I love old things - buttons and bellbottoms, postcards and polkadots. So, you can imagine my excitement when my husband first showed me his vast collection of scouting badges. I have been brainstorming a fun project for them for most of a year.

Back in Vancouver I began collecting more badges in hopes of launching a kids onesie line along with my friend Jen and sister-in-law, Brittany. When our clothing supplier dropped the ball, I kind of sidelined the project. Until now…

Introducing lost and found goods!

If you are my friend on facebook, you’ve probably already noticed that I launched an Etsy shop last week.

There is a delightful nostalgia to collected things — old stamps, polaroids, postcards, buttons, and badges. First and foremost, Lost & Found is a paper goods line featuring found objects from across Canada but I hope to add onesies soon, too.

All vintage cards are snow white square and each order comes with a flashcard insert typewritten with love and care.

I would like to offer you a discount on the cards in the shop. Simply use the coupon code: LOVETHEBLOG at the checkout and you will receive a 15% discount.

One more thing…

A GIVEAWAY! Post a comment below and you will be entered into a draw to win a free card and a gift bag with other little trinkets.

Thank you for reading!

there is a thing that i need to do. a stack of things, really. a stack of pretty 100-page books i had printed and bound from a ramshackle pile of pages i carefully packed around all over vancouver that comprise my book.

the book about the life and mess and thrill and heartbreak of faith, and the wild and courageous and deeply-flawed and beautiful women i know who live it every day. and i need to send these books to publishers. and to agents. and everything in my pregnant, over-heated body tells me to take a nap. but i really need a kick in the pants.

aggressive/encouraging commenting welcome below.

when

you

love

somebody

THIS MUCH

words

don’t

do you

justice

______________

I am cherishing these last days as just the two of us, being mindful of how our world will change when another little one makes his way into our world. There are new days ahead.

The final piece, now hung in our office / art room. Paint, India ink (Sabrina’s lettering, my words,) and collage on craft paper. I originally thought I was making a piece to be cut into pages but decided in the end I liked it too much whole.

_______

Closer…

[Grab images and drag to a new window to look closer]

[poetry / freewrite]

I am here today to give myself

permission
to take all of the twine
the knots
the dirt-sand-rock-thorn lines
and bless them
smile with my mouth
my eyes

what I mean by that is

I want to live open
extend my arms
out
give way to the new things
lift eyes to grey skies
lover’s hand
and grasp with the strength of a giant

last wednesday

I sat with my one-year-old
reading the ugly duckling
the ripped pages
painting a pretty picture on the floor

and we danced
cheek-to-cheek
on whatever was playing on the radio
her warmth to my warmth

I am craving

more of this
the untethered moments
the knowing
that this is life at best
life at present
life given
life to be grabbed
life not foresaken

and I want the beautiful

when I was little I wore

dresses that matched my sister
and it made me proud
I wanted to look the same
next to her olive skin

the colours were

pink, white
sweatshirts with happy and sad faces
dresses in fuschia and aquamarine
there were yellows — warm

I remember how

we’d go to the playhouse
dad built in the backyard
the one with the real house windows
that opened and closed
we’d sit on the black spackled roof
and laugh at our brothers
dressed like batman and robin
jumping from roof to lawn
and be secretly jealous of their bravery

I wore my hair

long then
but I’d liked it short
the time I cut it in my friend’s bathroom
with paper scissors when no one was looking
and wore it the same way to my dad’s wedding –
a perfect tomboy in a pale blue dress

[process]

Crayons at breakfast, Nita Lake Lodge Whistler

Beach, Bowen Island

Tap, Bowen Island

Bible Belts, husband-and-wife duo Alison Therriault + Chris Alscher (Photo by Ming Wu, Ottawa)

Favourite moment of the day:

Stopped in late morning traffic a block from Main and Hastings, spotting my friend Chris aka Chris-A-Riffic (full-time musician, part-time Radio3 DJ, longtime CiTR host, avid husband) standing on the sidewalk, one hand holding up his bike, another reaching out to a man with a handwritten sign, all the while his not-yet-two-year wedding band (he married his drummer) glistening in the February sun.

Chris is one of those people who has the uncanny ability to make me smile no matter what the circumstance.

Happy Day, Sir Chris. You are one of the most sincere, humble, and unbelievably talented men I have had the good luck of knowing.