watching the grass grow

when my tomato plant looks wilted and defeated by the heat, i like to take it someplace cool, water it, and watch it spring back to life.

sometimes it takes a moment or two but in always a shorter time than you'd think the arms start to spring and the leaves pop back into place and i feel like i'm seeing something usually reserved for caterpillars and time lapse photography - it's awesome.

often you can forget that plants are alive because they rarely move in ways that are noticeable but when they do i find it so amazing. and such a worthy thing to watch.

my fiance went to barcelona and all i got was these lousy photos

which is, of course, a hilarious joke because jeremy's photos are always so beautiful they are a gift unto themselves! unto me? unto you! untie my shoe.

do you believe the barcelona weekend happened two weekends ago?! summer eats weekends like i eat reeses pieces -without chewing and in one big bite!

these are some street performers doing some street performing. look how the one girl didn't get the memo re the white outfit. she's fired!

i wonder if sidewalk performer would be considered a demotion.


there's this path that you can walk along and people's houses back onto the path and the owners of the houses on the path use graffiti to communicate with the passerby. neat eh?!

though i don't think capitalists have much time for swinging from trees. that's the downfall of that ideology, really.


how close was jeremy to these geese to make this photo happen? and was he dressed up as a goose himself?


writing in other languages seems to me as though it's always saying something about scripture and a rich history and 'he bagat who begot' but maybe sometimes it just says 'i am a floor in barcelona'.


the really interesting thing about the statues in barcelona is their faces and expressions. such a different style than the british/french classical style we're used to. all the statue pictures jer took show such expression and personality and whimsy.

if barcelona statues and british/french statues were each having a party on the same night i would totally go to the barcelona statue party they'd probably have way better music.

i love the dark light thing going on here. i love looking at this knowing jeremy was looking at this. i love jeremy.

click on this photo to make it bigger and note the expression of the stand lady. it's so forlorn like she's contemplating life and love and where bananas factor in.

or maybe she notices some cheaper selling kiwi fruits three booths over.


in barcelona people carve their initials into cacti like how we carve our initials into trees and grilled cheese sandwiches.

see! we're not so different! we all just want to put our name someplace that lasts.

stephanie says (so you should listen)


look at her go! she moves up north with her mans and starts a radio show!

i think you're a dreamer's inspiration.

you're definitely mine.

x

it must be somebody's wedding soon!


cause this totally made me cry.

or maybe it makes everybody cry? or maybe it's the allergy pill and beer combo?

either way, A-W-E-S-O-M-E. you're going to love life a bit more once you're through.

cryptic note i left for myself that i just found yesterday stuffed in a drawer

- look up guy on internet

will you please join me for dance 3, 6 and 10?


tonight we're going to dance in the living room and jeremy asked me if i'll be bringing my dance card and i was all 'what's that??' and he's all 'look at this' and then we looked up dance cards on the internet.

this one is funny i like her side notes.

i wonder if there was a thing to the order of the dances like the first one is the person you don't want to dance with and the last one is the person you hope to keep on dancing with long after the dancing is over and by dancing i mean necking in the back seat of the car.

in grade eight dancing to anything by meatloaf meant you really liked each other. ten minutes is quite the commitment.

here's your little check-in

hello! it's wednesday! and jeremy's back from barcelona! and all is right with the world!

i don't have much time, jeremy's just starting up the carbonera and we're going to watch movies and make a card house and talk about life but HELLO. and how are you. and isn't summer so lovely.

i think the invitations have all found their homes and the rsvps are rolling in and the week is rolling by and the weekend is so close you can touch its fingers if you stretch yours out far.

keep stretching and soon you'll hold it's hand.

x

sundays are good for movie watching


but i think you need to watch this movie with jeremy performing his usual coles notes function.

it's SCARY. i took an english media course in high school that i loved and not just because the teacher was attractive but also because it was the first time someone had taught me about alternative thought and the importance of questioning the status quo and the dangers of corporations and media as vehicles to market mutually agreed upon untruths.

after school i'd go home and re-write all my notes to review all the cool stuff that he had opened us up to.

and to dot all the i's with little hearts.

life's ups and downs

sometimes when i'm on facebook reading about what animal someone added to their 'farmville' i wonder what it is i'm doing with my life.

then i get up and dance all the parts i remember to the thriller dance and quickly feel i'm back on track.

