This Is Our Day!

"Happy Anniversary Baby, got you on my miiiiiiiiiind!"

Today we are celebrating our 19th wedding anniversary! We are both so stunned that that much time has passed since our wedding day-it almost doesn't seem possible. Now our son is grown and graduated and we're going to be married TWO DECADES a year from today! *boggles*



It just so happens that my husband has the day off today, so we're going to have lunch together, which is a rare treat during the work week. He came in this morning to see if I was awake and then made me brekki. His mum and dad were just down for a visit so we have a fridge full of farm fresh (brown) eggs, so we had skillet strips, eggs and toast with tea. I could get used to this! *laughs*



So here are some things I love about my husband:

-he has a soft and gentle heart

-animals and babies love him

-he will help anyone in need, most of the time before they can even ask

-he works hard

-he is an excellent dad to our son and fur kid

-he actually enjoys shopping

-he has impeccable taste in jewellery

-he's very easy going (he's a Libra)

-he enjoys putting food on our table the old fashioned way-he grows a good portion of it organically

-he's married me twice (we renewed our vows on my 30th birthday)
-he shows his love for me every day


Happy Anniversary to my one true love. xox

Manual Dexterity Zine

Well, I did it! I created my very first Zine! It's called "Manual Dexterity" and as you can see, my hand is on the cover. I was so pleased with myself when I came up with the idea for the cover. I like it alot and I will probably frame the original art and hang it in the studio.

I made 20 copies. 13 are for an exchange I am involved in, I am keeping one and the remaining copies are going to friends I "owe" art to. I also have one copy that is going out to someone who has been a frequent commenter on my blog in the last few months. See? Unlurking has its rewards! (And thanks to Janice for the wonderful idea. She's one smart cookie that Janice!) I will reveal who won at the end of this post!

It was an interesting learning process putting a zine together. I did mine 1/4 fold style and used a simple stab binding to hold it all together. I found the most gorgeous sparkly, copper penny coloured paper at Urban Source for the cover. Urban Source is a little gem in Vancouver that sells art supplies. Part of the stock is new product and the other part is recycled and rescued industrial materials that can be used to make art. They have a fabulous selection of papers on the cheap!

I wrote a few articles and tutorials as per the requirements for the exchange and also included some art. 8 pages are in colour and I also included a packet of collage goodies inside the zine.

And then, because I think presentation is everything, I sewed the zines into these paper bag pieces. (I cut a paper bag in half, width-wise, sewed one side, tucked the zine inside and sewed the other side, sealing the zine inside.) I folded the extra paper over and stuck it down with a "Subversive Material" sticker I made. (Because I think anything that comes in a plan brown wrapper is suspect. *grins*)

I can't share what's inside the zine as I don't want to spoil the surprise for the folks who will be getting them in the exchange. Having gone through this process, I see more zines in my future. It takes a fair amount of planning to make everything work out right when you're doing 1/4 fold and want to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to colour copying, but I think my experience in putting together collaborative books helped alot.

Now I am working on my gifts for the 12 Days of Xmas exchange that I host every year. I have them about half finished and there are only about 12 days till they need to be mailed out, so I am going to be busy!

Okay...so the winner of a limited edition copy of Manual Dexterity Zine is.......SHERRY!!

Sherry, please email me your snail mail addy so I can get your copy out to you! And to the rest of my loyal readers, keep those comments comin'! You never know when they might pay off!

Gratitude Week Day 4

This morning, the last day of Gratitude Week, actress Helen Shaver shares her thoughts about addiction and homelessness and how we are all connected.

And to second what Helen said, here is my story of how we are connected:

19 years ago, before my husband Peter and I were even engaged, we were walking down Robson Street, a trendy shopping district here in Vancouver to meet a friend of mine for dinner.

Along the way, there was this homeless guy coming towards us, weaving badly, reeking of booze and filthy. I cut him a wide path and kept walking and talking to Peter. I was half way down the block before I realized he was no longer with me and I was talking to myself.

