more mosaic fun

Just some imagery I liked today.
I might need a dress with this 'sleeve' deal sometime soon... that is just g.g.g.g.goooorgeous
Thrift shoppers! Want the skirt!!

These Dresses....

I don't know what it is with Vintage dresses; why don't we see this anymore? The cute little sleeves, flattering shape and feminine fabrics and textures.... hmmmm. I just love it.
Love Love LOVE the skirt of this one:

This one's very different but still the classic shape, so any lean toward a camouflage look are forgiven.

And of course some polka-dots - I like the neck line and sleeve again too.


If I had these I want to think I'd wear them all the time. I doubt that though. Oh well, in a perfect world it would happen I'm sure.

Yes, I'm a self-proclaimed spurt-blogger

And a spurt-exerciser. But I am not a spurt water-drinker. I'm good at consistency with that.
I was just thinking of how much I love the sun when it's cold outside. And I love that whenever I look to the North... I see mountains and they are positively glimmering right now. I love that the boy I love can ALWAYS always set me straight even when my brain gets away from me entirely. I love the way my days get filled up with reading blogs and feeling inspired by other people (imaginary internet people!). I love thinking about what I'll someday do and trying to figure it all out. I love projects like dying clothes and seeing how they turn out.
Other things I'd LOVE to have done before this time next week:
- 2 little tu-tus made for boy's nieces
- a simple calendar design made (drafted and painted and then photo-copied to gift perhaps?)
- Mom's 3 paintings done that will hopefully make her cry - in the blurry distance will be me, her, moxie and lucy walking - used to be a sometimes dreaded task but of course now I miss it like the dickens.
- A painting for the boy of what he wants for christmas. A Gramaphone/phonograph. I'll get him a record player with the painting to hang above it which adds on the horn. :P
- notebooks with sayings on outside... and a doodle or 2.... x 20 or so
- IF I have time I'd like to do a painting (small) for Brother and something for Dad too
- .... I'm sure there is plenty more
Feels like I've got all these creative juices, but instead of flowing they are becoming murky pools that nobody would ever want to step foot in... if perhaps it was like a swimming pool situation.

Anyways I might do a post after lunch of some recent inspiration I don't want to forget.

20 things to do Before I turn 21:

1. Go to a farmer's market on a Saturday morning
2. Organize, sort through, throw out, etc. all my school projects, notes and junk!
3. Write letters to people I owe letters to!
4. Make a big batch of home made bread
5. Fix my blog so it's more welcoming and interesting - new header
6. Host a nice dinner party with nice food
7. Give 1 great, thoughtful gift to each person on my Christmas list (family and close friends)
8. Make my inspiration board an actual inspiration to me; collect the things that inspire me better
9. Make a mix CD of all the songs that remind the boy and I of each other. In a good way. :D
10. Get weight down to 130 (this means keeping up the early am workouts)
11. Make a painting to give as a gift ( # 7 maybe?)
12. Make a Photobook that includes pictures and old quotes/texts from the boy that I love (these are all written down in a notebook right now and I've been wanting to do this for him for ages) this also means: get a credit card! - Nov 18th makes it 3 months of working here so I can safely apply!
13. figure out a perrfect layout for my room (this may mean purging some things)
14. Watch the rest of Audrey Hepburn's films
15. Find or make a rubber stamp that I love - for stationary, 'business card' and anything else I want to brand! Something custom/original would be best so I might have to learn to make one.
16. Learn to knit!
17. Start collection of neat old dishes; I've got the 1st one
18. Tell the boy the story of my life. Start to finish. No details missed. Everything I can remember. And ask the same of him (that will take a while longer though!).
19. Buy bright flowers on a gloomy day
20. Learn to take better photos. Get my hands on my old 35mm maybe? Because my digital is seriously lacking functionality these days.


I have until January 17th! Thank goodness I'm not turning 60.

:D

Updating this - orange means done! Well I got the easy ones covered...

