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.

1. Click*
2. Moss Acres
3. Belle Fleur de Lis
4. Threading in the Choirs

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.

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.

snail [snāl]
—noun

1. A mollusk (class Gastropoda) with a single spiral shell into which the whole body can be withdrawn.
   
2. (in metaphorical use) Any person or thing that moves exceedingly slowly.

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...

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...

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 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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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...