So here's a "not so secret" secret about me. I hate hockey. Not very Canadian of me huh? Although, according to Ben and a study he read, Canadians who play and/or watch the sport of hockey only ranks at about 20% whereas Canadians who play and/or watch golf ranks much, much higher. Of course, I also hate golf so... still not very Canadian.
There are many things I hate about hockey but one of the major ones is the fighting. I find it boring and stupid and pointless. Just get out there and chase your little rubbery puck thing around the ice with your big wooden stick okay?
So you can imagine Ben's surprise when Saturday night I told him I wanted to go and see the movie "Goon". A movie about hockey. In fact, not just hockey but FIGHTING in hockey. See, Pajiba had given it an amazing review and although I hate hockey I tend to like "sports" movies. Especially if it's a movie about an "underdog". Also, I like to keep Ben on his toes when it comes to knowing shit about me. I am a woman of mystery no?
I was pretty sure I would like it and confident that Ben would like it and I was right. Goon is a movie about violence in hockey and there's an abundance of blood spraying and teeth flying out of random people's mouths and I loved every moment of it. It's similar to Slapshot (a movie I HATE) but there's a sweetness to it that Slapshot failed to achieve. Most of that sweetness comes from the main character but there's plenty of humour and heart from the entire cast.
Because this post isn't actually about the movie Goon, I'll stop gushing about it and leave you with a simple "Go see this movie." You won't regret it.
What this post is actually about is what happened at the theatre. As you can imagine, a movie theatre on St. Patrick's Day isn't what you would call "popular" so we weren't surprised when we arrived at the movie and discovered we were the only 2 people in the theatre for Goon. We had sat there for about five minutes when a short blonde woman entered the theatre and stood beside us.
Woman: You have got to be kidding me.
Ben: Not too busy tonight huh?
Woman: I can't believe it.
Ben: Feel free to sit wherever you'd like.
Woman: I'm sitting next to you guys.
Me and Ben: *laugh*
Woman: I'm not kidding. Move over.
Me: *stares blankly and then shrugs before standing to let her pass*
Sure enough, in a theatre entirely empty except for Ben and I, the woman plopped herself down in the seat directly beside Ben.
Woman: I've never been to a movie by myself before and I'm not starting tonight.
Ben: Um, okay.
Woman: My husband should be with me. We got free tickets to this movie but then we got in a fight and I finally just said, "Fuck you." and came to the movie by myself.
Ben: That's nice.
Me: *loudly whispers* Is she drunk?
Ben: *nods and eats a handful of popcorn*
Woman: Can you believe they want $5 for a bag of popcorn?
Ben: Pretty expensive.
We sat there in awkward silence for about 5 minutes and then:
Woman: I'm going to get some popcorn.
10 minutes later, she was back with a large bag of popcorn. She waved cheerily to us from the end of the row, we waved back. She slid back into her seat, spilling popcorn on herself, Ben and Ben's drink. As she picked popcorn out of Ben's lap and off his drink, another man entered the theatre and sat behind us.
Woman: Hey, someone else!
She waved at him, he stared blankly at her before looking at the screen where the movie was starting. The woman picked more popcorn off Ben's lap before shoving it into her mouth.
I settled in, confident our movie experience was about to be ruined by a slightly tipsy woman and happy that Ben was sitting next to her and not me. He tends to be amused by inappropriate, drunk people while I'm more inclined to punch them in the face.
Surprisingly, other than a few bouts of loud conversation about events in the movie she was fairly well behaved. Of course, halfway through the movie there was this:
Woman: This is a really funny movie huh?
Ben: Yup.
Woman: Listen, you're Kurt for the night. Okay?
Ben: Sure.
Me: *loudly whispers* Kurt! I'm thirsty, pass me the drink!
As Ben passed me the drink, I took a huge slurp, nearly choking with laughter as the woman elbowed "Kurt" in the side at a particularly funny part. Throughout the movie, I giggled as Ben was continually elbowed at all the funny parts. Near the end of the movie, I grabbed Ben's hand and held it tightly, glancing over to see the woman holding his other arm in a death grip.
