did you win!? did you win?!

Hooray... today is giveaway draw day... woohoo! Thanks to everyone who entered the May spring clean giveaway... over 80 entries!! And everyone has seriously been in a major cleaning/organizing mode too... wow! Ok, ok... I will get to the winner announcement now... a random draw was made this morning from the shiny trophy cup by Roger... and the winner of the cute bird notebook is:

Frannie from Notes From Thoughtfulhearts.com! Congrats! How did Frannie get her spring clean on?

"I've finally finished spring cleaning! The house is in order. There is something so uplifting and new, fresh. Please don't laugh.... I even organized my pots and pans. Maybe I am nesting too....I will be a grandmother again in about 3 weeks. I was going to start on my daughter's home next...but she beat me to it."

Ok, I feel a bit guilty since my nesting instinct hasn't resulted into 100% organization yet... heehee. Anyhoo, if you didn't win, no worries, there will be another giveaway come June, so stay tuned!

the golden touch

Not sure if you have seen this, but Vancouver's Science World has erected a gold-covered billboard at Granville and 4th Avenue (at the entrance of Granville Island) to advertise their newest summer exhibition "Treasure!". The billboard uses two ounces of real 22-karat gold pounded into a thin sheet which covers approximately 200 square feet. Yes... you read right... real gold. Roger took this pic on his way to work, and as you can see the lovely billboard also comes with a 24hr security guard... although how anyone would steal a 200 sq ft billboard, I have no idea.

a trip to the tropics

How about a mini trip to the tropics today to escape the Vancouver rain? I thought I would share some photos we took of the per-tty flowers at the Bloedel Floral Conservatory on our last visit. A lot of strange and unusual shaped plants indeed (check out that pink pom pom plant!)... and no, unfortunately I don't remember what most of them are... I am so horrible at plant names... sorry! Will post some more soon (we took lots of pics that day).

ps. don't forget to enter my giveaway!

squirrel stare down

We encountered this little guy in the park over the long weekend.... oooh, it was a full on stare down.. a good 5 seconds. Perhaps I caught him off guard or in the middle of something. Anyways, made for a cute photo... and if you are curious... he broke the stare first.... Mr. Squirrel - 0 points, Roger and I - 1 point.

ps. don't forget to enter my giveaway!

may giveaway! - win a cute mini bird notebook!

I'm in full late spring clean mode over here... hmmmmm..... or maybe it is my nesting instinct starting to kick in. Regardless, it is time to clear out some of my old classic craft inventory. So perfect time for a giveaway! This month I am giving away a cute little mini lined notebook (3.25 x 5") featuring one of my little bird illustrations. This is the last one in this style, so I never got around to listing it on etsy... but, alas, time to make way for the new... so it must go!

Enter to win by posting a comment telling me one thing you have done this year in your spring clean mode. Did you organize your bookshelves in alphabetical order? Did you finally donate your high school prom dress to goodwill? Or maybe you just pushed many items further under the bed to get them "out of sight"... that counts right?

A random draw will be made next Monday, May 31st, so check back to see if you win! Please remember to include some sort of contact info (etsy shop, blog, website, or e.mail address) and please only one entry per person. Good luck!

99 red balloons

Some exciting exhibition news to share today. If you happen to be in the city of Ottawa, Ontario, check out the group show "99 Red Balloons" happening at canteen art shop + gallery! Remember that collage I posted about last week? It will be part of the exhibition along with other national and international artists until May 31st. I won't be able to make it halfway across the country to check it out... so, let me know if you happen to see it. Hope everyone has a happy long weekend!

ps. my May giveaway starts Monday!

welcome to the crib

Ok... so I have finally got around to taking a picture of the finished crib! After quite an ordeal with the missing instructions and zillion of pieces, here is the "after" picture of all our assembly turmoil. Hooray! What looks to be the most basic piece of furniture was far from... and then add to that our constant checking to make sure everything was assembled correctly (hmmm.. can you tell this is our first baby?), and it just made for a long assembly nightmare. So now onto the fun part... finding baby bedding! I will take pics of the entire nursery and post soon!

zen 2.0

To carry over the zen mood from yesterday and inject it into the mid-week, I thought I would post some more pics from our trip to the chinese classical garden from the weekend. Oh, how I wish I could be basking in the sun like those little turtles... they look so darned relaxed!

ancient chinese secret

Roger and I visited one of my favourite places in Vancouver over the weekend - the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden, an authentic representation of a 15th Century Chinese garden smack in the middle of Chinatown/downtown. It was nice to have a zen moment away from the hustle and bustle of the city and felt like we were whisked away to another land... like a mini vacation in our own city.... ahhhhhhh (that is my relaxing sigh, btw). Unfortunately my "ahhhhh" is now turning into "ugh!", since the weather here has now turned for the worse this week... rain, rain and more rain... and it's washing away my zen!!

