On this Christmas day.

Merry Christmas, friends!

I hope on this Christmas day (or in this Christmas season) you feel love. and peace. and joy. And all those other good things... like the taste of chocolate... and rosy cheeks from the combination of mulled wine/ rum and eggnog and laughter... anticipation and excitement in giving and receiving and being with loved ones...

Is it just me, or is it more difficult to connect with an authentic advent feeling as the years go by? This year is my first Christmas not spent at home on the farm with the family. Without the usual traditions, I've had to remind myself that it is Christmas on several occasions.

I spent Christmas eve evening and this Christmas morning with Sheri's family. They had a simple, thoughtful dinner and gift exchange last night that they welcomed me into. Sheri is still like a little kid at Christmas. She jumped out of bed (when usually she stomps) and we raced down the stairs and looked in our Christmas stockings. Socks, Starbucks card, sewing magazine. Sweet. Then off to church where we sang the only Dutch hymn we know, since it is such a powerful Christmas tradition. All old Dutch folks bellow out "Ere Zij God" ("Glory to God") like no other hymn. It would touch your heart even if you did not know what it meant.

I was dropped off in the city later, and have now spent a few hours here by myself. On this beautiful sunny day my busy neighborhood is vacant. It was somewhat surreal walking down the streets, seeing that the only store open was Subway.

Yes, this is a day of peace.

Soon I'm off to eat Christmas dinner with Geordan's family.
Then tomorrow evening Sheri and I will fly out to Florida to spend 8 days with my family there! We will visit David on the farm that he is working/ studying at, then rent a motor home and drive it around Florida for awhile!

I am excited.

Also, here is a modern Christmas carol which really feels to me what Christmas is all about.
Its by a local group called Ordinary Time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3so2JkVIrs

coincidence? I think not.

Fact #1: The Olympics will soon land in Vancouver.

Fact #2 (or guesstimate): The city will be about 50 times as crazy as it already is.

Fact #3: My friend Diana is getting married in South Africa during the time of the Olympics and has invited me to come to her wedding.

Fact #4: You can make quite a bit of money renting out your apartment during the time of the Olympics!

Are all these facts coincidence? I think not.

I think I should go to South Africa for the wedding and rent out my apartment to fund my trip. And so, I have cleaned up my apartment. Pretty cute, huh? Wouldn't you love to stay here? (Spread the word...)

Next step is advertising it out and figuring out some technicalities. Then maybe, just maybe, I can start to dream of Africa.

new!

Life has taken a turn for the better. The holes in my mouth have healed up and I am feeling pretty good. As well, I have two new and exciting writing devices. A vintage typewriter and a new macbook! I love them both. The switch from pc to mac is proving challenging at times, but I am loving my beautiful little laptop.

As well, I have been reading lots of recipe books and cooking quite a bit. I've discovered some great vegan recipes! Also very exciting.

Life is good.

this is the "poor me" post.

I have not been feeling super awesome lately. I saw a naturopath and she thinks that while traveling last year I may have done something to my insides that made me acquire a minor food allergy. So, she gave me lots of supplements and said not to eat any wheat or dairy for three weeks. This is very hard to do.

And then I got my wisdom teeth pulled on Friday afternoon. It was not a lot of fun. And then I could not eat any food at all.Saturday was Halloween. I dressed up as a chipmunk, if you cannot tell from this picture.
Here, I am talking to Sheri. She is a spool of thread.

She was talking to me through her arm hole.
Halloween was actually surprisingly fun. (And I don't think it was just the combination of Tylenol and wine that made it fun.) I have great friends. They took good care of me.

And these days, despite feeling like half of my mouth is missing, I am feeling better. I can now eat soft solid foods! And I have grown a deep appreciation for everything that I now cannot eat. And it has been interesting learning some new recipes, and a new way of eating. And taking more time to take care of myself.

But. hopefully this is only temporary.

In the meantime, do you know any good gluten and dairy free recipes? (preferably soft, if you send them in the next few days?)

it's the most beautiful time of the year.

