Sunday, March 28, 2010

happy

well here I am sitting in the living room, sideways in the armchair, Kenzie and Courtney are doing some Ukrainian Easter eggs decorating, Sebby is asleep on the couch and CJ is wandering around waiting for his egg dye to take. CJ made some bread in the breadmaker today so the house smells amazing!

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Life is good and I am happy.

Seems that I was in a bit of a slump over the last few months. I guess I was depressed. felt like life was getting the better of me and that I was just a passenger on a boat on some rough seas. But that period seems to be over. Don't know what happened to change things... could be that I finished a big project and a HUGE amount of stress was lifted.... could be that we had some AMAZING weather a couple weeks ago over March Break and I had the week off so the kids and I had a great week together playing outside and soaking up the sun... could be that I stumbled upon some books/tapes about positivity.... not only the far out, self-help kinda books, but also one on the "science of positivity". Regardless of the reason, I am feeling good again.

This weekend was very fun. First of all, on Friday, I got some great news at the office which just had me beaming from ear to ear. A great way to start the weekend. Then yesterday Kenzie and I met Omi downtown and Kenz and I took a Ukrainian Easter egg decorating class. I used to do this as a kid and I have been waiting until Kenzie was old enough to do it. I involves hot wax and candles, so its not something I wanted her to do when she was really young. But she's old enough now. She did great yesterday and she seems to be as addicted as I was as a kid. She is working on her third egg right now.

The class was held in a little fabric shop on Queen St W in Toronto. The shop holds several classes (mostly sewing) and has a neat little set up. I fell in love with the shop. the big windows letting in all the natural light, the colours of the fabrics, the old wooden floors, and the resident dog (whose name I've already forgotten). It was great for taking pictures. So here are a few....

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Fabrics on the wall. Pretty.

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Puppy

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colours!!

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The shaggy haired dude was the teacher. he was pretty cool. Here he was showing us all some pictures of different egg designs on his computer. After that is was time to get started.

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These are the main tools - beeswax and a kistka

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first you drawing the design on the egg

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then with the kistka you cover everything you want to keep white with wax. Once that is done you dip the egg in the first dye (e.f. yellow). then use the kistka to colour in what you want yellow etc. teh last dye is using a very dark one. Usually black.

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here we are working away intently.

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when you are done you take the wax off by holding the egg by a candle and wiping off the wax. The instructor did Kenzie's for her.

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Kenzie and her finished egg.

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my finished egg.

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Here's another egg I did this morning.