paddling a kayak makes your arms hurt

toby in a canoe, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

... especially when you're the only one paddling in a double!

The Wee Guy went out for a paddle yesterday evening. It was a beautiful night, not too choppy to sit comfortably in the front cockpit of a double while Mum paddles womanfully at the back. He's a great passenger, spotting seals and seabirds or trailing his hands in the water as we glide along.

Despite allowing him his own paddle there were no capsizes, just some interesting steering. The tide was almost fully in so we explored the whole inlet, gliding in up the mud flats to spy on the ducks. In turn we were heavily observed by the seals.

PS: pics later as they're still in the waterproof camera (shock! a film to develop!). This one shows happy times with our Toby who was a sea dog at heart. One of his favourite trips by kayak was along False Creek in Vancouver, sitting in the central hatch of a double kayak. As an old guy he was invariably asleep but somehow managed to wake up in time to bark as we passed the house boats!

dark and stormy night ........

Etsy :: The Storque :: Etsy News :: Tech Update: Rainbow Connection Mandala, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

....well not really but it is bucketing down here in what's meant to be the middle of summer and the annual Bulwer Lytton worst fiction awards are out.

Meanwhile over in Etsyland useful features continue to be rolled out, sellers are muted and strange emails requesting personal information have been landing. In other words, all is normal.

I've polished up my website to make it a little less cluttered I hope (finished the final edits today) and got accepted for October and November selling at Portobello West. All I'm waiting for now is news of a Christmas craft fair and I need to organise some advertising.

back to work

new hair clip design, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

The holiday's a distant memory, the pile of laundry an ever present reminder and the distinct lack of food in the fridge an unwelcome fact.

Welcome home!

(but I do get to play in my studio again - I have plans for this week, involving eggs, wire, a jewelry saw and probably some glue, but not all at once)

PS: these are some new hair clips using craft wire and acrylic flowers - should I list them for sale? Any interest?
PPS: I did some work on the website this afternoon while the wee guy was sailing. Be a dear and check it out for me pls, does it 'read' OK?
PPPS: and I did start listing my summer handbags on Dawanda with this gorgeous summer pastels cotton knit item

what we did today ....

tucking in, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

Wow! What a day!

Despite getting up late I think we've packed the works into this Sunday! We drove up to Pemberton, just north of Whistler (yes, Coldplay were here as part of the new festival circuit last month) for slow food cycle sunday and had a great day cycling thru the valley.

We got to the 13km mark and had lunch at Pemberton Meadow Natural Beef (and cooled off under the irrigation sprinkler) before turning round to visit other farms en route. The farming and food community of Pemberton opens house for this Sunday, providing visitors, who visit each establishment by bicycle along the valley, with samples of their wares. We had delicious natural burgers for lunch then homemade lemonade and a frozen yogurt popsicle at a roadside stand followed by icecream at Helmer's organic farm (and checked out the ducklings). This was topped off with an iced coffe (and splash in the paddling pool) at the Pemberton Valley Coffee Company stand.

We covered approximately 26km along the valley road and cycled with an amazing number of families out for the day. I have never seen so many children on bikes, in trailers, on trailer bikes, on seats, on training wheels and on the road ever! The wee guy was in great company (and thanks to Pemberton Area search and rescue for waving to him from their ATV! made his day!)

idyllic

Lost Lake trails, originally uploaded by ebbandflo_pomomama.

yesterday morning = cycling the trails at Lost Lake

yesterday afternoon = hiking the peak at Whistler followed by an eat-as-much-as-you-can barbecue

vacation mode

arrived!

well, we got here with only a few delays. the landslide/rockfall area looked a lot smaller than the pics and there was only one accident en route (not to us).

whistler is incredibly warm by jimminy so we indulged in Cows ice creams to cool down. sorry no camera around but the wee guy was covered in Moo Crunch and had to be swabbed down due to much stickiness (hee hee).

have found a free internet connection in the apartment and will continue updating tomorrow.

'slater!

urk

Rock Slide, originally uploaded by schlelel.

We're off on a mini vacation soon, travelling to Whistler for some summer fun in the mountains and on the lakes.

In order to get there we drive up the Sea to Sky highway between Vancouver and Squamish, which regular readers of this blog will recognise from this earlier post. The road is now open .......

.......... but I've just read this blog!

Eeeeep!

a most magical night

Me and the Russians watch for Perseids, originally uploaded by Airchinapilot.

(Please click on the photo above to go to the photographer's page - there's a nice commentary written about this shot, and also some more great photographs).

