Sunshined

Happy Birthday

Hazel — 2009 11 07

...To me and my mum! I know, I know, four days have already passed since the actual date. But still, I wanted to dedicate a post to that special day and the cool people who made it all the better.

So the weekend before November 2nd, my whole family + older sister’s boyfriend ate at Frankie Tomatto’s. We’ve only gone there once and were really sick of our usual restaurants, so off we went!

It was just the Mona Lisa, no biggie.

What greatly adds to the appeal of this place and its (delicious) food is that inside, it’s literally designed to look like a small Italian village. And just like the last time we came here, my mum was ecstatic to find this Italian “shop” named after her (Maria’s) and proceeded to take asian pictures in front of it. SIGH

The following morning, I was heading to my locker, when I found a few people crowded around it. Turns out they were wrapping it with a beautiful green wrapping paper (ahem, two were wrapping and the others were watching)! They told me how they had wrapped it with a different paper, hated it, took it down, and put up the green one, which explained why they didn’t finish before I came to my locker (as they intended). That’s what I call LOVE

During the course of the day, I had a huge smile pasted on my face.

Oh and let’s not forget the presents!

What I received: White F21 sunglasses! Pride & Prejudice book (which I finished just now)! Toki Doki poster (img)! Urban Outfitters Tee (img)! MONEY! MONEY! A shopping trip with my mum tomorrow! Eternal happiness! A skip to my step! Really awesome friends! Wonderful memories! Etc. etc. etc.

Published in: Life, Photo Post,

Halloween ‘09

Hazel — 2009 11 02

I was going to compress my whole weekend into one post but then I realized I had waaay too many Halloween pictures I wanted to share. I think I’ll save my birthday pictures for next time (yes, we celebrated me and my mom’s birthday today even though it’s really tomorrow). I apologize if I slow down your computers with the following picspam:

Took some candy from my brothers stack:

Before:

After:

This sat in front of our house:

It scared lots of kids (me included). It’s wearing my little brother’s old clothes…
That’s all! Hope you all had an enjoyable Halloween! I didn’t post a picture of my own costume (I was a grandma) since it was too embarassing. What were you dressed up as?

Published in: Life, Photo Post,

Sunday Links

Hazel — 2009 10 25

This site has really gone mouldy hasn’t it? Sorry about that, folks.

Yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I have 9 subscribers to my blog’s RSS feed (WHICH IS AWESOME) and it amazed me because I had no idea people actually liked reading my posts enough to subscribe. So for those 9 subscribers, THANK YOU! This post is dedicated to YOU! Seeing that I have an audience, I’m now obligated to write more frequently, so thanks for the motivation!

Today, I’ll be showing you some funny sites I’ve stumbled upon recently. Feel free to recommend any that you know of…

Indexed

According to Jessica Hagy, the founder of this interesting site, Indexed is “a little project that lets me make fun of some things and sense of others. I use it to think a little more relationally without resorting to doing actual math.”

A lot of the graphs she draws crack me up. Here are two of them:

New Math

Don’t be fooled by this site’s name because it has nothing to do with the math you (and I) sweat over at school. Just like Indexed, New Math tries to make sense of ordinary situations. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…

Garfield Minus Garfield

“Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb. “

FASHEMATICS!!!

Woah, sorry for all the math-related sites. I hadn’t planned to make that awful subject a theme for today’s post, but that’s where it went…
Anyways, FASHEMATICS!!! is a site that sums up some of the most ridiculous outfits on the catwalk. The one on the left made me LOL!

So, that’s it! Like I said before, if any of you know any other cool sites, please recommend some.
It’s going to be Halloween soon and I still don’t know what to be! My sister thinks it’ll be hilarious to go as Balloon boy and bring a balloon and everything. hahaha
What are you guys dressing up as?

