1. Walking outside in the sunshine enjoying a gorgeous spring day hand-in-hand with B.
2. Visiting the cherry blossoms in McSpadden Park – some of the first flowering trees I’ve seen in our neighbourhood.
3. Walking 5km of the seawall that runs along the perimeter of Stanley Park. So many beautiful things to see, including a hawk, eagles, the ocean, and a heron.
4. Devouring a delicious lunch at Legendary Noodle. I haven’t been there in ages, and already crave another visit just thinking about what we ate.
5. Watching a really good movie (Adjustment Bureau) that reminded me how grateful I am for the things I have.

I’m really happy with the selection of images that have been included in the showcase. Featured here are photos taken with a holga, Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim, polaroid, and a P-Sharan pinhole camera.

My mom has always been one of those people who clips things out of the newspaper to either keep (like recipes) or share with my sister and me. It’s a habit we find both endearing and irritating because sometimes there are a LOT of clippings awaiting our inspection, and we aren’t necessarily interested in the same things she is. Despite the fact that I now live on the other side of the country my mom still saves and sends large collections of newspaper clippings whenever a package or letter is headed my way.

When I showed the latest bunch to Boris he said they are her, “Google Reader shared items.” I thought this was a pretty accurate (and funny) way to describe them and it also gave me the idea to further share the articles she’d sent me. For your reading pleasure, here are links to a few of the clippings from my mom:

Hershey the Mystery Duck
Warm Fuzzy Tale of a Good Swimaritan
How to Make Room on your cellphone

(It was too tedious to locate online all of the articles she sent, and the Toronto Star archives is apparently very limited.)

Little did you realize that each and every flower has a symbolic meaning. I rediscovered this recently via Conscientious and a link to an extensive list of the symbolic meaning of flowers. I recall as a teen that roses had different meanings depending on the colour, and girls always wanted red ones because they represented love, while yellow represented friendship.

I’ve always been more of a tulip loving girl, with a passion for dahlias and for poppies when they’re in season. At the moment the poppies are out in full force and I’ve been celebrating their yearly appearance by taking a million photos.

And what you might ask, is the symbolic meaning of poppies? Imagination, dreaminess, and eternal sleep.

Friday: A Gathering of Tulips

Friday: Maggie Keeps an Eye on the Neighbourhood

Thursday: As the Sky Burst into Flower

I really enjoyed shooting with the polaroid this week because despite shooting mostly digital lately I’m still a film camera girl at heart.

Wednesday: Bicycle wheel and Tiny Flowers

Tuesday: A Gift of Lilacs

Monday: Birdhouse

It’s nice to have a simple little project to work on and shoot for while I’m focusing on the less creative side of my art.

I’m not sure whether I’ve mentioned this before on the blog but I recently created an inventory spreadsheet in order to keep track of my ready-for-sale art work. I have a lot of stuff kicking around, most of it left over from the last few shows I’ve put together, and some were created specifically to sell on Etsy. I was surprised by how much stuff I have ready to sell, just sitting around gathering dust and taking up room in my apartment when someone could be buying them. It’s hard to sell things when no one knows they’re there, not even me. Some of the work I’d forgotten about completely until I started the inventory. I won’t forget about them again thanks to my spreadsheet. The next step will be to figure out the what/where/how of making them available for sale.

Where did this brilliant yet simple idea come from you might wonder? From a great book every artist should have called, “Artist Survival Skills: How To Make A Living As A Canadian Visual Artist”, written by Chris Tyrell. Admittedly I haven’t read much of it thus far but I’m off to a great start with the inventory.

Good things from the weekend:
1. Beautiful dahlias from the Kitsilano Farmers Market.
2. Walks and talks to and from Jericho Beach.
3. Fresh made egg pancakes with sugar and lemon.
4. Laughing over my seat adjustment antics in the truck with Hendrik.
5. A long leisurely Sunday afternoon.

Bits of inspiration from this week:
The invisible Age – a show of self portraits by women age 50 to 65.
The illustration work of James Jean.
Pottery work of oneblackbird
Metal collage assemblages by littleblackrabbit