…..I recently downloaded an app called Photo Sketch that turns photos into sketches or adds filters
Turn Back the Clock
If only it was
that simple to erase the
lines and flaws of time
Weekly Photo Challenge: Selfie
2
Tag Archives: photography
Footwear is Mandatory in Restaurant Kitchens
…I learned that the hard way tonight
I love to cook and since my husband does most of it, I’ve been a bit out of practice. Tonight I was draining the boiling water from the pasta when a large portion splashed out of the pan and onto the floor. Unfortunately my foot was in the way and I wasn’t wearing any footwear other than socks. Ouch!
I sat at the dinner table with a baggie of ice on top of my foot but I probably waited a little too long before I administered first aid to myself. The foot has already started to blister and at the moment it is stinging like crazy.
Maybe I’m taking this drawing thing a bit too far but I really didn’t think that the photograph did justice for the the pain I am feeling.
After reading about burns in restaurants I discovered that major burns are a frequent occurrence, particularly scald injuries (hot water from pasta pots). So to all my friends who work in kitchens and cook at home take this piece of advice…..wear shoes on your feet when working around hot water.
Cheers!
One Last Meeting Before Heading Home
….and then I was down for the count with a head cold
The day after the wedding the sisters and their families got together for one last meal before heading back to Toronto, Oshawa, Calgary, Vancouver and for two lucky people, Hawaii.
There was some discussion by the more practical in the group that meeting for brunch didn’t seem to be a very economic thing to do when the hotel provided a ‘perfectly good breakfast’. After some debate, it was agreed that it wasn’t about the food but rather a chance to get together one more time before heading off in separate directions.
At around 11:00 we all met at the local pancake house allowing the early risers to take advantage of the ‘free’ breakfast back at the hotel. Everyone, including the early risers ordered brunch. I don’t know where they found room to eat again and some of us were being served lunch on the train a few hours later. Anyway it was nice getting together one last time and making final plans for dropping off the rental car and deciding what to do for one hour before heading out to the train station.
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- The newly weds
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- My baby sister’s kids
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- My middle sister’s son
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- Group shot
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- My baby sister who hates having her picture taken.
Now living in Chatham has a few downsides. One of them is that the car rental place isn’t open on Sundays so there was no one to drive us to the train station after we dropped off the car. My brother-in-law agreed to follow me to the rental office, drop off the keys in the drop off box and then drive me back to the station where the luggage and my family would be waiting.
The other downside, however, was that the train station didn’t open it’s doors until 30 minutes before the train arrived. That meant that the luggage and my sister who had to give up her seat in the car for me and all my family had to wait outside in the freezing temperatures while I returned the car.
That brings me to the final downside and that is the weather in Chatham. It is considerably colder than Toronto or at least it tends to get the bad weather first as it blows through southern Ontario towards the big city. There’s not much one can do about the weather and it’s been a brutal winter all over Ontario this year but it was just one more ‘uncomfortable’ aspect of our return trip.
We said our good-byes and my baby sister and her family and then they drove off to Windsor to catch a flight to Toronto, where they would individually make connecting flights to Vancouver and Calgary. My sister and her husband had slightly different plans. They would be staying overnight at the airport hotel in Toronto and then catching a flight to Hawaii the next day where they would celebrate their wedding anniversary for two weeks. Nice!
The train trip back was most enjoyable for my father. We had the seats with the large table between us and our seat mates were very friendly and talkative. They quickly learned all about my father’s past, starting with the war, his emigration to Canada, getting his first job at the Royal York Hotel, my mother’s death and how he met his current wife. The four trip went by very quickly.
Once we were at Union Station, my daughters and I regrouped and we made sure that my Dad got to the Go Train waiting room and bought his ticket to return to Oshawa. He phoned me later that night to let me know that he returned ‘safe and sound’ and that his car was still in the parking lot where he left it, three days earlier.
My daughter and I shared a cab and we went back to her place where my husband picked me up. It was nice to be home and back in my own bed. The next day, however, I felt a cold coming on. Isn’t that always the way. I’m not surprised though; my brother-in-law was complaining about his cold all weekend and I did hug him several times.
I had plans to attend the show Les Mis on Thursday with two of my good friends and L’s mom and we were a bit worried about me passing on my cold to M. After three days of suffering at school I decided to take the day off on Thursday and just rest before going to the show. I have to say that it did wonders for me and I didn’t cough once at the show. The show by the way was fantastic. It was the first time I’ve seen it and apparently this show has been getting rave reviews.
So there’s my ‘Away and Down for the Count’ post done over three days. Thanks for your patience. I know that if you started reading mid way it was a bit confusing.
Cheers!
