creativity

helloooooo

so i was perusing the blog world, as usual, and came across this interview of Elizabeth Gilbert, better known as the author of Eat Pray Love. please - if you have 20 minutes to inspire yourself i would highly recommend this video. first of all her voice is just so calm and controlled and she is so .... genuine. so true to herself. so honest on a subject that is never really discussed. always present, but never really questioned. such a fundamental truth of how we see creativity but never subject it to analysis. which asks the question, can you analyze creativity? can creativity come from one thing and not another, can it be given these - or any - qualities? i don't know.

i'm open to her suggestion that it passes through us. with us one day and gone the next. there are times when i feel it. i itch to create. its hard for me to explain it when i don't feel it. like today, and these past couple months. when i am removed from the creativity. my senses are numbed, to exhausted to feel it. to get excited about it. this is sad. i WANT to embrace it. i want to feel it in the middle of the day and ACT on it.

i've been struggling with working full time, investing in a career, and still embracing with any form of creativity. i don't get to have feelings and act on them, i have deadlines and shit that has to get done.

earning a living and creativity somehow are disconnected for me. i really do think this but sometimes there is a glimmer of hope. a flicker that it could turn into something more. to be honest i should spend more time just thinking about creativity. not designating time for it, but at least leaving time open for it.

creativity demands your full attention. it can not be done while watching mad men or looking at mad men. i feel like these days most of my creativity happens in the kitchen. i get very... absorbed, by different flavors, smells, acid levels. how something tastes when it is chopped versus blended. i feel very satisfied creating a meal, watching it grow. i also think that i am most creative when i am alone. i don't like to be disturbed. i feel like i am very protective of my work when it is not finished, i don't like questions. although i should really be honest and say the truth of the matter is, i don't like judgement.

which brings me to this blog. in a roundabout way. i feel like this is an expression of my creativity - or rather COULD be a view into my world. but. its not. its just this. thing. this thing that exists and there are pictures and memories and other internet leftovers. but there is no creativity. i don't make anything on here. and i feel bad about that.

i'm sorry about that. i want to give real content. real thoughts. real feelings.

none of that is going to make any sense unless you watch it now haha.

common how often do i post videos?! she is brilliant!

cave springs

as you know, friday the boy and i somehow miraculously got out of work so we went on a little road trip. we have always wanted to go on a wine tour and see what canada's wine country has to offer.

niagara on the lake is about an hour and a half drive from downtown toronto. really not that bad when if the traffic co-operates. the niagara escarpment is really a fluke in canada. in this small area grows about 70% (based on what I remember from the presentation, don't quote that) of the wine that canada produces. the only other place in canada is in bc, in the okanogen valley. The winters in canada are so cold that normally the grapes vines freeze and then do not produce grapes the following summer. but because of the location of niagara, right at the west end of lake ontario, the air is heated while going over the lake and then warmed when it hits the land. the escarpment is a huge ridge that keeps this flow of air contained to the niagara valley and thus it is about 10 degrees warmer in this little pocket then anywhere else in canada. and the only reason we can even dream about growing wine grapes here. this is a pretty good website to find out more info.

we chose to check out cave springs, on the recommendation of a friend. it was in a cute little town, not far from the highway and consisted of a few shops and sleepy bungalows. the tour itself was short and sweet. i was hoping we could actually go out to the vineyard and see the grapes growing but we just toured the wine making facility and then were able to taste some of the wines. overall a good learning experience for me. the boy deals with wine everyday at his job so the wine tasting was pretty elementary for him but we both really liked the Riesling we were able to try.

playing hooky

Hey!

so guess who is NOT at work today?! AH! i love my boss....i was complaining that i never get to see my bf, J, and even though we live together i still never get to spend time with him. yeah maybe a couple hours one night a week but lets be honest, after a full days work i'm beat. and somehow a miracle happened and J got four whole days off in a ROW.

let me tell you how rare this is. this is more rare then people who like to eat cheese whiz and pickle sandwiches. this is more rare then finding a main floor apartment near high park where dogs are allowed. this is so unbelievably rare that i had to miss work for it.

so, my friends, instead of my one hour drive into work today, i did the laundry. and instead of answering the 35 emails that i have already received today, i packed a picnic lunch. and instead of adjusting the budget, booking ads, reviewing agreements and generally getting shit done, i had a shower, made espresso and blogged. the simple joys.

i'll let you know what we get up to on this glorious sunny FRIDAY.

