Loulou Downtown

There Were Wings and Crowns and a Flower Strewn Chariot

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Loulou

When we got stuck on one side of the street we wanted to cross a week ago Sunday, at least we had something to watch while we waited, because the reason we were delayed was that a parade was going by.

This little guy was pretty good …

Reading the banners that preceded each new band I could determine that it was being held by the Portuguese community. But I was unable to determine the reason for it all until we made our way towards the end, where there were little girls in wedding dresses and others wearing wings.

(I like that blue parasol umbrella.)

[Aside: Poor little nail-biter at the back there in the next picture. I come from a family of reformed nail-biters so am sympathetic and can attest that the urge to do it is very strong in those who have the habit. Fortunately for me I never had the desire, probably because I've been a germaphobe for as long as I can remember and the thought of putting my fingers in my mouth is very unappealing. But really, I guess that being hesitant to open a door because there are germs on the handle is just as hindering as is nail biting, although your problem is not in plain view.]

And then there was this …

How the unexpected adds colour to your life! (I don’t mean that in the sense that I found Jesus, although I suppose you could say that I did on that particular day.)

Speaking of unexpected, we just felt the earth tremble here in Toronto, as there was an earthquake to the east of the city. Seems nobody was injured but it was a very strange sensation indeed. It’s a long week-end here in Canada so I guess we can say that things got off to a rocking start.

Here’s hoping you have a great one,
loulou

Dinner with Friends at Our Place

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Loulou

On Saturday we had some friends over for a late lunch / early dinner meal.

Our original intention was to barbeque the food and eat it outside, but only one of those things happened as it was just too cold to eat outside.

Nick grilled up some delicious Portobella Mushroom Burgers (that I didn’t get a chance to photograph because they hit the table as I was distracted doing something else, and I didn’t want to call out ‘Wait … Don’t Eat … I have to take a picture first.’)

He also made some of his signature dish of bbq’d shrimp (also seen here).

I made this pasta salad for a side dish, and also an appetizer of Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Spread with crackers and chunks of pineapple.

I also made a dessert that was very well received. It was a vanilla cake that I baked as a single layer in a square pan, using this recipe, served with unsweetened whipped cream and mixed berries, to which I had added sugar to the previous evening, which by a chemical reaction, caused the berries to release some juice and make a bit of sauce.

Our guests brought us some beautiful flowers that I continue to explore days later, as there were so many delightful blossoms in there that have gotten even prettier as days go by.

We did sit outside for a bit after eating, but I got so cold and shivery that I had to call a truce to that.

Ok, I may have been exaggerating about how cold I was in this shot but you get the point!

An extra bonus of the visit was having a subject willing to pose for some portrait shots. Portraiture is one of my favourite types of photography, so it was great to quickly try out a few different lighting situations with my friend while the guys talked in the kitchen. Living with a man who really does not want his picture taken doesn’t give me much of a chance to practice and leaves me with way too many pictures of the cat.

Speaking of whom, I have mentioned before that Eddie is a very social boycat. He hung out with us the entire visit. I grabbed this particular shot of him as he sat on his little mat as though he was 100% part of the circle of people who were sitting just beyond him having a talk.

Thank you very much to taking a look,
loulou

Making Greeting Cards with Photos and Some Pictures of Our Flowers

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Loulou

I have shown this greeting card making technique before when making Christmas cards with a picture or my cat Eddie on them, here and here, however I’ve not posted about making other types of cards this way too.

You can use any of your digital photographs to make nice cards. Imagine ‘Save the Date’ cards with an engagement photo, or a ‘Thank You’ card with a picture of you using/wearing the gift. How about a birthday card with a picture of the birthday person celebrating a childhood birthday? Or next time you’re at a birthday party take some shots of the decorations or cake and use those pictures to make future birthday cards.

Here is how you can make your own greeting cards with photographs you have taken :

- Editing your photo : I use Photoshop to crop and brighten my pictures so the images print up crisply. But if you don’t have Photoshop, www.picmonkey.com is an excellent free program to use. Select the “Edit a Photo” option.

You will also want to add a black border around the picture so it looks more finished, and makes it way easier to cut the photo out. Use the “Frames” function within the “Edit a Photo” function on Picmonkey.

- Resizing your photo : You will need to resize your photo to fit your greeting card base, so that it at least 3/4 to an inch more narrow, in order to have a border of about 1/2 inch on each side. Picmonkey gives you the photo size in pixels, but here are a few conversions from pixels to approximate inches.
640 px x 427 px = 9 inches across by 6 inches down (too big for a greeting card)
360 px x 240 px = 5 inches across by 3 1/3 inches down (this is the size I made mine, to fit a 5 3/4 inch card base)
324 px x 216 px = 4 1/2 inches across by 3 inches down (would work for a standard note card sized at 5 1/4 inches across)

- Printing your image : I just use regular white paper and our regular inexpensive inkjet printer and am happy with the results. However if you want you can have your pictures printed up professionally. Try putting two images to a page to save paper or printing costs. If you’re going to make a lot of cards, consider printing up one good copy that you’re happy with and then duplicate this using a colour photocopier.

- Choosing your card base : I like to use pre-folded card stock that comes with a matching envelope, which I buy at the dollar store Dollarama ($1 for 5), but these are sold in any craft supply store. Or you can make your own by cutting heavy paper or card stock to size and then scoring using the point of a pair or scissors and a ruler. I make two score lines very close together (about 1/16th of an inch apart) as I find this makes a nicer fold.

- Creating your card : Note that the photo corners are just for show. The photo is first adhered to the card and then the photo corners are slipped on. I use thin two-sided tape to stick my images down, but glue stick or spray adhesive would work too. Just be sure to leave the corners free of glue so that you can then add the photo corners.

- Finishing the inside : For the cards I made today, I added a message that I printed up on paper, which I cut out and mounted on a colour coordinated piece of construction paper that I trimmed with some fancy edged scissors. (Note that Picmonkey has a function where you can add writing to an image in a choice of fonts, however I haven’t figured out how to use the writing part on a plain background).

Or you can finish the inside of your card nicely by adding a folded piece of nice paper, onto which you have hand written your message. I always write my message first and then glue it into the card after, in case I make a mistake. You can see what I mean about this inside paper part by looking here.

Moving on to the photos I have recently taken of the spring flowers that have blossomed in our garden. Last fall we planted some new-to-us varieties of tulips (including the big puffy red ones, the yellow ones, and the two purple-y and white ones.) The other tulips that bloomed were complete surprises, in that they were bulbs we planted years ago that haven’t blossomed for several seasons but this year they came up in their full glory.

Most of the pretty spring garden is now in ruins following a day filled with heavy hail falling, and frost overnight.

Not to imply that these are the world’s best flower shots, but if you would like, please feel free to use any of my images to make greeting cards yourself.

They are sized at 640 px wide so would be too large if you printed them up as is and would have to be resized first. I have already made a wide border around them so they’re ready to print once you resize them.

I only ask that if you use them that you don’t sell the cards you make, and consider adding a note to the back of the card that says that the photo was taken by Loulou at www.loulou.to (you don’t have to do that, but it would be appreciated).

I hope you try this out either with your own photos or one of mine!

Thank you very much for taking a look,
loulou

ps – It did my heart good to hear my mother tell me that my dear aunt Joan has this Christmas picture of Eddie the Cat up on her fridge, and there’s a little girl who comes to visit who really wants the picture for herself. I have to get right on to sending out another copy.