Photos from the Toronto Ice Storm

Although there was much devastation on our street in Thornhill, with many fallen trees,  there was also much beauty as everything was encapsulated in a twinkling layer of ice...

Christmas Card Production

Above are a few images of my Christmas Card production... and below are the secrets of how they were made!

Well before the actual mass production day, I traced two images of pinecone in black ink which I downloaded from the internet, and after a little tweaking of the contrast in photoshop, sent it to The Rubber Stamp Factory to have a large and small stamp made of them. 

Dovecraft Pigment Ink makes loads of coloured ink pads, but I wanted a rich chocolate brown for my pine cones, and was able to order this one from Amazon, along with some 6mm wide white satin ribbon.

The grey card was purchased from the Cowling and Wilcox art store in Camberwell, along with some brown ink pens for writing my season's greetings. I cut out the luggage tag shape myself with a blade, and simply punched the hole with a single hole punch.

Then it was just a matter of stamping, and tying on the ribbons!

Christmas Cards Off!

 

 

This weekend was my annual Christmas Card fabrication and production weekend, so accompanied by my Christmas music playlist, hot chocolate, and mince pies the task was completed.

 

Off the cards go now!!

Oh Christmas Tree....

 

 

This weekend I bought my first own Christmas Tree!  In the past it has never really seemed worth the effort as I always go home for Christmas (as I am this year), but I figured if I was organised and it was purchased on December 1st, then I'd have a good few weeks to enjoy it. 

Decorating it are a few ornaments from the Budapest Christmas markets from my visit there a few weekends ago, and a few pound store bargains including the little silver bells.

Porto Photos

A few colourful photos from my weekend away in Port 2 weekends ago...

Happy Mother's Day!

This mother's day, I thought I would post some photos of my great grandmother Fanny Agnes Black, who married my great grandfather Daniel Bowden in 1891.  These beautiful photos were taken outside their home in Altrincham, Manchester, which, a fun google search revealed, still exists to this day.

The photo on the right shows Agnes and Daniel with their three children, Marjorie, Monica, and my grandfather Basil.  One of my many weekend side projects is to get all of these historic family photos scanned and carefully labelled.

2012 New Year's Flat Resolutions Review

Last year I made a list of New Year Resolutions for the flat, (check out 'Winter' as a reminder). Below is that list with images of the highlights of what I accomplished. I didnt quite get around to refurbishing the bathroom as some unexpected building costs got in the way (namely an annoying roof leak and a water line upgrade), but overall I didnt do too badly!

1. Save up enough money for the kitchen countertop.

2. Get gas hob installed.

3. Install new kitchen tap.

4. Plan bathroom renovation project. (Some decisions have since changed...)

5. Decide on whether to install new floorboards in the kitchen or paint existing ones. (I went with new ones, shown freshly painted here:)

6. Annual de-clutter

2013 Flat New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year! I didn't take this photo, (it's from USA today), but thought it was a fantastic shot, and more appropriate than anything I'd taken recently. Plus, it's certainly more festive than a bathroom tap!

This year my goals for the flat are:

1. Draught-proof both chimneys.
2. Refurbish bathroom.
3. Get unframed artwork framed. (Including my 64 pack of Crayola Crayons)
4. Get corian side panel cut for beside sink in kitchen so water doesnt damage cabinets.
5. Make or find under the bed storage drawers.
6. Annual de-clutter. (Including sorting out the chaos hidden under the bed!)

Back from Holiday

Here are five photographs that capture the essence of my holiday to the Canadian Rockies... I'll get on to an update on the flat as soon as I've settled back in but sorting through the hundreds of photos I took to choose five to post was more fun...

A Birthday Treat

As a special treat I am staying here in this hotel which was built in 1927 by the Great Northern Railway for my birthday....

'They' say bad things come in threes, and this past weekend my much anticipated third piece of bad luck finally arrived. After being mugged, and dealing with a constantly leaking flat, I found out on Sunday that my laptop is kaput. Poor Oscar. Im taking him to the Apple Genius Bar on saturday (their earliest appointment) to see whether he has any life left in him.

But now that all that bad luck has passed, Im ready for some good luck now, and just today my Olympic basket ball tickets finally arrived! I missed out on the first round of tickets, couldnt be bothered the second time around, but when they re-released more in a third batch I thought I'd give it another go and managed to get these! Olympic Park here I come!

Night light

Ive been looking for a little while now for a bedside reading lamp so I dont need to get up out of bed to turn off the light when Im ready... and also something that will give off a little glow in the corner of my room so I can find my way in the dark.

Maybe its because I got mugged on the weekend when some kid tried to steal my iphone, but something about these comforting kitch glowing animal night lights really appealed.

A mini-break to Cornwall

I was away for a long weekend in Cornwall recently, so the bathroom decision making went on hold, and instead my mind was occupied by thoughts of fish and chips, rockpools at low tide, Cornish Pasties, and learning to surf. Above is a collection of images, selected as I like their gradual colour shift from green to violet.

Happy Easter!

Here are some photos from my visit to Eastbourne and the spectacular Seven Sisters coastal walk. The weather cooperated (in traditional British fashion) and provided a practically dry weekend with a few hours of unexpected glorious sunshine on Saturday, and some dramatic cloudy skies for the remainder of the visit.