This year we have more space to garden than we've ever had, and it's presenting itself as a challenge so far. Right now there is a lot of brown, and I would like it to be more green than brown (of course). Really excited for all the fruit potential—our backyard has a pear tree, elderberries, and raspberries. I can't wait! We've also planted a lot of vegetables.
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I visited my mom over the weekend in Welland, my hometown. It's funny how desperate I was to get out of there 6 years ago, and how when I return I have mixed feelings. I definitely feel sentimental for certain things, sometimes for how slow and quiet it is. My favourite part of the city is the main street area, which used to be the downtown. The real downtown has since moved over to where a giant Wal-Mart was built.
But I still love the half-abandoned, struggling and sad little main street strip and surrounding neighbourhood--and I try to imagine what it was like as the hot spot it once was.
Now it's quiet and a little lonely. But I grew up here, and my favourite buildings are mostly still standing. Since I've been gone I've said goodbye to two buildings to fires: the Welland Club, the old mansion where I held my first art show; and Welland High, a school that went empty for decades after my mom attended, and where I later went to preschool.
Some of my favourite buildings are still around, like this one which used to hold the Welland Post Office. It's boarded up because it was unsafe for some reason.
And Welland of course is famous for the canal, it is definitely central to the city, and in my memories it takes centre stage. Walks along it, swimming in it, etc. etc. We've always lived near the water.
A lot of shops look like they've been closed for years, but are actually secretly thriving.
Poor little guy! There is quite a French population in Welland, and Jory went to a French school (even though no one in his family is French. Don't ask him to speak for you though!)
A new friend.
I'm still here all the time, it's where most of my family lives. I've always wondered what it would have been like to be raised in a big city, or on a farm, but I'm pretty happy with how things turned out anyway.
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I love gathering little pieces from my mom's childhood. How cute!
Happy mother's day, mom.
I was lucky enough a few weeks ago to take a short, whirlwind day trip to NYC. I flew there in the morning from Toronto Island, and in the afternoon I met with one of my favourite studios, RoAndCo. I had a great chat with Roanne about fashion and the design industry, before heading off to the SVA theatre to watch the Designer As _____ thesis presentations.
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They were really great and inspiring, and I came home with lots of freebies from the designers.
Afterwards, I did a little walking around in SoHo.
I stumbled across this great place, WRK, a little design shop on Prince St.
I met up with Kim who moved to New York recently from Toronto. We had drinks at Jo's and dinner afterwards at The Grey Dog. Then I raced back uptown to catch my bus home!
It was over in the blink of an eye, but I had a great time.
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snail [snāl]
—noun
So, I'm clearly playing catch up here. I've been so busy working it's been hard to find the time! I've done quite a lot since my last post that I would still like to share.
I recently had the opportunity to exhibit my collages in a group show in Utica, New York. It's a small city in between Buffalo and New York City (we often passed by it on the train in the past). Jory came with me for a short little trip to attend the show, and we took the train--which we always enjoy. There is also a "scenic railway" which runs out of Utica and goes into the Adirondacks, which I've always been curious about...
Here are some pictures of trains in and around the station--in America there are so many different kinds of trains sitting around and some of them are so beautiful!
We got off the train after watching some TV and relaxing, and came out into the station. This was a pretty good first impression. Why are American train stations always so amazing? Every one I have been to so far (except um, Buffalo and Syracuse) is this awesome.
The station was a short walk from the bed and breakfast we were staying at, called the Rosemont Inn. I thought it would be neat to do something different, not to mention it was close to both the train station and the college where the art show would be.
So we were right "downtown." Of course it was kind of a run down little place, not many people on the street because it was a car centric city. But one of the best things about small American cities is the architecture and the character.
We explored a little bit, though we didn't have too much time to do any real walking around.
And then of course, it's never perfect. There were quite a lot of abandoned homes, some of which would probably qualify as heritage homes if they were in Toronto.
Here is our bed and breakfast! Quite a lovely building.
The sitting room.
We had our own private hallway with a room and a bathroom (claw foot tub! but no time for baths...)
We attended the show, where everyone was so nice to us. It's nice to travel when there are people expecting you. I got to meet quite a few collagists at the show, and even Julie who I've known internet-only for a while!