I turned around to see where I'd lost him just in time to watch him clap the homeless guy on the back with a big smile on his face and ask him how he was doing. I stood there watching them talk and then as Pete emptied his pockets and gave the guy all the money he had on him. They said their goodbyes and Peter jogged to catch up with me.

It turns out that this homeless guy was his elementary school friend, Randy. He'd known this guy since Kindergarten. It really struck me that even though this guy was obviously so down and out, Peter just saw his friend underneath all that and treated him as if nothing were wrong. In that moment, Peter showed me the sheer kindness of his heart, his loyalty and compassion-all the content of his character and I knew that this was the man I was going to marry.

Years later, my husband ran into Randy's brother by chance and learned that Randy had lost his legs in a train accident (I believe he'd taken to riding the rails and got hurt doing it.) and later on, after years of addiction, passed away. My husband explained to Randy's brother about the day he'd last seen him and how throughout our marriage we'd always said that Randy was our raggedy angel and thought of him often, as he was the reason I'd married my husband.

Randy's brother was almost in tears because it meant so much to him to know his brother whose life had never been what his family envisioned for him had deeply touched and affected ours. Randy's life had had meaning and purpose that his brother had never been aware of before. I think it changed the way he thought about his brother and that was able to happen because someone stopped and looked Randy in the eyes and validated him as a human being.

I usually share this story with someone to illustrate what a beautiful a soul my husband has, but I share it today to let you all know that each and every person out there on the street, whether by cruel twist of fate or by choice belongs to someone, somewhere. The pain of being homeless is not limited to that single person on the street. These people are not worthless pieces of garbage lying on the curb. They are human beings and they need a hand up, not a handout.

So if you're like me and are tired of waiting around for someone else to do something about the problem, if anything my friends or I have said here on my blog this week has touched you in any way, please go the the Gratitude Week website and donate $1. Just ONE dollar. That's it. Economic times be damned-we can all afford that $1. It's nothing by itself, but together we're going to transform people's lives. That's the power of $1.

Day Four of Gratitude Week

Today's Gratitude Week interview is with actor and blues musician, Jim Byrnes who talks about the mere six degrees of separation between each of us and the homeless. He puts it so beautifully-see for yourself.

Today's words of gratitude come from my treasured friend Tina Abbott:

"The timing of this is strange. I am grateful for so very much. Sometimes I forget how amazing and fabulous my life is and I'm grateful when I remember. Today, I'm grateful for my family and to be alive. I'm grateful for seatbelts, and the kindness of strangers. I'm grateful for ibuprofen, tylenol, and arnica. I'm grateful for friends who show up. I live a blessed and glorious life.

Yesterday I was in a car accident on my way to Olympia, for a work training. The weather was beautiful and I was wishing a little I could stay home but I was going to be staying with Lana and Joan{friends & housemates from Artfest} and I was really looking forward to hanging out with them. I'm okay, though I have black bruises larger than my hand across my abdomen and chest where I slammed into the seat belt. My whole body hurts and I'm grateful that is all I have to show for this experience."

*****

After getting this email from Tina, who is very dear to my heart, I was instantly grateful to the universe that she was spared more serious injuries... or worse. I am very, very grateful she's going to be okay!

Join me tomorrow for the last day of Gratitude Week here on my blog. I hope you've been enjoying it!

2010 Uniforms Unveiled!

Last night I went to the unveiling of the 2010 Olympic & Paralympic volunteers' uniforms. As you can see, the official colour of the uniforms is a beautiful, bright turquoise. The colour is representative of the sea to sky corridor that links Vancouver to Whistler, which are the host city and the host mountain of the games.



Each volunteer with be given 2 long sleeve t-shirts, navy pants, a toque, a jacket and polar fleece vest. The uniform is created for layering, which is typical of how we dress in British Columbia. We have a joke here that goes like this: "If you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes." Our weather can change on a dime.



