No lowlights, only highlights

I'm pretty sure outdoor craft markets are the ultimate form of retail therapy. Sure I rave about the joys of my pajama clad internet spending sprees but despite popular belief, I do try to avoid being a hermit. However, not all markets are created equally, so old ladies with pot scrubbers and crocheted barbie clothes need not apply. I'm more of a fan of markets geared towards semi-urban awesome crafty smart indie women (which I very much pretend to be). I got the pleasure of visiting such an anomaly for two consecutive weeks amidst my September mini break! Behold - Victoria's Government Street Market:


One block of pure awesome held every Sunday (weather permitting) from 11 - 4. The streets are magically strewn with local handicrafts, many of which I drool over on etsy on a regular basis. It's like the stars align for a five hour period each week fulfilling all my crafty purchasing desires - and none of that delayed gratification bit either.

I've always wanted to dive into the wonderful world of craft market salesmanship (officially since quinn and I went to that craft fair in Vernon a few years back) but dipping my toes into the not so fast-paced world of online selling seems to leave me content for the time being. Plus it's probably a good thing I don't actually live anywhere near a market so cool because I'm not ready to admit how much money I spent there...

Home sweet uncool home

My ten days in the wonders of Victoria were officially a success with only minimal mishaps (i.e. vomity illness, getting lost in the forest, and that epic tale of battery purchasing)! Highlights of my trip include:

1) Being an amazingly original tourist



2) Seeing all the important sights



and 3) Attending the sweetest Victoria-based music festival!



Now all I need to do is stumble across mass amounts of shame free riches so my dreams of well educated housewivery can come true and I can spend the rest of my days like I spent the last week - countless hours of retail therapy, crafts/friends/nature galore, and scheming how to make sweet young indie musicians my devoted pen pals! Dan Mangan - you're next.

Speaking of music festivals...

Amidst all the stir and excitement of my trip to Victoria and rifflandia, I received an email reminding just how sweet the last music festival I went to was! Roots and Blues was such an awesome experience (minus the complete exhaustion/onset of swollen lupus pain for the last month) that I'm sure I'll remember it fondly for many years to come! Sure it was rainy and muddy and we all dressed for the predicted hot August weather, but there were so many fantastic bands to soak up! (Including my fav's Elliott Brood and Chad Vangaalen - hence their addition to my september playlist - and my unruly urge to learn to play the banjo).

One cool booth/attraction they had at the event was the Six String Nation guitar entirely made from pieces of Canadian history and culture! It's a pretty amazing project and interesting to learn about all the items they used to construct it. So cool in fact, that thanks to Doug Nicholson/Six String Nation I got my picture taken with the guitar!


And even though this music festival was substantially different than the one I'm attending this weekend, I'm still totally stoked. Oh, and I really need to cut down the crafting time so I can work on my banjo playing...

Mini break!

Instead of celebrating the onset of September with back to school stationary and bouquets of sharpened pencils, I will relish in the fact that I'm not a slave to learning establishment this fall and visit British Columbia's capital city, Victoria! (Note the Parliament buildings and cheesy ultimate touristyness)


I've got an action packed week(ish) planned to visit old friends, potentially recover from my last month of lupus disaster, and overload my indie senses (with a ridiculous about of indie shops, indie food, and indie music)! Nothing better than a mini vacation from reality spent shopping in crafty markets and attending quite possibly the coolest autumnal music festival ever! Eee! Oh and don't worry Lindsay, I'm sure I'll be visiting some of those benches too...

On the subject of lists...

I am a list fanantic! As I was explaining to nick the other night (amidst his first year sciences/work/life juggling dilemma), I'm fairly confident in saying that lists are the key to success in life. Seriously. They're great for keeping you super organized, perfect in brainstorming, awesome at allowing you to remain focused, and best of all you get the ultimate satisfaction when you can dramatically cross completed items off! So good.

I'm all about different lists for different purposes. My list of lists:

1) The perpetual list - These are the items that are pretty much ultimately unreachable to complete but nice to have on the back of my mind when I find some spare moments. Includes items like cleaning/laundry, exercise, crafting, and, you know, figuring out my career/rest of my life.

2) The daily tasks list - Sometimes this one turns into a "weekend tasks" list, but both have the same contents. Includes things like deposit cheques, pick up prescriptions/random item I feel necessary to purchase, make lunch for work, be an awesome pen pal, paint toenails, etc. These lists are usually the most satisfying because the tasks don't take very long to complete and you even get to crumple up the list violently when you're done!

3) The specialty list - You can find these scattered on post-its around my desk and are specific to certain tasks (i.e homework, packing, groceries, etsy shop). My crafting/etsy list evolves most rapidly depending on what I've convinced myself is the highest priority at the time and has become so specialized that in fact it's jumped from post-it to legal paper format (although I did get the joy of crossing off "start blog" not too long ago).

Perhaps everyone doesn't have to be quite so involved with the list making process as I am, but I do think they're great enough to ramble on about in this post (and yes, I did write a list of what I was going to talk about before publishing this). So next time you're feeling particularly stressed with life, try using a list. I know I would.

Kittens with mustaches!

Time for part two of the new pinback button designs tale. After joining the autumnal woodland fun with the first set of fresh buttons how was I ever going to possibly come up with something else equally cool. So I got to thinking, "What is pure awesome?". The answer was clear - kittens with mustaches.



I mean I'm destine to be that crazy spinster cat lady anyways, at least if these pins are a flop I can fondly reminisce about "that time when I was sure the next big thing would be genetically engineering cats' facial hair". Can't wait.

Hurray for the randomness of the internet

Quite possibly the funniest webcomic ever. Thanks wendy.