So, if you haven’t heard already, on Thursday the 21st of July, Karl proposed to me… And I said yes!!! (proof in the photo above :)
This was the kickstart to the furthest Canadian vacation we have had since arriving to Canada 2 years ago. We chose to take the trip out west, by car… then proceeded to drive to Ottawa… Ok, so that wasn’t exactly west. We chose to use our good friends Chelsea & Mark’s wedding in Ottawa as the first leg of our trip, and use that as the starting point across the country.
I went to University in Ottawa but it wasn’t completely as I remembered it. It was warm… Hot in fact. I always came home from university (Carleton / i gave Karl a tour) during the summer, so wasn’t used to seeing it without snow & ice.
The wedding was at the Ottawa Aviation museum, which was awesome! Great venue & Karl loved it, so many old planes & motorcycles…
Now, we’re in Manitoba, just about to cross over to Saskatchewan. So far, it’s been Over 2200km’s of driving, a few gas tank fill ‘ups (although gas is surprisingly a lot cheaper when you leave Ontario)
We’ve hotel’ed in Ottawa, camped in Algonquin, slept in the car & spent a couple of nights camping outside of Winnipeg in Birds Hill.
We’ve also been able to fit in a lot of time for work, aided by the fact that we are traveling with enough hardware to launch a space shuttle.. and enough cables to wire a house.
We’ve also been lucky enough to spot a wild beaver, moose and black bear… As well as chipmunks, groundhogs, squirrels and rabbits (amongst other things)
We have had an absolutely lovely time so far and we’re not even a week in! With wireless Internet service at a minimum, we’ve uploaded our pics to facebook for now until I get a chance to organize everything. Here’s the link.
Ciao for now & we’ll get another update in hopefully before next week!
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So, it’s official… we’ve worked our behinds off for too long now, Karl & I need a vacation! (if you want proof, check out the recent portfolio updates on the CuteGecko website… more, more & more to come!!)
In between our hectic days, we’ve actually found time to plan a trip – & not your regular, every-day type of trip either. We’re road-trippin’ across the country! Ok, so what’s been planned then? Well, we have a map, some pins of where we want to stop off and no other real plan. After living and travelling in Australia in our old VW Kombi, we really enjoyed the free spirited nature of being able to head wherever we pleased and wander wherever the wind takes us. Of course, we’ll be working while we’re away (no rest for the wicked!) but I have a feeling our productivity might not keep up with us.
Now is where I need some help. I’m including a little google map of where we plan to take our adventure. If you’ve ever been anywhere near this little purple line & loved it, drop me a comment and let us know. We would love to for you to share some of your experiences or recommendations.
GO!
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On Wednesday evening, Karl & I attended an ‘Art Hunt’ with a ton of our old and new friends. What’s an Art Hunt, you say? This, according to Brock:
Here’s how this works. Everyone gets together for an hour in a cafe and using craft & art supplies you make something that fits a large zip lock bag. After you have made your piece, we take a picture, it goes in a bag and you have 30 minutes to hide your artwork in Waterloo.
We started out in Princess Cafe by fiddling with the vast array of art supplies. We came up with some ideas (Karl made a Bag ‘o’ happy thoughts and I made a sticker collage of a pirate ship) and then hid them around the few blocks close to the cafe. We had an excellent time enjoying the artistic talents of the others as well as betting on who would find the final pieces.
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Want to be a part of an event like this one? (or better yet, RUN your own?) Head to IdeasTransform, register and find out about heaps of local activities!
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Ok, aside from how weird it felt to bring my ‘film’ into the grocery store for developing, this experiment was a massive success!
Karl’s recent trip to the UK ended up with him bringing back lots of prezzies from his family. His absolutely lovely sister, Tara, sent him back with a Diana Mini camera for me to play with & the photos have been surprising and fun.
First thing’s first, the Diana Mini has some rules:
1. Bring the camera EVERYWHERE! Never be without it and you’ll never miss a shot (it helps that the camera is so small, I can carry it in my purse, wherever)
2. Take photos constantly! The Diana Mini has a couple of different features, including taking full square photos as well as 1/2 shots… which means that I can take 2 seperate photos on one frame
3. Experiment! The camera also has a feature that allows me to take one photo, not advance the film and then take another photo right on top. This can work out great and sometimes really terrible, but experimenting is key
4. (this one I added myself) Take your photos in a way that you don’t really mind if some don’t work out. I ended up with a few blank shots and had the film not advancing properly which meant that 1/2 a photo would be on one slide and the other 1/2 is on another slide… ah well!