Just do it, Whatever it is

How do I get motivated to start a presentation on Rococo Design? I've got 1 week and 1 day 'til presentation time and I feel like I haven't even gotten deep enough into research yet.
If I can just pick out the most important parts and start writing slides in a slide-show presentation, add pictures and I could add in the particulars when I have them... research this week begins after work when I pick up the 5 books at the library I had on order! yihoo!
Its moments like this than I am inspired by Ben Lee's lyrics:
But do it
Whatever it is
Whatever it is
Just do it
Whatever it is
Whatever it is
Go do it
Whatever it is
Whatever it is
Just do it
Whatever it is
Whatever it is

Wedding Inspiration??

This pretty well sums up my dreams, thoughts and lovely things going through my head lately! As far as a dream wedding, I could never make up my mind on a colour - but materials, that I can do! See these things would look great with pink, green, blue, grey, white, yellow and orange of course....

Making mosaics is going to be my guilty pleasure I think. Things look so much better together in organized co-existance.Thats the one that didn't fit in there - I think tables scattered with penny's would look pretty. And inexpensive!

Good night blog!

All that goes with Thanksgiving weekend....

Dear Colour & Lighting teacher,
This would save you a lot of marking time:
http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=77

my score: 8 (eyes said ouch)

So it seems I've had an inspiring weekend, one in which I, once again, realise the changes I need to make, the things I need to treasure and the to-do list that is still wanting attention.
Things I did this weekend:
1. sulked with ice cream (Haagen-Dazs' new half the fat vanilla - not even half bad!) and pie and a movie (The Talented Mr.Ripley - so enjoyed it) all alone in the big dark house!
2. slept in
3. intended to clean my room
4. went to boy's house; chilled/cuddled/watched 2 1/2 men/napped/cooked supper (which was pretty good italian style sausage&chicken&peppers concoction with mashed potatoes and NY style crumble cake for dessert) oh and then made him get me an americano while I cleaned up. Then we watched about Schmidt.. well almost. We failed at that because it was boring and watched 'The Man who Knew Too Little' which was quite awesom. Then went home (too late for a Saturday night but I was giddy on coffee!).
5. meeting Sunday morning @ the Wood's was great. We had lots of extras so it was really special; afterward the elder's wife said hi to Susie and I and added that 'you girls add a lot to our meeting and I really appreciate it, I don't tell you enough.' It was very cute and definetly made my week. :) Its good to hear some simple encouraging words that even if I sometimes feel blah, someone is noticing something they like.
6. Lunch - plan was to go to boy's and then drive down to Bellingham to shop/hang out for the day. But the past-criminal-horrid-bad-boy (I exagerate - a lot) wasn't able to cross the line
this time which just means he actually needs to do the paperwork for a pardon he's been talking about for a while now.
7..... 1.5 hrs in line up at border and 2 hrs waiting at immigration...then drove back to Langley
8. Starving boy and starving me get to Coza for supper (staarving by this time) which was LOVELy. Had salmon with lemon and olives and such on it. Yummmm
9. Starbucks to take home to watch more movies :P.... why do we watch so many ?!
10. Time to stay home and FINALLY get the room cleaned and some laundry done. Its a good thing I have so many clothes cause that was a LOT of laundry. Still going at it actually. And my room is moderately clean; more organization needed though.
11. Thanksgiving dinner at Calverley's - Sonya and Andrew were wedding planning with Lynda all day so got to look at lots of books and magazines before/after dinner. Turkey was GREAT!

Now, at work, doing nothing all day but loving it. :P
I need to do more research on Rococo style ...
But instead, I played this fun game:
First, you answer these twelve questions. My answers are in parentheses.

