Our Anniversary

Today is my 18th wedding anniversary! It's hard to imagine that 18 years have passed, but they have.



Sometimes people ask us how we met, but I think the far more interesting story of our love is how I knew I would marry my husband.
Here's how it happened:



After we had started hanging out together (neither of us was calling it dating at this point) I needed to go downtown to meet a friend for dinner. This friend was a guy I went to high school with. When I mentioned it to Pete, he offered to drive me downtown. I thought he was just being nice, but an older friend pointed out to me that he was actually offering to come along to "check out the competition" even though my friend from high school really was just a friend.



Anyway, when we got downtown, I told him that since he'd driven all that way, he might as well tag along and join us for dinner. We parked and had a bit of a walk to the restaurant where I was meeting my friend. So we're walking up the street, which is crowded, as it's a trendy part of Vancouver and I'm chatting away with him as we go. Up ahead I notice this street person stumbling towards us, drunk and filthy, so I cut him a wide path.



Half a block later, I asked Pete something and didn't get a response. I look around and he's not beside me, but back down the street. I see him slapping the street person on the back and asking him how he's doing. They talk for a few minutes and then I see Pete empty his pockets to him. THAT was the moment in which I knew this was the man I was going to marry.



It turns out that the street person was Randy, a guy Pete went to elementary school with. Rather than seeing him and pretending he didn't know who he was, he stopped. Randy was a mess-drunk, filthy and homeless and Pete looked beyond all that and just saw his childhood friend. He saw a human being in need of help when so many people were avoiding him because they were scared or disgusted or both. He gave him all the money he had on him. I knew in that moment he was a man of great compassion.



There is a bittersweet epilogue to this story: Years later, my husband was at a job site. One of his coworkers called him over and told him there was someone he wanted him to meet. Turns out, his coworker was related by marriage to Randy's brother, who just happened to stop by.



They got talking and Pete asked about Randy. He found out that Randy had recently passed away, having never managed to shake his addiction. Pete told Randy's brother that Randy was the reason he got married. He shared our story about that day on the street and how we always referred to Randy as our raggedy angel.



Randy's brother was really touched to know that someone remembered Randy and that he had touched someone in such a positive way, given how his life turned out.



It's the seemingly small moments in our lives that become the pivotal points that change everything. This one small act of kindness and friendship changed both our lives and lead us to today, 18 years later. I am very blessed to be married to a man who has such a soft and kind heart. My husband is a sweet and gentle soul and I think it's his greatest strength.



Happy Anniversary Honey, you are my love and my light. xox

Puppies & Art

Copyright C. Lloyd 2008

The blog that has gone to the dogs....okay not really but I couldn't resist showing off my pup Indy (the black Lab) and his buddy Bosco. My son took this pic last week. Bosco belongs to a friend of his and they get together most evenings to walk the puppies.

Bosco and Indy are the same age, only a day apart. It's amazing the difference between them in terms of their builds. I love this pic and how they are sitting mirror image to one another. I wish you could see in photos just how shiny and beautiful Indy's coat is. He really is gorgeous and he has the most dear personality.

I had a bit of a rough week last week and ended up having to spend part of it on the couch, watching really old episodes of Survivor and The Amazing Race with Indy curled up beside me. I did some damage to my knee and had to keep off it for a few days. It was an ugly, ugly mess, but it's finally starting to heal. Needless to say, I didn't get much art done. I am playing catch up this week.

In lieu of my own art this week, I suggest that if you are in need of some eyecandy or perhaps want a bit of the old west for your very own, you visit my pal Deb Trotter's Etsy Shop. She's got some wonderful Buckaroo bags along with some Cowboy's Sweetheart/Maverick Rose pendants. Being the proud owner of one of each, I can tell you they are beautiful! I wear my pendant all the time. It's a design made from a piece of art Deb did for me in a RR we were in a couple years ago. It's so cool to have the original piece of art and have the pendant as well.

The Buckaroo bag Deb gave me was an Xmas gift last year and it's perfect for toting all my essentials. I love that it's one-of-a- kind!