Me: *loudly whispers* Good job you're holding your drink in your hand Kurt. I'm pretty sure she'd be holding it if you weren't.
Ben: *loudly whispers back* I wanted to get my drink in my hand, in case she tried to roofie me.
Me: *laughs hysterically*
As the credits rolled, we gathered our stuff and stood up.
Woman: Hey thanks guys! That was a lot of fun!
Ben and I: Yeah! Nice meeting you.
Then we ran like hell from the theatre.
Weekly Photo
Orange
Sunday 18 March 2012
Friday 16 March 2012
Food Waste Friday
Every Friday I participate in The Frugal Girl's Food Waste Friday. We post pictures of the food we wasted during the week.
So our second week of Food Waste Friday wasn't as successful as our first week was.
I brought my lunch bag home and although I mentioned it to Ben in the car on the way home, neither of us remembered there was food left over from my lunch. It sat overnight and in the morning when Ben opened my lunch bag he discovered this sad little sight:
Strawberries, broccoli and a Yop. I'll admit it - the Yop stung. I love drinkable yoghurt and at a $1.00 a bottle, it feels like much more of a waste than the berries and broccoli.
Also, I'm a little concerned that Ben is taking this "THERE WILL BE NO FOOD WASTE ON MY WATCH" a little too seriously. Yesterday he ate an apple that looked seriously questionable. Apparently it had zero taste. As Ben said "I've never eaten an apple that didn't taste like anything."
Yes, I am accepting bets on how long it is until Ben gives himself food poisoning.
So, how did you do this week?
So our second week of Food Waste Friday wasn't as successful as our first week was.
I brought my lunch bag home and although I mentioned it to Ben in the car on the way home, neither of us remembered there was food left over from my lunch. It sat overnight and in the morning when Ben opened my lunch bag he discovered this sad little sight:
Strawberries, broccoli and a Yop. I'll admit it - the Yop stung. I love drinkable yoghurt and at a $1.00 a bottle, it feels like much more of a waste than the berries and broccoli.
Also, I'm a little concerned that Ben is taking this "THERE WILL BE NO FOOD WASTE ON MY WATCH" a little too seriously. Yesterday he ate an apple that looked seriously questionable. Apparently it had zero taste. As Ben said "I've never eaten an apple that didn't taste like anything."
Yes, I am accepting bets on how long it is until Ben gives himself food poisoning.
So, how did you do this week?
Wednesday 14 March 2012
Kiss My Face
Hey, did you folks know I like animals? Probably right? I mean, I occasionally talk about my pets, post a few pictures of them. I'm not obsessive about them, I don't accidentally give them a side pony then show the internets their shameful hair.
(Oh how I love her angry, blurry little face in this picture)
I suppose these are not the actions of someone who loves animals.
That being said, if you were to approach me in tears, sharing that your grandma had just died, I would hand you tissues for your tears, rub your back soothingly and murmur words of comfort. If you told me your dog had just died, I would sob right along with you, hog the tissues, crack open a bottle of wine (or 2) and help you drink your sorrows away until we were both completely smashed and wandering the streets in our sock feet. You hollering about what a good dog Rex was and me hollering that Rex was "walking with Jesus" now.
What I'm saying is that, torturing them with wee crocheted legwarmers aside, I like animals more than I like most people and I think we all know that.
With that in mind, I've decided it's about high time I started using brands that refuse to test on animals. Because animals needlessly suffering so that humans can look and smell pretty? Not cool. Not cool at all.
Honestly, for someone who professes to love and respect animals as much as I do, it's shameful that I have continued to use my usual beauty products, and subsequently support companies that condone live animal testing.
While my main goal is to stop supporting companies that test on live animals, I will confess that I'm also interested in using products that are naturally made, thereby reducing toxins entering into my body.
As part of my simple living goals, I have been researching not only ways to live simply on less, but ways to reduce our impact on Earth's resources as well as how to keep toxins and other chemicals away from my gorgeous self.
