since we are counting...

365 days ago we were wed. it was spur of the moment (if 5 weeks of thought is considered spur of the moment); it was a secret (even the jp didn't know about it till the day before); it was quiet (only two best friends, our dog & lovely little mom-in-law attended) and it was perfectly us (art, laughter, & champagne).

today we returned to the art gallery [jennifer kostuik] where we said our vows - it was closed - but they opened the doors for us & gave us time to enjoy the new works & to remember our special day. 365 days ago we celebrated friendship & love & commitment. today we celebrated each other & shared our day with baby boy - what a difference a year makes!

who would have thought the damn tax man would audit me for being married 2 days of 2007!

snow obsession

we've had 30cm of snow in the last week - at least 20 of that came in one overnight dump on sunday. i do love snow; i love to look @ it, i love to play in it & i love to take pictures of it. but there is one soul in our family who is completely obsessed with snow - our dog hunter! he was beside himself looking out the window monday morning; once we let him loose - he's like a puppy - jumping & pouncing; he pulverized 3 small snow men (sorry) and made an amused crowd of people cheer when he burrowed through the snow looking for the latest snowball.

space

i am not obsessed but i must say i am preocuppied with space these days. i'm guessing that's because i/we (me home on mat leave for 257 more days, husband who works @ home, baby boy who seems vastly bigger than his 14.5lbs, big black dog and two terroist cats) have none. we have been looking for a bigger home - not huge - just with enough room for each of us. baby boy is moving out of our room & into our office any day now (begs the question where will the office go?)... i've always been big on white space while doing graphic design and i am a huge fan of the oversized white mat on a small piece of art... should that mean that i need white space in my life? i've been collecting white spaces from the inspiration file:




i just need to find something in my price range in this insane economy.

tradition [tra-di-TION]

it is our first christmas with baby boy & we have been talking about the things we can do this year that will continue on as our own family traditions. i embrace tradition (note: every time i think or say or write this word i cannot help but hear the word belted out heartily by the character tevye in the movie 'fiddler on the roof'!)

my family traditions include: hiking through the woods with our dad to harvest a tree (then carefully turning the bare side to the wall & tying fishing line from the tip of the tree to the ceiling to keep it from falling over), icing aunt mary's sugar cookies (no one can tell me who 'aunt mary' is though) & hanging them on the tree (we may have stopped this tradition when my cousin ate one that had been rehung after being stored for a year), hanging our stockings (these, on some occasions, included dad's grey work socks or grandpa's dress socks), never opening a gift before christmas (unless our cousins from my mom's side were visiting & it was their tradition so we obliged & opened one on christmas eve), apparently tortierre is a chirstmas eve tradition (i think my mom snuck this one in later - but i don't mind because it is delicious).

which traditions do we carry on - or start? baby boy will only be 4.5 months old so it doesn't really matter what we do - but we do want our first christmas to be special. these are two ideas we like:

1. christmas stockings - we would like to have stockings that say 'we are family' i have been christmas stocking shopping (buy handmade? or make them?)
2. adopt an animal - not a real one, as we already have three in our condo, but we would like to instill a respect for nature & conservancy & what better way to appreciate a stuffed toy? we're looking to give a grizzly a new home!

of course there will be trees and family dinners and decorated cookies and tortierre; ice skating and walks in the snow and caroling - those will come later.

top ten best things about being pregnant

1. eating pavlova without regard
2. moving to the front of the line
3. imagining
4. not having to suck it in
5. not looking pregnant from the back
6. seeing the baby via ultrasound
7. not having to empty the litter box
8. taking a babymoon
9. laying in bed, standing in a mall, sitting @ my desk with my hand on my abdomen constantly in touch with that little life inside
10. being blissfully unaware of all the parts of your body that will be "broken" after you give birth

flipping superstar

my cousin david is a flipping superstar in my books! he started his new career with this project in east vancouver in 2007 [quickly turning an tiny hovel into an absolutely gorgeous little gem]. he has one of those great imaginations - he is able to see the finished product through all the grit & grime. to top that - he has amazing talent with tile & drywall & he has remarkable finishing skills [the restoration & renovation trifecta]. a few trips to the re-store & demo sites & home depot & viola! he can turn this:

into this:

but this is old news... the newest project (ready for sale this week) is in vancouver's westend & it makes me want to bring him over to my place for a little re & re pep talk. i have saved you from the nasty grime shots but i think you get the picture:

magically:

by hand christmas

this year more than ever, it seems, we hear the rallying cry for 'made by hand'... coming from a family that likes to create - we often talk about the 'all hand made christmas' (like some mythical sugar plum dancing in our heads). like i said - we are not so good on the implementation side lately.

this year i am cruising the many christmas craft fairs with new eyes - ready and willing to support the local talent and to pass on to my loved ones something made with creative genius and innovative flair (if nothing else - i will collect a bunch of cards from cool people & wish i could be like them).

