Gary the Cylon

Those of you who remember the first Battlestar Galactica might find this amusing.  Bruce and I watched every episode.

Hearts!

One of my friends acquired a watch last week that was encrusted in rhinestone hearts and was going a bit over the top about it.  She had been wanting this item for a while and recently came into a bit of cash, so she made the purchase.

Now, hearts are not a shape that I associate with myself.  I don't wear anything with a heart on it and unless I was looking for a Halloween costume, I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to shop for something that had cutesy hearts.  That's my problem with them .. cutesy.  It's like seeing an achorwoman wearing a fluffy sweater for official portraits .. simply contradicts the message of 'serious journalism' that they are trying to portray.  Lest you think that a bit sexist, I'd very likely make the same comment of an achorman in a fuzzy sweater.  And then add a couple of more comments just for good measure.  At any rate, it just doesn't fit my personality.  The hearts, not the extra commentary, because that's totally me.

My friend's enthusiasm for hearts got me wondering that if I were to be gifted with such an item, would I wear it?  So I did a bit of internet searching and came up with sixteen versions of a heart pendant I would wear and not feel too weird about doing so.

Would you look at that?  Three of these are pink!  I have to admit that these are striking pieces.  All in silver of course, since I don't wear gold.

And now, a word to my husband who will eventually wander to our site and then wonder if I'm trying to give him a birthday hint.   Nope, this was simply an exercise in 'what if.'  I'm not looking at adding to my jewellery collection just now.

My theme for November is an homage to my Aunt Sandy who gives me lots of little feedback and encouragement on my posts via email.  I don't think she's even seen the site since she is pretty much taking baby steps when it comes to computer jargon and abilities.  I automatically send my posts to both my aunts on my mother's side, trusting that they will pass along to my uncles anything they find interesting.  And since their emails contain the pictures I post,  they have all they need anyway.

When I was a youngster, I had the good fortune of being a part of my aunt and uncle's wedding party.  I still remember those white mary janes that were part of the outfit and the smell of shoe polish the day before the wedding.  I'm sure they weren't my first pair of new shoes, but they are the first I remember.  It was a BIG DEAL for my mom, I recall, and therefore, it became special for me.  My mother was  practically beside herself fussing over me and my aunt and anyone else who stood too close that weekend.

My mother was probably happiest when she had a reason to fuss, and she was deliriously happy for my aunt.  She was close to her sister, so when the newlyweds starting house decoration, mom was only too happy to keep tabs on colors.  It's a funny sort of thing to be remembered for, but my mother was one of those who file away people's favorite colors in the back of her head, at the ready in the event that a craft might be needed to fill up a space.

At any rate, my aunt painted her new bathroom a color that, at my tender age, I'd never heard before .. mauve.  My mother was over the moon about the color and I recall at one point in her life, one of her bathrooms also became a shade of purple.  I'm pretty sure my aunt received one of those bar soaps with sequins set into netting around it to make it look like a purple fish.  My mom did those kinds of things.  I think she kept a stash of pipe cleaners for every occasion.

But I've totally digressed, which I guess is my privilege as owner of this blog.

I'm trying to teach myself a bit about working with vector shapes, so I wrestled some of them down in somewhat of a grade school fashion and they are part of the bling of my November efforts.  Hope you enjoy and .. please ... if you find yourself experiencing something akin to a sugar rush when looking at my site, remember that sometimes, girls get to just be girls - complete with hearts and bling.

The less frilly sort of site will be back next month.  Maybe.  It will be December, after all.

Brought to you by the letter G ..

I've been doing a bit of sorting through my sizable collection of fonts.  Each month, as I search through my collections, I vow to spend a few minutes in cleaning it up.  It's actually a daunting task that will require days of work, rather than a few minutes; sorting through styles has brought better people than me to their knees.  Having finished my beginning-of-the-month web updates with this post, I am already re-delegating that task to the 'someday' pile.

I love fonts.  I love how they look, I love what they convey without words and I love to play with them to bring out their potential.  Sometimes, I succeed.  Ha!  Most times, I can wrestle them into behaving the way I want.

