tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31528745071865959162024-02-20T21:49:06.044-05:00turn pages, press leavesJoy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-18450860508532693202012-05-02T17:58:00.001-04:002012-05-02T17:58:23.136-04:00life lately<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Why hello again, everyone. I think I have finally returned to the blogging world, and will hopefully be posting on a more regular basis. Life has been a whirlwind lately -- the wedding is only five months away, and it's truly amazing how many small details rear their heads and make you go berserk: hunting for just the right makeup shades, deciding what kind of flowers I want, figuring out just how many of those tulle bows you'll actually need. Sometimes it feels a little silly, but I'm excited nonetheless! I've been running some drama workshops in a nearby school, and getting ready for yet another busy production week! Another job has also made itself known, and I'll be investigating that further later in the week. All in all, there have been a lot of things that made me think <i>Man, this would be a great post!</i> but there never are enough hours in the day, are there? I also got tagged in an "eleven questions post", which will arrive on the blog soon! In the meantime, I thought I'd post a few pictures of the last few weeks, because the blog needs a little visual interest at the moment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I turned twenty-two on April 28th! It was fun times, and my mom made a delicious chocolate and vanilla mousse cake.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmt3A6t8LTiQtfNp15NbAjyEono99LGVEGG8hsQptTcdtt9jMQnl1Euk2nsdnWGXnwjsvSkmVB2HUTmicw67zSj-w0HzmmeortxErg5oCiJiL56giSMhz_tfjrbwr2U1PcM7ohYvS0Zht3/s1600/COMFORTABLE+SHAWN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmt3A6t8LTiQtfNp15NbAjyEono99LGVEGG8hsQptTcdtt9jMQnl1Euk2nsdnWGXnwjsvSkmVB2HUTmicw67zSj-w0HzmmeortxErg5oCiJiL56giSMhz_tfjrbwr2U1PcM7ohYvS0Zht3/s1600/COMFORTABLE+SHAWN.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Doesn't Shawn make you just want to take a nap? I think he must be the World's Most Comfortable Dog.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit-8InqAigSw1IcjasaCuJ0oS1VPc2lMlt_Dnf6GjZtEWWvQhFxZgsaclraeZxdY_q0Gg1VEPvM6vzkJhzTkYFY2iEOB-p2nQC3Zvktn-fFK_SFYKff-e3uaX7qo8UzrtpiTePPrV7YlhN/s1600/OAKLEY.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit-8InqAigSw1IcjasaCuJ0oS1VPc2lMlt_Dnf6GjZtEWWvQhFxZgsaclraeZxdY_q0Gg1VEPvM6vzkJhzTkYFY2iEOB-p2nQC3Zvktn-fFK_SFYKff-e3uaX7qo8UzrtpiTePPrV7YlhN/s1600/OAKLEY.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">This adorable pooch is Oakley. He belongs to our neighbours. I think he spends the majority of his time wishing he could come over and play with Pip -- properly that is. They always run up and down the fence together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">A lazy day for Pip. Warm blankets and cuddles with his Grandpa Smurf. We didn't even arrange this photo, which is the best part.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Spring has arrived! I love seeing the blossoms starting on the trees, and the super fat robins waddling about on the lawn.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-41197353084713078322012-03-24T22:43:00.000-04:002012-03-24T22:43:54.295-04:00i am not dead.<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I promise that I am still present in the blogosphere, and that I am, in fact, alive. Real posts are on the way!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">In the meantime, enjoy this picture of a mama llama and her almost-brand-new baby llama. :)</span><br />
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</span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-52871388177508598332012-02-23T17:00:00.000-05:002012-02-23T17:00:37.516-05:00colourful february<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Even when February is mild, like ours has been (for the most part), the colours are always so drab and depressing. At its best, the grass is soggy, brown, and yellow. There is mud <i>everywhere. </i>No leaves, no flowers. Leftover slush. In other words, <i>yuck</i>. At least it's not blizzarding, I suppose. In any case, I thought I'd bring a splash (literally) of colour into our lives this February, with a few shots from an experiment my younger brother showed us. Basically, you take a bowl of milk, drop in some food colouring, add a little dish soap in the middle, and voila, a beautiful swirly pattern is formed. It even looked nice when we dumped it all out!</span><br />
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</span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-51857240874316701212012-02-09T12:55:00.000-05:002012-02-09T12:55:19.389-05:00a smashing good time<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I am a memory collecting addict. Yes, I am one of those people who keeps<i> </i>almost everything I pick up -- generally paper things though. Business cards from artists, pamphlets and brochures, tickets from concerts, plays, and movies. I kept the majority of the notes passed to me in boring high school classes, photobooth pictures, letters from penpals, Valentines from friends and my brothers that harken back to the '90s. I'm also a journaler, and even though there are those inevitable gaps of a month or two here and there, I've regularly journaled since eighth grade, making that...about eight years. There are a few problems with this though. The first is that I have memory box upon memory box that stand in teetering stacks in the basement and in my room (and trust me, there is not nearly enough room in either place for the number of boxes I have). The other problem is that I've been very concerned about journaling with a "traditional look". That means cursive writing in black pen only. Of course I've tucked little keepsakes into the pages, like pressed flowers and leaves, subway tickets from Montreal, even a Yugioh card from a little boy at a camp I counselled. I realized that as much as I love bygone eras, I'm not a part of them. Of course I still draw influence from them, but there are plenty of things from my own generation that I love. And when I came across these <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmaWY7Wk0qA" target="_blank">Smash Journals</a>, which are essentially a notebook meant to keep all of those bits of ephemera in one place, I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to get out of my left-brained journaling rut, condense my memory boxes, and have a place to collect memories of my own time. I have to say, that while I'm not nearly as messy (the good kind of messsy) when it comes to scrapbooking as a lot of other people, the fact that I'm <i>overlapping corners</i> is a big step for me. Plus, there are so many cool products, like journaling spots, date stamps, funky tape, and pockets from Smash that it makes it that much more fun! So here's a few of the pages I've been working on in the past couple weeks!</span><br />
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</span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-62115658130833589202012-02-08T16:35:00.000-05:002012-02-08T16:35:44.461-05:00the voracious reader<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">As I'm sure everyone knows, I love to read. But every now and then, I go through a phase where <i>all I want to do is read, </i>and that isn't really an exaggeration. Usually it starts when I come across a really good book, and I motor my way through it, until I'm left with that deflated feeling of, "Now what?" Because you know, I have a hard time slowing down when a book is exciting, so it's always over much too soon. So then I go hunting for another really good book, and when I finish that one, I look for another, and the cycle continues on and on into oblivion until I've read myself out and take a bit of a break. And by "break", I really mean I find a book to read that is good, but not <i>so</i> good that I literally can't put it down.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">It was the <i>Hunger Games</i> that started my current reading jubilee. I read the trilogy in under a week, and am now going through it a second time, reading it aloud to Luke. But reading the same books twice isn't quite satisfying when you're in the reading zone. So I picked up a book that had been sitting on my shelf for probably three or four months (if not more): <i>The Heretic Queen</i> by Michelle Moran. I'd picked it up from the bargain section of Chapters because I'd read one of her other books, <i>Nefertiti</i>. I loved the latter, so I figured I would love the other one, but I wasn't in the right "mood" for it at the time (just like I picked up <i>To Kill a Mockingbird, </i>hated it, picked it up a year later, and absolutely loved it). I guess I was in a better mindset for it, because I zipped through it, reading late into the night, and immediately put in a hold at the library for one of her other books, <i>Cleopatra's Daughter</i>.</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I will admit I am usually skeptical of historical fiction. It usually takes that one slip up that turns me off completely, and I can't read any further. Now, I don't mean artistic liberties, because when it comes to writing about <i>actual</i> historical figures, particularly from ancient times, you absolutely have to. I mean, you wouldn't have much of a book if you confined yourself to only what is known "for sure". What I mean by slip ups, is when someone in Victorian London says, "Wow, that's so cool!" Just...no.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I think Michelle Moran gets a lot of flack for taking artistic liberties. At least, that's what I've gathered from reviews I've read on her books. I think she does it well though, and she makes a point of mentioning in a historical note at the end of the book the key things that she changed and </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">why</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">. It's kind of like how I've always wanted to write a story from the perspective of King Tut's wife, Ankhesenamun, after Tut's death. If I'm writing a book that's meant to be dramatic, suspenseful, and borderline thriller, am I going to go with the accepted theory that Tut died from infection caused by a broken leg, or the more exciting murder theory? Frankly guys, I'm going to go with the murder, but I'm not going to walk around pretending like that is </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">definitely</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"> what happened. I also detest when readers try to thrust their 21st century feminist agendas on historical fiction. Please don't whine about the fact that Nefertari, the heroine of <i>Heretic Queen</i>, is in competition with Iset to win the affections and favour of Pharaoh Ramesses II, because <i>that's how it was. </i>Can we not just read things in context?!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I wouldn't go so far as to say this is the best that contemporary literature has to offer. But I will say that for popular lit, it's pretty darn good, and I love the life she brings to these truly fascinating women of the ancient world. managed to get me totally obsessed with Ancient Egypt and Rome all over again (this happens about once or twice a year, and has since I was about eight). It makes me glad that I've invested in a few non-fiction books on the subject too. But I'm afraid soon I'll be making a departure from the ancient world, in favour of Moran's novel about Madame Tussaud. Exciting!</span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-89057232923849379052012-02-01T14:18:00.000-05:002012-02-01T14:18:56.054-05:00wings of paradise<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Today my mom, my younger brother (Jesse), and I made the short trek out to our local butterfly conservatory. I used to go there once a year with my area class (an enrichment school program) back in elementary school, and I loved it. The last time I went was with my friend Anna a couple years ago. Even though it really hasn't changed at all, it's still a different experience every time. When I went with Anna, the butterflies were very sleepy, and actually rather hard to come by. This time they were buzzing (not literally) with life. A few of them attached to themselves to my mom and brother, and one latched onto my shirt and showed no signs of letting go until I eased him onto a plant. I think he was a little desperate, because he had just come out of his chrysalis, and his wings hadn't yet unfolded all the way. You can see something similar in the shot of my mom with her butterfly friend. There was also a big, pretty yellow one that landed on my camera! It flew away before my mom could take a picture on her phone though, which was too bad. It was nice to get a few hours of reprieve from the cold though -- they have to keep it <i>very</i> warm in the conservatory for the butterflies, birds, and tropical plants.</span><br />
