Summer Concert Season 2011

Last summer my friends and I started a new trend among us of going to the best concert of the summer, and making sure that we went to A LOT of them.  We live next to a great summer concert shell that gets artists like Maroon 5, Sugarland, Kenny Chesney and Jason Mraz.  A mere 2 hour drive from us is Darien Lake which also has a great concert venue--the atmosphere is a bit younger at Darien and has a great pre-concert scene.

To reminisce on summer 2010:

All in all, a great concert season with great memories and some good laughs the next morning.  In total we went to: Sugarland (to kick off the season), Maroon 5, REO Speedwagon, Goo Goo Dolls, Tom Petty and i might be missing out but I think thats it!

This summer?  We have already booked tickets for Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block, a great kick off concert and possibly Journey?

Scoop 2011

One of my favorite things about Summer, as of last year of course, is my Abbotts Family.  Since the season is quickly approaching I thought I would dedicate a post to my lovely girls that I scoop with all summer long.  I absolutely cannot wait to get back--surprising because I usually HATE, or LOATH summer jobs.  However, after being persuaded by Mandy to join the Abbotts Team I found summer employment to be quite fun and enjoyable.  

I love our family, and our "parents" being Jim and Ann.  If you have ever gone to the Abbotts   in Canandaigua (NO, NOT the one at Tom Wahls, the real one), you will know who I am talking about.  The sweetest little couple that own the ice cream store.

What am I looking forward to most?  I want to create a Facebook page and twitter to advertise for Abbotts (idk if corporate is okay with this?) and also have pictures of all the girls on a bulletin board of us serving and having fun!   I am also looking forward to reteaching myself how to scoop the custardy goodness and make some masterpiece cakes!

If you have never been to Abbotts, do yourself a favor and try some.  It is amazing.  My favorite being Vanilla Almond (most commonly made with the yogurt for me), or mint chocolate chip...mhhhh and the cookie dough bites mixed with sprinkles!  There is just too much to say about Abbotts that leads me to one word: AMAZING!

Spring Break| The Artsy Side of Us

If you are friends with me on Facebook you have already seen all of these photographs but I figured I'd post them to the blog anyways and give a little description/ explanation of them.  I have realized I am awful at organizing posts on such a HUGE EVENT but some is better than none right.

The first day we literally walked everywhere, which would have been okay if I had prepared and chose not to drive to classes that were far away.  Amidst my huffing and puffing we went from the apartment in Camden to St. Pauls and all the way down to parliment across the river to the eye and back!  I was trying to get some great compositions so I thought the above photo of St. Pauls was cool!

Here we have BIG BEN, twice! I like the top picture because it shows the buildings around the tower but also highlights the tower itself.  The photo below is one of my favorites because its so busy.  You have the flags, the tower and even the eye in the background. In photography we learned how the eye is attracted to shapes, these three objects create a triangle which balances the photo.

Below is a photograph of the London Eye, which has probably been taken many times and is becoming too touristy but I still like it.

After walking past the eye there was a sort of boardwalk.  Under this one bridge were walls of amazing and interesting graffiti, along with some young skateboarders showing off their tricks.

The artist seems to be talking to the sand sculputer in this photo, its as if he is yelling at her.  It was the most random thing right in the middle of London but so interesting at the same time. 

Buckingham Palace at its finest, on our first sunny day!

Buckingham palace, which can also be seen through the reflection in Brendan's RayBan Sunglasses.  It was quite stunning but also a serious tourist trap.  I don't know how I could deal with it if I were the Queen.  Also, the Guards were NOT as exciting as I had hoped, they were so far away I could hardly see them!

The Louvre.  Being the serious nerd I am and LOVING The Davinci Code/ Angels and Demons, I am of course in love with the Louvre and the pyramid outside if it.  I happened to catch the suns rays coming through the pyramid on the sunny day we went (which was a tuesday, the museum is closed).  I love this picture because it really shows how absolutely gorgeous it was outside since it was in fact 75 degrees!

