Happy Birthday Mum

Today my mother is 90. An auspicious day to be born and to turn ninety. The end of the world (as we know it), and solstice the shortest day of the year. She is tiny, under four foot ten now but she is also mighty. Happy Birthday to my dear mum!

Return of the...

Hi I'm back, did you miss me? I've missed you. I have been gone a long time. Several reasons why. The first but least pertinent is my breakdown of technology computer wise around me. My lovely Mac computer Esmerelda is old and old is not so good for computers I understand. I am using my husbands wee net book. I still don't have a way to post pictures but I aim to get there. The second very big life changing reason is School. I am in a program called Fashion Techniques and Design, mostly it is techniques. I am learning chiefly how to sew, how to pattern draft, other yummy things I am learning include stuff about textiles. It is the love of textiles that brought me to fashion school. When the knitting store I was working in closed down, and my daughter entered Junior High I decided that going back to school to learn a set skill set would be a good idea. My art if you recall had in the past years focused on reclaiming textiles and using a sewing machine. Chiefly I was making sewn and illustrated cards, dolls, pillows, bags and jewelry. My intention after I finish school which happens mostly in April ( I will still need a few courses as I lightened my load this year a tad) is to find employment. In exactly what I am not certain. I have always loved loved loved loved did I say loved the movies and film, and at one point in my first school experience wanted to go into that field. I like the whole experience of it. One dream possibility would to work in a wardrobe department somewhere, somehow or to be the care taker and keeper custodian librarian of clothing. I am not sure how far fetched a dream this is. I do live in a city where films and television production and theatre happens so that is a plus. I wouldn't mind making and selling things either(or as well) like in the past I love craft and the craft community and well just anything handmade. I know I like to work with my hands. It is good being at this place , as I do know who I am and what and what would not make me happy and productive. Life is good. I really do enjoy school, although frequently want to quit. It is challenging. Mostly the pace in which things are required to be done. Fast. The work load is heavy as well. It However school is a brief span of time in the scope of things. without the balance that I thrive best with. So much work and so little time to do With that said I have learnt a ton. A ton I tell you! I recently figured out how to make a pattern for a dress that was fully lined with 26 pattern pieces, and then figured out how to sew it. This is something amazing considering before this I was sewing square things mostly! People are a lot differently shaped than squares, especially women people. It is only when I step back that I see where I am from where I have come and with that feel very good. It is nice to have this winter break from school and to feel the need to reach out and write words and come back to the surface of my life to see what is what. Thanks for reading.

out and about

yesterday i meet a friend
and her baby who is almost one

he is such a big and delightful chappy
i hope to be friends with him for many years

we went to the gardiner museum for ceramics
and saw betty woodman's show, which made me remember

art is awesome
and in betty's case gorgeous and colourful and simply wonderful
the show goes to june 5th hurry hurry hurry

this weekend is the annual yard sale at the textile museum
good finds for cheap, and a bunch of other textile obsessed shoppers
plus a fund raiser for this toronto treasure house

walking the owen
and blooms
and green
and grass
and rain
and sun

and sidewalks

and today
a big machine
eatting an old school
that will be someother something

and as the crane tore into the flesh of bricks
i saw i did the ghosts of old students pore out
and it made me sad and the waste of this
what looked like a perfectly good building
and i recalled images of poor shacks called schools
in distant lands and could of weept right there

and felt all punk rock
and wanted to put my bother boots on
and kick it

but instead i saw the next blooms
of some tree
so pretty

and thought
circle dance is better than some progress

one step forward one back

out and about

that's me

over and out

today

Bears and Dogs that Like to be Read to and Bunnies with Book Bags

Thanks so much to those that came and organized and participated and volunteered in this years Wayzgoose, and to my good friend James who drove us.

It was lots of fun once again.

Looking forward to next years event.

I Cordially Invite You to Wayzgoose.

I will be presenting my work at the 33rd annual gathering of printers, binders engravers, paper makers and marblers and other craftspeople.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

achival

Wooly Hello

happy valentines to you

Charmaine

Have I introduced you to Charmaine?

She is a woolie owl girl. She likes pretty dresses and the colour mauve.

ticket holders

Market Day

little legs BiG SnOw

we wake to day luxuriously late

and unwrap the present of this day

with white white wonder

the streets are full of snow

and i am as excited as the dogs i meet
snow day full of glee

we
leap bounds of snow
shuffle along
tracks others have left

owen walks behind me
as i create a wind barrier

we walk
and we walk

and the white colours all the other colours

suddently the painted lillac trellis speaks to me
as we shuffle along

the sky is white too
grey white

the sun behind snow
smaller and wanting

and we trudge along
one foot in front of the other

two feet followed by two feet
clad in small red rubber boots
with woolen socks home made
my faithful owen follows

diligent in the journey
pretending to be an old dog
but really a relaxed dog
some might call lazy

we run into a small pack
playing wildly nipping
and barking with the general air of partying

owen waits on the outskirt of this
appealing to the humans
wondering if any food offerings are available

i stand back as well,
a little too gleeful
and impractical about this crazy dumping of
awesome, yes awesome powdery fantastical snow

i am taken back to the times of childhood
but mostly embrace the profound silence that is bestowed
even in this frantic city

all the dogs smile at me
every single one

then owen and i head home
trudging back

at this point
everyone is out
shovelling the stuff

and there are people present outside familiar houses
that i have never seen before

the city becomes smaller
as we are all under this white blanket
of wintery possibility and duty

and coming home on my tired legs
inside i pick off the snow balls on owens tired little legs
melting them with warm hands
one as big as a golf ball

and giggle at the humorous sight of my companion
wearing an icy mask from breathe and cold and snow

inside we eagerly eat our breakfasts
and owen deservedly naps

Method Reader

I am reading a book entitled 'The Outlander' by Gil Adamson.

