I’m pretty jealous. It’s almost guaranteed that I couldn’t make it that weekend, since my deadline at work is on June 8th. You will have such a nice time with Josh that weekend; wine, yarn, spinning wheels… who needs sex on their birthday when you got all that?
Anyway, it looks like I’m coming down to see that wedding dress of yours on thursday. So let’s make plans as to where you want to meet. Call me when you can. I can’t wait to see you in 3 days!
Hello there!
Yay for camping! I can smell the burning hot dogs already!!!! I’ll confirm stuff with Josh and we can book it this week!
So today, we went to a little farm to see if they did weddings (turns out they don’t) but what we did find out is that there’s an alpaca farm down the road that’s having an open house on May 31! It’s Spinning Wheel Alpaca Farm and they’re motto is : “once you go Alpaca… you’ll never go backa!” (hilarious!) They’re having a tour of the farm with spinning demos, shearing, and local vendors selling jewelry, clothes, fibers…I wish you could come!! (maybe you can…?) I wanted to text you as soon as I saw it but I forgot my phone at home. It happens to be on Josh’s birthday but he knows I can’t miss out on it, so he’s bitting the bullet for me. Plus, that afternoon we’re going to Archibalds Winery to a fruit wine and food festival! Josh’s brother got us the tickets for his birthday. It’s gonna be quite the day out in the country!
This afternoon we drove out to the Beaches in Toronto and walked around and had a bite to eat. It’s really nice around there! I stumbled upon a knit shop called the Naked Sheep. It reminded me of Ariadne but with less community vibe. They had nice yarn though and beautiful baskets! You know me, I’m a sucker for a good basket! So we did a bit of book shopping and had a bite, it was a really nice day.. I think we’ll probably go out there quite a bit this summer…
I got you a couple of treats today, so you’ll be getting a package in the mail soon. Although really, I should wait till after the Alpaca fest because who are we kidding, I’m getting you some fleece!
OK, well I’m off to felt my fuzzy feet. (any non-knitter reading that, not that anyone reads our blog, is probably really confused!) Talk to you soon!
PS: sorry no pictures, I really need to get a a pocket sized camera!
Hello,
last night I went out for a rainy walk to the Cagibi with Andreas, map and calendar in hand. We pondered all the possibilities of when we would be able to fit visits to Ontario this summer (between you and his family).
So here’s the dirt.
Option 1: As much as Pelee Island sounds great based on the Lonely Planet’s description of it, it’s 5 and a half hours from Oshawa. That’s far, considering that Josh doesn’t have that much time off work! Please refer to this google map link. When looking at the map, think that Andreas’ parents basically live in Sarnia. So we were thinking, maybe we could meet you at his parent’s place on the friday night (if Josh is working until 5) and have a huge (but late) birthday dinner with cake. Then leave for Pelee the next morning after breakfast. That’s about 3 hours, but at least we’re all together. If not, we could just meet at the ferry early on the saturday.
Option 2:There’s this place called Bon Echo Park (Bon Echo Google map). Andreas’ family has gone camping here and he says that it’s really nice. It’s between Oshawa and Montreal (sorta). The way that we see it, we have more time than you guys, so it’s best to get closer to you than to us. It’s only a 2 and a half hour drive for you. That way we don’t necessarily have to go all the way to Watford, we can just drive back to montreal directly from there. His parents are coming to Montreal the week before, so we don’t really need to go visit them around then.
Option 3: The Pinery (Pinery Google map). This is right beside where Andreas is from. It’s very nice, we always go for walks there. His family would just go there to camp sometimes because it was close and easy. It’s 3 and a half hours away from you.He says that it will be busy though, it just always is. Also, that way maybe you could come to his parent’s house and if Josh has to go back to work that week, maybe you could come chill with me at the Mendritzki’s for a few days longer and we could do little day trips, there’s really nice beaches around there. We could even go to Toronto on our way back to Oshawa.
This is all dependent on whether or not you have a job then or on Josh’s days off. If you got any other ideas, let us know what you’re thinking.
