112:365 Playing with macro

Anna: Went for a bit of a walk this evening and ended up getting a whole bunch of macro shots. You can see more here.

I'd considered cropping this photo, but I think the grass seeds stuck in my lens while I took the shot sort of adds to it. *L* This bug was getting quite annoyed at me twisting his spray of seeds around so I could see him better. Dang paparazzi! ;-)

111:365 Made it on time...

Anna: Some friends of ours are having their first child together, due any day now. I decided to make a baby blanket for their new addition. After borrowing several books on crochet from the library, going through the patterns, I decided to...

... wing it. *L* It's basically a big square, similar to a baby blanket I received as a gift while pregnant with my older daughter. In fact, that blanket is why I learned to crochet in the first place. The blanket was a white square, bordered with tiny granny squares in pastel pink, purple, blue and peach, with a peach "flower" in the very centre.

The darn thing wouldn't lie flat. Drove me nuts. I'd lay it down and it'd be flat in the middle, but s0mewhere along the way, it stopped lying flat. It bothered me so much, I finally borrowed some books on crochet, figured it out, then used my newfound knowledge to figure out what was wrong. It turned out to be very simple. The friend that made it for me accidentally added one extra stitch on one side. By the time she finished, that one side was several stitches wider then the others. I ended up undoing the whole thing, then remaking it. We still have it.

To think my mother had tried for years to make me learn crochet, unsuccessfully, and all it took was something that clashed with my OCD tendancies. ;-)

After deciding what I wanted to make, I had to choose the yarn. I wanted the softest I could find, so I spent about 20 minutes wandering the yarn aisles at Michaels, fondling the balls. Every now and then, one of the girls would go by and I'd snag them, holding out a pair of balls, saying "feel this," to get their opinions, too.

My daughters think I'm weird.

After all my fondling, I settled on Bernat Satin. Amazingly soft, with a lovely sheen. It's also washer and drier safe - always important for baby stuff. ;-) 100% acrylic, so there should be no worries about allergies, either.

Next, I chose the colours. I had one prerequisite. No pastels. I figure the proud parents will be inundated with pastel baby gifts - especially pink, since they're expecting a girl. I also wanted to stay away from white, if possible, since it tends to show dirt and stains more easily. With the girls helping me choose, we settled on Sable and Wine Mist Heather. I think they go well together. I ended up using about 3 1/2 balls of Sable and most of one ball of Wine Mist Heather.

I hope they like it. :-) And they'll actually get it before the baby is born. Unless Baby decides to show up tonight or something. Might be another week, though.

Mom is looking forward to having a bladder again.

110:365 Sweet!

Anna: I don't know what was going on today, but the classic cars were out if full force! We passed a park while we were out and about and could see there was some sort of car show happening. Everywhere we turned, we saw all these gorgeous cars - like this sweet ride we walked past in a parking lot.

I have no idea what kind of car it is, but it sure is gorgeous!

109:365 Blue sky

Anna: While we were out and about today, I couldn't get over just how beautiful the sky was today. Beautiful blue with big, puffy white clouds all over the place. So when I had the chance, I headed to the 4th floor outdoor patio and got a few shots. I wanted to see just how well I could zoom in on clouds. :-D

108:365 The Works

Anna: The girls and I headed downtown for library day, but our usual route was blocked off. Since we parked on the 10th floor of the parkade, I figured I'd take a look and see why. Turns out the square is being set up for The Works Art and Design Festival, which starts tomorrow night. We really enjoyed it last year. I definitely want to check it out again this year. :-D










Philippe: You know, for a cat that lounges around all day, she moves a *lot* when you're trying to get her in a shot. In hindsight, I should have used the 50mm 1.8 instead of the 90mm. This was a low light shot that had *many* takes prior to this one. :P

107:365 The Horror!!

Anna: A horror like nothing I've ever beheld... and no, I'm not talking about what's left of my throat these days... ;-)

One of the plus sides of being sick and relatively housebound. We're actually watching all those dvd's we borrowed from the library. Including this one. As you can see by my younger daughter's traumatized eyes, it was beyond belief.

It's actually billed as the worst movie ever made - so bad, it's good! It stars Bela Lugosi. Even though he was dead. They used footage of a movie he was making that didn't get finished because of his death. Which works, I suppose, since he's supposed to be a walking corpse through most of the movie. It also stars Vampira. She spent the entire movie either walking around slowly with arms outstretched, or standing behind bushes, watching... watching... She had no lines, though she did hiss at one point. Oh, yeah. She was a walking corpse throughout the entire movie.

And everything happens at night. Funerals happen at night. The air force pilot leaves for work at night. The police investigate cemeteries at night. Then, when their lieutenant (or whatever he was) gets murdered in the cemetery, they promptly have the funeral. At night.

There are a few brief clips of daylight, sort of. You see the police leave the station in the dark, drive through down in light, then arrive at the cemetery in the dark again. The flying saucers are only seen at night. The flying saucers are hub caps.

Really. Hub caps. On wires.

There's also concrete visible under fake grass, as well as the mattresses actors fall on.

The extras include The Ed Wood Story. "Hear the story of "Hollywood's best incompetent director" from the people who knew him best..."

We skipped the extras.

My elder daughter informs me, however, that she *has* see a movie worse that this. It's called Cave Dwellers. She's been watching Mystery Science Theater 3000. I haven't been able to watch them with her, so she's probably right.

106:365 Prehensile toes - and a nice view. *L*

Anna: Well, we missed another park day today. Although I'm feeling a lot better as far as the cold goes, the coughing fits are still a problem. Bad enough we didn't think it'd be safe for me to drive. I think I'm starting to scare my family. :-/

So, I was on the hunt for other picture sources today, and my elder daughter provided. I give you...

... my daughter's prehensile toes. These are the toes she uses to draw with.

Well.













I got a bit of a walk in this evening, too - a few minutes of outside air is always good. This is the view looking into one of the many ravines in the area, this one just up the block from our apartment. It was so bright, I just used the screen on my camera to try and frame the shot while not actually looking in that direction. Seeing the streaming sunshine when I uploaded it was nice, though I did have to reduce the brightness and increase the contrast a bit. Lovely spot.