Little Scottsdale Break

Enjoying a post Christmas/New Years/Wedding time-out in Scottsdale w Alfie and Elan.  After a couple of days of serious hiking and restauranting I finally pulled out the sketchbook.  Here's the view of the poolhouse from their condo. 

The Start Of Nothing New

All For Only $3.99

 Text says:
My 2013 challenge for myself?  As a reaction to rampant consumerism (mostly my own) I've dubbed 2013 "The Year Of Nothing New".  No purchasing anything new, non-consumable, that will one day end up in a landfill.  Possible?  Well, if it was easy it wouldn't be a challenge.  My first perceived 'need' was a handheld lemon reamer - tired of dismantling and cleaning my citrus juicer after every lemon juice moment.  After striking out in 3 thrift stores, Caede and I headed to Value Village.  There I found the exact reamer I wanted in a $3.99 grab bag with an apple corer, cheese slicer, latte foamer and ginger bread man cookie-cutter, none of which I already had.  I even went looking for the perfect gingerbread cutter before Christmas and came home empty handed.
Was meant to be.

Look at how perfect this little copper fellow is!

So far so good.  Although... It is only January 6th.

Stay tuned.  

What's a Knitting Social?

Got invited to a "Knitting Social" the day we got back from Whistler.  Why I thought I could fit this in when it we were just home, recovering from Christmas, and getting married in two days I don't recall.  It was, however, a totally fun and relaxing afternoon.  The girls knit while I sketched and we drank tea and prosecco and nibbled on chicken wings and really great baking.  Very girly.

That card on the far left is the wedding invite I gave Julie.  Fun to see it hanging alongside all her holiday cards.  She was spending the day after this gathering making my INCREDIBLE wedding cake.  Check this out.

There are better pics of this masterpiece.  I'll upload them when I get them.  It was an unbelievable work of art.

Black's Pub, Whistler and Doot, doot, doot lookin'...

Out the backdoor.  I'm perched on a barstool in the kitchen catching the view.  Greg is cooking up our new favourite 'feed a large crew' breakfast; giant bags of 'hash' from Costco with a flat of eggs and a pound of bacon.  We've had sooo much family around all year (which I love!) that we've become pretty proficient at feeding them.  Costco helps. 

I love the light up here, and the crunch of fresh snow.

This sketch was done at Black's Pub in Whistler Village.  We sat and had burgers and beers while half the kids went to see Django in the local theatre.  After living and working up here it's fun to be here just as a tourist.  Lots of action.  

Fam Mortal Kombat Tourney in Whistler

I finally knocked the cobwebs of the sketchbag, picked up a new watercolour sketchbook (thanks Opus sale) and started noodling again.  These have been busy times, plugging a wedding (ours) right in the middle of our busiest season.   And here, in the middle of it all, between Christmas and our New Years Eve wedding, we decide to do a family (yes, all 16 of us, not counting the dogs) trip to Whistler.  The kids are holding a massive Mortal Kombat tournament.  They gather around the TV and whoop like a grey cup game 7 as they digitally pummel and pounce on each other.  Our job seems to be shovelling enough food onto the table to keep it all humming.  It's gorgeous up here, a total winter wonderland.  Yogi is in heaven, romping around in the snow, having all these people to scratch his belly.  We're all sleeping here in the house.  It's a bit crazy, but good.

Camping at the Westin Grand

 The ganas to sketch, which has been eluding me lately, finally struck while we're away from home without any art toys at hand.  A quick stroll down the street to buy a sketchbook and some pencil crayons, and here I am, perched in the window of the Westin Grand, catching the last rays of daylight hitting the roof of the Hotel Vancouver.  

We're staying here courtesy of the production company filming a TV commercial on our front porch at the moment.   They've been there for a few days prepping. They built a very cool facade of character homes like ours, laid down some grass and a faux sidewalk, strung up a traffic light, and voila!  Our 4 way stop is now a T-intersection.  Total transformation.  Cool things will happen to that facade, but I believe at the moment we're supposed to keep a lid on the details.  More to come later.

  

It's been a busy household here this summer.  We've had non-stop house-guests since mid-April, and still do.  Mostly family moving back from Mexico one at a time.  It's been good fun; getting them settled, exploring Vancouver, feasting, biking, playing tennis and having a few side-trips and adventures along the way.  Soon they'll all be tucked into their lovely new digs in Whistler, and we can start spending ALL those hosting credits we've been building up all spring/summer!  

Pigtailed Cuties and Storage Blues

 These portraits of my nieces had been buried in storage for years.  Lauren remembered them, and asked if she could have hers for her apartment.  I had no idea where they were, but stumbled on them in one of the storage lockers the other day.  The girls are both still just as cute, but Lauren is thriving in the business world and Sarah is half way to becoming Doctor Sarah.  No more pigtails.  "Turn around and they're two, turn around and they're four...".  You know the rest.

I was glad I found the portraits, but overall a day slugging through storage lockers sure makes you look at your stuff differently.  We accumulate all these 'must have' possessions, pay to house them, sometimes for years, and then, what?  Between 3 storage lockers and the garage at our ski place I waded through an ocean of stuff and ended up bringing only what fit in the back of my car down to the new house.  The rest of it I could really probably not see again for the rest of my life without being adversely affected.  I suppose that's how it goes.  People house it so they don't have to deal with it.  We eventually die, and then some poor relative (I've been this relative) has to feel bad about throwing all our treasures away.  Or eBaying them.  Or they end up on some version of Garage Picker Storage Wars.  Note to self: use all the stuff you have to the best of your ability before buying more.