Oh to be a Cat (Part 2)

I've decided to dedicated this week to "If I was a cat..."

If I was a cat, I would sleep all balled up in unlikely places that don't look like they'd fit me. And yet somehow I sleep happily.

Oh to be a Cat

I often envy my cat. He doesn't need to get up to go to work every morning, he gets to nap all day, he eats whenever he wants, has people (ie ME) wait on him hand and foot. Oh to be a cat.

Then again, with no opposable thumbs, life could get pretty boring pretty quickly. All he CAN do is eat, and sleep, and eat some more.

Waiting for Spring

Just another wintery day at the end of February. I saw this rock face with the neat icicles and HAD to get a picture of them. Fortunately it's only a block or so from my house, so a quick jaunt in the snow and here we go!

I love how vibrant and green the moss is on the West Coast, so I figured I'd accentuate that with a bit of editing.

A Gift of Fire

I decided to play with reflections a bit tonight. And a candle. Mmmmm.... cranberry scented candle.....

Booorrrriiinnngggg!

So, by Thursday my brain is dead and my creativity has left me. How do I know this? I took almost the exact same picture last Thursday. I even have one from tonight in exactly the same spot as last week's, just with Clark and I more cuddled.

*sigh*

And yes, that's a blanket with sleeves. And skulls and crossbones.

I'm going to go back under it and nap while watching TV. Thank god this week is almost finished.

The Ghost in the Darkness

So, this pic is a 2 part explanation...

The first being, WHEE SNOW!!!!! So, I live in Victoria... and we usually don't get much snow throughout the winter. Or any at all. And to get over a foot at the end of February is just unheard of. So of course I had to take full advantage of it for my 365 pic tonight. For some reason, I'm totally loving the snow right now (usually I hate cold, and wet, and especially a combination of the two).

The second I hinted at a bit in yesterday's post. I was playing around with night photos yesterday too, and (completely by accident) discovered how to make myself look like a ghost. Since my pic yesterday like that didn't work out as my hubby was busy texting away in the background, I decided to replicate it tonight.

So there you go- I've learned something new. Now I need to go thaw my feet out and enjoy a nice hot cup of tea :)

Let's Waste Time

Ok, I'm not actually chasing cars, I'm watching cars. There's not a lot of traffic on our street, so I'm watching A car. Consider this a learning experience for night shooting. I had a flashlight lighting up me, and the streaky red and white is a car going by.

I took another cool one of me watching the stars, but... well.... it's not quite right. I might try that again when Bill isn't texting his nephew while in the shot... So I'll just hint at a plan for more night shooting when it's not raining.

By the way, my butt is very cold, and very wet. Time to shower and change into pyjama's.

Silence

I promised myself I wouldn't talk about work on my blog (because let's face it- that has a way of biting people in the ass).... so..... let's just say this is how I feel at work.....

And yes, I totally stole some inspiration from (one of the many) cover of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Wild Child

Playing in a patch of bamboo. Not much to be said about this one, just a fun shot of me hiding in the wild.

Faster than a Speeding Bathtub!

So, went outside today in search of inspiration. After all, it's Saturday, and it's sunny out. HURRAH!!! We headed over to Luxton Fairgrounds, a small local grounds that hosts an annual rodeo and fair, as well as the occasional baseball/softball game when the season is in. It's a derelict little place, and as it's off the beaten path in small town Langford (or at least what used to be small town), it has a collection of old abandoned farm equipment. I was originally thinking I'd play with some of that... but I've taken a lot of pics there over the past year, and really wasn't feeling inspired by the stuff. After all, I have pics of them in the snow, in the sun, in the rain.... nothing new to see.

So I decided to wander behind a building. There was a fence maybe 4 feet back, so what could be hidden back there? Well, besides stacks of random rusty poles, barrels, old rotting farm tires, etc, there is also this bath tub.

