Ordinary to Extraordinary – Mar 8th
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Right now in Hawaii it is still the 8th of March – so I’m just gonna go on Hawaii time! Ha! Yep – I’m a little late today… tonight… this monring… oops…
One of the best parts of my job is that I often get the chance to photograph people (women in particular) and show them that they really are beautiful! Today though I not only got to photograph this beautiful lady but I also got to help her shop! My task wasn’t all that hard though – Denise is so beautiful inside and out!!!
One of tags on a sweater I saw today read,
“Life is beautiful – dress accordingly.”
It made me smile – it is true though – life really is beautiful!
I should sleep now, good night all,
Micheline
Ordinary to Extraordinary – Mar 7th
Sunday, March 7th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
A birth is never ordinary and 12 years ago my little girl was born! I feel like I need to pinch myself – how could 12 years have flown by SO fast??? Ah well… I could focus on how fast time is going or instead I could just be present in the present! We celebrated Hannah’s birthday outside in the sunshine! It is the very first time she has ever been able to have a birthday party outside – usually March isn’t so lovely… The highlights of the day were roasting hot dogs over the fire, a hay ride behind the tractor, cake and presents (of course), and lots and lots and lots of smiles!
Happy Birthday Hannah, love you, Mom.
Ordinary to Extraordinary Series – Mar 6th
Saturday, March 6th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Sometimes we just focus on the wrong things and it takes a child to remind us…
The older children played happily in the forest today while Meme and I soaked up as much sun as possible sitting in her backyard. Meme’s three year old, Bree, played happily around the two of us while we talked. Bree dressed her baby dolls, gave them a bath and then proceeded to make tomato soup for us out of creek water and soot from the fire pit (doesn’t it look tasty?). As busy as she was it never occurred to me that she would have been listening… Meme and I were immersed in conversation for quite awhile about our weight and the size of our thighs when Bree interrupted us, “I think you should talk about something else – I think you should talk about God. Because He is the one who takes care of us and we are all His children.” At first Meme and I just laughed at how cute she was, however, she somehow managed to shift our hearts because the rest of the afternoon we took her advise! :) Bree is an amazing treasure!
Cheers, Micheline
Ordinary to Extraordinary Series – Mar 5th
Friday, March 5th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
OK, ok, okay… I’m just gonna do it… I walked out my back door this afternoon to head downtown to run errands and the first thing I saw was this little crocus! Seriously – it made me so happy inside!!! I realize I am at risk of sounding utterly cheesy but I LOVE spring, I LOVE flowers and gosh this first bloom was a gift today! I am such a girl…
Happy spring, Micheline.
Ordinary to Extraordinary – Mar 4th
Thursday, March 4th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
“One man’s revulsion is another man’s treasure.”
I was all set to head outside and take pictures of the pussy willow buds blooming outside my kitchen window and then planned to come inside to write a cheesy expose on the glories of spring! Instead, my children redefined the word “treasure” for me today…
A few of days ago while we were at the grocery store my children picked up a bug catching kit and begged me to have it. I stood my ground, for about 10 seconds, and then bought it for them – lol! It did end up being a great buy, the kids have had a heap of fun hunting for bugs everyday since, today was not an exception. As I mentioned earlier, I stepped out the door and was all prepared to take exquisite pictures of my blooming pussy willows when I was accosted by my kids. The asked me to go bug hunting with them – uhummm – my favourite past time! I couldn’t resist their pleading little eyes, (apparently this is an issue for me), so I set out with them. They had five little compartments in their “Bug Hotel” and only two were full. Our mission – to fill up the hotel! We found flies, stink bugs, bees and even a massive anthill swarming with red ants. It was an intense treasure hunt – ha ha! Well, all that to say, that even bugs can be extraordinary – at least in the eyes of my children.
Micheline
P.S. I really couldn’t resist the pussy willows though…
Ordinary to Extraordinary Series – March 3rd
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Being in a new home and having a new room has inspired my children to decorate! Our talented friend, Amy Chapoton, offered to try and get Hannah’s room painted for her before she leaves us next week. So this morning Hannah was very excited to show us her colourful plans for her room. She explained that she wanted two kinds of green in the room. One would be a lighter green for a feature wall and then a darker green for all the other walls. In addition to that she has panels on her ceiling that she would like painted, with those two greens, in a checker board style. Amy and I, in all our adult wisdom, politely explained to her that typically the feature wall is the darker colour and the other remaining walls are a lighter colour. Hannah’s response was my treasure for today! She said, “But Mom, I don’t want to be typical.” OH! Bless her soul – ha ha! She is amazing!
