August 31, 2012

Jamie

We celebrated Justin's birthday yesterday with Nutella crepes and memories of France! Wow, they were absolutely delicious - rolled or folded with a side of sliced banana and dollops of whipped cream. Yum!

Tried to do some foodie science yesterday. I couldn't seem to carbonate water. I think I didn't have enough vinegar. I was fun and frustrating to try and be the mad scientist in the kitchen yesterday!

August 30, 2012

Jamie

Twice now we've found this little guy curled up on our deck. We've been gentle as we've stepped outside but he quickly departs, walking along the fence to the adjoining yard behind us. I can't help but enjoy his visits and hope we'll make friends.

Suzie

I had to go to the dentist yesterday to get fitted for yet another new night guard. I already cracked my new one! The office is right by the thrift store. I tried on all sorts of stuff but none of it was perfect. I did end up getting the pants though. Very comfy and great for working in my crafts room. Only $3 so if I spill on them, it's no big deal.

I am trying to not invest in things that aren't 100% but it is challenging considering there is so little here to choose from.

August 29, 2012

Jamie

Every other week it's time to go to art picnic. Here I am with bags full of magazines, my journal, glue stick and scissors, ready for another work of entrepreneurial creative friendly talk.

Suzie

Yesterday was "photograph everything" day. I took this photo because I am going to be writing about the crochet course I have been taking online and showing off my finished cupcake shirt. I made this trimmed piece of wool for the class and decided to fabric glue a skull to it. I have no idea what to do with it so let me know if you have any ideas. :)

August 28, 2012

Jamie

Justin and I were doing some errands in our 'hood and stumbled across this amazing sculpture in a store window. You never know where you'll find some art!

Suzie

I was so busy yesterday doing housework and weeding the lawn (our nemesis) that I forgot to take a photo! So here is one of the fire pit down at the cottage where Reg and his sister were burning off brush.

Yesterday while weeding our lawn, sneezing, coughing and feeling like crap (yes, I have become allergic to weeding it appears) I heard the wind for the first time in a long time. Where I live, there seems to be no air in the summer and it really bothers me. BC is always windy and I love that and miss it.

Anyway, I really felt like that wind was a bit of a heads up that change is coming and it might be coming earlier than I have anticipated. Not sure how I feel about that but it was exciting. Haven't had any signs of anything in a long time.

August 27, 2012

Jamie

Another wonderful year at the Ex, enjoying the cat show. This year the Norwegian Forests cats, like the one above, were a real highlight, along with a beautiful red Burmese. We always love the household pet category, and this year was no different with a couple of kittens that surely found a home and the most hilarious red tabby ever. All of this was rounded out with the traditional perogies and a Killaloe Sunrise beavertail. Oh, we forgot to have lemonade! Next year for sure :)

Suzie

Reg and I spent our last day of staycation downtown walking the boardwalk in the sunshine. We realized that we are more downtown people than we thought. It has been wonderful having Reg home the last two weeks. I am sad he has gone back to work but I think we both need a little normalcy in our lives right now.

Rewind: August 26, 2012

Jamie

(Pic: 2006) It is that time of year again! Nothing signals the last couple of weeks of summer like the CNE. For years now Shannon and I have been going and making a point to stop by the cat show. This sweet Scottish fold is one of the most memorable cats from all that time - cute as all get out and the sweetest disposition. Each year seems to have a favourite breed as well. I fell in love many a time when that favourite was Burmese!

Reg and I climbed a mountain on Vancouver Island in 2007, triumphantly! I miss feeling like this. Being on top of the world, happy, loving where we live and feeling like everything is going to be OK. I look forward to feeling like this again one day.

August 25, 2012

Jamie

Yesterday I made it down the the Beaches again (yay!) and walked by this box of balls. I have really fond memories of these familiar blue, what and red babies so I had to take a picture!

Suzie

Reg and I wanted one day spent in the sun but did not want to go to a crowded beach so we went down to the farmers market instead and hung out on the rooftop. The place was a ghost town. When we got back to the car, this giant mini van blocked us in (hard to tell from the photo what a tight squeeze it was).

Reg had added that text to the car and just as I was taking this photo the owner of the car showed up. You can see Reg walking towards him in the car's reflection. A tense and extremely awkward moment so of course I had to share it. At this moment I thought to myself, yes, this is why we rarely go downtown. Oh well, at least we got some sun and had the roof all to ourselves.

