Light box -- before, and *almost* after

I apologize for the phone camera pics, but I think you will get the idea. I wasn't able to get the *exact* supplies I wanted, but what I *did* get should serve my purposes. The finished frame gets a backdrop attached to the cup-hooks, and a translucent sheet draped over the top. Lighting is aimed through the sheet, over and beside the frame to light the "stage" inside.
I gave it a quick test drive shortly after the frame was finished. I will definitely need to work on tweaking my camera. It turns out that I can't change the settings I need to the most, but I should be able to do macro with little difficulty. I also found that using 2 Ott-lites doesn't provide enough light, at least not with the sheet as it is. I will do another test run with wax paper as the "filter" to see how it works.
Once I get it working how I need to, I'll post pics of how everything turned out.

Gonna build me a light box!

Well the hands aren't co-operating with knitting like I need them to be, so I have to find other productive things to do with all the deadlines I have coming up soon. A lot of the extras, as I call them, that need working on have been put off for waaaaay too long now. Unfortunately, a good portion of these tasks require me to be able to concentrate fully, and that simply isn't possible when the kids (or Derek for that matter) are home.

My photography skills need quite a bit of improvement, although I have been doing better with them recently than I had in previous years. I spent nearly a full day last week doing all kinds of research on what I can do to make my pictures better. I simply am not in a place financially where I can justify any kind of professional photographer. I discovered that even with my cheap ~$100 camera, it is possible to take much better photographs than I have been. I downloaded a copy of the full user manual to teach myself how to play with some different settings, but I'll save that for another post.

What I will be doing today is making myself a light box to take pictures in. What is a light box? Basically it's a box with translucent sides that allows filtered light in to improve the quality of the pictures of the item inside, particularly with macro-type images. One easy DIY version that you can likely make with items you already have is here. Another cool version that uses screen frames can be found here. The one that I plan on making is here. It uses PVC pipe for the framing, and I plan on purchasing extra piping to be able to adjust the size of the "box". I'm also going to be purchasing a few colours of large poster paper so that I can change the background to best suit the item I'm photographing. I have 2 Ott-lites, a floor and desk version, so I'm basically set for lighting, along with our large dining room window for natural light. I have a tiny, table-top tripod for my camera, but I'm going to look into a floor version as well.

Wish me luck! I'm heading off into town in the truck with 3 kids, on a Friday with no school... what was I thinking???

Running around in circles...

That's exactly what I feel like when I have too many different things on the go. I get overwhelmed and then don't manage to accomplish much of anything. It's very frustrating as well since I feel that I should be able to get more done now that I don't work outside of the home, and rarely go out.

Well that is the situation I am finding myself in right now. Within reach of me here at the couch I have three socks-in-progress, my shrug-in-progress, Lissa's cardi swatch, and a crocheted place mat-in-progress. There are also several hanks/ balls of yarn in varying states -- some in the process of being wound into hanks, washed, weighed, and catalogued before being stored; some recent purchases that need to be photographed and put away (or cast on since they're interesting); a balled up hank of Tanis fingering that's in the "time out corner" for not behaving when I tried to design with it. Add to that, my usual flotsam and jetsam of design reference books, yarn/ craft catalogues, various knit/ crochet tools and gadgets, and my pencils, notepads, and notebooks for my endless lists and notes. Can we say, "recipe for disaster? I knew you could!"

Bright Idea #825

I am also in the midst of spring cleaning. As I put it when I talked to my DH the other day, "I had one of my bright ideas!" Any of you that have been following me since the beginning know that those are the words of doom when they escape my lips! I'm certain that Derek was quite thrilled that he is/ was a full three provinces away when I made this announcement.