There are 2 types of pants-city and mountain. The mountain pants are lined for warmth for those volunteers that will be working outdoors. The city pants don't have the lining and volunteers working at indoor venues will have those ones.

Here is an example of one of the shirts. I saw two kinds-one was plain and the other had a tone on tone print of the wave pattern that is part of the 2010 logo. He is wearing the city pants.

This guy has on one of the polar fleece vests and the mountain pants.

The Olympic Games symbol is the rings and the Paralympic Games symbol is the agitos. Because both games are completely separate events, there was the need for the uniforms to reflect the identity of each games. They came up with an ingenious way of converting the uniforms. On the back of each jacket are snap fasteners and there is a panel (shown above) that snaps on over top of the Olympic Rings which are printed on the jacket. In addition, there is also a separate patch that will velcro on to switch out the Vancouver 2010 Olympic emblem for the Paralympic emblem!

There's a good shot of the jackets here if you want a closer look.

There is also a backpack made exclusively for the volunteers, which can be purchased if we want one, for $50. (It's optional and the only part of the uniform that isn't free.) It's in blues and greens with the wave pattern on it. The section on the front that has the Olympic rings zips off and again, changes over to the Paralympic agitos symbol.



There are three specific staff groups that have their own unique colours within the uniform, allowing for high visibility. The purple armed uniforms are for anti-doping personnel.

The red armed uniforms with a white cross signify medical personnel.

And finally, the yellow armed uniforms signify events services personnel. The yellow arm is a simple sleeve that just slides up over the t-shirt sleeve and can be removed. This is the uniform I will have!

The pants (both kinds) have lots of big pockets as does the jacket, eliminating the need for a purse, which I am happy about! Footwear and gloves are whatever you choose.

So there you have it! Aren't these great uniforms? I think they were really well thought out in terms of utility, comfort and suitability for local weather conditions. I can't wait to get mine and try it on-that will be happening about a month from now.

When I arrived at the venue this evening, I ran into a good number of my transportation team from the World Police & Fires Games! There were about 10 of us there. Everyone, with the exception of me is working transportation for the Games, but that's perfectly okay-I think I'm going to love what I will be doing. I just thought it was funny that they all signed up to work transpo again!

As an added bonus to my evening, on the way home, I was waiting for the seabus and who should walk into the waiting area and sit down two people over from me but David Suzuki! Of course everyone was staring because in these parts he's a pretty big deal. (West Coasters being tree hugging granolas and all.) He just sat quietly and read his book while we waited. No one bothered him. That made me happy-it was a nice end to my day.

I had a good time last night-I met some new people and I am so excited for the games. As the head of Workforce (the volunteer part of VANOC) pointed out, there are just 17 Mondays left till the games begin! (That got a collective gasp from the audience.) If your wondering how many days from today that is, it's exactly 121 till Feb 12th and the opening ceremonies! I am counting the days!

Gratitude Week Day 3

This morning's Gratitude Week message comes from radio personality Brother Jake Edwards and talks about his experiences in his neighbourhood here in Vancouver.

Today my talented friend Lisa Ryder shares what she is grateful for:

"- for my friends, both near & far, old & new, who encourage, nurture & support me.

- for having a creative space of my own in which I can spend time planning, making & daydreaming.

- for living in New Zealand, where I am never far from the ocean or the mountains or brilliant green forests.

- for my father's amazing strength & resilience which has seen him fight cancer with a fierce determination & courage that makes me so very proud.

- for my husband of 20 years whom I love more every day, & for my gorgeous, smart & sassy daughter.

- for the unconditional love & joy I get from Ruby, the best puppy in the world!

- and I am especially grateful for the chance to get to make a list like this, to remind myself that my life is blessed in all kinds of ways. thanks, Lelainia."

And this is what my sweet friend Maria Lamb had to share:

"I recite my gratitude list every night when I lay my head on the pillow. Being as blessed as I am, it's pretty easy to be grateful.

