salt spring

this past weekend was another beautiful one in the west coast.

the nearly deads, ian's soccer team, was playing on salt spring island....

guess who tagged along?

salt spring is such a magical place in british columbia...

you feel it the minute you land in fulford harbour... 

all the colourful and artistic architecture instantly puts a smile on everyone.

don't you just love purple houses?

with a population of over 10 thousand, the island is known for 

its large number of artists, sculptures, and musicisans.

salt spring is home to wildlife artist, robert bateman; folk musician, valdy; 

 singer-songwriter, raffi and so many more famous and not-so famous artists.

there is also so much cedar and old wood in the architecture, 

which are mostly tiny little cottages,

 that it gives the village such warmth and coziness.

even the tax accountant's den is so charming.

there is a wonderful mural of butterflies in ganges,

 the biggest village in salt spring.

the work of artisans are everywhere to be found.

even the signage for parking is a work of art.

we ended our trip with a large cup of coffee and tea from morningside.

have i mentioned i've converted to sipping tea, for my hot beverage of choice?

we had a forty minute wait for the next ferry ..

but we weren't complaining...because there was so much more to take in.

i spent most of it browsing through the fantastic book collection in morningside.

all too soon, we were back on the ferry...

we were hurrying back for a bbq to celebrate the nearly dead's 7 to 1 loss !!!

erica

xoxo

hello monday 09/29/14

hello monday....

where did the weekend go?

today i'm playing along with lisa leonard's hellos !!!

hello autumn and all the falling leaves... i'm looking forward to all that raking.

hello to the second week of highschool and my children's back to school shopping list... (we had a very late start)

hello leadership,,, that will get my teenagers up early this morning.

hello spring bulbs that have to go into the ground.

hello messy home that desperately needs some tidying up.

hello empty fridge..."who ate all the food?"... my kids must be going through a growth spurt again!!

hello monday... i feel it's going to be a wonderful week ahead.

erica

xoxo

dying blooms

 holding on to beauty...

just a little while longer !!!

erica

xoxo

for the love of vintage

 while in toronto, 

my sister and i visited the ever colourful kensington market .

it was a crisp autumn day... perfect for all day walking !!!

and that is just what we did, checking out all the quaint little corners of the big city.

it was early afternoon by the time we made it to kensington.

we were hungry and needing a hot cup of something.

but as we entered and made our way through the vintage neighbourhood,

filled with more vintage than you could ever imagine,

somehow we forgot about our hungry stomachs 

(haha... retail therapy does work !!)

we sort of had a mini expedition... 

we were on a hunt for a long red coat that could be transformed into

captain hooks' red coat for halloween 2014.

having such a mission was reason enough to enter every shop, 

browse through every rack, 

as only free-for-the-whole-weekend mothers could do !!

the amount of vintage was incredible...

i think there are more vintage now than there were 

when i lived in toronto more than 20 years ago.

 the vintage kept going and going and going !!

i must have tried on at least half a dozen red coats... 

but their cuts weren't quite right.

 a few hours later, still without our red coat treasure....

we finally stopped to eat... 

thank goodness wanda's pie in the sky was just around the corner !!!

if you haven't been... 

it's this quaint vegetarian bakery/deli, 

tucked in the middle of kensington market, 

famous for its award winning pies

it was a lovely way to end our visit to toronto's vintage corner.

we were also a bit relieved that we hadn't made a bulky red coat purchase...

because we still had more of the city to see and a long walk back to our hotel !!



erica
xoxo