Best random find in a while :)

Just In Case

So, I spend Friday nights visiting with my sister and her family. Tonight, the kids were playing with some Lego, and my 7 year old neice was giving all of the Lego men weapons. My sister commented that the girl has gotten on this kick of always arming her Lego Mini-figures. So my neice says "They all need as many weapons as possible...... *insert creepy child whisper here*..... JUST IN CASE!!!!"

I seriously think my neice just gave me nightmares. It was probably the most disturbing thing I've ever heard. I have no idea where she would have picked this up either, because other than being incredibly smart, and therefore being a bit of a know it all who has to win and be right all the time, she's a pretty well rounded well adjusted kid! She doesn't torture their cats anymore than most children torment animals; you know, carrying them improperly and holding them when they would rather be hiding. She's not into scary movies. I mean, Toy Story 3 gave this girl nightmares!!!

And yet here she is, inspiring one of the more creepy photo ops I've done....

Who Owns Who?

At the end of a long day, sometimes, it's nice to be reminded of your place in the world.

When You Wish Upon a Star

Decided to play with reflections a bit... never done it before and took a few tries to get something I liked :)

Abject Terror

So, I had an image of how I wanted today's pic to turned out. I knew what I had to do, and I was excited to try it out. What I wanted was a pic of me underwater, staring up at the camera all dreamy like. You know those ads, model shots, etc, that use that kind of effect. The model's hair all whispy around their heads like a giant halo.

What I got was this:

And the reason for it being? I am deathly afraid of holding my breath under water, AND of opening my eyes under water. Apparently. Even in the relative safety of my bathtub. I was hyperventilating when setting up for this shot (and it took a few tries to get it where the water movement didn't blur everything- and it did not get easier with subsequent shots)

I never learned how to swim. I could barely save my life if rescue was less than 5 feet away. My mother has a fear of the water due to a childhood trauma, and so we never really went to lakes, or to the pool or anything when we were little. Never took swimming lessons, never went canoeing, or rafting, or any of that water-related stuff. So every time I submerge myself, I end up choking on water that gets up my nose. I've never quite learned the trick of "plugging" my nose with my tongue at the back of my throat.

I do have a fear of drowning, but if I can hold my nose closed with my fingers, and keep my eyes closed, I'm relatively ok. But that does not a pretty picture make.

Neither does this, but I've at least learned something about myself.

I Miss You

West Coast Beach Day

Went for a walk on the beach with my Hubby today. The beautiful red scarf was a gift earlier this week from a friend of mine who just returned from a few weeks in India.

Rain Rain Go Away

So, I started my photo project in January, and I'm quickly realizing how limiting it is to do self portraits in the winter. By the time I'm home from work, it's dark outside, and as I live in a basement suite- it's not exactly the largest place to find creative backgrounds for self portraits. I was really looking forward to this weekend when I could get outside with my camera for a bit. Sadly, Mother Nature had a different plan. It's not so much that I don't like being out in the rain (let's face it, after growing up along the "Wet Coast" of BC, I'm pretty used to it), but I AM worried about taking my camera out in the rain. Sigh. Another rainy Saturday.

Mola Mola Mola Ram Ram Ram!

So, so far in my personal explorations of my personality through self portraits, I've learned that I love toys, and I'm not comfortable expressing my femininity unless there's a strong representation of my masculinity present. Hmmmm. On that note- one of my favourite toys- Mola Ram from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. This is the guy who rips out people's hearts. I just love the crazy smile and wild look in his eyes (and the fact that this particular action figure is holding a heart).

Negativity

I'm feeling pretty negative today, so I figured why not take a pic of one of my least favourite body parts. The fact is my LEAST favourite body parts I'm not about to post up pics of on the internet.... my feet (specifically my toes and my bunions) are my least favourite that I can post up without putting up a warning of nudity. Yes, my feet take me places, but my bunions usually hurt by the time I get there, and I'm such an odd size that women's shoes are too narrow, and men's shoes often are too big (but just BARELY). So my feet are big for women's shoes but small for men's. Huh- go figure. Once again I don't quite fit into either category that society has assigned a gender to.

