i heart sensible shoes

(sighhhhh)

2011-02-12T21:48:00.004-05:00

One of my most favourite movies of all time is Before Sunrise and tonight it was on TVO (as will be the sequel Before Sunset, also amazing, in a few minutes). I just watched Before Sunrise for the umpteenth time and was reminded again of one of my most favourite scenes in a movie. Of course, a quick search on YouTube and there it is...

In case you haven't seen this movie (btw: if that's the case you need to fix that immediately), in this scene Celine & Jesse just met a few hours ago and now they're in a listening booth in a record store in Vienna. They're clearly both smitten with each other and yet are too shy to let the other one catch them stealing glances. It's like a dance, so perfectly choregraphed....no words but so powerfully sweet.

As an aside, this movie is from 1995. I remember seeing it in a theatre when it came out. I feel so old right now.

Happy Valentine's Day, should you be choosing to celebrate.

xo

Project 365: days 4-10

2011-01-10T16:04:00.012-05:00

The challenge to take a photo a day for the whole year continues. And I have to say I've been quite pleased with the fact that I've been able to capture some images that ordinarily I would have missed out on, simply because I'm carrying my camera everywhere I go. (See days 7 & 10 in particular)

DAY 4/365
Taking a pretty shortcut after a trip to the dentist.

5/365
Finally seeing the sun after what feels like months. I barely remember what the sky looks like when it's tinted blue!

6/365
On a whim, I bought a box of chocolate cake mix & a can of cream cheese icing while on my regular grocery run. Because it's always a good day for cupcakes.

7/365
Oh gosh...this was the first day when I was so thrilled that I was taking my camera EVERYWHERE I went, even to work. We just got a fresh bit of sticky snow overnight and as I walked into work, I saw that some students had done this bit of snow grafitti on the side of the school.

8/365
Mmmm...comfort food for dinner. (Miso soup with carrots, bok choy, and puffy tofu.)

9/365
Just a great-looking (to me) storefront in the city. The wood on the front of this place is really nice. Also, decided to experiment with B&W just to mix things up a bit.

10/365
This afternoon I came home to find Ziggy, my neighbour's kitty, hanging out on our steps. He's so friendly! I see him all the time but was so happy I had my camera so I could get a picture of him. He's apparently a bit camera-shy though...kept moving everytime I tried to get a picture. This was the best I got...

Again, you can click through to my flickr set to see all of the photos lined up together.

Happy new year!

2011-01-03T19:15:00.007-05:00

Happy new year, friends! Hope all who celebrate December holidays had a lovely time with friends and family.

Have you made any new years' resolutions? Do you do that sort of thing? I usually don't but this year I've made a few. Mostly boring stuff like decluttering and getting my life more organized at home. I know, yawn, right?

But I've also started a little project for the year! I've jumped onto the "picture a day/365 project" bandwagon. This means I'll be taking a picture a day for the whole darn year or whenever I decide this project is far too tedious to continue. Today is Day 3 and I'm going strong. Here's what I've got so far.....

Day 1/365
I started 2011 by painting my nails on New Year's Day. Base coat of black and then a couple of coats of a deep, dark red (Revlon's Vixen) on top. Makes me feel dangerous and a bit like an Olsen twin.

2/365
A blurry but sweet picture of Noah taken at the dinner table. He has perfected the art of looking adorable in hopes of getting a few table scraps. It worked. He got some brocolli.

3/365
Made the yummiest stew tonight from a recipe found on the Gluttonous Vegan blog. I had to sub in rapini instead of nappa cabbage or kale because it's slim pickin's in the green aisle of the grocery store the last few days. I think it's because there's a big recall on kale and other veggies because of salmonella. This was super yummy but rapini has a bit of a strong taste for this dish. Will definitely make it again but next time with kale (minus the salmonella).

Is anyone else taking part in the 365 challenge? Leave a comment with a link so I can check out your pictures!

PS. If you're interested, I've created a set for all of my daily pictures over on my flickr.

Shop sale!

2010-11-28T21:37:00.003-05:00

Are you struggling to finish up your holiday shopping? Here's a little incentive for you. Everything in my Ratgirl shop is 20% off right now. Just enter coupon code RATGIRL20 at check-out.

Happy shopping!

There is a pony in the Apple store.

2010-09-13T17:37:00.010-04:00

I'm dedicating this post to my brother-in-law, Deutsch. Deutsch collects Apple products and mesmerizes family and friends with them, most recently the Ipad.

Deutsch, would you notice if there was a pony in the Apple store?

This is a bit of a lengthy blog post, but so funny...it's totally worth reading to the end!

That photo up there was borrowed from Frank Chimero and I found it via the Hello Adorable blog.

books and more books

2010-08-26T12:54:00.005-04:00

For those of you who know me in real life or if you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know that last year I got the most awesome job in the world...teacher-librarian in an elementary school. I can't even tell you how great it is to be surrounded by books all morning and to see kids genuinely excited about books. Yeah, it's pretty great.

I had the good fortune of stumbling upon the loveliest blog this morning. It's called Bookshelf Porn and the name is just so fitting! Please, do yourself a favour and go browse through their archives. You won't be disappointed. So much booky awesomeness awaits you there. Like pretty shelves arranged by colour.

And rooms you'd want to spend a rainy afternoon in.

How could anyone want to buy an e-reader after seeing a beautiful website like this?

(all images from bookshelfporn.com)

current obsessions

2010-08-20T12:48:00.007-04:00

There's only a couple of things I'm currently obsessed with but I'm crushing on them hard.

#1: The most beautiful handmade bags by Dazzling Lanna

Seriously, I want every single thing in her Etsy shop.

#2: The farmers' market

There is nothing like fresh, local fruits and veggies from one of the 3 awesome farmers' markets in our neighbourhood. I've started giving myself an "allowance" before I go, otherwise I'll end up spending way too much and buying one of everything. Current favourites: peaches, raspberries, and zucchini.

#3: Versus
Last Friday, Paul's band Soft Copy opened for Versus and Polvo at Lee's Palace. Late Fri afternoon Paul got a call from Richard Baluyut of Versus asking if he'd fill in on drums for them that night because their drummer had to go back to New York to be with his wife who was having a baby. Despite the short notice and no practice, he agreed to do it. I should mention that Versus is one of Paul's all-time favourite bands so this was quite a thrill. Anyhow, I was blown away by how well he did! I've been listening to the Versus album "The Stars are Insane" ever since.

Searching around for Versus videos on YouTube led me to find that someone actually recorded the show at Lee's! So here's Paul playing one of my favourite Versus songs "River". I remember thinking how he absolutely killed this song when I was watching it live and now watching it back again, I am even more impressed! Best part....around 3 min 43 when the drums really kick in again and all the rolls and cymbals are out-of-control! And if you look closely, right at the end of the song it looks like Fontaine (bass player) nods to Paul as if to say, "nicely done!". Hee! I'm so proud! Exclaim magazine and Chromewaves blog both said he did an amazing job filling in. He even got to go to Montreal the next day to play with them for that show too!

new stuff in the shop

2010-08-16T13:17:00.005-04:00

I've been a busy bee over the last couple of weeks trying to get some of my new designs photographed and put into my Etsy shop. Here's a sneak peek at a few new goodies you can find right now in the shop!

I still have a few more pieces to photograph and other designs ready for baking, but with the crazy intense heat I just can't bring myself to turn on the oven for an hour. As soon as things cool down a wee bit I'll get those finished and photographed too.

learning to sew

2010-08-13T12:37:00.005-04:00

After years of wishing I knew how to sew, I'm finally going to do something about it. Carla and I both signed up for Home Ec, an online sewing class. I think it runs for 5 weeks with a new project each day. Intensive, yes. But luckily the lessons will stay up on the blog for a year so I can work away at them at my own pace.

I'm hoping to get started on the first project today...table napkins. I just have to pre-wash my ric-rac. I didn't even know you had to pre-wash trim but I've already learned that from the course. Yay!

I've been squirreling away vintage fabric, mostly vintage sheets & pillowcases, for years in hopes that someday I'd learn how to sew and be able to make something wonderful from them. Here is the stash I've collected, all freshly washed and ready to become something amazing!

The only problem is that I'm a bit afraid to cut into them!

Random

2010-06-11T22:24:00.011-04:00

Wow, have I really not posted since March? How did that happen? Is anyone still out there? Hellooooooo???

So here is an update of random things that are on my mind/exciting me these days....

#1. I'm doing a 2-week Creativity Bootcamp course to kickstart my creative side which has been a bit sluggish since the winter. It started on June 6th and runs until the 18th and I'm having so much fun doing the assignments each day. Well, except I skip the journalling part of the daily assignment because I'm not really the journalling type. The course is completely free so if you think you might want to play along, here's the link.

PS. I'm doing mixed media collages each day but you can choose whatever medium you wish. Maybe I'll be brave and share something I've made during the course but so far I'm too shy...just enjoying the process and the structure that forces me to do something crafty everyday.

#2. My new favourite blog is Daily Squee, which I swear is even better than Cute Overload! My cousin is going to love this website!

(both pictures from Daily Squee)

#3. I finally bought a pair of black Saltwater Sandals for the summer. Like most shoes that I obsess over, I've been visiting them online for oh...about 3 years. I don't know why it took me so long to finally buy a pair...they weren't even all that expensive. I'm so glad I did...I've been living in them since I got them back in May. They are sooooo comfortable and I get compliments on them all the time.

My new shoe obsessions are as follows:
Clarks--Vanilla Cream

Earth--Fey

#4. Paul's band (Soft Copy) got into the North by Northeast music festival! And not only that, they somehow managed to get on an amazing bill with Best Coast from L.A. and The Soft Pack (also from LA, I think)! I soooo hope I'm able to get in to see them. I have a feeling this show is going to fill up early!

The Soft Pack (Holy crap...Paul's playing a show with a band that was on Letterman!!!!)

Best Coast (catchiest song ever!)

#5. How friggin' awesome is this sewing machine?

(photo via Button Lust)

That's it for now. I'll try not to stay away so long this time.

xo Krissy

crafty commercial

2010-03-23T22:57:00.008-04:00

How cool is this commerical?!

(found via craftzine blog)

lovely weekend

2010-03-08T16:39:00.004-05:00

Hooboy, did we ever have some lovely weather around these parts over the weekend! What about you? Were you lucky enough to see the sun and shed some layers? I have to say, even though this winter has been very mild and snow has been scarce, I'm still craving the spring and urging it to please hurry up and arrive already. All the grey days we've seen over the last few months have been a bit depressing.

