Picture Goodness!!

Here's some picture goodness for ya.... Went through some of my pictures (well, alot of my pictures, actually) and picked some of my favourites. I was inspired by the Artisans Walk in downtown Victoria. We met a photographer (Jason Spencer) who we got some art cards from, and he had alot of good pictures from all his travels (ie. Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and more) and from the Island. It inspired me to think about my photography (and art) again.

So here are some of my shots.

"Mystic Beach - Vancouver Island"
I just love the lighting in this picture.

"Pirates Park Pier - Protection Island, Nanaimo"

It's a study of a deep depth of field, with some good colour and light. It's an awesome little island, with an awsome little restuarant, The Dinghy Dock, on it, just about a 10 minute little walk on ferry ride from Nainimo main harbour.

"Tall Ship - Victoria Harbour"
This was from last years Tall Ship festival. We got there a little late, but I got a good silhouette shot of one of the tall ships.

"Fall Empress Hotel - Victoria"

This was taken across the harbour from the Empress, as the sun was begining to set. I love how the colours turned out.

"Bridge - Victoria Harbour"
I just love this bridge... it moves up to let large ships in (though I've never seen it up) and things just worked out for that picture. This area that I was in to take the picture is a special spot for me and Ryan at the beginning of the West Song Walkway. (Where he first told me he loved me, out loud.) :)

"Empress from West Song Walkway - Victoria"
A beautiful view of the Empress Hotel from the West Song Walkway.

"Christmas Lights on Legislature Building - Victoria"
Practicing night shots, and caught this. I love the reflection.

"Prints in Sand - Mystic Beach"
Ryan's booted print next to my barefoot print. I love footprints in the sand.

"Stream - Lethbridge, AB"
Bored and taking a fine arts degree in University there, I went out and got picture happy. This is only one of many that I ended up kinda liking in the end. The colours are cool, and the lighting was perfect to get some reflection, etc.

"Mr. Pringles Visits the Beach - Mystic Beach"
I'm starting a photo series of Mr. Pringles adventure... unfortunately I was very distracted on my honeymoon, or I owuld have gotten pictures of Mr. Pringles in French Polynesia. This is him visiting a Vancouver Island beach and soaking up the sun.

"The Toad - Goldstream"
Who doesn't love a bumpy toad? I just love the detail. He posed so nicely for me.

"Ken and Mel - Coombs"
Caught this cute picture my sister (in law) and dad (in law) at my brother (in law)s wedding last year. Ain't she a hotty! Love you Mel. :) And love you too dad ;)

These are actually my hot hubby's excellent pictures. Isn't he good. :)

"Friends Have Fun 1 - Victoria"
These are some pictures of Kat and I having alot of fun sometime before I married her brother... we still have fun though, even though I went and did that. Kat, when are we getting together again??

"Friends Have Fun 2"
Ryan was once again the master behind the camera.

"Friends Have Fun 3"
Ain't Kat cute?

"Peek-a-Boo - Victoria"
'Think we can come out now?' 'Shhhhh.... we don't want it to find us!'

So there ya go... some pictures to browse.

Other than that, nothing much is new in our world.

Oh, wait, never mind, we got an offer on the place! A couple of days ago. If the conditions are removed by the 4th, our place is for sure sold, for $190, 000. Which is good. Phewf! So yeah, we went and saw the place we're moving into again... we still like it. Thankfully. LOL It's so much bigger and just more open than this place, with its vaulted ceilings and two levels. Found out the buildings used to be part of the hotel in front, and we're in the biggest suite in the building... ie. Penthouse! Cool huh? Anyhow, it'll need a bit of fixing up, but mostly it spretty cool. But because the ceilings are vaulted (ie. slanted) the upstairs office might be hard to arrange. Still, it'll be fun to set up a new house. Then everyones going to have to come see it.

Anyhow, gonna go now. This is probably a long post, not in writing, but in space.

Oh, and I'd love comments on the pictures, ie. Which one is your favourite, etc. Thanks. :)

The house is clean and ready to show!!

Yippee!! My work is done. The place looks as close to a show home as we can make it and still live in it and have everything we need. It's pretty nice. Almost makes us wish we were staying, but then we remind ourselves that atleast 3/4's of our stuff is not here, and we're reminded of why we're moving. But the place sure does look good.

Thank you to Cheri and Kathy who helped me clean and did some handy-man stuff to make the place look nice, and thanks to Mark for helping Ryan haul some stuff out of here. And thanks to my hubby for helping as well, and complimenting me on a job well done. :) And thanks for the flowers Cheri :)
So yeah, we bought a new coffee table set, and a gorgeous picture to help spruce the place up here, and so we have it in the new place. The coffee table is still in it's box, but the new side tables are up and looking SO much better than the wood table trays that were being used as side tables. And the new picture is awesome. We were looking for something kinda cheap to put on the wall to make it look nice, and then suddenly we see this picture and we fall in love with it and have to buy it, 'cause it goes with what we want to do with our bedroom in the new place.


