:: A story written and illustrated by Miss Maia while at school ::

I am finally coming out of hibernation. After weeks of hobbling around with a cane like an arthritic centenarian, I can now finally walk somewhat normally. If you've never had a back injury, let me tell you this: never take your back for granted!! Trust me, it's kind of essential. Not being able to walk or put your own socks on sucks. Big time. What happened to me? Well, after two pregnancies, lots of baby holding, and doing silly things like ripping up bathroom floors and attempting new yoga moves all in the same day, my back gave out. Big time. MRI shows three slipped discs and one severely pinched nerve. I could have told the radiologist about the latter. Made childbirth seem like a walk in the park.

This injury was certainly a good, albeit painful reminder not to take anything for granted. It has made me appreciate my slow but steady return to health, and just how lovely it is to be able to care for my family again. The floors are covered in dust bunnies and toys, but that hardly seems important when I can now manage to cook dinner, join the family for walks around the neighbourhood, and put my own socks on again.

And the sunshine is out. It's flirting with us, in true Seattle style, but hey, I'll take that over battleship grey. The kids are outside getting covered in dirt, driving their trucks over two sunbathing greyhounds. All sorts of things are growing and the garden is full of freshness and bright greens and colour again. Life is good. I hope everyone is having a good day and is able to take a moment to appreciate all that you have and all that your beautiful body allows you to do!

xo

Sarah

My plastic-free shop

I posted a while back about going plastic-free, and my goal for this year is to have as little plastic in our kitchen as possible. Went shopping today at Top Foods armed with my roll of waxed paper, cotton mesh produce bags, and regular cotton drawstring bags. I was curious to see how many items on my shopping list would be available without plastic packaging. Some stuff was easy, other stuff not so much. Amazing how much is packaged in plastic. Even those cardboard boxes that look like they're eco-friendly are hiding a plastic sleeve/pouch inside to hold the contents.

Anyway, I did get some rolled oats from the bulk section in the natural food section, used my Simple Ecology bag and avoided the little twist tie thingie by writing the code on my hand.

I was happy to discover that Top has a bread section with unpackaged loaves, I was able to stick one of these in my cotton bag and put that in the freezer once we got home. Pillowcases would do the trick too!

The woman at the meat department was friendly and when I specified no plastic she wrapped the chicken breasts in what looked like brown paper...unfortunately it is lined with plastic so I'll have to ask her to use my wax paper roll next time.

The deli woman seemed amused and slightly annoyed by my request, but she did wrap the sandwich meat in paper (not plastic-lined, yay!). When I asked about unpackaged cheese and could I please get a chunk in paper, she didn't seem to understand. Looks like they have pre-sliced cheese available...but plastic wrapped. I think I'll have better luck at Whole Foods where they have a proper cheese counter and I can hopefully get something that isn't already packaged.

Produce was easy, although certain items use plastic bands and plastic tags. And beets are messy! I will simply have to designate one of my synthetic Envirosax bags for those.

And last but not least, the cashier was actually excited about my cotton bags! She liked the fact that the Simple Ecology ones have a tag with their weight to deduct.

All in all the shop went well. I look forward to the Farmer's Markets this Spring, and possibly doing a CSA this year. In the meantime, I'll be known as the crazy plastic-free lady at the local grocery stores. Just wait until I go entirely paper-free and come in with my glass jars! Here comes the crazy jar lady!

yes please

The family room. This is the room we spend most of our time in. The floors are cold, to put it mildly, and, well, ugly. Unless you like stained lime green vinyl. And chilblains. DesignSponge is hosting a giveaway, the winner will receive a beautiful, ethically made, 100 % wool Bev Hisey dhuri rug. And I wouldn't mind winning it, which is why I'm unabashedly posting this here pic of our lovely floor in the hope that it will soon be covered in something my little ones can play trains on without catching their death, and that I can actually look at without my artsy eyes having a conniption fit. Wish me luck!

recipe box

Our neighbours two doors down sold their home, downsizing to a more manageable place. They are original owners, their house was built, like ours, in the late fifties, and it will be sad to see the moving truck arrive this Wednesday. After going to their open house a few months ago, I finally mustered up the courage to ask if they would ever consider selling me their mid-century, Danish-looking armchairs...to which they replied: "What, those old things?". I am now refinishing them. Stripping is just not as much fun as I thought it would be! But they will look terrific in our living room once they are all sanded down, oiled, and sporting freshly covered cream cushions.

This afternoon there was a knock on our door. I found the retired engineer holding a box for me, things they no longer need from their kitchen. Many spices, some of which are vintage (I'm not joking), a set of cheery Christmas mugs, and last but not least, a small wooden box. A treasure. With fifty years' worth of recipes. To be honest, had he dropped off a box of his wife's knickers, I would have felt less uncomfortable. There is something incredibly odd and personal about looking through a woman's recipe collection that spans more than half a century. I know some families whose recipes are top secret, often taken to the grave. I feel like I'm snooping. These are mostly desserts, some are recent, many are cutouts from magazines and newspapers. It is obvious which were her favourites, tattered, corrected, splattered. And then there are recipe cards from friends. And I wonder, are these women still alive? Were they close friends? There are a few from Grampa. There is Mom's Favorite Tuna Casserole. And then there's the small stack of yellowed cards held together by a defunct elastic band, written with a fountain pen in a rather elegant hand. Some of the words are smudged, as though they have been rained on. Cried on? Were these given to her when she married? From her mother? Grandmother? How long have these recipes been in the family? And why me?? I see children and grandchildren visiting the house, helping with the upcoming move. I assume this box was seen and unclaimed, set aside with the other unwanted items. Perhaps none of them cook. Perhaps it is too much a reminder of their mother's decline into Alzheimers, her inability to decipher the once familiar words.