August 24, 2012

Jamie

This season I'm participating in Patti Digh's Project 137, an "experiment in community" with the focus of loving well, living fully and letting go deeply. One of the things we do in the group is to mark the passing of each day, honouring it deeply and then letting it go. What I'm doing is each day turning a strip of paper into one of these 3D origami stars. I am not particularly good at making these stars (it's nice to see them look kinda cute in this pic) but figure 137 stars later, maybe I'll be a tad better.

Shannon

I actually spent some time reading this week and in such finally finished the Strange Angels Series by Lili St. Crow with the final of the 5 books: Reckoning. I picked up the first Strange Angels by pure chance when browsing the YA fiction section of my old library (I really, really miss my old library in Parkdale - they are so nice there!) and kept trucking through them. I think it's taken me 2 years to read them all, but I enjoyed all of the books which are set in the real world but where supernatural things happen, follow an awesome female protagonist and have a great combination of old-world mysticism and teen drama. It really drew me in and kept me there, even though I had long periods of time between reading the different books in the series.

Suzie

Life is easing down a bit and there was less chaos yesterday. Thank goodness! I even had 15 minutes to sew on the rest of the buttons. You can't tell from the photo but they are very glittery.

I have many solid colour items in my closet and I don't like patterns so adding some fun to a grey sweater like this appeals to me. I bought the sweater for $5 second-hand and bought the buttons for $3. Not bad for $8!

August 23, 2012

Jamie

Justin and I were downtown last night to finally file our taxes (They're not quite as late as they sound. Because I run a small business, my deadline is in June). As we walked our way to dinner afterwards we came across the Jack Layton memorial service at Nathan Phillips Square to mark the one year anniversary of his passing. Throughout the square were inspiring messages written in chalk, reminders of the positive impact Jack made in the lives of so many.

Shannon

I'm still obsessed with fishing in WoW, and I finally fished up this pet: A Giant Sewer Rat! It's actually quite big (would be awesomely big if I was playing a gnome atm). I'm still hoping for Mr. Pinchy too, but this little fella makes me smile! And it only took 2 nights of trying!

Suzie

I love this sweater but don't like the buttons on it. I bought new ones the other day and had just enough time to put one button on before we were off doing stuff. One of those things is tackling all the weeds along our curb which is seriously taking forever. But at least we are back to some normalcy for a while.

August 22, 2012

Jamie

One of my favourite things to do is a Creative Breakthrough Session with a client. It's just so great to bring a fresh perspective to a stuck place and find our way to opening up the knots and seeing possibilities and action. I LOVE helping people in this way. It means the world to me when people leave the call with hope and something to do.

Shannon

I'm working through my annual summer Supernatural re-watch and in doing so got this nifty elite fan sticker from Get Glue! It's for 100 check ins, and wow, I wonder when that means I started checking in on Supernatural because I've certainly & easily watched more than 100 episodes! With a show heading into it's 8th season that I re-watch every summer, that's a lot of watching :)

Suzie

Beyond exhausted. No photos, trust me, wouldn't be a good idea. Been going through hell but we have (knock on wood) a day at home today. Not sure about tonight. It's all been just a little too brutal but we are getting through it.

August 21, 2012

Jamie

I love this sign that Shannon noticed when we were out and about downtown yesterday. I'm so glad we had a chance to stop for coffee and chat - as well as be inspired - on King Street!

Shannon

Finally back to sharing pictures (Thank you Jamie for the rechargable batteries!), and with that it feels only too timely to share this special pic from WoW which I recently started playing again. Mr Pinchy! I tried for this rare item years ago and never got it, and I'm that I read up on it now because as awesome as it is to get this - it's not the main prize. It has a chance to give you a pet (3 chances in fact), So far I'm 0/3 and will try in another day to see if my 2nd try is successful. Fingers crossed.

August 20, 2012

Jamie

Okay, somethings are just plain cool. Justin and I spent Saturday night in a Casa Loma carriage house learning archery! Seriously. This was a really amazing experience on so many levels. First off, it's just plain cool! Second it was absolutely compelling. Right away I could feel how hungry my body was for learning. The mental aspect reminded me a lot of what I'm learning about meditation and it was amazing how much being in an environment like this reflects you back to you. This is definitely something that we both want more of. I'm looking forward to more archery adventures.

Suzie

Reg and I were doing some treasure hunting for his costume at a flea market this weekend and I could not believe it! I got Tank Girl for $5! And Sucker Punch for $5 too. And Reg picked up a piece for his costume (that I was starting to believe didn't exist) for only 50 cents!

