Knitting & Berries

Finished the Emily doll I started at the beginning of the month. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I would've gotten it finished sooner but I didn't have a chance to knit at the arts festival like I thought I would (wayyyyy too many people coming by to talk and there were a few sections I had to keep count of rows/stitches/etc).

I forgot that I didn't post the sweater that I made for Glen's sister's new baby! I made a BSJ and some booties. They really liked them and I can't wait to get a picture of baby Jai in his new sweater!

I've been taking so many pictures this month that my July folder is getting angry with me every time I open it (all my pictures are hyper-sorted too so it's not like it's ALL the pictures I've taken in July - it's my July 2008 Arctic Pictures folder that's getting grouchy!).
We went out on Tuesday and took some Cloudberry/Aqpik/Bake Apple pictures for a top secret project. Here's one of the pictures I took:

I know a lot of people really love these little berries but I think I'm missing what makes them so good. The few I had were good at first but had a really gross taste after the initial taste wore off :-/ bleh... But they're kind of pretty and they're hard to find (no one will tell you where they pick berries!) so it's kind of worth being massacred by mosquitoes to take pictures of them.


Temperature: +16C
Sunrise: 4:31am
Sunset: 1:23am

Some GNAF Stuff

I've finally gotten around to resizing a few pictures from the festival. The first picture (well, group of pictures) is what everyone finished in my needle felting workshop. The whole thing went really well I think and people really enjoyed themselves

I'd definitely do a workshop like that again next year. I had 6 people total (one person did two pieces) and it was a pretty good amount - I'm sure if I had a full class of 10 it would've been ok too.

Next up are some of the needle felting things I finished at the festival. Basically, the people that do sewing and stuff set up in the gallery and do their craft for 10 days. People come by and ask questions/sit down and talk to you etc. I had A LOT of people come up and ask about needle felting!

I had a few custom orders so that kept me pretty busy. It was great to be able to have so much time to really get stuff done! Both butterflies are approx 12"x12" and the muskox one is about 6"x6"


Temperature: +8C
Sunrise: 4:01am
Sunset: 1:51am

Braces Be Gone!

My braces are off!!!!!
I admit, they could've stayed on another month to really fine tune things but I wanted them off and the ortho was happy to take them off for me. I'm so happy :-D The first thing we did was go to the store and buy corn on the cob - mmmmm! I also got to eat a whole apple without cutting it (first time in over 3½ years since I cut them up even before the braces went on). I have a clear retainer now and in a few months I'll get one of the more traditional ones.

I have all sorts of exciting festival news to share as well but that's going to have to wait for tomorrow or Tuesday. The closing ceremonies are today at 4pm. I'm sad it's the end, I've had so much fun.

Temperature: +10C
Sunrise: 3:41am
Sunset: 2:08am

GNAF

Tonight was the grand opening of the Great Northern Arts Festival. I spent most of the day there helping get things ready and then went back for the ceremonies. Everything looks GREAT I took a few pictures with my new lens (another one). I got a 10-22mm ultra wide-angle lens. I'm really impressed with it - you can get SO much in the shot! I also got an AWESOME gear bag - Lowepro Stealth Reporter (link takes you to a photo) - I love it because I can fit everything in it PLUS my laptop and it's a shoulder bag. I have a Lowepro backpack and it was always a bit of a pain to take it off to get gear out - and I was constantly worried that I'd drop a lens out or something.

Here a few pictures I took tonight while they were still getting things set up:

Here's a (crappy) picture of my display:

I'm hoping to get a better one tomorrow morning when I go back and get my table set up.

And here are a few just for fun shots I took on the way home (LOVE the ultra wide angle!!!)

Temperature: +14C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a



Edit: Yesterday was my one year blogiversary! If I was more on the ball and not so busy I would've had a contest... I'll think about having a belated one after the festival so stay tuned ;-)

New Lens!

I ordered a new lens last week and it came today! I'm so excited! It's a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8II. Great for portraits and close-up nature stuff (it would work ok for just plain landscape stuff too but it doesn't zoom). Even though it's a bit cloudy out and the mosquitoes are outrageous, I put on some bug repellent and took some shots on the road (this picture was taken around 11:45pm).

I'm really looking forward to getting out in some better light and hopefully less bees (one chased me around and almost got caught in my hair - ahhhh!). My camera is SO light now with this tiny lens (the other one is a 28-135mm - a bit of a monster and not a very "sneaky" lens).
In a few weeks I'm planning on ordering a 10-22mm lens unless something more interesting in the same price range catches my eye.

The festival is a week away! I have all my prints in so I'm ready to go!

Glen's sister had her baby this week and I knit up some cute things. Once they get the package I'll post pictures (we sent it priority so it should be there next week).


Temperature: +18C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Heat Wave!

The weather has been really hot here (between 25 & 30C) so we haven't been doing too much. My computer has been mostly off because it's been WAY too hot in here (I think it's cooler outside!).
This past weekend we went and hung out with some friends out at one of the camp grounds. I went out on Saturday night after work and then back out on Sunday and spent the day out there. We went swimming in one of the lakes (whoa, COLD!) and by the time we walked back to the site we were all dry!
On Monday we had a BBQ for my birthday. Everyone was tired from the weekend so it was a pretty quiet day. I had a lot of fun though.
Because it was so hot, yesterday was pretty much spent on the couch playing Mario Kart (yay birthday present!).

I need to get some new pictures of my plants - they're going crazy! My tomatoes came up in one afternoon!

Anyway! Just a mini update before I get ready to go to work. Once it cools down a little I'll try to do a proper post

Temperature: +25C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a

Gardening

Inspired by Bezzie's container gardening, a few weeks ago I went and bought some pots, dirt and seeds and planted my own little container garden:

I'm worried that I might've planted a bit late but I figured our 24hrs of daylight will make up for it. On the package of corn it said it's specially selected for colder environments with shorter growing times so we'll see! The only things sprouting right now are my peas (woo!) and my morning glory. Sometime this week I'll go pick up some netting for my peas. I wasn't sure if the landlady wanted to put anything in the raised beds in the yard otherwise I guess I could've used those.

I've been trying to get out and take more pictures lately. It's a bit hard because I've been going to bed fairly early and during the day there isn't really anything remarkable happening (a photography book I just got said that the only two times a day a landscape photographer should be out taking pictures is dawn and dusk --- dusk here is 2-3am!). Anyway, we went for a walk around the lake yesterday evening and I got a few nice shots and then around 2am I noticed the light was doing some pretty cool things outside so we took a drive. I don't normally put my "professional" photos up on here but I really wanted to share this shot:

Robin Update:
Mum said the baby robins have left the nest so unfortunately there aren't any more pictures :-( That happened faster than I thought it would!



Temperature: +13C
Sunrise: n/a
Sunset: n/a