If you are just starting to think about holiday shopping, why not check out Etsy? It's a great way to find interesting and unique gifts at affordable prices. The part that I really like about it is that it gives you the chance to support hard working artists, rather than big box retailers. The gifts you can buy on Etsy are handmade and often one-of-a-kind, created with care by people who love what they do. Who wouldn't want to support that?!

I have done a fair amount of shopping through this site and have always been very happy with the quality of the items I've bought and the speed of the shipping. (Which has mainly been from the US to Canada.) I can't say enough good things about Etsy! It's a treasure trove of all things artsy!

So what are you waiting for?! GO! Check it out!

For You!

As a friend suggested, this is perfect for listening to while doing the post Thanksgiving dinner dishes. I hope you enjoy this little mix. If you like what you hear, you can follow me on Mixwit and receive notifications when I create a new mix. Free fun!

Thanksgiving

Copyright Tattered Edge 2008

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in Canada. (Thus one more pic from the cranberry bogs!) It's one of my favourite holidays, along with Hallowe'en. As I have said often, Autumn is my favourite time of year. There's just something so uplifting about the natural beauty here at this time of year in addition to the weather and the celebrations that take place in October.

Next weekend we will celebrate my husband's birthday and the week after that, our 18th wedding anniversary. We purposely chose to get married in my favourite month so we could have yet another reason to celebrate and feel happy in October.

October ends now with just a tinge of sadness, as Hallowe'en was also my Gramps' birthday and now that he's gone, I can't help but miss him especially on that day. *breathe*

Anyway, I have alot to be thankful for this year. I am reposting the Harvest Prayer from last Thanksgiving, simply because it's an eloquent reminder of how we can create a beautiful life for ourselves. On our best days, this is who we are.

Harvest Prayer
(Anonymous 17th Century Sermon)

Please be gentle with yourself and others.

We are all children of chance,

And none can say why some fields blossom

While others lay brown beneath the harvest sun.

Take hope that your season will come.

Share the joy of those whose season is at hand.

Care for those around you.

Look past your differences.

Their dreams are no less than yours,

Their choices in life no more easily made.

And give.

Give in any way you can.

Give in every way you can.

Give whatever you possess.

Give from your heart.

To give is to love.

To withhold is to wither.

Care less for the size of your harvest than for how it is shared,

And your life will have meaning

And your heart will have peace.

Happy Thanksgiving!

All Hail The Mighty Cranberry!

All photos Copyright Tattered Edge 2008

So this morning, my son and I drove out to Ft. Langley, BC to the annual Cranberry Festival. We've been a couple times before as a family and had planned to all go today, however my husband tweaked his knee yesterday and we spent 4 hours in the ER last night, so no festival for him. We left him at home with Indy for company.

The morning always starts off with the pancake breakfast. I had to take a pic of this guy stirring pancake batter using an attachment on a power drill. It's all very Red Green, but it gets the job done! No sissy whisk for him!

Doesn't this look yummy? The large sausage is cranberry sausage and it's delicious. The smaller ones are regular breakfast sausages. That power drill made some pretty fluffy pancake batter. They were the best pancakes I've ever had.

My son spotted a stand that said "Ukrainian Kitchen" and went to investigate. He came back to tell me he was having perogies for breakfast. He may not have been born and raised in Winnipeg like I was, but he knows perogies make a good brekki. He'll eat them just about any time of the day really. They are his favourite.

After brekki and wandering around all the various booths where everything under the sun was for sale-food, crafts, jewellery, produce, honey, you name it, we hopped on the free shuttle trolley bus and took a ride out to The Fort Wine Co. to tour the cranberry bogs. I have always wanted to do this and decided this was a must do this time.

In the past we've missed going to the farm because we were racing in Voyageur canoes on the river. (Another popular festival activity.) The year we did it, there was a small boy sitting in front of me. He was far too young to be a paddler. He insisted in resting his paddle on the gunwale and so every stroke he took, he alternated between wacking me across the knuckles or paddling the river into my lap. It was overcast and windy that year and so I had bruised hands and was freezing cold and soaked by the end of the race. Our canoe won, but I swore off Voyageur racing with strangers after that.

