We just got back from our summer vacation - a road trip up island! We have lived here for six years now (wth??) and we thought it would be nice to actually explore the island.
We stayed in Parksville, Campbell River, Port McNeill and finally Courtney for a few days on the way home. We stopped in Ladysmith, Sayward, Telegraph Cove, Coombs, Alert Bay, Nanaimo, Gold River and Cumberland.
We hiked in the rain to see waterfalls, saw some great beaches, had lots of ice cream, soaked up too much sun, drank lots of wine, coffee and cocktails and chilled the hell out at the cottage.
Here's the cottage in Courtney.
I have to say it's one of my favourite places we've stayed at yet. It's on a working farm/apiary. There is a huge private yard that we had all to ourselves and the cottage is gorgeous. Our host also made us fresh bread and jam and even stocked the fridge with butter for the bread. I'm now on the hunt for her recipe, I might to go straight to the source if I can't duplicate it.
Another highlight was Alert Bay. When we first arrived I wasn't sure what to make of it.
We walked around the boardwalk then went to the U'mista Cultural Society - which was amazing. We saw all the totem poles on the island and ended up hanging out with some locals back on the boardwalk. It's the friendliest place I've ever visited.
The Quatuwas Festival had been through the night before so the town was way busier than usual. It's too bad we missed it by one day because their celebrations were open to everyone.
We also stopped in Telegraph Cove which was worth the detour. They have a whale museum there that's really interesting. The scenery is gorgeous and the stop isn't too tourist-y. Yet.
We watched an otter haul her baby out of the water and flounder around on the dock for a few minutes, it was way too much for me to handle.
When we decided to take this trip, Brad mapped out all the bookstores we could stop at along the way. He had them written down before we had places to stay figured out.
To summarize our trip, remember this post from early March? Yeah, I've added these books to the heap.*
We visited eight bookstores in total. Seven of them were used books. I had two books I wanted more than any others and now I can say they aren't in any of the bookstores on the island.**
*Please ignore Skeleton Crew, it was bought for sentimental reasons.
**Although we did miss the store in Qualicum Beach...
I've decided I'm going to start drawing and sketching again. I even went out a bought a new book and markers/pens. I need a good pencil though, all I have are clicky pencils.
It all started with the Vancouver Draw Down. My old company was really involved and for the week it was on they sent us emails every day to inspire us. For example one day the challenge was to make a scary monster using the first letter of your name.
When I was a kid I used to draw all the time. I remember my cousin and I
would draw women's fashions. I used to draw Garfield and other
cartoons, which I enjoyed the most. I even used to sketch real objects -
whatever was in front of me.
I'm certainly not the greatest artist, but there is nothing wrong with trying. You never know where it will take you. What is it i see on Pinterest all the time? Create something today even if it sucks!
I want to branch into another reading genre and I'm having a lot of trouble. Remember when I tried this a couple years ago and failed?
I want to read a creepy book. No vampires, zombies, werewolves or witches. No Stephen King. No Dean Koontz. No crime novels, psychopaths, mental hospitals and absolutely no gore or torture.
I want to be creeped out, I want to feel like somebody is watching me or I hear a noise in the corner. I want a book that will give me the heebies.
So I started my research. I hit GoodReads lists and soon discovered they are over populated by Stephen King and teen reads like Twilight. I switched to Google and found lists that had a lot of short stories, too much gore or violence and again - Stephen King.
I even desperately typed 'Books like the movie Paranormal Activity' and came up dry.
I've read two books that I thought might work but ended up sounding more like screenplays for formulated Hollywood made-for-tv movies.
Is there really nothing out there that meets my criteria?!
One book that showed up in my searches a lot was House of Leaves.
The synopsis is perfect. I saw it in a book store and it's interesting because a lot of pages are mostly blank or filled with text crossing over itself or strange photos. This one intrigues me the most so far. I have a hold on it at the library.
The only other book that sounded remotely interesting was The Haunting of Hill House.
I'm hesitating to the point of not reading it because I feel like Hollywood has ruined it for me forever. Maybe if I find a good used copy I'll buy it. Not on my radar at the moment.
I've spent hours going through lists, combing Good Reads, Google and Kobo and asking friends for recommendations. I found a woman on Good Reads who reads a lot of horror and started coming through her books. I started to think that maybe I could rely on her reports when I saw she had given this book 4 stars.
Exasperated, I closed the window.
