gj

I met up with my friend Sally Han who is the creator of a line of jewelery called Psalms Accessories. I went over to her place to shoot her stuff. This is my first time actually doing a shoot. We crossed the street to her friends house who had all the lighting set up (so lucky). I don't know what kind of light it was but DANG! it was HOT! I was dying of a heat stroke. It was a bit of a struggle but I'm sure my technique will rapidly improve the more I do this. It was fun! But more than that it was nice helping out a friend :) There are VERY few young women out there who have the ambition and motivation to do their own thing. So when I meet someone like that I have a lot of respect for them. I shot some of her stuff from the Himba line which features womens and mens jewelery. Some of her mens jewelery will be featured in Driven (mens magazine). This line was inspired by her mission trip to Africa last year. I'll be going back on Wednesday to shoot the rest of the her Himba line.




several things that I've learned from this shoot:

- Get a better camera bag
- Get internet at home
- Save for a faster, bader, better laptop.
- ask Claudia Hung about white balance :P

gj

AHHHH i need a new blog look.....
any suggestions?

need something fresh...clean....hmm.

I tire of blog layouts too quickly.

These last couple days I've felt SO inspired...so inspired in fact that I don't know what to do with myself. I get like this when I get blogging happy. This means I'm going from one blog to another to another to another...yea you get the point. I LOVE blogs. I get to see who's out there in just one page. I was looking through a wedding blog and I was just amazed at how much resources and information was PACKED into this thing...it's such a major feat to update consistently. I'm finding blogging to be quite difficult but I also appreciate it because it keeps me accountable because it forces me to write down (..i guess type down) what's going on in my head. What an amazing world we live in today. We are connected to almost everyone in this world...we can enter a persons blog and read about them and look at their photos yet its so one sided. It's easier these days to leave it at that. I have to force myself sometimes to leave a comment...because i forget that this person won't know that I've visited unless I do...and because i know how much I love it when ppl comment :)

* special thanks goes out to Claudia Hung who patiently answers all my photography related questions...

P.S. Martino Pizza RULES!!!! call 416.929.6000 for thin crust pizza with to-die-for crust :)

My roomie and I were dog sitting for a friend but we need to send it elsewhere cause she keeps barking. I think she's not used to apartment life so whenever someone is walking in the hallway she starts barking. People have complained and the super has given the word to send Macy away...bye bye Macy it was nice having you over!

Some photos to inspire those looking to design spaces with high ceilings:

Floor to ceiling bookshelves...
it's my dream to get one of these

Curtains to drape your windows...
this will bring a more warm feeling to a space
with such high windows

...leave it bare...
dramatic!

In the office. Spending the majority of my time on the working drawings for a custom home. Located in North York amongst many of standard 1 floor homes a new structure will rise from the ground. Leaving only the foundations and a couple walls we are tearing everything apart to create a 2 story home. From the facade to the interior it will be like nothing else in the neighborhood (well, except for my boss's house which is in the same neighborhood). I'm excited because this project is our own project! WE are the clients :P pretty sweet! we don't have to deal with anyone...picky or fickle!

The design is set so I'm drawing up the plans, elevations, sections, ceiling plans and schedules. Once that's done I'm going to move on to designing the washrooms and kitchen. It seems I'm beginning to master designing washrooms and kitchens, well, not master it but much better than before when I knew absolutely nothing.

Found some cool projects. I love taking exterior elements and bringing them in. I also love projects where the architect or designer connects the interior and exterior space, of course climate must permit (one of the bad things about living in Toronto).

The Scarp House (Kooi-Ying Architects)

Staying true to the site the house has to merge with the steep topography and rock outcrops. Instead of building around the rock outcrops, the merging is accomplished by bringing the rock outcrop into the house, providing a visually stunning rock sculpture that invites attention

2-INNS (Sebastian Mariscal Studio)

The eminent weather and location of La Jolla inspires the removal of boundaries between interior and exterior. The natural topography of the lot and its relationship to ocean views encourages a scheme that maintains a continuous open ground plane for fine living & lounging.

It's a city within a city. (below is the text from the website)

Foster + Partners creates the world’s largest single building in Russia

One of the world’s most ambitious building projects, Crystal Island has been granted preliminary planning permission in Moscow. Enclosed within a vast mega structure covering a total floor area of 2.5million square metres – the project’s scale is unprecedented. At 450m the scheme in one of the tallest structures enclosing the largest volume, on the planet. It also creates a spectacular new emblem on the Moscow skyline. Conceived as a self-contained city within a city, it contains a rich mix of buildings including museums, theatres and cinemas, to ensure that it is a major new destination for the whole of Moscow. Located on the Nagatino Peninsula, edged by the Moscow River, it is located only 7.5 km from the Kremlin, and offers panoramic views over Moscow from a viewing platform at its apex. Crystal Island will have a range of cultural, exhibition and performance facilities, approximately 3000 hotel rooms and 900 serviced apartments, as well as offices and shops, designed to maintain a dynamic and animated public realm throughout the day. The internal built volumes of over one million square metres (more than ten million square feet) assume a staggered formation within the triangulated steel mega frame, extending flush against the sloping facetted glazed outer skin. This terracing creates a series of wintergardens, which form a breathable second layer and thermal buffer for the main building, shielding the interior spaces from Moscow’s extreme summer and winter climates. A vertical louvre system sheaths the internal facades to ensure privacy for the individual apartments. Enclosure panels on a dynamic geometry are slotted into the structural framing to allow daylight to penetrate deep into the heart of the scheme and can be controlled to modify the internal environment – closed in winter for extra warmth and opened in summer to allow natural ventilation. Energy management is at the heart of the design, with additional strategies to include on-site renewable and low-carbon energy generation.

If you love coffee like I do and you're living in Toronto go to Green Beanery for your fix. They sell coffee beans and accessories. I've been meaning to go for the longest time but my work hours conflicts with the store hours (booo). They carry a whole bunch of Bodum products.

Bodum Shin Bistro 3 Cup Coffee Press, 0.35 l, 12 oz.

$16.00

LOL! I was at work when i found this image...HAHAHAHA talk about kodak moment!
I'm looking into getting a dog...been looking at German Shepherd dogs, Huskeys and labs...I don't want to spend too much on it...

Happy new year everybody! I hope this year will be ever better than the last. The photo above was taken new years day :)
Frankly i'm very excited about this new year. I'm anticipating a lot of things to happen and I'll be stretched in so many ways. I've made some new years resolutions that I hope i can keep. This is actually my first year making a new years resolution I never really bothered with them in the previous years.

I've been away from blogging because I don't have internet at home so now that I'm back from vacation I'm back on the horse.

Hope to improve my blogging skills ;P