Jul
5
Picture Every Day for a Year
Filed Under blogging, internet, lauren, photography, random | 11 Comments
So after getting my new camera:
I’ve decided that I’m going to take one picture a day for one whole year. I’m going to try to find a theme to do each month, but I need one to start off with! Any suggestions? It can be anything!
I’ve made a flickr account, and once I get a theme I’ll put pictures on it, and put the address up on here so you all can look at my super exciting life…which includes driving to Ottawa a lot, and working!
Edit-by the way, the cameras name is Sophie Dallas, because there is an SD in the type name.
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Jun
19
Because you know you want to know. And I want you to know. You know?
Filed Under random | 7 Comments
This post will sit firmly in the “random” category of Five Blondes. Because it’s really freaking random. Speaking of random and categories, we have a RIDICULOUS amount of categories. And by ridiculous, I mean eighty five. Eighty five!!! And 449 tags!!! I don’t know how people find their way around this place (which is not a good thing).
Randomosity #1: I love Scrabulous. I especially love the “Host Table” function because you never know who you’ll be playing. My latest Scrabulous opponent? A NASA scientist yogi. For serious. I know! I couldn’t believe it at first either. I clicked his name to see where he was from and up popped an image of a guy twisted into an insane yoga shape. I also noticed that he was part of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory network. One quick google later confirmed that I was indeed playing Scrabulous against a rocket scientist. Talk about intimidating…but the best part? I’M WINNING!!!
Randomosity #2: We are hiring our wedding photographer tonight! Katelyn is probably grumbling right now (yes sweetie I can hear you!) because she really wanted to have The Last Forty Percent for her wedding but didn’t. Um. Sorry? At least you’ll have lots of gorgeous pictures of all of us taken by them! Since D is more comfortable with having a female photographer, Kelly will be capturing our day.
Speaking of our day…
Randomosity #3: Ten and a half months. Where did the time go? It feels like yesterday I was saying “oh my GOSH…it’s 14 months away, that’s forever!” Yeah. It’s not forever away anymore. D’s best man recently proposed to his long time girlfriend and their wedding will be in December - that’s time crunch! At least his fiance and I will be able to talk about our plans together. D is in his friend’s wedding party and I can’t wait to see him in his tux!
Randomosity #4: We have a niche. We’re a “Twenty Somethings” blog. Nevermind that Lauren is only 19! We also have a major advantage as one of us will be in her 20s for the next 10 years. Talk about your niche domination! Anyway, go visit all of the amazing TwentySomething bloggers on Alltop for a daily dose of amazing.
Randomosity #5: Message left on our answering machine yesterday:
“Hi Carol! It’s Christina. How are you? BLAH BLAH BLAH…talk for a long time…blather on to Carol…who apparently lives with us?”
Our answering machine very explicitly states that there are two residents in our apartment. Me and D. Neither of our names sound remotely like Carol, although I suppose Erica does have the similar “Ca” sound. We’ve had this telephone number for over 6 months. How dense do you have to be to leave a message like that?
Randomosity #6: I was going to stop at 5 but then I remembered the picture I took the other day which demonstrates an incredible scientific discovery:
Max is evolving into a beaver. He’s nearly chewed through the wooden rung of our laundry basket (although I’m pretty sure it’s made from some sort of compressed wood pulp material so weak that I could chew through it if I really wanted). I love the determination on his little face as he’s gnawing through!
Do you have any completely random events in your life to share?
May
9
Too many old plastic bags? Fuse ‘em!
Filed Under environment, random | 2 Comments
Some of our commenters the other day said that they recycle their plastic bags after they use them. This got me thinking. What the heck are plastic bags recycled into? Well, it didnt take me long to find out. The answer?
More plastic bags.
Shocking, isn’t it? It’s not as bad as it sounds though! Many companies and people recycle them into reusable bags. As Martha Stewart would say (I can’t believe I’m quoting Martha!), it’s a good thing.
The coolest part of my lil investigation is that you can actually recycle your flimsy grocery bags into strong, reusable bags yourself by fusing them together! In fact, Etsy Labs has a whole tutorial on how to do this. Here’s what you need:
- Plastic bags
- An iron (and ironing board)
- Parchment paper
- A well ventilated area (seriously, ventilation people! You can’t fuse plastic bags if you’re passed out from the fumes!)
…you didn’t really think I was going to reproduce the entire tutorial here, did you? No way - this is all from Etsy Labs and they get the credit for this awesome plastic bag fusing tutorial.
In the US, Target is recycling their own plastic bags. Well, sort of. Their recycled bags are being sold in their US stores - the actual recycling of said bags happens in…Vietnam?
Doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of recycling? OK, well not the main purpose of recycling itself, but at least one of the purposes - to cut down on unnecessary emissions produced by factories and transport vehicles. How efficient is it to collect the bags in North America, send the bags to Vietnam for recycling, and them bring ‘em back?
Maybe I’m wrong about this because I do see that the recycling project is being done in partnership with Terracycle, a very cool recycling/re-purposing company. I’ve known about them for some time now - they have a great program where if you collect things like empty beverage bottles and send them to Terracycle they will donate money to charity! The bottles are cleaned and filled with organic fertilizer - “Worm Poop” - and then sold. Their recycling facility is in New Jersey.
My final note for the day - sure, plastic bags suck. But without them, there wouldn’t be that great opening scene in American Beauty, would there?
It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing and there’s this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and… this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video’s a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember… and I need to remember… Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.
UPDATE:
Scroll down to the very bottom of this post at From My Bottom Step for links to resources regarding knitting plastic bags!
May
6
Things We Throw
Filed Under random, thoughts | 9 Comments
First, a bit of entertainment for you.
I had no idea what to expect when I found the link to this video. The link read “This can’t be real!” making it obvious that this would likely be a very cool, entertaining video. It is. Oh, it is.
Photo by dungelmann
The second link I have for you today, freaders, is to some images that may shock you. They’re not gory or gruesome, so don’t worry about that. However, you still may feel ill after seeing them. These images will make you think long and hard about consumption and the things we throw…out.
On a personal note, I’ve been meaning to start re-using plastic bags and also use the reusable bags that many stores give you (like Lululemon). I think this might just give me the motivation I need. For me, these pictures are not just shocking; they are motivational. I’m going to start one plastic bag at a time.
Do you re-use plastic grocery bags, or use the strong, re-usable ones?
