Good To Be Back
A funny thing happened the other day. I received an e-mail that my blog had auto-renewed for two more years. Blog? I thought... ooooh, my blog!!!
A lot has happened since my last post. Life and death, hockey, ballet, school and all things between.
One niece and two nephews have had babies, three boys. I'm the youngest of a large family, so my own kids are closer in age to their second cousins than their first cousins.
I spent nine months on a rabid obsessed hunt for a cure for cancer, but failed. Shortly after my friend died I too got sick and now wish I had photos of my yellow eyes and the IV's and dozens of bruises from heparin injections. Quite unlike me not to document something so significant, but I was busy marking new milestones: the first time I got out of bed without my pancreas stabbing me to tears, staying awake through a whole movie, climbing the stairs without needing a rest on the top step. I'm happy though to report that now I can stay up all night editing photos again, just like the good old days.
Maybe it was a good thing I semi-forgot I had a blog for a while. Posts would have been pretty dark over those days.
So, I don't have anything organized to say on-topic at the moment, but the auto-renewal has shamed me into needing to at least say hello. So, let's go ff topic....
My youngest nephew Taylor graduated this year. Auntie (ces't moi!) showed up and took a ton of photos. We dodged the rain, first trodding around the football field. He had quarterbacked his team to win the Saskatchewan Provincials back in November. (And I have 400 photos to prove it!)
We went from the football field to the park and back to his house to take a quick family shot. Their house is always active, especially on this graduation day. Taylor's brother and sister were home for the big event, towing friends along from university. Grandparents and aunties had arrived.
After a few quick setups with grandparents, he posed with immediate family for the last shot. When we were done, Carley yelled, "Wait! We need to get a shot with Paul to send to his mum!"
Paul's employer sent him to Saskatchewan to work. With no family here, the this Brit has reciprocally adopted my sister's family as his own. He was happy to jump up on my sister's lap. The already light mood switches to fun, and he's cracking everyone up.
This strange little town has a huge graduation ceremony with big puffy dresses and bigger hairdo's and no dance. They keep grad night for family parties. The kids have a wild (supervised) party the next night. At the family party I get to chat with my new and accented nephew, Paul. He calls my sister Mum. The girls find him particularily exotic and jockey for his attention, but when a drunk 19 year old looks at him with doe eyes and starts to rub his back, poor popular Paul breaks free and says "I can't believe she's hitting on me in front of me Mum!!! It's just wrong!!! This is soooo embarrassing!"
I found this kid quite charming, a suitable family member. And it seems that he has been enchanted by Saskatchewan. He went back to England this summer to renew his work visas.
Carley wanted to send a group shot of his other family home with him - but I just hated the bad lights and ugly background in the original. Needed to have a little fun in Photoshop.
Somehow it turned into a movie poster, I was thinking along the lines of The Best Son.
Most of the elements were free from StockXchange. I needed a suitcase and found a black one full of money (boo American not Canadian)... That suitcase instantly changed the whole theme of the poster. I changed the it and his shirt to red to grab attention while desaturating everyone else. Ran through Topaz Adjust. Came up with a slugline. Found freeby house, plants, cobblestone. The finishing touch was the Union Jack. A $3.97 glossy print from Costco now hangs with pride in the Rochford home, somewhere in England.
He's a neet kid. Maybe he'll make it home to our fam for Christmas. Here's the poster, might be doing things a bit backward, but maybe I should work on the screenplay.
A lot has happened since my last post. Life and death, hockey, ballet, school and all things between. One niece and two nephews have had babies, three boys. I'm the youngest of a large family, so my own kids are closer in age to their second cousins than their first cousins.
I spent nine months on a rabid obsessed hunt for a cure for cancer, but failed. Shortly after my friend died I too got sick and now wish I had photos of my yellow eyes and the IV's and dozens of bruises from heparin injections. Quite unlike me not to document something so significant, but I was busy marking new milestones: the first time I got out of bed without my pancreas stabbing me to tears, staying awake through a whole movie, climbing the stairs without needing a rest on the top step. I'm happy though to report that now I can stay up all night editing photos again, just like the good old days.
Maybe it was a good thing I semi-forgot I had a blog for a while. Posts would have been pretty dark over those days.
So, I don't have anything organized to say on-topic at the moment, but the auto-renewal has shamed me into needing to at least say hello. So, let's go ff topic....
My youngest nephew Taylor graduated this year. Auntie (ces't moi!) showed up and took a ton of photos. We dodged the rain, first trodding around the football field. He had quarterbacked his team to win the Saskatchewan Provincials back in November. (And I have 400 photos to prove it!) We went from the football field to the park and back to his house to take a quick family shot. Their house is always active, especially on this graduation day. Taylor's brother and sister were home for the big event, towing friends along from university. Grandparents and aunties had arrived.
After a few quick setups with grandparents, he posed with immediate family for the last shot. When we were done, Carley yelled, "Wait! We need to get a shot with Paul to send to his mum!"
Paul's employer sent him to Saskatchewan to work. With no family here, the this Brit has reciprocally adopted my sister's family as his own. He was happy to jump up on my sister's lap. The already light mood switches to fun, and he's cracking everyone up.
This strange little town has a huge graduation ceremony with big puffy dresses and bigger hairdo's and no dance. They keep grad night for family parties. The kids have a wild (supervised) party the next night. At the family party I get to chat with my new and accented nephew, Paul. He calls my sister Mum. The girls find him particularily exotic and jockey for his attention, but when a drunk 19 year old looks at him with doe eyes and starts to rub his back, poor popular Paul breaks free and says "I can't believe she's hitting on me in front of me Mum!!! It's just wrong!!! This is soooo embarrassing!"
I found this kid quite charming, a suitable family member. And it seems that he has been enchanted by Saskatchewan. He went back to England this summer to renew his work visas.
Carley wanted to send a group shot of his other family home with him - but I just hated the bad lights and ugly background in the original. Needed to have a little fun in Photoshop.
Somehow it turned into a movie poster, I was thinking along the lines of The Best Son.
Most of the elements were free from StockXchange. I needed a suitcase and found a black one full of money (boo American not Canadian)... That suitcase instantly changed the whole theme of the poster. I changed the it and his shirt to red to grab attention while desaturating everyone else. Ran through Topaz Adjust. Came up with a slugline. Found freeby house, plants, cobblestone. The finishing touch was the Union Jack. A $3.97 glossy print from Costco now hangs with pride in the Rochford home, somewhere in England.
He's a neet kid. Maybe he'll make it home to our fam for Christmas. Here's the poster, might be doing things a bit backward, but maybe I should work on the screenplay.
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