foto friday: hot time, summer in the city

Here are a few shots snapped over the past three months.  Hand-picked, rinsed and presented for your viewing pleasure!

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Back when the weather was at record-breaking heights and I was scheduling my life by moving my pregnant bulk from one air-conditioned environment to another, my friend Jessica and I spotted this charming employee of The Good Neighbour on a break.

Yes, he wanted to see if it was hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement.

The third wedding of the season.

I know, right?  I almost passed out from an overdose of cute.

Solomon, beating the heat in our backyard.

Apartment-viewing with Sarah, my sister-in-law.  This apartment, on Roncesvalles, was posted for just under three days and inspired a parade of hipsters to stand in the rain and wait for a viewing.  Just another day on Ronceez.

The first peek at Baby Gaz's nursery!  I doubt if this drawer will ever be as tidy as it is now (have you ever tried to fold a newborn-sized onesie?) but it was so fun to organize.

The fifth wedding of the season. 

Andrew at childbirth class, learning how to properly change, clothe, and swaddle a fake newborn.  He's a champ.

Fake newborn changed, clothed, and swaddled!  The proud papa displays his accomplishment full of confidence and poise.

wifercize wednesday: the new domesticity

One of the blogs I follow, Pacing the Panic Room, recently featured a few guest posts by the author's wife, Cole, here and here.  I've been in love with this blog ever since Ryan (a photographer) began posting shots of his wife's pregnancy and I've been hooked ever since.

Although I usually scan the blog for pictures I found myself reading each. and. every. word. of Cole's Q&A session because a) she's cool, b) I think we could be friends in another life, and c) she has a wicked sense of humour.

One of the questions a fan sent in was:

Dear Cole, Where do you turn to for inspiration? Favorite books/magazines/websites/movies/pop culture?

Cole answered that she recently read Radical Homemakers and Made From Scratch - which, incidentally, are two books on my Amazon.ca Wishlist in case you're interested and you should be because my birthday is coming up next week - and this only heightened my fictitious BFF status with her even more.

I've written about homemaking before and, since taking a work-from-home position with the church, I've found myself thinking about it more and more.  What does it mean to be a homemaker?  How much of a homemaker can I be if I buy everything ready-made?  How can I express my creativity in-home and make our house an expression of who we are and what is important to us?

One of the main draws of books like Made From Scratch is that people, like myself, are feeling a draw back to making things ourselves.  Not picking them up, prefabricated, from a Big Box Store and displaying them as if they were our own creations.  There's a "new domesticity" (a term coined and explained further here) that is more than just hipsterism.

We want to be a part of making things.  It's what humans were created to do: create!  And, yes, it cuts costs and impresses people and gets you hipster status as well.

I encourage you (wifes, husbands, singles, anybody!) to begin your adventure into the new domesticity.  It'll be messy, because the instructions won't come with the packaging, but you'll learn something about life, and yourself, along the way.  I promise.

A good place to start would be looking up DIY projects online the next time you run into a household problem, search creative blogs for ideas to yoink (I like yoinking from ApartmentTherapy, Design*Sponge, Piewacket, Remodelista, and DesireToInspire, to name a few), check out The New Domesticity's group Flickr account, read books like the ones mentioned above (also Domestic Bliss by Rita Konig is another one), go to yard sales ("One man's trash is another man's treasure"), keep your eyes open for curbside adoption options, have clothing swaps with your friends, live a sustainable lifestyle, recycle, sew, build, cook, and get your hands dirty.

Here's a video I stole from my brother's Facebook page to get you all inspired-like.  Don't forget to let me know what projects you get up to!

Makers: Mini Maker Faire Toronto from Ryan Varga on Vimeo.