BFF

No, not best friends forever. Ben Folds Five.

My husband LOVES Ben Folds. In his teens he met Ben because he played in a BFF tribute band. Seriously. It wasn't soon after we had started dating that I knew most of their songs, and Ben's solo stuff off by heart (including the B sides) even though I was never really into them before.
So tomorrow when Ben's new cd is released we will be marching into HMV and listening to it on repeat for a while. In the apartment, in the car, in our dreams, and so on...

Needless to say, if Mark was abandoned on a desert island (you know I'd find you somehow!) he would HAVE to have BFF in his limited cd collection there. Yeah, he WOULD build a cd player out of bamboo
-if the man can do cryptic crosswords than he can do anything!

Soooo I was thinking about what cds I would want to be left with if I had the luxury of choosing.
Here is what I think so far in no particular order :

Switchfoot beautiful letdown
Cruel intentions soundtrack
Garden state soundtrack
jimmy eat world - Clarity, Futures, Bleed American, Chase this light, Static Prevails
Death Cab for Cutie- plans
Oasis- What's the story Morning Glory. do i still have a crush on these guys? er
delirious king of fools
Muse black holes and revelations
the last Ben Folds Five album: The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
U2 war + The Joshua Tree
Bing Crosby Christmas favorites. do not mock me...
Phatfish - Heavenbound
The Salvator Darlings
Get cape, wear cape, fly
Massive Attack

and many many more...sigh.

My abductors would probably stop me there. Now onto movies...

Banksy

Mark bought me a book to celebrate my first Mothers' Day. I had been eyeing this book for some time in HMV, and he noticed.

He notices lots of little things like that :)

Banksy is brilliant. He uses all sorts of mediums, but my favorite are the stencils and spray paint. He claims that they are quick and they help get his point across to the public.
I've meditated on some of these statements and images recently.

I agree with a lot of his views on issues concerning inequality, war, terrorism, and poverty.

Check out the website or come over and have a look at his book on our coffee table.

I've been rethinking visual art lately. After spending time at OCAD, and now throwing myself completely into a social work course and community more so than ever before, I miss having that consistent inspiration stemming mainly from peers and lecturers pursuing fine art.

While I am still inspired...it is different.
While I still want to worship and glorify my Creator with what I create...it is different.

This year I feel I have so much more opportunity to use that gifting as a voice for positive change.
Sure, it is sometimes difficult to be a wife, and have a newborn and be a student and spend time with people, and have 'hobbies', but it seems that doors are opening and ideas are flowing.

So here I go. Don't worry, I'm not embarking on a series of illegal projects...hehe...
but I'm not afraid to ruffle a few feathers.
I guess somewhat like Mark does with tattooing, eh...

thanks for listening...er...reading :)

invigorated

Quality time = the love language we focused on this month.

August rocked. The three of us Hardys had an extravagant amount of precious quality time due to Mark listening to Daddy and taking some more paternity leave. A bit of a pay-cut was the only draw back, and now we can say it was SO totally worth it.
Centre Island, the Danforth, Wonderland, Kelso Beach, the market, Adelaide being loved on by both sets of grandparents, the lakeshore, the ball game, the cooking fests, and playing with the new addition to the family (not Addie, the digital SLR!) ... aaaaaaahhhhh...
lush lush lush.

I feel so invigorated. What an amazing way to kick off this next year of uni.

Putting family first...a reeeeeeeally good idea.

sitting pretty

The day after we took this video, she sat up on her own in her playpen for 15 minutes!!!
A lot of people told us that babies change overnight sometimes, and it's true. All of a sudden she has the ability to sit up for a long while.

Pretty soon she'll be driving the car...

Sleeping at last...

So, we went to the mall with Beth's sister last night, then got some movies and decided to sleep over at Beth's parents' place. We put Addie to bed, and settled down for the night on the couches. Then, at about 4:00am, we were woken up by this:

We were woken up by the first blast - before the video starts. We all got dressed and thought about getting out of the house. when the second big blast came (about 1:50 on the video) we were about to leave the house, but this one lit up the house like you wouldn't believe. It felt like the blast came from above the house, and it knocked the power out.

We got in the car, and headed home to our apartment - and just in time, because they closed the highway minutes later. We got back, went up to the apartment, and sorted ourselves out. Then we went to move the car, and in true Canadian style, went to Tim Horton's to recouperate. Good old Timmy's.

We finally got some sleep at about 7am.
It turns out that it was caused by a fire at a propane depot, just 3 blocks away from where we were sleeping. Check out this news report and this one for a bit more information about what happened. It looks like nobody was seriously hurt, but they don't know what caused it yet. What an odd night.