I had quite a lot of pieces in the show, I'm know to go overboard. This is a nautical themed series I completed for the show's theme "The End is Near." Yeah, the ocean creeps me out a little.
We were well entertained, first with an Indian buffet after the show--which was really good, surprisingly good! Then later on we joined some of the artists, and the Psychology department of the collage for drinks at their local pub, the Green Onion. It was quite cozy and we had a great time!
Thanks Utica for welcoming us : )
So much has been happening lately and I have so much to post about but haven't really had the time. Life is crazy sometimes! In January, my mom took me on a vacation (my first ever, really). We went to Cuba, I got to pick the place. We chose to go to Playa Ancon, a beach near Trinidad which is an old historical town. It's very different than Havana, much older and colonial looking. Also it was next to a huge mountain range where we could go hiking. Oh, and the beach we were on only had three resorts. It turned out to be the perfect place!
Thought I would share some pictures before I forget it even happened...
This is Trinidad, which was about 20 minutes away, so bright and colourful! It wasn't super hot while we were there, only about 26 degrees, but it was so sunny it was hard to see what I was taking pictures of! This was taken in the Plaza Mayor, the center of the historic part of the town.
School uniforms! All the kids had a day off school for a national holiday, and they were exploring the museums and historical sites in groups like this one.
We visited a lot of places: a music club, two different kinds of churches, a family's house that they open as a hostel or "casas particulares" (there are over 200 apparently), a pottery factory, the market, and of course a cigar shop.
Something really awesome and different about Trinidad is the pet birds outside of every building. (I didn't get a great picture of one, but they were everywhere). There are little cages hung outside every house and apparently they compete with them for money to see who has the best singer. They even train them by walking them around town to check out the competition and learn the songs. So neat and original!
Our tour guide was so sweet as well, we took three tours on our trip and the tour guides were amazing! It's nice to talk to people who are from the area about what life is like there. Everyone here speaks like 3 or 4 languages (French, English, Spanish, maybe Italian). We were with a lot of French-Canadian tourists the whole time. Didn't pick up any Spanish but I did get a French language refresher.
This is our beach.
The view from our hotel room, the mountains!
My favourite part of the trip was when we went up into the mountains for a hike. Again, our tour guide Alex was so funny, making bird calls and pointing out every little thing and taking pictures with our cameras. It was neat to see how people live in the mountains, and I was surprised to see electricity all the way up the mountain!
The tallest waterfall in Topes de Collantes (top of the mountain). Niagara Falls is "amazing" but it doesn't compare to be able to see a waterfall up close, and walk up to it and touch it, stand under it. It was really shallow, so no swimming.
But we did get to swim with a tiny little waterfall in some ice cold water (it was winter there). It was just like swimming in a lake though.
A cave to explore.
Alex explaining bamboo growth.
Air plants! These things were growing everywhere, even in the power lines.
We ate lunch on a farm at the end of our trail. It was such a great day. Weird to eat chicken when there are chickens walking around at your feet under the table!
On the last day of our trip, we went on a steam train ride. Less exciting, because there was no tour guide.
We stopped off in a little town with a market (sat down and ate some bananas) and a tower to climb. The view from a little bit up.
More of the view, you can see our steam train waiting in the distance!
Higher still...
It was super windy.
Back on the ground, a taxi. The tower can be seen in the background.
Last stop was another family farm and restaurant! This is the place to eat by the way, the food wasn't great at the resort, but eating at a family mansion restaurant is the best. My mom and one of the puppies we found.
This farm had like 6 little puppies, cats, a rabbit, chickens and baby chicks, and horses.
More puppies!
That's basically it! I hope to go on more vacations, this was so much fun. I don't know how to relax really, especially when I am in a new place, so I dragged my mom everywhere on our week-long trip...
So long, Cuba!
Happy New Year! Our 2011 was so out of the ordinary for us, it was enjoyable but challenging at times.
I am so grateful for the experience of moving to a new country and working for Free People, but I am also a bit relieved to be back in Canada (for some complicated reasons). I will miss Philadelphia, my awesome job, and all the people there. But we are looking forward to reconnecting with friends here as well.
I am invigorated, and I hope to do a lot more this year, now that I have the freedom to work freelance and the time to do some great projects on the side (I have many ideas, and a few in the works).