Many of things I'm grateful for will no doubt appear on others' lists:

I'm grateful for my darling life-mate. I'm grateful for my wonderful pets. I'm grateful that I love where I live. I'm grateful that I'm free of want.

Some things on my daily list are "shout-outs" to the Universe:"Thanks for the bald eagle fly-over today!" or "Loved seeing the giant praying mantis!"

The habit of "being grateful" makes bad thing bearable. We've suffered several pet deaths this year. Each one left us grief- stricken. But I'm grateful that they shared our lives for as long as they did. I'm grateful that they died at home with limited pain of short duration."

Thanks to everyone who has offered to share their gratitude lists so far. I will have more for you tomorrow, on Day 4.

Gratitude Week Day 2

Today I'd like to share with you Global TV anchorman, Tony Parsons giving his thoughts on homelessness in Vancouver. It's a 2 minute clip.

Mandy Jordan sent me an email detailing what's she's feeling grateful for right now. She says:

"I'm grateful for SO much. I'm grateful that I have the freedom to make art (and the will); that my depression has been kept at bay; that Eric has a job he loves and we have health insurance; that I have good friends all over the world; that I have good friends right here in RI; that I am married to the love of my life; that my parents gave me so much; that I love Eric's family; that our cats are healthy and safe; that our roof doesn't leak; that we live so near the park; that I have the cabin and all the wonders therein; that the world is so fascinating and beautiful..."

Catherine Witherell shared the following:

"I am so grateful that I get to be an artist and that I can use my eyes and my hands to create and manifest the many ideas I have rolling around and sparking in my head. Lately I have been making something I like and turning to my husband and telling him, "Thanks for letting me be an artist." I know he didn't really "let" me, but in a way he did by not balking at what I spend most of my waking time doing. I'm also grateful for him."

*******

I was on a crisis line for 8 1/2 years in my community, which is just outside of Vancouver. Many times I would get callers who were homeless looking for shelters to go to in my city. The heartbreaking thing was that I had nowhere to send them-there are no homeless shelters outside of Vancouver. I can't tell you how difficult it was to have someone needing a safe and warm place to sleep at night and having no way of helping them.

I believe that every community needs to have shelters. Ideally, there would be no need for this, but we all know that we don't live in a perfect world. We have mild winters on the coast for the most part, but from time to time the temperature dips to the point that temporary emergency shelters are set up in area churches. Whenever this happens, it sets off an angry flood of neighbours protesting "not in my back yard!!" I don't know where these people expect the homeless to go. I think they forget that we are all one pay cheque, one illness or accident or natural disaster away from being in the exact same position and that we need to have compassion for one another. We're more connected than we think.

Please join me again tomorrow for day 3 of Gratitude Week.

Gratitude Week Day 1

Today is officially THANKSGIVING DAY in Canada. It's also the start of Gratitude Week, which I will be celebrating here on my blog all week long with the help of my friends.

Gratitude Week is something being celebrated here in Vancouver. You see people are tired of waiting for the government to do something about homelessness in our city and they've decided to DO something about it.

I've posted one of the ads that's been running here and I hope you take a minute to watch it. It certainly got me thinking. Today's event is being held at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Everyone is welcome to come down and make their own cardboard sign stating what they are grateful for and it's going to become part of a wall of gratitude througout the week.

This is Christy, one of the organizers, hanging up our contributions to the gratitude wall. We were some of the first people to arrive so we got to get the wall started!

The Wall of Gratitude is located on the north side of the Vancouver Art Gallery grounds and will be there all this week.

They had hot Tim Horton's coffee and doughnuts waiting for everyone and we were able to make our donations as well. Later on, we walked back by the site to see how the wall was coming along and there were more signs added. I hope by the end of the week it will be full!

These are our additions to the wall. I have more things I am adding here:

I am grateful for:

- the wonderful loving, supportive, circle of friends & family I have.

