Laura, Sue and Kelly on the street outside our hotel in Killarney, Ireland.

Sue likes the fireplace in the lobby at the Killarney Hotel where we are staying for two days.

Cork, Ireland in the early morning sunshine. Very little sunshine of late.

Kelly by the fire at Cork, Ireland. The River Lee hotel is very modern.

Cork, Ireland

We arrived in Cork this afternoon and are staying at the River Lee Hotel.

Molly Mallone statue in Dublin

Laura and Sue outside government buildings in Dublin

Laura, Sue and Kelly in Ireland

Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, Ireland

My three sisters and I are in Ireland for a two-week bus tour all around the coast. We came a day before the tour and stayed at the Shelbourne. Many celebrities have stayed here and it was at this hotel that the Irish co nstitution was signed in 1922. There is a room here with the constitution papers and such all there under glass. Very nice.

We're here

Hi all

We arrived! We slept a bit at the beautiful Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin
where they signed the constitution in 1922 and are heading out to look
around.


--
Sent from my mobile device

Finish the night with a walk on the boardwalk by the lake in the Moonlight

Great show under the full moon

Went past the marina in Toronto Harbour

Going downtown to see The Scorpions at Molson Amphitheater

And Miles to go before I arrive...

Horse in Field

So peaceful and such a perfect day.

Field with Barn

Another Ontario classic view. On the way from Toronto to Lake Simcoe.

Ontario farm fenced field with rusted junk

Classic farm furniture

Lake Simcoe splash

Lake Simcoe 1

Beth eats ice cream

Recording my new cd - hope it sounds like Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell is one of my all time favourites.  Along with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Wish I was there. But currently I like Ingrid Michealson, Amelia Curran and Gillian Welch.

Download Ulysses by James Joyce

"From January 1st, writings published during Joyce’s lifetime – Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake – are available for publication and quotation without reference or payment to the James Joyce estate.


Joyce died on January 13th, 1941; originally, copyright in these works in Britain and Ireland extended for 50 years, until 1991. However, some two years after that date, EU copyright law was harmonised to bring it into line with German practice and the period was extended to 70 years."  http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/1231/1224309673276.html

Download Ulysses, Dubliners, here: http://www.kellyokelly.com/

More info here:

How To - Photoshop - Erase Background

If you have a solid colour background, you can erase the background all at once.  Open Photoshop (I use Creative Suite 4 and 5).  Open the image choose SELECT from the menu bar, and then choose ALL.  Copy the image (press CTRL-c) and open a new document, making sure that the "Background contents" field says: TRANSPARENT.  Paste your image here (CTRL-v).  Now to erase the background: from the menu bar, choose SELECT > COLOR RANGE then use the eyedropper tool to suck up the background color, then when the background is selected, hit delete and the background is gone.  

Remember to save the file as a PNG or a GIF or TIFF because a JPG does not recognize transparent backgrounds - it just puts a white background back on the image. 

Here, I took the white background off of my logo (kellyokelly.com) and put on an orange background.  It may have to be done more than once to get it totally clean.

Your next TV will be Flexible plastic - what? Oh yes!

Engineering Researchers at the University of Toronto have created the "World's Most Efficient Flexible OLED" and they tell us that when we want to hang our next 55" TV on the wall, it won't be rigid and heavy, it will be flexible and plastic.  As a matter of fact, they say you will be able to roll it up and take it with you.  Just plug it in when you get there and the electricity will light up the organic matter on the plastic - organic matter that amounts to - well, basically - the same matter as the dye powder that is used to make your blue jeans the colour blue.  What will they think of next?

Visit the UofT website for more information

"Organic Optoelectronics, is one of the premier reserach units of its field in North America. The group's primary interests reside in the application of semi-conducting conducting organic molecules and polymers for the design of useful optoelectronic devices, such as dye-sensitized photovoltaics and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). "

Knit items I have made recently

About Knitting.... I started a knitting club at work and when I went to book the boardroom, the lady who books the rooms said: "Are you starting a knitting club?"  I said "Yes".  "Can I join?" she said.  It is pretty popular. 

As I told my cousin, Elaine, I have just made: 1 pair of green mittens, 5 hats and one scarf. Now I am working on a sweater - but knit, not crocheted, although I do that, too!

My cousin, Elaine, said on Facebook: "Wow!! That is great!! Are mittens hard to make? Do you use 4 needles. i remember my mom knitting all the time when we were little. Can you post pics?? Have you knitted a sweater before??"

So... in answer to your questions, Elaine:

Mittens are fun to make!  I just made a pair of green ones that do not call for 4 needles, but I have made them using my mother's pattern for 4 needles and it was easy and fun.  I am kind of disappointed with the pattern I used for the 2 needle mittens because it is a little larger than expected. Lucky my daughter, Beth, has large hands. 

