Time for a Change

I started this blog five years ago and since then I have written 300 posts and had more than 400,000 visitors to this site.

I decided it was time for a bit of updating so I switched over to the Twenty Eleven wordpress theme which has a different, larger font, more white space, is wider and I can post larger images.

I changed my header a little as well. This is the old one. Same image, different font.

I love working with graphics and setting up web pages and sometime in the future I’m planning to switch over my blog over to wordpress.org on my own server so that I can customize it even more. Maybe even put ads on the side to make some money from it. It’s such a fascinating time that we live in because there are so many possibilities available on the web now that never existed before.

One step at a time. I’m feeling infinitely better than I did a month ago when I was knocked off my feet by mono, but I keep reminding myself to take it slow and easy. I’m so excited to be feeling better that I just want to dive right back into everything, but I’m trying to remember to the important lesson from being sick: slow down and simplify.

It’s pretty funny to read some of the things that people google to get to this site. These are the top 10 google searches that find my site. Obviously the rice flour bread recipe that I made up several years ago is quite popular. But garbage trucks? Who knew?

Search	Views
rice flour bread	10,817
rice flour bread recipe	4,379
garbage truck	2,204
love birds	1,862
felt animals	1,835
rice flour bread recipes	1,735
felt paper	1,565
rice flour bread machine recipe	1,559
mastitis treatment	1,529
giraffe	1,461

I don’t look at my stats too often but they are kind of interesting. These are the top 10 posts I’ve written.

Title		Views
Home page / Archives		130,973
Rice Flour Bread (for bread machine) gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free		71,412
Amazing banana bread recipe (gluten-free, egg-free, sugar-free, dairy-free)		34,720
Cupcake recipe (gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free, sugar-free)		33,471
Art Gallery		12,129
Photo Tutorial: Stained glass giraffe mosaic		7,309
Felt Paper Dolls		6,432
About		6,102
Stained Glass Mosaic Tutorial		5,443
Banana – Quinoa Flour Muffins (or waffles) dessert recipes (gluten free, egg-free, sugar-free, dairy-free)		5,410

The recipes and art tutorials are pretty big. I can see why there are so many recipe blogs – everybody is always looking for a new recipe to try, especially if you suddenly find out that you can’t eat wheat, eggs, dairy or sugar. We’ve had all our allergies cleared up in the last few years so I haven’t been inventing as many new recipes as before.

I’m pretty sure my mono is gone now because suddenly I feel like doing art again and I am waking up an hour before my alarm goes off feeling rested.

You can always tell on this blog how my health is because if I’m feeling tired, stressed, overwhelmed or sick, I will disappear from this place for weeks or months without a sign. As soon as I’m back it’s because I’m feeling better.

Some people are very consistent with their blogging and force themselves through it even when they feel terrible. We all have our own reasons for doing things and very early on I decided that this blog needed to be a place of creativity and fun for me. I decided that If it started to feel like work, or like something that I had to do, then I’d stop.

So far it’s been fun.

But I still don’t understand about the garbage truck.

Collecting Water Drops

I’m really getting into these black borders behind the photos.

Here’s what I do to get it to look like that.

1. Open up the photo on Photoshop.
2. Open up a new file – make the size a little larger than the original photo (at the top under File).
3. Color the new file black with the Paintbucket Tool (make sure to set the color on the bottom to black).
4. Drag the original photo on top of the black file with the Move Tool.
5. Crop the image so that the black border is even around the photo with the Crop Tool.
6. Save.

Bokeh obsession

In photography, bokeh is technically the blurry part of a photo – not blurry because you made a mistake, but blurry because it helps one thing to stand out while the rest is out of focus. Bokeh is also often referred to as the soft balls of light that appear in photos. Over the last year I’ve become slightly obsessed with bokeh – ok, completely obsessed with bokeh and I’ve figured out some really easy ways to get killer bokeh shots, the ones with the light balls.

If you go under google images and search, “bokeh” you will see what I mean. The bokeh shapes that are not circles (stars, hearts, etc) are made by attaching a special filter onto your lens.

Typically the bokeh shots you see will be made with Christmas lights, sunlight filtering through leaves on a tree, dew drops on plants, rain, bubbles, or city street lights. So if you want to make some bokeh of your own, look for those subject matters and then turn your camera onto manual focus mode. Once you have the subject in focus, then turn it slightly out of focus and take a photo. This will give you bokeh with smaller light balls. The more you put the photo out of focus, the larger the balls will become until at one point they become a hexagon shape. It is incredibly fun to do.

After you’ve experimented with that, then find your white balance button on your camera and take the same photo with all the different white balance settings and you will see the balls of light change color before your eyes.

The easiest way I’ve found to get really great bokeh shots is to go out at night because the sunlight through the trees just hasn’t worked for me and by some miracle of nature, we’ve had the driest summer in years here and so we have not had any rain for bokeh shots. Go out at night to place with lots of lights: street lights, car lights, house lights, city lights, whatever, and then just start experimenting with the focus and the white balance.

