before a nap

i'm a bit sleepy today. i think i stayed up a bit too late. i got up early again and drove paul to work because he had way too much stuff to bring with him to take it all on his bike or on ttc. it was the perfect opportunity to head to queen west and pick up a few supplies to try out a new earring design i've been dreaming up.

noah won't stay out of the neighbour's yard and it's driving me crazy.

oh yeah, and our 3rd & 4th zucchinis are almost ready to be picked.

here are a few more outfits i fell in love with on facehunter yesterday. i find these "street style" sites so inspirational.









now if i can convince noah to give me some room on the couch, i'm going to take a catnap.

facehunter.com

another productive day today! i was up at 7:30am and managed to get a bunch of errands done and still have time to bake up a whole bunch of shrinkies. i think they will probably become stud earrings. i also gave them all a coat of finish and will do the 2nd coat tomorrow. i love seeing them all lined up in neat colour-coded rows while they dry. unfortunately, you'll just have to use your imagination for now...

so with the camera still in the shop, i have to find things to blog about that can include pictures from the web. somehow i was led to facehunter tonight while looking through one of my contact's pics on flickr. what a great discovery! it's another one of those street style websites like wardrobe_remix or hel looks (although there are a million of them out there now).

here are 4 of my favourites from tonight's perusing (in no particular order):
i love the ruffles and little wicker case.



i'm a sucker for a red dress and those tennis-ball-sized beads are such fun!



trapeze dresses are so cute and the big ladybug applique is adorable.



i plan on continuing to build my collection of coloured tights this fall/winter and i'd love a pair in this electric shade.


i'll have 4 more pictures to share tomorrow...

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?

so, i guess i'm back

hi everyone! sorry to have slipped off the face of the internets for darn close to a year. i don't really have a good reason for my absence except to say that i just wasn't "feeling it". i wish i had a better explanation but i don't. however, i did have a feeling i'd be back eventually which is why i didn't make an official "goodbye" post. so here i am!

i won't bore you with what i've been doing for the last 295 days or so mainly because i can't really think of anything in particular. but i expect i will be sharing what i'm up to this summer in upcoming entries. unfortunately, my camera is at the nikon hospital and won't be coming back for a few more weeks yet, so most of my photos will be of stuff i can find online for now.

which leads me to the perfect opportunity to tell you about the most incredible book i finished about a week ago. it's called lullabies for little criminals by heather o'neill.

carla warned me it was sad and she was right, but it is so beautifully written. there were many times when i just couldn't put this book down. and even though i finished it about a week ago, i can't stop thinking about it. the story has really stayed with me. highly recommended if you're looking for a new read to dive into.

now i've started reading a girl named zippy: growing up small in mooreland indiana which is pretty good. it started off really funny but then there was a chapter i wasn't so keen on involving a baby pig. i'm going to stick with it though and see if i go back to enjoying it as much as i did at the beginning. i thought it started off with a david sedaris kind of vibe.


if you have any good book recommendations, please leave them in the comments section. i'd love to have more to add to my "to read" list.

ps. while i was gone, blogger messed with some cogs and gears---if you previously subscribed to my blog you probably won't get updates unless you re-subscribe. sorry for the annoyance.

this is totally just a test

just testing a new way to add pictures to this here blog...

(btw: this image came from Liana Kabel's awesome etsy shop)


...getting ready to jump into the blogosphere again!

quick post....

i know i said i wouldn't be around for awhile, but it's such a rare occasion that i'm crafty (other than my ratgirl stuff, i mean) that i thought i should post this.

paul & i went to a wedding on saturday and i needed a necklace to go with the dress i was wearing. i knew exactly what i wanted to make and luckily i had everything i needed on hand.


the coolest part: every single bit and piece came from my collection of odds & ends from thrifted jewellery. here's the story....my brother-in-law is as much of a thrifting junkie as i am but he goes to value village and buys those "junk bags" of miscellaneous jewellery looking for gold, diamonds and expensive watches that they've thrown in there (not knowing these things were worth $$). but then he's left with piles and piles of "junk" jewellery that he has no use for. well, he collected all of his castoffs over the years and handed them over to me knowing i could probably make something from it all.

after acquiring about 7 or 8 massive shopping bags of the stuff this summer, i went through it all and sorted everything i could use into ziploc baggies. now i have a little suitcase full of these great treasures just waiting to be deconstructed and turned into fun trinkets!

