Because someone, somewhere, thinks that your parenting sucks. Might as well celebrate it.
Angella Dykstra, aka reigning monarch of Dutch Blitz, is the wife of one and the mother of three. She’s an accountant by trade but would prefer if we could keep that our little secret. She spends all of her free time writing and taking photos and often ties the two together. She’s proudly Canadian but loves Americans, and not just because they created Target.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks at my house. The second half of January saw my husband and I being hit from all sides emotionally, professionally, and physically. I usually muster up the enthusiasm to bounce back up and blaze on, but for the first time in my life, I haven’t had it in [...]
Being a photographer, I often read posts and articles on improving my craft, and one suggestion is to participate in a photo challenge. A lot of people to the 365 (or 366, in 2012) challenge, which is a photo a day for a year, and … no thanks. When I worked from home, I may [...]
My family and I are on a ski vacation, less than an hour away from our home. We had discussed going somewhere HOT, but once we crunched the numbers for our family of five to get away, it worked out to one month’s salary. Mine and my husband’s salary combined. After a morning spent debating [...]
My love for Photojojo is not a new topic here, and I even included their iPhone lenses in my photography gift guide. Well, guess what? I GOT THOSE LENSES FOR CHRISTMAS. (I’m not yelling. I’m just excited.) For the past five Christmases or so I’ve requested (and received) some pretty great camera gear. My 70D, [...]
My family and I sat down one night this fall and decided that we would take up skiing as a family. I skied sporadically throughout my teens and early twenties, which means that it’s been a good fourteen years since my last downhill run. (Sigh.) So, we booked the kids in a five-day course and [...]
Last year, I told you guys about creating bokeh with custom shapes. Ah, that little baby snow dude. He’s back in our great room again this year. I did give the basic settings for creating good bokeh, but I didn’t expand on it. Here is the quick and dirty (heh) tutorial that I shared: You [...]
I came from a home where I was spoiled rotten at Christmas. Auntie Kathy would send jammies, the other aunties would send toys and my Mom/Santa would buy so many presents that they came out a good five feet away from the tree. There were Cabbage Patch Kids and Barbie motorhomes and Pac-Man snow saucers, [...]
Photography can be is an expensive hobby. There is the big, fancy camera body and the big, fancy lenses and the big, fancy photo editing software. If you have a photographer in your life and don’t have a budget of THOUSANDS of dollars for presents (or you are a photographer and you don’t want to [...]
I opened up Facebook last Sunday night and saw this photo that was shared. I physically moved back, like I had been slapped in the face. This photo spoke a few things to me: 1. Teachers, who work long days [...]
I had a two-day Professional Development course this week, which meant that I was in a city an hour away from home (learning boring accounting standards, and) in a room full of people I either did not know or had only seen at similar courses in the past. I ended up sitting at lunch with [...]
If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you know that I am a fan of Instagram, and Catherine is too. Christmas is around the corner (as Hannukah, and so many other holidays) and that means that it’s time for PRESENTS. There isn’t much that I need for Christmas, but there are a [...]
There’s a lot of baby talk and Mommy judging in the news this week and since we’re all about Bad Moms over here, we might as well tackle the topics at hand. First up, Michelle Duggar. The Duggars went on the Today show with their nineteen (!) children and two grandchildren to announce that Michelle [...]
I have one child who is nine going on thirteen and who wants to have my old iPhone and peers over my shoulder when I’m on the Internet. He KNOWS ALL and will CORRECT ME and is KIND OF BOSSY WITH HIS YOUNGER SIBLINGS. I have another child who is seven who will hug anything [...]
Women are strange beasts. I am one, so I know of which I speak. We pick ourselves apart, we can often cut apart each other and we’re just a little bit…unique, you know? (Don’t tell my husband that I said this because you will be BREAKING THE CODE.) Luckily for me, I have a great [...]
Toronto October 13 - 15