Anywhere Yoga

Anyone who knows me will tell you I am a yoga addict.  I love studying, teaching and practicing yoga.   I live in yoga clothes, read yoga books, listen to music to set my classes to and here I am posing for an editorial on yoga in Washington Magazine! 

I'm pretty stoked. 

Will post the rest of the article shortly.... we are in the process of moving houses. 

Yup, after two years our house is SOLD. 

We're finally able to move on.

For now you'll find me at yoga.

This is Lilly Jones on the left and Me on the right.

What I Do

Honestly, this has been a real question mark for me in the past year. Everyone you meet wants to know what you do, meaning for work, money, career of course.  I used to do all kinds of amazing projects in my line of work.  I am a TV producer by trade.  There was always a next project lined up to go to upon wrapping the first one - even if I spaced them out to allow for a brief holiday in between.  Series format, comedy, lifestyle, celebrity, ego - that is what I do - it became who I was.

Suddenly a grey area exists between what I do and who I am.

Then the grey turns black.

A divided line between what I do and who I am.

This has never happened before.

Like a shedding of skin the what I do feels as though it's become a part of my past. What do I do now? I spend my day with my toddler sharpening my negotiating skills, making snacks, building towers, playing troll, reading books, singing songs, doing laundry, taking walks, meeting friends, exploring, sifting through gravel for shark's teeth, enforcing time outs, washing Barbie mermaid and daughter's hair,  having dance parties in the kitchen, doing groceries, cleaning the house, practicing and teaching yoga.

What I do I can't pin point. My days are full, at night I am tired.   Perhaps it's not as exciting to an acquaintance at a gathering to say I'm a stay at home mom - but to me it's far more impressive than any TV series I've ever produced.  It's pretty cool to have the opportunity and luxery to fill my days with my toddler's related activity.

My new reality is this, I get to be in the present, because the present is the only time a toddler knows. Perhaps this is the greatest gift my daughter has given to me  - the ability to just be here in the now. It doesn't matter too much what's next for in life we are fluid and as long as our most basic needs are met what's next will work itself out.

So for now this is what I do.

Repurposing - A Work in Progress

Ha -ha, I just came back to work on this post and realized the title is a metaphor for my life.  I digress, the purpose of this post is to show you all what I've been working on for the past few months.  I seem to get going and then life interrupts and I have a repose from my crafty work and then I come back to it.  

This is an antique frame I picked up and redid as a wedding shower gift for my seester.

I guess it fits with something old, something new, something ... blue?

I used an interior latex semi gloss for the finish.  It took a couple of coats of paint and then I sanded off the edges to age it again.

I really have to ask my seester for a photo of the finished product.  I had a mirror hand cut and mounted in the frame. I think it came out really well!  

And this is the antique mahogany secretary desk I picked up for $30.00!  It's is in great shape structurally.  I have all the pieces to fit it back together.  It was refinished in a stain by someone previously and  the stain is in bad shape so I can't strip it to refinish in natural wood.  I've elected to finish it out in blue too.

I cleaned it well and then primed it white. 

Using a cabinet roller I'm applying the paint.

This is where I'm at so far.  The drawers need some work still and I've got to get going on the wood glue and piece together the interior drawers and one of the claws on the feet.

It's a start.  Check back and I'll show you the final products!

My Food Photography

This is the ad Polly's Perfections ran in the February issue of Washington Magazine.  I am friends with the owners and had photographed a lot of chocolate for their catalogue and to hang in the store.  Photographing chocolate has it's perks!

Thirty Nine

This is me. 

I'm 39.

This is my year to shine. 

I've been in a holding pattern and things are about to change.  My last creative success was selling my TV show Girls Will Be Girls in January 2005.  Since then there have been many great events in my life including marrying the love of my life and together having a daughter, moving to another country, slowing down, finding my yoga feet in the teaching world and now I'm ready to invite something new into my life.  World  - I'm putting it out there. I'm ready.  Show me the way!

Birthday Tea

My friend Kathryn and I share a birthday - which is pretty cool!  In honour of our day Finley and I hosted Kathryn; her daughters, Sora age four, Mia age two and her lovely mother Diana for Birthday Tea. 

Table Scape

Hosting tea parties is my new little obsession.  I've enjoyed tea at some of the major hotels like The Empress in Victoria BC, The Chateau Laurier in Ottawa ON and The Plaza in NYC. Each time, we get dolled to up meet up with friends to enjoy a leisurely and indulgent afternoon of gabbing with the girls over delicate and decadent bite sized tea morsels.

Egg salad on cucumber

I've borrowed ideas from magazines, baby showers and my Aunt's recipes.  I've altered and tweaked other recipes until I make them fit in my gluten free diet - all the while musing over presentation.  No two teas are ever alike at my house which is absolutely positively FUN!

Endive with sockeye salmon salad, egg salad croissants
and peanut butter and banana triangles.

Endive with sockeye salmon salad with cream cheese, cilantro and red onion. 

Mini cheese cakes, blue berries and ginger cookies...Kathryn baked gluten free peanut butter cookies - so good!

Finley's tea set is also in use.  

Hosting a tea party gives me an opportunity to pull out my grandmother's tea cups, my great-grandma's silver, the tiered serving platters bought for use on our wedding table miss-matched with plates are paired with glasses gifted to me by my friend Rachel when she inherited new ones. 

Stole this idea from my seester.  The hummus is in the bottom  - prevents double dipping!
Well, unless you're dining with toddlers.

My grandma Dodie's tea cup.

My philosophy is USE it Enjoy it!   If it breaks  - at least we got some enjoyment out of it!  What's the point of having heirloom things stuffed behind glass and never used for their intended purposes?  Impermanence people, it's what I'm working on.

Our fabulous girls!
Left to right. Mia, Diana, Sora, Finley and Kathryn.

You might say I have too much time on my hands -but- such is NOT the case - believe me.  Teas like this are surprisingly quick to pull together and so much fun to enjoy.  

It's A New Year. It's A New Post.

For the first time in 4 years of blogging I went to edit a sentence and LOST my post.  I blame my inexperience using my ipad. Anyway ... it's gone ... bye bye post!