About A Girl

Photo An Hour

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:55:00 +0000

I did a photo an hour a couple weekends back. I finally just got around to uploading my camera and sorting through those pictures. So, this photo an hour is actually from my Saturday, May 11. It was a relaxing day hanging out with Aaron and the cats and doing things around the house.

6am: I woke up and looked at the sun rising from our window. The sunrises have been really pretty lately. Our bedroom window is facing east so we get the full blown sunrise coming into our room in the mornings. It's actually really nice. I'm a morning person and I love how much sun comes through that window and how much it brightens the upstairs in the mornings, I find it relaxing.

7am: Drinking coffee and going online as we usually do in the mornings. I'll either work on blog/photo related things, read stuff online or attempt to organize things on my computer and external hard drive. Things of that nature. There is always something to do and/or distract you on the computer.

8am: I head to the main floor and open up the blinds to get some light in the house. I also opened some windows as it was a gorgeous day outside. Hobbes and Madison are both sitting on the counter near our kitchen sink looking out the open window here. There is a tree right outside this window and usually either some birds, squirrels or rabbits hanging out around the area.

9am: My breakfast. I only eat omlettes once in a while and this was one those times and damn it was good. I looooove broccoli and cheese omlettes, they're so delicious!

10am: Time to do some tidying up. There was a pile of dishes to be done, so I did some cleaning around the house for a bit while listening to some music.

11am: I stepped outside to put out some food for the animals and saw this guy. I usually toss some vegetables, seeds or bread out in our yard for the animals. I love watching them! A few summers back I had a rabbit eating out of my hand, it was awesome.

12pm: Aaron ~~teasing~~ holding Madison and showing her the backyard she is so longing to go out into. Since it's been nicer outside, she gets extra lovey towards us because she wants us to take her outside so she tries to heat us up a bit. That and she beeps a lot. It's pretty cute actually.

1pm: Time to make some bean salad for the week.

2pm: We decide to take the cats outside for a little dip. Madison is on the leash, while Hobbes is allowed to go free because she's good and listens to us. She doesn't run away or anything. She also likes lounging in this tree in our front yard, so adorable.

3pm: I decide to go through a bag of clothes a friend of mine gave to me to look through, just stuff she didn't wear anymore. I recently brought a couple bags full of clothes to her place (and I still have more) so we were doing a bit of a swap. It was awesome, there was lots of good stuff in there and I especially fell in love with these high tops, so good! There's another pair that is a purple/burgundy colour as well - sweet! I ♥ high tops.

4pm: Went to visit Hobbes and found her sleeping in this chair, one of her favorite spots. I love the second photo of her yawning, she's so sleepy!

5pm: Time for a bubble bath. I love taking super hot bubble baths, it's so nice. The candles are a nice touch as well. It's a good way to unwind.

6pm: I made some stir fry for supper. Loads of veggies and chickpeas in a hot/sweet type sauce over top of some barley. Mmm, yes!

7pm: Watched The Breakfast Club for a bit as it was on TV. I own this movie so I could really watch it whenever I want but I still get excited when my favorite movies are on TV. It's sort of funny because this picture was picture #420 on my camera and looking at what scene it is... they just go together so well.

8pm: The sunset from our office window and time to go chill out and watch some episodes of 30 Rock. Yes, we've been watching seasons of that lately. Such a good show! I really love it and especially love Liz and Jack, they're the best.

Have an awesome day!

xoxo

The Little Things...

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:13:00 +0000

...like pulling a Breakfast Club and fist pumping the air after getting a bottle of wine.

I made this GIF from a video taken in 2010. I don't know exactly what's going on except that Aaron is carrying a bottle of wine in that bag. We obviously walked to the wine store (there is one right near our house) and bought a bottle of wine to drink on this fine summer day. I am personally not a wine drinker. I enjoy some spiced rum myself so you'd find me Breakfast Clubbing like this with a bottle of rum in hand. But this is pretty much the best thing ever. LOVE.

Enjoy the day!

xoxo

Recipe: Smoothie

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:20:00 +0000

We love drinking smoothies. We always have one for breakfast so I'm making these all the time around here. I don't have a specific recipe with exact measurements for the smoothies I make. I just use certain ingredients all the time, switching up some of the stuff each time, which is why this recipe isn't very specific but more of just a basic guideline.

These are the ingredients I have been using lately the most. I'm hoping to try some new fruits and vegetables in the mix soon, but these ones are always a great choice. A friend of mine told me she used chia seeds and almond butter in one of her mixes and it was really awesome and she felt full for a long time, so that's definitely something I want to try out.

I don't necessarily use all those ingredients I've listed. I make different combinations of everything, depending on what we have in the house or what I'm feeling up to. Anyways, this is how I make our smoothies:

Liquids

apple juice

orange juice

cranberry juice

carrot juice

soy milk (regular or chocolate)

water

Fruit/Vegetables

bananas

apples

strawberries

mango

spinach

cranberries

blueberries

frozen fruit of any kind

Other

protein powder

honey

yogurt

fibre one

I start by pouring a little bit of liquid into the blender. Sometimes I'll use a little splash of a bunch of different juices, sometimes just one, sometimes I want it to be more creamy so I'll use soy milk and so on. I fill the blender up about 1/4 of the way with a mix of liquids.
Then I throw in some protein powder. This is just something we use after we workout and to put in our smoothies, but totally not necessary.
Next I'll toss in a generous amount of frozen fruit, fresh fruit, spinach and any other ingredients I might want, such as a little bit of yogurt, some honey or sometimes even some Fibre One cereal. You're basically just filling up the rest of the blender with this stuff. Not quite to the top because you need some room to move, but just below.
I always use lots of fresh spinach, not matter what kind of smoothie I'm making, it's included. You can add tons of this stuff and you'll never taste it. So, throw in a lot of spinach because it's good for you!
Once that's done, blend it all together until nice and smooth. If it seems a little thick, you can always add a little more liquid to it. Grab a spoon and push things back down into the blender if they get stuck. I know that happens a fair bit with the spinach for me.