But enough of that talk...the weekend was awesome and Torontonians came out in droves to enjoy the sunshine. I think 85% of the city's population headed to Queen St. West (as did we). The sidewalks were packed and everyone was smiling.

We started our day at Darkhorse at Spadina & Queen to enjoy a pretty (and delicious) coffee. I'm a wussy coffee drinker so mine was a soy mocha latte. So yummy!

Then to west Queen West and up Ossington to stroll through the endless string of wee galleries. We saw some so-so stuff but also some really great stuff too. Awol had a fantastic show by an artist named Caroline Larson. The colours and textures in her work were really inspiring! Purple On Grey was my very favourite (scroll down to see)...the gradation of colour is so pretty.

Then take-out at Jean's Vegetarian followed up by an evening of knitting (making Noah a doggy sweater...about 3 months too late) and flipping through an issue of Craft magazine that Tania generously passed on to me. A very nice day, indeed!

I hope you had a nice weekend too. What did you do?

dreaming of dresses

2010-02-23T15:03:00.011-05:00

On Sunday, Paul helped me tidy and re-organize my studio and along the way I found a few things I'd long forgotten about. Things like my inspiration scrapbook which I started a few years ago after being inspired by Tania's scans of her scrapbook. It's funny, I've always clipped little things I loved from magazines but for some reason never affixed them to any surface for future reference. I'm so happy I finally got the idea to take this (seemingly obvious) step because it sure was fun to look back and see all of the lovely eye-candy I saved.

I scanned one page but because it's a large book, I had to do it in two separate scans. I tried to match them up the best I could so if some of the images look a little off, that's why.

I love all of these dresses. The lacy white ones near the top, that bold architectural yellow one at the side, and that gorgeous robin's egg blue at the bottom right. They reminded me of some great dresses I've been seeing around the web lately and have fallen deeply in love with.

First, the Devonshire Dress from Modcloth.

This second one is Alexa Chung for Madewell (via Wikstenmade)

And this last one almost breaks my heart, that's how much I love it. From Shipley & Halmos (via Wikstenmade)

I really need to stop reading so many fashion blogs and start subscribing to blogs about...I don't know...power tools or something.

this and that

2010-02-17T15:28:00.006-05:00

Just finished reading this

(Sooooo good! Could barely put it down.)

Loving this

(I've been visiting this dress online for months and now there's just 1 left. I almost bought it but the reviews make me question if I'll love it as much in real life. Isn't it darling, though?)

Listening to this

(That's Paul's band. It's a great song but the video is pretty awesome too.)

Craving this

(I read this list of the best croissants in the city and now I can't stop thinking about them!)

inspirations

2010-02-09T14:19:00.008-05:00

Here's a little peek at what I'm feeling super inspired by right now.

I'm all about this mish-mash of bracelets stacked high on the arm.
(both pics Refinery 29)

And I love these new interpretations of the friendship bracelet. Aren't these so cute? (photo from http://www.dores.etsy.com/)

(photo from www.forme-foryou.com)

What's inspiring you lately?

Matt Galloway!

2010-02-08T15:49:00.002-05:00

Yay!! Matt Galloway has been chosen to replace Andy Barrie when he retires from hosting Metro Morning next month. They announced it on air this morning. I'm so happy...such a great choice!

And like a lot of people commenting over here, I'm hoping for Kevin Sylvester to replace Matt on Here and Now in the afternoon. Fingers and toes crossed!

Andy Barrie

2010-02-01T22:01:00.005-05:00

Today on my drive into work I was listening to Metro Morning just like always, when host Andy Barrie announced he will be retiring from the show on March 1st. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The announcement came without warning, just seconds after blowing out the candles on his birthday cake live on air.

I love Metro Morning and I can't even imagine the show without Andy. It's how I've been starting my weekdays ever since I moved to Toronto in 2002. Andy is a big reason why I love the show. He's such a fantastic interviewer, a really feisty guy, and so down-to-earth. He really connects with his audience. He's never been afraid to let the audience in on his personal life either. He's talked openly about dealing with Parkinson's and the death of his wife, Mary last year. He often talks about his daughter, his mom, and even his dog on air. It's like he's part of the family!

Four or five years ago, I heard on Metro Morning that Andy would be at Doors Open at the CBC building. It happened to fall on my birthday weekend. I remember Paul asking me what I wanted to do for my birthday and I said "I want to see Andy Barrie!"

When I met him I was so excited and nervous! He was so sweet and funny....he said something along the lines of, "Why so excited, I'm not Britney Spears!". When I nervously asked if I could get a picture with him, he gave me the biggest hug. And that's the picture you see up there. I'm so happy I have that.

I hope he has a wonderful retirement and enjoys sleeping in well past 4:00am for the first time in fifteen years. He certainly deserves it!

Toronto loves you, Andy!

soft copy

2010-01-23T18:57:00.005-05:00

Paul's band Soft Copy has a new album coming out and it got a really nice mention on John Sakamoto's Anti-Hit List in today's Toronto Star! You can read it here.

In other news, I went to Shop for the Cause 2 and got a super cute dress by Damzels in this Dress, which is a local design company. They have a fun shop in Leslieville. It was a really good deal...$12.50. I also put a bid on something in the silent auction and I've got my fingers and toes crossed that I was the winning bid! I don't want to jinx anything so win or lose, I'll reveal it later. If nothing else I drove the bidding up to a higher amount which is good news all around really since the money is going to such a good cause.

That is all. Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

emergency fund raiser for haiti

2010-01-22T20:55:00.004-05:00

Toronto folks:
Nathalie-Roze is organizing a sale to raise money for Haiti. I've donated some ratgirl merch and a ton of other local designers have donated items as well. I hope you'll come out, show your support and take home some fun goodies too. When Nathalie-Roze organized the first Shop for the Cause after the tsunami in 2005, $16,000 was raised!

The details:
Shop for the Cause 2
Queen East Presbyterian Church
947 Queen St. East (corner of Queen & Carlaw)
Sat. Jan. 23rd (tomorrow!)
11:00am - 5:00pm

see www.nathalie-roze.com for more info.

Thanks!

I like cute stuff.

2009-12-12T22:27:00.003-05:00

This is all over the internets and tv but it just never gets old for me. I'm posting it here so I can find it easily whenever I feel the need to see a kitty getting tickled.

Featured: Unicorn necklace

2009-12-07T22:03:00.004-05:00

Sarah over at Welcome to Girl Land included my Unicorn necklace in her post about handmade unicorn awesomeness over on her blog. Thanks a million, Sarah!

And c'mon, how great is that "Unicorns are people too" switchplate?

phun with photoshop

2009-12-07T21:47:00.005-05:00

Two new goodies in the shop!

1. design your own 5-charm bracelet, $25

2. design your own 10-charm bracelet, $40

Mix and match from these available charms:

Fun, right?

Reason #265 why I love my job

2009-11-26T19:46:00.011-05:00

Have I told you lately how awesome my job is? Ohmygosh...it's absolutely dreamy! Just in case you're tuning in for the first time, I work mornings as a teacher-librarian at an elementary school. It's my first year in this position and just about everyday I have to hold myself back from kicking up my heels and singing show tunes in the hallway...that's how much I love my job!

On Tuesday I went to my 2nd book fair...yes that's right, I get days off to go and purchase books...and it just reaffirmed my love for this job. Even though I technically only work mornings, book fair days are overwhelming and exciting so I always end up staying much later being careful to spend my money wisely.

I brought home 6 boxes of books this time and I've been lugging them into work a little each day. Pictured above is just a tiny fraction of the books I bought on Tuesday. They're the ones I'm taking into school tomorrow so I can catalogue them and get them on the shelves ASAP.

My secret mission on Tuesday was to purchase books that would inject some much needed life into our cooking & crafty sections. Oooh boy did I have fun with that! Here are 4 books I'm especially excited about:

Here's a peek inside The Teen Vogue Handbook. The girls are often asking me if I will buy fashion magazines for the library and the feminist in me refuses to do so. I thought this was an excellent compromise. This book is pure eye candy fashion-wise but it is all about the wide range of careers available in the fashion industry, everything from magazine editor and clothing designer to makeup artist and modelling scout. It also introduces readers to people in the industry like Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld. I think the Grade 6-8 girls will be especially excited about this book. I know I would have read this cover to cover when I was that age.

Also super excited about Sew Darn Cute by Jenny Ryan. I can't wait to borrow this and try a few of the crafts myself! Especially this adorable necklace:

Also purchased on Tuesday: craft books about making puppets, using recycled materials, making masks, building adorable structures like little mushroom houses, etc etc PLUS a few kids' cook books AND the latest in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. I cannot even tell you how excited I am to show all of these books to the different classes at my school! They're going to go crazy!

This morning when I surprised a student with the Leave it to Pet graphic novel that he requested way back in September, he just about lost his mind! It was the best moment of my day!

I'm not kidding...this job is so much fun it's ridiculous!

PS. If you have wee ones to buy for over the holidays(like 4-8ish), I cannot recommend these two new discoveries enough. They are my new favourite picture books.
The Pigeon Wants a Puppy!
Ivan the Terrier

inspiring colours

2009-11-16T15:52:00.004-05:00

Check out the amazing tights/bag combo that Carla was sporting when we got together on Saturday! Love this! Not sure where the tights came from but I know her yellow bag is Marimekko and came straight from Sweden (with love). You can probably tell from the photo that Carla hearts sensible shoes too.

a banner weekend

2009-11-15T16:22:00.006-05:00

I spent part of the weekend sprucing up the blog by making a new banner for it. If you are reading this in a newsfeeder like bloglines or google reader, click on over to the blog to take a peek. Nothing fancy but I like it. Definitely better than the template one I've been using all these years....

I also made a new banner for my Etsy shop and I'm a little bit in love with it. I'm certainly no pro with Photoshop, not even a little bit, but I love how this looks. It took some playing around and a bit of frustration, but I'm so pleased with the outcome. You can see the new banner by clicking here.

fall is a good time for crafting with yarn

2009-11-11T16:10:00.005-05:00

The chill in the air has inspired me to pick up the needles and cast-on a new knitting project. Last Saturday I decided I needed to start a project that very night so I headed to Zellers where I found some soft cotton-y yarn called Cot'n Corn in a lovely pale blue called "Water". Yes, yarn made with corn! Who knew?

