So I have been working on a surprise for my dad and I’m finally done! You may have seen some of the photos on twitter but here is the whole series of photos.

This is a surprise so PLEASE don’t tell my dad – thanks!

This was part of a workshop held over lunch hour at work. First they give you the form and some cedar root. You create holes in the basket form and then you use halved cedar root to stitch up the side. (It’s harder than it looks!)

You stitch up the side and around the top with a switch of willow or dogwood. You can see on the far side where a double stitch holds where the switch connects – this helps prevent the switch from possibly breaking the root.

To make the lid I cut out a circle and then they gave me a stripe to make the inner lid. Then I did the second switch around the top.

Once I finished the basket I really wanted to think about the design and pick something that would mean something to my dad.

I drew up a bunch of ideas (you can see behind the basket). I wanted to include a bear, which is our clan. I added the North star because it’s in line with ursa major, the big bear, in the sky and another big star to represent the star that is in the “tail” of ursa major. This is a story that my dad used to tell me growing up. I did a border with 2 corn shoots.

On the other side I did a design of sky domes with corn shoots and a cedar tree. Again, aspects of stories that my dad told me growing up.

Here’s the finished basket – as time goes on the design will continue to darken up and become more prominent.

Here’s the finished side.

Okay, so I finished off the top with a strawberry plant and flowers, a star and a whirlpool. These are all symbols that I think represent me and my dad will get it when he sees it. I wrote a little message to him on the bottom with the date.

Special thanks to Chuck Commanda and Janet Lecuyer who ran this amazing workshop – they were so helpful and really helped me with the more difficult aspects of this basket. Now I have to get more supplies so I can make more!

So this weekend I made cakes for my brother-in-law’s 30th birthday. Since he’s an avid footy fan I decided to do a jersey cake. First I made a layer of Nanny’s Chocolate cake and my vanilla cake recipe.

First I shaped my cake into the jersey.

I dirty iced the cake with a vanilla buttercream icing

I did a layer of white fondant in 3 pieces to create the main shirt and the 2 sleeves.

I made a stencil and painted the logo – I hand painted the smaller details.

I decorated the cake with the teams colors and incorporated aspects of the real jersey.

I was very happy with the outcome of the cake. The second big challenge was making a cheese cake, which I haven’t done in YEARS!! I got some advice and borrowed a pan from a co-worker and was very happy with the results.

It was a vanilla cheese cake with a raspberry sauce.

This week I took a Life of Pie baking class in the evening. It’s a quick course that goes over making pastry and then fillings for 2 baked goods. This night it was asparagus and swiss cheese quiche and tart lemon pie. I was excited to get my hands on some pastry, as that’s something I’ve wanted to learn and work on for a while.

When you arrive you get some tea and an apron. The class starts after the store is closed so everyone leaves bags and jackets at the front of the store and then they lock the door once everyone is there.

First we went over the pastry. Kerry, owner, has everything pre-measured and goes through the steps of making the pastry and gives helpful hints along the way. Something I learned – if the pastry is too warm, the fats in the shortening, butter and egg will melt and the pastry will not end up flaky. (So that’s what I’ve been doing wrong!)

Everyone gets a chance to roll out their own pastry shell which you get to take home with you to try with one of the amazing recipes you get, as a part of the class. Above is my first attempt to roll out pastry – I can’t wait to try to tart lemon pie filling to go in it!

Next we went threw the steps to make the quiche filling. Once we finish the filling, it goes into a pie shell and into the oven (we get to eat it at the end).

The highlight of the night for me was the tart lemon pie. Kerry suggested this would be a good at easter because of it’s fresh flavor. She paired it with a blueberry topping, but I think it would go nicely with raspberry too.

The night ends with trying (or taking home) a slice of the quiche and pie. You also get to take home the pastry you rolled out at the start.

I thought this was an excellent class and I would happily do another one.  A great deal for only $25.

So I saw this cool thing on a friend’s facebook page, Moss Graffiti. What is Moss Graffiti? It’s living art, sometimes called environmental art. I’m thinking this may be a spring time project for me…

Visit these links for more information:

http://www.subsoloart.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Graffiti-com-Musgo-13.jpg

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/moss-grass-graffiti/2147?image=16

Joseph Kony, who is this man? I saw early this week that Kony was trending on Twitter. Who is he? A celebrity, an athlete? No, he is the worlds worst living criminal. Why? Because he has abducted over 30, 000 children, forcing them to become child soliders and sex slaves in Central Africa. Why have I never heard of him? How come this isn’t all over the news? I don’t know but this year that’s going to change.

A group called Invisible Children is trying to stop Kony, they want him arrested and to finally have justice for the invisible children. Kony remains at large because people don’t know who he is or the crimes he’s committed. Invisible Children are trying to make Kony famous.

Please watch this video, share it and spread the word. Visit www.kony2012.com and order their kit or download their posters, get involved.

Joseph Kony Facts * taken from the Kony 2012 Zine

He leads a violent cult of abducted fighters called the
Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

He abducts children from their homes.

He forces them to be soldiers and sex slaves,
to murder and mutilate their neighbors.

In 2005 he became the first man indicted by the ICC.

The people united will never be defeated!

This year marks the 11th annual New Sun Conference, and like for the last 11 years, I was there. The New Sun Conference has been a part of my year for a while now and always is inspiring to me. Although I’m no longer a university student, I do still appreciate learning about other Aboriginal artists and broadening my horizons.

Last year’s conference was shortly after some health problems, it was good to get back to something familiar and invigorating. It was the 10th annual conference and during the lunch time performance a piece of Eagle down landed close by. We were told that this down was sacred and it was “lucky” for it to land on us. I put this little piece of down in a container which I keep with the drops I use to treat my eye disease. I also have a small shell that I got as a gift at Women’s World last summer. They remind me of good memories and to stay positive. It’s hard to believe a year has gone by but I’m definitely ready to start this new year!