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</span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-48974946350831236262012-01-30T16:39:00.000-05:002012-01-30T16:39:35.109-05:00catching up...slowly but surely<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I am embarrassed to say this, but I totally fell off the 365 day photo project wagon. Wedding planning swept me up into a hurricane of dress shopping, hall booking, and wedding blog surfing. I know. It's terrible. But I'm determined to hop back on and get caught up. So, my mom suggested that I do two a day: one from where I left off (in November -- eeeeek!), and one from the current date. So it sort of messes my days up, but whatever. So I'm just going to write the date that I took the image, and the date that it was meant for. Hopefully it's not too confusing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>January 28, 2012 (November 16, 2011) - Empty</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">A brand new journal, waiting to be filled. I have a lot of those.</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>January 28, 2012 (the real one) -- Funny</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I've started collecting Sock Monkeys. They just look like they have a great sense of humour, don't they?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8p5pl0XywRRLQ38kujFarMNy0g-PfRJFvfH0hvoWWnjRttDNyZZ1nGLtL9yWjBqFXhu73L_6ewiSx80e8RFwQ8Hs0uA47wAyOXko7ryFeefMNfaQGcrxOw61c_O-uvw0tYSUhdDP5X_NS/s1600/Funnyblog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8p5pl0XywRRLQ38kujFarMNy0g-PfRJFvfH0hvoWWnjRttDNyZZ1nGLtL9yWjBqFXhu73L_6ewiSx80e8RFwQ8Hs0uA47wAyOXko7ryFeefMNfaQGcrxOw61c_O-uvw0tYSUhdDP5X_NS/s1600/Funnyblog.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>January 29, 2012 (November 17, 2011) -- Irony</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Shawn is turning fourteen in February. It's ironic that of all our dogs, he has been the one with the most problems (cancer, bladder infections, losing weight for no apparent reason, etc.), and yet he's the one that has lasted the longest.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMmyWAN7GdEBmCFqWdHfsSInr8koQob15h-mTMFAxoU5Od3o15qZRvDWJ8H-aUGINKkfwQxicwkwNeKNAOgE9BHjEIEpyx-VoM-ktUyBmmqdGTnvjHdbH5zDv2HNsCHGi9KjTPWHVkZHKD/s1600/Ironyblog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMmyWAN7GdEBmCFqWdHfsSInr8koQob15h-mTMFAxoU5Od3o15qZRvDWJ8H-aUGINKkfwQxicwkwNeKNAOgE9BHjEIEpyx-VoM-ktUyBmmqdGTnvjHdbH5zDv2HNsCHGi9KjTPWHVkZHKD/s1600/Ironyblog.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
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</span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>January 29, 2012 -- Dumb</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">No, your eyes do not deceive you. The pictures are purple. I put in an order of 400+ photographs (yes, you read that number correctly), only to return my black and white shots because they were green. The colour shots looked all right. Then, the photo lab technician tells us that they were having problems with their chemicals...so all my pictures turned purple in about a month. Most labs would <i>shut down</i> if they were having chemical issues. So. Dumb.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh8DBGZCFc3Ah5gNFuM49EgN6Pkl1vPLx0QBftYlCPbKxseq8i9OUuSLS-GNy4SOl7JsEuo9zfYUK8KVICPPPLaUHbyaL5NNVufnd7nwMnN2M6gBlSpvgw1HAjghTCM2EyF7q6ibAwqhkd/s1600/Dumbblog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh8DBGZCFc3Ah5gNFuM49EgN6Pkl1vPLx0QBftYlCPbKxseq8i9OUuSLS-GNy4SOl7JsEuo9zfYUK8KVICPPPLaUHbyaL5NNVufnd7nwMnN2M6gBlSpvgw1HAjghTCM2EyF7q6ibAwqhkd/s1600/Dumbblog.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>January 30, 2012 (November 18, 2011) -- Sound</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I love this picture. For Christmas, my mom gave me this little vintage-inspired music box that plays one of the songs from Nutcracker (the name escapes me right now). Underneath it, she had folded up, very, very tiny, a ticket to go see the Nutcracker the next week. It's so pretty, and even though Christmas is over, I still play it.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV6ezwZFwo41Ulk4IiQhGFObcmAWI0TYaEJBb5LfVzAUcncozQ9zFRPUgex1ICsa9v1ht9tylPWvHaeAoQYKIGBUfuuqCYz7z8hEuq8pDk19-BeEtdDxBdp5Dzkuqs87q0P6QRz_qWN4OD/s1600/Soundblog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV6ezwZFwo41Ulk4IiQhGFObcmAWI0TYaEJBb5LfVzAUcncozQ9zFRPUgex1ICsa9v1ht9tylPWvHaeAoQYKIGBUfuuqCYz7z8hEuq8pDk19-BeEtdDxBdp5Dzkuqs87q0P6QRz_qWN4OD/s1600/Soundblog.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>January 30, 2012 -- Reward</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">For the dogs of course...not for me.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAT0OwLJcWQjqM7x_3xFo7u-cNjVVAS0xYH1VZ67dftvZik5wiwqggfw45e1PRcGd9TB-zk2-7mH-pRddJnZrgkKqKRka25rEypn6mhoWFZs_yaX1QoP0TTL5JgDwfuy4bs1tkzPJZ5NqS/s1600/Rewardblog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAT0OwLJcWQjqM7x_3xFo7u-cNjVVAS0xYH1VZ67dftvZik5wiwqggfw45e1PRcGd9TB-zk2-7mH-pRddJnZrgkKqKRka25rEypn6mhoWFZs_yaX1QoP0TTL5JgDwfuy4bs1tkzPJZ5NqS/s1600/Rewardblog.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
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</span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-68616164305487303472012-01-25T14:36:00.001-05:002012-01-25T14:39:05.156-05:00childhood influences: the secret garden<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyiI5Ed96pA46VK_fJVCOUwuh2W8eHvWPIYtI7Mazp3Y-bi0L5Q155zoil0NL1LT3zov2mOP8Xs9yzXOBxlRKmuA3N_kDhiWDjaBsnIo2meErVk05In4br7femUBXfB7HKWIREfwsYXLvv/s1600/secret+garden2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyiI5Ed96pA46VK_fJVCOUwuh2W8eHvWPIYtI7Mazp3Y-bi0L5Q155zoil0NL1LT3zov2mOP8Xs9yzXOBxlRKmuA3N_kDhiWDjaBsnIo2meErVk05In4br7femUBXfB7HKWIREfwsYXLvv/s1600/secret+garden2.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;">click <a href="http://fuckyeahthesecretgarden.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">here</a> to view more pretty edited screen caps (frankly, I didn't feel like posting the tumblr name on my blog).</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I started this post months ago, as a companion to my <i>Little Princess</i> post. I don't know why I never finished it, because it's always been in the back of my mind. So I figured that now is as good a time as any, because really, I haven't had much opportunity to go out and take pictures because of the terrible weather. It's either pouring rain, or snowing, or frigidly cold. I can only take so many pictures of the knicknacks on my shelf, you know?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Anyway. <i>The Secret Garden</i>. Another Frances Hodgson Burnett masterpiece. Another film that I popped into the VCR on a weekly basis, until the tape started wearing down. And yet another reason why I'm sure I love all the things I do, because nostalgia is definitely a running theme here. The haunting portrait of Colin's mother, which was always strangely beautiful to me, is probably why I still love portraiture circa 1900 and earlier, and why as an artist, I have always leaned toward images of the human face. It's probably why I love collecting old photographs too.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwBP49EdpQST8R7nUW2OzEHrIfL2P3ZuLOS62JSjcXyJcqYmx8Ofn3wN4QE2K_ND3EnAc-Q9i1H4Yrr8kLW9rksTwRrVgS-uh0DIHBoSi97S-UntmLgBFeh942B7xuhhudc305bBcGKD4G/s1600/young+man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwBP49EdpQST8R7nUW2OzEHrIfL2P3ZuLOS62JSjcXyJcqYmx8Ofn3wN4QE2K_ND3EnAc-Q9i1H4Yrr8kLW9rksTwRrVgS-uh0DIHBoSi97S-UntmLgBFeh942B7xuhhudc305bBcGKD4G/s1600/young+man.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;">Here's a recent photograph I picked up (along with my Notman). I love his expression, and it's in fairly good condition too. I'm sure the girls must have fawned over him. Not to mention, that jacket looks awesome.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">And how could we forget the key? Isn't that how the whole thing started? I remember being instantly smitten with the giant skeleton key that Mary discovers in her aunt's dusty, forgotten room. The intricate design, and the grating sound it made when she put it in the lock. It may even have been the sound more than the look that attracted me. Just like I loved the sound of Mary's mother's ivory elephant as she walked it along wood. Is that weird? I don't know. But I know that I still think of that sound, and when I hear it elsewhere, I still like it.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg23wvGwx6iRFFShoo8OBGkRNg__cnDxrwP8wLYzGKJypAj25IRw1mfeFKkAqXdMx4BGmAQsIObfgvQvqX-Xl_ECQwxzVWd3NMLLbTJIBjnNJsR1yXnBvWBYRg2e1T7nKlk_i_-hS6yWFQ5/s1600/skeleton+key.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg23wvGwx6iRFFShoo8OBGkRNg__cnDxrwP8wLYzGKJypAj25IRw1mfeFKkAqXdMx4BGmAQsIObfgvQvqX-Xl_ECQwxzVWd3NMLLbTJIBjnNJsR1yXnBvWBYRg2e1T7nKlk_i_-hS6yWFQ5/s1600/skeleton+key.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I've had this key for quite some time. I used to carry it on my keychain, with all my modern keys, and occasionally I put it on a necklace. Mostly it sits on my bedside table looking rustic and pretty. It's obviously not the same size or complexity as the Secret Garden key that you can see in the screen cap at the beginning of the post. But it was the closest I could find at the time (and I still haven't come across anything better), and I love to imagine what it might have opened. Part in parcel with the key, is the jewelry box in that screen cap. A couple years ago, Luke's mom gave me one of her old jewelry boxes, and it looks a lot like that one. I absolutely adore it. I didn't take a picture of it, because well...it's kind of obscured by a whole lot of junk on my book shelf at the moment. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"> Last, but not least, is the clothes. Pretty much of all of it, really. I love her pea coat, and the big red tam (I still haven't found one that was just right...but I'll keep looking!). In the meantime, I have a number of other ones, mostly gray, and one that's a delightful mustard colour. I love the ribbons in Mary's hair, and the lace on her adorable little dresses. I wish I was dainty enough to wear those stockings, but alas, I think it would just make me look ridiculous. I'll stick to the lace, and the long gray coats.