Basically I'm turning into a dirty hippie (and trying to convert Ben into one too).
While I'm not quite at the point of joining the no-poo movement, I do love the idea of using something that was not tested on live animals and will also not leach toxins and chemicals into my big, beautiful brain, via my scalp.
Which now leads me to the actual "actual" point of this blog post...kissing my face.
Kiss my Face is a green company that refuses to use ingredients that are tested on animals and believes in using only natural ingredients in their products. I had heard good things about them and decided to try some of their products with the goal being to review them against my current beauty products.
First up... the soap (Also, please note that I will not be comparing availability and pricing. Obviously the new products are going to, for the most part, cost more. Part of living a simple and frugal life is deciding what is important to me and worth spending my hard cold cash on. Not torturing animals so I can have soft skin falls under that category.)
Kiss My Face Fragrance Free Pure Olive Oil versus Dove Original, Fragrance Free.
Ingredients:
Dove:
Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate, Stearic Acid, Sodium Tallowate, Sodium Palmitate, Lauric Acid, Sodium Isethionate , Water , Sodium Stearate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Chloride, Tetrasodium EDTA, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Maltol, Titanium Dioxide
Kiss My Face:
Saponified Olive Oil, Water, Sodium Chloride
Appearance: For most folks, the small oval shaped white bar of Dove soap is probably considered prettier than the boxy, olive-green block of Kiss My Face soap. Luckily, I'm not most folks and it makes me giggle when I use a bar of soap that has "Kiss My Face" etched into it. If they produced one that said "Kiss My Ass" I would buy MILLIONS of them. Because I am 12.
Scent: Both of these soaps are considered fragrance free. However, both of them have a fragrance. Dove soap has a light flowery scent and Kiss My Face has a, shockingly enough, olive oil scent.
Ease of Use: The Dove soap fits nicely into your hand and lathers well. It rinses off without leaving any feelings of stickiness or residue. Kiss My Face soap is boxier and a bit more difficult to handle. It doesn't lather at all and there is a slight residue feeling directly after rinsing.
Final Verdict: Overall I probably enjoy using the Dove soap more than the Kiss My Face. It's weird to use a soap that doesn't really lather since we've been taught that lots of lather means clean. The olive oil scent doesn't bother me and even if it did, the scent definitely doesn't linger long on your skin. It took me a few days to get used to the "slightly sticky feeling" while rinsing but EVERY soap, other than Dove does that to my skin. What I did love was how soft my skin is after using the Kiss My Face soap. Dove doesn't dry out my skin but it doesn't leave it as soft as the Kiss My Face does.
Finally, the fact that Kiss My Face has 3 ingredients and I know what all three of those ingredients are, compared to the scary amount of ingredients in Dove and I think I'll stick with the Kiss My Face soap. I am going to try different ones though (the olive oil and honey bar perhaps?) to see if I might like those better than the pure olive oil one.
Shampoo, Conditioner, Shaving Cream
Kiss My Face Whenever Shampoo and Conditioner versus John Freida Brilliant Brunette Shampoo and Conditioner
Appearance: They both come in plastic squeeze bottles and they both look pretty. Kiss My Face has the slight advantage as it's a definite bottle while the John Frieda is more of a tube and has a tendency to fall over if brushed against.
Scent: John Frieda has a faint and pleasant smell. Kiss My Face smells like Pine Sol. It's rather disconcerting actually. To be fair, Harold doesn't think it smells like Pine Sol but that's only because he doesn't clean the kitchen floors and therefore doesn't really have the opportunity to smell Pine Sol up close and personal like I have.
Ease of Use: John Frieda requires quite a bit of shampoo to work up a lather. I also have to use a large amount of conditioner to get it to detangle my hair. Kiss My Face shampoo, much like their soap doesn't really lather even with lots of shampoo. That can take some getting used to. I require less Kiss My Face conditioner to detangle my hair.
