I am not dead....almost but not quite

so i realise i have m.i.a. for over a month, my sincerest apologies. i know you missed my charm and humour but trust me i have good reasons to have gone missing.

first off let me just say that i have just about had it with my students. teaching high school is A LOT of work, and im not talking about lesson planning, im talking about how many times i have to say "stop touching each other", "hands in your own laps", "desks are not for making castles", "no i cannot do you a solid, use proper english!", "please stop using the word 'legit' in your assignments, it's not an actual word!!!!" and then i loose my voice, get sick and want to crawl in a hole and die. why are teenagers so damn needy? i feel like the mother of 96 teenagers, im gonna get grey hair damnit!!!! get grey hair and then crawl in a hole and die.

and speaking of dying, if the northern part of ontario could slow the eff down with the ice and snow id really appreciate it. everyday i get on the hwy and think to myself what's the first thing i should do if my car lands in the ditch, and the first thing will be curse mother nature and her evil snow and ice ways. and it's cold. so damn cold. like -32 degrees celcius is NOT okay. i know, i know, i live in canada this is normal. no friends it's not because those fuckers 2 hours south of me can still see their frozen brown grass. im just asking for a little warmth. or if the snow could stop being packing snow and causing my car to be constantly stuck in the parking lot and driveway after the plow has been by, that would suffice. and by fuckers i mean my darling family and friends who dont live near me who havent had the pleasure of a winter up here.

enough complaining, i am PPPPPUUUMMPPPEEDDD to get blogging again, i have some great photos to share, managed to get in a photo session with a family in a nearby town not too long ago and it went fab-u-lous-ly!! oh so much to share and such little time. im gonna get back on the posting wagon in a few days....i have much work to do for school but after that you're gonna be so sick of seeing my blog name roll up to the top in your blog roll so get ready folks!

here are a few snapshots from this past weekend. a little sammy bam playing in the snow and the christmas tree. dont mind the gash on sam's head, little punk thought it'd be a genius idea to climb on top the counter and jump....he's fine, in a lot of trouble, but just fine. oh and i didnt edit these, no time!!!!
xo Laura

sugar comatose

i think the look on olivia's face says it all.

xo Laura

Friday Face

any tips on how to edit eyes to look brighter? and i mean edit on the free, this student doesnt have a single penny to spare.
that's ella btw. i have intensely cute neices and nephews. i love how she's sucking on her bottom lip.
xo Laura

Diamonds or Pearls?

no editing. those are straight outta my baby, from the first upload infact. and they happen to be two of my favourtie photos.

so are you a diamonds or pearls kind of girl?

i somewhere between shiny and classy glamour.

xo Laura

photo finish: cross process

the only edit i did on the above photos was apply a cross process finish. not entirely sure i like it.

however i like that they look a little vintage.

what do you think?

where art thou photoshop?

i worked with what i had to edit the aboves pictures. they looked okay straight out of my baby buuutttt you know there is always room for improvement. i just want photoshop!!! too bad it costs an arm, a leg and my first born. le sigh.

oh well for now i will just enjoy what i have.

so i didnt plan on taking pictures of sammy bam, it just happened so please excuse his outfit. his cute faces makes up for it.

i want you!

this is just for fun.

awesome photography skills not present here. this is one of those pictures that made me laugh so incredibly hard.

loves it.

rock this!

i recently helped to plan a fundraiser for local food banks in my univeristy town. we managed to talk a local bar owner is letting students from our program to be on a seperate guest list, essentially a "you can get in right away" deal. the catch was we all had to bring canned goods and pay a lower cover cost than others who publically attended the bar. others, who were not in our program, but still came out that night had to pay a higher cover cost. with all of the money collected we did a big canned goods grocery store trip, combined with the canned goods collected from the night we have successfully re-filled our local food banks.
we rocked the night. it's amazing what a group of people can accomplish. i want to thank everyone who came out in support and helped with the clean up and all of the festivities before hand. truly amazing people.
the above photo i took at my apartment, where we got the festivities started. that was a friendly punch in my direction, at my request. that fist represents a group of people who will be fighting for the rights of education and on that night the fist represented the helping hands who made eating dinner tonight a possibility for those less fortunate. it was such a good time, lots of loving, laughing and happiness.

smells like team spirit

the above photograph i took during an alumni varsity volleyball game at my univeristy's home coming

it was a surreal moment for the team and the on lookers.

right before the game started, they came together into a huddle, said a prayer and then put their feet together and moved their toes up and down. it was really cool to watch. it started off slow and steady and then got wild and crazy, the quiet huddle was over and those ladies had their game faces on. they played against the current varsity team and kicked ass.

