Fleeting Persona

The city girl is a fleeting persona as I breathe in the fresh air of this wide open space and my body adjusts to days spent navigating the great outdoors. My sister's are kindred spirits in their love of nature, photography, and dress-up. They're miles ahead of me in their photography skills so like an avid pupil I followed them out on a photo shoot, hoping to pick up tips. In one evening I discovered how to capture the world aglow with the setting sun. My sister's have such vivid imaginations and will even hop into the ocean for each other in order to set up a good shot (Now that's sisterly love!).

*All photos of me by Lizzy. 

Adventurer

Oh baby, let's be adventurers! We are living it up at the cabin, spending our days lounging outdoors, swimming in the ocean and climbing big rocks. Watching Levi's courage as he tries new things is my great joy. I love watching this little man grow up!

Spiders or Spit?

My mind is running away with the long days of summer and my ability to focus on a single thought is difficult. Thus you get a long list of random Michelle Musings with little or no connection to each other.

1. Quintessential summer outfit. Check. 

2. Three days until vacation. We're heading to a cabin up the coast for two weeks. I am so tired. No longer sleep deprived tired, but completely and utterly fatigued. I could say more but instead I'll leave you to imagine lead feet. 

3. I have OCD. For as long as I can recollect when I fill a glass up with water, I always fill it half way and then dump it two times before letting the water reach the top. What do I think is at the bottom? Spiders or spit?

4. Sometimes my kids drive me ape shit (Do you notice a little bit of poetry going on?). I love 'em but it's the grace of God that sustains me. 

5. I've written that I don't usually post the labels I'm wearing because it's all thrifted. However, this top and hat are brand spanking new from Joe Fresh. The shorts are my polka dot DIY and the sandals are vintage Alberto Fermani's that I bought for a steal ($8). 

That's all I've got.

P.S. After a few hours reflection I realized the "ape shit" statement was bothering me. It was honest based on my frustration in the moment so there it remains, but let it be known I love my kids more than my own life. 

Crying

Next week we leave for vacation so I went out and picked up some holiday essentials (Well, maybe not the shoes...). A very lovely and generous person watched my little nuggets while I went shopping with gift money. I needed the breather. Jethro's been up in Levi's business and poor Levi tries to defend his territory (or food). This results in Jethro getting shoved over, and then everyone is crying. Crying. Crying. 

I know my babies will grow up fast and so I try to cherish every moment. Occasionally screaming into a pillow is a great release for the more trying times. 

Jet's coming up to one year. The eyes. He melts my heart

And I thought I'd add a shot of my niece Sofia, because she's adorable and has amazing ringlets and she's the feistiest chick around. 

Polka Dot

Marc by Marc Jacobs Resort 2012 collection was sprinkled with polka dots and inspired me to create a DIY polka dot print of my own. All I needed was a pair of cut-offs, white fabric paint, a paint brush and a circle template. 

I

Voila! I'm looking forward to taking these for a spin!

Indoor Day

It appears that my day-to-day activities with my children are ubiquitous with design elements at Paris Couture this week. I suspect the brilliant couture design teams are made up of people who loved arts and crafts as kids. 

All couture photos via Style.com

O Canada, O Vancouver

Happy Birthday Canada!

We had a little cupcake party with our neighbours in honour of our country's 145th birthday. Levi is still grasping the concept of country and was certain a person name Canada was coming over for a celebration. 

These cupcakes were my first foray into vegan baking. They were yummy! The cupcake recipe is from here and the icing recipe from here.  

It was such a beautiful night that after our party ended at 6:30 (My how things have changed!), I headed down to the beach to practice photography. We have had several days of rain and suddenly the air is full of the fragrant aroma of plants in full bloom. The walk down to the water was glorious, and it was a pleasure to inhale the sweet scents. There's one little park that I always stop at to take in a view of the water and mountains. It's hard to capture the beauty and peacefulness of this special place, but I've pondered a lot of life's deep questions here, surrounded by creation and my Creator. 

My goal for this little photo expedition was to try to take photos facing towards the sun, with out the images being totally over exposed. By the way, there's a reason why we're taught as children not to look directly into the sunlight. By the end, my eyes we're aching but I had some lovely shots.

Just a reminder that Elasticpantcity is going through a redesign and will be at this blogspot address until the domain is transferred. If you have any friends who think they've lost me, let them know : )