Today we have the carpet cleaning guy coming in to make our carpets look like new, and tomorrow I get to talk to the movers and get a quote for the move that's happening on the 30th of September.
Ryan's here keeping me company... his neck hurts alot today, he did something to it yesterday, and so he slept in a bit more than me and is trying to rest his neck. Poor guy. :(

The gardener/lawn upkeeper for the place is out and about now that it's cooled off a bit and he won't get cooked out there, so the smell of freshly cut grass is coming in through the wind
ows. It smells nice. Because we're on the third floor and we have all the fans going in here to keep it cool I hardly get the noise from it... just a quiet whir from below occasionally.

The realtor is supposed to be coming today to take pictures of the place. He would have taken them yesterday, but when he got here, to the parking lot, and went to grab his camera from his bag it wasn't there. his wife had taken it out to take a few pictures and hadn't put it back. :)

Yesterday Ryan took me out on a small date... we went to Four Mile and had a good supper, complete with a yummy dessert, and then we drove around our soon to be neighborhood and drove past the new place, and tried to get a feel for it, and scoped out everything nearby so we know what's around, and what we have to go elsewhere for. All of our banks are nice and close. The RBC and the TD are new and really nice looking. And we drove through Beaver/Elk Lake park, and I saw all the signs for trail riders on the trails, and there's an equestrian center there, so it really made me want to go trail riding. I miss my horse. Apparently my aunt might breed my mare Bayli if I can't do anything with her for a while. It will be her first baby. She's getting to be around 11 years old I think, already. Which is kinda strange. I bought her as a 3 year old when I was still show jumping, in junior high. Man, I'm getting old. LOL

Oh, and yesterday I went for lunch with Kat, and Mark met up with us, and then they remembered that they hadn't fed Tia, the family cat. (Marks parents are out camping). So we get the keys and go to feed Tia. Now, Tia is a large calico cat... the old family cat for Marks family. And she can be crabby. When I first heard about this cat, it was from Kathy, and all she said was it was a scary, possesed cat that attacked people. Then, my first encounter with this cat was when I was helping Kat get ready for Marks brother's wedding. We walk in the door, and immediately hear that the cat is out, close the door, get out of the way kinda thing. Kat immediately backs up near the door. They yell to the flower girl to get up on a chair. And out walks this big ol' calico whose grumpy 'cause her house is a stir. She goes up to the chair that the flower girl is on and hisses. Marks parents shoo her back into her room by stomping on the floor and telling her to go to her room. It was rather cute actually. So yes, everyone is scared of this cat... or atleast very wary. So we get to the house, and I finally get the door open (it was a skeleton key, so a little finicky) and Kat stays outside while I open the door and immediately have to shoo queen Tia away from the door. It was warm and she was hungry, and probably going stir crazy all cooped up... so I rattled the keys at her and told her to shoo, and she calmly went to the other doorway, out of the kitchen, layed on the carpet, and just watched me as I got her food. After that I went and refreshed her water dish, and she was so hungry she didn't wait for me to be done, but headed straight to her food, so she felt a little crowded when I went to put the water dish back, but all I got was a couple of hisses... I found her to be a rather well-behaved cat whose just grumpy and anti-social for the most part. So that was that. Their neighbors little kitten is adorable! I forget his name, but I got a cute picture of him.

So yeah, it's getting later.... the realtor came and took pictures after the carpet guy came and cleaned the carpets... now they're all fluffy and clean and nice. The realtor was impressed with the place. The last time he'd seen it it was still a total disaster. I should go.

Another weekend just flew by....

