lovely weekend

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?

emergency fund raiser for haiti

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!

a banner weekend

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.

unseasonably warm

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.

and just like that, the weekend's over

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

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.

long weekends were made for...thrift stores!

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???

movies i've seen recently

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.

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!

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!

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.

snowed in

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.....

on the mend with a very picture-heavy post

i've been mostly absent from blogland this week because i've been home sick with the flu which annoyingly morphed into a chest infection. (cue parental concern and phonecalls to make sure i'm ok.) but i've got me some good monster-sized antibiotics to munch on and i'm officially on the mend. (so no need to panic, ok mom & dad?).

this is kind of old news now but i still want to share. paul & i were two of the thousands who attended nuit blanche last saturday eve. nuit blanche is an incredible (free!) event showcasing hundreds of installations of contemporary art around the downtown core of toronto. the most exciting part is that it is an all-night show...it starts at 7:00 saturday night and lasts until 7:00 sunday morning! it has without a doubt become my most favourite event in this city. days before paul & i print out the maps of the 3 zones and meticulously plan out all of the installations that are "must-sees". then we look forward to walking around and being surprised by what other ones we stumble upon. here are some photos from last saturday:

a giant inflatable locust


this building appeared to be filling up with water! with giant lobsters and fish inhabiting inside!


the crafty gal in me fell in love with this building covered in pink quilted fabric, crocheted doilies and 3 massive buttons sewn on the top!

people are about to be horrified when they watch the person in the video scoop water from the canal and mix it into the martini.


the knit cafe was having a fun pom-pom making party and exchange.


this woman bravely agreed to have the contents of her home moved onto the sidewalk for public display. i was incredibly concerned someone was going to walk off with some of her knitting needles or real simple magazines.


re-creation of the last supper complete with audience participation, beans & bread, serene-looking sky digitally displayed behind the table, and an audio track of chirping birds!


slow-dancing with a teacher (random people were asked to "slow dance" with a teacher behind velvet ropes)

i even spotted jian ghomeshi dancing with a teacher!

oh my...a massive disaster in the middle of the university of toronto campus!


and a funny japanese video installation about falling in love.


whew...we saw a lot considering we were only out from 8:00pm until 2:00am. and the crazy thing is that we saw even more than what i've shown you...

needless to say, sunday was filled with naps!