Give a book! If you need some great (newish, Canadian) recommendations, check out the Advent Book Blog.

The Advent Book Blog is now in its third year and this is my second year participating (if I recall correctly). This year I’ve recommended The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay, but there are now hundreds of titles and authors recommended by readers with a Digital Handsell. Go check it out and read / share / buy an awesome book!

I had the opportunity to meet Ami McKay at a recent reading called Incite: An Exploration of Books and Ideas, organized by the Vancouver International Writers Festival and the Vancouver Public Library. The event was fantastic (as always) and Ami was super sweet. I had an ARC of The Virgin Cure which she signed and she even knew who I was from Twitter! How awesome is that?

Incite (November 9): Hal Wake fields questions for Ami McKay and Frances Greenslade

“BBAW” stands for Book Blogger Appreciation Week, and 2011 marks the fourth anniversary of the event. Concocted up by Amy of My Friend Amy, I’ve been helping with the BBAW website and graphic design stuff for the past three years.

There is a whole whack of people involved now, from a Board of Directors, award tabulators, judges, blog topic generators, and giveaway moderators. I commend and applaud all those helping out with BBAW—it’s a great event run by and for the book blogging community. I am truly proud to be involved, even in just a tiny little way.

As I mentioned, I’m returning to school in September. For the past three years, I’ve been working in downtown Vancouver. Thinking about this big change has made me realize a few things, one is how much I love Gastown.

The office is just on the cusp of Gastown but outside the city centre. The area is very up-and-coming with the new W2 Woodwards development including SFU, London Drugs, and Nester’s Market.

New and old Ws at Woodwards | Gassy Jack in Historic Gastown

Soon, it’ll be part of a new business district called “Hastings Crossing”. I figured that this was as good a time as any to highlight some of the local businesses that I frequent and hope to continue to support.

Bambo Café
This is absolutely my favourite lunch spot. Everything I’ve tried has been delicious, fresh, and well-priced for the large portions. I know I can spend less than $10 on lunch and be nice and full until dinner time. I love the sandwiches and their homemade soups. My favourites are tuna melt because they put fresh dill in the tuna and this amazing butternut squash soup. To die for.

Butternut Squash soup and grilled veggie sandwich at Bambo Cafe

Deadly Couture
Speaking of dying… but not really… is the alternative shop Deadly Couture full of goth/punk/rockabilly fashion and accessories. They carry my favourite brand of hair dye here: Special Effects. The colour is super intense and lasts for a really long time. I also love.love.love all the fashion accessories and clothing style.

Dressew
I’ve been going to Dressew for years — it is a crafty person’s dream come true. The whole basement is filled with discount fabrics and notions galore, the main floor is costuming, some discontinued yarn and fabric fabric fabric. Dressew celebrated its 50th anniversary in March of this year and the Vancouver Courier ran an awesome article. It’s true you can find a zipper to match any fabric, fringe to adorn anything, and even genuine leather scraps. They told me that in addition to two full floors, Dressew has a sub-basement for stock and an additional off-site storage facility.

Old Faithful Shop
Relative newcomer to the area, I cannot resist going into the shop regularly. The style embraces au natural design with unfinished wood, unbleached fabrics, and sustainable materials. Old Faithful has amazing home decor (think shabby-chic, eco-cabin) with a down-to-earth, organic, homegrown feel. It was the hanging glass terrariums that inspired me to write this article about how to make a terrarium for GardenWise Online.

Hitz Boutique
Another ‘alternative’ style clothing shop in the area, they always have hilarious baby clothes in the window. But what I really love is that they carry several brands that are mostly found in Kits and Point Grey. My favourite turquoise jacket is made by a company called Orb and I bought it at Hitz Boutique. Also, the staff are fantastic, friendly and helpful. One of them even remembered—nearly a year later—that I was “the one who bought the turquoise jacket.”

ButtonButton
You may think with Dressew just around the corner that ButtonButton would go out of business. In truth, it’s the skyrocketing rent for retail space in the downtown core that nearly did in this cute, tiny little shop. Sure, Dressew may have tons of buttons… but most of them are fairly common. What about the uncommon buttons, the buttons that turn heads, the buttons that make you squeal with delight as you find a replacement for your favourite jacket? ButtonButton has all these kinds of buttons and more.

Olla Urban Flower Project & Shop
Even though I have a mottled green-black thumb (I only succeed half of the time), I love Olla Flowers. I love their design aesthetic as well as their concept. They create arrangements and living containers using sustainable resources, local and ethically-traded plants and even recycled and/or repurposed containers. They also work with corporate and non-profit groups to compost, re-home event decor, and even hold monthly workshops.

Also in the area is Academie Duello, where I’ve recently begun taking lessons. This makes the history geek in me very happy and it’s surprisingly quite a good workout!

These past few days have been special. Like speeecial special. Yaknow? I have been totally out of it in multiple ways for no particular reason.

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.

Day to day, as I browse the web, I find awesome things I like to share. Sometimes I share them via Facebook or Twitter, and other times, they deserve a round-up post. Here are a couple great things I’d like to draw your attention to, and also some general updates / housekeeping.

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*