Brad and Amanda. An engagement Session

"Excuse me . . ."

I turned around and looked at the woman.

"Are you a professional photographer? Is this an engagement session?"

"Yes I am and it is." I smiled.

"Did you book ahead and pay the $75 fee?"

I was confused. "No, when I phoned a few weeks ago I was told there was no fee and no need to book ahead."

"Well I don't know who you talked to, but I'm the garden center's manager and there is a fee and you must book ahead."

And that is how Brad and Amanda's engagement session began.

Luckily for me, Brad's known me most of his life and believed me when I said I had phoned ahead and asked. The manager did not. Although, she did offer to let us pay the fee and continue even though we hadn't booked ahead.

We declined and headed back into the city while I racked my brain for another indoor venue we could use. The problem was, all the places I had checked out ahead of time required prebooking and some rather steep fees.

Time for plan B. We headed to the Museum and did the remainder of our session outside. Thankfully, it was only rather chilly as opposed to spectacularly cold. (although I do wish I had remembered to pack my hand warming packets)

I so enjoyed the chance to take their engagements photos. Brad and Morgan (my oldest son) have been friends since the day they started kindergarten so this was special to me.

 He's family.

After playing outside at the museum we headed to Joey's restaurant to warm up and have supper while we waited for the sun to go down. Amanda wanted to try for a photo of the two of them under a street lamp in the dark. She also thought it would be great if it was snowing while we did it.

I told her it wasn't something I'd done before, but I was always game to try something new as long as they understood that this was experimental and there were no garuntees.

I was pretty sure I was going to need to have a flash off the camera to make it work but my external flash couldn't be triggered if it wasn't mounted on my camera. I figured it was worth a try without a flash anyway.

I had scoped out a nearby neighborhood for good spots to try this and we headed over there after we'd eaten. It wasn't snowing and the first lamppost we tried didn't even give off enough light for my camera to focus. The next one was better but I was sure glad I'd been learning how to do more in Photoshop. This photo was definitely  going to need some work . . .

Here's the result of our day together (and several hours in Photoshop for the street lamp photo. ;D )

I can't wait for the wedding!

And, because I love a good slideshow video:

February. Extreme Home Purge Month

It looks like February is going to be  Extreme Home Purge month at the Veldkmp home this year.

Henry and I will be celebrating our 30th anniversary this fall and although I have purged and purged over the years, somehow I've still managed to collect more stuff  than will fit into our little bitty house.

Partly this stems from the fact that money has always been tight for us. For years I had a wish list as long as my arm of pretty things for my home and garden if only the funds were available. Which meant that when things did come our way whether new, used or gifted, we held on to them.

Henry and I both have an eye for re-purposing and more and more 'things' came to live at our house. . . .  Because we might be able to use it one day. . .

Occasionally extra money became available and things from the wish list were purchased.

But It's been nearly 30 years!  (gulp) Even on a tight budget you can collect a lot of things over that many years!

At this point in our lives I would be hard pressed to come up with a wish list at all. The odd plant, a few photography accessories but. . . that's about it.

I have been faithfully purging over the last few years and brought in an organizing expert this summer when my friend Joyce gave up a few of her precious holidays to help me out.

It was marvelous. But it didn't go far enough.

It's time to get extreme.

I love old houses and spend time at Fort Edmonton every spring, summer and fall admiring them and a way of life from long ago. It all seems so so much simpler.

I'm always amazed at how little space entire families had. Spaces that were beautiful none the less.

Have you ever wondered why old houses have so few closets? It's because they had so few clothes.

I've been reading old Lucy Maud Montgomery  books and many of them talk about the pride women took in their skills in home keeping.  In creating good food and a comfortable home. (Jane of Lantern Hill being an excellent example)

I want that for my home.

But all my 'stuff'' keeps spilling out of corners, off shelves and down from my cupboards.

I've decided to take a page from the past. I will be going through every room in the house this month, getting rid off absolutely everything I don't either use regularly or is so beautiful I can't bear to give it up.

I started in my office/workroom today. As I type I am surrounded by things I thought I could never bear to give up because I might find a use for it someday. Oddly, I'm not finding it hard at all.

Keep an eye on my Facebook page because I'm going to be posting things for sale or giveaway all month.

