Mail Bag #2 and some sentimentality to boot.

I got so many treats in the mail this week, including this dried flowers print from Erin which is just so beautiful. I remember seeing it for the on her website when I first got to know her and often coming back to look at it. Those colours! I'm going to look for a frame for it this weekend, along with a few others for some other prints I've been meaning to hang. Like this lovely Lizzy Stewart print I snapped up during the ML4U Gulf Fundraiser that also arrived today. I'm completely smitten with it, and all of her work actually. Aside from some of the bigger pieces that went quickly/I couldn't afford, this was the one piece I really wanted to get from the sale but when I first put it in my cart it let me know that someone else was in the process of buying it! Argh, so I just waited it out in case they changed their mind and eventually after about an hour or so of waiting it was mine.

It is so stunning in person, although unfortunately my postie is apparently unfamiliar with the 'do not bend: art print inside' concept. Nothing too bad though, and it should definitely smooth out when I frame it. She also sent note with the print on the back of this card to which Richard and I both exclaimed 'There's us!' when we saw it.

I think I mentioned that one of the things I found the hardest about taking a media break was the feeling of 'I! Am! Missing! Out!', which I did not like one bit. Of course though, the very task of trying to not ever miss out is exactly why the internet can become so totally overwhelming in the first place. This week being back online has made me realise that what I really truly missed was my friends. So much more so than the new hilarious cat video (speaking of, I've watched this and died laughing way too many times this week), political scandal or new fashion must have is the joy of virtually squealing, sighing or laughing about it with friends. It's both amazing and somehow totally normal to me that I would plan to meet up for drinks with or stay at the house of someone I've cultivated a friendship with online, and I actually consider myself really lucky to have that. I absolutely did not see the point of Twitter when I first heard of it, but now it has become a way of surrounding myself with all the people I love and who inspire me. Working from home means it's like having all these fantastic hand-picked co-workers right at your fingertips. I love it. As great and as valuable as unplugging was, so much so that I will most definitely do it again, I am very grateful that plugging in has brought me amazing friends who send me lovely things (of course not the only reason Erin is a favourite, that she is an all around lovely gal and makes me laugh a lot is pretty high up there, too), the opportunity to take part in meaningful collaborative efforts, the chance to be exposed to amazing art and creativity and just generally opened up all sorts of wonderful connections.

Haha, I just realised how sentimental I am sounding, and also like I've just discovered the wonderful world wide web. But, I'm sure you all understand what I'm saying! As always, thank you for reading this little blog 'o mine, I am so grateful to be able to get to know each and every one of you!

Happy Weekend, friends!

xo

Just quickly...

Just a quick note to say that the wooden bunting photo shoot went really, really well yesterday. I am so happy with the results and can't wait to share them all with you! Maya really was the best model, and I couldn't be happier with how the dress worked in the photos. Once we were done shooting we sat around drinking tea and eating raspberry crumb cake with the sun streaming in. Not a bad day at all!

Resolution Two: Community

I feel a little cheesy posting a wedding photo, but it is such a favourite shot of my bff's and I! (Why yes, I did just say bff's, for realz)

First of all, I want to say a huge thank you to all of you who commented on my last post! It was so great hearing from you all, discovering new people (and new blogs!), hearing how we're often all feeling the same, and just generally hearing an 'answer' come back, if that makes sense. Thank you, thank you!

If someone where to ask me if I was an introvert or extrovert, I would definitely say introvert. I love nights in, a real homebody at heart, and was pretty shy as a kid (ok, aside from the time I did a dance to C&C Music Factory's 'Everybody Dance Now' in front of the class, alone. Or the La Bamba debacle, but those were most definitely the exceptions to the rule) and would even have a hard time going into stores on my own as a young teen.

On the flipside, something I've noticed more and more recently is how I thrive off community. Being with others, especially like minded others is something that really invigorates me. Lately I've been trying to make an effort to bust out of my little hermit shell and head out to events, get togethers, parties and the like, that I'm invited to because I always end up loving it, despite often feeling nervous and full of self doubt on the way there (ok, and sometimes it's also despite the fact that I just didn't want to get out from under the quilts...I actually think this could be part of the reason I love twitter so much, I can be at the party and still in my pj's at the same time).

This time of year is one of the hardest times to be away from home, not so much because of the holidays, but because it's summer back there. Logging onto Facebook and seeing photos of all my favourite people, together, on some fantastic camping trip or beautiful beach totally pulls on my heart. Like any big city, Vancouver can be a tricky place to meet new people and make friends. Plus, how do you even do that once you're a grown up? I constantly say this to myself, "Oh, it's such a transient city" and while this isn't untrue, the fact that I don't put myself out there isn't helping either. Besides, I've met tons of very lovely people, and now it comes down to fostering those friendships and building community. So, I've decided that this is the year that I say yes to parties and get togethers, to take a class or two and to ask the fun people I've met both in real life and online out for tea dates. Eep! It both scares and excites me.