Right, I'm off to Beth's parents to pick up all the stuff we left there...

Mark doesn't see it

Is it just me or does Tim, from the Office, remind you of my dashing husband ...

We were watching the two part Christmas special and finale of The Office (British one of course) and it hit me. Hm.

The Font Conference

Fonts are a very personal thing. I've always been interested in them, but recently have found myself becoming almost militant about which ones should and shouldn't be used. They have so much personality, you see. The font you use gives character to the text, as much as the colours and media used give character to a piece of artwork. Check this video out:



The only things that I don't understand about this video are:
1)Why is Rage Italic German?
2)Why is Comic Sans the hero? I mean, I get the comic bit, but Comic Sans is clearly the worst font of all time. Ask anyone.

the best man

What do you do when some of your best friends get married and throw a fabulous party? Eat, drink, and dance dance dance, baby!







What do you do when your husband gets punched in the crotch? hmmmmmmmmmmmm......

an open house, and shouting clouds ...

"You're a mystery like poetry like a parable a rhyme or a riddle
You're a mystery wrapped in clouds shouting so loud
just waiting to be discovered
You're a mystery intriguing You're a mystery so inviting"
- Misty Edwards, Mystery

"Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly.
'The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I'm not keeping it to myself; I'm ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.'"
Matthew 11:27 MSG

This made me cry.

I do need it, Love, broken down line by line ... all the time.

Jesus, crucified, buried, raised...the ultimate invitation.
Could the Father say any more clearly that He wants to be known?

He asks us to His house, and gives us a key to His door.

splish splash

It's getting hot outside. Now, we don't have air conditioning in our 19th floor apartment (which isn't torture), but we do like to take a dip in the outdoor pool during the particularly scorching hours of the day. While the pool is delightfully refreshing, the beach is all the more...summer-ish.
Lying on the beach reminds me of being on holiday, and is almost more relaxing because of it - yes, purely psychological.
Funny...it also reminds me of Baywatch. Oh, that rugged David Hasslehoff...


Anyway, many people joke about Lake Ontario being so badly polluted that you come out of it with a third eye, an extra arm, a number of skin diseases, multiple personalities, etc.
The truth is that a lot of beaches in Toronto on the shores of good ol' Lake Ontario are indeed Blue Flag Certified. They are more than fine to swim in.
You'll read on the website about the high international standards that beaches must meet to receive blue flag status.
Toronto is a whole lot cleaner and eco-friendly than a lot of people think or have 'heard'.
Visit www.BlueFlag.ca and have a peek. Happy swimming!

Oh, and wear your sunscreen!!!!!!!! Especially if you have tattoos or scars...ta ta!

Niagra

Happy Canada Day, everyone!
Hope you get a chance to sing the anthem and take in some fireworks somewhere tonight.
We thought it was appropriate to take Adelaide to one of the wonders of the world that just so happens to be pretty much in our backyard...Niagra Falls! She seemed to like the gift shop the best and looked at us funny as we ooed and awed over the loud, lively, rushing water. One day she might think it is majestic and beautiful, but for now her toys are much more interesting.

Video Catch Up..

I've been a little slack in uploading these things, but The last few weeks have had some good moments. The most recent video is at the top. Apologies to the BBC. And thanks, as usual to Ben Jackson for his incredible graphics. I don't know how he does it...


Keep an eye out for a special Scottish guest appearance in this one...


Ha ha ha. Silly jokes in this one.


I kind of like uploading a few of these at once... We're filming this week's today. I won't let too much on, but I sent out a 'telegram' to a few people asking them to be in it with this graphic attached:




Right. Let me know what you think.

Field trips...

We've been going on field trips recently. Three of them in a week, to be precise. The summer is such a fun time to be a parent. There's so much going on for kids to do and see (even if we're really going for our own benefit).
Last Saturday, Addie took me to the 10th annual NIX tattoo expo in Toronto for my first fathers' day. It was fantastic. There were 150 artists at work, inking some incredible things. We met the coolest couple, who make punk clothes for kids. We're hanging out with them tomorrow too. You can check out their website here.

We also met Lyle Tuttle, 'the forefather of modern tattooing'. I got a bit starstruck... Addie, of course, was indifferent, as you can see from the picture. She did enjoy getting her first bit of ink though (courtesy again of Sticks n Stones).


