Kinki

Both Evelin and I had accomplishments to celebrate this week so a few of us headed to Kinki for sushi tonight. The food was great and the drinks were yummy ('Juicy Nut' anyone??) - I'm pretty sure a good time was had by all! This first shot is just a random that I took of Leslie's sunglasses sitting on top of her chop sticks wrapper and the second is a very small part of our overall order. I would have posted more but my computer and internet are both working at a snail's pace and I am SO ready for bed. Congrats Evelin on a great seminar today. I hope you sleep well tonight :)

Buzzin' Around

As summer fades, we'll see fewer and fewer of our friendly bumblebees so when I saw this guy on my flowers I thought it he'd make a nice little subject for today :)

Father and Son

Our house backs onto a new school yard so ever since the sod was laid a couple of weeks ago, there has been a constant stream of people playing there with their kids and their dogs. I looked out my window this evening to see this father and son playing out there and I couldn't take my eyes off of them; they were having SO much fun! I think this school yard will a great source of "people pics" even if I feel a bit stalker-ish :)

Spidey Sense

Same spider, just processed in a few different ways :)
This guy found the perfect place to build a web (on our front porch, no less) and he's hit the mother load - he's got meals ready for a week! The size is a bit deceiving in these shots but he's probably actually the size of a loonie....pretty icky-lookin' huh???

It's a tough life...

...being cute :)

I'm not getting out much these days so I took pictures "in". Once again, say hi to Blue and Bailie :)

Hazy Moon

If you look outside now, you'll realize I didn't take these tonight. I took them last week and didn't like them enough to post. However, in the absence of anything interesting to post, this is what you get.
I don't have a tripod so taking pictures at night - even of something bright enough to light up the sky - is a challenge (and a half!). I balanced my camera on the roof of my car for these....it was the best I could do! The reason for 3 of these is simply because I was playing with the settings, trying to find something that really *worked*. I'm not really sure it ever did but the photos did come out looking a bit different and it was settings-dependent. Do not ask what they were though, lol! These are totally unedited, except for the frames; this is not to say that I think they're great, just that this is what it actually looked like!

Do Not Disturb!

Haha - I don't think I need to explain this one!
I don't have time these days to get out much for picture-taking but I didn't have to go far for this shot. I looked out my patio door this morning and this is what I saw. I took the shot from inside so as not to open the door and disturb their "moment" :)

And I thought it was kinda fun 'inverted' too :)

The Thunder Rolls

Did we ever get a storm today! When the deep, dark clouds started to roll in it was still sunny on one side of my house and almost pitch black on the other. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. The sky changed colours so many times and then it just got dark and started to POUR. I tried really hard to get a shot of the crazy lightning but you could only see it sporadically through the thick clouds and my hand-eye isn't that good anyway. Regardless, here are a few from today's storm! The sun is shining intermittently now :)

People Pics

Here are a few more people shots from the shower yesterday :)

Oops, I forgot a frame for this one...

Shower for Sarah

Sarah is my oldest friend in the world; we grew up just down the road from each other. She's getting married in October and today was her bridal shower, wonderfully hosted by her sister-in-law Steph. If you wonder what's up with the cowgirl hat, she was given a pair of them as a gift - one for her and one for her hubby. She was a good sport and wore it all day!

Our beautiful bride-to-be

Digging into Mel H's gift...

Another gift!

This is my favourite photo of the day and I knew it would be as soon as I took it. What a great moment between Mommy and Baby...

We played the clothespin game (no leg crossing); this little cutie cleaned up! :)

Can't wait for your big day, Sarah!

Happy Flowers

I received 2 bouquets of birthday flowers yesterday - one from Sarah-Jean, the other from Evelin and Leslie - both of which were full of sunflowers. Here are a few shots I took of them today!

Tonight I put my camera away

Old friends and new popped by tonight to celebrate with me; I was hoping to keep it pretty low-key but we drank lots of wine (etc.) and ate lots of cupcakes; and everyone seemed to have a pretty good time. Usually I'm the one running around with the camera but I spent so much time *trying* to talk to everyone that I totally ignored my usual urge to take pics. I took this *one* shot of the only cupcake I ate tonight - it's a terrible pic really, but I wanted to post something for today.
Thanks to Mel, Tracy H, Katherine, Jenn, Brigitte, Tracy G, Leslie, Evelin, Christina and Ballari; not only for coming over but for your wonderful gifts too! I had a great birthday!

Edible Birthday

I received THE BEST floral arrangement today - an edible one! Chocolate covered apples, pineapple, strawberries, oranges, grapes....YUM-O!
~~Thanks a MILLION to Lindsay Weir - you're the greatest!~~

It was even a day early, my birthday is tomorrow!

Blue and Bailie are totally enthralled with the balloon; they won't leave it alone!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Now trying to 'keep it all to myself' is the hard part....LOL!

Camouflage

I've been pretty busy over the last couple of days and haven't had a chance to take a picture, let alone post one. I'm sure the title of this post doesn't make much sense to you but this little moth has been sitting on our front door for 3 days - seriously - and until today I thought it was a little leaf that had stuck there. Upon closer inspection (I almost brushed it off) I saw it was actually this little creature - alive and well. I'm sure it's hard to imagine someone thinking this was anything other than an insect but I assure you, when not paying attention, it really does look like a leaf!
Boring, to say the least, but it's a photo :)

Plant parts

Random close-ups of everyday plants.

I really wish I'd photographed this milkweed lengthwise instead; those little protrusions would have looked great from a different angle. Unfortunately, the brush was so thick I couldn't get a better position. The nerd in me would also like to see this "topography" photographed with a scanning electron microscope *sticks out tongue in true geek fashion*.

This has beautiful pink stems, yet for once, I actually like the photo better without colour :)

Toy for Boy

**Edit** I'd like to add that the car is not actually blue; it's slate gray but the lighting made the photos come out looking more blue than it actually is.

So, many of my blog followers will know my dad has a "thing" for cars. His fancy car is in the shop and this is the loaner; can you freakin' believe it?!?!

Pimp-mobile red leather interior....no my dad is not a pimp...or a porn star....

I was very disappointed to learn that because it's a convertible, it doesn't have those fancy gull-wing doors that lamborghinis are known for having. It does have "wings" of a certain variety though :) Batmobile anyone???

I posted so many photos because I just know my mom is going to show all these to my dad. He's really enjoyed this car (his new favourite child) but he's not keeping it; it's going back to the dealership shortly :(