It's super easy to make smoothies. I love switching up what I make, trying new combinations and having fun with it. They're packed full of awesomeness and taste great as well.

Enjoy!
xoxo

Photodump: Yard Clean Up

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:06:00 +0000

Seeing as the snow is finally gone, we've been trying to clean up the yard as much as we can. It's quite the process. Our yard is big and there are lots of trees, so that means a ton of leaves. I think we're going to look into getting some trees removed/pruned this year to help take away some of the mess it makes.

We usually end up filling 70-80 bags of leaves from our yard each year, but we've already got 50 and not even started the front yet. So much to do! I'm hoping we can tackle the rest of the yard in the coming week and get it ready to enjoy during the warm weather. Here are some photos of the yard clean up and just taking the cats out for the first few times since it's been starting to get nice out.

Oh yeah, those fifty bags jammed up are in our garage right now. We moved them in there because it was going to rain and we didn't want the bags to get soaked and fall apart. Our garage is literally jammed to the max!

Hobbes is so much easier to photograph than Madison. Madison is really excited outside and prances around like a fool where as Hobbes kind of just lounges and basks in the excellence. Aah, so happy to be able to go back outside and enjoy it.

Have an awesome day!

xoxo

May Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Tue, 07 May 2013 09:52:00 +0000

Snow in May? Yep, that's Winnipeg. As I wrote this post, it was snowing outside. I looked back to when I took the above photo and it was actually May 1, 2011. Usually this doesn't happen, but every once in a while we have a super long winter and get snow as late as May and this was one of those years. While it's not exactly the best thing to have it snowing in May, the weekend and yesterday was amazingly warm outside, so the snow is actually all gone. Now it's time for some serious yard clean up. Anyways, here are my goals for May:

Buy some seeds to plant for our garden: Has anyone heard of the dirty dozen? It's a list of fruits & vegetables that have the most pesticides on them (it also includes the clean fifteen). I've heard of this list before and recently saw that article about it, which just got me thinking how much I want to avoid things like this. I eat a fair bit produce from that list and we've been growing a garden for the last few years so I thought it would be best to try and grow as many items as I can find from that list. I know I can buy organic, but sometimes they don't offer those options where I shop or they're super expensive. So, for the summer my goal will be to get as many seeds as I can from this dirty dozen list and plant/grow them myself. The rest (like the apples), I am going to start buying organic. Once garden season is over, I'll figure something out, which will likely just be trying to find the rest of the items organic.
Make a recipe page on my blog: Something I've been wanting to do for a while is to make a specific page with all my recipes on it so they are easy to find and access without having to search through the whole blog. I will get this done this month!
Do a photo an hour: I haven't really done a photo an hour post for a while and I keep wanting to but then just never do it, or I start and don't finish it but I like looking back on them.
Start playing guitar with a pick again: I am the worst with this. I never played guitar with a pick. I like playing with my fingers, there's just something about feeling the strings. I feel more in control when I'm playing and I just like it. But we are going to start recording soon and the truth is, playing with a pick makes the guitar sound better. It's a louder, stronger more rock sound and I want the recordings to be the best sounding they can be. Over the last year I've been playing with a pick on and off. I'll start but then lose it because I just like going back to using my fingers. I'm going to start using the pick again to get used to it for the recordings coming up.
Clean up the yard: I mean actually put a fair bit of effort this month to get the yard cleaned up and ready to enjoy as long as possible. I do clean the yard every year, you have to. We have tons of trees, which means tons of leaves on the ground. But I want to get this done as soon as possible and look into getting the trees pruned and cleaned up. I really love our yard and I want it to look as pretty and relaxing as possible so we can enjoy and bask in the awesomeness!

It's meant to be 26 degrees outside today, so I'm looking forward to spending some time outside and working in the yard later. No more snow, yay!

Enjoy the day!
xoxo

Recipe: Black Bean Veggie Burgers

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:14:00 +0000

I gave myself a goal to try out a new recipe and I did that with these veggie burgers. I had seen random recipes around the web for using black beans when making veggie burgers but had never tried it. I always wanted to so thought I'd give it a shot and see how it turned out and they were awesome!

2 cans black beans (drained, rinsed, dried)

                                                      1 onion
                                                      1 red pepper
                                                      1 clove of garlic
                                                      1 cup shredded carrots
                                                      2 big handfuls of baby spinach
                                                      3 eggs
                                                      1.5c of bread crumbs*
                                                      1 tablespoon chili powder
                                                      1 tablespoon garlic powder
                                                      1 teaspoon curry powder
                                                      1 teaspoon oregano
1 tablespoon franks

* You can also use oats if you don't have bread crumbs on hand or run out. I didn't have enough bread crumbs so used some oats and it was really good. It was an equal split of oats/bread crumbs for me.

1. First open the black beans, drain and rinse them. Lay them all out on some paper towels and pat them dry as much as you can. Leave them out to dry as you make the rest of the mix.

2. Now to get the veggies ready. I use a food processor for everything, but if you don't have one, you can just chop everything up (and shred using a grater) yourself.

Throw your clove of garlic, onion, and red pepper in the food processor and chop that up until fairly small pieces, not into mush or anything but just small little bits. Once that's done, toss the chopped up mix into the strainer and use your hands to press down on it a few times over to get as much water out as possible. You want to get as much of the moisture out so the final mix of everything won't be too watery.

3. I took that mix out of the food processor and put it in a large bowl. Then I took about 2 big handfuls of baby spinach and threw that into the food processor until it was small flakes. Once done, toss into the same bowl as the red pepper mix is in.

4. My food processor has a tool to chop (which is just a big blade and what I was using for everything) and it also has a blade to shred. I used the shred blade now and shredded up the carrots. Add the carrots to the bowl of veggies once done.