I was pretty sad when we got off the phone yesterday and I realized that you’d be in Halifax when I want to come down next weekend. That’s kinda why I decided to look into all of this. Also, it turns out that I’ll be in Ontario lots this summer. We are driving down on July 26th, maybe we can meet in Toronto for the day and hang out (Andreas’ dad might be with us as well). Then I got a hotel room rented for me in Toronto on Aug 9,10,11. So it would be great to see you then. As well as a wedding in Ontario on Aug. 30th, so maybe there would be a way to hook up around that time even if it’s just on your lunch hour one day on our way back. In October, we’re thinking about doing some renovations at Andreas’ parents’ place for a few weeks, so maybe I could come stay with you for a few days of that or vice versa. You might even have a house by then! So I’ll be seeing you a lot in the next few months. That makes me so happy!
Think about all of the camping options. Pelee Island does sound like it’s really nice. The camping sounds pretty relaxed and the winery looks cool. It might just be too far and less relaxing for Josh overall. Also, we’re not sure if we want to go all the way to his parents’ place during that time, because we’re going to see them on June 19th and then again a month later. It might just not give us enough time to do things together in Montreal. I don’t know if I told you, Andreas is probably going to Nova Scotia for a month in August to help a friend out with her film. Needless to say, I’m not really looking forward to coming home to an empty apartment once I get back from Edmonton and for two weeks after that, especially during the Montreal show. But I can’t really ask him not to go, he will either way.
Call me soon to talk about all this camping trip. I can’t wait!
Isa
Awww..your trip sounded so nice! I wish I could have been there to have cupcakes and drool over pretty fabrics with you! Speaking of fabrics, I just read, in the latest issue of Wish magazine, about a store in Hamilton that sells beautiful fabrics (European Textiles) and another that sells wallpaper for about 50% cheaper than retail! (A big big wallpaper store) (I can’t wait to have a house to decorate) I was thinking that could be another week end destination for us to check out…It’s a little closer to Watford so maybe we could arrange something….
Well, your spring cleaning extravaganza sounds like it’ll do you some good. There’s nothing like getting rid of old stuff that’s been dragging you down (subconsciously of course) and when it get’s to the point of vermin in the kitchen it’s definitely time to declutter! But don’t worry about mousy… I had one and it wasn’t any trouble. (just make sure you have a emergency kit with a baseball bat, thick gloves and a plastic bag for when you come home to a squealing noise…)
Great news about Andreas’ award. Give him a high five from me! You guys must be happy that school is behind you and you get some “you” time! Josh and I are about to be in for lots more “us time” now that we have a brand new car!!!! 
Actually it’s not brand new but it’s in great shape and only costs $40 to fill! We took it for a drive out to the country yesterday. It was so nice to be out and doing our own thing…We went to a cute little town called Port Perry and actually found a place that sells Fairmount Bagels! I almost shed a tear…
So you should definitely come out on the 16th!! We can drive into the city or check out the area around here…and you can for sure stay here for a night or two (but staying in Toronto could be fun too!) I hope it works out….I can show you all the business attire I’ve bought in preparation for my office job (whatever it may be…) My future sister in law loves shopping so she’s been bringing me to the mall and helping me pick out slacks and dress shirts. I don’t really recognize myself in that kind of outfit but I guess it just takes a little getting used to…Still, going to Toronto and getting some hip clothes would probably help my moral!
Well, I’ll let you know when I get a job…hopefully soon! (For now I’m doing a little office work for J’s brother.)
By the way I got going on the fuzzy feet today and hope to be done in two days…I’ll post pre and post felting pics.
Hello,
sorry that it’s taken so long to write about my trip to Germany. I’ve been incredibly busy. The other day I was downtown and I bought a book that was recommended to me by someone we met in Germany. It’s called Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui . So I began unpacking my luggage yesterday and I got a real cleaning bug. I decided to clean out all my drawers and closet. I got rid of 80% of my clothes, shoes, bags…everything. We’re spring cleaning all week, so I’m going to try to get rid of so much more. I’ve e-mailed out an invite to people to come over saturday for cupcakes & tea and take whatever they want. I’m giving away almost all my fabric, some books, kitchen stuff…take it all! It’ll give me a chance to try some of those recipes from the cupcake book that my sister bought me in NY. While I was cleaning my clothes, Andreas was cleaning the sun room. You won’t believe what he found. He had cooked the food for a film shoot at school in March. Somehow, the stuff from the shoot got stored in the back room, with that was a pot of unfinished risotto. Here’s a picture of Andreas washing that pot:
Not a pretty sight. At the same time, I was writing an e-mail on the couch, when I heard a little squeaking sound and saw a mouse run from the kitchen and under the couch. I screamed (which really surprised me because I though that I kinda liked mice). Anyway, we bough mouse traps. I feel really bad about killing the little guy. I was actually relieved when I saw the empty mouse traps this morning. Today Andreas is cleaning the oven and I’m doing lots of work that I’ve been ignoring. He’s making up for all the lost cleaning time that he didn’t do when he was very busy at school. It was all worth it because he won a great award at school the other night: The Greatest Achievement in Film Production Award. It came with a heavy plaque and a nice cheque. He was really happy. I was really happy. I’m especially happy to have a boyfriend again.