I'm tired of being weighed down by more than I need. It's time to live my life with just enough.

I was going through pictures on my old laptop trying to decided what to save before I bring it to the recycle depot. I came across this picture of me with my sisters Tamara and Lisa at a wedding. It's my all time favorite and I thought I had lost it!

Me , Tamara, Lisa

Why is it my all time favorite?

How could it not be?! We're all glammed up, a professional took the picture and that mischievous look on Lisa's face is classic!

Here's my favorite of the two of them. . .

Hmmm. . . this might just be a fun month after all!

Travel Tuesdays. Wintermission

Someone Twittered the phrase Wintermission and it describes what we've had for the last few weeks perfectly.

Today was an amazing day once again and it's the last for a while if the weather man can be believed.

Days like this are meant to be savored and if you can share it with a friend, so much the better.

Jada and I headed out to our favorite Old Glenora neighborhood, this time staying a little west of the museum.

Walking here, much of it along the river, can't help but bring a peace that can be hard to find in the city. It always refreshes me.

I'm pretty sure Jada enjoys herself as well . . .

Time to go home . . .

Awwww . . .

A Peaceful Winter Afternoon.

I had big plans yesterday afternoon.

6 pounds of butter softening on the counter, eggs coming to room temperature and a new 20 kg bag of flour resting on the island.

I was going to bake up a storm.

First things first though. It was time to make a little strawberry jam. I wasn't able to pick strawberries last year because of my leg but I was able to get just enough local berries to make a small batch of jam. As usual I ran out of time and just threw them in the freezer.

I had taken them out to be thawed on Monday and it was now or never.

The smell when I unzipped the bag!! 

It was summer in January. Pure bliss.

I made 3 jars of freezer jam in no time flat.

After all that work though, I needed to take a bit of a break. I made myself a nice cup of tea, snuggled into my comfy chair and basked in the sun streaming through the window.

I woke up a couple of hours later to discover Jada and I had shared this peaceful afternoon. Me snoozing in my chair and she in hers.

Oh well, there's always tomorrow. . . ( and not to worry Cindy, I'll be posting a recipe for the Monkey Bread next week. ;D )

Travel Tuesdays. A Byzantine Winter Festival

Holly and I decided to look for adventure in the great outdoors a few weekends ago.

It was a brave act. It's winter in Edmonton and you know what that means . . . snow and ice. 

Snow and ice is cold people! Some days it's really, really cold! Brrrr. And we are wimps. Winter wimps.

But, we pulled on our Big Girl panties (or in this case, long underwear) and headed out to the 'Deep Freeze . It was billed as a Byzantine Winter Festival and we were intrigued.

So you could join our little adventure, I made a video complete with marauding Vikings.

Enjoy.

Travel Tuesdays.Leaving Winter Behind

It's been cold here. And not . . .  brrrr. . . it's dipped below zero, cold.

I'm talking three or four layers are required to open the door and get the mail out of the mailbox cold!

Cold isn't all that unusual in Alberta of course, but frigid cold this early and this often is!

What I need is a little holiday someplace warm. Someplace smothered in flowers rather than snow.

Since an actual vacation is out of the question at the moment, I decided to revisit my photo archives and go on a virtual holiday instead.

Oh summer, how I miss you. . .

What do you do when winter gets you down? Do you have a favorite escape?

Google Is Playing Around With Cloud Picker Again!

I had a fun post for this morning but when I went to load the pictures I got, Server rejected, o,r sign in to Cloud Picker, or, this service is unavailable.
This has happened to me before. Google Is trialing a new service and sometimes it interrupts my ability to load pictures.
As soon as I can I will be back with my original post.
From the freezing North. . . .

I Didn't Want To Get On The Plane!

(Sorry Tam. The first day and I've already messed up, so I'm doing Tuesday instead. . .)
Henry and I got home from B.C. yesterday afternoon.
It rained while we were in B.C. (it always does) but a good part of the time I didn't even need a coat!
In January!!
It was -22C when the plane landed in Edmonton.
This is what greeted us as we pulled into the driveway. . .

Except  the driveway was  full of snow, as was the sidewalk, so we all spent a good bit of time shovelling last night. I'm shorter than the guys so I had a really hard time throwing the snow up high enough and it kept sliding back down the hill.