5. I then rinsed the food processor out to get ready for the beans. I pat the beans dry a little more before putting them into the food processor. I switched back to using the big blade that chops everything up for this. If you don't have a food processor, you can use a potato masher.

6. Once that's done, add the bean mix to the vegetables you've been tossing into the large bowl. Add remaining ingredients (bread crumbs/oats, eggs, Frank's and spices) and mix well.

7. I then stored the mix in the fridge with some cling wrap over top of it for a couple hours as I went and did some other things around the house. When ready to start cooking, preheat the oven to 400°F.

While the oven is preheating, grab you mixture from the fridge. Get a couple baking sheets and spray them with cooking spray. I would suggest not using foil as I did in the image below. For some reason I thought it would make it easier, that they wouldn't stick and it would be and easy clean up. Well, my patties actually did stick to the foil. I was able to get them off only breaking one or two of them a little bit but cooking spray worked way better, which is what I switched to using when I was flipping the burgers at the half way mark.

8. This made about 12 patties for me. Once that's done, put them in the oven for 10-12 minutes on each side (flip half way through). Top with your favorite toppings!

Enjoy!

xoxo

Home Movies: Hobbes Doing The Dip

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Wed, 01 May 2013 10:55:00 +0000

I found this video the other day while sorting through some stuff on my external hard drive. It's from 2009. I was making a cup of soup, one of those Lipton's packages I think it was. I had the soup mix in the mug ready to go and then stepped away for a bit while I waited for the kettle to boil.

Anyways, as I was away from the area, Hobbes jumped up on the counter and started dipping her paw in the soup powder and licking it off. Aaron saw this happening, grabbed the camera and filmed it. It's so cute how she does the dip and lick. I wouldn't normally let Hobbes eat that stuff but this just happened and it was so cute we just had to film it.

Have an awesome day!

xoxo

April Goals: Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:30:00 +0000

It's finally starting to feel like spring here in Winnipeg so I'm pretty happy about that. The snow is melting, the air is fresh and soon enough things will be in bloom. I can't wait! Here's a look back at the goals I set out for myself for April:

1. ~~Clean the basement~~: Done! Finally! I've been meaning to do this for sometime now and I got it done. The thing with this goal was to clean the main room in our basement. We have 3 rooms down there, the big main room where we workout, jam and hang out in, then there is also the laundry room and the freezer/storage room. The freezer/storage room still needs cleaning/de-cluttering, but that's another story. But I was able to get the main room, which is used the most, cleaned up and organized.

2. ~~Paint my birdhouse~~: Well, I was able to get this thing painted, but I'm not completely done. I'm going to paint some detail on the house as well, just on the sides, like grass, vines, flowers, stuff like that. I haven't quite decided yet but I'm going to add some more to it. I have to buy a few more smaller paint brushes for this but I'm happy I at least got the base of it done. Once that's all done, I'll also varnish it.

3. ~~Get new ID card~~: This is on the way! I've applied for this, got my picture taken, the paperwork done and paid for my new ID but now I just have to wait for it to be sent out to me. I needed to get this in order to get my passport actually, which will be another thing to do soon. At least step one is done!

4. ~~Try a new recipe~~: I tried making some black bean veggie burgers and they actually turned out really awesome. I had seen recipes on the internet where people used black beans to make patties so thought I'd give it a shot. I didn't follow any specific recipe I found but just kind of threw a bunch of stuff together and was really happy with how they turned out. This is definitely going to be a regular meal at our house now and I can't wait to throw some of these patties on the BBQ in the summer!

5. ~~Shaves Hobbes~~: My beautiful Hobbesy! She often gets little collections of mats near her bum. I didn't have to literally shave Hobbes all the way so you can barely even tell she has been shaved, but she just has small patches of holes in her fur. If we had better clippers, I would actually just shave her right down in those areas to clean it all up but our clippers kind of suck and you actually have to work at it to get through the mat and get it out. It's not just as easy as running the shaver along her and it all coming off. It took a good 20-30 mins of working through all the little areas to get it smooth and clean but it's so much better now. I think I'm going to invest in some better clippers so I can just quickly zip her hair off next time. That little insert in the image of Hobbes is a small section of the pile of hair I shaved off.

I'm really looking forward to May, filled with spring goodness and hopefully a thunderstorm or two.

Have an awesome day!

xoxo

Flashback Friday: That Time I Was a Freelance Photographer

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:08:00 +0000

Back in 2010, we did not have an NHL team. We had The Manitoba Moose as a team. That's all we had as The Winnipeg Jets went away in 1996. We recently got an NHL team back, The Winnipeg Jets, in 2011.

So, in 2010 Aaron contacted some higher up guy at The Manitoba Moose because he wanted to go to a Moose game. He told this guy from The Moose that he was from Australia and had never seen a hockey game, something he had always wanted to do. He also told that guy that him and I were freelance writers/photographers and would love to come to the game to write an article and take pictures.

The guy responded to Aaron and said he would give him two press passes for him and I to attend the game for free and get "press access" to be able to write an article and take photos of this game. This was a little intense for us at that time. We didn't really do freelance writing/photography. We just wanted to do this. It was something we were both interested in. Aaron was into writing, I enjoyed photography. I think I had just got my DSLR camera around that time but never really used it because I didn't know how to.

So, we got these press passes. We had access to private areas, the press box and pretty much everything you can imagine. If anyone thought we shouldn't be somewhere, we just flashed them our press pass and they let us in. We talked to the players, we got to go right down on the floor of the arena at ice level to take pictures and talk to the people. It was actually really awesome. I was using some super old SLR camera my dad had from back in the day. It wasn't digital, I had no idea what I was doing and had never used this camera before. I don't think I had ever really even used an SLR camera. I was just starting to get into taking pictures and had always used a point and shoot up until then. I had this little lens that didn't zoom in that much and I was literally just winging it. I was talking to the photographer from The Winnipeg Free Press and pretending like I knew what I was doing, a freelance photographer, but in reality I had never done this before and it was just a dream.