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpzDjEj59sd164M61oafDRBYBA-1NEaY66AnQOgSIVKogZNRGBrJqqRvlP8pczBAwmrL_X_1GNbmACmhEqJW2DoSqyyLXTe1eI9kIiI-hDWAVyf_3hGGFRDasu9mzZJOfzEp1397rpjo8d/s1600/lace+shirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpzDjEj59sd164M61oafDRBYBA-1NEaY66AnQOgSIVKogZNRGBrJqqRvlP8pczBAwmrL_X_1GNbmACmhEqJW2DoSqyyLXTe1eI9kIiI-hDWAVyf_3hGGFRDasu9mzZJOfzEp1397rpjo8d/s1600/lace+shirt.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;">I bought this lace shirt at Christmas-time, but I haven't worn it yet. I'll either wear it for the rehearsal dinner, or after our wedding when Luke and I go out to dinner (paired with a really pretty lace skirt, both from Jacob).</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Well, there you have it. Yet another book/film that has continued to inspire me over the past twelve years or so. And I think they did such a good job of that movie, that it's timeless, as far as I'm concerned. They just got it <i>right</i>. There's nothing to date it (see, for example, Diane Keaton's attempt at 1940s hair in The Godfather, which really just looks like it's from the '70s), and I think all the kids did a really terrific job at carrying the story. The ten-year-old in me still has a bit of a crush on Dickon.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmkcf63LsB4te_yFw_RYkCceZAznzbmDDMEC17jC_tJg7faoxpo3F_WO-Mg2TPZXljklD2uHtAn-Tid_PzFYhv85XAgVI_7t277Kxpd7OZTg85aJAmKGO8iq4SDTzQnQfZR-D1m_3FHzuq/s1600/the_secret_garden___by_mala_lesbia-d37xnbu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmkcf63LsB4te_yFw_RYkCceZAznzbmDDMEC17jC_tJg7faoxpo3F_WO-Mg2TPZXljklD2uHtAn-Tid_PzFYhv85XAgVI_7t277Kxpd7OZTg85aJAmKGO8iq4SDTzQnQfZR-D1m_3FHzuq/s640/the_secret_garden___by_mala_lesbia-d37xnbu.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;">via <a href="http://mala-lesbia.deviantart.com/">mala-lesbia</a> ; check out her gallery -- it's filled with beautiful, dream-like imagery.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">*** I'd also like to note that the pictures I took were processed with <a href="http://saralynnpaige.com/blog/" target="_blank">Sara Lynn Paige</a>'s beautiful <i>Reminisce </i>film style actions. I bought them a few weeks ago, and they are truly lovely. Sometimes digital images can be too crisp, too clear. This puts just the right amount of colour, and depth into my images.</span></div>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-9425646962046347212012-01-13T14:41:00.000-05:002012-01-13T14:41:32.695-05:00lifetime goal: achieved<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Normally, that title would be absolute hyperbole. I say things like that all the time in jest, but this time around, I <i>actually</i> achieved one of my lifetime goals, and I can't tell you how entirely excited I am about this fact! But before I get to the actual discovery, let me give you a bit of background.</span><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">You may or may not know/remember that I was an art history major for two years, and even though I didn't go through my degree to the very end (I decided to pursue writing instead), I would say I was fairly passionate about it. In fact, I had aspirations of becoming a professor -- that's right folks, I had every intention of devoting the next ten or more years to education, wherever that may have taken me. And so when I was considering which topic I might like to explore for a masters degree (and eventually my PhD), I was going back and forth between two topics: Flemish painting (think Vermeer, the artist who created my absolute favourite painting <i><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Johannes_Vermeer_(1632-1675)_-_The_Girl_With_The_Pearl_Earring_(1665).jpg" target="_blank">Girl with a Pearl Earring</a>) </i>and early Canadian photography. I'd always loved Vermeer, but it was an amazing documentary on the "Queen's Photographer" William Notman that began to sway me toward Canadian photography. His work was different from a lot of photographers at the time, and some of it very complex. If you're interested in taking a look at his photographs, check out <a href="http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/keys/virtualexhibits/notmanstudio/" target="_blank">Museum McCord</a>'s virtual exhibit about him.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">In any case, I was obsessed. I had print-outs of his work hanging on my wall. I wrote possibly my best university essay about his influence on the world's perception of Canada. And I honestly never though I would care that much about anything even remotely Canadian, because while I love living here, our history is not the most fascinating. Because I was totally hung up about this photographer, I decided that someday, I would find a William Notman photograph, and make it my own. I'd only ever seen a couple in person (strangely, it was a gentleman exhibiting early Canadian photographs at the mall), but they weren't for sale. So I could only admire them through a glass case, and then have to walk away.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">But for the past two years I have looked through probably hundreds of old photographs at various antique stores with no luck at all. I was tempted to ask the store owners if they would keep an eye out for any Notmans, but then I thought they probably get so many old photographs that they don't even care about the studio anymore. Then...it happened. Yesterday, while out antiquing with my best friend (and maid of honour!), I found it. Buried in among a stash of photographs, I drew it out, and I stopped breathing as I stared at the studio name at the bottom of the portrait. It was all very dramatic, I can assure you. What made it even more amazing to me, was that the photograph was from his Boston Studio -- not even Ottawa or Montreal. It was one lonely photograph taken in a different country that somehow made it's way to that antique store, and into my hands. And thus my lifetime goal was accomplished for the price of three dollars.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjNoZEPXxe5CvXjDkwxLlz4geMSN0kYgau4DNVYF6yz4w9UcvKIaY-3MtVCjhRgZ3_FWyypDR9oLGWHzJDl8jIljw-vP_o6-4jYEVp4GFcRhvEaN3VKbsdTOckLNBeQ69Lf6qINBreE-VD/s1600/notmanphoto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjNoZEPXxe5CvXjDkwxLlz4geMSN0kYgau4DNVYF6yz4w9UcvKIaY-3MtVCjhRgZ3_FWyypDR9oLGWHzJDl8jIljw-vP_o6-4jYEVp4GFcRhvEaN3VKbsdTOckLNBeQ69Lf6qINBreE-VD/s1600/notmanphoto.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjxhMNeXRjENYLy9YeL60ERFnxvpNR3W-13o84PsNRWaHLSPfvBMZECl7F7fW3z-UBhv5dOeTac7e96ZYngBW35FdHVjze_iPJhu6XLcUbF9PQa5NirVZPlEMVN9ie16EYhR6i2VLfuko1/s1600/notmanphoto2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjxhMNeXRjENYLy9YeL60ERFnxvpNR3W-13o84PsNRWaHLSPfvBMZECl7F7fW3z-UBhv5dOeTac7e96ZYngBW35FdHVjze_iPJhu6XLcUbF9PQa5NirVZPlEMVN9ie16EYhR6i2VLfuko1/s1600/notmanphoto2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Funnily enough, I had just told Mary that it would be just my luck that when I found a Notman, it would be of a creepy baby or something. But no! Instead I got myself a sharp-dressed older gentleman with a kind face. On the back of the photo is written the man's name <i>Geo W. Pousland</i>, and what I believe is his year of birth (1814) and death (1894). I did a bit of research, and the span of years of the man's life (and the approximate age he is in the portrait) put him in the right time for Notman's Boston studio, as well as the actual name of the studio (<i>Notman Photographic Company</i>). So I'm absolutely ecstatic that I own an authentic William Notman photograph! I might just have to pop over to the university to show the professor who made us watch that documentary!</span></div>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-34390813192178276432012-01-06T12:15:00.000-05:002012-01-06T12:15:19.821-05:00the post-holiday post<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7QeHammegvqG2FrgbnF7h4ihV4Haq6GRwx3tabV4i6OHyWjlIIgigq8UV37CFhR3-yxCHVKetyNkiFkzlPF7F0A7lCN-E1JoSeNKueLMi-5JOgezIf6_SDw7HrQvc1AuKxfPQgs-B87o9/s1600/reindeer+shawn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7QeHammegvqG2FrgbnF7h4ihV4Haq6GRwx3tabV4i6OHyWjlIIgigq8UV37CFhR3-yxCHVKetyNkiFkzlPF7F0A7lCN-E1JoSeNKueLMi-5JOgezIf6_SDw7HrQvc1AuKxfPQgs-B87o9/s1600/reindeer+shawn.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I hope everyone had an exciting (and safe) start to the new year! Mine was certainly buzzing from start to finish, and hasn't really drawn to its close quite yet. On Saturday we're all going out for a good German lunch with my Opa and his lady-friend Ruth -- always good for a laugh, and there are always stories to tell. And it'll be the first time he meets Luke, as well as my older brother's lovely girlfriend, Ashley! So we'll see how that goes. With my Opa, you just never know. (P.S. isn't that picture of Shawn with the antlers too cute? Seriously, that dog will let you put anything on him. I've tied pashminas on him, we've put glasses, hats, and various other clothing and he just sits there with that adorable look on his face. Such a good dog.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Anyway, I promised you a second Christmas post, and a New Years post, so I've combined them into one post because that felt like the most efficient thing to do. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_NwaTEK6PT2QgI5AtSfrWPxFs-ESvXckO9rJWBGGFW4grqAnVM81WgylQvYPEM2x0gxuWj4j66A-45z4s1gjPhFSSRlfEvSgaj-8MAgP_7_UXGaYxMz9r5qaYufyeowsZi-AxWfVfc4a7/s1600/xmas3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_NwaTEK6PT2QgI5AtSfrWPxFs-ESvXckO9rJWBGGFW4grqAnVM81WgylQvYPEM2x0gxuWj4j66A-45z4s1gjPhFSSRlfEvSgaj-8MAgP_7_UXGaYxMz9r5qaYufyeowsZi-AxWfVfc4a7/s1600/xmas3.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">My Mom and I take great pride in our holiday table settings. And while I've only included one shot, trust me that there are photographs from every angle imaginable of that table. It was so sparkly and festive. I think our Christmas settings are always the best. Also, that Christmas photo of me and Luke is not quite genuine...it was actually taken on New Years Eve. Over the three Christmases we have spent together, Luke and I had never managed to get a really good picture of us by a tree, or whatever. So my mom took some. And strangely enough, though we both felt that we were making really happy, excited faces, all the pictures made us look like we were bored. But oh well. I can live with it.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">New Years was spent with Marc and Leanne, as I mentioned in my last post. It was so much fun! None of us are big drinkers (and I don't know about anyone else, but I generally like to remember special events, rather than lose them in an alcohol-induced haze), so for the final count down we actually toasted with sparkling juice. But it was <i>delicious</i> sparkling juice. We did have some wine with dinner though, and I had a small Bailey's because Bailey's is best (mmm alliteration). Oh...and we made CHOCOLATE FONDUE. So utterly delicious.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrGIkuMFdbaYUnEYKuDIGZ4sX7_5D4vm3YtTBPhAgeZbPVPtTfVDclJKcrQcrsiiX0GOuSd6uFR_pJttQx0Jpe4vKB5o9cFwn7Er1YmyxkB1NVGizOtdBgsxJesEDas383oqv-if1KvNWb/s1600/NYE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrGIkuMFdbaYUnEYKuDIGZ4sX7_5D4vm3YtTBPhAgeZbPVPtTfVDclJKcrQcrsiiX0GOuSd6uFR_pJttQx0Jpe4vKB5o9cFwn7Er1YmyxkB1NVGizOtdBgsxJesEDas383oqv-if1KvNWb/s1600/NYE.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">That second photo is one of my favourites from the evening. It just seems really classically New Years to me. :) And the first shot is Luke and Marc goofing around and pretending that the champanade was not just champanade.</span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXlApMCl1s7NXVrpmwF_oxR_2dweK_3yZ0nkOVN6YzO-9KyGYjcMSLlkMtlsIQ6kwo66RUgH7udT4Bp3LBF6xwkIsHDn1_lMaqIEYADVzA_1-_quS_PnRK2tSPc26QrHy2Nyur_vl-X5EM/s1600/NYE2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXlApMCl1s7NXVrpmwF_oxR_2dweK_3yZ0nkOVN6YzO-9KyGYjcMSLlkMtlsIQ6kwo66RUgH7udT4Bp3LBF6xwkIsHDn1_lMaqIEYADVzA_1-_quS_PnRK2tSPc26QrHy2Nyur_vl-X5EM/s1600/NYE2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">We played this great board game called the Magic Labyrinth. Basically, you're trying to collect your medallions, but you have to go through a labyrinth that you can't see because it's under the board. Your piece moves on a magnet, and if you hit a wall, you have to start back at your corner. It's definitely a challenge to play at midnight! And of course I couldn't resist a sparkly silver nail polish to celebrate the New Year. I didn't have any sparkly clothes, so the sparkles had to appear on my nails (which are finally long enough to paint!).</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Anyway, that's the holiday in a nutshell! Now back to our regularly scheduled programming!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