I've started another pair of Voodoo wristwarmers from the Knitty archives. My idea is to modify them just a tad. I'll stick with the 2x2 ribbing until I get to the fingertips and then try switching to moss stitch for a nice little detail to finish them off. We'll see how that goes.

In other fibre news, I learned how to crochet a few weeks ago and now I'm a little addicted. So far I only know how to do chain stitch and single crochet but it's so much fun and much quicker than knitting I think. I've made a super long necklace that also doubles as a cowl but I'll have to wait until I'm having a good photographing day to take a picture of it.

By the way, I finally caved and joined Ravelry. I'm longestwinter over there if you want to be friends! :)

unseasonably warm

2009-11-08T16:48:00.011-05:00

it has been a lovely weekend around here. today the temperature spiked back up to double digits (15 degrees Celsius) and we went out to enjoy the sun on our faces. afterall it might be the last time we feel warmth like this for many months to come.

first stop, darkhorse cafe for a yummy cup of caffeine. then off to cherry beach with the poochie.

it was a nice walk around the trail by the beach. lots of people with smiles on their faces and dogs frolicking in the sun. now the sun is setting and i'm looking forward to finishing the movie we started last night and relaxing on the couch with a new knitting project. pictures to follow in the next couple of days.

quick book reviews

2009-10-05T14:15:00.006-04:00

i haven't done a book review in awhile and seeing as i just finished a book on the weekend, i thought it was a good time to catch up.

i just finished speak by laurie halse anderson.

turns out it won an award for young adult literature but i didn't know that when i requested it on bookmooch. it doesn't really matter though because i think i've mentioned before that i seem to gravitate towards stories with a young protagonist. so it was pretty much perfect for me.

the main character, melinda, is going through a really rough time. she is a social outcast at her school. all of her friends have abandoned her which would be miserable enough but she's also trying to forget about a terrible incident that happened over the summer. sounds heavy and in some parts it is pretty intense but melinda is just so likeable and sarcastic you really can't help but enjoy listening to her tell her story.

a completely enjoyable book and very easy read. loved it!
9/10

*****
and way back at the end of spring i finished then we came to the end by joshua ferris.

this was also a really good read and helped me branch out from that whole young protagonist thing. this is a story about a workplace, an advertising agency to be exact, and the crazy cast of characters that work there. it was fun to read about how this quirky collection of people get along and work together (sometimes in a very dysfuntional way). office politics, hierarchies, and gossip play a big role in this novel. i liked this book quite a bit though there were so many characters (just like in a real office), i sometimes felt i needed to go back and remind myself who was who at the beginning. enjoyable though.
7.5/10

*****
now that i have the most awesome job of teacher-librarian at my school, i suspect most of my reading will be of the kindergarten to grade 8 variety for the next little while. on saturday, i read babymouse, beach babe and started a couple of novels. i really liked babymouse. good for kids grades 2-4, i'm thinking.

look how cute she is!?!

autumn days

2009-09-28T14:58:00.004-04:00

autumn's here, it really is. the calendar says so but so does my closet. just a couple of weeks ago i was still wearing short sleeves to work because the school was like an oven. now it's all tights and hoodies and closed-toe shoes. i'm not complaining. i guess the change of seasons is nice. it's just that fall doesn't tend to stick around long enough. blink your eyes and there's snow on the ground.

i took these pictures at the park with noah this afternoon. we are very lucky to have a ridiculously large off-leash area at our local park. it was really windy today and it stirred up noah's wild side. he ran and galloped with the blowing leaves (but sat very impatiently for this picture).

this picture makes me laugh because i can see the crazy in his normally calm eyes.

and just like that, the weekend's over

2009-09-13T21:18:00.015-04:00

i was feeling a bit sluggish today, but i knew paul & i should really jet off to the west end because the best art supply store in the city (in my opinion) was having a massive sale. we stopped for coffee along the way and after a dose of a mocha latte, suddenly i was feeling a whole lot perkier! funny what a little caffeine can do. hey...this WAS going to be a good day afterall!!

after a shopping spree for both of us at woolfits (and meeting mr. woolfit himself...such a nice guy) we munched down on a veggie dog & perrier (they were having a free bbq outside of the store) and headed back home.

but sparked by my caffeine surge, i actually had the energy to hit cabbagetown to check out the artsy & crafty action. there was some cute stuff. i fell in love with some beautiful handmade quilts...they were absolutely gorgeous! i also came *this* close to buying something from susan harris. i can't get enough of her beautifully made clothing. but my rational side got the better of me and it was not in the cards today.

i visited with frederica for awhile. she makes such great silkscreened shirts and lino prints. c'mon, how can you not fall in love with her "cinderslut" and "little red riding whore" prints!?

these purses totally caught my attention with the great big wood button on the front. so cute! and it turns out the designer, becky, is super nice too.

she also makes lovely wide fabric belts and these adorable bum warmers! hee hee

i was so happy to see france from molly and june at the show. she makes the most beautiful, high quality couture coats for dogs.

every year the cabbagetown community also holds a massive neighbourhood-wide yard sale. i had fun browsing around there too.

and just like that, the weekend's over. i'm pretty tired now. i can already tell it's going to be one of those nights when the bed just feels soooooo good!!!

the weekend of too many choices

2009-09-12T23:02:00.007-04:00

this is my absolute favourite weekend of the year in toronto. each year the same festivals fall on this exact same weekend and there's just so much going on that the city is a buzz of excitement. there's tiff, the cabbagetown craft show in riverdale park, the junction arts festival, and my most favourite of all, the vegetarian food fair at harbourfront.

every year we head to the veggie food fair just an hour or so before dinner so that we have time to walk around a bit before making the most difficult choice of the day...where to buy our dinner. oh my gosh...such a tough decision! the amount of mock meat at this event is overwhelming!

this year i chose faux turkey with gravy and mashed potatoes. so yummy but doesn't make for the most lovely of pictures. sorry 'bout that. can i just tell you how guilty i felt eating this meal that didn't even contain one vegetable! (i have a hard time thinking of mashed potatoes smothered in gravy as a vegetable...)

paul got curried "chicken" and faux lamb curry with a bunch of other stuff. he said the "lamb" was pretty disappointing but the "chicken" was really good.

we both got vegan green tea ice-cream for dessert.

lots of cute poochies at the fair too. i had to take a picture of this sweet one (named lizzie) who was totally channelling her inner carrie bradshaw!

hoping to make it to cabbagetown tomorrow for a quick look around and to visit my friend frederica.

new wave blues

2009-09-10T22:10:00.004-04:00

sorry for the sporadic posting. my brand-new half-time job is keeping me full-time busy!

has anyone been watching these canadian music documentaries hosted by jian ghomeshi on cbc tv? they're shown on thursday nights and last week was about canadian music of the 70's. not my favourite era by any means but the documentary was strangely entertaining. this week was awesome...it was the 1st of two about canadian music of the 80's. i swear it was like being transported to 1983 all over again, except without all that hairspray. (that hole in the ozone over northern ontario? i'm so sorry for that.)

the highlight was the interview clip with a couple of the guys from the spoons and this video.

how can a song this old (28 years!?!) sound so delicious all these years later? perhaps it only sounds good to me because it brings back so many happy memories. in any case, i've added it to my 80's playlist on youtube so i can listen to it over and over again.

my only hope is that cbc found enough money to make a couple of episodes about the 90's. it just couldn't get any better than that.

new obsession

2009-09-01T17:40:00.003-04:00

not long ago while browsing through etsy, i somehow managed to stumble upon a necklace that triggered a memory of my childhood. i saw the necklace, an illustration of a little girl with pigtails and a boy sitting on a bench signed "Fran Mor". as soon as i saw it i knew i had a similar piece of jewellery as a little girl. i had to have that necklace and so i bought it right away. the very next day i was sifting through "the museum of krissy" and found my old Fran Mor brooch sitting at the bottom of a cardboard box. i showed it to you yesterday with my little collection of treasures but today my etsy score arrived in the mail.

here they are side by side:

and just like that, i'm now completely obsessed with finding more jewellery by this artist.

my childhood in 15 boxes or less

2009-09-01T06:44:00.005-04:00

back in the spring my dad sold our family home, the only place i'd ever lived until i left home at 19 to go away to university. that meant that he had to box up everything i'd left behind when i moved away and send it down to me to go through. i have to hand it to him...turns out it was a very big job...he could just as easily have thrown everything away or sent it to the local sally ann but he was afraid he'd throw something away that was important to me. and so in may, boxes upon boxes arrived on my doorstep.

i was completely overwhelmed at the thought of going through them all, and then with the crazy spring/summer i had, i just wasn't able to devote the time to it. well, last week i forced myself to start (ok, paul dropped a few hints that it was time).

turns out i was (am??) a complete packrat and never threw anything out! around here we're affectionately calling those boxes "the museum of krissy".

the picture above shows some of the gems i've found so far.

* the diary i kept from ages 9-11
* a wee robin's egg blue jewellery dish i made in pottery class probably when i was about 8 or 9 years old
* my first watch
* a military-style brooch i bought in quebec, circa 1985
* the most adorable brooch of a little girl with pigtails i remember wearing when i was about 4 or 5 years old

can i just tell you how many tears of laughter that diary has brought to us over the last few days? oh my gosh...there are a few entries in there that are so perfect for something like this!

is the tornado over yet?

2009-08-20T22:30:00.006-04:00

i love that noah looks completely bored despite the fact that we're all sitting in the dingy basement...a part of the house he has never even seen before...in order to avoid tornadoes that may or may not have been touching down around toronto.

as for me, i was completely unaware of the fact that toronto was even under a tornado warning until i got home around 6:30 from running errands all afternoon. paul was making dinner but it had to wait while we all headed down to the basement to camp out until the skies cleared. we weren't going to, but the weather people on the radio were advising it and since we're paranoid about the giant tree hanging precariously over our house in the best of weather, we thought better safe than sorry.

the sky got really dark right before the rain started to come down in sheets. i took a picture of the backyard because i couldn't believe how dark it got but i'm not sure if you can tell from this photo.

anyway, we're all safe and sound. eventually we came back upstairs and ate our dinner. and wouldn't you know, we never did get to meet glenda afterall.

