my wee home.

I’m pretty sure the past four months have been the busiest of my life. The list of crazy is varied: Ty’s accident, starting a new job, plenty of freelance projects, playing (very necessary), spending a couple weeks in China for said new job, and searching for and buying a house!

Yes, I know most of you are shocked, don’t worry the gypsy in me is not gone. And, this does not mean I won’t move out of the country again… That is just put on hold for a wee bit. And yes, the fact that I bought a house is still odd to me too. But, it was fun to look at all sorts of homes (and know immediately on pretty much all of them that they wouldn’t do). I had a great realtor, thanks to my mortgage man (Mark, you’re zee best). It’s nice when your mortgage lender is one of your best friends, makes it a rather smooth process.

Anyhow, many a house later, I came across this little gem. Turns out it’s over 100 years old, but gutted and beautiful on the interior.

So, we tossed an offer down and about a month later I got the keys. I finally moved in the day after I got home from China (moving is a great way to offset jetlag, as is staying up way too late and playing). It’s taken me a few more weeks to get things put away, and more importantly, artwork up on the walls. And here you have it. Tis a great little place for my two roommates and I. The pictures are self-explanatory.

And there you have it. We do have washrooms in the house, but sorry, no pictures. Love ma wee home.

miss you, heaps.

Wow. It’s been a month, can’t believe it. Miss you heaps, Ty.

A month ago, Tyler, one of my very closest and best friends, passed away due to injuries he sustained during a bicycle accident. He was an amazing person, to say the least, and is missed greatly by many.

This photo was taken by Jessica Peterson (a great friend and incredible photographer) the day before Ty’s accident. It’s classic Ty.

Tyler gave a speech for his College of Science convocation at the University of Utah in May. He did a fantastic job and this is just a little glimpse of how incredible he is. It’s a rare person who graduates with degrees in both Film and Physics, excelling at both.

Despite the loss, I do feel incredibly lucky to have known Ty so well and to have the close friendship that we did. I have so many fond memories to look back on… Sir Paul McCartney in concert (Ty would’ve been a full part of Beatlemania). Real Salt Lake season tickets, worth every penny. Constantly scheming together on something (quite often about how we were going to watch a soccer match in HD). Projects, projects, projects – that was also a constant and included countless trips to Home Depot and Lowes. Many a midnight movie. International nights – British comedies with crumpets and tea, Hong Kong Kung Fu, crepes at any given time. Rock Band for hours. Thousands of texts and pictures sent back and forth. Miles and hours of driving in my car, singing loudly and chatting about everything. And so much laughter. Oh, the list goes on, there are so many more. Yep, I’m a lucky girl.

I’m also incredibly lucky to have such great friends and support through everything. I do love my crew, so thank you! It’s been amazing to see all the tender mercies of the Lord and how they’ve played out. He really does look after us, in so many different ways.

Ty, love you and miss you. Thank you for everything, can’t wait to see you again.

the ldn.

London, a city I love, and I’m finally getting a post and images up. Let’s not worry about the fact that I went in April. Rather, take a gander at just a few of the images taken and fun had. Lauren and I spent 10 days in England and had a great time, thanks to Monica – who is always a delight. She was gracious enough to let us crash her flat and was a brilliant hostess. Many a laughs were had.

So here we go, a few shots of Trafalgar Square and iconic London. It was a bit dreary when we arrived, but that changed.

Next up, the Houses of Parliament with a little Rodin involved. I love great artwork (quite the surprise, I know). Rodin’s Burghers of Calais is phenomenal, though I’ve seen in at the Met in NYC, the setting in London was much more stunning. The images simply don’t do it justice.

So, we were lucky enough to happen upon a place to stay in Oxford, so off we went. This trip brought about many laughs right from the get go. We hopped on the train, had a grand ol’ time and got off, just in time to notice that we had been in the quiet carriage, though hadn’t been so quiet – this definitely set the mood for the rest of the trip. We checked out the colleges, town, and natural history museum and ate copious amounts of fish and chips, all done with massive amounts of  laughter.

The next day brought more sight seeing and laughter, luckily with a bit more sun. And Moni sure knows how to take a picture. she’s got it framed and everything.

