Saturday Snapshot

I am in Trinidad for the weekend :-)
Here is a photo I took while down the islands (on my last trip).
I was there yesterday and will be back again tomorrow.
Not a shabby way to spend my long weekend!

In case you are curious... I used the 'antique' setting in iPhoto and then played around with the adjustments.

Enjoy! x x x

Last Week's Likes

Sunsets

Last week my family stayed at a beach house on the West Coast of Barbados.

Each evening was spent sitting on the beach with a glass of wine while the sun set.

Each sunset was amazing and each one a work of art (a slightly cheesy way to describe it but each sunset was a stunner).

Island Touring
As you might know, we have had family visiting for my mum's big birthday.
Now one of the most popular things to do when you have guests in Barbados is to take them on an island tour.
So on Saturday we set out on a round the island adventure. We packed ourselves into two cars and stocked a cooler full of wine.
We stopped at Animal Flower Cave, Pico Teneriffe, Cherry Tree Hill, Morgan Lewis Sugar Mill, Atlantis Hotel, Martin's Bay, St. John's Church and The Crane Hotel.
It was a fantastic day.

My Uncle checking out the map of Barbados while sipping a rum punch at Animal Flower Cave

Inside the restaurant at Animal Flower Cave. The walls and roof are covered in business cards, postcards, money, license plates, photos and so on. A fun place to take photos.

My lunch at Martin's Bay - fried snapper and macaroni pie (yes the fish is whole and tasted amazing)

Having a rum punch at Atlantis Hotel. In this photo I am with my gran and her sister (great aunt aka adopted gran). Love these ladies.

Having the boyfriend back in town
Enough said :-)

Happy Monday All!
Have a glorious day!
xxx

Fun Photo Friday - Whirlwind (panning photography)

Happy Friday All!

So I nearly forgot all about Fun Photo Friday... my days continue to be busy... a virtual whirlwind (hence the photo)!

To demonstrate the feeling in my head I have a "panning" shot to share with you. To explain, "Panning" is when you move your camera along with the moving subject and you end up with a semi sharp subject and a blurred background.

Panning shots have a feeling of movement and speed. To achieve this affect you have to take into account your shutter speed (it is recommended to start at 1/30 second and play around from there).

My panning shot above is of a government transport board bus in Barbados. Unfortunately the bus is mostly blurry... that is probably because I took this photo at 1/8 second.

I like the photo nonetheless... the afternoon sun coming though the bus windows, the warped/whirlwind effect, an Alice-in-Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole feeling.

Anyway I hope that everyone is as excited for the weekend as I am :-)

Go be merry!

Helpful link
How to master panning - photographying moving objects: HERE

one day on earth on Earth Day

I recycle... not all the time... but most of the time. 

I cringe if I through plastic into a garbage bin. That has to be a sign that I am relatively "green".

I planted 5 trees last week. This is a big deal because unfortunately I have not been gifted with a green thumb. But one day I will have a green thumb — it is on my "when I grow up list" — so it is pretty much a guarantee.

However there is always room for improvement.

On that note... this Sunday, 22 April 2012 is EARTH DAY!!! WAAAHOOOO :-)

Earth Day is a day to promote environmental eduction and awareness because everyone has a right to a clean and healthy environment. 

There is a whole network dedicated to increasing awareness and you can find more information about the Earth Day Network: HERE

The network wants to reach a goal of One Billion Acts of Green. When I visited the site this morning, they were at 977,875,556 pledges.

If you want to help them reach their goal and ultimately improve the sustainability of our planet...
GO AND MAKE A PLEDGE: HERE 

My pledge was: To plant a garden at school or at home (will keep you posted)

In other feel-good earthy news, there is a motion picture coming out on Earth Day (this Sunday) entitled One Day on Earth. The movie documents the world's story in one day. 

Documentary filmmakers, students and other world citizens filmed on 11th November 2011 (11.11.11) and the footage was compiled to bring you, One Day on Earth.

I can't wait to see it. Here is the trailer to get you interested as well:

Helpful links

The whole history of Earth Day can be found: HERE

Go to One Day on Earth's website: HERE

If you want to read about the history of One Day on Earth go: HERE

If you are in Barbados and want to attend the free global screening... go to Southern Palms Beach Club and Resort Hotel, St. Lawrence Gap, Christ Church at 6:15pm this Sunday.


ps. My header is green this month... is that a coincidence??? I think not... it is!

Last Week's Likes

Scrabble on Facebook

I have been playing Scrabble with my mum since I was a teenager.

A Scrabble board game was always a part of: vacationing at a beach house/cottage, afternoon tea, or rainy days at home. We even pulled it out one Christmas morning — obsessed!

