*

lum te tum dum

 

Some doodling to reflect the inside of my head lately.

One minute I have ideas, the next they are gone.  One minute I feel good about the uncertain future and jobs and the next I am all scared again.  Worrying is an olympic sport in my family and we are gold contenders.  I like to picture the day in series of time slots these days.  If I can make it through the next five minutes, the next hour, the next afternoon, I am doing well.  Then, every night I go over the nice things in each day and say thanks.  Worrying is all about the fear of what might happen, it always seems much much worse that it will likely be and if I can only remember that right now things are pretty much a-ok, I start to feel better again.  I have made a big decision that things are starting to look up in July!  One foot in front of the other and onward, ho!  The year gets better starting right now.           

Happy weekend!

oh,  where is my head?

I had already posted this picture.  Did you remember?  Because I sure did not.

PS: happy two year wedding anniversary to my sweetie!

philanthropy

(click for larger)

I did this picture back in March for an article in a magazine for SickKids hospital about philanthropy and hospitals.  I had forgotten all about it until a cheque came in the mail a few weeks ago.  I love when that happens!  Also, I have uploaded the last of my pages for the new book to the publishers FTP, so I can do things other than that suddenly!  It is possible there will be some small tweaks left to do, but for now I consider it done. 

Today I updated my website a little bit. 
I recently went to an interesting panel discussion about Children's book illustration.  I had grand plans of introducing myself to the two publishers there, but simply had no voice to use that night.  Updating my website is part of that process.  After a strong coffee one day soon, I intend to contact these people for real.
It never hurts to have your work on file at various places. 

pattern

I am playing with patterns.  One of the girls in my book will have a dress with a variation of this one.  I have dressed all the characters in clothes I wish I had!  Especially the teacher.  She is actually loosely based on Sally Hawkins character in "Happy Go Lucky".  I really liked that movie.  I mostly liked her, actually!  Such a "cheerful by necessity" character.  As though she quite consciously decided at some point to be cheerful, to combat the never ending gloom that can suck you down if you let it!  A role model of sorts.
Well, happy Friday!

some nice things...

First, Thank -you all SO so much for your kind words and thoughts on last post!
Let's hope something new and better is just around the corner as you say!! yipes.

Second, in the spirit of looking on the bright side, I present you with my birthday present from my amazing husband!  He sold a pile of his stuff six months in advance in order to have this bike ready for my birthday!  Madness!  I get so much attention biking around on this thing, and thieves beware- I have three heavy locks and also leave it at the new bicycle station when I am at work (till end of July).

• It is strawberry season again and there is nothing like a sweet Ontario strawberrry with ice cream.

• I am nearly nearly done the book!

• Rainbow!     

Right over our neighborhood!  I think this happened just when we got back from NYC and before the redundancy, but i can't quite remember...either way it must be a harbinger of good things to come.

• Sharing Berkeley with a bunch more kids.  They ask the funniest questions.  One will ask me if I like making books, the next will say "My uncle makes books."  Total stream of consciousness and hilarious.

• How I met Your Mother

How has it taken me this long to stumble upon this show?  I am sorry but it is the funniest thing I have seen since... well...ever.  It is ridiculous and sweet and I love it.  We rent full seasons and watch for too long.  We just finished season three and I am worried it's nearly done.  It IS summer though so I suppose we should get outside and do things...


Best nice thing for last:  One of my best and oldest friends is having her baby ANY SECOND!!  Woot!

Boo!

I have had a bit of a week-My job that I have had for 9.5 years at the CBC was made redundant, just like you have read in the news.   We were told our department was presently safe, so this came as a big shock.
I am not sure how much they will save by cutting part time me, but there you go.  My vision of life as a great game of snakes and ladders is proving true.  Where is my next ladder?  Who knows.
For now I am enjoying putting finishing touches of my forth coming kids book, and I still have work ( and benefits) till the end of July.  Keep calm and carry on, as they say...or to use my favorite Dead Dog Cafe quote:

"Stay Calm, Be Brave, Wait for the Signs"!

nyc part two

That was a long delay! oops-

Here is Bryant park where we sat for ages on my birthday sipping iced coffee and watching the world go by.  It is a lovely little oasis in the city!  We also went to the NYC public library- awesome!
Grand central station, Times square- madness.  Saw the new star trek movie and the movie "I Love you man"and ate so much yummy food!