jared buy this movie


if you're a dancer or fancy yourself one you should watch 'the company' it's BEAUTIFUL. i need a better word than beautiful but you basically feel like you're apart of a ballet company for two hours and james franco is in it. NEED I SAY MORE? how about neve campbell is a gorgeous ballerina. and the dance is incredibly diverse. and the writing is so raw it films just like a documentary but real-er.

it's just riveting. i moved only once to get some water and for me that's sayin' somethin'.

so just please watch it. in your tutu. jared, you can wear your yoga pants.

let's all go to barcelona!

one of the beauty things about the internet besides having a forum to post my ridiculous drawings is that you can learn stuff and edu-ma-cate yourself and look at pictures of a place and then pretend you've been there.

like barelona!

i really know nothing about barcelona except that it's in spain and jeremy is there so i thought now would be the time to have a gander into cyberspace at one of the biggest cities in the world.

wikipedia says barcelona is said to be founded by hercules which makes it automatically gain one hundred cool points. does founding a place make you the mayor? cause i bet herc had some awesome campaign posters. and i bet newt spent all day slapping them up around town.

so now we can confirm barcelona is where they filmed the neverending story.

jeremy emailed me to tell me about this building which is still under construction and has been for years and will be for years more so spanish people must like to take their time with things. or falcor keeps knocking over the towers.

barcelona has beaches! these beaches don't look very well shaded you'd definitely need to bring your own umbrella. or a giant yet fashionable chapeau.

these benches are so artistic and whimsical you could have an artistic and whimsical nap on them. they look pretty curvy though so you might wake up with an artistic and whimsical back ache.

barcelona loves popsicles so much they erected a building in their honor! paris has a weird building like this also that doesn't really go with the rest of paris like paris made a bad accessory decision one day but spent to much on it to give it to the goodwill.

the popsicle building is probably too big to fit into the goodwill bin which just goes to show you how bad fashion decisions can haunt you for life!

now i want a freezie.


if you can't take pictures you should ogle other peoples'

this photographers website is like a summer day on the internet. you just keep staring at it and worry the sun will burn a whole in your retinas.

and if it did it would be WORTH it.

l'afternoon

jeremy took the camera to barcelona so everyone is in for a real treat!

pictograms!today is the day i took my wedding dress in for alterations which is very exciting because when i get it back it will look just how it's going to on october the tenth!

it was a nice experience and the alteration lady was helpful and friendly and didn't poke me once with her pins even though there was a few close calls. she carried the pins around in her mouth which made me nervous but she is a grown woman who is capable of making her own decisions with regards to personal safety.

after i climbed out of my dress and negotiated a pick up date i stopped at second cup to get one of those yogurt smoothies i've been seeing around town and they're pretty good! cold drinks make me cough and my hands get all clammy from holding the cup but other than those concerns i highly recommend you get one it was very summery seeming.

i realize now my pictogram hair is not consistent but that's the beauty of art! sometimes your hair looks like cher's and other times like brendan fraser's in encino man.

just another day on the job

i went on a tour of the exciting project my organization's got going on and it was so neato just really amazing and it was led by a staff person and attended by four other staff persons and i still get excited that i'm working somewhere that makes exciting things happen.

are you excited?! i'm excited!

does everyone think i work at a condo development?!

if you actually want to read about the project,
toddle over here and don't forget your steel toed boots!

here i am getting involved in the presentation! for this part you were invited to 'touch the clay' which is an invitation you don't have to send me twice! it was red and dusty and would probably make a nice eye shadow.

i've always wanted to be in a gang. a skinny jeans, rubber boots, hard hat gang. to the right there's a green garden roof and to the left there's 14 beehives who are responsible for pollinating all the flowers and plants in the area. except on the august long weekend they take three days off.

a very 80's bulldozer. when you walk around a construction site you feel very empowered like you're there to check things out and make decisions.

like move that a little to the left and move that a little to the right and get me a chocolate milk shake from harveys.

jeremy goes away part deux

he actually won a trip to barcelona and it's a work thing but he's extending his stay for a day to grab a cup of joe under some weird looking buildings.

we had a hilariously sappy goodbye on the subway platform this morning and a string of even more hilariously sappy goodbye emails once we both got into work and i'm saving some of them to read for later because, as we've learned, i'm in my petal plucker phase of being left alone.

aw i'm actually excited for him. BARCELONA. it might as well be outer space it seems so exotic to me. he bought a really handsome barcelona suit to wear while he was there that's all linen and james bond and i like to picture him wearing it drinking a cappuccino reading the paper or maybe doing a sudoku.

