change

you know when your at the edge of change in your life? and things can either be entirely different or stay exactly the same, that's where i am right now. it's kinda overwhelming. we are off on a lil' vacation. no computers, hopefully some sun and some lakes will be involved. i will be back next week.

on a side note, we were in a tiny car accident, nobody was hurt thankfully, it was completely the other drivers fault. i hate driving in vancouver. oliver opened one eye, looked around and fell back asleep. nothing gets in the way of his nap, nothing.

april artist of the month: ralph eugene meatyard

i really like his work, there is something slightly sad, maybe a little gothic. i don't know too much about him, except he died young. you can sure see how francesca woodman was influenzed by him though. the international center of photography held a solo show of his work. you can view images here.

five senses friday

thanks to shari

sight

mike leigh films
old things that were in storage
vintage jewelery
old dusty books
art supplies and old paintings

taste

crisp fuji apples
sweet fresh pineapple
canteloupe
crispy tofu with green coconut curry


touch

holding oliver's hand
soft moss on the forest floor

hear

fugazi
autoclave
jets to brazil
destroyer
retsin
jeremy egnick
nina simone
treepeople
xtc
shudder to think

my baby's voice - he's really vocal now, it's making me laugh alot, maa-ma!

smell

vanilla essential oil
the top of oliver's head

happy vaisakhi

we don't celebrate easter at our house. but at this time of year we do celebrate the indian festival of vaisakhi. it's celebrated differently depending on where you are in india, for me it means the beginning of the sikh new year and it is the celebration of the spring harvest. there is a very large population of indian people from the punjab here in vancouver and the vaisakhi parade drew over 50,000 people. the bbc have a very good explanation of it here. the parade is near our house, it's colourful and there is lots of music and dancing and of course, food.

when i said in my last post that i was all better now, wouldn't you know it i got sick again. we have been concentrating on eating home-cooked meals, no running around. last night, j made a vegan shepard's pie that was delish. he couldn't believe i had never had shepards pie before! i had to remind him that i was not of european descent. we thought that next time we made it, it would be really good with wild mushrooms and asparagus. yum.

no more sickness

yah, we're all better! thank you for your well-wishes. i hate the flu. oliver got it then of course i got a touch of it. so we were both out for the count for what seems forever. the pictures above are from the weekend when we escaped the apartment for the beach. oliver is really into pointing and scowling! he scowled at the joggers that jogged by. that's my boy...


major spring cleaning is going on at my house. like a lot of you, i enjoy the odd magazine at times...one of my favs is Australian vogue living. they have the most restrained taste i just love it. kinda like how elle deco the uk version used to be, before they got all disco. so i am keeping them but giving the library everything else. it's all about space now in our house, there is no room for any extras.

it's probably going to take me a week but i'm going to check out all the photos i missed for the colours of the week. i missed orange and pinks and reds. i have a bit of orange in a photo of the fabric i'm going to re-cover the seat of a chair i found in the alley. the next photo is a jumble of reds' and pinks'on my desk.

brown thursday

my wee babe is sick. i'll be back tomorrow.

green wednesday

sweet green peas with salty miso gravy. my purse with a toy attached by a ribbon to keep oliver occupied. my birth month stone peridot. a deer in my parents yard.

new mixed media drawings here

blue tuesday

ah, blue was much easier for me to find. i didn't even need to leave the house. the top blue and green piece of pottery is something i found at a junk sale for .25 cents. i love it so much. it's actually a footed bowl, with the footed part broken off. oh well i love just staring at it. next are my fav blue sneaks! then a piece of local pottery my best friend bought me as a gift. everytime it catches my eye i think of her. we live in different cities so it's nice to be reminded of her often.
lastly, my favourite beads to make things from. it's called apatite, and is usually found in watery greens, soft blues. i found it in such a gorgeous blue, it's nice in the sunshine.

yellow monday

for kerstin's colours of the week...

yellow is a very hard colour to find. i could only found tiny bits of it around. then i remembered the sulphur pits in north vancouver. that's as yellow as it gets. look how grey it was this weekend. it kinda felt like a black cloud was following me around everywhere i went. never the less we tried to go for a soggy hike, gave up and stubbornly stayed on the beach in the rain.