6 things

last week, vania tagged me to tell 6 things about myself. unfortunately, i've been too busy enjoying everyone else's answers to sit down and answer it myself. so my first tidbit probably won't surprise you one bit.

1. i'm a procrastinator. i always have been and i've come to realize i probably always will be. i don't like this side of myself and i long to be one of those people who live without stress because they are always ahead of the game. i start report cards 2 days before they're due, i leave for work with just enough time to get there, i went through university cramming for every exam, and i never get birthday cards sent to people in time for their day. (shame) i may have finally learned my lesson last month though when i waited until the week before the ooak show to buy supplies for one style of necklace. the store i rely on was sold out of the crimps i needed. i went to every bead store in the city with no luck. in the end, i had to wait until 2 days into the show to feverishly make more necklaces when the crimps finally arrived.

2. i met my husband online. i've always been really shy about meeting guys and when i went into a profession that was mostly female, i realized it would be even harder to meet someone. my friend recommended a site that had lots of artists and musicians on it. that's how paul found me! funny sidenote: on our 1st date, i found out that paul was in a band that i had been crazy about for months! an ex had made me a mixed tape with 2 of paul's band's songs on it and i listened to them over and over. everytime i came to toronto i tried to find their cd with no success. needless to say, i ended up getting a copy from the drummer himself! :)

3. like mishka and jen, i'm an only child too. well, now that my mom has re-married i have a step-brother and step-sister. but until i was in my late-20's, i had none.

4. i'm in a sloan video. many years ago, sloan shot a video at york university and my bf-at-the-time and i went. it's for the song "the lines you amend" and i'm in the audience. somehow i managed to press the pause button on the vcr at the exact right time because even though it's a close up shot of me, that's the only way i can be spotted. (it flashes by really quickly...)

5. i am the least athletic person i know. i've never been co-ordinated enough to play any kind of organized sport. in fact, i never even learned how to skip double-dutch. isn't that totally pathetic??

6. i am terrified of speaking in front of people. i never thought this was odd, until i mentioned it to friends last week and they were shocked because i teach for a living. the thing is, i'm not nervous about speaking in front of kids, it's adults that terrify me. for instance, last week i went to a 2 hour focus group to discuss the bi-election we recently had in our riding. this was a dream-come-true for me...being offered $75 to go and talk politics (heck, i'd do it for free)! of course i jumped at the chance. but sitting around the table with 9 other people reminded me of how nervous i get in these situations. the first thing we had to do was tell our name and how long we've lived in toronto...simple, right? but as soon as i opened my mouth, i felt my face turn bright red and i could barely get the words out! i was so embarrassed. luckily, as the night went on i forced myself to speak and it got easier. but i swear my face was burning red for that first half hour.

...whew, i didn't know if i was going to be able to think of 6 things to tell you about myself! everyone else's answers have been so much more interesting....

so, i'm supposed to tag some people. how about deutsch, tania, and karina?

lovely easter

hope everyone had a good long weekend! paul + i went up north to my mom's and had a super relaxing time. lots of food, laughter and good family fun.

here are some random pictures from our weekend
















1. table setting 2. doggy figurines 3. noah with my step-dad 4. pussywillows paul + i picked on a walk 5. relaxing on the couch with paul 6. our vegetarian chicken prior to slicing 7. my nephew, aaron (isn't he a cutie?)

fastest thrift score ever *

i think i've mentioned before how dangerous it is to have a goodwill strategically located beside our local grocery store. while paul picked up food for dinner on saturday i took a quick browse next door. when he came by 15 minutes later to pick me up, i found this beauty:


i know i won't be able to wear it for long, what with warmer weather coming. but for now it is the perfect spring coat. (will also work nicely for fall)

*sorry to all my flickr friends who've already seen this....

crafting for the fun of it

it's been months since i've sat down and crafted just for the fun of it. it seems like the last several months have been all about spending spare crafting time getting ready for those 2 big shows or filling orders for snazzygirl. don't get me wrong, i absolutely LOVE making my ratgirl stuff! but everyone needs some time to create for pleasure (not profit).