So, if you were anxiously awaiting the results, here they are! Let me know if you want me to shoot you sometime :)
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After the completion of TEDxWaterloo, it looks like I’ve got some time on my hands (really, you say?). I’ve decided to join the already amazing organizing committee for
‘A Blooming Affair’ which is a part of our local Oktoberfest festival. My first meeting was this week and I’m excited to join in a marketing, pr and design capacity. If you’ve never been to this event, I’m going to strongly suggest you attend this year because we’re hoping to make it the best yet!
A Blooming Affair is held at the Bingemans Ballroom, Oct. 5, 2011 from 6:30pm – 11:00pm.
I’m still working out my role and where I’m allowed to contribute – I’m hoping to add all that I can to this years A Blooming Affair. Check out some photos from last year on the Facebook Page, SNAP Kitchener-Waterloo, and Gemini Models.
*photo credit: Dale Mann Photography
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During a random link-of-a-link-of-a-link exploration, Karl came across this beauty and forwarded it to me: lovemade.ca
love.MADE is a local initiative, bringing a space to our community which promotes arts, crafts and creativity. I have yet to explore this part of the Do-It-Yourself community, but hope to in the near future!
For now we have a smaller plan that we hope grows into more. We will be organizing workshops run by different artists: first up we have two knitting workshops being planned, one for beginners and one a little more advanced.
The site is pretty new, check it out and follow the calendar and blog – and follow them on twitter
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This past Saturday night, The Sign Depot hosted an art event called ‘Late Nights and Blue Collar Mornings’. Karl & I arrived at around 9 to a packed house and great atmosphere. Held in the factory setting at The Sign Depot, the newly public artist, David Hoover, wowed us with his artistic graffiti art. I was incredibly impressed by the turnout as well – by the time we got there, the packed house had already purchased more than half of the artwork (what a great display of our creative community!).
For more information on David and a better look at his artwork, check out his blog, Kosta One.
Have a look at some of the awesome photos of the evening courtesy of Lisa. More info and photos on RQ Magazine.
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Sick of winter? Looking for awesome Friday night plans? I’ve get the cure for both!
Friday, February 18, RQ Magazine presents… 8pm $4 beer, $4 admission for an evening with the region’s awesomest band, Vacuity.
Don’t forget that while you’re at THE MUSEUM, you can check out their latest exhibit, Searching for TOM.
Tom Thomson: Man, Myth and Masterworks is an original exhibition in collaboration with the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound with Virginia Eichhorn, Director & Curator, as guest Curator.
Head on over to their Facebook Page to confirm that you’re coming.
While you’re there, don’t forget to tweet with the hash tag #effwinterparty… See you Friday!
*photo courtesy of Vacuity
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Photo by MELISSA TAIT, RECORD STAFF
Second TEDxWaterloo looks to the future
An Array of Speakers
Last Saturday, fellow TEDxWaterloo organizer Ramy Nassar and I were featured in a Waterloo Region Record article titled “TEDxWaterloo Looks to the Future”. Hopefully you’re up to speed on the amazing event being held in Centre in the Square next month, I’ve talked about it on the CuteGecko Blog too! All of the applications have been submitted and attendees can start registering for the event in a couple of weeks. Anyone not able to make it to Centre in the Square is invited to view at one of the many Livestream locations around the region.
Click the thumbnails to see the newspaper spread or check out the full story on The Record Website. Also, don’t forget to keep up to speed on our speakers and announcements on TEDxWaterloo.com
Photo by Melissa Tait
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Ok, so it’s not an internationally broadcasted channel and I can’t even watch it at home because we don’t have cable, but I had the chance to be on TV for the second time in my life (1st being a W5 airing when I was 11… I was in the background, but knew it was me!)
The TEDxWaterloo team is ramping up the press for the March 3rd event. If you haven’t applied yet, head over to apply. I was going to be interviewed along with fellow team member, Kevin, and promote the awesomeness to those lucky enough to get the channel.
Alas, I woke up this morning with a raspy, croaky, yucky voice and a head that feels like it weighs a ton. Don’t worry though, off to work I went (I’m going home now).
So, I’m canceling my esteemed performance, but anyone with a Rogers TV Channel should watch live tonight at 7 – it’s going to be great!
(I’m so sick I can’t even muster up the courage to find a suitable photo to include in this post. First, time, ever.)
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