This is one of the most adorable videos I've ever seen - that man has a heart of gold, God bless him!
Enjoy!
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Thursday's trip to RBG
As you might know from the 'Focus on Life' post of this week we have recently been to Royal Botanical Garden. I wanted to visit the Rock Garden, where the tulips are almost gone by now. But the garden was closed so we went to another - which involved a little hiking and a lot of fun.
As William put it "and to think I didn't want to come!" :) Many of the pictures are taken by William himself
As William put it "and to think I didn't want to come!" :) Many of the pictures are taken by William himself
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| This friendly Cardinal wasn't afraid to come close and I think he wanted some seeds :) |
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| William had fun with the chipmunk - she, too, wanted food |
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| A lovely sun-set (the beginning of) in the park |
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| Our resident swans (we were hoping to see the pelicans, no luck yet) |
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| The Red-winged Blackbird (I kid you know, that's the name of this bird!) She followed us around a lot and kept chirping |
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| One of God's creatures - we are still trying to figure out what is it. It was quite large (more of a beaver size) |
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| Another of God's creatures (in our area we have over 3,000 species of birds... we have just started to learn their names) |
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| Huge trout: I mean **huge**; the large one was over 3 ft long! |
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| The child, admiring nature (and checking the time at mommy's request) |
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| Said Red-winged Blackbird: she might have had a nest close-by... |
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| ... because she fought both this Cardinal and another Red-winged Blackbird |
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| A cute woodpecker walking on the board and pecking it for worms |
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| The well-known and beautifully coloured Mallard |
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| A pair of swans, watched by a lone goose |
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| And another swan, on the ground (probably nesting) |
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| The thinking man - he's lost in his thoughts |
Friday, May 17, 2013
Focus on Life: Week 20: Up!
Sally Russick of The Studio Sublime is hosting a year long challenge which is... sublime... as you'd expect with such a studio name. The challenge is named 'Focusing on Life' and every week Sally is sending a prompt on what should we focus the following week.
This week let's change our perspective and look up!
There is a whole world above us that we sometimes miss seeing
because we simply forget to look up.
I do, actually, look a lot up and have tons of pictures of trees on the sky. I just love that feeling when there is nothing between you and the universe! I haven't done it in a while (I should!) but when I was younger I would just lay on the grass and admire the sky. It is very soothing!
Funny thing is - I had some pictures taken past week with the sky and trees... but as it stands, the weather is gorgeous and yesterday we went in one of the parks that are part of Royal Botanical Garden and this is what we found while looking up.
The branches are heavy with blooms and you can feel the fragrance in the air - combined from all the colourful explosions.
And then... far, far away...
What did you find while looking up?
Please come and check everybody's perspective at Miss Sally's
P.S. Update: today (Saturday, May 18th) we took another trip to the gardens. This time William decided to be the photographer (I'll have a post later this week with his pictures) and I did what I wanted so badly: laid down under one of the trees and watched the sky. Truly I cannot think of anything else that makes you feel more calmer, more free, more happy than laying on the grass and watching the clouds speed by.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Time to stitch: #3
Therese and Christine organized the Time to Stitch, edition #3 recently.
This time we had to choose a flat stitch *and* a spiral. I am not fond of flat stitches, but I so wanted to try a spiral and I knew there is no way I'll do it by myself, I need someone to 'push' me, so I signed up.
Life intervened many way, first our original deadline (April 20th) was push almost a month away (today) then things got added, and added, and... enough :) I toyed with the idea of telling Therese I will not be able to participate, then I told myself: "self, it's beading and a thread, stop making excuses and start weaving!".
I'm good at kicking myself into gear, so I did just that.
I chose the Russian spiral and started to look at what kind of seed beads I might have around. Digging enough I came up with probably a #15 in a vintage necklace, one that's older than I am in a beautiful teal colour. For the accent beads all I managed was a #11 in a nice crystal - mind you, it was Sunday evening (yes, this past Sunday!) and the Maple Leafs just tied the series, so it seemed fit to get their colours in :)
It went surprisingly well and after a few inches I had to ask myself what I want to do with it. Since I still don't know how to finish the weaving very well (I wish someone will focus on that, I found tons of patterns, but very little on actual finishing a piece) I decided to stay small and come back later once I figure out how to add a proper clasp to the thing:
I am thinking earrings - originally I wanted to add a bead stopper at the end too, but now I like them better this way - what do you think?!
