woke up this morning around 5am and couldn’t go back to sleep. after tossing & turning i decided i may as well get out of bed. i like being awake in the dark. making coffee and toast long before anyone else is awake. got some good snuggle time with the boys too (mike is spooning auggie on the couch. they’re killing me with cuteness.)

found this lovely photography via one of my favorite blogs while sitting on said couch.

must be the inner quilter in me,  loving these knit washcloths from the purl bee.

that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you”* (friedrich nietzsche)

perhaps you’ve caught news of the sigg liner story online…in a nutshell, sigg was using BPA in their liners up until August 2008. while sigg stands behind testing results that shows their bottles leach absolutely no BPA and are therefore safe…as a customer and retailer i’m pretty choked. i feel as though they were less than honest by riding the “bpa free” wave while all the while using the toxic chemical.

i’ve sold lots of sigg bottles over the years and truly felt as though they were the best and safest re-usable bottle out there. everyone in my family (present company included) uses a sigg and since we’ve been using them for several years so all of our bottles are made with the “old” BPA liner.

so what can you do?

i’ve spoken with the CEO of sigg canada directly and let him know how disappointed i am. they say they are committed to regaining our trust and are offering to replace the old lined bottles for new BPA-free bottles. you can send an email to liners@mysigg.com and explain that you would like a non-BPA lined bottle, (isn’t that what we all assumed we were getting in the first place?) and they will send you a replacement. there’s a picture on the sigg website which shows the old v. new.

i can’t stand legal mumbo jumbo…maybe sigg didn’t ever say “our bottles contain no BPA” just that they didn’t “leach BPA” but come on, we deserve better. i don’t want part of the truth. or half of the truth. just the whole truth please.

*on second thought, i guess this quote isn’t quite right. i’m mad about being misled and i’m also disappointed that i don’t see them the same way.

wish me luck. i’m babysitting for my niece for a couple of days. she’s adorable. 17 months old. hopefully going to take it easy on me…

to be a dumb a$$.

this little gem of a quote is from a friend in portland. at least it’s something like that…resist the temptation, resist the urge, i’m not sure exactly, but you get the point. many times a day i ask myself…am i resisting the urge to be a dumb a$$?

well today, instead of running around all over the place today (as i’m prone to do)–and feeling frantic the whole time without actually accomplishing anything–i decided to take the day and organize/clean at home and at the shop. and now i actually have a space to start some lotta simple sewing projects.

you know that old saying: a place for everything and everything in its place…?

wow, i’m pretty sure i’m channeling my grandma holmgren right now…although for the record, she would never use the word “ass”. EVER. sorry grandma, i’ll go wash my mouth out with soap now.

i’m drinking my coffee and sorting through email when the boys start barking like crazy & it’s the mailman with a package for me. it’s the lovely design black walnut address file i’ve been dreaming about for years! handmade by sharilyn in vancouver using the most gorgeous papers. it looks great in my new (well, actually work-in-progress) craft nook.

talk about a lovely way to start your morning. thank YOU sharilyn, i think you are so lovely!

i really love the rain. i guess if you live on the wet-coast it helps to love it. or at least embrace it. july was a really hot (record breaking in fact) month here and i can’t remember it raining once all month. i had a really productive weekend (not necessarily in terms of completing my list, although i did a pretty good job hammering through that)–but i dreamt up lots of new ideas for the shop & am feeling really inspired!

on the agenda this morning: homemade granola (made fresh yesterday from a recipe in rebar’s cookbook), dry out the cars (left the sunroof cracked & it rained), french press coffee (bought the beans from the nice folks at moja in north vancouver) and a rainy walk with the boys before i open up shop at 11. (ish)

(pics of my happy plants/flowers taken using my new lens)

i don’t know about you guys, but i’m at my best in the morning. BUT, i always wake up and fill my head with about 261 things i’d like to accomplish before, say…9AM. which often results in me feeling like a failure because i haven’t done everything (or anything).

if i actually made a list of what i wanted to do, i’d realize that:

repainting the office (this has been done several times, can’t seem to find the right colour and it’s killing me), payroll (i know, i can’t believe people don’t want to work at Room6 for free), making bunting flags, doing a few displays at the store, sewing a quilt (only a baby size, i’m not that crazy), cleaning the house (you know, a real top to bottom clean–my brother and his family are coming next week!), updating the website (there’s so many new special things not yet online!), going to the dump (rich moved a pile of old bike tires from the basement to the top of the stairs. can you recycle old bike tires? gosh, i hate to add to the landfill. oh dear….), watching 500 days of summer (what? there’s no 8am showing?) and of course, walking the dogs (2 walks actually, mike wants to swim–auggie doesn’t),

probably isn’t reasonable.

oh, and i also try to make a point to sit and relax (ha!) while i drink my little french press each morning. there’s no time like the present, right!? so this morning i’m going to sit in my yummy robe, drink my fair trade, shade grown organic coffee and make a list.

i’ll let you know how it turns out.

tonight is the finale of my current favorite tv show so you think you can dance. i’m so nervous! who’s it gonna be?! my money is on jeanine.

this is live blogging. well sort of….

kayla just got voted off.

commercial break.

and we’re back.

more judge’s favorite routines.

come on! i wanna know who wins!

evan was just voted off.

i hoped brandon & jeanine would be the final two.

commercial.

our neighbors just brought over steaks for the boys. rich is out of town and will be so sad to miss steak. i’m a vegetarian so the boys don’t have to worry about me stealing their meat!

and we’re back.

amazing mia michaels addiction routine. wow.

commercial.

encore of tice’s routine inspired by a friend with cancer. breathtaking.

and another commercial.

here we go!!

ugh!!

and the winner…

is…

JEANINE!

i’m guilty of buying wine because i like the label. it also helps when there’s a little card on the wine shelf saying that someone you don’t know said it was good. sometimes good label = bad wine, but tonight’s pick is really tasty. AND it has an adorable label. chat-eu-oeuf which means cat on a egg. oh, and it’s from france (and most things from france just seem so darn civilized.)