Thinking back to the day, it seems so weird. Using my dad's old camera. Having just one roll of film to shoot. Not being able to see how the pictures were turning out on the display. I was used to this kind of system and this is how it was at the game. I think I even went to a camera shop just before the game (one that rents out gear) to see if they could lend me a zoom lens of some sort for this game but it didn't work out. I couldn' get it and just had to make do with what I had.

In the end we came away with the photos you see here (I must have some more somewhere, however these were the only ones I actually scanned), no real article and an awesome experience. Aaron had talked to some players and was going to write something up, but never ended up doing it. We didn't have any obligation to write/take photos for anyone but ourselves, so it was all good either way and more about the experience to me. And it was pretty awesome how Aaron just pulled off getting us those press passes too. We had fun and did something we loved and still love doing.

Happy Friday friends!
xoxo

Food Tips: Avocados

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:28:00 +0000

I don't know about you guys but I love avocados. It wasn't until the last year or two that Aaron and I have really started to get into eating them. We love making guacamole, baked avocado fries and just eating avocados in sandwiches or salads. They're so good!

When I first started using avocados, I didn't know a lot of these little tips that I do now so I thought I'd share for the new avocado lovers out there.

1. When cutting your avocados, cut them lengthwise. It's much easier to handle. The pit doesn't get in the way when you're cutting it and you can easily scoop out the excellence inside with a spoon. Also, be sure to remove that little nub thing I have circled. I know there was at least one time when I didn't realize it was there and it fell out while I was scooping and got mixed into the guacamole I was making. I'm pretty sure Aaron ended up eating it because I remember him biting down on something hard and asking me what was happening. Eeep...

2. Usually you would just wait until your avocados are ripe enough before using them. You can tell when they're ripe because they are a darker green colour and also a little soft to the touch. If they're a brighter green and hard as a rock, they aren't ready to use yet and will be nearly impossible to work with if you attempt to use them anyways (I know from personal experience).

But, sometimes there is this middle phase when they don't feel totally ripe yet and they're still kind of hard but not baseball hard like in the beginning. You don't know if you can use them or not but you're dying for some guacamole. I've tried them in this stage and while they are more difficult to get off the peel and mash up, you can still make it happen if you're determined.

What I do is still cut then lengthwise and remove the pit. I then slice up each side into little fry like slices as in the photo above and use a spoon or knife to slowly slice the peel off each piece of avocado. This works much better than trying to scoop the inside out with a spoon when they're ripe. Also, when I make guacamole I usually just use a potato masher to mash up the insides but in this stage they're kind of hard to mash. I use my food processor when they're like this and it works perfectly! So, when you can't wait for some avocados but they're not quite ripe yet, there is still hope!

3. If you are making guacamole and you're not going to eat it right away or expect to have leftovers, save the pit. If you leave the pit in the guac, it will stop it from turning brown/black. If you've ever made guac and either left it out for a bit or had leftovers in the fridge, you'll notice it will turn a brownish colour after a while. This grosses me out for some reason, I don't know why, but I won't want to eat it when it gets like that (even though you can just stir it and it will go away). Anyways, if you leave the pit in the guac, it will stop this from happening.

4. I always use a bit of lime or lemon juice when making guacamole as it gives the flavour a little kick but it's also supposed to help stop it from turning that brownish colour as well. To be honest, if you just use the lime or lemon juice and store it in the fridge without the pit, it doesn't entirely work. I've tried it and the guacamole still turned brown, but it wasn't as bad as without any lime or lemon juice. So, it helps with that but the pit saving thing is definitely the best for avoiding that brown situation. However, just adding a bit of lime or lemon juice does taste awesome in the recipe!

5. Want to quickly ripen your avocados? Leave them out on the counter. I've heard that if you store them near a tomato or an apple, they will ripen faster. I don't know for sure if this is true as I've never tested it with/without to see if there was any difference. I just put my avocados with my tomatoes on the counter and they were ripe by the next day.

6. Finally, if you want to keep your avocados ripe for a while, store them in the crisper of your fridge. I usually buy a bunch of avocados at once when I go grocery shopping and if I were to leave them all out on the counter, we would have to eat them all within a few days otherwise they would go bad. So, I leave some on the counter to ripen for use within the coming days and store the rest in the crisper. I've had them last almost 2 weeks in there before.

Anyone else have any avocado tips? Or perhaps some awesome recipes? I'd love to hear them!

Have an awesome day!

xoxo

Photodump: Randomness from the Week

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:55:00 +0000

Maddie lounging in a small ray of sunshine.

I made smoothies (as usual) and some black bean veggie burgers. They were filled with veggies like: spinach, red peppers, onions and garlic. They turned out pretty damn good! I'll share the recipe soon.

It just keeps snowing here in Winnipeg. Looks like we're likely going to just skip over spring and head into summer. Sort of shitty because the summer is going to seem super short now just going from June - August. Ugh. Oh well, at least it's not -30.

So I cleaned the basement recently. It was pretty jammed up with stuff. It's a little hard to tell in the before shots, but there was just stuff everywhere. All over the ledge of the fireplace, scattered around the basement and so on. We use the basement to workout in and to jam in, but sometimes it's the one place where everything you don't want to deal with right now goes into and it gets overflowing with stuff. I found some of my old school She-Ra toys and a Popple when I cleaning, as well as my marble collection, all from when I was a kid. So of course I had to put that out on display. It's so much nicer working out and jamming down there now that it's all cleaned up and organized!

I also made some pasta salad over the weekend. I don't make it that often, but I do love pasta salad.

Now for some cat photos. Of course there would be some included in this post! I found this Madball from when I was a kid when I was cleaning. Does anyone remember these things? Wow, they're so old school! Madison was playing with it.

Hobbes and Madison's favorite spot, in the bed in the front window of our house. It's one of the only spots in the house that they'll actually share (not at the same time, but they take turns sleeping in that bed).

