Truly Blessed, #project365

The last few days have been a whirl wind. I feel really, really lucky right now. I have the privilege of playing with two groups of guys - HooJoe Daddy and Gary James & the Mission of Hope Blues Band. They have been super fantastic; they've been allowing me to learn and grow. I can honestly say I feel so blessed that I have these opportunities.

Coming off of the Joe in Jasper trip, I played with the guys tonight at the Hope Mission. It feel really good to be sharing worship and God's love through music in our community. Once gain, I am truly blessed.

I'm super excited right now about music and playing right now. I feel like it's okay to be me and I feel like I'm getting better. I can't wait to play and sing all the time, and it's been a long time since I felt that way.

I just wanted to thank all the guys for making me feel welcomed, allowing me to grow and make mistakes, and encouragement. It means a lot!

Living the Dream, #project365

Last night was the Joe in Jasper gig at D'ed Dog Bar. It was so much fun! The crowd was great and it was such a good time. Three of my songs went really well; the fourth not so much. We are definitely cutting it from the repertoire. Well, as a musician friend once told me, sometimes you have to say 'What the !@#$.' The inner critic finds that a hard thing to do but I'm working on it.

The perfectionist side of me won't let me have a drink while the gig is on; I'd be too afraid of losing coordination but afterwards, I wasn't quite ready to just go home. We went out for a couple of drinks afterwards and came home. When I say a couple, I mean I had four and that was enough for me. I think we went to bed around four am.

While I don't think I could do gigs like this every weekend, I definitely want to do this more. It was a lot of fun and I have learned a ton and want to keep on learning.

I really am grateful to Gary and the band for taking me under their wing. It means a lot!

Reserved for Band, #project365

I'm sitting in our hotel in Jasper for the Joe in Jasper gig. The first half of the trip was pretty calm, and we had a nice drive. Gary, Duane and Mark did a few sing alongs but nothing two exciting happened.

We hit Hinton and things changed. We switched buses so that Gary and the guys could do a few sing alongs on the second bus. Apparently, this was the party bus. People were pretty hammered and once girl got sick. My head was pounding by the time we reached Jasper.

Apparently, I'm old. *LOL*

We are now settled in and I'm nervous and excited about tomorrow night. It should be a fun gig! Tonight is pretty much a free night; we are going to go for dinner and there might be an impromptu gig in the hotel lounge. Tomorrow, we are just hanging around Jasper. I hope I get some good photos. I do love the mountains. We need to come here more often.

I guess this is the life of a band? Pretty sweet!

Little Spring Flower, #project365

My great-nieces and great-nephews are definitely flowers in my life. Each one is very precious and full of personality. They bring such joy in our lives.

My nephew called and invited us over on the weekend for dinner. His little daughter decided it was time to play dress-up and showed us many outfits in her tickle-trunk. This little sunflower was one of them.

Pretty darn cute.

She's a Dirty Girl but still a Beauty, #project365

One positive thing I took away from a past relationship was a love of muscle cars. My dream car would be an old Chevelle. But unfortunately, neither myself or my hubby are vehicularly gifted. An old muscle car is probably not in my future.

So I was thrilled when car manufacturers started bringing back the muscle car. Unfortunately, I'll probably have to wait until I retire to ever own one. They aren't exactly practical in our Canadian winters. Unless they come up with an AWD or FWD version, I probably won't be sitting behind the wheel anytime soon.

But still a girl can dream. My favorite right now is a Camero. Every time we watch Hawaii Five-O, I drool. This little beauty was outside Shoppers Drug Mart one day and she immediately caught my eye. Even dirty and grimy, she is a beauty.

Sigh. Yup, a girl can definitely dream.

'War" Wounds, #project365

I'm the Marketing Coordinator for a local company in Edmonton. It's that time of year again: Conference Time! One of my biggest conferences to get ready for is quickly approaching.

One of my preparation activities is to do a "dry run" of our booth setup. The purpose is to make sure that everything needed for the booth is accounted for and to identify anything that is missing or needs to be repaired. It's not my favorite thing. It's dusty and dirty and I usually break every single nail. I get beat up pretty bad.

So, today's photo is what is left of my poor hand. It looks like I have old lady hands! Yuck! Both of them are raw and sore and cut up. But at least everything was in order and no major issues came up. I'm abotu 90% ready for the show.

Which is always a good thing!

Photoshop Touch, #project365

The new Photoshop Touch came out this week for iPad 2. I just had to get it, and so far, I'm pretty impressed. The cloning functionality alone is quite amazing. Plus, it can handle layers which is ultra awesome. It's a long way off but I can see the day when our little tablets will be able to handle a full blown version of Adobe Creative suite.

Along with Touch, I also have a new keyboard for my iPad. I'm still amazed at how much this little piece of tech (my iPad) as become a tool I use everyday. The keyboard just takes it one step further and makes things like blogging way easier.

Today's photo is an older one that I took a couple of years ago in Honduras. I recently had it made into a canvas and it turned out pretty good. However, I wish I had done a little touching up and removing of some power lines.

So, I thought I would give it a whirl with Touch, my iPad and a stylus (which is also amazing, I might add). I'm pretty impressed with the results.

I think I need to work with this new little app a little more!

Tossed Out, #project 365

We try to go to two or three Edmonton Oiler's games a year. February 29 was our second game this season. It's pretty fun to hang out with my husband and enjoy the game.

This year, we've bought a seats from a coworker of my husband. I love the location. You can pretty much see the entire ice.

I've always had a favorite player and traditionally, they have been defensemen for some reason. I'm not really sure why. Back in the hey day, it was Kevin Lowe. In the early 2000's, it was (unbelievably) Bori Mironov. I'm not even sure why.

However, once we got Ryan Smyth, my allegiance changed. He was such a good ambassador on and off the ice, which is partly why I loved Kevin Lowe. I was heartbroken when he was traded and elated when he returned. Yesterday, the hockey club was celebrating was his 800 NHL career point.

Unfortunately, it was also a game where he hit an opponent from behind and got a game misconduct. It's too bad; Smytty is not that type of player. But it was disappointing that I only got to see him play half a game.

We lost but it was still fun.

Yesterday was also a good reminder that in photography, there is always something to learn. Scott Kelby is one of my photography idols. He tweeted yesterday that he's had some opportunity to shoot some NHL games, and is learning a lot.

It's a good reminder that even professional have more to learn.