chained to the studio

nah, not really but i have been spending a crazy amount of time in here. good thing i love what i do otherwise it would actually be work!

with october almost here, i'm starting to feel a teensy bit of panic about how much stuff i still have to make before the one of a kind show (at the end of november).

in other ratgirl news, i spent the weekend putting together a brand new order for snazzygirl and all those goodies got shipped out this afternoon. putting the order together is a breeze, it's the photographing, photoshopping, and writing of the descriptions that is kind of hard for me. luckily my honey helped me with the photographing. (thanks, paul!) xoxo

here's a tiny peek at a couple of the items that will be going up on snazzygirl very soon:



*****
edit: hey, the new stock is already up on the website!! and i also suggested that most of the old stock be put on super-duper discount and looks like that's already done that too! go check it out...

i left my heart in 1994

i've borrowed the above image from tony dawe over on flickr. it was taken during sappyfest in august but i figure it's close enough.

saturday night was the eric's trip show at lee's palace. for those unfamiliar with them, they were (are?) a canadian band from moncton n.b. who were around during the early 90's but broke up in 1996. they're also without a doubt, my most favourite band of all time! the last time they reunited was in 2001 and i saw them play in london, ontario and also in toronto. i've been patiently waiting for this show since i found out about it in early august. saturday's show definitely did not disappoint!

highlights:
-julie clearly having a blast on the drums during the opening act
-rick starting his solo set with "behind the garage"...so amazing...just him and his acoustic guitar
-julie joining rick onstage for the last song of his set "allergic to love" and then they had the sweetest hug onstage afterwards.
-an incredible set of all of their very best stuff...i swear i haven't danced & jumped around like that at a show for a very long time! (a sidenote: i think the swimming i've been doing is helping. i didn't feel winded afterwards at all.)
-a fabulous encore including one of my favourite songs, "red haired girl"

on our way out of the show i saw carla making her way through the crowd. i wish i'd known she'd be there. anyhow, we've been exchanging our favourite moments over facebook for the last couple of days. perhaps she'll have more to add...

click here if you want to listen to some of their music. note: you'll have to click on the songs to hear them...what you hear when you go to that page is not eric's trip, it's the website's streaming audio.

lately:

reading:


listening to:


desperately hunting for:
thick & chunky charcoal grey tights (so elusive i can't even find a picture of them with a google image search!) EDIT: sorry, i meant to say thick & chunky cable-knit tights in charcoal grey. it's the cable-knit part that i'm having trouble finding. please let me know if you find some....

making a million of:


excited about:


delighted by:
inside a black apple

thinking about:
baking peanut butter & chocolate chip cookies

last weekend...

on saturday we went to the vegetarian food fair down at harbourfront. we've missed the last couple of years because the first weekend in september is traditionally packed with festivals all over the city. it was good to get back there and see what's new in fake meat technology. i sampled some especially yummy dried soy jerky.

here's a little photo collage i put together from the food fair. sorry, the pictures are a little on the small side... (click on it to enlarge)


TOP: 1. big woks 2. little veggie dog 3. sarah kramer, cookbook author extraordinaire
MIDDLE: 4. a most delicious feast
BOTTOM: 5. dressed as a pea 6. pink sky 7. breakdancers

'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!

random food stuff...and other random stuff too

i know this isn't supposed to be a food blog, but i guess since it's a general whatever kind of blog, i can post about food once in awhile, right? and since i haven't been doing much other than swimming and gearing up to go back to work on tuesday i don't really have anything else to post about right now anyway.

ok, so first here's a picture of some really pretty eggplant that i spotted at the farmers' market last tuesday.

and today i ventured over to the brand new t&t supermarket in the portlands district. it's a big asian supermarket that just opened up a week or two ago. it was busy busy!!


i went in search of dulp pock. dulp pock is a type of tofu that is soft and pillowy and light as air. i think it's probably been deep-fried prior to being packaged but let's just forget about that ok? i haven't had it since i lived in guelph about 5 years ago. i'm happy to report that t&t didn't disappoint me! i found about 5 different kinds.

tonight we had steamed beans and roasted mini-potatoes (both from tuesday's market visit) and dulp pock smothered in president's choice szechuan peanut sauce. oh my! it was UNBELIEVABLE! the best part was the crunchy bits where the sauce carmelized.

