lately

i've been doing a little of this....

hiking. strapping on my boots, and spending hours alone in the forest. along with this, determining that i am, in fact, in far worse shape than i originally thought. 

hanging at got craft? with some super awesome and friendly vancouver crafty folks.

blogging. hanging out. designing. all those things. 

moving into my new apartment - new and improved with corner apartment, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a view of the mountains.

FINALLY getting my beading and jewelry making supplies back within reach - and trying to get my head to slow down with all the design ideas.
lots more, of course. and now that i'm in our new space, i can get a bit more of a routine going on... (thank goodness). which means.... more and better blogging. thank goodness.

my weekend in summary

this weekend was FAR busier than i thought it would be... and i wish i slept twice as much as i did... but it was lovely, and good, and i got to see lots of people i love. so THAT is the important part.

jewelry ready to be shipped out; grates are distracting - i took more photos of it, than of the jewelry i tried to photograph on top of it; pool day at my parent's; a visit from my little piano playing genius; cooking up a storm for dinner for 5 and a half; drinks and conversations; photo tag.

friday: i gathered all my goodies i needed to send out to patient recipients, and headed to work. after a long (LONG) day, including a stop at karine's for lunch, i mailed things out (friend's and customers expecting mail - it's en route!), and then stopped off at the bead store for some last supplies for a custom wedding order i'm making. then met up with a friend for something quick to eat, some drinks, and the expendables 2 - as the only 2 females in the world (or maybe just toronto), who were counting down the days until it's release. btw - it's awesome. after the movie, we went our separate ways - she home, and i headed to mississauga to crash a house party for a birthday party. spent about an hour chatting and catching up, and then drove back to waterdown for the weekend.
saturday: woke up fairly early, and spent the morning with my mom - hanging out, catching up. then, when she ventured out for groceries, i spent the rest of the morning by the pool - reading, sleeping, all those things lazy spoiled children do (aka. things i never ever get to do). once she returned, we prepared dinner - with chantel, ryan and baby arriving for a visit. jeff stopped by after work, and the 5 (and a half - baby) of us spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out, making salads, entrees, swimming (or trying to) with the baby, and chasing her around my parents VERY not baby proofed house. had a huge sit down dinner (and my mom pulled out a high chair that she was more than eager to use), and got to spend a good chunk of time with some of my favourite 'at-home' people. then, when they left to take the babe home to bed, we cleaned up, and jeff drove me to meet jake and kim at valen's - where they were camping. since i was exhausted, i played cell phone charger delivery woman, and we coordinated to meet the next day - and left them to their own devices for the evening. jeff and i headed back into waterdown to meet my sister, and another one of their friends matt for some drinks - aka. $11.99 pitchers. the night ended early, but it was a perfect way to spend a saturday night, and still manage to be in bed before midnight - not without a late night, homemade (vegan) ice cream sandwich treat.
sunday: woke up early to meet jake and kim for brunch halfway - in a perfectly charming breakfast nook with 4 kinds of wallpaper, and bacon to spare - and then the four of us piled in jeff's car to head to mount nemo for a hike. spent midday hiking up mountains, and climbing through cave's. no one fell off of any cliff face's, so we came out alright. we drove back to the parking lot of the diner, hugged goodbye, and jake and kim headed out. jeff and i did some packing for his parent's move into their new house this week, and got to go visit, and see the progress. we then wandered around burlington completing particularly productive tasks - including a car wash that created more mess than anything, surprise bags of chips, picking up work tools, and a very trusting pita purchase for  a halfway to dinner meal (he eats a LOT). when we finally arrived back home, we had dinner with his parents, and then had a good dexter viewing to cap the sunday. early early early to bed (he's a very good influence).
hope everyone had a fantastic weekend, filled with LOTS of sun, and perhaps relaxing in prep for the long weekend coming up.

happy monday everyone!

things i've been up to lately - jewelry

me? oh nothing, just whipping up some designs for thackeray's vanity, and re:claim for this summer. i have been working on new designs, new packaging, collaborations with a close friend (EXCITEMENT), and working with a graphic designer - both thackeray's vanity and re:claim are getting new faces soon enough! packaging is in the works, as well as mailing practices - we're doing the WHOLE makeover folks! if you were wondering why we were so quiet, this is why....

