Sunday, April 24, 2011

I Heart MC

Happy Easter everyone; I hope everyone's having a great holiday weekend. I know I am. On thursday night I had a little slumber party with some of my rugby team mates. It wasn't anything too rowdy, just drank some beer (I'm 18 now you see!), watched movies and played pool. We've got some great players on the team this year, so I think it'll be a good one!

Yesterday I went to Market Collective with my good friend Katty. MC is a once a month market featuring local musicians, artists, artisans and interactive areas. It's one of the things I look forward to most each month for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is just the creative atmosphere that the whole event has. I feel inspired as soon as I walk in the door sometimes because the positive energy is so strong. Another reason is the people. I meet someone new every time I go. The types of people that attend is very diverse, but they're all extremely friendly and positive. Katty and I spent hours there, more than I've ever spent before, mostly because of all these fine people. It seemed like we got into an in depth conversation with every second vendor.

One woman we talked to was Tannis Seufert of Quinnilla Designs. Katty and I fell in love with her bags! She uses recycled leather to create the most amazing and unique bags we'd ever seen. Each bag had so much energy to it. Tannis told us that each of her bags had one owner and weren't made for the masses. I thought this was really cool and seemed accurate. While I loved each of the bags she had, I didn't find any of them were my bag. Fortunately for my bank account seeing as I'm currently unemployed.

Daniel Kirk was showing his art at MC as well. His work was very quirky, like him, and puts more importance on the process of creating the piece than the end product. We had a great discussion about the interpretation of art and the creation process. He's a really cool guy that I hope to see at another MC in the future!
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There were so many other people I spoke to, but those are the ones whose cards I managed to remember to grab.

One more important reason I love MC is of course for the things to buy!! This month I got quite a few things; three shirts from a booth called Grade 4 (I'm pretty sure that's the name...) which are great, a cute vintage summer dress, and a shirt from Light and Soul Creations that I'd had my eye on for a while. I'll post photos of all these soon. I also love the interactive rooms like the photo booth and the creative room that the science center always has. This weeks was a cardboard forest.
IMG_6147IMG_6119IMG_6112IMG_6131Finally I should mention that the dress I'm wearing in the above photo is one I've been wearing for 40 days(yes I did wash it), ending today. It was a challenge I did with the support of the Youth for Justice club at school. I got the idea from The Uniform Project where a woman wore the same LBD for a whole year. Reading about her inspired me to try it for myself. I'll admit there were days that all I wanted was to put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and once or twice I did just that, but rolled the dress into a scarf and wore it like that. This was a really great experience for me. I go to know my closet much better and was forced into being creative every day, which sometimes I need.
IMG_6105IMG_6157Thank you for reading this excessively long post. :)

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

As of late

It's been busy busy as usual for me so I'm very glad my friend Sarah has been nudging me to blog. So Sarah, here it is!
I'll start with my trip to Ottawa. What can I say, it was an amazing experience. I've never learned so much or met so many new best friends in such a short amount of time! There were so many highlights I don't even know where to start. We went to parliament, the national art gallery, the Canadian museum of civilization and toured around Ottawa. I took over a thousand photos I was so amazed by it all! I became known as the photographer of the group, which wasn't such a bad thing because I found the freedom to get right in the action of everything to take photos. Here's a few of my favorites:
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We went shopping on the friday afternoon which was really awesome. It was super warm out that day so it was enjoyable wandering around downtown Ottawa. We started at the ByWard Market where I found some mittens that look like seals, super cute I'll post a photo soon, a ring, and a pair of earrings. Then we wandered around using a map of the local shopping which was really helpful. When I find that map again I'll tell you guys the names of my favorites.

Unfortunately I have to make this a short post because I have to get to bed early tonight. I have rugby at 7 am and then I'm giving blood in the afternoon! Yeah for saving lives!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

I never have been very good at sticking to my new year's resolution, but I promise I really am trying. The posts WILL be more often!

First off I'd like to encourage everyone to consider supporting The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I've posted a link on the side of the page and hope you'll all take a look. One of my brother's friends has recently been diagnosed and those who know her are doing everything they can to support her. Thank you :)

Next, I'm excited super excited about my trip to Ottawa in exactly one week! I'm going with a program called Encounters With Canada. I'll be spending a week in the capital participating in activities and explorations based around the theme Arts and Culture. The program brings together teenagers from all over Canada, so it'll be an amazing place to meet people of different backgrounds and values, but who all have something in common. Now I've never been to Ontario, so I'm really looking forward to exploring more of Canada. I think it's wild to live in such an amazing, albeit huge, country and not try to see as much of it as possible!
My top things to see and do while I'm there? Well, here's a short list:

1. Parliament. Lame, I know, but I love politics and it's actually a little sad how little I follow Canadian politics.
2. Vintage shopping. I love exploring vintage shops when I'm in other cities, it seems like everywhere but Calgary has amazing vintage! I had some very good luck in Halifax this summer!
3. National Gallery of Canada. Some of the best visual art in the country, need I say more?!

Of course there are a million things I'd love to see, but that's just a preview for you. I'll be posting lots of pictures of my trip. Ottawa won't know what hit it!!
Photo courtesy of The City of Ottawa

Monday, January 17, 2011

The past week or so has been absolutely freezing here in Calgary. I dislike it immensely. Because of this weather I've been kind of hiding in my house wearing hoodies and long johns. I have been taking a bunch of photos around the house, so I'll share those with you!

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Thursday, January 6, 2011

I was walking with a ghost

On boxing day I purchased a new Canon Rebel T1i that I'd had my eye on for some time now and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. Along with the camera I also got a tripod and a blackberry, which I'm also loving. I've always loved taking ghosty photos, but in the past not having a tripod has made it more difficult to get some good shots. I couldn't believe how much easier the tripod made it! These are two shots taken with the aid of said tripod the other day in my basement.
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jacket - thrifted GAP, shirt - This City is Burning Records (Warped Tour 2009), cords - GAP, brooch - vintage, shoes - Spring
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Sunday, January 2, 2011

New Year's Resolutions

Hello there world and a warm welcome to 2011. As I'm sure all of you who've been through grade 12 can remember, it's a crazy time filled with home work, extra curriculars, and work. Now these all may seem like very valid reasons to be a lazy blogger, but really, they're not. That's why my New Year's Resolution is to blog at least once a week, even if it's just a photo or link that I like!

So to start this resolution off right here are some of my favorite photos of 2010:



Tuesday, November 30, 2010

I Love Fair Trade

Holy man. I have not posted in a very long time. Things have been crazy lately. I've been wicked busy with the play, work and trying to get all my school work done so I can graduate this year! In the midst of all that I've also been helping to organize a Fair Trade Market at my school for Dec. 10. The aim of the market is to support local fair trade businesses and educate the public about the benefits of fair trade. The event is open to the public, so for those Calgarians looking for holiday gifts this is your perfect opportunity.

Hopefully you can make you it and learn more about fair trade in Canada and around the world.
There's a Facebook event too!