Then I thought about this amazing guy who works in Russel's Books. He knows every author anyone asks him about, is super friendly and obviously enjoys reading a lot. I thought I'd go down there and ask him.
He wasn't working when I went in yesterday so I asked another girl for her advice. She had no idea about good horror books but said he was talking about 'Let the Right One In' the other day. We looked on his Staff Picks shelf and it was on there so I bought it.
It's vampires, but I remembered it from my searches as a possibility. Any recommendations?
I've made six quilts so far. The first one I made was for my parents and it nearly killed me. I didn't make another one for over a year. Likely because it was my first one so I was learning, made lots of mistakes and french knotted it rather than machine quilting.
The other five have been for my nephews or friends who were having babies. They were usually smaller so went a bit faster and now I feel like I've arrived. Yesterday I finished one off from piecing the back to completion in one afternoon - that's fast compared to when I started.
So where the hell is my quilt?!
This is a record, even for me. I've had this fabric for four years now. I needed one more coordinating fabric to make a quilt big enough for us to snuggle under, so it was daunting. I finally went to the best local fabric shop around here and found the perfect fabric without even trying very hard.
See the fabric with the big hexes on the lower left? That's the one I found. It's the right colour (which was what I thought would be hardest to match) and it even has hexes that match the smaller ones in the two fabrics on the right.
I have a quarter of the front sewn, now I'll have to figure out what to do with the back - it's going to be a patchwork overload and all over the place because I have lots of smaller pieces and a few bigger pieces to work with. That's the nature of quilting right?!
So lots of good movies and sewing is in my future for the next couple days. Tomorrow I think I'll have a Pride and Prejudice marathon. Today I might do a Columbo marathon combined with an 80's music playlist.
I've been feeling a bit frustrated with what I thought was the lack of progress on my upper teeth. So I did a comparison this morning. I've had the upper braces for 6 months now, can you believe it's been that long?!
Holy crap! Other than the obvious need for whitening my teeth look WAY better now!*
A few weeks ago I threw my head back laughing and right away, Brad got all serious and said, 'Uh....you have perfect teeth now?!' It's really subtle the way my teeth have moved, but actually you can
really tell when you look at them from below too - they are a perfect
U-shape.
My bottom teeth are still pretty junky and I won't torture you with pictures. I've only had those braces for two months.
You should see the size of the wire I'm wearing on my top teeth now. It's thick and it's also shaped like a square in profile, rather than circular. They have to jam it in pretty hard when they're installing it. Good times.
The girls in my ortho's office always try to talk me into coloured elastics and I'm actually really tempted because I love the idea of it. If I was 16 I'd be all over it. I tried white elastics on the bottoms and I hated them. They actually didn't stain or fade either, it wasn't that. I felt like they drew more attention. I tried light pink for 10 seconds before I had her take them off. The latest suggestion was a metallic dark purple.
My orthodontist goes beyond trying to talk me into it - he flat out makes fun of me for choosing the grey elastics every time.
*You can't whiten your teeth when you're wearing braces - duh.
I'm going to raise the testosterone level on this blog for a moment.
I likely have less than ten Hollywood movies I would say are completely amazing. This is definitely one of them.
Everything is so finely tuned in this movie from the music to the the tension build-up with the motion sensors. The character development (who doesn't love Husdon and his whining), the aliens themselves, the sound effects and even the spaceship that looks like a giant gun.
What I really noticed this time was the strong women characters. Ripley - I mean, she has to be one of the best female heroes ever. When she's taping the guns together and riding down the elevator to get Newt, I mean come on.
Vasquez - she is so kick ass and tough - one of the best female roles ever.
I even dig the pilot.
The killer, slimy, heaving breathing, egg laying, giant alien queen at the end - she's a female too right?!
We were standing on site the other day next to a freight elevator and suddenly the doors opened up. I watched it opening and thought to myself "That is creepy. The queen mother is going to come out any second!" The guy next to me says, "That thing always reminds me of the elevator in Aliens."
I've started a new quilt.
I have a friend who is having her first baby this fall. They are both huge outdoor people and I had found the perfect fabric for them online. It was camping themed complete with tents, canoe paddles and camper vans. But the store I usually buy from didn't have any of it in stock.
I saw a few quilts online that inspired me to venture to my local fabric store and piece together my own quilt rather than buying online from the same line of fabric. I did this with The Rocket Ship Quilt and the Jellyfish Quilt.