OH MY! he's just my favourite. and so wonderfully worldly. i hope i get a pretty hat.

x

whose fiance is quite the cook

look! i'm a coworker!

and jeremy's quesadillas are on their way to stardom.

it's all happening!


the invitations are in the mail!

last night we addressed them over some laker lagers and it felt so REAL.

also monumental?

also official.

we walked them to the mailbox and took a picture and made jokes about how we had until 9 am to change our minds.

when you plan a wedding there's this stage of organizing and timeline-ing and brainstorming on what you want your day to feel like and then there's a stage just beyond that where you sorta let it all go and it starts to happen on its own and you get excited to just enjoy what it is that you've created. this true labour of love. of our love.

we planned our entire wedding on the back of a receipt over pints in a pub in victoria and looking at it now, taped to the inside of our wedding scribble book, we really haven't strayed far from that original plan.

(jer just never did budge on the cowboy ushers).

while you were out

i also made this! it's a spicy gingerbread loaf and good thing jeremy's flight is early cause it smells too good to wait too long.

i already saw the butter licking its lips.

i see yours in there


the secret life of me



does anyone want to know what i do when i'm all alone? or are you like 'dances to michael jackson and dresses up in weird costumes', which would be truuue but that's not the half of it.

first i go through a stage of missing jeremy like those girls with their forget-me-nots then something distracts me and shortly after something distracts me from that and i'm like ohhhh yeah. i can stop and start however many things i want cause it's just me!

and then the good times begin.

i paint my toes i make myself coffee in the french press i drink the whole pot. i put on my headphones and sing along to musicals dixie chicks and sarah harmer. i dance to michael jackson. i water the plants and inspect them for growth. i listen to steph's cds i organize closets i write long lists of things to do in my journal. i look at old lists to see if anything can be checked off.

i open and close the drapes, turn off and on different lights and play with the volume on the tv or stereo until i think it's the perfect feel. i watch sex and the city the paris episodes and cry during both. sometimes i watch them again right after with commentary.

i look at our pictures of costa rica.

i text message my friends i do ballet or i don't do ballet but wear the outfit anyways. i take hours to finish a blog post i pretend stuff i think about making a robot out of the cereal box.

i make myself fancy salads and dressings from scratch then eat a peanut butter sandwich instead. i stare out the window i have a little nap i do a million different leg stretches. i go for walks to take up close pictures of flowers and feed the squirrels our stale bread. i go to the store and buy a fresh loaf.

i stare at my dress in the spare room closet.

i clean the floors i do the laundry i tidy jeremy's underpants drawer. i watch every movie you would guess i would watch. i pause them as often as you'd think too.

et cetera! et cetera! et cetera! like the king of siam says. this list could go on but you have things to do! skies to stare up at! people to see!

when i was little i loved to strap pillows around my waist, tie a sheet over top and pretend i was one of those ladies with the hoop skirts in the olden days. i wouldn't say i've grown too far from that place.

just the costumes might have changed.

jeremy's in vancouver


and i got up at 11:30. so i guess now we know who gets who up in the morning don't we?! don't we!?!

yeah that's not likely.

there was a storm that kept me semi awake the hours between when i was up early walking jeremy to the bus stop and now. i sleep best when i can still somewhat hear the world.

my favourite way to take a nap is on the couch with 'you've got mail' in the background. it makes me feel i'm not missing anything that i can rest and still make sure that joe fox and kathleen kelly make it through their differences. though i wish every time that kathleen kelly didn't lose that adorable book store.

so what will i do with my time alone you ask? for starters there's a pot of coffee perking and the cd steph made me is playing just nicely. like the little band she was in that would call me on my lunch hour.

then maybe i'll flip over the laundry and finish up these invitations.

it's ridiculous to miss someone having only seen them three hours ago but i do. not in an 'oh gosh i'm going to cry' kinda way but more in a 'my heart feels pulled cause part of it is elsewhere'.

he really is my other half.

and of course there's a bit of wishing i was smelling in that ocean too.