My friend Marlene phoned me this morning to tell me the roof on her commercial hoop house collapsed this week end so she won't be selling plants this spring. (I'm so sorry Marlene!)
I immediately went out to check on my greenhouse.
Good grief , there was a ton of  heavy snow on the roof!
I tried to convince Henry to take care of it when he came home for lunch, but he told me it would have to wait until later.
As I was worried that later would be too late, I jumped into my snow boots and headed out armed with a broom and a shovel.
Thankfully Jesse came out to help because some of it was just beyond me. . .

The snow behind the greenhouse has gotten so deep, the one wall is buried up to the start of the roof!
Jesse dug that away as best he could and I`ve got my fingers crossed that my greenhouse won`t be flooded too badly when things start to melt.
Sigh. . .
Winter in Alberta. . .
Some times it's hard.
Jada likes it though. . .

A Wintery Day

A quick peek at how my day started:

Getting Over Myself

A while back I went to watch the movie Eat, Pray, Love with a bunch of friends.
Now I love Julia Roberts, but I've got to say that before we had gotten too far into the movie I desperately wanted to do three things:
-Hit her upside the head
-Walk out of the theater
-Shake her and yell "Get over yourself!"
The whining that went on! The angst and anxiety!
The whining. . . .

The bazaar was a big hit.
The next day I was up at six thirty to drive Jesse to school to meet his ride to a basketball tournament.
I went home, got back in bed and stayed there until two thirty in the afternoon. I spent the rest of the day sitting in my chair.(The only time I moved was to go to the bathroom or get something to eat.)
We had friends over for our annual tree decorating and dinner the next night.
It was lovely.
All this week if I haven't been running around, (and there's been lots of running around) I've been falling asleep in my chair while trying to read.
The worst thing about this week though, has been the whining.
Luckily for everyone around me most of it has been in my head. . .
I have been sooooo tired!
Which has made me soooo cranky!
Which of course brings on the whining.
It's freezing out side. (-18C)
All I want to do is stay at home when I'm not driving.
I am sick of all the dishes in the kitchen. (Those would be the dishes I didn't clean after the lovely evening with our friends that are still !!sitting on my kitchen counters.)
Well. . . .the list went on and on.
And on.
All of a sudden this afternoon I really heard myself.
I wanted to hit myself upside the head. . .
I wanted to leave the room. . .
I did yell " Get over yourself already!"
I'm still tired ( as Morgan so kindly pointed out, I'm not 30 anymore.) but I am determined that the whining will be replaced with  a long, joyful list of all the blessings in my life.
And it is a very long one.
Now I'm off the clean those dishes in the kitchen.
Unless I fall asleep in my chair firstttttt. . . . .  .Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The Christmas Seaason

I've decided to get the ball rolling. . .

I've bought my Darvonda poinsettia, How about you?

Whoo Hoo!!

I got a brand new school bus yesterday.
It. Is. Awesome!!!
If Henry hadn't commandeered my camera for his hunting trip there would be pictures.
Lots of pictures!
The things I want to tell you about this bus. . .
But it's going to have to wait I'm afraid. This has thrown a wrench in my bazaar schedule and I now have to spend today cleaning my old bus as it will become the school's spare and has to be brought to the school asap.
Sigh.
Those centerpieces I planned to make to decorate the bazaar and then sell off, are looking more and more unlikely.
BUT. . . I am Warm on my new bus!!!
It doesn't get better than that!

Busy Days

Wellingtons Garden Center

It's getting busy around here.

My cousin Leona and I are organizing the Sinter Klaas Bazaar again this year and there are just five days to go until the big day.

There are so many little details that need to be taken care of for a big fund raising event and I keep track of them in my special note book.
You know, that books of lists that functions like my brain. (except that it's more reliable. . .)
The book that never leaves my sight.
Except that it did. Leave my sight I mean. . .

It has disappeared!!!

I am madly trying to recreate all my notes and I'm so sure that I've forgotten at least one person who wanted  to rent a table that I'm going to have to have an extra 'vendor' table or two just to make sure. . .
I sure hope that book turns up soon!

I'm also in charge of decorating so I've got a few ideas that I've be trying to scrounge up bits and pieces for. I've picked up the table cloths and we will be covering all the tables with plastic burgundy and green table clothes and I bought coordinating napkins for the kitchen as well as the dessert table.