What about you, lovelies? Is this something you struggle with also, or are you more the life of the party type?

With community building and connecting in mind, I've added Disqus to the blog, which is why the comments section may look a little funny. For awhile now I've wanted to be able to reply directly to your comments, and build a bit more of a dialogue, which this allows me to do. I'm excited for all the virtual tea dates that might take place, so we can hang out whether you're in Vancouver or not!

p.s. One more thing! The very lovely Tara over at Scoutie Girl has a piece up where I talk about how everything old is new again and give some tips on vintage hunting. Go take a peek!

Rested and relaxed

Our weekend away was so, so good. Lovely and mellow, filled with friends, good conversation, delicious foods and lots of cuddles from crazy cute wee ones. We've both come home feeling so relaxed and just generally full of goodness. We spent the weekend really just hanging out with our friends, going antiquing, eating veggies direct from their garden and the like. It's amazing how enriching and refreshing spending time with like minded people can be. I've come home feeling so much more content and focused than when I left. Julie is such a kindred spirit (we're both big Anne of Green Gables fans...), and it was really nice just to soak that up.

I have a full day off tomorrow, which excites me to no end, and so I plan to put this house in order. Fall is almost completely here and I feel a nesting bug coming on.

I hope you are all well where you are!

xo

Here I am!

Hello! This is just a quick note to let you know that I'm still alive and have not in fact drowned in embroidery hoops and chalkboard paint. Thank you all so much for your well wishes on my last sicky post. It was pretty rough but we're all doing much better here healthwise. It has been a rather long and stressful week though, but we got our orders done and delivered in the nick of time, and I must admit I felt rather proud of all our hard work when I saw it all sitting there in the store today. This is the biggest batch of products we've made in one go so far, and it was definitely tough at times. One of the hardest parts I find about making for a living, or working for yourself in general, is that so much of it is figuring things out along the way. Mistakes are made, systems are figured out, shortcuts are tempting. We literally make almost everything by hand just the two of us, including cutting out the circles of wood for the hoop chalkboards, so when paint gets smudged or things don't fit right, there is only us to fix that. We've decided that we really need a) an extra room and b) to put some good, written down, organisational systems in place ( I really love the idea of being organised, and I love the planning to get organised....its just the being organised that has never been my strong suit) in order to keep this enjoyable and as low stress as possible for us. If anyone has any handy dandy organising tips, they'd be much appreciated!

In other news, our house is absolutely insanely messy. Out.of.control. It makes me tired just looking at it, but tidying must happen sooner rather than later. We're flying out to Edmonton this Friday to visit one of my favourite ladies and I so very, very excited! I think a mini-break will do us both good, and the idea of shopping, eating out and going to see Julie and Julia excites me to no end. This does mean we need to get our house spick and span so as to not terrify our cat minder while we're gone. Sadly there are no plants for her to water save for that pretty miniature rose bush as our balcony garden is no more. It turns out that while its large size is great for accommodating lots of plants, the fact that its a giant slab of concrete meant it turned into a big hot plate during our heatwave awhile back. That combined with a kitten who thinks the whole world is a litter box and some corn and zucchini loving squirrels has not boded well for our little garden. I'm determined to bring it back though after seeing broccoli and cauliflower seedlings on sale at the store this week...

Alright lovelies, I really should start trying to put this house in some kind of order. I promise to be back soon a little less tired, a little more cheery and with a to-do list that says September and not July.

xo

Happy Birthday to us!

It is my one year blogiversary today! Like I mentioned yesterday, I very nearly missed it as I was pretty sure that it was on Saturday for some reason. I celebrated with a little slice of lemon tart (my favourite!) and some new notebooks from Yoko Yaya (partly because I can't help myself) which are too cute and funny. I love that one says 'When you wish to share what's deep in your heart'. Exactly what a notebook is for!

When I first started this blog, I wasn't sure that I would be able to keep it up over time to be honest, but I have come to really love it. That first entry is so terrifying, not knowing if anyone will ever read or care about what you write, trying to figure out how to sound like yourself and still make sense to everyone! For sure the best part about keeping this blog has been all the amazing people I've met. Yes, that means you! When I first moved to Vancouver as a rather shy wee thing, the online crafty community was totally my saving grace. That's totally the beauty of this blogging world, being able to connect with like minded people and sharing your lives with them. Anabela and I talked about this a little while back, how we both talk about bloggers as if we know them while most of our real life friends would think we're crazy for doing so, but that is really how it feels to me, like we're just one giant group of friends!