i bought the cutest little light blue glass leaf beads awhile back, just because i liked them so much. i knew i'd get around to using them eventually. finally last night i pulled them out along with some red + green glass beads and decided to play around a bit.




i don't think it's the greatest thing i've ever made but man, it just felt good to play!

sad computer

i'm tired of seeing this screen everytime i boot up so i ordered a new computer last night. it's nothing fancy but it will hopefully work better than what i have now.

one of a kind show hangover

oh my goodness...i am so exhausted! the one of a kind show ended yesterday after 5 crazy days. it went really well and was so much fun! (thanks so much to everyone for the well wishes on my last couple of posts.) so many friends came by to say hi. after hours and hours of talking to strangers, a friendly face is such a pick-me-up! the toronto glitter girls came by to visit and karen brought me some pocky and cookies with cute pictures on them. carla visited too and i even got to meet the lovely mishka!! now that the show is over and my life can return to normal, i can hardly wait to spend some time with all of these cool ladies!

my mom was such a trooper. not only did she open up the booth and hold down the fort while i was at my day job, but she also stayed to help once i got there, working 10 or 11-hours each day. and smiling the whole time! (thanks mom!!)


half of the fun of doing shows is trading. i totally scored the coolest piece of art made with love by candace of candi factory. i can't wait to add this to our wall of art in the studio.


and i bought this cute little hairpin made with a vintage finding


i loved watching people's reactions to these 2 charm bracelets


now i need to go sleep for a few days to recover!

one more sleep

g'bye winter!

last night paul made apple crumble to celebrate the end of winter. it was absolutely delicious and made the house smell like heaven.

we ate it while we watched grey's anatomy. i can't even tell you how much i love this show!! LOVE IT! all of the characters are so complex and interesting. (my cousin tipped me off that there's even a grey's anatomy blog!)

**
in other news, i spent my entire march break (last week) stuck inside making stuff for the spring one of a kind show. it's coming up fast...wed. march 29th to sun. apr. 2nd. i'm just a tiny bit stressed....not too bad. i feel ok during the day when i'm working on it but when i go to bed at night i toss + turn thinking of stuff i still need to do, supplies i still need to buy, new designs i should work on for the next show. i can't turn my brain off even though i'm sleepy.
anyhow, here's a peek at a little bit of what i've been doing.
(waiting to become earrings)


(soon to be charm bracelets)


i've got necklaces & hairpins too but didn't bother taking a photo.

hope everyone had a great weekend...
HAPPY SPRING!!!

looks prettier than it tasted

i made a quick dinner yesterday that i thought would be pretty promising. whole wheat pasta with tomatoes, spinach and goat cheese. i cooked a can of crushed tomatoes with oregano and italian spices and then added a bunch of spinach and cooked until wilted. i added that to whole wheat pasta, tossed and added some goat cheese on top. it was ok but definitely missing something. i should have added garlic but i was too hungry to be bothered. i might try this again but definitely spice it up a lot more. actually, portabella mushrooms might have been a nice addition....

here it is pre-goat cheese.


*update*
i solved the problem! after i heated up my leftovers at lunch, i just drizzled some "sundried tomato" salad dressing on top. it was delish!! :)

spring coming closer

sorry about my absence... i've been out sick for the last couple of weeks. finally, feeling more like myself again.

haven't done the wardrobe_remix thing over at flickr for a long time. i decided to post a recent outfit of mine and get paul in on the fun too.

grey shirt: hm
jeans: hm
belt: llbean (17 yrs ago!!)
scarf: me :)
felted-bead necklace: local crafter



cord blazer: thrifted
hoodie: thrifted
black tee: cbc shop
jeans: hm
toque: hm

if you haven't yet checked out the wardrobe_remix group at flickr, you really should. it's totally addictive.

random

Y i felt like i was coming down with another cold so last night i put 6 whole cloves of garlic in the pot of homemade soup i made. i remembered that my granny used to eat the whole garlic cloves she cooked with her cabbage rolls. she said it kept her healthy. i ate 3 whole cloves of garlic (it's yummy when it's cooked 'til soft) and i feel all better today! can't argue with a woman who lived well into her 90's!

