should be and can be. Sadly most chains fall short of this and now that they’ve been purchased by a larger company my hope is that they too won’t go down the dreaded path of mediocrity. The night missed a couple high notes with the exhibits and the coffee but the company was great and the adventures in the city were definitely needed and well worth the trek.

It makes me wonder what is so different from one cup to the next that they taste worlds apart? While in Italy in May 2006 I enjoyed possibly the most delicious cappuccino at the gallery which was once home to Peggy Guggenheim. If only such goodness didn’t have to be so far away.

Outside the weather goes back and forth between winter and spring with hot sun and snow the following day. So I too have been going back and forth from Body Care Crafter to Photographer and back again with every other thing in between.

Steve and I have now begun to truly settle into our new home in Cloverdale. We still live amidst a few “projects” but the bulk is done and normal life is beginning to resume again. OliveLife.ca was completely void of any activity with all the commotion around the house, that’s right completely void. But an overhaul has been long overdue so I’m going to test market a new style of imagery for the site and see what the response will be. I’m undecided if a busier image is as eye catching in the market place  even though it does have a certain appeal in my individual store.

So to celebrate the coming of spring I give you the crocus outside our door

and the hope that the nicer weather will bring out a reason to wear a more “fancy free” pair of shoes…

Steve and I have moved from our former living space, which although large and having everything included, left much to be desired. We’ve moved into a smaller community, Cloverdale, where we continue the grueling process of moving in. I find myself glued to Design*Sponge and Apartment Therapy or design shows on television that show some element of promise.To intensify matters Shrove Tuesday is coming up and we’ve aggreed to have a small gathering for dinner so it serves as a date to get most of the unpacking and nesting done.

I’m going through all the rooms looking for art and prints we can put up on the wall, frantically searching Craigslist for furniture we could paint out or otherwise modify and drawing up floor plans on Gliffy and coming up with ideas for headboards in our room!

I love this kind of stuff!

I do however miss our garden but I’ve got a few planters outside that have Crocus in them! Not much but it’s a start!

Being that Christmas time is a busy time for the art/craft community, I was happy to attend a Christmas market in Vancouver this year with a good friend, one we’ve attended the last 3 years in a row. My favourite moment is when I realize there was something the year before which I wanted so desperately and never picked up. This year I remembered a potter who made such lightweight and skilled work and I had the opportunity to pick up a beautiful mug by Junichi Tanaka which is in a very iron filled dark clay with a dripping glaze over the top that is a myriad of greens, white and brown all mingled together. In the last few years I’ve come to the realization that a cupboard of diferent handmade mugs is somehow much more desirable to me that any set of mugs I could find in the store. Even if it’s only one mug at a time it has been worth it to have been collecting over the last year or two.

After a very long and cold winter, even a few days ago chattering in the cold weather, this weekend brought with it plenty of hot sun and I could not have been happier!

I thought I would display a couple shots I took last night while at a fondue party a friend of ours hosted. I am working on getting a great night time shot for an on-line assignment and these were my first two attempts. They are 13 Seconds long with a slow flash.

In the spirit of the holidays I found myself utterly wrapped up in becoming the next Suzy-Homemaker of 2007 (now into ‘08). Having sent in my letter of resignation for my current job and with only two days left ‘officially’ employed by any kind of company with a payroll system. I couldn’t help but be entirely giddy at the posibilities of what to do with my time!

Today I spent some time looking at the Kitchn Blog by Apartment Therapy. I always appreciated their home decor but it wasn’t until this morning I realized that they had a cooking section and since that’s been one of my latest endeavours, it was inevitable that I’d have to try something.

So this afternoon, while Holly was over and we sipped our coffee, which we flavoured with eggnog in place of cream, and we went to work making my own recipe of pumpkin applesauce muffins while I prepared their recipe for a quicker version of the New York Times No Kneed Bread. Currently it’s baking in my La Creuset Multifunction Pan.

Here’s the finished product

Also in the works I’m trying their recipe for Earl Grey Shortbread cookies but they’re in the freezer awaiting the next guest (could it be Alyssa? I don’t know.) I’ll be sure to take photos once I make them.

On the agenda tomorrow, Duke of Earl Soap, inspired by the cookies and then off to my second to last day of work!

Who said life wasn’t good?