-being blessed with universal healthcare.

-a warm bed, enough food and a hot shower whenever I want it.

-the talents I possess and being able to use them to help others.

-Indy, my sweet dog who makes me laugh and loves me unconditionally.

-the internet which keeps me connected to friends far away.

-having free access to books so I can feed my mind.

-a happy marriage. (We will be celebrating 19 years in about 2 weeks!)

- getting the opportunity to live my dream of being involved in the Olympic and Paralympic games.

-being finished with chemo. (I think it's one of the hardest things I have ever been through.)

-having my studio space to work and be creative in.

-good music.

I asked some friends to share with me the things they are grateful for and I got some great responses. I will be sharing them here throughout the week so be sure and check back for day 2 of Gratitude Week and feel free to comment and share what YOU are grateful for-I'd love to know!

Thanksgiving 2009

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to my fellow Canadians!

Yesterday we went to Fort Langley to the annual Cranberry Festival. It meant a very early wake up call to make it out there for 8:30 a.m. for the pancake brekki, but it was well worth it.

For $5 we got a large cranberry sausage, two regular sausages, 2 large pancakes, juice and coffee. We also get to dine al fresco, which was bracing, as there was a wind coming in off the river, but the sun was shining and the food was delicious so no one was complaining. We took Indy with us, which was fun-lots of folks stopped to pet him and comment on how beautiful he is. (We think so too!)

We did some shopping. There was this woman who had buckets filled with dahlia stems-every colour and petal configuration you could imagine and the flowers were huge. They were $1 a stem so I bought $5 worth and my son bought some for his girlfriend as well.




Aren't they gorgeous?!




We also bought some delicious apples, fresh from a farm to make apple pie.

When we got home, we made 2 impossible pumpkin pies (one for my son to take to his girlfriend's house to share last night)

and an apple pie.

I also made 2 roasters of cabbage rolls with cabbage from our garden. MMM!

It was really nice being out in the fresh air and seeing the leaves changing colour and blowing on the wind. There was a spot where we walked that cracked me up. In front of the cemetery, there is a block long stretch that has huge trees along the boulevard. When the wind blew, horse chestnuts would come pelting down from above. Some of them were bigger than a golf ball! We managed to avoid them, but I warned people coming up the street to be aware that they might get bonked in the head as they made their way along. It was pretty comical.

On an artistic note, I came across this book "Good Mail Day" and had a quick flip through in the store. It was chock full of eye candy, so I bought it. It's got me excited about making (and sending!) some mail art again.

I also wanted to share with you that I got an email from Jeanette telling me that my bra for the breast cancer fundraiser went for $60! The fundraiser was a rousing success. The final tally of all the money raised has yet to come in, but there were 50 bras and they all sold. YAY! I can't wait to share this with the person who inspired the bra I created. I know it will make her very happy.

You can read more about the auction and see some great photos of the event here.

Tomorrow I will kick off a week of special blog posts. You'll have to check back and see what that's all about!

Okay, I am off to stuff the turkey and get it into the oven!

Have a great day everyone!

Scenes from My Weekend

This morning I got up and made these acorn adorned cupcakes after seeing them on someone else's blog. I wish I could remember which blog it was, but the name escapes me. The person who inspired me made vanilla cupcakes and dyed them blue. I made chocolate-I'm not a big fan of food colouring as I am allergic to some of it.

I made 3 dozen and called up my best friend to tell her I had some to share with her. I was befuddled when she didn't come tearing over to get them-usually the offer of something yummy gets an immediate response. Hours and several message later, her husband phoned for directions to a favourite dollar store (they were out walking their puppy on the dikes) and I asked them to stop by on their way home for treats. The cupcakes got rave reviews. *grins*

Right after I finished making cupcakes, we took these from our organic garden...

and added some of this...



And created a bit of this...

...by accident-that's what happens when you multi-task!
And eventually ended up with this...