I had a great time with this, it's so fun putting fabric together.
I had this all planned out, the back was going to be simple - just polka dots. I bought 1.5 metres assuming it was enough.
It's not enough.
So I'll have to piece together scraps and make it work. I'm thinking of diamonds. Ooooh. Yes, the same size squares rotated. This would be about as complicated as I will ever get.
I'm not committed yet. I wish I had just bought another half metre.
I have one more week at my job. Then 3 weeks off, this blog might become a little crafty in the future.
So I quit my job yesterday.
(musical intermission)
Yes, after everything that's happened.
Obviously this was a tough decision, mostly because I didn't exactly have anything lined up until the day before I quit.
There is always a lot to learn in every business. I'm certainly no expert* but I'm always looking to grow and expand my knowledge so I can be better at my job. The thing is, I need the right environment to do this in. I don't think I'm alone in that desire and this just wasn't the right fit for me.
So I'm looking back at good memories and savouring the next two weeks with workmates that I know I'll miss
a lot. It was a good run and I'm proud to have this experience on my
resume.
*My site super was laughing at me (rightfully so) for something I didn't know on Friday.
I'm kinda sorta catching up to what I'm reading now with my reviews! I'm only about six months behind now. Heh.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce
A really sweet read, worth it. Great for the beach or if you need a pick me up. I fell in love with the main character!
Trust your Eyes - Linwood Barclay
I borrowed this from a workmate - something he picked up in an airport after realizing he forgot his book. His comments "Yeah...I read it."
Ditto.
Fatherland - Robert Harris
Brad recommended this one and it's amazing. Murder mystery with a really crazy, interesting twist. Page turning adventures near the end too, and I'm not normally into 'car chase' kind of page turning.
Deep Storm - Lincoln Child
Brad and I have recently compiled a list of page turners. Summer reads. You know, when you just want to get lost in a book but you don't want a heavy topic. Lincoln Child DELIVERS with this book. I like mystery combined with science and he does his research. Not quite as good as Ice Limit (remember?) but worth reading for sure.
Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
One of the best books I read in 2013, hands down. The writing is great, the story is fantastic - it involves a secret library!! So good in fact that I kept it in my library - which doesn't happen often.
Sarah's Key - Tatiana De Rosnay
This book was great and surprised me because somehow it was less heavy than I thought it would be - especially considering the subject matter.Worth the read for sure.
Tell me what you're reading this summer. Do you go for fluff in the summer more often? Why do we do this?
I had great news last week: my jaw surgery will be in September! I would have been happy to hear I could have the surgery before Christmas, this is way sooner that I thought.
Which means this will be over sooner.
Of course I'm not looking forward to it because it doesn't look fun. I'm also having the works: upper and lower jaw and chin surgery. I don't ask for details because I would obsess. It's better for me to just know the basics.*
I'm going to summarize (again) why I'm doing this:
1. I'm tired of looking like Marge Simpson.
My profile has changed so much, don't get me started. It's drastic. My chin has migrated 'back' so far, I now resemble Marge's profile. In other words, I have a really weak chin.
2. I'm tired of lisping.
My lisp has gotten much worse since the braces. They all warned me this would happen but it's hard to deal with. They are straightening my teeth but also moving them back/forward to prepare to my new bite/jaw alignment, hence my worsening lisp and open bite until the surgery.
3. Flossing is a nightmare.
I'm tired of wet floss. I'm tired of shredded floss. I'm tired of threading floss in tight spaces and taking 20 minutes to do it. I'm sick of little brushes, angled brushes, dental wax and dealing with food stuck everywhere when I'm eating.
4. I want a sandwich.
First up will be either a BLT or one of those amazing sandwich concoctions that involves brie, apples, figs and/or Nutella. I am also craving a hamburger. Just something I can bite into. I don't even remember what that feels like.
5. My TMJ is back.
Since I had to stop wearing my splint, my TMJ is back. It's not quite as bad as before, but I definitely notice it's there. I'm sure it will get worse and worse and I'll likely be on soft food even before the surgery.
Remember, living with this would be much worse than the procedure and the road to get there. It's a long road, but if you're on it - keep your chin up** and carry on because I've been told many times that it's definitely worth it in the end.
*If you're new to my blog, I'm having orthognatic surgery and wearing braces to correct a 10mm open bite.
** No pun intended.
