Cloud Fish’s Neighborhood

Waiting for our Holiday Special at Swiss Chalet. It's a tradition with us now, every year after the Christmas Pantomime, we head here for our quarter chicken meal and Lindor chocolate truffle dessert treat! Simple pleasures.

* I got my Food For Boobs cookbook today in the mail! I love it. Great job Melanie! Lovely wee gift and the money goes towards BustaMove too. Bonus! Chockfull of yummy recipes. I am looking forward to trying Mexican tabouli, Fried feta & marinated pear salad, Chicken with Thai noodles and Peanut sauce, Tognetti's Bolognese, Maple curry pasta, English toffee.....nom, nom, nom, I think I had better stop now. You can order it from the sidebar on the right if you are interested.

* Here's a fun thing to do. My friend Mary, decided to collect pennies last year. She made a  decision last December and kept a lookout for pennies all year. She rolled $129 dollars worth this month! She did it in half hour increments while watching Coronation Street! I'm thinking it might be fun to do the same thing. I'm going to keep a big pot and write today's date on it and start from right now. See how much I can collect by Dec 21, 2010. Mad money!!

* I got a Christmas card in the mail last week from a pal whom I've only met once. We met in Greece at a place called Claire's House where everybody sits together for breakfast. I was a young thing on my way to the Islands and he was on his way back to the US or it might have been the other way round can't remember now. We had a really great chat and exchanged addresses as travellers do. Well, over 25 years later, we are STILL exchanging Christmas cards!  That's all, just a card and hello each December  but it is another tradition I look forward too:) He is a poet named George Ellenbogen. I have yet to get my cards out this year (I know, I know) but I will manage a few.

* Just made a loan this morning via Kiva to the Pure Joy Group in Ghana. Don't you love their name?? 62 other Kiva lenders and I made the $1,775.00 loan and it will be used to buy goods in bulk to expand business. This is my 11th loan and I must say it is an easy way to make a difference and learn about the world. It is interesting choosing who to help. I tend to pick women to help. You can do it in $25. increments which is great. It gives me a lot of joy.

* Hooray! Daylight will start to reclaim it's territory starting tomorrow. Winter has officially started. Longest night of the year tonight. Light a candle and enjoy.

I am keeping this here on my blog until Dec 30th. The BustaMove BIG PRIZE DRAW , hoping that you might be interested in donating $10 to help purchase a digital mammogram machine & be entered in our fabulous draw. Help make the boobs of Nova Scotian women merry! Thanks to all of you who have done so already:)) Prizes are continuing to be added:) Latest is a CD by Shannon Quinn! Winner takes all. Great odds!

December Views

If you are a subscriber to Xplane's mailing list, you've probably already received a "Happy Holidays" greeting email from them.  For years I've received so many Xmas cards digital or analog I can't distinguish one from another, they all just ended up in trash.

XPLANE-BizCliches_Holidays_2009

But look Xplane did it again, an eCard you would keep and forward to other people, that's one big achievement you know.  Follow this link to download the "Visual Cliché Find-it…" poster and have fun!

So how did Xplane get me to keep their 2008 eCard and anticipating one this year?  Here's what they sent last year.  Thank you for making a difference Xplane!

Don't adjust your computer. This ia a picture of my Christmas tree! I had a happy accident with the camera and was really chuffed when I saw what it looked like so of course I fooled around a bit more. Basically I moved the camera around as the shutter was going off. Not rocket science but fun to do.The room was too dark for anything but the lights to register.

This one is a picture of our tree topping. I snapped and quickly tilted the camera down as I was taking the pic:)

We have a gigantic storm bearing down on us. I was looking at the radar and it appears as if we are going to get a LOT of snow. Click on the wee arrow above the radar picture to see it animate.
I've been to the store and stocked up on goodies, filled up the car and now am firmly ensconced awaiting the big blow:)

I am keeping this here on my blog until Dec 30th. The BustaMove BIG PRIZE DRAW , hoping that you might be interested in donating $10 to help purchase a digital mammogram machine & be entered in our fabulous draw. Help make the boobs of Nova Scotian women merry! Thanks to all of you who have done so already:)) Prizes are continuing to be added:) Latest is a CD by Shannon Quinn! Winner takes all. Great odds!