Ratgirl + Chatelaine

2009-08-14T18:39:00.003-04:00

Ratgirl got some really lovely press over on Chatelaine's Style blog today! Go take a peek....

Thanks so much for the kind words, Kate!!! :)

the big reveal!

2009-08-10T00:35:00.004-04:00

i know i said i'd reveal my big project by the 9th of august but i'm 33 minutes late. not too bad i suppose....

may i present to you, the official ratgirl website!!!

TA DAAAAA!

ps: my little plot of land on the web is at www.ratgirlonline.com NOT ratgirl.com cuz that's sadly been taken by porn. (sniff)

please let me know if anything looks funny on your browser or you find any unhappy links. not that i can fix the browser issues...ha ha! i made this whole thing through a little site called wix.com and it's all drop & drag, baby! didn't need to know a bit of html or any other confusing strings of letters. highly recommended for anyone like me who has been putting off making a website for, oh...7 years or so.

busy busy!

2009-07-29T00:26:00.002-04:00

just wanted to stop in and say hi. i've been super busy ever since my course ended on thursday... i've dove in head-first into a really big project that i'm suuuuper excited about! if all goes as planned i should be able to do the big reveal by the 9th of august, possibly even sooner. i can't wait!!! it's all i can do to keep from spilling the beans right this minute...

oh dear, it's been so long.....

2009-07-24T23:40:00.010-04:00

hi all, i'm back from my mostly-unintentional absense. it's been a crazy few months since my last post. the last week of may up until the last day of june was spent recouperating from a series of unfortunate events. and then since july 2nd i've been immersed in a course at oise learning the ins-and-outs of being a teacher-librarian (my position for next year which i'm pretty thrilled about). it was a super-intensive course, normally a full semester, but for the summer session crammed into 3 weeks! needless to say, when i wasn't sitting in the ugliest, most uninspiring classroom at u of t for 5 1/2 hours a day or on fun class field trips to places like another story bookshop and the beguiling, i was completely immersed in projects, projects, projects! throw in an occasional stress-induced meltdown here and there and well, now you basically know what my july has been like.

the good news is that my course finished yesterday and there's still 6 weeks of summer left before school starts. yay!

i absolutely hate doing a post and not giving you any pretty pictures to look at so i'm posting just a few of the wonderful books i discovered (or already knew but re-discovered) in doing my final project/presentation about fractured fairy tales (stories based on original fairy tales but involve some twist...and often quite funny!)

that jon scieszka guy ("the true story of the three little pigs" and many other awesome books!) is pretty much a genius. if you don't know his stuff and you have kids, pick up "the stinky cheese man and other fairly stupid tales". so funny!

noah considers writing a novel

2009-05-19T21:09:00.007-04:00

recently paul borrowed this issue of national geographic from the library. in the article about animal minds, it talks about a border collie named betsy who has a vocabulary of over 300 words! so over breakfast on saturday, paul & i started a list of how many words & phrases our little noah understands. we've been adding to it as we think of more but this is what we're up to so far. (oh, by the way, we only listed the word/phrase if he reacts to it in a predictable way. very scientific!)

*in no particular order*
1. stay
2. cookie
3. park
4. kibble
5. Noah
6. grandma
7. grandpa
8. car ride
9. later
10. hungry
11. outside
12. go (*see note below)
13. sit
14. come
15. nap-time
16. bedtime
17. walk
18. "go get the ball", "where's the ball?"
19. fetch
20. Patrick (neighbour)
21. Bettina (neighbour)
22. Portia (neighbour's dog)
23. Meg (another neighbour)
24. good boy
25. high five
26. shake a paw
27. other paw
28. down
29. "go get it"
30. enough
31. dinner
32. away
33. bed
34. okay
35. mommy
36. daddy
37. chair; "go to your chair"
38. no
39. bath-time
40. kitty cat
41. doggie
42. "go say hi"
43. bone
44. gentle
45. "drop it"
46. pill-time

*note: he actually knows 2 different meanings to this word and can figure it out based on the context. "go" when in the backyard means "go to the bathroom", while "go" at the park means "go run around and get your sillies out".

i'm willing to bet if you made a list for your pet you'd be totally surprised how many words he/she knows. i estimated 25 words for noah before we started this list!

the skirt that dreams were made of

2009-05-18T13:10:00.033-04:00

one night last week, i was browsing through my most favourite online shop and happened upon the most beautiful skirt in the world! i was fairly certain this skirt would change my life. but i did the math and realized that with exchange, shipping, and possible duty charges, this skirt could potentially cost me $100 (canadian) or more. i was so tempted but just wouldn't let myself spend that much.

so i visited the skirt online over and over again for the next few days. and then i had a brainstorm...maybe i could find something similar on ebay! and i did... look!

so i set my maximum bid and actually won it! now i have to sit and wait patiently for it to arrive, to see if it looks as pretty in person as it does online. i won't lie...i'm a bit nervous.

it's not a perfect copy but i think it's pretty darn close. i have to admit, i still prefer the modcloth one, especially the waistband part. but i figure i can be creative and make this one work for me.

since the shipping was free (!!), i spent less than $22 (canadian). so in the end, i saved about $80 by not giving in to the skirt of dreams. and i can still sleep well at night....

my childhood online

2009-05-17T13:46:00.007-04:00

i've been spending a bit of time perusing the vintage section of etsy and most recently ebay, looking for some good finds. i've been surprised to see some things i had as a child up for sale online. in a couple of cases, they were items i had totally forgotten about until i saw them.

a yellow ladder-style earring stand given to me by my piano teacher & family friend. this one was found at the butler and maid etsy shop.

this was the telephone we had in our living room when i was little. do you have any idea how much i loved to talk on this thing? so fancy! found on ebay.

and my most favourite of finds...one i really wish i had broken down and purchased. this picture hung in my bedroom when i was little. my mom and dad always told me it was a painting of me. i found this on etsy and now i know the truth. hee hee (found at a touch of vintage on etsy)

have you ever found any of your childhood possessions online? did you end up buying them so you could have them around again?

this weekend

2009-04-30T22:26:00.005-04:00

hey toronto folks, i'll be at the clothing show this weekend in booth #523. stop by and say hi if you're around!

better living centre, exhibition place
fri. may 1st 3:00 - 9:00
sat. may 2nd 11:00 - 9:00
sun. may 3rd 11:00 - 7:00

saturday morning

2009-04-18T20:45:00.002-04:00

-toasted pita with melted monterey jack and veggie salami
-strawberries & kiwi
-decaf tea with honey
-orla kiely dishware & placemat from target (thanks mom!)

long weekends were made for...thrift stores!

2009-04-14T17:35:00.009-04:00

hope everyone enjoyed a nice and relaxing long weekend! mine was great...spent it up north with my mom and her side of the family. it was just what i needed!

a bit of the long weekend was spent at various goodwills north of toronto. i found some lovely treasures that i'm very excited to start wearing once the weather warms up a bit. i came home with the 3 dresses you see above, along with 2 lovely vintage slips, a really cute, nearly-new blouse by french connection, a white eyelet skirt to wear petticoat-style under dresses, and a picture frame.

does anyone else find thrift stores 1000 x more exciting when they're in an unfamiliar town or city???

i love the cbc

2009-03-30T20:58:00.004-04:00

this is carla and i with our new bff's, steven and chris. hee hee (a girl can dream....) the truth is that carla & i went to see a taping of the steven & chris show at the cbc on friday. it was so much fun to see the "behind the scenes" at a live taping. i'm really bummed that the show has been put on hiatus, one of the sad casualties of the recent cbc cuts.

if i was a millionaire i would personally bail the cbc out of its financial woes myself...that's how much it means to me! but unfortunately i'm not a millionaire so i did what little i could do...i signed a petition started by avaaz.org asking the canadian government to help out cbc, especially if it's going to bail out mega-media corporations like ctv & canwest (as is rumoured...).

if you love the cbc as much as i do and are upset by the proposed 800 job cuts and major cuts to programming, then perhaps you'll want to sign the petition too.(almost 50 000 people have signed it in the last 72 hours!!)

ps: i don't think you don't need to be living in canada to sign the petition either.
you can find the petition here: www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_cbc/

etsy treasury #2

2009-03-18T16:05:00.006-04:00

i made another treasury today. i called it "i haven't got a stitch to wear" after a line in a classic smiths song. i put together 4 cute outfits...it was so much fun to play stylist for a little bit.

it expires on saturday i think, so go take a peek while it's up there.

EDITED TO ADD:
i just checked my treasury before it expires in an hour and i had 24 comments. turns out it made it to the front page!! so exciting! i just wish i had seen it there myself....

craft show alert!

2009-03-18T15:24:00.003-04:00

hey folks, i'll be at the *spring wake up* craft show this saturday from 11am - 3pm at hart house on the university of toronto campus. if you're in the city, come by and say hi!

******
details from the facebook group:
Spring Wake Up!
Celebrating Spring and do-it-yourself spirit!
Saturday, March 21, 11-3 pm
The Great Hall, Hart House

Throw off your winter coat and get your sap pumping at Spring Wake Up! This is a great event to get juices flowing for all ages, and a great way to spend a Spring Break Saturday.
Sow the seeds of creativity in a series of do-it-yourself workshops hosted by artists and community members including
*Operation Sock Monkey’s annual Sock-monk-a-thon (Create a sock monkey)
*Make recyclable pots and plant seeds to take home
*Learn to knit with Streetknit
*Eat Organic and Fresh on under $25/week by the Daily Apple
*Bring your kids and enjoy Spring stories and create a spring flower bouquet and add a flower to the ‘Flower Power Mural’ with enchanting storyteller and artist Cath Campbell
*Discover fabulous handmade clothing and gifts made locally by independent crafters
*The Joy T-shirt Project* *Ella’s Botanicals* *Sweetie Pie Press* *Dear Sukie* *thingsbySLO* *Ratgirl* and more…

cookies

2009-03-10T15:05:00.004-04:00

today just felt like a good day to make cookies.

ginger chocolate-chip cookies, that is. see that little mushed-up one in the corner there. i ate him right after i took this picture. hee!

head in the clouds...