And here’s a wee bit more, though quite random. The fact that there were intriguing sculptures all around, made me happy, along with the random sun dials on buildings. And I loved how green everything was. Needless to say, Oxford was a pure delight (and we learned and didn’t sit in the quiet carriage on the way home).

And that’s all I’ve got for now, but when I get another chance, I’ll toss up more.

many months ago…

And so it has been a while, oops. We’ll blame that on a very busy life, which is a good thing in my opinion. But here’s a few images of what’s been going on the past few months.

Let’s see, where did I leave off? Katie and I had taken a silversmithing class and we made some decent stuff and looked good while doing it, as you can see.

And to top it off, a couple glam shots of my last project, though it doesn’t look very glamourous, it was fun to make nonetheless.

Now, this may be a wee bit out of order, but oh well. At the beginning of April, my friend Lauren and I headed to London town to see our good friend Monica (a post on that will be next). While I was there, Grandma Bodily passed away, which may sound sad, but was a blessing really. She had lived a good, long life and was a day or so shy of her 96th birthday (pretty sure it was 96). It ended up being quite good timing, and most of the family was able to make it down to Utah for her funeral. It was great to see family, cousins and all, since it had been years (not kidding). So here are a few photos (clockwise: my immediate family – sans Brad, my sisters and I – yes, we all look SO much alike, the girl cousins, and the boy cousins – though not all the cousins made it). Odd as it may be, the funeral ended up being a great time.

As a result of my family coming, my 2 favourite little ones came as well. Parker and Bela are a delight to hang out with. Pretty much our ipods and iphones were in constant use between the two of them, turns out Crush the Castle was a hit, good find Dad! Paper, rock, scissors was also played a fair amount, and oddly enough, Bela always won. And, we all got to be little kids for an afternoon and see How to Train Your Dragon with them, Parker was in love with it and rightly so, great flick. Anyhow, here’s a few images of the kidlets.

project 2.

Quick post. So, my silversmithing class is done, that’s sad. But I was able to make 4 pieces, which is pretty awesome. Anyhow, here’s my second project. Turns out I really like turquoise, as evidenced by use in 3 of my 4 projects. I’ll toss the other 2 up (another ring and more earrings) once I have them finished, polished and photographed… That may have to wait until I get back from London, though. And the countdown for that trip is on, leaving the US behind in 1 week.

skillz.

First things first… Congrats Canada! Though, not a huge hockey fan, I still root for my homeland and Canada pulled through with the gold in hockey and lots of other great things at the Vancouver Olympics. Turns out, Canada has got skillz (as does America, and heaps of other nations).

Anyhow, it has been a while since the last post and that is again due to busy-ness… But here’s a wee bit of what I’ve been up to, other than being really good at playing. As a result of recently acquiring a DSLR camera, I’m learning new tricks and how to use it better. Any photo tips you have would be welcome… But here’s a few shots while playing around Salt Lake one evening with a friend. They’re a bit rubbish, but I had fun nonetheless.

Also, I’m a sucker for learning how to create and make things, hence why I’m a designer… So, it was time to tackle metal work (at least a bit of it), so I signed up for a community education silversmithing class with a friend. It’s pretty awesome, love it, in fact. So here is what I made for our first project (I have a great colleague who took the photos to “document” my work), and hopefully I’ll be able to crank out a few more things. Who knew playing with silver, turquoise, and a torch could be so much fun?

And that’s all for now. I’ll toss up the finished products of the next projects when they get done… And more photos after I learn more.

making christmas

Yes, once again, it’s been a while… but as you’ll be able to see December has been busy. Great excuse, I know. Anyhow, since the last post was all about concerts, why not start this one the same way… It’s true, I went to another concert and loved it. Zero 7 played at the beginning of the month and it was a delight, they were great, as was the crowd, haha.

But moving on… December = Christmas. And who doesn’t love that. We (being my roommates and I) decided to get a Christmas tree, by the time it was up and lights were on, it was a wee bit late and we were a wee bit giggly, hence we decided to make it a food tree. That’s right, only food ornaments (other than the lights and ribbon)… Turns out it’s highly entertaining that way. Who knew that candy canes, Christmas oranges (or clementines), popcorn balls, gingerbread men, and even a few chocolate ornaments would look great on a tree..? Come to find, we think they do. And here’s proof.