01. What is your first name? (Ayla)
02. What is your favorite food? (Gelato)
03. What high school did you attend? (Bowness High School)
04. What is your favorite color? (tangerine)
05. Who is your celebrity crush? (matthew mcconaughey )
06. Favorite drink? (Café Americano)
07. Dream vacation? (Tuscany)
08. Favorite dessert? (Angel Food cake)
09. What do you want to be when you grow up? (Mommy)
10. What do you love most in life? (Love)
11. One word to describe you (Grinning)
12. Your Flickr name (Nothing)

Then you build a mosaic by typing your answers into Flickr's search function. You choose one photo for each of your answers, and you can only use images that appear on the first page of search results. Get the details here.
Here's what I ended up with:I think its pretty. But you'd never guess which is which! Well... a few are obvious.
Anyways, I feel it is high time to start planning for Halloween.
I think it would be fun to have a proper dinner party for Halloween. With good food, not themed and gross looking. And a haunted cake. We'll see how it goes; it would be a lot of work but it would also be a lot of fun. Some of my friends also want to go trick-or-treating (like Susie cause she's never had the privilege!) which is cool, and we also want to carve pumpkins.
I know what I'm being for Halloween, I just haven't quite put it all together yet. And I still need to convince the boy to come.
And about him; he's so so so good to me in so many ways - just not in the ways that are obvious to other people. I joke about how his greatest compliments are something like 'nice tights! Did you have to crank them open with a steal rod to slip into them?' (that was last night and I'm pretty sure that's not how it went exactly but it resulted from the long Sunday in WAY too tight of tights [note to self: no more HUE tights] during that long wait with no food and then stuffing myself to full over-contentment and complaining, stripping them off as soon as entering the house) and all kinds of nice comments; there are too many to even start thinking of the best ones. But anyways, despite his rough exterior, or... abrupt nature...er.... blatant honesty etc., he has done amazing things for me. I should tell him that more. He makes me to think more, care more, share more, do more and be more. And I want to care, share, do and be even MORE because of him. It's probably not as easily explained as felt. Its just that I see this wondering lifetime available to me; the places we would go the things we'd see and family we'd make. It really puts a light in my eye.... or... makes me want to move forward. Maybe that is dangerous- I think it's very nice and very important to be content in the moment too.
It's exciting to move forward in life though and at this point it feels very necessary. I'm not even really enjoying school anymore and working with architects is...enlightening but not really what I had in mind as a designer. I don't want to have to work for firm and be all corporate and officey. I enjoy artsy fartsy. But then again, the Boy's a builder and if the company gets to a certain point I can just design home interiors which is ultimately what I'd enjoy best I think.
I'll let this do for now. Blog time is over.
How does one end a blog? I feel the need for a cute quotation or a little poem...

"One should always be in love. This is the reason one should never marry." (Oscar Wilde)

...let's talk about the weather

So it's been a while since my last post. It's now really 'winter'. I think it was yesterday or the day before when people just started to say 'yep this is it.. no more summer'. We've been lucky to have sun up until this week though! But I am, again, feeling the lack of energy and uselessness I experienced at this time last year in Vancouver. Its bad. Because I have a lot to be doing - I was so busy at work all week I didn't get time to do any homework really and I have an assignment due on Tuesday. So I really have to put my nails to the grindstone tomorrow. And hopefully tonight too. Its so hard to feel inspired or ambitious but it's got to be done! Anyways, seasons changing is always kind of exciting too. Starting to see leaves go shades of red and feel the cool breeze is a somewhat welcome change - hello scarves, mits and hats!
Nothing more to report really. Looking forward to next weekend because it's a long weekend that includes Turkey! I thought of going home for it, but its just such a long drive it would only give us 1 day there and that would be spent recovering from the drive... and eating and sleeping... I just think I would probably come back less rested than when I left. And I'm not willing to take any time off work, so it will have to wait until later - maybe when I'm done school, in December. Then I'd also have time to spend time with Laura and we could try on dresses and that as well. Need More Time!
Oh well, I have most of December off of school so I can catch up on 'stuff' then.
Lets just get through the torture of the weather, the business and the tiresome days of October and November first!
Happy 49th Birthday to my amazing Mom today too!

