So, whether I’ve known you six months or 11 years, or somewhere in between…. whether I know you only online, mostly via Facebook, or in real life…. whether we talk often, occasionally, or rarely…. thank you for being my friend.

Now, let’s make these next 12 months count until the end of the world!

• This weekend is The Word On The Street book and magazine festival. It happens simultaneously in cities across Canada and although I had a decreased role this year, I’ve still been involved. Not to mention the festival programming has been expanded to three days. I will be at Library Square in the Info Tent / Merchandise Booth near the Mainstage. Come say hello (and bring me coffee)!
• Academie Duello is having an Open Barn to promote their Cavaliere program (swordplay on horses!) and a fundraiser for the Richmond Pony Club. I’ve been debating getting involved in that aspect, since I already love to ride. I’ll be at Red Colt on Saturday afternoon to help with the demos and our display booth. Duello is also having a member only party to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Princess Bride. So that’s also on the agenda for this weekend.
• School is going well. Lots of readings to keep track of, tutorials to engage in, and lectures to attend. Handed in a literary analysis today for The Night Wanderer by Drew Hayden Taylor, so you can expect a review on the blog shortly. We also had our first Gender Debate earlier this week. So things are picking up and before long it will be midterm time (mid-October).
• I’ve begun contributing to SFU’s student newspaper, The Peak. I’m really excited in this opportunity and looking forward to expanding the literary coverage in the Arts section.
• Last night I went to the book launch for Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery by Leanne Prain (published by Arsenal Pulp Press). Leanne is the co-author of Yarn Bombing: Knit and Crochet Graffiti and so I was really excited for Hoopla. I made sure to head down to Spool of Thread sewing lounge and get my copy signed!
• Somehow I seem to be confirming more freelance design clients now that I’m back in school. This is an odd turn of events but I’m just trying to juggle everything. Watch me go nuts in about 3 weeks.

What have YOU been up to?

Day 1: Vancouver to Salmon Arm via Trans-Canada Highway

Driving through (approximately) Hell's Gate in the Fraser Canyon

Fraser River

Fraser Canyon overlooking The Canadian Pacific Railway

Day 2: Salmon Arm to Banff via Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 93

We stopped for a morning coffee in Revelstoke near The Last Spike of the CPR. We made sure to visit the Railway Museum in Revelstoke.

Driving through the Rocky Mountains (still in BC)

Rogers Pass (at the visitor's centre)

Arrival in Banff

Day 3: Day trip to Columbia Icefields in Alberta via Highway 93

View from the hotel in Banff

Driving up the Icefields Parkway from Banff towards Jasper

Columbia Icefield (one of the eight glaciers)

At the visitor's centre of the Athabasca Glacier. In 1844 the Glacier covered the visitor's centre parking lot. It has been receeding since.

Marker showing where the Athabasca Glacier was in the year 2000

Lake Louise

Day 4: Banff to Osoyoos via Highway 95/93 and Crowsnest Highway

Kootenay National Park decimated by the pine beetle infestation

Driving into the Okanagan Valley

Day 5: Osoyoos to Vancouver via Highway 3

Dipped our toes into Okanagan Lake in Osoyoos before heading home

On the ferry leaving Deep Cove

On Friday afternoon, we arrived at Camp Jubilee on Indian Arm by ferry from Deep Cove in West Vancouver. Devon Boorman and Randy Packer started the retreat in 2007 with 40-odd attendees. It has since grown to an event with 80+ attendees and an organizing committee of 8-10 people.

Friendly sparring, violent duelling and general practising happened all weekend long

Saturday was full of workshops in the morning and afternoon. I attended History & Intro to Archery with Patricia Gonsalez, the archery instructor at Academie Duello. It was really nice to learn the actual stance and order for shooting as well as a lot of the history.

THE RANGE IS OPEN with archery instructor Patricia Gonsalves

In the afternoon I attended the Solo Rapier Drills workshop taught by Roland Cooper.  I’m a green cord which is the first level of study after the intro course and we mostly focus on medieval rapier (think Three Muskateers). So when I can’t attend class or don’t have someone to spar with, it’s great to have some solo exercises to do.

Start 'em young!