***
other random stuff:
on friday, paul & i went to see the square foot show at awol gallery. we were amazed at how many pieces there were in the show. lots of fun eye candy there! wish i had brought my camera...i didn't think they'd let us take pictures.

also on friday, i was driving home after dropping paul off at his band's practice space and i saw george stroumboulopoulos driving an s.u.v. i know...i was sad he was driving a gas-guzzler too.

and the lovely wendy has named me a rockin' girl blogger! thanks, wendy! i guess i'm supposed to nominate 4 or 5 more people? this is hard...i don't like leaving people out. i think i'll just quietly email the people and let them know. is that allowed? i know...i'm so bad at these tagging things.

eating healthy & not so much...

tonight i felt like putting some effort into our meal, a feeling i haven't experienced much this summer. i went to the grocery store and picked up the ingredients for a light lebanese meal: tabouli, hummus, pita, and olives.

i made the tabouli and hummus from scratch, using freshly picked parsley and mint from our garden for our salad. the pita is store bought and the olives were a nice treat from olive bar at loblaws.

tonight's fairly healthy meal might help make up for our sinful dinner last thursday when paul & i indulged in our tradition of a summer meal at lick's. mmmmm...nature burger (a veggieburger that tastes a lot like meat) with lots of "guk" sauce and french fries. it was sooooo yummy! and very fried.

***
looking forward to getting fresh corn on the cob and peaches at the farmers' market tomorrow!

busy busy

sorry, i don't mean to be so quiet this week. it's just that my life hasn't been terribly exciting. it has pretty much revolved around sitting at my desk and working working working! i've seriously gotten so much done...i feel pretty good about it. but that feeling lasts for about 35 seconds and then i remember that it's nowhere near enough. i still have SO MUCH left to do. btw: for those new around here (hi! it's lovely to see so many new faces!!) i'm doing all this work in preparation for the one of a kind show that starts at the end of november and runs for 11 days. it's pretty intense (the prep and the show itself).

i just remembered that i sort of took that hiatus from the blog around the ooak last year. i don't think i posted a picture of my booth. let me see if i can find it on my computer.... found it!

and here's a teensy peek at what i've been doing this week. this might look like a lot of charms but it's only one batch of several that i've finished up in the last few days. i hand-draw every single charm individually. these will eventually become hairpins and earrings.

i'm waiting to take a picture of all of the charms in my little supply box when each compartment is filled up. here's a little sneak peek:

*****
i'm off to my mom's on saturday so i'm going to say "have a good weekend" now.

have a good weekend!

weekend in little india

many torontonians agree that the opening of the CNE signals the ending of summer. well for me, that signal comes with the annual weekend festival in little india and that took place this past weekend. it's a total feast for the senses...bollywood-style and more traditional south asian music blaring, tables of food lining both sides of the street, and the most vibrantly coloured sarees and fabric set up on the sidewalk to tempt buyers inside the store. i couldn't resist and bought 3 beautiful scarves: hot pink, emerald green, and sunny yellow...how could i pass up the deal? 3 for $10! i think they'll add a dash of colour on those occasional days when i end up wearing all black.

anyhow, here are some pictures from the weekend.

fun days and just regular ol' days

yesterday was a fun day.

after lunch i picked up my new friend, kim, and we went to the farmers' market together. even though we got there a bit late there were still some yummy fruit & veggies to be bought and sampled. most importantly, there were yellow watermelons still left. ever since paul & i finished up the yellow watermelon from last week i've been dreaming of getting another. it is without a doubt, the sweetest & juiciest watermelon i've had since i was a kid.
(isn't it pretty?)

