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Erin at Large

EDC XL: Melissa Hartfiel, owner of Fine Lime Designs & professional food photographer


I met Melissa at a great food photography workshop she helped organise as part of the Food Bloggers of Canada. Over Twitter afterwards, we bonded over our mutual love of British murder TV shows and food in general. I thought her jobs as designer and professional food photographer would make for an interesting EDC. I thought the photography obsessed would enjoy Melissa spilling her camera bag as well.

Inside my big Nine West Satchel 

  • iPad 2
  • old grocery list
  • Blackberry bold
  • The Boss of You by Lauren Bacon and Emira Mears of Vancouver’s Raised Eyebrow Studios
  • 355 ml green tinted coca-cola bottle stuffed with paper napkins
  • moleskin graph paper notebook
  • Pentel EnerFit pen in purple
  • Random piece of garbage
  • Parking tickets (proof of payment… not tickets for not paying!)
  • Skytrain tickets
  • Assorted debit receipts
  • Change purse my mum brought me from Turkey
  • Business card holder
  • Wallet
  • Burgundy umbrella
  • Umbrella cover for a different umbrella
  • Apple headphones
  • Canon P&S
  • Prescription sunglasses
  • Car and house keys
  • Cargo lip gloss quad in Tenaga
  • Original Rosebud Salve
  • Blistex Complete Moisture (Best. Stuff. Ever.) [Erin says, totally agree, I bulk buy these]
  • Hair elastic
  • Tupperware container that transported treats I’m testing out for the blog to a friend
  • Kleenex pocket pack
  • **I can also fit my DSLR in this bag which was one of the reasons I bought it!

Inside my Crumpler 7 Million Dollar Home Camera Bag (contents change radically depending on what I’m shooting – this was after photographing the Vancouver Christmas Market)

  • Canon EOS 5DMKII Camera
  • iPad 2
  • Moo cards carrying case
  • Canon USB Cable
  • Canon Speedlight 430EX II
  • Moleskine softcover notebook
  • Car and house keys
  • Kleenex
  • Canon 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 DO IS lens
  • 2 Pentel EnerFit Pens in blue
  • Apple Camera cable converter (for importing RAW files directly on to my iPad when on location)
  • Bath and Bodyworks hand sanitizer in Sweet Pea
  • Blistex Complete Moisture
  • Blistex Raspberry lipcare
  • Time & Again hand cream in Sweet Vanilla
  • Wet Ones (as you can see, you can touch a lotta icky stuff when taking photos)
  • Betty Rubble figurine
  • Excel Gum
  • Business card holder that doubles as a tiny wallet for DL and Credit/Debit Card
  • Canon 100mm 2.8 macro lens
  • 50mm reverse macro ring
  • lens cleaning cloth
  • Blackberry Bold
  • Media ticket to Vancouver Christmas Market (the last thing I photographed)
  • London Drugs generic ibuprofen
  • Macro lens adaptor for my Fuji Instax instant camera
  • Bus/Skytrain tickets
  • Receipt
  • Canon 5D Manual (yes, pros do carry their manuals – and we use them!)
  • BC Ferries ticket for the Sunshine Coast
  • Parking tickets (for proof of parking, not for not paying!)

Melissa is the owner of Fine Lime Designs, where she is a freelance designer and photographer. She’s also one of a trio of co-founders of Food Bloggers of Canada. When she’s not designing, photographing or writing her own food photography blog, Eyes Bigger Than My Stomach, you can find her hanging with her slobbery Lab, Sam at the beach, gobbling up design magazines, obsessing over British murder mystery TV shows, quoting Seinfeld, seeking out new music, scouring flea markets and thrift shops for food photography props and drinking a lot of tea and eating a lot of chocolate.

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EDC XL: Jen Kossowan, blogger at Mama Papa Bubba

*and normaly my DSLR, but I was using it to capture the shot
Jen is a Kindergarten/Grade One teacher turned Etsy shop owner and stay-at-home mama to an adventure-loving 2-year-old little lady.  She loves to cook, craft, spend time outdoors, and take ridiculous amounts of photos.  When she’s not playing and exploring Vancouver with her little one, Jen can often be found at her computer blogging at Mama.Papa.Bubba.
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EDC XL: Lisa Corriveau, blogger at The Sprog


Lisa is a fellow parent blogger I met through the Vancouver Mom Top 30 bloggers event, and since meeting we’ve spent quite a bit of time at press events and get-togethers, mainly sequestered in a corner with good beer (Lisa) and wine (me).

