Accidental Gardening

I know how I got the tomato plant… when I was repotting my ivy plant into a bigger planter, I had added soil that I’d purchased from Canadian Tire. It grew SO FAST! I was amazed. I transplanted it to a bucket planter we have on the driveway… and it seems to be thriving! A few weeks ago (three, actually) I found about 4 tomato “buds” starting. I was so excited, hee hee. I assumed they were going to be cherry tomatoes, but after checking on the plant again today, that’s not the case at all. They are still very green, and getting bigger everyday! The best part is, tomatoes are one of my most favourite vegetables :-) (it might be classified as a fruit, but it’s always been a vegetable in my mind).
July 9th, 12th & 23rd:

Now, we have another accidental plant in our yard! When I was weeding a month or so ago, I was pretty sure it was a weed but I wasn’t absolutely sure so I just left it. Then not too long ago my mom was looking through the plants out front and noticed one significant plant growing.
Before, May 31st (tiny green plant on the right):

Now, July 23. They are sunflowers!! Another favourite!

And then my beans! (June 10th & July 7th - and I noticed yesterday I have BEANS actually growing now. I don’t have a photo just yet)

Circling Storm

Day dreaming.

If I could change careers for a day…

I would become a photojournalist for the newspaper around here.
I would be a police officer and eventually make it to SWAT.
I’d be an ambulance driver for a day.
I would open my own pub with the husband, and we’d serve zuchinni as an appetizer, and have Rickard’s White on tap all the time.

If I have to stay where I am, but could do anything I wanted with my space…

I would paint the black parts of the computer & phone a bright pink.
I would have a fishtank in the big empty space beside me.
I’d bring in a foot bath and have it take care of my feet all day.
I would put up door with a “Please Knock” sign on the front. I’d make sure the door matches the walls around here so nobody really knows I’m behind it.
I’d shoot out the flourescent light above me and tunnel up through the green roof to get the natural light instead.
I’d have herbs and grass growing on the floor in my space.
I’d install speakers in the corners. But only give sound in my space.
I would put in a strobe light and disco ball that would turn on every time a dance or techno song started playing on the radio.
I would have a basket of kittens on my desk who would purr and make everything right all the time.
I would get Madame what’s-her-name to recreate me in wax, so I wouldn’t have to be here. Since I don’t move much anyways, it would totally work.

Doodle Vacation

Day #4

Doodle Garden

Doodle Day #2 (late!)

One sheep, please

Sleep Country Canada is offering these sheep for a minimum donation of $10, and the money goes to the Children’s Miracle Network.

I parked my car across the street and walked over to get my own sheep. While waiting to cross, a grandfather & his grandson were standing and waiting beside me. I looked down and the grandson had a sheep with #99 on it. I said “I’m just on my over to get one of those myself! They are so cute :-)”
We exchanged smiles and the light turned green. I walked across the street ahead of them and when I got inside the store, I said I was there for one sheep. Poor salesguy thought I was in the market for a new bed lol. While he was ringing in the sheep I told him about the kid outside with #99. He said the sheep was from last year’s charity collection and the grandfather works for Sleep Country. Cool :-)

My sheep is number 1/16, and has a soother in it’s mouth. It’s so fuzzy. I frickin love sheep. *squee*

Photography!

Very exciting news! I have finally managed to update and redesign my photography website!

http://www.waterstonephoto.com/

Lots more to come but I think it’s off to a great start, no? :-)

Doodle Week Day #1: Bugs!

Made with Photoshop Elements. I used the custom shape tools and then drew on faces. Hee hee :-)

Severe Storm

Early storm rolls through region

Crazy storm last night!! Around 3:35am there was a HUGE clap of lightning pretty much outside the window of our house… so close! But I should be used to that now, considering how close our house is to all those power towers. There were power outtages but I don’t think they affected us… I turned the fan off so I could hear the storm :-)

This is so blurry, but I was driving & I was trying to get the very white clouds… they were low enough to hide the apartment buildings like fog…

New books!

I broke down and ordered these five great (?) books from Amazon.ca. I love getting emails about a “Buy Two Get One Free” special, so I had to take advantage of that AND the free shipping!
These are all new authors for me, except James Siegel. I read the novel Derailed (which the movie was based on but came no where close to the book). It was amazing, so I have faith this other one of his will be great too.

Harvesting The Heart [Paperback]
By: Jodi Picoult (Author)

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter [Paperback]
By: Kim Edwards (Author)

Young Wives Tales [Paperback]
By: Adele Parks (Author)

Deceit [Mass Market Paperback]
By: James Siegel (Author)

Found: The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World [Paperback]
By: Davy Rothbart (Author)

Coincidental Photography

Thanks again to Photojojo for posting this link. Some amazing stuff! I love looking at photos like this… and this Coincidental Photography is priceless… unfortunately the bunny one is photoshopped, but interesting to see, regardless!

A few teasers:

New text messaging charges

I am LIVID.