So, speaking of Yoko Yaya, it is pretty much one of my favourite shops. Its like a little baby Daiso (the giant Japanese dollar store) and it is virtually impossible for me to leave there with out some kind of stationary, fruit scented highlighters or dog shaped markers. Obviously, there are only so many notebooks a girl needs (or so Richard says) and secretly I think part of me just loves the shopping experience. This, my friends, is good for you because I would like to celebrate my blogiversary by sending out some stationary packs to a few lucky readers! All you need to do is comment and tell me what your favourite item of stationary is. I'll admit that I saw this question on Found Paper Co. as part of their customer appreciation week, but really stationary is one of my absolute loves/obsessions and I can't wait to hear about yours!

I'll leave the entries open until midnight Friday August 7th, bring on the stationary love!

p.s. We have started a newsletter for the store/blog, that will let you know when sales, new stuff and giveaways are coming up. There will even be some secret squirrel subscriber sales! Go here if you'd like to sign up!

Blog Lovin'

Last week the lovely Evie from Handmade Romance awarded me with the pretty award you see up there. I was pretty chuffed when I saw it, it's my first blog award! I started reading Evie's blog right around the time I started writing mine (in fact, I think our blogs are almost the same age) and she has been one of my first bloggy friends. She is not only a very clever artist and crafter, but she has impeccable taste in finding fun new online spaces to explore. Of course she is also very sweet and you should all go visit her!


I starting writing this blog almost a year ago, with the idea that it would be a space to put my ideas, thoughts and inspirations down on 'paper'. Along the way I've met so many fantastic people through this space, and am daily inspired by what I see and read. The list of blogs I follow has grown exponentially this past year, and I really enjoy checking in with you all as I sit down at the laptop in the morning. Also along the way, I've thought a lot about what I want to fill this space with. Right around the time I was getting ready to start writing, a friend of mine asked what kind of blog I was planning on starting and the only answer I had was, 'Well...a life blog'. To be honest I sometimes find this a bit tricky, and I definitely don't think it is the best or only way to blog. There are many craft/feminist/political/food, etc, etc specific blogs I read and love, but I just knew I'd never be able to be organised enough for that, haha. However there is always the worry that if for this last week I've blogged about pretty dresses and fabric, and then tomorrow about transphobia or breastfeeding activists, that I'll alienate people. I guess it's most important to be honest with yourself, and what you think is important to talk about though, right?


Thanks so much to those of you who read and follow my blog, I have loved getting to know you all. Thank you for all your lovely comments, support for our little store and lovely emails you've sent me. A big 'Hello!' to the new followers I've noticed over the past wee while, I'm so happy to see you!


Now, to pass on the award. It was tricky limiting this to a few, really I could have just uploaded the entirety of my Google reader and there would still be millions of other blogs I love and am inspired by. These few are ones that I stop in at regularly, many of which have become friends over this little blogging life of mine.

The Small Joys
Oh Sweetie!
Poppytalk
The Little Lads
Lady I Swear By All Flowers
The Boss of You
Shining Egg
Small Town Stories
The Adventures of an Urban Environmentalist
Fieldguided
Clever Nettle
Have Cake, Will Travel
Tiny Warbler
The Small Object Steno Pad
Sandra Juto

Please pass it on, if you please!

Strawberry Shortcake & friends.

We've been getting lovely red strawberries in our Spud harvest boxes for the last few weeks, and while I normally just eat them fresh (read: grabbing them out of the fridge whenever I walk past), this week I decided to be a little more fancy. Richard suggested strawberry shortcake, which I resisted at first because I didn't think that I liked it. I've never been a big scone fan at all...or cream for that matter, but hearing Richard describe the way he liked it totally had me drooling so I went out to pick up some whipping cream that very day! I used this recipe and everything turned out really perfectly! I actually really loved the scones, and ate one (or two) sans strawberries and cream. They were lovely, buttery and light, and with just the right amount of sweetness. As both the scone and cream were sweetened, I decided to use very little sugar on the strawbs so as to not go into sugar overload.

To make things even more perfect, my lovely neighbour Jeannette (if you don't already read her food blog, you should!) came down to join me on our balcony for shortcake and limonatas in the sun. So beautiful, even if I did get a little too much sun. Oh! And I got to use my new-to-me cake stand that looks like a giant doily, and is every so slightly crooked.