This year’s conference was amazing, every year it seems to out do itself, it always makes me think and inspires me. That’s not to say that the topics are always easy, in fact, this year many of the topics were challenging. This year touched on so many things: about the role of women, murdered and missing Aboriginal women, reality, technology, health issues, about our communities, abuse, violence, equality, identity, stereotypes but, also, about hope and evolution. KC Adams started the morning off with a talk about cyborg hybrids and identity. I really appreciated how she chooses to appreciate her cultures. I have a similar cultural background and being bi-racial is definitely about balance and recognizing and appreciating where you come from and how that shapes who you are. I love her concept of the cyborg hybrid and creating identity that is free of racism and stereotypes.

Watching the clip from “Finding Dawn”, produced by Christine Welsh, was especially hard. This week I went to a talk with the aunt of another missing Aboriginal girl. Hearing her first hand account of what her family had gone through was heartbreaking. As was watching Ramona Wilson’s family honor her after she was murdered on the Highway of Tears. Where did these women go? Then John Kim Bell reminded us about our successes. I still remember going to my first Aboriginal Achievement Awards in Ottawa as a young girl – how excited I was to learn about all those receiving awards, seeing the amazing show and seeing what other Aboriginal people were doing. It was one of the first times I was exposed to new Aboriginal people to look up to. It was very inspiring to my young self.

At lunch we were all entertained by the crew from BluePrintForLife - the highlight, having two elders work the DJ booth.

The afternoon had great speakers Skawennati and BluePrintForLife – about community outreach that is culturally appropriate, reaching the youth in our communities – bringing communities together, in physical and virtual reality, through the arts.

So where is the hope? The hope is in programs like BluePrintForLife and in each of the presenters, who all have something to offer through their art, each reconfiguring their reality, and ours.

For our friend’s birthday we FINALLY had a meal at Oz Kafe. I have been dying to try this restaurant for a while but for this reason or that it just hasn’t happened. It was well worth the wait – the atmosphere was excellent (Disco Night was in full effect) and the food was delicious!

We started with the “sharing plate” which was artisan cheeses, almonds, pickled beets and onions and thin slices of baguette.

This was the small portion which was more than enough for 2 people to share. I loved this plate, it was fun to mix and match the pickled beets and onion with different cheeses or try things on their own. My favorite was the soft goat cheese with the onions.

M also has the soup of the day which was very good.

I had the Cornish Hen which was on special – the flavors were awesome. I loved how the hen was seasoned, the enoki mushrooms with the root vegetables was filling but didn’t leave you feeling like you’d had too much. I had my Holga TIM with me – which you can see in my shot and I hope to have the results of those up sometime soon.

M had the steak and Caesar which our friend recommended. I thought the portion was excellent. This is the 10 oz but it also comes in a 6oz. The smoked mash potatoes weren’t over the top – some places give so much potato it over powers the plating but I thought it was just enough and the very popular Caesar salad.

This was one of the best restaurants I’ve eaten at in a while. We were very full and did not have dessert but I will definitely look forward to trying what they have to offer in terms of dessert the next time I’m in.

Several people eating with us had the vegetarian bento box, unfortunately I didn’t get a snap but it also looked amazing. I definitely can’t wait to get back and try other things on this interesting fusion menu.

* Previously posted on Toy Camera dot com

Specifications:
Film Type: 135
Lens: f/8, 29mm
Aperture: f/8, f/11, f/22
Shutter Speed: 1/10s
Film to be used: suitable for 135 type color or black/ white film with speeds
from ASA 100/ ISO 21 to ASA 400/ ISO 27
Frame Specification: 24 x 18mm x 2
Viewfinder Finder: Centre-line positioned eye level direct view finder
Focusing: Fixed focus
Dimensions: 208 x 103 x 45 mm

Pros
- stereo or half-frame
- hot shoe for an external flash
- simple to use
- bulb option and tripod mount
- reliable results, with test camera
- nice vignette in many cases

Cons
- no English instructions, but since it’s simple to use it’s not so bad
- if you don’t shoot or develop a process for shooting with the half-frame option you may inadvertently create some double exposures or find blank frames on your film
- I have accidently had the shutter fire when the camera was in my bag

I open up the box, I’m excited to see a smiley Holga starring back at me, and there it is – the toothy grin looks up at me. Now, I’m not just excited because this camera is the cutest in my collection but I am excited to try another half-frame to rival the Diana Mini which I’ve been using a lot. I take notice that the instructions are not available in English and after failing to find any online I decide the best thing to do is simple trial and error.

Loading the film is simple as it’s like other Holga 135 cameras so I quickly slide in a roll of film and look at the buttons and switches on the camera. I open one “eye” and then the other.

Using the camera is simple, open both eyes and press the shutter button. Or open one eye, press the shutter, close the eye and open the second eye, cock the shutter (the MX switch) and then advance the film.

I was concerned that I might not remember which eye I used so I started by shooting 2 photos at the same time. However I quickly develop a system where I always shoot with one eye so that I will remember next time to use the other eye. Using a post-it arrow flag to indicate which eye to use next is helpful as well.

I think what first enchanted me with this camera is the light weight and although it’s not as small as the Diana mini it’s still smaller than a regular Holga and convenient to put in a purse.

I took the camera for a walk along the Ottawa River for its debut roll. I wanted to compare results using the different aperture setting to see if there were visible differences. I found that there were visible differences and that the results were accurate.

Figure 1: On the left was the cloudy option in a sunny atmosphere which resulted in over exposed areas. On the right I used the Sunny option with correct results. Read the rest of this entry »