Don’t worry! Cascadia’s organizers had strict rules regarding protection during sparring of any kind. Since heavy fighters wield two-handed longswords, they had to have full body armour. None of the swords are sharpened, and all the rapiers and daggers have blunt rubber tips attached.

Enjoying a beautiful afternoon in the Pacific Ocean

Saturday evening consisted of three tourneys: Archery, Beginner Rapier and Heavy. At the last minute—as seems to be my style as of late—I decided to participate in the Beginner Rapier tournament. In hindsight I’m glad I did and actually shocked that I ended up in a 3-way tie for third place. I didn’t place, but that’s not the point really. We also go to watch the Heavy tourney and the Archers. It was really awesome to see the longsword fighters suit up to duel.

Duelling in the Beginner's Tourney (I'm on the right, lunging)

Fighting with longswords in the Heavy Tournament

Saturday night I attended a workshop with Adam Lein on navigating the stars, intended to teach celestial navigation for sailors. After spending over an hour on the dock in the dark, I headed to the Hall for some much needed warmth. People were hanging out, chatting, jamming on guitars and singing. It was a very fun evening but the next morning definitely required coffee!

Exploring Camp Jubilee on Indian Arm

Sunday morning was the final workshop before we departed Camp Jubilee in the early evening. I chose to attend Devon’s Dirty Sparring Tricks for Rapier. While not all of the things Devon taught were exactly dirty, he did warn us that if he ever saw us using these tricks at the Academie, there’d be hell to pay.

A workshop with Luis Preto - Jogo do Pau Instructor

The afternoon consisted of the Accolade portion of the weekend. Every attendee got to vote for two people they felt deserved recognition—be it for outstanding achievement, incredible growth as a student, gusto, or what-have-you. The eight participants then fought each other in one-on-one duels until a winner was declared.

Accolade duel: Yan vs. Matheus (Matheus won and he has only been swordfighting for approximately 6 months)

All the workshops I attended were really great and the instructors were awesome. It was really great to be able to chat with them throughout the weekend and not feel intimidated because everyone was there for the same reason — to learn and have fun.

Sunset on Mt.Cheam during the Closing Ceremonies

I learned that SOAR happens every 3 years, but skipped a year (2010) for the 100th anniversary of guiding in Canada while they had a country-wide celebration. Resuming for 2011, the 6th annual SOAR was taking place in Agassiz, BC — a small town in the Fraser Valley near Harrison Hot Springs, approximately a two-hour drive from Vancouver.

The opening parade through Agassiz, BC. Pink shirts are all the girls, blue are Core Staff.

SOAR is organized by the BC council for Girl Guides, but is an international event with nearly 2,000 Girls, Guiders, and Staff gathering for a week-long adventure camp.

The Girls begin to arrive... and all their stuff

When I had responded to the call for knitters, the director informed me that the response had been overwhelming and they would love to have me help. When they later put a message out to volunteers asking for help with other projects, I responded with a list of my ‘talents’. I ended up being “recruited” as a non-Guiding volunteer member to help with card making as part of their Community Service Projects.

Marquee tents being set up for Programs

While at SOAR, each Girl has to put in 2.5 hours of Service to a community project. The Service director and the whole Service team was fantastic and I had such fun working with them. I arrived on the SOAR 2011 site in Agassiz a few days before the Girls arrived, and some of the Committee members had been there nearly a week already! The giant marquees were going up and we began sorting through donations.

Sorting yarn while the marquees are being put up

Two of the other Service projects were knitting lap blankets for seniors and kids, and sewing fleece hats and scarves for the homeless. So the three of us were sorting through a lot of materials before the girls arrived. And I was floored by the generosity of the donators—boxes of stamps, new scrapbooking paper, stickers, die cuts, punches, edging scissors, and even entirely new scrapbooking kits.

I decorated all the Service signs

The sessions seemed to go really well, and often the Girls needed very little guidance, I just let their creativity take over. Each Girl got to make 2-4 cards, and one girl made 10 cards (she’d made cards with her mom before). I’ll upload photos of some of the cards to Flickr soon, but in total I’d estimate we made 700 cards. The all-occasion cards were being made for low-income families in the Fraser Valley and were meant to be blank and unsigned.

Our Service team - Lend a Wing!