27 jars of pickled beets! I think that will get us through the winter! My hands are now a lovely shade of day-glo pink, a colour I was sure was not found in nature, but apparently it is!

I have to tell you that my husband cleaned up the massacre in the kitchen. That man is the best worker bee I know-he can make a kitchen sparkle even better than I can. He took the whole stove top apart, wiped down walls and cupboards, mopped the floor...you'd never know we'd canned today! I think he missed his calling-he should have been the guy who cleans up crime scenes!

Lastly, I leave you with this:

Did you ever know there were so many pretty shades of green? This was today's pickin's from our garden. If mother nature isn't the best artist!

Art For the Cure Auctions

Photo by Jeanette Janson

So the Cups for Cancer fundraiser is in full swing and this afternoon I got an email from Jeanette saying that my bra had been on TV in South Carolina! Apparently the curator of the gallery took it with her to share on the local news! I wonder if they mentioned it had come all the way from Canada?

Jeanette also sent me this photo of my bra hanging in the show, which was really nice of her, seeing as it would be a bit of a commute for me to attend. *laughs* I did notice that something was amiss though....

The "hope" embellishment has gone astray. I emailed Jeanette and she said she's going to see if she can find it, as it was on the bra when it arrived at her house. Ah well...these things happen! Hopefully she'll be able to find it and glue it back on. Apparently my super duper strength glue has failed me.

On a positive note however, she also informed me that my bra already has bids on it! YAY! That makes me really happy-the whole point of all this is to raise funds for breast cancer support services, so I was hoping it would do well. It's reassuring to know it's off to a good start!

Remember these charms I made for the Ties that Bind ovarian cancer project?

The doll made the cover of Stanislaus magazine, was featured in Art Doll Quarterly (the current issue, on stands now) and also made guest appearances on a couple of TV shows! How's that for exposure? It was finally raffled off and the project managed to raise a whopping $5442!! Isn't that just amazing?

But wait! There's more news!

Remember these charms I made a couple years ago, along with a button bracelet for A Charming Exchange?

Well those charms became parts of these pieces:

And were published it this book:

and now, at long last, many of these lovely pieces of jewellery from the book will be going up for auction on Ebay with the proceeds to go to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, benefiting breast cancer research.

If you'd like to have the opportunity to bid or to learn more about this fundraiser, please visit the Charming Exchange blog for more information and links to the auction which goes live today!

You know, I've always believed that art saves lives and I think it's really an honour to be able to use our gifts to help someone else, even if we never see the ways in which that help manifests. I think of it as tithing to the universe. It's been my sincere pleasure to have played a small part in these projects and I hope that if you can, you will go and bid.

Does This Jacket Make Me Look Canadian?

Behold my new winter jacket! I went out this morning and was freezing-it was raining and windy-enough so that the wind was practically ripping my umbrella out of my hand, so when my husband got home, we went shopping for a new jacket.

Just before we left the house, we were watching the noon news and they had just unveiled the athlete's uniforms for the 2010 games. I loved what I saw, so we decided to go look at Olympic apparel while we were at the mall. I decided I absolutely loved this jacket, (it's red so how could I not?!?) so it's mine!

These are the crests on either arm. (Sorry the one is so dark!)

I also bought this polar fleece toque. It's cozy and it has the little ear flaps so once it's on, no wind is going to bother my ears. The jacket also has a hood, so I am going to be toasty warm!

Of course I find this all just a little bit amusing-Canadians as a whole tend to be very quietly patriotic and here I am going to be running around town in a jacket that practically screams "I AM CANADIAN!!" Oh well, it makes me happy and keeps me warm and that's the important thing.

Of course my husband is already eyeing up my jacket. I promised him that if I get one just like or similar to it as part of my uniform for the games, I will give him this one. Speaking of which, I've been invited to go see the unveiling of our uniforms in a couple of weeks, so I am very excited. Having seen how tastefully done these ones are, it bodes well for something equally nice for us! *fingers crossed*