This building houses the wine store of the operation. There was wine tasting, but I didn't stop to try any. It looked like people were enjoying the wines though-lots of folks were buying bottles, probably for their holiday dinners on Monday.

So this is what a cranberry bog looks like at harvest time, which is usually late September/early October. Some people think the fields are flooded like this all the time, but in reality, it's only like this during the harvest.

The cranberry bushes grow low to the ground and they have evergreen- like leaves. Once the berries are their signature crimson colour, the fields are flooded with six to eight inches of water above the vines. A harvester is driven through the beds to remove the fruit from the vines. The harvester kind of looks like a small columbine with rotating combs.

Harvested cranberries float in the water.

Then they can be corralled into a corner of the bed (or in this case the rubber circles) and conveyed or pumped from the bed.

This is one of my favourite pics of the berries-aren't they just beautiful?

After touring the cranberry bogs, we hopped back on the trolley bus and went back into Ft. Langley. (It was only a 10 minute drive. Hooray for the free shuttle bus though!)

And here are those cranberries, ready for sale! Fresh from the field and $3/lb. I bought a pound and my friend Lance is going to make his amazing cranberry sauce for our dinner on Monday.




As you can see, they had tons for sale. Over 10,000 lbs! The berries grown in BC are the ones used in many, many Ocean Spray products. I always love to see where food comes from and how it gets from the farm to the table. Most people just don't seem to care anymore, but I think it's important to know (and see) these things. We are so far removed from the food we put in our mouths!

This truck was parked near where we had breakfast.

Check these babies out!

Are these not amazing? I would be curious to know just how much they weighed.

So that was the lion's share of my day-fresh air, good company, good food and new experiences. The autumn is just so beautiful here on the coast. Tomorrow we will be baking pies for Monday's Thanksgiving dinner. This is my favourite time of year.

Tales from the North

I didn't have a pic for today's post, so you get to see my pup Indy again! He's growing so quickly-he's up to 50 lbs. now. That's alot of Lab!

Anyway, the TV interview turned out well, all things considered. It's always so weird to see yourself on TV. Weird but in a good way. I enjoy doing TV, though I think live TV is so much easier.The only downside was that they spelled my name wrong-go figure! Thanks again to all the ladies that came out for the Atc swap and filming! And thanks Peter and Gallent for the opportunity. I really appreciate it. It was fun and I learned alot.

This weekend is a long one. It's Canadian Thanksgiving here. YAY! I already have the entire weekend planned with a trip to a local festival (more on that later), the baking of pies and cabbage rolls and the dinner on Monday. I am hoping to have some photos from our outdoor adventures this weekend for a later post.

In the meantime, I haven't done "the list" for some time, so here we go:

Reading: What it is by Lynda Barry. My friend Penn turned me onto this book and through most nights I am too exhausted to crack it open, I am slowly making my way through it. It's a book to be savoured anyway.

Watching: HOUSE, SYTYCD Canada, Survivor, Grey's Anatomy, Heros, Amazing Race and ER. I am waiting for Breaking Bad and Rescue Me to come back on but they aren't due out till January.

Listening: I had almost $100 in iTunes credit so I have been busying songs as the spirits move me. Here are some of the most recent:

Walter Reed by Michael Penn

Sunrise, by Simply Red

The Thrill is Gone, by BB King

You Make it Real, by James Morrison

Blackwater , by The Doobie Brothers

Seminole Wind, by James Taylor

Legacy by Steve Acho

And a whole host of others. I love being able to buy songs one by one. Unless the entire album is stellar, I prefer to just buy what I will listen to.

Drinking: Lately it's been alot of Chai Lattes. It's getting cooler out and it's just so nice to wrap your hands around a warm cup. Oh and the Pumpkin loaf is to die for!!

Anticipating: I just ordered these from Etsy. I am so excited! I've wanted a pair for a long time and can't wait for them to show up in my post box!

Dreaming: Of going to a special place on Saturday and learning something new. I hope the weather is good and I can get some great photos!!

Doing; Trying to get caught up with work here in the studio so I can have a guilt free long weekend off! (Plus Tuesday is the Canadian elections and I am working it from 6 a.m. till 9 p.m. straight so no studio time on Tuesday!)

