Heavens to Etsy

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After:

(or click above)

Etsy has changed their whole layout AND Blogger has changed again since I was last online! It has been awhile. . . But some new items are brewing  for Dust & Dawn around here. As you can see, more Melamine will be a part of that! Yay!

What have you been up to, darling blog readers?

Kittens Inspired by Kittens

I used to have this book, simply entiteled "Kittens", and I remember looking through it over and over again, assigning a personality to each kitten. But honestly, this little girl does the most amazing job of it. - funny!

found via Kelly McCaleb's blog

Sorry I have not posted in a long time, but my to-do list is sooooo looooong . . .

Thanks, I knew you'd forgive me.  ;)

$8 Art

My latest find at ValueVillage, from a Manitoba artist! I love the saying...

Not entirely sure about the little man, but I'm sure he'll grow on me!

Recent Loves

What do these two things have in common?

I love them!

Squirrel it is not

Did I mention that this cute little fella resides in my backyard?

One day when I came home from work at 10:30pm she was standing in front of my step... and I scared her a little when I finally saw her (I think I was texting at the time and nearly walked right into her!) then I ran up my steps and she got up all backed against the fence.... then ducked into a hole and took off. But boy was that a close one! Now I am so paranoid about being outside (so much for enjoying that hammock!) or leaving the door open or anything! I took this picture last week, the first morning I saw her, but at least then it was from accross the whole yard. The thing is, she's like a baby so there must be more somewhere, no?

I just know I am that clumsy bimbo who'd get sprayed by a skunk, so what do I do?!

• by the way, I have begun my love afair with Picnik.com. It has photo editing stuff for free, which is, in my opinion all one needs. It even has those photoshop effects like posterize,  film grain, cross process, etc., that seem to work quite dandy! So far I've created my new header and my rosie picture, and its really quick and fun!
• However, all of my Polaroid-style photos I make using "Poladroid" which I think everyone should download, it's so fun, you get a little polaroid camera that sits on your desktop and spits out a polaroid whenever you drag a photo into it. You even get to shake it and watch it develop. :)
• my house is hot
• and did i mention i have a skunk living in my backyard?
• oh and i'm finally getting a decent wireless plan and a blackberry. woot!

Canoe-dalling

Thank-you to all who played along in my little guessing game! You were ALL right! hahaha....

See the green rod in the hitch?! Okay well it is hard to see, but it is easy to see that the Canoe is resting on it. He was sure he gave it all away when the green thing went in, but I didn't have a clue what it was for!

I didn't take any pictures of us paddling, but once we got to the other side of the lake, we just enjoyed our own little private beach :

The boy sittin on his "throne". He made me one too after this!

He even packed a game of snakes and ladders! Here's a picture of how bad he beat me the first round! He caught every ladder up! But I beat him the next 2 rounds : P

The glacier-fed water certainly felt good, but it took a few yelps to get to the fully submerged stage!

total bliss.

Guessing game...

the boy had a surprise activity planned for the day....
we got in his truck with our bathing suits, shorts, lunch packed in a cooler, and a blanket.
we drove until we got to his mom and dad's house (i thought, oh great, we're going to clean his tool trailer which is parked in their yard) where he went into the shop to reveal ..... (excitement mounting yet?!) a big long green metal rod with a little horizontal bar accross the top and bits at the end that stuck up. Stuck this mossy coloured creation into his hitch and got back into the truck. As we drove to the front of the yard I was instructed to go in the house and get a jug, ice, drinks, etc. and find some old beach towels because we forgot that. Out front, boy backed up to the trailer, which clearly wasn't going to mount onto the hitch with that green rod. . . I still couldn't figure it out.
Can you?
Well, then the lean-to door was openned to reveal what made it all make sense. It looked like a banana. We hoisted it up on top of the truck, strapped it down and drove off proudly. After a stop at Tim Hortons we whipped accross the Golden Eares bridge and followed the Golden Eares mountain peaks until we landed at Alouette.
Had an awesome day! Do you know what we did?