I just came across an article regarding yet another cell phone fee: this time, for incoming text messages. It’s going to be the same price to receive as it is to send.
What I don’t understand… these cellphone giants all of a sudden decided they couldn’t afford to provide this service for “free”* anymore? And when I say *free I mean someone has to pay to send a message in the first place, assuming it’s coming from a phone/PDA. It’s never been free to begin with, so in my opinion they’ve already lost their argument.
Are they not making an insane amount of money anyways? Because introducing a new fee is going to increase your customer list, right? Wrong. Very wrong. The only people who won’t care about this is those who don’t use text messaging, which has got to be a very small number! But how about those spammers? Nobody will be happy about this.

I just added the “500 text messages/50 picture messages for $5″ package to my Bell Mobility account too. Thankfully, our 3-year contracts are finally over in November/December but I think we’re going to buy out before that… it’s only $20/month per account to buy out.

Moving to Rogers, where we should have gone in the first place! Maybe to celebrate I’ll even upgrade to the lovely iPhone, finally coming to Canada this Friday!

See the original article below.
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http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=638691
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*UPDATE*
I’m not as mad anymore. I took an extra five minutes to further research this outrage and discoved that these fees will affect the Pay-Per-Use customers only. Thank goodness. But, we’re still going to move our cellphone service to Rogers when the time is right! **

Success!

I planted these seeds on April 8th, and finally yesterday the first flower popped up!

How pretty is that?!

Weekend Trip

I booked Friday, July 4th as a holiday and got into my car and headed down to Rochester, NY to visit a friend for the weekend. And, of course, to participate in July 4th. (Canada Day just wasn’t enough for me this year! haha)

I had a great time, a very safe trip, and LOTS and LOTS of photos. A few videos too but I won’t upload all of those… just the 10-second bits that I like to do.

Starbucks!

An excellent comic from Gary Varvel.

Kitchen Seating

Yep, I’ve had something pretty much exactly like this in mind for awhile now! Considering everyone gathers in the kitchen to chat and hang out, why not make it almost as comfortable as the living room?

Our kitchen right now just serves one purpose: to cook and store dishes and food. We have a table and chairs set up but it’s not inviting whatsoever! And it makes me want to scream!

I’m going to hunt around the Ikea website now and see if I can find something there too. Love that store!

New Handbag!

I just bought this on ebay. It’s so cute! I’m having it shipped to an American friend so I can pick it up when I go visit her :-) I always love unique yet practical bags… I know, I’m addicted! I’ve yet to catalogue my current collection of bags… they are my favourite thing to have and collect and utilize. Every time I need a change I just open my bag closet and pick out a “new” one. I like to recycle what I already have, but every now and then I need a real something new. Haha. And the best part? I’ve never spent more than $25 on a single one! Unique does not have to mean expensive. :-)

Sound Association

Is there a song (or a bunch of songs & sounds) that bring back specific memories?

I’m Glad by Jennifer Lopez just came on the radio, and I clearly remember listening to this album and this song when my family moved into the new house. I remember sitting in my room filled with boxes and organizing stuff… weird.

Superman’s Dead by Our Lady Peace… the whole album is a reminder of my visit to Germany when I was 13. I had the CD copied onto a cassette tape so I could listen to it everywhere (I didn’t yet have a Discman, lol). I’d fall asleep listening to the tape. It was the only music I had with me during that week with my Oma.

Hoomans…

From the best website evar… :-)

Elizabeth Gordon

Gah, that Janet Jackson song is in my head whenever I say the word “feedback”, lol.

I took these last night… Liz’s performance at Manhattans(.ca)

It was a great night and a great atmosphere. She sounded great!

(You can hear her music on her MySpace page)

What do you think? :-)

Princess Peach & Super Mario

thanks to Geek Mom’s blog, she shared this Super cuteness of Super Mario and Princess Peach… which I might add, friends of ours like to call Nic & I that, ever since they saw us all decked out (below) :-)

Enhance your photos

seyDoggy enhances my photography

Going by the 7 Secrets book by Scott Kelby, seyDoggy took one of my photos to demonstrate how you can totally enhance your photos.

I took Digital Imaging at Conestoga College as part of my Photography certificate program, so I know full well the benefits of touch-ups! I just hadn’t had the time to sit and adjust the two large batches of photos I’d taken, so I uploaded them as is.

Thanks, seyDoggy for doing that short demonstration!

Courts decide against punishment

Court quashes dad’s grounding of 12-year-old daughter

Seriously, WHAT?!

I don’t even know what to say. A stupid ruling?

I’ll say this… that father has got to feel pretty underminded, useless, powerless and embarrassed! With good reason!

I’d say that judge was WAY out of line. Nobody was protecting that child more than the father… the courts just exploited the child by making that ruling. Had I been judge, I would have thrown it out. Seriously, there are more important things to be dealing with than “I wasn’t allowed to go on a field trip!”

I bet that kid will grow up with an ego so much larger than any celebrity. Honestly…

teh field trip!

Further to my short post yesterday, the firm took us all (three offices) down to the African Lion Safari [turn speakers DOWN] in Cambridge, ON.

The weather was sunny/rainy/sunny/rainy all day but it was ok. When it’s too hot the animals just kinda hang around like they’re dead :-)

I snapped 655 shots between the SLR and the point & shoot… and narrowed it down to just 84 for the set on Flickr!

teaser… I think giraffes are my favourite :-)

**videos coming soon!**