creating...

needed to make some thank you's the other day, and had some new stamps, so I made these pretty cards and added necklaces I made, too

for today...

outside my window... there is a cool rain falling… it’s a blustery day in June – right when the peonies and lilies are at their finest, a big storm blows through and they are finished – i'm so glad we took the time to photograph them last weekend - we have stunning images to remember their intense beauty

i am thinking... about having to pack up my scrap supplies - sigh...

i am thankful for... kind and generous friends who let us stay at their house while we are getting our floors refinished

from the kitchen... Not much exciting happening these days- anything super easy... but amazingly today there is a yummy smell of bbq sauce and chicken coming from the oven

i am wearing... jeans, a green striped t-shirt and my fave stripey sweater from Gap – thankfully I threw a few warmer things in my bag after I checked the forecast and found our about rain predicted for today; I did however, forget about putting a rainjacket in…

i am creating... an image of our new house in my mind and mulling over my ideas for colours

i am going... to go to bed early tonight!!

i am reading... 13 ways of Looking at the Novel, by Jane Smiley. An intellectual challenge – what is a novel? What is its purpose? What 100 books typify the form?
i am hoping... we get the house on the market soon

i am hearing... u2 with or without you

around the house... it looks as if a bomb may have gone off… family room furniture is piled up in the middle of the roomso the floor can be re-done, there are half-packed boxes everywhere, closets are getting emptied...

one of my favorite things... is having a cup of tea and having a pile of cooking or scrapbooking magazines to browse

a few plans for the rest of the week... meeting at the new house on Monday, work to do at school on Tuesday, Canada Day on Wednesday, more school work on Thursday, errands and appointments on Friday

a picture to share...

how cute is this?

I have no idea what inspired him to wear this particular combination but when I saw him out on his scooter I just had to get a couple of photos... this says summer to me... and all boy too

16 random things about me

you know I like scrapbooking,
but did you know that…

I took piano lessons in grade 6 and 7, so I can read music and play a few songs - enough to impress my kids with a little bit of Beethoven

I had braces and glasses at the same time - kiss of death for a 13 year old girl’s confidence

I never ate the crusts on my sandwiches (sometimes I still don’t…)

I had an ice cream sandwich every day for my entire grade 9 year and somehow never weighed more than 90 pounds

I don’t really like to eat clams. They always seem gritty.

I love the smell of the brown desert hills of the okanagan first thing on a cool morning when the sun comes up and after a sparse rain

I’m not fond of critters, but I have been known to pick up spiders and snakes - bitty garden ones - and carefully put them back outside where they belong

Ooh la la… I totally fell in love with the French language at the age of 9 - such a beautiful mystery and a whole new set of words to learn - how wonderful for a lover of words

I despised cottage cheese - mostly on principle - until I was 12. Then I changed my mind. Go figure.

I honestly never ate a piece of pizza in my life until I was probably 10 or 11 years old. My parents still think of pizza as exotic, I’m sure.

We spent every summer of my childhood roaming, swimming, biking, washing it all down with lots of Tang

You don’t know pain unless you’ve had a surprise attack by cacti in the back of your leg when you least expect it - a common occurrence on any walk more than a few metres from the house

I can’t stand anything made with caraway

My favourite colour is blue (but don’t let all my other favourites know…. I really just love colour)

My father is Dutch. My mother was born in Saskatchewan to American parents who went there from Nebraska to farmstead in the 1920’s. My father came to Canada in 1954. They met in 1961 and married 6 months later. I arrived in 1965.

I had a wonderful big fat orange cat named Morris (not very original, but at least I didn’t know about Garfield yet…) and a loyal dog named Poochie Putt Putt.

it's been a while...

Wow, I skipped the whole month of March! It was a busy month.... we have started building our house and we also went on our long-awaited trip to Florida and our Disney Cruise. How wonderful to be warm at last! I'd have to say that was one of our busier trips - we just didn't want to miss anything, so we were on the go a lot. Our favourite day was on St Maarten, when we caught a taxi to a beach and played all day in the sand and the waves... bliss

to read..