These days there are a lot of folks wandering the streets with cameras. This is a good thing. (Though, slightly dangerous at times. I have seen a couple of people standing in the middle of the street, looking for that perfect shot. I admit that I was honked at by a car trying to enter it's driveway.)

Though I don't like the weather turning colder every day, I do love the fall. The colors are what make it. (One time they actually took my breath away. I was walking under a tree that shed many of its burgundy leaves. It felt like I was walking through a burgundy tunnel, and for a moment I couldn't breath because it was so beautiful.)

I'm teaching a group of kids digital photography one afternoon per week these days. Every week I assign them to take three photos of different things. Most days one of the assignments entails taking a photo of a leaf, using different techniques. You can't go wrong taking photos of leaves. They are just so pretty.

I was feeling a bit sad this afternoon, so I went out and wandered through my neighborhood and took photos of leaves. (I feel much better now. But I do wish this would have also cured my headache.)

little details.

This past weekend I went back to Alberta to visit my family and friends for Thanksgiving. It was so good to be back briefly, since it had been four months since the last visit, and will be at least another four until the next one. I also so enjoyed seeing my family, the farmer's market, and the farm again. It was a welcome break from the busy-ness of Vancouver!

On Sunday, I went for a walk around my parents' house and greenhouse, taking in all the details with my new 50mm lens, which I absolutely love.











I come from a pretty amazing place.

excuse my absense.

I've been busy lately.
I've been doing some pretty big things, for me.

A few weeks ago I lead Art Therapy at Camp Kerry, a camp for families who are grieving.
http://www.campkerry.org/
I would have posted pictures of this, but at the only spare moment I had to take photos I found that the batteries in my camera were dead.

This past weekend I catered an event, for the first time. It was for the Ride for Refugees, a bicycle ride in support of refugees living locally and internationally.
Here is a clip about it that was on the news:
http://www.globaltvbc.com/video/index.html?releasePID=Q2F386eNhNyEU4D2i8BP2gAIQ5dRAjuX
Feeding (and figuring out the logistics of feeding) 350 people is ridiculous! Especially when you don't have a foodsafe kitchen to serve out of!

I've also been making a quilt with my clients at the Day Program for the Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts. http://www.decentreforthearts.com/
It is now finished and hanging in a gallery, to be auctioned off at the end of the month. Quilting is a whole lot of work! Good thing I had my mom here for a little while to help me out with that.

Also new is a weekly job teaching digital photography to a group of kids from low income families at an after school program. This is fun, but again quite a lot of work!

I suppose these are all good and exciting things, and I have been learning a lot through all of them. But I must say that my favorite moments in recent times have been little things.

Like when Leanne was visiting and we put dreadlocks in her hair. And there was a giant wolf spider crawling across my floor. (though, this was not fun the entire time it was happening.)
Also, one day I learned how to make Scott Sled kites out of Kinko's paper bags, and did this all day with my clients and friends. It was delightful flying them!

My parents visited for a few days. My father enjoyed reading the paper and walking around the neighborhood, fetching me a few things.


My mother spent so much time helping me out with with that quilt. Thanks again, mom!

The bulk of the busy-ness is behind me now, and it feels good to relax and catch up on a few things.
yes.

what a day! and what a night! (or, the story of Alfie the skunk)

Had a big discussion about God and science after church this morning. Then drove out to Langley to visit the de Groots. Had a delicious dinner and always interesting conversation. Then we grabbed buckets and strolled into their garden and the forest and picked blueberries and blackberries until our buckets were full, and every inch of my uncovered ankles were covered in bug bites and blackberry bush scratches.

Drove back into town, had a scrumptious potluck dinner at the church to say farewell to a great couple who are moving out of town. Came in late so I sat by a few people I had never talked to before, and had good conversation with them as well. Shared half of the berries with the people there.

Went to a friend's place to catch up with her, since she just got back into town. Caught up, talked about life's struggles and joys, shared one quarter of the berries, then decided that I ought to go home and make a blackberry pie.

Took the bus home, then ran into friends of a friend from elementary school. Gave one tenth of the berries to them. Ran into a bunch of intoxicated men outside the bar, and briefly joined them in their game of trying to land the flip flop on top of the power line above.

