After a couple weeks of hard work, things are coming together and our backyard is ready for use.  The shed is up and sitting proudly in the corner of our garden.  The kids were excited, not so much for the completion of the project, but just to be out (more often now) in the yard.  They love running around, playing on the swings, monkey bars, climbing up and sliding down the slide, and having a tea party !!!  Bee adored tea party.  Her eyes light up at the sound of those words.  And so we did, have a tea party, to celebrate our completed patio.

pink lemonade tea. freezies, and macarons !!! we were in sweet heaven !

Handy man C took the left over pallets and made a bench for us to sit on !  It took him less than an hour to disassembled the pallets, cut to size and nailed them all back together.  He also did some sanding to smoothen out the rough surface.  The results was a nice 5X5 bench for extra sittings in our patio.

We ended the evening with lots of water, dirt, clovers and 2 naked kids running around !  We love our backyard and with the new designated area for family dining and lounging and grassy area for playing and games, parents and kids are both happy campers ! 

I love rummaging through junk (hoping to find treasure :)  If time permits, I would be hitting garage sale, yard sale, estate sale, moving sale, multi families garage sale, flea market, church thrift sale, second hand stores, and any other kind of old used items sale on the weekend !

 

 

I like them old things.  Simply because they reminded me of the past.  They hold so many memories (or not, if they were in storage most of their life, but I like to think they were well used and loved).  Many reminded me of my childhood.  Especially those 4 wheels roller skate. 

Every time I see them, they would transport me back to the first time I learnt to skate.  It was a late 80s' early summer morning.  My mom was sitting on the porch, my grandma was in the kitchen, and I was out side in the garden.  I was wearing a hand-me-down white button up dress with tiny green, yellow and red bouquets of flowers.  I was sitting on the garden's paved walk way, soaking in the sun, breathing in the smell of the fresh cut lawn and getting ready to take my first step on the skate.  I stood up fell flat down !  I don't know why I remember that day so vividly.  Perhaps it was a very good day.  Perhaps because it was my first experience of the west (roller skating)  during my first week in Canada.  I was finally united with my grandma and all my aunts.  I miss my grandma and my aunt Sarah very much.  I wish I can talk to them again, hug them again.  Memories of those who passed on are sweet and painful altogether.

 

So back to vintage stuff !!!  Used, old, items are the things of the past.  They age with time so they're bound to smell a little funky !  Do you notice that ?  or is this just us ?  My husband's sensitive nose can't handle the musty smell.  5 min. in a store and he feels the overwhelming need to rush outside for fresh air.  For him, antique or vintage shop conjures up images of old dead people, corpse to be exact.  Needless to say, he doesn't enjoy this kind of outing very much.  Also because I spend an unreasonably long amount of time (his words) in each of this store.  My husband doesn't understand that I need time to dig through these mountains of stuff.  That's what fun about it !  And I need time to think, to reminisce, to smile at the thought of the life it lived !  ah...look at that vhs player ?  oh and the hand crank egg beater, rotary phone...old times, good times.

 

Here are some pictures of my recent visit to Waterfront Antique Market and Auction in Lynnwood, WA, USA.   Each vendor decorated their own stall and set their own price.  It was very neat, clean and interesting.  You dig and pick out what you want then bring it up to the cash register to pay.  You can't haggle because the vendors aren't there.  Some are cheaper than others so you have to check out each stall.  I wish we have something like this here in BC. 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twice a year my husband would go through his closet and remove shirts that are stained, ripped, no longer fit or he just doesn't wear.  We would pack them all and drop off at one of those  Children's Foundation's donation bin.

One day, a friend of mine sent me a pic. of a shirt that was repurposed into a kid's shirt and tagged me on it.  I saw it and thought it was such an awesome idea !  I asked C to give me one of his dress shirt and he gave me one that he no longer wear as it's worn around the neck line.  I decided to make Bee a dress out of it !  With little time on hand, like 20 min., I decided to make the easiest dress I can think of :-)  Since it's a shirt, a shirt dress it is !  Since it's gray color, I added white lace around the neckline (case a stretchy band around the neck to easy slip on/off) for added touch of softness.  I then cut one of the sleeve open and sewn onto the dress to make it into a pocket.  Bee ADORES pocket !!!  She likes to fill it up with her baubles :-)


girl's dress made from man's dress shirt !

I will be doing this with all of hubby's clothes going forward.  If they're in good shape, they'll go to charity.  Rip or stained, it'll be repurposed into something useful for our little ones :-)  I'm trying to buy less and re-use more !  Our landfill is growing by the minute, I want to contribute as little as possible. 