The sad part of this story is that I cannot recall the last time we played.

So to change this dry spell, I turned to trusty Facebook, found the game and now the love of Scrabble has been resurrected.

The joys of FB Scrabble are: 

You can play one game over several days

You can play with friends that are far far away from you

You have a dictionary at your disposal

You don't need to calculate points (the program does that for you)

BPS photo walk - Andrew's Sugar Factory
On Saturday I went on a photo walk of Andrew's Sugar Factory.
The walk was organised by the Barbados Photographic Society.
Andrew's Sugar Factory is the largest working sugar processing factory in Barbados (sugar from sugar cane). Not only does the factory make one of the highest quality of sugars in the world, it also makes "fuel cane". Fuel cane is a renewable energy source that the factory uses to make more sugar. Amazing!
I got some nice shots that day.
I enjoyed the afternoon light, the steam from the factory and the multitude of textures.
I was not too thrilled with wearing a hard hat.

Celebrating a very special lady's birthday

Today is my mum's birthday!

The celebration of this very important day has been a bit of a marathon.

We spent the weekend at a beach house and entertained friends and family each day.

We ate amazing food, danced to great music, swam in the Caribbean Sea and drank lots of wine.

May the celebrations continue through this week!

Mum with her birthday wine glass!

The swivel LCD monitor on my Canon 60D

According to multiple reviews the swivel screen helps Canon 60D (my camera) stand out amongst the rest.

It allows the photographer (me) to take more unique compositions.

The photo below is a prime example.

In this shot my camera is pretty much a centimetre above the sand and I used my swivel screen to let me see what I was doing.

The swivel screen allows you to experiment with many different angles.

Helpful Links:
Get Scrabble on Facebook: HERE
Read more about the Sugar Industry in Barbados: HERE
Get information about Barbados Photographic Society: HERE

Monday Morning Mugshot

Last week was hectic and consequently the blog suffered.

As a result here is "Monday Morning Mugshot" (filling in for Fun Photo Friday).

Today is my mum's 50th Birthday. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM :)

Below is a picture of one of her birthday cards.

It is a photo of a lady in her swimming costume (I usually call it a bathing suit — just want to clear that up... so you don't think I go around calling it a swimming costume). 

"Birthdays are the butt crack sand in the swimsuits of our lives."

Simple.
Witty.
To the point.
and Funny.

Happy Monday :)

Helpful Link
The card is from the Share-A-Laugh series of Carlton Cards (this card is no longer on the website) but you can check out others: HERE

Last Week's Likes

A cup of tea on the East Coast
On Monday I went to a sleep over.
When are you too old to go on a sleep over?
If you get the chance to stay somewhere with good people - I say you are never too old.
I spent the night at a beach house on the East Coast with my cousin and her family.
The best part of the sleep over was waking up with the sun, taking our tea on the beach and having a morning swim in the Atlantic Ocean. It was a great place to start the day.

Sewing a pillow insert
When I was in Canada I bought a throw pillow for my bed. Unfortunately I couldn't pack the insert cushion (the throw cushion is about 24" x 24"). So the very empty cushion has been sitting and waiting patiently for its filler. Finally I got the guts and pulled out my mum's sewing machine. It didn't even take me an hour to measure, sew, stuff, and insert a cushion into this case - it was like arts and crafts!

Easter hunts
Now continuing with the "when are you too old to" questions...
When are you too old to do an easter hunt?
According to my Martha Stewart mum - both my dad and I will never be too old... and we agree!
Mum put together a 7 clue treasure hunt around our house. Each clue was a puzzle to help you find the next clue until you found the final prize.
My final prize was dark chocolate easter eggs and a SHAPE magazine.
It was so much fun!

Celebrating birthdays
Now you are never too old to have a birthday party.
Last night our family celebrated my grandfather's (aka papa) 82nd birthday!
This man started it all and we love him dearly.

The moral of my Last Week's Likes is: 
You are never too old for sleep overs, arts and crafts, easter egg hunts or birthday parties.

Fun Photo Friday - It's a long weekend!

I hope everyone has a lovely long weekend - and hopefully the Easter bunny brings you mouthwatering chocolates ;-)

This week's Fun Photo is slightly Easter themed. Mum and I came across this colourful abode Easter weekend last year.

Now for readers not from Barbados - Bajans (Barbadians) are not afraid to paint their homes bright, sometimes coordinated/other times not so coordinated at all, bold colours. This home below is not an exception (houses painted beige or white are the exception - go figure!)

Happy Friday 

&

Happy Easter!