Here's another clue to give it all away: it is featured on the Canadian 100 dollar bill.

Sorry no photos, that will be the next post!

Vintage Beach Blonde

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 I saved this image that I saw on the Sartorialist  a while ago. I keep going and looking at it again.

I don't know why, but I really like it. That lace on her sarong, the interesting body angle and shape. The blur and the rocks and her blonde hair. It just feels like a far away place and time and I love that.

Reunited

Dreaming of being in my Renderings

Aaaaaaah.... to have a pool in the backyard... and this nice beach-front property with a view of the mountains to the north.... These renderings have just made me kinda dreamy. But its a nice day and my grassy green tree-covered back yard will have to do. I'll supply the bathing suit as long as the sky keeps supplying that sun!

Bring on the Freckling!

Have a good Tuesday, hope it's sunny wherever you are!

green yellow mustard pink brown

Hi There! Long time no blog. I'm just working in Photoshop right now, I can't seem to decide which style of logo I like for this project I'm doing, but I do like playing around. Your opinions?
Also, there is a material board. I need to render elevations and perspectives all in photoshop now. I love PhotoShop.
In other news, I got accepted into the 2nd year Diploma program. The one I've been hoping to get into, yeah, that one. If you follow this link you can see the layout of the year and how that you take 9 courses at a time. The most I've done at a time before is 4, which is considered full time and kept me very busy. So, lets double that, plus a little. Meanwhile, I must keep up a 65% average to finish, and a 75% average if I want placement into a practicum/work experience position. Yay! How fun! Well, it  certainly will be interesting. I am trying to relish in my sleep-ins and flexible schedule right now. And now...back to that!

- ayla

Stuff and Squirrels

Wow! It’s June already?! I’m moved into my green room! My bed won’t be here for another week (now I know the answer to “why buy a mattress anywhere else”) but I have a little camping mattress on the floor for now, which will do just fine! I’m discovering far too many clothes. Ugh. Why?! I really don’t need more than what I have time to wear. I would love for that to be simplified for me, but then there’s all the things that you think you will want to wear, and you know, that top that would be perfect for a walk on the beach if it was exactly 21.75 degrees out, and the skirt that would be just right on a cool day in windy Scotland. Yeah, it’s pretty much that bad. And then my roommate asks me if I want this top she’s getting rid of and I’m all ‘yep, cute, thanks!’. Do you think it’s a real addiction? Like do actual people get some sort of actual chemically satisfying reaction in our actual brains to tell us that it’s actually good to have this much stuff?! What’s up with that anyways? Now the fabric, interior design samples, books and school supplies I can justify. Even though it was 2 whole truck loads of it. I think they are things I need. Right? Right? Anybody?


I did a little discovery of the neighbourhood this morning when I donned my bike (or did my bike don me?) and headed to our very own "Central Park". It has an outdoor pool, stadium (today Highschool students were having a track and field comp there), a little pond, horse shoes field, law bowling place and a baseball diamond. Its all in and among forest and paths that are great for biking through! However, and it's a big however, there seems to be an issue with feeding the squirrels... there are signs saying do not feed the wildlife... there are people throwing crumbs with their children right there too. And what is wrong with this? Well, you see, the thing is, when you feed them, they're no longer scared of us. And when they're no longer scared of us, they tend to not get out of the way when you're coming at them with a bike. Not one but two squirrels today caused me to swerve, squeal the breaks, scream and put my legs straight out in front of me with my eyes closed so as to not have to see or feel what goes down under my tires. I was mad. Especially at the lady with her daughter feeding them. This was before the 2 incidences, but still, I gave them a little "ugh" as I rode by. They heard.
Next time I go I'll say more than that, because I can see it REALLY is a problem!

Off to school now. Happy weekend to all you who have one!