Published in: Cool Finds, Online,

A Life Update

Hazel — 2009 10 07

Oh man.. this has been one of my longest “intermissions” in a while! I even broke my blog-at-least-once-every-two-weeks rule. Sorry friends! To make up for it, I’m going to post about what happened during the past few weeks and even throw in a couple of pictures here and there…

Nuit Blanche ‘09

On Saturday, my sister, her friends and I went to downtown Toronto to attend Nuit Blanche, which, according to their website, is a “free all-night contemporary art thing”. Basically, for one night, artwork is put on the streets of the city and in public places for people to see or interact with. It started at 6:55 PM and ended at sunrise. Here are some pictures of our night:

The first thing we saw when we went there was the huge Rabbit Balloon. It was placed inside the mall, which was a smart move because it rained a bit outside.

The city hall even participated in this cool event! It’s hard to see in the picture, but the lights make up the word “FEAR” and changed occasionally throughout the night. I heard someone saw it form the words “LOVE” and “FATE”.

We were walking down the street and saw a looong lineup outside of this old house. We got curious, so we decided to stand in line too…

When we got inside, we were given a chance to tour the house and we saw a woman painting. We realized only afterward that she was actually the artist (Joanna Strong) of the colorful rubber band paintings displayed around the house. I looked at the price tag beside this painting, and it said $6800. ¡Ay, caramba!

It wasn’t part of Nuit Blanche, but we saw two beautifully designed store windows while we were there. One was comic-themed, so all the mannequins had anime eyes. I thought that was really unique. In another window (last picture), they showed designs from the 2009 White Cashmere Collection. I wish I could show you more pictures because the dresses were all so AMAZING! And guess what? The whole collection was created using only bathroom tissue.

School Newspaper

So the story is, many weeks ago, my school announced that students could sign up to be part of our newspaper’s executive team. Now, this is a big deal. Why? Because we have an award-winning newspaper (6 awards last year!) and so those who are part of the team have to be, shall I say, “exceptionally good”. They said that after the sign-ups were done, they’d pick a few to interview, and after that, they would finally choose those who are to be part of the actual team. I bit the bullet and decided to sign up for the webmaster position. I was like, hey, aren’t I kinda okay at making websites…?

One morning after I submitted the form, I received a note saying..

So I went to the interview, showed them my past layouts, discussed some ideas to make the site more popular, answered their questions, etc. At one point, they told me that they really want the school website to be awesome because we never won the “best newspaper website” before and we should aim to get it this year. *gulp* Yeah… no pressure.. he..he

They still didn’t announce who would be in the team, but today I got this:

So it was a happy ending. Hazel got into her school’s newspaper’s executive team and she lived happily ever after…

...uh no. Since I will now have two websites to take care of, I’ll probably be spending even less time blogging here. There is much to do ahead.. I need to brainstorm some layout ideas for the school site, design the layout on Photoshop, code the layout, find a way to show past newpaper issues in a pretty way, update it every other day, attract some traffic to it…etc, etc, etc..

I was thinking about blogging about more stuff that has happened, but this post is getting wayy too long. So I’ll save the rest for later and end it here.

Published in: Life, Photo Post, School,

Five Flickr Faves

Hazel — 2009 09 20

Nothing in my life right now is really worth mentioning (read: school), so I thought I’d do something fun for once and feature some great photographers from Flickr who always inspire me with their pretty pictures and never fail to brighten my extremely mundane life. I got the idea from Decor8‘s Etsy Take Five Tuesdays which is a series of posts I really enjoy. Let’s get started:

Chai Wong (Chai*):

I’ve seen this little box figurine everywhere in the internet lately and was determined to find out the source of all the cuteness. Finally, my search ended with Chai Wong‘s Flickr photostream which not only features her adorable boxed friend, Danbo (see her Danbo set here), but also of other beautiful nature shots. Danbo reminds me of another small figurine friend I adore: my milk toof.

Lola (sea shanties)

Here we have a girl whose flickr photostream is filled with very simple but dreamy images. There’s something nostalgic about each and every one of Sea shanties’ photos that I love. She also owns a blog that is equally dreamy.

