for your soul is still a mountain

One post in 2013.

Ouch.


Worst of all: that one post of 2013 was a post about how I was neglecting all of you in blog-land.

I'm not even sure if that should count as a post. It should probably be named as a false hope, or playing with your emotions. Perhaps even leading you on.

Shoot, my apologies. Really, I swear my intentions were good ones.

But now my darlings:
 I'm back! 

Let's hope for good?
Let's make this a part of my new years resolutions. 

I'll put 'become less scared of the internet' next to 'showering more' and 'getting dressed everyday'.
I've been in the habit of wearing the same large fluffy sweater everyday for the last few weeks. I don't really see anything wrong with it: there is no point in changing your outfit when you've achieved perfection. This sweater is the sweater that all sweaters should aim to be: warm, fluffy, woolen, stripped, large, long, Christmas colored, not too tight at the neck and perfect. So perfect.

Don't get me wrong, I still shower. I stay cleanly. I change my underwear daily, occasionally change the leggings that are Perfect Sweater's soul mate and change my socks. Perfect sweater isn't crusty or hiding snacks for later.  It's still perfect.

We sleep together and we cuddle. Don't be jealous of our love. Perfect Sweater and I met at Salvation Army's half price off men's clothing sale: the place where all heaven-born matches are --at long last-- united.
There is hope for all of you. Don't neglect scouring those crowded racks. Don't become desperate, every one's own perfect sweater is out there. It's waiting for you.

I speak truths.

Some people, were a little less certain of my relationship with Perfect Sweater.  My cute human boyfriend for one. He's a little too cute to be made horribly uncomfortable, so me and  Perfect sweater have decided to take a short break. Perfect Sweater is going to the spa, while Snowflake sweater and I (oh, and cute human boyfriend, of course) rekindle our love.

Gotta be flexible. Only way to survive this life.

Much love to you all!
I'll be back.

Cute human boyfriend looking quite dapper in a forest. 

neglected

I've neglected you.

Sorry, dear webpage.

Luckily neglection means:

fresh starts.

Obviously.
Right?

and in the dark, we will take off our clothes

I've let almost a whole month go by again without a single word.

To tell you the truth, I did write a whole post a few Sundays ago, and then didn't publish it.
I'm not really sure why.

I'll just sum up all the little things that have been happening lately, and maybe touch on some life goals and dreams.

I skipped Communications class yesterday, and went home for the weekend. I say 'the weekend' but really my weekends are much much longer than my week-whole. This week I was at school for a grand total of two days?  Tuesday and Wednesday, and the exhaustion that set in by Wednesday night was pretty darn sad. I'm just waiting for the schedule gods to curse me with a five day week next term.

I promised myself that when I arrived home I would start and complete my Communications Oral Report a.k.a DEATH. But, when I got home around noon, the sunlight was spilling across my bed, and in no time, the little dog was curled up asleep in my lap, and my knitting was in my hands....and ZAP, a good two hours disappeared.

And then, obviously, I had to make cinnamon buns and bread. Obviously. And that, alternating with knitting and family dining, took me to about 9:30. Then I headed down to bed, and fell asleep with the light on, mid-text to Trevor. 

And I awoke upon today.
A day in which, I once again completed no homework, but did accomplish a countless amount of other unnecessary things. Showering, breakfast eating, kitchen cleaning, knitting, napping (in a sunlit bed, with a sleeping dog) grocery shopping, chauffeuring, soup making, supper making, and now blog posting?

Good use of a day.

And, I've still got a good three days of procrastinating to come.

So, today is Sunday, Sunday evening.

I should be at youth group right now. 

I was planning on going, but I got...a little bit lost in knitting...and 7:20 rolled past me. 

I feel like I should have lots of pictures for you. It was a week full of picture possibilities. Thrifting, Dan Mangan's beard,  lots of rain and fog.

This is my knitting. Good old scanner pictures.

I feel like there is a lot I could say to you. I'm not sure where to start, or if it's worth starting.
I'm just going to make up a list of words that are this week.
Maybe something will come out of that.

Words for the week of October  21st 2012

The Reuse Center.
Fog
Salvation Army
Value Village
Indigo
Coffee
Long traffic-filled Toronto drives
Dan Mangan
Dan Mangan's beard
Dan Mangan's man band
Dan Mangan's voice, his beautiful beautiful voice
Lisa.
Books about Stitches
Poems
Hamilton history
IKEA
Rain, rain, rain.
Dexter.
Bow ties, more coffee, crunchy pasta, even more coffee, The Master, Planet Earth and Trevor.
Trevor.

