[i] LoveLife

BEST DAY EVER!

Besides catching up over a nice lunch with my friend Jim - today was not really panning to be that hot. I'm pretty tired and things were taking longer than I thought and my patience was getting thin. The day was going down hill in an hurry UNTIL...

UNTIL THE POSTMAN CAME WITH A GIANT BOX OF HONEY CRISP APPLES STRAIGHT FROM PAULETTE SARSFIELD IN NOVA SCOTIA. GET SERIOUS!! I'M PUTTING THE REST OF THIS POST IN CAPS BECAUSE THAT IS THE COOLEST THING EVER!! A WHOLE BOX OF APPLES. THERE'S LIKE 20  of the world's best darn APPLES IN THERE AND I AM NOT KIDDING YOU WHEN I SAY I AM IN HEAVEN.(This is me doing the Happy-Apple-Dance!) Woot! Woot! Triple Arm Pump.

Thank you Paulette and Blake and Scott and Brent and Melissa and Alex. And thank you to the apple pickers. Thank you so much. Thanks for growing such good apples and thanks FROM THE VERY FULLNESS OF MY HEART for sending them to me. Paulette I'm glad you found them in your pumphouse - BUT YOU COULD HAVE SAID YOU FOUND THEM IN YOUR COMPOST and I would still be happy.

Oh my goodness. I could smell their fantastic-ness before I got the box ripped open. Don't tell Dan because I'm not sharing. Okay FINE - I will share with him because I want to stay in his good books in case I ever fall in the river. (He thinks I have the weirdest life ever.) How cool is it to get APPLES IN THE MAIL???

Heck - I'm going to go sit by my fireplace with my feet up and eat an apple.

It's the weekend!

Acorn love.

Yesterday was pretty swell. Swell is a strange word, but I was clicking along and things were falling into place. I got the PRIME spot in front of the doctor's office WITH AN HOUR LEFT ON THE METER. That alone was enough to make my day. Sweet! I got the fireplace I wanted. Swell. (Woot and more about that to follow.) I found the perfect font to top off the perfect gift and my heart melted to a puddle right there at the store. Swoon.

THIS FONT: is called House-o-rama script. It's nice. It's fun. I tend to cycle through the fonts I like and dislike on a pretty regular basis. I have about 7500 fonts. Paige, thanks for the tip on Feel Script. THAT is delicious. It's based on a 1950's classic called Monterey Script so if you're feeling thrifty - that one is pretty good, too. Also similar to Chapel Script. BEAUTIFUL!

This painting is called Little PInk PIne Cone. I started it about a month ago and I just flew at the canvas without a plan. Usually I know what colours and composition I'm aiming for. This one - I just poured paint and let 'er rip. When it was done - I was SHOCKED that it was so pink. I'm not a pink person. I'm more comfortable in blues, greys and blacks. Whites even. Pink no. I think it came from the seasonal stuff I was working on and the chocolatey feel of the marketing that comes out of late fall... but, it was SO pink that I freaked a bit and let it hang out in the basement all by its lonesome. Fighting my inner pink - I guess. Yesterday I signed it and added the words. Maybe I surrendered to it. Maybe I have a pink side. I grabbed my paint pen and the thoughts just sort of flowed out. "It's okay. It's okay little pine cone to fall down, to lay down, to rest your tired head on the roots, on the strengths of greater men, of kinder hearts, of stronger trees..."

I will need to wait for better light to get an archive worthy photo of this  piece. When I do - it will go up on the art side of this blog. For now, this will do and I think getting it signed and off the easel will open up the path for more paintings. I have two commissions to finish for Christmas and I will tackle them this weekend.

The fireplace. Well, the princess I got what I wanted and Dan and I went trolloping to the other side of the earth to pick up the LAST cool looking electric fireplace. Sweet. It's gorgeous. It fits PERFECTLY in the space we have. It's look is SEAMLESS with our decor. As we sat DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF IT last night - I was hoping that it would conjure up all kinds of fireplace-y type feelings...  LIKE WARMTH. I was a tad disappointed. Okay, I can't lie - I was SUPER disappointed that my dream fireplace was not warming me - even a little. So, here I sit this morning surrounded by CONTRUCTION SITE HEATERS with my little electric poo-box flame flickering away in the corner. It COULD be that it was -39˚C (-38.2 F) last night with the wind and that kind of chill is tough to crack...