2009-03-08T22:28:00.004-04:00

tonight my timing was perfect and i finally had a chance to make my very first treasury over on etsy. a treasury is a little curated collection of items from other people's etsy shops, usually with a theme. some treasuries are even chosen to be on the front page. but i'll just be happy if a few others have a chance to see mine before it expires on wednesday (mar. 11th).

after spending a weekend either agonizing over starting report cards ("ughh...i really should be doing reports...") or agonizing while actually doing them, creating this treasury was a welcome break. i thought the theme of "head in the clouds" was appropriate after so much work (and the whole time wishing i was doing something else instead).

paper*cakes likes me!

2009-03-05T16:18:00.003-05:00

my unicorn and rainbow hairpins were featured today on the super sweet paper*cakes finds blog!

thanks so much, chelsea!

movies i've seen recently

2009-02-17T14:27:00.005-05:00

lately i've been watching more movies than usual. paul has band practice every friday night and i've found myself a lovely routine of curling up on the couch with noah and my favourite tattered quilt and watching a dvd, usually borrowed from the public library. it has become the perfect way to transition from the work week to the weekend.

two fridays ago i watched "the namesake", a movie based on the novel by jhumpa lahiri and it has really stuck with me. it was such a fantastic story and a beautifully shot movie. VERY highly recommended!
here's the trailer:

and this past weekend paul & i went to see the movie "wendy and lucy". i loved how quiet and minimal the movie was. a very simple story but completely intriguing.
the trailer:

any movie recommendations (either in the theatre now or something i can borrow from the library)?

-------
i had to edit this to add:
i just watched the trailer for "the namesake" just to make sure that the embedding worked above and was reduced to a blubbering mess of tears. this movie is sooooo good! it is definitely on my list of all-time favourite films.

sensible sandals

2009-02-09T17:39:00.004-05:00

i know my last shoe post was all about the maryjanes and boots i've been coveting (update: i tried on the clarks cutebars last thursday and they were awesome. but....i chickened out after figuring out the price after taxes). however i did find some sandals last night and actually brought them home with me. i know it's a tad early for summer footwear but i didn't hesitate a minute when i spotted a selection of worishofer sandals out front of a little store on the danforth.

i have a slightly uneasy feeling they may be knock-offs and feel a bit concerned that i may have just given 20 bucks to a terrorist cell. clue #1: they were $19.99 and the ones i've been coveting online for almost 2 years are much more than that (usually $70-ish). clue #2: they say "made in italy" and i'm pretty sure they are actually made in germany. clue #3: instead of a worishofer shoe-box, they came in a shoe box that just said "made in italy" in great big letters. hmmm....
but a great deal of googling this afternoon didn't confirm my suspicions. in fact, i couldn't find anything about "fake worishofers" at all.

please let me know if you find anything before i go and purchase a 2nd pair.....

i listen to this song (track 4) several times on my way to work and then i listen to track 7 a bunch of times too

2009-02-08T00:17:00.003-05:00

some are lakes by land of talk.

i am obsessed.

never met a cupcake i didn't like

2009-02-05T20:24:00.006-05:00

seems like a harmless little thing, right?

it's a cute enough little cupcake with a sad lopsided heart of cocoa and cinnamon/ nutmeg mixture. all it wants is some love.

desperately craving homebaked cupcakes after enjoying a lovely chocolate-mint one on sunday afternoon during tea with kim, i ventured to my local public library and found vegan cupcakes take over the world. i took it home with dreams of making some delightful cupcakes. after consulting with paul i decided to try the chai latte ones, page 109. no sooner did i arrive home from work on wednesday afternoon and i was in the kitchen baking up a storm! it all seemed to be going so well!

after scarfing down dinner in anticipation of those spicy little cupcakies i was terribly disappointed to bite into a tough, doughy little puck. blech! so very, very blech.

i didn't even eat it. in the garbage they went...all 11 of them (paul politely ate one). i have a few ideas of where i may have gone wrong. that doesn't help ease the pain of throwing away a batch of cupcakes though.

sadly, these vegan cupcakes did not take over our world.

sensible shoes i'm currently obsessed with

2009-02-02T15:35:00.000-05:00

throughout the last 2 months, i've spent countless hours online trying to find the perfect pair of shoes to replace my two beloved mary-janes from payless. they've lasted about 4 years or more, which is forever in payless shoe years. but now the pleather is lifting off, they're scratched down to a white layer, and just generally look awful. it makes me so sad because i still love their style.

for about a year now i've been wrestling with the decision of whether or not to purchase a pair of leather shoes. see, i haven't bought new leather in about 11 or 12 years, ever since i went vegetarian. about 3 years ago i started buying second-hand leather shoes thinking that second-hand anything is better for the planet than new stuff, leather or not. and after researching non-leather stuff a bit, i realize i'm probably exposing myself to a lot of nasty off-gassing from pvc. so i think i'm ready to try a pair of leather shoes in hopes that they'll last a bit longer than 4 years.

here are some of the shoes (and boots) i've been obsessing over for the last couple of months. hopefully i'll work up the courage to buy a pair soooooon. (it's so hard to think of spending this much money on shoes after so many years spending $25 on footwear.)

clarks cute bar

danskos lotus

gee wawa minute (it's the black ones i love)

naot motiff

el naturalista dryland

blowfish quizz

gee wawa topper boots

miz mooz blitz

pretty papers make interesting pictures

2009-01-31T16:21:00.003-05:00

i've spent the last few weeks taking advantage of our cloudy skies by snapping photos of my jewellery to upload to my etsy shop. but i started getting really bored with the white background i was using. after browsing around etsy i had a lightbulb moment and decided to search for some intersting papers for backgrounds. luckily there's a fantastic scrapbooking store near my home and even though i don't scrapbook, i always feel like a kid in a candy store when i go in there. the endless racks of pretty papers is almost overwhelming. after an hour of browsing on thursday afternoon i settled on the handful of papers you see above.

i've only taken a few photos with these backgrounds so far, but i'm already excited about the results! my favourite so far is this little russian doll brooch. i love how it looks against this needlepoint-looking paper.

soup for a winter cold

2009-01-30T20:37:00.004-05:00

hi! i'm back!
hopefully for awhile, although i've come to the realization that i'm not the most um...consistent blogger. (no kidding, right?) but acceptance is the first step. and so here i am to try again.

after making it through a very long while without a cold or flu to speak of (haven't had one yet this school year), i finally felt something coming on yesterday. i started mega-dosing on cold-fx, which i swear is a wonder drug. and then today after a nice long nap after work, i made a lovely, hearty, and delicious soup that i think is going to help me kick this cold in the butt!

i modified the "miso soup for one" recipe in la dolce vegan.
here's my recipe:

Krissy's Kick-Your-Cold-in-the-Butt Winter Soup

2 c water
1" fresh ginger, peeled and cut in chunks large enough to fish out later
1/2 tsp veggie bouillon
1 carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
handful frozen shelled edemame
small handful dried wakame (seaweed)
5 cubes dulp pock (puffy tofu)
2 tbsp miso

Boil water with chunks of ginger. Throw in chopped carrots and celery and cook until softened. Add veggie bouillon to water. Throw in frozen edemame and dried wakame and cook 3 minutes. Add dulp pock and cook a few minutes, just long enough to heat through. Remove from heat and stir in miso. Let stand 3-5 minutes. Stir well and enjoy! (Don't forget to fish out the ginger as you eat!)

Mmmmm...

Also pictured: 2 steamed vegetarian bbq pork buns.

busted!

2008-08-28T11:53:00.003-04:00

what you see above is the last picture i'll ever take at the local t & t grocery store. i went shopping there yesterday to get stuff for making inari and maki rolls for dinner. as i wandered the aisles, i took some quick pics of things that caught my eye. just as i finished taking this picture, an employee came up to me and said "no pictures". i was caught so off-guard that my only response was, "really? but it's so pretty!!"

oh well. at least i got this one last picture before being busted.

and really...isn't it so pretty? i imagine the liquid inside those bottles must taste like fairy water.

breakfast of champions

2008-08-27T13:05:00.002-04:00

summer is sadly coming to an end and i'm headed back to work next tuesday after two glorious months off. so this morning as i fixed my breakfast, i realized that in a few days i probably won't have time to linger over the lovely meal i've been making for myself for most of the summer.

this breakfast has been such a treat for me over the last couple of months. it usually contained some variation of the following:
* 10-12 buttered crackers with brie
* a handful of raw almonds
* a few dried apricots (i like the organic kind but it takes awhile to get used to that rusty brown colour instead of the bright orange you typically find)
* organic vanilla yogurt with seasonal fruits mixed in (today it was some diced peach, blueberries, and strawberries*...all from ontario)

mmmm...

*believe it or not, the strawberries are from ontario even though strawberry season is kind of over. these are apparently called "everbearing strawberries" or so the friendly farmer from the market tells me. i think i was able to buy them well into september last year!

my favourite thing of the day

2008-08-18T18:37:00.002-04:00

this is about the cutest thing i've seen in a really long time. a man singing a litter of puppies to sleep!!

(found via pretty little things blog)

happy birthday, madonna

2008-08-16T21:23:00.004-04:00

today you're 50 years old. but don't worry, honey...you're still totally fabulous!!(i still want to be you when i grow up...)

another book finished

2008-08-16T00:04:00.003-04:00

while we were at the cottage, i spent a large chunk of my week lying on the dock slathered with sunscreen and reading black swan green by david mitchell. i have to tell you, it was a really wonderful way to spend my days at the lake.

so briefly, without giving too much away, the story follows a 13-year old boy named jason for a year of his life. he wants desperately to be part of the cool crowd but he's bullied because he stammers. it's a really touching novel and reminded me of how tough it is to be a kid just trying to fit in.

i really liked this book. i liked jason so much that after i'd finished reading it, i actually thought about him for days afterward, and kind of missed him. i guess that's the sign of a good story, huh?

my rating: 8.5/10

(and a big thanks to the lovely person on bookmooch who kindly sent this book to me all the way from japan.)

*****
in case you're interested, i've just started reading "a long way down" by nick hornby. i'm only about 20 pages in so far though....

cottage = summer

2008-08-11T16:43:00.008-04:00

a couple of weeks ago, paul and i spent a week at the cottage we rent every year near haliburton. we had such a great time. a couple of our friends always come with us for a few days and that always makes for good times too. here are some of my favourite pictures from our week.

noah loves the cottage:

looking down the curve in the lake:

i want to remember this day in the middle of january:

a group of "shoe trees" just outside of kinmount:

a snack from the chip truck:

the tastes of summer

2008-07-22T20:58:00.005-04:00

last thursday i checked out a new farmers' market in the neighbourhood. it wasn't as good as my favourite one (which i sadly still haven't made it to yet) but it was still nicer than the grocery store aisle. check out all those pretty colours!