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</span></div>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-81247174237198814652011-12-29T12:01:00.000-05:002011-12-29T12:01:19.129-05:00miss peregrine's home for peculiar children<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I hope everyone had a fun, relaxing, restful holiday! I do have another Christmas post coming up, but finding enough time to process all the images has been hard to come by, as you can imagine. And then of course there's New Year's! I'm totally excited, because this year we'll be spending that particular holiday with Marc and Leanne (you will remember them from Halloween). It's sure to be an awesome time, and a post about that will be sure to follow!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I thought I'd do a little interim post about one of the gifts that I received this year, from my brother. It's about this book:</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt6rUUp_HtKA_BDS8tAd4L4ibV-D0I8Nf8tmFP5yZwAhrNC5VYk0yG-J_G3LZxvcc7UO2GX-U822IV9AuoHz_M5KmEQc48pQub8D9azmssZVMFs_jXQHUzFQ8LGLBHV6jZ4hsiI8Q6FJV_/s1600/miss+peregrine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt6rUUp_HtKA_BDS8tAd4L4ibV-D0I8Nf8tmFP5yZwAhrNC5VYk0yG-J_G3LZxvcc7UO2GX-U822IV9AuoHz_M5KmEQc48pQub8D9azmssZVMFs_jXQHUzFQ8LGLBHV6jZ4hsiI8Q6FJV_/s1600/miss+peregrine.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children</i>, by Ransom Riggs. I watched the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWrNyVhSJUU">book trailer</a> a few weeks ago, and immediately fell in book love. So you can imagine how excited I was to get reading. I managed to drag it out to the evening of December 26th, and there's part of me that wishes I had dragged it out a bit longer -- because now that it's over, I'm sort of in withdrawal. But let me tell you, it is pretty much everything I love in a book. The combination of actual old photographs (which sometimes border on the grotesque, so be warned) and a compelling story make for a really interesting reading experience. It was also kind of refreshing to read a book that isn't a classic. Don't get me wrong, I love the classics, but sometimes you just need a bit of contemporary punch now and then.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I don't want to spoil the book for anyone, so I won't go into much detail on the plot. This isn't so much a review as a "I'm so excited about this story, and I want everyone else to be excited about it too" sort of post. But if you like stories of budding romance (not Twilight-esque budding romance, which is silly), intrigue, adventure, and anything with vintage flair, then you'll like this one. I'm probably going to wait a few weeks and then read it again, just to see if I pick up anything the second time around that I missed in the first go. I'm so, so, <i>so</i> excited that there's going to be a sequel...I just don't know if I'll be able to wait that long!</span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-5015448549809659982011-12-10T20:04:00.000-05:002011-12-10T20:04:51.558-05:00deck the halls!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Decorating around the house for Christmas this year has brought up some bittersweet thoughts for me. Since I'll be married and in my very own apartment by Christmas 2012, this is sort of my "last" Christmas here. I know, I know...I'll be coming by on Christmas Eve to celebrate with my family (we no longer celebrate on Christmas morning) for years to come, but I probably won't be here when my mom drags all of our Christmas decorations up from the basement and turns our autumnal living room/dining room into a winter wonderland. And I probably won't be decorating the Christmas tree with my mom either, after which we always ask my dad "How does it look?", to which he always responds, "It's beautiful!", and then we glow with pride. I'm excited to decorate the apartment I'll be sharing with Luke, to have our own tree, to watch Christmas specials together on our own couch. But there is a part of me that will be sorry to leave these traditions behind. So even though I'm excited for Christmas, I know that this is the last one of its kind for me. So I want to treasure it even more for that.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">One of the traditions that I'm definitely going to carry on with Luke, and with our future children, is buying a new ornament for each of us every year. That means that each of us have (or will have, in the case of my younger brother) twenty-one ornaments from Hallmark. It's so fun to pick your ornament each fall, and see the way our tastes have changed over the years. I went from Precious Moments-esque angels, to goofy Santas (one of which is pictured below), the lovely bird ornaments. My older brother, collected fishing Santas, Snoopy ornaments, and even has a Muhammed Ali ornament (which, I'm afraid, always gets relegated to the back of the tree because it doesn't go with my mom's decor). And may I also add that the annual advent calendar is always something to look forward to?</span><br />
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</span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-90391838912894172012011-12-05T18:48:00.000-05:002011-12-05T18:48:21.482-05:00first snow fall...sort of<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I feel like every time I write a post these days, I'm apologizing for being absent. But November, and now December, have sort of taken me by the throat and won't let go. To add to all the other insanity that's been happening, I found out today that my my grandpa is having surgery tonight (he may be in surgery right now, for all I know), and that he might have cancer. Again. And I spent most of my day editing scene change charts, and sticking tabs in for all the lighting and sound cues in my stage manager's script.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">And, to top it all off, I am <i>freezing cold</i>. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">The snow did start falling a few days ago though. I thought it might actually stick around, but it appears I was wrong. Which is too bad, because we have a few roses still clinging to life on our rose bush, and I wanted to get some shots of the snow on them -- but every time I went to go take the pictures, the snow had already melted! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I'm not a huge fan of snow, but I'm less of a fan of green Christmases. Now that it's December, I feel like I have license to watch every single Christmas special in existence, and that the sky owes me enough snow to hide all the nasty, soggy grass.</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;">(you can click on the pictures to view larger!)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">P.S. I picked and purchased my wedding gown on Saturday. I wish I could tell you guys about it because I'm super excited, but Luke reads the blog, and I don't want to blow the surprise! But I can tell you that I tried on about ten dresses, and pretty much knew right away that it was the one. Part of me knew because I absolutely did <i>not</i> want to take it off. And my parents completely surprised me by offering to buy the dress! I can't wait to be able to share pictures with you -- less than a year to go!</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-76350757834311002182011-11-24T13:46:00.000-05:002011-11-24T13:46:04.123-05:00my book obsession: mrs. dalloway<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I'm sure you may have gleaned this from past posts, but I really am a book addict. I've always said that if anything were to bankrupt me, it wouldn't be clothes, or shoes, or purses, or whatever. It would be books. Books are generally the only thing that I don't feel guilty about buying, when really I should. I mean, I'm not rolling in gold over here. Really I should be saving up all of my money, but frankly, I can't resist a good book. Or even a book that has the potential to be terrible, but has a really great cover.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">But what makes this addiction even worse, is that I buy <i>multiple copies </i>of my favourite books. Yes. If I'm perusing a used book store (or a non-used bookstore, actually), and I come across a beautiful copy of a book that I already own, I'll buy it.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Case in point:<i> Mrs. Dalloway</i> by Virginia Woolf.</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">These are actually not all of my copies. One or two of them have disappeared into the abyss of our basement, which is unfortunate, because my favourite copy is missing. It was tiny, and red, with gold-edged pages. I also included my e-reader version of it, just for fun. I'll never give up my paper books, but the convenience of my Kobo is awesome. I don't know about you guys, but I'm really indecisive when it comes to choosing books to bring with me on trips and whatnot, so having hundreds at my disposal wherever I go is pretty cool. But I digress.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">This copy is the oldest one I have. I think it was printed around 1954. The cover is unlike any I've ever come across before, so obviously I <i>had</i> to have it. I love the bright, graphic aspects of it. All the other covers I've seen are muted in their tones. So it's cool to have a nice contrast between my versions. There was a first edition on Ebay for quite some time (it may still be there, for all I know), which I mooned over for a long time. Unfortunately, $900 for a single book was where I had to draw the line. I would definitely feel guilty for emptying my bank account for a book I probably could never open for fear of pages tearing or being stained. A girl can dream though.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I stumbled onto <i>Mrs. Dalloway </i>in high school. I'm sure I saw it referenced somewhere (it might have been the movie "The Hours"), and thought I'd give it a read. I immediately fell in love with it -- but that doesn't mean it was easy to get through. There were a lot of times where I'd have to stop, go back, and re-read a passage in order to really understand what was happening. But there was something about the language of this book that I loved; it had such an incredible flow, even though punctuation was scarce sometimes. The characters were beautiful and poetic. Septimus Warren Smith, the Great War veteran suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is one of the most inspirational characters for me. I won't spoil it for you if you haven't read it, but there is some really incredible writing connected with Septimus in particular, and it really sticks with you.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">In case any of you are 20th century literature skeptics, just let me tell you that I am too. There are very few books written after 1900 and before 1970 that I care for particularly. For me though, Virginia Woolf is one of the major exceptions. There is something about her writing that is both definitive of the time she is writing in, and transcendent through the decades that followed. She isn't writing about flappers smoking cigarettes and being overbearingly pretentious (read: the precursor to the hipster). She's writing about real people and real issues. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">That said, I totally get it if you hate Virginia Woolf too. To each their own.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