Warmth is hard to find around here. I'm tempted to put my chilly fingers IN MY COFFEE. I'm worried that Crash might start on fire - he is SO close to the heater. It's times like these that I sort of miss my big clunky PC because it blew smoke warm air out the keyboard from the strain of merely existing.

Today: THE WEDDINGS must go to print. I have a date with the art store. A lunch meeting. And afternoon meeting. I need to find pewter yarn. I will be making some pit-stops along the way and ANOTHER trip to the post office. MAJOR furniture moving going on around here tonight and it's our friday-pizza-and-a-movie date night IN FRONT OF THE FIRE. See ya later November - you've been swell.

Allelujah!! Grab your jo and GO.

Signed.

Finally. I signed it, added the words and found a place to hang it. I'll tell you about this painting tomorrow: Little Pink Pine Cone.

Now I rest. Triple Arm Pump to a full day of running around and three really cool gifts from the Universe: 1) prime parking; 2) better-than-expected display models; and 3) fonterifically perfect.

Berry merry...

Alright! I ventured out to take some photos yesterday... but, only as far as the front step. Actually, Crash and I went for a killer walk but, it was too cold to take my mittens off. I need to find some delicate lady-fingered-gloves for using my camera outdoors because the oven mitts I'm using now are not maneuverable enough. It's on the list!

These are fancy pictures of our holiday wreaths... Dan designed them. I just put them together.

I will clarify about the camera settings - I don't use manual focus. I use the manual setting so I can control the aperture and shutterspeed. These wreath pictures (with the 50mm) are at a 1.8 aperture. 1000th of a second shutterspeed. The 1.8 aperture gives you the soft dreamy/blurry background.

Dan was quick to point out that I SAID I was going to post yesterday afternoon and then I didn't. My apologies. I got carried away GETTING STUFF DONE. I finished one of the big projects - COMPLETELY. Normally, I might have a glass or 9 of wine at lunch time to celebrate and accomplishment like that... but, not yesterday. Instead, I made chocolate chip cookies. AND THEN I made a military sized VAT of homemade chicken & wildrice with potato soup. Mmmmm.... that's GOOD STUFF on such a cold day. Crash and I stumbled walked 2 miles in deep snow, I met with the student I mentor, I GOT TWO VERY COOL PACKAGES IN THE MAIL (neither of which I can show you because they are gifts). WHoooo HOoooo! I even managed to make some apple cider (out of the yucky Ambrosia apples I refuse to eat) and sip away at that as I put some LISTS to bed.

My brother and I are sending my parents to Mexico for Christmas! Lucky, lucky folks. They deserve it and I'm so glad that we could finally reveal our surprise! A trip and a grandchild - that's a fast track to heaven, isn't it? ;) Speaking of Mexico - I like the house to be warm enough to dance around in my bikini all day OR AT LEAST GO WITHOUT A JACKET AND BLANKET WRAPPED AROUND ME. This big old house is SO DRAFTY that Dan and I are looking for an electric fireplace to help keep Crash and I (and mostly our new person) from going the way of the wooly mammoth. OH, I KNOW how silly it must be to the old-fashioned-house-gods to see people put electric fireplaces into their 105 year old homes THAT ORIGINALLY HAD perfectly good wood FIREPLACES... but, somewhere along that century - the fireplace figured out how fartin' cold it could get here and moved out of this house, TO FLORIDA I presume, and left behind a cold and oddly NOOK. Yes, I said a nook. What a perfect place to put an electric fireplace to hang our stockings. I'm off on a continuation of my frustrating wild goosechase in search of the last remaining modern style fireplace in this lovely, although cold and snowy city.

Today: I have a BUTT LOAD of wedding invitations to put the finishing touches on and send to proofing (BUTT LOAD and WEDDING INVITATIONS have a funny ring when you use them in the same sentence!). I have an OBGYN appointment. I have a fireplace to find. I have a meeting with Botanical Paperworks. I have a dog to walk. I have lady-finger-gloves to source out AND I AM STILL GONNA MAKE THOSE SUGAR COOKIES (and post the recipe, Kerri). I also have a holiday painting that just needs a signature. Laundry. Shower. Shovel. Baby shake.

OH, and a full pot of fresh coffee to guzzle down so I can get up and GO.

Work day.