Some photos of Madison lazing around in the sun and in the bed in the front window again. She usually dominates that spot and Hobbes sometimes gets a crack at it. She looks like she's getting blown away in that second picture.

When I get home from work, we usually take the cats outside for a little bit. Madison loves it, but Hobbes has been a bit of a baby lately. She doesn't like it because it's cold outside. She enjoys it for the first minute or two, rubbing her head on the concrete and what not, but then starts whining and running to the front door. It's funny that she runs up to the front door and waits because we always use the back door. What a fool.

Finally, a photo of Madison lounging around in our office with her catnip banana toy next to her. That toy has been around for a few years so it's super old and worn out, but she loves that old stinky banana. She tosses it up in the air for herself and catches it, it's pretty cute.

Have a good one!
xoxo

How To: Install Brushes into Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:05:00 +0000

When I first started using Photoshop Elements, I had no idea there were all sorts of neat brushes you could download and install to use and make neat things. So, I'm going to show you how to find and install brushes.

First, you have to find and download some brushes. You could do a simple search for 'download free photoshop elements (or whatever version of photoshop you have) brushes' and you should be able to find some neat stuff. You could also check out brushlovers and brushking. For the most part, just make sure whatever brush you download is compatible with your version of Photoshop. Sometimes they work even if it doesn't mention your specific version, but there is a chance it might not.

Once you've downloaded the brushes you want to install, you will likely have to unzip them. If you don't have winzip, you can download a free trial right here. Download and install winzip, it's very easy, just follow the steps it guides you through. Once that's ready, go find the brush file you downloaded and double click on it. It will open in winzip to be extracted. Here we go:

1. Once your file opens in winzip, there might be numerous things in there. You want to extract the one that has a little brush icon on it (it should be an ABR file). Just right click on it and choose extract. Save the file wherever you want to keep these brushes on your computer. I usually just make a separate folder for them.

2. Now what I do is install the extracted brush file into the brush folder that Photoshop has set up in your Program Files. So, open the folder where you saved the brush after you extracted it. Now to open the second folder, you go to Program Files> Adobe> Photoshop Elements 5.0 (or whatever version you have)> Presets> Brushes. This is where all your default brushes are. Now drag the new brush into the folder with the rest of your brushes.

** A couple things about this step: You might be able to just skip it. It's a matter of preference with how you want to do things but you could either just extract the brush in step 1 into the default brush folder in Photoshop (Program Files> Adobe> Photoshop Elements 5.0 (or whatever version you have)> Presets> Brushes) and then skip this step entirely. Sometimes I just like making a separate folder to keep things more organized if I download a bunch of brushes and don't want them installed all at once. Or you can not even do step 2 and instead skip to step 3, you'll see why in a moment.

3. Now you want to load the brush set in Photoshop so you can use it. Open Photoshop and a new blank page. Click on the brush tool, then there is a little spot I have circled above to click for more options, do that and choose load brushes. It should open to that default folder in Photoshop where you dragged the file in step 2 or if you choose to skip step 2 and move to this step, all you have to do is find the folder where you extracted the new brush set into.

4. You're going to just load the brush set in now. So, find the new brush in the folder and double click on it to load for use. Your new brush set should just load it into your brush tool.

5. Your new brush set is ready to use! Have fun and play around with them. There are so many awesome brushes out there for literally everything, so go nuts. Also, each time you want to use a different set of brushes, you will just have to follow these steps to load the set in each time.

There are brushes that are actually like images of things, like trees, birds, landscapes as seen below:

There are also ones that just have shapes, you can get paint splatters, curly shapes and so on:

You can make some pretty awesome stuff with all the brushes out there. When I first found out about this, I downloaded so many different types: shapes, trees, fireworks, cats, paint splatters, stars, hearts, skulls, there is literally everything!

Anyways, have fun!

xoxo

Movie Characters I Should be BFFs With

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:36:00 +0000

Kristen Wiig - Bridesmaids

I love this girl! She is hilarious. As I watched this movie, despite the fact that Annie goes through a series of events that makes her look kind of bad even though it wasn't her fault, I wanted to be best friends with her. She seems like a genuine friend who really cares about her BFF and everything that happens during the course of this movie was pretty funny, even though she never intended for all those bad things to happen.

Some of my favorite things about this girl: when she had a slight meltdown and destroys the huge fucking cookie, she's a baker, her idea of an awesome bachelorette party would be at a lake house, she does some hilarious impressions of Helen, and even after everything Helen did to her, she still helps her when she can't find her BFF, Lillian.

Have an awesome day!

xoxo

Recipe: Bean Dip

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:08:00 +0000

This dip is a regular at our house. We actually eat this all the time, it's definitely one of our favorite things. It's a great snack, but we also eat it as a meal, sometimes with a side of guac. I often make huge batches of thist stuff and keep it in the fridge for a quick and easy meal during the week.

1 can six bean blend

1 can baked beans

1 can black olives

1 tomato

2 green onions
1 clove of garlic
1/2 a small onion

1/2 a red pepper

1/2 a green pepper

jalapenos/banana peppers

Frank's Red Hot Sauce

garlic powder

chili powder

(sour cream)

Get a big bowl to throw all your ingredients in. Start by opening the can of six bean blend, rinse and drain them, then throw them into the bowl. Drain the olives, add them in. Add in the baked beans.
You can either just chop up all your veggies into small pieces to throw into the mix, or what I like to do is use my food processor and just dice all the veggies up into a mix and add that in.
Add in your Frank's and spices to taste. I just add a little bit in, mix it up and then taste it. I will add more as needed.
You can also add in sour cream if you like. I don't always add it in, but sometimes. If you go overboard with Frank's or something, you can even it out with sour cream.
Mix it all together well.
This makes a fairly big batch, so we usually split it into 2 portions. We store one in tupperware in the fridge for another time and eat one right away.
When ready to eat, put in the microwave for about 5 minutes, until warm.