after the market kim & i went for tea at a neighbourhood cafe that i really like. i had no idea it even existed until she introduced me to it at the beginning of the summer. i had the yummiest iced tea that was some fancy exotic blend i can't even remember and then we just sat and chatted for hmmm...a couple of hours i think! kim is so sweet and funny and tells the best stories ever! it was so nice to just hang out and forget about the work waiting for me at home...

last night i was very excited to watch madonna's documentary i'm going to tell you a secret which was actually being shown on one of the 11 channels we get. i've been a huge madonna fan since i was in grade 7 and had posters and magazine pages of her plastered all over my bedroom walls. at the risk of dating myself, i was in grade 7 back in this era of madonna.

i haven't bought one of her albums since the early '90s but i'm still totally fascinated by her. the documentary was really entertaining but the parts where she tried to be deep & spiritual didn't seem quite right. i don't know how else to explain it. maybe a bit fake? (sorry, madonna!)

anyhow, after a pretty great day yesterday today was just a regular ol' day filled with lots and lots of errands. the best i can say about it is that i feel like i at least accomplished quite a bit.

i hate to say it but i'm actually hoping for rain tomorrow so i don't feel too guilty about working in the studio all day.

biggest excitement for tomorrow: picking up the 5 books waiting for me at the library.

when gardening goes wrong

our first foray into vegetable gardening this summer has been mostly successful. we had a lovely crop of zucchini (in fact, we ate one tonight!), many cherry tomatoes, and oodles of mint/basil/chives. our cucumbers...meh. kinda small and misshapen. the sweetpeas? not so much. but nothing.... NOTHING... compares to our carrots.

(WARNING: if grossly mutant vegetables ick you out, you may want to move along...)


people, we have about 30 of these things planted in our garden and so far the 4 or so we've pulled have all looked like this! the only reasons i can come up with are: 1) we planted them too close together and 2) our soil is pretty much pure clay and it hardens like crazy when it dries out.

i can just imagine those poor wittle carrots trying to bust down into the soil and basically being confronted with concrete-like conditions. they didn't have a chance.

anyone wanna join us for sugar-glazed frankencarrots???

it's monday

goodies in the mail from my cousin & her hubby.


productive time in the studio.


bellyrubs on the beach.

all in all, a pretty good start to the week!

tomorrow's the big day!

something really exciting is happening on saturday. my incredibly talented cousin, michele, is directing her very first play and it opens tomorrow evening in los angeles. you can't even imagine how thrilled i am for her!

good luck, sweetie! the whole family is so proud of you! i wish we could be there but you'll be in our thoughts.

xoxo

finished.

i can finally reveal my latest read since i just finished it about 5 minutes ago. it is 13 by mary-lou zeitoun. it was another fantastic story about a troubled young teen, in some ways similar to the main character in lullabies for little criminals but in some ways quite different as well.

i hadn't heard of this book or the author before reading it...just found it by perusing the fiction shelves at the library. i still don't know anything about the author and am looking forward to googling her after i post this. just like after i finished lullabies, i feel like i need to find out everything i can about her. i hope she has another book out but from the limited search i did last night i don't think she does.

i have 2 more possible reads from my browsing at the library on saturday. fingers crossed at least one of them is as addictive as these last 2 have been...

***
edit: thanks to chelebele for reminding me to tell you: this "13" is totally not the same story as the movie "13" which was also about a troubled teenager. the novel "13" actually takes place in ottawa and the main character is more "angst-y" than troubled, rebelling against her parents and catholic school upbringing.

fun times at 6:30am

once again i'm up with the sun. it feels good, actually. i seem to get so much accomplished these days unlike last summer when i got out of bed around 10:00am most days.

so going through my bloglines this morning i found a new post from the vintage society blog. she showed off a cute little fall outfit she put together using polyvore. this website is almost like playing dress-up!