Well, we have one week to make this place showable so it can go on the market! Eeep. Already we've hauled a truck load of stuff out of here, and more than half of Ryans game consoles are packed up to tidy up the entertainment area. But we still have a ways to go. Ryan's making some extra money building furniture things at the military base on and off this week, and I'm here supposed to be packing. I'm going to get right on it, really I am. Just waiting for the grill to heat up so I can get something to eat.
So I fugured I'd say Hi. News: Still haven't heard anything about a job. Apparently that happened to Kat about Custom House as well. I might call today, while I'm doing all my other calling around because Ryan's gone for part of the day I get to call the building people and ask them for all this information on the place and stuff and let them now the condo is going on the market. So yeah, no job right now.... which means I have more time to clean the place up. Need to somehow pack up almost everything, while leaving the things we'll need for the next couple of months, so that this place looks like a show home, not a lived in place. It looks like the open house and viewings would start this coming weekend, which is when we were possibly thinking of finally getting up there for the whole weekend to visit with people. We just need to confirm that that would work and that we'd be able to see everyone, etc. The offer is still OK on the new place, and we're getting more and more excited about the place. It's actually 1285sq ft, not 1185sq ft. like I wrote in my first post about the place (More choices.... will it never end?!?)
**And if all goes well, and this is what we're supposed to do (so with God's help) we can sell the current place for pretty close to the listing price of 199,000, which would help us out immensely in this. We're asking for prayers for this, please! From 195,000 or higher, would ROCK!**
Yesterday was Kathy's birthday... the morning was spent with the realtor and Cheri as we went over the place, worked out the things we needed to do in a week (alot), and worked out that we'd put it on the market this weekend coming up. After that we cleaned a bit (the day before we had hauled a truck load of stuff to Cheri's, so it's helped) we went and grabbed food, and then went tot the storage locker to dig out boxes so Ryan could pack some of his 'toys' up. The place kind of looks weird without all the game consoles all there. Checked out some new stores in the area (we were procrastinating ;)) and then got back, had a shower, and made food for Kat, Mark, Cheri and us. They came over, we had pizza and quesadilla's (spelling?) and Cheri brought cake. Kat got her cards and presents. After visiting, we sent them off to go get Marks car, and to maybe go home, with the invitation to come have coffee with us before the movie Ryan and I were going to see. They ended up coming, and met us a Starbucks. Kat had mentioned that she might want to see it too, but it was late, and MArk was hinting that he was tired and that Kat should sleep too. So after we had drank our coffee we started to head over to the theatre, as the cars were that direction. I had given Kat a placeholder ring till she got her engagement ring from Mark, so she got attatched to it this weekend, and then was bugging Mark about needing to propose, so he took the ring (a big fake diamond one... still looks nice enough) and in the parking lot, as everyone was getting out of a movie, he knelt and proposed. I have pictures. It was cute. So then Kat thinks she's going home, and she's saying goodbye, and I say goodbye, and she says enjoy your movie, and I, as I had her the tickets for her and Mark that we got earlier, say, "Enjoy your show as well". Kat was so suprised. We all had her going. Mark and I are alike in that. Both loving to suprise people, and able to pull it off with our acting and planning. Hehehe. The day before I had worried Mark by making him think that Kat had chopped off her hair 'cause he had got his hair cut too short for her liking. It was great. :) So we all went and saw Pirates 2, which was good, no matter what other people are saying. I was laughing so hard alot of the time. It just leaves you with a cliffhanger ending, which ensures you'll be back for 3rds.
Anyhow, gotta go.

Suprise for Kat!

Hey Everyone,

Yes, I am procrastinating again.

Today I've basically spent the whole day focusing on Kathy in one way or another. Today is Marks brothers wedding, and Kat is invited, so she got all dressed up, and I met her and did her make-up, and then took pictures. Then I got home and sat down on the computer and did some altering and had some fun... haven't played around with pictures much since I quit university. It's an on and off hobby. So now I'm tired and need to get things done, but I thought I'd post some gorgeous pictures of a gorgeous young woman.

She could be a model. Sexy thing. ;)

And I could be a photographer, if I don't say so myself. :)







Kat, you're beautiful! Hope you had a good day. I'll get these to you at some point.

Yep, I'm going to go be productive now... and give my husband some attention. I think he's jealous, Kat. LOL

I'm blogging too much!

Hey. Well, I am. Two posts on Thursday, now one on Friday...
I am merely procrastinating, I know. I don't want to tackle this disaster of a place to start getting it cleaned. Once I get going it'll be easy, and I'll just get it done... starting is always the hardest. But I have to get started, seing as we apparently have to have this place on the market in a couple of days.... Mon or Tues preferably. EEEEEP!
So yeah, we're both procrastinating really. We slept in alot today... would wake up and just go back to bed. We want to avoid life at the moment. *Sigh* But we can't. Once I get a move on things it will be better. Today, first things first is the clothes, and extra bedding. Get that out of the way so we have some clear floor, and then we can decide what stays to make the place look nice, and what get's packed and shipped to Cheri's basement. We have to make this place look like a showhome, not an actual residence, to try and get the best price, and sell it fast.
But for now I'm sitting on the computer, typing away, after I tidied up a bit of the kitchen. When Ryan gets back from fixing a computer that blew up when a transformer went, I'm going to make him french toast with whip cream and maple syrup, and then we're going go get to work. And Kat might get a call to come help. LOL She offered. Isn't she a great sister. :)
So yeah, I figured I'd just put up a few pictures from that day where Kat and I took our guys out and got pics.

So is this the coolest flower or what?
It grows on a vine.
I have no idea what it is. But it sure is cool.










Look, Ryan climbed a
Norword Maple tree :)
Isn't he talented. ;)

And that is one of the
towers from Hatley castle.
I'm going for a tall look
in each picture.

Our guys having fun at the castle :)


This is Hatley castle from the back,
but mostly I was trying to catch the sky,
and the moon in the right corner,
but the moon's too small to see.
It was a very nice day.

I love this picture of Kat and Mark 'cause of the cool effect that Mark is blurred and Kat is in focus (he was moving and I had a long exposure) so it causes the eye to focus on Kathy, who's gorgeous in this picture. :)

And this is me and my husband snuggling on a stone bench built into the trail that goes down to 'The Glen', a little walk path in the forest, with a stream, off to one side of Hatley Park.
He's so cute :)

Anyhow, I should go start to clean up and pack this mess of a place. Wish me luck. ;) LOL