This bean dip is awesome with tortilla chips, rice crackers, or by itself. You can really use any type of crackers and it would be pretty awesome. This is just our regular way of making it but we've also added in things like: cheese, curry powder, salsa, broccoli, cream cheese and other stuff I'm sure I'm not even thinking about.

Anyways, hope you enjoy!

xoxo

April Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:34:00 +0000

I'm super excited for spring but it's still not quite here yet. It was snowing on the weekend and there is still a lot of snow on the ground, unlike last year at this time when it was +20 outside. One of the things I love the most about spring is when everything first starts blooming. The lilacs, this one tree in our yard that only blooms for a few days but it's just gorgeous when it does and I love it. The fresh air, that smell of spring after a long winter, so good! Anyways, here's my April goal list:

Clean the basement: This is something I didn't quite get around to when I had my time off but wanted to. It will be a bit of a project as it's all jammed up with stuff right now but it's where we workout and where we jam and hangout, so I want it to be a little more comfy because it's getting a little crowded.
Paint my birdhouse: While I was doing my spring cleaning, I found this birdhouse stuffed in one of the closets that my Auntie gave to me a couple summers ago. I meant to paint it and put it out in our yard but I put it in the closet and forgot about it. So, I want to get this painted and in our yard.
Get new ID card: I need to get this new piece of ID in order to get my passport and I've just been putting it off. I'm going to get finally get it done this month.
Try a new recipe: It seems like it's been a while since I tried a new recipe so I'm kind of longing to try something new. I haven't decided what yet, but I'll look around and see what I can find. My grandma had a box of recipe cards I found recently so I was thinking I'll look in there.
Shave Hobbes: Sort of a weird goal, I know. But this is yet another thing I've sort of been putting off. Hobbes gets mats sometimes and we've been shaving her and it's been good but we haven't done it for a couple months and there is a little build up of mats that we need to take care of. And I used to be totally scared to shave Hobbes and would take her to the vet to get shaved but Aaron and I finally tried it ourselves a few months back and it was fine.

Well, that's it for this month. Happy Friday friends!
xoxo

A Snowy Spring

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:47:00 +0000

Over the weekend, it snowed. It's technically spring, even though it's still snowing out and was almost -30 yesterday. Anyways, I took Madison outside as it was snowing and filmed it a little bit. Madison does this super cute thing when you take her outside where she jumps up to get you to pet her. She'll do it if you just put your hand up or snap, but if you don't do anything and just try to follow her, she'll start doing it by herself hoping you'll join in by putting your hand out for her. It's damn cute. I think it's because she's so happy to be outside, she's extending her gratitude by being ridiculously cute. Oh yeah, she also likes rubbing her head on sticks. You can see her doing all of this in the video as well as how much it was snowing this weekend.

I always seem to use Dear Purple as the song when making Madison videos. Not sure why. I just like it and it seems to go well. It's like Madison's video theme song now. I also snapped a few shots of the snow.

When I was taking these pictures (from inside the house and briefly outside, I didn't want my camera to get too wet from the snow), I was taking pictures of Madison sitting in the spot in front of the window, looking out. She seemed pretty interested in everything going on, then all of the sudden she turns her back to me! She must of had enough of me snapping shots of her. After her little adventure outside, she came back in and took a nap, such a cat thing to do.

Have a good day!

xoxo

Double Exposures #3

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:12:00 +0000

It's been a little while since I made some new double exposures. I checked when the last time was and it was last year! In December, but still, that seems like a while ago. Anyways, here are some recent shots I was playing around with:

Has anyone else played around with double exposures lately? I love checking them out! If you'd like, you can check out part one and part two and how to do this.

Have a good one!

xoxo

March Goals: Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Hello friends! April is here and it's time to look back on all the goals I set out for myself for March. I was able to achieve all my goals, which is awesome. Here is a look back at what they were:

1. ~~Buy some running shoes~~: Here they are! I went to Foot Locker and bought myself some Nike's that are made for running and they are sooo much better. I had been running in my Chucks for the last few months because the shoes I had before them had a little accident. And when I say accident, I mean Riley got rum jammed and vomitted in them so I threw them out. They weren't really good running shoes either but they were better than the Chucks. Anyways, when I walked into Foot Locker, the saleman comes up to me and asks if I want help. I told him what I wanted and he looked at me and said: "What are you running in right now? I hope it's not those!" as he looked down at the Chucks I was wearing. Haha, it was kind of funny. I'm happy to have new shoes though because even though the Chucks weren't hurting yet, they would have if I continued wearing them. These shoes are like running on clouds, so comfy!

2. ~~Get my hair done~~: Yes, I finally got my hair done! You probably can't really tell much but I had platinum blonde chunks in my hair before, with some coppery coloured pieces (just a few). The copper pieces were actually old black pieces we had tried to bleach out. Anyways, I liked the way it looked in the beginning but after a while I got sick of it and I especially got sick of the platinum blonde in my bangs that was growing out and the huge amount of roots you could see. So, I got my hair cut and toned and it went to a bit of a darker blonde, which is closer to my natural colour. Love it! It's much less maintenance and no roots, so that it awesome. I'll probably eventually get a couple chunks of another colour put in because I get bored with my hair and like to have a little something fun done to it, but I'm going to give it a rest for a bit and whenever I do decide on something, I'll make sure the chunks are slightly under the top layer of my hair so any roots are hidden.

3. ~~Hang out with Steve before he's gone~~: Our dear friend and bassist Steve has left for Thailand. He left on March 27th I think it was. Aaron and I went out with him once together and then we even went one more time with Riley and Steve's brother Brian. It was good times! We've already heard from Steve a little bit since he's gotten over there and it sounds like he's having an awesome time. He swam in the ocean for the first time and drank a bar out of Jack Daniels, so I mean, he must be rocking it out there! We'll miss him but we know we'll see him again when he comes home to visit.