Fa la la la la la. Wednesday already. Yesterday was one of those days where you run around and get things in order. Pick things up. Drop things off. Go here. Go there. Normally, I find these kinds of days really annoying - but, with a heap of fresh snow, fantastic Jeep-side 4-wheel-drive, and a halfway-chai-latte with Dana - it was a nice way to putter about. Feeling pretty good.

You asked about tips with the 50mm lens: I shoot on the Manual setting. ALL. THE. TIME. That way I can better control the look I'm after... and I'm always after the soft, dreamy backgrounds. Speaking of that lens - I haven't taken many pictures lately, have I.

Today: THE END IS NEAR. Seriously - yesterday's running around put me in line to finish TWO of the three big projects weighing on me. TRIPLE ARM PUMP. So, today - without further adieu I am buckling in to finish them. I need some breathing room - in my body and outside my body right now. I'm feeling a little claustrophobic. Like a cat in a cage. My ideal day today - would be finishing my work, closing my computer and getting outside to experiment with some snow shots and some deep breaths. And some sugar cookies. I'll post my progress.

Put the coffee on so I can get at it. And GO.

Snow way!

Snow! This picture is from yesterday around noon - when it started snowing hard. It's too dark right now to take a picture... but, WE GOT A LOT OF SNOW. And it's really cold this morning. -27˚C (-17 F) Frosty. Today's also the ONE DAY OF THE MONTH I scheduled to go to a meeting OUTSIDE. ICK.

Yesterday, I went with Mavis to the fabric store because the black & white baby design screen prints are almost done and she wanted to find fabric for the pillows she is making out of them. I was PLANNING on making a small quilt/mat for the floor... BUT when we got to the TOTALLY OVERWHELMING fabric store I freaked out. BECAUSE I REMEMBERED THAT I CAN'T SEW. So I BAILED and bought warm Cuddle-liscious blanket fabric to make a BLACK throw using my perfect blanket stitch. In black. How predictable! I left truly wanting to make some time to get better at the perfectly good sewing machine sitting upstairs and making a mental note TO CALL MY GRANDMA to see if she can quilt up a mat for me.

At Tammy's on the weekend, Gus the Pug crawled up on my lap and fell asleep on my fat belly. I thought that was pretty cute - and so did Tammy because she sent me this picture.

I had a plan to get outside and take lots of snowing pictures... but, it was FRICKIN' COLD. Crash and I had quite the adventure on the way to the park and I decided that slippery streets, deep snow, fat bellies, and orangutan boxers are a bad combination. At least they were for me yesterday. Until Crash offers me a full and written apology I am not sharing my super warm blanket with the jerk. I can be very cruel sometimes.

Today: I have a meeting with the Transcanada Trail office this morning. 9am sharp. That's awesome. That means that my LAST BIG PROJECT is nearing completion. I completely slayed my TO-DO list yesterday and that felt good. I'm finishing this project today. Wedding invitations. TiberRiver. Odds and bits. Groceries. Post office. Meeting Dana for a little winter WARM-UP at Starbucks this afternoon AND putting the baby room together so I can get a shot of the AMAZING crib Dan built. That's a full day.

And those are my tracks in fresh snow. Let's GO.

Winners!

Well, look at that! My Saskatchewan Roughriders won the Grey Cup. That feels good. It feels good on a couple of levels... First, Dan and I joined Tammy & Jared for an evening of eating, watching and sitting by the cozy fireplace. Second, my family back home hosted a GIANT 30+ party at their house (and a house full of happily intoxicated folks is more fun than the unhappy kind!). Third, my team won and that makes me happy mostly because it makes my brother happy. And fourth, we got to eat baked Brie.

BAKED BRIE wrapped in marmalade and puff pastry. Pretty much everything Tammy makes is to DIE FOR. But, this was really, really, really good. SO GOOD I won't even bother mentioning the individual chocolate cups filled with Tira Misu and fresh raspberries for dessert. Oh my goodness. Mmmmmm...

Let's see. PLAIN OLD GREAT weekend around these parts. I didn't find the HoneyCrisp apples, but I'm still alive and I thank you for the clues to their whereabouts. I might have to trudge through the rest of the year until I can find them again. I guess. (Unless someone wants to send me some??)

