a little bit of country in the city

This past weekend, we went to visit the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition), which is the big end of summer fair here in Vancouver. One of the highlights (besides the amusement rides... more on that tomorrow) was the farm country pavilion which showcased a diverse bunch of animals. My faves were the giant pair of oxen named Zorro and Zeldo. Seriously... in that first picture, I would have come up to his chin... it was that massive. Am also a fan of the mini horses too. If it weren't frowned upon, I would use one as an alternative mode of transportation. I wonder if they put the mini horse and giant oxen in the same pen, if both would be really confused or weirded out by each other.... hmmm. More pics coming tomorrow!

buzz buzz buzz

I have been stung by a bee twice in my life... once led to a a swollen foot the size of a ski boot when I was a little kid (I had stepped on it by accident). The other time, was just a few years ago while I was eating lunch inside of a restaurant...  yes, I got stung while indoors, what are the odds!. While out to lunch on a patio last week, Roger captured this amazing close-up photo of this cute waspy little guy... not sure how he got so up close and personal without being kissed by the stinger. Luckily I was in the washroom, while all this was happening... so third sting averted.

collage: catching butterflies

It's the last few days of August, and autumn is coming up fast... so perfect day to enjoy a summer collage while we can! I have never tried to catch butterflies before... the idea of it always makes me think of Jane Austen-type scenarios where girls in hoop skirts gallivant through tall grass and laugh in the shimmering sun, as they unsuccessfully chase dozens of the colorful winged creatures, whilst taking breaks for tea and cakes. Hmmm... doesn't sound half bad... anyone up for some butterfly catching this afternoon?

ps. some more blog features this week - thanks to Carol for featuring one of my birdy collage on her blog That is Charming and also thanks to Gay for featuring my bookplates on her blog I Dreamed I Saw.

kum ba yah

It's been quite a busy week and I finally had a chance to organize our pics from our weekend camping trip for show and tell. Our camping adventure took us up to Kamloops for two nights at Lac Le Jeune Provincial Park... here are some pics!

This is our little tent... actually it's not too little, since we had a doubles sized air mattress in there with quite a bit of room leftover. And since I am on the short side (five foot one inches to be exact), I can stand up in the tent without hunching over... yay! 
Here is our artery clogging breakfast. We usually eat really healthy when we are at home, but all rules seem to go out the window when we are camping or on road trips. If it is any consolation, we washed this down with fruit juice and home made blueberry muffins.
Here is Lac Le Jeune. (Insert your "oooohs" and "ahhhhhhs" here).
This is a pic of us on the dock by the lake making gansta signs... I think the ducks and geese quite enjoyed it. (And just to clarify, for those who's sarcasm detectors are on low today, we aren't actually in a gang).
Some pretty wildflowers we saw along one of the trails - a pretty pic Roger took. (Yah, my man likes to take pics of pretty flowers sometimes... got a problem with that?)
The sun setting. (Insert more "oooohs" and "ahhhhhhs" here).
And the last pic is at Logan Lake, which was on our drive home. I believe this machine is used for mining... but I just wanted to take a pic with it, since it made me feel like a teeny tiny sprite.

anniversary day!

Happy day! Today is our third wedding anniversary! Roger and I got married here in Vancouver at Heritage Hall in 2006... wow, seems like only yesterday (insert dreamy sigh here). Here is a pic of our wedding card that we illustrated together and the mini button magnet sets we made as wedding favors.... the whole event had a pink and chocolate brown theme. We googled to see what the traditional third anniversary theme would be (1st is paper, 2nd is cotton), and found out year #3 is... leather?! I know everyone is snickering right now... 'cause that's what we did too. Anyhoo, we will be heading out to a nice dinner tonight to celebrate... can't wait! 

ps. thanks to Lori for featuring one of my prints on her blog So I was Thinking today!

mystery owl revealed!

Last month I posted  some pics of a mystery project that Roger and I were working on together. Well, the time has finally come for the big reveal... and no, it's not a jewelry box, or a bread board (as a few had guessed)... it is a skate deck! Merging our two styles into one (which would mean, of course, that it would be woodburned and have awesome skulls), the deck is our entry for my hubby's company Crooked Walker. The deck is part of Contributor's Smile On Your Brother Art Show, where a selection of international artists and designers were asked to create art boards. All the boards are up for auction online (Aug 24th - Oct. 25th) to help raise funds towards donating 100 skateboards to disadvantaged youth across Canada. Check out the auction here if you want to see some of the other boards, or perhaps make a bid (hint hint).

Also, if you want to see the boards in person... they will be touring in a traveling exhibit across Canada. We snapped some pics at the exhibit opening in Vancouver last night (at Livestock in Gastown, August 24th - 26th). The show will carry forth to Calgary, Saskatchewan, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City.... so check it out if it's in your neighborhood.

hooray for the giveaway!

