stitch and...

Last Tuesday Kerry brought over her little sister. Kerry is in the Big sister little sister program and every Tuesday evening she spends time with her sister. Last Tuesday she brought her over to my house and we did some sewing. We all made little owls. We had a great time learning laughing and stitching. I am teaching Kerry how to sew with the machine and her little sister was an absolute pro with the hand stitching.

All the friends here getting lined up.
















Here is Kerry with her little sister.

My little owl was so happy to make some friends that he grew a mustache

success

look the plant stand is already a huge success

urban gardeners

The newest addition to our neighborhood. This is our wee little plant stand. You can find all sorts of tomato plant,  herbs, catnip, perenials and more...
 The catnip has been quality tested by Enoki and meets High standards of excellence.

Drop by and have a gander and stop for a cup of tea too..
1781 Emerson st.

Wake Board competition

Today we decided to head out to the beach. Witty's Lagoon was the site of a skim board competition. Josh has decided to learn skim boarding in the last few months. Me not so much. More or less I run, I throw the board, I take deep breath and then crumple into smaller less brave Adria and run away. After today though I'm feeling a little more inspired.

Today was my first real attempt at any kind of sporting event photography. It was fun. Blurry fun.

There were a few others there with there giant lenses. Coincidentally they were all men. Kinda creepy though, you know what they say about those guys with the big lenses...

I got some fun shots of the girls. They seem to be a little more about style and less about getting the biggest baddest jumps.

There were a few kids there too. One little guy was so enthusiastic about skim boarding he couldn't keep his clothes on. Sorry no picture.

My favorite of the day of course was Josh. I might be a little bias...

Social media marketting

Islandartiste is on its way. I have entered the realm on social media marketing. I am a business woman and so apparently I must conform. OK maybe all this social media is a little fun. And frankly I am a bit of a blog fiend. I love them. So why not have one of my own for all the world to see.

I actually have had this blog for a few years now. I haven't been using it all that well and it's been a secret. SHhhhhhhh. Well I have brought it out for all the people to see. Please be kind. I am prone to spelling mistakes.

One thing I love blogs for is a resource tool. You can find anything and everything you need to find on someones blog somewhere. Even the advertisements can be of use. So I intend to make this blog useful and please if you would like to put a link on page please let me know and ill see what I can do.

I will leave you with a a family photo from a recent trip to North Pacific Cannery just outside of Prince Rupert. We were all in out family hometown for the 100th homecoming celebration.

Don't forget to check out my website www.islandartiste.ca and come find me on facebook islandartiste photography.

Sunny Side Cannery

I could have spent all day at Sunny Side Cannery. Although in fact I've never been to Sunny Side in my life. I have these two pictures from the cannery building. Both of which I took. But the Sunny Side building isn't really where it should be anymore. Apparently years ago (I'm guessing about twenty or thirty)  when Sunny Side cannery was being dismantled, a group of people went and brought the cannery building from its original site to where it is now. No big deal right? people do that all the time. Well not quite the way these people did.

Cannery buildings are always built on pilings. Old rotten pilings in most cases. So this group of people went, by boat, probably tug boat, to tow this building away. They tied up building to the boat and took off, hauling the building off its pilings and into the water. Good thing wood floats. They towed the building from its site, half submerged in water to its new home several kilometers away. You'd never guess by looking at this building that is very settled on its new pilings in its new home and it had such a turbulent voyage.

But the real reason I could spend all day just hanging around here is because of the feeling I get when when I'm in a space just like this. This place is my childhood. To me it's magical and whimsical and full of great things.

 You can climb the walls and rafters, you can swing from the ropes that dangled from the roof, you can hide and play in all the little nooks and crannies and at the end you can stop and flop down in a net and take a nap (probably with a cat that also thinks this is a great place to nap). And this is what I did when I was young. This place still holds that magic, I just got older.

My father and his friends still use this building from Sunny Side as a workshop and boat house. 

Some Coastal Characters

These are pictures of Theresa with her bottle collection and Rene and Peter, the caretakers of Namu. They were a great people more than willing to show me around the once thriving coastal cannery town of Namu. Rene an Theresa decided to take me out to a place called Tuna town. Tuna town was at one time a little village  of houses at the north end of Namu. It is now 4 houses are barely standing. 

This is a photo I took inside one of the houses of Tuna town. As you can see there is a beautiful skylight to let in all the natural light and of course brand new moss rugs to give that indoor outdoor feel. Rene and Theresa obviously spent quite a bit of time exploring about Namu. They knew all the little secrets. Like for instance: how to get inside this house.

This house at one time certainly had a front porch. Now all that remains is wood framing and a large pit in front of the door. So Rene and Theresa showed me just how I could swing my body (and camera gear) over the gaping pit and into the front door. Rene and Theresa had greyed hair and weathered complexions with the  spirit and curiosity of children. 

On our way back from Tuna town we walked along the beach beside the Cannery. Cannery beaches are covered in debris. Although I like to think of it as treasure and obviously so do Theresa and Rene. They have a collection of maybe one or two hundred glass bottles and jars they have found of the beach. They have vinyl records covered in barnacles, piggy banks, dollies, flower vases, salt and pepper shakers and the list goes on. Most people would probably dismiss the object on the beach as just garbage. But if you walk slowly, nose down, with a keen eye for long lost treasure, you will find endless amounts. And they do.