One day, hopefully, I'll get over the feeling that I am snooping, and I will have to give these a try. I've always wanted to make my own Buche de Noel, and Grampa's Stolle looks good, judging from the rather beat up recipe card.

acupuncture and art

Some of my paintings and prints are now up in my acupuncturist's office! So now you can enjoy my art while getting treatment from Tristin, founder of Bird & Bee Acupuncture. She has helped me tremendously, particularly with my painting shoulder. I tend to get slightly engrossed in my work, and have the tendency to forget that I've been holding my arm up for oh, say, 5 hours straight, or that I am ravenous and it's freezing in my studio/garage and my nose is about to fall off. And that's the shoulder that also holds a fussy toddler while cooking dinner, walks the dogs, does the weeding, and props the sleepy head of a nursing child. Needless to say, it's well used and gives me much grief. Or rather, used to. Tristin's gentle treatments allow me to leave her office pain free and ready to tackle paintings and screaming toddlers all over again. For which I am very grateful.

Other news, Maia starts school next week. Part of me is looking forward to getting back into a routine, but part of me is also a little sad that summer is coming to an end. Those lovely, unstructured days of little ones running around the garden, through the sprinkler and straight to the dirt pile before coming into the house and rendering all of my white furniture a nondescript shade of grey. Hmm, maybe I am ready for the school year to begin after all.

xo

Sarah

BAM artsfair 2010!

It's Monday, July 26th, and that means I have officially survived the weekend! Hooray! I spent the last three days at the Bellevue Arts Museum Artsfair, selling my paintings and prints. And yup, I was nervous as hell last Thursday night, this being my first big, juried show. But an hour in, I had sold my first painting and was already blushing (beet red actually) at all the really lovely, positive comments. The long hours ended up going by very quickly as it was busy, and people wanted to stop and chat, which was lovely. And I had lots of friends stop by too, which always helps!

I lucked out and had great booth neighbours, Martha Monson Lowe with her incredibly graceful baskets, and Paul Counts who was as cheerful and entertaining as his colourful blown glass teapots and vases. All in all it was exhausting but fun! Lots of great folks and good art. A good combo. My two favourites of the show were there again: Brian Blackham with his monochromatic jars, and Diane Culhane who speaks to my fauve-loving soul. I wouldn't exactly mind sacrificing some (or all!) of our wall space for their work, and if Greg Klassen could please furnish the place then I'd officially be living in heaven...ah well, a few more artsfairs before I can treat myself to some of those goodies!!

I'll leave you with some of the comments I heard about my work. Apparently I don't do dark and tormented all that well, which is just fine by me. I'll take smiles and laughter any day:

Peaceful

Fun

Whimsical

Happy

Calm

Joyful

You've made my day and I've only been here 5 minutes.

Quirky

You look like one of the characters in your paintings.

Witty

and the best...

"Your lipstick matches your work!" Er, that was intentional of course.

xo,

Sarah

spring update

Seems I fell off the blogging bandwagon these last few weeks! I do have a decent excuse though: I've been working hard getting ready for the Bellevue Arts Fair. I am almost finished my last large piece for the show, then it's on to matting and framing. I think there's light at the end of the tunnel!

And last week my baby, who will always be my baby poor kid, turned two!! How did that happen?? He got a ridiculously large Tonka truck, which he approved of, and a quiet celebration at home with us and Grandma, and, of course, a chocolate zucchini cake. And for the long weekend we went up to Canada to celebrate all over again with our family and friends in my parents' new home. They had moved in two days prior, already had paintings up, and my mom navigated her new kitchen as though she'd been cooking there for 10 years and served us a delicious lunch. And to make a good weekend absolutely perfect, my dad and I escaped to a book sale and, both being bookaholics, each returned with a large box of books which we've wasted no time devouring.

What else has been going on...inspired by this blog, and utterly disgusted by the gargantuan islands of plastic trash in our oceans, I've been on a mission to have a plastic-free kitchen, and have replaced (donated) all our old, scarry plastic tuperware with glass storage bowls for leftovers and canning jars for grains and dried foods. I've also become keenly aware of the ridiculous amounts of plastic packaging that is used for food, and have begun opting out of these irresponsible items. Thank goodness for Farmer's Markets, bulk sections, and re-usable bags. I had my first ever all plastic-free shop today and I'm happy to report that it wasn't all that difficult. Even with a toddler in tow.

And last but not least, we've ripped up a big chunk of grass in our front yard and replaced it with raised flower and vegetable beds. Looks great, involves less mowing, and hey, what's better than eating your own front yard?