She volunteered to open her bag for Everyday Carry XL this week. Take a peek…

  • Kenneth Cole wallet
  • keys including Modo Car Co-op fob, Fox 40 whistle & folding knife
  • Playmobil 123 woman
  • Samsung Galaxy 3S in Otterbox Commuter case + handsfree headphones
  • nail file
  • Burt’s Bees lip shimmer in Papaya
  • MAC lipstick in Rich Reserve Frost
  • Annabelle Lip liner in cherry
  • Lactase tablet
  • five Extra Strength Tylenol tablets
  • blue Pilot FriXion refillable erasable pen
  • freebie pen
  • four of my business cards
  • several other people’s business cards
  • truck
  • nine Life brand bandages in a Band-Aids case
  • bicycle tire patch kit
  • cloth diaper, handmade terry wipes, freebie Nestle change pad in a Bummis wet bag
  • bib
  • garage door opener in a Fisherman’s Friend tin
  • metal chain
  • Vancouver Inspiration Pass
  • two relatively clean paper napkins
  • MEC sunglasses
  • assorted interac receipts
  • Playmobil 123 horse
  • knock-off moleskin notebook
  • PoCampo Armitage satchel in umber waxed canvas

When not photographing the contents of her purse, or blogging on The Sprog, Lisa can often be found in a park somewhere in East Van with her little boy, freelance writing, sewing clothing, tweeting (@blauelibelle), reading just about anything, performing on stilts, eating chocolate or drinking craft beer. (Sometimes several of the above simultaneously.) Living in a way that’s good for her health & the planet is important to her, so she usually gets where she needs to go by bike or on foot, sometimes transit, and occasionally with Modo vehicles.

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Everyday carry, extra-large edition

Everyday carry, or EDC, is a community of blogs and contributors who obsess about what the have in their pockets, or bags. Overwhelmingly male, and more than a little concerned with survival, it is a fascinating read. People photograph and list out their EDC, and often the blogger critiques it for aesthetic, lightness and utility. Essentially it is variations on a wallet, utility knife, watch and smart phone. Unsurprisingly, I ended up at one of the blogs through William Gibson’s twitter feed, though I had heard about it in some peripheral way years ago.

I have always found it fascinating to see what people find essential to carry with them, and how it changes with their job, location or current situation. As a tube commuting Londoner, I had a very different set of things in my bag than the mum to a preschooler who drives most of the time in Vancouver that I am now.

In the interests of being a bit of a Nosy Parker, I’d like to invite all of you to do your own EDC and send it in to me. I’ll feature one a week. To start off, here is my EDC – you will notice I am not going for lightness, survival (unless you call the ability to distract my son in an awkward situation survival, which I do) or a minimalist aesthetic. So this is my EDC XL, if you will.

  • iPhone 4 / Gelaskins case
  • iPad / Apple case
  • Nivea Essential Moisture lip balm x 2
  • Burts Bees tinted lip balm in Rose
  • Maybelline lipstick in Red Revival
  • Bourjois blush pot in rosé d’or (mirror in lid)
  • Toy car
  • Elliot’s spoon
  • Wallet
  • Hair elastic
  • Foam curler (put in my bag by Elliot)
  • One dirty, but unused band-aid
  • Two fountain pen cartridges, one empty and one full, for a pen I don’t carry anymore
  • Sony Ericsson in-ear headphones with microphone
  • Tissues in flat travel package
  • Business cards in case
  • Silver Mimi transit pass holder containing London Oyster pass and a train ticket to York (useful!)
  • Keys with Swiss Army knife (not shown)
  • One loonie, loose
  • Mini hair brush
  • Elliot’s sock (only one)
  • Tide stain removal pen
  • Fineline black pens x 2
  • Cambridge Satchel Company bag in yellow
  • Gus the yorkshire terrier, but he doesn’t come with me in my bag
I want to see what’s in your bag! Send me your EDC XL list, plus a photo with all your bits and pieces in it, and a short bio.
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