SMELL IT UP SWEETIE! and save some as a souvenir.

sharing

as i'm cutting and pasting these invitations together i'm like 'these are so awesome. jeremy is so talented'.

and then i remember what the invitations are for and i'm like 'OH MY GOD I'M GETTING MARRIED TO JEREMY. I GET TO MARRY JEREMY'.

those jacksons, there's five of them.


this is so awesome and if you don't also think it's so awesome i'll eat my black fedora.

i almost think this is more awesome than billy jean (excuse my language) cause it's like watching him take off. like the countdown to the shuttle being blasted into orbit.

i wonder if there was a point where his brothers turned to each other and were like 'you wanna go get a burger?' or maybe even sometimes they did go get a burger mid performance and nobody noticed cause everyone's eyes were on one thing.

michael was so clearly lightyears beyond them and i'm not even meaning that to sound like they aren't talented in their own right cause they clearly were.

mj was just a man on the moon in comparison.

it's okay to bring your wedding dress home from lucy's place in this, right?

don't worry i took it right out after. and then put it back in when i forgot to take a picture.

it seems sorta fitting that something fancy of mine be introduced to how i really like to roll, (with all my belongings shoved into a dry sac).

soon it has to go for final alterations and because lucy is going to vancouver for ten days i thought it should live with me now so i can make the appointment for sometime soon.

it smells like lucy's place which means nice and perfumed and now it's in the closet asking me to try it on.

OH ALRIGHT. but just this once and don't ask me again.

when jeremy wants to know about lemmings, i do some research


- lemmings are a vital part of the arctic tundra's ecosystem as they are food for ermines, arctic foxes, snowy owls, gyrfalcons, and jaegers. those last two things seem like made up words.

-at 150 mm in length they are the smallest mammals in the arctic who in spite of their size are able to withstand the extreme cold of winter without hibernating. this means if you shaved a bunch of lemmings and made yourself a coat you would never get cold. but they would cause they'd be bald.

-the lemming population goes through a mysterious cycle of rise and decline every four years, moving from an abundance of the furry gaffers to numbers close to extinction. the cause for this cycle is not yet known. i think it's aliens.

-the common misconception that lemmings commit mass suicide by jumping off cliffs comes from scandinavia. apparently scandinavian lemmings get rather restless during periods of over population and move in large groups towards valleys and eventually cliff sides where their only options are to stand there or jump and because lemmings are risk takers and lovers of life - they choose jump.

-lemmings can reproduce within weeks of being born. but are they really ready?

-the inuit name for lemming is kilangmiutak which means "one-who-comes-from-the-sky." if lemmings were falling from the sky it would probably cause screaming and car accidents.

-lemmings like to hang out by themselves pairing only to mate and exchange christmas cards.

-lemming is a weird word to say many times.

these are going on something and then the something is going in the mail and then you'll recieve one very shortly!

they're all old which means you'll get like five of them to equal what postage calls for these days but more is better! especially if you're a stamp or a cookie.

jeremy said that the stamp guy's office was the messiest office he'd ever seen and isn't that just what you'd picture?

those stamp types, they're all the same.

things you learn at work when you work for an environmental organization

the going rate for a pound of worms is forty dollars.

the weekend we ate everything


i was telling a work person about our weekend and everything had to do with food and she jokingly said 'did you do anything besides eat?' to which i replied (after putting down my donut), 'i think we looked up about food on the internet'.

we actually did do other stuff, outdoor active stuff even that proves difficult to do while snacking. like bike riding. though i bet by summer's end we're drinking smoothies out of beer hats while we ride.

it's a helmut AND a nutritional snack holder!

this was our sunday afternoon snack. lattes and baguette and brie and newly made jam. inspired by the adorable mugs and adorable sunday and adorable summer that's here and wholly present.

the many faces of wind

sometimes it's windy and your hair is blowing just nicely the right way and you feel so beautiful and wild and a bit like you control the wind and other times it's windy and your dress blows up and your hair goes in your mouth and your umbrella goes inside out.

yeah i like that first kind of windy better.

i like your jacket and your ruffled shirt sleeves

woah, does everyone love this song?

jeremy did first and now me too.

also the video is awesome especially the outfits and the flautists' solo.

how to: make more stuff that seems impressive but really is not

freezer jam is the best thing since sliced bread and it also goes on sliced bread so that's wonderful too!

i first tried some at jeremy's dads and it's a little like the strawberry compote they put on top of funnel cakes and it's a lot delicious and you can make it in under 10 minutes and then be like 'oh i made jam and it's only 9 am!'.

it stays fresh in the fridge for up to 3 weeks and in the freezer for up to a year.

step one: wash approximately 4 cups of strawberries and remove the stems.

step two: crush the strawberries into a puree but leave some chunks. this spoon is for show i totally used my hands.

step three:
add the crushed strawberries to 1 1/2 cups of sugar and a package of freezer jam pectin and stir for three minutes. you can find freezer jam pectin at grocery stores or canadian tire.

