After Masi & I were married, we knew right away that we were at a point in our life, when starting a family became a priority, rather than the distant future!  We we’re financially, mentally, & physically able, yet we knew that our families future was in God’s hands!  After two months of wedding bliss we were  one month into our pregnancy!  If God thinks we are ready, that means we are completely prepared RIGHT?  WRONG, way way WRONG!

It’s funny because no matter how ready we think we are to have kids, (or in our case……. MORE KIDS) there’s always something left unanticipated!  I seemed to have overlooked the fact that I will be extremely tired (while pregnant) all the time, & with a 10 month old practically walking all over the place it’s a lot more difficult than I thought it would be!  Now I am beginning to realize with an infant, & a one year old, I’m in for long days, & extremely long nights! I think those parental instincts kick in with just about everyone, but there is so much more that comes with being a parent!  I’m not even thinking of the physical changes your body endures, but more so the things that no one ever warns you about!  The realization that your life has become so much more valuable, the world so much crueler, & your child so vulnerable!  Becoming a parent, adds so much more responsibility on your day to day routines.  Jumping in your car, going to the store & being home to prepare dinner could have taken you half an hour pre-child.  With child:  Now after I’m ready, I make sure my son’s bag is ready just need extra diapers, clothes, or bottles.  I have to make sure Noah’s car seat is in safely, he’s buckled in tight (but not to tight)  & I have his blanket, & little things to keep him busy while running this (what use to be half an hour) arron.  Now I have a second child on the way I double that time, & double the diaper changes, double the tantrums; but what I can not dare leave out, you double the hugs, the smiles, & laughter!  Masi & I will never be prepared no matter how many kids we have, but I know where READY, for the challenges, & every obstacle that we have yet to face, we will conquer together!

Despite people telling us we’re crazy, Masi & I are ready for it!  I think we’ve come to realize that people will always find ways to put us down, or attempt to make us doubt ourselves but if God brings us to it, He’ll bring us through it!”   He has blessed us abundantly with our growing family!  I understand that at 25 years of age, I don’t know everything about life, about  love, & barley anything about raising children, we have to rely on the simple fact, that God has his plans for us, & with God on our side, our GROWING FAMILY will continue to be abundantly blessed!

its been a while since my last entry, simply because i have been too busy (can you imagine?) to do this..but I will correct that from now on.

I did a fashion show for Co-op event run by www.daisygreenmagazine.co.uk and once again had privilege to have the most loveliest models including fantastic Clarisse! Fresh pics from this show will follow but here is a glimpse of her in golden Halston style dress, from last show i did (xmas show 2009).
I also had the most enjoyable and long holiday in Sydney Australia couple months ago and spent time browsing local charity and vintage shops. Will write proper VINTAGE SHOPPING IN SYDNEY guide soon..watch this space! but here are some pics as a taster! oh, did i mention fairytale like golden glitter shoes i found…among dozen other good findings. Next time ill fly with empty suitcases!

Flying Machine vintage shop (Sydney Australia)

great colour coordinating at Flying /Sydney

There is a Junk Drawer display at the “The Opportunity Shop” in Hyde Park.
The shop is a temporary experimental project space for art in the urban community. It is located in a former Hollywood Video store.
The Junk Drawer set-up was created almost entirely out of stuff found at the space: sets of drawer, and display racks that were previously used for DVD’s. Zines are for sale, and there’s a drawer full of odds and ends you can donate to, or trade from. It is within the indoor yard sale area, which like a thrift store with plenty of items for sale.
The space contains an expanding collection of art as well as classes and talks. See the website for more Op Shop. It is open through the month of April, so don’t miss it!

Since I was 14 years old I’ve been designing houses for fun.  It all started when my dad was working for a log home building company and I fell in love with log houses.  The first house I designed had a huge prow-front and massive kitchen with the fridge on one side and the sink at the other side, with an island in between.  Lots of walking.  It had two lofts.  One was the master bedroom and one was a whatever room.  With a bridge between them and a spiral staircase in the middle.  They were both open to the floor below which meant you could see across from one to the other.  Hmm.  There was one other bedroom and no bathroom on the main floor.  And did I mention this house was about 2300 square feet?  LOTS of open floor space. LOTS of wasted space.  Cathedral ceilings.  Yeah, ridiculous.