Hooray for the giveaway... over 130 entries this month! It was great to read about everyone's favorite subjects in school... pretty much representing almost every subject you could think of... how fun it would have been to all be in the same school!

Ok, ok... you are thinking... just get to the winner already... enough with the build-up! Who is it?! The random draw was made from the tacky trophy cup and the winner of the fabulous prize is... Khristi! And here is her response to what her fave subject was: "I worked as a library assistant my senior year... It counted as a class credit and I got to sit around and play on the internet. By far.. the best class ever!" Wow... I wish there was a class like that at our school... that does sound like one of the best classes ever.

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway! And don't fret if you didn't win this time... there will be another exciting giveaway in September... so stay tuned! ;)

steveston village

One of my fave places to visit when I am being a tourist in my one town is Steveston Village. A small fishing community in the city of Richmond (which neighbors Vancouver), it's a great place to get some fresh fish and chips, frozen yogurt and walk along the docks and enjoy the sunset (wow, I just described a perfect date scenario, didn't I? Cue cheesy 80's saxophone interlude here). We managed to catch a glimpse of the sunset a few weeks ago.... so thought I would share the pic. Hope all your weekends are well!

ps. only a couple more days to enter the giveaway... stay tuned for the draw on Monday!!!

Collage: Capturing Bears

I am packing for our weekend camping trip today, so am digging through our closets and storage locker for all our necessities. It must be noted that, we aren't hardcore campers hiking through the backwoods eating twigs and berries and fishing with our bare hands. Au contraire mon frère... we have our cozy tent, camping stove, small air mattress (totally worth it), battery powered lanterns and a cooler full of food and drinks (no dehydrated goods here). Fingers crossed we will not encounter any bears on our trip (hasn't been a problem on our trips in the past)... but for sure, we will definitely NOT follow the example of the fellow in this collage anytime soon. 

second batch coming

The hot summer months have been great for our tomato plant. I started out with super low expectations, but we have been enjoying a dozen of the little fellas for the past couple of weeks. And just when I thought, there were no more... a new batch of green ones have appeared... woohoo! Ok, this might not seem a big deal to the pro gardener, but this is a huge leap for us... last year our sad little plant only produced 3 cherry tomatoes and then died... R.I.P. Perhaps next year, I will try and up the challenge and have two plants... ooh... enough to make a pasta sauce!

ps. come and check out the feature on Cabin + Cub on Studio M.M.E.'s blog! Thanks Megan! Oh, and remember to enter the giveaway, if you already haven't.

collage girls still on top

Last month I posted some of the odd keyword searches people have typed in to end up at this site (thanks Google Analytics!). Sigh.... looks like "collage girls" and its various derivations are still coming out on top (so to those of you still trying to find "college girls" on this site, sorry... only a girl who makes collages resides here, and technically I did go to university, but I don't think that's what you were looking for). Anyhoo... here are 6 more random ones (and my 2 cents) that have popped up on the list: (*please note that I kept their original spellings intact)

1. cub salad

I am truly hoping someone was trying to make cobb salad and not a salad out of actual cute little cubs.

2. the art of gathering meat with birds

Perhaps this is an ancient lost art that someone is trying to revive. My question is how do you get the meat from the birds, once they have it all... are they known to share?

3. can i have snoopy tattoo?

I don't know... can you?

4. yodel club vancouver

Yodel-lay-he--hooooooo! I didn't know one even existed!

5. how old is a cub woman who still party

Ok.. what is a cub woman? Anyone? Is that opposite of a cougar? Someone please enlighten me.

6. burning birds

I am scared of who typed this in. Are you the same person who makes cub salads? Or is this what you do after the birds have collected you some meat?... (which, btw, would make you quite ungrateful indeed).

ps. remember to enter the august giveaway!

in the land of chalk drawings

This past weekend, Roger and I ventured to the MOV (Museum of Vancouver) to check out the new Velo-City exhibit, an exhibition of the bicycle revolution in Vancouver. On our way in, we got a tad sidetracked by the giant chalkboard wall the museum had... we couldn't resist adding our own tags to the hundreds of others. This photo of Roger reminded me of that old cartoon Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings... one of my faves when I was a wee one... does anyone else remember it?.. maybe it was only on in Canada and the UK? Click here to see an episode.

ps. remember to enter the august giveaway!

august giveaway! - win a fancy deer notebook!

With back to school just around the corner, it seemed fitting to have another notebook giveaway... awwww yahhhh! And even if you aren't in school and haven't been in years... why not make the neighborhood kids jealous by toting this fancy deer notebook around. Imagine all the things you could write... shopping lists, short stories, gangsta rap lyrics, wiccan spells, tic-tac-toe, dear john letter.... really the list is endless, people.

