Granville Island Stroll

Let's get down to business now...shopping on Granville Island! Well, window shopping, at least, as the goods and goodies are a little bit pricey, being handmade and often one-of-a-kind.

Behold this gorgeous felted wrap.  

It would be even that much more amazing if the images reflected in the window were incorporated into the fabric (hmmm...must remember to try this idea if my own felting attempts ever reach a degree of actual wearability.)

Here's another sample of felting ingenuity. There is, in fact, a fabulous felted goods shop on Granville Island called Funk Shui  The price tags alone make me gasp, but the creations are glorious!

Along the same alleyway is an enchanting silk shop with every variety of shawl, scarf and wrap one could ever dream of wearing.  (Look at that crinoline.  Hands up, ladies--well, maybe a few men among you as well--who remember either wearing crinolines or putting them on your head and parading around like you were wearing a bride veil!  Um...okay...maybe it was just me...)

Moving right along...here's a guy with balls! 

There are several places where buskers put on shows throughout the day, at least during the summer. 

Never a dull moment!

I heard this guy singing when I emerged from a store and realized I'd recently been listening to him on YouTube, but now I can't remember his name or the song!  But I like his eclectic fashion sense.

If you feel moved to join in on the music making, chances are you could find something right up your tin pan alley in this musical instrument shop!

A large draw on Granville Island is the food and flower market, with a veritable rainbow of delectables.
I didn't try photographing the foodstuffs this visit...it's a little overwhelming, especially on a weekend when people are jostling around every stall, trying to get the vendors' attention. I suspect I have some photos from the food market on previous visits stashed away in my photo larder.  Maybe I'll dig some out for the next installation of our Granville Island mini-tour.

I hope you've all been having a gourd time so far! 

Walking in a Winter Windowland

Christmas Shopping List:

ü     1 Partridge in a Pear Tree

ü     2 Turtle Doves

ü     3 French Hens

ü     4 Calling Birds

ü     5 Gold Rings

ü     6 Geese-a-Laying

ü     7 Swans-a-Swimming

ü     8 Maids-a-Milking

ü     9 Ladies Dancing

ü   10 Lords-a-Leaping

ü   11 Pipers Piping

x    12 Drummers Drumming

I did a little window shopping at Holt Renfrew in Vancouver and brought back some of the goods to decorate the blog for us all to enjoy.    Things are not necessarily cheaper by the dozen, but in this case, the price was right.

one partridge in a pear tree*

two turtle doves*

three French poules



(I'm waiting for that red outfit in the middle to go on sale)

five ring-a-ding-dings*

it can be a real juggling act to keep all the hoops in the air that we feel obliged to jump through at this time of the year

six geese a laying*

featuring the Canada goose that layed the golden egg*

eight maids-a-milking* with seven swans-a-swiming

there's a star in every crowd

nine ladies dancing*

who are just tu-tu divine

(even as they manipulate the ten lords-a-leaping that they like to toy with)

the eleven pipers piping* solved the age-old mystery of what a piper has under his kilt

Alas,  I missed the twelve drummers as they were busy drumming up business elsewhere

the four calling birds phoned in, using the latest in tin can technology, to say they'd be late

(as usual)

 I thought I'd better get this countdown to Christmas posted before being too late, myself.

(the *starred* pictures have been artified a bit on my Ragzedge blog, so pour yourself a rum and eggnog and take a wander over there if you feel up to it...and if you don't mind passing under the mistletoe.  Pucker up!)

Little Shops of...

I promised you in the post below that we would take a look in a couple of the shops we passed by in Gastown so let us sample the wares:

First we might like to choose an appropriate outfit from Deluxe Junk, or one of the other similar shops in the area that sell retro fashions.  I've heard that if you wore it the first time it was in style, you shouldn't sport it when it comes back around. 

The antiques and faux antiques store has an odd mish-mash of merchandise.  Its most impressive feature would be its odour, but I don't have the scratch and sniff feature on my camera so I can't share that with you.

Something for the lady and something for the gent, and probably everybody in between.

Bulls in a china shop stand next to a mind reader.

Careful not to lose your footing here!

Technically, this is not a Gastown window but it holds a reflection of the Sears tower that we saw in a puddle in the post below, and thus neatly wraps up our little tour.

If you enjoyed the sights and commentary, don't be shy about leaving a little tip quip in the collection comments box. 

A Bicycle Built for Tea for Two

In much of Canada, people climb into their gas-guzzling cars, pick-up trucks, vans, SUVs, skidoos, etc. and head to the Tim Horton's drive-thru for a cup of nicotine-laced coffee. They order it by the amount of cream and sugar doses added to it, such as a double-double or a triple-triple. (no picture available for fear of legal procedures incurred by caffeine-hyped, sugar-hopped drivers of emissions-belching vehicles)

In Lotus Land (otherwise known as Vancouver), however,

things are done a little differently!  Here we see a charming urban couple pedalling their way to work with their morning teas in hand.