4. ~~Switch to re-usable water bottles and get a water filter pitcher~~: I bought a water pitcher with a filter in it a little while ago. I also bought some stainless steel re-usable water bottles online but they have not arrived yet! I actually bought them at the beginning of March so I'm a little worried something messed up and I'm not getting them. The listing says "4-6 weeks" so it hasn't quite been that long yet but I've never had to wait that long to get an order. I'm going to give it another week or so before I say anything to the seller about it. Anyways, I have the pitcher now and I hope I get those water bottles soon!

5. ~~Do some spring cleaning~~: This one has taken up so much more of my time than I thought, but it's been good. Our bedroom and office was clean on the outside, but everything was so disorganized and that is what I wanted to get cleaned up. Both our closets were filled with shit. I mean, we had empty boxes in there from things we bought years ago. Why am I keeping this stuff?! I also keep files of many different things and they were stored in these file boxes in the closet. But because I had been jamming stuff in the closet for the last year or two, I stopped using the file boxes and just throwing all the loose files elsewhere. I finally got that all sorted out. I bought a small filing cabinet, cleaned out the closets, and organized/cleaned out all my files and transferred them to the cabinet. I also did a bunch of other stuff, like we got some new furniture from IKEA, so we built that and got it in place, cleaned areas that has gotten piled up and so on. It's nice having everything more organized now. I got a lot done, but there is still some more to do. There's always more! The below picture was taken in the middle of the cleaning process.

I haven't really thought of many goals for April yet. I have to get on that so I can get started with what I want to accomplish. Oh yeah, can anyone tell what movie that is playing in the last picture? ;)

Have an awesome day!
xoxo

Flashback Friday: High Five Drive at the WECC

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:36:00 +0000

Back in January of 2010, Aaron and I went to a show at the West End Cultural Centre to see local band High Five Drive. We've actually worked with a couple of the guys from this band (Steve the drummer and Marty the bassist) a few years back when we needed some studio musicians to help us finish up some old Larrikin tracks. Anyways, it was a sweet show and an awesome night.

I believe the band is no longer, each of the members going their separate ways and still playing music but just in different bands. High Five Drive had been around for about a decade, so they're pretty well known around here. That night at the WECC was filled with energy and good times. Aaron and I filmed the show and even made a video for one of their songs from clips of that show. Check it out, all clips were from this very night:

Happy Friday friends!
xoxo

TV Shows That Ended Too Soon

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:14:00 +0000

1 season
18 episodes (but canceled after only 12 had aired)
Ran from: Sept. 25, 1999 - July 8, 2000
Main Characters: Lindsay Weir (Linda Cardellini), Sam Weir (John Francis Daley)

We somewhat recently watched this show for the first time a few months ago and man, it was good. I can totally understand how it has a devoted cult following.

The show centers around Lindsay and her younger brother Sam who are both in High School during the 1980-1981 school year. Yes, this show is set in the 80's! LOVE. Lindsay is going through some changes, going from being a star "mathlete" to an army jacket wearing girl who hangs out with the "freaks", which of course causes problems at home with her parents. Her younger brother Sam and his friends are the "geeks" and you get to see what they go through trying to fit in at school.

This show is executively produced by Judd Apatow (who has producted/written so many good movies) and has so many awesome actors in it, such as: Jason Segel, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Busy Philipps and as recurring character Coach Fredericks - Tom Wilson (that's Biff Tannen in case you don't know).

Another thing I really love about this show is because it's set in the 80's, the music is also from the 80's. The theme song played in the intro is Bad Reputation by Joan Jett (awesome) and all the songs in the episodes are from the 80's or earlier as well and include: Janis Joplin, Cheap Trick, Rush, Cream, Journey, The Who, David Bowie, Boston and so on. So good!

Also, has anyone ever seen the movie Grandma's Boy? Remember Samantha? That's Linda Cardellini aka Lindsay Weir! I was suprised when I realized this.

Honorable mention: Judd Apatow also had another show called Undeclared that was pretty cool as well. It also only ran for 1 season which ended in 2002 and was about being a freshman in college. I enjoyed it but not as much as I enjoyed Freaks and Geeks. It's definitely worth checking out though!

Do you have any fave shows that you think ended too soon? I have more shows to add in future posts but I always love finding new things to watch, so please do share!

xoxo

Currently

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:13:00 +0000

(a shot near the frozen river, a 10 minute walk from our house)

Watching: Community. We actually just finished watching through all the episodes and this show is pretty damn awesome. The first 2 seasons were amazing. I knew it was going to be good after we watched the very first episode that had a Breakfast Club parody/reference in it and at the end the episode was dedicated to John Hughes (my fave). The 3rd and 4th seasons were still good, but the only thing we didn't really like was that (at least in season 3), it seemed like every other episode was a weird/parody type episode. This is totally fine once in a while but not every second episode, that's a bit much. There was one video game episode that was pretty great though!

Anticipating: I have a week off of work and am going to do some spring cleaning around the house. I bought a few pieces of new furniture, some things to help me organize and I'm going to get on this as soon as I can!

Working on: A little project for Aaron and myself. Hopefully I will be able to share it with you soon! But it's been taking up a fair bit of my time and I feel like I haven't been able to spend enough time on my own blog lately. That's ok though, it will be awesome when it's complete!

Laughing about: Aaron just got his widsom teeth out (no, I'm not laughing about that!) and the dentist gave him some gauze to bite on during the first few hours after the surgery to stop the bleeding. Anyways, Aaron pronounces it "gaze" and I've been finding that super cute/funny.

Missing: Spring/summer. The grass, blue skies, the sun shining down on me, a warm breeze and being able to go lay in my backyard with our cats and an acoustic guitar. So badly missing the warm weather. As I write this, it is snowing, yet again!

