daniel gebhart de koekkoek

i am hopelessly enamoured with the photographs of Daniel Gebhart. such an eye for beauty and a gift for storytelling. see more here. *sigh*

erin mcsavaney

Erin McSavaney is a Vancouver based artist whose work focuses mainly on the impact of architecture. while all of the work on his website is wonderful, i'm particularly drawn to the HWY 101 series of paintings, shown here.

spring at last!

yesterday's weather here in Toronto was absolutely perfect. we took Rudy to the dog park down by the lake and i snapped a few happy spring photos i thought i'd share with you. welcome spring!!!

there were a whole bunch of english bulldogs at the dog park. perhaps it was a breed club meeting or something. couldn't resist taking pictures o these mugs :)

Rudy was being a bit of a chicken. she barely left my side the entire time. i think i'll take her out there more often now that the weather is turning. baby needs some socializing!

brad kunkle

New York based, Pensilvania born artist Brad Kunkle's paintings seem as though spun from gold. simply magical. see more of here.

do something constructive

when i was little my dad didn't let us watch much television, preferring us to use our time 'constructively', but my mother would sometimes let us watch a bit before he got home from work. i remember that when we heard his car pulling into the driveway, my brothers would spring from their chairs and yell 'CHEESE IT! DAD'S HOME! DO SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE!'. being nine years younger than they are, my vocabulary and logic was not near as developed as theirs and my immediate reaction to their cry was to get out some construction paper and my wee scissors and start cutting and pasting which, though not exactly what my father meant, was in itself constructive.

with that, here's another constructive use of construction paper :)

nine eyes have seen the glory

go check out 9-eyes.com for some truly amazing google earth shots

smother than a gentle breeze #3 -alain delon

Ulyana Sergeenko

sublime. see more of Ulyana Sergeenko's collection here.

R.I.P. Whitney Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012)

video vendredi - the truth

36 things to do in my 36th year

it's my birthday today. first one that's kinda freaking me out, i cannot tell a lie. thirty six *sigh*. in spirit i'm still hovering somewhere around 22, though my body's feeling older than it should these days. i've seen a lot of wonderful things in my life so far, and known many wonderful folks. i've been married to a wonderful man for four of those years and consider myself a very lucky woman. as a great friend of 17 years told me this morning: i have the world as my oyster and am finally in full control of my destiny. ya, ima go with that :)

so there's this thing i do here every year at this time where i make a list of things i'd like to do in the coming year. you can see my other lists here, here and here, though i'm embarrassed to say i didn't check off very many last year - something i wish to remedy this time around. this year's list may have one or two heretofore mentioned items, but so what? it's my birthday.  (items in pink have been checked off)

here goes...

1. go on a solo trip, just me and my camera (doesn't have to be a long trip, could just be a weekend).

2. take at least two more workshops or classes (i found this really valuable last year, so i'm adding it again).

3. buy a new bike and throw out the old one that's been sitting on my balcony since i wrote 'buy a new bike' on last year's list.

4. frame and hang some of my photos around the house.

5. sculpt something with polymer clay.

6. see the new baby polar bear and soon to be visiting giant pandas at the Metro Toronto Zoo .

7. get a new bed. ours is old and making my back feel like i'm a whole lot older than 36.

8. write a script (i've been saying this for a while, but i'm getting closer to it - been writing a lot o notes and slowly crafting some characters. this is the year i finish it).

9. be a better friend

10. clean out my closet. once and for all. it's a jungle in there. for real.

11. lose 30 pounds. having to write this on the third list in a row makes me feel pretty sh*tty, but it ain't goin nowhere 'til i do it. this is the last year it will be on my list, dammit!

12. go on some sort of writing/art/creativity retreat.

13. write 5 songs. a debut EP, if you will. I learned to play guitar last year and now it's time to take a whack at songwriting.

14. participate in National Novel Writing Month

15. make my friends model for photo shoots. i'd like to improve my portrait skills and taking photos of your husband and your dog will only go so far :)

16. finish illustrating my second children's book (these are self published books for friends by the way. sounds a lot cooler than it is.)

17. visit my oldest friend in Nova Scotia (idealy drive over there as my dislike for airplanes seems to grow with every year i age)

18. stengthen the knee ligament i tore in Mexico last winter that still pains me each and every dang day.

19. buy Rudy a leash and collar from Niki's store.

20. paint 5 things. keepin' this one nice and broad. could be 5 paintings, could be four paintings and a chair, who knows?

21. stretch.

22. see at least 5 films at this year's TIFF

23. wrap my head around my spending habits and perhaps, maybe actually conceive of a budget of some sort. gettin' tired of running out o money 3 days before every paycheck :)

24. simplify.

25. go to Moosefest 2012!

26. go to the Stand By Me festival in Brownsville Oregon!

27. knit comfy slippers for my husband and myself.

28. watch the second season of Game of Thrones in HD (we're saving for a new TV)

29. do one o those 365 photo projects. this is a bit lofty a goal for me since i find it difficult to do just about anything every single day, but ima try. (starting tomorrow).

30. take a German course

31. submit something to one of the art/photography shows that my work puts on.

32. let myself feel proud.

33. eat breakfast at home and pack my lunches as much as possible.

34. listen to tunes more. i miss having a soundtrack.

35. go see at least two live shows.

36. be earlier to bed and earlier to rise.

winter is coming

direwolves tank

not sure if i've mentioned this before, but i am a huge fan of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice & Fire series, the first installment of which was recently adapted as the magnificent HBO series Game of Thrones. i love it i love it i love it. can't get enough of it. looked it up on etsy this morning and found all sorts o neat stuff. thought i'd share some :)

winter is coming bracelets

hodor patch

valar mulghuris ring

yigal ozeri

i should really have a category reserved for photorealistic painters since i'm so in awe of this kind of talent that i tend to post a lot of them. Israel born, New York based Yigal Ozeri is one such magically talented being. these are paintings, people. c'est vrai. *sigh*

yesterday's muse #26 - helen bennett

Helen Bennett was born on August 14, 1911 in Springfield Missouri. she was a model and actress , best known for her stylish platinum coiffure. Bennett began her career as a beauty queen and was awarded the title Miss Missouri in 1937. she attended the University of Missouri and the Goodman Theater acting school in Chicago, before setting her sights on New York City.



in New York, Helen found work as a model. she also appeared on Broadway in shows such as "Dream Girl." according to IMDB, Helen's "attention to style and grooming earned her a much coveted recognition by Monsieur Leon, a prominent New York hairstylist who promoted -- some say invented -- the well-groomed "new look" in the late 1940s. Leon named Bennett along with actresses Claudette Colbert, Kathryn Grayson, Gertrude Lawrence and Norma Shearer as the five women in America with the best-dressed hair."




Bennett, along with a handful of other models like Norma Shearer and Gene Tierney, was able to make a successful transition into acting, appearing in films such as Lost City of the Jungle (1946) and The Scarlet Horseman (1946), and later, Return to Peyton Place (1961) with Tuesday Weld.



Helen was married to a man named Sylvester James Andrews, though I can't seem to find out when or for how long, or if she had any children. she died at the age of 89 on Sunday, February 25, 2001, in Santa Monica, California.