There are two letters that will make me instantly fall in love with a new font ... the lowercase g and the uppercase Q.  Unusual renderings can have me scrambling for the download button.  Here are fifteen fonts that caught my eye simply because of one letter. 

I haven't included any links in this post, although Colwell can be found at the bottom of this page because I've used it elsewhere for the October 2011 site design.  A quick Google search can bring up most of them, and I highly recommend dafont.com for you fonting needs.  Or to get you started down the murky path where letters jump off pages to get your attention, but it could be that's just me having a personal relationship with letter shapes.

September again

A year has come and gone since I first started this blog ... it doesn't really seem like its been that long.   And conversely, it seems like its always been here.  I'm still not sure how many of my family know about the blog, but if you're reading .. thank you.  This is for you. Call me sometime, hey?

In the past year, I've certainly come to think of differently because of it.  I'll go out with family or friends or out for a walk and I'll grab my camera.  or I'll think of something I can add to the pages here.  I still don't formulate plans because of this, but I do keep it in the back of my mind.

This month's theme is a play on the back-to-school plaids I see advertised everywhere this time of year.  I have discovered some really great patterns on the web so I hope to bit more of this layered look.

I've also put together another "like" list. This time, its water pitchers.  My grandmother inadvertently instilled this love of water pitchers. Whenever you'd go to visit Gram and Gramps, she would have an old teal melamine water pitcher in the fridge filled with nectar of the gods .. apple juice.  Even when empty, that old jug smelled like a chunk of heaven.  A whiff of apple juice, even now, will take me whipping back through the decades to Gramma's kitchen table, legs swinging under the chair, eating toast freshly popped out of Grampa's fancy toaster, looking out the window at the neighbor's garden and enjoying a glass of apple juice while Gram bustled about the kitchen.  She always dressed well, but I think she was never more beautiful than in the morning while she was still wearing her dressing gown and slippers and having breakfast with us.

Homage to Ian

One of my Calgary friends used to have an English Pub in his basement.  Probably still does.  I need to thank Ian for a couple of things .. well, probably more than a couple, but two that have to do with beer.

My experience with beer was teenage over-indulgence in prairie wheat lagers, over-indulgence in after-slowpitch 50¢ draft beer and much, much burping as a result.  Then I somewhat grew up and realized that by drinking wine I could still get a nice happy without all the gas.  So I gave up beer for  a few years.

Then Ian rocked my world with an introduction to ale.  Ian happily took me on an ale education from sources around the world .. particularly his beloved British Isles ... and gave me back a frosty mug of chilled brew to hoist to people's health.  As a matter of fact, I still keep a half dozen glass mugs in my freezer in the event that company drops by.  He also gleefully delighted in dragging all of us down to the Dog and Duck after a Friday night kungfu workout where the concoctions of Smithwick's and Strongbow ale became a favorite of mine.

He'd often host us at his house and in his basement fridge, there was usually a pony keg on tap.  We'd fill up the mugs and then set them down on one of the gazillion beer mats he had collected.  I'm pretty sure that beer mat collection took on a life of their own as friends and acquaintances made sure to stuff some in their pockets or purses to bring home to Ian.  I probably contributed to it in my own small way.

In doing some research for an Adobe Illustrator class, I fell in love with the artwork on some of the beer labels .. and then subsequently, the beer.   So here is my homage to Ian, his beers and his collection of beer mats.

Most of these are real, although a few of them are a tongue in cheek PhotoShop tribute to beer labels. You might be surprised to discover which ones are the fakes.

Interests

As I was going through some recent personal stuff for my mother, one of the things that struck me was that we often don't know the things that make other people squee with excitement, make them happy to watch or particpate in, the things that pique their interest or simply make them smile.

I thought I'd create an "I like" portion of my blog for those times when I'm lacking other creative drives .. something we can chat about or you can say to yourself .. "omg .. me too!"

I started googling images of something that makes me happy in the morning ... fun salt and pepper shakers.  I own none of these, but hey .. if you happen to need to send me something for oh, say .. my birthday or just because its Tuesday and you like me ... here ya go.  Any of these would make my day.

Some are nautical in nature, some harken back to my days on the farm, some are colorful .. a few are sleek and others just made me smile.