Elnora

Today we went to Elnora to do a mini fashion show that I modeled in. Proof:

I hemmed the lining of this bad boy.

Unfortunately I was unable to take pictures of myself, which is why these are awful. Good thing I'm gorgeous. :)

So this one little old lady says after the fashion show, "unfortunately the model was a little fat, but what can ya do." She was kidding. I laughed really hard. There were some really cute ladies there. These two designs go together, the wedding dress and matching bridesmaid dress (obviously?). The ladies were pretty scandalized by the length of the bridesmaid one.

So me and Ruby bonded. We bought T-Swizzle's new album and it's very good. Very Taylor Swift. She said she would make me a Taylor Swift style dress. Score.

I'm an awesome assistant.

Can you tell I am in a good mood? I don't know why.

Road Trips

I think road trips are a great way to find one's self.

NAHH! I just think they are fun.

This is a picture I took on the way back. Alberta is really flat. Other than the whole mountain

deal. Ruby and I went to the West Edmonton Mall (or WEM as we locals call it) it is large. I really wanted to jump into the fake ocean, but I think they thought of that because they surrounded it with concrete so you can't jump from the upper levels. (unless you had amazing balance and a wicked standing long jump.) sigh.

WOAH, this was interesting: we delivered a dress and the lady lived in Harry Osbourne(of spider-man)'s apartment. not literally. But it was super similar. Ruby agrees. Also, she owned a boa constrictor named Pandora, i.e. Don't open Pandora's box. haha. NOT. Snakes are okay, but owning one is creepy. especially when it's big enough to eat your seamstress' assistant. EWWWW. Okay, I'm over it now.

the desert.

I was just feeling sorry for myself, and I got to thinking, I was so happy back home with my family and friends all around. That was just peachy. Why'd I have to go and throw that away? Then I realized how that sounded. I'm an Israelite in the desert. Egypt was not cool. So what if the food is crumby (a pun!) and the landscape bleak? God is taking me somewhere.

God, and the lone fox

This is the first thing I saw when I got to my room in Calgary. Don't ever let someone tell you God doesn't speak anymore. It was just leaning against the wall in front of the door, there were others but they were faced away.

When I left my job with Marilyn she gave me a copy of Annie's favourite book, Fox Walked Alone with a sweet dedication in it. The gist of it was that God would guide me like the fox. Which he has, and will. For now I walk alone.

The Woo

I never thought I'd miss a dog.

Lake Superior

This is one of the most beautiful places on earth - that I've seen. ha!

I was trying to make my dress look awesome enough to get me into design school.

I don't know if it worked, but Aimee and I had a great time photo-shooting.

I went swimming 3 times before it got too cold, the first week of October was lovely.

The lodge is also a beautiful spot.

hmmm. Not sure if the attempt to show you was at all helpful. The thing in the foreground is the equipment shed, it's rather doss. The lodge you can kind of see part of... I wasn't thinking about what I'd want to show people. I took this picture messing around with aperture and such on my new awesome lens that my dad got me.

(One thing about Alberta is that it doesn't get the epic range of colour Ontarians take for granted in the fall. I saw a cool bird yesterday though.)

AHH. And now the doss auto. This is what ran out of gas on the side of highway 101. Oh, you've never heard of the 101? That isn't remotely surprising. Never put your trust in a turkey.

Back to doss. Apparently it's British slang for grungy or crappy. We used it to describe everything, it was hilarious. I highly recommend the doss accommodations of the staff building and the lodge. But don't attempt to use the doss-barrow as it falls apart all the time. Dave did try to fix it before I left, so let's hope it's better.

Anyways. I had an amazing time at NSA and that experience is likely the reason I'm in Calgary now. David made a great surrogate dad, especially with the name being the same.

If you're ever passing through Wawa stop in. They will be happy to give you the doss-est experience of your life!

today I made a dress.

today I made a dress. It was green and silky. I did good - sorry, I did well.

Also i did some wedding dress finicky things and sewed some buttons and hooks onto things.

I'm going to make a coat. here's a picture of the design. as you can see, Ruby has a whole lotta scissors.

and as you probably can't see this is an awesome coat. i'm going to find army green wool and line it with patterned silk. maybe with some secret pockets. also i want to put lace around the hem. cool, eh?

Away from home.

so. this is a picture of both halves of my equipment. and, no, I'm not ever going to get sick of that joke.

Calgary is pretty sweet. It isn't super cold yet. I have done some wandering, but not much.

Interestingly liquor law is not controlled provincially, so there is no LCBO. which means like 20 liquor stores everywhere. alcohol may be the one thing that is cheaper here. OH, except gas. 92.9 plus 5% GST. what up.

Other things that are different: traffic lights are sideways. thats weird. almost all roads are named by numbers. streets run north - south, avenues; east - west. ya. more later.