Like all of my Bright Ideas (tm), it started off innocently enough. Wednesday morning I went into town to purchase Derek a new Keurig coffee machine, and get some groceries. While at the grocery store, which wasn't my usual place to shop, I picked up some new-to-me spice blends. This is something I've been doing quite regularly since starting my diet. When I got home, I dutifully put away all of the refrigerated and frozen items before taking a rest. This is quite the norm for me since my back and feet are usually done in by the time I'm finished the shopping. Besides, there is a very good reason I don't normally shop at that store... it's simply way too exhausting. After having my coffee, I went back into the kitchen to finish putting away the dry goods. I grabbed the two spice bottles and was about to put them away in the cupboard above the stove where they belong. There was really only room for one bottle without shoving and knocking everything over, and that was when I decided that that cupboard was too dirty and too disorganized. That's where it all began. I removed everything from the cupboard and started scrubbing. Being right above the stove, it doesn't take long for a thin layer of oil and grime to coat every surface. Our cupboards are mainly oak, and that seems to soak it in even more. Some more scrubbing, some more spraying of my bleach spray, and I even removed the cupboard handles so that I could get it all super clean. Then came the cleaning and culling of the items that were in there. I have quite a bit of Tupperware (I was a dealer many, many moons ago), so there was a lot of shuffling between containers and soaking in hot soapy water. My garbage can runneth over with all of the items I chose to toss... especially spices that were older than some of my children, and were never likely to be used anyway even if they had been fresh. Scrub, toss, and then scrub some more. My handy, dandy label maker was put to work making new labels for some of the containers that either lost their labels or never had them to begin with. A list was added to my phone of the items I had tossed that would need to be replaced. All totalled it took me the better part of the afternoon and part of the evening to complete to my satisfaction. Granted I don't do it all at once, I simply can't, but I was definitely focused, as evidenced by my lack of procrastination.

Well the first cupboard turned out so nice that the next morning I started work on the next one. It was the same type of process all over, since this was the cupboard beside the stove that is the catch-all for the odd-ball baking supplies mostly. This process continued through the next few days, and I would estimate that I have about a quarter to one third of my kitchen cupboards now detail-cleaned. I have a lot of cupboards when you include the "side board" with glass front cupboards above, and extra-deep cupboards below. We don't have a pantry, since we have more than enough cupboards to require one. I'm trying to get one or two cupboards done per day, and that's a pretty realistic goal I think. It's not too much, and it keeps me off the computer in the mornings when I can't knit anyway. As a side benefit, I've been able to knit as early as 10 am these past few days. I'm guessing it's all the hot water that my hands are in that "get them moving" earlier than usual! I just find it funny, and that's why it's classified as a "bright idea", that this all started by buying one rather than two new spices at the grocery store!

Facing my fears...

I'm afraid... I'm very afraid... of my craft room!

Yes, one of my biggest fears is my craft room. Right now it is little more than a storage room. I have been picking at it bit by bit over the last year, occasionally with help from the sproggins, to get it in order. There have been times that nearly the whole house has been taken over, and other times where it's only a few boxes or bins that escape the doorway. To the untrained eye, it would seem that nothing has really happened in there... stuff goes in... stuff goes out... stuff goes back in... In reality, a lot of trash was removed, and the rest of the flotsam and jetsam is in varying degrees of organization. The biggest difference for me was being able to access whatever I needed during the months of December and January... typically the worst possible times in there because the craft room tends to become a dumping ground for all the homeless items in the living room when we decorate for Christmas!

My "after work" text message conversation with Derek yesterday read, "I set off a bomb in the craft room", "You did", "That's what it looks like", "Oh", "Alex, Lissa, and I ripped it apart today", "House too with that bomb", "Parts of it anyway". Man does he know me and my methods or what? LOL!! But it's true, it does look like I set off a bomb in there, and the fallout is scattered throughout the hallway and into the living room. At least my family understands that in order to make a real difference in cleaning up and organizing such an area requires making a huge mess to accomplish it!

...anybody got a lifeline for me before I venture into there?