I have since gotten a little better at designing houses for families instead of basketball teams, I hope.  I’ve amassed a binder full of sketches on graph paper and spanish and chemistry notes, most of which are trash, but I can’t bring myself to get rid of them since they’re a chronicle of my progress as a designer and I like to look back at how amazingly awful they were and what terrible rooms I visualized in my head while I was daydreaming in math class.

Sometimes in my dreams (at night) there’s a house that’s really cool and I try to look around at all the rooms while I’m there so I can remember it when I wake up.  I usually have to go through the house at least twice, but I start to wake up near the end of the second tour and then I have to make up the rest as I draw it out the next day.  They usually end up being mansions.

It is so much fun designing houses for people that if anybody asks me to draw one for them, I start asking them a zillion questions about what they like and what they visualize in their heads and put all the pieces together in my head, then fill in all the blanks as I draw it out, and I feel complete again.

Sometimes people ask me if I’ve drawn up my dream house.  I have to say no because there’s no way to design a house without seeing where it’s going first, unless you just want want to plunk a box down on the ground and call it home with no thought for views or sunlight or privacy or prevailing winds or landscaping.  I will design my dream house once I see where it’s going to be built.  Until then, I practice.

I’m not in too much of a hurry because I still can’t decide if I want round or square logs, and I have to resolve the chinking problem (to chink or not to chink…Darryl says no, I say maybe yes).  Then I see how cool straw bale houses look and I want to build one with round walls in some places and little surprise stairways and gardens.  And then I don’t know what to do.  So I practice designing strawbale houses too.  My MIL wants to build one in Saskatchewan so now I’m playing with designs for her.  Here’s a couple I did yesterday.

They are not to scale or anything but they’re designed for passive solar heating and protection from the cold north winds in Saskatchewan.  That nifty stone wall in the master bedroom (in both plans) would have hot water pipes from the stove or whatever other heating option is used so that the wall gives off heat.  Perfect for cold winter nights.  Both houses also have wraparound porches and roof overhangs to protect the walls from driving rain.

One thing I love about strawbale is its versatility.  You can make a curved wall wherever you want, and put a little diamond-shaped window in it, or embed some colourful glass bottles into it.  Walls can be fluid and irregular.  There doesn’t have to be any harsh corners or angles and you can create something that’s fun to live in as well as being functional.  I think having curved walls makes it feel like you’re living with nature instead of away from it since nature abhors a straight line and curves feel more soothing to the eye.  There’s nothing new age about it.  It just feels better to be in a house with curved walls.

There’s not many curves in these two houses because they’re designed to be easy to build, though I don’t know how easy the curved window walls would be, and I’m still practicing.  I’ll get bolder with house shapes as I play with more plans.

So there ya go.  If you’re wanting a beautiful home (or gymnasium) designed, write me with your wish list and I’ll see what I can do.  Don’t be surprised if I e-mail you back with an exhaustive list of questions.  It’s all part of the process.

There are two looming problems with arguing with people who hold or deny certain beliefs.  The first is that they misplace the burden of proof, not recognising their belief to be the one lacking in evidence as compared to one with overwhelming amounts of evidence.  The second stems from this, and I am frightened to see so much of it.  It is that science itself, as a rigorous method of inquiry, is treated as nothing more than a belief system, floating about, grounded on a guess.

Christianity and atheism are often represented as dichotomous belief structures.  If you are not a Christian, you are then some form of atheist, in the sense that you are a-theistic, though of course you may be agnostic or undecided.  Christians acknowledge that their belief structure was given to them in one handy volume, and accept certain fundamental beliefs such as the existence of God.  Their beliefs are a rigid structure, a skyrise, built on this foundation.  Christians peer out the windows of their mighty fortress and see an equally solid construction by the way–Atheism (with a capital A).  This is where you live if you don’t live in Christianity Tower.  Your beliefs are likewise built up on a foundation, most likely science, and you arbitrarily adhere to this set rather than the opposing set.

