Monday, February 26, 2007

New Friends, CNY & Photography

Its been a very full week with workshops and planning technique classes. I'm feeling exhausted but strangely excited. Not sure why. Maybe it has something to do with all the new friendships I made at the workshops lately. You ladies are amazing.....get a bunch of you together, sharing our love, or should I say obsession, with stamp products, and hey presto, a friendship has formed!
LOVE that!
It was Chinese New Year last week. I won't even try to say it in Mandarin or Cantonese, so Happy New Year everyone! Hope this golden year of the pig is a good one for everybody. We celebrated CNY this year by joining a couple of friends for a chinese dinner, while watching a Lion Dance being preformed. Lots of noise and colour surrounded us. Here are a few pics I took:
I love the colours at CNY, but I'd never wear them on myself at any time! Christopher's fingers were in his ears quite a bit with the drums only being 10 feet away. And I just had to get one more picture of him in his too small Chinese outfit. The photo with his hand in the lion's mouth is when the kids in the restaurant were giving the lion "li-cee" or small envelopes of $, to bring good luck for the year. The lion surprised Christopher when he closed his mouth on his arm! Lots of fun....we'll do it again next year!

I've been inspired lately by colours and photography in general. I have a few websites that I look at everyday and am awestruck with the creativity of others with their cameras. Check out this blog 3191. These 2 ladies live 3191 miles apart (not sure what that is in kilometres). They each take a picture every morning and post those photos side by side. They don't know what the other is photographing. SO COOL! Love their contrasts, colours and angles. They have a gift in making an everyday moment look beautiful. Make sure you look at their photos from January and February too.

Another is a website that my brother-in-law showed me recently that I'm LOVING! If you know me, you'll know my love of cooking. I love being able to turn an ordinary meal into something special.
Check out 101 Cookbooks! The recipes look so yummy, but what grabbed my attention more was the amazing pictures taken of the food and the stories behind each recipe. For example "My Dad's Garlic Bread". What a Dad! And that photo just makes me want to make some! I can't wait to try the Curried Apple Couscous.

Enough about food. The other site that I'm keeping my eye on is Photogamer. They just started holding a photography challenge each week. I haven't participated as of yet, but I get so inspired by how others have captured the challenge. Espcecially challenge #1. I now go about my day looking for unique reflections, strangers in hats and telephones in a new, refreshing way.

My friend Katrina lives in South Africa, soon to move back to Australia. (Pause...I'm breathing a sigh of relief there) Her photos are beautiful and her writing can take your breath away. Katrina has had to attend a couple funerals as of late, and her description of them and of the people brings tears to my eyes. REALLY looking forward to seeing you again soon!

2 comments:

KMP said...

We're looking forward to seeing you again soon too Katie (For thoser that don't know - Katie and I used to live a few floors apart in Hong Kong, ours sons grew up together, and she is the world's most amazing friend - we have missed her terribly since she left).

Katie said...

Its funny...we TRIED living in different buildings and in different areas in Discovery Bay, but in a short amount of time, we always found our way back to the same building, just a few floors apart! WE LOVED that! Christopher has now started asking regularly...."How much longer till Joel is here?"
One of the hardest parts of leaving HK was leaving this friendship, ours and our sons. There is SO much to catch up on my friend! I'm hoping the boys will just pick up where they left off. Hugs to both of you!