What is so damned difficult about dial-up? {Bright Idea #926}

***WARNING: This post is most definitely not rated G.***

Well I just had a 2 day internet famine that was entirely *not* my fault! The stupid asshats at my ISP have proven once again that they got their membership cards for the human race out of a Cracker Jack box!!! It has taken them since around 8 or 9 am on Tuesday, until now to get my computer back on the net!

It all started with getting my logon corrected. The numb-nutted idiot that originally created my account obviously cannot read, or at least cut-and-paste. Our ISP is also our phone company, so the internet account is linked to our phone account. Our last name is RODGERS... so why we would want dnrogers as our family logon is beyond me. In order to correct that, they have to cancel the old account and create a new one. At least they didn't try to charge me the fee they normally charge for changing your logon. There's no way in H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks that I would pay a single penny for their stupidity in not being able to read the name of the freakin' account holder!!! For some inane reason the front end of their computer network couldn't talk to the back end of their computer network about my account change, and so I was left stuck somewhere in the middle... my old account had been completely deleted, and the new one was in suspended animation. It took no less than half a dozen phone calls a day, each of which took at least an hour because of the voice mail hell/ muzak on hold purgatory that my call got shuffled into. Between trying my old logon, new logon, password resets, and every other hoop in Manitoba that they had me jump through, they *still* couldn't get my access back. Needless to say that {using my best Queen Victoria voice}, "we were *not* amused."

The second major problem that I tried to get fixed with my dial-up is the craptastic speed that I connect at. I have yet to see anything faster than 28.8 kbps, and have even connected slower a couple of times. For those of you that don't understand what that speed means, just think "slow boat to China..." and there's probably a leak in that boat that the crew needs to spend all their time bailing water instead of rowing! The "helpful" dipshit that I spoke to about my problem is probably too dumb to even know what the hell he's talking about unless he has one of those "help desk" programs open on his computer! After going through the fact that I'm not using a dinosaur computer powered by a hamster wheel, my phone line isn't a piece of string attached to a tin can, and that my idea of turning on a computer *isn't* rubbing up next to it; he had the brain wave that I need a new phone jack installed within 4 feet of my computer, preferably on its own line. Well, it's bad enough that we're paying $30/mo for this shite... now you want me to fork out at LEAST $70 to have them come down and install a jack, at least $50 for the new phone line, plus any charges for being out-of-town service call , and THEN pay another $30/mo for a second phone line? And STILL no guarantees that my speed will improve??? Especially when their own DSL lines run about 100 yards to the south of my house??? To hell with THAT crap... we're better off going for the stupid satellite!

And the sum total of all of this is that thanks to my ISP-from-hell, I've been knocked out of the NaBloPoMo contests because I missed 2 days posting.

I'm wondering...

... about so many different things right now that it's hard to think straight!

Firstly, I've only had one day off since I got here, and that was an enjoyable but very exhausting day at Banff! I cannot be held responsible for any typos or any rambling that I may or may not be responsible for!

That being said, I found a few operational brain cells and decided to use google maps to find out where all the bottle return depots are here in Calgary, and decide which is the easiest and/or closest to here. Well I'm very happy to announce that I've found one that's just over a kilometre away {less than a mile}, and *very* easy to find as well. I still need to call them to get their hours, but at least I now know that it's only about a 15 minute walk each way to go get rid of the growing heap of water and other bottles in my hotel room! That's not an adventure for today, however, as I have no choice but to trek over to the laundromat today... I *have* to or else my co-workers will definitely protest!!!

The kindness of strangers...

Or, "The Yarn Crawl that Wasn't"...

Yesterday was a very strange collection of events. I was in the mood for Chinese food, and wanted to go to that "walking distance" LYS I had looked up. Catherine {my roommate and recipient of the super-secret project} and I trekked off in search of this LYS and then pick up the food on our way back. Silly me, I didn't write down EXACT directions on how to get there... and obviously the day that I was perusing the phone book map of the city, I wasn't paying as close of attention as I should. Fast forward about an HOUR, and you find two ladies drowning in Lake Erie {there was like 15 different Lake Erie streets and such!}.

