52 of 2013 - Week 48

52 of 2013 - Week 48. Picaboo's theme for the week is 'Photographing Friends and Family During the Holidays'. My Focus 52 - Pixel Project theme is 'Words Words Words'. This is part of my father's collection of 'neat stuff'. It's an arrowhead that his brother or a cousin or someone found when they were kids, in Ontario. Goodness only knows how old this thing is! Can you imagine the history in this one item? Who made it? How old were they? What was their life like? Did they succeed in the hunt with this arrow head? How was it abandoned?

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 (the fancy point and shoot), edited with Photoshop and PicMonkey.

BLOSSOM FEST 2011

For the past few weeks, I've been folding Origami Tulips for BLOSSOM AT RICHMOND CENTRE.

This was our last weekend to donate the folded florals. We brought 130 to the mall on Good Friday, and yesterday we brought another 50. How I managed to fold another 50, overnight, is a bit of a mystery to me. It would seem I get some origami Zen.

From what I understand, staff were staying last night to take down the display and count the wishes / origami tulips. For each wish (which one would write on the origami paper prior to folding), Richmond Centre will donate $1 to the Children's Wish Foundation (up to $10K).

The tree was FULL of origami tulips. Every time we tried to hang any, some would fall off and we would spend just as much time re-hanging those that had fallen. You can't really tell from this picture, but the tree was very dense with folded tulips. The mall had added wires that looked like branches to accommodate the obvious constant flow of folded donations.

The pictures just don't do justice to show how many origami tulips were there!

This is Weeb, standing at the base of the tree. It gives you some idea of how many tulips were overflowing from the tree.

Thanks for your patience, Weeb. We don't need to bring any more bags of origami to the mall, and I don't need to take a million pictures of you and the tulips / tree. Not for a year or so, anyways. And thanks to the staff at the Customer Service Desk, who smiled every time we showed up with our bags of origami!

March 19, 2011 - We went to the mall and each did a page; 3 origami tulips.

April 01, 2011 - April Fool's Day we donated another 33 origami tulips.

April 10, 2011 - We went to the mall and donated another 34.

April 16, 2011 - We took a big bag to the mall and donated 130 origami tulips.

April 22, 2011 - Another 101 donated. Plus an origami crane.

April 23, 2011 - I folded 50 over night and donated our last batch for 2011. This brought our total to 351 folded origami tulips!

I hope Richmond Centre reached their 10,000 Origami Tulip goal. I'm hoping they post the final count on their Facebook page, soon.

BIENNALE BLUE TREES

There are blue trees in Richmond. I have not color enhanced these photos. We drove past these yesterday and though we were more than a block away, they were practically glowing. Does blue glow? These did. They're almost neon.

It's part of the Vancouver Biennale Public Art Exhibition. You can see some other pictures here at the Vancouver Biennale Blog.

Trees in Garden City Park to turn blue

By Matthew Hoekstra - Richmond Review

Published: March 16, 2011 3:00 PM

Trees in Garden City Community Park will begin turning blue today as part of a Vancouver Biennale public art exhibition.

Australian artist Konstantin Dimopoulos is scheduled to spend five days in the park creating The Blue Trees, an installation meant to spark discussions about global deforestation.

“Through colour I am making a personal statement about the spirituality of trees and their importance to our very survival: trees are the lungs of the planet,” said Dimopoulos in a news release.

According to the Vancouver Biennale, the colour used on the trees is biologically safe pigmented water. The colour will naturally fade and the trees will revert to their natural state.

Dimopoulos will return to Richmond April 7 to deliver a lecture as part of the Lulu Art in the City series. That event is set for 7 p.m. in Richmond City Hall council chambers. Admission is free; reserve seats at lulu@richmond.ca.

Do you recognise that City of Richmond saw horse? I'm pretty sure that was the one they used to block off the digger in the ditch earlier this year.

I like and support the arts, but I'll admit, I've not liked a lot of the past Biennale art in Metro Vancouver. And I cringe at how much money tax payers are spending on this when so many important programs are being cut and woefully mismanaged. But that's another rant for another day. This is about the blue trees. Did I mention that they are blue? I think it's more interesting than not.

Richmond, come for the rain and the likely liquification of our soil in a decent sized earthquake, stay for the weird stuff.

THE JOY OF LUCK, DAY 4

Willette Photography & More is back for THE JOY OF LUCK free online photography class. The Willette blog doesn't seem to be updated with the Joy of Luck posts, so there's no blog party going on over there, but you could update on Facebook or Flikr, if you feel so inclined.

Assignment 4 - YOUR SEVEN FAVORITE MATERIAL THINGS. I like material things. Who doesn't? I have way too many material things. I like some more than others. I was a bit stumped in picking favorites. So this is more just a collection of seven various material things that I enjoy.

Knick knacks - love 'em.

Wind chimes - they are awesome!

These ones are in my kitchen.

Not much wind there, but they look cool.

I love that I have more than one pair of shoes.

They aren't fancy, but I like that I have more than one pair.

Books. Can't get enough!

I can't read them fast enough either.

I am a dreadfully slow reader.

I tend to study plot, character and the actual story telling since I like to write.

Slurpees!

Finger puppets. You just can't have enough.

I do like all my technical gadgetry.

Phones, iPods, computers, I love them all!

TAMBOURINE WEEB

This is a picture of Weeb and her cousin J. Weeb drew it on a paper plate tambourine that the girls made with Grandma and Grandpa this week. I think the picture is incredibly cute. Weeb has drawn J in purple, which is J's favorite color. Weeb drew herself pink because that is her current favorite color. She's even got J's curly hair. I love that they are holding hands. Even more, I love that this is what my daughter draws pictures of. I think it's so cute and it just speaks volumes about who my nearly 5 year old daughter is.