Spicy Sleep

Note to self (and anyone that makes the delicious Tom Yum Soup):  Don’t eat it an hour before bed.

I absolutely could not sleep last night even though I was beyond exhausted.  And it wasn’t my usual pain in the temporal lobe insomnia.  It was spicy-food-in-my-belly-awakedness.  Lesson learned.

It was sometime after 4:15am when I last glared at my clock so you can imagine just how excited I was to get out of bed at 8:45am. I may have hugged my coffee cup after dragging my flannel clad butt through the kitchen over to my desk.

Not surprisingly, the coffee pretty much made me feel worse.  I knew I needed to get some vitamins and nutrients in my body if I was going to make it through the day.

Enter the green smoothie.  Er, um, purple smoothie in this case.  Of all the days to be out of spinach! 

In the Kitchen Aid today:  frozen blueberries, frozen pineapple, fresh banana, Amazing Grass Superfood, flax, hemp, UVAB.  With extra hempy goodness on top for texture.

My body must have started absorbing the healthy love right away because I felt a zillion times better by the time I got to the bottom of that glass.

Couldn’t pass up the morning carbs though…especially with a brand new loaf of my favourite Squirrelly bread…

…and a brand new jar of more Trader Joe’s love in the form of Sunflower Seed Butter.  I’ve been holding out opening this because I don’t like having too many open jars in my cupboard at one time.

Creamy and delicious…just as expected.

A while later while waiting for lunch to reheat I couldn’t resist a flattened banana.

And of course lunch had to be leftover Tom Yum Soup…which was pretty much just as tasty as last night’s bowl(s).  Especially with the addition of more fresh cilantro and a fresh squeeze of lime.

Hopefully I ate that early enough that it doesn’t keep me awake tonight!

Dinner was a race through the kitchen while I got ready for my new weekly night class.  I slammed together two small tortillas with grated mozza and a big scoop of salsa, heated in the oven until melty, then rolled up and shovelled them into my piehole. :)

Tonight marked the first session of a 10-class Introductory Photography class I am taking with my friend Charmaine at Camosun College. 

Tonight was just a lot of getting to know the instructor, tutorials on how cameras actually work, and outlines of what we will be learning over the next couple of months.  So far so good!  I will document more about the class over at Such a Rebel if you are at all interested in hearing what I learn (or more likely…what I remember!).

I did snack on a piece of Clif Bar during the break in class, but I will have to meal plan better for Tuesdays from now on because I was pretty hungry by the time we finished.

Settled my rumbling tummy with a pear and wedge of mozzarella.  Hopefully that keeps the hunger monster at bay so I can sleep sometime before 4am tonight.

And on that note….pj time!

Brand New Bag

So… hands up if you have been shoving your lovely DSLR camera in your purse like I do.  Don’t lie.  I know you do it too.

When I bought James Dean (one year ago today!) he was part of a package that came with a carrying case, but the case is um, well….ugly.  Not to mention bulky, hard and far bigger than I need. So for the last year I’ve been toting him around in my bigass handbags rather than finding a more suitable option.

For Christmas my Grandpa just gives me cash to buy something I would like. I should probably put it towards my renovation budget or something slightly more responsible but I like to actually have a gift to show for the money.  So when I found these lovely, plush DSLR camera bags at Janine King Designs on Etsy I decided it was a Merry-Christmas-to-me moment.

Much more appropriate size! Not too bulky at all but still has room for the camera and three lenses…all safe and sound. There are no interior pockets (aside from the lens areas) which is a bit of a shame but there is still room for my extra battery, camera cable, etc. and an outside zippered pocket for money, ID, manuals, and such.

The adjustable strap makes it easy to carry however you feel comfortable. I suspect I’ll wear it messenger style when taking it for nature walks and the like, but for this weekend I just slung it over my shoulder while taking things to and from the car or up and down the stairs.

I like the idea that it’s a nice fabric pattern that helps to disguise the bag as more of a casual purse than a techie paradise. I may be slightly more inclined to take my good camera, as opposed to only my point and shoot, to maybe a few more parties or events.  Lugging my bigass day to day purse in addition to the camera and it’s accessories doesn’t really go with my outfits!

The durability of this bag remains to be seen but I imagine for the light use it will receive along with some simple TLC it will last me just fine.  I’m just happy that James now has a comfy, cozy, safe, and stylish home. :)

Photo Date

Holy moly, all of a sudden I’m a busy girl.  For someone who was recently complaining I was bored I sure have a lot on the go.  Every day I think I’m going to get a couple of blog posts done and every day I end up running behind again!

So here I am sharing eats from the day before today!

Last night’s festivities came in the form of a photography date with my friend Ingmarie.  She has been fiddling with her Nikon longer than I’ve been fiddling with my Canon so I thought I’d try to follow her around and see how she gets her gorgeous photos.  :)

She brought us these AMAZING Market Chews from the Market on Yates.  Gluten-free chewy cookies.  They were HUGE and deeeelish.  I was so busy eating it I didn’t take a pic until it was almost gone…

We had a lovely visit wandering around a few pretty spots along the water here in Victoria.

When the sun set we headed back to Ingmarie’s place where she cooked up a deeeeeelish Shephard’s Pie a la Gordon Ramsey…

After seeing my yellowy-green photos her BF Alex gave me a quick lesson on white balance (I always use auto).  Not sure that I can remember all that he told me about using custom settings but it was very enlightening.  Of course I didn’t take any more pictures after that!

This weekend the three of us, along with Tiffaney, are attending an outdoor foodie event where I plan to either pepper Alex with a bazillion questions or (more likely) just steal all of their photos.  :)

Garden Therapy

Yesterday afternoon went south. Bad. Fast. There were tears.

I did have a lovely dinner date with my friend Sarah over some mediocre sushi…but the photos are on my Blackberry and I’m sure you all know what a spicy tuna roll looks like.  :)

After a good night’s sleep and a couple of heated chats with my Mom, I woke up in a much better mood.  So I wrangled Arron to go have a nice greasy brunch (where I had bacon, scrambled eggs, pan fries and two pancakes I stole from him) and then took myself off to the Halifax Public Gardens to spend an hour in the sun with James Dean. (That’s my camera for those of you too lazy to click the link).

     

Trust me these are much better than recounting my cup of coffee, dinner of leftovers, or boring (but sweaty!) workout.  Really.  You should thank me!

Ground Zero

Last Sunday I spent the day taking photos of our besties’ daughter’s 7th birthday.  Mark and Coco’s daughter Camille had a rock climbing party!  How cool is that?

Ground Zero Climbing Gym

The kids got harnessed up…and played around until everyone was ready.

Then they sat through instructions about the rules and such.  Everyone was well behaved and the instructor was incredibly good with the kids.

This little boy was soooo photogenic.  I had to remember not to just keep taking his picture and focus on the actual climbing.  :)

Camille has no fear and got to do all of the demos during instruction time. 

And then all the little monkeys got to let loose on the walls!

Lex made the cake!  She and Dave popped in to drop it off so I made them pose for a picture with Coco.  :)

 

I can vouch that this was a totally yummy cake inside.  I made Mark cut my piece as soon as he finished cutting the kids’ pieces.  hehe.

 

The birthday girl was just soooo excited.

What a great idea for a party.  I want someone to throw ME a rock climbing birthday party!  With a giant cupcake cake!  Woooooo!