Green Week - Day Five

green books
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

The last day of green week is going to be a bit random for me. I decided to raid the bookshelf again for some delicious green books since I had a lot of fun with books during yellow week. And this morning, without even thinking about it, I tied a green ribbon in my hair. I was tidying up the tray on my dresser and rather than putting it away with the other ribbons, I decided to make a headband out of it. So in that spirit, here is an arrangement with the ribbon and some other crafty bits that were scattered about:


green inspiration
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
Some other green I saw this week, but not through my camera lens... the green copper roof of the cathedral next to my office building (It's a funny coincidence, but both offices I've worked at in downtown Montreal have had beautiful old churches next to them.), a telephone pole with a strange green hue, the pipes in the metro, and various shades of green stair railings in my neighbourhood.

I've gotten the sweetest comments from visitors to my blog this week and it has really made me smile. Thank you for making it so much fun to play along with everyone.

And I'll finish with the kind of green that I'm dreaming about ... leaves!. These are some pictures from last spring and summer...

hiding under a leaf
Originally uploaded by allisongryski


green
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Have a lovely weekend!

Fruity green

green grapes
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Fruity green for today! Not much to say, though it's having the same effect as Yellow Week did ... I'm noticing green particularly. I only wish there was some outside to notice.


vase of citrus
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
And a close-up on the luscious grapes:


green grapes (closeup)
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Little green things are everywhere

green arrangement
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Moving right along in my green house tour ... above is an arrangement of green things found in my bathroom. And below is a green birdy clip on the string of cards by the door (it's currently overloaded due to 2 birthdays and valentine's day in the last month).


green bird
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

In case you're wondering what all the green is about ... it's Green Week.

Green in different textures

green chair and wall
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
So today, I found green in my living/dining room. With a green wall, it's hard not to see green, but the chair is also pale green. And there's some peacock feathers stashed in a vase beside a bookcase... I bought them for some crafty purpose (they're a bit beat up and consequently they were extremely cheap), but the final inspiration has yet to strike. Maybe a flashy hair accesory?


peacock plume
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Squeaky Clean Green

dish soap (aka "green")
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

I decided to start the week in my kitchen, at the sink. We actually call the dish soap "green" as opposed to referring to a particular brand-name. It's not "we need more dish soap", it's "we need more green". It somehow got dubbed that by some roommates in university and it's stuck ... so we wash our dishes with "green".

The bottle is a lemonade bottle that we shoved a pouring spout (from the restaurant supply store) into.


green dish scrubbies
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Yellow Week - Day 5

All week I've been noticing yellow in a way I wouldn't usually. It's a good feeling to see the world a little differently from normal. A girl walked by in bright yellow rain boots. A man in a yellow winter jacket. My pale yellow post-it notes at work. The cheery yellow toys out at a friend's house. Yellow signs and labels in the metro. The amazing number of food products that come packaged in yellow. And my daisies are slowly growing more yellow. I took a quick snap this morning.


more yellow than monday
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

And as a close to this yellow week, I pull a picture out that I took several years ago, but is so perfect.


yellow door
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Yellow Week - Day 4

Shortest little month
Wind whistles with rain and snow
Sing us into spring

-- 18 Feb 2009

It has been snowing and snowing here and it looks all pretty again! It's soft and fluffy and the good-for-snowmen type of snow. It's snow like in the movies, when it's all clean and blanket-y and quite warm out. And the world is again a lovely magical place. This impression was much helped by the sleight-of-hand of my multi-talented sweetie in making a chocolate heart wrapped in pink foil magically appear in my cardigan pocket this morning (while I was wearing it!). Such a delightful surprise.

We were out all evening having supper with some dear friends, so this is the only picture of yellow for today...


afloat on a sea of blanket
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Yellow Week - Day 3

Having to take my photos at night has encouraged me to pull out my tripod and I've been getting some good practice and sorting out what all the twiddly knobs control. Today I went looking for yellow books.....


dreaming in yellow
Originally uploaded by allisongryski


eating in yellow
Originally uploaded by allisongryski


mystery solving in yellow
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Yellow Week - Day 2

teacup and daisy
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

I sure wish I could be taking my photos during the daylight as we've been having some lovely sunny days, but evening is when I have time for this little exercise...


star in wooden bowl
Originally uploaded by allisongryski


lemon with your tea?
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Yellow Week - Day 1

I'm joining in on Yellow Week and here are my first two pictures.


daisies with a touch of yellow
Originally uploaded by allisongryski
Having an assignment with limitations is always a good sort of motivator. Yellow is not on my preferred end of the spectrum, so I thought I might have a hard time finding yellow things, but carrying my camera around the house this evening (boo, no natural light for me!), I saw quite a number and already have some ideas for upcoming days. Today I went for tiny bits of yellow.


yellow pins
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Paper-making and a meme

Handmade Paper
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

On Saturday, I experimented with paper-making along with several of my crafty girlfriends: fuzzymitten, lainevierge, superfink, and callmepavlov. We get together for crafty parties every month or two and have knitted, sewed, baked, and carved rubber stamps in the past. It's fun to try out new things, teach each other new skills, and inspire one another to be more creative. We used the technique described in this tutorial. It was messy, but lots of fun.

We collected all sorts of scraps for our paper: leaves, petals, fabric, tissue paper, wrapping paper, old comics. Just make sure that you don't use glossy paper because it won't break down as well. Coloured tissue paper has a lot of dye, so it's a good choice if you want to add colour since colour dilutes a lot when making paper with this method. The paper shown above had dark purple tissue paper scraps added to a greyish paper slurry. It looked quite dark when wet, but dried to a pale blue-purple.

I was also tagged by fuzzymitten for this meme.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was just starting my B.Math in Computer Science.

2. What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today?
ironing, pattern-making, reading, watching a movie, yoga

3. Snacks I enjoy:
toast, chocolate, fruit (especially berries in the summer!), ovaltine

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
It's hard to really imagine, but I expect I would travel more and I'd like to think that I'd give a lot of that money away.

5. Places I have lived:
BC: Vernon, Vancouver
AB: Calgary
SK: Saskatoon
ON: Waterloo, Ottawa
QC: Montreal

So I have some means of comparison when I say that I love Montreal.

6. Jobs I have had:
lab assistant, software tester, software developer, web developer, tech writer/editor, artist

Consider yourself tagged if you'd like to be!