This is a tough one for me. I have very thick, long, wavy-to-curly hair that is a pain in the ass to wash and condition. I also have a sensitive scalp so brushing my hair with any type of tangles in it leaves me wincing in pain. I only wash my hair every 3 days, partly because I am lazy but mostly because it's better for your hair. With the John Frieda shampoo, washing my hair every 3 days is not a problem. It also does a great job of keeping the frizz down. Before John Frieda I had seriously frizzy hair so I was a little apprehensive about switching. The conditioner, however, does not do a great job of detangling my hair so there is a lot of loud cursing and wincing when I comb my hair after the shower. The Kiss My Face has that odd "Pine Sol" smell and although I enjoy the smell of a freshly cleaned kitchen floor, I don't like that smell on my head..
On a positive note, the shampoo makes your scalp tingle pleasantly afterwards. And the conditioner...the conditioner is a dream. It detangles my hair like magic. MAGIC!! It also seems to keep my hair from frizzing but it makes my hair feel slightly - I don't really know how to explain it - heavy and slightly greasy by the second day. I think if I had thin hair I would detest this shampoo.
Final Verdict: I'll keep using the shampoo and conditioner until it's gone but I have a feeling I'll be looking for something different. Even with the magical detangling power of the conditioner, I can't get past my hair smelling like Pine Sol.
Kiss My Face Fragrance Free Shaving Cream versus Pure Silk Moisturizing
Appearance: While the Pure Silk comes out as a gel and turns into foam, the Kiss My Face shaving cream is creamy and more soap-like on your legs.
Scent: Pure Silk smells flowery and the Kiss my Face is scent free.
Ease of Use: Well, the Kiss My Face shaving cream doesn't come out as a cold gel that you then have to slather onto your legs or your delicate lady bits so that's a plus. Other than that they're both pretty much the same.
Confession time - I don't give a shit about shaving cream. I'm the girl who lots of times shaves her legs with nothing but soap or, even worse, just water, so obviously I'm the wrong person to be comparing shaving creams. I asked Ben for his opinion since he currently uses a foam shaving cream and is now using this shaving cream. His comment "I didn't use it correctly the first time. I'm sure it'll be fine."
Final Verdict: Unless Ben makes a request to try something different, we'll continue to use this shaving cream because they don't test on animals and as previously stated, I have no strong feelings about my brand or type of shaving cream. Just keep in mind that if you like the "foam" shaving cream, you will not like this.
Listen, I promise I am not going all PETA on you because them bitches be crazy. But, if you're interested in switching to cruelty free brands check out Leaping Bunny. It provides tips on going cruelty free and lists companies that do not test on animals.
Nor do I then crochet them tiny little leg warmers to compliment their unintentional 80s look and then post it on the internets for the world to see or anything...
(Oh how I love her angry, blurry little face in this picture)
I suppose these are not the actions of someone who loves animals.
That being said, if you were to approach me in tears, sharing that your grandma had just died, I would hand you tissues for your tears, rub your back soothingly and murmur words of comfort. If you told me your dog had just died, I would sob right along with you, hog the tissues, crack open a bottle of wine (or 2) and help you drink your sorrows away until we were both completely smashed and wandering the streets in our sock feet. You hollering about what a good dog Rex was and me hollering that Rex was "walking with Jesus" now.
What I'm saying is that, torturing them with wee crocheted legwarmers aside, I like animals more than I like most people and I think we all know that.
With that in mind, I've decided it's about high time I started using brands that refuse to test on animals. Because animals needlessly suffering so that humans can look and smell pretty? Not cool. Not cool at all.
Honestly, for someone who professes to love and respect animals as much as I do, it's shameful that I have continued to use my usual beauty products, and subsequently support companies that condone live animal testing.
While my main goal is to stop supporting companies that test on live animals, I will confess that I'm also interested in using products that are naturally made, thereby reducing toxins entering into my body.
As part of my simple living goals, I have been researching not only ways to live simply on less, but ways to reduce our impact on Earth's resources as well as how to keep toxins and other chemicals away from my gorgeous self.
