the creative process complete

Looking back at this post makes me smile. I blogged about Jari Love's latest bootcamp DVD a few months ago finding out days later the creative genius (other than Jari of course) behind it was in fact my then crush.

Over the past few days I've watched the following trailer come to fruition. It really is a very cool and very complicated process. I am so proud to see the final product, both of Jari because she has worked so hard over the years to make this incredible company that helps so many people successful and of course proud that my man brought this together. And I'll take some credit too because we all know that behind every great man is an equally great woman :)

fulfilling my committment

I don't feel particularly inspired to blog today but I will post a picture, as promised. This is me and my boy twin in Hawaii. It is one of my favourites and I always get a smirk across my face when I look at it. I love it. So I'm adding it to blogsville.

getaway

I missed POTD yesterday. Oops. I think I had a pretty good reason though and to make up for a day missed I will provide a photo montage of that reason...

CASTLE MOUNTAIN!!!! OMG. OMFG (for you sister)... And any other equally awesome acronym can suit the hilarity/epicness of 'our adventures at Castle' - I think I'll title it - though I can't think of any other acronyms except for the two most obvious; my brain is hazy (and still in a state of academic hangover from staying up until 3:30 finishing a paper after a day of ripping, after a night of partying, after a day of paper writing).
So, my soul mate, and our soul friends took a much needed break from the chaoticism (that should be a word) that was M-F of last week. Dave and Renee had been to Castle but K2 were both newbies (I promise I will try never to refer to myself in the third person again). Anyways, this story could be a long one so I'll keep it short with point form, some parts may or may not make sense to the random reader but that's not my fault..
-Castle Mountain: nothing but a ski hill 50 km. off any main road. As such, nothing but ski bums to inhabit the spectrum of dwellings anywhere from rusty trailers to beautiful cabins, to the Holiday Inn type hostel, and probably a snow hut thrown in there somewhere too.
-The T-Bar: the 600 square foot bar that these inhabitants, be it 'locals' or passerby's, cause a mega ruckus. I am, and forever will be, in love with The T-Bar. The bell means free shots for all... free shots for all!
-Bachelorette parties were crashed, though I like to think we added to the flair of the evening.
-Ski poles doubled as swords that attacked unknowing margarine containers.
-Various fridges were explored in fine detail using said sword.
-Piggy backs ended in piles in the snow, more than once and more than twice.
-Heads hit the pillow past 4 to dream of the snow that would follow a few short hours later.

The riding was fabulous. We mixed the day up with some serious tree action at the top with fun cruiser blues half way up. Sometimes I couldn't tell whether a cliff was 1 foot in front of me or flat ground the light was FLAT at the top, but a few cautionary moves led to better and better light and SO MUCH FUN in the trees. I LOVE CASTLE!!!

FREAKING FUN.

OUR CREW.

What's going on behind that bag of "hot wings" Ruffles (????!) is anyone's guess

After we closed the bar down we went searching for a apres-bar trailer party. What we found was a gorgeous cottage filled with fun girls to hang with. Let the sunglass-off begin..

ROCKSTARS!

SOULMATE ROCKSTARS!

There was no way to know this at the time but this was some major foreshadowing of what was to come. Unfortunately, only I have the 6 minute video that captures the evidence and I have been sworn to secrecy by one, KMB.

Intact Margarine container.

SNOW DAY!!! Renee rocking out.

We laugh in the face of the "easy way" down.

EPIC WEEKEND. Thank you Castle :)

photo of the day: day 1

Taking and posting a photo of the day each day for 30 days shouldn't be that hard right? Apparently, it has proven challenging so far for me as here is a picture of the sun setting, pretty much my last chance to get anything worthy of an interesting photograph. But hey, I did it, and it's pretty (for an iPhone shot). You might not know this but I'm up for iPhone photographer of the year. Okay no I'm not, but I do love to throw that out there at least 4 times a day :)

photo of the day: day 1. This is Chinaman's Peak in Canmore. I have been spending quite a bit of time out here lately. I am very contented nestled in amongst the mountains, tracing the sun as it make its way across the open sky, watching fat flakes fall in the shadow of a street lamp from the comfort of indoors, slip sliding up the icy river bed or hanging with my friends, the trees in the forest. It is a lovely, peaceful and serene place to spend my days, though that could have something to do with the company I'm keeping...

Day 1 and I will say it again.. life is good and I'm grateful.

30 day challenge(s)

It would seem as though I like 30 day challenges. To be honest, I don't think I've made it to 30 days before.. but that's besides the point. Well... Okay, okay, I guess setting a 30 day challenge and not making it to 30 days would be considered a fail but that word doesn't exist in my vocabulary. The point of a 30 day challenge is to incorporate something new into my life, try it out, modify if necessary, add, take away and settle it into my way of being if I do so choose.

