welcome to the year 2014.

Another year is passing by and I cannot help but reflect on all the memories made and experiences of 2013. Every year I learn a little more about myself, my interests, ambitions and dreams. And each year I try to challenge myself by experiencing something new or reaching a new goal. In the year 2013 I was introduced to the world of the vegan raw diet which was full of wonderful food experiences. I stopped using shampoos for my hair and switched to baking soda, apple cider vinegar and lemon juice. And Grant and I sold our car and downsized to two wheeled vehicles as our way to reduce gas emissions. Recently I started exploring fermentation through brewing my own water kefir and kombucha. 

A new year is like a new beginning full of creative ideas and great adventures. I have many ideas and goals planned for 2014 and can hardly wait to get started. Perhaps it's just me but the action of sharing my goals publicly is a motivator and works like an affirmation. So here goes my checklist for 2014.

Train and run a full Marathon, 42kms 

Learn French

Volunteer at a Montessori School

Learn more about Permaculture and Organic farming (go wwoofing)

Plant a larger vegetable and herb garden

Join a ceramics class

Introduce more raw meals

Attend more concerts and music festivals

Attend more vegan and raw events

Visit Portland and Hornby Island

Read more books

Volunteer at an animal shelter or animal sanctuary

More hiking and outdoor adventures in the woods and atop mountains

Hello moon. Good morning new day. Welcome year 2014!

Share.

Today I came across some great words in the July/August 2013 Adbuster.

Someday, after mastering winds, waves, tides, and gravity, we shall harness the energy of love; and for the second time in the history of the world, humankind will have discovered fire.
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)

feel, look & live happy.

This past summer has been the most eventful summer so far. I have been so lucky to create many new & great memories with family and friends and I believe that this is only the beginning of something much greater. Although summer is nearing an end and fall colours are starting to fill the forests, I am looking forward to the smell of the warm dried leaves and the overall vibrancy. 

The change in nature has also inspired an idea for my upcoming grad show this spring. I have began to collect leaves and video/audio recording of trees to incorporate as a final installation piece. I have always enjoyed the experience of installations and the idea of creating "an environment". When it comes to art making I believe you should feel something and sometimes that feeling is better evoked through sounds and visuals. 

Another project I am working on is called the "Family Tree". I have gathered up photos of my immediate family and I plan on making lino-cut prints. I already started to experiment with printing. I am enjoying the roughness and hand-printed appearance. This piece ultimately means more to me that any onlooker. It is a representation of a photo album stopped in time. The process of focusing on one face, recreating it, and better understanding the shapes and contours. I am interested to see where this project goes as it progressively changes in time. 

Grant and I have spent the last few weekends exploring new hike locations. Last weekend it was Manning Park and the Cascades, the weekend before we went for a 9 hour hike to Radium Lake/Mount Webb, and I finally hiked Mount Cheam and Stawamus Chief. We are heading to Seattle to see Nicolas Jaar next weekend and I have been searching for places to camp or glamp or a Yurt, preferably somewhere near a great hiking trail or two. 

Yesterday I spent some time cleaning up my overgrown garden. After taking off east for a couple weeks, my garden was looking more like weeds than vegetables. I often forget how much I enjoy working in the soil. One day that will be my day job!  

Enjoy the photos. Feel, look & live happy

collecting leaves from a saskatoon berry tree.

family tree linos

first test print.

lighthouse park near horseshoe bay

grant beside a hut found at long beach, tofino.

sea kayak adventure, tofino.

berkeley california

grant paddle boarding in kincardine

the base of mount cheam (see the hang gliders in the sky)

stawamus chief

my first skydive september 8th

my little scooter, 2007 yamaha vino

blackberries in our backyard

rainbow carrots

beets, yumm.

and we have grapes growing in our yard too!

love the greens!

summer ♥

I love summer time! 

We are lucky to live in the fraser valley where it is mostly green and lush all year long however we do give up the sun for 8 months of rain and cloud to enjoy such a rainforest environment. This summer has been surprisingly wonderful filled with sun-sun-sun! It is an amazing difference how a little spot of sun can effect mood and energy. I find myself more active, eating more consciously, and becoming more connected with myself through yoga and mediation. 