All in all it was a fantastic event. It was a feel-good, warm and fuzzy week — working with kids, doing community services projects, volunteering, etc. The Service team and our director were also fun, friendly and made it that much more enjoyable.

Crocuses sprouting in January (before the snow)

Henry chewing on the leaves of the crocuses. Crocuses are just finished blooming, tulips are beginning to show. (April/May)

Tulips in full bloom (May). This was about 3 weeks before they cut down those bushes and destroyed my private little sancuary. Now I look onto the road and can see the ugly stucco building across the street.

Lilies in full bloom (July)

How is your garden doing?

But, I’ve got some big news! I am going back to school full-time in September. I will be doing a bachelor’s degree in Communications at Simon Fraser University. I am very excited because the degree sounds perfect for my career goals. I will miss working on awesome events full time, but I think this is the right step for me. I registered for classes this morning!

Other than that, I’ve just got some summer plans and camping trips in the works. I don’t know if I’ll get to do any travelling (I had wanted to drive around BC and Alberta) due to saving money for university.

I’ve been knitting:

The pattern is Gaenor and the yarn is Unwind Yarns: Throwing Sheep into Rainbows which I bought at Gibsons last summer. This photo was taken at wenchlette’s Wedding Send-off party and I was just beginning the decrease rows. Therefore: it is halfway done!

I have some other secret things on the needles and I’ve been test knitting for my friend Carmen, so personal knitting is on the back burner. Speaking of Carmen, I went to go visit her studio (she is MelonHead KnitWear) a couple weeks ago and brought cookies:

Yarn Cookies!!

I’ve got several books I haven’t reviewed—including Up Up Up by Julie Booker—so stay tuned for those. I’m already on book 3 in A Song of Ice & Fire series (Game of Thrones) and recently received an ARC for Marina Endicott’s new book, The Little Shadows.

Also speaking about books, I’ve been using GoodReads more and LibraryThing less. I am finding more people on GoodReads that I know and hence gravitating towards it so that I can see what they’re reading. Find me on GoodReads if you’d like.

Anyway, I must be off to bed. My car is in the shop (because it failed AirCare) and I need to make sure I’m up if the mechanic calls. P.S. Sorry for the downtime on the website. My blog was migrated to a new server so I could upgrade to WP 3.2.

P.P.S. Circle me if you’re on Google+, or let me know if you want an invite.

I just want to say how proud I am to be a Canadian (despite certain political things I don’t agree with) and I hope to be able to celebrate on Canadian soil for many years to come.

To all Canadians and friends of Canada: Happy Canada Day! To Canadians living abroad: I hope you have a fantastic celebration as well today! To my American neighbours: Happy 4th of July!

Now, I’m off to get ready, decorate my face, don some red and white clothing, and join the festivities!

Celebrating Canadian stereotypes at the Vancouver Winter Olympics closing ceremonies. Image: The Canadian Press / Robert Skinner

Physically, I am bumping into things and bashing myself by accident. It’s like I have an issue with depth perception. I tried to put on my shoes today and kicked the wall. I went to close a door and accidentally punched the wall. I’ve broken at least 4 fingernails by catching them on things. This could be a serious problem considering I’m taking sword fighting lessons. I’m also concerned since I’ve been working on sewing projects. Hopefully I can dial 9-1-1 before I pass out from lack of blood. Death by sewing machine… kinda funny.

Mentally, I have been having trouble speaking, mixing words up, and my spelling has gone out the window. My reading skills are also suffering, but that may also be the spelling issue or my non-existent dyslexia. I typed “dying” instead of “dyeing”, read “touting” as “touching” and “viral” as “virus”, and often leaving out transitional words such as “the” and “with”, thus changing a sentence completely.

So now I’m sitting here, wondering what I should do so that I’ll be safe from myself. Knitting would inevitably result in a giant yarn tangle or dropped stitches, I already explained the fear of the sewing machine, and anything that involves movement or speed such as riding my bike is out. That leaves books, movies, and the internet.

Books: I’ve finished Voyager by Diana Gabaldon and need to write up a review. Before that I read a few graphic novels that I need to post reviews for. Now I’m into the second book of the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings.

