Burrito West Blog

On Friday after work Peter and I headed down the the Vancouver Art Gallery with our bikes.... along with a few thousand other folks for the June Critical Mass bike ride. It was my first time. It was pure joy cycling through the streets of my city without fear of death/injury by car. It was so peaceful, no hum of traffic.... just happy people, bike bells dinging. Seriously an amazing thing. Props to the drivers and pedestrians for being so patient and generally good sports about being held up as a few thousand cyclists took over the streets for a little while.

This photo of me and Peter is by a super talented photographer friend & co-worker of mine. I bumped into him (pure luck) as the ride took over all of Lions Gate Bridge. Check out his photo stream of the event.

Am relaxing in Whistler while Peter mountain bikes.   Life is good.

One of the reasons I love crafting is because I can get a sudden hankering for a long, chunky necklace, rummage through my massive bead stash, find some beads and chain....











and make myself one of these (and have a massive photo shoot with it).

Then I can make a similar one and list it on Etsy so someone else can have some awesomeness too.

Most of my bead projects are really long and involved, so it's nice to whip something up in short order (relatively), very satisfying.

The problem with summer is that I'm an adult and I don't get 2-4 months off to enjoy the awesome weather. Vancouver is doing that annoying thing where, after 8 months of grey the skies are blue and sunshiny every. single. day. And I can't just hang out on the beach. Although, technically, I haven't checked with my boss, maybe he'd be ok with it?

Last weekend Peter and I went out to the burbs to see his sister in her year end dance recital (she's 17 and a fabulous dancer). We're at the family house and they did the thing that most annoys me in the whole world. They drove 3 blocks to get from the house to the school where the recital was taking place. 3 blocks down a quiet residential street. Previously, Peter and I have walked there while they drove and it was pretty much a tie for who got there first. Seriously - if people aren't willing to walk THREE BLOCKS down a pleasant residential street.... I just.... I'm flabbergasted. As a planner, I find this really depressing. It shows that when people are in the habit of driving absolutely everywhere, then even when they can easily walk somewhere, they will still drive. How do you overcome that to create walkable communities?

After work today Peter and I grabbed supper at a nice little place that is weirdly almost always closed when we go by (they apparently close at 8:15?) but today we caught them in time for a tasty thin crust pizza which we ate on their pretty patio right on Robson St. Then we walked down to the beach which was busy and full of interesting people. There was a dude freestyle rapping with a mike and amp. He was pretty impressive actually. Then there was a group of people hanging out, with a guitar and some drums, just chillin and making some music. We walked down the seawall a little ways and stumbled across a guy with a beautiful full size harp. Yes, seriously. We sat on a bench next to him for a while, watching the sun set over the ocean while he played the harp. Then a guy with a big white ghettoblaster walked by with a rat on his shoulder.

I could not make this stuff up. I love it here.

Also - one of my projects went to Council today and was approved, so its officially finito burrito. On to other things!

One of my favorite pictures from my recent trip to Nova Scotia/New Brunswick. This one is from Halifax. I'm a sucker for old buildings.

I'm feeling rather weighed down by all my unfinished projects.... I've got so many things I want to start, but I can't enjoy starting something new until I've finished one of the many works-in-progress. Funny how silly things like that can weigh on us, but there you go. And with so many projects to finish and start, sometimes I end up spending all my time dithering about which one to work on first.

I've decided to buckle down and get some stuff done, and I've made a bit of progress in the past week, yay!

I've successfully hemmed a skirt I've been meaning to hem for about 6 months. I sewed buttons back on a pair of pants and a new sweater - both of those have been nagging at me for a month or two. I've been working on a crochet blanket that I discovered in a drawer that I'd forgotten I'd even started (had to rip back half of it to fix it, which explains why it was stuffed in a drawer); that one will take a while to finish but it's a good mindless project, so I don't mind.

Today I finished the project that has been waiting for about... a year? Maybe more.

I made a pendant like this for my friend Jodie, then Amber ordered one from me (thanks Amber!). I got the smart idea to do up one more for myself, with sterling silver wire this time. At some point in the making of the third one, I just hit a wall, I didn't want to wrap wire anymore ever again. So the project languished.

Today however - I finished it! WHOO! And I've already listed it for sale because when I look at it, all I see is the anguish. =) It's very pretty, I do like it, I just can't bear to look at it anymore.

That's okay, I've got 500 more projects in the queue, I'm bound to like one or two of those.

Dress Giveaway!

Things I'm kind of obsessed with lately:



1. This designer in Montreal who just opened an etsy shop. Love her stuff, especially this top (at left). I want this top. A lot.
Also, this.

2. blip.fm now shows embedded youtube videos (if available) for songs... which is kind of cool, because there are some hilarious obscure videos I would never have seen otherwise, including this 1970s bollywood(?) chacha song. I mean, that's awesome.

3. But I'm particularly smitten with this song and video: Chacha Ballahoo by Esther and Abi, circa 1965. It's... just... entrancing. So of a different era.

4. I stumbled onto this weird little video.... based on a video game I've never seen... and now the song is stuck in my head and will. not. go. away. no matter how many times I listen to chacha ballahoo! Listen at your peril.

There's a little matter I need to get off my chest. Something I noticed while in Nova Scotia.

It's been bothering me for a while.

It's bad.

People, we need to have a discussion about faux-shutters on your houses.

Now, I understand the desire to add a little ornament to your homes. Modernist architecture did away with all ornament and tried to convince us that everything was better plain. Sometimes it is, but often it's just plain.

I'm not even necessarily against faux shutters. They could be cute. But here's the thing. Shutters once had a purpose. Waaay before our time. But I'm pretty sure we all know what shutters are supposed to do. Take a moment and think about it - what do you think shutters are supposed to do?

If you said light control, privacy, or protection from the elements - you're correct! Shutters used to close over the window for those purposes.

With all that in mind.... see anything wrong with the photo at left? Anything at all? Something amiss, perhaps?

Like the fact that the shutters on the picture window are about half the size they would need to be to actually... you know.... SHUTTER the window. (The other faux shutters are also the wrong size.)

This drives me ABSOLUTELY. INSANE.

People. If you need to have faux shutters on your house (consider that carefully), please make sure you don't install ones that are ridiculously out of proportion to your windows. Seriously. Why would you do this? Does this look cute and homey or does it look like a moron lives there? ( I see moron.) It's like installing a decorative railing on your porch but sizing it for people who are 2ft tall.... it's just WRONG and silly.

About 40% of the homes in Halifax/Dartmouth suffered from Ridiculous-Faux-Shutter-Syndrome. RFSS. Educate your friends and neighbours. Save them from travesties like these:















The one-sided, wrongly proportioned faux-shutter. BAD.

This house is adorable, it does not need wrongly-proportioned faux shutters (on every window too!)...

I'll show you using the power of photo editing...















See, isn't that better?

Please preserve my sanity.

Say no to wrongly-proportioned faux shutters.