Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Photoshop Beginner
We got Photoshop and as a few people had warned me, it is NOT easy to use. I spent a couple of hours on it tonight trying some different techniques and have a few pictures to show for it . I am still VERY intimidated by it and my eyes are burning from staring at the screen for so long. But I'm not giving up! (yet, anyway!)
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:After:Before:
After:
The Weekend
Highs of the weekend...
*GOLD, GOLD, GOLD!!! How intense was that Men's hockey final?! Go Canada go!
*I successfully did a load of cloth diapers in the wash including 2 poop diapers and lived to tell the tale...it was actually easy. The washer did most of the heavy lifting. I'm fully converted. The only problem now is we don't have quite enough for a couple of days so are still relying on disposables to get us through until we can stock up on more cloth.
*Beautiful, sunny weather melting all that nasty white stuff.
Lows...
*Well, only 1 low. It went a little something like this: A perfect spring-like day in Calgary, Alberta. Birds are chirping, it's a balmy (for Calgary weather, at least) +5 degrees celcius. The snow is melting and the sun is shining. The streets are quiet, save for one man, stumbling up the sidewalk. Did I mention it was 11 a.m.? And, did I say stumbling? More like struggling to stay upright. It's our neighbour to the right and he is embarassingly drunk. He weaves his way across the sidewalk until he's just cleared our driveway. Then pauses, cocks his head to one side and engages in what one can only assume to be deep thought, and unzips his pants. Then he turns to the street and takes a leak. In broad daylight. He finishes and stumbles the rest of the way home. What else can I say except that this left me speechless. Very out of the ordinary for this neighbourhood (and probably most others, I'm assuming?).
*GOLD, GOLD, GOLD!!! How intense was that Men's hockey final?! Go Canada go!
*I successfully did a load of cloth diapers in the wash including 2 poop diapers and lived to tell the tale...it was actually easy. The washer did most of the heavy lifting. I'm fully converted. The only problem now is we don't have quite enough for a couple of days so are still relying on disposables to get us through until we can stock up on more cloth.
*Beautiful, sunny weather melting all that nasty white stuff.
Lows...
*Well, only 1 low. It went a little something like this: A perfect spring-like day in Calgary, Alberta. Birds are chirping, it's a balmy (for Calgary weather, at least) +5 degrees celcius. The snow is melting and the sun is shining. The streets are quiet, save for one man, stumbling up the sidewalk. Did I mention it was 11 a.m.? And, did I say stumbling? More like struggling to stay upright. It's our neighbour to the right and he is embarassingly drunk. He weaves his way across the sidewalk until he's just cleared our driveway. Then pauses, cocks his head to one side and engages in what one can only assume to be deep thought, and unzips his pants. Then he turns to the street and takes a leak. In broad daylight. He finishes and stumbles the rest of the way home. What else can I say except that this left me speechless. Very out of the ordinary for this neighbourhood (and probably most others, I'm assuming?).
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Cloth??
When I was pregnant, I debated buying cloth diapers. I spent a lot of time looking at different designs, different fabric...looked at the cost between cloth, disposable and using a diaper service. In the end, it was just too overwhelming for my pregnant brain to handle and I gave up and started stocking up on disposable diapers and diaper genie refills.
Fast forward 9+ months later, hundreds (maybe more like thousands?!) of disposable diapers later, plastic sausage diaper genie tubes of waste that will take a trillion years to break down...and well, I started feeling a little guilty. If you're currently using disposable, I don't for one second judge you...it's definitely a personal choice. I think cloth would've been too much for me to handle with a difficult baby in the first few months but I no longer felt I couldn't handle an extra load of laundry every couple of days. So, I did some more research and bought enough for 1.5 days to get us started to see how we all got along with it.
I went with the FuzziBunz One Size diaper. They will fit Samara all through her diaper days. I was a bit skeptical that 1 diaper could be sized that way but now that I have it, I understand. Combining sizable elastic and snaps, it really could be made to fit any sized baby. It even comes with sizing guidelines and I got the perfect fit on my first try.
They are truly beautiful...and isn't it weird that a cloth diaper can be beautiful?! But to compare the cloth diaper and its soft, absorbent material in lovely, vibrant colours against the scratchy, chemical smelling disposables that we were using? It's quite a contrast!