I don't know how I managed to find the time to make a Christmas/New Year's Card this year, but somehow it happened (inspired by Amanda's Year in Review). It's a little summary of how we spent our year, read on to see it in photos.
This year was such a good cooking year for us, what with not having the means to go out all the time... this is one of our first yummy meals of the year. Doesn't look like much, but it's our interpretation of bahn mi (roast pork, coriander and carrot with sriracha mayo on a homemade egg bun).
We visited New York City, many times (about 6). Here's us visiting for the first time, at an exhibit at the NYPL.
And our excited goofy faces (it was quite cold also in January).
Being in a multicultural neighbourhood, it was fun to find things like Mexican Coca Cola, which has sugar instead of corn syrup.
We made a house for Fyo with all the boxes from stuff we bought on the internet. (We'll miss you, American Amazon.com)
I made a dress.
Went on walks around our neighbourhood all the time, where there were a lot of interesting little art pieces every where you look.
We studied the Joy of Cooking, which is now our favourite and most used cookbook.
Visited Three Potato Four!
Visited Manayunk, a really sweet neighbourhood on a hill.
Caught this awesome scene, a man painting fallen sakura blossoms on a narrow side street.
Walked by this cheerful house countless times.
We gardened on our roof.
The cat was fat and happy.
I threw a surprise party for Jory's 25th birthday, and everyone visited by bus (and plane). It was such a great time!
Visited Atlantic City, set foot in the ocean, and tried salt water taffy.
Here we are inside one of the malls along the boardwalk, this mall was very sparkly and had a waterfountain light show every hour. Looks a bit like glow in the dark mini putt.
It felt really nice to visit new places.
Had some frozen yogurt--on some of the hottest days. Philadelphia was much warmer than we are used to.
Watched the squirrels frolicking in Washington Square Park.
Part II to come in a bit...
We spent New Years Eve making Hot Pot and enjoying it at our temporary home with Amy and Diego (siblings in law). We watched the I.T. Crowd, played Soul Calibur (yes, we're a bit geeky).
Toasted to midnight and threw some snaps off the front porch (in lieu of firecrackers). It was lovely!
This was supposed to be a Halloween post, but of course, other things came up. In October, my Mom, Nana, and Papa came down to visit us for (Canadian) Thanksgiving dinner, and we had such a great time. We are all food obsessed and we had so much to eat--Thanksgiving dinner, the Junkyard special from Sarcone's, some Tamales from a lady at the market, we made some Alligator (yes, deep-fried, tastes just like chicken), seafood jambalaya, and some apple cider doughnuts.
Non food-related, we took a trip to the Eastern State Penitentiary up in the Fairmount neighbourhood. It wasn't for the haunted house, though it's supposed to be the scariest in the US and I don't think I could handle it... It was a really amazing space, beautiful in an eerie, decaying kind of way.
Papa, Mom, Jory -- It was a really quiet trip because we all walked around with the audio tour on, which was narrated by Steve Buscemi, to which Jory and I said "yesssss!!!" when we started.
The cells were in all kinds of disarray, each one was different. Some were restored but the ones that weren't were prettier. Up top is a little tiny window to let some light in.
A little view out to some greenery.
One hallway had two stories of cells, amazing! You were allowed to climb up to the second level to take a look.
If you look closely, can you see the ghost cat? It's just ceramic though, they are part of an art exhibit and are scattered all around (this is just one of the many art exhibits, which were a nice added touch).
Here ghost kitty kitty...
Al Capone's cushy cell.
A little art installation/display featuring collected insects.
A Phillies appearance of course.
A soft cell, art exhibit with everything in the cell knitted over. Looks almost cozy!
A mirrored video exhibit next to Al Capone's cell; footage from Capone's admirers waiting outside to see him when he was released.
And this whole trip my Nana was doing so so well, walking a record amount with only a few breaks here and there! I will never forget this visit.
The end! If you get a chance, it is definitely worth seeing. This picture is actually outside Sarcone's, where we bought the full-sized Junkyard special (to share) that was featured on The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Tonight for our one year anniversary we're going to the Dandelion for fish and chips, which were also on The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Delicioussss.
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Back to work today after a whole week off, but it wasn't for a vacation unfortunately... Last Friday my Nana went into the hospital, and when I got there to see her on Saturday, she was already gone.
