A little cute balloon collage for this sunny Monday morning. Even though it is the start of the week, I am excited that it will be a shorter work week, since Canada Day falls on the Wednesday.... yay! It probably would have been nicer if it actually fell on the Monday or Friday to make it a long weekend, but a day off is a day off, so I am not going to complain!
A lovely summery photo today (taken by my hubby Roger) to kick off the weekend. I think fuzzy bumble bees are so cute, but I try to keep a slight distance... I once stepped on one as a kid, while walking through grass (what are the odds), and my foot swelled up to three times its size. I basically had an elephant-man foot for a week... it was awful. But since then, I have overcome my fear of bees, especially for those darn cute fuzzy ones.
I spent yesterday afternoon finishing up two orders of woodburned panels. While burning, I sometimes like to watch TV (more like listen to TV, so as to avoid any burn injuries). Anyhoo, flipping through the channels, I was shocked to hear that both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson had died? Wha?.....Crazy!
I couldn't resist posting these pics, since they are so darned cute... and I wanted everyone to have an "awwwwwwwww" moment today; and I mean "awwwwwwwww" in the cute sense, and not in the "disappointment" sense... well unless you hate cute fuzzy donkeys, in which case you wll be highly disappointed. We saw these two on our way home from strawberry picking, and my hubby stopped the car to go feed them some grass through the fence. I had to nickname one of them Señor Sonburro... I don't know why, it just seemed fitting. And yes, I know it's a bad pun that attempts to allude to "sombrero", but whatever, the donkey didn't complain.
So on the local news the other day, there was an announcement made to discourage people from having baby deer as pets. Apparently, many baby deer are mistaken to be abandoned (the mothers leave them for up to 24 hours and then return), but in fact they are actually fine. The thing that struck me as odd is that there must be enough people keeping these deer for themselves to run a news cast about it... weird. The thought of a deer in my 2 bedroom condo, or any house for that matter, seems like a bad idea - ummm... leaping and kicking wild animal mixed in with walls and furniture... yikes.
Wooohoo... strawberries are finally here! This past weekend, we ventured out to the farms on Westham Island, a short ride outside of Vancouver, to pick some fresh strawberries. We managed to fill two extra large ice cream buckets... and I got a bit of nice tan in addition to my berry stained fingers. I was tempted to pick more... but being a horrible guesser of weights and measures, I was a bit paranoid of picking more than the cash we had in hand (yes, I am a bit of a worry wort). After our agricultural adventure, we enjoyed tall cold glasses of strawberry milkshake made at the local farm stand... just writing about this is making me want another one... so please excuse me, while I go and fire up the blender.
Hooray... over 90 entries for the June giveaway... the friendly competition is getting fierce! Meow! So to keep with tradition (well, ok, this is the only second giveaway I have had.. but we had to keep it ceremonious), all the names have been printed and dropped into the glorious trophy cup... it's the old school randomizer. Thanks to my hubby Roger, for being the official draw person (he really had no choice in the mater)... heehee.
While I was watering the tomato plant on our balcony/patio garden the other day, I took a closer look underneath some of the leaves and was excited to see little green tomatoes growing... at least 8 of them... woohoo! What you see on screen is pretty close to their actual size too... so they are still pretty teeny. Mmm... now all I can think of is fresh salads, roasted tomatoes, and salsa... I will have to choose the recipe wisely though, since I don't know if there are enough of the little guys to make all three!
Entering grade 8 (the first year of junior high here), I remember that all students had to pick two arts/music type of electives as part of their curriculum. Drama was a definite no for me (13, shy and introverted mixed with drama = fear, paranoia and nightmares); Guitar was full of boys who wanted to learn how to play every heavy metal song known to man, so that was out; Choir (um, yah... again, 13 and introverted with a microphone is an obvious no-go). So what two did I have left? Concert Band and Art. I learned to play the clarinet, as well as the trombone (I have just upped my geek factor by a million points here)... both instruments of which I have not touched since the age of 16... but art has stuck with me... so who says you don't learn anything useful in school? 
This is part 2 of some of the pics we took while on our camping trip at Lightning Lake at Manning Provincial Park this past weekend. There were a lot of deer up there... I even bumped into a pair up close and personal while on my way to the bathroom - of course, I didn't have the camera with me... grrr. The chipmunk, which we named Mr. Chippy Chappy scavenged around our tent and picnic table waiting for us to drop crumbs and sorts while we ate... cute isn't he? The third pic is of Mr. and Mrs. Marmot (which is like a small groundhog)... there were close to two dozen of them scattered around near the main lodge chirping to each other. I think they were plotting on how to overtake all the campsites... sneaky little guys.