*****

and tonight's dinner i'm dubbing "adventures in sushi". i guess that makes it sound like it was a little dodgey but it actually all turned out really well. i've made maki rolls before but this was my first time making inari sushi. it certainly won't be my last...so easy with those little pre-made wrappers! we stuffed ours with rice, avocado, and carrots. mmmm...so good!! here's a blurry picture...we were too hungry to take a perfect one...sorry! (for non-sushi eaters, that's wasabi in the dish in the middle of the plate. we mixed it in some temari sauce for dipping).

catching up on books i've read

2008-07-12T23:16:00.007-04:00

it's been awhile since i mentioned the books i've been reading. summer is an especially good time to get into a good book so i thought this little list of the last 3 books i've finished might help someone choose a new one to delve into.

way back in april i finished up "a spot of bother" by mark haddon.

even though i had a hard time getting into this book, i did enjoy it in the end. it's quite different from haddon's other book "the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime" which i thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. a spot of bother is about a neurotic man and his dysfunctional family. all in all, i enjoyed it and would recommend it.
my rating: 7/10

my next read was very different..."the secret life of bees" by sue monk kidd.

my goodness...i can't say enough about this story! i absolutely LOVED this book. straight from the beginning i was instantly hooked. i haven't felt that pull since i read "lullabies for little criminals" last summer. googling around to find the image of the book cover, i found out that there's going to be a movie version of this book coming out in october 2008 and paul tells me it's coming to tiff in september. i can't wait!!
my rating: 8.5/10

and the book i finished up at the end of june was "love is a mix tape" by rob sheffield.
i think paul liked this book a little better than i did. this book told the true story of how sheffield met and fell in love with his wife and then dealt with losing her. i don't want to say much more for fear of giving too much of the story away. however, this story surprisingly didn't draw me in the way i expected it would. overall, meh.
my rating: 5/10

*****
right now i'm reading "black swan green" by david mitchell and even though i'm only on page 62, i'm quite enjoying it. i've recently come to the realization that my favourite kind of book is a work of fiction where the main character is a child or teen. such is the case with "black swan green". not sure if being a teacher has something to do with why these stories speak to me or not.

anyhow, i'll be back for quick review of "black swan green" once i've finished. fair warning though...i'm a terribly sloooowwww reader.

our date with david sedaris

2008-07-12T00:29:00.005-04:00

on thursday night, carla and i went to see david sedaris at the indigo at bay and bloor. he was making an appearance there to promote his new book. carla and i got there at just the right time (an hour before it started) because we ended up with a pretty good spot where we could see him quite clearly. we're pretty sure the guy who introduced him said that there were 800 people there!

he read a story from "when you are engulfed in flames" plus a bit from a new book he's working on. then he read a bunch of really funny entries from his diary. the last part was left for q & a, which i really enjoyed because he ended up telling a few stories to answer each question. so instead of a short 1-minute answer, i swear each answer ended up being almost 10 minutes long and thoroughly entertaining!

he's so naturally funny and witty, carla and i left feeling like we just really wanted to spend an evening at the movies, maybe dinner too, with david and his boyfriend hugh.

*****
ps. if you want to hear a great interview with david sedaris from the same day, you can go here and right-click on the podcast for thursday, july 10th. his interview begins about 1/3 of the way through (after william h. macy).

goat!

2008-07-10T10:13:00.005-04:00

yesterday paul and i went on a day trip to stouffville, just outside of toronto. it was such a nice day! we started by going into the town of stouffville and wandering around the downtown area. we went into the latcham gallery and a great little thrift store where i finally found something i've been searching for forever (the glass jug top left). then we headed to applewood farm where we did some strawberry picking.

there were a few goats and sheep at the farm and i was so excited to be able to pet one and feed it some dandilion leaves. i wanted to stay there all day and hang out with the animals.

we ended the trip with lunch at a new-to-us restaurant called the graceful vegetarian which is located right behind the pacific mall. we had vegetarian dim sum and i loved every bit of it! my favourite was the (vegetarian) bbq pork steamed bun. mmmm...doughy goodness. (sorry, i was too hungry and impatient to take pics)

i did some gardening when we got home and then made a yummy (and super easy) dinner of faux tuna sandwiches with salad (using lettuce from our garden).

this is the tuna we buy at king's cafe in kensington market.

if you look in the bottom right hand corner it says "borax free". that worries me that the other kind we sometimes buy might be loaded with borax. who knew that was the secret ingredient to mock meat???? ;)

and for dessert....strawberries and whipped cream of course!

2008-07-07T11:50:00.006-04:00

i had an itch to go thrifting on friday...it had been a few months since i'd gone and for some strange reason when i get an itch to go, i usually end up finding some good treasures. friday did not disappoint!

- 3 cute new scarves... one is even yves st. laurent and another is by vera with a sweet little print of carrots and peas. woot!
- a pretty luxurious rust coloured cable-knit scarf/shawl...holt renfrew brand. double woot!
- black skirt
- 2 issues of the sadly defunct "blueprint" magazine which i was too cheap to let myself buy when it was still around
- a white porceline dish for displaying my jewellery at shows (3 compartments, maybe for brooches and hairpins?)
- 2 retro oblong melmac-type dishes
- skinny belt
- a small wooden dish for storing my jewellery when i'm not wearing it
- and a happy apple!

here's a closer look:

peek inside my makeup bag

2008-07-04T12:00:00.004-04:00

after reading about some of the toxic chemicals in cosmetics about a year ago, i've been trying to make some safer choices with the beauty products i buy. since i'm on a pretty strict budget, i didn't immediately throw away all of my "toxic" stuff...just started slowly replacing them with better choices once they were used up. since i've been doing this for about a year now, i realized that most of my daily products have been replaced. thought you might want to take a peek at what i'm using these days and maybe it will give you a starting point to make some safer choices for yourself.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

maybelline waterproof liquid eyeliner: not exactly "safe" but i refuse to give up my black eyeliner. this one isn't the worst of the bunch so i'm ok with it.

the body shop lip & cheek stain: i only use it on my cheeks and it's my "stranded on a desert island" product.

the body shop concealer pencil: a bit "dry" for using under the eyes. i'll probably replace it with a creamier product once it's gone

weleda everon lip balm: smells amazing!

the body shop loose powder: i had a hard time finding safer compact powder so i went with this. it's ok but i still prefer pressed powder.

the body shop aloe calming facial cleanser: i love this! i was a dedicated "cetaphil" user for about 10 years and it broke my heart to have to switch but for me, this is just as good.

the body shop aloe soothing day cream: love this too! paul even uses it. i even use it under my eyes without any problem. really gentle.

badger sunscreen, spf 30: this is a new addition within the past 3 weeks. the sun protection is great but it leaves the skin with a noticeable white cast. after it warms up a bit on the skin i can usually rub it in better so it doesn't show.

giovanni 50:50 balanced hair remoisturizer: good stuff

giovanni 50:50 balanced shampoo: takes awhile to get used to the fact that it doesn't foam up but that's because it doesn't have sodium lauryl sufate (not a great ingredient). it works well though.

kiss my face olive oil soap: we use it as a regular body soap in the shower. it costs next to nothing ($3) but literally lasts one whole month! it's like magic!

- still need to replace my deoderant with a better choice once it runs out.
----------
i'm certainly no expert in the area of cosmetics and toxic ingredients but here's a few tips i follow almost religiously now.

1. i've learned you can't just assume if a company has a few safer products everything in their line will be too. for example, you see above that i use some body shop products but unfortunately most of their line is pretty toxic according to the cosmetics database.

2. just because you can buy it in a health food store doesn't mean it's "safe". likewise, just because it's expensive as hell doesn't mean it's safe either. try researching those expensive department store brands or lines carried by sephora. it's kinda scary.

3. i avoid anything that has "fragrance" as one of the ingredients. unless the ingredients list essential oils , chances are the product has synthetic fragrance and that includes pthalates which are potentially unsafe. unfortunately you'll never see pthalates listed in the ingredients because it's considered a company's "trade secret" and they don't need to give that info up. evil!
-----------------
* and i should mention a couple of things in case anyone is wondering: one...i am definitely not getting paid to endorse any of these products (i should be so lucky!) nor do any of my friends/family members or i work for any of these companies. two....i've found all of these products using the incredibly useful cosmetics database resource (a non-profit organization called the environmental working group runs the website).

so funny but you probably already know about it

2008-06-30T23:38:00.006-04:00

i know paul & i are little late to this party, but we just discovered the awesomeness that is "flight of the conchords". (be gentle on us...we don't have cable). here's the intro of the show just because it makes me so happy.

we rented the 1st disc of season one (has there only been one season so far?) and watched the whole thing (6 episodes) yesterday. omg, this show is hilarious! if you're like us and don't have cable you totally have to rent the dvd. we're looking forward to hopefully renting the 2nd disc this week.

*******
on a related note...is it just me, or does anyone else start singing the "sex and the city theme" every time you see that "hbo logo/static-y tv opening bit" that shows up at the beginning of every hbo tv show? i swear it's like an involuntary reaction everytime i see it.

