stitches in the horizon

it's been days since i landed home from Vancouver. yep, it took me that long to edit all the pictures i took along the way and finally found the last little bit of time to blog before getting on some shop stuff.

it was great to hang out and reconnect with the brother let alone be in a place where the tap water tasted like bottled water ( not even trying to joke there), mega ancient mountains were in the sky everyday, community gardens were on nearly every other block and the bike lanes were car lane wide. 

there were lots of places that i got to see and discover but i'll save your toosh from any naps and just mention the ones that made me say wow. i'm so nice.

wow 1: the emily carr university of art and design

located on grenville island, it was merely just a bus ride away from where i was staying. we popped by the grenville farmer's market first and it was packed. the rain was kind of bipolar that day but inside was beautiful. there was a dangerously neato book and gift shop somewhere in there that gave me some ideas for prints and crafttime projects. the fruits and flowers in the market were gorgeous, i wanted to take all of it home. when we got to the university, we couldn't have had any better timing; the grad show just so happen to be on. the first bit was mostly design heavy but still got to see a lot of interesting pieces and ideas. 

some that stood out to me were a furniture company which took discarded pieces of old furniture and wood to create one of a kind and entirely new chairs and tables. it reminded me of this bench in the crafts and design wing at sheridan. it was made from a giant slab of an old log and on either ends were the back rests and legs of old chairs. i've been seen on that bench quite a few times during the school year for either lunchtimes or crocheting sessions. 

walking further through the show we got to more art pieces which i was really looking forward to seeing. always having been the tactile kind of gal, there were so many things that i wanted to touch! especially this one piece that made by Stephanie Trudell i could have just hugged. it was a giant ball of crocheted and knitted yarns of all kind of colors and textures, just sitting pretty on a pedestal with the needles on the floor. i'm sure there was a great concept behind the piece but it definitely made me smile pretty hard. i'm also pretty sure my heart looks a lot like it. 

wow number 2: yokoyaya123 dollar store

china town, pender st. if you're a goon over dollar stores and way cute things, this place is nothing but danger for you. i nearly brought home the entire stock of things they had.

those bowls aren't even the surface of it. the kitchen accessories made me so happy, there is an entire wall of possibly the best looking chopsticks i've seen to date and they have a great selection of jars and containers for anyone's young or old heart. 

the first time i was brought here, i spent almost an hour deciding on what adorable stationary i should  take with me. honestly, i barely moved from that isle after about 20 minutes. they had all sorts of engrish on the happiest notebooks and note pads. behind me was all kinds of stickie notes  and stationary with matching envelopes. the teeny thank you cards were a big feat to say no to when i saw an adorable matching lunch container set with one of my weaknesses: the strawberry. trust that everytime i have lunch this year, i'll be happy using my pink fork, spoon and chopstick set to eat out of my strawberry pink containers. did i ever mention that my heart acts like a 7 year old sometimes?

wow number 3: dressew supply

surprisingly low on yarn selection (and smiles for that matter), it has just about everything else you could ask for. this place is a two floor supply store where the basement has all kinds of hidden sales like quarter snap kits, quarter silver sewing thread (which of course came home with me) and just about every kind of button you could imagine.

wow number 4: Macleod's books

we were walking all over this day and made lots of little pops into antique and book stores. nothing really hunting out but i've always loved old things from early to mid 1900's so i figured why not take advantage of all the antique shops in vancouver. just before grabbing a bite to eat, i caught the sign for this kind of massive old book store and decided to go in. 

such a mistake! there were big piles of old books all over the place and the hermit scholar in me screamed like a little girl in a fit of joy. nearly any kind of shop can be much more interesting for me when you have to dig and move things around to find literally, a hidden keeper. taking the time to do just that in big piles of books in the art isle, i came across too many books that i wanted to take home, this macleod character knows what he has though. i just had to come away from that place with something and found a small poem/hymn booklet which i'll post about another time.

wow number 5: the royal british columbia museum

early one morning we hopped on a ferry and headed to victoria on vancouver island really without much of a plan. we walked around the first night and found that there was a museum pretty close to the hostel and decided to head there the following day. i've been to the ROM a gazillion times and it doesn't ever change much, and everytime i remember this i can't help but to feel what holden caufield felt. i was excited for this new museum and whatever it had inside waiting for us. 

there were so many dioramas throughout the culture bit of the museum and there was nothing stopping me from going shutter nutty. there was all kinds of rooms set up in the style of different era's but there was one room that i literally gasped at: my dream kitchen. everything in that kitchen warmed my bum ticker right up and i stood there for easily ten minutes just taking in all the details. the straw broom in the corner, the pies on the table, the bucket and box of coal and wooden logs and best of all, the rope that held the wooden pole up over your head. there's nothing like this in the ROM and there should be...with me in it baking for tour groups, yep.

and finally, just a mini wow: jericho beach

one day we didn't have much planned but were up for just being outside and reading. we grabbed our books and bikes but i had no idea where we were headed. happily i followed the brother until we got to a park and it was of course pretty as can be. we locked up the bikes and walked toward a field beside a small pond. that's when it hit me: beach on right and a beautiful pond on my left. it was like two different places decided to be neighbours and i was ok with that.

it got to be a little chilly under a tree by the pond with the singing birds and grooming ducks,  so we decided to move onto the beach under the wide eye of the sun, yum! i'm not the greatest fan of sand though, in fact i hate sand think it should all just be melted down for glass blowing. but there was something about where i was that just told me to take my shoes and socks off already. it had been years since i've stepped on a beach and i have to admit, i forgot how funny that sand stuff feels between your toes. i walked along the shore and collected a few shells i found with barnacles on it and i couldn't help but to laugh a little at my current choice of reading.

so there you have it, a mega short version of the hard smiles i had during my time out west. the only one hard pout i had was not having enough time to be part of the makerfaire yarnbombing day, which also happen to be on the international yarnbombing day though luckily i did get my white, red, yellow and blue piece in on time.

in the tradition of ending posts with a little moving picture show, what better video to leave you with than one about the very city i was in? i spoil you don't i :) 

now that this is out of the way, trust that there'll be some sneaks and peeks for upcoming summer projects soontimes.

internally yours,

sister valentine