I have titled this post "summer ♥" as I believe it has been the best summer up to date! I have had the opportunity to do some travelling (San Francisco and Montreal) two places I have always wanted to explore. And of course any travel experience is not fully successful without the foodie experience. My dear friend Janelle knows exactly what I mean. We are both extremely health conscious and LOVE food so when we are together we make an exaggerated effort to fit in as many food places as our short time together can offer! I just visited her in Toronto where we ate out at 2 raw vegan places called Live and Rawlicious. Live offered an amazing combo where we could sampled 4 of their most popular dishes - including pizza. At Rawlicious we shared a pesto pizza (sooo good) and a rawich (dehydrated onion bread wrap - yummm)and topped it off with a oreo cookie crunch smoothie (the best***) Our food experience did not end there as we dined out at 2 more amazing places in Montreal called Crudessence (raw vegan awesomeness, I brought home their cookbook) and Aux Vivres (not raw but great vegan food). I have recently made an account on happycow which I am excited to share my foodie reviews with the world. More people should eat vegan and raw! Love your body!

It has been a full 8 months since I stopped using shampoo and switched over to baking soda & tea tree oil and lemon. I found that in the beginning of my transition I was washing my hair more frequently, but now I can go weeks without it getting oily. I also found that baking soda & tea tree oil is very abrasive so I tend to only use it once a month or less and use lemon as my regular wash. Someone recently recommended leaving coconut oil in my hair as a conditioner so I plan on experimenting with that soon. 

Another recent change would be downsizing from a car to a scooter, a 2007 Yahama Vino 50cc to be more specific. Although it is not an electric scooter is does not use much gas to get me around. My bicycle is still my #1 way of getting around but the scooter has been an excellent new addition. I have been daydreaming about getting one for years! 

Right now I am enjoying the awesome sunny wonderfulness in Kincardine Ontario, my hometown. My mom and I recently made a delicious beet salad (not raw but vegan!) with a raw vegan macadamia nut cheese, beets, red swiss chard, apples and lightly toasted agave pecans! Yumm! More colourful the better!

grow grow grow!

May has been an exceptional month for growth in the garden. Aside from all the happy and sprouting greens, I have been inspired to try growing watermelon, quinoa and goji berries from collecting and sprouting their seeds. Unfortunately, only a few sprouts survived the transplant which validates my suspicion/theory that transplanting does not work most the time (at least I have not found much success). The climate in my house is far too comfortable and cushy for the little sprouts, that by the time they face the real world and real weather - it is too much of a shock for them to survive. 

Grant recently cleaned up our little courtyard area as it was completely overgrown by weeds. It looked pretty neat and worked awesome for my jimmy jet photo shoot but this year I am thinking of growing vertically. The courtyard gets a large amount of sun and little wind - perfect for tomatoes, herbs and strawberries. That is the plan for my next project. 

Most of my recent postings have been garden related (which is awesome on many levels) but there has been a lot of wonderful art related news to share. Back in the spring I was awarded the Outstanding Post-Secondary Artist at the Abbotsford Arts Council Arty Awards, nominated by the UFV Visual Arts Department. And more recently, I found out that my Bird Series will be exhibiting in July at the Abbotsford Kariton Gallery as part of the Fraser Valley Regional Biennale. I had never imagined that I would be participating in art shows - but it an amazing and exciting adventure! 

I came across some past collaborative/digital art pieces that Grant and I worked on together. I have not been creating much art lately but the ideas are starting to grow and grow. Next week I am heading to San Francisco to attend an art expo which will be demonstrating different art mediums and techniques. I am sure that it will be very inspiring. 

Today is another sunny day, off to garden and sketch in the sun! 

may 16 - before

may 30 - no garden is complete without cats!

raw vegan buckwheat crisps with avocado & heirloom tomato, my new favourite snack.

wedding invite for a friend.

collaborative design project with grant.

raw beginnings, spring sprouts & past creations

Today was a beautiful day, perhaps the warmest day yet this year in the Fraser Valley. I always feel a shift in my body when the weather changes, especially spring time. The new growth of plants is inspiring on a conscious and sub-conscious level - I feel rejuvenated. 

This year is my third season of growing my own crops and I must say it has been such a wonderful learning experience. I am still utterly amazed that what I plant actually grows. I am actually gaining confidence in my gardening skills! This year has been strangely warm too, in fact I planted my seeds 17 days earlier than last year and my snap peas have already grown 2 inches!!

My raw adventures took a sudden halt in March as I found myself getting sick often. After some investigation and re-examinting my processes of preparing food, I came to the conclusion that my method of sprouting (tradition jar and cheese cloth) was causing a food-poisoing reaction. Basically, I must not have been rinsing my sprouts well enough (sitting water = bad bacteria) combined with and an unbalanced gut flora caused me to have a severe reaction. It has been almost a month without sprouting and I haven't been sick at all, thank goodness! I have also found my new favourite snack, vegan raw apple cinnamon crisps with vegan raw blueberry cream cheese (from Gorilla Food cookbook, my most recent purchase).

