Kaoru Marie

ok so not really an entire day, but a couple minutes. The other weekend I took out my camera with intentions of photographing some in-progress sewing projects. However, as soon as I held the camera in my hand I thought, ' in-progress shots? ugh, so boring .' And that's when I saw my cat, who diligently followed me into our sewing room. Yes, it's his room too because he's a cat and owns everything. It was just me and the cat that weekend and he was being adorably playful without the bipolar tendency to suddenly bite me. In other words, he was being just perfect that weekend. And too cute not to photograph.

It has been a terribly long time since I posted photos of Bailey! A quick look at my Flickr account will reveal my obsession of taking photos of him. My husband doesn't seem to enjoy getting his photo taken by me, but Bailey doesn't seem to mind :) Here are some favorites of mine, most of which are already uploaded to Flickr, but a couple new ones too. One evening I decided to try and capture Bailey with his pupils ballooned to be as large as his eyes. I assume most cats get like this when they are bursting with energy or ready to pounce on prey. When Bailey gets like this, ohhhhhh, WATCH OUT! I don't remember why he paused in the middle of our living room like this. He's pretty good at staying still for a couple seconds when he sees me with my camera (unless I'm on the ground, then he usually immediately walks towards me). I can't get over how focused he looks! My goodness, Bailey....chill out! In the photo below he was enamored with the ironing board...

My brother has two cats that are brother and sister. I took some photos of them when they were itty bitty rambunctious kitties . I saw these two cats recently and boy have they grown in the past year! The multi-colored cat is so shy now, while her brother is still very energetic (and quite the chatty cat!). My heart definitely started to melt when I saw them grooming each other: I'm not gonna lie and say getting this shot was easy-peasy. I definitely ran into difficulty getting the lighting right and the cats in focus (damn those cats for moving!). When I see my brother's cats being this affectionate with each other I get a little sad for Bailey that he's in a one-cat household. When we adopted Bailey the shelter told us his sister was adopted the previous day. I wonder where she is and if she's as crazy (bipolar?) as Bailey. Earlier in the day we had some fun walking the black cat around the backyard. I'm really anxious to try this with Bailey because I h...

I hadn't taken a photo all day. I was cleaning up some sewing stuff, preparing to head off to bed soon after. I was about to take another iPhone photo when I somehow convinced myself to dust off my dslr camera and external flash. Sweet Bailey was lounging in his chair and I couldn't resist taking a photo of my darling sleeping cat. Sleeping Bailey I only took four shots (one with the incorrect light setting) and it took hardly any time. Note to self: Use your real camera more often. The iPhone is perfect for capturing in the moment happenings, like this one* Gimme my damn beer! but it can't beat a dslr camera in picture quality, especially indoors in crappy lighting. *Before all the animal abuse groups start contacting me about being a terrible cat guardian, no alcohol was actually consumed by Bailey. He was just licking the top of the bottle.

I've taken a bunch of photos the past several years that get transferred from my camera to my computer and then I forget about them. I figure why not post them for random people to stumble upon every now and then. I mean, I intended for this blog to be about photography, sewing, and calligraphy, so I might as well share some photos....First up in the 'Photo Dump' Series is Ottawa, Canada. **Please excuse the poor quality of some of these photos, especially the ones taken at night. I only brought my old point and shoot digital camera, which doesn't work very well in low light situations.** I went to Ottawa, Canada in Winter 2012 (soon after I started this blog) for a work thing. My first visit to Canada was some time before 2010, when I went to Montreal for several days with a group of friends. I loved Montreal! So I was excited to head to Ottawa even though there wasn't much I knew about the city. The only things I knew about Ottawa were (1) their hockey team is...

I think from this point on I'll only be blogging about the "365 Photos*" that I am most "proud" of or like the best or are actually worth blogging about....you get the idea. Part of the change up in documenting my progress is two-fold: (1) it is time consuming (also read: I'm lazy) to blog about each and every photo, especially when I'm getting accustomed to writing descriptions when I post the photo to Flickr, and (2) I don't think it's really necessary for me to blog about a photo of my dinner or other totally random photo from an exceptionally boring day. With that said there are two photos from this past week that I really like and I think are worth sharing with everyone who happens upon my blog. Day 61/365: March 2, 2013 I'm not sure how much the rest of the country (and world) paid attention to the Endeavour Space Shuttle making its journey to its final resting spot, but LA was abuzz with excitement because it was a pretty big dea...