thackeray's vanity:   store   //   website

seafoam necklace - available at thackeraysvanity.bigcartel.com/

re:claim jewelry design:   store   //   website

victorian cameo necklace - available at reclaim.bigcartel.com/
AND re:claim is cleaning house - ALL re:claim pieces are 50% off until July 31st, with the code 'CLEANOUT'. why? because.... i said so (right here).
and August 1st will mark the brand new face of re:claim. 

additionally, i just finished teaching a jewellery design workshop at grassroots in riverdale - it was fantastic, and wonderful, and we have more in the works. please check out grassroots' website for more info on the workshop, as well as upcoming workshops that they are running. 

enjoy!

my (boring) weekend in summary

sorry friends... this is likely going to be one of the most boring 'weekend in summary's to date. what with the recent mono diagnosis, the majority of my weekend was spent sleeping. how wonderfully exciting.

this is what happens when you mix (9-5) work and... well, work. see that leather? yea... be excited; playing with new geometric designs; pink?? what??; toronto on friday - perfect for a night of movies and hanging out; not before the gloom cloud hung over everything downtown, and flooded union station; last design for the summer 2012 line.... almost ready for release!; my new (temporary) work desk, while i am in the process of building my custom desk for design work. new work corner - i can feel the productive-ness climbing! (excuse the mess - still working on the organization of the corner)

thursday (since the weekend was fairly boring and uneventful, i'll include my thursday night this time): i worked from home, as i had just confirmed my suspected mono diagnosis, and after work, worked on some new desgins - for both the summer thackeray's vanity release (coming!), and toying with some custom designs for weddings, and maybe even (gasp) fall? then, headed out to meet the girl who began as my friend's girlfriend, who has now become a wonderful friend - abby - as we had a full night sushi date planned. a sushi dinner filled with amazingness, only to fill ourselves to prevent further drooling at the film, 'jiro dreams of sushi'. if you can, see it. awesome. wonderful. to die for. don't go hungry. we then walked most of the way home, and parted ways. went home, exhausted, and slept well.
friday: woke up wanting to die, but knowing that i had a very important lunch meeting, trekked into work - just before the rain started to fall. the rest of the day consisted of wetness - union station in downtown toronto flooded (craziness!), and i walked home from my lunch meeting - arriving back at the office drenched. hilarity! thus, my evening involved me, warm dry clothes, and being in bed by 9:30 watching 'new girl'. alone. it was marvellous.
saturday: slept late (14 hours of sleep STILL doesn't feel like a lot at this time), and then went for a walk. since i can't currently work out (see: mono), i had to exhaust some energy somehow - walking to dufferin mall, and browsing (and maybe buying things) worked. i then stopped to chat with erin for awhile, while her and tonka (new 'puppy' to our shared home - and by shared home i mean i just squat live there) gardened. then, showered, packed, and headed out to meet my friend. had a quick nap, and then we were off for a 70th birthday celebration (now THAT is the kind of event i could handle this weekend!). great food, great wine, some great speeches, and lovely sentiments, and a fantastic slideshow of old photos. such a touching evening - and i was lucky to be able to be a part of it. the evening ended fairly early, and crashed shortly after leaving.
sunday: again, woke up late, and spent some time hanging out with my friend's family. we then headed out to see their new home being built - and my construction fascination was just twitching (i would go back in time to be a builder if i could). had a late lunch, then a nap, and then stopped for a last coffee (and quick freezie pit stop), before parting ways and heading back to the city. when i arrived home, i unpacked, caught up on some 'gossip girl' (i'm not ashamed!), set up my new desk - that erin so wonderfully has lent me until i build my custom wall length desk/entertainment centre/organizational office - and caught up on custom orders, and birthday gifts. went to bed, and read a bit, before passing out.
hope everyone had a FAR more productive weekend than i... the summer is here - weekends are packed - so i imagine things will only get nutty from here!
AND as a special monday treat... some of the BEST memes from the union station flood on friday... why not make fun of a bad situation? of course, my fave:

happy monday all!

my weekend in summary

this weekend was filled with napping, jewelry, napping, dancing, napping, friends, and more napping. was a ton of fun... and fun on a friday means 2 more whole days of weekend to enjoy the sun!