From the back cover:

"In 1903, two vengeful brothers and a pack of bloodhounds track a mysterious young woman across the western wilderness. She is nineteen years old. Half mad. A widow by her own hand. "

So I haven't washed in a week, other than my teeth because that can lead to tooth decay an irreversible dilema.
I have washed my hands and face, but haven't bathed. Getting that western wilderness unwashed feeling. I have been working solitaire at home alone, my daughter enjoys her own brand of deshelvelment and my husband has a dull sense of smell. It's deep winter so when I go outside I wear a big parka and a talk neck tube scarf and a hat, so I figure my smell is contained besides it's breezy outside and I am accompanied by my dog who I can blame for any escaped stench.

I am enjoying the sameness each day of putting on the same clothing as the day before. Today on Fashion Television there was a feature discussing the 'uniform' of different designers, often a black tee and dark jeans. Einstein had a uniform of suits and John Cage had a uniform of denim. My uniform is khaki and olive greens and grays, my favorite neutral. It is very nice not thinking what to wear and the familiarity of the same clothing each day. I am also reminded of cartoon charactors like Nancy and Tin Tin. It is sort of a vacation, a mini sloth experiment, a fermentation.

I do have a social occasion coming up this Friday and in honour of this I will bathe throughly and put on fresh clothing. I haven't decieded if I will launder the clothing I am wearing or come up with a new 'uniform'. Something to be said for relaxing the hygene routine. Saving resourses, water, and realizing how long it takes to get stinky. I am looking forward to the newness of getting clean and know I will really enjoy that.

Books do not come with odour, other that that discribed. Rumbled and relaxed. Mind on other matters and an empathy for the charactors riding horses, living rough. Who says one needs to book a vacation to take one. Austerity as vacation rather than opulance. Experiences and experiments that are accessable to get into the skin of a fiction charactor to test limits and elements and to choose to stop. Social conventions challenged. Exploration in daily routines.

Just thought I would share my enjoyable some what malodorous state.

Remainders of the Lunch

ahh you have lost your lunch bag...

oh well it seems they only have a shelf life of half a year

happy the old lunch box is found

left to fester in a warm school for the holidays

i didn't consider this until i opened the bag

stepped back
and then leaned in

wafting out an odor i can only describe as green
and not in an inviting way

lean in

an unidentifiable element
almost round
completely green
and powdery
like a spawn
an alien
nothing earthy
up until now

no stranger to fungi
as i did do a science fair
on the subject

growing small amount of mold
in tiny baby food jars i keept in the fridge

spores
space ships

lean in
and find
what is this new thing
initially repulsive
not edible for certain

a strange mutation
of an orange tangerine
i conclude

and i am a little less repulsed
a little smitten with this
powdery disolving orbish creature
who i didn't give a name

but
plundged a plastic fork into
and disposed of carefully
incase it was catching

you never know
how things will appear
and the challenge of seeing past
your preconcieved notions

and intense prejudice
of food gone bad!

but given half a chance
the possiblility in that mold
the powder
the green of it

was kinda

well

cool

Reset Button

The last of the Christmas lights

the glitter removed from the wrapping

and left with the contents of a sweet cardboard box
old and familiar

filled with nothing but possiblility
and a little nostalgia in the corners

from the prior restet button
that each year brings with it

resolutions made
and new plans etched out

that my dear friend was last year

this is a new page
a new leaf

an empty delicious plain brown thin cardboard box
to fill
and empty

and watch

and breathe life into

happy we hope always

happy posibility

and sweet and savory

Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year to You!

xo

love,
Kim

Bella

Tony!

dust

this is today

i woke very early
and instead of pretending to be normal
and getting me required eight hours

at five
i rose

and made a puppy who is blue
named ralf

then i went into the mountain of laundry
laundry mountain

and putting on my scaling equipement
started the climb

used bleach
this is new

and folded a bunch
and put it in large plastic bag
like the laundromat that takes in laundry
and charges 20 a pound

fresh

then the tub
called me
and the terrible cleaning product
because really it's embarassing but it is grey

and the fumes woke my daughter
what the heck is this awful stuff
but i think it is working magic
on my martha stewart dreams

then i ate old pizza and new tea
and bea my girl
told me she isn't feeling well
it's that time of year
so i called the school

and feed the pets
and did more laundry
and took the dog out
first putting him into the equivilant of a snow suit
perpetually two
i put him in little rubber boots with socks to make
taking them off easier
because of the salt

and returned the depressing but well made film
to the library

and we meet up with a cute weiner dog
who had anger management issues
and yelled at my dog
and scared me
not so cute

and then while the computer warmed up
she's old and finicky

i swept under the love seat
and owen the dog tried to help
eat the dust bunnies
but i shoed him away

and the hanukah is ending tonight
and the tree is up

and things keep coming in the house
like flyers
and greeting cards from people who sold us something
like insurance
and stuff like presents
some we eat
others we wear
others linger

and i am reminded of the heap to charity
that i haven't called for pick up

and all the magazines to read
and books and patterns

and the dust
which likes to settle down
and make its self at home

it's only 9:30

will my tub become sparkling
will the fumes intoxicate us
will we be okay

my smile isn't super white
my teeth are like that

words
paper
fabric
stuff
stuff
stuff

de-clutter
clean
sort
put away

make
create
breathe

live