Y this afternoon i subscribed to hello indie magazine (thanks to toronto craft alert for the heads-up)

Y report cards are done for another term! (one more term until summer vacation!!)

Y it is 5:56pm and it's still light outside....spring is around the corner

Y have you ever seen such a beautiful tattoo? (too bad i'm such a scaredy cat)

the longest winter

the julie doiron show on thursday was an absolute blast! i'm usually such a home-body, especially during the week but on thursday i didn't get home from the show until 1:30 am! needless to say i was way exhausted on friday and fell asleep immediately after work for several hours.

anyhow, back to the show... julie was just as charming and lovely as ever. she's let her hair grow really long again...almost to the length it was in her eric's trip days. she was in a great mood....talking a whole lot and saying funny and silly stuff, stream of consciousness, really. i think every person in the jam-packed basement of the drake was in love with her. she was selling some new screenprinted shirts...something she rarely ever does. i scored a pink one with red ink. so cheap...$15! makes me think she must be printing them herself.


she played lots of old stuff, took requests because she says she never plays with a set-list. people started shouting out a bunch of her songs and some guy even yelled "freebird" (does that joke ever get old?). she thought that was pretty amusing. for me, the absolute highlight of the night was when she played a cover of "shady lane" by pavement!! yes, julie played pavement! it was nothing short of brilliant.

this kind gent over at flickr said i could post one of his photos from the drake show but i couldn't get it to work for me. he has a lovely set of pics that you can see over here.

ps. if none of this means anything to you because you have no idea who this julie character is, you must must must do yourself a favour and take a listen.

v-tine booty

here are some of the things that found their way into our home for valentine's day:


pictured:

• my most favourite chocolates in the world, from js bonbons (handmade in toronto)---from paul
• the coolest v-tines card ever, a linocut print of a mixed tape that says "be mine" (didn't realize until i brought it home that it was handmade by a friend of paul's, katie muth. we're going to frame the print & hang it in our studio)
• 2 tickets to the julie doiron show for tomorrow night at the drake (eek! i'm so excited...julie is my very favourite singer/songwriter in the whole world. i've been obsessed since her eric's trip days.)

not pictured:

• 1 year subscription to toronto life magazine

hope you had a lovely valentine's day, too!

html is a meanie

you may notice i tried to organize my links over there on the sidebar. i really didn't think it would be that hard but things just aren't lining up properly. :( i'm not spending any more time on it today...it's valentines and my lack of html knowledge is making me cranky. please excuse the mess until i can figure this darn thing out. (if anyone might have a suggestion, feel free to chime in.... *deutsch, any ideas*) also, if i accidentally deleted your link or forgot to add you, please let me know. i tried to thin out my links a bit but might have gotten a bit overzealous with the eraser. xo

edited: i fixed it! i fixed it! i'm so proud...somehow i just played around with some codes and it worked!

happy valentine's day!

have a great day, everyone! now go hug someone...
xo

sicky

it seems just as i was proudly thinking how i haven't really been sick yet this winter, i went and got sick with a miserable cold. how does that happen??

i've been spending the last 2 days sleeping for hours on end on the couch and then dragging my body upstairs to sleep in bed at night. rinse and repeat the next day.

this is the medicine i have prescribed myself
(pictured: copious amounts of television, the new issue of vogue, lots of ginger tea, and toast with peanut butter)


and this is my faithful nurse

noah has been spending every minute on the couch with me, sleeping at my feet. he's been so loyal, i don't even mind when he hogs the covers. xoxo

tag!

last week both vania and jen tagged me for the "four things" meme. without further ado, here are my answers!

