| When in San Francisco...You Must Ride the Cable Cars! |
[May. 23rd, 2012|08:54 pm] |
It's amazing how you can know something without really knowing anything, and I sure learned a lot about San Francisco's cable cars on our trip. We had no idea that the cars needed to be manually rotated on a turntable whenever it reached a terminus.
We couldn't pass up the chance to ride a piece of history and neither could dozens of other people. I hoped we could ride the red one...but four cars went by before we could hop on. They come in blue, white, burgandy and tan as well as red. You can catch them at any point in the city, but we got on at Hyde Pier, which is close to Fisherman's Wharf and other touristy areas. It took about 45 minutes in line to get on a cable car.
It was crazy fun! The cars travel about 9 MPH and make a lot of noise. Years ago San Francisco thought about even getting rid of them. I learned about their neat history and saw the cables on action at the Cable Car Museum where admission is free. It's also pretty loud, as that's where the cables are turning endlessly for most of the day.
If there is one fact you must truly know, it's that the cars are not trolleys, because they do not use an overhead line.
It's $6 to ride the cable cars one way; get a one day pass for $14 and hop on, hop off to your heart's delight!
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| Life's A Beach! |
[May. 13th, 2012|09:36 pm] |
Especially in Venice Beach. My husband and I took off on an impulsive two week long trip to several points in California. We left April 30 and just got back on Friday! It was a great time and you can bet I took my camera!
I always take way too many pictures. Stay tuned for San Francisco, Carmel, Santa Monica, pigeons, gulls, cable cars and more! Oh, and carousel horses!!
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| Fawnette and Fancy Reflektion |
[Apr. 14th, 2012|12:51 pm] |
Goodness, I must have been dreaming that I posted this! This is a commission that I finished earlier this year. It was started in summer 2011, but delayed due to the postal strike. It arrived at its destination last month and the commissioner is thrilled. Fawnette and Fancy are Arabians, although the picture is not as red as it seems. It was very difficult to photograph indoors.
January 5, 2012 ::: Golden Acrylic ::: 8x10"
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| New Things! |
[Apr. 12th, 2012|05:26 pm] |
Howdy friends! Are you on Instagram? So am I! I'm calzephyr77 there. So far I love it. I've been waiting patiently for the Android version to come out.
Speaking of Android things, a Flickr app finally came out, so hopefully I'll start posting there more. I really miss just sitting down and having time to connect with folks online.
I'm also on Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/calzephyr/
Is that it? What's the new hotness for things right now? I'm kind of sad that so many people have dropped off LJ - it's still a good platform! |
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| For the Birds! |
[Mar. 13th, 2012|07:05 pm] |
School has been keeping me busy as of late, but I think the hardest part is over. Our second fibre project was to make a large scale sculpture. If you're wondering about the first project...well, it turned out so badly I don't want to post a picture of it anywhere online! Everyone that saw it on my cell phone laughed (laughed with me, naturally :-))
I was really stuck for the idea of making a sculpture. Part of the problem was the weather, part of the problem is that large scale 3D things are not my forte. I had only one idea and I made it as best as I could - I call it Armature for Attracting Avian Acquaintances. Essentially it's a giant bird play gym or bird feeder, and Muffin took quite an interest in it, especially when I tried knitting sisal. My grade was B-. Unfortunately while it is safe for outside birdies, it is not quite safe for inside birdies. I used cherry branches which are toxic to parrots.
It stands about 5' tall and is made from recycled or biodegradable items. The entire crate is wrapped in jute and sisal, with apple and cherry tree branches tied to it. I tried making a god's eye to hang in the centre, but it turned out miserably, so a bunch of dried flax stems turned it into more of a doll. With some seed bells and millet sprays on top, I hoped that there would be a flock of birds at it by the time my class came out for the critique. No such luck...but it would have been cool! Everyone seemed to like it, so that made me happy. Sometimes it's hard to tell how something will go over.
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| How Cool Is This? |
[Mar. 4th, 2012|07:41 pm] |
I was absolutely thrilled to get my wax seal in the mail yesterday. And even more thrilled to try it out this morning! All the talk of wax seals in A Game of Thrones made me want one, so the search was on!
At a local stationary store I found initial ones, but the font used was Papyrus, which, like Comic Sans, is considered a terribly overused font. Online searching fared better and I found a place called Seasons Creations which did not want an arm and a leg for Canadian shipping.
