Fill in the _____ Friday

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1. I am looking forward to... saving up enough money to go on a proper vacation. For the first time in a decade. Beaches, warm sand, ocean breeze, drinks with little umbrellas.... mmmmm....
   
2. Something kind of embarrassing that I still love anyways is... nothing really comes to mind, though I did recently discover The Voice and I am surprised at how much I enjoyed it!
   
3. My favourite car is... anything hybrid or electric that's better for the environment... or better yet, no car at all! For style, though, I like old European sports cars.
   
4. If I could pick one type of weather to live with for the rest of my life it would be... warm, sunny, but not too hot with a hint of a breeze. Warm enough to wear a T-shirt, but cool enough to wear a sweater at night. Ideally there would also be the occasional really dramatic storm, too!
   
5. My favourite thing to do after a bad/stressful day is... go home, get into my flannel PJs, kick back and watch TV with a beer.
   
6. This weekend... I'll be watching the hockey game on Saturday, running errands, catching up on sleep, and cleaning the house.
   
7. If I were a colour I would be... red because... it's bright, passionate, cheerful, and goes with lots of other colours! Plus it's the colour you paint the town...
   

Thanks to Lauren for the blanks!

Wicked Wednesday - Grieves

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I just discovered this guy and am surprised by how much I'm enjoying his music so far. Also, he's touring with Atmosphere, so I'm really hoping he'll be opening on May 10th! Click here to listen to his new track.

Fill in the _____ Friday

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1. Fridays are... The best day of the damn week.
   
2. Inspiring stories, passionate discussions, cute baby animals, beer, great friends and relaxing alone time... make me terribly happy.
3. Something that inspires me is... courage. Seeing people who are facing adversity and still able to be more positive and hopeful than I am makes me try harder to see the many, many wonderful things in my life.
   
4. If I had a day off today I would... I did have a day off!! And it was wonderful. Slept in, watched TV, read a bit... aaaaahhhhh.
   
5. If I had to put a label on my home decor style, I would say my style is... I have no idea, I'm not someone who would ever use the phrase "home decor." Most of my furniture is from IKEA.
   
6. Concerning my politics, I would say that I am... not really feeling like talking about it on my day off.
   
7. I'd like to... win the lottery so I could... travel, do charity work, go back to school, help my friends and family financially, rescue abandoned pets, build a house with a water slide going from the roof to a huge pool in the backyard and collect leatherbound books.
   

Thanks to Lauren for the blanks!

Wicked Wednesday - Goalie Throwdown

In the spirit of the playoffs, here's one of my favourite moments in hockey. Goalie throwdown. Just watch it.

Fill in the _____ Friday

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1. My favourite daily responsibility is... does going to bed at night count? I really like that one.
   
2. My least favourite daily responsibility is... commuting to work comes to mind right now as I had a particularly unpleasant one this morning, but in reality it's probably giving my cat his medicine. He looks up at me with these big, trusting eyes and then I proceed to shoot yucky medicine down his throat with a giant syringe. It makes me feel a bit like satan.
   
3. My favourite cuisine to eat when going out is... salads. Lately I'm really enjoying the variety of stuff you can put in a salad. My favourites are the one with apple and pecans at Earl's and one I had out in Surrey last weekend with this great vinaigrette dressing. Mmmmm.
   
4. My favourite cuisine to prepare at home is... I like making pancakes and apple crumble, but not as much as I enjoy eating them. In all honesty, though it makes me feel quite proud, I don't actually like cooking all that much.
   
5. Andy Warhol said that everyone is famous for 15 minutes. My claim to fame is... getting my picture in the paper riding in a fire truck when I was like 3. I peaked early.
   
6. If I could have 3 wishes, I would wish... for perfect health, to be happy and to have lots of money, in that order.
   
7. My biggest pet peeve is... I can only pick one? Yeah, that's not going to happen. Here are just a few off the top of my head: incorrect grammar and spelling in public signage (particularly misplaced apostrophes - it is NOT 90's, people!! Wow, it hurts to even write it as an example.), rude people on public transit, being interrupted repeatedly and condescension.
   

Thanks to Lauren, as always!

Wicked Wednesday - Sad Stuff on the Street

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Long-distance relationships are tough, as any of us who have ever misguidedly attempted one know. But, even more than regular relationships, they tend to develop their own little traditions and rituals - ways of surmounting the physical distance by sharing meaningfully meaningless things with one another.

This blog is a great example of one of these little traditions. Greg (San Francisco) and Sloane (New York) used to date. Greg started sending Sloane pictures of sad things he found on the street, and it soon evolved into a habit. When they split (as most long-distance relationships are doomed to do), they decided to evolve this tradition into a blog to help move from exes to friends and share their discoveries with the world. So they started Sad Stuff on the Street.

Now, if you're not as morbid or odd as I am and prefer to look at happy stuff left strewn about the city, there's no need to feel left out. In fact, you can send your pictures of happy urban shit to GOOD.is before next Wednesday and they'll add it to their Happy Stuff on the Street picture show.

Now go get sad. Or happy.

Make-It Monday - Make It: The Handmade Revolution

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Well, since I made almost no progress on my knitting this weekend after having been distracted by a sudden, overwhelming and frankly disconcerting urge to clean out my closets, I'm going to take this opportunity to share an event. Make It Vancouver is happening this weekend (April 15-17). It's a craft fair full of awesome. You should go. For more info, go here.

