FAIL

Ok, so the title isn't as negative as it sounds, I promise. I am just making the observation that I fail at this whole blogging regularly thing. Like, fail miserably! However, I am currently without a job and without a computer that runs my favorite addiciton, so I found myself navigating away to blog land.

For those of you who don't know, our summer here SUCKED. We had next to no warm weather and a lot of rain. Last week was nice though. Very very nice. Warm and sunny all week, and though the weather finally reflected something summery in the air, there was an unmistakable undercurrent of autumn as well.

I kind of like autumn. I don't like the cold but I like the crispness. I like the crunch of leaves underfoot and the smell of smoke as farmers burn their stubble. Then of course there is the feel of mittens. Mittens rule. OH! And wearing my Uggs (well, Ugg ripoffs... teehee) without socks. Yes. I said it. NO SOCKS IN WINTER!

Let me reiterate. I do not like the cold. I love the snow, but the cold can go... well I was gonna say burn in hell but that would just be weird. I love fresh powder that poofs up when you walk through it. I love the smell of cinnamon and pumpkin (note: not the taste of pumpkin) and pine cones. It is the inevitability of Christmas that hits me when I smell those things.

Ah. Seasons. Awesome.

So as I mentioned, I am currently without work. I was laid off due to a lack of work, and of course all the students scooped up the good jobs. BOO TO STUDENTS! (I need work too, ya know!) I am thinking of looking into EI sponsored courses. Might be worth it to make sure I am not underemployed. And some sick part of me really misses being in school.

I tried out for Rent this weekend. The auditions were fabulous and it was fantastic to get to see some of the treasure trove of talent we have here. I haven't done theatre in a few years because I was working on Mindset endeavors. However, those endeavors have ended so I am free to do whatever. Oh theatre, how I missed you so!

I promise to try to blog more often, but right now the amazing Katie-bear is coming over. Hooray!! Coffee (or tea, or hot chocolate as the case may be) with friends is always good.

Hello September. Be gentle. But not too gentle, because that would be BORING!
Mwah!

Seeing is believing...

Things I saw today:

- I saw a bunny get hit by a car. This affected me more than I thought it would. I mean, I love animals, and the asshole in the car didn't even slow down. And I was near tears. The bunny limp-hopped into the bushes on the other side of the road. Probably to die. I am almost crying again thinking about it.

- I saw a grown man wearing bright pink crocs. While it did not even come close to compensating for the bunny, it was amusing all the same.

- I saw my toilet. Up close and personal. I think I have the flu again. Blech.

- I saw "Shortround", which is the squirrel who lives somewhere near my apartment. You can tell him apart from the other squirrels because he has a stub of a tail. It is very cute.

- I saw the spot on my head that scares me. It looks like a massive mole, and I have never seen it before last week. The doctor gave me some spray and said if it doesn't go away in three weeks, we will have to biopsy it. And by we, I mean him.

What did you see today?

Jump for JULY

Instead of jumping for joy, why not jump for July??

Things I love right now::
1. Positano. It is this fantastic little village nestled in Tuscany somewhere. I want to go there. You can view a live webcam of it here! I often watch the sun rise in Positano.
2. Pistachio ice cream. Hello!! What is not to love about this green delight?
3. The 3-Day Novel Contest. I will be entering this year. It is just like it sounds. You try to write a novel in three days and the grand prize is publication. SWEET!
4. Card games. Morse specifically, Texas Holdem'.
5. L'anza Root Effects. A little squirt of this before blowdrying makes my locks bounce beautifully!
6. This swimsuit from ModCloth. OH SO RETRO!!!!!
7. MAC Makeup. More specifically, this trio from the "Naked Honey" collection. Colours are Creme de Miel, Pollinator, and Buckwheat. I don't own these colours... but it is not for a lack of trying!
8. Old-school gaming systems. My current fave is the Super Nintendo!
9. Sephora. One just opened here and OH MY GOSH! The only downside is they don't carry MAC makeup. Boohoo!!

That is all for today!
Tomorrow will be an interesting day... I will tell you all about it.

Massages and puppies!

Hello Sunday!

So my massage did not make me feel as well as I was hoping. It actually made me feel a little worse for a bit. That seems to have passed for the most part, but now I am hovering back where I was before I had the massage.

Mom and dad went to Grand Forks this weekend, so we, that is to say my boyfriend and I, were house/dog sitting for them. The dog is really mine, but we can't have him at the apartment so he resides with my parents. Saturday was a lovely day spent lounging around, reading, watching movies, throwing the duck for Chico, and playing online Texas Holdem (for free!).

I think I am going to take a page from Kal's book (that is if she doesn't mind) and do a bulletin board of things I am loving at the moment. It will be substantially nerdier than Kal's, I promise.

I have a bit of a rant to get off my chest at the moment...

I know it has only been a few weeks, but I am going to say it anyways. I am so sick of everything still being monopolized by Michael Jackson. Yes, I believe he was a fantastic musician if not a fantastic person. I think the loss of him is a tragedy (at least from a music point of view). But I don't need to see his face on EVERY magazine on the shelf, or to hear his name a minimum of five times in a live program like the news, or ET.