Play Time

My hubby bought me a Lego set. It's the dump truck one in the Toy Story 3 Lego line. It makes me happy at the end of a long day to curl up with some lego and build away. This is what I did tonight when we got home from (yet another) the tattoo appointment.

Wash it all Away

A little more risque as time goes on... this pic feels a little like someone is spying on me, even though I took the picture myself, lol. It's the fear we all have, of someone intruding on us when we're most vulnerable (be it emotionally or physically vulnerable).

Look! Up in the Sky!

This picture will not be a surprise to anyone who knows me. It's just fun!

What's cooking?

I hate to cook. Always have. I try to avoid anything kitchen related actually. I've blamed my mother, and so since then she's been buying me cook books. I can blame her for never teaching me, I can't blame her for the fact that I hate doing it.

Today was Bill's 2nd tattoo day in a row (see yesterday's post for some info on that). He spent 5 hrs yesterday getting tattooed, and 5 hrs today getting work on a seperate piece. There's a convention in March that our tattoo artist wants to enter some of our tattoos into the competitions, so we're scrambling to finish them in time. ANYWAYS, with Bill feeling a little... sore... he didn't feel like cooking tonight. And I really don't blame him. I know after I get any tattoo work done I don't feel like doing much besides watch TV and nap a bit (which is exactly what he's doing right now). So dinner prep fell to me tonight.

I can't say it was fancy, but it was historic- I made dinner. I have done it before in the past, but not recently. I thought I'd get photographic evidence that it does happen at least once in a while though.

Love Hurts!

So, this is a tattoo weekend for us. Both my hubby and I are getting tattoos that our artist wants to enter into competitions mid-March. Hubby is getting a string of Christmas lights wrapped around his arm (his idea) and a torn comic book page on the back of his shoulder (artist's idea). Today was work on the lights, tomorrow is work on the comic book page. Yup- poor guy is getting tattoo'd twice in as many days.

As I've been getting tattoos for over 10 years now, and this is only his second (and third) tat's, I try to be helpful. Help him wash the tattoo areas he can't reach (such as his back), moisturize the tat for him, even going to far as to making sure he doesn't need to cook the night after a tat session (which trust me- is a big deal for me!!!) The best part about helping him care for his tats? Ripping the bandage off :)

Love hurts!

Friendly Giant

Look up. WAAAAAAAY up. And I'll call Rusty.

True Love

My husband inspired this idea, and participated in the shot. Those are our hands.

We both work at the same company, and so we started bringing games for our lunch hour. For over a year now our travel scrabble board has had a game going on it (it has a pause function, so we can "pause" the game at the end of lunch and pick it up the next day). Our travel board is so well worn the tiles are barely legible anymore. We bought a back-up travel board for when this one dies.

We own quite a few Scrabble games actually. The first Scrabble I myself ever owned was part of a gift from him shortly after we started dating three years ago. Being the obsessive collectors that we both are, it's grown from there.

Us. Scrabble. Life is good!

Tattoo fiend

That's right, I am a tattoo fiend. This is a pic I've wanted to do for a while, but my arm hasn't been complete enough, or healed enough for me to take it.

This is my fully coloured in elbow. It hurt like hell to get it done. For those of you thinking of getting a sleeve tattoo, I WILL think less of you if you leave a giant blank spot over the elbow, HOWEVER, be prepared for the elbow to hurt. A lot. My tat artist (the VERY talented James of Permanent Record Tattoo) says I dealt with it well, but he's probably just trying to make me feel better since I'm paying his rent. We go see him regularly... it's like he's becoming part of the family.

And yes, I'm wearing a Permanent Record Tattoo T-shirt. What can I say? Of all the tattoo shops and all the artists I've seen over the years, he's the first artist I've gone back to. Again, and again, and again (with plans for more in the near future....)

Lazy

Not just tonight. Every night. I spend more quality time with my remote than I do doing anything active. Maybe I should change this...