So, the latest and greatest of 30 day(ish) challenges? I have two ideas... The first is to meditate every day for at least 20 minutes. I love meditating. I have been meditating for a couple of years now, though never regularly. I used to struggle with the idea as it seemed like impossible to get my mind to "turn off". It wasn't until one meditation class that the instructor said a few simple words that changed my whole way of thinking about meditating. She said "don't try to control your thoughts, just observe them". I left that class feeling incredible. I sat for 35 minutes and simply listened. I felt so in touch with my being. Since then I've enjoyed opportunities to listen and learn more about myself when there is nothing else in the way.

I've been doing a lot of reading about spirituality, mindfulness, meditation, peace, etc. lately and I've found some wonderful websites full of insight and wisdom regarding these topics. One particular website talked about 30 days of meditation and that got my wheels turning. So today is day one. Kristian is embarking on the journey with me and is already a seasoned meditator. I'm excited to see the further knowledge and understanding that unfolds. I'll keep you updated..

The second 30 day challenge is a photo challenge. I'm going to post a pic-a-day to see what's going on with life. I definitely fell off the blog wagon for a few weeks so it's one way to start that up again and I love to use my blog as a journal since I can't keep a journal to save my life. So pic one coming up later (by midnight at the latest!).

WOO HOO! Happy day!

TIESTO!!!

I am completely mesmerized and obsessed with Tiesto & Tegan and Sara's song "feel it in my bones". Yesterday K2 bought tickets to see Tiesto on April 16th in Calgary....!!! I am telepathically connecting to Tegan and Sara and telling them to make a special appearance at the concert so we can GET DOWN to this song. It worked when I telepathically connected to Dave Matthews

LYRICS THAT ROCK MY WORLD

Blow by blow
I didn't see it coming
Blow by blow
Sucker Punched

Rushes in
Here to stay
Rushes in
You are here to stay

What rushes into my heart and my skull
I can't control
Think about it
Feel it in my bones
What rushes into my heart and my skull
I can't control

I feel you in my bones
You're knocking at my windows
You're slow to letting me go
And I know this feeling also
This feeling in my bones

Left hook
I didn't see it coming
Left hook
You've got dead aim

Rushes out
Run away
Rushes out
You always run away

What rushes into my heart and my skull
I can't control
Think about it
Feel it in my bones
What rushes into my heart and my skull
I can't control

I feel you in my bones
You're knocking at my windows
You're slow to letting me go
And I know this feeling also

This feeling in my bones

I take a breath
Take a breath
With me blow by blow
Take a break
Take a break
From you you are here to stay
I take my heart out of my chest
I just don't need it anymore
Take my head out of the game
I just don't need it anymore

I feel you in my bones
You're knocking at my windows
You're slow to letting me go
And I know this feeling also
This feeling in my bones

somersaults

Yesterday afternoon Kristian and his bestest friends Dave and Rene came over to Chateau Corbett Parent's for an afternoon/evening/early morning full of adventure, friends, fun, laughter and love. We toasted to our epic Sunday on the deck and swung on the world's best front porch swing before setting out in the snow to break trail up Two Pine. We scampered up playing all the while. We broke free of trail etiquette on the way down and bounded like wild animals, howling like 4 year olds, through knee deep snow. We came to the cut line about half way to home and were playing with reckless abandon. Four 'adults' somersaulted their way down the hill eventually arriving back home and feeling fully deserving of our favourite new signature drink, gatorade and grey goose. Somewhere between the top and bottom of that stiff glass I realized that my beloved iPhone was no longer in my pocket. Thank goodness that the Mac guy upsold me and convinced me to buy Mobile Me, the selling feature was most certainly the fact that I could track my phone. Well that $60 just paid for itself as we pulled up the location of my phone - EXACTLY where we were doing somersaults!! We took this as another opportunity to adventure and suited up in our warmest gear and trekked out in the dark. What night hike doesn't turn out to be wondrous, especially full of yummy vodkarade and wonderful company? More hilarity ensued and sure enough we found my phone no problem. Thank you Mobile Me for adding to an unforgettable evening, and next time I'll try to remember to zip up my pockets when I somersault down a mountain.

techy

Marley is finding places to stay warm during the blizzard, and trying to get someone's attention by any means possible.

Hawaiian Colour

Sunset on February 17th, 2011. Kristian and I were sipping Vodka and Gatorade, what a perfect way to hydrate while you dehydrate! I was writing a paper(!), he was working(!) and we were enjoying this view from our deck. Lovely Hawaii.

Moments in Time.