Exploring Faces
….3 days into a new online course
I recently signed up for another on-line course with Carla Sonheim. It’s called Faces 101 because by the end of the five day course I should have drawn and painted 101 faces. I’m already one day behind on my assignments but the good thing with this course is that once you purchase the program the assignments and videos are always available to you. I can post up to six of my best pieces onto a group page on Flickr daily and Carla will comment on my progress.
Here are a few of my faces so far:
Share Your World – Week 4, 2014
,,,,some interesting questions this week….had to think about some of them
Do you recharge your energy by going out with friends for a good time or by spending with quiet time alone? For a person who likes company and likes to ‘party’ you might find it surprising that I enjoy quiet time alone to re-energize. Going out tends to zap my energy. Staying home and reading a good book, painting or writing gives me a sense of accomplishment and that for me is energizing.
What is the most number of blankets you’ve ever had on your bed? I don’t like heavy blankets on the bed at night. I much prefer one cozy down comforter to keep me warm. I think the most number of blankets at any one time would be three but just the thought of that makes me uncomfortable.
You are invited to a party that will be attended by many fascinating people you never met. Would you attend this party if you were to go by yourself? I’m not sure I would go, especially by myself. If a friend wanted to go I might consider it. After all it might be fun meeting some of these people. My one concern would be that the evening could be a bust and then what would I do. If I went with a friend we could at least salvage the evening and go for a drink together and enjoy each other’s company.
Do you like talking to people on the phone? Or do you prefer voice mail or email? As much as I like the convenience of emails, I prefer to talk to people on the phone. An email and a one sided voice mail can be misinterpreted as to the person’s meaning or intent. Did that message have an angry tone to it?… is he joking? ….should I be concerned? On the phone you can address the person directly and probably hear in their voice how they’re feeling or what the intent of a statement meant and if you can’t you can ask them right away.
Tissue Collage Landscape Done by Eight Year Olds
….here are the results of the lesson I started a couple of weeks ago
It was a bit of a struggle but with a little bit of encouragement to keep going and add more detail the first few tissue landscapes are finished.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Juxtaposition
This classic old building “The Flat Iron Building” in downtown Toronto was the focus of this shot but one can’t help but see the modern skyscrapers that hover behind it.
This is a quirky coffee shop in Queen St. West. Part of the decor includes a wall of art with old classroom desks used as tables and a hobby horse for added measure.
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/photo-challenge-juxtaposition/
Away and Down for the Count
….I feel like I haven’t posted in awhile so here’s my week in review
Friday, January 17
My bags are packed and I’m on my way to Chatham for my sister’s wedding. My husband is suffering a great deal of pain from his fall earlier this week and isn’t coming with us. I booked an appointment to get my hair cut before I headed out to meet my father and catch the train at Union Station.
I arrived an hour early and looked out for my 87 year old father who had to come into Toronto from Oshawa on the Go Train. Unfortunately Union Station is undergoing a lot of renovation and finding anybody is a bit tricky. I sat down in a waiting area figuring his train wasn’t due to arrive for another half an hour. Little did I know that he caught an earlier train. Luckily for me my Dad isn’t shy and after asking for some directions he ended up waiting in a waiting area on the opposite side of the station.
When I thought his train was about to arrive I stood up to see if I could catch a glimpse of him as he arrived. I happened to look over to the other side of the station and sure enough there he was wandering around looking for me. All ended well. We got on the train together and settled in for a very enjoyable 3 1/2 hour trip.
One of the things that my husband arranged that both my Dad and I very much appreciated was upgrade our seats to business class. My father was very surprised when he pulled out his wallet to buy a drink and was politely told by one of our seat mates to put away his money. All drinks and food on business class are complimentary. The meals were excellent, better than any airline meal I’ve ever had.
When we got to Chatham the car rental company picked us up and drove us to the rental office to pick up our van. The hotel was just down the street. We booked into the Holiday Inn Express and freshened up before going to the wedding rehearsal.
My sister came by and we followed her to the church.
After about an hour of running through the ceremony and making final adjustment we got back into our cars and headed out to Pain Court (French pronunciation – pan cour) for the rehearsal dinner.
When we finished our meal we headed back to Chatham but in the meantime it had started snowing so driving was a little treacherous. My other sister and her family were flying in from Calgary and were landing in Windsor which meant that they had to drive from Windsor to Chatham.
When we got back to the hotel we inquired about my sister’s family but they hadn’t yet arrived. About 15 minutes later my phone rang and my sister announce that they were in the hotel. A few minutes later all five of them came down to my room and we had a bit of a reunion. Dad was already for bed for he didn’t join us.
After catching up and meeting T’s ( my nephew) girlfriend we made arrangements to meet for breakfast and then apparently we were going to the hall to decorate it for the wedding.