Going to the expo really got me even more fired up for tattooing. There's so much dark stuff out there, and I can't wait to bring some light in. Seeing so much amazing work inspired me too. So much so, in fact, that I started on my left leg again this week. On Wednesday night I set to work outlining the koi that you can see here.

Beth had been wanting to take me to the Royal Ontario Museum for some time. It turns out that entrance is half price on a Friday night, so we headed over there after I finished work. It was fantastic. They had a great special exhibition on early typewriters, and we saw loads of dinosaur skeletons.
They were my favourite bit. To be honest, I don't think I ever grew out of that boyhood phase of dinosaur fascination... Addie again seemed rather indifferent to the whole experience, although she did like the bit when she had some milk in the European armour section while listening to an audio presentation about how smelly people used to be.

Then today we went to Riverdale Farm. It's a small farm in the middle of cabbagetown, right round the corner from us. Addie slept through everything except the chickens, and wasn't very interested in them. We had fun though.

Field trips will become more and more a part of our lives over the next few years, I suspect. It's such a blessing to live in a city with so many attractions and distractions. If you have any suggestions for where we can go next, let us know!

Biting off more than you can chew?

Here's this week's announcements.
Do you ever feel like you tried to run before you could walk? We had the idea of doing a series of spoofs of famous movie trailers for the announcements. Good plan. We thought of covering different genres. Fantastic. We decided to spoof a movie that changed cinematography forever, with wild special effects and crazy camera angles.
I think that we did a reasonable job, but I suspect that trying to give the feel of a movie like this, using one camera and a low-quality microphone was a little more than I could reasonably handle.

It was fun though.

Not Quite Grown Up

Independent
on my own
till I'm too small
till I am weakened

Independent
in control
till I'm uncovered
hunger stricken

I cry out
Is someone coming?
I cry out
Is my Father listening?

It's true-
I need a hand to hold
I need to feel the pulse of someone bigger
I can't live on bread alone
I need more than a coat in winter

It's true-
I need skin on skin
I need comfort in the night
I need simple songs
I need the security in Your eyes

Until I fall asleep
stay
Until I fall asleep
Don't ever let me go
stay
Until I'm fast asleep

B.Hardy. April, 2008.

- Inspired by Adelaide. She is so good at reminding me I'm not a grown up, I'm a daughter...

The Tat Shop

I love tattoos. I don't have as many as I want, but I guess it's a process. Quite an expensive process too. For the last two or three years, I have thought about how I might go about training to tattoo myself. Not tattoo myself (although that is a part of the training), but to learn the art of tattooing. Back in November, I was offered an internship at Urban Ink in Toronto. I was very excited about the prospect, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that it was unrealistic. I would have to give two full days a week to being at the shop, and it would still take me over a year to get anywhere close to tattooing people. With a baby on the way, that just wasn't going to happen.

Then Holy Spirit suggested something to me. What if I trained myself? I have spent a good deal of time now researching what I would have to do, and feel ready to start learning. I purchased a machine, pigment, power supply and footswitch, needles and tubes. I started by tattooing fruit, and then moved on to pigskin (quite close to human skin). I'm having a great time!

The next step was to experiment with different needle sizes and combinations. for this, I needed more supplies. Most of the websites that I found were very average - horribly designed, hard to navigate and usually based in the States. Then I found the Tat Shop. They're based in Mississauga, the site is excellent, and the couple that run it are awesome. I realise that most people reading this won't have a need to get tattoo supplies, but you can check the site out anyway. And if you do need anything, that's the place to go. Check them out here.

We're off to Wonderland in a little while, so I have to go get ready. I'll post pictures when I've practised more. Those who want a tattoo, give me a while to practice, then form a line...

Old Time Fun

I know I skipped a week of the announcements, but to be honest, there wasn't much to miss. Here's the announcements for the upcoming week. I learned an awful lot about some of the stuff I can do on Final Cut while I was doing these ones. Because I don't have easy access to cash for effects and stuff to add onto the program, I had to find ways of giving this a real old feel without paying for it. I Googled to my heart's content, and found loads of tutorials online. As well as giving me the finish that I wanted on this (adding the scratches, hairs and jitters), the tutorials showed me how to use similar techniques to get very different results that I'll be able to use in the future.

In other news, it's the long weekend this weekend. I got a bit confused about the date of it originally, because the Victoria Day weekend (as this is) is often known as the May Two Four, because of the date that it falls on. Except that it actually falls closer to the 18th. So this coming Monday is a day off. Nice to be caught off guard like that, and realise that you have a day off when you thought you didn't. I don't really plan to do an awful lot with it, except chill out with my wife and daughter. Hopefully the predicted rain of the weekend will be over by Monday.