Dudes... Hawaii is pretty much the best place ever, ever, ever. I have to send out a massively massive shout out to my parents for bringing me to paradise, I can't believe I've never been here and I will most certainly be back. Sapphire blue waves crash endlessly into the shore, every shade of green you could possibly conceive of is in grasp, everywhere I look there is the lushest of lush vegetation. There is the brilliantly mastermindedness of mother nature combining heat, humidity and wind. There are whales, oh yes, there is no shortage of the majestic presence here (even less so when we head out whale watching at sunrise in a few short hours). There is wild laughter, there is peace, there is love, there is wonder, there IS adventure.. There is much more to be explored and discovered in the next week, I am sure of that.

Really, this is all thanks to my amazing M&D but this post will, for now, focus on the other two lovebirds here. Most of these shots were taken yesterday, February 14th, 2011 (2OLL...????!) There will be many millions more to come, there will be magnificent quality shots that will be mounted and hung in various sacred spots, but for now, here are a few from my not so bad if I do say so myself iPhone 4.

K2 drove the road to Hana yesterday, a 55ish mile drive that is supposed to take 3 hours (I did it in 1 when we came back in the dark, when all the sensible people were already at home, wildly winding the perfectly paved road while blasting some wickedly perfect techno beats). This drive is breathtaking and if you haven't done it, it really must be experienced to be understood. There are countless stops along the way to choose from and we set out at 5:30a.m. with no sure plan except to soak up every precious moment. What transpired was nothing short of something resembling magnetized perfection created by two. Here are a few of our memories:

Early morning shot on the road to Hana, triple espressos and pumping tunes makes these two road trippers bright-eyed and bushy tailed.

This place really has to be seen to believed but basically, there's an infinity pool to my right and a 200 foot drop overlooking the great Pacific to my left all the while surrounded by electric greens. The state of Hawaii has agreed to give me the small parcel of land to inhabit (thank you kind folks). This is my new job, I watch the gear, yah baby, I watch it good, while Kristian got distracted by a King Kong sized lens and a dragon fly. BTW I am not sleeping just a meditation of sorts lying down soaking up excesses of that sweet stuff called Vitamin D and other sweet stuff that can only be felt and not written.

Further on this epic of epicness hike we came to a baboo forest. The trail lasted for about a kilometre and when you looked into the thick of it darkness took over before you could spot the end. It was like nothing I've ever experienced before. On our way back down, as the sun had set, it was like a tale out of Alice in Wonderland.

Final destination: 400 foot high waterfall cascading down on none other but Kristian and my teeny little bodies. We can't believe this was our first Valentine's Day experience. The water pounded down "like meteorites". It was such a beautifully surreal experience to share. The best part was that we were there pretty late in the day and all the people had left, other than one girl who took some pics of us frolicking under the falls for a few minutes, then promptly departed, it was just me, Kristian and mother nature at her absolute finest.

Post waterfall. Look at those happily enlightened eyes. That was some magical water. If you can't feel it, I can't describe it!

And to prove that we are in fact spending hours upon hours near the wilds of the Pacific here is a shot from the day before when my M&D took us on our family Valentine's Day outing which was spectacular and will deserve a post of its own once I get home and organized.

And, finally, here we are, two nights before Valentine's Day lighting up the dance floor at one of Maui's hot spots. Yes, there is tequila in hand, and yes, after the bar closed down there was a short period of time that was spent passed out on a random piece of beach. All in all, an EPIC, EPIC, hilariously fantastic night full of Hawaiian sugary drinks, patrone and NON-STOP groovin'. SO FREAKIN' FUN!!! The next day, however, was not. After a repeat performance of a hangover morning comparable to mine and Lindsay's last morning on the Amalfi Coast I pulled myself together by throwing up, drinking coffee and Gatorade and getting on with another day in paradise. Only in Hawaii can a hangover go from 10-0 in a matter of hours.

Surreal. So real. Soul real.

intro

Big events in my life are always included in my blog (obvi :p). Sometimes I use my blog as a means of random chatter directed at whoever may need a mild dose of procrastination, but mostly I use it as a means to remember some special moments throughout my years. I'd like to turn it into a public journal of sorts, filled with photos and stories of my adventures. I admit I haven't been as diligent as I'd like to be, but I'm working on it. Maybe I'll make it a new year's resolution next year Krissy :)

Anyways, point being.. Special moments have been bursting through the seams as of late and it's time to make an introduction of that special someone 1/4 responsible for that. The other 1/4 being me and the other 1/2 being this universe to which we have no control over. Enter Mr. Kristian Bogner. Human being extraordinairre, there is nothing ordinary about this man nor our rapidly expanding relationship. Get ready for upcoming gush people.. And some great photos :) K2 (as we like to refer to ourselves) are off to Hawaii in a few short days to experience and photograph some ridiculous adventures and beauty that this world has offered to us.

Side note: guess who just won Alberta's photographer of the year? click to be impressed
Oh, and p.s. keeping clicking, as big things are happening in the world of KB.