August 19, 2012

Jamie

I've been thinking a lot about transformation, life and love lately and for me this rewind picture brings that all into focus. We'd just moved into our house and our dear Bascha was still with us. Since then there has been so much change. I've just been realizing how much we've put into the house - transforming first structural things (like the roof and the furnace), then moving on to the kitchen, the front of the house and now the backyard. Because it's taken so much time I don't think I've really quite understood just how much we've done until recently. And of course, Bascha is no longer with us but when I see a picture like this, I can literally feel her wee body, resting deeply into ours. There's a lot of love in our wee family.

August 18, 2012

Jamie

This week I took my first 'work at the beach' day this summer. It was a bit less productive than I would have liked but wow, oh, wow, was it a gorgeous day. I even managed to do my meditation on a bench near the boardwalk. This is a spot in the city where you can truly unwind.

August 17, 2012

 Jamie

This is not the best picture but I hope it gives a hint. I was so excited when I was doing my morning pages to look across the way and notice... was it?... yes it was! A bud! Remember when Suzie was here and I bought all those plants, including those summer bulbs with white flowers? These are them!! I had thought maybe with the lack of water we've had they wouldn't bloom this year but it looks like they will. Yay!!

Suzie

We had another crazy day! Went out to do some more shopping for Reg's Hal-Con costume (which was fun and I got more yarn at VV!) and spent another day attacking the weeds along our curb. Then, just as we were leaving to meet Mike and Jen for coffee, a monsoon hit. Some of the scariest driving weather ever. You know they are like our bestest friends for us to drive through that for coffee and catch up. I got this chocolate and caramel covered pretzel which was good but very awkward to eat. Thankfully the rain had stopped by the time we left. I just hope all that rain didn't drown our grass seed!

August 16, 2012

Jamie

Co-working with Tanya is a delight! We've been off a couple of weeks and so made the day of it, which included me being spoiled with an amazing kale, current and chicken salad as well as visits from all of her cats - and even a little cat kiss from this beauty!

Suzie

I did it! It was payday so I ordered my black fitted chef's jacket and I am working on a logo to get embroidered on it. I am super excited about it! I asked if they had a skull with a chef's hat on it in their database and the woman said, "If you had told me someone would want..." and that made me happy. It was clear it was a unique and original idea, which is what I was going for. Now I just have to make it happen!

August 15, 2012

Jamie

I decided to walk home from Art Picnic yesterday and stumbled across this stand-off. At first I just noticed the cat, and though he's looking rather calmly at me, a moment before he'd been staring rather intently up.... at the squirrel. Neither of them looked like they were moving any time soon!

Suzie

I had an awesome long talk with Shannon yesterday! But before that happened Reg finally destroyed Bender. Well, most of him. Now his head is keeping us company in the rec room so we can watch TV together. Reg did a fantastic job clearing out the furnace room which was a total disaster with pieces of Reg's former Hal-Con costume everywhere. I'm so proud of him for letting Bender's remnants and so much "stuff" hidden in that room go.

August 14, 2012

 

Jamie

I've had these two desks in my studio the whole time but only recently did I realize they are serving these different and complementary functions. Yesterday I really enjoyed keeping my journals open and available on my right-brain desk as I worked away at my left-brained one. Whenever I felt the inspiration, I'd swivel around and capture a thought or take some time to process. I love working this way.

Shannon

This was my view I had for pretty much the last 2 weeks, and I have to say I really miss the Olympics! Seeing so many amazing athletics, fantastic sports and the drive for excellence multiple times daily was so inspiring. I hope everyone gets home safe & sound!

Suzie

After the zombie apocalypse we spent yesterday going out to buy a saw for Reg to cut this tree apart. It had fallen onto our shed and when Reg pulled it down, my bush green beens narrowly escaped destruction!

I worked on the dandelion invasion which resulted in thoroughly screwing up my shoulders, even worse than before. It was hot as hell yesterday, the humidity here is actually worse than Ottawa, so I didn't do much else. Our holidays are always pretty exhausting.

August 13, 2012

Jamie

Oh, yes, we did! We went to Medieval Times. We went with Justin's family to celebrate the birthday of one of his cousins. What wonderful, boisterous, fun. By the time we got home I had totally lost my voice from yelling for the Black & White Knight!