Learning about momming

I'm discovering my love for blog reading. I stumbled upon a blog today while searching for patterned fabric (don't ask me why) and read it for an hour or so. Yeah, that sounds lame because I don't know the lady but what she does was truly intriguing! Shes a mother of 3 girls who sews and does a lot of crafts and show-cases all these on her blog. She shows off cute little dresses she's made for the girls with matching notebooks/hair clips etc, hand-painted table cloths, removable mermaid tails for dolls (so cool!), skirts she makes for herself in 5 minutes, cute jackets and sweaters and stitching projects etc. etc. etc! She also has a book and bakes and sells art and... well I don't even know what all. But in all honesty, it sounded pretty much like the ultimate life. Yeah, she's also busy and gets tired of chasing kids around I'm sure but her whole life is about creating things and creating memories for her kids that will last forever. I also think it will be very valuable for her girls being able to go look at their mom's documentation of the cute little things she did for them every day! I guess, in my eyes, its just an expression or a way of living that is based around creativity. Its so important because it forces you to keep thinking every day and do new things... ex. for breakfast one day she made 'fairy-sized' pancakes for her girls which were smaller than the loony-sized ones she'd tried before. And put butter on them... how fun is that idea?! I mean, not even for a special occasion!? yeah, pretty awesome.
So I deem it important to record NOW that THAT is the kind of life I want to create when it gets to that point. Sometimes I think I'm ready for kids and all that right now, but in reality probably not. The time will come when it's right. But I hope I don't forget when I have them how much fun it would be to do all those little things for them regardless of how tired a mom can get...
If I'm lucky, the time will come soon enough!
Okay, I'll admit it. I've become obsessed with anything wedding-related. Its ridiculous the amount of thought, money, pressure, effort etc. put into the wedding industry, I know, but for good reason! I don't understand it, but it truly has become an addiction thats not going away. Started out with a couple of wedding magazines passed on by my (now married...woah...crazy thought!) ex-roommate. And now, since I have nothing better to do at 'work' sometimes, just searching for the right flowers and decorations and place and bridesmaids dresses etc. etc. The only thing I don't care so much about is my dress. I guess I care, I just don't know what I want. Anyways I found an amazing picture of orange Ranunculus that are gorgeous so now I am stuck on the colour orange.
I thought they'd look great with white, metal, old vases and also good with driftwood or rocks... so thats sort of the casual look/thought I had for the whole thing. But thats all I know and I don't know when/if/how it will be happening, which is why I find it so strange that I've developed this obsession!
I think I'll go now and keep blog-reading and searching and doing whatever I did for the first part of my day.

Oh, actually, I also need to decide on a topic for that Newspaper I mentioned yesterday. Heres the choices that are left:
a) Italian Renaissance (1450 - 1600)
b) French Renaissance (1450 - 1600)
c) English Renaissance (1500 - 1601)
d) Italian Baroque (1600 - 1700)
e) English Baroque (1600 - 1702)
f) English Queen Anne (1702 - 1714)
g) Georgian - English (1715 - 1760)
h) Paris, France (1863 - 1900)
and in one of those cultures / times I need to research:
a) local & national news
b) lifestyles (trends in the home, fashion, society, etc.)
c) The Arts
d) Entertainment
e) Sports and
f) Classifieds

The choices are up to my group members too (3 of us in a group) but I suggested one of the 'Renaissance' ones because from what I've read so far it seems that those times were very significant and had a lot of changes etc. so to write on them might be interesting!

Anyways I will be off now...

How did we get so stiffly conventional in manner!?