So here are a few pictures of my trip to Germany:
This where I ate donuts every morning
This is the longest word ever (I still don’t know what it means)
Some of the food that we ate: schnitzel with white asparagus and a strange desert
This is a TV program that they had every night about middle aged nudist activities. This one was about jogging naked. The night after it was about bowling naked. Well, that’s what it seemed to be about. We actually couldn’t understand any of it. Germany!
This Krongut-Bornstedt. It’s a small village where they have a clock maker, a yarn shop, a distillery, a potter… basically old school crafts. This is where I bought you little gifts. Check out those beautiful rolls of linen, sold by the meter.
Pretty German flowers
This is a fountain in front of a palace in Potsdam
I was horrified to have this happen to me
But then happy to find this place (where I also bought you some goodies)
This is mostly all the aesthetic stuff about my trip. There were awesome things about Berlin and maybe I’ll post about the cool tourist attractions of the city later on. These were just all the places and things that I did that I thought “i wish Bridget was here” or ” I’ll grab a pic of this for Bridget”. Except for the naked guy thing, that’s was ’cause I found it really funny.
I got some good news. My new knitting class that I’m teaching will be on a thursday, so I’ll have my weekends off. Andreas will maybe be driving to Ontario May 16th. Maybe I could get a lift with him and he can drop me off in Oshawa where I can maybe stay overnight. Or he could drive me to Kingston and I could take a bus back that night or the next day. Or he can drop me off in Toronto and you can come meet me. We could stay in a hostel for one night or two. I could name lots of things, but it could happen. It’s a pretty busy time for me at work because my open house deadline is on June 8th, so it would have to be a pretty short visit. But it could still be fun.
Talk to you soon,
Isa
Hey Isa,
So while you’re out galavanting in Berlin, eating dessert for breakfast and knitting up socks two at a time; I’ve been coming to terms with this whole suburbia business. I’ve just been kind of going with the flow so far. The flow being: wake up at 8:00 when Josh leaves for work, descend into the kid-pit (aka main floor) where I dodge flying toys and listen to top of the lungs versions of ‘we will rock you’ and ‘midnight run’ while working on my CV and searching the web for jobs. This pretty much goes on until 8pm when he kids are in bed (on a good day) and adult time starts. Sometimes we go out to a movie but mostly we hang out and watch a bit of TV or read until we pass out at about 10PM. Then there’s the week end, which this week involved going to the Green Living Show in Toronto where there is a transit strike which involved a lot of back seat time on the highway. And then it was Greek Easter where I tried to remember the names of about 35 new faces (about 25 of which were under the age of 10) and “just had to taste” about 65 different dishes. So back home, full and exhausted last night, Josh and I decided to go for a bike ride to get a little alone time out of the house.( Josh calls it freedom fighting ;)) And then it was off to bed to start another week!
Don’t get me wrong I love being here, they truly are a great family and are making me feel so welcome. Not to mention I laugh so hard with (and sometime at) the kids! But it certainly is an adjustment. Gone are my carefree, aimless days in Montreal, now it’s all about the nine to five and packing some fun into the week ends. But we got a lead on a car and might have it by the end of the week ( a super fuel efficient compact) so we’ll be able to take off for the week end soon, and camp out or head to Montreal for a couple of days of carefree leisure!
Speaking of carefree leisure…I saw a preview for the SATC movie and I’m thinking we need to meet up in Kingston, hit up the sleepless goat for lunch, catch a matinee have a cocktail and head back our seperate ways. How much more fun could one cram into a day? Ok, maybe we could knit during the movie…
On the subject of knitting, I’ve got my half done fuzzy feet in my knit bag and haven’t been able to bring myself to finish them because it’s been so hot, but today was so rainy and cold I really wish I had made them… maybe I’ll get a few rounds in tonight during adult time…fingers crossed.