Creating: I am just starting a couple of projects. Hosting 2 and participating in one. Luckily they are all so different and will be done at different times, so I can juggle them. Also working on some design work and prepping for a class that starts next week.

Okay, I had better sign off and make the most of the work day today. Back with photos over the weekend!

Hello Again, Hello!

Gather 'round everybody! The interview I did last week with SHAW in my studio and on location in Vancouver (with Penelope, Nancy, Jennifer, Angela, Tammy & Joy) will be airing on The Express on Wednesday, October 8th at 6:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.

I have no idea how this turned out, as it was a taped segment, rather than live TV like I did when I went on Breakfast Television back in January. The difference between doing taped vs. live tv is huge! Anyway, I hope it came out well and I'll be watching. If your local, I hope you will be too!

Set your VCRs And DVRs!!

Whirl Wind Week

WOW! It's been a long and busy week here! First off, last night was my interview with Peter Kim (seen here with cameraman Gallant in my studio) for The Express. We started with footage taken in my studio, along with an interview.

I was amused by the reaction the guys had to my studio. They had never seen anything quite like it and Peter said he could see why I would find it easy to be creative in here. I guess when you shoot on location, you just never know what you're going to see when you get there. It's kind of enlightening to see your life through someone else's eyes.

Anyway, after the footage in the studio, we jumped into our cars and drove into Vancouver to the Grind. Peter interviewed me outside first at one of the tables and people driving by were openly staring. Then when we went inside, Gallent filme as dwe swapped ATCs and chatted and it was amusing watching people staring but not staring.

I don't know how people who do TV for a living ever get used to the fishbowl feeling. I really enjoy talking on camera and sharing whatever art I am talking about but it's so different when you are not in the controlled, insular environment of the studio. If nothing else, it provided a unique people watching opportunity for me. I am sure they were wondering what all the fuss was about!

I want to say a HUGE thanks to Penelope Harris, Nancy Sherman, (who got some camera time too!), Jennifer Conway, Angela Fan and Tammy and Joy Hamm for coming out to trade and be on tv with me!! You ladies are the best!

Peter said that this story will air some time next week and he will email to let me know, so stay tuned!

Backtracking a bit, Penn and I went to Word on the Street on Sunday, down in front of the Vancouver library. (Which is not only a beautiful, but interesting piece of architecture.) We walked many, many laps around the building checking out all kinds of books and collecting the freebies our purchased book bags entitled us to. It ended up we got so mush free stuff we had to go back to where I'd parked and offload. I swear those bags weighed a good 50lbs. each!

When I got home, I dumped 2 bag's worth of stuff out onto my bed and my son and I divided up the spoils. It was like the literary version of Hallowe'en trick or treating. FUN! I've always wanted to go to this event, but in past years was teaching Sundays. It was great to be able to finally get there! In addition to all the wonderful swag we got, we were also able to pop by and support our friend Alyx who was doing a reading and representing On-Spec Magazine.

And lastly, Saturday night was my 20th High School Reunion. They held it at a pub and this picture about says it all-crowded, too loud to talk and everyone more interested in partying than in catching up. *SO* not my scene so I cut out early.

The funny thing was that what little conversation wasn't
"How the hell are ya?" but "WHO the hell are ya?" Most folks didn't recognize people unless they were in their own little cliques. Add to that that there were people there who left in grade 10 or so, who didn't actually grad from my school and there were alot of unfamiliar faces!

Well, to my credit, I went, I saw, I likely won't do it again. I doubt there will be anymore-after your 20th, who cares? Seriously, I am not as jaded as I sound, it's just that going to one of these things is awkward and not much really changes in 20 years.

Today I am going to ease into the day with a nice long walk with my puppy around the lake a couple of times, followed by some chai from Starbucks. I have some design work for Hannah Grey to get to and then I am meeting up with my best friend to catch up in the afternoon. Somewhere in there, I plan to grab a nap. It's just been go, go, go, but I love that every day is something new.

Speaking of new, over at Artsmiths, our latest Artist of the Month has been posted. You can learn more about the eclectic, free-spirited Sarah Fishburn this month and if you want to catch up on past AOM features, just click on the archives!