Happy New Year

Thanks to everybody who read along with this blog this year. It has been very exciting trying to think of semi to moderately interesting things to blog about for your reading pleasure, and I look forward to doing more of that in a year with different numbers.

Have a good thing year!

xcaitlin

Stalkings: The Final Stocking

Officially done and officially hung with care!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! TO YOU!

Peppermint, Hark!

Oh wait. Peppermint Bark.

Peppermint Bark is one of my all time favourite Christmas time treats. It's funny though, because I used to hate any combination of mint and chocolate. Until one day a very lovely friend of mine put this under my nose. I've been hooked ever since!

Peppermint Bark is delicious all year round, but if you pull out a hunk of it in June, your friends will all know that those candy canes have been sitting in your pantry for six months. That’s right, they’re onto you. Lucky for us it is Christmas time! Hark! The bark cometh!

The Peppermint Bark Chronicles...

And yes I realize that all of my blog posts lately have been Christmas related... But it's not my fault Christmas is delicious!

Stalkings: Part Three

These stockings are starting to really piss me off. The thing about not sewing that much is that you forget how frustrating it can be and how much you want to scream and cry and throw your scissors at the floor when things don't go your way. But then you power through, because you already spent so much time getting THIS far. So on we go.

Step 5: Stockings, traditionally, are to be hung by the chimney, with care. So you need something to hang them by. I like loops. Loops are satisfying and can be made from contrasting fabrics. Loops! Turn them right side in with a nifty loop-turner!

Step 6: More detail work! Put letters on your stockings so people know which one is yours! You don't want people stealing your coal...
Some details say a lot about whose stocking it is...

Step 7: Then I did French seams to close up the stockings. That way you can't see the messy edges and it looks awesome! Those French really know their neat seams. Also tarts. Tarts are amazing.

Step 8: Now we tackle the stocking border. I have a feeling this is going to cause me much frustration because I can honestly tell you I have no idea what I'm doing.

If I figure out how to finish these, there will be one more entry about how pretty they look finished! If I am unable to figure it out, I will erase all entries and we will pretend this never happened.

I'm taking bets.

Yeah Toast

In high school, for some reason, there was this song going around. It was right when people started downloading music, and everybody was really into this song. I just re-listened to it, and it's pretty much the same as it was then. Weird, but addictive.

The song is called... Yeah Toast.

Here is a picture of toast.

Yeah. Toast.

Stalkings: Part Two

Welcome to the second installation of make your own Christmas stockings! Before we go on, make sure you refresh your memory of the first couple of steps by rereading the first part of this magical craft experience! Read it here!

Ready for the next steps? Here we go!

Step 3: Decide what fabrics you want to use for each stocking and cut out all your pieces. Cutting pieces is time consuming and dull, but as soon as you're done, it is quite satisfying.
Step 4: If you're crazy, like me, you'll want to quilt your fabric. Quilting is a terribly slow process that looks awesome in the end, but you'll be cursing the whole time. Make sure you have a nice batting layer between your lovely stocking fabric and hilarious lining fabric. Once you've completed the quilting you're going to want to take a nap. I'd like to take a nap just from thinking about the quilting I've already done... Stay tuned for more!

Stalkings: Part One

This December I decided to embark on a journey back in time. That's a very weird way of saying that I decided to dust off my sewing machine and pattern drafting skills, and make something!

What better a thing to make in December, than Christmas stockings! How fun!

I have a Christmas stocking from when I was a kid. Yes I'm Jewish, but that's beside the point. I have one. And I'd say most people who celebrated Christmas as children have one as well. So why make new ones? Well this year I am celebrating Christmas twice. Once with my family, and once with my cute little household. So this household needs new stockings! Matching stockings! Stockings that anybody with severe OCD could be proud of!

So I set to work.

Step 1: Find your most impressive scissors (mine were my great-great grandfather's from 200 years ago) and try to remember how to draft a pattern even though you haven't done so in almost 5 years.
Step 2: Take a deep breath and go to Fabricland, because you KNOW they will have the biggest selection of silly Christmas fabrics. Purchase these fabrics, and bring them home...

Then get designing! Stay tuned for progress!

RandoMonday XVII

I completely forgot to blog a RandoMonday yesterday, which is technically the first Monday of this month. So instead of waiting until next Monday, and because my time machine isn't ready yet, I present to you, RandoMonday: The Tuesday Edition!

I know the suspense must be killing you after having to wait a whole extra day... So without further ado... An experiment in proximity causing similarity...

