on the rise |

we visited a new gallery on south granville the other day - on the rise... it had a nice collection of local art including some up & comers that i have seen at various shows around town. the cool thing about the gallery (a collective) is that you can rent wall space for the month & all the proceeds of a sale go to the artist... it`s a great way for artists who don`t have a large portfolio or those who don`t want to share their proceeds with a larger gallery to get started (i did this with studio blue back in the day). it is nice to see this happening again.

i loved seeing art by arleigh wood once again:

treasured

Shutter sisters ask: "Do you have a tricket, a charm, a tiny thing on your dresser, on your windowsill, that makes you a little bit stronger, that leaves you a little more happy? "

treasures, mementos & keepsakes - i am a collector of memories & things that make me smile. perhaps it can be said that i put meaning into too many things or too much meaning into some things. shells & rocks & postcards - i still have i have 50 franc banknote & a paris metro ticket in my wallet. regardless, each little item reminds me of a moment or a feeling or mostly importantly, that i am loved:

& i have hundreds of pieces of beach glass from all around the world (my hub indulges my beach combing obsession) but i keep one piece in the pocket of my camera bag - it is small & white & not the most beautiful of the lot but it is the most precious ( my husband picked up for me one day when i wasn't there...) truly unexpected & treasured.

my baby took these

we had a great day in the park today (we were planning to head out to our deserted island for lowtide but we started a little too late). so - back to the park - we were just lounging around & bb boy motored over to me (all the while i snapped shots of his journey) he had his hand out most of the way intending to grab my shiny point + shoot... so, as anyone would (encouraging creativity & exploration - ha) i let him have it, and these are the results (i  think if he had any idea what he was doing - he could not have done better):

hmm what was that story? oh yes - "my kid could paint that" or my my elephant...

flickr friday

i quite by accident & conveniently racked up 36 more faves (actually 35 - hello picasso):

1. Abandoned, 2. Stella, 3. free falling, 4. clean and dirty, 5. 2 together, 6. Retro Dog, 7. ..., 8. -, 9. -, 10. texture/024, 11. Calle 20, 12. Calm Down, 13. a year of mornings 148:365, 14. Virtual Development and Training Centre - planet, 15. pink mum, 16. Jump!, 17. window - thorshavn, 18. Laundry - Part II, 19. Untitled, 20. 2 girls~ 2 coasts~2 clicks : week 22 : gratitude 174.375, 21. Untitled, 22. *Enjoy Camera Life, 23. everyone should sneak into an abandoned building at least once in their lifetime, 24. DSC_7689 (269 of 365), 25. Untitled, 26. Untitled, 27. best of the blues, 28. Bench Monday - my first, 29. On the way to Cabril, 30. Untitled, 31. Untitled, 32. glisten, 33. Untitled, 34. shower, 35. servico de aguas, 36. picasso

ow

i've started going for massage again (precipitated by ghastly headaches and pinched neck nerve). perhaps i had expectations that could never be met (if only due to the current condition of my baby wracked body). i daydreamed of a 1hour nap sans sound of harleys roaring by on the street, cats meowling for food or dog clipping clapping across the hardwood or husband on the real estate bat phone or (dare is say it) whining, laughing, crying, babbling bb boy...

i daydreamed of a nap - face down on the massage table - drooling onto the floor deliriously. but it is not really as i dreamt - it is excruciating to the point of not being able to breathe & toes curling into little balls. it's a good pain (in that i know it will make me better) but i admit that 20 minutes into my 60 minute session the urge to bolt from the room & go directly to the closest spa for a nice fluffy make me feel good massage (topped off by a nice drooly nap) was almost overwhelming. 

there is no image i can think of to share with this other than something pretty & calming:

flickr friday

has such a nice ring to it:

\1. picasso, 2. 365/44 I love you, 3. Shoes, 4. fall in L.O.V.E see giraffe, 5. Untitled, 6. my moment ~ tuesday 6pm, 7. “Nothing is more beautiful...”, 8. weekend love 4/5, 9. Every day is a new beginning., 10. Untitled, 11. Untitled, 12. Untitled, 13. Some raindrops you remember, others become a blur, 14. Untitled, 15. Untitled, 16. Spider Jewels, 17. BALANCING ACT, 18. waiting..., 19. spring 46/365, 20. cameras xprs, 21. *, 22. Untitled, 23. Oh, Edible!, 24. Untitled, 25. Untitled, 26. Messages, 27. snoop: 76/365, 28. More Twisty Bits, 29. February 4 ~ Joy, 30. My lovely whisker humps, 31. dried, 32. friday night tradition, 33. @ the "dinah", 34. somebody loved, 35. 8/365, 36. water-diptych

baby inspiration file

we finally vacated bb boy's room (well 75%). of course that meant completely breaking down our office & buying two new laptops (still ambivalent about this). on one hand the laptop aggravates me (smaller screen - more scrolling; shiny hd screen is too reflective; damn compact keyboard) but in other ways it is great (as i type - with my left hand only - bb boy is asleep on my lap but computer is - handily - right beside me).

we are still looking to all of the usual places for inspiration (magazines, online stores, blogs, ikea) - thankfully bb daddy & i are on the same page with everything so far (simple, nostalgic, clean). i'm finding more & more online (but of course little is available in canada) & quite frankly we don't really need anything else @ the moment. except this - we are totally getting one of these (mostly cause bb daddy loves bean bag chairs):

pink rain

shutter sisters ask ''What are you waiting for today?  Show us what you're taking the time to see right now as you look through that hope-full lens.''  i must say that i am not really 'waiting for anything - it seems that having time off and having baby-ful days has somehow enabled me to just enjoy  what i see as i see it (now everyone is thinking blah blah blah).  i actually am waiting impatiently to see if leaves will come back on my freezer burned shrubs (& hoping my core will return to normal one day)... 

i love this time of year as indicated by my numerous obligatory spring snapshots. one thing that i love more than anything is cherry blossoms - my mom will say she loves dogwoods the best - but i love cherry blossoms if only for the pink rain (luscious pink petals floating across blue sky, lit by sunshine, falling in drifts along the sidewalk). i have several of these shots - some with green flip flops, some with yellow flips flops, some barefoot (i am easily amused).

spring cleaning

i have a few old blog posts sitting in my drafts folder - stuff that i came across or that came into my head (back when stuff was still coming into my head)... thought i would just blast them all out & clear out to old draft factory...

i still am amazed @ this visual database - it tracks the number of times that a particular body part is referenced in a song; it's a fleshmap.  have a click through - i think you will be as astounded as i was that shoulder is mentioned twice as much as tits in hip hop music (even knuckle gets more play time)!

i also fell in love with this idea quite awhile ago - the human calendar... the coolest thing is that the as the date changes - the humans in the calendar change what they are looking at...

111 days & counting

baby boy is 8 months old today - things have changed so much for us - all of us. 

the incomparable tango once commented, after spending time with me & my bump in public, that she hadn't realized that baby bumps (and the babies that follow) are public domain. before getting pregnant - i think i expected that to bother me & though few people asked to touch my once massive belly - i let them (perhaps it was because of my own utter fascination with it)... and now i smile when strangers say hello to bb boy (thankfully few of them have been inclined to tell me what he needs or how to deal with him).

further to this new knowledge - who would have thought that i would knowingly & purposely stick my nose to someones bum to smell for poop - yet this is now a regular occurrence (bb daddy & i laughed out loud as we drove by a couple on the street yesterday - the dad hooked a 2 year old's waistband & held a dangling butt up to his nose - then held the same butt up to the mom with a questioning look on his face).

i literally jumped with joy when he went down for a nap in his crib the other day (better late than never); in three days he has gone from stepping on his own feet to stepping with purpose & really going places (of course with my help) and i love that he is eating whatever we give him & loving it (his chewing makes me laugh every time)!

ah baby.