I took the photos above in the paint store today. Once Hannah arrived the world of colour opened up to her and she quickly strayed from her original plan of only having two greens! The colours she did choose are pictured on the top right.
Have a colourful day y’all!
Micheline
Ordinary to Extraordinary Series – March 2nd
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Living in community has been a great desire of my heart for some time now. I believe as families and individuals we are not meant to be purely self sufficient units – we need others. I went for a long walk around Canyon today with my dear friend Meme and her dear friend Delaney (hopefully I spelled that right? :}). Of course, because of this project, I had to bring my camera. I think they got just as excited as I did when we found something that we thought could possibly be treasure! ha ha! In the end, even though we found a lot of hilarious things to photograph, the treasure ended up being the time I spent with them.
Coincidentally, after I came home from the walk, Meme had actually emailed me this quote:
Community is mutual vulnerability and openness one to the other. It is liberation for both, indeed, where both are allowed to be themselves, where both are called to grow in greater freedom and openness to others and to the universe.
~Jean Vanier
The pictures posted here are a couple of our funny finds along the way – the fabulous row of trees, the shaggy horse whose head tilt melted out hearts, the random statue of a camel that just happened to be in the storage barn behind the horse, and the abandoned hitchhikers sign that was laying on the side of the road – he must have made it into Creston after all. :)
Thanks Meme and Delaney for time spent in community,
Micheline
Ordinary to Extraordinary Series – March 1st
Monday, March 1st, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Treasure came early today – VERY early! We recently acquired a new puppy and this morning she woke up at 6:30am earnestly howling to be let outside for her morning ritual. My devoted husband let me sleep in and got up, on his day off, to take care of our newest family member. After that he spent the rest of morning until I got up at 8am baking muffins for our family to eat for breakfast! WOW – I love my husband! The muffins ended up being a part of another treasure today, as we were able to take a half dozen of them over to meet our new neighbors, the McDowells. They are a lovely couple! They filled us in on the history of our property and it was a double treat for me because Mr. McDowell is a painter! There was a gallery full of paintings – so much fun! For those of you who come out to visit us here – you’ll have to stop into the ‘McDowell’s Hilltop Gallery’ – it is right next door to us – he has some amazing pieces in there!
Micheline :)
Ordinary to Extraordinary
Sunday, February 28th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
What once was so fresh and exciting has become ordinary… The repetitive work, responsibilities and duties of everyday life can, I find, sometimes steal the beauty.
I am not sure why I would ever want to set myself up for another project – LOL!!! Yet, the idea doesn’t seem to want to leave my head… maybe not an idea… more like an inspiration? I want to try for one month from March 1st until March 31st to find the ordinary extraordinary. That is, look at life differently when I get up in the morning and search for the treasure. I honestly have no idea what form that treasure will take each day. It was there when I was a child – it must still exist now. I want to capture it with my heart but also being a visual person I want to capture it with my camera. So here begins a daily series of photos of my extraordinary ordinary life. HA!
I can’t promise you how this will look, what time of day it will post or whether it will even be interesting to anyone other than myself but I thought I would share it anyway – after all isn’t this what a blog is for? Well… maybe a business blog isn’t supposed to be for this type of thing but at least it still includes photography. :}
Until tomorrow,
Micheline Ryckman
P.S. An apology in advance – we have moved into a rural area in Creston, BC and sometimes our internet isn’t always entirely reliable so if I miss a day it probably is my internet connection… please bear with me!
P.S.S. Oh also… I can’t for the life of me figure out how to get the comments to work properly here on this blog so I will post these daily thoughts and images in an album on my facebook site as well – if any one out there wants to comment…
Private Lessons
Saturday, February 27th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
I have been asked numerous times if I will be holding another photography course this year but it looks like I will not be able to. However, I am going to offer private lessons in my home. (For those of you from Cranbrook… I am sorry to say that you would have to travel to Creston for the lessons since we have just recently moved).
The beginner’s level lessons would be four sessions once a week for 2hrs each.
The cost would be $160.00. These lessons will require a camera with some manual capabilities and also include some home study each week.
Intermediate to advanced lessons would require a portfolio to determine where to begin teaching and the cost would be $40.00 per session. The session length may vary depending on lesson, assignments and workload but will not be less than two hours. This level of training will include projects and assignments that will need to be completed and assessed. The number of lessons will vary depending on the student’s objective (i.e. how far the student would like to go in the learning process).
For more info please feel free to call me at
250-489-9223 or email me at ryckmanphoto@gmail.com
Cheers, Micheline Ryckman