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</span></div>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-21377129131966255342011-11-21T11:35:00.000-05:002011-11-21T11:35:22.337-05:00neither here nor there<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Okay. So I will admit I expected November to be a bit crazy. I did not expect myself to <i>go crazy</i> in November, however. But I feel like I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off, and if I'm not behaving like a headless fowl, then I'm dragging myself from one room of the house to the other, knowing full well that I'm being passive aggressive to my very own self. The production of <i>Christmas Carol</i> that I'm stage managing is drawing dangerously close to show week, the production of <i>James and the Giant Peach</i> that I'm directing (pretty much simultaneously) is off to a booming start, my dog had surgery (to remove that nasty tumor...gross), NaNoWriMo is turning out to be a major fail this year, and on top of that I'm trying to book venues for mine and Luke's wedding next fall, not to mention making appointments for (weeeeee!) gown shopping. I feel like there was something else that was supposed to be on that list, but I can't remember it right now.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Anyway, I'd like to put up a couple photo posts this week. This post is not really one of them. I thought, for fun, I'd share some of the inspiration photos that Luke and I have been looking at for wedding-y things. I promise this isn't going to turn into a wedding blog though. Although I do love wedding blogs...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">You can click to enlarge most of these pictures!</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq4HyknxjWLlWL01EM5MOGUI7wvbEXqrhy53TMuZ0neOYVcpIgZnFVsFzBX9T_gIh5_DZIHje3xgig2g93GtB7ZjUcl2ajk9mMaIRAtCixO5IkvQwPVLimcnhmC83rnK-6Tw1fcU_Ll0Hv/s1600/slate-yellow-and-green.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq4HyknxjWLlWL01EM5MOGUI7wvbEXqrhy53TMuZ0neOYVcpIgZnFVsFzBX9T_gIh5_DZIHje3xgig2g93GtB7ZjUcl2ajk9mMaIRAtCixO5IkvQwPVLimcnhmC83rnK-6Tw1fcU_Ll0Hv/s400/slate-yellow-and-green.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxtQ1IpoRe0PBGhQLaDAHmsYAdG-NH_LkiJH4QutPJkmJha6mwfHbtWGpbXwSHP0uJ5bPl55igPdHNGwB4iLkMBOWDD4OSg2rOWTLlaH7RMCa-T2F0tVCDkDilQZ6fVM1in7fI9TpINCsj/s1600/billy_buttons_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxtQ1IpoRe0PBGhQLaDAHmsYAdG-NH_LkiJH4QutPJkmJha6mwfHbtWGpbXwSHP0uJ5bPl55igPdHNGwB4iLkMBOWDD4OSg2rOWTLlaH7RMCa-T2F0tVCDkDilQZ6fVM1in7fI9TpINCsj/s400/billy_buttons_01.jpg" width="381" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">(I would like to point out that while I love craspedia, and also daisies, seeing as they are my favourite flowers, I hate that bouquet on the top right. But I like the other ones. Especially the last two.)</span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz_nksQ656QAXol0JExYE5lwNarOaNGQ0UPUMMtUTicamRDpehMs9z73PHmy1d4g6kUGv0awA7sQFbNRbi8afP8Zo8NQD3aEPb2Okwe-LrZbRv6tLUSDachrWz0KLBgWpECs5vUJFyehIU/s1600/succulent+yellow+wedding+centerpiece.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz_nksQ656QAXol0JExYE5lwNarOaNGQ0UPUMMtUTicamRDpehMs9z73PHmy1d4g6kUGv0awA7sQFbNRbi8afP8Zo8NQD3aEPb2Okwe-LrZbRv6tLUSDachrWz0KLBgWpECs5vUJFyehIU/s1600/succulent+yellow+wedding+centerpiece.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCI6P1aO0hzmj10gN9s6o3iftAWSq9JFHMw7rOxFik0PzTZR7MyE41ym0ozv_MAwdNo-r8YsziBBsnTy8irIz8mbISiANGopCjQaPIbZ7yIQm08omp3V1hJfFxkDsvwHlhmbD49IrYXrzl/s1600/suits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCI6P1aO0hzmj10gN9s6o3iftAWSq9JFHMw7rOxFik0PzTZR7MyE41ym0ozv_MAwdNo-r8YsziBBsnTy8irIz8mbISiANGopCjQaPIbZ7yIQm08omp3V1hJfFxkDsvwHlhmbD49IrYXrzl/s400/suits.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBM7B0cyFHZZbMbsYErNRQpus0khpndqVtx3TPllY-bof2_9fMvs55BTOb9elissgqyIWCL-46iLRY7WQDzwxb4OiwlWKIraDhufQydcFlTakI3dbsFhgGYTsWY-1T6EYjeNjIxrN-UrUB/s1600/yellow+bouquet.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBM7B0cyFHZZbMbsYErNRQpus0khpndqVtx3TPllY-bof2_9fMvs55BTOb9elissgqyIWCL-46iLRY7WQDzwxb4OiwlWKIraDhufQydcFlTakI3dbsFhgGYTsWY-1T6EYjeNjIxrN-UrUB/s1600/yellow+bouquet.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW6EA8R5KeaL1K0fYP4IBVraM7FCzsXLDP7By5LJ-uov1h551_jPUO1UOF2hR7Thx8BTjkoMXLp5ujC3HLF54NtSBKfVyJLTFb2tKaw4na1wPKjvzxCm8xTxp2Fd_yOdTRbkFC1HY8IXzZ/s1600/yellow+bouquet3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW6EA8R5KeaL1K0fYP4IBVraM7FCzsXLDP7By5LJ-uov1h551_jPUO1UOF2hR7Thx8BTjkoMXLp5ujC3HLF54NtSBKfVyJLTFb2tKaw4na1wPKjvzxCm8xTxp2Fd_yOdTRbkFC1HY8IXzZ/s1600/yellow+bouquet3.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">This my dream bouquet. So pretty. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I know I should be crediting these pictures, but frankly...I don't even know where a lot of these came from anymore. And I am too tired to go a-google hunting.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Have a good one guys!</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-54403822031381986002011-11-12T13:33:00.001-05:002011-11-12T13:34:02.408-05:00days six to twelve<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I am pleased to report that I only forgot to take a picture for one day -- and really, I didn't forget, I just felt like procrastinating. You know how it is. Not to mention I'm desperately trying to get my word count up (I am dismally behind at this point). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Day Six: Pink</i></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiorOO2N72f4WLpMiWZCiHJ5ddNCu31Ar6dmPgxKtV6nH9QyYTDfaM9hkBmAuXmKZ0d4Hj4nfvc1i2HNadkNFZmNBgvvstA0HVrNsZaigolw9Cd1PN_nSiq3aLewjm4Gw-sZVFb6yuWHupP/s1600/Pink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiorOO2N72f4WLpMiWZCiHJ5ddNCu31Ar6dmPgxKtV6nH9QyYTDfaM9hkBmAuXmKZ0d4Hj4nfvc1i2HNadkNFZmNBgvvstA0HVrNsZaigolw9Cd1PN_nSiq3aLewjm4Gw-sZVFb6yuWHupP/s1600/Pink.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The same friend that bought me the tiny tea set from England, also brought me this adorable journal from Versailles in France. It's officially become my wedding planning journal. Yay!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Day Seven: Oversized</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAn7F6VQa9lODv70HXIpxDNZfMJ5uJGgaEBWlEds-YH-mX6Ww_Sd6qnrD5PMtihTn68ezpsWnhkbiblFtGc3YgGgjn006z_lcq26jmr57F0EaRzIbglyq9ch-VHNzPOK5JxMn7Wox80q_6/s1600/Oversize.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAn7F6VQa9lODv70HXIpxDNZfMJ5uJGgaEBWlEds-YH-mX6Ww_Sd6qnrD5PMtihTn68ezpsWnhkbiblFtGc3YgGgjn006z_lcq26jmr57F0EaRzIbglyq9ch-VHNzPOK5JxMn7Wox80q_6/s1600/Oversize.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">My dad's shoes are much too big for me.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Day Eight: Morning</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYoScVYprtI0n8JeKyPmsdZkMtLNBdBAWC4CYtgq8OWjgqOZ7Ykam_Ioh2XPk5C6DHeMEpzXqE9pKE5yXEaq_WXqokfK1LCwC_Gapnd_xCUt_2A_rSRw568dWtlvPk9gxOvglgQfgzt1z/s1600/Morning.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPYoScVYprtI0n8JeKyPmsdZkMtLNBdBAWC4CYtgq8OWjgqOZ7Ykam_Ioh2XPk5C6DHeMEpzXqE9pKE5yXEaq_WXqokfK1LCwC_Gapnd_xCUt_2A_rSRw568dWtlvPk9gxOvglgQfgzt1z/s1600/Morning.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The indistinct gray light of morning. This picture isn't even something spectacular, but I love it. I don't know why.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Day Nine: Upside Down</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl1HSl4bO466syaq4z_HeEAVv9TbqNaE10DTBxPJZyKfn1B7AYKxHbrMJ-owCymPwZI4iCFYh0PlK1EYaF1KGf8kbXo5buCafPWw_4IWhQ7lISkktESnaIuf9LIO_LCbVJq9SOa6gr5x2p/s1600/Upside+down.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl1HSl4bO466syaq4z_HeEAVv9TbqNaE10DTBxPJZyKfn1B7AYKxHbrMJ-owCymPwZI4iCFYh0PlK1EYaF1KGf8kbXo5buCafPWw_4IWhQ7lISkktESnaIuf9LIO_LCbVJq9SOa6gr5x2p/s1600/Upside+down.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I waited all day for Pip to flip onto his back for this picture. Go figure, it was the one day he didn't do it. So I ended up having to ask my dad to do downward facing dog, because that's all I could think of.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Day Ten: Reflection</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOhywPpPHnIABsLX9sspp-w5BmwHw7odGcrxs_qANes8OlEZMVy66lFFa4b8VTGKf-K_X8CI5BPxYtFA72FrLNalVoAVGdHmVCHQ6f7R-yi71j_YlwmlPjMAFYyl1_vzIT3aOVhF2dgo8S/s1600/Reflection.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOhywPpPHnIABsLX9sspp-w5BmwHw7odGcrxs_qANes8OlEZMVy66lFFa4b8VTGKf-K_X8CI5BPxYtFA72FrLNalVoAVGdHmVCHQ6f7R-yi71j_YlwmlPjMAFYyl1_vzIT3aOVhF2dgo8S/s1600/Reflection.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">The reflection of my living room in my T.V. A lot cooler than I had anticipated.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Day Eleven: Inside</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh063KMS5O2ebL2YVeUXGHYvhjAmtoyMRmkwuMmWF6cPFsbhnO2-BTQCB9YVfm8aOsvUpM2cYUoR_n8I7A8FE3RwbhcTjsGJEnYmk3kiHNAsA8DnKg4OqkSBDcOhPvyL8FrZ3mg0vZTF7KQ/s1600/Inside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh063KMS5O2ebL2YVeUXGHYvhjAmtoyMRmkwuMmWF6cPFsbhnO2-BTQCB9YVfm8aOsvUpM2cYUoR_n8I7A8FE3RwbhcTjsGJEnYmk3kiHNAsA8DnKg4OqkSBDcOhPvyL8FrZ3mg0vZTF7KQ/s1600/Inside.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I was so happy to get to spend the day inside yesterday. It was cold enough to snow! Luckily none of it stuck.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Day Twelve: Delicious</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVKznW7vkkIMGZLXdoBqolnEy8I5GMKRzuhxTJEDwij690yDGaVK3estXzSJN36LOxuHoLA_PhvNAcYFDRrU_p0cpXEoZJtVcFdJx4f-L3aB08eVZlfEmIPDhMzbCZn7LgLdwxtAZLQWUi/s1600/Delicious.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVKznW7vkkIMGZLXdoBqolnEy8I5GMKRzuhxTJEDwij690yDGaVK3estXzSJN36LOxuHoLA_PhvNAcYFDRrU_p0cpXEoZJtVcFdJx4f-L3aB08eVZlfEmIPDhMzbCZn7LgLdwxtAZLQWUi/s1600/Delicious.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Mmmm...cookies and milk. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><br />
