tania howells

Here are some beautiful midwinter dishes I saw at the Value village. I took a picture instead of buying them. I have a really nice set of all white dishes from my mum's wedding 40 years ago and I thought I just can't squeeze more into the cupboards on top of my regular every day dishes too. Anyway, I love these dishes - we had the whole set when I was a kid and I saved one bowl from them on that fateful last garage sale day when the childhood home was sold. Don't even let me think of the awesome dishes that did get sold- sniff. You can't see here there are bowls and 2 sizes of smaller plate too! I have seen them at goodwills before so maybe I will see them again. You just have to draw the line somewhere!

♥ I forgot to mention one fun part of our ottawa trip which was visiting Karina's studio! My what a den of fun and color! It was a great place to hangout and make a great arty mess. So glad I got to see it in person! We also dropped in a quick hello to Amy's studio in the same building. It was so pretty in there!

♥ I had a few links in mind to post too but I just have no idea what they were...We saw online another house. It is so pretty and seems perfect, but it turns out there is a bidding war going on and it will probably sell way above asking- way above our budget. I am going to have to develop some new coping skills! The uncertainty and stress of this process makes me occasionally snappy/snippy. I have to keep reminding myself that these are life's biggest steps! No wonder I feel a bit freaked out and instead of getting snippy I have to try and make a joke, remember that its ok to feel stressed and not to act out on it. Plus I hate spending lots of money- what a huge leap to spend all the pennies I have been saving since my first job in grade 7! So for now, it's time for a little house hunting break. Luckily we are fine where we are indefinately. Plus I just vacuumed and mopped! Ah, that's better.

Paul and I went to Ottawa this weekend to visit Karina and Jason.We almost went last year.

As soon as we got there Karina took us to the Rideau canal to skate- the worlds longest skating rink! It was wonderful there, so pretty and I love being able to skate and skate without stopping. Paul took this lovely picture and you can see me there wearing the worlds best hat.

We visited the Science and tech museum because Paul heard there were antique bikes there, and there were some. We even got to ride an antique tricycle thingy. I liked this 70's style aquaman the best.

Bowling was even squeezed in. Here you see the score "computer" with its great old school graphics.
Phew, It was a lovely weekend and now I need a vacation to recover!
Thank-you Karina and Jason for having us!

whoopee!

There is nothing like amazing surprising mail to blow out the cobwebs!

Charlene over on the west coast offered to send me some of her cute Japanese stationary, which thrilled me! Ofcourse I said yes please! But would you look at how naughty she was to include all this other amazing stuff? I am spoiled rotten! -click on it and see the goodness- Kogepan stickers and tons of awesome papers, some candies, 2 teeny stamps and sweet beaded fruits, a neat bead purse, little paper chopstick stands and a little elephant that I can hang on my purse.

Look! This Miffy book was on my wishlist- how thoughtful! and so cute with the little hat! PLUS-wonderful Dick Bruna / Miffy stamps from japan- I have to find a special frame for these. Charlene wondered what Miffy and Kogepan said to each other on the plane ride over here...And afro ken must have had a few things to discuss too.

Close up of this splendid little cat DOG! who is going to bring good luck and health.
OH thank you ! This was so thoughtful and kind- I really needed this, it made my whole week. I don't even want to move any of it so I can preserve the awesomeness that the entire package is.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

a-ha!
I fixed the imageless post. It was my mistake, I uploaded twice and deleted the wrong one.
:)

tory blue

It is a dark day here in Canada. Stephen Harper is our new chief. No ridings in Toronto elected conservative MP's at all so its not our fault!! sniffle. oh woe. The only good thing is the conservatves are a minority and have to talk to the NDP and Liberals before doing anything stupid like revoking the right for gays to marry ( he wants to do this ) or joining the missile defence program ( he wants to do this too ). I am fearful of the future of the CBC- conservatives have rarely been a friend to public broadcasting, I am fearful of the safety of our fresh water and our seperateness from george bush's back pocket. Freak out!!

That house ended up being just questionable enough, foundation wise, that we are not going for it. Sad but also probably for the best. Talk about STRESS- what a week, we really got caught up in the whole thing.

I don't know why my pictures aren't showing up from yesterdays post. I hope today's picture shows up.

What is the sound of one mitten clapping?

The cats might know. Here is my latest addition to the mitten parade. I used this pattern and found it quite good. I plan to make them my homage to Camper twins, where one is different but related to the other. Mostly because I did not count my rows and won't be able to make it the same if I tried. I also got my post card swap cards done. I like Myra's doggie stamp better! It looks like a dog and is so cute! Mine unfortunatley turned out more like a mouse. What the heck though, that's life.

I suppose I should mention that today is *YAWN* election day around these parts. There is a horrifying chance that the conservatives will get the most votes, so yawning is actually a bad reaction. A better reaction would be to rush about the streets harassing everyone to please! For the love of GOD! Vote NDP!!!!!