... and to paraphrase the song...
Books! Glorious books!

The stacks on my bedside table are threatening to topple. Oh dear. Years ago, instead of teeny little rickety bedside tables, we had very substantial table-height shelves built in that are about 18" deep and 4 feet long. My side is jam packed with favourite books and the aforementioned piles on top are in a precarious state. All feng shui people and clutter busters and neat freaks would break into a cold sweat at the sight of this, but all you book fiends out there are saying, "yeah, so? You should see MY piles..." (you know who you are...) I am always in the midst of 3 of 4 books at a time. Perhaps I should be more focused, but it's more fun this way! I always have a fiction book on the go (as a result of being in two book clubs) and others waiting on the runway for their turn; always a non-fiction or two or three, and always a magazine or journal or a bit of something for work. Sometimes one of the kids' books.

So what's on the shelf this month?

fiction:
The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield - a surprisingly good read that drew me in completely

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid - an astonishing novel that imperceptibly, slyly, pulls you in then catapults you into psychological turmoil as you wrestle with your reactions

The End of the Alphabet by C.S. Richardson - an exquisite gift, a perfect little gem of a story (This comes close to "luminous", but I swore I'd never use that overwrought term!)

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - by Alan Bradley - I had to buy this book for 2 reasons - the hype (a 6 book deal and already translated into 26 languages or something) is unbelievable, and the author is a 70 year old retired engineer from my part of the world - the Okanagan. Actually, I already like Flavia, the 11 year old heroine (hmm, just as I fell for Harry, that other 11 year old unlikely hero...)

The Outlander by Gil Adamson- for book club in two weeks

Saving Fish from Drowning, by Amy Tan - because I just watched her on TED, and she mentioned the Buddhist notion of saving fish from drowning so that the Buddhist can eat with a clear conscience!

Mr. Pip, by Lloyd Jones
from the book:
"You cannot pretend to read a good book. Your eyes will give you away. So will your breathing. A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe. The house can catch alight and a reader deep in a book will not look up until the wallpaper is in flames."


Poetry:
Circadia by Alison Watt, a local artist and writer now on a naturalist's voyage to the Baja and back. Loved this book of poetry.
find more about her voyage here
http://www.alisonwatt.blogspot.com/

Non fiction
A Natural History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman
my take: A unique blend of the science of each of our senses with an engaging and refreshingly tangential look at how our senses have played roles in art, anthropology, and the human experience. Best read while camping or lying on a beach with all your senses fully alive...

My Life in France by Julia Child and her nephew Alex Prud'homme
my take: I loved this book! I loved the story of her life, and the story of how the book cam e to be as she shared letters, photos, and reminiscences with her nephew

How Fiction Works by James Wood
my take: a little staid and a bit preachy; kind of picking my way through this one
13 Ways of Looking at the Novel, by Jane Smiley
my take: very much looking forward to this Pulitzer Prize-winning author's views on the history and the craft and the reading of the novel. Profoundly shaken in the wake of 9/11, she found herself unable to write, and so turned to reading. She purposely listed and read 100 novels, and this is the resulting book.

Creative Non-Fiction
The Zookeeper's Wife, by Diane Ackerman
from the book jacket:
"After their zoo was bombed, Polish zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski managed to save over three hundred people from the Nazis by hiding refugees in the empty animal cages."
"Best-selling naturalist and acclaimed sotryteller Diane Ackerman combines extensive research and and exuberant writing style to re-create this fascinating, forgotten, true-life story - sharing Antonina's life as "the zookeeper's wife," while examining the disturbing obsessions at the core of Nazism"

And a favourite picture book:
Miss Rumphius, story and pictures by Barbara Cooney, 1982
If you have never read this book, go and get it! Every artist of every stripe should have this on her bookshelf...
Alice Rumphius wanted to travel the world and then live by the sea when she grew up, just like her grandfather had done. But there is one more thing, he tells her: she must do something to make the world more beautiful. Here is a hint... plant lupines.
For some reason (well the lovely story and the beautiful paintings) this book resonated with Jonah, who is now 14. We had this book, and misplaced it years ago, and when we saw it in the bookstore the other day, he asked if we could get it. Then he asked if I would read it to him again... This is my big 14 year old? Oh yes, it is. This story may exemplify what he wishes to do with his life too: make the world more beautiful.