Lots of weddings and stuff coming up this summer, so that's exciting too. I have a bachelor party on Saturday, and more to come after that. Lots of parties. Not all good ones though. Last night, we went to Jacob and Carolyn's place for a barbecue. It wasn't that the party itself sucked, but the reason for it. Our amazing friends are moving down to Raleigh, North Carolina. This is something that I've prepared myself for for some time. Ever since I met Jacob, our friendship is something that has been conducted over a distance. When I moved to Toronto, I realised that it was an amazing privilege to be able to live in the same city as my best friend, but that it was a privilege that probably wouldn't last long. I think that we both knew that Toronto was a temporary base for us, and that one of us would leave before too long.
It's been a fantastic year or so, and I'm so glad that we had this time. I know that our friendship lasted with the Atlantic between us, so I'm sure it can handle a move to the States. Hey, we might even visit them...

And with that, I'm off. I have to go plan my long weekend.

English Things

Here's the video announcements for last week. I've been a little delayed in putting them on here, because I've been in England for the last week. You'll notice that the announcements are rather reminiscent of a BBC documentary. This is no mistake. I'd been very excited about coming here.
I really really miss England. My family, my friends, the chocolate, fish and chips, beer, rubbish seaside towns... it's brilliant. We had the privilege of spending a week here, hanging out with all the people that we miss, and enjoying all the things we can't get in Canada. We went to Leeds one night, and hung out at Simon and Esther's place, where we were joined by about 40 friends we have not seen for months. We saw loads of people at my parents' house too. We did lots of shopping for clothes for Addie, and we ate fish and chips 3 times. We went to Whitby, and even enjoyed the first sunny bank holiday Monday in England since time began. Fantastic stuff.

We have loads to report on, but now isn't the time, because we leave for the airport in a few minutes. Once I've finished packing, we'll just have time for one last delicious English breakfast. Then it's back to all the things I miss about Canada. Ho hum. Such is life...

Munchkin goes abroad!

Tomorrow Adelaide will enjoy her very first trip on an airplane. She probably thinks it is just a big white toy from the outside. We are going to the UK for nine glorious days. This time we will not only be spending time with Mark's family, but we're having a party in Leeds and also getting the MASSIVE treat of seeing Maija and Pudd who will fly into Manchester and meet up with us for a few days.

Man, our little one is growing so fast and becoming more interactive everyday. She can suck her thumb, and sit up in a chair all on her own!
She now has some likes:
Shouting, watching bright cartoons, being held in a flying position like she is superman, splashing in the bath, and getting changed. Her favorite toys are these coloured rings and a big cow.
She talks to the cow.

Last weekend she went to a birthday party for the first time- we had the pleasure of celebrating Judah's first birthday with the Smiths, and I think Addie is rather excited for her first birthday now... thankfully we have 9 more months to enjoy her being less-than-one!

New announcements.

As promised, here's the announcements for this week at TACF. Stay tuned for next week's extravaganza. I won't tell you exactly what they'll feature, but there's superheroes and a green screen involved.

We just went to the Smiths' place for their son's first birthday party. It was so good to hang out with people we haven't seen for a while. There was much talk of Wonderland, which is exciting, because we have our season's passes. Oh yeah! I love that water park. I love that we have lots of friends that we can not see for weeks or even months at a time, and then just pick up where we left off. I guess when you live in a place like Toronto, and go to a church like TACF, you have to be able to do that. Everyone is coming and going so much that basing a friendship on always being around each other often results in sadness.
More on that another time though. It's late, and Addie's just dropping off to sleep. She's so cute and cuddly, but it's definitely time for Mommy and Daddy to get some rest. I'll put some pictures of her up on here soon, or Beth will.

Just because I did a little movie review in my last post, I'll do the same again here. The night after we watched Lars and the Real Girl, we watched Juno. Seriously, it was fantastic. I loved the characters, the themes. I loved the way that you felt relationship with them, and really identified with them. The soundtrack was ridiculously good. Watch it, because it's a great movie, and it will break your heart.

One more thing: Beth and I have been talking about recently is starting a bluegrass band. Inspired by David Crowder and Hayseed Dixie, I busted out a little bit of bluegrass in worship at church the other night. Then I found out that a friend of ours plays the banjo. Beth loves the harmonica and wants a washboard. Then, tonight, we were hanging out with a Mr. John Patell. He nearly shrieked when I told him our plans, and said he'd been looking for a band to play the broomstick bass in. Keep your ears open for our first record...