OK well can’t wait to see your German socks and to hear all about the trip! xo
Hello,
Germany is nice. Im eatin donuts for breakfast everyday! Well, the good German kind. Ill post lots of pictures when I get home. The festival is great and I met some good film makers. I got a really bad cold on the flight here. Now Andreas has caught it. I went to the greatest yarn shop. I will post some stuff up about that too. And of course I got you some cute little presents…send me your address soon. Ill be home by wednesday. Wish you were here!
Isa
Hey Isa,
I think I was trying to be tough when I said bye to you…but it all came rushing out this week end. Leaving my parent’s place was really hard! I was glad my Mom and sister came along with me. It really started to hit me that I wouldn’t be back in Montreal for a while and that a 4 hour drive is a 4 hour drive…no matter how you look at it.
We stopped in Kingston on the way. It was really nice! We had lunch at a little place called The Sleepless Goat (yummy organic coffee and locally grown veggies) and checked out a cute little market with lots of pretty flowers:
Well, Mom and Irene left today (amidst more tears…) and Josh and I have the place to ourselves for a few days. I’ll get a chance to settle in and get used to the place before the family get back and then it’s kid central! Wish me luck!
Hello Bridget,
it was sad to leave you yesterday. I felt tears creeping into my eyes when we were saying goodbye at the door. I thought about it lots as I drove back into Montreal. I guess that this is the beginning of a new life for both of us. I’m pretty used to calling you whenever I wanted to do pretty much anything. Now I’ll have to call other people. Maybe I’ll find new things to do in this city or new friendships that I’ve been less attentive to. It just seems like I’ll never have a friendship with someone that’s as comfy and easy maintenance as ours. I’m eating ice cream right out of the carton as I write this and it’s a lot less fun without you already. Here’s a nice pic of your moving day on Monday:
When I went to Effiloché the other day, I noticed that they got beautiful fabrics in. These includes one of our favourites, Amy Butler.
I can’t wait to get some to make a bag or just a bit to add to a quilt. You’ve got to check out the free patterns on her site. I think you’ll like her fabric leaves. I love the “Amy’s Nigella Quilt” and the “Sash with beaded fringe” as a quick gift.
I’m so excited to go to the two socks on one needle workshop tomorrow with Kate Gilbert. Do you realize that almost all sock yarn comes from Germany and that I will be there in 3 days!? Oh God. Speaking about Germany, they also have this. I will be taking pictures of that for you.
I finished sewing up Kheo’s sweater. I’ll post a picture soon. I’m supposed to see him tomorrow. I hope that your vegetarian bbq is going very well and that you have a good sleep next to your sweet boyfriend. Say hello to him for me.
Write back soon with lots of news!
Isa
Hello Bridget,
I hope that you’re having a nice time with your family. I’m rushing all day to get all the paper work done for my knitting class that I’m teaching tonight. I’m really not as nervous as I was when I found out that I was doing it. I’m a bit scared about it being in french though. When I’m nervous, my french is more of a jumble than an actual language. Last night, I made what I though would be a great bag in my sewing class. It came out so big that I could probably sit in it (I’m not even gonna try). It looks satirical on me, like wearing your mom’s heels when you’re a kid. here’s a pic of it:
I figured that you probably weren’t “getting” the whole moving thing yet. It was weird to drive you to your mom’s and have lunch, talk about anything and then say goodbye. It felt like a “see you later”-”maybe I’ll call you tomorrow to hang out”- goodbye. But I was telling Andreas at dinner that night, it was actually “I might see you one more time before July…and then who knows. But good luck with everything!”-goodbye. Okay, that’s a bit dramatic. Either way, I’ll see you on Friday for the “Last Supper” (is there a sandals/robe dress code?).
I was reading an interesting “design” website today:design sponge.
Check out her diy section.She has a link on her site to an interesting wedding photographer:Jessamyn Harris
It’s nice to have an idea of what you could do. Some of the weddings on the site are good for inspiration too.
 | Isabella on Teary Week-End |
 | bridgetandisa on Teary Week-End |
|
