beach night

Really feeling the summer vibes in Vancouver this weekend. Beach nights. Getting down to the fun wedding stuff...champagne tasting and decoration making, hairdo-getting... Watering the garden, walking the dog. I love love love summer and I'm glad it's here. Please excuse the dust around the blog this weekend. I'm changing a few things around here and there. I hope you like the updates. Don't forget to enter the Sadie giveaway at Oh Mishka! You have until Sunday to put your name in the hat.

rad summer: portland

This weekend Jeff and I hung out in Portland with Lola and a few friends of ours. We chose to head there based on the weather forecast. Vancouver was gonna be showery and overcast, Seattle nice but not hot, and Portland hot and sunny. I am seriously at a point of being willing to drive hours to feel summer. That being said, it seems that Vancouver has figured it out now and this week is looking good!

Here are some photos of a few trip highlights: vintage shops and strawberry blintzes, a goggle-wearing chihuahua named Rootbeer, hammertime, dog walks, sunshine, and late night food. I hope that you have a chance to visit Portland sometime. I've been going there pretty regularly for the past 8 or 9 years and never get sick of it. I've never seen so many breakfast places in one city and love all of the niche stores like Artemesia, which specializes in terrarium supplies, and the gigantic bookstore that I want to live in, Powell's. Seriously, the trip is worth it for any book lover just because of that store. You really, really should go. And as a Canadian used to paying way too much for everything, I love two dollar beers and four dollar veggie burgers during happy hour (happy hour, by the way, is illegal in British Columbia...yikes).

P.S. Chevre, ligonberry, lemon curd crepes are delicious!

summer mountains

Jeff and Lola and I spent the weekend in the mountains. This weekend. And yes, this weekend there was still lots of snow on the ground at higher elevations, like Joffre Lakes where we attempted an easy-ish 7km hike only to be turned around after crossing a boulder field and encountering yet more snow. Not that I don't like snow, I just don't love summer snow. The first four photos were taken in Pemberton, BC. I'd never been there before, but we both really liked it. It's outside of the tourist-y nonesense that is Whistler and just far enough from Vancouver to actually feel like it's not a part of Vancouver. It's also beautiful and has great breakfast joints, like The Pony Espresso. Now for an oldie but a goodie. Oh yeah, Jeff and I have been watching The Killing. Is anyone else into that show? I love that it's all filmed in Vancouver, in some pretty crazy locations like at the Save-On-Meats on Hastings. Don't tell me how the season ends, though! We're behind!

summer giveaway

Alright, friends, as promised here is a little summer giveaway to celebrate both the arrival of the greatest season and my little blog hitting 300 followers. It was about this time last year that I started this space and I can't tell you how happy I am that it's enabled me to meet so many wonderful people and share so many big events in my life. I love checking out my readers' blogs and shops and reading all of your comments so much!

Here's the giveaway deal:

Pick any photo from this post or this post and I'll send you a FRAMED large format (8x10"), colour print of it if you're the lucky winner. All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment letting me know which photo you'd pick. Make sure you leave me your e-mail address so I can send you your prize! 


Good luck!

If you'd like an additional entry or two follow the Sadie blog or tweet or blog about this giveaway and leave me a comment for each of those entries, too. This giveaway will go until the Canadian postal strike ends, which could be as early as this Friday, so make sure you enter soon!

By the way, Sadie will soon be available at Red Velvet and there are Etsy shop updates coming soon! Happy summer, everyone!

taking care of business giveaway winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered the Sadie giveaway! I discovered some great new music through all of the links that you left and rediscovered some old favourites, too. Much appreciated! And now, the winner of the giveaway, chosen at random, is Lindsay! Congrats!

Here's one of the songs that Lindsay recommended for getting things done:

I just wanted to thank everyone who's extended wishes of good luck and asked about my school project. I've completed the biggest and toughest phase of the project with a presentation called "substantials" (how daunting) last week and now I have two weeks to complete my work and pull it together for the final public presentation. A lot of people have been asking what I'm working on. Well, the short story is that I'm in the last weeks of my Masters of Landscape Architecture degree and my graduate project involves retrofitting a suburban neighbourhood to make it more walkable. The emphasis of my project is on improving biodiversity and human enjoyment of the landscape and that's all I'll bore you with for now. Perhaps I'll share an image or two of my design when this is all over, but for now I just wanted to thank everyone who's helped me out and made this easier.

On that note, the Sadie Etsy shop will be closed from Thursday, April 14 until May 5th to give me time to finish up my school work and get new summer Sadie pieces ready to share with you. I have some exciting things planned for this summer (in life and on the blog). In the meantime, stay tuned for some really awesome day in the life posts and more! I can't wait to ditch this winter-y banner for something brighter come May. Spring! Summer! The best time of year is just ahead of us. Two weeks, people, two weeks.

Here's the getting work done song that I can't live without right now (can't vouch for this video, though...but you really should listen to this song):

P.S. Are any of you big readers?

getaway

As you guys know I have less than a month left at school and that's why things have been a bit quiet around here and in the Sadie shop. With just a month left concentrating on my final project continues to be challenging, especially with spring showing up in Vancouver. I've decided to try to do one thing a day to keep life on track while I'm working on my project. So, yesterday I got a long awaited haircut, the day before I went to the bank, and on Wednesday I applied for a new passport. My old one expired in December and I haven't been out of the country since our trip to Portland last fall to see Kurt Vile and go to Little Winter. I've got the wanderlust!!!