Somehow my insomnia kicks in regularly at around 3am each morning and I spend almost an hour unable to go back to sleep. On a bad night I can fall asleep just before the alarm goes off to wake us all for a new day - on those mornings I am extremely grumpy.

Last night however, I welcomed my insomnia since the annual perseid shower was in full spate. I opened my eyes, saw 4.12am on the digital display and gave sleep a reprieve. It didn't come so I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and padded down one floor to the glass doors out onto the deck.

There's quite a lot of light pollution around but with the moon down at last once my eyes acclimatised I could see some bright streaks crossing the sky.

Then there was a little squeak and a pad pad pad of tiny feet across the deck. My wee guy, who has shared my crazy sleep-wake cycle since we co-slept in those early years, came trotting out to see what mummy was doing. I wrapped him in my blanket and we star gazed together, with me explaining what meteors and comets were, which constellations we could see and how to make a wish on a shooting star. Then we crept back to bed, without waking daddy, and talked some more till we both fell asleep.

I asked him what had been his favourite moment out on the deck. He thought for a while and then said, "It was when you were telling me how meteors are."

A very special moment.

storecupboard survivor

Yes, it's one of those 'what the heck are we having for dinner tonight?' evenings.

In my larder I have some tins of tomatoes and some pasta, some rice and some noodles.
In my fridge is a bag of baby aubergines which need using up, some left over salsa and tamale pie filling (which also need using up). I also have some mozzarella, a salami sausage, a bottle of white wine and a can of non-alcoholic beer.

So what can I make with these incredible ingredients?

PS: tonight's a vegetarian night too.
PPS: I really cannot be bothered with all this domestic goddess stuff either - the rewards are terrible.

today .......

got up at 7.30am and joined the wee guy for breakfast (yesterday's failure of blueberry waffles are still guarding the breadcrock - had porrige)

caught up with internet stuff (Etsybitch) and emails

left the house just after 9am, posted an Etsy order off to a buyer and then went to the gym where i ran for 22 minutes, cycled for 10 minutes then found out my weight had gone up since last week (water retention??). my goal of weight loss by my birthday is in serious jeopardy

home again to pick up swim gear then headed off to park at the rec centre. wrangled/walked along the Inlet Trail to Rocky Point and the outdoor swim pool. sat under a huge umbrella while the wee guy splashed his way thru a lesson (he's almost swimming now - so proud). finished one cuff and a pair of wire crochet earrings while waiting. one mum saw my work and liked it. am still not brazen enough to hand out business cards (but i should!) - will get ebb and flo URL tattoo instead.

walked back to the car, home for (small) lunch (rescued the bread out from under the failed blueberry things).

hitched the bike rack to the car, loaded bike and wee guy then set off for http://www.secretcycles.ca/ for a bike fitting. alas! my frame is too small for me so Scott is going to try make it as comfortable as possible without cranking my neck so much that my vertigo is induced. leave bike at shop (yahoo - no wrestling with the bike rack again!).

home for quiet time (me = internet, tidying studio, thinking aimlessly about dinner; him = a Bob the Builder video and amateur town planning with his fisher price people)

listed some new items - fantastic handmade earwires with daisy cabs and some lovely fresh sterling silver daisy earrings

oven on at 5pm, dinner in oven at 5.30pm-ish

meet daddy off the bus ('that's my daddy, the one with the bald head and the white jacket') - such excitement.

feed family. tidy up after family. storytime in bed.

goodnight kisses

blog, email replies .....

...and that's what i did today!

it's sale time this evening!

Does anyone not know about the Saturday night specials available on Etsy?

It's when a bunch of sellers band together and promote sales in their shops which are only available for a limited time ie. Saturday night.

It was started originally by willowglass, who sells the most amazing fused glass supplies and creations. There is a thread here for the shops taking part in this promotion and a thread here for chatting (pssst! it also contains a list of shops with SNS secrets in place too).

Confused? see the SNS blog for further info

and without more ado, here are my specials for the evening ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saturday Night Specials (running August 2nd 5pm until 6am 3^rd August EST)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

at ebbandflo BOGO - buy one, get one at half price (discount applies to the less expensive item).

Further items will be discounted by 25% off. Just mention “SNS” in your message to seller during checkout then wait until I send a revised PayPal invoice.

at pomomamadesign Free shipping in North America on orders of two or more items (shipping at domestic rates for international buyers). Just mention “SNS” in your notes to seller at checkout and wait for the revised invoice in your email inbox!

Happy shopping!