Good Food & Good Music

So I'm on vacation and it feels like things are just as busy as they were when I wasn't. Not complaining-just an observation. Thursday, we attended the second Al Fresco dinner of 2012. I had my first taste of elk.

The secret location this time around was at the Roundhouse. There's this big metal structure (I think it's supposed to be art) in the courtyard area and we sat right underneath it. It was a really nice evening.

Saturday, through a stroke of luck, I got a free ticket to the Burnaby Blues & Roots Festival out on Deer Lake. I arrived around 4:30 pm and it was smokin' hot out. Really, too hot for me, but I had a good reason to be there.

Jimmie Vaughn, brother of Stevie Ray Vaughn played. He's really every bit as good as his brother. At one point, he played an entire song with his guitar behind his head, backwards. Crazy!

THIS was the real reason I went though. I adore the Indigo Girls and though I've been a fan for years, I've never seen them in concert!

They are so incredibly talented and gave a great concert. Every time they finished a set, we'd clap and they'd say "Thanks Y'all!" So charming! When they play here again, I am most certainly getting tickets. They're touring the US soon, playing with local symphonies in several cities. I imagine that's going to be fantastic. I wish they were coming here.

Sadly, the Olympics are over. I watched hours and hours of events while it was on. I didn't manage to make it through the closing ceremony though. That was ridiculously long. I fell asleep during the part with Russell Brand. They re-aired it in the evening, so I picked up where I'd left off, but by the time 7 pm rolled around, it wasn't even close to being done and Breaking Bad was coming on, so I gave up. I think any ceremony longer than 3 hours is too long. 

Now there's the 2 week changeover for the Paralympics. The opening ceremony is on the 29th. I am hoping we get good coverage, but if not, the Paralympic website will be live streaming events. I plan to watch as much as I can and cheer for team Canada!

Oh and one more thing before I sign off-I haven't forgotten about the giveaway. I'll be contacting the winner later today!

8 Years Come & Gone

Okay, first things first! My blog is officially 8 years old! Yes, I've been blogging since the dark ages of the Internet, pretty much before most artists had blogs! It's hard to believe it's been that long. 

To that end, I am going to have a giveaway to celebrate. I promise it's going to be something GOOD, so make sure you leave a comment to enter, especially if you are a lurker. Tell me where you are from and how you found me and I'll throw your name in the hat. I'll draw a winner on Friday, August 10th. Please make sure I have some way of reaching you if you win. I'm not saying what the prize is because we all need more good surprises in life, don'tcha think? 

Meanwhile, I am working on healing my poor eye. It's slow going, but I am hopeful that by next weekend, it should be okay again. I sure wish I knew what I was allergic to that caused such an ugly infection. Not fun! This has been a very bad year for allergies. Everyone I know has said the same thing.

The Olympics have been fantastic so far-so many amazing moments and wonderful stories. I've been cheering like mad and I've already cycled through an entire box of Kleenex. CTV's Difference Makers stories are real tearjerkers. 

I am incredibly proud of the Canadian Women's Soccer team for making it to the finals. I volunteered at the CONCACAF Women's Olympic qualifier here in Vancouver back in January to help support them and I really want to see them do well. They have a big game against the US on Monday, which I am sure is going to be a nail biter. I will be glued to the tv!

It's funny, during in 2010 those of us who were involved in the Games were living in an Olympic bubble. We didn't really know what was going on outside of the Olympics. It feels the same way watching London 2012 now. I haven't watched news in days and I'm a news hound. I can't tell you what's happening in the real world, but I can tell you just about anything that's going on in competition! Hard to believe in a week's time, we'll be watching the closing ceremonies! The Paralympics are just around the corner!

GO CANADA GO!! 

ALLEZ LES ROUGES!

Papergirl Vancouver 2012

So Tuesday night was the opening of the Papergirl Vancouver exhibit. I got to the Roundhouse at 5:30 pm and was immediately busy in the kitchen prepping food for the reception. I did manage to snap a few photos though.

Everything was hung on a line, like last year. This year there were over 700 piece of art donated and 136 contributing artists, so space was at a premium. It was nice to see the venue filled right up with art.

Here's Penn with one of her pieces.

The turn out was really good. I think there were at least double, if not more the amount of people who attended last year. It was great having so many people turn up for the opening.

Easels were set up for people to make art if they felt like it. This girl spent a fair bit of time working on a dragon.

It was a pretty busy night and I wasn't feeling very good, (understatement of the year) so the whole thing was a bit of a blur to me.

