Summer Days

Tags

family, home, links, summer

After almost a full a week of rain and clouds and high winds we finally, finally, have had more than a few hours of sun. And we’re taking advantage of it. Everything from reading to doing homework to watching the match during lunch to playing catch/soccer are things we’re all taking outside. Just because we can.

Just started working for the summer and ho boy. I have no idea how and unlimited amounts of respective for people who maintain a blog almost daily and yet have a full time other job, plus kids. So much awe. It’s something I’m going to have to learn real quick since yesterday was the first real day that I had my camera out in a week and I’d missed it so much.

Things I’m Loving:

+ Reader’s Travel Photography - I have a thing for water. It’s like my thing for the colour blue and mangoes. These are all beautifully done and it’s interesting to see how people can take the same challenge and fulfill it differently.

+ Howler - Last month I know I linked to XI Quarterly in a post, but, in my opinion, there is no such thing as too many magazines on North American soccer. Yes, both are quarterlies, and yes, both have the same kind of vision, but just from the videos, it’s obvious that they’re going about it in two different ways. Check it out and if you’re a fan, or if you think it’s something that’s important, send a couple of dollars their way.

+ Women Who Watch - A female journalist’s opinion on the new While the Men Watch CBC program and what it means to serious female hockey/sports journalists/fans. Inspired by the article While Men Watch Hockey, the women get frustrated with CBC. Unless it’s the Canadian team, I’ll admit that I’m not a hockey fan. But the fact that these women, who don’t understand the game and who admit to not understanding, are being toted as ‘the female fans’ is insulting. Ellen Etchingham makes a good point in her article:

“That’s the excruciating thing, the thing that makes the elevation of While the Men Watch to the national spotlight so acutely painful: it would be so easy to have done it the right way. The CBC wants an alternate feed for casual fans? One that brings a lighter, sexier, more playful tone to the game? Great. Find people who can bring that fun, irreverent perspective and also have the knowledge to back it up, who could talk about the hottness of players and explain a little bit about power play strategy while they’re doing it. It doesn’t have to be an either/or. Light doesn’t have to mean ignorant. And, if you’re aim is to turn non-fans into fans, wouldn’t light and passionate about hockey be a better marketing strategy than light and contemptuous of hockey? Wouldn’t it have been better for everyone to reach out to non-fans through the voices of people who love the game?”

+ Stadiums of Hate (1, 2) – If you’re a soccer fan and haven’t seen this preceding the Euros next week, do so. It’s a half hour bit on the racism in soccer, to put it simply. Families of various black players have already said that they won’t be attending the games unless they reach the semi-/finals. Both the Ukraine and Poland have, of course, come out saying that there’s racism in every stadium you go to, which, sadly, is true. The New York Times ran an interesting article on it yesterday.

Pajama Days & To-Do Lists

Tags

random, saskatoon

It’s one of those days today. You know the ones. Where it’s been raining since last night and the wind keeps mounting. Where the only thing you really want to do is stay in your pajamas and drink hot chocolate and read. In bed. 

It was also one of those days with a list. Where things were written down and nodded at and told, “You will be crossed off.” (Which is why this blog post is happening close to midnight. Because it wasn’t on the list and so it didn’t have to be crossed off.)

But! But then the list was finished and all the things were crossed off (except for phoning that one place because on Wednesdays they’re closed in the afternoon, apparently.). And I still hadn’t written a blog post. However, I was in my pajamas, catching up on reading my issues of Popular Photography and scribbling down names of photographers to check out and drinking hot chocolate. So, you know, all in all, not bad. 

As I was brushing my teeth I went, “D’oh!” and scurried to my computer, searching for something to post. And then I found these. 

Welcome to my cousin’s house. Where I’ve spent the last two weekends. I’ve always known I wanted a yellow kitchen, ever since we painted the kitchen in house number 4 ‘Spanish Moon’ and house number 5 was just some soft, buttery yellow. But now I also know I want a world map on my kitchen wall. Preferably one that’s hung straight. 

Things I’m Loving:

+  12 Boardgames Pitched As Movies – I’d watch Jenga and I have a feeling that Guess Who really wouldn’t be that far off…

+  Colourblock Toe Ballet Flats – I have a pair of black penny loafers I’m going to do this too. As soon as I get the paint and some nice weather. 

+ Strawberry Ice – This is up there on my summer ‘will dos’ along with freezing coffee into ice cubes and putting them in a glass of cold (lactose free) milk. 

+ Observatory – this picture by Brian Ferry. Because it reminds me of Taiwan last summer and when we went to the mountains for the weekend. And I had never been that high up but the sun set and I couldn’t stop taking pictures and there were all these little huts on the sides (literally, the sides. You always hear that and think it can’t be true but it is.). The sun was setting and everything just got kind of hazy and I knew that, while I might not want to go back, I was just really glad I was there. So yes, that picture. 

Weekend Round Up

Tags

instagram, saskatoon, weekend round up

1.) Pumpkin torte that my mother made. Pretty sure I had a solid four pieces.

2.) Our family makes homemade pizza like nobody’s business. The size of cookie sheets and all of the toppings.

3. & 4.) The view from my hammock this weekend.

5.) Yellow shoes for the spring.

6.) Delicious rice in an awesome bag.

My mother and I babysat my cousin’s kids for the weekend and the weather was sunny with wind and afforded some quality hammock time. Then my Victoria Day laziness went from sleeping in to a massage to a  Zoomba workout (with a side of yes, still sorting through boxes), which I’m going to count as a win.