But atheism is not a tower.  Atheism is simply a handy name for the unwieldy phrase, ‘I do not accept your outlandish claims of theism.’  There is no second tower, only one tower or the absence of it.  Atheism does not make rigorous, dogmatic demands of those who borrow its name.  It is not a coherent system of beliefs which must be defended in the face of Christianity.  Those who call themselves atheists simply reject the claims of Christians (or theists in general).

Science is all about testing things repeatedly in order to get the most reliable and untainted evidence.  However, those who think that science is just the God of Atheism are inclined to think that any failing of science to do what it sets out to means that it is a failed belief system and must be rejected.  An inherent difference between science and religion is that science sets out to correct itself.  Though there may be underlying invariants in the world, science cannot always accurately account for them, but it never claimed to be anything other than a process for trying to determine such patterns.  Religion dictates patterns which ought never, by its own prescription, change.  And yet Christianity has been much revised in its two thousand years.

“Shadow Of The Day”

I close both locks below the window
I close both blinds and turn away

Sometimes solutions aren’t so simple
Sometimes good bye’s the only way

And the sun will set for you
The sun will set for you

And the shadow of the day
Will embrace the world in grey

And the sun will set for you

In cards and flowers on your window
Your friends all plead for you to stay

Sometimes beginnings aren’t so simple
Sometimes good bye’s the only way

And the sun will set for you
The sun will set for you

And the shadow of the day
Will embrace the world in grey

And the sun will set for you

And the shadow of the day
Will embrace the world in grey

And the sun will set for you

And the shadow of the day
Will embrace the world in grey

And the sun will set for you

I would like to share my experience on WooServers with all of you, so that you get an idea about this service.

I have been associated with WooServers for the last couple of months and if you want to get to know about the experience in a single word, it has been “wonderful.” Frankly speaking, I have bought packages from many services before but I never experienced one with such a polite and helpful customer support department. Almost all of my support tickets were answered within an hour, except one which took around 3 hours for them to answer. That was related to some configuration details and they said to have taken the time to check the configuration manually themselves.

One thing I can assure you all for sure. If you are looking for dedicated servers or a VPS at a very cheap price, have a look at WooServers. You won’t believe what you get at such a cheap price. Not only the prices, but the sales support has been wonderful as well. It is easier to get answer to any of your pre-sales question because they will chat with you on Skype directly and solve any of your queries.

I have not experienced a single instance of server failure and that is really an amazing thing as the time period is not really small either (Two months).

You won’t find a better package at such prices. Those who are skeptical about trying out a new service may give this a shot. You will not regret, take my word.

Three “Junk Drawer” zines have been selected to be part of an exhibition of artist made books at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. It takes place at Dittmar Gallery in the Norris Center, through February 8th. There’s an opening reception on Thursday, January 7th, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Check here for further info. http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2009/12/dittmar.htm

This apple crisp will make anyone melt instantly! It is the perfect dessert or for lazy afternoon gatherings in the fall. Not to mention, it is really easy to make and pretty easy on the wallet. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and perhaps a little drizzle of caramel for an extra special treat.

Apple Filling:

4 of your favorite sturdy apples, I used Rome

2 tsp cinnnamon

1/2 tsp of each, nutmeg, cloves and allspice

1/2 stick butter (melting is not necessary)

tsp of cider, cider vinegar, or lemon (whichever you have on hand, all give the same effect)

tbs cornstarch

1/2 cup sugar, use more or less to taste

tsp of vanilla

a pinch of salt

Peel the apples and slice thin. Combine these ingredients and let macerate. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and begin the topping.

For the topping:

1 cup old fashioned rolled oats

6 tbs flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

a pinch of salt

1 stick butter, cut into cubes

Combine all ingredients but the butter, and then add the butter. Use your fingers for ease in creating a mass with the butter.

Pour the apples into a greased baking dish. Put slices of butter throughout the apples. Place the topping on top, you will have to mold it a bit. Bake for about 30 to 45 minutes, until the apples are nice and tender when pierced with a fork.

Alrighty.  As promised, here is your tour of the farm where I came from.

If you missed the first installment of My History, click here.

The second installment is here.

The first pen we come to houses our lovely sheep.  This is Alex.  Short for Alexandria.  Don’t ask me why we named her that.  She never gave us any babies and ended up getting sick and dying.  Or she was shot to put her out of her misery…I can’t remember which.  She was nice though.

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