Helpful links: 

Need a Hot Cross Bun Recipe (I did that last year): HERE

The Happy Secret

Everyone has their ups and downs... this week has been a major downer for me. But one shouldn't focus on the negative, so let's chat about the positive and how easy it is to get HAPPY!

A couple months ago, I came across a TED talk by Shawn Achor. Shawn is a positive psychologist (emphasis on positive ;-) and his TED talk was entitled "The happy secret to better work".

This particular talk was completely uplifting. Not only is he entertaining and easy to understand, he also gives some good pointers on how and why it is important to be happy/positive.

He encourages us to raise our positivity in the present so we will experience a HAPPINESS ADVANTAGE — our brains performs better when positive than when our brains are either neutral or stressed.

For my advantage and yours, change it from "The happy secret to better work" to "The happy secret to better LIFE".
Now the talk:

To prove his point, Shawn talks about:
Medical students

Harvard students
Boarding Schools
Parenting
Management styles
and UNICORNS
... I told you this will be entertaining (which makes his TED talk exponentially better to watch)

Shawn ends his talk with 5 things to do in a 21 day span that will train your brain to be more positive... essentially re-wiring your brain. (Wow! I just realized that I was on a first name basis with Mr. Achor... awesome!)

Do the following to find the more positive, radiant you:

• Find 3 new gratitudes each day (helps you scan the world for the positive before the negative)
• Journal about one positive experience you had within the last 24hrs
• Exercise (teaches your brain that behaviour matters)
• Meditation (helps your brain relax after the ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) that our society has created)
• 1 random act of kindness (a kind note or email — which will create a social support network)

Thought I would share a very happy photo of myself in the sea with a lei (even though I am in Barbados) and with a rum punch in a coconut in hand

So to lift my mood here are 3 gratitudes so far for today, 4 April 2012:

1. The snooze button - I used it multiple times this morning 
2. The Lindt chocolate egg that I received this morning from a work colleague 
3. Having a phone plan that allows me to converse with my friends that live in faraway lands (had a great catch up this morning with uni friends)

So if you take anything from this post take this:

Do not follow the scientifically broken and backward philosophy:

"If I work harder, I will be more successful.

If I am more successful, then I will be happier."

Reverse the formula for happiness and success because if happiness is always on the opposite side of success — your brain never gets there.

Not sure about you but I feel happier already!!!!

Back to sunshine, rainbows, lollipops, silver linings and long weekends :-)

xx

Helpful links:
Go check out all of the Talks you can listen to on TED: HERE
Go read more about positive psychologist Shawn Achor: HERE

Last Week's Likes

3D Movies - My First Time
On Tuesday I watched a 3D movie for the first time. NO - I have not been living under a rock for my entire life (I know that is probably what you were thinking).
Actually, I went with two of my good buddies who also had never seen a 3D movie.
The three of us went to see Dr. Seuss' The Lorax.
The cinema was packed with young ones but we were the biggest kids in there. We ordered the largest popcorn, sat there with the biggest grins on our faces and our eyes glued to the screen.

Lorax - was such a cute movie with a great message about caring for the environment (and not being a greedy bugger). Our favourite quote was:

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,

nothing is going to get better. It's not." 

We of course had to get some photos of us in the groovy 3D glasses

Fresh Bay Leaves
We have a bay leaf tree in our back yard. This week I used the leaves in a red lentil soup and for April's Header. The bay leaf is very aromatic and adds such a nice earthy note to your food. I tend to use them most in soups and stews.
Last week, I used them fresh from the tree but it is recommended to let them dry for several days so they develop their full flavour.

Pinterest
I started using Pinterest last week and I am thoroughly enjoying it.
It allows me to save images online and organize them into folders onto virtual pinboards that I can constantly update. I also get to see what my friends find interesting on the web.
Pinterest is a smart little tool. I am not addicted yet but according to others — it will not take long!

My PinBoards page - I have some pinning to do but this is my start :)

Helpful links:
Go see the trailer and get more information about Dr. Seuss' The Lorax Movie: HERE
Tips from the Lorax on how to be more environmentally friendly: HERE

More information on the Bay Leaf: HERE

Go get a Pinterest account: HERE

April's Header

So how was everyone's April's Fools... any good jokes or pranks?

I unfortunately did not remember the date and once I did... it was too lame late to play a joke on anybody. Until next year I guess.

But with each month comes a new header and that I cannot forget. So here it is.

It is a photo of a bay leaf from the bay leaf tree in my backyard.

Green for Spring (even though Barbados doesn't have spring really)

Original Photograph

New Header

Happy April All :)