Yes, I have made a sweater before. Several, but I don't have the photo available right now. 

I will look for some pictures.  Below are some of the other things I have made recently and long ago. 

There is a blue twin-sized blanket for Beth (I made a pink one as well - crocheted).  There is a yellow cotton blankie that I made for Alicia when she was going into the hospital (for heart surgery at Sick Kids in 2006 - she's fine).  There is a Harry Potter scarf made for Alicia (Griffendor).  I also made two other Harry Potter scarves - one in RavenClaw for Renee (my eldest) and one for Kelly's daughter, Alex.

Also below are:  3 hats and one black scarf with a basketweave pattern on it. 

 

Here is a closeup of Alicia's hat.  Too bad I got the seam side!  LOL!  I would retake it, but ... maybe later.

Here is Beth in her scarf that I made in the colours of "The Bay" - The Hudson Bay company here in Toronto made a special scarf available for the Olympics one year using the colours that they use in their marketing material.  Beth wanted one, so I made one.

 Here is a closeup of the basketweave.  It looks a bit off here, but it is really nice.

  

Anyway, that's all for now. 

Denise

Toronto photo journal - September

Went up the CN Tower recently.  Great lunch.

Went to see Jimmy Rankin at the Docks (Sound Academy it is called now)

(had a birthday)

Threw stones in Lake Ontario at Kew Beach.  Dan throws rocks.  I keep telling him they don't skip as well...  kersplash!

Took a picture of the building I work in... can you guess where this is?

Went for a lunchtime walk and took a photo of the trees.  Nice.

Remove wires from photo using CS5



Wires in photo





Wires removed with PhotoShop CS5 using the technique below



HOW TO: remove wires in Photoshop CS5:



- Open PhotoShop CS5

- Open the photo where there is a line across the image

- Click on the calligraphy pen (the path tool)

- Click on one end of the wire

- Click in small increments along the wire to make a path that is right over the wire

- Click on the healing tool and make sure content aware is selected along the top of the screen

- Click on the brush size and make it only as wide as the wire or a bit wider and make it 100% hard
- Click on "Window" on the menu bar and open the Path panel

- Click within the Path panel on the path that you just created 

- Click on the circle at the bottom of the Path panel (hover over it and it will say: "stroke path with brush"
- There will be a pause, then you will say "Eureka!" 
- The healing tool will attempt to remove the wire along the path and replace it with neighbouring conent
- Your wires will disappear.
- Delete the path and do it again, if necessary

Love it. 

Top 10 electronic devices for cottage kitchen table

It is 10:30 in the morning and we are at the cottage.  The lake looks beautiful.  We go to clear the breakfast table for the next person to eat. 

Look - we have 10 electronic items on our cottage table.  Three Kindles, an underwater camera, a digital cameras, 2 Nintendo DS's, 1 Blackberry, a cordless phone and a laptop - which is on the internet.  And it's only breakfast.  Outside Alicia fishes for chipmunks.

We are Stardust after all...DNA components found in meteorites

DNA components found in meteorites

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

A recently published study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America indicates that the essential building blocks for early life on Earth may have indeed been delivered through extraterrestrial material such as meteorites. These molecules, known as nucleobases, are key components of DNA and have been found in meteorites several times before.

However, until now, scientists could never be certain that these compounds were native to the meteorites or if they were simply contamination from the terrestrial environment in which they landed. To this end, researchers analyzed eleven different organic-rich meteorites, called carbonaceous chondrites, for the presence of nucleobases and found that three of these molecules are very rare on Earth.

Additionally, none of these nucleobases were found in the soil or ice in close proximity to where the meteorites were found. This led the researchers to conclude that it was likely that these molecules were extraterrestrial in origin which could mean that life on Earth may have originally been seeded by such material.

From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!

Earthquake in Toronto and G20 remembered

We just had an earthquake in Toronto! The building shook and creaked! I am on the 11th floor - ah!

Last year at this time there was an earthquake as well and I was on the 4th floor downtown, supporting some guy on his computer. What a feeling to look at someone and think the person may be the last person I talk to. I took off downstairs. I went outside (not too smart in hindsight because things drop on you – even if you are looking down, Pooh.) I walked to a place with a wide open space – Queen’s Park. There were cops everywhere and horseback cops and cops with bulletproof vest and helmets and riot gear. There was a protest group with signs that were being marshalled down University Avenue. There were people everywhere in disarray. Somewhere a car burned. The G20. Remember that?

Wasaga Beach is calling



Wasaga Beach, Ontario, Canada


Wasaga Beach... ah... the long shallow sands, the water lapping at your heels, the sun glistening on the waves.  It is a place of peaceful memories.  

We had a family reunion there in 2009 with my Dad's side of the family.  Uncle Ken has a cottage right on the beach.  I hope to go up for a few days this year. 
We all had a great time!  Thanks, Uncle Ken.