Girl quits her job on dry erase board, emails entire office (33 Photos)

if you haven't seen this yet i highly recommend it. happy monday.

sunday rainday

1. The best day ever was i'm going to take this question literally because thats what i do and say that you should only get one best day ever so i'm going to say i am still possibly waiting for that day. although its POURING rain outside right now and i can hear kids having the best time out there and i remember one afternoon my brother and i were allowed to put our bathing suits on and run around in the front yard while it rained and that was a pretty wicked feeling. i remember our neighbor saying i was 'graceful' running around and to a little girl who wanted to be a ballerina that was pretty much the nicest compliment ever.

2. My favorite meal of the day is breakfast because i am one a huge yogurt, fruit and granola kick.i went from not eating breakfast to eating this and holy crap it makes me feel incredible.

3. This weekend is almost over. bummer. but on the plus side i relaxed the crap out of this weekend. and made a delicious bc salmon dinner last night. went to the market, cleaned, vacuumed, bought bbq accessories and read in the park. i didn't really have any serious plans for the weekend. friday night driving home from work my college and i were talking about what we were doing - she had a few plans to meet up with friends. my plan was finishing a 1 liter bottle of white wine that was left over from last weekend.

which reminds me.

4. Never in my life have I haha i LOVE playing never have i ever. Never have i ever....driven a car without a seat belt.

5. The only thing better than fresh sheets is sleeping in a hotel with fresh sheets! this is kinda sneaky but jay got thursday to saturday off this week and i might umm be cough sick COUGH. not sure where we are going yet but it will be somewhere and it will be the first vacation we have had together in almost a year. heck it will be the longest consecutive time we have been able to just be together in months. i work the 9-5 and he works nights and weekends. tragedy.

6. I could really do with some tylenol. or for the pressure outside to break. my head feels like its shrinking.

7. The most recent thing I bought myself was spray paint to paint the ugly green desk a clean shade of white. glad i didn't start that with the rain that is coming down now. last weekend i found this ammmmmmazing creamy white colour cable knit blanket at the st. lawrence antique market. its 100% cotton and it feels like the perfect sweater when i'm wrapped up in it. its also extremely practical for the hot nights and cool mornings we are having. completely practical therefore justified.

see other lists at the little things we do

production assistant for hire

soooo about a week ago my brother calls me - he needs a business card, can i help him? initially no, i couldn't. i was stuck at work and both my macs with illustrator on them were at home. also it didn't look good for getting out of work early. when did he need them by? three hours from when he called.

i figured his best bet was to go to a print shop, get the designer on staff to whip something up for him and call it a day. but when he called back and said that it would cost $75 just to have the designer work on his card plus the printing fees (minimum order 200) it just didn't seem worth it.

when i got home at 6:30 he was still cardless and his networking event was that night starting at 8. i started rummaging around in my stationary folder and found sheets of blue card stock. i cut them down to size and had my brother start leafing through old magazines for the letter 'i' (the first letter of his name) We hit the jackpot when he came across an ad that was about 50 different i's all in a line across the page. originally i like the mix and match effect of all the different fonts and sizes but was glad to add a little more cohesiveness.

he cut out the i's and I starting glueing them down and filling out the information. given the placement and size difference no two cards are the same and i really like that about them. we added another element of colour with my japanese paper tape on the corner and ta da! 100% free and a great conversation starter. perfect for a college student looking for a job.
i'm really happy with the way they turned out and i think he was too. if anyone needs a production assistant (or really any job related to film) i have a great candidate for you, full of creativity and passion.

