spOtlight

Today marks the beginning of 'spOtlight', a three day festival to celebrate the arts in Guelph, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambride and Stratford. This new initiative, courtesy of Premier McGuinty, is being co-produced by the Ontario Arts Council and the provincial government. I love that artists outside of the GTA are being promoted, and if we're to believe the Status of Ontario Artists Act, the 'celebrate our artists' weekend will become an annual event across the province each and every June. (interesting that the dates coincide with Toronto's Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity, which also starts today)

A few of my spOtlight picks are as follows:

Guelph:

• Make Your Mark...collaborative painting at Whitestone Gallery (Fri 11-5, Sat 11-4)
• Improvise Your Life and the Music Will Follow...write, play and record your own songs at Jimmy Jazz! Yehaw! (Sat 2-7)
• Virtual Open House...with all the local artists at Guelpharts.ca (24/7)

Kitchener:

• Make a Ring...learn basic jewellery techniques at Cynosure Jewellery (Sat & Sun 11-3)
• Be a Star...and visit the video booth in Victoria Park, courtesy of CAFKA (Fri 7-9)
• Sword Fighting 101...at the Registry Theatre. Oh ya! (Sun 3-4:15 and 4:30 - 5:45)

Waterloo:

• Cities and Consciousness...witness Mark Kingwell and Bruce Taylor ponder the partnership of art and technology at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery (Sat 2-4)
• Hot Glass...beadmaking at the CCGG with Mark Lewis (Sun 1-3)
• Death by Chocolate...WHOO! Party at DQ! (Fri and Sat 7-10)
  

Get thee to a quiltery

I haven't felt much like painting lately, but after finding this really cute bird pattern on Spool, I've started to feel both creative and ambitious. (My sewing skills are pretty non-existant but I've got this great little sewing machine so I figure I might as well put it to work.) A throw for zee bebe? Curtains for the nursery? Who knows. I'm just anxious to make something other than breast milk. So yesterday, I packed up the wee one, along with my creativity and ambition, and the four of us wandered down to Greenwood Quiltery to check out their fabric. Yummy, I tell you! I've raved about their selection before...Amy Butler, Echino, Northcott, Free Spirit...but the fact that they're having a big sale this Saturday makes everything look all the better!

May

Crying, changing, rocking, sleeping, feeding, burping, crying, feeding, burping, folding...the hours fill up so quickly, you can easily be fooled into believing your daily rituals are insignificant, or that no time has passed at all. There is beauty to be found in these daily tasks...but I wasn't aware of them until I stood back to view the patterns they'd left behind.

April, fool.

The last three weeks have been like a wonderfully simple puzzle that I'm unable to put together. I see tiny snapshots of time, but I can't place them together to create a larger picture. Like this morning, when I was floating between awake and slumber, I heard birds singing outside our bedroom window. I have no idea what time it was, or whether I was supposed to be burping, changing or feeding, but the singing was beautiful and I was lucky enough to catch it. And moments ago, I found my abandoned coffee from this morning. I don't recall pouring it, adding milk or sugar, or even stirring, but there it was, waiting for me patiently seven hours later. This time vortex of motherhood has me living by the minute, and while the broader scope of the day/week/month is completely lost on me, I'm completely happy with these little chunks that will one day become memory.

Earth Hour...

...has come and gone. Luckily, I was breastfeeding and not diaper changing at the time, and my rechargable TykeLight was able to guide a few things in the right direction. I wonder if there were any power surges at 9pm when all the lights came back on...

Pickle!

The little pickle is finally here! Benjamin Everett Hurlbut arrived into this world in the wee hours of Saturday, March 8, 2008. 7 lbs 13 oz with blue eyes and light brown hair. His grand entrance was drug free with the assistance of some mighty forceful forceps. Mommy say 'ouch' and 'yay' spontaneously while daddy cried tears of joy. Oh, so cute!

Whether he's a gherkin, dill, bread and butter or sweet is yet to be determined...

Bounce

Baby seems to be quite happy with the current housing arrangements, which brings us to 5 days overdue. I feel great and the extra time has allowed me to mentally prepare for the big day, but I've been told this can't go on forever. At some point, I'll have to be induced.

Enter the beloved exercise ball. I perched on top of it last night and have vowed to bounce happily until gravity kicks in. If you're going to be bouncing for any extended period of time, I suggest you either be drunk, high or in possession of some very 'bouncy' music. Today, my song of choice happens to be "Concrete Love" by Habitat, but I think "Car 7" by The Barmitzvah Brothers would also be a fine selection. If you happen to have a stash of noteworthy bouncy tunes, please feel free to forward and I'll test them out.

Aside from bouncing, the day consisted of yet another visit to With the Grain, followed by a saunter through Greenwood Quiltery, and a few random pages of "Wreck this Journal". I was hoping to be a bit more creative during this down time, but my swollen hands are useless and methinks it'll be a while before they're back to normal.

Curves

Today marked the first official day of my maternity leave, so despite the fact that winter was raging, I decided to treat myself to lunch at With the Grain. It took quite a bit of work, hobbling down Woolwich Street through all that snow, but I figure at 39+ weeks, if I want a bowl of homemade soup I probably shouldn't fight the urge.

Upon arriving home, I was greeted by the sexy curves of the patio chairs that live on our front porch. (image courtesy of our new Panasonic TZ3) I'm still trying to sort out all the features, but so far it's one fantastic little camera.

November

It's the third Sunday of November, which means I'm doing lots of laundry and packing. Move-in for the One of a Kind Christmas Show starts tomorrow morning, so instead of making the daily commute into work, I just pack up and relocate to Toronto for two weeks. It's never easy leaving lovie and the comfort of home, but it means I get to sleep in, even after a 14 hour day.

The calendar also tells me today is the day for Guelph's Santa Claus Parade. A few hours ago, there were holiday floats and musical bands and festive pedestrians lining Woolwich Street. (Our house seems to be the starting point of the route, which allows for an entertaining sociological glimpse into the heart of Guelph. It's like the circus has arrived, I tell you) With all the laundry and packing that goes on, I've not once seen the actual parade, but I have a feeling we've got the best seats in town.

As of yesterday, I'm also 6 and a half months pregnant, which means those dang clothes being laundered and packed are very different from those of previous years. Empire waists and happy bows abound. I cringe having to shop at places like Motherhood, but as someone who was told her chances of getting pregnant were next to nil, I'll take it.

It's been a strange transition, going from an infertile statistic to mother-to-be. At times, I'm cautious about my joy because I know how many people out there have wished far harder than myself to have children. I also know that anything can happen and things can change at the drop of a hat. By the time I realized I was pregnant, my preparations for a life without kids had already been considered. I'd submit my BFA degree completion application to OCAD in early November, begin classes in the summer and wait to see what new opportunities came from the process.

A month or two ago, before the routine kicking had started, a thought suddenly hit me during rush hour. As I wove my way through the heaps of cranky commuters in Union Station, it occurred to me that I was actually carrying someone with me, that I wasn't alone. That realization seemed to turn the chaos to clarity, and for a split second my movement was effortless, like the waltz scene from The Fisher King. At that point I also realized that I should take an inventory of all the other things I'd been carrying around with me on a daily basis. Things like stress, worry and knapsacks full of obligation and fear of failure. Perhaps I didn't need to carry all of it...perhaps the load had gotten too heavy and some of those things simply needed to be left behind.

October

Queen West Art Crawl

Fog

Once I finished this piece, I asked lovie if he'd come up with a suitable title. Without hesitation, he said "Nuit Blanche", because it's misty quality reminded him of our all night escapade through the fog...