Jason Lee (jwlphotography)

There is a good reason I’ve added this guy to my Flickr contact list, and that is because his pictures are absolutely ADORABLE! Jason Lee takes pictures of his two daughters then edits the images to add a bit of humour to them. He also blogs about his adventures with his two girls. If this doesn’t make you laugh, then I don’t know what will.

Irena S. (IrenaS)

Here’s a photographer from my home and native land of Canada: Irena S. All her photos have a really nice vintage vibe to them. She has a blog where she posts pictures from all the beautiful weddings she’s worked as a photographer for. J’aime sa photos!

Mamz Hu (PIXY)

Here is another very talented photographer who goes by the name of PIXY and is only 18-years-old. I had to do a double-take when I read that information because that means she’s only two years older than me. She makes me feel sorely inadequate.. but go visit her blog anyway!

Published in: Cool Finds, Inspiration, Online,

The School Post

Hazel — 2009 09 13

Here it is. The school post. You know, the usual. Just one of those topics you’ll see in every other blogger’s blogs. Or I like to call it: “weblogues”. Enough with the rambling. Here I gooo..

So on Tuesday, my school term started and in no apparent order, my subjects are: Applied Journalism; Media Arts (adobe photoshop, illustrator, etc.); Religion in the Arts; Biology; Math; Intro. to Anthropology, Sociology & Psychology; Visual Arts and English. Luckily for me, most of the teachers are nice and fun. Maybe except for my math teacher who, to put it bluntly, has eyebrows which resemble two very fat caterpillars and get very distracting.

It has only been the first week, but in terms of work load, there has definitely been an increase from last year. I don’t even think we had anything to do in the first week of last year! Nothing at all! But this year I actually had to make myself a homework to-do list, not only because I enjoy making lists, but because many of my assignments are due next week. This is new.

Then I remembered my school isn’t normal. It’s non-semestered, self-directed and requires us to wear uniforms. Meaning, I take all my subjects for the entire school year. All eight of them. EIGHT! As in, I have to suffer through math and caterpillar man for 10 months! You semestered-school students should think yourself lucky!

The self-directed part isn’t always a bad thing. We can schedule our days however we want, stay in art for three periods if we want, go to the loo without permission and we get good exercise from ‘hall-walking’, which is just walking down the halls all day with your friends instead of being in class. The only downside is that it’s really easy to procrastinate in my school. You only realize how bad you’ve been procrastinating at the end of the year when you’ve landed yourself in summer school (yet again!). I really don’t want that this year. That is my drive that is going to push me. It’s like The Little Engine That Could: NO SUMMER SCHOOL, NO SUMMER SCHOOL, NO SUMMER SCHOOL, CHOO CHOO!

So, yeah, I’m done. I really could have kept going on about school and classes and whatnot, but I didn’t want this to become an essay. That reminds me: I have an essay due next next Wednesday. Crap!

Published in: Life, School,

Fun at the Fun Fair

Hazel — 2009 09 06

First of all, I want to thank you for all the nice comments on my thrift store post and the flattering compliments about the layout. I think this one will definitely be staying for quite a while, seeing as it’s such a crowd pleaser.

I was hoping to blog much earlier, but my life has been feeling very bland as of late. I really didn’t want to bore anyone with an entry about how I managed to kill a fruit fly that was buzzing around my room a few days back. No, I wanted to save blogging for the days when something fun actually happened around here. And yesterday was one of those days!

So yesterday, my mum, my two brother’s and I spent our day at the CNE (an annual fair in Canada). We had a lot of fun, especially since the weather was on our side that day. The first thing we did when we stepped through the gates was go straight to the ribfest. That isn’t what you usually do first thing when you arrive at a fair, but what can I say? We didn’t eat breakfast that morning…and that made the rib sauce all the more yummier. :9

Next, we went roaming around the place. My brother’s got to play some games and my older one went to these betting stalls and actually won some money. It was funny how the dealer had to ask my older brother how old he was. I guess he looks much too short for his age (i’m a few cm’s from his height!). hahaha

None of us rode any rides, but I still enjoyed my time looking at everything. I took lots of pictures of the different booths there. I really love the old carnival feel to them and it makes me happy that they still use them. Unfortunately, during one part of the day, there was a huge smudge in my camera lens and I didn’t notice it until much later. Some of my good shots were ruined!