Exhibit A: This monkey toy lives under some metal stairs on a random side street across from a church.
Exhibit B: This nearly identical woman lives just across the street. She has no idea that her neighbour, the monkey, dresses exactly like her, and no doubt they act similarly as well. This is just proof of science. The environment you live in dictates how you look and act. Science. That's science.

Toro

Over the past year I have had the absolute pleasure of shooting a few Toro Woman features for Toro Magazine. Toro has allowed me the creativity every artist dreams about, letting me pitch ideas about how to shoot beautiful girls, and giving me the go-ahead every time!

I had the privilege of shooting the last Toro Woman of the year, a fabulous young actress named Rachel Skarsten.

Here's a sneak peak!

Check out this month's Toro Woman with the complete photo shoot HERE!

Also, just because my previous Toro Woman features were in the past, that doesn't mean they shouldn't be revisited!
Check out LIGHTS HERE!

And check out Melanie Scrofano HERE!

And if you like babes, stay tuned for January's Toro Woman! Who doesn't like babes!?

Happy (C)Han(n)uk(k)a(h)

However you spell it, it is now!
Happy Festival of Lights everybody!

Focus, Please

I just realized something!

There is this little switch on my camera, and if you flip it, the camera won't focus for you! Ok, ok. I didn't just realize that. But auto-focus is something that we as a society of camera users have come to rely on. I'm the same, don't get me wrong. Auto-focus is a glorious invention that makes it possible to shoot quickly and without any possible chance of failure!

Back when my eyes were sharp as cats, or tacks, I liked to manual focus a lot more. Now that I'm old and things look blurry all the time, I've been counting on auto-focus... I still like to explore the world of manual focus when things are a little less rushed... For example, when taking pictures of puddles.

So. Enjoy these pictures of puddles. And I hope you've enjoyed the blog I wrote specifically because I took pictures of puddles yesterday. I like sharing.

Profound, right?

Calla Lily

At the beginning of the month I was contacted by Fashion Magazine to be part of the launch party for the new Calvin Klein fragrance, Beauty. I, along with four other female photographers, was asked to photograph a calla lily according to my artistic sensibility. Uh oh.

So I phoned Jess. My favourite art director/person ever, who shares my artistic sensability, as scary as that may be. Together we set out to create something... Here is our journey...

First we collected important items...
Then used them... Outside.
We tried many different approaches...

Before coming up with our final product! We love it!

Click here to read an article about the event! Wahoo!

Things That Make You Go Hmmm

I think this is the funniest thing ever.

No Photoshop required for this trick, just pure, unharnessed, human-made hilarity!

Nobody else thinks this is funny? Hmmm. Maybe it was the 10 hours I spent outside in the freezing cold that did it.

Ah well. Did you find the special secret in this blog?

HMMM!

Spectacular Spectacles

For the past few months I have been working closely with Josephson Opticians working on a series of ads to celebrate their 75th anniversary! The three ads have been featured in the past three issues of Toronto Life! And just look at the people in these ads!

Chefs! Fashion! Culture! Take a closer look! These cats are the bee's knees!


Thank you to everybody at Josephson and everybody at Brill Communications for making these shoots run so smoothly and fun-ly!

Hardly

I can hardly believe I've gone this long without blogging, though it is hardly a surprise as I've hardly had time to wash my hair lately let alone blog. But now that I'm blogging I can hardly wait to share these photos that I shot for a new online magazine called Hardly!

It is hardly a challenge to take nice photos when your subject is the lovely and talented Seychelle Gabriel.

Check out Hardly Magazine by clicking right here to see the rest of the photos!

The View From My Face: Brampton

Inspired by the views around where I've been working lately, I decided to start a new blog segment called: "The View From My Face."

This segment will pretty much be a picture of what I'm looking at when I'm standing somewhere. Which, yes, is pretty much all pictures taken without a tripod and timer. But this will be specifically places specifically for this segment! Hooray for new segments!

Enjoy the view of Brampton! I know I have been!

Remembering In Style

Remember when Remembrance Day poppies had the green middles? That wasn't too long ago. Now that poppies have the slick black middles, people are really using poppies to enhance their wardrobes during the month of November. As we all know, red and black is a classic colour combination that is very pleasing to the eye. And while I will not go so far as to say that red goes with everything, a poppy can be the perfect accent to an already fashionable outfit, or a valid attempt to fancy up a relatively drab outfit.

This year on Remembrance Day I was on set working with a fantastic crew, many of whom were wearing poppies both to honour the veterans, and to enhance their day-to-day style.

I won't say who I think is more fashionable or less fashionable, but please enjoy this offering of poppies, seventeen ways.


Way to wear those poppies proud!