friday fixations: orchids

The Orchid Society of Alberta is having its annual orchid show and sale this weekend, and it is pretty amazing. If you need a little hit of spring, I highly recommend it.

 This is my favourite one from the show. Can you even believe this is an orchid?!

the gem and mineral show

This weekend, we went to the Edmonton gem and mineral show. I thought it would be a good way to get my Drumheller fix without actually having to drive all the way to Drumheller. But it kinda backfired on me cuz now I want to go to Drumheller even more.

We were kind of disappointed at how few Canadian gems and minerals were there. Stones were also really expensive and overly processed.  I had hoped to find a bit of ammolite (an Alberta gemstone), but pieces smaller than my pinky finger were way too expensive for me and besides, I wished they had been polished just a touch to bring out the colour but not so much to make them look fake. I'm not a big fan of stones that are polished, pierced with holes, or grinded into unnatural shapes (like the bin of rock skulls we saw). And a lot of the jewelry had out-dated settings so we didn't get anything except a piece of fossilized coral.

We like things weird.

friday fixations

{demetri martin} We saw his show last night and it was awesome! And then it got awesomer with an encore. Demetri Martin rocks forever.

{netflix} For the past three days, I've been watching random netflix tv shows (did I mention Idle Husband's still on vacay? No? Well, it should be noted, then, that I'm still on vacay). Here are the ones (in no particular order) that have succeeded in capturing my attention past one show: The IT Crowd, The Big C, Breaking Bad, Sherlock, Life Unexpected, and Community (please tell me it gets better. We're at the point where we ditched it the first time we tried watching it). We also watched and really enjoyed Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (not really a tv show, more like a shortish movie). We tried watching that one before but didn't like the singing, though I think we just hated it cuz we had to sit in front of YouTube to see it. I don't know about you, but any time shows are on the computer, I lose all interest. For some reason, in my mind, shows on the computer should be less than a minute long. Also why isn't Portlandia on netflix Canada! Argh! And we found volume 6 of Futurama and bought season 1 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on Apple tv so we're getting our (no repeats!) fix of those great shows, too.

{sewing} I'm really thinking hard about taking a sewing class this year. If only to learn how to make a proper pair of curtains and an infinite amount of skirts. And maybe how to add zippers. And maybe how to make bags or pillows. Or a shower curtain (we still don't have proper shower curtains. Just those $1.99 liners).

{today's levitation} This makes me so sad! but it's such a great picture, I just keep staring at it.

{creature comfort's free printable calendar page} Last year, I put together little paper craft calendars for the office each month. This year, the paper crafts are still coming but I really hated January's design so instead of making it, I decided to convert this calendar into a miniature. I reduced the size by half, printed it and cut it out so I could fold it into a little stand . I think it looks super cute and it's much prettier and easier than the paper craft one(s) (if they design a good one for February, I might flip-flop between these two. We'll see how motivated I'm feeling). (And yes, that is a lava lamp on our desk.)

lucky charms

I spotted a four-leaf clover yesterday, and it reminded me of my tiniest hidden collection.

I get to add one more.

alberta aviation museum

the only time we ever thought to visit the aviation museum was a couple winters ago when the annual Make It! craft show was being held there. we honestly never once considered the museum or that it may actually be interesting, but it was. and if you happen to be or to know someone who's a huge plane or war enthusiast, well then. there's double-triple fun to be had. I even noticed Idle Husband without his phone on more than a few occasions and that's really saying something.

we went on Monday so maybe it's not typical, but we had the entire museum to ourselves. we enjoyed the quarter games and sat inside a small passenger plane without having to stand in line first, and we could take our time enjoying them without being rushed out. those are the museum experiences I particularly enjoy (which is why I never like to visit my absolute favourite alberta museum in the summer -- well, that and the scorching heat).

june recap

I've been using instagram a lot lately so most of my pictures this month were through the iPod (oh, novelties). Here are a few of my favourites from June, but there's more to see over at my flickr page!

it rained and rained and rained some more

we finally got our grass! and our little bushes! now I'm scheming ways to take them out...

I spotted this taped to a mailbox on my usual walking route. Poor Aqua!

our last meal before the Greek parents came: beef and vegetable stir fry

the parents arrived! We had Idle Husband's dad put in some dimmer switches.

walking through Queen Elizabeth park

I forgot how much fun it is to make friendship bracelets! I've been making them like crazy while watching Greek tv

Photoshop's fun when you're bored!

a little bit of fort edmonton

the company bbq was pretty neat this year

there were free steaks and hamburgers in abundance, so why did I only have three chicken fingers?

a hand-cranked ferris wheel?

this is how they did buntings in the '20s. take note

the one thing I insisted on was a train ride

old-timey train conductor outfit + modern day water bottle = (you're ruining the magic)

we weren't allowed in this car since it was set up all fancy by them hollywood folks
(please see this movie if you want to watch the train in action)