Aiko Dragon Rider

Aiko's back, and this time she's riding a fiercesome dragon (click photo for larger image):

Okay, for all you non-believers, who think she should be sitting and holding the reigns:

Aiko Rediscovered

First chance in a long time to go to sleep early, and here I am playing with Aiko 3. I wanted to try on some new hair I had for her, and give her some boots. I think she will need to find some better boots one day, but the hair really suits her. What do you think?

Three More Fruit Trees Makes it a Dozen

Work and life may be pretty crazy lately, but this week has been a very hopeful one for me. Last weekend I convinced my husband to buy me three more fruit trees. I have been so delighted by my multi-graft espalier trees, that last year I decided to put in another post, and prepare for a third one. Here is my espalier apple (three varieties) (Click any photo for a larger image - but please don't look too carefully at my weeds ;-) ):

...and my espalier asian pear (three varieties):

..and my latest, a multigraft (3 varieties) European pear tree (Rescue pear, Red Bartlett, and Anjou):

I searched all around town this year, and couldn't find any garden centres which carried the pear in horizontal espalier form. Most of them carried a multigraft pear, but in the basic tree form. I ended up finding it at Triple Tree Nurseryland in Maple Ridge, BC, where my other espaliers came from also. Before we went, I prepared my husband that I was entertaining the thought of up to 3 more other fruit trees, and showed him the spots where we could plant them.

I already knew that I wanted a Morello sour cherry, and a Frost peach. For the peach, I don't have any expectation about getting any fruit, but I have heard that the blossoms rival those of a flowering cherry, so it would be worth it even for the blossoms. The fun part was loading the three trees into the minivan, along with 4 bags of 30L soil, and 2 bags of manure.

Happily, the weather, which has been schizophrenically alternating between sunny & pouring rain & hail, co-operated a couple of nights this week, for my husband to dig in the espalier pear, and prepare the hole for the Morello cherry (at the center of the photo. See the Frost peach waiting patiently to the right):

He did such a thorough job of preparing for the espalier pear, removing 2 full wheelbarrows of clay, that we used up 4 of the 6 bags already, and it was still a bit low. So we will need to make an outing to get more soil. He removed 4 wheelbarrows of soil for the Morello cherry. Under the couple of inches of topsoil which the landscapers laid down for the lawn, it is hard clay and rocks. He used a combination of pick axe and shovel to dig it out.

In these first few years, I can really see the fruit trees taking form, and getting stronger. My husband remarked about our italian plum (which has yet to set any fruit), "Where did that tree come from?". When we got it, it was so skinny, it was hardly noticeable. I used to laugh when I pointed to the back yard, telling people "We have 9 fruit trees up there, you just can't see them yet". Wait and see. Patience and pre-planning is the key to growing fruit trees.

I am so happy now. I have 12 fruit trees, with 18 varieties of fruit. Not counting the blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and various other edibles. I can hardly wait. Maybe the birds will even leave a bit for us this year.

He is Risen

With His Stripes We Are Healed

3D Dinosaur Scene

I've been working long hours lately, with not even a chance of "spare" time to play with the DAZ Studio software. But when a free 3D Protoceratops arrived in my Inbox tonight, just before a long weekend, it was an offer I couldn't refuse.

Here is a little scene I put together, called "Keep Up Junior" (click photo for a larger image):

Fairy House - Part 3

I managed to find the time to put a roof on the fairy house, but then haven't squeezed any time these past couple of weeks to post photos of it, so even though it's midnight, I'm finally going to make time to post.


The grass roof is the faded straw from my blue oat grass, which I quite regularly pull handfuls from, to keep them looking fresh and greenish-blue. The decorative puff-balls are stems I dried from my bunny tail grass (Lagurus ovatus) at the end of last summer. I can't wait until I get the fairy house out into the garden. I'll be sure to post photos then, but I have a feeling it may be a few more weeks before I do that.

Fairy House - Part 2

I put in some more time on the fairy house project today, while watching a movie with the kids. Now the 4 walls are done, and a bit of the roof. I'm still thinking that if I get a shell of a roof together, then we should be able to collect enough grasses to cover it. That will look pretty cool, like a tropical hut. Here it is tonight:

Fairy House - Part 1

My daughter has been asking me to help her build a fairy house for a while now. I have resisted, feeling that I don't have the time or know-how to make anything worth cluttering the garden with. But today, while taking advantage of the absolutely gorgeous weather to clean up the garden, she noticed the butterfly bush (Buddleia Davidii) twigs I was tossing in the wheelbarrow, and asked for them, to make a fairy house.

