So far, a lot of changes in 2012

Had a very successful wedding shoot at the end of June, of which I'll post more in a longer post later this month. Here is my current favourite photo from the portraits session.

My apologies for no blog posts this Spring/Early Summer - we bought a house in April and moved in June and WOW! it's a lot of work! Because of the nature of  my husband's work, he really can't make outgoing calls or receive incoming calls so 99% of the house purchase tasks fell to me. We also bought our first car a week before the move. Crazy, I know.


Work was just as hectic as we announced two really awesome projects that required a lot of communications planning, social media and A/V elements.

We're settling in well with a few small projects planned for updates/upgrades before the end of the year. We have so much more space than our previous rental. A garage is a luxury I didn't think I ever really needed but now realize that it has huge advantages. Also, I'm already planning my craft projects for Christmas. Hopefully I can reach my goal and have all of them done by the end of October.

Will post again soon, promise!

Rolly's Rollers now on Facebook

Rolly's Rollers is now on Facebook! Come support our Terry Fox Run team.

In the coming months we will have team-branded items for purchase with proceeds going to our Terry Fox Run team's fundraising goal.

Thank you to everyone who supported us in 2011!

Quick and Easy Holiday Treat - Sweet Marie Bars

Here's a quick and easy recipe for the holiday season. It's the first recipe I can remember making with my grandmother.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup - corn syrup
• 1 tbs - butter
• 1/2 cup - brown sugar
• 1/2 cup - peanut butter
• 1/2 cup - chocolate chips
• 2 cups - Rice Krispies

Topping

• 2 tbs - peanut butter
• 1 cup - chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Heat syrup, butter, sugar, peanut butter and chocolate chips in a heavy large sauce pan. Once melted, remove from heat.
2. Stir in cereal.
3. Press into 8X8 pan.
4. To make topping, gently melt chocolate chips and peanut butter in double boiler. Once melted spread over top.
5. Cool until base is firm. Cut into squares

I also made a printable recipe card to put in the Christmas cards we send out this year.

My First Attempt at a Calendar Desktop Background

I made my first calendar desktop background this week. I like it although I'm not entirely thrilled about the font and layout of the numbers in the calendar. That'll be something I work on for December but I think that it's not bad for a first attempt at something new.

The picture is from a shoot I did with a friend of mine and his little one two weekends ago. I hope to have more to share once I get sign off from him.

P.S. It's set-up for 1280 X 1024.

McGill Dances for Cancer Research

From my friend's FB page:

"For every click, McGill's Goodman Cancer Research Centre gets a donation. So let's make this viral. Everyone likes to watch senior scientists dance, no? :)"

A very close friend of mine works at McGill's Goodman Cancer Research Centre and I tell him all the time how proud I am of him for doing the work that he does. 

Please watch the video in its entirety, you'll be rewarded with some great bloopers at the end.

Barney!

This is LazyBoy Barney!

Long story short, we almost lost him when we was about 6 weeks old when he lost a fight with the LazyBoy. Now almost 2 years later he's obviously recovered.

I can honestly say I think he enjoys posing for me. He's must more patient with me than our other cat, Nermal.

I know I promised templates last month and I will still get them up here. PLUS I'll also have some pictures of my first sewing project since high school!

Cheers.

P.S. Thought I should thank Glebe Pet Hospital for all the amazing work they did with Barney. They were so uplifting when things seemed so bleak.

Templates!

I've been toying with the idea of putting together some templates/downloable content on the website. I guess it's a matter of where do I start?

I think my wedding thank you cards were a great success and will put a template post together for it in the coming days.

I've got to start somewhere.

My Favourite Picture of 2010

From T&B

Taken during Tammy & Bill's wedding on the grounds of The Monastery (formerly Precious Blood Monastery) in North Bay, Ontario.

Having this printed on canvas is on my to do list for 2011.

The 12 Days of Christmas Food Drive

I have some great neighbours in my work building

Acart Communications, an amazing social issues marketing company, runs these campaigns in our little six floor building (also called the Acart Building). Earlier in the year, they did a breakfast for the Canadian Breast Cancer Network’s Breaks for Breast Cancer selling baked goods and a sweet as can be recipe book.

This holiday season they're running The 12 Days of Christmas Food Drive for the Ottawa Food Bank.

In another lifetime, my family had to make use of a food bank on a few occasions. At Christmas, it was particularly difficult because that was when need was at its greatest in our city. No one knew our family used the food bank and I never knew if anyone else's family did either. The same principle applies today - you just don't know who will find themselves in need.

If you have anything you'd like to give (children's items such as diapers are in great need) but don't think you'll have time to get down to the Ottawa Food Bank in time, send me an email at sara.oglestone (at) gmail.com and we can coordinate a pick up/drop off.

We did it!!

Yesterday was the Terry Fox Run and despite only 4 hours of sleep I was able to run a little over 3km which is less than than the 5km I had expected to run. I'm pleased with my run though considering my training faltered in August and September.

Our group walked the 7km route (my 3km is in there).

I put together our t-shirts with iron-on transfers. Here's the front:
And the back:

Both myself and our team reached our fundraising goals! Here's my topped off goal gauge.

Our team raised almost $400 in as little as 3 weeks so next year I think we're going to double our goal.

It was a great first experience for us and we look forward to next year's event. I woke up this morning with an extra spring in my step and I liked it.

Terry Fox Run - Update

I am now at 85% of my personal fundraising goal and our team, Rolly's Rollers is at 90% of its goal. With 12 days left before the run - I know we can do it!

Every little bit helps.