Brendans Masterpiece (pt 1).  While walking up through the gardens outside the Louvre he just had to go get a picture of these trees...Little did I know he had another idea, which came out very nicely I might add.  The trees seem to frame the women sitting on the bench which I love.

He also took this photo at my request.  I like the lines of the building and then the movement of the cars, it shows how fast they actually do drive in Paris!

The top photo of the pallet is one that I took and Brendan took the B&W ones below.  I thought that I was doing great with my framing and aperature but he seems to outdo me once again.  I really like how the stand is in focus while the rest of the background is blurred, you can see it a lot better in the black and white.

The Eiffel Tower: Touristy and Expensive but obviously something everyone who goes to Paris must see.  We went to the second level (the line to the top was way too long for our short stay), and traveled about the gardens below.

My first sausage in 3 years!  In the German Marketplace (Borough Market), we walked around scoping everything out when I had this sudden urge for Sauerkraut and a big Sausage.  Luckily this nice guy had some for sale.  I must say, it was amazing.

This picture was taken our last night in London when we went on the Eye.  It is a lot taller than I thought it was but luckily very steady and you could hardly tell you were moving.  The sunset was gorgeous and it was a great end to our trip!

Spring Break| The Yummy Part

Let me give you one some insight into one of the more exciting parts of Spring Break.  

A brief background may be required for this so here we go: For the past two years my meals have consisted of white meat only (chicken and turkey), little to no seafood and LOTS of veggies.  Thats right, no ham, sausage, beef, pork etc.

Over break I promised myself I would try lots of foods and so that is exactly what Brendan and I did.  I have posted a few pictures of our favorites except that we didn't take pictures of the Snails in Paris, or the Bouf Bourignon which I clearly just tried because Julia Child makes a great recipe.  We also had Veal (baby Moo cow) and the following:

Cute little triangle tea sandwiches and Iced Chocolate at this restaurant called Cilantro.  I was absolutely splendid both for the meal and price!  Located right near the shopping district of London I was very happy to find such a yummy place.

Here is the Ostrich dinner we made, yes Ostrich as in the big bird!  We bought the steaks and wild mushrooms at Borough Market, please if you ever go to London, go to this market.  We also added a great Creme Fraise sauce to go with it.

The Ye Old Chesire Cheese, known for being one of the oldest running pubs in London serves up some great Fish and Chips.  I must say its not half bad especially since it is a dish known to England and the UK.  Their draft beers weren't half bad either!

I love cheese.  Mostly very sharp cheddars and Brie but we decided to explore this amazingly huge cheese shop and ended up with a Stilton (VERY strong blue cheese) and some soft goat cheese that had some bite to it.  The people were really friendly and let us sample anything we wanted!

Last but not least, Katzenjammers or as I would like to call it "Kittys and Jammies."  A nice little basement German Pub that serves some awesome German beers in seriously large quantities (well large for me).  This pint was so heavy but we had a great time sipping away while enjoying traditional German Pretzels.  We also met some fun Russians who sat next to us and were arguing over whether or not to see Greece the Musical!

All in all, the food in London/Paris was AMAZING.  I couldn't have enjoyed my newfound love for something besides chicken anymore.

Spring Break 2011| The Best Break Ever

Here, I'll give you a little hint at how my spring break went...It was AMAZING.  Needless to say, after a rather misfortunate return flight home I am just returning to school this morning.  What does that mean?  I have been super busy and unable to blog about my trip!  Hopefully in the next few days, more likely it will come this weekend, I will post numerous blogs about my trips to London & Paris, and all the glorious foods I tried with Brendan :)

Stay tuned.....

For The Warm Fuzzys

For The Warm Fuzzys a photo by kylie.bellis on Flickr.

Remember when I had a post about the HWS Figure Skating Club's Skate for Hope? Well since our lives are so busy as is, let me remind you: the skating club teamed together with Hope House to sponsor an event where proceeds went to Camp Good Days and Special Times.