This week I have been documenting some older art projects and I had forgot about how much I enjoyed my self portrait diptych. Enjoy! 

snap peas

apple blossoms

pear blossoms

morning cereal: soaked oat groats, spirulina, maca, seeds, banana & goji berries 

apple cinnamon crisp with blueberry cream cheese (vegan raw)

acrylic on canvas

raw beginnings.

I find it fascinating how my palette and appetite change depending on the seasons. Since the sprouting of new plants in the flower bed and the abundance of sunny days, I have been developing more of an appetite for juicing. The combination of beet, celery, apple, parsley, carrot and ginger is my favourite concoction! I cannot wait to explore my big book of juices for new ideas. 

Grant and I recently became members of a website called Meet Up, which we discovered was a great resource for raw potlucks and dinners in Abbotsford. So, this past Sunday we attended a Mediterranean themed raw dinner and it was fantastic! It was literally a four course meal which included two salads, hummus, tzatziki, crackers, lasagna, pizza and falafel linguine - plus a dessert of tiramisu! All vegan raw! The next themed raw dinner is called "American Junk Food", ironic... cannot wait!

juicing adventures.

vegan raw lasagna.

vegan raw tiramisu.

spring is finally here!

It is amazing how nature has a way of transforming overnight it seems. So, I have been making an effort to return to the same budding branch to watch its progress. Our apple and pear trees are budding and I cannot help but feel overly excited for another fruitful summer. Today was a full day spent in the yard preparing our compost and weeding the garden bed for new seedlings. Grant and I have big plans for improving our overgrown courtyard as well. No more invasion vines and rocks - we are thinking grass, grass, grass... and maybe a hammock too!

I had great intentions of posting images of our recent raw creations, but I must admit the food we make is usually eaten up far too quickly to photograph. I did however, manage to snap a photo of some kale crisps we dehydrated with the better than balsamic dressing recipe I found in my vegan cookbook Ripe from around here by Jae Steele. Yumm, these are so tasty and addictive!

My semester is nearing its end I am in the midst of working on a painting series for my painting IV class called I am Mountain. I have been feeling very discouraged by acrylics, so I thought maybe it was time to bring out my water soluble oils and what a difference this experience has been! I have more time to work due to the slow drying of the oils, plus I feel as though oil is more forgiving. I tend to work in sort of removal of the paint technique, paint on and wipe off with a rag. Anyhow, here is my progress. I imagine this series will evolve a bit more, only time will tell.

life drawing

A good friend of mine told me today that I should post more often and I completely agree. So, I thought since I have attended a few life drawing classes in the last few months I would share some recent sketches. 

welcoming in the new year

It's a new year and perhaps a new start for grand ideas. I have several goals and ideas I would love to put into action, starting with a raw living foods lifestyle. With the help of Grant (also transitioning into raw eating), we have ate completely raw this past week. My main recipe resource has been Ani's Raw Food Kitchen and the website The Raw Warung, which she often uses recipes from Ani Phyo's non-cook books. I also picked up Raw Food for Everyone by Alissa Cohen from the lovely organic health food store in Langley called Nature's Fare. 

We have tried sun-dried tomato burgers, walnut-almond tacos on red cabbage leaf with baja cheese, Ginger Almond Pate Nori rolls, and my favourite; pizza on a sesame sunflower bread with cashew cheeze! I plan to take some photos of our next food creation - if I'm not too busy eating it.

One of my goals for 2013 is to be more creatively active, which includes documenting my work to post on my blog. One of my most recent photography projects was to create a still-frame narrative using one image. The image below is accompanied by the poem Jimmy Jet and his TV Set by Shel Silverstein. 

I'll tell you the story of Jimmy Jet -

And you know what I tell you is true. 

He loved to watch his TV set

Almost as much as you.

He watched all day, he watched all night

Till he grew pale and lean, 

From "The Early Show" to "The Late Late Show" 

And all the shows between.

He watched till his eyes were frozen wide, 

And his bottom grew into his chair.

And his chin turned into a tuning dial, 

And antennae grew out of his hair. 

And his brains turned into TV tubes, 

And his face to a TV screen.

And two knobs saying "VERT." and "HORIZ." 

Grew where his ears had been.

And he grew a plug that looked like a tail 

So he plugged in little Jim.

And now instead of him watching TV 

We all sit around and watch him.