Suzie

Sorry I have been a bit MIA lately. We were preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse! We actually almost didn't end up going because of wild and dangerous weather but I got over it and said, let's do it! And I am so glad we did.

I took everything I learned from the books on making videos I have read and tried to make a story out of the experience. Reg did a great job doing a lot of the narration and we had an absolute blast.

Rewind August 12

Jamie

Speaking of loved restaurants... here we all are at Suzie's shower at the By the Way Cafe in the Annex. Wow, that was a while ago now, making it a perfect rewind. I love when we have pics of us all together.

August 11, 2012

 

Jamie

Yesterday was a long day and a tough day but luckily in the midst of it and all the rain, we were able to stop at one of my favourite restaurants in the world, Kalendars, for an absolutely delicious lunch. We even got creative and ordered the two dishes we really wanted and split them. Yay!

August 10, 2012

Suzie

I did something totally un-Canadian yesterday. I went to a clinic and paid to get my blood work done. Yup, best money I ever spent. It was close to my thrift store so I made a day of it. Getting home was the hard part. It was so bloody hot. I rested and then finally did lesson 2 of my crochet workshop and added a shell edge to a tank top. So exciting! Photos to come soon. I have hurt my shoulders and lower back so I'm just taking it easy oh and I just found out Reg starts holidays on Monday. So, life is kind of crazy... but OK.

August 9, 2012

Jamie 

We had the weirdest weather moment yesterday. I hope you can see it through our screen. There was a huge downpour of rain while the sun continued to shine brightly. What's even weirder was it was raining so hard at the front of the house and if I ran and looked out the back window, hardly at all. Strange times!

Suzie

I worked a bit of the 6 Figure questions yesterday and found it fascinating. I wanted to keep going and do them all in one sitting but decided to take my time and let these ideas develop before continuing. So helpful Jamie, thank you!

August 8, 2012

Jamie

I have been getting into the habit of writing my morning pages and doing my meditation out on the deck. I continue to enjoy watching the birds - though there haven't been as many as when you were here, Suzie! Yesterday I even saw a cardinal. Yay! I'm so thankful we were able to do our backyard reno. It really has made all the difference this summer.

Shannon

It's good that The Olympics are during the day here as it leaves me still time to see my night shows, and it was a total treat to get to see The Deadliest Catch - After the Catch episode last night where the Captains chat all about the season. The show really drew me in as I watched all summer long religiously (and GetGlue agrees, awarding me the sticker above as a fan!). I am still not quite sure what it was that drew me in, but I was definitely caught. Totally irresistible!

Suzie

Yesterday Reg and I had to go to this tailor-type shop for his uniform and I asked if they sold chef jackets. And they do! Not only that, they have one in their computer that is shaped for women and they do embroidery. All of a sudden I could see me wearing one with "Suzie the Foodie" embroidered on it. Love it! I have to wait until I have the money but I think I might do it. Made up for me hurting my shoulder walking home in the rain yesterday. Well, almost. Shoulder injuries take forever to heal!

August 7, 2012

Jamie 

I got totally thrown off time by yesterday being a holiday - and that we actually took the time off! It really felt like Sunday as Justin and I hopped on the bus down to the Beaches and had a tour around, complete with sipping coffee and having a treat while sitting on the boardwalk. One of the gas stations has been taken down and this lovely kid-created mural adorns the wall around the construction site. It sure brightened up the area!

August 6, 2012

Suzie

We had a bit of a weird weekend. Our first day, we went out to get some supplies for Reg's Hal-Con costume and everywhere was deserted. Then on Sunday we took Lorraine to Prospect which, well, was challenging. Yesterday I felt much better helping Reg figure stuff out for his costume. The weirder the stuff we do, the better I feel I think. I was totally unplugged for the weekend because of all the stuff we did so sorry I wasn't online here much!

August 4, 2012

Jamie

Whenever I work, I totally spread out. I often joke at home that I've exploded onto the scene. I've been working in the kitchen because it's a bit cooler than my studio. I love the way the table gives me rooooom. I'm starting to get a bit excited about changes that are coming to Jamie Ridler Studios. There are still things to sort out and make sense of (thanks for helping me with that yesterday, Shannon!) but there's a shift that feels right and good and I'm glad.

 

Suzie

Just went to the library yesterday for some more cool books and someone had made what almost looks like a flag out of flowers on a bench. Which was really cool until I realized someone had picked off all the flowers in the garden to make it but still, pretty amazing.