Movies: I watched Sense & Sensibility (1995) last night with Kate Winslett, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Hugh Laurie, and Emma Thompson. Wow what a cast. I haven’t read the book, but I enjoyed the movie. I think the romance story lines were very similar to Pride & Prejudice (class, society, rumours, reputation) but that the character interactions weren’t as strong. However, the cast was amazing and I did enjoy the movie immensely. Did I mention that I did end up watching the BBC mini-series of Pride & Prejudice with Colin Firth? Awesome! I love Colin Firth so much.

Speaking of movies, I just went on IMDB.com and discovered a Footloose remake. Watch the trailer here. Umm… I’m not sure how I feel about this, and I’m concerned it’s just going to be some sort of hip-hop debacle. Footloose is the 80s and Kevin Bacon. Can you imagine someone trying to remake Ferris Bueller’s Day Off without Matthew Broderick? Or Pretty in Pink without Molly Ringwald? No! It just wouldn’t work.

Television: I’ve been watching HBO’s The Game of Thrones, which is based on the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. HBO is so awesome and I am loving it so far. It’s pretty much 98% perfect, and I’m guessing that’s because George R.R. Martin is one of the executive producers.

Internet: There are lots of great things I’ve found recently. If you follow me on Twitter, I usually share them there. But here are a couple gems.

• Bloggess’ “Pick your Battles” — I laughed so hard I wasn’t making a sound and tears were streaming down my cheeks.
• Dear Photograph — A really neat project, taking photos of old photos in their original location.
• A Stranger A Day — A Vancouverite is chatting up strangers about tattoos, daily
• The Slave Lake Book Auction, which I mentioned before, wrapped up last week with a total of $4,909 in donations to the library!
• The Bank of Canada is rolling out new bills made of polymer (plastic) and our money will look even more like Monopoly money.
• Book Blogger Appreciation Week 2011 has been announced for Sept. 12-16. I designed the new look and launched the website recently.

Slave Lake Book Auction

Recent wildfires in Alberta destroyed nearly half of the town of Slave Lake, including the newly completed, 18-month-old library. This Globe & Mail article sums up the library’s history, renovation, and devastation. It’s hard to imagine that loss to a community and it makes me teary-eyed just thinking about it.

Slave Lake (Alberta) library burning during wildfire on May 15, 2011

The library is accepting donations of books less than 2 years old, but they also need money for computers, furniture, construction, etc. So Colleen McKie, a Canadian living on the East Coast, has organized the Slave Lake Book Auction. Go bid (just not against me) for a good cause!

Featured Reader at House of Anansi Press

Check it out!! I’m the Featured Reader over at the House of Anansi Press for June 2011.

Trish tweeted that they were looking for a blogger/reader to feature for June and I jumped at the chance. I am so honoured and excited.

I love House of Anansi Press — they produce wonderful books, have gorgeous designs, and authors/illustrators/reviewers/employees all seem to have nothing but good things to say. While I may not love every book I read that has been published by Anansi, I love the diversity of their titles and the variety in their subject matter.

Thank you Trish & Anansi!

City of Vancouver Archives have been digitized

This is just a really neat local accomplishment. As part of Vancouver125—the City of Vancouver’s 125th birthday celebrations—the archives have successfully digitized their complete collection.

My friend Jason (of Illustrated Vancouver fame) was at the launch party a while ago where they were giving away all their duplicate prints (keeping only the originals). Now I have a lovely selection too, including trains and long-since-demolished buildings. I think they shall become art.

More Art / Home Décor / Crafty Projects

Speaking of art and home decor, I have been working very hard on several home improvement projects, including some IkeaHacks. I’ve been photographing the projects so I can hopefully post some DIYs soon.

My knitting has been unmotivated but I’m chugging away on a design idea. Although I might be able to share some of the stash additions… I don’t know if I’ve already updated on those.

I really want to sew summer skirts and have recently dug out my patterns and fabric. You can really tell what kind of skirts I tend to gravitate towards by looking at my sewing patterns. Speaking of sewing, I do have some finished items to share, but I need to take photos with the recipient, so those are on the back-burner.

Reading Updates

I have been utterly absorbed in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. I’ve had to force-ably remove myself from it and take a breather. I’m reading other books (I’m a few behind in reviews) but I’m constantly thinking—even dreaming—about the Outlander story. It’s true what Diana says, no one ever gets over Jamie Fraser…. *swoon*