7.12.07

Entertainment while packing

I've been sick the past few days, so I've been working at home and packing at the same time
Inertia has seen my boredom and decided to entertain me!
Thanks Inertia

I've also noticed that Inertia has more friends on facebook than Sal. I guess its because of her awesome name, but it makes Sal sad.

3.12.07

Hadrosaur Mummy

How awesome it is they found a Hadrosaur with fossilized muscles, skin, and ligaments!

Dino Mummy
There is a statement in the article I found a little strange

"The findings from Dakota may cause museums to rethink their dinosaur displays. Most dinosaur skeletons in museums, for example, show the vertebrae right next to one another. The researchers looking at Dakota found a gap of about a centimetre between each one.

That indicates there may have been a disk or other material between them, allowing more flexibility and meaning the animals may actually be longer than shown in museums."

So they didn't think dinosaurs had intervertebral discs? Even tho other vertebrates have them? Curious
I do like that they are CT scanning the thing tho and not ripping it apart

16.11.07

TAIMA

I have a new favorite song
I hope the link works
INUUSIVUNGA

14.11.07

More Time Spent in Banff

I really can't get enough of Banff. The last weekend Renato was on his residency we walked the hoodoo trail. It was a cold day but the trail wasn't that tough, mostly boardwalks

This cute little whiskeyjack was eating......
...... good lord what is that?

It was an amazing view. What you don't see in this photo is that I waited atop while Renato walked down to the base of the hoodoos. I did not go because I did not want to die, luckally he did not die either

Pretty

more pretty

This weekend was also the opening of the Alberta Biannual, where artists from Alberta are picked to show their art in a huge show that goes to both Edmonton and Banff. Our friend Kay had a piece in the show, here it is! its very cool, in a simplified nutshell, it translates video into low frequency sound, that you feel from the boxes they are standing on. Left: Kay, Right: Renato

4.11.07

Mom and Dad's Visit

A couple of weeks ago Mom and Dad visited for a week! We did a lot of shopping and eating. On the weekend we went to Banff to visit Renato (he was doing a residency there) and went for a walk on the Old Banff Hot Springs Trail. Its where the natural springs are, and it empties into a marsh. Very pretty!


The old pool was filled with rocks, probably so no one would jump in for fun


Fishes lived in the water with all of the algae, I bet they were nice and warm

Mom couldn't go up to the top so Renato stayed with her

Isn't that awesome looking! It smells bad tho, like sulfur

Those little blobs are the endangered snails in the hot springs, if you go in the springs you will be fined for potentially harming this species, Its a hefty fine indeed.

This guy followed us around and screamed at us a lot, but he was cute




Handmade Christmas!

I Took The Handmade Pledge! BuyHandmade.org
Its pretty early to think about christmas... I know. But I love buying gifts so I've already started. Even tho there are 1 or 2 gifts i'm buying that are not going to be handmade, most of them will be! Its so nice to shop online on places like Etsy and have the presents sent to you!

26.10.07

A video to cheer you up!

Nothing cheers me up more than a cockatoo dancing to Backstreet Boys

25.10.07

We're Moving!

We weren't expecting to find a great appartment in an amazing part of town, but thanks for dear Wendy's sharp eyes, we will be moving on January 1st! The unexpected-ness means we have to find a new tennent for this appartment, but since housing is so hard to find in Calgary I 'Hope' it won't be too hard

The house is on the other side of the downtown, further away from the university (my work) and closer to Renato's work. BUT its very close to the C-train (monorail) and that goes straight to the university, so really we are in a better position

The area is called Inglewood, it was once the bad part of town but is becomming the hip part of town. Our place is in a residential area up on a hill, You can see the Saddledome from the view

There are so many good things about this place i'm gushing

First... It's PEACH!

I admit this is a bad photo of the place, but we get the whole top floor

Also It has a secret cat area (cats only) outside!