I have been busy with my little print gocco these past couple of weeks (and, yes I am hoarding the last supplies I have left, if anyone is curious)... and have made some new wooden mini cards! The three little birdy designs are printed with metallic inks on to maple wood veneer. They are mini in size (2 x 3.5") so perfect as a gift card or little note... or maybe even as a little piece of art for a tiny little frame. Check them out in the shop!
This past weekend, we went on our camping trip to Lightning Lake at Manning Provincial Park (near Hope). The weather was a bit dodgy at times, and it was slightly colder than we anticipated, but it was still a great trip. I am a bit of a wimpy camper; 2 to 3 nights is my max, anymore than that, then shower facilities are a must. One of the highlights (besides the campsite having real flush washrooms and not those yucky pit toilets... haha), was driving up to one of the mountain peeks and being rewarded with an awesome view of the surrounding area... we also saw lots of beautiful mountain wildflowers along the way. We took... well actually, my husband Roger took lots of pics... so I will have to split them into a couple of upcoming postings!
Last month's giveaway got such a great reaction (over 80 entries!), so I thought I would have another one for this month... yay! Who wouldn't love these cute whale and birdy books to jot down their thoughts, sketches, and lists.
So one of the garden-ey things I am trying to grow from seed is basil. I have had little success in the past and I think it's due to my impatience - we tend to eat it faster than it can grow. This little guy on our window sill seems to be doing ok so far... but I think he gets a wee bit nervous every time he knows I'm cooking.
I love to eat. I am one of those types of people who gets hangry (hungry + angry) when I don't get yummy food in me at timely points in the day. Sometimes I'll even start to daydream about an upcoming meal up until I am actually eating... heehee. I wonder if cats get hangry too?
The whole baby beluga news from Sunday (see yesterday's post) is really making the rounds on local tv here. So to keep the baby animals theme going, I thought this collage would be perfect for today. I think this little fella will one day grow up to be big and strong... clip clop clip clop.
Yesterday at Vancouver Aquarium, a new baby beluga was born! How cute! About 1.3 metres long, the new beluga is a girl. Now I have a definite excuse to head on down to the aquarium in the coming weeks... how can I resist a baby whale! Watch the video of the birth here.
It has been a couple of weeks since I have had a garden update on our small patio garden. The lettuce greens are now almost ready to pick for salads... well, perhaps just one salad for now until the rest of it gets bigger. I was so excited about how easily it grew I planted another big box of it... so in a few more weeks we should have enough for "salads" plural. Also planted some dill seeds, and it seems to be doing well... (it looks a bit flat in the pic, since I just watered it). Oh.. and sadly, the pumpkin plant we grew from seed and then transplanted to mom's real garden has died... I didn't take a picture, since it looked like a sad shriveled vine. Not sure what went wrong, but I have planted new pumpkin seeds... so hopefully it will work this time!
Thank you to Jennifer Magnesi Designs, Art Plus, Life As I Know It: Southwest Edition and Sunshine City Lassie for passing on the Lovely Blog Award! 
I am discontinuing my series of hard cover notebooks and switching to focusing on just doing soft cover books... so I am putting the remaining ones I have left on sale for 50% off! There is a lovely happy red elephant design as well as an orange and blue singing bird design. Both are printed on grid paper with my little gocco, and each book contains 60 blank pages and a lovely matching ribbon bookmark. Check them out in the etsy shop here.
Living in Canada, there are plenty of times where we encounter wildlife... and no, not roaming the urban centres... only in the wooded and foresty areas. Animals I have spotted (at different times, of course) are bears, deer, moose, marmots, squirrels & chipmunks, coyotes and plenty of birds... but I have yet to spot a fox in the wild. I am adding that to my list under "beaver", another animal, I have yet to see.
This is my final week of doing orchid watch for my parents while they are away on holiday... hooray... they are coming back this week! I think I need a holiday from all these flowers... the tedium of watering their over 100 plants is starting to wear on me... it's been a whole month. The other good news?... the flowers are all still alive and well.... phew!
The weather here has been fantastic this past week... perfect sunshine all day and every day... it finally feels like summer! On Saturday, we hit Kitsilano Pool for the first time this year... and it was great (well except for my husband's mild sunburn... need to get a higher SPF)! It's Canada's longest pool (137 metres/150 yards) and is a salt water pool (so no nasty chlorine). Situated on the water, it has a fantastic backdrop of the downtown skyline and surrounding mountains... obviously I didn't take this photo, but it is a great one to show what I'm talking about. Hopefully we can try and go once a week... I need to practice my sad swimming skills.
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