hello yellow

Hellllloooooo yellllloooooooo! The sun is shining and there are little yellow blooms appearing here and there around our neighbourhood. This has been a freakishly mild winter here in Vancouver indeed. I guess the snowblower my parents bought after last year's big snowstorm will have to wait an extra year before coming out of the shed and making it's appearance... murphy's law. Anyhoo, I am going to enjoy and bask in this while I can, since it sure beats the regular winter grey skies and rain we normally have here.

Oh yes... and some press to share with you from some cute blogs:

· thanks Cass at kasonad for doing a feature on Cabin + Cub.

· thanks to K. at the rikrakstudio for including my woodburned bird in one of her posts.

· thanks to Gay at I dreamed I saw for including my collage.

· and a thanks to both Dutch Touch Beads for passing on the Kreativ Blogger award and From the High North for passing on the Sunshine Award!

going for gold!

Olympic fever is high today! Canada men's hockey team won over Russia yesterday 7 -3, our women's bobsled team snatched Gold and Silver, and our women's hockey team is playing for Gold today! Woop woop!

As you may have read on my previous posts, Olympic venue tickets were really pricey, and any cheaper ones were/are snatched up like wildfire. So when Roger came home from work on Tuesday and surprised me with tickets to that night's Victory Ceremony, I was doing a little giddy happy dance. Each night there is a ceremony at BC Place, where they present the medals to all of that current day's winners from all countries... oh yes, and there is also live music and entertainment followed by one headliner act at the end (that night it was Canada's Billy Talent). Lucky for us, Tuesday was a good medal day for Canada, since Ashleigh McIvor had just won Gold in Ladies' Ski Cross... so there was a lot of home town yelling, screaming and cheering. If you look real close at the first picture, you can see her standing on the middle podium... (yes, we are a bit in the nosebleeds).

I have my TV on in the other room while I work today, so I can catch all of today's events! Go Canada Go! (insert airhorn sound here).

well balanced

Down by the water near some of the Olympic pavilions, there are a series of temporary rock balanced sculptures. I have seen them near Stanley Park before, where artist Kent Avery will have dozens and dozens of balanced rocks, small and large beautifully balanced (i.e. no glue, or rods, etc... just rocks) and arranged along the shore... some of the stacks are balancing more than 8 rocks! Not sure it is the same artist, but they sure are beautiful to look at. Check out this cool video of the artist here.

sochi 2014

We have attempted to visit many of the pavilions dotted around the city during the winter Olympic games... there are so many ridiculously long lines though, it's beginning to feel a lot like Disneyland in the summer on a public holiday. One of the pavilions we were patient enough to get into was the Russian Sochi House - basically a showcase of the next city to host the 2014 winter games. Instead of showing you pics of the mass droves of people, or the corporate sponsor displays (which I might add, are very mediocre too look at), or the Russian singer that was wearing a silver lounge suit (I missed my opportunity to take that photo... too much glare from the suit, sorry) I thought I would show you a peek at their mascot.

To my surprise, they have adopted Cheburashka as their mascot! Ok, so you might be asking... who on earth is Cheburashka? Well, he is a cute little creature with big ears... the original stop motion animation was from 1971 (directed by Roman Kachanov)... um, and I know this because I have the cute little animated series on DVD... uh, as well as the doll... um, along with a few other collectibles too.

Disappointingly, they have made him blue, red and white for the Olympic games (the original is chocolate brown)... and the dolls they had in the gift shop were not very cute, since they had plastic faces. The one I have is much cuter (see pic below). But I can't complain too much... I am still super excited to see him as the mascot.

and the medal goes to....

I couldn't resist sneaking that Olympic medal reference in there... it is complete Olympic hysteria over here in Vancouver! Even my parents (who never ever watch any type of sporting events) have had the Olympic channel on non-stop when I visited them last. It's like the Olympics have stolen their brains!

Ok, ok... enough dilly-dallying, on my part, on to the giveaway winner! The random draw was done this morning and winner of the swallow wall plaque is: Jane D. of she greets the day! Congrats!!! And here is her answer to the... er, well, non-skill testing question: What is the best or worst Valentine's gift you have ever received?

"The best v-day gift I received was a pack of polaroid film along with a box of sweethearts and a handmade magnet made by my boyfriend. Plus dinner & a movie. Followed by a nice walk around downtown and some Ghiradelli ice cream!"

Awwww... that is very sweet indeed! Well, now to top it off, you have a sweet little prize coming your way! Yay! Ok, and to everyone else who did not win this time... no worries... there is another giveaway coming up next month, so stay tuned!

think pink

The sun has been shining all week, and some spring flowers are making their appearance in full bloom. Yes, those are in fact pink cherry blossoms you see. To add to this zen week, I had my first prenatal yoga class the other night and managed to be quite relaxed and not injure myself or look like a clumsy fool! Yay! I keep imagining the little Bun is doing yogic moves inside the tummy while I attempt to do them in the class. If this next 5 weeks of yoga continue to go well, I may sign up for the next round....... ohhhhhmmmmmm. Enjoy the spring blooms!...... ohhhhhhhhmmmmm.

ps. don't forget to enter the february giveaway here!!! Last day to enter is this Sunday!

music and fireworks

On Tuesday night we ventured down to Yaletown, one of the sites that is part of LiveCity Vancouver to catch some of the free concert series going on. Every night for the entire run of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, there are free concerts and celebrations happening around town. There is a long list of great artists to check out including: Wilco, Alexisonfire, Sam Roberts Band, Wintersleep, Buck 65, and Blue Rodeo... just to name a few.

At the end of each show, there is a huge fireworks display too... very cool, exciting and romantic... well, except when we were there, and it was pouring rain and the two burly policemen standing in front of us kept sneaking into all the photos.

ps. don't forget to enter the february giveaway here!!!