Have fun!

Science world and city lights with a larger focus. Check out my previous post of a clear view of Science World.

Science world (gumball machine?) with a tighter focus.

Sky scraper lights across the water at dusk (the blurry lights on the bottom left is a boat moving through the water).

How to make a soft glow in photos: Photoshop Tutorial

Here is a Photoshop tutorial on how to make a soft glow and change the lighting of your photos. It’s really fun and easy to do.

1. Open up your photo in Photoshop. I’m using a photo of Fiona’s foot for this tutorial.

2. At the top, click “Images,” then scroll down to “Adjustments,” then down to “Brightness/Contrast”. Change the brightness to approximately 50%. If you have a really white, bright, or over-exposed photo already, then you can skip this step.

3. At the top, click “Layers,” then scroll down and click “Duplicate Layer.” A little box will come up. Click “OK.”

4. At the top, click “Filter,” then scroll down to “Blur,” then down to “Gaussian Blur.” Change it to make the Radius: 25 pixels.

5. On the side box, under “Layers,” at the very top there is a box that says “Normal.” Click this box and scroll down to “Multiply.” Voila! You are finished!

Here are a few other soft, glowy photos of our one month old Fiona.

Photo Tutorial: Stained glass giraffe mosaic

This is a photo tutorial. For a detailed written mosaic tutorial, see my previous mosaic tutorial in the side links.

1. Shopping at IKEA.

2. Painting the wood.

3. Designing the image (I cut a giraffe out of paper and traced it on twice on to the mirror frame).

4. Scoring (cutting) the stained glass.

5. Snapping (breaking) the stained glass.

6. Arranging the stained glass.

7. Glueing the stained glass.

8. Giraffes completed. On to the background.

9. Background’s completed. Time to mix the grout.

10. Spreading the grout. (Careful not to scratch the stained glass).

11. Grout is complete.

12. Let dry for about an hour, then sponge off gently.

(At this point in the photo shoot my daughter, who was in “quiet/nap time” in her room learned how to open her window and was yelling out to my neighbour, trying to get her attention so she could talk with her. My neighbour then came in for a chat and I forgot about taking pictures).

13. Wait 24hrs. Polish the glass with your finger, cloth, or paper towel until really shiny. Then it’s finished!

Here is the completed set: mosaic and two frames, that I made as a wedding present for my cousin Tricia who gets married in two weeks.

Stained Glass Mosaic Tutorial

Stained Glass Mosaic Tutorial

Mosaics are best done on wood, ceramic or cement. This tutorial is for making a glass mosaic with wooden frames and a mirror with a wooden frame. I purchased these items at IKEA.

Materials and equiment needed:
- glass cutter
- plastic glass snapper
- colored glass (from a stained glass store. Usually they sell broken pieces for really cheap)
- wooden board (to work on). I usually put a wad of newspapers underneath instead.
- wood frame
- clear glue (choose one that’s good for wood, like Weldbond)
- grout (choose sanded grout.) It comes in a variety of colors.
- putty knife (or fingers)
- small bucket, like an old yogort container (to mix grout)
- another small container for water
- sponge

You can get most items you need from Home Depot, an art store, or a stained glass store.

1. Paint the frame white. This is optional, but it allows the color of the glass to shine through without getting muted by the wood.

2. Choose a piece of colored glass. Place the glass on a wooden board or newspaper. Press down firmly with glasscutter at a slight angle and run along length of glass. It should make a sound like ripping paper.

3. Glass snapper should be placed so scored line matches up with the centre of the snapper. By applying pressure on the handle, the glass with snap along the line.

4. When the pieces are cut and ready to be glued down, coat the entire back of glass piece with glue and firmly press onto the frame.

5. Let dry for 24 hours.

6. Time to grout. Put dry grout powder in container and slowly add water a little at a time until it reaches the consistency of thick mud. Using a putty knife (or fingers), spread the grout over the entire project, being careful not to scratch the glass.

7. Let set for 10-20 minutes before cleaning the grout off of the glass with a damp sponge. A light coating of grout will remain and can be cleaned off with a damp cloth after 24 hours. You can use the cloth or your fingers to make the glass really shiny.

Here is a recent mirror mosaic that I made as wedding present. (The mirror part is covered up so that I could take a picture of it without looking at myself.)

It says, “Kirsten Loves Ted Loves Kirsten.” It has 7 blue flowers and brown roots growing beneath the grass, in the dirt.

And 4 matching frames.

Here are Kirsten and Ted at their wedding.

A night out without kids!

And our first double date with my sister Juliet, and brother in law, Shane. (Normally one of us stays home to babysit. My parents just arrived from Malaysia, so we have a night out!)

Chocolate fondue fountain.