It was a shock, and yet it wasn't--she had been battling breast cancer for over a year, and it just kept spreading. She was only 66 years old. It feels strange, because she seemed to be doing so well. It's scary how someone with so much life can just die. She managed to hide a lot of her pain from us, always worrying about everyone but herself. She decided she did not want to fight for her life, and after her kidneys failed, she slipped off peacefully holding the hands of her children, Laurie (my mom) and Johnny (my uncle).
I think she was truly happy and content at this point in her life, and that must have made it easier for her to be at peace with this decision, however hard it is for her loved ones. The last time I saw her was in Philadelphia, when everyone came down to visit for an early Thanksgiving dinner, just one month ago.
We had a perfect time.
The last time I talked to her was on the phone, a week earlier, and we talked for two hours. Of course, I wish I could talk to her now, there is so much I would ask. We talked about her genealogy, which I am working on and was planning to give to her as a book for Christmas. I told her how I found photos of her grandparents, and her great grandparents, and told her stories about them I found in old newspapers. She never got to see the photos but I know how happy it would have made her.
She never really knew that much about her family--when she was two years old her birth mother, Lila, passed away and she was informally adopted by another family. She was raised by them, the youngest in the family with much older siblings and parents. She didn't know she was adopted until she got married, when her sister pointed out her real last name.
She finally knew who the "pretty lady" was in the picture she carried around, a photo of her as a baby held by her mother. She always wanted to know more about her mother, and there has always been a photo of her mother (above) hanging on the wall above her favourite spot on the sofa. Years later, after being separated for 39 years, she was contacted by a long lost brother, one of four siblings from her birth family. They were each taken in by different families after being separated from their mother. She soon got to meet with her brother (below) and three sisters, together again after all that time.
My Nana was a remarkable woman, with a remarkable story. She had a hard life at times, but she was such a happy and caring person that she got through it all unscathed. She is one of my favourite people, we have always been very close, I am even her namesake--my mom loved the name Aprile. She lavished all her attention on her grandkids (me, and Carly, and newly Emma). Jory and I were married at her house last year, I spent so much time at that house as a kid it feels the most like home. She was such a special person, and talented, her and my Papa made a beautiful pair. This week I heard the story of how they met, but I'll save it for another time.
Aprile Marline Konderka 1945 - 2011
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I have been doing a little fun project lately (it's actually more of a giant project, I don't know why I called it little). I am researching my family's geneaology, more specifically my Nana's family. She was adopted when she was two years old so she doesn't know much about her family history, so I have been having some fun looking into it. I have gotten QUITE far and I will share some visual progress with you in a bit. Turns out both sides ended up in Michigan for a while, so I have been reading up on Michigan and finding old documents (and do I ever love old documents). Google Books has proved pretty useful, and every once I stumble upon something very beautiful--like this "Michigan Manual" with it's swirly handdrawn type. Just thought I would share, hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
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I have been looking forward to visiting Terrain for so long! It's a good 40 minutes out of the city though, so we haven't had the chance (without a car). This past weekend Jory's parents came to visit, and I convinced them it would be a great little trip and that they would love it. And they did! We walked around and window shopped, had lunch at the café, and luckily it was a really beautiful sunny day.
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Autumn colours everywhere!
I loved this poster and thermometer.
Indoors, awesome farm table and chairs. (and that little red light is cute)
Clever chalkboard display for hardware.
Tartan! Everyone loved that super soft blanket in the middle.
Dishtowels (I love Terrain because of all the kitchen stuff, mostly)
Weck canning jars on mint green shelves.
Shelves with plants and little red accents.
Outdoors in the garden center area.
Back inside! A display all about tulips, with bulbs for sale.
In the café area, where we sat to wait for a table.
Bottle lights and grain sack curtains.
Jory's parents (aka my inlaws!) entertaining themselves with cookbooks.
As per my request, Jory posing with a pumpkin pig (or some kind of giant squash?)
It was a great little trip! The food was amazing, I had the mac and "local" cheese and cauliflower fritters (of which we had two servings of and is something I will definitely try to make at home). I also had an iced peppermint tea au lait. Other things we tried were the butternut squash risotto, and mushroom soup. And the bread came in terra-cotta pots with some delicious butter. I would love to go again, I wanted to buy everything!