December Views

Love this picture! It is a print in my shop called Winter Bunnies. Notice the snowman:)

I am weary right now, late night, early morning and lots of good stuff in between! Our pancake breakfast was another success:) I just wanted to log on and thank everybody who came! It is always a fun event but..... smiling, talking, cooking, tidying and enjoying everybody makes one sleepy by the time 3pm rolls around. Dare I take a nap? After all it is Saturday. I am not a napper by nature but I might just pop into bed with The Scarpetta Factor, P. Cornwell's latest book and a cup of Tazo Chai. mmmm.

Finally got our tree up and it looks warm and festive with it's twinkly lights and decoration. Now if I could only get to my Christmas cards! Maybe I'll do them tomorrow as the snow falls.

Now that the Pancake Breakfast is over, I am focusing on this wee draw. Please think about donating:) I will keep this here on my blog until Dec 30th. BustaMove BIG PRIZE DRAW For $10 you can help purchase a digital mammogram machine & be entered in our fabulous draw. Help make the boobs of Nova Scotian women merry! Prizes are continuing to be added:) Latest is a CD by Shannon Quinn! Winner takes all. Great odds! Thanks to those who have purchased:)

December Views

Ok, so we won't have a view of cattle, and we won't be serving in a log cookhouse, and there might not be cowboys but.........we will have delicious pancakes and coffee and it will be all you can eat for $5 and your money will be used to purchase a digital mammogram by the BustaMove charity! Served up by the #Halifaxchicks team:)

8:30-12 noon
Sat 19th December
Clayton Park Sobeys, Halifax

See you there!

In Note & Diary Style Book volume 4, a magazine I love, there are 3 pages covering how Spanish photographer Itxaso Zuñiga recorded her journey to Gobi desert in a Traveler's Notebook.  I found some interesting techniques by just looking at the way she did it and I'm sharing with you all photo journaling lovers.

Mongolia Diary 1 - from Note & Diary Style Book vol.4

1. Play with cut-out window of a page to show part(s) of a photo beneath that page.  It can be as simple as the example on page one of the magazine, but you can have a lot more fun doing something more complicated, e.g. shoot a photo from inside of a beach house looking through the windows, take another shot of the beach from outside, use the first photo with cut-out windows on a page to show part(s) of the second photo in the next page.
2. Take a lot of people photos with shallow depth of field, select one as the key image on one page, put a collage/mosaic of the rest of the people photos on the opposite page.  This creates a simple 2 pages of lives you met in your journey, which already tells a lot of the place.
3. Use the same technique above but change the topic to "Sky", "Cloud", "Flower", etc.
4. Intentionally take a lot of sky, eye-level and ground photos.  Use these stock photos to compose a collage, say 5 x 7 photos.  On the top rows you put various sky shots, on the bottom rows ground shots.  Put either one large photo of an eye-level shot or just follow the grid to fill in photos of objects/scenes/people you shot during the trip.  This creates a collage with a central theme but not as obvious because the whole collage is obscured by "background" shots.
5. To match a rough theme using a Polaroid (soon to be reproduced again!), peel off the white protective frame to make a square photo which the unexposed chemical formation can be seen on the edges.
6. Keep the words simple.  A few keywords which capture your feeling is already enough if you decide the journal is more visual.  In an example of Itxaso's page, beneath a Polaroid of the Mongolian family she wrote "Nomads Generosity Strong Hospitality Humble Pride".
7. Put glue evenly on a page and sprinkle sands and dirts on it.  You brought back a piece of the land you once walked on in the journey.  Same trick works for plants, feathers and human hairs :P

Mongolia Diary 2 - from Note & Diary Style Book vol.4

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Lastly, as I often mention in our Travel Photo Cafe talks, to create a beautiful photo journal, equip yourself with a few layouts in mind before the trip, this will help you take more useful shots, collect more interesting objects and create better layouts because you are effectively stocking up useful contents all the time.