Things I’m Loving:

+ What is next for women’s soccer? – The WPS officially finished last Friday, sadly, and this article talks about what the future looks like for the sport.

+ 6 Portrait Lighting Patterns Every Photographer Should Know – A fantastically thorough piece on lighting and the steps on how to have that kind of lighting for your portraits. Definitely something I’ve bookmarked.

Reading Rainbow

Tags

family, home, reading

Bro #1 is almost like the younger, male version of myself. Now me, though. Young me, not so much. Apparently at that age I was more of a tyrant, but to each their own. Now, however, we’re on the same wavelength. So as I was hiding out in the garage earlier this week, cleaning out all of the things, he can to see if ‘there was anything he could do’. Since there wasn’t and I had just finished going through all my books and comics, he fished through the pile and came up with some solid reading material (which is to be expected since it is mine and all). 

That was when I noticed, really noticed that, hey, maybe I could pull out some of my other favourites and leave them with him. So out came The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings, out came the Redwall series (almost a full set) and Montmorency and my sets of mystery novels. I’ll leave them for him and Bro #2 to read in the coming months. Books that I remember loving and devouring, reading over and over again, they deserve to have that again. And next time, there’ll be more books to pull out to be discovered once again. 

Things I’m Loving:

+ How to Get That Perfect Beach Body – Some ‘advice’ about how to get that elusive summer beach body. Hint: do absolutely nothing. 

+ The Mindy Project – This trailer has me oh so excited for the beginning of this series. Mindy Kaling is a comedic queen and the first oh, 30 seconds, had me clapping my hands together in delight. 

+ New York City Ballet ‘Pointe Shoes’ – A five minute piece on ballet shoes from the factory to the stage. Everything about is what I’d associate with ballet: beautiful and delicate looking but strong. The music and the shots are so well done. 

Growing Pains

Tags

home, thoughts

Two years ago I graduated high school and the next day left town. My family moved and all of my things were crammed into boxes, some of it left for my dad to take care of. Since then a lot of it has just sat in the garage, boxes being added last summer when I came home from Taiwan and there’s more in my room from when I moved back from Ontario. 

My parents told me that that’s just not going to fly anymore (I completely agree) and I spent all of yesterday going through these boxes (note: there were thirteen. Holy crap.) and sorting through to give away, to recycle, to donate to the library.  I didn’t take a picture of it because my camera died, but it was sorted down to five boxes, two of which are dedicated entirely to books, one that’s filled with kitchen ware I got from grad and the other two with things that, under no uncertain terms, I couldn’t part with. (The thirteen boxes were that to begin with, too.)

It was interesting, though, to see the ways I’ve grown and changed. Those thirteen boxes contained things I loved and put value in over a six year period and then to see how that has changed in just two years….it wasn’t entirely surprising, but it was a little emotional. 

That baseball glove is the first ball glove I ever had. There’s another, bigger one with my name on it and this one now has the initials É.R.C on it for Bro #2, but it came with a rush of memories of baseball practices and the really irritatingly hot uniforms that we played in, the weight of the bat catchers’ equipment (my position for three years), and all the people I’ve played with over the years. One glove. 

There were art assignments and my collections of Writer’s Digest, Nylon, ION magazine, issues of magazines with Natalie Portman and Ewan McGregor on the front (Marie Claire and Men’s Health, respectively), some of my favourite books and books by my favourite authors (found The Ring that my sister gave me for Christmas one year), the Star Wars Legacy comics that I devoured and searched for for ages, letters I exchanged with a deceased aunt, clothes from when I graduated, things that I had forgotten about but yet were still important to me. I kept the big ones (the art, the letters, the books, the comics) and am giving away or donating the rest (the magazines, some other books, the clothes). 

I may not be getting my own place anytime soon (yes, that’s a hint that there’s ‘news’ coming), but I now have the space to grow some more. To find new things that interest me and to fill my life with. Yes, it was sad. I did need a moment to pause over something that I’d found and look back to where that fit back in my life, but it’s also exciting, that there’s room for the new to fit in there as well. 

 

Things I’m Loving: 

+ One Last Mother’s Day – I found this via A Cup of Jo and couldn’t help but share as well. Motherlode shared an essay about a woman whose friend had found out, two years ago, that she had Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and wasn’t eligible for surgery. It’s an absolutely beautifully written essay and so worth the five minutes it takes to read. The last paragraph is my favourite. Because what word other than ‘Mom’ can be traded so easily with the word ‘Love’?

+ Educated for Unemployment –  An article that a classmate of mine posted up on Facebook earlier today. Relevant to all of us since, well, we all just graduated from Photojournalism, a form of journalism and the article talks about how students in a ‘soft’ area of study (sociology, psych, art history or, well, journalism) are a ‘dime a dozen’ and the courses are full, they’re giving you a wonderful education, but they’re not giving you a job. This was something that my fellow classmates and I heard about constantly and yet we still stuck it out. I wonder what that says…

+ Around the World – Garance Dore travels. A lot. So she took shots of her favourite bag in the different cities and countries that she’s travelled to and then put it together in a multimedia-esque slideshow with a voice over and sound effects. 

+ 5 Classic Cocktails – I’ve been following Jennilee Marigomen for awhile now and her photos are of the day to day and the simple, things you see but don’t see. For each cocktail that there is listed, there’s also a photograph that she’s taken that embodies what she thinks of that cocktail. It’s simple but oh so effective.