pira

Argh ~ before I totally forget to share these last images from the Pacific Heights area of SF.

Again ignore anything that is not exactly square...I'm obviously need work in that area, but it's easy enough to see how much eyecandy there is around the city from just a few of these homes ~ and there were streets going in all directions with the pretty.

Given time I'm sure that a person can fully explore all the nooks, cranies, angles and shadows in these neighbourhoods ~ few cities are just sit there posing for the world like SF does.

People get hung up on the *painted ladies*....a row of pretty houses off of Alamo Square ~ but you know ~ there are a LOT of people in this city that pour a lot of money and sweat into gussying up their dwellings, and you can't turn your head in most neighbourhoods without being in awe if the sheer manpower needed to keep up these places.

SF residents might not have the space for gardens but they make up for it by painting their homes to rival any gilded lily or prize rose. :)

( pix spam )

Damn but I have an obsessive personality....dolls, dolls, dolls. I'm worse than a kid with the Sears Wishbook leading up to Christmas. >_<*

Okay so a few more photos from San Francisco before I get my head stuck so far up these little resin asses that I forget I even went there and took any!!

What follows is a series of window shots...keep in mind that for a LOT of them I am standing on the ground, several stories down from the thing that caught my eye....and it would have made a GREAT shot if I'd had a telephoto lense blah blah blah....but you will have to do with the resulting capturing of a concept shot instead. >D

One thing I love about SF is the windows....and the windows in windows. My eyeballs were bouncing from one thing to another like a ping pong ball lottery tumbler.

To be sure I took a hellalot more pictures that I am sharing here, and the reason I'm not really, REALLY spamming you is that I was not happy with the angles of a large number of shots. Again I need to slow down and compose more thoughtfully but also ....it would have behooved me to use a tripod but I am NOT carrying one around on a casual walkies around this hilled city when on holidays with Teh Bob. Nuh-UH.

I am now going to go and try to regain control of my life or find one or something like that....

( A window on SF pic spam )

Actually when I went through all my photos (meh....not so many that I liked) I labelled them either by the neighbourhood that I took them in or the thing/concept that fascinated me at the moment (ie., reflections in windows)....so that is how you'll get them. There is logic to the randominity.

These images were all from a single block radius in the South Market of our hotel. Teh Bob was
sitting in a coffee shop with his sports section and I was just...wandering for 20 minutes before we started off on whatever walk we were doing that day.

I've said it before and I'll say it again...San Francisco is a city full of eyecandy ...and sadly I never really think out my shots and for some stupid reason I still don't take enough multiple images of the same thing to make sure that I captured/centred what I saw. Many times the light was too low and the job needed a tripod...but seriously I think Teh Bob would draw the line at humping that around all day and then me standing about fussing with it.

STILL I wasn't totally unhappy with the pix and there is enough diveresity overall to make a set of photo cards for the sprogs teachers at Xmas. :)


( Sanfran picspam #2 )

So we were off to Fog City for a bit of couple-time last Friday. It was one long, casual date and a nice change of pace from the usual run around one is faced with when travelling. No agenda besides picking a film to watch and then building the day around the showtime.

I wanted to take photos....natch.... I finally fought the good fight (after this day when I took these photos) and won him over to the idea of walking around before noon...because as a rule of thumb, taking pictures outside is best before 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m., when the light is less harsh. This of course conflicts with his rule of thumb that vacation = sleeping in till 10 a.m.

I bribed him with the plethora of cafes and carrying a newspaper in my bag. Plunked him down with an espresso & the sports section and then wandered up the street for 20 minutes at my leisure to just clickty-click. When we were just walking and I'd need to pause, he'd text the teens or call his dad on his pda while I played with my camera. Finally we found a pace and PLACE that worked for both of us. :)

( San Fran through my eyes....part one )

It's that time of year again when going to the market means fresh cut, locally grown sunflowers by the armful *^__^*

Yellow ones are okay, but personally I prefer the deep burgundy ones (Velvet Queen) or the brown-tinged Autumn Beauty ~ which I spied behind the table at the farmers market yesterday.

Teh Bob looked at the brown streaked blossoms and remarked that he'd never have thought to buy those...he prefers them brighter.

Mr. blue carnations and green roses has a dubious eye for colour when he's not being typically pedestrian in his choices, IMHO....

ANYway ~ I took the opportunity to play with them in the later afternoon with the camera, and must have been entertaining to watch as I lay on my back on the hard deck, squirming around a vase as sunflowers above my head rained pollen into my eyes and camera lens. >__<

So here we are...Helianthus annum spam:

( Sun sun sun here they come!!!! )

...And I was left alone with my thoughts (for the most part) and almost immediately my brain slid into neutral, the body on autopilot and I misplaced 16 days of my life ...again.

Ah the things we do for our families >D

I don't know what it is about the farm...but good intentions to play with my camera tend to just vanish and I simply forget to take pictures ~ or I think *hmmm I should grab the camera*...and then don't.

...I seriously Get my LAZY on when I go rural.

( Particularly unispired photos.... )

Well children...I'm back.

Hope everyone played nicely and didn't get into too much trouble online or in the real world.

As for myself ~ the time away was... interesting ~ in a hermitish sort of fashion.

My creativity (what little of it that is still kicking around) went completely dorment. I did some of the reading I wanted to and got some of the kimono disassembled and washed that I'd planned on taking apart. Less than I'd hoped to but whatevs...

I spent waaaaay too much time trolling the internet via a straw and as mentioned that was mostly relegated to stalking BJD (ball-jointed-doll) forums.