Suddenly, I realized that this was our answer. The twigs from the butterfly bush are quite woody, and very plentiful. My bush was probably close to 10' tall & 8' wide, and I was cutting it back to about 6', so there were lots of twigs available.

We started by tying the branches with string, but I knew that wire was the real answer, so we made a quick run to Rona before it closed at 6PM, and picked up a reel of gauge 24 galvanized steel. This turned out to be the best lineal price of their various wire options (even better than the black steel wire), easy to bend (the gauge 20 would have been too much of a fight, and likely would have broken the twigs while tightening), but still quite strong, that I should hold up outdoors for quite a while.

Anyhow, here is the house (just the outline) after maybe an hour of work, just before the kids went to bed:
After that, I kept working for a couple more hours, and filled in two of the walls, one with a window:
The house will have a front door, two side windows, and solid back wall. Even though I've thinned my blue oat grasses a couple of times (now I wish I hadn't sent a large bag of it to the city compost last week), I think we can get enough grasses to even cover the roof.

Part of me is screaming that I really don't have time for this project. But the other part of me (which I'm glad I'm listening to this time) is calmly saying that if I don't have the time now, then when will I? After all, at 9 years old, and with 2 fairy birthday parties, dozens of fairy books, fairy toys, and a half dozen fairy movies behind her, how long will my daughter continue her interest in fairies? So if it isn't this summer, then when?

By the way, I had a perverse gardening thought... Since the buddleia branches were just clipped today, and knowing how reliably these grow from cuttings, if I pushed the house in the soil in the next couple days, there would be a good chance that some of the branches would take root. That would be a sight to behold, wouldn't it?

I've left the mess of branches and clippers and wire on the kitchen table, so we can hopefully continue again tomorrow evening. We'll eat at the island for now, if we have to, to keep our momentum on the project.

Pink Green Forest Fairies

I found this photo, I believe it was of a mountain azalea. Anyhow, it looked like a lovely spot for some flower fairies. First, a pink and a green one (click photo for larger image):

I think this looks even better, their dresses match the pink and green colours of the foliage:

Weird cakes and weird creatures

We are coming to the end of birthday season. My kids have birthdays 3 weeks apart, so for a period of about 4 weeks, it is birthday season.

My daughter had a fairy birthday with her friends, where they decorated fairy wings and wands, and gave themselves fairy names. Since she also had a fairy birthday last year, and the Fairytopia cake, we didn't want to choose the same cake, so I Photoshopped an image for her, and had it put on the cake. Save-On-Foods offers this service, using sugar paper to add the image to the cake. The result is pretty neat.

Here is the photo I altered (the original was lifted from the site fantasy-fairies.com), to insert my daughter's face:


I'll post the photo of the resulting cake once we develop it - I took it on the SLR camera.

On the weekend, we had the combined birthday party with the family, and a combined cake, too. Encouraged by my Photoshop experiment, I decided to try out my DAZ 3D skills, and create my own image, which I did, and then I Photoshopped the kids' faces onto it. Here is the image, which I entitled "Mythical Meeting in the Forest":


I'll try to post the resulting cake also, once the photo is ready.

Every week, DAZ seems to come out with another free item. Fortunately last week it was the dragon, just in time for the birthday cake. This week it is a weird looking creature called "Xerr". I think he's a little too scary for a birthday cake!:

5 Beautiful Fairies

Okay, I've learned a bit more.... How to duplicate objects, change colours... Now I've ended up with a set of 5 beautiful fairies (click for larger image):

Fun with 3D Textures - Not Pretty!

Tonight I found a tutorial on how to use textures to create outfits for the 3D characters. I tried to create a Waldo outfit for Aiko, but didn't have much luck. After 2 tries, I got the stripes in roughly the right places, but my white seemed to be translated as "skin", so I tried off-white, still no luck (click for closeup):

So then I then just experimented with some random textures, had a bit of fun, the result is definitely not pretty, but I can see there is some good potential here:

Dragonfly Fairy

Oh my, this one is gorgeous, and I love dragonflies. I think her pose/posture is not quite there yet, but I love it already... What do you think? How would you improve this image (click for a larger view):

What are Toadstools Anyhow?