I have been wanting to share some of my work at Free People for a while, and I have finally gotten around to collecting some of it (we're busy over here!). Here are some emails and gateways (for the website) I have worked on over the last little while (from April to July, we'll call this part one)
Above is a gateway with instruction for tying scarves, April 2011.
April 2011.
May 2011 (not used, but I still love it!)
May 2011.
June 2011.
June 2011.
June 2011.
June 2011.
July 2011.
July 2011.
Hope you liked seeing them, if you aren't already a FP email subscriber!
Sometimes I photograph our bi-weekly walk to the Urban Farm to pick up our CSA share, in Fishtown. Fishtown is mainly residential, but there are still some very industrial parts of it on the fringe, as well as on the main streets (Girard and Frankford). It is currently on the mend, and being gentrified. The nightlife is popular, and many of my coworkers live in this area.
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We considered living here in one of the many loft spaces available, but it's a bit too car-friendly. It's about a 15 minute walk (there and back) for us to Greensgrow every other Saturday, from subway to farm. Which isn't bad, but it's also dreadfully hot and the fact that it is full of shiny metal objects (i.e. cars) doesn't help its temperature.
Frankford Hall Beer Garden.
A sealed up building.
A nice house in the area.
Like I said, still working on the gentrification.
A lovely house, set back from the street.
Industrial remnants.
The typical rowhouses in the neighbourhood. Hard to get a picture of them without all the cars. Though, our neighbourhood is full of cars too, it's definitely a car city.
There are a lot of corner houses, and if they're not residential they are corner delis (what we are used to calling corner stores).
Many of the houses have this same fish number sign, some have their own custom iron fish signage.
Here in America.... Just like in our neighbourhood, people love to decorate their windows and outside their houses. Graduation was a big one, and here is a "Miss America" birthday. Made us smile... kind of crazy. So far we have seen Christmas, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, 4th of July, general religious paraphernalia, and I am now wondering with slight excitement what Halloween will look like.
Corner house.
An industrial building, that little green sign says "Fox Foundry."
Greensgrow, our urban farm.
Philadelphians have this obsession with block parties we don't really understand. Residents close off whole streets and put up tents, and have parties that last late into the night sometimes. Are they allowed to do this? It's so interesting. On fourth of July they were everywhere, it seems like a typical way to celebrate in the city.
This reminds me of some buildings in Toronto, in the entertainment district. I really like this style of building.
I couldn't get a good picture of these neat looking house, probably a converted garage. Converting spaces is popular here, as there is a lot of affordable industrial space to go around. At work, our creative director Doub has done exactly this.
Buildings reminiscent of Manayunk.
I think this is my dream house, love the barn doors.
A little cactus patch.
A view from above, from the subway line which travels above the street.
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After relaxing and walking in Central Park for half the day, we made our way to the Lower East Side and Chinatown by subway. I really wanted to go there after reading the book 97 Orchard, which I really loved reading. It's about a tenement house, its immigrant residents over the years, and their cooking habits. There is actually a whole museum at 97 Orchard Street, the Tenement Museum. I kind of wanted to go, but it was $20 each per tour, and I already know all about it. So we visited the store across the street, and the neighbourhood instead. Apologies in advance for the crazy amount of pictures...
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Reading about it has got me really interested in the history of New York, I love that its history is still visible almost everywhere you go.
I have never heard of Earnest Sewn before, but I really love their store design.
We stopped by the Doughnut Plant in the area to have an amazing midday snack. We had a blueberry, a creme brulee, and a chocolate.
We wanted to sit down at a park or something to eat them but they were so good we ate them while walking.
It was such a nice day, even though it called for rain. I think it did rain, but we were too busy watching Another Earth at Sunshine Cinema.
(We were so tired from walking around for 8 hours that we decided to see a movie and rest up for the remainder of the evening.)
We made our way to the water, and walked along it until we found the High Line.
At this point, we were running a little late for our bus, luckily the High Line led right to our bus stop!
I love the Van Leeuwen ice cream truck.
We could have done this to relax instead of a movie, but the movie was worth it.
All the pictures I took on the High Line are a bit blurry, because we were speed walking through.
We made it on time, at 9 pm.
It was such a nice day, and I just want to do it all over again. I used to think I wouldn't like New York, but the more I get to know it the more I do. Now I love New York just like everyone else... It has certainly charmed me!
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