im glad i captured "their" moment.

could not ask for more

in this picture:
-wine
-sex and the city in the background
-freshly painted toes
-lap top with completed assignments
-relaxtion

what you cant see in this picture:
-the amazing women who were sitting to my left and right
-the uncontrolable laughter that was going on
-the love and friendship filling my home

Green Goodness

photographing dogs and cats

it is very difficult to get a dog or cat to sit still when a camera is making noise and has bright light shooting out of it! but some of these turned out pretty nicely. none of these were planned. like always i had my camera on me and just whipped my baby out and started clicking. the adorable puppy is my fur niece lacey and the sweet kitten is my other fur niece lily. all of these pictures are unedited and just taken in an automatice setting. i did get a chance to play around with my camera functions last week, just around my apartment, and i was impressed with the outcome. i will save those for another post, as i may attempt to edit those ones. hope everyone's week is off to great start.

Im kind of in love...with a staple gun

the above project is incredibly old. i for whatever reason forgot i did it and failed to post it back in august. one weekend, at my sister's house, i randomly recovered her office chair and made an ottoman out of a find from her garage. now at the time i was minorly annoyed to be tackling a project at 1am...apparently we dont know how to do things during normal awake hours, but i am glad i did, because they turned out fabulously. im also craving a project right now, but with so many responsibilities going on with school it's just not going to happen, i also have a lack of room issue for new projects at my current apartment. speaking of which, i have yet to take pictures of my finished surroundings. ive been getting a lot of compliments from visitors, which is comforting, because lets be serious, im not an interior designer but from all the oohing and aahing i can only assume ive done something nice. anywho enough rambling, here are the pictures, i think they speak for themselves.

***okay so i added the pics after the text and well nothing is cooperating, so look at the pictures from bottom to top for a full before and after, otherwise you'll get a after and before....either way, enjoy!***

abso-friggen-lutely missing him

love you B.

Colin & Justin's Home Heist

yep, it's a real picture. i got to chat, joke and meet with two of the most high-larious interior design icons of HGTV....Colin and Justin!
and let me tell you, they are funnier in person. my abs were killing me and my face hurt from the constant giggle turned laughing squeal. they were ah-mazingly kind and super cute and i got their new Home Heist Style Guide book and they signed it :)
in case you're confused im the short one :)
check out their show, it kicks ass!!! oh and these boys recently acquired dual-citizenship...that's right they are now certified Canadians!!!!!!!
kind of makes me wanna go out and eat poutine and watch a hockey game.
no seriously...cutting short, it's poutine time!!!
xo
Laura

1 comments and my sweet nieces

does that drive anyone else crazy? when it says: 1 comments. now i know im not one for punctuation but at least i make sense! i might have to contact blogger and pull out my teacher self on them. it would be 1 comment people, not 1 commentS

on to cuter things in life...

it was my birthday last week and my cousin, over at SweDaisy Spaces also celebrated her birthday just 2 days after i did, so our family had a small bbq to celebrate. we had tons of entertainment...the kids. my nieces are ADORABLE!!! i think my nephews will get their own post because these girlies deserve the spotlight for a moment.

olivia was all about trying to eat ella and well ella wasnt keen on olivia gumming her or the cameras in her face...but the picture is still cute!

miss olivia made some very commical faces while she was splashing around:

my darling ella looked FABULOUS in her elephant sun hat!

it was such a beautiful day with beautiful people! hard to beleive how nice it was outside considering how cold it was this weekend!

xo

Laura

baby shower bliss

i guess more like baby sprinkle bliss

you see my niece, Ella, is the second baby, her older brother Liam got the full shebang of a shower when he was born, but because we wanted to celebrate the anticipation little Ella's arrival the girls and i decided we needed a sprinkle....you know a little smaller than a shower :)

now this sprinkle was months ago and now miss Ella is here!!! but it was soooo cute and pretty that i thought id share a few snapshots from that day. it was awesome! all the women in my family coming together to celebrate the impending arrival of a baby girl!

(the last picture is of Olivia...she was the most recent point winner for the girls up until Ella's arrival. My nieces are soooooo cute! i need to find a recent picture of Ella, she has changed so much in the past few weeks)

fyi the girls are beating the boys in my family :)

say cheese!

just a few shots of the Sammy bam!

one of these days i will learn all the functions of my baby (aka my rebel) but for now i fiddle with buttons and hope for the best. sometimes it really works out in my favour and thankfully this little man is always game for a photo shoot! if anyone has any tips for getting kids to look at the camera, without blinking a billion times, fill a sista in! i also never edit my photos...truthfully dont really have the resources, any tips in this area would also be appreciated :)
xo,

Laura