Hmmm... Ever wonder why they are called "toadstools"? Because toads like to sit on them, of course! Enjoy my latest DAZ 3D creation (click photo for larger image of these lounging tree frogs):

Trio of Forest Fairies

It didn't take long tonight (less than an hour) to create a magical scene of a trio of beautiful fairies in the forest. Something to the right has captured their attention, and stopped them mid-flight (click the photo for a larger image).

What was that light? They had never seen one quite like it before....

Well Dressed Fairies

I got tired of the fairies being stuck in wet suits, and decided to buy them some dresses. What do you think (click photo for a larger image)?

Fairies and Toadstools

It was just over a year ago I was pleased to discover and take photos of some beautiful spotted red mushrooms (the classic toadstools from the childrens fairy tales - see mushroom photos post), and thought this may make a good setting for my fairies. What do you think? (Click the image for a larger view.)


Here it is, in a puzzle:

Garden Painting Progress - Finally!

I finally made some more progress on my garden painting, by admitting that I am simply not making any progress, since my painting of the lupines in February 2007, so we may as well hang it as is. So we went to Michaels a couple of days ago to buy the hardware to hang it.

Since the start of this project in January 2006, it had become a permanent fixture in our eating area, sitting on an sturdy easel (provided by my brother John), but recently has been feeling "in the way", and I've been scared it would one day be knocked down by the kids. It was no longer the conversation piece that it once was, other than to solicit "I don't see much change since the last time I was here" observations.

Here it is, on the wall:

Since it is hanging in our loft, it is visible from the entrance lobby:

Perhaps with seeing the painting on display, I'll be inspired to pick up the brushes again. Or at least, I can enjoy it in the meantime, while my current lifestyle doesn't allow for indulgences such as painting.

More Fairies in My Garden

I have added some hair to Hiro, and lengthened Aiko's hair. They look great out in my garden, don't you think?

Yet More 3D Fairy Images

I was so happy to find the Hiro 3.0 character, now Aiko has a friend (click for a larger image):


That's all for tonight. Enjoy!

More Fairy 3D Images

Oh, this is really cool, I couldn't help myself to spend a couple more hours... I have discovered a new character, called "Aiko 3.0", she's considerably cuter, and in a Japanese anime style. I've fitted her with some fairy wings, too, and placed her amongst some mushrooms I photographed this summer, near Alouette Lake:


Then I sent her out to my garden, among the Kwanzo daylilies, photographed in June'07:


Wow! I'm starting to see the possibilities... I wish I had taken more photos of my kids in the garden this summer... This would make a cute "photo", to sit them in the garden amongst a few fairies! Hey, would even work for my daughter's fairy party, I can get photos of the girls together, and then add in a few fairies when I "develop" the photos.

PS. I know, I've got to work on Aiko's outfit. The colour of her wetsuit matches her fairy wings, but I think I should be able to find something more appropriate for her to wear.

Fairy 3D Images

I was looking at fairy images today, getting ideas for my daughter's 9th birthday, which is coming in a few weeks. Last year, she took her friends to the Midnight Fairy Party Store, where they dressed as fairies and did fairy dances and had fairy stories, and brought home fairy dust and such. They had so much fun, that she wants to have a fairy theme party this year, in our house. We will transform the Christmas tree into a fairy tree, and decorate fairy wings, and whatever other fairy activities we can come up with.

After a few searches, I stumbled upon the fantasy-fairies.com website, and was quite struck by the 3D-like fairy images, such as this one:

At this point, my fairy search took a bit of a curve, and I found myself downloading the free DAZ Studio 1.8 software, and a few hours later, emerged with my own fairy image, which I'll call "Fern Fairy" (click for a larger image):


The DAZ Studio software is quite amazing, it lets you manipulate and animate 3D objects, and there are LOTS of characters and objects you can purchase, and assemble together. For example, you "fit" the dress to the character, and then it moves when she moves, and you have control over individual joints, to move fingers and toes and elbows. It is really worth trying out, but be warned, it could be totally addictive. I'm not sure what I'm thinking, having just returned from a serious massage session today, trying to undue all the damage to my neck & back which I do, sitting at the computer all day!!

Anyhow, I think this may only be a holiday diversion for me, at this point. I haven't bought any more objects (I'm afraid that if I look, I will!!), I'm just experimenting with the sample ones that come with the free download. (By the way, you need to download the objects separately, they are in "My Account" once you register.)