I put off all my homework for tomorrow. Smart right? Tomorrow I wake up bright and early and write an annotated bibliography, draw some paraline drawings on the good old bond paper, interpret sounds into colors and patterns, finish off my photo transfers, and pack my clothes for the week.

oh admiration, in falling asleep

It seems like it’s been a while since I’ve really written something. I can’t even remember how to phrase…and explain and expand on the things of my heart. I’ll have to start practicing again.
Soooo, i’m going to just throw it out there…
i miss essay writing
(Feel free to laugh hysterically)
I miss being forced to write. My minds running a bit slow. I think I’ll change reading week to…writing week, and start trying to phrase things rightly again, and maybe convince myself to start on my research paper…
(Feel free to laugh hysterically)
Try to clear my mind.
I’m sitting here listening to Sufjan, feeling pretty darn okay. I think it’s something about Sufjan, that makes it hard not to feel pretty darn okay. I spent the day in Toronto with Caroline and Trevor. We explored the art gallery, wandered and got a (little) bit lost. Caroline and I had deep life-exploring-train-ride-talks, about all the best things: love, youth, letting go, time and beautiful beautiful living.
I also taught her to knit. That was on the way there before our brains explode because of art gallery overload but she’s a stellar learner. Mastered casting on and knitting in a short hour.
Anyways. I’ve been keeping busy this week. Trying to. Seems like the best thing to do when the world seems to be spinning insanely. I’m trying to ignore due-dates and homework.  I feel like if I’m creative enough, such things will resolve themselves on their own…right?
It is only Tuesday.
My aunt asked me to throw something together for the John Calvin Bazaar, so I decided to re-face photo transferring. That includes dragging my lazy self out to Staples to make photo-copies and to Curry’s for canvases. It also involves cracking open my gel medium. Oh Gel Medium, dear, dear love of mine.

I tried one transfer on wood rather than canvas, and it’s looking stellar so far. Just need to sand it down a bit, and finish it off. I’m gonna try some more like this sometime soon.
here are some of the classic canvas ones:
I also un-buried my sewing machine this week. I’m supposed to be altering my Oma’s pants for her…but you know…bow-ties are just a little bit more interesting? (I’ll get your pants done, Oma… soon I promise)

I think I’m going to make these for the rest of my life. So easy, and so fun.
They took me about 25 minutes to make...and then a good three hours to learn how to tie. I understood suddenly why clip-on bow ties exist.

And lastly, because I’ve been neglecting my bangs, and they need to be tamed somehow… and I found these beautiful rayon ends… (yes, Lisa, rayon…like our pants and like…other things ) in the bargain bins at Fabricland, I made a headband, courtesy of Cotton and Curls. 

That’s it for now! Tomorrow morning I plan to stay inside in bed with tea and my current Thomas Hardy and curl up…sort of what I felt like doing today. Maybe make some chocolate chip cookies, and then tackle the ravaging of all Burlington thrift stores with Theo and Lis.
Should be good!
Sleep well my dearies.

when my turn came…

It’s reading week this week, and reading week means you take your first ride in an airplane.
right? that makes pretty clear obvious sense.
My father met Peter at a bed and breakfast. He happens to be a pilot.
& he took my brother, my father and me flying in this tiny little plane.
It was really, quite…wonderful.

so far

 

so far

this fall has been, lemon cake, apple pie and Locke street market sunflowers.

it’s been escarpment edge hikes, felt and embroidery, sweaters, and knit hats and new friends.

and it’s been good, pretty darn good.

can you expect less of fall? Fall is a love of mine.

(lemon cake beautiful disaster zone)

(apple pie, sunflowers and coffee)

(family fall hikes)

These are my school projects so far:

For my first project I made a scarf. It’s wet felted from fleece, with soft inlays. You wet felt by laying out thin layers of felt, and then wetting it through with a soap and water mixture. Then you rub and rub and rub and rub until it hooks together as a unified fabric. The project theme was home and we were supposed to be experimenting with motifs. I cut the motifs of my families faces out of pre-felt ( a very soft hardly felted sorta felt) and felted them into my scarf base. And voila, aha!

Our second project was mixing color and line with felt. Last Wednesday we had an embroidery workshop. Which excites me, terribly. Embroidery is dreamy, and fantastic. Friend Caroline put up fantastically with my love gushing towards my sample all class.

So project two, color and line, turned into… mittens!

I’m awfully proud of these babies.
Horribly. They just behaved so well.

I just have one last picture: (picture overload! sorry! and I have so many more I still want you to see, from camping, the summer, ottawa, sault ste. marie, and so on and on and on) BUT! I headed out to art-crawl last friday night with friends Trevor and Caroline. In Caroline’s mind there is no passing these things up:

Dear me.