Next off, gingerbread houses. Also a delight. Needless to say it was a mess, but a good mess with brilliant results. Here’s a few images to give you the idea… And if we look uber-happy or slightly crazy, it can all be blamed on the massive amounts of sugar that went into the houses… as well as us.

More holiday festivities happened, but the next documented one (for me at least) was Christmas Eve. Back in the homeland of cold and frost, we had people over and food was needed. Now, who doesn’t love sugar cookies? We do and we made just a few.. But what started out as a joke of accidentally stretching a gingerbread woman’s neck and turned into an ethnic cookie event by the end of the evening. So there’s our little multicultural village, complete with a pirate and even an avatar man… More than anything, I think this is proof of a creative family (with a little crazy tossed in).

And there you have it. It was fun to get to do more holiday stuff than the past couple years… Christmas was good fun, nice to be back with most of the family (though we missed those that couldn’t make it). Hopefully I’ll be better at updating this blog, haha. I won’t even attempt to make that a New Year’s resolution, it’s bound to be broken…

turns out…

I like music. And live music at that. So, seeing U2 in vegas kicked off a few weeks of great shows… The last post has all the U2 info, etc… But here’s who I’ve seen since. One of the advantages of being back in the States is that there are way more shows… and smaller ones too. Turns out, Hong Kong just got big names, which was great, but these are fun too.

Here we go, so David Gray came through and played and was amazing.. as were they all. Let’s not lie, his voice is pretty astounding and it was a fun show. Ooh, and Lisa Hannigan played before David Gray, come to find, she’s quite good as well, a little Irish folksy style, I liked it. Next up, was Regina Spektor, who was quirky as ever, but an incredible musician. Also, heaps of fun. Lastly, Imogen Heap… brilliant. She was awesome and hilarious, so again a good time. Each artist was quite different, but great. Ah… who’s going to come next…

dream fulfilled.

So this past weekend I had heaps of fun… and did something I’ve always wanted to do,  it’s true. Turns out I was in Vegas (that wasn’t the fun bit, other than kickin’ it with Suhaila)… the fun bit is that U2 was in town. That’s right, U2. And the dream/running joke for years and years has been that I’d go see them live with Dad (and Mom, don’t worry, you’re not forgotten… kind of a package deal). Anyhow, below, you can see that has obviously happened, as Dad and I are discussing really important and intelligent things while we wait for the concert to start… The set is up… and boom, it begins.

No surprise, the show was incredible and U2 did not disappoint in the slightest. Their set was pretty amazing and every changing, as you can see just a few looks of the evening. Let’s not lie, a massive round screen that expands is on my list of impressive technology and engineering. And making a couple gigantic disco balls cool, not easy, but they pulled it off well. Also, I felt right at home (well, my Asian home), since they did a wee karaoke bit during one of their songs… haha, loved it.

All in all, brilliant. I’d go again.

long time, no see…

Yep, I am officially terrible at blogging… I think if I’m not living in a foreign country or traveling heaps, then there isn’t much to say… Promise I do have a life (which is why this blog doesn’t get updated frequently). The update on life is this: I’m working in the SLC, that’s all to say there, and I’m still considering Grad School options or thinking about moving to the UK, because why not…? So if you know any jobs on that little island, fill me in…

But, here’s a few photos since posts are much better with them, and mine tend not to happen without.

Turns out, I’ve got a great crew of friends, and we live all over the place, but manage to get together on occasion. This occasion happened to be right before Monica moved to the LDN… As ever crepes were essential, cotton candy was a treat, and the laughter was loud and couldn’t be stopped. And it’s official, we miss Mon already on this continent, we’re going to have to content ourselves by going over and visiting her…

Again, we know how to party. That’s right, we do party games and all… this one is called “Pick Maren’s Nose”, much more entertaining that “Pin the Tail on the Donkey”. She loved it and looks so pretty. This is a sure fire way to have a great birthday party, you ought to try it.

How can you not love that face? Turns out it’s been heaps of fun to have these Nic and the rest of the crew living close by again… They’re always good for a laugh, whether it be through quite witty answers in games, or Nak Ass, er, I mean Kansas… always fun.

And well, that’s it for now… hopefully I’ll get better at this posting business again…