Yes, yes, yes, you say...they're nice looking. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE POOP?! Huh, Tash? What about the poop?! Well, I admit...that was the #1 reason holding me back from cloth diapers. I too am scared of the poop cleaning. In fact, I got the diapers yesterday morning and as of this morning, they were still sitting unused. Shawn asked me if I was going to use them or not. I told him I was waiting for Samara's morning poop to be over and he said we're going to have to bite the bullet and get used to it. Fair enough. So on the cloth went. Now the poop did in fact happen. But as luck would have it, it was a perfect loaf that was easily dumped and flushed in the toilet. Samara is going to be SO pleased about the post in about 12 years or so! Anyways, I know it won't always be that easy but I'm up to the challenge!
And they are just so frigging cute!!!
They even give skinny babies a little bum!
Fast forward 9+ months later, hundreds (maybe more like thousands?!) of disposable diapers later, plastic sausage diaper genie tubes of waste that will take a trillion years to break down...and well, I started feeling a little guilty. If you're currently using disposable, I don't for one second judge you...it's definitely a personal choice. I think cloth would've been too much for me to handle with a difficult baby in the first few months but I no longer felt I couldn't handle an extra load of laundry every couple of days. So, I did some more research and bought enough for 1.5 days to get us started to see how we all got along with it.
I went with the FuzziBunz One Size diaper. They will fit Samara all through her diaper days. I was a bit skeptical that 1 diaper could be sized that way but now that I have it, I understand. Combining sizable elastic and snaps, it really could be made to fit any sized baby. It even comes with sizing guidelines and I got the perfect fit on my first try.
They are truly beautiful...and isn't it weird that a cloth diaper can be beautiful?! But to compare the cloth diaper and its soft, absorbent material in lovely, vibrant colours against the scratchy, chemical smelling disposables that we were using? It's quite a contrast!
Yes, yes, yes, you say...they're nice looking. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE POOP?! Huh, Tash? What about the poop?! Well, I admit...that was the #1 reason holding me back from cloth diapers. I too am scared of the poop cleaning. In fact, I got the diapers yesterday morning and as of this morning, they were still sitting unused. Shawn asked me if I was going to use them or not. I told him I was waiting for Samara's morning poop to be over and he said we're going to have to bite the bullet and get used to it. Fair enough. So on the cloth went. Now the poop did in fact happen. But as luck would have it, it was a perfect loaf that was easily dumped and flushed in the toilet. Samara is going to be SO pleased about the post in about 12 years or so! Anyways, I know it won't always be that easy but I'm up to the challenge!
And they are just so frigging cute!!!
They even give skinny babies a little bum!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Friday Night Leftovers
As always, Friday Night Leftovers idea taken from this blog.* I may have to give up on showering while Sam is awake. I pushed through all week and it just isn't getting any better. While I'm brushing my teeth, she is happily playing on the floor. I get my towels ready...still happy. I lay out my clothes...still happy. I turn on the shower to get it warm...still happy. I bring out some other toys that are reserved for special times...still happy. I put one foot inside the tub? FREAK OUT!!! While I frantically shower in record time, Samara stands at the tub with the curtain opened, screaming her little heart out. I don't get it! It's like the bathtub is another land, far, far away! She can see me but it's not quite enough. As soon as I get out of the tub, I give her a hug and then she starts playing again like nothing happened. So...I give up. I'm throwing in the towel. I will waste my sacred special mommy time while she is napping to shower. Sigh...
* Sam and I met up with a girlfriend and her baby for lunch today. I haven't braved too many restaurants with Sam...I think this is only the 4th time I have brought her out. The nonstop crying the first few months made it pretty impossible and after that I was gun shy! It went GREAT though...Sam was a huge hit and everyone kept stopping by to say hi. The only problem was that it was a diner and they had old fashioned high chairs...she was too small for them so could easily stand up in them and then bounce and dance. Very, very cute but made it hard for me to eat!
* My girlfriend's baby is 8 weeks old and he is sooooo sweet. He is only 9 pounds and still very much looks like a newborn. Tick tock goes by biological clock!
* Sam is a fully converted Beco kid. She no longer is used to facing forward in the Bjorn and is happy in the Beco. And both Shawn and I's backs are very, very thankful.
* I'm still in love with my new camera. I take at least 100 pics a day and then narrow them down to a dozen or so to work on. Shawn was able to get a license for Photoshop so I'm going to attempt to learn that. I've also realized that I need a camera bag. Right now if I take it anywhere, I wrap it in a towel and put it in a Lululemon bag. Probably not the best!
* Got a fun package in the mail...will write about it in a separate post with pictures.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
A little bit of everything...
How cute is this little munchkin?!
I could try to resist her cuteness, but why bother?!
She's just too precious!!
And now she's been standing on her own! (the tongue sticking out is totally manditory for maximum concentration)
Okay, I'm capable of taking pictures of other things than Samshine!
Shawn's eye...bet you weren't expecting that!
