I'll take the Pipe room please...

I love recycling, I love innovative design...
bring the two together in a "pay as you can" hotel and I think I am a little bit in love!

Radical you say?

At Das Parkhotel in Ottensheim Germany you sleep in a room built out of repurposed drain pipes. Situated in a park like setting beside a creek that runs into the Danube river, it is like being part of an interractive sculpture!
Loooove it.

calm settles upon the kitchen

ahhh....so it was right on schedule, 4 weeks the man said. That is how long it took for our new kitchen to be built by a fellow on the Sunshine Coast, Dave Coyle. We picked them up and brought them home all naked and ready for finishing and installing. It was a bit like a game of tetris with our new kitchen in bits in the dining room being stained, painted and varathaned. The plumbing had to be refitted to accommodate the old enamel sink, and my partner Paul, did a beautiful and seamless job.

Now, we have to finish the window casings, and do the lighting. We are using "black pipe" which is used for gas pipe fitting, to make some industrial inspired lighting. We could not find brooder lamps, which is what we were intending on using, so we had to go with Ikea FOTO pendant lamps, which are essentially the same thing, but a little less "farm". The lighting was inspired by the lights they have up in the Bridgehead Coffee on Elgin St in Ottawa.

I was hoping to get the kitchen in so I could make a mess somewhere else in the house for my photography. So now I have some plates poured and will attempt some rainy shots and see what I get. I am shooting on glass plates and will see if I have enough chemistry left to get some faux ambrotypes. I will also do some glass negatives using a Polaroid 80 land camera. Oh how I love to play with my toys!

Grey and orange and rainy all over

The grey rains have come and will be here for oh....6 months or so. So I sit inside all toasty warm with the woodstove keeping us all warm as I wait for my kitchen cupboards to arrive!

those sassy saucy sock monkeys

I have been known to make sock monkeys. Traditional, classic, canadiana style sock monkeys...and you can see them at my etsy shop!

What can I say? they make me giggle.

I know, I could get creative and do wacky things, but I really just love the traditional "logger" sock, sock monkey. I sit on the ferry between the coast and the mainland and just stitch away floating past the magistic west coast scenery...pretty sweet commute.

Tomorrow I promise myself that I will make some gluten free ginger scones by adapting this recipe from Gluten-Free Gourmand AND some kale chips. Oh how I love those tangy crispy treats!

Moody stitchery

I would like to thank my friend Marisa for introducing me to Lobster and Swan, and of course Design Sponge. I seriously don't know how I lived without them. It is true, I was a bit hesitant to get into the blogging world as it seemed like a sweater that just keeps knitting and knitting, and knitting....and indeed, it is. Thankfully I LOVE knitting!

But especially now that I am back in the country and knee deep in renovating our 1920's farmhouse, I am grateful for these little interludes of sweetness and beauty.

I was looking at some of the posts from Lobster and Swan's beginnings and found some delightful bits like Gibbous, who absolutely captured my heart. I adore this love affair between the ethical and beautiful. "from the freebox to the couture house", rebels in lace.

Dizzy for Izzy Lane

I have a bent for vintage and now with September approaching I of course have my sights set on some fall cozy vintage. I love wool, I love to knit and oh I love rubber boots. My fav fall clothes are inspired by the moors of the British Isles and the 1940's. I have loved this look since I was a child. There was a romance for me of the strength of the people, specifically the women, and this earthy style that combined shocking red lips with boots and hand knitted sweaters and berets. It made the long rainy west coast winters seem romantic at times. And now there is Izzy Lane, ethical clothes that melt my heart.
Mmmmm...so cozy. A walk in the experimental farm sounds divine.

40

I just turned 40. I love it, life is so sweet. I am so grateful for my experiences and where I am here on this spinning orb. I started my 40th year at the feet of an Indian Saint with my partner beside me. I gave her a sock monkey that I made, she liked him and laughed. How great is that to make a Holy Woman laugh with something you made! What a great day. She also said she would marry us at her ashram in India. Thank you Amma!