I spent the day on Saturday designing wedding invitations - for NO BRIDE in particular. It was a total dream. I'll clarify by saying that a wonderful little wedding invitation company called Absorb Creative is about to release a WHOLE SLEW of new designs for 2008. They are SO COOL. And you personalize them with your photo... Triple COOL. For me - it was PURE PLEASURE to design without working with a bride. Brides are strange creatures. I can't lie. I used to do a lot of wedding invitation design - before I put a personal boycott on working with brides. They're whack.

Winter is here now. FULL ON. (About time because we have been playing Christmas carols for about 2 weeks now.) We had a great time walking in a winter wonderland... which is pretty much how our neighborhood looks all season. Snow-mantic. Like in the movies. So beautiful. If you've ever seen a snowy olden days residential street picture - WELL THAT'S WHERE WE LIVE! Seriously. Sometimes I wake up and think I am trapped in a snowglobe. But, it's a nice-trapped feeling and not a get-me-outta-here-or-I-will-crack-this-glass kind of trapped feeling.

CHRISTMAS CARDS: the Christmas designs I was working on are now for sale at Botancial Paperworks. Check those out. Ooooh, I love the reindeer card.

Today: THE USUAL! WORK. This week is the final push to get all the things I have procrastinated on OUT OF THE OFFICE. Why? Because next week - I do not want to BE IN THE OFFICE. At all. My poor secret project keeps getting pushed and pushed and pushed. I have some paintings to FINISH. TWO big projects to kick the heck outta here. Said secret project. Oh, and a baby to shake loose!

SO GET GOING. The coffee is brewed and waiting and I have issued a small challenge to myself THAT I EXTEND TO YOU: the top 3 things crossed off the TO-DO list by noon. Let's GO.

Grey Cup Sunday

Big football game today. I'll call it Canada's Superbowl. Mostly, it's an excuse to get together and eat appetizers and drink beer. Most years I don't really care for the teams that have made it. THIS YEAR the Saskatchewan Roughriders are in the big game. That's my home town team. Growing up - all I wanted to be was a Saskatchewan Roughriders cheerleader. My whole family cheers for them. We sing the song. The first time I ever heard my reserved softspoken dad yell- it was when the Roughriders won the Grey Cup the last time... in 1989. The time before that - 1976. They don't have a history of being great - but, the fans, the fun, the atmosphere... Rider Pride is pretty unbeatable.

So, this afternoon - my Saskatchewan Roughriders play the Winnipeg BlueBombers (my other team). We're off to spend some time with Tammy & Jared, watch football on the big screen and EAT OUR FACES OFF.

Go Riders GO.

If you didn't already LOVE him...

Yesterday was quite the day. Instead of heading out for our walk - we drove to the dogpark. By 5pm around here - it's very dark - MIDNIGHT DARK, but the park is still busy. The park is on a riverbank - which is just terrific if you have a water dog. BUT. At this time of year the ice is not quite formed and the water is EXTREMELY cold. And dangerous. Think slurpee/slushy with ice cubes rushing downstream. You can easily get trapped under ice and whisked away to CERTAIN DEATH. Or get hypothermia and DIE. Or just freeze into a little ice block never to be found again. Soon after we got there a fat little pug toodled out on the ice and fell into the river. His owner (slightly heavier and sillier than the 12 pound soon-to-be pugsicle) ran in after him and ALSO FELL IN THE OPEN RIVER. We heard his screaming and while someone phoned 9-1-1 - Dan ran faster than speeding light to his truck, pulled out his construction ropes, ran back, rigged up some kind of rope throwing system and pulled this FROZEN man AND HIS DOG to shore BEFORE THEY DROWN/FROZE/EXPIRED. The firetrucks, ambulance and police cars showed up just after the guy was safe to get this seriously hypothermic dude some medical help. The emergencies crews here are terrific and were really, really fast, too. The dog and the pugsicle will be fine - BUT - not if it hadn't been for Dan. (Crash helped tug on the rope a little, too). The ONE DAY I didn't have my camera!! Sheesh!

MORAL OF THE STORY: do not jump in a nearly frozen river after your dog. Seriously. Your kids, your husband, your wife, your laptop - FINE. Please remember that you are NOT Indiana Jones or a polar bear. The guy would have died if there wasn't someone at the park with a fast-brain and miles of rope. Be careful. Watch your dogs/kids/wife/laptop around open water.