I could try to resist her cuteness, but why bother?!
She's just too precious!!
And now she's been standing on her own! (the tongue sticking out is totally manditory for maximum concentration)
Okay, I'm capable of taking pictures of other things than Samshine!
Shawn's eye...bet you weren't expecting that!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The good, the bad and the ugly...
The Good
-had a great day with Samara...we went for a nice walk (+3 today!), played, read books, and she only had 1 freak out (still the darn shower which I refuse to budge on...as soon as I set foot in that tub and close the curtain, the WORLD IS ENDING, OMG HELP SAMARA!!!)
The bad
-did our taxes and we owe $1350...how is that possible when I only worked for 3 months last year?!?!
-had THE most frustrating conversation with ING (our mortgage provider) about porting our mortgage to a new house, penalties for such a transfer, the need to reapply due to our change of financial status, etc, etc, etc. All in all, I have spoken to 8 different people there about the exact same thing and have received 8 different responses and scenarios about what will happen. Apparently NO ONE there knows anything...from associates to supervisors.
The ugly
-after spending 42 minutes on the phone with a supervisor at ING, I told him that I would rather stab myself in the eye than talk to another person from ING.
p.s. - do you like how I put totally unrelated pictures in this post just to have pictures?!
-had a great day with Samara...we went for a nice walk (+3 today!), played, read books, and she only had 1 freak out (still the darn shower which I refuse to budge on...as soon as I set foot in that tub and close the curtain, the WORLD IS ENDING, OMG HELP SAMARA!!!)
The bad
-did our taxes and we owe $1350...how is that possible when I only worked for 3 months last year?!?!
-had THE most frustrating conversation with ING (our mortgage provider) about porting our mortgage to a new house, penalties for such a transfer, the need to reapply due to our change of financial status, etc, etc, etc. All in all, I have spoken to 8 different people there about the exact same thing and have received 8 different responses and scenarios about what will happen. Apparently NO ONE there knows anything...from associates to supervisors.
The ugly
-after spending 42 minutes on the phone with a supervisor at ING, I told him that I would rather stab myself in the eye than talk to another person from ING.
p.s. - do you like how I put totally unrelated pictures in this post just to have pictures?!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Baby Names
We spent a ridiculous amount of time deciding on a name for our baby. Because we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl, we spent even longer. We couldn't decide on a boy name and had about 3 that we liked. For a girl, we were pretty much set on Samara right from the start. We wanted something fairly unique but not weird (Moonbeam, Tahoe, etc.). We also went through all the rhymes and possible acronyms from the initials (no F.A.T. for a little girl, thanks!). Shawn was always one of MANY in his class growing up and disliked having to be known as Shawn #1 or Shawn T. Of course, so so so many of the names we liked were popular. You like to think you're being different and original but turns out you like the name because it was on a TV show, or a popular actress named her baby that and on on it goes. I went to the Alberta Government website on a daily basis to check out names. I was looking for something that had 25 or less in the previous year. They just released the top baby names of 2009 and we're still safe with Samara (only 12 last year in all of Alberta). We just have to hope a movie is not released with a main character with that name for the next 5 years or so!
Top Baby Girl Names For 2009 (in Alberta)
1. Olivia
2. Isabella
3. Ava
4. Emma
5. Hailey
6. Sophia
7. Chloe
8. Madison
9. Ella
10.Lily
Top Baby Boy Names For 2009 (in Alberta)
1. Ethan
2. Liam
3. Jacob
4. Logan
5. Noah
6. Alexander
7. Benjamin
8. Owen
9. William
10.Lucas
Top Baby Girl Names For 2009 (in Alberta)
1. Olivia
2. Isabella
3. Ava
4. Emma
5. Hailey
6. Sophia
7. Chloe
8. Madison
9. Ella
10.Lily
Top Baby Boy Names For 2009 (in Alberta)
1. Ethan
2. Liam
3. Jacob
4. Logan
5. Noah
6. Alexander
7. Benjamin
8. Owen
9. William
10.Lucas
Monday, February 22, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Pictures!!
My first attempt at fancy dancy pictures. I overdid it with some of the editing but I never claimed to know anything about it!
*well, turns out my editing wasn't SO terrible, what I did wrong was save the pictures at way too low of a quality so it messed the resolution. And of course, I saved over the original shots so I can't fix it. Oh well, all part of the learning experience I suppose!
*well, turns out my editing wasn't SO terrible, what I did wrong was save the pictures at way too low of a quality so it messed the resolution. And of course, I saved over the original shots so I can't fix it. Oh well, all part of the learning experience I suppose!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
