tania howells

visitation thursday

Well! I have been about as cheerful as a box of weasels all week, so no posting. I thought today I would check in and tell you what I have been up to.
On the weekend we visited friends in Goderich, Ontario. It was lovely, I had a good long swim in lake Huron, we saw hundreds of monarch butterflies resting in a park on route to mexico (pictures to come!), saw a play and generally had a lovely time. The play was about the last public hanging in Ontario, done in 1868 and was performed at the very spot of the hanging (shudder)- at the old jail which is now a cultural center. The reason we went was mainly because this last man hung, Nicholas Melady, is a distant relative of our friends!

This is where we slept, in the attic which was painted wonderful happy colors.

This is a quilt made by our friend and her mum, which was on our bed. Gorgeous and all hand quilted!

Otherwise, I have managed to spend money.

Here are my MOO cards. I got these for you lisa!

:)

I like them. They make a nice little bookmark and will be great gift tags. Here are some more great ideas to use them for. I plan to reconfigure my bulletin board set up soon - I got a great free HUGE one at work, just have to get it home- and I expect to make a little clothes line on it for my favorite cards.

I also treated myself to this great cute awesome charm by Marilyn Partizio. I. LOVE. IT.

Ofcourse there are the things that cost a lot and are not exiting like the $230 hard drive I bought to back up my files for this kids book I am working on. I plugged it in this morning and felt triumphant to have conquered yet another task on my list. It had been sitting suspiciouly on my counter for a week, but I finally made friends with it and it will prove essential, I think. Whenever I spend a pile of cash on something, it always takes me a week or so to get used to it. Ugh. Coming up - a new furnace at some point. They cost a fortune and don't even come in pink!

tea by tea, day by day

I found this lovely blue yarn in Victoria on our trip and just finished a little scarf- there wasn't enough to really make anything else. You can see it in progress on the porch picture below. My newest friend is this rock I found this past weekend at sandbanks. He already had two eyes and all I needed to do was give him a smile. It wasn't easy, he didn't laugh at all my usual jokes so I had to get creative.

Another tea time, another day. It was a bit grey when I made my cup of tea this morning, so the picture is not great. It was a very good cuppa though, my old standby regular tea with milk and sugar. Tea always tastes better when you have really earned it. I have been working away here trying to organise details, colours, sizes. I won't elaborate incase it is top secret but I have been hired to illustrate a children's book and it is a big honour to have been chosen. I am feeling quite tense with the desire to do a good job and somewhere buried deep is a joy at having a lovely project to do. My horoscope today says "Enjoy your challenges. They are making you clever and creative." So at times when my free time seems to shrink down to zero, I tend to go small. These are some things making me happy right now.
-wearing socks in the house again
-my new cups for tea
-going to sleep
-dreaming
-my flickr surfing time during my afternoon tea break
-sufjan on the itunes
-chatting with mum regularly now that she is home
-dishes getting done
-comfortable shoes

Paul got a great deal on a slightly used ipod and got it for me! Infact it was essentially free after a work bonus he got too. I am a lucky duck. Of course it needed it's own sock. I had meant to make this a little drawstring pouch. Couldn't be simpler right? but I ended up sewing the drawstring part first and then closing it up by sewing the side seams next. Oh well, good enough. I tied on two ribbons incase I ever feel the need to close it up but I am finding I take it out so often to adjust the volume or get a new song on that it needn't close at all. So there, my mistake ended up working better in the end.

summer weekends

We have really been getting around this summer. Ths past weekend we finally got the mummies to meet. Paul's mum drove us out to my mum's house for a nice weekend of knitting and loafing. I say knitting because Paul's mum made 6 dish cloths in the time we were there and gave them to my mum for her new place. She is moving you see, by the fall, to a smaller place. I love her house now but it really is too big for just her, especially since she spends some of her year in Mexico. This is her awesome porch where I finished a blue scarf. Mum's whole house is this colorful and I just love her style! I am glad to report the mum's got along just fine.
I was so glad to fit in a walk at the beach. It was a bit cool so I didn't swim but Paul took a quick dip. This is Sandbanks Provincial Park- isn't it gorgeous?

doing my best

sketch again

On my bike ride into work yesterday I decided I must stop and get a moleskine ( or at least the cheaper version from the art supply store) and keep it in my bag so I can sketch whenever the mood strikes. If you read this blog at all, you may have noticed a number of attempts to regularly sketch. They usually end in a discreet fizzle only to be resumed later on with some other grand plan to get me drawing daily. Anyway, I had a little cute black notebook in my paws when I saw this beauty at the counter, the last one, made by Eco Jot. Who happen to be an arm of Mirage Paper Co. the awesome all Canadian cool notebook company. They were the ones who produced this awesome little notepad for Today's Parent Magazine. I love that all Eco Jot notepads are all totally recycled paper and totally reasonably priced as well.

Here are a couple of sketches I did on the irresistable first pages, taken in the light of the morning sun- excuse the odd lighting.
favorite things

basic doodle

I finished my log cabin mat. Or actually I ran out of yarn for it, so it is more like a log cabin handkerchief or perhaps a place mat. Either way I like what it looks like.

friday cool stuff round-up

These are the coolest mugs that my friend Beta thoughtfully got me at the annual Estonian rummage sale in May that I missed for some reason and then we only just got around to me getting them last week. I love these mugs! They have a sort of Canadiana feel to them. Bonus! Two owl mugs!

She also decided that I should have this awesome birdy banner even though she had bought it for herself. Thanks so much, it is going in my hall!

Last week I found Amy's great book and treated myself to it. Of course I love it- it is so nice in every way. Can't wait till it is cooler and I feel like making stuff again. Also pictured is a cute apple Astro Satchel pouch that I was drooling over on our trip in Tofino BC and Paul secretly went back to buy for me. I Love her bags so much and saw them all over BC.

Well! I hadn't expected to be missing for so long. Last week I was working hard to meet a deadline, then the weekend came with a lovely lazy Saturday- brunch, a little garage sale-ing, some free magazines in a box and an afternoon on the porch reading and knitting.

Sunday we went to a wedding on lake Simcoe. One of my oldest and closest friends married her lovely fella and it was a great day.
These are some cute ducks I saw- ten babies! Quite a handful. We stayed over there and I swam in lake Simcoe on the Monday which was a holiday called Simcoe Day. I felt quite pleased about that. I also saw a tiny bat sleeping up in a corner by the pool. It was so cute and I whispered to Paul "shh- he's sleeping!" which seemed funny to me.

Mum drove up that evening and early on Tuesday morning we drove up to Crane Lake to hang out with my brother and sister in law and our friend B. This is me reading Martha on the dock- bliss! It was so wonderful to hang out with my family again chatting away for hours, eating chips and swimming. We were so lucky to be able to get away and go to this perfect place.





Today I am in Monday mode and keep comforting myself by remembering it is actually Thursday and on the weekend I get to see all of them again for a special dinner to celebrate our wedding. Yay!