weekend in the city

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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?

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

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!

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

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?

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!!!

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

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

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!

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!!