We went inside this huge pavilion to cool off, which had lots of little knick-knack shops, flower stalls, a gallery, and… a sand sculpting competition! The image below is of the winning sculpture. The whole thing didn’t even fit my small camera screen!

Probably the best part of the day: eating funnel cake. There’s really nothing like eating a plate of hot, sweet dough after walking around all day. I think I’ve had too much funnel cake this summer..

Before we left, we watched ‘Movie Magic: An Aerial Acrobatics & Skating Show’. The skating stadium was freezing and I was shivering throughout the whole thing. Nonetheless, the show was enjoyable and I had fun singing along to different movie soundtracks they played (my fav was Shrek). It was also a nice challenge trying to take a picture of the speedy skaters. lol

As we walked out through the gates, it really hit me that it was the last Friday before school begun. THE LAST. To me, going to the CNE was a perfect way to spend my last days of summer. My only regret was that I couldn’t take my whole family and relatives along with me. I really hope we go back next summer. But first, I have to get through this hell of a school year. Time for me to prepare my school bag…

Published in: Family, Life, Photo Post,

Thrift Store Love

Hazel — 2009 08 28

When I was a kid, my dad used to always drag us along with him to one of his favorite places in the world: the thrift store. My dad bought most of stuff from there (shoes, jacket, other knick knacks) and I never understood why he couldn’t just buy new stuff even though there were more expensive (I guess that was just his thing). We went there so frequently that I guess you could say, after many outings there, my siblings and I became very familiar with the “thrift store smell”. And yes, there IS a smell!

I didn’t have as much fun as my dad during those trips when I was younger, but all that has changed . I saw how great an outfit from the thrift store could be, and I realized that stores like Goodwill and Value Village are actually perfect places to find cheap, vintage clothes that no one else will have.

Now, instead of cringing at the idea of going to the thrift store, I actually have these weird urges to run there so I can fill my closet with, not junk, but great pieces of clothing. Also nowadays, you’ll find me actually begging my dad to drive me there…even if the place does have the “thrift store smell”..

I’m still an amateur when it comes to “thrifting”, but here’s what I got so far:

COMFY BLACK GRANNY SWEATER ($5.99):

BEADED PUPPY COIN PURSE ($1.99):

STRIPED TOMMY HILFIGER SWEATER ($6.99):

That last one doesn’t look very nice on a hanger, so I took a picture of myself wearing it with my black H&M tulle skirt. I think the tulle skirt would look good with the black granny sweater too. I’m actually looking forward to the Fall season just so that I can wear this!

Published in: Life, Photo Post, Shopping,

Sketch Blog

Hazel — 2009 08 18

It’s funny how I feel so guilty for not blogging here when in fact, it has only been a week since my last post! Although now that I think about it, that does seem like a long time compared to the pace of other bloggers But oh well! To each their own, I guess.

Anyhoot, I’m here to announce the addition of my new blog! My new sketch blog, to be precise. click click click:

It’s actually not very new since I opened it at the end of July; I just never really told anyone about it . By starting a sketch blog, I’m hoping to get more use out of my neglected sketchbook and post rough sketches that I’m much too lazy to put in my DeviantArt account. I also think that it’s going to be fun looking back on my old doodles and seeing what was on my mind during those moments. It’ll be interesting to see if I improve!

I decided to use Wordpress to run the sketch blog so that in addition to encouraging myself to draw more, I can finally learn how to work the blogging tool everyone’s been raving about. Now that’s what I call a win-win situation . I’m certainly not as diligent with ‘daily drawing’ as Chris Piascik is, but it’s a start. Oh, and I should make a custom Wordpress theme for the place… anyone know of any good tutorials?