Basically I'm turning into a dirty hippie (and trying to convert Ben into one too).
While I'm not quite at the point of joining the no-poo movement, I do love the idea of using something that was not tested on live animals and will also not leach toxins and chemicals into my big, beautiful brain, via my scalp.
Which now leads me to the actual "actual" point of this blog post...kissing my face.
Kiss my Face is a green company that refuses to use ingredients that are tested on animals and believes in using only natural ingredients in their products. I had heard good things about them and decided to try some of their products with the goal being to review them against my current beauty products.
First up... the soap (Also, please note that I will not be comparing availability and pricing. Obviously the new products are going to, for the most part, cost more. Part of living a simple and frugal life is deciding what is important to me and worth spending my hard cold cash on. Not torturing animals so I can have soft skin falls under that category.)
Kiss My Face Fragrance Free Pure Olive Oil versus Dove Original, Fragrance Free.
Dove:
Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate, Stearic Acid, Sodium Tallowate, Sodium Palmitate, Lauric Acid, Sodium Isethionate , Water , Sodium Stearate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Chloride, Tetrasodium EDTA, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Maltol, Titanium Dioxide
Kiss My Face:
Saponified Olive Oil, Water, Sodium Chloride
Appearance: For most folks, the small oval shaped white bar of Dove soap is probably considered prettier than the boxy, olive-green block of Kiss My Face soap. Luckily, I'm not most folks and it makes me giggle when I use a bar of soap that has "Kiss My Face" etched into it. If they produced one that said "Kiss My Ass" I would buy MILLIONS of them. Because I am 12.
Scent: Both of these soaps are considered fragrance free. However, both of them have a fragrance. Dove soap has a light flowery scent and Kiss My Face has a, shockingly enough, olive oil scent.
Ease of Use: The Dove soap fits nicely into your hand and lathers well. It rinses off without leaving any feelings of stickiness or residue. Kiss My Face soap is boxier and a bit more difficult to handle. It doesn't lather at all and there is a slight residue feeling directly after rinsing.
Final Verdict: Overall I probably enjoy using the Dove soap more than the Kiss My Face. It's weird to use a soap that doesn't really lather since we've been taught that lots of lather means clean. The olive oil scent doesn't bother me and even if it did, the scent definitely doesn't linger long on your skin. It took me a few days to get used to the "slightly sticky feeling" while rinsing but EVERY soap, other than Dove does that to my skin. What I did love was how soft my skin is after using the Kiss My Face soap. Dove doesn't dry out my skin but it doesn't leave it as soft as the Kiss My Face does.
Finally, the fact that Kiss My Face has 3 ingredients and I know what all three of those ingredients are, compared to the scary amount of ingredients in Dove and I think I'll stick with the Kiss My Face soap. I am going to try different ones though (the olive oil and honey bar perhaps?) to see if I might like those better than the pure olive oil one.
Shampoo, Conditioner, Shaving Cream
Kiss My Face Whenever Shampoo and Conditioner versus John Freida Brilliant Brunette Shampoo and Conditioner
Appearance: They both come in plastic squeeze bottles and they both look pretty. Kiss My Face has the slight advantage as it's a definite bottle while the John Frieda is more of a tube and has a tendency to fall over if brushed against.
Scent: John Frieda has a faint and pleasant smell. Kiss My Face smells like Pine Sol. It's rather disconcerting actually. To be fair, Harold doesn't think it smells like Pine Sol but that's only because he doesn't clean the kitchen floors and therefore doesn't really have the opportunity to smell Pine Sol up close and personal like I have.
Ease of Use: John Frieda requires quite a bit of shampoo to work up a lather. I also have to use a large amount of conditioner to get it to detangle my hair. Kiss My Face shampoo, much like their soap doesn't really lather even with lots of shampoo. That can take some getting used to. I require less Kiss My Face conditioner to detangle my hair.