I can't believe so many days have passed by between posts about my progress on the 365 photos project. Here is a mosaic of photos I took recently. Descriptions of each photo are on Flickr if you are so inclined to know what is going on in each photo. 1. Day 47/365 , 2. Day 48/365 , 3. Day 49/365 , 4. Day 50/365 , 5. Day 51/365 , 6. Day 52/365 , 7. Day 53/365 , 8. Day 54/365 , 9. Day 55/365 I have given up on the "Purple Theme" for the month of February. Seriously, if I had kept up with it, you'd probably see 20 shitty photos of ugly purple flowers. Since I truly enjoy taking photos of my cat, I have reverted to taking a lot more photos of my sweet Bailey. In order to not bore my small readership, my goal from this point forward is to take photos of him in different positions and situations. Only two of the photos in the above mosaic were taken with my dlsr and one of them actually didn't come out that well despite using an external flash. My kitchen defi...

I finally failed my own monthly challenge of taking photos of purple in the month of February. Next time I do a color theme, I will make it a once-a-week challenge. I would rather take photos that are meaningful to me, than a photo of a particular thing just because I *have* to. Since all of the photos taken during the workweek were taken with my iPhone and posted to Flickr, here is another photo collage. 1. Day 42/365 , 2. Day 43/365 , 3. Day 44/365 , 4. Day 46/365 I really like the photo from Day 44: Hot Air Balloon on Hollywood Blvd . I wish I had gotten a shot of the fire being blown into the balloon, but I was in too much of a hurry to time it correctly. 99% of the time I despise walking along Hollywood Blvd because of all the tourists and costume "performers". Most of the time I feel like I'm *this* close to turning into Michael Douglas in Falling Down , except instead of breaking due to vehicular traffic, I'm breaking due to pedestrian traffic. I don...

It's February! Which means keeping track of the "day" will be much more difficult since I can no longer easily reference the day of the month. Sheesh, life is rough. Day 32: Feb 1, 2013 I was thinking during the day about what to photograph when it dawned on me that I should try a theme this month. First I thought about taking photos of something red. But then I realized that was way too easy. Hello, red in February? I might as well take photos of hearts everyday. Man, I am so lame sometimes! Then I decided since love is a theme in February I should take photos of the color I love the most: purple. That is a photo of some fabric I have had for months. I'll post soon about what I did with it. It looks kinda nice in the photo, but don't be fooled! It was a disaster to work with. And I still have a lot left.....ugh, what I am going to make with it? Suggestions are welcome! Day 33: Feb 2, 2013 Had brunch with the fam at Terranea Resort . It was my first ...

This week has been all sorts of busy. I traveled to Flip-Flip- Flipadelphia for a work training session and was there for less than 48 hours. I can't complain too much because I really wanted to attend this training program and I am very glad that I was allowed to go. I was worried it was going to be super cold, but the weather wasn't too bad at all. I took some piss poor photos, but at least I'll be able to remember this week as the " it's tired in here " week. Day 28: January 28, 2013 I'm terrible about figuring out what to eat when I travel. Do I want to overpay for a sad, limp sandwich before I board a plane or during the flight? I was *this* close to getting the cheese and cracker snack on the plane, but really, $9 for some measly pieces of cheese? Instead I bought a couple granola bars in the terminal and then toughed it out. Not gonna lie, that was not the best decision I made that day. All throughout the flight I couldn't wait till I got to th...