2008-06-29T14:57:00.005-04:00

isn't this necklace the best? (mary-jane shoe on one side, "sensible shoes" on the reverse) i've had my eye on it since last december when frederica (friend and maker of the necklace) and i had our booths next to each other at the ooak show. when i told her the name of my blog she couldn't believe the coincidence. i finally broke down and bought it for myself at her studio sale last weekend and have been wearing it ever since.

it also helped to remind me that this blog has been sitting woefully neglected for far too long.

i'm on summer vacation now (as of last thursday at noon). the last couple months at work were a bit stressful to say the least. i found out i was declared "surplus" which means there wouldn't be a teaching job for me at my current school come september. after two rounds of job searches, three positions turned down after cold feet about teaching kindergarten, and a week or so of being on pins & needles waiting to find out where i'd be placed, it turns out that i got a fantasic placement at a great school teaching (almost) exactly what i wanted! (yay!!!)

it was really sad leaving my old school though. i'd been there for 4 years so lots of tears!!!

before i left i had a little party for my knitting club girls. i baked cupcakes and brought in icing & a variety of candies for them to decorate with. they were a huge hit! i also made each one a little knitting necklace as a souvenir and hopefully will inspire them to keep up with their knitting.

on the last day of school i almost forgot to take a picture of my most favourite part of the building. this sign put a smile on my face everytime i saw it. the fact that it is hung in a school is, to me, pure irony!

ah, grammatically incorrect signage.....i'll miss you so.

yummy dinner #3

2008-06-05T14:47:00.002-04:00

this was a great meal we had earlier in the week. i made these tofu & rice balls from the garden of vegan, another sarah kramer cookbook i use on a regular basis. these balls (tee hee) are extra yummy with mushroom gravy, which i just buy in a can and warm up quickly on the stove. a nice big salad with sunflower seeds was the perfect side.

yum.

my new favourite blog

2008-05-17T19:06:00.002-04:00

i've been feeling a bit under-the-weather this week and i woke up today having completely lost my voice. catching up on this blog totally lifted my spirits though. it made me laugh out loud (well, not loud...more like a whisper i suppose) and at times i was crying from laughing so hard. maybe you'll like it too.

i especially loved the nordic catalog disaster

red bull: gives you nightmares

and by the time i was at that must be some distinctive nose i was crying from laughing so hard.

i so needed that today!

yummy dinner #2

2008-04-24T20:14:00.004-04:00

tonight's dinner was from my most favourite of all my cookbooks, la dolce vegan by sarah kramer. i swear i use this book a minimum of 3 meals out of the 5 i cook during the week (paul's in charge of sat & sun dinners). this was my first attempt with this recipe and it was soooo yummy!

tonight i made butternut squash & lentil soup with ginger. we had it with fresh 9-grain rustic bread from brick bakery, drizzled with olive oil.
sadly, this photo does not do justice to the soup. it was such a flavourful and slightly spicy meal. the generous amount of fresh ginger really added a nice flavour.

rating: 10/10

yummy dinner #1

2008-04-23T22:38:00.005-04:00

i've always been really inspired by bloggers that post delicious-looking meals they've made. one blog i miss dearly is dinner daily. i used to get lots of quick and interesting meal ideas from her.

anyhow, i'm going to give this a try myself mostly to have a record of meals i've made and enjoyed. i'm not sure how long this will last as i'm often in too much of a rush to start eating. running to find the camera (and working batteries) before digging in can be a bit of a hassle. but here goes attempt #1.

this is what we had for dinner tonight.
penne with chickpeas, baby spinach, and sundried tomatoes from quick fix vegetarian

it was so easy to make and turned out really yummy. basically it's just a quick sauce made from minced garlic, canned (diced) tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, chickpeas, a bag of baby spinach, and s&p . i sprinkled some sunflower seeds on top for some crunch.

the verdict: 9/10

happy earth day!

2008-04-22T15:41:00.014-04:00

hope everyone's enjoying this sunshiney earth day!

i thought it would be fun to show you some of the earth-friendly goodies i've been crushing on over at etsy.

poppy bobbypins made with recycled vintage fabric by foundling

sweater dress made from repurposed sweaters by devilmademedoit

broken plate ring by the broken plate

messenger bag made from a men's suit jacket by rumah kampung

jounals made from old highschool yearbook pictures by christine renee

dog collars made from recycled ties by annie's sweatshop (we just bought this one for noah a couple of months ago)

also made with a repurposed tie, this "necklace" by sam's shop

pretty vintage slip embellished by bayou salvage

handwoven brooch made from grocery bags by frucci design

and i could really use these reusable bags for our frequent trips to bulk barn (handmade by kootsac)

if only i could plant a money tree for earth day.....

weekend in the city

2008-04-20T18:15:00.020-04:00

oh my goodness...the weather here was AMAZING this weekend! this afternoon paul and i went on a field trip to allen gardens to look at all of the beautiful flowers and plants. it was my very first visit and it did not disappoint!

looking up at the beautiful glass roof from inside the main greenhouse

there were beautiful tropical flowers tucked into every corner of the greenhouses

i especially loved the cactus & succulent greenhouse

there was even a cute doggy hanging out inside

this place was so much fun and (surprisingly) absolutely free! highly recommended if you haven't been before.

more of my pictures from today are over at flickr...

junk mail revolution

2008-04-15T18:37:00.009-04:00

i've started a one-woman junk mail revolution. i'm tired of getting heaps of unaddressed mail in our mailbox even though we clearly have a "No Junkmail or Flyers" sign on our box.

so i've started on my personal campaign to annoy the hell out of the people who send this stuff.

i'm collecting unaddressed mail that comes to our door and sticking it in those "postage paid when mailed in canada" envelopes...this one was conveniently included with a junk mail advertisement yesterday.

with just 2 days worth of mail, i've managed to stuff the envelope as full as i possibly could. i'm mailing it back to this company tomorrow and they can be flooded with junkmail for a change. and even better: they have to PAY to have it sent to them!

does this make me a bad person?

anyone want to join me?

p.s. it should also be noted that the company who will soon be receiving my junk mail package was outed as a bit of a scam by my hero, wendy mesley awhile back.

the fur was flying

2008-04-14T17:28:00.006-04:00

the things we won't do for our fur kids.

we used to take noah to a groomer every 4 months or so. a really lovely woman who always did such a nice job. but here's the thing: noah is such a sensitive little guy that he would come back from the doggy salon acting freaky. at first it would last a few days but then it would start lasting 7 or 8 days before he got back to normal. it was really upsetting for all of us.

in the fall, we decided to cut his hair ourselves. yep, DIY baby! the doggy equivalent of putting a bowl on his head!

on sunday noah got a shampoo and haircut. the 3 of us were locked in the bathroom for 3 whole hours! but only one of us got lots of cookies.....

we cut off enough hair to make another dog!

and after it was all over:

now we have a clipped (and very happy) poochie!

friday night at the rom

2008-04-13T19:45:00.008-04:00

paul and i wanted to start our weekend by going out on the town. we were excited to see the movie smart people, but after reading many baaaad reviews, paul suggested we check out the ROM instead. we've been wanting to see the crystal since it opened and with half-off admission on friday evening, it was a perfect opportunity!

paul in front of the museum

the new wing of the museum is really beautiful! it's much more light and airy now. i especially loved that they kept parts of the old brick facade where the old and new wings met. a really lovely touch!

we saw the darwin exhibit which was really huge...give yourself a couple of hours to go through it if you decide to check it out. there's a lot of great information to read alongside the displays.

and after that we still had a bit of time to visit the ancient greek and roman displays. we were in awe of the artistic and detailed coins and spent a lot of time "oohing" and "ahhing" over them. i totally fell in love with the greek jewellery. here's a terrible picture of some beautiful gold earrings with bird charms.

i also loved the sculptures.

sometimes it's nice to be a tourist in your own city!

where i've been, what i've been doing...

2008-04-07T16:40:00.004-04:00

since we last spoke, i've:
* baked banana loaf and brownies
* decided brown rice kicks white rice's ass
* added a bunch of stuff to my etsy shop
* tried to eat greens at least 3x a week
* completed term 2 report cards
* started visiting the amigurumi farm again
* and last friday, went to see margaret cho tape her interview for the hour!

carla got us tickets and it was soooo much fun! the funny thing is the studio was smaller than it looks on tv. george's interview with margaret cho was really funny! see for yourself...it's going to be on tv tonight!

all of my pictures turned out blurry like this one.

thanks again for the fun afternoon, carla!

wardrobe remix 03-02-08

2008-03-02T12:57:00.005-05:00

here's something interesting i've realized this weekend. desperately needing to do laundry has made me way more creative about my clothing choices. i think this is my most favourite outfit i've put together in a really long time and 2 of the items i haven't worn in years...and the only reason i am today is that all of my "high rotation" clothing needs to be washed.

dark blue denim shirtdress: clothing swap (eddie bauer)
yellow shirt: thrifted and altered child's "dragonballz" long-sleeve
red leggings: thrifted
black argyle socks: my dad & stepmom (i ask for kneehighs every xmas so most of my favourites are from them)
black rainboots: thrifted
green scarf: thrifted sweatshirt fabric that i cut into a long rectangle
black belt: a gift from my cousin & her husband
house brooch: i made it myself
black calculator watch: casio

***
here's a closeup of the house brooch i made about a month ago. i am so in love with this and had so much fun making it. i'm thinking about doing a series of these.

wardrobe_remix 03-01-2008

2008-03-01T18:36:00.004-05:00

black hat: handknit by me
black hoody: h&m
pashmina scarf: threads
sundress: thrifted
longsleeve tee: h&m
argyle tights: hand-me-downs from my mom
green socks: gift from my dad + stepmom
red legwarmers: i just cut the sleeves from a felted sweater
black rainboots: thrifted on friday!

*********
what a nice start to march.
so far saturday has involved:
*yummy breakfast at home with the globe
*a pot of honeyed and soymilky tea
*catching up on some blogs
*a mocha latte and knitting at a coffee shop with paul
*browsing through the pretty wool at purple purl
*enjoying the art at parts gallery
*listening to the microphones (thanks again for reminding me about them, in yr fshn)

looking forward to spending the night at my studio desk. finally feeling a burst of energy to create!

can a girl marry a pair of shoes?

2008-02-19T18:18:00.005-05:00

these lovelies set me back $3.50 because it was a 50%-off day at my local goodwill. they are an absolute dream...so comfy and cute, well...at least to me. i've been wanting a pair of oxfords for awhile now and the thrifting gods brought us together last wednesday.

here they are in action.

that very same day at that very same goodwill, i also found this other pair of super sturdy, very well-made shoes. yes, another pair of oxfords! (they actually remind me a lot of these frye shoes the fashion bloggers have been all over for awhile.) they followed me home too even though they're a half-size too big. i figured since they were also only $3.50 i could afford to give insoles a try.

i also spied this adorable vintage wicker purse ($3.00) with lovely tortoise-shell details. i'm wondering if it could be bakelite??

in other news, i'm craving muffins. anyone have a good recipe? (no raisins, please.)

"year of the rat" opening

2008-02-13T22:39:00.014-05:00

last thursday night was the opening of the year of the rat exhibit at PROOF gallery. it was a fun night! lots of really great prints by 100 or so artists from around the world. lots of very interesting interpretations of the whole "rat" concept too.

i really liked this little handmade book by carolyn eady. she said she was thinking about the michelangelo painting in the sistine chapel when she made it.

and it was nice to run into akemi who paul and i haven't seen in ages. i loved her print but unfortunately my camera didn't do it justice.

here's a wee peek at a couple of the brooches i made for the show.

ratgirl at PROOF gallery!