This is a tough one for me. I have very thick, long, wavy-to-curly hair that is a pain in the ass to wash and condition. I also have a sensitive scalp so brushing my hair with any type of tangles in it leaves me wincing in pain. I only wash my hair every 3 days, partly because I am lazy but mostly because it's better for your hair. With the John Frieda shampoo, washing my hair every 3 days is not a problem. It also does a great job of keeping the frizz down. Before John Frieda I had seriously frizzy hair so I was a little apprehensive about switching. The conditioner, however, does not do a great job of detangling my hair so there is a lot of loud cursing and wincing when I comb my hair after the shower. The Kiss My Face has that odd "Pine Sol" smell and although I enjoy the smell of a freshly cleaned kitchen floor, I don't like that smell on my head..
On a positive note, the shampoo makes your scalp tingle pleasantly afterwards. And the conditioner...the conditioner is a dream. It detangles my hair like magic. MAGIC!! It also seems to keep my hair from frizzing but it makes my hair feel slightly - I don't really know how to explain it - heavy and slightly greasy by the second day. I think if I had thin hair I would detest this shampoo.
Final Verdict: I'll keep using the shampoo and conditioner until it's gone but I have a feeling I'll be looking for something different. Even with the magical detangling power of the conditioner, I can't get past my hair smelling like Pine Sol.
Kiss My Face Fragrance Free Shaving Cream versus Pure Silk Moisturizing
Appearance: While the Pure Silk comes out as a gel and turns into foam, the Kiss My Face shaving cream is creamy and more soap-like on your legs.
Scent: Pure Silk smells flowery and the Kiss my Face is scent free.
Ease of Use: Well, the Kiss My Face shaving cream doesn't come out as a cold gel that you then have to slather onto your legs or your delicate lady bits so that's a plus. Other than that they're both pretty much the same.
Confession time - I don't give a shit about shaving cream. I'm the girl who lots of times shaves her legs with nothing but soap or, even worse, just water, so obviously I'm the wrong person to be comparing shaving creams. I asked Ben for his opinion since he currently uses a foam shaving cream and is now using this shaving cream. His comment "I didn't use it correctly the first time. I'm sure it'll be fine."
Final Verdict: Unless Ben makes a request to try something different, we'll continue to use this shaving cream because they don't test on animals and as previously stated, I have no strong feelings about my brand or type of shaving cream. Just keep in mind that if you like the "foam" shaving cream, you will not like this.
Listen, I promise I am not going all PETA on you because them bitches be crazy. But, if you're interested in switching to cruelty free brands check out Leaping Bunny. It provides tips on going cruelty free and lists companies that do not test on animals.
Friday 9 March 2012
Food Waste Friday
Last Friday's email exchange between Ben and I:
Me: Babe, I have a new post up at the Simple Life.
Ben: So, I see we're trying something new, Food Waste Friday, and apparently I'm in charge of it since I'll be doing the planning, shopping and cooking.
Me: No honey I'll still help with the planning.
Ben: Sure you will dear. Just so we're clear, there will be NO food waste. Looks like the girl and her cat Murray will be eating the buttermilk with a spoon.
Me: No, no! Honey, it'll be okay if we have some food waste. This is just a way of making us more aware of how much food we're wasting and try to be more careful with our planning and menus. We'll probably have some food waste.
Ben: Not on MY WATCH!!
Me: I'M NOT EATING BUTTERMILK WITH A SPOON!!
Ben: Then you shouldn't have made me in charge of Food Waste Friday.
So guess what? It's our first Food Waste Friday and I'm proud to announce we have no pictures of food waste to share. Not surprising since my mildly OCD husband is in charge of it. Now there is a grapefruit that is slightly suspect but Ben thinks it'll be fine for breakfast tomorrow, and some grape tomatoes that are right on the edge but Ben assures me he will be consuming them for lunch tomorrow.
So although I was kind of looking forward to sharing a picture of some grody food that went moldy in the back of our fridge, it is nice that the first week of Food Waste Friday was a success...thanks to Ben!