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</i></span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-50456222571161684832011-11-10T22:52:00.000-05:002011-11-10T22:52:57.735-05:00a jane eyre proposal<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I had every intention to be well on my way to a NaNoWriMo win this week. I also had every intention to post pictures, wallpapers, and whatever else. And I really do give you my sincerest apologies for blogging my very serious blogging duties. But you have to forgive me, really, because things have been <i>whacko</i> this week -- and I mean that in the very best way possible. For, you see, my boyfriend (if you don't know of him, his name is Luke) proposed to me on Saturday. So as you can imagine, it's gotten busy. And I thought I'd share the experience with you because it's an exciting event in my life, and I've shared most of the other events that have occurred in the past few months; and I also think it was cute, and more than I could ever have imagined. So here it goes!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">The day started with Luke bringing me my favourite Starbucks drink: a pumpkin spice frappuccino. Actually, my favourite is a pumpkin spice blended creme, but I felt like I needed caffeine that day. That in and of itself was a warning bell because Luke doesn't really do that. If we want Starbucks, we go together, and usually it's as part of a trip to Chapters. Anyway, when he arrived, he not only had my coffee in hand, he also had a bouquet of beautiful yellow mums.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlYNLgFkAJtulNQGK-Foec-bOoyWFs69kRXekv7A-dUag9ahRVS2N_h1m4QdIEkAJjAUzcy37Lbm7Lf5TC6XIy_XuaO4CQhWUKLW6XQEIt5rfUMimc1H0486F9QZmZJJ18MqzawtePpdav/s1600/Engagement+Flowers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlYNLgFkAJtulNQGK-Foec-bOoyWFs69kRXekv7A-dUag9ahRVS2N_h1m4QdIEkAJjAUzcy37Lbm7Lf5TC6XIy_XuaO4CQhWUKLW6XQEIt5rfUMimc1H0486F9QZmZJJ18MqzawtePpdav/s640/Engagement+Flowers.jpg" width="427" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">We lingered around my house for a little while, biding some time, before we headed out into the chilly afternoon air for a "surprise". A surprise that involved "an animal". Usually I'm good at guessing where Luke is taking me on his surprises, but this time, I had no idea. All I knew was that it was somewhere we had never been. Only a short while later, I discovered that he had booked a trail ride -- on horses! It had been so long since I'd last been on a horse, but it was kind of like riding a bike. I felt really comfortable (except for the fact that I hadn't worn gloves and my hands were <i>freezing</i>, and also the cloth reins were digging into my fingers in a most unpleasant fashion), and it was really nice. Although, the horse I rode was a major pest; his name was Bailey. But he was cute, so I forgive him.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">The trail ride was followed up by eating take-out sushi from one of our favourite local sushi restaurants in the back of his car -- at the park where we had our first kiss. Cute, right? I was getting more and more excited, and also more and more nervous. I was simultaneously sure that the proposal was coming soon (I mean, how was he going to top this amazing day?), but I was also working very hard to keep my head cool. If he didn't propose, then I didn't want to be disappointed.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Once we had finished eating, Luke assured me that there was one more destination. <i>This is it</i>, I thought, and I'm pretty sure my hands were getting sweaty with anxiety. <i>Ohhhh boy. Don't be an idiot</i>, I kept telling myself. I had a feeling I knew where we were headed, and it turned out I was right. We ended up at a golf course, which may seem strange because I don't like golf, and have never golfed in my life, and I don't think Luke is particularly fond of it either. But it's a special place for us, because we had first decided to embark on this amazing relationship on the green of that golf course, in the dead of night, when a sky full of stars stretched out above us. He said we were going there to eat dessert.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Instead, he called me out onto the green, pulled out a piece of paper, and read these words:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">"Joy,</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I have a strange feeling with regard to you, as if I had a string attached to me under my left rib, and you have a similar string attached to you.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Joy, you rare, unearthly thing! I must have you as my own! And so I offer you my hand, my heart, and I ask that you pass through life at my side. You are my equal and my likeness. Joy, will you marry me?"</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I proceeded to cry like a fool, and say in a hoarse scratchy voice (for I was, and still am, slightly sick), "Of course!"</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">For those of you who may not be familiar, the words he proposed with were an abbreviated version of Mr. Rochester's proposal to Jane in <i>Jane Eyre</i>. It happens to be my favourite book, and those words happen to make me swoon. And to hear my own "Mr. Rochester" say those words to me with such feeling and love, was pretty much a dream come true. No, it was better. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">And now we're starting out on a <i>new</i> journey, and this year is going to be crazy, and intense, and stressful, and wonderful, and full of excitement. I can't wait for it. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">And it may just be the reason why I don't win NaNoWriMo this year. But I think I might be okay with that.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Maybe. :)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">(And if you want to know what the ring looks like, I've taken a picture. I feel a little weird about it, but just in case anyone is curious. You can click the picture to view it larger.)</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1dwVLyTrSNiNBsirGML-QsfF1V-xw-3wgsjpR07zJul9Tqlxewl-lLX3IMPzjo2CoQX1jAJdAQ-xXE97DV-B2mBlhQKjorsO1KQZhdil6Q9cmsj9Wq-7xElpggglflCaNRPKX2FA6xuot/s1600/Engagement+Ring.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1dwVLyTrSNiNBsirGML-QsfF1V-xw-3wgsjpR07zJul9Tqlxewl-lLX3IMPzjo2CoQX1jAJdAQ-xXE97DV-B2mBlhQKjorsO1KQZhdil6Q9cmsj9Wq-7xElpggglflCaNRPKX2FA6xuot/s400/Engagement+Ring.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-66988423907030629562011-11-05T11:37:00.000-04:002011-11-05T11:37:25.141-04:00first five<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">..Not to be confused with "Fast Five"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">. Har har. I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">n any case, I've completed the first five days of the 365 day project. It's still </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">pretty early on (as in, </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">very</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"> early on), but I'm enjoying it thus far. I'm hoping I'm able to commit for an entire year, but if I make it even halfway through, I'll still be proud of myself. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Day One: Old Faithful</i></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8bCtLVs54yyX8MIvaXS85dacZ4dJWOoN0g0FQV0w3AHMv83Dm7c_RhLusgHg6BrjySgQ3Kb2_aSdQLmBCKNhc8wVpuNxc6dDhaU_w5SOD6KqzgXKDXOkk5T0QJB2Uzg4u_avGEiiLwPzG/s1600/Old+Faithful.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8bCtLVs54yyX8MIvaXS85dacZ4dJWOoN0g0FQV0w3AHMv83Dm7c_RhLusgHg6BrjySgQ3Kb2_aSdQLmBCKNhc8wVpuNxc6dDhaU_w5SOD6KqzgXKDXOkk5T0QJB2Uzg4u_avGEiiLwPzG/s1600/Old+Faithful.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">This is a picture of my Bible. It was my fourteenth birthday present. It's been highlighted, underlined, doodled in, spilled on, and sprayed with paint. But it still serves its purpose.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Day Two: Good Things Come in Small Packages</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTx6LRq0c0ax9cGGYnpYVnPvRDX_UFZGi_kL1s2_v1LmB0PkrYFRXCexLPyU29aGZMFj41e4I6Fa2SbVJm8tQUmBkYAXEX4_vnpWzhAtp8OxyUcJT_B9GTgYHE-Oy7sBXFvxTJasbIqCkx/s1600/Good+Things+Come+in+Small+Packages.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTx6LRq0c0ax9cGGYnpYVnPvRDX_UFZGi_kL1s2_v1LmB0PkrYFRXCexLPyU29aGZMFj41e4I6Fa2SbVJm8tQUmBkYAXEX4_vnpWzhAtp8OxyUcJT_B9GTgYHE-Oy7sBXFvxTJasbIqCkx/s1600/Good+Things+Come+in+Small+Packages.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">The subject of this picture was supposed to be the tea bag<i> inside </i>the tea cup. But my mom and I got a little carried away setting up the vignette, and it turned into an entire still life. Interestingly, until quite recently, I <i>hated</i> still life anything.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Day Three: Pet</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCjH1qt21i8KHqE-Lq857qG8ptiQgnmSOi2hW5A9kg_qqpbDDUwe15PXCqujHdu5vIU53lT2jg2qO66gIoZINP9FgvgN4lgn5MAKW3jdEq5zpOij3V5O5KKHqcHV2YXxQR2pyUDP1R8NR3/s1600/Pet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCjH1qt21i8KHqE-Lq857qG8ptiQgnmSOi2hW5A9kg_qqpbDDUwe15PXCqujHdu5vIU53lT2jg2qO66gIoZINP9FgvgN4lgn5MAKW3jdEq5zpOij3V5O5KKHqcHV2YXxQR2pyUDP1R8NR3/s1600/Pet.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">He's more than just a pet, really.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Day Four: Portrait</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOnltcqOX_t4gqy0kgdqaw3iNFo9Q8ePwk4Dv_ogyrLde7TIsFEpQISBMOlzHSIuyMxr0cbHEC2_u3TA6stGIDPUUXsjkG44Eg4Rwi9JdIU1DT1UpTPVScnmJV1EYW5YvM2_hqY1t6mr4e/s1600/Portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOnltcqOX_t4gqy0kgdqaw3iNFo9Q8ePwk4Dv_ogyrLde7TIsFEpQISBMOlzHSIuyMxr0cbHEC2_u3TA6stGIDPUUXsjkG44Eg4Rwi9JdIU1DT1UpTPVScnmJV1EYW5YvM2_hqY1t6mr4e/s1600/Portrait.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">This was supposed to be a <i>serious</i> portrait, but it never works out that way with my dad. I still love it.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Day Five: Small</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCXUDjTRNBhjTYRyK3XXCO_tsqGAaKLJubtAy2zcqjlVQ0YuJz2KOYzXwS1XtGXmu9H97WGDX0LcrgbB6zGNQAOuwpmk0JC2Bp2XR4ky0n-vjGtZptnFdgaufg2tOOZePhd9ukZ2o8vIwZ/s1600/Small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCXUDjTRNBhjTYRyK3XXCO_tsqGAaKLJubtAy2zcqjlVQ0YuJz2KOYzXwS1XtGXmu9H97WGDX0LcrgbB6zGNQAOuwpmk0JC2Bp2XR4ky0n-vjGtZptnFdgaufg2tOOZePhd9ukZ2o8vIwZ/s1600/Small.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I take a lot of pictures of things in my hand, but I liked the way it showed the scale of this tiny tea cup. My friend brought me back a whole miniature tea set, actually.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Well, there you have it, the first five days. I'm happy with the results, especially the black and whites. It's taking all my willpower not to convert everything into black and white, now that I have some really nice Photoshop actions.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>NaNoWriMo Update:</b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> I've officially crossed the 10 000 word mark. It was my hope to get well ahead, since I know I won't be getting a lot of writing done this weekend. However, I didn't take into account that by Monday, I won't have a buffer anymore. Oh well...I guess Sunday night and Monday morning will be filled with the scurry of frantically typing fingers!