2008-02-03T14:29:00.000-05:00

something incredibly exciting has happened.

while i was at the one of a kind show in november, a lovely woman named sheila approached me about taking part in the "year of the rat" exhibition at her gallery at the distillery. i was so flattered but a tiny bit nervous...i've never done anything for a gallery before!

well, this thursday evening is the opening of the "year of the rat" show at PROOF gallery! i'm soooooo excited! i've made many rat-themed pieces of jewellery especially for this show.

here's the invite

and the info
Year of the Rat
Opening: Thursday, Feb. 7th
5:00 - 9:00pm
Proof Gallery, Distillery District
Toronto
www.proofstudiogallery.com for map of the Distillery

come take a peek if you get a chance!

current obsession: 02-02-08

2008-02-02T18:07:00.001-05:00

have you heard about this new show called quarterlife? it's about a group of twenty-somethings and their relationships, career woes, and general angst. and it's sooooo good!

right now it's only available online in small 8-ish minute episodes but i think it's coming to nbc soon. although the short episodes are a little frustrating---you no sooner get into the show and it ends---at least for now you won't have to deal with annoying commercials like you will when it comes to tv land.

oh, and i think the reason why i *love* this show SO MUCH is that it's made by the people who did my so-called life! i mean really, need i say more?

have you heard about this?

2008-01-30T21:13:00.000-05:00

i just found out about the bloggy giveaways carnival. if i wasn't so busy i would sit at my computer for hours on end and enter all 843 of these contests!!

Eeeeeeeee!!!

2008-01-29T22:41:00.000-05:00

i was getting ready to head to bed and after doing one last email check, i decided to take a peek at etsy. well, i totally squealed with excitement when i saw that my 'russian doll necklace' was on the homepage!!! the sweet person at studio elan put together a russian doll-themed treasury.
here's a look at some of the other cute russian doll picks from the treasury collection:

now off to bed with nesting dolls dancing in my head.....

my new obsession

2008-01-26T15:10:00.000-05:00

earlier this week i was feeling antsy about not having a book to read having just finished this one. i vaguely recalled hearing about book swapping sites so i did some googling and came up with bookmooch. i signed up right away and listed 9 books. within a few minutes of listing i already had people requesting two of them and by weeks end i had sent out four books to new homes!

last night i successfully mooched these two books! they should be arriving in my mail in the next few weeks! i can't wait...

the secret life of bees

a long way down

but i was craving more books still...ones i had on my bookmooch wishlist but was too impatient to wait for (currently there are no copies for mooching which means i could be waiting months or years for them to become available). so i got out the credit card and ordered a few from chapters.

craft inc.

love is a mix tape (ordered because i won't be able to renew my library copy and i read way too slowly to finish it in 2 weeks...so paul's reading the library one right now instead)

a spot of bother (by the same author of the book i just finished)

has anyone read any of these 5 books i'm waiting to be delivered? what are you reading right now?

today

2008-01-21T15:42:00.001-05:00

today was a good mail day.
i got some soft grey legwarmers in the mail from my stepmom, nicole. they're original from back in the 80's...

and i also received the little otsu dayplanner i ordered a couple of weeks ago.

i love that you fill in the dates yourself. so since january is more than halfway over, i won't have any empty pages because i'll just start numbering from today's date.

today was a good library day.
i picked up 3 items i had holds on: a vegetarian cookbook ("enemy of the steak" heh heh), a novel ("love is a mix tape" by rob sheffield), and a dvd ("who killed the electric car"). the novel came at a good time. i'm about 15 pages away from finishing the book i'm reading now ...sooooooo goood! thanks michele!! xoxo

today was also a good freecycling day.
i picked up a great gold frame from a generous person on the toronto freecycle group. i'm collecting frames for our little wall of art in the studio/guest bedroom. i'm not sure if i'm going to keep this one gold (looks cool against the red wall in here) but i may paint it with a super shiny laquer in hot pink or turquoise. *by the way, i just put a postcard in there for the photo. i'm hoping to fill it with a cute print from etsy. maybe even one from my favourite artist on there.

and this weekend was a good crafting weekend.
i was successful in making my largest shrinky piece yet! very exciting! i've got a few possible ideas for this...

and here's a picture that gives you a better idea of just how big she is (4" tall) compared to my regular-sized pendants.

also bought a couple of cute new things this past weekend. i'll post about them later in the week.

the car died 2 weeks ago and i've been taking the ttc to work everyday since. it takes 1.5 hrs each way but i've been finding ways to amuse myself.

2008-01-17T21:28:00.000-05:00

2008!

2008-01-06T20:57:00.000-05:00

happy new year, everyone! hope you all had a fantastic & relaxing holiday whether celebrations of the season were involved or not. we had a great holiday break spent with family. now it's kind of quiet around here....

what better way to start the new year than with....CAR TROUBLES! ah yes, it's an ongoing struggle around this house. no sooner do we get something fixed and something else breaks. today the car crapped out on paul as he was coming home from practicing with his band. c.a.a. towed it but the really bad news is that our faithful mechanic is away in florida for a week. he's pretty much become like family to us and i just don't trust our car to anyone else. so if the estimate to fix it is too high this will be end of the volkswagon. a bit sooner than expected.......

in happier news, i've been doing some crafting just for fun. last night i pulled out my little red suitcase full of bits & bobs and put together this necklace:

(is that little wooden bird a religious symbol? for some reason i'm thinking it might be and i'm a bit concerned about that. can someone please let me know if it is.)

and made this brooch which has been swimming around in my head for ages!

(the pink isn't as bright as it looks in the photo....)

and tonight i finally worked up the courage to hack off the sleeves to this dagg & stacey sweater which i accidentally felted when i washed it last year. the body of the sweater is fine but the sleeves felted so tight that i couldn't bend my arms in it anymore.

and here's just a picture to show you how cute the back of it is....

so here's to a happy, crafty new year for all!!

snowed in

2007-12-16T22:34:00.000-05:00

toronto got totally pummelled by a massive storm today. this is the view of our street taken this afternoon.

needless to say, it was the perfect excuse to stay inside, drink tea & hot chocolate, and take a mid-afternoon nap. we did, however, have to brave the elements to dig out the car so i could get to work tomorrow morning. i can't remember the last time i've seen so much snow!

and what blog post about a storm would be complete without a picture of noah looking cute with a snowy face!?

awwwww.....

2007-12-08T20:21:00.000-05:00

thanks so much to kitchen for letting me know that my "i *heart* the 80's" charm bracelet was featured in this week's NOW magazine gift guide! woot woot! big hugs to sarah at the rage for always being such a huge supporter of my jewellery!

if you look closely at the page, you can see that my friend kim's amazing pillows also got a mention! yay!

(if you want a closer look so that you can read what it says, try clicking on the photo or head over here and scroll down.)

back again

2007-12-04T20:03:00.000-05:00

i'm back from my crazy 11-day stint at the one of a kind show and happy to report the show went extremely well! there were some slow days but overall it turned out to be my best show yet! my mom was the most awesome ratgirl employee of all-time, holding down the fort at the show while i was off at my day job in the morning. somehow she managed to work 11-hour days for 11 straight days....incredible! the woman has definitely earned her title as ratgirl employee of the year!

i wish i had photos from the show to show everyone but unfortunately i totally blanked and didn't even think to bring the camera. which is really too bad because some of the booths were pretty awesome!

today i rewarded myself with a day off from work! i slept in until 10:00am, watched martha, had a long relaxing shower, spent lots of time cuddling with noah, started reading the latest bust magazine, had an afternoon nap, and ate a lot of chocolate! it was perfect!

thanks to all of my friends that stopped by to say hi! seeing a familiar face in a sea of thousands of strangers sure made my day!! and an extra big hug to paul for making such awesome meals for mom & i to take to the show and giving noah lots of attention when i wasn't around.

and now it's time to relax with a magazine before bed....

wardrobe remix (halloween style)

2007-10-31T15:18:00.000-04:00

can you guess what i dressed up as today??

(click the photos for a bigger pic)

plaid top: thrifted
belt: gap (bought 17 years ago!)
jeans: h&m
socks: le chateau
oxford shoes: thrifted

~extras~
hair clips: dollarama
calculator watch: the bay
glasses (with added tape in the middle): the bay
pocket protector: a couple of pieces of sticky notes worked like a charm!
in pocket: pen, pencil, solar calculator

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

trying to...

2007-10-18T16:58:00.000-04:00

...ease back into doing the wardrobe_remix thing again. it's been forever since i've participated. not sure how long i'll be able to keep it up since it takes me forever to do. i always have to take a bunch of pictures in hopes of getting one that's usable.

vintage dress: a local charity shop
longsleeve tee: h&m
tights: roots (from winners)
pleather oxford shoes: thrifted

~extras~
gold locket: a gift from my cousin
grey scarf: a piece of t-shirt fabric
calculator watch: casio (from the bay)
pleather bag: winners
pleather belt: urban planet

quite quiet

2007-10-16T21:30:00.000-04:00

just peeking in to say i haven't been blogging much lately because there's just not much new or exciting to report. i'm still fighting a nasty chest infection but feeling more energetic which means i've been spending more time working in the studio. it's so funny...i often worry what will happen when i run out of ideas. but the last couple of weeks have been quite the opposite! i've got so many new ideas that i'm worrying i won't be able to get them all done in time for the show. i've also had to break down and ask paul to make me a few extra displays so i have somewhere to put the new stuff.

in other news:

* i made the yummiest roasted butternut squash & apple soup last night. it was like eating autumn in a bowl.

* i wish i had time to start a knitting project. i really want to make a cowl or the shopping tunic i posted about here.

* i've been enjoying baking cookies...made a batch of super spicy ginger & chocolate chip (so yum!) and also some (very meh) peanut butter cookies.

* i miss swimming. i can't wait to feel like myself again so i can get back to it.

* noah's hair is growing a bit shaggy and i swear he looks like a little teddy bear these days.

* only 2 more weeks left of the farmers' market. then back to (bland) grocery store produce. (sniff) besides, i'll really miss our farmer friends. they're always so nice to kim and me.

i *heart* sensible shoes