Saturday 3 March 2012
Tulips
I love taking pictures. Over the last year or so I have tried to make photography a priority in my life by taking pictures at least weekly. Mostly I take pictures of the pets and any friends or family I can convince/cajole/threaten into letting me take pictures of them.
People photography is, without a doubt, my favourite type of photography. People come in all shapes and sizes, colours and ages, and I want to capture them all. I have a Canon Rebel that Ben gave me when he upgraded and I mostly use a 50 mm lens, which I love because it gives me awesome bokeh. I use natural light as much as I can, partly because I love the look of natural light and partly because I struggle with understanding the technical aspects of lighting in photography. My friend Kim and I will be taking a photography course in May which I'm hopeful will give me some understanding of lighting. Black and white is what I typically shoot in but I do try to remember to take some colour pictures from time to time.
Occasionally I am inspired by other photography and with spring just around the corner (I hope!), I was unable to resist buying some tulips at the local grocery store last night. Nor was I able to resist taking pictures of said tulips.
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People photography is, without a doubt, my favourite type of photography. People come in all shapes and sizes, colours and ages, and I want to capture them all. I have a Canon Rebel that Ben gave me when he upgraded and I mostly use a 50 mm lens, which I love because it gives me awesome bokeh. I use natural light as much as I can, partly because I love the look of natural light and partly because I struggle with understanding the technical aspects of lighting in photography. My friend Kim and I will be taking a photography course in May which I'm hopeful will give me some understanding of lighting. Black and white is what I typically shoot in but I do try to remember to take some colour pictures from time to time.
Occasionally I am inspired by other photography and with spring just around the corner (I hope!), I was unable to resist buying some tulips at the local grocery store last night. Nor was I able to resist taking pictures of said tulips.
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I decided to post a "pull-out" or "pull-back" shot to show you how I took the pictures of the tulips indoors. I don't have the money for lights, backdrops etc. so I tend to MacGyver my photo shoots. In this particular set-up, I have the flowers on the counter beside the window to use as much available natural light as I can. I have a white mat board as my background (I would prefer grey or blue but I'm learning that the frugal work with what they have) which may have reflected more light than I would have liked. And let's not forget my two photography "assistants", Kaneyko and Murray.
By getting in close and using my cropping tool in post processing, you can see how a simple, cheap set up can almost work (I definitely need to find a more neutral colour for my backdrop).
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That being said? Natural outdoor light is best and today was a great day for shooting. Cloudy and overcast with no bright sunlight to fight with.
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Friday 2 March 2012
Food Waste Friday
Every Friday, Kristen of The Frugal Girl blogs about the food she has wasted for the week. You can hop over to her site to see the reasons for doing this but basically she was tired of wasting food and felt that blogging with pictures would be embarrassing enough to help her stop wasting food. She invites other bloggers to join her and after six months, I've decided to jump on the bandwagon of:
A few things have changed in our household that will make food waste easier to track. We've made a commitment to start eating more meals at home (which in turn, means more careful planning of meals) and we've switched from grocery shopping twice a month to once weekly. It means more of a time commitment (and time is something I am sorely lacking in these days) but Ben has volunteered to do the majority of the grocery shopping and meal planning. In the past, we both planned the meals, I did the shopping, and Ben did the cooking. Honestly, I'm looking forward to a break from grocery shopping.
Between our attempt to buy enough fresh produce to last 15 days and our penchant for eating out because it's late, we don't have a meal planned, or we're too tired to cook, we have traditionally wasted a lot of food - mostly produce. In fact, in light of my new commitment to living a frugal, and simple life, it makes me shudder a little to think of the food we have wasted. Hopefully, by changing a couple of the small details, shopping weekly, careful meal planning, and only buying enough produce for the week we will start to lessen our food waste.
Every Friday I'll post a picture of the food we have wasted during the week - just one more tool to entice us to live a frugal and simple life.
Are you a serial (cereal? Ha! See what I did right there...pure brillance) food waster like us? If so, consider joining us in our efforts to reduce food waste and leave a comment every Friday about what food you've wasted for the week. It's fun to share your shame with the internets!
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