Sponsor Rolly's Rollers

Terry Fox Run - A quarter of the way there

My sister and a couple of our friends have created a Terry Fox Run team, Rolly's Rollers, in honour of our great-uncle Rolly who passed last weekend.

I've revised my goal to reflect the Team's goal of $250.

Right now Rolly's Rollers are a quarter of the way to our goal with $65 collected.

Please help us help others in their battle.

Terry Fox Run - September 19, 2010

It's been a while since I posted but real life sometimes takes a front seat. For the last six months, Cancer seems to be around every corner. My best friend's aunt, my great-uncle, my boss' aunt just lost her battle and my co-worker has beaten his life expectancy by 2 years but still deals with the disease every day.

While planning weddings, baby showers and photo shoots, I've decided to help raise money for an organization that helps so many people I know.

This year I'm running in the Terry Fox Run and hope to raise $250 for the Terry Fox Foundation.

While my fundraising goal may be modest my intentions are sincere and my personal goal of running again is a big one.

You can help support me by making a secure online donation using your credit card.

Click on the link below: http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=2651239

For more information on how you can participate in The Terry Fox Run, please visit www.terryfox.org. Thanks for your support!

Thanks for your support!

DIY Projects

My new year's resolution this year was to do at least one DIY project a month. I know it's March so I've missed two already (I'll try and catch up, I swear) but just in time for Easter - a Lettered Ribbon Door Hanging*.

On a difficulty scale of 1 to 5 (1 being easy as pie and 5 being hard as a Brazil nut.) The project is a 2. The hot glue gunning may be difficult for younger crafters and shouldn't be done unsupervised. (Ed. Note: Fabric glue worked much better than hot glue for the fabric I was using.)

In total, I spent approximately $15 CDN. With all my supplies coming from my local dollar store. The only thing that I had on hand for the craft was my handy glue gun.

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Thanks to Smashed Peas and Carrots for the tutorial.

And thank you to Totally Tutorials for helping me come across this great tutorial.

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*Blogger is having trouble with their images right now . I will have to load a picture after the issue has been resolved. In the meantime you can see the one done over at Smashed Peas and Carrots.

Another Wedding Shoot

I recently booked another wedding shoot for this August! I'm very excited about this one as the couple is a friend of a friend. They didn't want anything over the top photography wise and I love being able to help out friends. It's also nice to know that what I do is appreciated and liked.

I'm also excited about the location. It's a university/college student bar that has been used for weddings before and I've heard great things about it. What's so neat about the location is the two floors, ample floor space and the great ambiance.

The grounds of the school are expansive and is surrounded by wooded areas meaning some great wide shots can be created. More romantic and seemingly secluded images can be created in the wooded areas.

Can't wait!

Canadian Museum of Nature - Looking forward to May 22, 2010

This post was started in November and I figured I should finally finish it.

My best friend and I decided on a whim to visit the Canadian Museum of Nature on the 18th of November. The Museum is currently in the last leg of a huge building wide renovation and has opened one wing on each floor for visitors during the renovation.

We only had an hour to burn and what we were able to see in that one hour definitely left us wanting more. The elevator was down for the day so admission was a donation amount of your choice.

There was a security guard following us around so I was really only able to snap the picture below.


The most awe inspiring room of the rooms we saw was the Talisman Energy Fossil Gallery. I got shivers when we first walked into this room.

Photo courtesy of the Canadian Museum of Nature

What little bit we saw of the Museum left us both wanting more and we can't wait for the rest of the Museum to be completed. If what we saw was any indication, the Canadian Museum of Nature will soon be at the forefront of the top national museums in North America.

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The Grand Reopening is scheduled for May 22, 2010.

Visit the Museum of Nature online at: www.nature.ca

Engaged!!!

You may or may not have seen me mention a little something about a ring in my Twitter feed a couple of weeks but I'm engaged!

My boyfriend proposed to me on the Friday of the Thanksgiving long weekend in October. We've decided that we would do as much as possible ourselves, from designing the invitations to the table numbers to the centerpieces. We've also decided to enlist the help of friends with creative talents such as my friend Jess who'll make jewelery and any other baubles we may want.

My Dad's best friends have already offered to make our cake for us!

We've set a tentative date in October next year so there will be a lot of work to do from now until then.

Let the fun begin!

Maternity Photos

I was able to sneak in a quick maternity session with Mel & Jay. A couple of the pictures didn't turn out the way I wanted so I'll have to go back to PS and make the appropriate adjustments.

I'm having trouble right now getting my Canon Selphy photo printer to read the appropriate colour profiles. I may have to visit my local photography shop to print some better pictures.

Here's mash-up of the two best photos I took. Thanks to Mel & Jay for letting me boss them around after the baby shower.

Kids Portraits

This picture, from the wedding I shot in August, has kicked off a keen interest in children's photography.

I don't have a lot of friends with young children. Just a cousin here, and a friend there. Although that's about to change come January when my best friend has her first baby and then again in February when another close friend has her first baby.

The more I photograph kids, the more I like photographing kids. Instead of trying to hide their personalities, stiffly trying to fit into the photograph, they're just themselves and that comes out so well in their photographs.

Keep my fingers crossed that I get to do more photos like the one above in the new year!

Vin & Jen's Wedding Part Deux

Finally finished the wedding pictures. Final photo count was 372. Many of them are multiples with an image in colour, a colourized/colour fade and a B&W. I also made a handful of triptychs and a larger multi-image collage.

Can't say that I won't do another wedding. In reality, I'd love to do another wedding. I had such a blast with the wedding party and their families.

My next project is a baby shower at Thanksgiving.