Hello. We are playing peek a boo with the sun again today. Tease!!! I had just been reading about the upcoming B.C. fashion week designer line-up featured this year. It is very exiting to have our own forum for design but why, oh why, are the same people shown over again? One designer was won a design competition on t.v. for gods sake! They have had their time in the spotlight already, lets move on! And we all know that there is so much talent that deserves recognition in Vancouver but are ignored. There are people here who are slugging it out in the dirty design trenches and coming up with wonderful, wearable, well made clothing. They do not have deep pockets for agency representation. They are spending time at their sewing machines instead of shmoozing at gallery openings. And if you want to be sent to sleep just get over to The Bay Dept. store and hit the Canadian By Design collection. Nap time everyone! If fashion week is to have any integrity then there can be no place for favoritism. So come on buyers, reps. and whoeverelse finds talent move out of your comfort zones and hit the streets. Go to the small boutiques and chech out who may be selling online! And those who are chosen to show at B.C. design week should only be allowed to show once to make room for those who follow behind. And to those who are taking up space and showing for the 2nd time we have seen your work already, at The Bay. Just sayin'...

Too much time between blog entries I know... sorry. Still getting the website built and it looks great thanks to Miss Penny, my web designer. I am really inspired by the new spring fashions and colours after wandering around the downtown stores last week. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, a rare sunny afternoon. Lots of blue/brown combinations were repeated from last year and some great deep coral pinks. My favorite colours are all the versions of greens, from hard deep forest green to the really soft mint tones. I think that Vancouver women do not wear enough colour. Actually they don't experiment with which types of colour suit their skin tones. Yes it's work but the payoff can be quite striking. Of course a woman should consider her age, hair colour and body type when she shops for colour as well... I guess it is too much work for some. Remember when everyone was getting their colours done in the 80's? Guys too!!! Hey, which season were you? Was anyone not a winter? I remember taking a cheap-o night school" colour me" class. We all wore white capes and had our hair all pulled back under white head bands. The instructor held swatches of really ugly hard primary colours up against our faces... yes, you are a winter the instructor would tell each member of the class... cripes! We are all itching for spring to arrive... Strappy shoes? Got em'. Pink sweater? Yep. Black coat back in the closet? You know it... what the hey? It's flippin raining! Again and again and again... the cherry blossoms are beginning to fall from the trees already!!!! The SWELL show just ended where my sweater designs were on display. I had a lot of great feedback and people really seemed to like what I do. The best compliment I can receive is when someone comes up to me wearing something I have made. What a happy feeling! I even like to hear the negative comments too, they are invaluable. Lets hope that we all can enjoy a lay down under a cherry tree soon. Cheers.

I cannot go on any longer . I know that the Olympics ended a long week ago but I did not have the time to throw in my opinion about the closing ceremony and our performance. Some sissy people complained that the images presented did not truly represent Vancouver and that the images used... a snowmobile, Natives, fishing and that mental looking Inukkshukshukwhatthefu thingy ( my apolgies to our native peoples) well, sucked. So tell me smarties, exactly which images do represent our future Olympic city?I was born here so I will fill you in on a few ideas I have... How about people dancing about wearing little boxes that represent our 500 sq. foot condos( you know the ones where you can lie in bed then roll over and chop onions cause the bed is in the kitchen). Then have other people throwing money at the little condo-boxes as they squeal and laugh and run away. How about yoga wearing Kitzoids talking on cell phones and carrying Starbucks coffee cups doing a flaky interpretive dance around a sea-wall painted on the floor? What about mini-dog drill teams forming the Olympic rings? On fire? Well, my point is that cheese has more active culture than we do. So lets go with it, the cheesier the better, Hawkins all around. Hawkins cheesies should be an official Olympic food by the way. As you can guess I hate the idea of the Olympics here. Can't we take all of that money and just give it to our junior and disabled athletes? Would'nt there be some money left over to donate to womens shelters, our libraries, education and the cancer agency? I hate to see my beautiful Hillcrest park paved over to make way for the lame-o curling facility. All the kids from all around the area use Hillcrest to play soccer in, fly our kites and play junior baseball there. It is so huge that you never run into anyone. And as it is nestled at the foot of Queen Elizabeth park it offers a comlete unbroken view of trees and grass. I loooove that park! And they are going to kill it for two weeks worth of poo. There I have said it. Yea, I said it. Poo! Bring on the cheese. Don't bother, its here...

Gosh, sorry it has taken so long to update this... My sweaters will be included in a design exhibition as part of the 30 DAYS OF SUSTAINABILITY showcase. How nice to be recognized as a designer of eco- friendly, restyled fashion. I can't quite decide on a name for what I do... deconstructed, reconstructed, restyled, reclaimed ,recycled, redesigned, reused dismantled, one of a kind... well, you get the idea. Why choose one, why label myself? Actually it makes things easier to explain but I guess the term will choose itself. I'm just glad to be in there somewhere... I can't wait to see what the other designers are doing with recycleable materials. Later, my little pudding-cups...