Homemade

I made Cole and Chase each a small afgahan for Christmas...

Chase's favorite colors are pink and purple.

Cole loves his superheros - so in honour of Spiderman and Batman.

A PEI Christmas

There IS no place like home for the holidays. I always spend Christmas on PEI with my family. Even the three years I was in Japan, I came home every year. It just would not be the same anywhere else.

As a child, I recall being very upset when we would have a green Christmas. As an adult, I have come to my senses of course, and am thrilled beyond words when I can take a walk on the beach Christmas week. The beach in this photo is referred to locally as the “Skunk House.” I know, such a beautiful spot demands a more romantic, or at least a name that doesn’t make you unconsciously twitch. It is not as nice as the “Bierhaus’ beach” of my childhood, but it does have an easier access in December.

This is the view from my parent’s living room taken Christmas day.

In typical PEI custom, however, company spend most of their time in the kitchen. Below are my parents with my aunts and unlcles on my mom's side....Margie, Danny, Alan and Betty. We were delighted when they all arrived Chirtmas evening.

My bother Peter with Owen - the latest addition to my mom's side of the family.

Lillian's garden

From 1996 to 1999, I taught at Tottori Higashi high school in Tottori, Japan, on the JET program. During those three years, I participated in clubs with my students. I studied Shodo (Japanese caligraphy) with Shubiyama sensi for three years, and I also studied Ikebana, Japanese flower arrangement for two years. Ikebana arrangements are simple, yet beautiful. Returning to PEI, I can't remember how or why, but I began helping my neighbor and cousin, Lillian, with weekly flower arrangments for our church. Then I began helping her with flowers for local weddings. I loved it. I spent many hours in Lillian's garden throughout the past two summers. Lillian taught me the direct opposite of what I had learned in Japan: that in order for arrangements to show up on an altar of an old country church that seats 500 comfortably, they had to be big!

Below are photos of arrangments I did for Rita MacAulay's wedding in August of 2005 - from Lillian's garden.

Hairspray

This fall, I wandered over to Roncesvalles to visit my best pal Crowtzie. We took a tour of the movie set for "Hairspray," starring John Travolta, which is set to be released later this year. It was cool to see all 50's storefronts, and especiall all the old cars.