Though I was almost near the end, I needed to go for a walk Friday afternoon – because of THIS; starbucks stop, and a new watch; my Friday night – with my cardboard cutout; Sunday morning photoshoots – making wedding shower gifts; productphotography for thackeray’s vanity summer 2012 line; gifts, gifts and more gifts; goodies for Emily; spice and herb recipes stolen from back of spice packages, to make veganized version of things; wedding shower and Emily; making pieces for fun; one of the final pieces for summer 2012; my first foray into polenta; the final summer 2012 piece for the line…. Still being dreamed up; feather earring for baby sister

friday: after a torturous afternoon (while observing the sun outside), 4:45 finally came, and I made a quick exit to my friend's car, and we got on the road for london. three of us short-term-road tripped, stopping only to drool over a friend's new motorcycle (i wish i was exaggerating about the drool), coordinate timing and pickups with the remaining group, and a dinner stop in brantford. we arrived in london, dropped off our 3rd party, picked up some mill street organic (to make us feel more at home - away from toronto) and heady to josh's place to drop our stuff, and make our plans. through some texts, phone calls, etc. we determined where we needed to be, changed, and dropped josh off. then, we met another group at their apartment, where we all headed out for the bar together. the rest of the night was filled with new meetings, birthday celebrations, dancing on the patio, heart-to-heart's, another reappearance of josh and friend, and finally a late night trek home.
saturday: woke up, and after packing quickly, took a great long walk back to where the car was parked in the amazing saturday morning/afternoon weather, through the streets of london. then, grabbed a quick bite to eat, before stopping at a market for a more extensive afternoon snack/meal. went back to josh's, for a feast of hummus, veggies, fruit, crackers, chips, and juice. enjoyed the sun for as long as possible, before packing up, and heading out back to the city. stopped briefly for gas, and then headed straight for home. stopped to hang out, eat, have a quick swim, and what was anticipated as a short nap (which turned into 5 hours of napping - including a little cuddle with the cat). then, on the way back to toronto, stopped for some thai dinner of curry and phad thai. upon arriving back in toronto did a car switch and baggage unpack, and headed home to my apt where i watched game of thrones and californication in bed. despite the 5 hours of napping, my body - clearly fighting something off - was ready for sleep before midnight.
sunday: woke up fairly early (10:30) to prep for the wedding shower. finished emily's gift, and took full advantage of the amazing sunny day outside to also get some product photography in before i headed to missisauga. ventured to the depths of missisauga suburbia to attend the bridal shower for one of my favourite people in the world - who is getting married over the july long weekend - with gifts in hand. enjoyed the EXTREMELY kindly prepared vegan food in my honour, and got to chat with some of her other friends who will be flying down to florida for the wedding also. opened gifts, drank wine, ate and laughed, and then left when her fiancee showed up ready to hit the road back to ottawa. stopped to do some grocery shopping along the way - including a pick up of cornmeal, to try my hand at homemade polenta - and arrived home to spend my afternoon to myself. with lofty goals of getting to the gym, and spending the evening outside, my body was still telling me i wasn't 100% - so instead, i made my week's meals, including homemade polenta, marinated tofu, homemade dips (made daily at the grocery store in london), and edamame. i also worked hard to finish off design work for the summer 2012 thackeray's vanity line... and almost accomplished it. watched californication, and spent the evening drifting in and out of nap/sleep - apparently my body needed a lot of sleep this weekend. finally gave up on trying to convince myself i could stay up, accepted sickly body defeat, and got into bed.... ignoring the majority of the things that i was supposed to do that evening.
hope everyone had a fantastically warm, sunny and productive weekend. i am loving the weather - though fearing what it means for august! booking my vancouver trip made me happy that i will be able to escape it for almost 2 weeks at the end of july.