May 12, 2008 a couple of custom paintings i have been working on lately... | May 7, 2008 The visit with my parents was great. My mom totally nursed me back to heath with her cooking and pampering and I feel as good as new. My dad clocked some serious time with Sosi, proving his infinite patience by playing endless games of "babies", "school" and "restaurant" . Now that I am feeling better and the house is quiet again, all I can think about is getting back to work. I have missed it. Here is a piece I managed to get done recently for a local show called "Obsession". | April 29, 2008 We just had a whirlwind visit from our friends Jess and Ryan, and of course little Seanie. They arrived on the heels of Sosi's flu and just as I was getting it. So it was not the visit I had imagined, but it was just as good. It was so nice to see them all again, a good distraction from all the sick around here! They are on their way back to Vancouver after 4 months in Toronto. Sosi kept asking to go back to Vancouver with them. It did feel a little strange that they were going back and we aren't. On one hand I was so happy to see them, it was wonderful to have that easy familiarity you have with people you have known for so long. On the other hand, it just made me miss everything so much all over again. I won't have too much time to think about all that tho, my parents arrive tonight! Can't wait to see them. | April 23, 2008 It has been a rough week around here. Sosi came down with what we thought was an ear infection last Wednesday. A couple days later she started vomiting, and didn't stop for over 24 hours. When she got all limp and couldn't keep even water down we rushed her to the hospital. It turns out she had a pretty nasty flu. She is still not well, but is getting much better. I will save my rant about the lack of family doctors on P.E.I for another time (there are none, we are on a wait list that last I heard was 3 years long), right now I am just so glad she is doing O.K. *The antibiotics for the ear infection (that she didn't have) made her eyes really sore.. hence the sunglasses* | April 11, 2008 Sosi is going to her first "real" birthday party this weekend. She got a little invitation sent home with her from school and everything. She is growing up so fast... | April 8, 2008 I walk by this lovely font usage everyday as I take Sosi to school. I hope to be sharing more pictures of Charlottetown as we get outside more and explore our new town, after a winter that kept us inside for way more than we are used to. If you want to see more of Charlottetown right now, check out the flickr page of local Peter Rukavina. He and his partner, Catherine were kind enough to have us over for dinner this weekend. It was one of the most enjoyable evenings we've had since we arrived. P.S You can also check in with PEI's very own streaming web cam . | April 4, 2008 We have been stumbling through renovating our house for the past 5 months. Sometimes things turn out just how you dreamed they would, and sometimes not so much. We have had lots of ups and downs. One of the biggest ups has been working with Frank our counter guy. We decided to go with a white laminate countertop with an exposed plywood on an angle underneath (inspired by the Eames' side tables). Frank thought we were crazy, but did exactly what we asked and it turned out perfectly. We were so happy that we asked him to make our kitchen table as well. It took him a couple months (everything here takes a couple months...) but it is just as lovely. As you can see in the first picture, everyone loves that table. Hating to see our old kitchen table go to waste, we decided to turn it into a coffee table. I like it much better as a coffee table. It feels like things are slowly coming together. | April 2, 2008 Never in a million years did I think I would ever visit Disney World. The place holds no interest for me. There are about a million places I would rather go. I think my hostility may stem from my childhood. My mom went to California when I was about 7... without us. While there, she visited DisneyLand with her girlfriend and brought me back a stupid pair of mickey mouse ears. I hated those ears. So why did we go to Disney World? It was an impromptu family reunion. Everyone was going, we had to go. My husband's father has been sick and we really miss everyone out in B.C, we couldn't say no. How could I deny Sosi 10 days together in 1 house with her grandparents and all her cousins and Disney World? I had some serious reservations about going tho. Disney freaks me out. I won't go into too much detail, but between the crowds, the line ups, the parents behaving badly and just the whole delusion of it all I found it hard to believe I was there. It is everything I want to shield my daughter from in the world, consumerism, excess, wastefulness... the whole horrible princess fascination, but there I was with thousands of others paying to have her experience it all firsthand. There was a point, however, where I just decided to put what I thought aside and to just try and enjoy myself. After that, things got better. We loved Epcot, and I am not embarrassed to admit that The It's A Small World Ride made me cry. It was so beautiful. I even stood in line for an hour to get "character" autographs for my nieces. To get the autographs I had to also get my photos taken with the characters. I was dreading it, but after a couple... I actually had fun! I think the best thing that came out of this trip is that I feel incredibly lucky to live where we do. I feel solid in our decision to live here in PEI. In Orlando we visited the Disney created town of Celebration. Despite the fact that it was developed and built by a huge corporation, I actually liked Celebration. Especially after experienceing the horror of Orlando, which is all huge highways and outlet malls, billboards and stress. Celebration was relaxing, quaint, walkable, full of sweet little shops and nice restaurants. It is how a town should be. It reminded me so much of Charlottetown and I felt like the luckiest person to live here, we live in the perfect city (for me). | March 31, 2008 Happy Birthday Mom! We love you very much. Hope you have a great day. xoxo | March 28, 2008 We got home last night and my head is still spinning. We spent the last 10 days with my husband's entire family in Florida, mostly around Disney World. I am still recovering from the craziness. I can not get over how big everything in Orlando was. The stores, the billboards, the highways, the houses, the amount of cars and people... everything was overwhelming. Disney World was a crazy and surreal experience. Maybe I will share more about that later... There were some really great moments, I feel so lucky to have had this trip with everyone, but I am hugely relieved to be home. I have some deadlines looming. Our trip home was a test in patience and endurance due to delays, missed flights and no other available flights... but 2 days later we are finally home and I need to get to work! | Blog Archives Copyright Lori Joy Smith 2003-2008. Please don't steal my stuff!