Park it

I leave earlier than I have to each day mainly to score a good parking spot. Most of the classes at NSCC start at 8:30 am, whereas mine doesn’t start til 9:30, so if I were to get there just in time for class, I’d have to park way back in the back parking lot.

(Mind you, a little walk never hurt anyone, especially on a sunny day. This isn’t a case of genuine suffering, I know.)

It’s kind of like a competition I play with myself, to see how early I can get there and how good of a spot I can get.

Here’s today’s spot, above. (My car is the black Ford Escort on the left.) Pretty good day so far!

It’s also nice to get to the classroom before anyone else arrives and have some time in there to myself, so I can do things like work on classwork blog.

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Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

I’m thankful for…

…family to share meals with (both family I’ve had since I was born, and family that are new in the last year and a half).

…this delicious bread pudding we made.

…the chance for everyone to think about things they are grateful for.

…the fall weather and how cozy it makes the indoors.

…Celtic Colours and how it celebrates joy. (Because that’s the feeling music gives a person.)

Now back to schoolwork!

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Frugal Friday – the $0 Day concept

Found: on Smart Pretty and Awkward (the blog that Adam says should be about me, haha).

Original article: the $O Day concept, by Laura Shin.

Quote: “I hadn’t intended not to spend any money, but the next morning, when I went to log the previous day’s spending on my spreadsheet and realized I hadn’t spent a single cent, I felt a small thrill. In my battle with my debt, I had scored an easy win and made it that much easier on myself to meet my weekly budget goal, as well as my larger goal of paying off my debt.”

Bonus: The website that Ms Shin writes for, LearnVest, looks pretty cool, and I think I’m going to check it out myself! Then again… maybe I need to stop thinking that I need a gadget or a gimmick to “finally” get control of my money, and just buckle down and check my bank account every day, instead.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend everyone!

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Feeling moody

 

In my Introduction to Web Design class we’re designing a website. It can be anything we want, including a re-design of an existing website, so I’m taking this chance to redesign this blog, Dream Big Cape Breton! (You won’t get to see the changes til they’re all done, but I’ll try and share bits of the process along the way, as I learn them!)

It’s exciting! So far we’ve done a Client Questionnaire, a 6-page document where we “interview” the client, which is ourselves at this point, since most of us are doing our own websites or portfolios. Then we did a Site Map, and then Moodboards and Wireframes.

The moodboards are my favourite part of the design process, by far. The instructions were: “Gather visual inspiration for your site. Inspiration can come from color schemes, textures, typography, interface elements, overall design, photography, illustration styles, etc.” So basically, go on Pinterest, haha.

But seriously, I did use Pinterest to gather images and see them all in one place; you can see the board here: Blog Redesign Moodboard.

And here are the moodboards that I made for the assignment. Do you get an overall “feel” when you look at them?

 

Image source info: Many of these images’ sources can be found on Pinterest, by clicking on the image in the board there. Others that weren’t on Pinterest, I found through Google Images and downloaded directly onto my computer without writing down the source (bad me!). However, I figure that’s OK since I’m not passing them off as my own, I’m just using them in a collage, so it’s like cutting pictures out of magazines. (If I was going to use the images in a collage that I would be selling or crediting entirely to myself, I’d make more of an effort to find the images’ creators.) The bottom shot of a farm is by my friend Brooke Oland, and I downloaded that from his Facebook. (Hi Brooke!)

As much as possible I try to follow LINKwithlove’s principles about images on the Internet.

Interested in my ‘back to school’ experience? Read posts here and here.

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I can’t get enough of…

…Jenn Grant’s new album.

I listen to it on repeat while I’m working on school stuff, which is more and more these days. I go in early and work, and then I stay after class and do more work. I’m trying to get in the habit of it, of just sitting down at the computer and getting through it all. Not thinking too much about the projects or psyching myself out (“what if I fail? what if I suck at this?”) but just starting. Getting it done.

Thankfully there isn’t an overwhelming, undoable amount of work right now, but there is enough to do that it will take working away at it some every day to get it all done.

I find it so hard not to distract myself with Internet stuff like Facebook, Pinterest, etc. I use a reward system, where I tell myself that I’ll do an hour of work and then get a few minutes on Facebook. But when it’s so easy to click over to those sites, it can be hard to regulate my time on them.

What about you? Are you plugging away at a big project these days? Are you falling in love with any new music?

Posted in Art, Day to Day Life, Education, Work | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

give me a sign

The signs are sprouting up everywhere. (These ones are some that I passed on a walk the other day, near my house.)

Let’s have some fun with this – take a snapshot or two of an election sign or signs in your community. They can be candidates you support, or not. (Mine aren’t. But then, they could be. I’m undecided at this point.) Email your photo(s) to me at: leahcnoble@gmail.com . Next week I’ll run a post with all the pictures.

With school and other responsibilities I don’t really get out of my community much these days, so I want to see what the election is looking like in other towns on the island.

Represent!

No prizes for participating but you will get some good karma. Someday, or maybe sooner.

 

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Writers’ Festival – the morning after

Sunday morning panel participants: Stephen Kimber, Donna Morrissey, Ken Donovan, and Kate Beaton.

A sweet little red maple leaf growing out of a bridge I walked over on my way back to the hall from the spaghetti dinner at the church. I like that quiet, solo walking time to relax and digest (both food, and ideas).

The Sunday morning brunch catered by Yvonne and Murdena. SO FREAKING GOOD!

Whew!! What a weekend.

Later on this week, I’ll be sharing a longer post about how the 2012 Cabot Trail Writers Festival went, with lots of pictures and description.

For now, it’s Monday morning, I’m back at school (driving out here early to make sure I get a decent parking spot), and I can’t believe it’s over. We planned it all year long and now in a flurry of fun activity, smiles and handshakes, readings and listenings, food and walks, it is over.

But oh, what fun we had.

Time to start thinking about 2013!

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