Another couple of hours, and here is my fairy in the scene I'll call "Follow that Dragonfly":


By the way, this is really cool.... You can set up her eyes to fix on whatever object you like, and then when you move that object, her eyes will follow. In this case, I fixed them on the dragonfly. You can also control how skinny or fat she is, make her pregnant (I want to try that out, for fun), and lots of other neat stuff.

I have yet to figure out how to export or save into a file format which I know what to do with. So for now, I'm using the SnagIt screen capture program to capture the rendered image, and save it to an image file. I also wish I could make the fairy smile. I don't seem to be able to control her mouth, just her eyes and head position. Perhaps other objects have control over this.

I'd love to hear from anyone who's used this software, and have any images you can share with me, or tips (just in case I spend some more time on it ;-) ).

First Snow Creation of the Season

The snow started out dry and fluffy this morning, but turned progressively wet and heavy this afternoon. Finally, my son and I were able to make a snow creation, before it turns to rain (which is the forecast for tonight, I hear). He wanted a penguin, since my kids are both Club Penguin (ClubPenguin.com) fans.

With some Photoshop colour (colouring the snow would have been too messy), it looks quite a bit like a Club Penguin member, don't you think?

First Snow in Vancouver

It is December 2, and we just had our first major snowfall in Vancouver (BC). Yesterday when the snow just barely covered the ground, my daughter was excited to run barefoot in it, and being a cool mom, I wouldn't deprive her of the experience:

Today, it has been snowing all day, and I got tired of waiting for it to stop before taking a photo of the back yard, especially since I've heard the forecast is for rain by this evening. I like how everything (except the shed and fence, and one pink solar tulip light) looks kinda black and white:

Good thing I pretty much had the garden trimmed, dahlias dug up, hoses disconnected, and my echium pininana potted up and brought into the basement. I would have liked a few more hours in the garden before the frost and snow hit, but it's in pretty good shape this year under the circumstances.

P.S. For any puzzle fans out there, here is that last photo as an online puzzle, courtesy of JigZone.com:

P.P.S. On first try, my time was 6:35. Wow, that was a challenging one. Enjoy!

Weird and Wonderful Photoshop Dream Homes

I am too tired to continue working (on a holiday Monday!), and don't have enough sense to go to sleep early when I have the chance, so here I am tonight, browsing for neat images and interesting blogs. I came across this contest to create wonderful and unique Photoshop dream homes. See the entries here, they are quite inspiring.

Here's one of the entries, to entice you to take a look:

Sweet Surprise in November

Late in October, I had a delightful surprise, when cleaning up my garden for winter, I lifted a raspberry branch, and was greeted by a cluster of red raspberries (and a spider, which I didn't even notice, until I looked at the photo later).

I also found a number of my golden raspberries were ripe also. So after taking a photo, I carefully carried in a handful of the sweet little treasures...

...and prepared a small bowl to share with the children:

Because after all, the only thing better than discovering treasure is having someone to share it with. :-)

Now, this is already mid-November, we have had a number of mornings of frost (at least visible on the roof), and there is snow in the local mountains. So when I made a trip into the yard with the kids (they were home today in lieu of Remembrance Day) to do some more garden cleanup, I was not expecting to again discover a number of ripe gold & red raspberries.

There were probably 2 dozen berries I picked today, and the kids were very happy to share them with me. There are still a number of green berries coming, too. I wonder what those raspberry canes could possibly be thinking!!

Daylight Savings Time Confusion

It was the wierdest thing when the alarm woke me up at 7:30 this morning. Usually I look out the window, then just crawl into the shower, with my eyes half open. But when I looked out the window, it still looked too dark for 7:30am. So I consulted my watch, just in case I had mistakenly changed the time on my clock. It also indicated 7:30am. Then it occurred to me that this might be the "fall back" day at the end of Daylight Savings Time. So I went downstairs to consult my computer.

(Usually I rely on the preacher announcing the change the week before, to avoid half the congregation arriving one hour late, or in this case, early. I didn't remember any such announcement.)

The date on the computer indicated only 6:30am. So I googled, and found that in 2007, Congress in the US and Parliament in Canada had changed the end date of Daylight Savings, it WOULD have been this morning, but instead is November 4, 2007, next weekend.

So I crawled into the shower, this time with my eyes fully awake, but my body telling me I still had one more hour to sleep.