The reason for that was first off ~ they seemed to load faster than IJ or even my email...and because I've been bit by their little resin fangs and converted to the dark side (no one's really shocked about I assume)...besides, dial-up and no family afforded the time to lurk n learn....and yes get into trouble ~ but that's a story for another day. *flaps hands*....

I returned home Sunday to heaps of mail ~ (thank you Tameiki, Eve, Sildil, Kathy, assorted relatives and of course those ebay sellers) ....and of course projects.

Strangely enough the day after I returned the back-ordered cork for the office wall arrived. I'm putting that up tomorrow after the freshly washed wall is nice and dry.

I have to parge the exterior wall alongside the driveway next week and yes....the rocks/retaining wall/garden/front step need attending to. All before the 28th...because I am off again on the 29th, but with Teh Bob this time.

ANYway...one of the things that arrived in the post was something I'd ordered for the Obitsu duo...this will be Masa's suit (Monk doesn't know he's cosplaying yet)...and I took a moment today to have a bit of fun with it....and the boys. >)





( The new suit )

The postman left a box today and I forgot entirely that it's contents was slowly making it's way across the Pacific to me.

The contents were a pair of chairs....for dolls of course.

The are a fantastic red pair ...modern faux leather and ridiculously reasonable....and 1/6 sized.

I pounced on them when HobbyLinks was doing their inventory and listed them.....and I seem to have bought the last pair.

Anyway...since I was in a *why the heck not * mindset, I photographed opening them with...a doll.

( Dude takes a seat )

I joined a forum the other day, one that is generally about these dolls and not make/model/type specific ~ which most other forums tend to be...in a doll-nazi sorta way.

ANYhoo ~ I discovered something there when I was poking about ~ people take pictures of their dolls and even better...the do *photo stories* with them.

It's all great fun to see what people do with their variety of dolls and when I introduced myself and my Obitsu (model) boys and J-doll...someone remarked that the fellas looked like they wanted clothing and were waiting patiently for me to cough some up.

That got me to thinking and my creative itch needed scratching immediately ~ so while the guys were paving my driveway today I got busy ....below is the image rich tale that evolved from that thought.

( Dolly photo-story )

It was a sunny day and I decided that since today was the only one when I'd have time to actually do this until next week(busy but also the weather fairy says rain rain rain)...best to just drag them all out onto the back porch and get it over with.

THEN I can pack-up the ones to go on the shelf after sorting out the bunch to go to the farm with me for immediate dissected, when I am sitting around *farm sitting* at the end of the month (for 2 weeks). Good way to kill gobs of quiet time...

Yep. Trying to keep on top of those mad *cough* organizational skills of mine and not allow these things to clutter my newly cleaned up floor!! HAH!

That is at least...the plan. >D


( fabric spam )

Okay ~ enough of me apologizing for what I bought and my taste....


...I think I am going to have fun playing at photographing this stuff all artsy-fartsy-like.

Seriously.

When a few people had suggested over the year(s) that I should take pictures of this stuff, I would agree to do it... but couldn't for the life of me figure out how to do it but make it interesting.

HOWEVER..... after just a few minutes toying with it(them)...I've discovered the concept may actually have a point as it CAN be soooo much more!!!! :)

*tips hat to ladies* ~ I'm sorry I EVAH doubted.






( Behold...fabric art! )

Yesterday I spent the morning dashing about doing things like a crazy person and was stuck *on hold* as I waited for my parents to arrive for a visit ~ which usually means out to lunch, a bit of shopping and then some working around the house on small things that my father would help me with .... this time around involved pow-wowing on the garden retaining wall, talking about how to apply mortar to my foundation, firming up my porch handrail and sharpening my kitchen knives with his grinder *^__^*.

I'd done some grocery shopping after dropping the Sprog off to school then picked up the rest of my ¥ for my trip. I then had to deal with the cabbages...

I had three heads *souring* in my basement, and the scent of vinigar given off by the fermentation was driving me to distraction. No one else noticed it but then I have the most sensitive nose in the place except for maybe the cat.

I HAD to pull them out of the vat and process them A.S.A.P....so I haul the bucket upstairs, rinse and boil each individually while cleaning up the house (sweeping and washing the hardwood yet again), registering the sprog for summer camps etc. They are now ready to be made into the cabbage rolls I promised Teh Bob as a parting gift before I leave for Kyoto.

ANYway ~ in the short span of time that I was at loose ends I noticed my old red pyrex bowls on my kitchen counter glowing in the sunlight and the tomatos alongside them....so I grabbed my camera for a bit of artistic fun.

NATURALLY my parents pulled up as soon as I started snapping >D

( Really RED picspam )

When I got back from going out for a latte with my girlfriend and before I left to ...attempt to go to the gym (which was not open) I noticed sunlight rippling across a wall in my front hallway.


It was very *northern light-ish*. *^__^*



( mini-Aurora Borealis )

This morning was foggy so we had the first hoar frost of the season (at least that I've noticed) so I dashed outside to take a few photos but was frustrated by the lack of light ~ which made trying to get anything in focus problematic.

Mind you....the universe is problematic for me when it comes to anything to do with cameras *grumbles*

However as I was working my way through the resulting images and growling at the pithy colours (except for this particular one)...and for some reason I decided to try flipping them to monochrome. To my eye they look much better as I played with the contrast and found it popped out the shapes that had snagged my attention in the first place...so here's a bit of Boxingday pic spam.

My girlfriend is coming by for a quick coffee (she's sneaking out from a family event to air her brain a bit) and then I am going to the gym. My body is all achy from lack of excerise and I really need to pound some weights to feel better mentally and physically. Hope everyone has a good Boxing day and if you are hitting the stores....have fun and good hunting! :)





( shades of grey... )