P.S: The ‘content’ section of the site is opened! I added a new tutorial. Next up: a .htaccess tutorial.

Published in: Art, Site ,

Family Camping

Hazel — 2009 08 10

Before I talk about my weekend, I just want to thank everyone for the overwhelming response I received regarding the new layout. I don’t think any of my older layouts have gotten as much praise as did this one. So for that, I am utterly grateful. It felt that all the hard work I put into it really paid off.

So, during the weekend, my family went camping in Sauble Falls provincial park. My mum actually told me that while she was making reservations online, there was only one unoccupied campsite left in the whole park, which was pretty lucky of us. On Friday morning, everything was packed and put into the van. At first we thought all our stuff wouldn’t fit in the car and that it wouldn’t be able to handle the weight of all our things plus seven humans, but with a little more piling, stuffing and some swearing, we managed it. Let’s just say that my legs were numb throughout the whole three-hour ride and that I couldn’t leave the car without kicking someone’s face or else toppling over boxes of food, clothing and other unnecessary things we packed.

When we finally got to the campsite, we were all, YES! WE GOT HERE WITHOUT KILLING OURSELVES! I think my family can agree that the worst part about any trip is the car ride. Being inside the van was just so humid and claustrophobic, not to mention having to hold up the piles of boxes that could’ve flattened our faces if it wanted to. Anyway, after we set up the tents and everything else, to celebrate we decided to have an early marshmallow roast by the fire! Too bad mum forgot to bring the chocolates and graham crackers…

We were all feeling a bit better after that so we went to the beach to watch the sun go down. My mum kept bugging us to take pictures of her posing cheesily in front of the sunset like she was in a postcard, but I guess I don’t blame her. The view was quite breathtaking.

On that first night, I slept horribly. Actually, I don’t even think I slept at all! I really wasn’t prepared for the autumn-like chill that bit us during that night. We could even see our breath in front of us. To make things worse, during the night I heard some scuffling outside the tent and something falling over. We went to investigate it in the morning and it turned out that a skunk had stolen some of our food. At least it only took a few pieces of bread and did not spray on anything. Although the van did smell a bit funky after that… (since the windows were rolled down during the night)

We spent the rest of the day exploring the park and taking pictures. The place had some really great views:

Afterwards, we went canoeing! It was really funny because my uncle and sister in one boat kept hitting the edges of trees and plants where they kept getting stuck there. Also, my mum and dad who were in their own canoe were having some trouble too. All my mum wanted to do was take pictures, so my dad was left to steer the whole boat. Their canoe kept turning in the wrong direction since my mum wasn’t helping, so they got stuck by the edge of the river too. All the while in our canoe, my brothers and I are shouting instructions at them like, MOM! HELP DAD PADDLE! across the water and getting weird looks from the other families who are trying to have a relaxing time. hehe

Despite the storm that night, I actually got some sleep in, which was good. The storm continued on and by the time we were eating breakfast this morning, lightning was cracking over our heads and our backs were sopping wet. We were planning to leave immediately and go home after we finished packing everything from the campsite, but the sun came out and we took a detour to the beach.

We saw how sunny it was and decided to stay and swim! My younger brother was really happy because he’s been looking forward to swimming in the beach since we left to go camping. We blew up his inflatable boat and chilled out in the water. We saw some guys stand up paddle surfing, heard some random band on the stage playing and others participating in the sand sculpting competition. Some sand sculptures looked really great:

Oh, and after that, my mom bought us the best thing you could eat after spending hours in the water:

Funnel cake. Warm, sweet, FUNNEL CAKE! It was seriously the best thing I ate during our whole camping trip. Maybe even the best thing I ate in my whole entire life. Even better than the macadamia nut cookies they sell in the school cafeteria (and that’s saying something!).

I couldn’t have thought of a better way to end the trip with. I had a blast (most of the time) and dad says we’re coming back next year. YAY FUNNEL CAKE!

Published in: Family, Life, Photo Post,