This photograph, also used for my motion project, was taken while participants and skaters got ready for their open skate! I love this photo because of the way it was recreated on photoshop and how I was able to really show the difference in scenes (the ticket booth seems to be stopped in time, while those getting ready are moving about frantically!).

Fly Away Home

Fly Away Home a photo by kylie.bellis on Flickr.

Did you ever see the movie Fly Away Home as a kid? The geese get lost and this little girl raises them until they are old enough to migrate..how heart wrenching! This image is definitely photoshopped, sorry to all those who aim for a naturalist approach. The background of the hills has been contrasted, highlighted and then the vibrance was actually decreased--and no I don't know what i'm doing. However, thanks to photoshop I was given a bunch of little cool buttons and tutorials to help me through!

BOMB!

BOMB! a photo by kylie.bellis on Flickr.

Sakura, also known as the closest Hibachi restaurant (and is located in the Chosen Spot!) has some good bombs, or so I've heard. I took this photograph for my imaging class and worked with photoshop to manipulate it a bit. I am unsure if I actually like all the things you can do with photoshop because it takes away from the actual picture that you capture, but some of the stuff is really cool!

J'taime.

A quick update on my plans for spring break.  Not only will I be going to London but we will also be going to PARIS, FRANCE! How exciting right?  I may or may not be too excited to describe the break I am about to experience in exactly 1 week.

While taking a break from the stacks and stacks of never ending homework I was able to look up some great hotels and airfare.  Thank god I have a friend, Jillian, who has lived in Paris for the past few summers.  She was a great and helped me settle on a Hotel in St. Michel.

The Grand Hotel St. Michel.   It's great because its right in the heart of a fun section in Paris and we can easily get to the Metro to see all the touristy sites.  I cannot wait to have a Baguette fight along the Seine, how fun?!

I cannot wait to post pictures that I take while in Europe, and simply can't wait to step off the plane in Heathrow next Saturday night.  As for now I am nursing myself back to health from an upset stomach and severe case of being drastically overtired.  I decided to stay in and work on getting better so I don't end up sick by next weekend.

Hope you all have a great night!

Help a Bro Out.

If you liked the mix that was posted below and constantly find yourself getting tired of whatever your local radio station is playing, do me a favor and head over to The Amped LIfe.

This is Brendan's up and coming blog (yes he just had to copy my idea of becoming a BlogSTAR), but he will provide you with some great playlists for your weekend extravaganzas. Not to mention, he is a wicked good cook and promised to add some recipes!  

Frolicking Geneva.

This will probably serve as a header for many following posts as for my most common location for taking photos is Geneva, that is until I make my way across the big ocean to London! (One week and two days folks, its almost here!)

This latest assignment required us, the most amateur photographers, to focus on depth of field and aperture.  You know, when the subject is crisp/sharp and the background is oh so blurred--what a cool effect!  This is one thing I always wanted to learn about taking photos and am so excited I know how to explore it more. 

Here are the four photos I turned in and manipulated using Photoshop:

"Afternoon Snack"

I found this lovely bakery (a post soon to come) called Normal Bread.  This one man band makes breads and the best organic cookies, right here in Geneva!  The owner gave me permission to photograph his products and I fell in love with this one.

"Warm Up"

Introducing Krystina.  She is part of the HWS Figure Skating Club and I adore this photo of her stretching before practice.  Funny story, she also went to prep school where Brendan's dad taught!

"Simple Preserves"

Another shot from Normal Bread.  I found the contrast between the lids and the contents within the jars to be fascinating, not to mention I love homemade jellys, jams and preserves!  Can't wait to make some this summer :)

"Ironwork"

One of my favorite photos to date.  I just love the angle and the fact that the original was overexposed and extremely washed out, thank god for photoshop.  Ironwork is becoming my new thing to photograph, even simple benches such as this have a certain beauty to them.