Here's my pal Carol with that secret package I posted the other day. She was pretty surprised when I handed it to her. I'll show you tomorrow what was inside!

Tonight I am going to an Al Fresco dinner with my husband. It's the first one of 2012 and the location is a good one. We always have a wonderful time and it will be nice to catch up with people we've gotten to know through these dinners. The diversity of people who attend is always interesting.

 Tomorrow the Olympic opening ceremonies happen! WOOHOO! I've already been watching the Canadian Women's Soccer, which has been wonderful, even though we lost to Japan, 2-1. Our ladies played a pretty defensive game and made some great saves. Kudos to Melissa Tancredi for scoring the first goal of Olympic competition! I hollered and I am sure they heard me in London!

Saturday, my holidays begin! I can't wait! I think I've definitely earned a break.

What's Going On

Last week I was working on a secret project, a gift for someone I adore. It's finished and I've wrapped it. I would love to share photos, but I don't want to ruin the surprise, just in case the friend it's for pops by to read my blog. 

Meanwhile, there's been so much going on, I feel like my posts lately are always of the "catch up" nature. 2012 has been insanely busy but my month and a half sabbatical begins this weekend and I can't wait!

I was remiss in posting here that I was a guest photographer over at Chickadee Road, which belongs to my friend Liz Lamoreux and Kelly Barton. I ordered a set of temporary tattoos and then shot a few self-portrait photos of me wearing them. I LOVE temporary tattoos! You get to have the fun of wearing something cool without the cost or pain of real ink. (I love real ink too, but sometimes it's nice to be able to "accessorize" on a whim.)

Last night I got an email from Natalie Dixon saying that I'd won the giveaway on her blog, which was a set of 6 swatch cards plus free shipping from Paper Coterie. Cool! I am working on designing mine and can't wait to order them! I think they'll make a fabulous mini portfolio. The next time someone asks me what kind of art I do, I can pull the swatch cards out and show them. Works for me!

Other than that, yesterday was a long day documenting a ton of art that came in for Papergirl. There was so much of it, we were starting to run out of room, which, if you think about it, is a very good problem to have. We got creative though and managed to get it all hung. I just took a quick peek before I left last night (I was up in the office, working on the computer all day) so I'm looking forward to seeing the exhibition properly tomorrow night. I am pretty sure we've exceeded the total number of art pieces donated, as well as the number of contributing artists. There are going to be alot of happy people receiving the gift of art on the streets of Vancouver on Saturday!

On a completely different note, I watched Being Elmo last night. It's a wonderful documentary on Kevin Clash, who is the extraordinary puppeteer behind the little furry red guy. His story is a wonderful illustration of how hard work and preparation will eventually meet opportunity. It's also about staying true to what is in your heart, even when people laugh at you and how important it is for parents to support and nurture their children's creativity. Watch the documentary. I promise, it's uplifting.

Speaking of uplifting, there are only FOUR more days until the Olympics begin! I just got next week's tv guide with the schedule and I can see I'm going to be up in the wee hours alot, watching events live!

I also got this in the mail today:

It's a bumper sticker in support of Canadian Athletes! I'd call that an excellent mail day! Now I just need to stock up on Kleenex, the {un}official sponsor of my Olympic & Paralympic Games! Four more sleeps! I can hardly stand it!

Okay, I *think* I am all caught up now. Whew!

Catching Up

If I've been on the quiet side this week, it's because I've been busy with the Women's Soccer 2012 Olympic qualifying tournament. I've been downtown in a swanky hotel my husband helped build, dispatching a fleet of cars for VIPs again. It's been fun, but long days knock the stuffing out of me.

So far we've attended Canada's first game, against Haiti and our ladies are looking really good. They played with integrity and their cohesiveness was really something to watch. If you're in town, you should get tickets-they're very inexpensive-$10-$25, no bad seats and all in the lower bowl.

I haven't had time to shoot anything new this week, aside from this photo of Indy, which I love. Speaking of photography, my beloved Picnik is closing mid-April. I am utterly bereft.{insert very sad face} I am very unhappy about it and have no idea what I am going to do once it's gone-it's my go-to editing program.

Mary Ellen, Sherry, Dave & Lisa, thank you for your feedback on Tapping In. It was really interesting hearing your interpretations. I wanted to let you know that you are all winners! Please email me with your snail mail addresses and as soon as I get prints made, I will send each of you postcards. (My email addy is on the sidebar.)