Photography Challenge - Day 3 and 5: Clouds & From A High Angle

Hopefully this doesn't seem too much like cheating, but I'm categorizing this photo challenge under Day 3: Clouds AND Day 5: From a High Angle. I took this photo of beautiful puffy cumulus clouds from the plane when we were about 30 minutes or so from landing in St. Lucia.  It's not every day that I get to see clouds from this angle :) This might make me sound like a geek, but I find clouds fascinating. There are so many different types and they all have their own meaning. I guess it's no surprise that I ended up at a job that deals with weather and climate :)

Check out my other photos!

Day 1 : Self Portrait

Day 2 : What You Wore Today

Day 4 : Something Green

Photography Challenge - Day 4: Something Green

What better place to find something green than at the zoo?.. While there the weekend before last, I got this shot of a camelion in his natural colour. He's practically neon he's so bright!

Here are the photo stats if you're interested:
Exposure 1/15
Aperture 4.33
F Number f/4.5
(I sharpened and slightly brightened in Picasa)

Kitchen Cabinet Cork Board Tutorial

I love pinning crafty projects on Pinterest. I've pinned quite a few crafty projects so I decided I should try re-creating  a few of the pins I have. That's what this post is all about. 


This project all started with this pin, which is a great idea for storing notes, recipes, shopping lists, etc. I wanted to do something similar, but jazz up the board with paint or fabric... A little while later I saw Lindsay's tutorial for adding some pizazz to tacks by attaching pretty buttons to them and saw Jenn's post about painting her board. I mashed together all three ideas for this DIY.


I went to Walmart and got a cork board, then I headed to Michael's where I bought Gorilla glue and some prism-y jewels (I think it's for jewellery), and got the tacks from Dollarama. 

The Gorilla glue takes about 48 hours to fully cure, so I went ahead and jazzed up the tacks first. 

As per the instructions, I wet one surface, then put a small amount of glue on the other surface, and then pressed them together. I put the tacks aside and resumed the project 2 days later. 

Once the tacks were done curing, I taped off my board. I wanted diagonal stripes and I wanted a border so that the paint wouldn't go all the way to the edge. I did this because I thought it would look tidier and have less potential for leakage under the painters tape. 

I wanted to get an ombre effect (dark to light) with the paint and I wanted a bit of sparkle, so I used varying combinations of black, white and silver crafter's paint I already had on hand. I made sure to really press down on the tape in the corners to reduce any incidence of leakage. 

I peeled off the tape while it was still wet and I held my breath hoping there wasn't any leakage....

And I was SO happy with the results! Phew! I couldn't stop staring at it for a few minutes :) But once I could, I moved on to the next step: attaching the board to the cabinet. I didn't want to make any holes in the cabinet and the board was really light, so I just used double sided table along the back border.

Although, I must note that I would've better reinforced the board to the cabinet if there weren't already a lip around the edge on to which the board fit perfectly. Seriously, this board was made for this cabinet!

After attaching some notes and a (fake) grocery list, here's what the cabinet looks like now

I'm very happy with the results. My parents both like it - my dad especially likes that I didn't drill any holes into the cabinet lol. And my mom says she likes the sparkles from the silver paint.

Here is a side by side before and after. 

Total things needed for this project and their costs:

Cork board $9.44

Tacks $1.00

Jewels $2.99

Gorilla glue $3.50 (was originally $6.99 but I had a 50% coupon)

Paint (already had)

Painters tape (already had)

Painting utensil (already had)

Double sided tape (already had)

Total cost for this project: $16.93!

Difficulty* of the project : 2

(*1=breathing, 10= tightrope walking across high-rises on a windy day) 

Remembrance Day 11/11/11

Never Forget

{via}

In Flanders Fields

by: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

      Between the crosses, row on row,

   That mark our place; and in the sky

   The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

   Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

         In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

   The torch; be yours to hold it high.

   If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

         In Flanders fields.

------------------------------------------------------

In other completely unrelated news, I'm leaving Sunday morning for a week-long vacation to St. Lucia. I've prepared some posts to go up next week though. I'll miss reading my blog roll while I'm gone, but I sure won't miss the weather! Have a great weekend!

Toronto Zoo

On Saturday, I went to the zoo with Kevin, Michelle and Deric. We bought a few group deal coupons a few weeks ago so the admission price was $10 each instead of $23, plus parking was free! A word to the wise, I'm posting almost entirely pictures of cute animals in this post

My family loves all of the BBC animal documentaries - Planet Earth, Blue Planet, Life of Birds, Life of Mammals, etc - and we've been watching them non-stop over the past month or so. As we were about to enter the zoo, Deric said, "I feel like Planet Earth was the trailer and now we're about to go see the movie!" So true!


This poor guy fell out of the nest as a baby and broke his wing in three places so he can no longer fly :( They made his living area all low and close together so he can jump from branch to branch

Rhino! When this guy turned around and we saw his saggy skinned bum, Kevin said to me, "That's what your bum is gonna look like when you're old" to which I replied, "Joke's on you! My bum already looks like that!"

 This orangutan mother was hiding from her son in this tarp. Very cute. 

We saw lots of animals lounging in the sun...

These animals that were looking right at me! And I just have to say this jaguar is beautiful. Stunning.

Parents and babies...

I grew up loving elephants. They're so majestic! And when you're learning your letters, they always say, "E is for Elephant" and obviously E, being the first letter of my name, is my favourite letter....

 My sis and Deric looking very celebrity-like with those glasses. And me and Kevin next

 I had to chase this peacock down for this shot. I love the colours!

 This cheetah was in the middle of dinner. He's the fastest runner in the world, but over long distances the pronghorn (from the prairies in Canada!!) can run faster. 

As soon as the zoo staffer pulled out the fish to feed the penguins, this seagull swooped down and stole a couple of fish right out of the penguins mouths!

We all loved watching this polar bear. I think he was the most playful animal we saw. He went nuts over that blue ball. 

Group shot! I got to use my tripod for this one :) And we got the tiger in the background!

 I'm smiling in this shot, but I'm thinking, "Please, please, please don't bite my fingers off...."

And finally, Kevin posing strategically so it looks like he's balancing the world on his finger. Yes, we're geeks like that!

Have you been to the zoo lately? I have to say, going in the late fall is the best! We lucked out with some really great weather, not a cloud in the sky. It's less busy when it's cooler and I think it probably smells a lot less when compared to coming in the height of summer when it's 30+ degrees Celsius (86F)!