</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"></span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-31542794306209958742011-11-01T10:56:00.001-04:002011-11-01T10:57:19.819-04:00happy hallowe'en II + first day of nano<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I really love Hallowe'en. Even after my mom decided she didn't want to decorate and hand out candy anymore, I would decorate the house by myself, and hand out all the candy -- always in costume. One year, I was a hideous hunch backed man (actually, it was my Riff Raff costume from a Rocky Horror party in high school, but I didn't expect any of the kids to get the reference). But my street has grown up, and we pretty much don't get more than ten kids in the whole night, and usually it's less. So that's why I went over to Luke's new place because their neighbourhood is FULL of kids. Seventy-seven kids came by! Yes, we tallied it. There were some real cuties...including a little Green Lantern. Oh, be still my heart. I did notice though, that the Hallowe'en spirit seems to be dying. I mean we had at least ten kids show up that <i>weren't even in costume</i>. I mean, come <i>on</i>. And there were a lot of kids just wearing cat ears. It's pretty sad when the person handing <i>out</i> that candy is more dressed up than the kids <i>taking</i> the candy. Oh well.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I didn't find my Star Trek dress, so I used an H&M dress intead. I actually like it a lot better, so that worked out well. Usually I do the beehive, but I branched, and I'm so glad I did. I love, love, love the flipped out ends, and I think I'm going to have to do that to my hair more often. It was funny though, as I was trying to tell my mom how to use the curling iron to do the ends, and she just gave me this Look and said, "I <i>know</i> how to do this. I did this to my own hair every day." It made me laugh like crazy. Anyway, Luke didn't really have a costume, so we just made him into a sort of '60s-styled man. I took the opportunity to test out my new Photoshop CS 5.1 and my new actions to vintage-fy our Hallowe'en shots just for some fun.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD_3pGM49-uNC6Z2s4Y6J3xMIM09yJ7dYKlORiZBhYnPbXpQ6VL-YyB2uOjBTmQdPpfvwUnvlxfbmfUA0q1HYKU8KnU_EYhgXaJTk-2fWorW7Nn1I_6dy0JdiP1qAM5FtKrkhppVAfsuFM/s1600/Halloween.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD_3pGM49-uNC6Z2s4Y6J3xMIM09yJ7dYKlORiZBhYnPbXpQ6VL-YyB2uOjBTmQdPpfvwUnvlxfbmfUA0q1HYKU8KnU_EYhgXaJTk-2fWorW7Nn1I_6dy0JdiP1qAM5FtKrkhppVAfsuFM/s1600/Halloween.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">We watched Sleepy Hollow while we were handing out candy; I really love that movie. And you would never think it was a '90s movie either. We also ate way too much chocolate, and also homemade date squares (the first time in my life that I've enjoyed date squares).</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Once midnight hit, I was off and running with my NaNoWriMo novel. It is so much fun not caring at all about what you're writing -- I know that must sound weird, but it's true. In under an hour I had reached 1248 words, so I still have a bit of writing too, especially if I want to get ahead. But it was nice to wake up this morning and know that really, I have just under 500 words to go before I hit the daily wordcount.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">I'm starting the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/1565882@N20/">365 Days: A Year of Prompts</a> project today. I've wanted to for months, so I figured November is the time; it's turned into my busiest month of the year. Maybe that's not a bad thing. Especially since Luke started working full time, I have a lot of hours to fill. I'll be posting those pictures in batches of about five to ten. Wish me luck!</span></div>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-30628446935935607092011-10-31T10:01:00.000-04:002011-10-31T10:01:59.087-04:00happy hallowe'en: there is never enough butter<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Happy Hallowe'en everyone! I hope you enjoy this spooky night to the best of your ability! Luke and I will be handing out candy to the little ones tonight, while watching <i>Sleepy Hollow </i>(last night we watched <i>Hocus Pocus</i>, is anyone remembers that oldie). I'm not sure what I'm going to dress up as though...I can't find my Star Trek dress, and I couldn't find any mouse ears to be Minnie Mouse. So we'll have to see. I might just wear my mom's Hallowe'en head band and earrings tonight. I hope this isn't the first Hallowe'en EVER that I don't dress up!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Anyway, on Saturday, Luke and I went over to our friends' (and his cousin's) place for a delicious meal and pumpkin carving! Now, I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I've been cutting out most of the meat in my diet. But schnitzel will <i>always</i>, <i>always</i> be the exception. It's just too good. But I still want to try it with fish, just to see. Here's a picture of the finished product (of the meal, not the jack-o-lanterns):</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsk-BS65wa6YYzLKIE3_em7i6BH5InE_fX4mldILlR6dnIJeEZBATNydg8J7kPp2fJLayzAwZwbvAYC74t3ZaqsYFgj3qG9OKFREbGpirrJU3DMUu6G393q1TWA7Fr0lHst9mGblAg2eTa/s1600/046.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsk-BS65wa6YYzLKIE3_em7i6BH5InE_fX4mldILlR6dnIJeEZBATNydg8J7kPp2fJLayzAwZwbvAYC74t3ZaqsYFgj3qG9OKFREbGpirrJU3DMUu6G393q1TWA7Fr0lHst9mGblAg2eTa/s400/046.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Stuffed zucchini, schnitzel with lemon, homemade spaetzle, steamed broccoli, and fried onions with sage. So. Good.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Now onto the pumpkin carving!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQb0RTaUv7uMiEidJaTTjvqCqFQrTFyx0CzQH_VZzI41fc3tys9hbgjFKVRiYl0ZDciw6aIW_VQsVAVKmKGPfhGmPYR9MkPi7K4EprB0ziac5J4J3Ka8_okYbeW8y0lb2hlWNsR4oveNgk/s1600/060.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQb0RTaUv7uMiEidJaTTjvqCqFQrTFyx0CzQH_VZzI41fc3tys9hbgjFKVRiYl0ZDciw6aIW_VQsVAVKmKGPfhGmPYR9MkPi7K4EprB0ziac5J4J3Ka8_okYbeW8y0lb2hlWNsR4oveNgk/s640/060.JPG" width="427" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIvZyp3eonTH191lqK0X8jfsV-4i5i-QnRl6sv7JtX86tiJqFIarJKaJJfI4TJrwuSQRWfsmYvQvpUpMFJvaMx5VjhDrmXCxjOSRU9CUZ2SC2do75pm4uYMOx8K89NepgG-F2adQgigswe/s1600/064.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIvZyp3eonTH191lqK0X8jfsV-4i5i-QnRl6sv7JtX86tiJqFIarJKaJJfI4TJrwuSQRWfsmYvQvpUpMFJvaMx5VjhDrmXCxjOSRU9CUZ2SC2do75pm4uYMOx8K89NepgG-F2adQgigswe/s640/064.JPG" width="428" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTRCspk-xkfn-4gWoaWDCQ_nJKBcOa4e9Tnf-JHq_0xl8y3kmAImI3pmA30myIseGfW4WyHURg85PpQaOR-1niZEAi8211QFLSeO5jjDMHsNwDaYfZzDtE4bfqVymyGoWWXH8GVeTsHrt1/s1600/075.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTRCspk-xkfn-4gWoaWDCQ_nJKBcOa4e9Tnf-JHq_0xl8y3kmAImI3pmA30myIseGfW4WyHURg85PpQaOR-1niZEAi8211QFLSeO5jjDMHsNwDaYfZzDtE4bfqVymyGoWWXH8GVeTsHrt1/s400/075.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuK06exO4-6SR7BIBOolGmNM6P0LugGKcy2TvqUKnYcTGZhEatnD9MvrwQacDjnA9zszu9fDVIG0Ilg9LlvcC0U4Kt2B2wJDL5ITCfQHaCkrWmPXK91jwv8hD9NY4bWPZwzBV8GeO6Q8Dr/s1600/076.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuK06exO4-6SR7BIBOolGmNM6P0LugGKcy2TvqUKnYcTGZhEatnD9MvrwQacDjnA9zszu9fDVIG0Ilg9LlvcC0U4Kt2B2wJDL5ITCfQHaCkrWmPXK91jwv8hD9NY4bWPZwzBV8GeO6Q8Dr/s400/076.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKc8slZzOoV7tP0GLM9ustoAfnmt3WyV_SKc40b6t5v4MEWlo2w7JYQqpiGY3xXclCSpntRXTsDSFmOv1DpXCpf0Wo_YgXGsKpZWHQKx7s6NGxkHaiVnaHEV1PcJEjVqdYtG6EQoYb12G3/s1600/078.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKc8slZzOoV7tP0GLM9ustoAfnmt3WyV_SKc40b6t5v4MEWlo2w7JYQqpiGY3xXclCSpntRXTsDSFmOv1DpXCpf0Wo_YgXGsKpZWHQKx7s6NGxkHaiVnaHEV1PcJEjVqdYtG6EQoYb12G3/s400/078.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">And finally...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtT-vv7RshzOBiXCeX2Kj8f6jhtVmfOPttVgCyeFVt0Unn-WoiLLluT2FgrYBWuPXY77QPhHWUd6Aq9Mow0Vz0G5MUozrKF7vLldt9JEXsagYa3BNJUzy-o3k2krzypmIpctLKoqaZfdAl/s1600/088.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtT-vv7RshzOBiXCeX2Kj8f6jhtVmfOPttVgCyeFVt0Unn-WoiLLluT2FgrYBWuPXY77QPhHWUd6Aq9Mow0Vz0G5MUozrKF7vLldt9JEXsagYa3BNJUzy-o3k2krzypmIpctLKoqaZfdAl/s400/088.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Ours is the one on the right (Jack Skellington! If anyone's interested, <i>The Nightmare Before Christmas</i> was my first ever move that I saw in theatres, when I was three years old. I've watched it at least three times a year, usually more, since then. I know it off by heart at this point), and the one with the cute little ears belongs to Marc and Leanne. Luke and Marc did all the carving, which we don't have actual pictures of, because Leanne and I were sorting pumpkin seeds for toasting. We made three batches: all spice with maple spice, garlic, and cinnamon & sugar. That's where the "never enough butter" thing comes in. Because you can never toast pumpkin seeds with enough butter.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
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</span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-18388163533416171052011-10-29T10:27:00.000-04:002011-10-29T10:27:15.348-04:00the boys<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I thought I'd leave a few new shots of the boys. Some were taken yesterday, the rest of them were taken...ten minutes ago. And yes, they are wearing crochet neck warmers. What can I say? I spoil them a little. Click to see any of the pictures large.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4-mnduEO4GJ1UYXf5YS4t1erUJS4X12cN5SSZv3Jtd9fH2Kd82vyFb540ba75xCQ9rsCeCoGXto_hg85buCQcmYxW6XN-w6ZSvLJ-yMoFGh-_pvzeLZqnSbJIc31nfpJG10tDeme20ecc/s1600/005.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4-mnduEO4GJ1UYXf5YS4t1erUJS4X12cN5SSZv3Jtd9fH2Kd82vyFb540ba75xCQ9rsCeCoGXto_hg85buCQcmYxW6XN-w6ZSvLJ-yMoFGh-_pvzeLZqnSbJIc31nfpJG10tDeme20ecc/s400/005.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrCVCgwwhY6sGLOEc8AfaOvpGVz6ovCGcwhS0mfM8Lm44LaAGlaaU-aG4SyN_3TQAGkNsSZ5nsQE1u1I9X2Dh16X_poBaATQ8f6AP1xcbB_HpGQ3b7BykrL2MwOreEVPOYQqgnr1keVhAD/s1600/053.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrCVCgwwhY6sGLOEc8AfaOvpGVz6ovCGcwhS0mfM8Lm44LaAGlaaU-aG4SyN_3TQAGkNsSZ5nsQE1u1I9X2Dh16X_poBaATQ8f6AP1xcbB_HpGQ3b7BykrL2MwOreEVPOYQqgnr1keVhAD/s400/053.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-_kFAnSFfECT7JGiEMMMZrwtb3KMgik-HDdRndMCAEsUedue0Q4-pEGJvCMQWmmt-TgZUCgs7noTvrSQwDteB2uIdDdkkfi2mUX3XXa5cw6zoGAcmNHw-5BAzGnhSPxYp2AXxDXqJIK6I/s1600/055.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-_kFAnSFfECT7JGiEMMMZrwtb3KMgik-HDdRndMCAEsUedue0Q4-pEGJvCMQWmmt-TgZUCgs7noTvrSQwDteB2uIdDdkkfi2mUX3XXa5cw6zoGAcmNHw-5BAzGnhSPxYp2AXxDXqJIK6I/s640/055.JPG" width="428" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I <i>love</i> this shot of Pip. But I always feel like these pictures make him look docile and calm, when he's actually really hyper most of the time.</span></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUEf5HDg3m6yEpn7THCQKgSF0leAXa1H7Knd-b05AJxzhyphenhyphenMtl7v-6QorsMO0UeJLrSfbhHJlSbaGwqDVs8jFvroYhwmGSurGJMMe9rZof27zcrMGZusPpBut39RVLK6ifHOl97T38IzSi/s1600/056.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUEf5HDg3m6yEpn7THCQKgSF0leAXa1H7Knd-b05AJxzhyphenhyphenMtl7v-6QorsMO0UeJLrSfbhHJlSbaGwqDVs8jFvroYhwmGSurGJMMe9rZof27zcrMGZusPpBut39RVLK6ifHOl97T38IzSi/s400/056.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Don't they look so awkward here? It makes me laugh.