Shiny Fuzzy Muddy [fri - 05 dec 5-9pm] [sat - 05 Dec 11-5pm] [sun - 07 dec 12-5pm]

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Green Christmas Holiday Gift Market [sun - 07 dec 11-6pm]

277 days & counting

my baby boy is 3 months old. it feels like he has always been here & is brand new all at the same time! we are amazed by constant changes and his rapid development: he's batting @ things (or was that an intentional reach), he rolled over for the first time (or was that just gravity), he added a squeal to his gurgles and coos (or was he just working up a wail), he smiles a lot but is he laughing? would you call that a laugh?

i am still drinking decaffeinated cappuccinos and living on 5 broken hours of sleep a night. i think it is affecting me (is that a light at the end of the tunnel - nope just my sweet baby boy's smile).

beige me

there has been not so subtle and persistent maligning of beige lately - i keep standing up for it - am i the only fan?

beige
1858, "fine woolen fabric," from Fr. dialectal "yellowish-grey," from O.Fr. bege "the natural color of wool and cotton," origin obscure. As a shade of color, it is attested from 1879.

this is my idea of beige:

originally from Marie Claire Maison - found in the [inspiration file].

lists are the windows to the soul

or something like that... i was tagged by tango & as much as this feels like a chain letter (which i always break - bad luck or not) i must admit that it is a nice segway into my book of lists (or is that blog of lists?) no matter - i will try to comply with the rules, which are:

• Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
• Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog - some random, some weird (other variations include teenage facts)
• Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
• Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

[7 things about djbeat]

1. when i was a child i kept a step stool beside the bed so that the 'things' under my bed could not get me when i stepped down. to this day i cannot hang a foot or hand over the edge without getting that same creepy feeling & i have to fight not to pull back.
2. i love to look down on flying birds
3. i went to my first ever concert when i was 25 - oddly it was bob dylan (tracy chapman opened for him)
4. i entered the miss teen chetwynd pageant - i might have won if only i had learned to play the flute
5. i am sincerely stunned that the human race has continued to procreate (with such alacrity) given how difficult giving birth is and how exhausting a baby is (more on this later)
6. i accidentally had a few dates with a guy 17 years my junior (ridiculous - honestly)
7. i still dream of being an artist - even after the 18 months i spent learning i am allergic to 'starving artist'

now for my two tags (i won't even pretend that i know 7):

my sister because she's good @ lists

complainy pants because she makes me laugh

a stack of magazines

for years i was obsessed with decor magazines; i would buy 3 or 4 or sometimes 7 per month with little regard to their actual content. i might, for example, purchase a magazine for a single photo of, say, julianne moore's new york bathroom. i bought country living, canadian house & home and country home; then i became slightly more contemporary, hording metropolitan home and collecting north american or french or uk elle; more recently i have taken to domino and living etc... i never thought twice about the cost; i even packed up several boxes of them when i moved to my current home.

i am a collector by nature - some say pack rat (potatoe, potato). it became ridiculous though - not wanting to break up stacks because the spines lined up so neatly and so colourfully together. three years ago i had had enough! it would have been impossible to use them as a reference for any project and the shear weight of them likely broke some city bylaw...

i started to believe in the idea of inspiration walls - collect images of what you would like your environment to be, the style you want to surround you: a kind of see them & be them attitude...

so i made a new rule: no magazines over 2 years old were allowed to stay intact in my home. the stack (many small stacks gathered together for the occasion), crept up from the floor to my chest (i wish i had taken the photo). i flipped through each mag for the last time clipping out any item of current or timeless interest and put them in my [inspiration file] : home, kitchen, bath, bedroom, storage, art + furniture, projects, recipes & garden. i even used the file on my latest reno projects (though many would still say my style is haphazard at best).
my current magazine stack is barely knee deep.

btw
stack height = 142cm
mag height avg = .7cm
mag cost average = 8$cdn
cost of stack = 1622$ (not including tax)

i can see it but can i capture it?