And finally, the coolest books ever by paper engineer David A. Carter
One Red Dot
Blue 2
600 Black Spots
You just have to see for yourself! Click on the titles to view these books on chapters.ca

Well, this exercise just serves to whet my appetite for a good long lie-in with a pile of books around me... sorry, would love to chat, gotta go read!

travel

"live,
travel,
adventure,
bless,
and
don't be sorry"

-Jack Kerouac

home. nest. i am firmly rooted to place. always have been. I despise moving.
yet.
I have a very strong need to explore the world and learn. I have been places that expand my soul, that are what I've dreamed about. the boys have turned out to be great travellers. we are all up for a good adventure and enjoy planning our trips.

here's what i think travel gives back to us

• an opportunity to think differently
• see things in a new way
• move out of the ordinary
• see how life is both the same and different elsewhere
• test your resources and problem solving skills
• find out how well you can "go with the flow"
• discover more about yourself and what moves you
• find beauty in unexpected places
• develop a new appreciation for the history of things
• connect with each other without the intrusion of everyday distractions
  

aah, a cuppa tea

I do love a peppermint mocha twist from you-know-where, but there is something so intimate and soothing about a cup of tea made exactly the way I like it and enjoyed in a favourite cup in a quiet house (sometimes there's even a good book to go along with it). My current favourite is Tazo chai tea, no milk. Just really hot and not too strong.

happy monday!

before I put it away...

... I took some photos of another bit of creative schizophrenia: our family Christmas tree is decorated with white lights and antique glass birds and lots of white snowflakes.....


but I also LOVE this funky metal tree that has room for all the great bright and unusual ornaments I've collected
This is how it looked last year.

This year I let Jonah decorate it and we loaded it up

We always talked about having a second tree for more ornaments... I'm so glad I found this - it's been a really eye-catching foyer decoration and everyone - especially kids - love its funky kookiness. Here's to creative schizophrenia.

holiday style

Okay get ready for my all time favourite colour... RED!


I really love making something new to decorate the house for Christmas or to help us countdown to the holidays, plus getting out some favourite things I haven't seen since last year.
The amaryllis was a spur of the moment purchase when it still didn't have any flowers and WOW it turned out to be so beautiful - it lasted right through most of December.

Here, below, is the magnetic calendar I made - I was smitten with this project at Treasury of Memories and HAD to try making one of my own. It's still a work in progress - all of the magnets should have a number on them but I am waiting for some inspiration around what I want to use. I tried a few stamps and chip numbers, but am not sure. I'm just glad I made a thing for each day. If I don't do anything else, it's still funky and totally use-able.

Here is the little 7 gypsies clipboard easel that came pre-painted my favourite cranberry shade of red. All I added was the green paper with the words and I printed out a stack of numbers from 1-30 to count down the days from the end of November til Christmas. I'm afraid I can't take credit for this super simple but attractive idea - I saw something like it at Treasury of Memories in Bellingham.


My BUTTON TREE!! I saw the idea about 2 years ago on 2peas and kept it in the back of my mind until last fall - I mean the fall of 2007 not 2008 - and I started work on it. I gathered buttons and pins, only to run out in about a half hour, with only the top bit of the tree done. Well it went on like this for months, requiring button searches and pin purchases, until I finally finished in November. Good golly, miss molly, that was a long project.
But what I am really proud of is that I did actually finish it and not give up.