Of course I wasn't thinking about the bazaar yesterday when I decided to decorate the front garden for Christmas while it was still some what warm. I worked on my own all afternoon putting up the greenery and Jesse and I worked well into the evening putting up the lights.

It looked great! (I'll be posting pictures as soon as I get a chance. We won't be turning on the lights until December and I'm hoping for a bit of snow to cover the ugly stomped on garden.)

Then I realized that I had just used up a lot of the bits and pieces I had intended to use at the bazaar!

Sigh. . .

That's what happens when I lose my book of lists!

Ah well. . .
I'm sure everything will work out one way or another.
Anyone have any good, quick, cheap and fabulous decorating ideas?
I think I might need them!

It's Warming Up!

It was another cold morning and it took quite some time for my feet to warm up once I got home.
Poor Jada had to miss out on a walk again today, but I just didn't have the oomph to go for a walk at -24C !
I had a nice nap today, made icing for the cinnamon buns I made yesterday and chatted with family and friends. (What did people do before phones?!)
It's time to leave for my afternoon run but my feet are mostly thawed out and it's a balmy -14C on this beautiful sunny afternoon so I'm looking forward to a nice bus ride.
There will be lots of fun things going on at my little house for the next while as we head into the holidays and I'll do my best to keep you posted.
Perhaps you might even get a good idea or two for your own holiday celebrations!

Laying Around

Friday found me frantically cleaning the house in between bus runs as I just hate it when Saturday rolls around and I spend the day working my butt off while everyone else just hangs out. Just so I would have absolutely no reason to go out on Saturday I decided to do a big grocery shop after dinner on Friday night.
Superstore had pumpkins on for $2.47 so I picked up five for our annual pumpkin carving night. Four of them went under the cart to leave room for the food. One of those pumpkins was quite obviously horrified rather than honored that he was about to be cut up and displayed on my front step and kept making a break for it. It got rather embarrassing when  he rolled right up to the same store clerk three times in a row!
The free item with $250 worth of groceries ( I nearly bought enough stuff to get me 2 free items!) was a mini DVD player. As ours has been broken for some time I was quite excited about this. Morgan (my tekkie geek) just shook his head and said " It's just going to be a piece of junk! I keep telling you you need to buy an xbox 3! You can store pictures, play music. . ."
After I brought the groceries home and the boys unloaded and put them away, Morgan set up my new DVD player.
It wouldn't open! Unless you banged on it. . .
For crying out loud!
I had to pick Holly up from work so I left a little early and exchanged it for a new one.
Man was Saturday ever going to be lovely. A nice long lazy day.
I woke up Saturday seized with the desire to put my applesauce away and bring my computer room (Actually everything but computering goes on in this room these days!) back into order. Over the summer it has served as a holding place for canning equipment,  a place to dry herbs or sew small projects and what have you.
Putting the applesauce away required a total clean out and reorganization. At this point Jesse got involved as I complained that to store my extra empty jars I first had to clean out under the deck. A scary, (mice) very large job in a very tight space. I have to crawl on my hands and knees to get under there.
Jesse said he would get the jars under there and I started working on the cold room.
I wiped down the 68 jars of applesauce and trucked them downstairs.
After going going to the grocery store, (I had forgotten something!!) I dropped Holly off at work, made a quick stop at the butcher and went home for a late lunch.
Jesse spent four or five hours slithering around under the deck sweeping, vacuuming, sorting and organizing until the space under my deck was beautiful to behold!
I figured I might as well tackle the computer room.
At 3 o'clock Sunday morning I finally went to bed after ironing and hanging all four curtains.
Henry just kept shaking his head and saying "I thought you were going to take it easy today. . ."
Sometimes my husband is very baffled by me. . .
So. am. I.
This is what I saw when I looked out the window this morning. . .

I've spent the day just lying around. (After a morning bus run and a quick walk for Jada of course!)
It's still snowing.
To my sister Tamara ,who after a long, unexpected business trip to Hong Kong is most likely wishing it was her who was lying around all day. . .
I'm praying you get a nice lazy day soon!
Actually I hope we all get a nice lazy day when we really need one. . .