4 Jobs You've Had In Your Life
1) summer of gr. 12: cleaning boat launch areas (travelling to different lakes + use of gov't vehicle + 8 hr day to do a 30min job + working with friends = best job ever!)
2) retail hell at a shoe store
3) elementary school teacher (now)
4) designing / making / selling jewellery goodies (now)

4 Movies You Could Watch Over and Over
1) amelie (*swoon*)

2) lost in translation
3) the breakfast club
4) desperately seeking susan

4 TV Shows You Love to Watch
(keep in mind that i don't have cable so my choices are a bit limited)
1) grey's anatomy
2) the office
3) sex and the city
4) top model

4 Favorite Books
(i wish i read more)
1) charlotte's web

2) so many knitting & craft books! (stitch & bitch, loop-d-loop, teen knitting club / second time cool, starving artist's way)
3) catcher in the rye
4) high fidelity

4 Albums You Can't Hear Too Often
1) anything by julie doiron (but right now "goodnight nobody" in particular)

2) death cab for cutie - transatlanticism
3) christiana - fatigue kills
4) john coltrane (sorry, i don't know the name of the album)

4 Places You Have Lived
1) kirkland lake, on (my hometown)
2) guelph, on
3) mount forest, on (where i got my 1st teaching job: population 2000 ack!)
4) toronto, on

4 Places You Have Been On Vacation
1) hawaii
2) dominican republic
3) montreal
4) nova scotia

4 Websites You Visit Daily
1) blogs of friends (real-life + online)
2) bits & bobbins
3) torontoist
4) flickr

4 Of Your Favorite Foods
1) anything from my favourite veggie restaurant, simon's wok (esp. ginger fried rice and mock duck)
2) chocolate
3) my mom's home-made lebanese food
4) creme brulee


4 Places You Would Rather be Right Now
1) at the cottage we've rented for the last couple of years
2) anywhere with family
3) somewhere warm
4) taking a nap

4 People You'll Tag
i'm only going to tag my cousin, michele. if anyone else wants to give it a go, make sure you tell me so i can check out your answers! :)

we can't call it a "stitch & bitch"

i think i mentioned a little while ago that i was starting a "knitting club" at the school i work at. well, i decided to take an idea i saw in this book and have the kids make their own knitting needles.


i altered the instructions just a wee bit: instead of using dowling, we just used wooden chopsticks instead. much cheaper ($1 for a pack of 40 sets!!) and it saved the trouble of having to saw them to the correct length. the only trouble is that even after sanding and oiling, the yarn doesn't "slide" off the needles as easily as i would like. the kids don't seem to mind though. and the length of the needles is PERFECT! regular sized ones are really unwieldy for smaller ones to use comfortably. and all they needed to do was use a pencil sharpener to make the ends pointy.

fun, cheap, and diy. it doesn't get much better than that!

all the cool kids are doing it

it's voting day here in canada. even though the polls show my choice doesn't really have a chance of being the next prime minister (yet!), i still get really excited on election day. i can't wait to watch the results tonight on tv! (i guess that might sound a bit geeky.)

i've been teaching the "election" unit to the gr. 5's at school since november. it was such a perfect learning opportunity to have a real election called during the unit. today all of that culminated in a mock election.

i made a polling station just for that class, complete with yellow "election canada" signs showing where the voting was taking place. we were lucky enough to have a real polling station at our school and the nice supervisor lent me 2 cardboard barriers so the students could vote in privacy (just like the adults!). i had 2 students act as returning officers: one highlited each name on the list of voters, the other student handed out ballots. after everyone in the class had voted, we watched the real thing in action. the supervisor was really kind and allowed us to sit quietly on the stage and ask her some questions while the public came in and voted. the kids loved it!!

here's the little ballot box and ballots i made for the students with the names of the candidates in their riding.


hopefully some of those kids will still be excited to vote when they turn 18!

sensible boots

after years of grumbling through nasty winters without real boots, i finally found a pair i love. scored these vegetarian kicks at "winners" for $29! and they are soooo warm!