The Vancouver Fringe Festival is on right now & so far I’ve seen two plays – a dark 18A rated one (with nudity!) & a funny one that we took the boy to see (training sheep for the Olympics? Hellz yeah!). I’m not much of a theater buff, but I do love the indie DIY-style that goes hand in hand with the Fringe Festival & have been enjoying shows since I was a teenager growing up in Winnipeg. I got a little spoiled by my years living in Edmonton, which has one of the largest & most well-supported festivals. I remember seeing a little restaurant just off Whyte Ave that actually closed down during the Fringe so that the owners could go Fringing themselves. When faced with the choice of making a ton of money from the huge crowds gathered in the area or supporting the festival & seeing plays themselves, they chose to participate. How awesome is that? They just put a big sign on the door that read “Gone Fringing!” Love it.

Since Vancouver is a bigger city & pretty arts-friendly, I assumed the Fringe would be huge out here. There are still 68 different acts to see over the course of 2 weeks, but will we see more than 92,000 ticket sales like Edmonton had this year? Not likely. The late start doesn’t help any with this being a September festival rather than a summer one. I’m swamped with back to school busy-ness myself, but I also really like the idea of one last big festival to say goodbye to summer. So, if you’re in the Fringing mood, grab yourself a free program guide at your local Blenz coffee shop & don’t forget a pen so you can circle the shows that tickle your fancy.

And if you’re curious about the shows I’ve seen so far, I can definitely recommend Andrew Templeton’s Biographies of the Dead and Dying. Slightly disturbing, emotionally raw, dotted with funny bits – I don’t want to give anything away, but I can safely say that you won’t be bored. Check out the YouTube trailer to get a sneak preview:

Have You Heard?
mixed media, 8″ x 8″

With all of my moving & houseguest busyness, I haven’t had a chance to blog about the fun places my art is showing up. Exhibit A: the Twitter 140 art show at Grandon Gallery in Flagstaff, Arizona. The pic above is my finished painting, drying on my patio table. I originally painted it on heavy cold press paper for easy framing, but after trying (unsuccessfully) to track down some plexiglass so I could ship the thing, I opted for mounting to wood & then coating with many, many coats of glossy varnish. It’s hard to tell from this pic, but I really love the way the glossy top coat makes the colors looks so rich & saturated. Now I want to do this to all my paintings!

Since the Grandon Gallery is quite a hike from ye olde Canada, I was tickled to see so many great photos popping up from the other artists who were able to attend in person. I believe these photos can be credited to Claude Shawbell III (aka @dooko). Thanks Claude!

Here’s a peek of the installation including my piece & the owner of the gallery himself, David Grandon. Apparently the mayor of Flagstaff even made an appearance! Wish I could’ve been there too.

And, of course, a huge thank you goes to Sheree Rensel, our fearless leader & show coordinator. We’re looking to take the whole show on the road, so if you know of a venue that would like to display this exhibition, please do let us know. Sheree has put together a YouTube video to show off all the work, if you want to take a peek.

Will you just look at the size of that thing? Craziness! And one of the things I love about my new neighborhood.

I was taking out the garbage this weekend & my new neighbor, an old school Italian retiree, introduced himself. We had a little chat about our respective yards & I walked back into my house with 3 giant tomatoes fresh from his garden. Such a sweetheart! And the tomatoes? So freaking good. I’ve been eating my own bastardized version of insalata caprese until I’m slightly sick to my stomach from too much balsamic vinegar. I slice up bocconcini cheese, tomatoes, fresh basil & then drizzle olive oil & balsamic vinegar over top, then sprinkle liberally with salt, pepper, maybe a bit of oregano. One of those Italian seasoning spice jars is perfect.

Oh & also – yum.

I woke up this morning, made coffee & then got to sit down & check my email & read blogs. Heaven! It’s so nice to get back to my usual routine after weeks of moving.  If/when I have to move again, I’ll definitely hire movers & do it in one big shot instead of the smaller loads over the course of weeks like we did this time. It worked well since we had so many visitors while we were transitioning to the new house; there was never a moment when the new place was covered in boxes (like it is now). But for me to pack orders? Total nightmare. I’d get a print ready, find the new eco-friendly biodegradable bags, but no envelope. The sturdy envelopes were still back at the old place. My stamps are here & my tissue paper, but no ribbon. *sigh*

Now that every single last thing is moved out of the old place, the cupboards are scrubbed, the floors mopped & the walls patched, I’m excited to get started on organizing my new pad. Tops on the list is a better system for shipping orders, especially as Christmas approaches. We have a little less closet space now, so I anticipate some major wardrobe battles between me & the mister, but with the help of my favorite home blogs, I’m sure I’ll figure something out. Something cute would be even better!

Home blog round-up:

• Making It Lovely – watching Nicole transform her house has been an awesomely fun read. I love her style, love the way she shares her ideas & options (even the rejects) & wish I had her budget. Ah, but it’s fun to dream!
• Apartment Therapy – also usually in the dream category, but inspirational nonetheless.
• Unclutterer – I always find good tips here & have several bookmarked.
• Ikea Hacker – as much as I would love to only buy vintage furniture or beautifully handcrafted pieces that are not mass-produced, sometimes you have to hand it to those crafty Swedes, especially when it comes to organizational stuff. Love this shelf hack. This hotel-style bed nook also makes me happy.