Finally made it home, only to discover that I had a movie to return before the end of the evening. And that I really felt like having a cigarette and reflecting on the adventures of the day. (I don't smoke much, but this really just felt like the right occasion!)

Bought a pack of Camels, then sat on a quiet bench in my neighborhood and began to reflect on life and all the people in it.

Then, lo and behold, out from the bushes came a three legged skunk, whom shall hereafter be referred to as Alfie. At first I wanted to run away. But then I thought, "Poor little skunk. He has done nothing wrong and yet everyone is terrified of him." And so I decided to stay where I was.

And then I had one of the most frightening moments of my life: Alfie slowly hobbled up to me. He looked at me, and sniffed my toes. My legs were shaking, but I held his gaze. At that moment I believe we transcended the barriers of skunk and girl and became friends. Two beings just enjoying the quiet bench by the bush. Alfie took a few stumbled steps away.

But, there is only so far you can go in a friendship with a skunk before you get sprayed. And so, I decided to give Alfie his space and continued my stroll through the neighborhood.

In one of the most bad ass moments of my life, I lit my next cigarette with the one I held which was about to go out. I pondered Alfie's life as a crippled animal with a lot of stigma, and how skunks supposedly make good pets if you take their stinker out.

I eventually returned to my apartment only to discover that I had forgot to bring my keys with me on this stroll. I walked closely around the apartment, but could not find anyone who would not be creeped out by me throwing rocks at or yelling into my apartment. I thought of returning to the bench to see if I had left my keys there, but thought I should respect Alfie's space.

And so, I sat outside the door of my apartment for half an hour watching people pass on the sidewalks. A lot of people walk with cigarettes in the night. I thought about people and skunks sleeping on the streets.

Eventually one of my neighbors left the apartment and I thanked him for letting me in. When I returned to my apartment, the keys were on my dresser, the blackberries still waiting to be made into a pie.

what a day! and what a night!

I fought the pattern and the pattern won.

Today I decided to dedicate to learning how to sew from a pattern, since yesterday I acquired a vintage dress pattern and some funky polyester fabric. It was supposed to fit me perfectly be the cutest green dress you ever saw. I also thought I would come out of this experience with an understanding of how to follow and piece actual patterns together... Instead, I ended up with this:



...a frumpy, over-sized mass of stiff, green fabric messily stitched together!
The next step to seamstress-hood is much more difficult than anticipated.
:(

Patterns:1 Sara: 0

good little trip.

I spent last weekend in Alberta. The purpose of the trip was photographing friends Heidi and Graham's wedding. It was such a thoughtful, beautiful wedding that I had so much fun capturing all the details!



(More pictures of the wedding to come later, on my art and art therapy blog, after I edit a few of them...)

This quick little getaway turned out to be much more than the wedding, though.
It ended up consisting of lots of quality time with family, friends and my fabulous camera!
I was able to take a few band photos for David and Justine.


I also met high school friend Carmen's three week old daughter, Tori Danielle.

And Leanne's cat, Diego, also modeled for me.

David also decided to try out my camera while we drove up to Edmonton.

While in Edmonton, we ate a delicious Indian dinner with the family!



Ah yes, it was a wonderful weekend.

(And I am happy that it was such a great little vacation, as today my boss informed me that I took my last day off until December. yikes! It is a good thing that I like my job.)

sasquatch through the fish eye.

I spent last weekend at Sasquatch Music Festival at the Gorge Amplitheatre outside of George, Washington. It was a fantastic weekend spent soaking up the sun and taking in some terrific music!

Top 4 people I spent it with:
David, Sheri, Meghan, Jocelyn
Top 4 bands that performed:
Bon Iver, M. Ward, DeVotchka, The Decemberists
Top 4 amazing things about the weekend:
It being sunny and HOT the whole time; the 6 hour drive taking 8+ on the way there, 10+ on the way back; permanent marker tattoos that slowly smudged off; seeing how many free things we can collect, counting bum cracks, truth/dare, and all the other little games we played along the way...