Then we tried to walk back to the main street that we knew. For those of you that know Calgary, we're staying at the Delta Calgary south which is bordered by Macleod, Bonaventure and {I think it's} Southland. Anyway, Macleod and Bonaventure are parallel here, and we went down Bonaventure. Well somewhere along the way, one or the other moved.... REALLY FAR!!! I *think* we were walking south, and somehow the 1 block west to go from Bonaventure to Macleod turned into a mile or more. Finally, on some strange street, we asked a lady for directions on how to get to Avenida Place, which is the mall where the LYS is. She tried to explain where it was from where we were, but it was quite difficult. For all of Calgary's street planning, this particular neighbourhood is full of winding and curved roads. When I showed her my sheet with the listing of the LYS, she then offered to DRIVE the two of us there. I couldn't believe my luck! This particular lady was very grandmotherly, and the two of us were {well me at least!} in no shape to continue walking into oblivion. I'm guessing that the fact that we were looking for a yarn shop took care of any concerns she may have had about two strange ladies coming up to her and asking for directions! As she drives towards the mall, we discovered just *how* much further from Macleod we were than we though {that street REALLY moved far!!!}, and how far we were from our hotel! I'd say that we were at LEAST a mile *past* the mall, which was well over a mile from our hotel {I'd estimated about half that!}. She pulls into the mall and takes us to the shop.... WHICH WAS CLOSED!!! gone, kaput, no longer of this earth. I was beyond devastated. I *had* checked the phone book to double check my listing, which is how I found out that Avenida Place was a mall, and not just a street address. Unfortunately, due to major hotel issues {will blog that later}, we have *no* local phone service available in our room... I can only call other rooms in the hotel, so I neglected to phone this particular place and confirm their hours and such.

Anyhoo, this kind soul {I never got her name :( } then offers to drive us back to the hotel. I pause slightly and say, "Well, actually, we were going to stop for lunch... if it's no trouble, could you drop us off at Willow Park so that we can go to the restaurant?" Willow Park is a small strip mall that was about half-way between where we now were and our hotel. She agrees to take us there, and when we arrive, she refuses to take any money that I had offered her for gas. At around $1.20/L right now, gas ain't cheap!!! I thanked her profusely and into the restaurant we went, extremely grateful for her absolute kindness. If this is the worst thing that happens to me during my stay here in Calgary, it will be a great trip indeed!!!

Our adventures *still* weren't over though! We placed our orders, and had them to go, as all I could think about by this point was getting back to the hotel and resting! Good thing I didn't go to the exercise room beforehand!! It ended up that the hotel was a *lot* further from the restaurant than I had remembered from the walk the other way. I can't get over just *how* out of shape I am!!! We *finally* get back to the hotel to discover that this particular Chinese restaurant has customer service out the ying-yang!!! I had ordered separate dishes, which were packed very well... cardboard separating the layers so that nothing got damaged, HUGE portions, and even after the 15 minute or so walk back to the hotel, was *still* too hot to eat!

Sooooo... in the light of all this, I don't care what I have to do to phone first, I'll figure out *something* before attempting any more yarn crawls, and I'm forever indebted to the kindness of some generous grandmother in South Calgary!

Decisions, decisions...

Well today's dilemma is what to put on our desks. I spent most of yesterday moving mine and Derek's desks here in the dining room, and now comes the daunting task of deciding what's going back on them. I deliberately put nothing but the peripherals back after the move, and left them like that overnight. It's *very* refreshing to see the desktops for a change. Unfortunately, it's making it hard to put stuff back... oh well.

Tomorrow I will post the pic of benefactor #2. I cast it on last night while I was working on my computer. It's horridly slow, and I was doing all kinds of things to it to try and speed it up. I did manage to get a really good start on the sock at least.