step four: ladle jam into jars, allow to sit for 30 minutes, stick in freezer or fridge.

i really can't believe how easy this recipe is and how delicious. like better than the jam that takes way longer to make by far. it doesn't last as long i guess but if you have some that's close to its expiry date just call me over, i'd be glad to help.

get your pigs and peach pie


this is a book about window boxes and organic life choices and how to keep bees in the city.

it has a chapter on making your own baby food (scones for sophie, lily!) and a chapter on foraging for greens and a chapter about what types of pigs are easiest to rear.

i can't wait to be a farmer!

i'll set up a stand and sell honey and bouquets of sweet peas and jeremy will sell fresh lemonade and we'll only open shop when we need money for ice cream bars and we'll always close early for naps before supper.

it's not just attractive it has a great personality also


sometimes jeremy makes me breakfast and i'm not sure if i should eat it or take its picture so i take its picture and then eat it and avoid making any sort of decision.

this was a mushroom and goat cheese omelete. it's date to the table was a perfect cup of coffee and i felt happiness in my soul that i was where i was on a saturday morning.

how to: make lemonade

step one: get your lemons and start squeezing! jeremy says if you roll them before you cut them it loosens the flesh and makes them easier to juice. it's like polite conversation before you get to the good stuff! we squeezed six lemons to make a jug.

step two: make a simple syrup by combining one cup of water with one cup of sugar and heating until the sugar dissolves. complicated syrup must have more steps than this.

step three: put a yellow dress on. jeremy said i looked like a lemon in this photo is that a compliment? i'm sure it is. lemons smell nice and roll around happily on the cutting board.

step four: pour the simple syrup into a jug with 6 cups of water and 3 cups of the fresh squeezed lemon juice. refrigerate to cool or if you can't wait, pour over ice and enjoy!

so puckery! so summery! so make some!

the golden ticket

yesterday jeremy got an email from the site we bought our mj tickets through asking if we wanted our tickets to be sent to us for souvenir purposes.

the cost would be the face value but since we spent twelve thousand times more than that i opted YES YES YES.

i bet when it comes there will be a note inside saying 'meet me in indonesia' and i'll go to indonesia and there will be a private concert for all his biggest fans and he'll explain to us why he faked his own death to escape the pressures of 50 concerts and i'll say 'i understand michael'.

or the ticket will come and i'll frame it and put it on my desk and remember how excited i was when i thought i was going to go.

new things around here

summer is a time of new! or it's a time of discovering the old that was piled under snow and a mountain of winter toques. either way, time to embrace it. if you haven't been already. and why haven't you been already?

one new thing i like to do is sit on the lawn in shafts of light. it feels very religious. so far when i say 'hello lord' no one says anything but one of these days someone will and the voice will sound sensitive, musical, slightly feminine yet powerful and i will say I KNEW IT.

new shirt! robynn got me this and three others for my birthday and i love them all. one of the other one's has a frowning cloud on it that says 'i make it rain' which makes me feel like an x-man. also x-men should write out their powers on a t-shirt so i'm not asking jeremy 'what power does that one have?' every five minutes of the movie.

new summer snack! this is from a cooking magazine that jeremy found and it's very light and summery and delicious. the middle white part is yogurt and feta cheese and you dip cucumbers into it and munch-o-crunch-o away.

mmm, summer tastes goooood.


new picture wall, (on the floor). all mismatched frames with mismatched pictures and there's a perfect wall spot for it to happen and this weekend it's happening! it's all happening!

it's smart to do them on the floor first so you don't make your neighbours crazy with a nail relocation program.

the mug photo is a photo of a mug jeremy took when he lived in japan. that's a japanese mug!

also there's something else a little special in there that maybe only steph perkins will be able to spot.

new hedge down the road. jeremy wants to take photos of this every time we walk by it so we can document its growth. maybe one day when it's big we'll go to its graduation and at the reception show its friends embarrassing photos of all its awkward stages.

this orchid isn't new but the hundred new blooms each week are. we get a lot of light in our new place and even when we close the curtains it just comes blasting in and the orchid LOVES it.

i'm not so sure how to care for these and it was my understanding they're sorta difficult but i am doing nothing with this guy and he's soon going to grow into a little e-wok village.

not new either. but special and still on my window sill. x

NEW OLD NEW OLD it's like that grover sketch, near and far. that was my favourite. so catchy.