We walked all the way across the Brooklyn bridge and took the Staten Island ferry past the Statue of Liberty...

Ofcourse I wanted to check out Purl SoHo and Purl Patchwork in person- so cute!  Also the Jonathan Adler store- awesome!


 and Marimekko!  Swoon!



The flower stalls were so pretty.  We also went to central park for a bit, saw John Stewart in a comic book store with his kid, went to the legendary Blue Note on my birthday and saw Ottmar Liebert,
wandered around for hours, and basically soaked it all in!  I wish we were back again.
It was the best holiday ever.   There is probably a lot more that I am not even remembering now!
(Joanie, if you ever read here, I am sorry we did not get in touch- it all went so fast!)

I loved this perfect weather forecast for my birthday last week!
and even more exiting, we went to New York City!

This is the view from the cab leaving Penn station.  We flew into Newark (only just  over an hour from Toronto!).  Stepping out of Penn station, New York is RIGHT THERE! It is such a great first impression.  We arrived just in time for lunchat a funny diner, Big Daddy's,  (careful, there's music on this site!)
near to where we stayed.Paul loves his diners, and he researched a few
fantastic ones that we visited like The comfortand the Empire.



Of course, one of the first things I wanted to do was go here...
Especially because I did not even know about it before Krissy went to NYC!
I was so exited, that I was just in freak out mode. 

Look at this!  It is ALL the Jeu de Paumes books I have been drooling over online for ever.  RIGHT there, at my fingertips! Plus a million other crazy good eye candy books.   And then...


 
MORE!  Sewing, crafting,  anything books.  Plus, bazillion more over on the left hand shelf.
It took all my power to not chatter inanely at the woman next to me.  Luckily she moved on promptly before I could embarrass myself and I was able to go through all the sewing books.  I ended up with two similar pattern books, ( I blame the enabler Paul who helpfully said "why not get two!" :)
and one cute decor one.  I went a little nuts.  But who cares! It was my birthday week and I was in New York!


Phew- we did SO much in 5 days, I will try and show you more in the coming days.
It was my 5th time visiting and it was the best trip there ever.  I think it is because we did research ahead of time and we are old enough to not feel dorky going to tourist attractions, which are such for a reason- they are impressive!

Now its back to work, but I hear they have a cake for me at work!  I love my co-workers!




The knit mafia strikes in the lower east side.

Work is going to get busy soon, but stay tuned for more ! 
I will pop in when I can!

tulips

Something interesting is happening to my tulips....


tulips May 2009


They are slowly turning red!




Tulips May 2007

When I planted them three years ago they were all yellow!
:)

Have a lovely weekend!

inspiration

1. Japanese Apron Book, 2. Summer blouse turned bathing suit cover up, 3. alanna scott: Emily Carr Institute, 4. Summer Blouse #2 (Ashley), 5. dress_022209b, 6. I like this outfut..., 7. 69/365: Hi! It's me., 8. Bit of a splurge!, 9. transitioning into spring

It is that time of year where I want a new dress!  I also want to try and make one and am on the hunt for a idiot proof easy pattern that I can make a few times, and then wear with jeans and long tees in the winter.  I have been favoriting a bunch on flickr.   I love the idea of a uniform, like Brandy.  I did secretly, in march maybe, make this dress.  It just did not suit me.  I used fabric from the stash so it was not a waste and I learned how to do necklines which I didn't know before.  I may cut it in half so it is a skirt, because I feel wierd with waist lines that are tight around my middle.  Perhaps I am entering my muu muu years, but I seem to go for comfort above all else these days! 

Something just like this maybe!  I see a visit to Pomadour in my near future... I could perhaps make this
by playing around... it can't be too hard... I just love these japanese clothing pattern books.

cute!