here's what i put together this morning:


the docs may seem like an odd choice with all the fashion-forward choices on the website but i needed something to try and cover up the boots that came with the tights i chose. and besides, i sort of fell in love all over again with my old docs in the springtime. they're one of the few things i still have around from my leather-buying days. anyhow, i liked the bit of edge they gave to the dress.

anyhow, have fun playing around but be warned...it could become a little addictive!

i luv farmers

i was an early riser again today. 7:00am. why is it so easy to wake up bright and early when i'm on vacation but as soon as i have to go back to work i drag my sorry ass out of bed only after two alarms have gone off?

today i was motivated by the farmers' market. what a great way to start the day...shopping for fresh, local produce and handing your money directly to the farmer who grew it all!

i was so excited by all of the lovely fruits & veggies that i went a little crazy. i'm most excited by the corn on the cob (because i loooove corn on the cob), the strawberries (because i thought the ontario season was over so it was a lovely surprise!), and the yellow watermelon (because the woman gave me a sample and it was the sweetest melon i'd ever tasted!)

after the market, i drove out to mississauga to pick up my camera that was finally fixed. i'm so happy to have it again!

on to the grocery store to pick up a few groceries for the week.

back home for a quick lunch.

then to the dog park to take noah for a walk.


he had a fun time running about and sniffing just about every square inch of the grass. he didn't want to sit still for a photo so the picture is a little fuzzy but i like it because it looks like he's laughing.

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.

***
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. ;)

saying goodbye

we'll miss your squeaks that came out of nowhere.
we'll miss the way you reminded us it was dinnertime.
we'll miss your purrs when we pet you.
we'll miss the way you raised your head when we rubbed your cheeks.
we'll miss taking you outside to munch on grass in the backyard.
we'll miss watching noah give you kisses and you barely tolerating them.
we'll miss your fiesty little attitude.
we'll miss your crazy bedhead.
we'll miss the way your ears turned bright pink when you were really happy.
we'll miss the way you lifted your head up when we called your name.
we'll miss all of your little nicknames: mollywog, booboo, babygirl
we'll miss our little molly.

we're just happy that we got to spend five and a half years with you.
so many funny memories. you were quite a character, miss molly.

an open letter to haven kimmel

dear haven,

a week or so ago, i borrowed your book a girl named zippy from the library after searching online for hours for my next book to read. it had good reviews and i remember eyeing that awesome cover everytime i walked into a local bookstore. i was so excited to finally dig into it!

you're a great writer...so witty and with a kind of subtle humour. i liked the book right away. but then i came to the part about the baby pig...and then your pet chicken...and your hamster...and the bunny. i tried to overlook it and just move on but today the bunny situation was all i could take. i'm sad to say i'm parting ways with you here on page 71.

i see on amazon that you have a few more books out and i'll probably give them a try later on. i just think we need some time apart right now.

best,
-krissy

happy accidents

last night paul & i finally decided to take a trip over to ed's real scoop because ed's is supposed to be one of the best ice-cream spots in the city, as everything is hand-made at their shop. after reading online that they had a "creme brulee" flavour i had to get some. as we got closer to the neighbourhood, we realized it was the jazz festival and there was no way we were even going to get close to ed's among that chaos. change of plans and we headed over to the film buff for some of their ice-cream instead. it was still good and satisfied the craving.

after running a couple of errands we happened upon an art opening at a tiny new gallery. we couldn't help but go check it out because it looked totally intriguing from the street. we could see little colourful objects all over the walls instead of the typical paintings or photographs.

this show was just too amazing and we were so excited that we stumbled upon it! the artist is named lauri lynnxe murphy and she's from denver. she's also incredibly sweet and we had a great time chatting with her. the current exhibit features her beautiful mini-collages encased in resin. they are so lovely! lots of vibrant colours. some of her other resin pieces were opaque and had been painted and some were decoupaged. really wonderful work with a crafty feel. take a look:

kitchenette



egg



stir


15 minutes


toronto peeps, you should definitely get out to see this...

brayham contemporary art
1270 queen st. east
runs until september 2nd