The flat stitch I chose was brick... thinking it can't be that bad. Well, it almost was! I had troubles understanding how to increase the darn thing, because, you see... I couldn't go with a flat thinggie, I had to do *this*:
They were meant to be earrings as well - but... I started them with the above teal beads, only to understand really quickly it won't go well. The beads are not uniform enough, and their inside whole is tiny, it won't allow for the repeated thread going through. So out came the box (I decided to buy no beads for this challenge, as I have a box full of seed beads I am not using!) and I found the gold #6s first. Then the mate white #6 and the white cylinders were supposed to be used anyhow: another vintage strand from home... that one is probably older than my mom is (if memory serves me right, if not my mom will straighten this one up quickly :) )
The brick stitch itself went well and quickly... the fringes gave me tons of troubles (bonus point for who discovers the tiny defect in the fringes!) - but that being said - I actually loved creating this piece. It so spells 'Cleopatra' to me!
Again, not knowing how to finish the thing... I made a brass connector and as soon as I figure out what kind of a neck-piece to make for it it will become a looong necklace. What kind of 'thread' can I make with the #6 so it won't overpower the piece? Or should I try to get smaller size gold and white and weave them together? The pieces for the fringes cannot be used, I don't have enough (maybe I'll add some accents here and there to tie everything in)
Anyhow, these were my takes on this edition of the "Time to Stitch'!
Please make sure you visit everybody else to see what they've created:
Our lovely hosts:
Therese Frank
Christine Altmiller
This time we had to choose a flat stitch *and* a spiral. I am not fond of flat stitches, but I so wanted to try a spiral and I knew there is no way I'll do it by myself, I need someone to 'push' me, so I signed up.
Life intervened many way, first our original deadline (April 20th) was push almost a month away (today) then things got added, and added, and... enough :) I toyed with the idea of telling Therese I will not be able to participate, then I told myself: "self, it's beading and a thread, stop making excuses and start weaving!".
I'm good at kicking myself into gear, so I did just that.
I chose the Russian spiral and started to look at what kind of seed beads I might have around. Digging enough I came up with probably a #15 in a vintage necklace, one that's older than I am in a beautiful teal colour. For the accent beads all I managed was a #11 in a nice crystal - mind you, it was Sunday evening (yes, this past Sunday!) and the Maple Leafs just tied the series, so it seemed fit to get their colours in :)
It went surprisingly well and after a few inches I had to ask myself what I want to do with it. Since I still don't know how to finish the weaving very well (I wish someone will focus on that, I found tons of patterns, but very little on actual finishing a piece) I decided to stay small and come back later once I figure out how to add a proper clasp to the thing:
I am thinking earrings - originally I wanted to add a bead stopper at the end too, but now I like them better this way - what do you think?!
The flat stitch I chose was brick... thinking it can't be that bad. Well, it almost was! I had troubles understanding how to increase the darn thing, because, you see... I couldn't go with a flat thinggie, I had to do *this*:
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| Cleopatra: Brick stitch with fringes and vintage seed beads |
They were meant to be earrings as well - but... I started them with the above teal beads, only to understand really quickly it won't go well. The beads are not uniform enough, and their inside whole is tiny, it won't allow for the repeated thread going through. So out came the box (I decided to buy no beads for this challenge, as I have a box full of seed beads I am not using!) and I found the gold #6s first. Then the mate white #6 and the white cylinders were supposed to be used anyhow: another vintage strand from home... that one is probably older than my mom is (if memory serves me right, if not my mom will straighten this one up quickly :) )
The brick stitch itself went well and quickly... the fringes gave me tons of troubles (bonus point for who discovers the tiny defect in the fringes!) - but that being said - I actually loved creating this piece. It so spells 'Cleopatra' to me!
Again, not knowing how to finish the thing... I made a brass connector and as soon as I figure out what kind of a neck-piece to make for it it will become a looong necklace. What kind of 'thread' can I make with the #6 so it won't overpower the piece? Or should I try to get smaller size gold and white and weave them together? The pieces for the fringes cannot be used, I don't have enough (maybe I'll add some accents here and there to tie everything in)
Anyhow, these were my takes on this edition of the "Time to Stitch'!
Please make sure you visit everybody else to see what they've created:
Our lovely hosts:
Therese Frank
Christine Altmiller
Alicia Marinache <-- you're here
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