And I will have to push off and leave you for awhile, my sweeties,

as I'm heading off to Vancouver Island for a few days,

to take tea in Victoria.

Don't forget to keep your pinkies up!

A Christmas Heads Up

I live in a rural area.  A village, with fields, and not much going on.  I don't go into the nearby city very often so I can only guess that the stores and malls there are bursting at the seams with Christmas doodads, decorating paraphenalia, shiny gewgaws, beribboned whatnots, tinselled whimsies, and candy-cane-striped gizmos.  This shop front I saw in Vancouver last month was gearing up for the jolly holly season.

I'd venture to say that the white tree to the right of the picture, well inside the store, emanates the snowy, sparkly, glittery jittery Spirit of Christmas Decorating but I must question the appropriateness of the figure seen at the top middle of the photo.  Is a reindeer head mounted on the wall quite in fitting with the Christmas spirit?  Did Santa lose his patience with Donner or Blitzen one snowy Christmas Eve? 

Did Santa's elves grow tired of living on candy canes and demand something a little...gamier...for sustenance?  My world dims a little at the thought...

 

but is quickly revived as I am captured by a display of  gleaming baubles in the next window.

At home this year,  my decorating is minimalist.  Not a deer head or bauble in sight.

A few Chinese lanterns hung with gay abandon.

Fa-la-la-la-la



Window Dressing

Back in Vancouver in mid-November, while waiting for a bus, I amused myself by peering into the shop windows behind me. 

It was good to be informed by the window-dressings of Holt Renfrew of what the well-dressed Canadian woman should plan on wearing for this festive season.

Have you ever noticed that when you're looking intently at something or pointing your camera at a subject, other people will stop to see just what the heck you're so intrigued by.  See the little lady reflected in the window?  I sure hope we don't show up at the same party wearing the same outfit from Holt's! 

The gentlemen were not neglected, either, though the message got a little lost in the medium, I think.

I'm guessing the sartorial recommendation is to wear a red toque and matching tie with your dark suit while hanging the Christmas lights; yellow tie and no hat if you're completetly bald (case of flaunt it if you haven't got it.)  One just never knows who might drop in when one is in the middle of performing one's manly household duties.  Best to look sharp.

How it looked as I peered in the window.

How it looked after a Photoshop makeover.

I caught this make-up salesgirl trying on the merchandise while waiting for customers. All the better to promote the product if you've tried it.  I think I'll take the eyeliner that's still unwrapped in its packaging, if you don't mind, dear.

Have you got your outfit picked out yet for some festive gathering you might be forced to attend  happily looking forward to?  Hopefully, I've given you some helpful tips here.  Happy (window) shopping!

PS. To pick up your Christmas card from last year's clearance table, hop over to Ragzedge.

Visiting Time

Whenever I go "home" to Vancouver, I try to get to Seattle as well to visit the friends I have there.  It's a cozy time we have together, talking, eating, drinking, laughing, going for neighbourhood walks.  It's almost irrelevant that we're in Seattle.  What's important is being together.  I am grateful to be welcomed in and so comfortably housed. 

Autumn colours frame the door with a curtained window. 

A curtained window gives onto the porch where autumn has settled in.

Windows fog up with steam from the kitchen..

Windowsill dwellers bring kitchen blessings.

Let us bundle up and take our steaming cups of tea out on to the front porch and give thanks for having food, shelter, warmth and friends.

For other treatments of this porch scene, please visit my studio blog.

Now why on earth would I write this, and post these particular pictures?  Who really cares where I go,what I do, what I see.  Why speak of persons almost none of those few people who visit my blog will ever meet?  What compels me to lose hours of time adjusting so-so photos in Photoshop?  I suppose it's the need to connect, to share, to make some sort of tracing of one's existence.  I started this blog basically for family and friends who live far away from me (nearly all do), to keep in touch, to illustrate my days for them.  I occasionally hear from a few of them that they've stopped by to visit here.  But the comments I find left on my doorstep are mostly from people I've never met face-to-face and likely never will.  So, I'd just like to thank anyone who's lingering here a moment or two, for having stopped by to share in a corner of my little world of ordinary wonders.   I  believe it's important to notice the small, bright moments of one's life; I mean to really see them and savour them, and that way be able to call them up to light our way through darker times.

The King's Head

The former king, who set the stage for the King of Pop?

Spotted in NYC, May 2009

*

Elvis impersonation is still pretty popular, I guess. Still plenty of fans. I used to be amused to see the larger, older version of Elvis, out with his chubby family, shopping at a discount department store in Vancouver in the 1970's. Out shopping in his full white satin regalia. If you've got it, wear it, I suppose. A girl friend of mine once got a gig as a back-up singer for an Elvis impersonator. Part of her job was to hand out scarves, with which he'd wiped his sweaty brow, to audience members, who were all very excited to receive them. At least she got a trip to the Phillippines out of the deal.

*

I wonder if we'll be treated to glimpses of "Michael Jackson" riding the bus and shopping the bargain bins for underwear now.