that necklace is the first piece of jewellery i've made from my windfall of "junk"! hopefully when life slows down, i'll be able to devote some time to crafting up more.

this is a picture i took in the summer after sifting through all of the bags. it shows everything i kept.


ok, back into hiding....
;)

hey folks,
just clearing away the cobwebs long enough to duck in and let you all know i have to continue my break from blogland for awhile longer. life has become so crazy and i kept (foolishly) telling myself i'd update my blog tomorrow, and tomorrow turned into a week, which turned into a month, and so on.

today i realized it's just not going to happen anytime soon. probably not until things slow down in december. :(

i've been in full-on "one of a kind show" craft show mode since september. for those of you in the t-dot, i'm sure you understand the pressure. for those that aren't familiar with this show, it's huge (750+ vendors, 12 hours a day for 10 days straight). i have to make sooooooo muuuuuchh stuffffff!

here's a little peek at the madness (pre-baking)

it's weird, it doesn't look like much but there are approximately 500 pieces all hand-drawn and coloured. the scary thing is that i have a lot left to make. can you say "carpal tunnel"?

back to the sweatshop....

take care, everyone!
krissy xo

ratgirl update

i spent the week before the cottage putting together a big order for snazzygirl and photographing it all. you can take a peek at all of the new goodies over here.

cottage life

last week was our vacation up at the cottage. well, not our cottage (i wish!). it actually belongs to an ex-coworker of paul's. she and her husband have generously allowed us to borrow it for a week for the last 3 summers (paul traded a painting of their dog for the use of the cottage.) in fact, we went there for the first time on our honeymoon!

once again this year, our friends frederica and jim came to spend a few days with us. so much fun even though the weather wasn't great for the days they were there.

over the week we......

had a campfire (i love the smell!)


roasted vegan marshmallows and made s'mores!!! (omg, they were decadent!!)


canoed to a bakery across the lake...yes, a bakery at the lake!!

paul at the bakery


i knit up a pair of arm warmers


swam in the (cold) lake


we ate our dinners by candlelight


watched noah have the time of his life (chasing frogs, rolling in the dirt, sniffing all the plants, running around outside all day!)


and saw the most beautiful sunset on our last night there


a relaxing and lovely time, indeed! (sigh...)

gone swimming....

tomorrow morning paul and i head up north to spend the week at a cottage we've borrowed for the last few years. i can't wait to get there and just relax by the water and swim away the day. it's the perfect cottage for relaxing too...no tv or computer so no distractions from being outdoors!

i'm also hoping to do a bit of knitting while i'm there, since i've done that the previous 2 years we were there. other things i'm looking forward to: catching up on some magazines (the latest toronto life and toronto fashion arrived last week!) and eat, eat, eat! i'm especially excited about roasting vegetarian marshmallows over a campfire! i bought them last month when i was in nyc for this exact reason!

my only worry...how am i going to live without rockstar supernova for a week??? ack!

have a good week, everyone!
xo krissy

an afternoon with warhol and a raw deal for dinner

paul recently wrote out a big list of things we want to do and places we want to go before the end of summer. on saturday we did a couple of things from the list.

we started out by going to see the andy warhol exhibit at the art gallery of ontario. it was curated by david cronenberg and he narrated the audio tour (on the handheld set) as well. while the show was a bit smaller than we expected, it was quite good. there were quite a few pieces i'd never seen before, including a few i'd never even heard of (like "tunafish disaster"). while i wish it had been a larger exhibit, i did like how the pieces were put together...which ones were chosen to be beside each other. and the audio tour was excellent! i highly recommend picking up the (free) listening set if you go.

after the gallery, we just walked along queen street a bit and popped into caban, which is going out of business. unfortunately, 20% off of a $200 duvet cover = still too rich for my blood.

then we headed up to our old neighbourhood...the annex...around dupont and spadina to check out a restaurant we've been meaning to try for years! it's a raw food restaurant called "live". being such sad sacks, we didn't even go when we lived a 10 minute walk away.

as we stepped inside we were very excited! the inside decor is really lovely...exposed brick and linoleum floor tiles that look exactly like grass and leaves!


paul chose the artichoke dish and i had the raw combo plate.




our only complaint: we were shocked by how tiny the portions were! paul's entree had 3 artichoke hearts, a sliced tomato and a palm-sized amount of salad. honestly, this should have been an appetizer. 3 artichoke hearts! $11!!

my dish was only slightly larger. however it contained mainly salad with just a bit of a few other dishes, including one stuffed mushroom cap. one! $14!

now i should say, the food was delicious and the woman who served us could not have been nicer. we enjoyed everything about the restaurant except for the fact that we paid a ridiculous amount of money for appetizers disguised as entrees.

needless to say, i was STARVING after dinner. we headed straight to bloor street where we sat down in the park so i could enjoy my real dinner: french fries from chippy's.


consider yourself warned, my fellow toronto friends!

this is where i type some cheesy saying like "hair today, gone tomorrow"

a major transformation happened this afternoon!

