cottage = summer

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:

'bye summer

it's monday night and sadly i have to go to bed in a couple of hours because it's back to work tomorrow morning. time to become re-aquainted with the 6 am alarm clock. (grumble grumble...)

it's been an awesome two months though. probably one of my best summers yet. and although i didn't get to everything on my list, i do feel like i made the most of each day and accomplished a whole lot. i actually started to exercise on a regular basis (HUGE for me!) by swimming laps at the olympic pool closeby. i'm hoping to keep up the momentum even after going back to work by pledging to swim a couple of times a week (or more) at an indoor pool. i'm hoping that if i go straight from work, i'll actually stick with it.

so many other good things about the summer: lots of bonding with noah on walks and trips to the beach & park, reading more than i have in years, getting a crazy good start on my jewellery production for the "one of a kind show", experiencing real homemade ice-cream at ed's, lots of time with my honey on his weeks off, tuesday visits to the farmers' market and weekly tea time afterwards with kim. so much more but of course i'm forgetting it all now....

i ended my vacation today almost exactly how i started it in july. i took noah down to cherry beach for a romp on the off-leash trail and some time on the sand by the water. not quite as long as at the beginning of my summer: of course i had lots of things on my mind (getting back to work stuff) and i couldn't relax quite the same way. but it was a great way to say goodbye to my favourite season.

i took the top picture while on the trail at cherry beach this afternoon. and here's noah reluctantly sitting still amongst the tall grasses there. it's going to be a weird adjustment for him too when mommy leaves to go to work in the morning.


hope you all had a lovely labour day weekend!

thanks (and then some)

thanks, everyone for your sweet comments & emails about molly. wednesday was a really terrible day all around and hearing from friends and family over the last few days has really meant a lot to paul & i.

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paul's been on holidays all week and so we've been trying to do some real "summery" things on as much of a budget as possible. we've spent the last 3 days swimming at a really fantastic outdoor pool...perfect for beating the crazy humidity & heat!

(i borrowed the image of the lovely olympic pool we've been enjoying from here)

we finally made it over (twice!) to ed's real scoop for the yummiest homemade ice-cream and gelato. yes, we've tried both. mmm...a scoop of dark chocolate and green tea ice-cream go soooo well together!

renting movies is always a cheap way to spend the evening. we rented two this week: volver and music and lyrics.


we give volver two enthusiastic thumbs up (soooooo good!) and music and lyrics two thumbs down (paul's thumb is enthusiastically down!). we've also borrowed a bunch of movies from the library (free!). we have 2 more pedro almodovar films to see (paul reserved them after we watched volver), elizabethtown, and ohmygosh...i can't wait...49up! i'm sure i've mentioned on here before how obsessed i am with the 7up documentary series. for any toronto folks who haven't seen any of these, you must borrow them from the tpl. they have the whole series thus far.

today after swimming...and gelato...we visited the lovely library at kew gardens. such a nice branch to hang out in. i'm definitely going to go back and spend some time there before the summer is over. and while browsing there i found 3 novels that looked interesting. i figured if i took out all three at least one of them would hook me. i'm happy to report i think i've found one! but just as you can jinx a new relationship by talking about the person too much, i'm thinking i'll keep the title and details to myself so as not to jinx my new relationship with this book. if all goes well over the next few times we get together i'll reveal its identity then. ;)

my summer "to-do" list

so one of the advantages to being a teacher is the 9 week summer vacation. this is week 4 and i already feel like i've done a lot.

* had a picnic in high park with friends
* taken noah (the pooch) to cherry beach for walks on the off-leash trail
* hung out at cherry beach with a blanket, noah, and a good book (lullabies)
* read an amazing novel
* spent a whole lot of time in the studio getting ready for the winter "one of a kind show"
* spent a few days up north at my mom's
* gone thrifting at goodwill's 50% off sale
* took part in a small craft fair
* enjoyed many breakfasts & dinners on our backyard deck
* celebrated our 3rd year anniversary (today!!) by going out for dinner at the same restaurant where we had our "reception" (for lack of a better word)

there's still so much i want to do though. luckily there's still 5 and a half weeks left before i go back to work. i'm going to make a list (and probably continue to edit it as i think of other ideas) so that i don't forget. then if i need an idea of something to fill my day, i can refer back to this list.

* get out the sewing machine and alter some of the clothing i've thrifted
* keep working in the studio and get lots of stuff ready for the show
* visit allen gardens and walk through the pretty greenhouses
* spend time at the toronto reference library
* finally go and check out toronto's first "forever 21" store
* begin participating in wardrobe_remix again (once the camera is fixed)
* spend more time with friends -- invite people over to the house
* make it a habit to shop at the farmers' market each tuesday
* organize my studio desk
* go through my closet/drawers and give away bags of clothing to charity
* maybe even paint the bedroom
* go back to visit mom and swim in the lake again
* visit little galleries on queen street west
* start exercising
* go to the island

i know i'll think of more. if you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments, ok?