A Small Cloud in a Blue Sky

While washing dishes in our south-facing kitchen window today, enjoying a rare Fall day of sunshine and blue sky in Vancouver, I noticed a dramatic shift in temperature and colour, as a small white cloud drifted and for a moment, blocked the sun. It made me reflect on how this is a metafore for so much of our life. We can let a small comment deflate our enthusiasm, or a small event discourage us, or a small disappointment challenge our faith. At the time, the feeling is dramatic, and all seems so real and overwhelming, but in light of our life and all that is possible, it is just a small cloud in an otherwise blue sky.

It made me also think about how life can go by, and we fail to appreciate and enjoy what we have right in front of us. I work from home, and other than trying to take on additional household chores and taking care of the kids' needs on top of my full time work, I too often forget to take a break, enjoy the awesome view from our office window, or stroll through our wonderful back yard gardens, or really enjoy the children and the stories that they share with me on arrival from school. Usually I don't even take time to enjoy lunch, I eat while thinking of what I am working on, and take more notes (I keep a book, as well as all my "flagged" emails as reminders) of what I need to do next.

So today I decided to enjoy the gorgeous blue sky, and sunshine. I boiled a pot of my favourite herbal tea (Celestial Seasonings Dessert Tea "English Toffee"), and sat on the deck for a short while, enjoying the heat of the sun on my face. The Sun gets way too much bad publicitly lately - it is the source of life, healing, growth, warm, relaxation. I noted how the Euonymus alata (aka "Burning Bush") which only days ago was a brilliant red, has dropped most of its leaves and is bare twigs. The fall asters, which were brilliant pinks, purples and whites for many weeks now, are starting to fade. The dahlias, close to the house, are still green, although the blooms are a bit smaller now, and they are quite fallen over. I will wait until a hard frost will turn them black, before cutting them down, and digging up the tubers for winter storage (leaving the ones protected by the house and overhang in the ground). There is the sound of leaves falling through the alders and cottonwoods in the nearby woods.

Then, in typical nerdy fashion, I return to my computer, and blog about my experience.

PS. Don't follow my example - get out there and enjoy it while you can! Invite a friend to join you, too!

PPS. Credit to Marsha J. O'Brien for the cloud photo, used without her explicit permission, but used in the same spirit as her blog : http://marshaobrien.wordpress.com/2007/06/12/i-love-you-and-there-is-absolutely-nothing-you-can-do-about-it/.

When Gardening Turns Dangerous

Most of the time, gardening is very therapeutic. Even on days when I overexert myself (predictably related to me getting out the garden shovel), and return from the garden sweaty from head to toe, I know that the time spent in the plants and dirt and sunshine has done wonders for calming my spirit, lowering my blood pressure, and strengthening my heart and muscles. Gardening, to those who enjoy it, is one of the most rewarding activities for maintaining health and happiness.

But at times it can turn hazardous. I found out for myself, in my own small but distinct way, as I was weeding underneath one of my rose bushes in July. I suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of the joint of my little finger. I was wearing gloves at the time, so pulled them off and looked for the thorn. Nothing obvious. I remember thinking at the time, what an irony it was, since I really don't have much fondness for roses in the first place, and have only 4 or 5 bushes which I either salvaged or bought on clearance ($1 is a hard price to resist).

That evening, after I had washed off my hands, I could see a very small spot in the skin where the puncture had occurred. So I took out a needle, and made a serious attempt to search for the thorn. Unfortunately, it was my right hand, so I was working with a handicap, using my left to poke around. The thorn was pretty close to skin colour, and went straight in, leaving little sign. No luck. So I decided to leave it, and see if it worked itself out eventually.

More than 11 weeks later of regular pain when bending or touching the finger or trying to wear gloves (I cut the little finger off my usual pair of gardening gloves, so I could continue to wear them), prayer, and two more serious attempts at digging out the thorn, I was finally successful tonight. I wish I could take a photo of it, but it would be too small (approx 1 mm) to show up well. But the relief I feel is so great, I knew I had to share this moment, even though it means working even later tonight (anyone following my blog and/or gardening painting project will note the infrequency of either lately!).

A big thanks to Mark Anderson, whose "Andertoons" have brought me many chuckles over the years, as I have enjoyed his "Daily Cartoon" on the sidebar of my blog. He generously provided the cartoon which is shown here. To view more of his cartoons and to order cartoons for presentations or cool merchandise, visit his Andertoons site.