Day 24: January 24, 2013 Most of my coworkers don't drive to work because we have to pay for parking, the cheapest is $6/day (actually, people who drive everyday get the monthly deal, which is $80-90/month). We're actually pretty lucky because if our office was on the other side of the freeway, and in the DTLA core, then parking can easily reach $200/month. Since most of us don't drive to work our lunch options are limited to what we can reasonably walk to. In the off chance that someone does drive in, our lunch options expand mightily! One of our favorite lunch spots is Papa Cristos , a fantastic Greek place (seriously, look at their Yelp Page ) that has been around for decades (if you're a fan of The Shield , then you'll appreciate (or be terrified?) that it is located directly in Byz-Lat territory). I never fail to order the gyro sandwich, but am always tempted by the dessert counter. This time, however, temptation got the best of me and I added two "ho...

Day 21: January 21, 2013 Nothing spectacular for Day 21. Just Bailey playing with a shopping bag. Cats can be so smart, yet so simple. Day 22: January 22, 2013 Last week I took a photo of Bailey's mouse toy and Schnookie, of IPB Living , noted its fairly pristine condition. This time I took a photo of one of his most played-with cat toys. Bailey has beat the crap out of this toy. We have bought several different feather teaser cat toys from Petco and the Feline Flyer is by far the best one available in-store. The feathers are really stiff and flutter through the air very nicely. I wonder if the cat thinks it looks like a bird... The major downside to all teaser toys is the feather part is attached to the string by a ball and chain type connection and it ALWAYS breaks. I have bought at least 5 teaser toys from Petco in the past 6 months and they have all broken in the same manner, except for one where the rod actually broke. When I feel like mustering up another $7...

I'm getting used to this photo a day thing! Surprisingly it hasn't felt like a chore, which is something I was very worried about. I enjoy seeking out things to photograph and I absolutely cannot wait till I get a new phone that has a decent camera so I can document all these wonderful things around me; I'm too much of a weenie to pull out my dslr in a big crowd. I also don't want to lug it around in my purse every day. I also always feel like I'm in such a hurry to get somewhere that I don't feel like I can just stop for a minute and compose a nice photo. Ok, I admit it: I'm just full of lame excuses... Day 17: January 17, 2013 I did not know what to photograph this day and I really did not want to resort to taking another photograph of my super amazing cat. So instead I took a photo of his toy mouse. A friend of mine told me about these mice and I found a local pet store selling them for $1 a pop. I bought one and, of course, the little bugger got ...

Days 10-13....these were some chilly days in LA! Laugh all you want non-SoCal people, but it was cold here and I did not want to go outside. Day 10: January 10, 2013 Mad Housewife ....she seemed like a good idea at the time. So, I started a food blog {finally} and will eventually review this el cheapo wine. Spoiler Alert: I do not recommend it. Day 11: January 11, 2013 Another cat photo...what can I say. I love taking photos of my sweet, psychotic Bailey: Day 12: January 12, 2013 This is a T-Rex tea infuser!!! :) I bought this little trinket as a stocking stuffer for my husband. I found it at Sur La Table and thought he would get a kick out of it. It's fun to use and have sitting in your mug, but it is a pain in the behind to clean! The holes are a bit big so some of the smaller tea leaves float into your tea, but since they usually settle to the bottom it isn't that big of an issue. Day 13: January 13, 2013 Bailey's feeding station: A ...

Day 7: January 7, 2013 I had grand plans to take an outdoor photo for Day 7, but unfortunately that didn't happen. Instead, I took this photo: Look at all that Bob's Red Mill !!!!! WHAT?!?!?! I stopped by Ralphs (aka, Kroger, the big chain grocery store in my area) and only walked down the baking aisle to get to the back of the store. I just happened to glance to my left and I think my jaw dropped when I saw bags upon bags upon bags of different Bob's Red Mill baking products! WHEN DID THIS GET HERE!?!? I was in Ralphs on Christmas Even to get baking flour and I DO NOT remember seeing this. In the past I have only been able to find Unsweeted Shredded Coconut and possibly one or two other items. I usually have to go to Fresh & Easy to buy Gluten-Free Baking Flour (because it's way cheaper than at Whole Foods) and then hop on over to Whole Foods to get the crazy stuff like Flaxseed Meal (I still don't know why I bought this) and Xantham Gum. I can't r...