I didn't make any of these things below! I just LOVE this big red Advent Calendar from Restoration Hardware. This is its second year in our house. I filled it with little hershey's hugs + kisses for my boys and a little red tag with a green ribbon for each day with the title of a Christmas movie to watch or book to read that day (we have lots of each). I hope we will use it for years to come, but I also know this is a great concept to take to my classroom too (maybe without the chocolates...)
The snow globe has been around since Jonah was a baby and has become one of their favourite things to unpack and display for Christmas. Who knew?
Take the time to photograph your favourite holiday things before you put them away. Think about why you have them and what they mean to you.

so, 2009.

well. So far so good!

I am going to go backwards a bit and put up some more posts about December, so stay tuned.

Currently thinking about a bunch of things:

• putting away the rest of the holiday decorations (I have a hard time saying goodbye - I like to extend the moment, but at some point it really is all going to have to get packed away again for another year. This year seems especially poignant thoughcuz it looks like this may have been the last Christmas we celebrate in this house as we are getting ready to build a new one...)

• meal planning and trying some new things to shake it up

• booking a flight to visit my mom on her 81st birthday

Also I am reading (it's an audiobook so actually I am listening to) Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. I love the way he thinks and writes.
This is from the blurb on chapters.ca
Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.
You can find the book here
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Outliers-The-Story-of-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/9780316017923-item.html
It really makes you think about the notions we hold about successful people (and more especially about highly successful people). He points out that the time and place you are born into makes a big difference, as does how you are parented and the community of support that you have around you. He also notes how IQ doesn't make as big a difference as one would think... All quite fascinating. Read it. It's cool stuff about real people, engagingly written.

I also just finished A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Monica Lewycka. A nice short entertaining read that elicited a great discussion at book club about family secrets, and siblings and aging parents and tractors...

The other books I have on the go are

• JayIngram's (Daily Planet guy and science whiz) Theatre of the Mind, about consciousness. Verrrry interesting. Love brain stuff.
• The Book of Negroes by Laurence Hill, for book club
• The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

Can you see why I don't have time to tidy away the holiday decorations? Too many Big Ideas floating around in my head... LOL.

Have a great day!

First day of school. Not so much.

the road to/from school on our last snow day

Well Mother Nature is in a bad mood I guess.
More snow for Vancouver Island and the schools are closed. I sent M out for milk and eggs last night, and he came back around 9 saying the roads were pretty bad. So it is likely the right decision - it puts too many children and families at risk when people think they HAVE to get somewhere.
Happy snow day!

snow day

You know, I'm not sure we had much snow at all last year. A little here and there. Definitely none at Christmas. So it truly is exciting to be able to make a snowman, believe it or not. And we call ourselves Canadians... Our kids really have no idea what it's like to grow up the way the rest of the country does - no ice skating on frozen back yards, no snow forts, definitely very few snowmen... Yes, our kind of winter has its upside - green grass and sunshine (sometimes), umbrellas instead of shovels, normal shoes instead of snow boots, soccer played outside all winter - but we really do love it when the snow falls. What a treat! (not for drivers, but when the schools close because of snow, we're ALL excited!)

glorious autumn

We try to do a photo shoot every fall to take advantage of the warm light and perfect backgrounds. Here are a few good ones from a pretty late October afternoon at a local park.

Thanksgiving

I had been really sick all week with the flu and the weather hadn't been really great - neither good reasons to attempt a crossing of Georgia Strait on our boat to join the Edmonton gang sailing around Bowen Island....
However Saturday morning was calm and sunny and I was feeling better, so, not for the first time, we dashed around gathering up supplies and food, and hopped on the boat. We had a smooth crossing in about an hour and a half (same as the ferry!) and arrived before sunset for dinner with our friends. We rafted up in a bay on Gambier Island and tucked in for the night. We spent a warm sunny Sunday relaxing and beachcombing then headed home. This weekend made us consider gratitude for many things:

• good weather
• calm seas
• firm anchorages
• old friends
• reminiscing
• baby crabs
• warm blankets

and finally good health... that night we arrived home we had a small Thanksgiving dinner. Michael started to feel unwell and by midnight I had to take him to the hospital for the beginning of a three-day adventure, culminating in emergency gallbladder surgery. But what a great weekend we had to look back on!