Ok. That is out of my system. I am now off to consume a pudding cake I just made. I was craving something chocolate and this just jumped out of the cupboard into my hands. Yummy.

I wish the weekend wasn't over.

Hard to post lately...

Hello blog readers (all three of you)!
I apologize for the lack of new content lately. I have not been feeling well, a fact I hope to have remedied tomorrow.

I have Fibromyalgia (FMS). For those of you who aren't familiar with the illness, it is a chronic pain condition, which leads to many fun side-adventures like sleep deprivation, fibrofog (mind troubles, especially with memory) and fibrogut (I won't elaborate here).

I have been neglecting my treatment plan due to a lack of funds, however tomorrow I will be getting back on track and I hope to be feeling better enough to post more often.

Till next time...

POCKET

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*PHEW* What a day! My niece has come and gone, and MAN can that little girl go a million miles a second! We had tea parties, made pretend playdough cupcakes, followed by real cupcakes. Then we went outside, blew bubbles, planted flowers, watered flowers, got overheated and went back inside to colour and watch Treehouse TV.

I have to stop on the colouring for a second. I am a complete control freak when it comes to colouring. I die a little inside when a coloring page becomes saturated in colour upon colour, every which way outside the lines. Or when Princess Aurora has blue skin and a neon orange dress. I know, it is sad. My mom has to hide Hannah's colouring book from me when I am over there, because I LOVE to colour.

Today's GOventure is POCKET. First, I thought of things that go into pockets. Keys and change and pocket lint. However, artistic photography is not really my forte. Then I thought about pockets on clothes. I contemplated doing something with pool. Or maybe singing a cover of Alannis Morisette's song. Then I pulled out my scrapbooking/cardmaking supplies and tried to figure out a paper pocket. When I couldn't figure it out, I turned to the internet for inspiration, and lo and behold it hit me. Square between the eyes. Origami.

Origami requires you to fold paper, making pockets. Then you flatten those pockets, tuck things into the pockets, folt more pockets, and voila! A pretty paper something!

So I made what is called a "balloon" from some of my scrapbooking paper, and I took a photo of it perched atop something that claims the contents of my pockets on a daily basis -- the couch.

Tomorrow's clue is SONG + DANCE. I can almost guarantee I will be deviating from the design scheme of things, because I am SO passionate about music. Fun fun fun!

In my near future, I foresee a nap, followed by some computer games. Sweet.

NOT MY TYPE

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Hello blog-readers. Another day done.
It feels strange for me to talk about work. For most people, their designing IS their work. I kind of wish I could do that. Someday.

Today's GOventure clue was NOT MY TYPE. Initially my mind went to fonts. I love a good font. I have tons of them on my computer. So many in fact that my Photoshop usually takes a good 10 minutes to load because it is reading all the fonts. However I thought that was too direct, so I tried to push myself to think a little more... obscurely.

And I came up with something even more cliche than fonts. Romance. Oh well, I enjoyed making it. I asked my boyfriend to come and look at it last night when I was done, and we both got a good giggle imagining how that scene came to be. What the voices would sound like. And I still got a little bit of font-play in there. So HA!

Tomorrow's GOventure challenge: Pocket.

Tomorrow's life challenge: Keeping a four year old entertained without her getting heat stroke in this massive heat wave that Winnipeg calls summer.

My niece is in town tomorrow. I plan on making cupcakes with her, and breaking in her new massive bubble-maker toy that "Mama 'Nette" (which is what she calls my mom) got for her. We might take a certain little pooch for a walk, and then relax in the confines of an air conditioned living room with the company of Nemo, Marlin and Dory.

(That is Auntie Erin and Hannah time, since I am the only one in the family who owns the movie!)

Wednesdays off make Erin a happy panda.

Mornings...

Have you ever had a morning where you feel like your alarm clock has done you a great injustice by waking you up? And then when you do finally drag yourself out of the depths of sleep, you still want to chuck it out the window, hopefully under the wheels of an oncoming bus?

That is my morning so far. But now I am off to work, where I am not able to post. However I will post when I get home, because the next in the series of GOventures is "NOT MY TYPE".

Alright. Ready, set, can I hit the snooze button one more time?

GREEN+DIZZY

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The first clue in the GOventures of Kal/Elise is: GREEN+DIZZY (Kal)

What would get dizzier than dice? Rolling and tumbling, showing no favor. Being tossed about. They may be used to advance or to set yourself back. It is all about perspective.

My forte is photo-manipulation. The dice were made by me in Illustrator. The background texture is from Swimchick and the brush is from Aethereality.

I also have to take a minute to point out my favoritest design tool EVER (especially for computer-based design). Kuler. Take a peek, I think you will like what you glimpse.

Hello world.

Hello world. I am here.

This blog was created as a place for me to write about life and to be creative. It was inspired by Kal Barteski's GOventures. Sit back, and enjoy the ride. I know I will.