bad kitty

So I just happened to stumble upon this big 'ol cougar attacking a game bird over the weekend... ok, ok... the cougar is stuffed and is permanently and eternally fixed in this pose and there was no danger factor present, but nevertheless, it made for a pretty cool photo. I find taxidermy displays really fascinating, and I always wonder how they decide what final poses these animal will have. I guess they decided this one needed to be in attack mode... meow! (ps. this big kitty is located in Vancouver's Science World, if you are wanting to check it out).

puff n' stuff

So I had to give in the other day and finally buy a new pair of shoes. After being pretty symptom-less for most of the pregnancy, I have started to puff up and swell for this last month... ugh! Seriously?! My hands and feet look like they belong to the stay puff marshmallow man! So here is my new purchase... a summer pair of slip-ons in one whole size larger... sigh. 3 more weeks to go!... I hope I don't get any puffier!

collage: red balloons

A new collage to share with you today! I remember being very upset as a little kid when I would lose a ballon and see it float away high up in the sky... worst feeling ever. I wish I had a bird friend to bring them back to me. Or, at least if the bird didn't bring them back, it would have been reassuring to know that it was enjoying the newly found balloons.

garden state

Since we have been working on the nursery and our office reno these past couple of months (pics to come soon, btw), the patio garden has become a wee bit neglected... ok, kind of sad, really. Most of our balcony houses empty containers of soil and no plants... with the exception of a few that have magically survived since last year. My green onion plant, somehow managed to survive the winter and is making a nice comeback... and our little staghorn tree is starting to sprout too. So yes, only extreme close-ups of those two lovelies today... since if I panned out, you would see our otherwise barren patio. I think I will try and pick up some plants and seeds this weekend... any suggestions for a small patio?

face to face with a bear

Ok, so no need to panic... our face-to-face time with the bear was under a completely controlled situation. On the weekend we headed up the Grouse Mountain gondola to enjoy the city night views as the sun was setting. Once up there, we decided to try and catch a glimpse of the resident grizzly bears Grinder and Coola, two orphaned bears in the Refuge for Endangered Wildlife. We were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one of them (not sure which) before he slumped over and started snoring (this bear is apparently quite a loud snorer)... not sure where the other one was. Apologies for the dark pictures, but the sun had already set by the time we got up there... and having a camera flashing in a big bear's face, didn't seem like the best idea.

sunny city view

Hope everyone had a lovely mother's day weekend! The weather here was spectacular... note "was"... it is a bit cloudy now, so I am living in the past today, to make this Monday morning easier. Here is a photo of Vancouver from the top of the hill in Queen Elizabeth Park we snapped... lush flowers, blue sky, warm breeze... oh, I am missing the weekend already.

clipping coupons

I think I have been having a real lucky streak with blog giveaways lately... this week I received a lovely giveaway prize in the mail from Julie at elliven studio... woohoo! (Thanks Julie!) Check out my new receipt/coupon holder... isn't it cute? And yes, FYI, I do use coupons, but weirdly enough only at certain places and situations since I have a love/hate thing with them – love to use them at the grocery store and retail stores/hate using them at restaurants... weird? Yah, I guess I am just a selective coupon clipper.

in the tree tops

I always wanted a treehouse when I was growing up... perhaps it was after seeing those little Ewoks in the Return of the Jedii movie... only problem was that there were no large trees on my parents property. Fast forward years later, and I got to live out my treehouse dream.... well, sort of. Last week, Roger and I visited the UBC Botanical Garden to venture on the Greenheart Canopy Walkway, which is basically an aerial trail system that hangs up high in the forest tree tops. (You can see me walking on it in the top photo... a bit camouflaged though, since I wore a green jacket that day... oops). It was very cool to see the forest from a higher vantage point, smell the fresh air, and listen to the various birds all around us. The whole trail is very cool, so check it out if you happen to be in Vancouver and ever had treehouse dreams or want to feel like an Ewok.

ooey gooey goodness

Yesterday, Roger and I treated ourselves to some ooey gooey cinnamon buns from Solly's, a local Jewish family bakery and deli here in Vancouver. So don't go thinking I ate both of these in the picture (although I easily could have)... we did share the pair. Solly's cinnamon buns are hands down my fave... lots of layers of sticky, sugary, caramelized layers.... mmmmmm... I think I just drooled writing that. They also have an awesome chocolate babka on thier menu too... but I will share that in a future post.... don't want to put everyone in diabetic shock all in one post.

two times the tulips

I am loving all the spring blooms around me... I think I have very heavy garden envy this year, since the only plants on our balcony this year are left over from last year, and I have yet to plant anything new yet. Eeep... really got to get on that! So again, these pics of these pretty tulips are not from my garden... these were outside our local museum. Hmmmm.... don't the top ones remind you of fancy cut radishes? Or maybe that is just the garden envy in me coming out again.

craft fun and sore feet

Hope everyone had a great weekend! A couple of photos to share with you today of my table at the Got Craft event yesterday... it was busy busy busy! There were so many cool crafty items and vendors... it was great. My feet were killing me by the end of the day though... and my face hurts from smiling and greeting people... I feel like I'm suffering from craft fair hangover, but it was still fun nonetheless. Thanks to everyone who came by for a visit! Off to put my feet up now!