I told you so

They didn't give me a lot of notice, but I pulled it off; I'm committed to this embroidery thing (see this post from a few weeks back), even though I forgot to bring a needle with which to embroider when I went to the park to craft with Sarah H this evening. Angie, I promise that I'll send some sort of embroidered gift to you by Christmas. Who knows who'll spring a wedding on me next??

Those are pillow cases, by the way.

Marry me

The summer started out with nary a wedding in sight: Sarah and Galen were out of the way with their April wedding, and Nathan and Cindy aren't even a speck on the horizon with an October wedding. That changed a couple of weeks ago, when Shannon and Chris announced they were getting married in Seattle in, well, a couple of weeks. Shannon prefers not to use the word wedding, but I don't know what else you can call it. Family members traveled from far and wide. Chris and Shannon picked out special outfits and the families donned their finery. There were flowers and rings and a judge and tears. That's a wedding! And as far as weddings go, this one was beautiful. The only thing missing was long, awkward toasts to the bride and groom. I'm saving those for my trip to San Francisco next week; the trip was planned in advance of the wedding announcement, but I'm glad that I get to see them so soon after the big day. Especially because two nights in Seattle didn't leave a lot of time for really connecting. That'll surely come with the drunken toasts.

Check out the rest of my wedding pictures here.

Cleared for take-off

My dad is no longer a high school teacher; he retired in June, and it was one of the reasons Michael and I went home for a visit a few weeks ago. My mom pulled off a wonderful bbq with some friends and colleagues, and everyone had nice things to say about my dad's career. I knew that I would be saying a few words before I gave Dad a couple of treats, but I was stumped. Thankfully, Shannon had prepared a little speech, which she emailed to me. I presented it with added flair by blubbering through the whole thing. It was a happy occasion, but I guess I was emotional because, like Shannon says, my dad was one of my favorite teachers of all time. Have a look at her words, below.

Today you are all here with my dad to celebrate his retirement. Thank you! My dad truly deserves to be honored on this day for being one of the best teachers so many students ever had; I know this because he was my teacher in high school too, one of my best teachers.

Even in his last few years of teaching, my dad was still learning, teaching new material and inspiring his students to learn. He didn't become one of those teachers we have all had: the ones who are done years before their retirement, boring their students to death with their sheer lack of interest in their profession. I know my dad was present right till his last day of teaching.

I am really happy that my dad had so many rich and diverse teaching experiences in his career: Spruce Lake, Cudworth, Saskatoon, Regina, South End, Saskatoon, Rosetown and finally Saskatoon again. If anyone knows the different kinds of high school kids in the large geography of Saskatchewan, it's my dad!

And his range of subjects always fascinates people; I love telling people aviation studies and drama in the same sentence. Wowee. He really got to teach what he loved and I believe that the students he taught knew that too.

Dad, you will have the opportunity now to do many different things and teach in many different environments, but you may end up back in a high school, and that's ok too! You're at home in that environment and your amazing connection with high school kids will never change. Thank you for inspiring so many people to keep learning.

Prepare yourselves

From this day forward I will only give gifts that have some sort of embroidery component:

Jenn and Tim's beautiful baby (Kaden!) received my first complete project, and I think he likes it. I think he'll like it even more when he grows into it. Shannon was wondering about the practicality of giving a baby a white bib. I see her point. I hear babies can be messy.

Embroidery has proven to be the perfect summer craft. I was looking for a portable option that wasn't knitting - something I could bring to coffee shops, beaches and crafting dates with ease. I considered cross stitch, but I don't have the patience for that right now. I visited Sublime Stitching after seeing an ad in Bust, and, after only a few days of hemming and hawing, I ordered some start-up supplies. Jenny Hart has starter packages to get you off the ground, but I opted to create my own package because I desired her brand new fancy book over a simple instruction manual. You can borrow it if you want.

It's good that I have a new craft on the go because I have a backlog of presents to address. Next up: baby gift number two. This one is for another Saskatchewan baby: Camron belongs to Angie and Ray. I hear he likes primary colours.

Luck be a lady

I have many things to write about - a baby nephew named Kaden, a new embroidery hobby and a recent car co-op directorship, to name a few - but no time to give these topics their due (check my flickr account for evidence of the first two). I do have time to tell you about the success of a tentative plan that I've been pursuing for months: I've been entering my name in every draw that comes my way, trying to reconnect with the luck of my youth. It finally proved fruitful at the Victoria Car Share Co-op barbeque last night, when I won two tickets to the Organic Islands Festival this weekend. I know the tickets are only worth $15 combined, but I have to start somewhere, right? If you live in Victoria, let me know if you want to join me.