check this out. new york times Christoph Neimenn perfectly illustrates what a red eye flight is like. or any flight for that matter. pretty funny stuff.

have you heard of airbnb? i recently discovered it! you can type in your destination and the dates and it gives you listings of people who are renting out their apartment/house/room in a house for those dates. and the prices are extremely reasonable! I was looking at a whole apartment in Montreal for $38 per night. it would be even better then a hotel if you were looking to go for a longer length of time because you could use the kitchen and not have to eat out every meal. Because they are someone's homes most come with free wifi, cable, and sometimes even laundry facilities.

today was lovely. i wipped something up in the kitchen i will share with you very soon. it was DELICIOUS.

also went to my favorite thrift store and scored a black set of etienne aigner heels (EA i couldn't resist, plus they are suuuper comfortable) a brown leather jacket (not vintage but still a good deal for $25) and a striped blue shirt that will be perfect for fall.

fell asleep on the couch from 6-9 tonight and then remembered i promised the boy i would do laundry. its 11pm on a saturday night, is YOUR laundry clean? better yet, are you home alone DOING the laundry? my life is riveting.

i'm transferring all the pictures over to my computer right now and have high hopes of organizing them so i can upload the paris ones to facebook and burn the work ones onto CDs and blog the rest of them. i think there are like 2000 pictures on my camera right now haha. whooooops when did that happen?

does anyone else use aperture to store and organize their photos? i've started using it since it came on my new computer but i feel like i'm missing something, whats the difference between an album and a book and a new project?

update: there was 2229 pictures that just finished uploading. now they are all screaming ORGANIZE ME.

i've been eyeing up this print from hammerpress for the last week. it would be ppppperfect for my living room. the only downer is that with shipping its close to $60 usd. in my experience shops in the states really jack up the shipping prices to send product over the border. as someone who has sold mannnnny things to people in the US i feel this is totally unreasonable. yes it is usually a few dollars more, but not 4 or 5 times the price of domestic shipping. even stores like urban outfitters (who have 3 retail locations in toronto alone) charge a crazy amount to ship things here. its unfortunate too because for larger chains like that the really good sales seem to never make their way far enough north.

i digress, a gorgeous $35 letter press print, now $60 because of its journey? i got alllll the way to the check out and then couldn't do it. no sale.

I found this very inspiring system on the marion house book blog. every week she sits down, decides what the menu for each dinner is and creates a shopping list. no confusion, no wasted food and no 'i don't know lets just order take out'. i love it. i aspire to this.

here are some great recipes that i've used lately that i would highly recommend make their way onto your plate -

rootbeer pulled pork

tomato basil couscous salad

banana bread with chocolate and cinnamon sugar

chickpea tomato soup with fresh rosmary

as you may have noticed a lot of my recipes are from Orangette and allrecipes.com

TGIF!

i don't even know these people

Max, Margaux, & The Marvelows from Shark Pig on Vimeo.

but i realllllllllly reallly like their wedding video. via a cup of joe via Once Wed

love the tree swing and the letters in the hedge.

not much new to report. working like crazyyyyy. same ol same ol. we are moving office soon! i will have THREE windows! aHHHH can't wait. sunlight during the day, holy wowza. i will be able to have plants in my office. smiles for everyone.

still shopping for a new car, and starting to save for the down payment for a condo. big purchases CHA CHING.

in other news, i died my hair brown and got bangs. pictures soon my dears. people keep saying i look older. GOOD i'm still young enough that helps my career right now. i'm old enough to run your marketing department right? right! right?! its crazy how much responsibility i have this summer compared to last summer. c'est la vie mon amie. big plans on the horizon, can't stop this momentum.

wanna see where i work? www.hush.ca we build your dream home! (only if your a millionaire though sorry) videos coming to the website soon.

gotta go heat up leftover thai food. have you ever used just-eat.ca? so easy and perfect to look at all the menus and evaluate alllllllll options before choosing. (i'm indecisive you see) plus there is even an option to tip the driver so you don't even need to have cash around.

peace xo.