Mongolia Diary 3 - from Note & Diary Style Book vol.4

From the Museum of Post and Communication: The "Squatting Dog" is an icon of phone designs: 1929, Siemens presented a phone in a radical new design language. Housing and receiver are fused, the apparatus is made of black Bakelite with contrasting white dial is only slightly greater than the then usual phone. The striking design of the phone, which officially bore the name "Model 29", led to the nickname of "Crouching dog" or "ham bone".  

TISCHTELEPHON

Check out the museum's specific page of Hockender Hund in German.

Tischapparat Modell 29 „Hockender Hund

Ha, not a wintery picture today, but fighting back at the weather. Our first really cold day has arrived. -27  outside. Thought I would post something escapist. Sweet dreams. Taken in September. My brother built the wee pool house this summer. They have a lovely home not too far from here and visiting is like going to a resort!!

Last night I went to a Christmas Concert of the Rankin Sisters! It was wonderful!! A few times, the man sitting next to wiped tears from his eyes. Goosebumps, tears, laughter, fiddling, step dancing and the Halifax Boy's honor choir. It was a marvelous down home night.

Prize Draw! I will keep this wee announcement here on my blog until Dec 30th. BustaMove BIG PRIZE DRAW For a mere $10 you can help purchase a digital mammogram machine & be entered in our fabulous draw. Help make the boobs of Nova Scotian women merry! Prizes are continuing to be added:) Winner takes all. Great odds! Thanks to those who have purchased:)

December Views

I'm having fun with this! Picked up an old wooden chair at the flea market for $15 and am slowly transforming it into something wonderful:) Every now and then I pick up a brush and dabble.

Still have to do Christmas cards and get a tree!!!! Such a busy time of year:)

If you are in the neighborhood....the HalifaxChicks BustaMove team are having another Pancake Breakfast this Saturday, December 19th at the Clayton Park Sobeys from 8:30 until noon. Quick go write it on your calendar before you forget:) Hope you can come!

Prize Draw! I will keep this wee announcement here on my blog until Dec 30th. BustaMove BIG PRIZE DRAW For a mere $10 you can help purchase a digital mammogram machine & be entered in our fabulous draw. Help make the boobs of Nova Scotian women merry! Prizes are continuing to be added:) Winner takes all. Great odds! Thanks to those who have purchased:)

December Views

You know I have a thing about retro so naturally in city'super/LOG-ON's Stationery department you will see some antique replicas.  Here's a shot of one of our show cases with a Lars Magnus Ericsson 1892 "The Skeleton Type" or "Eiffel Tower" phone replica (I put a few other Eiffel Tower stuffs around it like a bookend, a card stand, a diary, a pack of Paris map magnets and a metal die cast desk deco.  In case you wonder, the wine stopper and the little gold bar are USB memories).

Eiffel Tower Antique Phone replica

Today we received a series of brand new German phone replicas we ordered but weren't sure if they could arrive before Xmas, what a surprise they did!  The finishing looks far better than the prototype I saw before, it features a touch dial with a center redial button, exceptionally smart looking as a modernized phone.  It is sold at HK$299.  I had to literally beg the manufacturer to do business with me like 2 years ago, its worth everything and I'm so happy they are now in our stores, I hope our customers like them too.

German phone replica modernized with touch dial

To learn more about antique phones:

• Lars Magnus Ericsson the Swedish inventor
• The Skeleton Type (Dachshund)1892, L.M. Ericsson's very own design, from ericcsonhistory.com
• Ericsson AC100 Series "Skeletal" Desk Phone, collector Bob Estreich's detail account of history and various models.  Interestingly according to Bob, both "Skeletal" and "Eiffel Tower" were names applied by collectors but not the real product names.  The "Eiffel Tower" name was actually referring to another phone but got mixed up with the Ericsson one somewhere in time.