Enter to win by posting a comment telling me what your favorite subject in school was/is... perhaps it was math? english? cheerleading? smoking behind the fence? I'll make a random draw from the fabulous trophy cup on Monday, August 24th. Please remember to include some contact info (etsy shop, blog, website, or e.mail address) and please only one entry per person.

Good luck and be sure to check back next Monday to see if you won!

smooth operator

It's finally Friday! And what better way to end the week than with a berry smoothie (topped with cheesy umbrella straw of course). We still have lots of berries from all our picking ventures... so I decided to take some of the comment suggestions from a previous post and blend some together.... mmm... you are so drooling and salivating as you read this, aren't you... I know you are. This one is a mix of blueberries, strawberries and tayberries... hmmm the only thing that could make this better is to perhaps spike it with something... but I will refrain from doing so for the moment, since it's still post-noon.

ps. thanks to everyone for voting for my collage the other day... woohoo... got 56% of the votes, so it came out on top (I am doing my football touchdown dance right now).. woop woop! Hmm.. maybe there is something in this smoothie!? Oh, and stay tuned for my giveaway coming up this Monday!!

oooh foxy...

So first you have Spike Jonze making a movie about the best book ever, Where The Wild Things Are... then you have Tim Burton making Alice in Wonderland (featuring hubba hubba Johnny Depp)... and so the saying goes that good things always come in threes... which brings us to the third: Wes Anderson making a stop motion film based on Roald Dahl's story Fantastic Mr. Fox. Just when I couldn't contain my excitement for the first two upcoming films, there is also this one to throw into the mix... I think I might pee my pants. I love how it is going to be all stop motion animation too... very old school and cute. Oh yah, and I guess there are a few small stars in it too... just George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody, etc, etc... but don't want to name drop too much or anything. Watch the fantastic trailer here.

limited edition prints are here!

Oh, exciting etsy shop news today! I am now offering limited edition archival prints of my collages... hooray! Each giclee print is printed with Ultrachrome K3 archival inks onto heavy rich archival matte paper... and is signed and numbered. I am slowly listing them every few days, so if you don't see a favorite one up in the shop yet, let me know your request! Don't get all shy now. Check out the prints here.

Also, some other exciting news... my "girl and balloons" collage is on VoteEtsy today... please stop by and vote for it here if you love balloons! Thanks!

top of the muffin to ya

Thanks to everyone for all your recipe suggestions for all our berries! I love to cook a lot, but am not much of a baker... however, I broke out the 'ol muffin tins (a wedding gift from a few years ago) and decided to take my first crack at making muffins from scratch. OK, it wasn't my first crack... the last time I made muffins was in my grade 8 home economics class... so yes, quite awhile ago. My friend Jeannette has an awesome food blog (Everybody Likes Sandwiches)... so that was my first stop to getting a great muffin recipe. I decided to make one of her simple recipes for berry smash muffins since it seemed the best match for my amateur baking skills (instead of strawberries, I substituted for blueberries and blackberries). The result was a success!... hmmm.. perhaps attempting a pie will be in my near baking future.

Also, a top of the muffin to Barbara for featuring one of my collages on her blog second surf. Thanks!

collage: boy and rain drops

After what seemed like endless weeks and weeks of dry and hot sunny weather, the Vancouver rain has made a comeback. Just when I was getting used to my summer dresses and strappy sandals and learning to love my ugly ceiling fan, everything just had to go and shift on me.... ugh! Hopefully, this will just be a quick summer shower... there are only weeks left of outdoor swimming, bbqs and beach walks before the first leaf falls!... ack... where has the time gone!

a berry good time

Yesterday, we headed out to a Emma-Lea's Farm on Westham Island and had a berry good time (sorry, couldn't resist using a Strawberry Shortcake-ism there). It's the last weekend the u-pick fields are open, so we went crazy and stocked up on raspberries, blackberries and blueberries... yum! Picking went by pretty fast, with only the blackberries proving a bit tricky since they were growing on a downward slope into a canal (of course, murphy's law that the prickliest of fruit bushes lay on a slippery bank next to the muddy waterway full of frogs). Hmmmm... now what to make with all these lovely berries... suggestions?

collage: boy and balloons

Hooray! One of my collages has been included in the children's section of the Etsy Gift Guide! The collage was inspired by one of my favorite movies of all time, Albert Lamorisse's 1956 short film Le Ballon Rouge (The Red Balloon)... I get all sappy whenever I see it. Someone has actually posted the entire film online... so sit back and enjoy it here. It will make your heart warm.

Also thanks to purplepinkandorange.com for picking one of my collages to be on of their $25 and under score!

pleasant portland

Here are the short and sweet moments as well as a few fave things we visited over the long weekend in Portland, Oregon. It's one of my fave cities to visit... can't wait to head back!