Meet fingerpuppet. I knit him up last week while we were watching some tv, and for some reason, Paul is convinced he is pure evil. He has been banned from the bedroom without question. I have plans of parking him in unexpected high up places to scare Paul. Personally, I find him pretty affable
(I love my OSX MAC, it has these pop up applications and one is a thesaurus- that's how I came up with affable) .
He doesn't really seem evil to me, but he did result in a lot of good laughs the night he came in to exisitence.

We looked at this housey house again this morning and I am all stressed out! I guess we are kind of moving forward a bit in the fact that we want to know more about it. Gulp. We also looked at another house, a block south of a strip club ( nice) A ramshackle rambling place with dirty dirty rooms and random people sleeping in rooms -shudder. The backyard was overgrown, full of branches and garbage. I will need therapy to get over that one. In our price range, there is not too much choice! Ahh its an adventure, yes that's what we will call it. Alternatively we could just stay here and live it up. The apartment is awesome and cheap. I have been here for eight years! And someone else pays for the roof and furnace...

Happy Birthday Jonathan! It's my brothers birthday today-
:)

We have become consumed again by seeing another house. EEK. This one needs a lot of work and perhaps is a no go depending on what an inspector might say about a crooked foundation wall- not a good sign...but ok if it is not still moving... It is cute though and right at a dead end street by the railway tracks ( the wrong side of the tracks??) which for some reason I like. The view from the front for this reason is of open space. So rare in Toronto, which seems obsessed with putting up condominiums in every free inch of land. I am tired of condo's because they take away my view of sky! Well- we don't really know what to do so will have another look at it and knock on some of the neighbors doors. It is cheaper, so potentially we will have more money to fix it up than if we found a more expensive place. Who knows! I certainly don't, but it is absolutley consuming my thoughts thats for sure. That and a little illustration job that came down the pike- yay! Also I better get on the new postcard swap. They have to be sent out by next friday and I haven't even begun to think of what I might do!

doodle for a tuesday

I don't remember on who's blog I first saw this but Cute Overload has fast become my favorite place to get a dose of cuteness. I love it!!!

images on blog appear smaller than they are in real life...

Here are my jumbo mega mittens fit for a Yeti to wear! I love them. It was a bulky mitten class, and I didn't use the blue sky aplaca yarn recommended ( it would have cost me $40 for a pair of mittens ). The cheapo yarn made my mitts slightly huge, but I don't mind a bit. Now that I know how to do them, I am planning on a mitten parade- look out! Plus I can fit my pair of white gloves that Paul's mum gave me for Christmas, inside these ones. That is a plus because there is no way I can keep white gloves clean for more than 30 seconds. Here is a groovy vintage skirt I found yesterday in the market for %25 off, it was $7.50 or something crazy. The pattern really makes me happy-here is a close up.

Thanks for all the comments on my egg picture! I was surprised because I don't know if I love it exactly. I am still getting used to the old Wacom! But the comments just made me smile-:)

illustration friday- e is for...

Egg of course! Wacom tablet attempt #3. I love eggs. They are so easy to startle, especially with leaves falling. Just like the cats and a plastic bag!

the asterisk strikes again...

Here is a little collage I did with my new asterisk punch. Thanks everyone for the helpful guidance with the Japanese books fever I was struck with last night. I took 2 aspirin and I think it is subsiding somewhat. Though I still get a bit warm around the gills with those stockholm books... i may just have to get out my wallet.

stockholm's kitchens

Dear Santa,

I know we just had Christmas, but I want this book. When I saw it over at bird in the hand I got all happy. Its beautiful!

Why in this city of a gazillion different cultures with at least 5 Japanese groceries, do we not have a Japanese bookstore? WHY???? And why do they carry all sorts of books in the back of the groceries, but stare at me blankly when I try and descibe these awesome craft / interior type books that we here in blogland drool over daily? hmmm. something is afoot. Surely I can get them to order in some?
Is there anyone out there who has seen this book in one of the stores you have in your cities? Would you email me if you do? I will pay you in golden coins - or paypal if that's easier.
Also, would someone remind me how you can buy them over the internet? There was something about the ISBN and yes asia or something... I seem to be suddenly struck with a desperate need to own a couple of these gorgeous little books. It must have started with seeing Hillary's birthday present. And perhaps a bit of that post holiday slump cured only by more consumption...

I put up nine birdy paintings for sale before lunch today. Please excuse the ultra drab layout! Phew!~ Nice to get something solid done, I keep flitting here and there and doing a bit of lots of things and not really getting anything specific done.

There was a great article in the Sunday paper about how Toronto is a knitting mecca! Who knew? Read the article here.

