painful election.

i was hoping i would never need these again. oh, canada.

resolutions: mail by snail.

in 2011 i am going to send more snail mail. it doesn't have to be by much (and i won't actually keep count, because that is something i don't have time for) by i have felt sad at my lack of postal prowess in the past few years. this blog is a bit to blame (not that i kept it up very well this year, either).

2010 saw me away from my partner for a longer stretch than i have been away from him in years. we're the kind of lonesome weirdos who like that sort of space. though i missed him a lot, i also got to write him the near-daily postcards that figured so heavily into our courtship and early days together.

i'm not just going to write more to aitor, though. i'm just going to...be more involved with mail.

maybe i can kick-start the resolution with this offer meags has made. or maybe i will write to the people i met through the mail. i even heard some mumbles that the folks at cranky yellow in st. louis might produce some kind of snail mail service. i'm listening.

if all goes well, i will realize a project in this direction within the next couple of weeks. fingers crossed!

resolutions.

i hardly ventured out today. instead, i have been indoors in my jammies puttering and trying to get sorted. there is a big new year looming and i feel a very clear need to get ready for it.

over the coming days, i am going to share some of my thoughts about new resolve with you, the citizens of the internet. i have a few ideas about where growth and change needs to happen in my own life and it all making public might prove useful for me. hopefully, my self-obsessed drivel will hold something of interest for you, too.

who are you, anyway? shannon, jen, leah and tara? hmmm. maybe i will have to give something away to find out who is out there. that's how the future works, right?

consumer retort.

this place reminded me of serena until i went inside and discovered the employees to be fairly douchebaggy. we are used to fellow shoppers (usually oily men) making fun of us in places like this but, come on, if we are spending our money in your store, please refrain from loud, sour gossip about us in the next aisle over. i know we can't all be toothless trolls but just because we don't look like you doesn't mean we want to overhear your derision while considering shipping supplies.

a good haul.

at yesterday's love and rummage trunk show, i picked up a bit of love (handmade wares) and a bit of rummage. those balls of wool from shannon? one dollar! (and yes, i got a bit more than that). i got my first piece of of krystal speck ware (how can this be the first?), a beautiful painting by trunk show newbie, cecelia hayes, and a plaster ear from tara bursey.

a) cecelia mentioned (in person and on her blog) that she experiences some sort of separation angst with her paintings. i understand the feeling and hope that i can prove mine to be a good home for it. in due time, i will show you all where it ends up.

b) people at city of craft events seems inordinately weirded-out by tara's work. i don't get this. what is so disturbing to you guys? can we all just get over it, please? her work amazes me and i want city of craft to be a place where it is welcome and admired. c'mon, citizens. stop being weird.

wintercourse.

it finally got really cold. this is a good thing, toronto, and please stop whining about the snow (i am looking at you, nightly news). it's not charming desk patter, guys. the aughts account for the hottest canadian decade on record. that is bad. this coldsnap felt overdue and correct. besides, the snow makes everything quieter. snow might not agree with all the workings of a metropolis, but in this way, it softens the edges of the city.

a year in rear view.

this is not going to be a very good year in review, i can tell you that right now. everything is a bit of a blur and 2009 was not the easiest periods of my life. the highs were high, don't get me wrong, and our summer travels across the continent will stay with me forever. but i leave 2009 feeling kind of melancholic and feeling hopeful about the fresh start to come (even though i think that 2010 sounds like a fake year).

that picture up there is actually from 2008. it is the amazing tin ceiling of one of my favourite places to eat in athens, georgia. i have been thinking of athens lately because of singer/songwriter vic chesnutt's death there on christmas day. he was someone i had said hello to once but whose music has stuck with me through over a decade of moving around. it is strange how the deaths of some strangers can affect me. it feel uncomfortable but real. if you are not familiar with his work, you should check it out. 'new town' was the soundtrack to all the small places in northern california to me.

speaking of northern california and the passing of time, i just read this account garth & claire's kitchen wallpaper and found it fascinating. there is something both sad as exhilarating about discovering something beautiful that is also pretty much gone. i will try my best to focus on the excitement for 2010.

why does this bottom point of the year always make me feel so down? whatever, it will all turn around friday.

a new leaf.

i never get political with my buttons but when my friend albert requested that i make him a single pin of this design (in tory blue, at his suggestion, which i took from the cbc website), i decided it was time to go public. this country is really bizarre right now and i want to maintain some rights as a worker, a woman and an artist. so stephen harper's not the evil elf for me.

if you feel differently, i am not really up for a fight as i am usually the type who votes with my vote. but should you feel so moved, i suggest you just make your own buttons.

these are available for purchase as cheap as i could make them at both the blue house and my etsy shop.

waking up in indy.

like i said, we got to sleep in the typewriter room at jamie and jerry's place last night. this is a bit of a misnomer, since many rooms in the house have a typewriter or ten in them. i really did think aitor was going to spin out of control. we spent a lovely evening up chatting about typewriters, letterpress fetishism, sewing, sewing machines, roller derby politics and all manner of other minutia.



we also learned some new slang - 'keycutters.' although i like to steer my public voice away from derision within the craft scene, i do have to admit a real distaste for the sight of disemboweled typewriters. in the craft world, this usually manifests itself in the form of typewriter key jewellery...hence, keycutters. apologies to all those i am calling out. i just value typewriters above adornment. and yet we live with animal parts all over our home. i will admit my hypocrisies if you can forgive my judgments. besides, it's a good slur. i put it to my readership to come up with a nasty nickname for button makers.





we left indiana with some fresh picked wildflowers and moved from hoosiers to buckeyes as we pressed on into ohio. if you ask me, these state nick names are all nonsense. but you didn't ask me. i am just full of unsolicited opinions today.