Such a lovely end to a somewhat grey and migraine-y weekend beginning (does that sentence even make sense? You know what I mean!). There were even enough strawberries left over to have with coconut milk ice-cream (which is AMAZING by the way) later in the evening, for our second round of visiting friends.

I love summer!

Good stuff.

It kinda felt like today was the first day where I really got to relax, reflect and catch up from being away. It was nice and slow moving, with the sun coming out to play in the afternoon. I met up with a lovely friend for lunch on The Drive (at Little Nest, one of my favourite places to eat), where we got to catch up, talk doula and eat amazing cauliflower soup.

I took along my knitting, to work on a new order of hand warmers for Lucky Rooster and generally drank tea, clucked over Lisa's new wee girl and enjoyed the comfort of like minded friendship. It was good.

Don't go

Vancouver can be a rather tricky place to make friends I've found. It's a pretty transient city, and really making friends as a grown up is always something weird to me. Especially as I don't work in an office, or with people other than toddlers....where do you find people?

Luckily for me, I have met some awesome people here. Now if only I could convince them to stop leaving! My dear friend Julie and her wee family made the trip back to Edmonton yesterday, and we miss them already. I love that photo up there, in all its out of focus glory, it's so indicative of our friendship. Lots, and lots of laughing. Sprinkled amongst tea drinking, feminist theorizing, knitting in public and a mutual love for....ok, food.

Our two families have become extremely close over the short (since July last year, I think) time we've known each other. Even the shy husbands became friends. Love that. I also love more out of focus photography, because Richard's fingers look amazing.

We miss you already!

My favourite and my best

Rice crispie squares are one of those thing where I can't quite tell if you're still allowed to love them as much as I do, now that I'm an adult. I actually hadn't had them for awhile, until our co-op potluck where I snuck back up to the food table....oh, about 5 or 6 times to grab another piece. Its so freakin' good! Especially since over here its usually made with marshmallow instead of honey.

This was made by my (other) favourite (with vegan marshmallow, no less!) who came over for a night of roast veggie soup, apple pie, knitting and Summer Heights High. What a treat!

The River

I wanted to share with you, what we were lucky enough to find pretty much right on the doorstep of our weekend escape cabin. Leaves were collected, stones skipped, fresh air breathed and souls made content.

Feliz Cumpleanos

About 8 months ago, while struggling with a double-wide stroller on the '22' bus every Tuesday and Thursday morning, I met a lovely girl who would lift seats for me, help me maneuver the giant contraption and chat to the girls while I sorted myself out (it usually took me awhile to find my bus pass). We chatted about living abroad, our eerily similar husbands to be and reassured each other about our lack of wedding preparedness.

8 months on, we are both married (despite neither of us being that good at things like....sending out invitations on time), I am much more stroller/bus savvy, we have developed a knitting style all our own (as in, we make it up and she tries measuring the circumference of her neck with a knitting needle while I apparently knit with two different size needles every now and then, and neither of us are that sure how to read a pattern). We have seen male strippers, while knitting/eating chocolate/drinking beer/killing ourselves laughing/covering our eyes at the back of the pub. We have trained as doulas together, talked birth, breastfeeding, parenting, baby wearing and reassured each other yet again about our 'crazy hippy' attitudes surrounding it.

Thank you for being my first Vancouver friend, Girl-from-the-bus. Have a wonderful birthday, know that you are loved, eat lots of treats and find those granny boots.

Love Becka (and Richard).

Weekend escape

This weekend, some friends (2 grown-ups, 2 wee ones and a very well behaved dog), Richard and I piled into a car and headed off into the woods. After burritos to fill us up, a bit of singing and a touch of knitting we arrived at our little cabin. What a treat!

Richard reads his banned book 'The Crucible' as I knit whilst in comfy tights.

The next 3 days were spent reading, knitting, watching fun movies, eating good food, skipping stones in the river and visiting an Elvis themed greasy spoon (both the river and the greasy spoon deserve their own posts).

Cabin Play/watch-list:

- Annie Hall

- Neil Young

- Little House on the Prairie Christmas specials

- Amelie Soundtrack

- Eagle vs. Shark

- Elizabeth Mitchell

- Little Women

- Marissa Nadler

- Brady Bunch pilot episode (found at the cabin)

- Joni Mitchell

Here are a few of my favourite cabin moments....

Julie's jam and banana on toast, tea and a rock from Quinn. Good morning, Cabin!

Chopping kindling and sampling berries.

Collecting and finding

Fall colours in the valley, and folks collecting firewood

Warmth

I think the fire was my favourite part, aside from the company.