i bought a new camera just before baby boy was born; i had a canon rebel EOS film camera that was gathering dust (& a canon SD800 that i carried with me everywhere). so decided to merge the two - i bought a canon rebel xsi. now i am trying to remember how to take photos... thank goodness i don't have to try to remember how to run a dark room.

we could make that...

i come from a long line of creators - we can paint, throw a pot, take a fine photo & turn a beautiful piece of wood. we have attended many art shows, craft fairs, studio walks over the years and though we are usually impressed and inspired by the creativity of others - someone invariably says 'we could make that'.

it is a family joke now.

we could make - but WE DON"T (or rarely do). we have walked away from so many beautiful pieces of art, so many finely crafted items. others have had not only the inspiration to make - but have implementation skills as well. so no more 'we could,' either we do or we buy what inspires us. i must say thanks for the inspiration to the following after a weekend of crawling:

art i would crawl for

i love art. i will say it again, i love art. be it big or small, clever, quirky, richly hued or moody. i love walking into a gallery when the faint scent of paint is still in the air after hanging a new show. i love wandering through a working studio to see splattered walls and tools lined up at the ready and rows of paint in tubes. i love being around artists - those talented humble ones, not the pretentious poser ones.

there have been a few memorable occasions that still stick with me of walking into a gallery or studio and being knocked out - literally stopped in my tracks by what i consider to be great work. to me great work is not necessarily expensive art or fine art or art that is in vogue; we all have our own tastes. to me great art makes me smile or makes me think - it is art i can get lost in - having dabbled a bit in the arts myself - great art amazes me with it's 'how did they do that?' factor.

this is the season for art in vancouver and this weekend is the 12th annual eastside culture crawl. in 2007 i was completely knocked out by galen feld - i stood in her studio for well over an hour (twice) gazing (gawking) & talking to her and i finally went home with one of her smallest (read: i could afford) pieces.

in 2006 i had a similar experience with jordan bent as i rummaged excitedly through his work space touching hundreds of amazing sketches.

this year (trying to manage false low expectations) i look forward to new collections and snooping through artist studios and rubbing elbows with creators and finding more treasures on the crawl!

smart little caterpillar

i saw the coolest kid's toy while out walking baby boy yesterday (yes he needed to be walked & i need to browse shops - we still have a very symbiotic relationship). the little caterpillar above is actually 8 separate coloured balls making up 8 notes: do ray me fa so la tee doe. when put together in various arrangements it plays different tunes: 'mary had a little lamb', 'frere jacques' etc.

try as i might i could not get it to play 'stairway to heaven'.

buy more art

for many years i have eagerly anticipated the 3rd & 4th year 'print & ceramics sale' at ECUAD (for those of you who don't know - that's emily carr university of art + design). it is one of the few places one can see blossoming creative genius and for a small price, you can take some of it home with you... granted you can also see some pretty juvenile 'i wanna be an artist & look how provocative i can be' work as well - just ignore it.

i'm so excited that this year we will be able to enjoy all art forms: original paintings, photographs, prints, ceramics, sculpture, wearable works and more! i'm starting to itch - can't wait till friday (& this year - thanks to baby boy - i get to go early).

291 days and counting

i suppose my first blog entry ever should somehow explain why there is ‘a year of living differently’. here it is: for a whole year i will no longer be waking up @ 7:00am to drag my cappuccino enriched brain to work; instead, i will be waking @ 3:30 & 5:30 & 7:30am (or other) to enrich my new baby boy. for 365 days i will no longer thrive on 12 hours of meetings and spreadsheets; i will, instead, survive on stolen naps and one lonely excel workbook charting breastfeeding and sleeps.

i thought about this blog regularly during my pregnancy; i envisioned hours of happy research: taking photos, going to art galleries, reading, flipping through design magazines and cruising cool websites... i romanticized the collection and documentation of my ideas and images. i’ve always had a thing for words, gathering them up and tossing them into my vocabulary rock polisher for them to be churned and made into my own shiny gems before i used them.

as it turns out – enriching a baby takes a lot if my day: we play and eat and nap and go on walks – little time for research in the last 10 weeks. i rarely have time to read ahead in the one parenting book to have some clue what will happen in his next stage of his development. furthermore, as any new mom or friend or loved one of a new mom will attest, words fail us @ the most inopportune times (most of the time) due to an affliction called ‘mommy brain’. but, here i am and here we go...