If all goes as planned my new passport will be here by the time I do my final presentation and Jeff and I can head to Washington on a much anticipated mini road trip. Sometimes we'll drive down just to go to Trader Joe's (you have no idea how much cheaper groceries are in the States than here in Vancouver), but I'm wondering about a camping trip to a place we went to a few years ago. The beach in this particular state park is made of quartz stones of all colours and shapes and you can watch all of the boats from Vancouver Island heading through a small passage to Seattle. So fun. Just one little problem, of course, and that is that Lola hates camping! I have so many travel ideas right now, but they are dependent on so many other things. This photo I took in about 2004 or so I think on the greatest road trip that Jeff and I have ever embarked on: Calgary to San Francisco and back up the Pacific coast with weeks to spare. So amazing and we discovered many places that remain our favourites to this day. Oh, Oregon coast, I will see you this summer, some way, some how!!!

What is the best road trip that you've ever been on?

five friday favourites

To introduce this week's five favourites I have just one thing to say: I wish it was summer.

pyramid stud earrings by everydayoreternal

espadrilles by simply espadrilles

vintage locket cuff bracelet by fawninginlove

a place to put your things by sammade

sheer safari dress from clever nettle

And, don't forget, today is the last day to enter the Sadie Designs Getting to Know You Giveaway. I'll be picking a winner at random tomorrow and posting the results this weekend.

My post about my favourite city, Halifax, will be on Yuppie Love tomorrow. Check it out!

missing: the sun

Today it got dark at 3pm again. And it's raining. Again. I'm sitting at my desk getting ready to format my new external hard drive (fun weekend!) and wishing it was spring. No. Summer. As you can see Lola is also pretty fed up with all of the rain and the sun disappearing before 4pm. She just wants to go to the beach. Some fresh flowers in the house brighten things up a little bit for us.

By the way, I took this photo of a cat in our neighbourhood. I'm thinking now it must be quite the trick for it to get between the blinds and the window like that. This photo also contains evidence of Vancouver's "weird shrub" epidemic. I should really start taking photos of all the bizarre variations on hedges, bonsai, and shrubbery that I encounter in this city. Hope you are having a sunny weekend wherever you are!

new apartment, new art

Did I ever mention that I spent most of the summer of 2009 in Europe? And that Jeff came with me for the first three weeks and we got engaged in Paris? I was going through some old photos today and came across a whole bunch of great shots that I want to do something with. I'm scheming about ways to use them in the new apartment and have some ideas. This one of a light shop in Amsterdam is one of our favourites and it really suits the character of our new place. I think it might have to be front and centre in our living room. Oh summer...well, winter solstice has passed so we're on the upswing now!

august abundance

This time of year Vancouver offers up a plethora of amazing, delicious abundance: $2/lb blueberries from Richmond, blackberries in every and park (a good and bad thing, in my opinion), flowers blooming, a ridiculous number of tomatoes and cucumbers in my community garden plot, plum trees, cherry sales, rosemary and bay trees, and the biggest salmon run in nearly 100 years. So, with peaches and strawberries in the freezer, blueberries in the fridge and plans to make my favourite peach & rosemary preserves this weekend (a concoction known as "Dignified Fun" in certain circles...), I also thought I'd share some photos that I took last weekend in the Maple and Cypress Community Gardens. You've gotta love this city in August!

grape arbour, maple community garden

chinese lantern plant, great latin name: physalis alkekengi

"a very nice plate-rrrr"

lavender vanilla waffles, organic yogurt, and hand-picked blackberries

kits beach

I love Vancouver in the summer.

long weekend

home away from home (thank you, Lara!)

the dock we really lived on all weekend

salvation

what we did

a closer look

lomo monday

actionsampler camera on the bow river, calgary

no holding back the summer

One of the great things about summer is the length of the evening. It stays warm and light for hours after work is finished, leaving the evening open for all kinds of summer fun every day. Laid back beach parties and picnics are the way to go when you don't want to cook indoors and want to soak up some sun and meet up with friends. So, pack up the bocce and potato salad and get out there!

Perhaps you still need the perfect picnic blanket? This one over at makesomething.ca looks pretty good, though I'm sure Martha has some ideas about this, too. If the weather isn't cooperating it might be the perfect day for a sewing project and maybe even a movie, the endlessly weird Picnic at Hanging Rock will do. Some schoolgirls have the most horrific and boring picnic ever, with nice colours and strange landscapes abounding. The painting "Miranda" by Caitlin Shearer (at the top of this post) really captures the feeling of the film.

And, of course, every summer needs a soundtrack. Forget that "tonight's gonna be a good, good night" stuff, how about some Danzig? Now that's an eclectic plan for a summer day.

endless summer

"No one who is young is ever going to be old."

John Steinbeck, East of Eden

A recent convalescence has led me into the arms of indulgent summer time consumers: friendship bracelets, dazed and confused, strawberry lemonade, and catching up on great american novels: the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird (the only book I've ever read twice). Narrative non-fiction (In Cold Blood, Poor People), short stories, swearing, only the most cursory thesis research begun, broken bones, open windows, dog walks, late night movies...I love summer.