Category: Good things

Stone Soup and Creative Mornings Vancouver

Trevor Jansen is a long time volunteer with Creative Mornings Vancouver, and he has created many wonderful pieces of video content for the organization over the years. At the recent CMvan event at the beginning of July he premiered his latest video project inspired by the story of Stone Soup as told by some of the past speakers. It was an honour to be included in this group of people, and to get to tell a small part of the story. I discovered it is harder than it looks to say a single line and do multiple takes.

Go check out Trevor’s blog post to see the video of behind the scenes and outtakes. 

Scenes from a July Long Weekend on Bowen Island

Boris and I were on a much needed vacation last week. We left town on the previous Thursday night to start the July long weekend on Bowen Island with friends and family. We did the usual things when we are on the island, walking, reading, eating, and napping. It was glorious.

July long weekend on Bowen Island

The Elephant Tree

July long weekend on Bowen Island

July long weekend on Bowen Island

The flooded wetland that used to be a forest, near the beaver dam.

July long weekend on Bowen Island

Water plants on Killarney Lake

July long weekend on Bowen Island

A small group of friends joined us on Bowen for the day last Sunday for an open house hosted by Boris’ parents. It was lovely to take them on a long walk through the forest and introduce them to the magic that is walking out into Killarney Lake along the Secret Log. It’s really at its best at this time of year.

Inspiration in the Garden

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Crocosmia

Yucca flowers in the rain

There are so many beautiful flowers and plants to see in the gardens around our neighbourhood. The Gazania flower (at the top of this post) is the latest addition to our community garden plot. 

Poppies Take Over in the Garden

Last year in mid-summer I planted a packet of poppy seeds in our community garden plot, and then in the fall I scattered an expired packet of what was supposed to be wildflower seeds in another section. All these many months later and the poppies have taken over the garden. The wildflowers mix only resulted in poppies, but maybe because they were the only seeds still viable.

Poppies in my garden plot

The white with pink edge types are came from the seeds planted mid-summer, while every type and colour is coming up from the wildflower mix. Poppies are a favourite flower of mine, so I am constantly visiting the garden to see them. I am pleased to have poppies of my own after years of admiring them in other people’s gardens around the neighbourhood.

Poppies in my garden plot

Poppies in my garden plot

I am inspired and energized by my plant projects in the garden and at home. I never thought of myself as a plant person, but I sure am now.

Work In Progress Website

You may notice changes and broken things around here over the next few weeks (hopefully less). Boris and I are currently messing around with my website as we merge the portfolio and blog. I’ve been running my portfolio on Behance Pro Site for the past couple of years, and as their service is about to be discontinued I am moving everything to WordPress and making changes to the template and structure. Fun times!

Things are a little bit broken in the meantime as I slowly get it all sorted out.

Putting Sashiko Stitching To Work

At sewing bee yesterday evening I completed my first successful sashiko repair. I started it on Sunday evening and set it aside after getting frustrated. The hole is located on the inner thigh of my jeans, which made for an extremely awkward location to maneuver tiny stitches and a large needle. But I made it to the end, and now the jeans won’t end up with an even larger hole.

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Towards the end of the workshop the other weekend, our teacher told us she keeps her sashiko supplies separate from her other sewing materials. I was inspired to finally invest in one of the metal pencil boxes made by Danica Studio, and sold at Welk’s (home of many irresistable products) as a container to hold mine. Look how cute it is! I want to stitch something all the time now.

Revisiting Sashiko Stitching with The Craft Lab

On the weekend I attended another Sashiko Stitching workshop taught by Heather Young of the Craft Lab, this time at Collage Collage. A lot of time has passed since the first workshop at Opus, and I wasn’t feeling like I had a full grasp of the technique, which is why I enrolled in this longer, more in-depth class. Now I think I’ve got it, and I have a clearer idea of what I want to do.

We did two projects in the class, both of which are pictured here. We did a sampler to practice making the stitches in straight lines, and then we had to come up with our own design in a circle to make a small pot holder. I ran out of time before getting to try a repair on a piece of clothing I brought with me. I took a photo of Heather’s sampler (below) to remind myself of the different ways to approach a visible repair. I’m going to try one of these on my favourite jeans.

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I’m committed to doing more with sashiko stitching going forward, and even put my supplies together in their own little container.

An Update on Spring Blooms

This spring season has been as wet as last year was dry. It’s been a downer on my mood in the short term, but I hope it ensures we’re safe from a long dry summer.

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Delicate white magnolias

Tiny pink blossoms

The flowering trees keep doing their thing, rain or shine. I admire them for that. As always, they are the best thing about spring in Vancouver.

Your task is to be dogged and persistent

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I had to share the latest horoscope for Leo from Free Will Astrology, because it so strongly relates to many of the projects I’m working on these days.

Morning Lion

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The marathon is a long-distance footrace with an official length of over 26 miles. Adults who are physically fit and well-trained can finish the course in five hours. But I want to call your attention to a much longer running event: the Self-Transcendence 3100-Mile Race. It begins every June in Queens, a borough of New York, and lasts until August. Those who participate do 3,100 miles’ worth of laps around a single city block, or about 100 laps per day. I think that this is an apt metaphor for the work you now have ahead of you. You must cover a lot of ground as you accomplish a big project, but without traveling far and wide. Your task is to be dogged and persistent as you do a little at a time, never risking exhaustion, always pacing yourself.

There are marathons, and then there are MARATHONS.

In The Pink For Spring

The cherry trees have begun their magical work of blanketing the city in pink and white blossoms. It’s my favourite time of year, and I end up photographing flowers on a daily basis because they are incredibly beautiful.

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As with last year, there are trees coming into bloom earlier in the season than in years past, like the magnolia and Flowering Quince above. It has me wondering if this is the new normal, and what are the long term implications.