SO. Triple. Arm. Pump. Super. Hero. Dan. I love that guy. So much. Then we hopped in the truck and road away into the night for milk and eggs.

I had to know the day was gonna be great. First thing in the morning Dan's friend Adam surprised me by delivering a Peppermint Mocha Latte from Starbucks to this very pregnant girl!!! Thank you. Adam's working in California for a while and was just home for the weekend while American Thanksgiving shut down his office. THANK YOU, ADAM. Thanks you so much - YOU are as sweet as that delicious peppermint mocha latte.

I thought some of the day's good energy would spill into our grocery trip. I am completely out of HoneyCrisp apples and I THINK I AM GETTING SCURVY. I've gone from eating 2 apples a day - to no apples. How you you like them apples? So I decided to play a little apple roulette and buy a bag of Ambrosia Apples. Booo. I think my mouth has been ruined by the HoneyCrisp. Where can I get more HoneyCrisp? Have you seen them? Can you help me?

Today: A little work. A little play. It's Friday and Fridays are Saturday-starters around here. I'm gonna blast some work this morning. Design some wedding invitations for Absorb Creative. Get a hair cut. Attack some laundry. Make some calls and meet my good friend Tammy for some bookstore browsing later this afternoon. Sweet. Let's get going.

I'm brewing up a big full-fat GO-LATTE today. GO! GO!

Thanks!

So - now we have real snow. The kind that is not going anywhere for months and months and months. This picture is not actually snow - it's GLASS. But, it was cool anyways. There are big chunks of ice floating down the river as it gets ready to freeze and this randomly placed glass chunk got me far, far away in a daydream about a total heist-type escapee trying to avoid being fozen solid in river ice. OK. Wee little moment of reality-escape for me...

Well, I really WAS on location at TiberRiver yesterday. It was good because being in the store - you really get a good idea of where the signage will go, how big it should be, and how the light hits it. BUT, it was bad because you also get an idea of HOW MUCH SIGNAGE you could do... a lot. I could work straight for 5 weeks and not be done. But, it was a nice change of pace and a beautiful smelling place to spread out my wings for the morning. THANKS Tiber River.

I fired up a new desktop image. I'm really feeling these colours lately. I use a Mac now - but, I have been a PC girl for a long, long time. I switched over last year and as part of my "retirement" I've been sort of going over and reevaluating decisions like that. Was it worth it? I'd give it a 65% yes. It's not faster than my PC - but, it's much prettier. WHICH MADE ME LAUGH because it looks like Dan has the REVERSE requirements when he upgraded to me. That's an accountant for you. (I'm really, really FAST ;) HA! Must be the hormones because I'm bubbling over with gratitude for him and all the good people in my life. AND again, the LOVE IS MY PILOT theme has been hitting a chord with me. To me - this really sums it up; love moves us and makes us who we are. Like a pilot.

JUST IN TIME, the temperatures hit -18˚ C last night AND the UPS guy brought me this bundleme cover from JJ Cole. First - THANK YOU UPS!! The package was on time, dry, delivered to MY DOOR and cheerfully handed over by the man in brown. Sweet. BIG thanks. Second - my mom would say OF COURSE I needed to get the expensive one - BUT, IT'S BLACK and it's so snuggly and warm even Crash tried to crawl into it.

Speaking of babies. The black & white baby designs screen prints are about 6 days away from delivery. If you ordered a set - I will be getting in touch with you about delivery and payment. (I will ALSO post photo of what you are MISSING if you didn't order a set!)

Thanks SO MUCH for all the comments yesterday. I appreciate every single one. The Thanksgiving spirit is in full effect - I can feel it! And for the few of you who are predicting that I will blog LESS after the baby arrives - I think I will blog more! But, don't let that deter you either. ;) Happy, happy thanksgiving to all the Americans out there. Triple Arm Pump for holidays and football.

Today: Finishing touches on the TiberRiver signage. Transcanada Trail stuff. INVOICING. PAPERWORK. BOOOOOOO. Super BOO. I have conveniently scheduled a meeting at Starbucks so I can sneak in a peppermint mocha latte AGAIN and other than that - JUST PURE GO. In fact, today I'm hitting with EXTRA-HEAVY-DUTY-INDUSTRIAL-STRENGTH GO (due to the invoicing and paperwork). Here comes the sun...

Let's GO!