Speaking of Toronto, I keep forgetting to post this awesome little movie a guy did with a $30 disposable camera, rigged to keep going. It is wonderful and simple, with scenes of regular stuff made somehow lovely- the music too is beautiful. Thank-you Marlena for the link. Marlena has a new website. It looks great!

oh the exitement

Look at this mitten! It is from the class I took yesterday at Lettuce Knit. We are doing the thumb next week. It was hard to contain my exitement as I watched it coming together, though I managed to say "this is so exiting!!!" only about 4 times. I hope I didn't embarass myself. SIGH! A mitten! Of my very own! It is rather BIG, but I know it will be as cozy as can be. I just love being a grown up ( here I go again ) because I don't have to go to school and I can pick the things I want to learn. I am always so thrilled when I can learn a new thing, something I have always wondered how to do. It is really one of the joys of being alive I'd say. After class, we went for dim sum with Krissy and Paul and Swati and Carrie. YUM. It was really fun. Then we went skating! Then we went to see "The Constant Gardner" which was a really compelling movie about disturbing potentially true stuff. Horrid. Sunday was great, it made up for the fact that on Saturday I did not go out at all, except to buy a newspaper. I got a bit of cabin fever thats for sure.

I had my eye on this asterisk paper punch for ages because I saw in my head them being made into buttons. I treated myself to it this week and for once the image in my head was the same as the outcome! They look like little candies or something - good enough to eat. I just love the asterisk shape.
I am starting to feel much more me again. The sun is out today and yesterday I caught up on all my blog reading. Doing that really made me feel better- seeing what all you are thinking in terms of new years hopes and thoughts was so inspiring! I still haven't come up with a proper list of my own, but I have some thoughts.

-try to say no more without feeling guilty
-be nice to myself all the time
-accept the fact that I am grown up ( this sounds silly, but it more has to do with the fact that I am always saying things like "wow, this feels so grown up!" at dinner parties and things. Well, yes it IS and so am I! And there is nothing scary about that. There are a lot of big steps on my horizon and once I accept this fact, I think I won't feel so jittery about them. It is always scariest before the first step... Does that make sense? It still sounds silly.)
Well, anyway, there are a couple. There is plenty more that hasn't yet percolated through my spongey brain!

Here is my first attempt with the wacom tablet- it is sort of like learning to draw again with a weak hand. It is basicly a mouse in pen form and a sensitve base to draw on, incase you did not know. I will have to do a bit of practising! It is tricky to get things nice. The really cool part is thhat if you press lightly or harder, your line responds the same! Very cool. My second attempt, combining some of the awesome patterens from Flop Design. If I owe anyone an email, please forgive me. I am being really slow getting going this year and feeling a bit lackadaisical toward working! Time for another cup of tea. or a snooze... no actually I have to get lunch and rush off to work now.

Well, It has been grey and rainy here for a while now and I am finding motivation a bit scarce to say the least! So I will tell you about the first part of my holidays which involved stopping at the Michaels crafts store and the Value village on the way from the train station with my mum.

LOOK. A pair of camper shoes at the Value Villgae. I almost fainted. The sad part about this tale is that: a) they are a size 5/6 and I am a hulking size 9/10 and b) I bought them anyway. How could I not buy them? They were $9.99 and are so pretty. For now I have them on my floor where I can gaze at them lovingly. I also found a pair of fuschia pink crocs - without the heel strap in my exact size for $3.99 and brand new. This Value village ( belleville ontario for anyone nearby) is like some wonderful secret. I love it! sigh.

At the michaels, the yarn was 70% off! So I got 4 balls of this fuzzy stuff and I spent the holidays making those fuzzy flower pins I was mentioning earlier. I was very happy. By the way the flower pins are super easy to make and are a variation of some I saw in a magazine a while ago. You cast on 20 or so of one color and knit 3-5 rows and cast off. Then do a second color in a similar way. Then you just roll the strip of one up and sew it tight and roll the second color around it and sew tight. Easy and looks cute.

happy new year!

Here is my new years egg. I like to eat this whenever I need to feel cosy- I drank tea and read the paper while Paul snoozed in late. Our new years eve was great! I think I am finally breaking the cycle of anticlimactic haphazard new years plans. We went to the Horseshoe tavern to see two of my favorite local bands - Elliott Brood and The Sadies. I can only say that Elliot Brood should be world famous, they are that irresistably addictive. A banjo, a suitcase for a drum and thumping beats with hollering country-ish vocals- LOVE IT! It was a great show, I love the Sadies act, bringing out their mom and dad to help with the songs- they have this twangy surfer country sound that is so infectious and satisfyingly good!
Well, may this year be good! GOOD GOOD GOOD!
I haven't really made resolutions...I never got around to it, but I am sure I have a pile of things on my to do list that I will review sometime after my grogginess has passed.