Feeling: A little sore. I had a dentist appointment last week to get a lower labial frenectomy done. It didn't take long and didn't even hurt when I was getting it done (I was pretty nervous prior to getting it done though) but it's definitely been sore afterwards and just feels weird. Basically what it is is that there is a small piece of skin on the inside of your lower lip that connects to your gums. The dentist used a laser and removed that piece of skin on me. My gums on my lower teeth are slightly receded due to wearing the wrong jewelry in my lip piercing years ago so this was kind of a preacautionary thing to avoid it from getting worse because when you talk/chew, that little piece of skin actually pulls downs on your gums a bit. So, now that I don't have that, it won't be tugging on my gums. And you know what's awesome about my dentist? He calls you the day after a procedure to check up on you. It's really sweet of him. He called me the day after mine and then called Aaron after he got his widsom teeth out (and it was his day off). Such a nice guy!

Loving: I went to Ikea for the first time last week. It was pretty sweet. I went there with the intention of buying a couple pieces of furniture for my week of spring cleaning/organizing. I bought a new dresser and a new table with storage underneath for our office. I also saw an awesome couch I want to get for our office. It's small enough to fit in the little space we have and it's just perfect! I can't wait to save up enough money to get it.

What have you been up to lately?

xoxo

The Little Things...

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:47:00 +0000

... like finding your cat sitting in her bed with her tongue hanging out and she doesn't even realize it.

Ok, this seriously happened. I came into the office to get something the other day and when I turned the light on, I found Madison sitting in one of her beds with her tongue sticking out like that. It was literally hanging half way out of her mouth and she didn't even realize it. I've caught Madison with her tongue sticking out a little bit before, just a little nub of it, but not like this. I called Aaron over to see this and she just sat there for what felt like an eternity staring at us while I began to take pictures of her. We were like "This can't be real, how does she not feel that her tongue is hanging out like that? Is she having a stroke or something?"

There was no stroke happening, that's just Madison for you. Freakin' hilarious! I love that cat. Just to show you this wasn't just a momentary thing, check out this video. The quality is sort of shitty because it was taken with my little point and shoot camera, but at least I caught it!

Have an awesome day!
xoxo,

Wants: Spring Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:40:00 +0000

1 // I am in love with these skinny jeans. I love the ombre and that they're black and white, so good!

2 // A cute studded bracelet, always good and goes with pretty much everything.

3 // I love Glass Heart Studio jewelry and these are no exception. Beautiful colour and love the squid style.

4 // The Doors tunic shirt/dress. I have one of these types of shirts and they're so comfy! Want more.

5 // This camera necklace is awesome! I've seen these around for a while and always wanted one.

6 // I love high tops and these spiked faux leather ones are pretty damn sweet!

7 // I always need a good hoodie included here because you'll always find me with a hoodie. Loving this plain black one but what I really love are the cat ears on the hood.

8 // A Nintendo controller messenger bag? Yes please!!

I haven't really bought myself anything new lately, so I'm hoping I can indulge myself a little and get something or things from this list. We've actually been getting a bit of a snow storm since yesterday so I don't really know how soon spring will be here. We're supposed to get about 15cm more of snow by the end of this storm, ugh!

Have you found anything neat on/offline you want? I'd love to hear about it! I like finding new stores/items to get sucked into. :P

Have a good one!

xoxo

How To: Add an Image Behind Text

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:22:00 +0000

Today I'm going to show you how to add an image behind text in Photoshop Elements. You can really add any image you'd like behind the text to give it a neat look. You might want to try using this to make design related things like blog design, banners, headings, cards, pretty up some blog posts or whatever creative thing you might come up with.

1. Open up a new blank document. Go to File > New > Blank File and make it whatever size you like. If you're making something for your blog or blog posts, you may need to consider a specific size to make sure it fits into your post. I make all my blog post images the same size, so I would go with that if that is what I was using this for.

2. Choose the type tool and then choose whatever font you'd like to use. If you ever want to get some free fonts, I'd suggest using this website. They have tons of awesome free fonts to download. Now type in whatever text you're wanting to use for this project.

3. Now open up whatever photo/pattern or whatever you want to use to go behind your text. You want to select and copy the entire image, so you do this by pressing CTRL + A (to select the image) and then CTRL + C (to copy it).

4. Now go back over to your text page and paste the image on top of it. All you have to do is press CTRL + V to paste. Make sure the image pastes to the top layer as I pointed out above. If you notice it is not on the top layer, just click on the layer holding the image and drag it to the top.

5. If your image is too small (or too big) and it does not cover all the text or maybe you just want to resize the image, all you have to do is grab one of those little squares (circled above) that are around the image and drag. It will resize and you can adjust however you'd like.

Once that's ready, what you need to do is go over to the layers palette on the bottom right. Hover your mouse between the photo and text layer (I have it marked in red exactly where you should hover) and hold ALT. As you hover, you should see your cursor turn into something else, it's not your regular cursor (not sure what it is, but it's not an arrow and I couldn't get a screenshot of it). Once your cursor changes as you're holding ALT, click with your mouse and it will put your photo behind the text.

6. Your image should look like this once you've clicked in between the photos in step 5. You can now make any adjustments if you'd like to change the size of your photo for example. You might want more of the sky or field to show behind the text, so you can just drag the image behind the text (make sure the photo layer is selected in the layers palette when doing so), or you can make the image bigger/smaller as seen in the below image (I just made the fields show more in the text, so you can play around with this until you get something you like).

That's it! Your awesome image is now complete. There are so many different things you can do with this, try adding a photo you've taken, perhaps a pattern or some type of texture to make it look cool. If you add an image that is very light and you can't read the text as much, an idea is to add an outline to the text. It will help make it stand out while still being able to see the image behind it, like this:

Have fun!
xoxo

Larrikin: The Uniter Review

noreply@blogger.com (Kristin Dawn) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:06:00 +0000

I accidentally came across this review of our album from a local University paper called The Uniter. It's from February 2012! I didn't even know about it until a couple weeks ago. Crazyness! I thought it was a pretty cool review. I just stumbled across it while searching for something Larrikin related and it was a nice surprise. I kind of wish I had the actual copy of the paper this was printed in, but I didn't even know it existed!

The image was taken from the original website it was posted on right here.

Have an awesome day!

xoxo