Got an assignment for my Design History class to put together a newspaper from a certain era & culture. Its a group project and we can't seem to decide which to do yet, but since I've got time to do something at work I was searching old advertisements to see if theres something or an idea for something that could be an extra in the newspaper! This is hilarious!
The blurb on the bottom says:
Note to mothers: Exhaustion may be dangerous - especially to children who haven't learned to avoid it by pacing themselves. Exhaustion opens the door a little wider to the bugs and ailments that are always lying in wait. Sugar puts back energy fast - offsets exhaustion. Synthetic sweeteners put back nothing. Energy is the first requirement of life. Pay safe with your young ones - make sure they get sugar every day.

I am sure glad I know better now, I would have believed it simply because I'd just hope it could true!

Heres another nice one:My my, how humor has gotten dryer...

And what the heck is this!?
Shooting kids or kids robbing a bank and people laughing...?! Whatever it is implying, it sure wouldn't make it into print these days!















AND I could add ads on here all day, but this'll be all..... baby drinking 7Up! People really had no clue what sugar was did they?!

predicting the...uh...past

Last night I talked to my boyfriend when I got home from work. It was about twenty to six. He'd just woken up from a long and luxurious nap, much to my, uh, envy... and I was trying to decide if I was going to unpack or eat. Anyways, the point of the story is that he was hungry and we hung up after deciding he was going to get some food in his belly. I went and started making muffins. Then he calls back and tells me he wants to come over and eat my food (its a 45 min drive and he had offered me to come over and I decided against it because I wanted to get to bed super early)... so I said okay, I'll have to go buy some food - the cupboards are bare. He'll be here in an hour and a bit. So I'm gettin' goin' and then he calls back again... "can I have tomato soup and grilled cheese?" - sounded good to me after a commute home in the cold and rain! This is also the meal he asks for on his birthday and nobody seems to believe that it is one of his favorite meals. But anyways, it was all lovely having dinner together at my house - that has not happened... ever??? Anyways, normally I go to his place but it was a nice change. He brought Heroes season 2 (we watched season 1 together a while ago and really liked it!) and we watched a couple of episodes together, then watched some youtube videos and then, needless to say, I didn't get to go to bed until 11:30. I could have conked out at 6! But HERE is the whole point to the story. This morning I opened up my Capricorn 'personal guide to the future' booklet (available for $1 at grocery stores all over the place!) and I realised I had not read yesterday's. It says:

" Tuesday August 26: When the moon is in Cancer you are especially tender toward your spouse or mate. Doing kind things such as taking over some of the chores, cooking their favorite meal or just being a shoulder to lean on are all things that promote emotional intimacy and show your love."

Interesting or what?! So today's says:

"Tonight's Mercury-Pluto square could bring a message, phone call or e-mail from an old friend or family member who lives at a great distance. This is a person who has been out of your life for quite a long time. If you are unsure of how to feel about an impending reunion, let your heart lead you."

But it seems that it never happens unless I don't read it before-hand. I'll have to get in the habit of checking it the day after.

Item B on the agenda: people's crazy names in this city! I get a call for my boss from a guy named Ominut or something, so I told him who was calling and he's all "who?" and I said "Ominut... I don't know how it's spelled exactly..." hesitantly... and he replies "you gotta get the name!" So I asked the guy on hold if he'd like to leave a message instead and got the right spelling. It's Amanat. Sounds the same! But honestly it took me a while to figure out who was who in the office and to recognize who the person on the phone was asking for each time... its like Havarti? Madia? Fee? Showheeg? Nenad? Havier? I wrote the pronunciations right, not the spelling :P but no, it was tough... I'm okay now, but figuring out who's calling is another issue. I think you would be pushing it if you said half of the people living in Vancouver don't have an accent. It might be less.
But there we go, that annoyance is out of my system now!

In the begining...

So I've decided to start blogging. .
I just got back from my lunch break, so here I am; back at 'er! I do like this new job but it definitely leaves time for other things. It will be great to get back to classes so I can use my time for homework. If all goes well I will not have to do any homework outside of office hours :D
I don't have anything profound on my mind right now, but I am excited to have this blog here for whatever purpose it may serve!