The seal is just the cutest little thing. The instructions were easy to follow - moisten the seal on an ice cube or cold water and light the wick and hold at a 45 degree angle to get wax flowing. It was hard to guess how much wax would be too much or too little, but a spot about half the size of a penny did the trick.
I think next time I will use cold water instead of an ice cube. When it came time to stamp, the seal was stuck to it! But it was handy to put the wick out. Now I can't wait - just imagine all the ACEOs and whatnot I can send out bearing my own purple pony seal!
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| A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings |
[Feb. 12th, 2012|09:36 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | books | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  happy | ] |
Part of the fun of coming to a series late is not having to wait in agonizing anticipation for the sequels to arrive. This happened with Harry Potter and now it has happened with George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. Somehow this series was totally off my radar until it gained more publicity with the HBO TV series, so it was a huge surprise to me that the first book was published in 1996. I worked at the public library then, so I'm sure it must have gone through my hands at some point!
On a whim I bought the four book eBook bundle at Christmas time and started reading when I came down with a wicked cold last month. It was a good thing too, because I could literally not stop reading. I probably would have taken a day off just to finish it. I was expecting a typical, cliched fantasy saga, so I was amazed that it is more about political intrigue, mystery and deception instead.
To be honest, I didn't think there was anything exceptional about Martin's writing style. In fact there is something flat and repetitive about it - I noticed certain word pairs used over and over again which always kinds of grates on me. His descriptions of meals are always insanely detailed. But there is still some great craft going on as he divides the saga by the view points of different characters which allows parts of the story to be revealed in a very cunning way. It lets him avoid going the route of the info dump so common in science fiction and fantasy. And the cliffhangers! Wow!
I almost feel that describing any little part of the book would give away too many spoilers. It would be hard to condense the thick tomes, but basically the peace of the Seven Kingdoms is threatened in many ways and finally comes undone as characters are executed, kidnapped or accused of crimes. In the second book, A Clash of Kings, focuses on the conflicts between the many who declare themselves king of all the realm. There were some very exciting action scenes in the sequel and now I can't wait to get started on the third one, but I really do need a break from the series! Martin is unflinching in his depictions of medieval life and after a while all the killing and maiming and destruction does become onerous. I could almost pick up a romance novel before getting around to the third one. |
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| First Fibre Project! |
[Jan. 21st, 2012|07:27 am] |
Thursday was really fun. After a brief meeting, I headed to Fabricland to buy supplies for the first homework project in my fibre class.
We have to take a garment and transform it into something new. After much negotiating, my husband gave me one of his old sweaters. He looooves his sweaters and once he found out I would be cutting one up, my selection dwindled :) I'm going to be making a stuffed animal out of the sweater. Stay tuned!! |
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| Happy New Year! |
[Jan. 1st, 2012|02:09 pm] |
The first day of 2012 is a bright and sunny one here. Most people would probably not guess it, but Calgary is one of the sunniest places in Canada with an average of 333 sunny days a year.
We spent New Year's Eve with friends watching movies and playing games, and a birthday dinner for my mom. Yup, she narrowly missed out being a New Year's baby!
I imagine that many people are eagerly beginning new Painting/Drawing/Whatever A Day today. I tried to do this once and I don't think I got past February. I'm not sure how successful I'll be either as I go back to school next week. But I'm going to give it a good try with a book I bought a couple of years ago called The Crafter's Devotional by Barbara R. Call. It's a bumper book of 365 creative ideas that are coded in different ways such as Monday-Sunday, 1-365 and by category such as ideas, journalling and collaborating.
In fact day #1 is journalling. I do keep a paper journal, but I often prefer the online ones. I buy cute little notebooks and then usually they get misplaced around the house :-D Maybe I'm just an idea squirrel at heart. Sometimes I find half-filled journals from when I was younger and it makes me glad the Internet wasn't around back then. We don't really get a feel for how we grow and change. Don't rely on your memory either, because even after five years things can get fuzzy. I was only laid off a year ago and have trouble remembering the name of some co-workers.
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The activities are pretty free-form and a variety of genres and techniques are represented, which must have been hard to do. Beads, wire, collage, stamping and mark making are just some of the things to be explored. Sometimes it's easier to just have an "assignment" to try instead of thinking up something on your own. The inclusion of personal and family history was interesting to me because I took several unsuccessful stabs at genealogy a long time ago. This book will definitely keep crafty types busy all year long!
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purpleponyart's journal