It is illegal to let cats out in Calgary, so this will be so nice for Sal and Inertia. There is a cat door in one of the bedroom windows

Other highlights: huge kitchen, all hardwood floors, no shared utilities with other tennents, rain barrels outside, a real backyard, a neighborhood pigeon to take care of




9.10.07

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Sorry I'm a day late.
I went to Banff, and had Turkey with Renato and all other artists at his program.
I like Turkey Buffets a LOT

Mr Turkey says Happy Turkey Day to you too!

5.10.07

Reading...

a great book, if your interested in morphology!

24.9.07

Why No Posts? + Bread

Hello, Sorry I have not posted in a little while. The big reason behind this is that Ren has taken the camera to Banff, he is doing a 7 week residency at the Banff center of the Arts and needs to document his work.

I'll try to improvise...

Last week our lab had a BBQ, I decided to make some bruscetta on home made bread. It turned out fantastically! I used the no-knee-bread recipe, which has never failed for me yet, and Wendy gave me a tonne of fresh tomatoes from their garden. I don't have any photos of the bruscetta but here is the bread, and the recipe is here!

This is my new pot to bake bread in. Its a ceramic 'rice pot' I got at safeway for $16! I was very excited when I saw thin in the rice isle

15.9.07

Earrings

Sterling silver and etched copper

14.9.07

Amazing!

This is an amazing presentation I lifted off of another blog.
Enjoy!

13.9.07

Going Places!

Today some of the jewelry I sell on ETSY was featured on the blog Ulixis Crafts by Amanda. How sweet is that? Amanda said some pretty nice stuff about my jewelry. Her Etsy store is pretty dang nice too. I like her leafy journals.

It seems ETSY is taking off in a big way. I love that I can list my jewelry there with no hassle: the storefront is already made for you and you just list your materials, description, and photos and off you go!! I also like that is for handmade items only... some try to sneek mass produced items in, but ETSYers keep an eye out for those. I hope it stays that way, and no one sells things like 'the oldest lizard claw' on it

12.9.07

Oldest Claw, yours at only $30,000.00!!!!

This got sent to me today
OMG the oldest claw in amber!!!! over 100 million years old!!!!

but wait... vertebrates existed before 100 million years ago, vertebrates with claws. I've never heard of a claw described as 'dinosaur like' either.... hmmmm
Buy it here!
But maybe I should buy it, after all, I could easily write a MAJOR scientific paper paper about it

Too bad I don't have that much money in my 'dinosaur like' bank account

Too funny

10.9.07

Very Big Toggle

This is a toggle i have been working on for a long time. I wanted to incorperate silver and etched copper... I think it turned out really nicely! Here is the front:

And here is the back

I put it up on ETSY although I doubt anyone will buy it, the cost is high, but its because of all of the work I put into it. I figure if I put it there at least others will see it

7.9.07

New at Etsy

I haven't been making a lot new findings for Etsy because I've been working hard at school. Yesterday I finished some tho, and they turned out really nice.



5.9.07

Congrats Tamara!

Tamara is in Chatelaine Magazine! Of course her beautiful jewelry gets rave reviews, its amazing stuff!

1.9.07

New Plate Shelf



Renato made me a plate shelf! Its made out of 4 types of mouldings (I think) and its for the plates Tamara made and gave us a long time ago. They are my favorite plates. I am going to hang the extra ones around the shelf along with some framed photos

30.8.07

Art Class Show

The Biology drawing class I took had a show in August. It was fun to put up our work, attach lables, and make all of our friends come and see (we made lots of food for the opening too!) Renato gave me a boquet of flowers at the opening which was super nice. I can't say I like ALL of my drawings. But I did learn a lot in this class and I will keep practicing
Here is what I submitted:
(You can click on them to make them bigger)
Wild Strawberry

Chicken Pelvis

Giraffe Vertebra

Cowbird - Adaptation Presentation

Cowbird - Detail of Nest

Cowbird - Detail of Specimen

Stag Beetle