BEFORE


AFTER


woohoo!!!

scissors and sewing

after watching my curbside found sewing machine collect dust for years,i finally went online to see if i could find instructions on how to thread it. i did...and then i stayed up until 3:00am playing around trying to construct a make-up bag.


i even tried lining it (with the same fabric because that's all i had). please excuse the red thread.


the most frustrating part of the whole project was using the dullest scissors imaginable, made that way by my darling husband who uses them for cutting paper. so last night while cooking dinner, i heard the familiar "clang clang clang" of the bell announcing the arrival of the scissor sharpening man making his way up the street! i ran outside and waved him down while i ran to get my scissors.




now this is a different guy than the one i posted about earlier. we have at least 3 of these businesses who visit our street on occasion. i can't explain it...the old-fashioned quaintness of this service makes me so happpy!

and so do my newly sharpened scissors!

birthday boy

today was noah's 4th birthday. we lit 4 candles and stuck them in half of a veggie hotdog for him.

we slip closer and closer to becoming crazy dog people.

last day in new york

sadly, saturday was our last day in new york. although we got a bit of a late start (see the drunken picture in the last post), we still made the most of the day.

we started with a lovely lunch in bryant park. i had the yummiest sandwich: chopped chickpeas, kalamata olives, fresh parsley, and preserved lemon on thick slices of bread. delish!


i have to share some photos we took of bryant park and maybe you'll get a little idea of why we fell in love with this place. i swear it was like an enchanted forest in the middle of the city!!








after lunch we walked over to the biggest public library i've ever seen in my life. it's actually located right behind bryant park. we got sidetracked on our way there when we saw some amazing breakdancers performing on the sidewalk. they were so much fun!!

look closely, one of them is actually flipping over the 3 that are bent over.


then on to the library. if you have been reading my blog for awhile you might know about my love affair with libraries. hence, my reaction when i saw this one:

inside was even more beautiful!






from there, we walked over to h&m. my cousin, michele lives in l.a. and for some strange reason they still don't have this store out there. so while she shopped, i headed over to kinokuniya, a japanese bookstore i found after stopping a man on the street who was carrying a bag from there. i was absolutely overwhelmed with the crafty books and i almost had a bit of a melt-down, unable to decide on which one to get. i finally chose a fashion book that i think will be great inspiration and eye-candy. here i am after the victorious purchase!


now you may recall me saying our only mission for new york city was to eat our way through it. so of course for our last night there, we wanted to do up dinner in style. we subwayed it over to greenwich village with the intention to eat at vegetarian paradise. (it was closed due to a gas leak so we went a few doors down to red bamboo). little did we know we would be waiting for 2 hours to get a table there!!! while we were in the neighbourhood we.....

spotted a cute dog outside the grey dog cafe


drooled over baked goods


snapped a quick picture in front of sarah jessica's house


finally got a table at red bamboo and had a fake meat extravaganza! best of all were the cajun "shrimp".


just like every other night, we walked around the city for hours taking everything in. i had a happy/sad moment when i finally found magnolia bakery (made famous in "sex and the city"). happy because i had no idea where it was and couldn't believe my luck for stumbling on it. sad because even though it was midnight there were at least 40 people lined up around the corner to get in. (i didn't have the patience to wait in line....)


after we got back to the hotel, we all collapsed into our beds. 4 days of walking about 10 hours a day finally caught up with us.

the next morning, we took a taxi to the airport and blew a kiss to manhattan as we crossed the bridge. :(

words cannot describe how incredible this vacation was. i think it had special significance for me because i'm not much of a traveller. to actually get my butt on a plane (huge step!!!) and be able to explore the city with my cousin, her husband and paul was wonderful! so many great moments and "forever memories".

new york, you haven't seen the last of me! :)