Eigensinn Farm Pork Steak with Green beans cooked with speck and garlic scape at Haisai restaurant in Singhampton on Sept. 6, 2013.  (Deborah Baic/The Globe and Mail)



KAT TANCOCK

Special to The Globe and Mail

 

In March, I attended a food-photography workshop in Sicily with Béatrice Peltre, author of the cookbook La Tartine Gourmande. The true value was in watching Peltre work: endless adjustments and retakes, extreme pickiness when selecting produce and the patience to keep trying until the shot was right.

Martha Stewart, one might think, would know all of this, with her extensive media experience and general air of OCD. And yet her Twitter feed of late has had the look of being hijacked by a half-blind toddler. The images, collected and spread far and wide by BuzzFeed, range from out of focus and badly lit to earning comparisons to the origins of penicillin and the contents of certain bathroom fixtures. Not a good thing.

Food photography, for all the derision it receives, isn’t easy, especially when shooting with a smartphone. Here’s how to do it right.

Don’t use your flash: “The best food under harsh lighting conditions won’t look appetizing,” says Vancouver photographer Joann Pai. “Never use the flash on a smartphone.” If it’s dark, look for external light sources, such as candles or a lamp. In daytime, shoot near a window, with the subject out of direct sunlight.

Don’t stop at one: “You’re never going to get it on the first shot,” says Vancouver photographer Shawn Taylor. “Try the same thing with little tweaks: lighting, where you place the focus, exposure, angle.”

Think about angles: “For me, the best angle is top-down,” says Pai. “It gives you a chance to style what’s around the table.” Taylor agrees, and says that trying different angles is key to getting a creative shot. “45 degrees is boring because that’s how you see your food when you’re sitting at the table.”

Don’t centre everything: “The fact that we can move the phone quickly to what we want to show is really empowering,” says Peltre, who suggests playing with cropping and what appears within the frame. Pai is a believer in the classic rule of thirds, placing the subject one-third of the way in from the photo’s edges. “I like to place my subjects off-centre.”

Don’t post straight online: A little adjustment of your image can go a long way, whether it’s via a photo-editing app (see sidebar) or just an Instagram filter. “When you’ve got bad light, sometimes the filter fixes things,” says Taylor.

Apps to try
Joann Pai suggests thinking outside the Instagram frame when shooting with your phone. Here are her three essential apps:

ProCamera 7 (iOS, itunes.apple.com)
Use this app to control camera functionality while taking photos, including manually adjusting shutter speed, focus, exposure and white balance – and displaying live ISO and shutter-speed data.

Snapseed (iOS, Android, Chrome, snapseed.com, itunes.apple.com)
Adjust ambience, brightness, and more in this mobile- or Web-based photo editor that’s been owned by Google since late last year.

VSCO Cam (iOS, itunes.apple.com)
Pai likes this app for its filters, which she prefers over those in Instagram as they’re more food-friendly. “Filters should alter the mood of the scene but not take away from what the food actually looks like.”

 

 

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I heart craigslist !  I've found many awesome deals and sold many of my no-longer-needed items on this site.  I think it's important to recycle, not just newspaper and plastic, but recycle in the form of buying used item, keeping it out of the landfill !  If you got things you no longer want, before dumping them, try to sell or offer them for free on craigslist first.

A while back I found a console table for $80.  It was solid wood and super heavy.  It took us and 2 other gentlemen to carry it to our car !  We hauled it home on our SUV and got my bro. to help us taking it into our garage.

It sat there for weeks.  Out of sight, out of mind.  Then one day my husband said to me, "I've been sanding it here and there, it looks like it's a lot of work.  I don't know when I can get to it.  Please don't take home junk !!!  we have so much stuff in our garage already".  Eeekk, I forgot that I  bought it !  I went down to take a look at it, saw the streaks of sanding, and thought, man, this is too big of a project.  I shared it with C and we both decided to use it as storage in our garage.

Then one sunny Monday, (we sure got lots of sunny days lately !) C got a day off so we dragged the table out of our garage, attempting to clean it up one last time.  He spent 5 hours or so sanding off just the top, front and sides.  It looks promising so C quickly ran to Rona and grab walnut wood stain.  It's now early evening so I asked my mom looked after the kids so I can help C stain this baby.  If we don't finish it today, I know it will be a long time until we get to it again !!!

We spent the next 4 hours staining the table !!!  It took 4 coats to darken it.  After each coat we have to wait for it to dry a bit before we continue on with the next one.  When done, we shared a victory smile while our arms were super tired, they're about to fall off.  

After the stain dried, we noticed some stain dripped but not very noticeable on first look !  overall, it turned out even better than how I envisioned it.  We enjoyed working on this so much we don't mind doing something similar again !  Cheers to our next project !