</span></span></div>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-68341310836317328102011-10-28T11:52:00.002-04:002011-11-01T10:57:52.043-04:00preparing for nanowrimo<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but since 2008, I've been a participant in <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/">National Novel Writing Month</a> (aka NaNoWriMo). For those of you who might not be familiar with the event, it takes place in the month of November, and the goal is to write 50 000 words by November 30. It is <i>so</i> much fun, and really pushes you to your limits. Not to mention the NaNoWriMo community is amazing. If you're interested in writing (even if you don't want to be a "writer"), I suggest you give it a look. I never thought I could write a novel; I had never managed to get a plot beyond the 10 000 word mark. But once I got involved with NaNo, I really surprised myself. My first year was also my first year of university, so as you can imagine, very, very busy. And I managed to get to 54 000 words <i>before</i> November 30. Say whaaaat?! The event really made me realize that writing is what I am <i>meant to do</i>.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">This year I'm doing something a little different. For the past three years I wrote some form of serious fantasy. What I mean by serious is that I actually tried to write a semi-decent story. The problem is that now I have three novels that are unfinished, plus two other non-NaNo novels. I figured that I didn't want to start yet another novel that I care about, because then I will never finish <i>anything</i>. So instead I've decided to write a paranormal teen romance parody. I'm not a fan of <i>Twilight, Hush Hush</i>, or any of those novels. Mostly I just find them hilarious. Therefore, my new novel is called <i>An Echo of Wings. </i>I'm looking forward to a mostly free-and-easy NaNoWriMo, where I'm not invested in any of my characters, and consequently won't care what happens to them.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I'm also using NaNoWriMo as motivation to finish my current novel, <i>Reptilia Snaketongue and the Misty Orb of Truth</i>. I've been working on it pretty seriously for a number of months, and I'm about halfway through. I'm hoping that with the pressure of the November 30th deadline, I'll be able to get it done. If you're interested, it's a middle-grade historical-fantasy about a young girl named -- you guessed it -- Reptilia Snaketongue, who is part of a traveling sideshow in 1920s France. The short version is that, after looking into her old carriage-mate's crystal ball, she sets out with her best friend, a performing camel named Georges, to find her family.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Anyway, before I write an entire book here, I wanted to share a few pictures. I don't have photoshop right now (I had to suck it up and buy a new laptop, because my old Dell, Abraham Lincoln, was barely hanging to a thread), so there's nothing fancy going on here. But in preparation for NaNoWriMo, I crocheted a new granny square blanket, and also bought some new, fun bedding. I know...new bedding for a writing event? Kinda geeky.</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5vuaLMCMOP6NAbNzNoIDPG-KnfN9v5JYcbM52MzWbhn4LFTx0bdT6cwN_rUR2TKVmabTUxRsXgiblqbXnimDQ-eBnITUcX0y_0jQrtB-4Un4eBAawCOhKrTR6VvYjGNOgIFiRoE5ZKMZZ/s1600/037.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5vuaLMCMOP6NAbNzNoIDPG-KnfN9v5JYcbM52MzWbhn4LFTx0bdT6cwN_rUR2TKVmabTUxRsXgiblqbXnimDQ-eBnITUcX0y_0jQrtB-4Un4eBAawCOhKrTR6VvYjGNOgIFiRoE5ZKMZZ/s400/037.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAITjDrCcU64QQAaYJR9cnBpRibFyqcSHbr0siR59nPtmi-3qbTuwG7LaNLo5TuAnDQ2APlo-WXI_cuCJdQIi7RxKsKTjaJpIv0MBJrFmp2kyB8G5Nd8KSd2h9LdC85eAK-oZU_ho36jo9/s1600/048.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAITjDrCcU64QQAaYJR9cnBpRibFyqcSHbr0siR59nPtmi-3qbTuwG7LaNLo5TuAnDQ2APlo-WXI_cuCJdQIi7RxKsKTjaJpIv0MBJrFmp2kyB8G5Nd8KSd2h9LdC85eAK-oZU_ho36jo9/s400/048.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivp3KNfkHkeZJQmjzvAoD3dPb-8sHq363NsVena4-rsXDojOeKH6bzdexHmhmgjqA5oM1tFS6rr2HyND4tfLVNjpFMItvSLR7ENOcRfmJVzEJDCsFofsJRaEQLjStks1KOnSKR1uloQ5qa/s1600/051.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivp3KNfkHkeZJQmjzvAoD3dPb-8sHq363NsVena4-rsXDojOeKH6bzdexHmhmgjqA5oM1tFS6rr2HyND4tfLVNjpFMItvSLR7ENOcRfmJVzEJDCsFofsJRaEQLjStks1KOnSKR1uloQ5qa/s640/051.JPG" width="428" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you're wondering, the bedding is from IKEA. And only 12.99! Yay for deals! And those stacks of papers on my teeny-tiny desk in the background are hardcopies of my previous NaNo novels! :) Oh, before I forget, if anyone's interested in being Writing Buddies, here's a link to my <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/en/participants/joy-g">author page</a>. I'd be happy to buddy any other participants!</span></span></div>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-75306347859827171842011-10-21T21:17:00.000-04:002011-10-21T21:17:45.327-04:00new lens!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Exciting news abounds! I've been sort of MIA for the past couple days, but I have two (I think) good reasons. Firstly, we -- meaning my Mom, younger brother, and I -- got our preorder of Sims 3 Pets! SO MUCH FUN. And what's great is I get to have cats, which I can't have in the real world, due to the fact that I am not only badly allergic, but also because they are a major trigger for my asthma. Plus, one of my characters has the ambition of catching and adopting a unicorn. <i>So cool</i>.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Secondly, I got a new lens! It's a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 D (I shoot with a Nikon D3000 if anyone's wondering. It's the most basic entry level DSLR they have out right now, and this 50mm is the most basic version they have too). My kit lens is still pretty good (18-55mm), but after a few months, I started to notice my limitations. For one thing, depth of field, and for another, <i>low light photography</i>. I know I've mentioned it before, but my house doesn't have the best lighting, and the lightbulbs cast an icky yellow cast over my shots. But with my nifty fifty, that issue is pretty much a thing of the past. It's been interesting playing around with it, because my camera doesn't support autofocus, so it's all manual. And I'm happy to report that I'm loving it! I'm just loving the silky, warm feeling to the photos I've been taking. So I compiled a few for you guys to see (all pretty random), and I hope you enjoy! (I particularly like the one of my mom drinking tea.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxGO_C5aVDF9fXWfHuDWsj_fdhRRjnfvKhZAFWcTglo9aWSAgl9efSE7bHMajvR5N3gx1mPABg9uGc9g48OacPb_AV9uJq5JS0jG5gjnzESgf6fpAphhAg40CPjC4zw2-KkBMYWM63JYU/s1600/50mm+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxGO_C5aVDF9fXWfHuDWsj_fdhRRjnfvKhZAFWcTglo9aWSAgl9efSE7bHMajvR5N3gx1mPABg9uGc9g48OacPb_AV9uJq5JS0jG5gjnzESgf6fpAphhAg40CPjC4zw2-KkBMYWM63JYU/s1600/50mm+1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN7OYOI0snpSlCGACSeSraf5gMXJ97n_jlFkyo7jg8VfyU_l0E1Df05Kkryu6Dsn7nVvr2AfAa6qM-1Gul_jn1XQHt3rEZfQ5UjyAQwV9-pdNxgSUodnDp5U5lOQwlQMcTJrGyuAkVb_Vq/s1600/50mm+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN7OYOI0snpSlCGACSeSraf5gMXJ97n_jlFkyo7jg8VfyU_l0E1Df05Kkryu6Dsn7nVvr2AfAa6qM-1Gul_jn1XQHt3rEZfQ5UjyAQwV9-pdNxgSUodnDp5U5lOQwlQMcTJrGyuAkVb_Vq/s1600/50mm+2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrCd3oWTYFP2RkcxWOM2XK9w00o_wnDsNO70umiOmQvmfwDVCyMM4JBQ-f1-3SwoC3baMJPTl_KFWucS2RoIgxqTooWnBUzK8IF4riRG2rsde3bAanOGf8pFRQ3j5ZS7HXtCJ549zwhdNn/s1600/50mm+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrCd3oWTYFP2RkcxWOM2XK9w00o_wnDsNO70umiOmQvmfwDVCyMM4JBQ-f1-3SwoC3baMJPTl_KFWucS2RoIgxqTooWnBUzK8IF4riRG2rsde3bAanOGf8pFRQ3j5ZS7HXtCJ549zwhdNn/s1600/50mm+3.jpg" /></a></div>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-37511593940794638882011-10-19T08:51:00.000-04:002011-10-19T08:51:12.800-04:00wallpaper wednesday: fall edition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">We return to regularly scheduled Wallpaper Wednesdays. Enjoy a few of my favourite images of the fall (so far)! You may see one of them again in a future post.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">Have a good one everybody!</span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3152874507186595916.post-90870401515133527852011-10-17T12:02:00.000-04:002011-10-17T12:02:18.006-04:00bird love<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">So, this post is kind of a mish-mash of things. But the theme that draws them all together is the fact that I love birds. And I don't mean that I love having pet birds, because I don't believe I've ever had any, but I am kind of obsessed with watching birds in flight, and the delicateness of their forms. It puts me in a trance when I see all the starlings swooping up and down in sync with one another, and I love watching geese fly south for the winter. For a long time I had planned to do a massive installation piece of a few hundred paper cranes, wired to the ceiling to look like a flock of little birds. It never happened because life happens and people get too busy to make hundreds of paper cranes for an installation that might never have a gallery spot anyway. I still love the idea though. So while I might not be slaving over origami birds so much anymore, I still love to paint them, and find pieces of jewelry that feature them. Also, strangely enough, this post has nothing to do with my love of owls, which is a whole other obsession. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfbVy3sqUa6BjRIm535Pl74iycDYkOW0C0jAjokWuEBNTKE9yuOpXPuU8L2M7wp51edT0fSQdHj3u4nx4Og8rzFIaURkwascRGjrePgPSN1ax7W94xp05ijfwrihAo4_nPyykMWpepVdpA/s1600/BIRDS1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfbVy3sqUa6BjRIm535Pl74iycDYkOW0C0jAjokWuEBNTKE9yuOpXPuU8L2M7wp51edT0fSQdHj3u4nx4Og8rzFIaURkwascRGjrePgPSN1ax7W94xp05ijfwrihAo4_nPyykMWpepVdpA/s1600/BIRDS1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">The necklace (perched so nicely in Edwina, by semp plant) is from<i> <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/GloryJewelryDesigns">Glory Jewelry Designs</a>. </i>I love it, even though I am sadly allergic to the back of it. I had to cover it in a few layers of clear nail polish. The watercolours are by me, and are ACEO sized, and then I experimented with origami sparrows, and painted them to look like real sparrows...sort of.</span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4gimLJmWQRMXOm5izbZ-sPQi8hTQAA2OnArG4ne_7fks1V0ACZHN0jr8blzXeCWRCY5_ZCFD-apLnFd7wTXbaw-XSS-AAN6JVkdow4RAEihWKy5qJ9Mx5FDEsefgipccf0cDgo-Gbh7dX/s1600/BIRDS2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4gimLJmWQRMXOm5izbZ-sPQi8hTQAA2OnArG4ne_7fks1V0ACZHN0jr8blzXeCWRCY5_ZCFD-apLnFd7wTXbaw-XSS-AAN6JVkdow4RAEihWKy5qJ9Mx5FDEsefgipccf0cDgo-Gbh7dX/s1600/BIRDS2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;">The first and last images are from the ROM. In case you're wondering they are not living birds, unfortunately. The lace birds are a brooch that I picked up from an adorable little antique shop in Stratford, Ontario. According to the woman working there, the brooch is made from Belgian lace, which is no longer being made. I don't know if that's actual fact, but even if it's not, it's one of my new favourite pieces to wear.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span>Joy Soltyshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06587287005275347942noreply@blogger.com2