Fill in the _____ Friday

1. Something that makes me a good friend is... my apple crumble. Also I'm loyal, comforting, have a good sense of humour and enjoy lively conversation. But mainly the crumble.
   
2. I am... a dreamer, a vegetarian (mostly), a pessimist working towards becoming a cockeyed optimist, a perfectionist, a searcher, a traveler at heart, sarcastic, easily bored, a pack rat, crafty, a cuddler.
   
3. I am not... fond of conflict or passive aggressive bs, good at math, a fan of major change in my life or housework, disciplined, good at using all the veggies in the fridge before they wilt.
   
4. If I had to describe myself in three words, they would be... over-achiever (I'm counting that as one), affectionate, stubborn.
   
5. Something I'm really cheap about is... clothes. I buy nice ones, but always on sale. I resent spending a small fortune on jeans.
   
6. Something I'm willing to splurge on is... it changes - whatever my hobby or major interest is at any particular time.
   
7. I would trade... all my books for... perfect health in a heartbeat.

Thanks to Lauren for the blanks!

Wicked Wednesday - Hollyhawk on Etsy

Oh. My. God. I am in love. During a recent rainy afternoon (I can't remember which one because, let's face it, there are a lot of them) I was trolling around on Etsy, you know, looking for ways to spend that rainy day cash, and I stumbled across Hollyhawk. She's actually a local gal - Victoria - and she makes the most AMAZING leather accessories - cuffs, wallets, iPod cases. I completely fell for this:

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It arrived yesterday and is as gorgeous as it looks! She makes them with all sorts of different colours and patterns, so if you're looking for a funky, comfortable and well-made leather accessory, check her out! Not only that, but she's local, which makes me feel even better about supporting her!

Make-It Monday - Finally Finished!

So you may remember that I took some photos of a cowl in the making a week or two ago. Well, I've finally finished! This one was a bit of a monster of a project because the yarn I was using, though beautiful, soft and warm, is quite narrow, and I was making a very long scarf to join in a loop. Here is the final result:


I tried doing the Kitchener stitch to join the scarf, which apparently was supposed to make it look seamless. Not quite:


But I just wear that in the back of the first loop and it's more or less hidden.

Though it took nearly a month of daily work and lots of sore muscles and cramped fingers, I'm pleased to say that I got to wear it for the first time today! And given that it's a particularly wet and miserable Monday (see my previous post), it was the one thing that brightened up my day!

If you'd like to make one, the basic pattern is courtesy of Julianne Smith and is available on her site here. Thanks, Julianne!

Of course, true to form, I'm already well on the way with my next project:


This one is a cowl made of chunky 100% Baby Alpaca yarn - it is so soft that I swear the first time I touched it I wanted to wrap myself up in an entire suit made from it and stay there forever. It is absolutely incredible. Even J. was impressed by its softness - though he did have some concerns about just what happens to the baby Alpacas to get the yarn off them. Pretty sure he was joking.

Until next Monday....

Soggy Monday

Oh, it's Monday, alright. As I've mentioned before, I live in Vancouver, BC - one of the rainiest places in the world. Today is a particularly dreary Monday. Of course I was running late, transit was a mess of wet, grumpy people, and I spent most of my commute with someone's elbow/backpack/purse/huge shopping bag/I don't want to know digging into me. So I pretty much felt like it couldn't get any worse.

Then we get to the stop before mine, and a whole new herd of even wetter, more miserable people gets on the already-packed bus. Among them a woman carrying one of those really big, long umbrellas that doesn't collapse. The bus starts off again, and it takes a couple of minutes for me to realize that there's something caught in my boot. No, no wait... there's something cold and wet caught in my boot.

It's the umbrella -which apparently she didn't shake off before boarding the bus, because a torrent of rainwater is now being soaked up by my jeans and pooling around my heel. Needless to say, I was not pleased with this Monday morning turn of events. I imagine my expression looked something like this:

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I figure the best way to get over it is to share the story for others to laugh at. After all, that's really the point of things like this, isn't it? Here's hoping your Monday is going better than mine.

Fill in the ______ Friday

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1. The best prank I ever pulled was... I don't think I've ever pulled any. At least, not good ones.
   
2. The best prank ever pulled on me was... oh wow. I honestly can't even remember any. I guess I don't have very inventive friends. Maybe it's being an only child - there wasn't anyone around to torture me!
   
3. A day without laughter is a day wasted.
4. The most important things in my life are... boyfriend, cats, family, friends, creativity, "me" time, making things, learning new information and skills, exploring.... basically everything I love.
   
5. I dream of... not having to worry about money, going on vacation every year, owning a house (one that has lots of natural wood and natural light), creating a career for myself that I actually enjoy, learning how to make more creative things (I want to learn crochet, silk screening, sewing and fabric dyeing... though I'm sure my interests will change again soon!)
   
6. I dread... getting up early. And cleaning the house. And public speaking. And paying bills.
   
7. A discovery I made this week was... that if I sleep awkwardly I can actually injure myself. Seriously, I slept funny last Friday night and I'm STILL in pain!

Thanks to Lauren, as always, for the blanks!