We stayed at the Ace Hotel, a small boutique hotel smack in the middle of downtown. And yes, that is the shower there that you see in the middle of the room... how steamy! (sorry, couldn't resist that comment). This photo doesn't do it justice, it was a really cute stylish room. 
There I am in front of Albina Press Coffee Shop, where we got our morning fix of Stumptown coffee (the local fave)... I'm on the right waving... the person on the left is just some hipster guy getting his bike, who probably thought I was some crazy lady randomly waving.
Roger is an avid video gamer, so when we heard that there was a big classic arcade called Ground Kontrol, stock full of games and pinball machines from the 80s, we had to make a visit. Even cooler, is that after 5pm, the place turns into a bar, so you can enjoy the games with a nice bottle of beer. I got my ass kicked in every game we played... in my defense though... I was a bit too young to actually play some of these arcade games back in the day. (Roger just gave me a glare, when I made that point... heehee).
One of our fave places to stop when in Portland is Powell's Books... it's like a Chapters and Barnes & Nobles combined and on steroids... but waaaaaaaayyy better and waaaaaay bigger. It's huge and has every book (new and used), you can imagine. Swept up for hours there, we forgot to take pics, so instead I took pics of some of our loot. We scored some nice Edward Gorey books and I bought a copy of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and am loving it so far!
Next stop was Voodoo Doughnut where we indulged in some sweet treats.... Roger got the one with Froot Loops on it (I think we almost went into diabetic shock over this one - it was that sweet) and I got the chocolate and peanut butter glazed doughnut with Rice Crispies... yummy.
And lastly, here is the photo booth pics we took while staying at the Ace. There is a machine in the lobby, so every time we visit Portland we make it a point to get an updated photo.... we forgot to adjust the stool before we put in our money this time, so were trying to guess the right height the photo would be.

oregon bound

This past holiday long weekend we headed down to Portland, Oregon for a road trip... here are some of our pics from our first day, which actually was the drive and stopping in cities along the way. OK, so I guess, technically the Portland pics will be up tomorrow... but nevertheless... some of our interesting pics below.

This is a pic from the car bypassing Seattle on the express way (sorry, Seattle). We've been there quite a few times, so decided to keep on driving in order to have time in some of the other places along the way... Olympia, being one of the short stops. I think were were really focussed on eating in Olympia, so I have no pics of this city... oops.

These fat blubbery guys were one of the highlights of the day. We stopped in Astoria to get some fresh air on the docks and were rewarded with this group of sea lions basking in the sun. We have never seen them in the wild before, so were really excited to see so many just lazying about.
This chubby guy (or girl, not sure) was one of the loudest ones... perhaps it was yelling at us "Wwaaarrrghch!" - translation "Welcome to Oregon!"
Stopped in Seaside to walk on the beach and take in the views of the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, the area was a bit in its own weather system and it was a bit chilly and cloudy... so we did not get to use our bathing suits. Sorry that you do not get to see slow motion Baywatch-like photos of us running on the beach... maybe next time, haha.

We were trying to decide on where to eat dinner, and side by side (no joke) were three restaurants called "Pig'n Pancake" "Pudgy's" and "Girdle's"... hmmm, with the tubby sea lions still in my head, we decided to wait until our next stop to grab a lighter bite to eat. (Perhaps I am thinking way to much about it, but is it not weird that the mascoton that sign is inviting people to eat him?... he must be a very naive pig indeed, if he thinks he gets to eat the pancakes).

Along the boardwalk of Seaside, there were carnival rides, arcades, as well as tons of candy and souvenir shops. I tried to get into the spirit and eat a piece of saltwater taffy... only to realize, I'm not a fan of taffy... blech. Anyways, after some good times in the arcade and boardwalk, we headed off to find dinner.
Which leads to our last stop before getting to Portland that night... Cannon Beach. Again, it was a bit cloudy and cold, but still super pretty. Ok... can't let this side show scroll on forever, so I will post some of our Portland photos tomorrow!

sewing sweat shop

We just got back from Portland, Oregon yesterday, where we spent our BC Day long weekend... the trip was fantastic and I am still sorting through all the photos... so you will have to wait until tomorrow to see some of the shots of our weekend adventure! 

The day before we left (Friday), I finished sewing all the 100 or so notebooks covers – my attempt to get ahead of making craft inventory for this fall and winter. After sewing (too long) in 30 degree heat (high 90s if you are in fahrenheit), it was literally a "sweat" shop in our apartment. I am still quite slow on the machine, so what would have taken a real sewer probably only a couple of hours, took me the entire day (and evening)... sigh. Now looking at the pile, I am debating on whether to make more... (is 100 books enough for a 4 day fair? hmm... maybe not?). I do know that I will plan my production around cooler weather, if I do make more.