Saturday, January 18
Breakfast was in the hotel. We all met downstairs and enjoyed the complimentary coffee and breakfast foods. Dad finally greeted the rest of CS’s family (my baby sister) and we planned out the rest of the day.
We drove to the restaurant where the wedding reception was being held. A friend of my sister who was getting married was already there with instructions on what to do to decorate the space. I organized the name tags on the tables and my baby sister helped the bride’s friend decorate the head table.
My brother-in-law picked up my girls from the train station and we had three more sets of hands to help decorate. My sister’s theme was a rifle range because that’s where she and D met over 30 years ago when they were both at university. The tables had cap guns, rifle lighters and the walls were decorated with targets.
At one point my sister proclaimed that we needed more tape so again my brother-in-law volunteered to go buy some. Little did we know that he was checking out the local dollar store and he bought most of the glow sticks in the place and bought more toy guns and caps. He returned with two huge bags.
The original plan was to meet the bride for lunch after she got her hair done but she ran behind schedule so we were on our own. We couldn’t agree on where to go so we decided to go our separate ways for lunch. I had to take the girls back to the hotel first anyway so that they could check in. Once we did that we found a Tim Horton’s close by and had a quick lunch before we returned to the hotel to get dressed for the wedding.
To Be Continued………
Scratch Art
….brown craft paper, oil pastels, and black acrylic paint
Last week I discovered that I was running out of some basic materials, like glue sticks and my supply order that I made weeks before the holidays still hadn’t arrived. After rummaging through the supply cupboard I found enough brown paper for two classes. I had plenty of oil pastels and 2 jars of black acrylic paint.
Some of the students were still finishing their Hundertwasser style landscapes using chalk pastel, so it was interesting for them to experience a new medium, oil pastels. Everyone was busy, either finishing projects or starting a new one. I set up one table for painting to limit the mess and thank goodness for my new drying rack.
Scratch Art from Scratch
I’ve never attempted to do scratch art projects because I’ve only ever seen them done using pre-made scratch boards. As I was going through one of my many art book for children I discovered a simple way to make our own black scratch papers. I have to say that making our own papers was very satisfying and gave the children some experience using oil pastels. I loved using the brown paper and the students were encouraged to leave some of the brown edges exposed.
Students are encouraged to lay down a thick layer of pastels. No background paper should show through. Once we were satisfied with the amount of pastel on the paper we painted a thick layer of black acrylic paint. Before you do this make sure that each student has written their name on the back of their paper or you will have quite a time trying to determine who belongs to the blackened sheets when they come back a week later.
As soon as students finished painting over the the pastels they placed their papers on the drying rack. (This is not a one day project). In the remaining time students can start sketching on copy paper a rough copy of what they would like to draw. I have numerous drawing books available for them to look through and be inspired.
In the following class each student was given a paper clip that I bent open and that was their scratching tool. It works fairly well, especially if you hold it like a pencil and gently rub away the black paint. The assignment was to draw some animals but some of them chose to create a landscape or they did a combination of both. I mounted the finished pieces on two pieces of different coloured construction paper so that it looked like it was matted. Again I think that the grade 2/3 class did a great job.
Tissue Collage Landscape
….I introduced four different art projects this week
I had to think quickly this week as to what I was going to teach in art. I ordered some supplies before Christmas and they hadn’t come in yet so I scrambled to find a project(s) that required the materials I had on hand. Of all the projects that I assigned I think the one I introduced to my grade 3 class is my favourite so far.
We talked about landscapes and reviewed the components: foreground, background and horizon line. I demonstrated how to tear the tissue and overlap the colours to give the picture more depth. I then explained that once the tissue layer was complete we were going to cut out shapes from construction paper, magazines and art papers that we had created last year to create a foreground of flowers.
In the first class most of the students only finished gluing down the tissue paper. In the next class they will cut out their shapes from different materials, glue them into place and then using a fine tip black marker they will add detail to their cut outs and add some line drawings behind their collaged flowers.
I had lots of art books and posters to demonstrate the technique and show a variety of flowers that they could draw. I didn’t want everyone to gravitate to the blue tissue for their sky so I read them Peter Reynolds new book Sky Colour. It’s a wonderful book that every teacher who teaches art should have in their library.
All my classes loved the book and took the message to heart. Very few chose a solid blue for their sky colour.
I started a sample with the children as they worked so that they could visualize what I had in mind. I think that the process is more important than the product and I find giving them a sample to look at helps them better understand the process. No two pictures are ever the same.
Today I finished my sample at home. The first picture shows the tissue in the background and the simple cut outs that are glued on top. In the second picture you can see a close-up of the detail that I drew in after with a fine tip black Sharpie and the third picture is the entire finished piece.
I’m looking forward to seeing what my grade 3s come up with.
Cheers!
